Interested to read that “issues, such as the Regional League concept” were discussed at the 29 club European Club Association meeting, held at Celtic Park yesterday. 12 of the 13 nations present would all benefit from the regionalisation of their leagues, while Wales (and England) already participates in a regional league.
We’ve seen a few campaigns similar to this – with the objective of delivering Celtic out of the confines of Scottish football, but this approach is different. It seeks to build an alliance with similarly disenfranchised clubs across the continent. The Austrians, Czechs and Slovaks would benefit from playing in Germany, the Scandinavians would benefit by grouping together, while the former Yugoslavian teams have long acknowledged the merits of resurrecting a Yugoslav-regional league.
I was a wee bit surprised that the “Regional League concept” discussions were acknowledged. I heard they’ve been on-going for some time but no one wanted to discuss in the public domain. This will have been a considered comment, designed to move the debate beyond those present at the meeting.
Many thanks for the tremendous response to our auction appeal to build a fourth school kitchen for Mary’s Meals in Malawi. The kitchen will be at Chibwata Primary School in Dowa, which has 909 children enrolled. Will bring you more details when I have them.
The auction is for two debenture hospitality seats at the Inverness game on Saturday, courtesy of Club sponsor, Magners. It closes Friday morning, so keep an eye on it here.
Linda Croker has asked me to pass on her sincere thanks for all the support received for Sean’s Trust and the memory of St John Doyle from the CQN community. I know the last year has been enormously difficult for the family but your many small gestures have meant a lot.
257 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- »
big glasgow derby tonight .. lets keep the results coming
C.O.Y.B.I.G.
HAIL HAIL
STARRY PLOUGH ALL THE BEST
Damn this podium chasing!
I was Corkcelt on previous sequence. No greater honour!
And here’s the nonsense I was saying…….
jamesgang
12:31 on 29 October, 2014
Guidetti for £5m?
Well Peter? You said we would for the right man!
Or over to split the difference with young john if he signs a January pre contract with 4 subsequent full seasons as part of the deal.
Saw St Sivs was in full ACGR mode late last night penning welcomes to the FOD when they come calling
Mhate if you wrote the programme I’d buy a dozen!
ACGR to gob doctor – ‘whatcha mean it’s overused…..I’m as quiet as a church mouse!!’
HH jamesgang
Not staying logged on can be costly!
Yeeeeeeeeeee–haaaaaaaa!
Doc, yer wee pal CRC was harassing me at CP recently about getting another CQN cask. Are you interested?
Oh I say !
ACGR, interested? In Whisky?
Aye:-)
Sorry – just don’t see it ever happening.
No fearties here Tom just people who are sick of the corruption , cover – ups and acceptance of lies which is going on in Scottish football .
cultsbhoy
12:34 on 29 October, 2014
tom mclaughlin
I wasn’t on CQN last night so not guilty. However I understand why others might vent their frustrations after last nights results.
Like it or not our future fortunes are tied to What ever happens at Zibrox as the team who play there are the only real domestic barrier to year on year entry to Europe.
The frustrations I feel personally are centred on the fact we have lying cheating Newco closing a gap that should really be an unbridgeable chasm.
The truth is RIFC could give our current team a game. That should never be the case after recent events.
Lawwell has failed to put miles of pure green water between Celtic and Newcomer.
We should be looking forward to humiliating any RIFC imposter team we meet in the near future. Instead most of us are honest enough to admit that is unlikely at present. Not because RIFC are good but because we are so poor. Lawwell has guided us to this point. Fact. He has taken a few too many gambles and still has hiked his fortune in the process. That fortune is paid for by Celtic fans. So I don’t blame any who come on to moan.
Paul67, is this more likely to lead to an affiliation with England and Wales for the whole SFA or an Atlantic League style affair?
And in other news…
I was interested to hear yesterday that Hearts plan to pay the living wage to all their employees, including part-time and contract staff.
I hope Celtic will do the same.
Acgr
count me in, might see you at agm 21st Nov.
PF arranging a wee after agm drink…
What good would it do celtic ,to play irish league sides or welsh league sides,and the thought of linfield being part of it does not bear thinking about
The onky fear I have of them is the hooigan bigoted following they have, they may have returned but their fans are worse if that was posible…
hurting orcs are worse than before.
BOGNORBHOY
Nice of you to dedicate your latest Gold Medal performance to The Birthday Bhoy.
PAUL67
I’m becoming more resigned than ever to eking out an existence in this backwater.
(Not a personal point about Swindon,btw)
I think the key lies in sponsors and TV companies. None will be interested sufficiently to make regionalisation a reality.
French and even Italian football is struggling,and although crowds and TV income in Germany are huge,every team has now in reality become a feeder club for Bayern Munich. Aye,even Dortmund. Look where their top players end up.
Oligarchs killed it,everywhere. Even in Scotland,although as usual we got a counterfeit one,Minty Mitty.
Games a bogey,mate. I’ll take every success we get,but we’re deluding ourselves if we think things will change.
I penned this 2 years ago. It’s instructive that despite it being 2 years old, it’s still relatively current… the article was published at the time that the SFA’s Professional Game Board was considering options for league reorganisation. Apologies for any obsolete references.
——–
Box Seat or Back Seat? Scottish Football’s Staging Post
If we are going to refloat the game in Scotland we don’t need to redistribute revenue, we need more of it. Greatly more.
The problems that Scottish Football face in this regard are bound up in two key strands: firstly, the limitations caused by the relatively small size of the Scottish population and consequently its media market; and secondly, the diffident, parochial approach to managing the business of football in Scotland.
The Youth Development Challenge
Youth development is a topic sufficiently complex to deserve an extended discussion in its own right but, contrary to recent reports, Scotland is actually doing some very good things. The standard of player developing in and emerging from the SFA Performance level – so called Pro-youth League – is very encouraging, with such as McCarthy, Forrest and Goodwillie produced in recent years. If you want a look at an encouraging future, get along to Lesser Hampden or St Mirren’s Ralston complex or the University Playing Fields in Stirling or Aberdeen any given Sunday lunchtime. The level of skill and game awareness is streets ahead of the same age group 10 years ago, a generation that produced Champions League level players Darren Fletcher, Scott Brown and Aiden McGeady among others.
Moreover, the SFA’s appointment of Mark Wotte evidences the desire to further improve the process, while the introduction of the 7 Regional Performance Schools will make a welcome contribution to the highly effective Football/School partnerships established a few years ago by Celtic, Dundee Utd and other clubs. Added to Regional Football Centres, Performance Schools, and peer competition for elite players must be added Coach Education, a topic Wotte is expert on. Further improving the Youth Development process for elite youth players will in turn further improve the elite youth players developed, and we can look forward in the coming years to even better results than we’re currently achieving.
Despite the challenges, our problem is not so much in developing elite players – I believe that process is good and improving. Our problem is holding on to the players produced beyond age 21. While it is engaging to watch the progress of young players, it is frustrating to lose them before they have matured, and despite being a widely-heralded business model for our clubs, does little to change their financial fortunes.
When Aberdeen lost Fraser Fyvie to Wigan, their decade-long investment in developing him from age 10 was returned with only 58 first team appearances and a modest transfer fee (thought to be £500,000). Aberdeen simply couldn’t afford to offer him a wage comparable with that on offer from Wigan Athletic. For Aberdeen to have generated meaningful revenue from Fyvie, they had to hold on to him to age 24, trusting that by which time his talents would have matured, and the value they might have demanded may have been 10 times the £500,000 they received. To do so, they had to offer him a 5 year contract at perhaps as much as £6,000 per week.
In losing Fyvie so young, Aberdeen didn’t simply fail to fully valorise their youth development investment, they reduced the talent and potential in their squad. Developing players to age 21 might provide our clubs with a useful income stream, but it does not change the game for them.
In essence, youth development only translates into a substantial business model if the impact of the process is significant on both the performance of the first team and the prospects of the business. Aberdeen’s Fyvie experience, like so many others, served neither purpose.
Who’s next to head south for a song? McKay Steven? Russell? Young Ryan Fraser at Aberdeen? For as long as Scottish clubs develop EPL standard young players, the EPL will take them away as soon as the market rate for their wages exceeds the ability of the developing club to pay. For most SPL clubs, that is £2000 per week, with only Celtic now having the financial strength to stay in the game through to mid-20s. Indeed, Celtic’s business model is now predicated on developing talented players through the crucial period to 24 or 25 years old.
While Scottish Football of course can and will further improve the player development process, what the clubs need far more than that is the wherewithal to keep their hand in the game long enough to hit the meaningful pot.
If fan engagement is correlated with an exciting product on the park, brimming with quality and imagination, then we need to find the money to keep the kids we produce beyond their second season in the first team. We need more cash in the game.
The Cash Conundrum
With only 10% of the population of near neighbour England, Scotland does not represent a critical mass of consumers and thus the country is considered to be something of a marginal market – a sub-segment of the UK market as a whole – to the media companies that have driven the financial growth in English football. The same fate has befallen the countries bordering Germany and elsewhere. Where Sky has predicated its entire business model on capturing the English football audience, paying a breathtaking £2.3 Billion for rights over the coming 3 years, the best deal Sky has ever offered for the broadcasting rights of Scotland’s top tier was their slice of the £18M per season joint offer with ESPN last year. BT has followed in the footsteps of ESPN and Setanta before them, in paying huge sums – £750M! – for a small piece of the EPL action, while even the BBC presents EPL as de facto the National football league of the UK, paying 100 times more for rights to highlights than the equivalent deal for the SPL. 10% of the market is marginal territory, and spend is always concentrated on the core.
The same issue of sub-critical consumer mass is faced by clubs in Holland, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Slovakia and pretty much every other footballing nation in Europe outside of the so called ‘Big Five’ nations. The relatively vast financial gravity of the top leagues in England, Germany and Italy draws the talent inexorably and is throttling even the best efforts of the smaller nations that surround them. There is no combination of Scottish senior league divisions and club numbers that changes the fundamental problem we face: In the modern TV market, we’re just too damned small to bother much about.
The smaller nations individually cannot compete with overwhelming market force, and therefore a new approach is needed. Either the smaller nations join their larger neighbours, or they collectively create a market of significance that cannot be marginalised by those media companies who want to use football content to drive business growth.
Historically, UEFA has been antipathetic to competitions that might compete with its own, and Article 49 of UEFA’s statutes gives it “sole jurisdiction to organise or abolish international competitions in Europe in which Members Associations or their clubs participate”.
However the marginalisation of Europe’s smaller nations is becoming ever more evident, and UEFA now recognise the problem as a ‘crisis’. Following the recent merger of the Dutch and Belgian Women’s leagues, Michel Platini is clearly warming to the concept of supra-national ‘domestic’ league football:
“We have to decide whether to allow two leagues to play together. At the moment we don’t allow it but in the future it’s possible that we will. There are many things to be considered. It has an effect on European competitions and it’s really complicated but there are crises in many countries and so there are leagues that fear for their existence. It is something that we need to consider.”
Interestingly though, this is not an issue strictly within UEFA’s remit. It is the National Associations themselves that are authorised, via their FIFA mandate, to “foster the game” in their country. UEFA doesn’t actually have a formal role beyond managing (and moreover, protecting) its own competitions in partnership with its member FAs. If the FAs of the Balkan nations decide the best way to deliver their purpose is to create a supra-national top league with Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, all UEFA could do is bar them from UEFA competitions, which really doesn’t do UEFA (or the game) any good in the long term. Consider though the quality of that league! It would be breathtaking if it meant the top players from each country were less likely to move abroad.
Interestingly, there is already a supra-national competition in Europe: the 16 team Baltic League comprises the top teams from each of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, with teams qualifying based on their national league position. Tellingly, UEFA hasn’t objected despite it being staged outside of UEFA’s jurisdiction. Platini himself suggested the merger of the Balkan leagues 3 years ago, while talks continue with a view to the merger of the Czech and Slovak domestic leagues. News this week from Croatia suggests a pan-Balkan League comprising the top teams from the former Yugoslav nations together with Hungary and Bulgaria may be ready to kick off by 2015 with UEFA’s blessing. Matters are accelerating.
Radical reform
The question now is not whether the regionalisation of European football will occur, but how it will be organised – and how quickly. To this end, there are two main flavours: smaller nations incorporating their top divisions into their near neighbours’; and the agglomeration of the top leagues of smaller nations into a single, multi-national top division.
Over the past 10 years we have seen various flavours of supra-national leagues emerge, from the original ‘Atlantic League’ comprising the top clubs from Scotland, Holland, Belgium and Portugal, to the hoary old chestnut of the ‘Old Firm’ somehow moving to the EPL. Both of these ideas though overlook the essential element of meritocracy that is at the heart of football. Whatever new structures emerge in the coming years, the pathway has to be open for ambitious and well managed clubs to reach the top.
To this end, there are some fairly radical ideas out there. For example, the idea of merging Scotland’s top league with the English Football League structure, let’s call it the BFL. The ‘Championship’ would remain as the top division, with two regional divisions of 24 feeding in: Division 1 North and South. The top 12 Scottish clubs would be elected into the North division in the inaugural year, together with 12 clubs from Northern England split out from the existing League 1 and 2 teams. Thereafter, promotion upwards and relegation back to the SFL and League 2 would be determined by league standing and play-offs.
In due course, successful Scottish clubs might find themselves promoted out of the Championship and into the Premiership. To my mind, Aberdeen would be a terrific EPL club, drawing upon the 450,000 people living in recession proof Aberdeen/shire, and the demand from the vast international Oil & Gas sector in the city for top class sport. The Edinburgh teams, the Glasgow teams, perhaps a reborn Dundee United, all playing against the top sides in the UK, with the promise of the same for those clubs below should they find the means on the park.
Off the park, with access to a true UK wide media market, the clubs can expect a levelling of the financial playing field as media and commercial revenues for the Scottish clubs start to catch up with those in England. It won’t happen overnight, but let’s look 5 years, 10 years ahead.
Looking at the alternative model, the agglomeration of the top divisions from multiple nations, a ‘Super League’ of 20 clubs, involving the top 3 or 4 clubs from Scotland, Holland and Belgium, with 2 or 3 from each of Denmark, Sweden and Norway makes sense at both a sporting level, and a macro-economic one. A weekend fixture list comprising such as Ajax versus Hibernian and Anderlecht versus Aberdeen is mouth watering, while competing clubs can retain their UEFA qualification status as now. At the end of the season the bottom placed teams from each country in the Super League will play off for places for the following season with the Champion club from the domestic league, or similar meritocratic approach. Thus with promotion from and relegation back to the top national divisions, the pathway is open for all clubs to aspire towards and reach the very top level, while interest in domestic football can be sustained by retaining the national Cup competitions. Provided enhanced broadcasting revenues are distributed downwards with the purpose to support and grow domestic competition, this model offers both compelling sport and compelling numbers.
The Numbers Game
Such a competition would present media companies with a consumer market of 52.6 million people and a GDP of €2.2 trillion. (GDP is used here as an indicator of consumer spending power).
This compares to England with 53 million population and €1.55 trillion GDP; Spain with 47 million population and €1.1 tn GDP; Italy 60 million population and €1.7 tn GDP; and France with 65 million and €2.15 tn.
In terms of consumers, only Germany with 81 million and €2.77 tn GDP would represent a larger, more lucrative media market than this suggested North Western European Super League.
Taking a media market critical mass of 40 million population and €1 trillion GDP, we can see that a Central European League along similar lines involving Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia gives a market of 42 million consumers with a GDP of €1.16 tn, bigger than Spain.
The issue of geography is often used to diminish such proposals, but we should be careful to note that the furthest distance travelled in our North Western League idea is the 680 air miles between Glasgow and Stockholm, comparable with Udine to Palermo, and less than half the distance from Barcelona to Gran Canaria, a regular fixture in Spanish football. Indeed, were Portugal to be brought into the Super League, the distance travelled from Glasgow to Lisbon would still be less than the Spanish teams trip to the Canaries.
Emerging Media
One of the fascinating aspects of this topic is the discomfort Sky and other established subscription broadcasters are feeling as new media and new channels emerge. In the UK, for example, the advent of the Freeview platform has provided national coverage for niche programming at highly accessible costs, and the opportunity to utilise it for Pay per View football has been closely considered by SPL as recently as this year. Moreover, as high speed broadband becomes ubiquitous, so the opportunity to utilise high definition broadcasting over the internet gets ever closer. Just as Satellite TV transformed broadcasting in the 1990s, so high speed fixed-line and mobile broadband is likely to do in the coming 5 years. Major League Baseball in the US already offers high definition MLBTV via internet subscription, described recently as “..one of the best mobile platforms of any entertainment network.”
Sky might be the big boy in European sports broadcasting today, but with a little less than £2 billion of total shareholders funds, it is somewhat dwarfed by Google with £38 billion and Apple with £68 billion. Sky can compete effectively with contemporaries BT, ESPN, Canal+ and Al Jazeera, but Apple and Google can buy and sell Sky before breakfast time. Apple have already dabbled with internet TV, while Google’s purchase of YouTube was not a mere whim. Delivering high definition, high demand content via the internet is absolutely on the Whiteboard of both companies, and the launch of Sky Go, providing Sky channels on demand via the internet for their satellite customers, indicates where Rupert Murdoch sees the market heading.
Leadership
The regionalisation of European Football will happen, indeed is happening. In that sense, it is largely down to national FAs in each European region to develop their own solutions, and perhaps this is where the real problems lie. We are by no means well endowed with Football Administrators that are able to take the long view. Indeed, the impression is that for many at Hampden Park, the most important issue is their own fiefdom, their own sphere of influence, and their own career.
The Administration that, charged with implementing Club Licensing, overlooked the financial disintegration of Rangers under David Murray and Craig Whyte is clearly ill-equipped to shape a radical future for the Game. From 3-points-for-a-win to goal line technology, the administration of the game in Scotland has preferred to sit on the fence, moving only after the rest of the world has jumped. If radical change is to happen, I suspect it will be driven by the clubs, not the SFA, irrespective of what Stewart Regan might say publicly. How will the SFA react to their top clubs coming under the jurisdiction of a British Football League or a European Regional structure? Poorly, I fear. Managing the self interests of half a dozen national FAs may be the greatest challenge of all.
We are at a seminal moment in Scottish and European football, where decisions taken now will shape the game for the next decade and beyond. The confluence of the recognised crisis in League football across Europe’s peripheral nations, UEFA’s openness to radical reorganisation, and the developing ubiquity of high speed broadband presents a truly unique chance to create a new structure for football in Europe, one that can seed the re-emergence of the great clubs of Europe’s football history, and provide a bulwark to the dominance of the ‘Big 5’. This last aspect is likely to interest UEFA as much as the others.
Richard Wilson in The Herald states that Regional European football “is unlikely in the short term”, and suggests a reorganisation of the domestic league structures instead. James Traynor in the Daily Record presented a variation on the same theme. While each of these suggested formats might have some merit in their own right, they don’t change the game, they don’t address our fundamental issues. Our singular challenge is to see what’s coming and to make damned sure we’re ready for it. Indeed, as one of the founding nations of football, the country that invented the modern Game, and which changed the European Football landscape in the 1960s and early 70s, it is surely incumbent upon us to lead the way.
Which brings us back to the SFA’s Professional Game Board. Will they choose the Box Seat and drive change in the game, or the Back Seat and watch on as the game in Europe changes without us? Gentlemen?
Just a point to note:-
Sevco aka the Rangers Internation Football Club are already a member of the SFPL albeit SFPL Championship rather than SFPL Premiership and I believe they already played in SPFL League 1.
Attendance this year and last year at Celtic park is and was tacit acceptance of the metamorphisis! Like it or lump it guys. Your too late to be whinging.
Also attendance at Scottish and League Cup fixtures since their acceptance into the 3rd division of old structure was also acceptance of the metamorphisis.
MWD said AYE don’t blame the messenger
Yes its me again.
A message to the Spanish based Tims.I’m on the scrounge again looking for some advice.
Just got a cracking deal on flights to Valencia in the summer its one of the few Spanish cities I’ve not been to and I believe there are a few of you in the Costa Blanca area.I’ll want to spend a few days in the city then I’ll be looking for a coastal base to do some touring and some relaxing time,any recommendations for places to stay? Either in the city or on the coast any ideas welcome.I’ll hire a car if I need to but I’m more than happy to use public transport if feasible.
Thanks in advance.
THE BATTERED BUNNET
Superb post,well thought out,and cogently presented.
Well worth keeping and,indeed,reposting.
Though it must have required its own memory stick!
Well done to Hearts for adopting the living wage for club employees I must say it made me squirm when i watched Peter Lawell trying to defend Celtic’s stand in not paying it.This guy earned almost £1M in the last year.I dont care how his bonus works that is an obscene amount of money for one employee to earn whilst denying other employees the right to earn a decent wage.Its everything thats wrong with this unequal society we live in .Russell Brand for Primeminister !!!
Happy Birthday to STARRY PLOUGH
All The Best, Bud
Blinkin’ flip,folks.
Sumdy must have some idea about Valencia and Costa Blanca!
22 years old, a proven goal scorer, hero to feyenoord fans, 20 goals in the superior dutch top flight, rattling goals in for the celtic………..the possibility of developing into our best striker since henke, great attitude, seems to be good in the dressing room…
On the open market he is a £8 million plus player. Joe, I’d say this is what we pay our money for…to support players like him.
One positive about RIFC in the SPFL is surely our playing budget will increase and we shouds be able to afford £30k per week and £5m transfer deals
Sign up Guidetti. Broonie, the world’s best goalkeeper, and VVD on long term deals
shameless repost –
Saint Stivs
23:20 on
28 October, 2014
Celtic host European Club Association meeting
By: Newsroom Staff on 28 Oct, 2014 16:31
REPRESENTATIVES of European Club Assocation member clubs from the third subdivision gathered at the Celtic Park in Glasgow today (Tuesday) for a Subdivision Meeting.
The meeting, hosted by Celtic FC, saw the participation of 29 clubs representing no less than 13 National Associations.
Clubs from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Israel, Norway, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden and Wales took up the opportunity to meet each other in order to discuss topics of common interest.
In the presence of two ECA Executive Board Members – Peter Lawwell (Celtic FC) and Jakub Otava (Sparta Prague) – the meeting was an occasion to discuss several issues, such as the Regional League concept, the UEFA Europa League access list and the solidarity payments concept.
Transfer, disciplinary and integrity matters were also on the meeting agenda, together with an update on the EU Social Dialogue.
Finally, the ECA Administration seized the opportunity to inform the participants about new organisational developments, and gathered feedback on the organisation.
Commenting on the event, Celtic Chief Executive and ECA Executive Board Member, Peter Lawwell, said: “It is a great honour to host 29 ECA Member Clubs from 13 National Associations here at the Celtic Park.
“Meetings like this one are very useful as they allow us to share our ideas and listen to issues from other clubs. The ECA is a major football stakeholder representing our interests at the European level, and we are looking forward to increasingly working together in the future.”
He added “its very important for us smaller european revenue leagues to make sure our Chief Executives are paid as if we are £300m businesses, so i shared some of the bonus making strategies with the lads”.
Later the execs were treated to a “heated driveway” massage on the forecourt of Lawell mansions, with Martin Bain demonstrating how it helps keep up the perma tan.
After this the discussion moved on to why paying any “living wage” was just a Tommy Sheridan plot against bigger payouts for executives who really need the money.
Particularly when the 2nd job at the SFA pays so little.
I wonder which clubs were present at this meeting.I must google it.Good win tonight Celtic please.
HOOPDOGGYDOG
I’m personally very suspicious of the figures he quoted at the time.
£500k for 178 employees doesn’t sound right. Not when the difference in NMW and LW is around £1 an hour.
I hope he didn’t mislead shareholders at the AGM. That,I believe,is a no-no.
Tom McLaughlin 12:06 on 29 October, 2014
Just exactly as I predicted at the final whistle at Ibrox last night. CQN inundated with attacks on Celtic FC and PL. Tell me. What is the difference between Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night? How does Rangers beating St Johnstone change the mood of the blog so dramatically?
That’s right. The fearties are out in force again. PL had nothing whatsoever to do with last night’s result, but by God he gets the blame.
I for one am sick to death of the fearties coming on herd every week and telling us that if and when we have to play Sevco, they won’t be there and their seat will lie empty or worse still, they will stop supporting Celtic.
I and others are dick hearing it. We get it. You’re a fearty. That’s your choice, as long as you tell your grandchildren the truth, that you stopped supporting Celtic because of the Huns.
Now give us peace.
————————————————————————————————————-
This discussion has sod all to do with last night’s result. It’s been bubbling under (and intermittently above) the surface from the moment the huns died and the the new club emerged from’s its decaying remains. The very last time we played the deid huns, the club stated (and I paraphrase) it was the last ever Glasgow derby which of course it was.
Since then we’ve had a concerted campaign by Zombie FC and succulent lamb brigade to re-write history and pretend their demise in 2012 was nothing more than slight hiccup but they are better now and “on their way back to where they belong”. Outside the Bigotted Together (c) coalition, no-one else believe their lies. Over the past couple of years various groups of supporters have reminded them that they are not the same club and a few clubs, most notably, Raith Rovers, Dundee Utd and Livingstone have made their feelings known in public statements and actions. All I am asking is that my club adopts the same approach when we are required to acknowledge the existence of the new club. Other than the Glasgow Cup match between two youth teams, we’ve not been put to the test. The first match between us and them will either happen this season or next. The club will have to be brave and stand up for the truth. If they don’t then I’m afraid the “fearties” are to be found in our boardroom and not the seats left empty by supporters who will not collude with the Big Lie.
Watched bits of the Rangers Internationl v St.Johnstone match last night and unfortunately arrived at the conclusion that RIFC would indeed give us a game at the moment which is most annoying and a slight on our board.
How long before the deid yins are allowed to participate in European competition again ? It was my understanding that there was a time-limit on this. Not that I think they’ll be capable in the near future but a few of my hun mates have been getting carried away recently and it would be nice to shut them up, again
Looking forward to the game tonight, hope we get a half decent support. Happy Birthday Starry Plough, hope you have a great day mate
HH
I have read quite a lot recently on mike Ashley ………….the more I have read the more I suspect he will never except 2nd in a two horse race ………
Unfortunately we have helped him massively…………….. crazy……crazy…….crazy…
Lots of teeth gnashing going on here over Lawell’s salary and inequality.
He gets paid what he gets paid because thats the market rate for someone with his skills.
It’s the same at the other end of the wage scale. Equality of reward-communism-is a great idea. Shame it has been shown time and again that it doesn’t work, which is why the system we have, however flawed, is the best available.
I hope folks speaking about Guidetti aren’t reacting to the piece in the record??
Unadulterated pish imo.
It was in the Scotsman as well- not that that is a guarantee of the truth
Paul67:
I too would like to record my thanks to the CQN Bloggers and Lurkers who have answered the call in supporting St. John Doyle’s cause, Sean’s Trust.
All going well there should be a tribute tonight at Celtic Park. If you are going along watch out for it. I’ll be there.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Geordie
I haven`t read the DR and have not got a clue what it is saying…….but I agree totally with your assessment 0:-)
Anyone,
Was there an outcome yesterday to Mighty Tim`s son`s case?
JJ
MWD,
Nonsense.
Falling attendance is the result of a percieved lack of competition, or a degredation of results/product on the park.
To automatically link this to a lack of der hun is an enormous assumption on your part.
Sort out your head, mate :>)
B