I know many of us are annoyed that a Celtic player, who didn’t appeal for a foul, is not being charged for inappropriately looking for one, is headline news today. This is all a consequence of Sky Sports pundit Neil McCann’s insistence that John Guidetti cheated, while he simultaneously acknowledged Guidetti didn’t actually claim for a penalty.
TV analysis can enrich viewers’ appreciation of the game, but it has to carry a degree of responsibility too.
Those of us from Scotland will be familiar with the summertime noise of a scramble – pennies dropping all around you. It’s a wedding-day tradition, when the father of the bride throws coins into the street for kids to collect as he and the bride leave for the ceremony.
Today’s story in the Record, lifted from a fans’ group, that newco Rangers receive approximately 75p for every £10 spent with Rangers Retail, the joint-venture between the football club and Mike Ashley, must have had pennies dropping everywhere.
These figures are for last season, so predate whatever new arrangement Ashley was able to negotiate for the return of stadium naming rights. We’ve covered this point before, but it’s worth reiterating:
Football clubs are in fact a series of business units. Few make a profit over any business cycle but there are profitable business units inside every club, including retail, trackside advertising, media rights and kit deals.
Football operations almost always lose money. The considerable cost of operating a stadium, recruiting and employing footballers (and occasionally a manager on an onerous contract) isn’t met by ticket sales, even at community football level.
The club accounts detail how much financial control Ashley has over newco’s profitable revenue streams, from retail, to kit supply to trackside advertising. The true consequences of forming the with investors looking for a financial return, as newco did in 2012, should now be apparent.
If the club has a future it will have to survive pretty much on ticket sales alone. As we’ve covered before, when you need to pay circa £17m p.a. to open the doors at a club which will occasionally house 50,000 spectators, and your gate receipts and hospitality sales totalled £12.3m last season, you have a chronic problem.
Even if ticket sales doubled in value, there would still leave only around £7m to pay for football operations, a figure the likes of Kilmarnock can survive on, but you have to wonder if a ‘Rangers’ brand is viable at that level?
Does this sound like a viable football club to you? If so, let’s see how it looks after Ashley has his pound of flesh for financing the second half of the season. No wonder fans are so keen to stop him.
I see newco have appointed WH Ireland as their nominated advisers, a name you may be familiar with. Back in May 2012, Kitalba, with an astonishing degree of understatement (“It couldn’t be clearer”), noted here in the comments section the breadcrumb trail between Craig Whyte, a whole series of his companies and associates, and the aforementioned WH Ireland. It’s worth a 15 minute read.
It’s the big Glasgow derby tomorrow and Celtic sponsor Magners have offered us two premium seats in the Jock Stein Stand. All you need to do to win the seats is to email me the name of our opponents, at celticquicknews@gmail.com
Competition closes at 22:00 tonight, so check your email thereafter. Tickets can be collected from the ticket office before the game.
Planning is underway for Mary’s Meals to build a kitchen Chibwata Primary School, Dowa, Malawi, which we in the CQN community have committed to paying for. We have already built three school kitchens in Malawi this year, so I am sure we will complete this one sometime over the coming months.
Sorry, the MyDonate page is now open for business!!
Many thanks.
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HH
Goal of the year
http://www.fifa.com/ballon-dor/puskas-award/index.html
Getting voting for Steph
Podium
davidopoulos
You only get the meal if you’re staying!
Beers? Ok. Since it’s you!
Aff oot. Arr in edinboorg!
HH jamesgang
So Tom, remind me, what was your ‘charge’?
Oh ffs.
Dena29
a daftie like me just voted on my phone, tablet then laptop. ….simples…….
Voted for the goal of the season. Vote early, vote often.
Neil McCann is a choob.
He canny be a wee altar Bhoy any more,so if anyone has the goods on him-apart fae being a wee turncoat bought for a shilling hun-spill and give us a laugh.
Apparently doing the revenue for half a mill wisnae good enough to trash his rep,so get digging,fellas.
Id be delighted to not read another article about ashley , sally or newco for a few weeks.
Espcially when all is not rosey in our own club..
We have plenty of money but we have our own problems.
I was taught very young money isn’t everything.
It’s almost as if the people who set up the onerous contracts at Sevco were more concerned about their short-term gain than the long term future of the club/company.
:-))
Paul67, it says donations are closed on the Mary’s Meals page…
Paul67:
Obviously that article was not written by me, not my style and not my field, merely a copy and paste of the day.
Watching the game at the weekend Adam Matthews got a yellow card for going for a ball against Walker.
At the time I thought it was very harsh and on replay there was no contact at all.
Walker rolled around for a few seconds until the booking and then was fine.
Never saw McCann review that.
Paul 67,
I didn’t see presentation on TV of Sunday’s game, but ! If the assistant manager at an SFA member club allegedly called one of our employees a ‘conman’, is this not bringing game into disrepute?
Righteous FFin’ hundignation:
“It seems a regular occurrence for that mhob to play against 10 men with a bonus penalty thrown in for good measure.
It is now beyond embarrassing for Scottish football.”
——
“I iterate. If he did indeed ,slip why was a penalty given?
You don’t get a penalty for slipping. He was not touched before it. So it is fair enough to say he slipped but slipping means that it was his own fault. Their logic has caught them out here”
——
“They are a club and a support out of control.”
——
“Always thought a referee had to be certain before giving a penalty. If Collum was certain that was a penalty, then he should not be refereeing at any level.”
——
“Correct if he cannot see it he cannot give it”
Spot on once again, Paul. There hasn’t been a financially viable club at Ibrox since the 80s, and we know how successful that one was!
Keep telling it like it is. The MSM want to keep going down the “it was all Craig Whyte’s fault” route. Don’t let them get away with it!
Celtic in Euro court vow over Tonev: Celtic will take their appeal against Aleksandar Tonev’s racism charge to… http://t.co/ZRTRJKfa6a
Me & Oscar in top 20!! So there!!!!
Collun is a devious wee message boy for Dallas (allegedly)
There will be a price to pay for any decision he gives us, probably in the Semi.
“Correct if he cannot see it he cannot give it”
Unnnnnnnnnnnnless it is with the sensor in the back of his head :))))))
They just can’t help themselves i.e. The expert punter Micheal (Jambo) Stewart I quote what he said about Gomas tackle on Broonie.” I know it is not allowed but I like that sort of tackle”.What a Prick
McCann should be reported to the Compliance Officer,he is employed by Dunfermline FC
Was it not Collum who gave a penalty to thems when big Clubfoot hit the deck and Collums back was to the play and when he turned round the big Micro Egger was laid out?
Did bog (W C ) get it? not deny us a penalty and book Stokes for diving in a cup final?
Paul, granted Rangers may be in some financial bother but I still see things changing come the summer. Ashley can afford to loan them what he is earning on merchandise per year to get them over the line.
Newcastle will probably loan them a few players for the promotion fight and perhaps we will find Lewis McLeod going to an Ashley friendly club.
The summer gives them a chance to re-evaluate and offer shares of needs be. The old gingers on will be back with not even a pen or a pad and the same charade will continue.
Meanwhile Celtic still need to finance the clubs 10 million budget hole with player sales. A budget hole which has been created by the absence of Rangers. There are some extreme rounding rules being used by Lawell in his 10 million quote and even more questions unanswered in the cash surplus and the apparent need to keep this for an unknown rainy day some time in the next unknown few years.
Rangers may need to spend money on their crumbling stadium but I am sure the SFA wouldn’t charge them anywhere near the sums being charged for Hampden or Celtic Park at the Commonwealth games. If Ashley wants to keep his Rangers profit he needs to keep the fans onside and he will get them to the SPFL. He doesn’t need to plough millions in.
Rangers have a game plan to beat most SPFL sides. They have already beaten some in cup games. Taking points from Celtic would only take a favourable ref and SFA with a wee media campaign alongside.
The assets are worth more to the Rangers Shareholders as a shot of cash. However, when you get some of that contract pay back over the course of a few years why would you stop the cash you are getting.
Thanks to everyone who has entered the competition. The MyDonate page was closed until a few moments ago but it’s now open. *!*!
Is it true each club is only being allocated 17,000 for the league cup semi finals?
Is Hampden only partly restored to a football stadium?!
HH
As mentioned earlier, Charlie was surely taking the pee with those racing colours.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B3y1k7TIgAABOeL.jpg
Mullet,
The rules say they can only loan in 2 from any one club outside their own league.
I’ll be amazed if they loan any.
Once again a HUGE thanks to all who donated to my Movember just giving page for Downs and Proud
https://www.justgiving.com/Tommy-Melly/
Total raised… £795.53!!!
Once again thanks to all who donated :-)
HH
God almighty predictive text has my posts sounding like the British spy from Allo Allo.
Gingers on should be hingers on.
Trad88
I believe so.
Twas announced at the same time as when the venue decided.
Bit daft likes.
Is the League Cup Semi-final being played at Hampden?
Kit,
Yup. Both of them.
Geordie Munro
13:37 on 2 December, 2014
Trad88
I believe so.
Twas announced at the same time as when the venue decided.
Bit daft likes.
———————————————–
They expecting trouble? Maybe they are accommodating a larger buffer zone?
Could be wise? Maybe I’m giving the organisers too much credit?
Mullet- Good Moaning :))
” I was a professional footballer for 13 years , I have been a manager for 12 years – he is without doubt the worst Referee I have ever seen. ”
Vladimir Petkovic -Lazio Manager .
The ” he ” was Collum.
Comment was made on TV after a Fenerbache Lazio Europa League game in which Collum awarded a penalty to Fenerbache despite having had no clear view of the incident.