Like you, I was delighted at Ajax performance and 1-4 win in the Bernabeu last night. It was a victory for clubs in small nations everywhere, who have been disenfranchised by leagues with more valuable television contracts. This was not a backs against the wall performance, like our win over Barcelona in 2012, Ajax attacked relentlessly, they could have scored more.
When Dutch fans left the Johan Cruyff Arena last month, having watched Real Madrid secure a 1-2 victory, they must have assumed their European adventure was over for this season, but they would have consoled themselves with the knowledge that at least they did better than last season. Then, they were beaten home and away in the Europa League qualifiers by Rosenborg, just two weeks after Celtic dumped Rosenborg out of the Champions League qualifiers.
A glass ceiling exists for clubs from the smaller leagues, and when Brendan Rodgers left the building last week, the point was made to me that perhaps group stage fodder in the Champions League is the new limit for a club with Celtic’s resources.
What Ajax have established is that it is very difficult for clubs like them and Celtic to perform consistently well in Europe. Good players will leave quickly, replacing with players of a similar standard is haphazard, but while an occasional defeat to the likes of Rosenborg (or AEK) will happen, the ceiling is significantly higher than one win and five defeats in the Champions League group stage. We should not be cannon fodder.
All efforts at Celtic right now are focussed on winning the league and Scottish Cup, but by the summer, the club will have set their ambitions for the medium-term. By any reasonable measure, Brendan was a roaring success, but for the money (football budget, not just his wage), we could do much better in the Champions League. Ajax will force us to ask some harder questions. Winning 10-in-a-row will be an historic high, but it is not the only yardstick in town.
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I made a joke the other day about the break-in at BR’s house (along the lines of which one of you lot did it?). Reading back, I gather his wife and daughter were home at the time of the incident. I hadn’t realized that at the time, and would not have joked about it, had I known that. Apologies if anyone was upset.
SFTB – That was very funny about the Dutch population trying to get on the end of crosses from their Celtic playing brethren.
Somehow, Braafheid came on as sub during the 2010 WC final against Spain.
I said to m brother – who was visiting and isn’t not a huge football fan but watches the big games –
‘Wait till you see Braafheid. He’s worse than useless’.
30 seconds later, a cross comes over, he loses it completely and the ball hits him on the back of the head and nearly goes into the goal just like Uwe Seeler’s equaliser for W Germany against England in the 1970 WC QF.
Re the Scots v Dutch young ones topic…
Surely there’s a football legacy/reputation issue which influences buyer perceptions and inflates player values. From Cruyff’s 70s and Van Basten’s 80s times, the Dutch are perceived to be free-flowing and flair-filled – the belief that Dutch coaches and the Dutch playing style are ‘brilliant’ has been embedded in football circles.
So, teams believe that ‘going Dutch’ gets them an amazing football prospect (Derk Boerrigter, as BSR says)
In contrast, what’s the perception of Scottish fitba’? Agricultural yet dogged with occasional flashes of gold.
Yet the skills of a KT, CalMac or Jamesy would be raved about if their names had a De, Den or Van in them.
And look to the EPL, as many great Scottish coaches have produced winning teams as Dutch coaches have.
The Scots game has a PR issue which is akin to Eastern Europe’s carmakers in the 1980s.
But as Skoda has shown, that can be turned around with the right ‘model’ ;))
HH
MIT
A spare sheepie of course! :-)
HH
CRC
Ernie
Yes. The short people with short genes did die in a flood.
They were in over their heads.
I understand that the Dutch football fans are fond of singing this tune at games…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bfyS-S-IJs
Hello again all you young rebels.
THE EXILED TIM
Just catching up as usual TET and read your posts , Oz is a massive
sporting country and spend millions if not billions on putting the
correct infrastructure into youth development.
They will catch up eventually with the dominant world soccer clubs
and other sports i.e tennis, athletics, etc.
As you’ve probably read some of my posts regarding our young
bhoys over here at our new council built soccer club we rigidly apply
the pass and move philosophy you mention with two touch, one
touch, and even walking football to improve passing technique.
All with a growling Scots accent encouraging them of course lol.
We have a lot of immigrant boys from African countrys and even
though a lot of them have seen the horrors of war they have such
amazing ball skills, but they just don’t want to pass it at all.
This is where i’ve got to praise our very own Celtic academy coaches
who came to us and showed us their passing routines which we
adopted and helped us win a very competitive league last year.
Hope you are still warm and comfy in your wee cave.
H.H Mick
Re the discussion about coaching:
first, there is no point in any game of football at any level where the ‘re is no premium on winning.
Second, good coaching is a must. Roy Aitken at 18 was the best Scottish player of his generation. Pat Crerand compared him to Duncan Edwards. Roy had a very good career but with proper coaching he would have been a great.
Good Gawd almighty!
A last minute VAR penalty for Man U. Score it – they go through……
Remarkable in Paris.
Never a penalty though.
PSG win away, then manage to mess up another CL campaign… this time with a last minute penatly to go out on away goals …
you almost have to feel sorry for their fans. almost.
PSG quick news in meltdown.
Man U quick news in overdrive with many predicting Ole Gunner is better than the ‘special one’.
Now one observation Inhave from that game.
Older, experienced, great footballers – guys who have actually played the game… who have a certain character and were schooled and mentored during their playing days by great managers…. can go on to be great managers in their own mould….
Wish we knew someone like that who could do the Celtic job permanently ???
????☘️
not interested in the over inflated leagues of other countries, god bless the famous Glasgow celtic.hh.
I think the PSG v United game should be made compulsive viewing for all football fans, I watched it and I still don’t believe it, Funny thing as the game went I was expecting United to mug them.
Solskjær isnt very tall for a Norwegian.
Jeez oh.
Ole Gunnar is a poor man’s Lenny!
Both defences in Paris were sieve-like.
Shockingly harsh penalty.
HH jg
Glen loovens – aaaaaah forgot about that ;>
I thought that penalty decision was farcical. Interesting to hear 3 ex-Man Utd players confirming that.
So much for VAR!
Still, good to see another Billionaires plaything crash and burn. Man City oot next please!
Roll on Saturday and another three points please.Something inside says three nil to the champions.
ERNIE LYNCH on 6TH MARCH 2019 10:05 PM
Solskjær isnt very tall for a Norwegian.
————————-
You need to go further south for tall.
We’re all wee bachles over here. Except for the women.
BP1- here here.
CFCNo1
D. :)
On recent showing VAR might have two or three years before it is discarded.
Poor decision tonight but, then again, anything with Dallas’ fingerprints on it is bound to be done badly.
BTW – Man Utd’s owners are foreign billionaires.
They essentially used an LBO to buy their toy.
Hail hail
Hope young Timo Weah is ok…
VAR penalty settles Porto beating Roma too
Not surprised at the PSG result.
After last night it was always going to be a Bookies Cup this year.
Makes you think.
Rumour Shinnie signing pre contract with the huns,and they will leak it before Tuesday…..similar to what they tried with McInnes last year….
Football with a tin foil hat on …
Interesting angle on the rise of Dutch football — 1968 to 1973 plus the NT “success”.
The availability and use of performance enhancing drugs would be a good place to start.
Closer to home in the 70’s — a certain jungle fighter and his heavily publicised use of Gullane Sands as a training aid makes an interesting story. Not sure if they dressed in camouflage gear?
More up to date is the use of drugs for only part of a season to maximise the benefit and minimise the risks — all about timing if you are looking for a big performance at the end of May.
DAVID66, we shall not be moved not by the hearts the hibs or the sevco we shall not be moved ,hh.
https://twitter.com/nickklaessens/status/1102882055627685888
For me, it hit the arm and it changed the motion of the ball, so it’s a pen,
HH
CRC
Penalty all day long, unfortunately.
Very similar to Maloney v United.
Jumped with arm outside the body.
GORBALSTAM on 6TH MARCH 2019 6:40 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No3Ni8xB0Ew
Probably posted already. FAC video about the crushing incident. A rep for police Scotland tweeted that FAC were apologists for criminality.
A wee repost and must watch from earlier
HH
BADA BING@11-08
Worked well with Jordan Jones.
I would like to see Lenny giving Scott Allan a wee chance , the boy has bottle and he can deliver a pass , just what we need someone who can open defences with a forward pass . Not surprised at the rumour of shinnie maybe going to them . He Is there type of player , a nasty wee character if ever there was one . Btw delighted to see Lenny back at celtic park . BR did well for us ,but was more disappointed seeing Lenny leave than I was BR. Maybe Neil Lennon will get shot of the hiders in the team , of which we have too many .
JIMTIM
I don’t see them as hiders.
But too many seem afraid of responsibility.
Maybe to do with the dictate’s of BR?
When a coach is winning it usually gives them absolute power so fear by players is understandable.
Time will tell.
From inside world football
Rangers tax case draws calls for independent inquiry into Scottish football
May 5 – Glasgow Rangers escaped being stripped of historic league titles by the Scottish Football Association on false pretences, a report by the Tax Justice Network (TJN) has alleged.
The report claims that the SFA commission of inquiry headed by Lord Nimmo Smith to investigate the circumstances of Rangers’ financial collapse was misled into believing that its tax affairs had been legally permitted.
The TJN report details how the erroneous information received by the commission arose from witness testimony given by Campbell Ogilvie, the former Rangers club secretary and SFA president. Ogilvie did not respond to the TJN’s requests for comment.
The matter relates to the two cases HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) brought against Rangers and precipitated the club’s financial demise, from which followed their relicensing as a new club in Scottish football’s bottom professional tier. At least three former Rangers players, Craig Moore, Tore Andre Flo and Ronald De Boer, were paid through a complicated offshore Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) known as a Discounted Options Scheme (DOS).
When in March 2011 HMRC came knocking with a demand for a settlement of £2.8 million in unpaid taxes over those players, the scheme had already been ruled unlawful. Rangers’ then tax lawyer, Andrew Thornhill QC, recommended paying the settlement in response to the taxman’s claims the club’s EBT specifically amounted to “the deliberate failure or fraudulent behaviour of the company” around a “sham set of arrangements”.
It meant that wages paid to De Boer, Rangers’ top scorer in 2001-2 when they won the Scottish Premier League title on goal difference, had unlawfully evaded tax. Yet the SFA-appointed independent commission did not apply any sporting sanctions as it found there had been no wrongdoing on the part of Rangers.
This was because in the ‘Big Tax Case’, Scotland’s first-instance court had found in favour of the club over an entirely separate, offshore, tax-avoidance EBT scheme. In the event, that finding has been overturned on appeal in Scotland’s higher Court of Session, but in any case there was never at any point a reason to consider the DOS scheme anything but unlawful – the club had accepted as much in correspondence with the taxman.
Nonetheless, the commission ruled that the two separate and entirely different cases should be considered as one. “We note that the Murray Group Management Remuneration Trust was preceded by the Rangers Employee Benefit Trust, but we are not aware that they were different trusts. We shall treat them as a continuous trust, which we shall refer to throughout as the MGMRT.”
This was a grave mistake on behalf of the Nimmo Smith commission but one it was led to on the basis of the facts available to it. Nobody connected with Rangers told them the truth of the matter. Indeed the TJN alleges one witness, Ogilvie, chose to withhold information when asked specific questions relating to EBTs.
He told the commission he had “nothing to do” with the EBT schemes, repeating what he had told Scotland’s The Herald newspaper in an interview given in 2013, in which Ogilvie stated: “The EBTs were set up around 2001 at Rangers and I’ve never hidden from the fact that I was then a director at the club. But I didn’t get involved in the financial management of the club in that context.”
Yet the TJN’s documents show that in 1999 Ogilvie had attended a board meeting whose minutes show he was assigned responsibility for setting up the offshore shell company that would be the payment vehicle for the DOS EBT payment made to Craig Moore. As the TJN points out: “He was in fact a central figure in establishing the discounted options scheme used to pay Craig Moore.”
It was on the evidence of this former senior Rangers employee, and now SFA president, that a key element of the commission’s decision not to apply sporting sanctions – points deductions or stripping of historical titles – was based. When presented with the facts of the case by TJN, the SFA declined to comment, earning a stinging rebuke in the TJN report.
“Perhaps Ogilvie simply forgot, and by chance that forgetfulness saved his longstanding club and employer from being stripped of many titles,” the TJN said. “What is not credible is the SFA’s response. When presented with evidence that the inquiry into the breaking of their rules had been misled by their own former President, with the result that a club they regulated may have wrongly held won championships, it cannot be acceptable that the SFA say nothing.
“Changes are clearly needed in relation to the handling of conflicts of interest within the governing body, and to the processes of member club accountability for malfeasance. In relation to the specific case at hand, it is difficult to see a continuing role for those involved in the decision-making at the time, and in the subsequent failure to address the demonstrated errors of the inquiry’s findings.”
With court cases now under way in relation to the conduct of Rangers and its former owners, it is clear many elements of its operations and the regulatory decisions relating to them were extremely badly handled. On the basis of a misleading licence application, UEFA handed Rangers a Champions League licence in 2011-12 when the club had outstanding tax liabilities, in contravention of the rules over unpaid debts to tax, player and club creditors.
TJN concludes: “We recommend the establishment of a fully independent inquiry, as a crucial step to begin the slow process of re-establishing the legitimacy of Scottish football’s regulatory body.”
Contact the writer of this story at
Matt.scott@insideworldfootball.cim
HH