The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found against Uefa and in favour of Manchester City in their Financial Fair Play (FFP) case, head last month. CAS found that Manchester City broke FFP rules by failing to cooperate with Uefa and were fined 10m euro, with no ban from European competitions.
Manchester City successfully argued that the more serious charged against them occurred either more than five years ago, and were therefore time-barred, or were not conclusively established.
This is a serious blow for Uefa who must now consider how robust their FFP regulations are when a case of this magnitude can be set aside by CAS. If the Association does not have the tools to enforce FFP rules within a five-year period, wither the rules need to go or monitoring tools need to be significantly enhanced. Otherwise, clubs who follow the rules. like Celtic, are competitively penalised.
Get rid of any notions of corruption behind this decision. It went against Uefa, they did not fold, the three arbiters at CAS were not bribed either. This is purely about how difficult it is to prosecute complex cases. These rules are relatively new and have never before been tested like this. Time to redouble efforts.
Happy Birthday, Oldtim, 81 today! Dave was a young 65 when he chose the name ‘Oldtim’, which as we are all getting older now seems quite funny.
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INIQUITOUSIV on 13TH JULY 2020 6:11 PM
ZIGGYDOC1 @5:37
Do you know which game preceded the photo? Does anyone know who is bottom left in the pic?
Thanks!
IniquitousIV
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huns 3 guid guys 2, scottish cup final.
Parkheadcumsalford
Hoooooooooooooooopy birthday. Sir.
INIQUITOUSIV on 13TH JULY 2020 6:11 PM
ZIGGYDOC1 @5:37
Do you know which game preceded the photo? Does anyone know who is bottom left in the pic?
Thanks!
IniquitousIV
________
Frank Gray, I think. It was Jack Charlton’s testimonial. We won 4-3.
Joe Jordan far right, I think.
PCS
Happy Birthday.
HH
Now for the inappropriately monikered Glassthreequartersfull @ 1.02
We can moan all we like about everything being “sooooo unfair”. But the reality is that the biggest factor in our European failures (16 years without a knockout win) is down to our own decisions. UEFA don’t force us to limit our vision to the old firm.
Reality?? Biggest Factor?? By what measurement do they attain that level of certainty. A poster listed the purchases made by one of our “rival” clubs, Man City, where are we even close to being able to have that spending “ambition”?
In this race, the one for European relevance where you decry our achievements, we can see the reality. The CL Group qualifiers last 16 this year were made up, yet again of 4 English clubs, 4 Spanish, 3 German, 3 Italian and 2 French. It wasn’t their greater ambition that got them there ; it was their leagues’ monopoly on high finance which beat out the next rung of Russians, Portuguese, Ukrainians and Swiss. And they in turn, beat out the Dutch, Belgians, Austrians, Scots, Romanians, Bulgarians, Poles, Danes, Swedes and Slavs to the rank of also-rans and cannon fodder
Not a single rep from outwith the Big 5 leagues, a trend that has tightened and tightened and become ever more reliable as TV finance dominates club income, even before FFP regulations get looked at and then overlooked.
Yet you assert our failure to break this glass ceiling is, for the most part, down to a lack of ambition, of being comfortable just being better than der hun.
You must be number one worldwide in your own chosen career if it is just down to this lack of ambition in others that holds them back. I thought my failure to land Claudia Schiffer might have been down to my unprepossesing looks, my moderate bank blance and my age but no, it is largely down to my lack of ambition in never having tried to tempt the lassie. Wonder if she agrees?
(BTW- we have won knockout ties. Every qualifier is a knockout tie. Every group game can see you potentially knocked out of CL last 16 and/or the parachute into Europa last 32. They are all filled with reward and consequences. It is only true that we have failed to win a post Group Stage knockout tie at the last 16 or 32 stage where we have fallen to- AC Milan, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan, Zenit, Valencia and Copenhagen. Only the last named club SHOULD have been beaten, and no amount of professed ambition, with no identified operationalising of that aim, could have made us favourites in any other of those 6 ties.)
When Brendan Rodgers was appointed in 2016 we were told on here that we were getting a manager who would be on the list for top jobs in any country in Europe and that any difficulties in attracting top tier candidates could be overcome because ‘we are Celtic ‘.
Brendan Rodgers is an outlier in our managerial recruiting history. He is the only one to have come from a larger club to Celtic albeit, he had been sacked by that larger club and was at a loose end and needing to restore his rep. Having done so, he beggared off back down to the land of bungs and money, to a “lesser” club that can outspend us and come closer to satisfying a spending manager’s ego. We are Celtic and we do attract admiration and appreciation above our place in the pecking order but, even if we gave a “top” manager his salary worth, he would still have to work in a market and environment where he cannot buy what a Southampton manager can, what a Norwich manager can or even a Middlesborough manager can. Attracting a bigger name established manager is easy- just take the money out of the player transfer budget to pay him. But how then do you satisfy him and keep him here when his best players can be tempted away by Southampton, or Swansea or Norwich, and where your top transfer targets choose to go to Middlesborough or Nice or St. Ettienne instead.
Increased ambition costs money; money we do not have. And anyone who told you Celtic can attract top tier candidates, when they are top tier, is talking out of an unusual orifice for communication. As with our players, we have to pick up gems who are on their way with a chance of becoming top tier. We never have and never will recruit the current manages of Man City, Bayern, Juve, PSG or Barca. We won’t even get managers from the top 20 clubs in those leagues as their profile for a real big job is better served by being spotted at Norwich, Alaves, Hoffenheim, Sassuolo, or Amiens- tilting at the big boys in their own back yard. Neil Lennon’s marvellous results against Barca earned him only an offer from Bolton because we are not really rated as a near equivalent to big league managerial pressure.
Three years later, nine trophies out of nine, turnover doubled, profile raised, an invincible season, two seasons of Champions League football, two seasons of European knockout football and £9m compensation, we are told that no half-decent manager would even consider coming to Scotland and that the absolute BEST we could get was a manager whose previous two appointments were to a “basket case” and a club in the Scottish Championship? Hmmmmmm……..
And hasn’t he done well for us too– this basket case manager? Of Course, if his name was Neilinho Francisco Leone, that might be enough to convince the Scottish Cringe to believe he was a cut above, but here’s the truth- Neil Lennon has won 4 of the 5 leagues he has contested as a beginning of the season Celtic manager and provided a 5th when he took over from BR. He has won 3 SCs and a LC. He has provided a CL last 16 and a Europa Last 32. He had a 70% win rate first time around and a 79.1% win rate since Feb 2019, a good 10% better than the ambitious BR.
In the meantime bottom-of-the-table Kilmarnock were somehow able to land the best coach (other than Rodgers, at least) Scottish football had seen for many a long year and produced a concomitant improvement, demonstrating what can be done with a bit of ambition. They obviously weren’t scared of pulling too far ahead of Ayr United!
The Steve Clarke, of whom you think so highly has win rates of 31.7% with WBA, 35.8% with Reading, 50.6% with Killie and 50% exactly with Scotland. Some ambition? It is easy to assert that one is better than the other; it is nuch harder to find any benchmark stat that shows it to be so.
Six different managers (all completely different), one CEO, no director of football. If we genuinely wanted to be competitive in Europe we would make the required structural changes. Blaming others for your own failings is not the pathway to success.
There are many unsuccessful clubs without a DoF, who look on us with envy. If that label had any solid correlation with success, everyone would have one.
What “structural” changes bring success and which merely re-arrange? There is a lot of jibing about lack of ambition but a complete failure to operationalise an alternative approach. Spend more!- how much? Get a better manager? who and would he come and will he stay? Get better players?- same questions.
Anybody who looks at the clubs playing at the results end of the biggest competitions can see the influence of money on success. Nobody can see the correlation between “professed ambition” and success.
We have done a great job of staying alive and semi-relevant during this period where finacially powerful leagues have squeezed out big European names of the past. We have done so at a time where Scotish Football, as a whole, has been insignificant- 2 losing EUFA finalsts and no National Qualification to the Euros or WC for over 20 years.
Can we do better? Of course we can!
Have we seen the blueprint for doing better outlined by various Fantasy Football Bloggers? Nope!
I make no apologies in recognising the structural weaknesses we operate under. I do not ignore the regular predations made upon our playing talent by “lowly” Southampton. I look the current reality of European football straight in the eye and say we are punching above our weight but it is getting harder and harder to do so as consistently as we have.
We have moaned our way through 9 in a row. We have moaned about Euro Achievements from 200- 2020 which have far surpassed the prior 20 years.
I dare say we ill moan our way to 10 iar too.
Recognising your limitations and your handicaps is not a lack of ambition, it is the start of preparing to be as ambitious as you realistically can be. Snake Oil salesmen through the ages have sold us the pup that if you want it enough you can get it; with the corrolary that if you fail to get it you must not have tried hard enough. It was always a lie.
Just ask Claudia Schiffer!
ZIGGYDOC1 @ 6:34
Thanks! He was the only one I didn’t recognize.
IniquitousIV
CQN.
I’d like to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday today,,even got on Pauls Leader.thanks for that Paul.
Re The Jack Charlton testimonial pic
According to Celtic Wiki- Frank Gray did not play in that match. The guy in the bottom left who does look like my old school mate, Frank Gray, is probably Mick Bates who did play in that game.
The 5 you can see in Hoops are Bates, Bremner, Lorimer, Cherry and Jordan (Eddie Gray is preumably the body in the strip (cut off) next to the towelled McQueen and Big Jack. The guy at the back must be Yorath.
P.S. Happy 70th to Parkheadcumsalford
SFTB @ 6:54
You are right about Mick Bates. I just checked his pic on line. Thanks! It bugs me when I can identify everybody except one!
IniquitousIV
PCS
Happy Birthday 🎉🍺
It is also young Reamonn Gormleys birthday today
RIP Reamonn💚💚
6 in a row, and god bless our Reamonn. What a bhoy he was.
http://image.wikifoundry.com/image/1/8VH5Cd9KYYzxyrXWKbtZ2g677318/GW945H697/
Christie in talks for new deal to keep him at Celtic till 2023
👌Mick Bates it is. I can’t remember much about him. A few weeks ago, there was a programme on, about Leeds and Don Revie. It showed a clip of Revie and his players talking about the upcoming game against us. Jimmy Johnstone was the main focal point, in the footage. Two great teams. Great days.
Happy birthday Davie. Had a few at the BV on Friday, you’ll need to drag yourself in soon!
!!bada bing!!
Shouldn’t that read…..
“Christie in Crisis talks”
No?
OldTim67
Davie, many happy returns my friend I pray you’re keeping safe and well. We’ll catch up soon and hopefully toast your birthday.
Parkheadcumsalford
One of the true gentlemen of CQN I hope that you had a fantastic day yesterday.
Belated Birthday wishes to ParkHead cum Salford. At least one thing good came out of the twelfth.
Southampton goalie just made a save which could see Fraser Foster back here.
Armstrong playing a blinder. Just had a great shot saved and then he scores.
Thanks again to all those sending me best wishes on my birthday.
SFTB – I take it Claudia knows about your long and impressive… posts? :)
Some very good points made as usual. I do enjoy your replies to the claim of lack of ambition – the sort of post that make me enjoy the site so much.
Happy birthday PCS
Some statement from James McClean re racism he experiences with nothing done about it
James McClean has posted this from his own personal facebook account.
Driving back from training today while listening to TalkSport discussing the vile racists comments this weekend made towards Zaha and McGoldrick on social media, listening to their reaction of disgust at it and rightly so for that matter because it is horrendous and nobody should be subjected to that and people need to be held responsible for their words and actions.
What leaves a sour taste tho in my mouth and not only this but with everything else of late, i receive and have received more abuse than other player during my 9 years in England wether that be, death threats, bullets sent in the post, birthday cards, letters etc! this is not a cry for sympathy but one to ask the question what is the difference ?
12 year old boys gets arrested for posting racial abuse online to Zaha again rightly so, has anyone ever been held accountable for mines ? No!
Have i ever had my abuse condemned by the media ? ( sky sports, talk sport, newspapers ) No! In fact quite the opposite, the slightest thing that i do that might cause offence to any one is highlighted by them.
I have seen some of my fellow Irish team mates post a black square in support of anti racism as well as post condemning the discrimination and AGAIN rightly so! Have i ever seen any of them ever post a public condemnation of the discrimination i get which funnily enough is a discrimination against them also ? That would be a no!
Does one kind of Discrimination hold a higher bearing over another act of Discrimination ?
I would say am confused but thats the wrong word because confused means not fully understanding something, in this case its quite clear!
“ If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything “
Thoughts? @kickitout @skysports
@talksport
#JamesMcClean
BT
Powerful stuff from James – I’m sure his refusing to wear the poppy makes him a legitimate target in the eyes of the abusers.
People think that you have to be bame to be racially abused. Meanwhile in Scotland it’s banter .
Forgot to add I was at a Stoke game last year and a couple of their supporters were beginning to cross the line – I put them right .
Matic at Man Utd doesn’t wear one either Hames but he isn’t Irish Catholic
Hames ? Gene 🤷♂️
Powerful stuff from James McLean. The English might find it hard to face into their prejudices but in Scotland one’s as bad as the other. The Odd Couple as they call themselves were “bantering” about it on Saturday, joking about what songs would be played over the tannoy at both us and Sevco which wouldn’t be sectarian. Are any of our songs sectarian or racist. Even singing for the IRA, which I don’t want to be hearing, isn’t sectarian in any sense.
https://twitter.com/irishma7/status/1282725532531077120?s=12
David Attenborough on the Zombies
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 13TH JULY 2020 6:37 PM
Great post as usual.hh
Well said James McClean
Sadly nothing will be done .
SFTB,
A pleasure reading your post.Totally agree with you.
Belated birthday wishes to Parkhead come Salford and old tim67.
Any of the golfers on here see the play off with Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa . 1st extra hole Thomas has a 50 foot putt downhill with about an 8 foot break. I would have thought if he gets it within 3 ft he’s done well and then he holes it. Morikawa left with 15 ft across the slope and he holes as well.HH
!BADA BING!! on 13TH JULY 2020 7:39 PM
Christie in talks for new deal to keep him at Celtic till 2023
He’s currently contracted to 2022 so just an extra year when he will be 28. Must be a wage hike to keep him here.
SFTB
As others have said, your 6:37pm post was up to your usual standard of excellence. Even so, your punch-line surpassed everything that went before. Superb.
PCS – happy birthday
D :)