Our unofficial Celtic v Atletico Madrid match programme is now available. We preview tomorrow’s match as well as the other game in our group between Rennes and Udinese, as well as a look back 37 years to that infamous game against Atletico in the European Cup semi-final.
European nights have always been special in my Celtic supporting time. When I was a boy they would fill Celtic Park whereas it was predominantly empty on domestic duty. The modern era brought great Uefa Cup and Champions league moments but for a while, even at the peak of our Champions League prowess, the stadium lost something to corporate interests. I remember watching fans walk out of the stadium with 10 minutes on the clock when we were drawing 0-0 with Milan!
Tomorrow night will be more like the great days I remember, when every soul inside the ground was plugged into the nervous anticipation that pumps through all our veins.
Atletico Madrid occupies a similar place in our history to Rapid Vienna. If you were around during the 70s and 80s, when these two clubs eliminated Celtic on their way to European finals, by violence and dishonesty respectively, games against these clubs will have an added dimension. Two years ago we finished above a decent Rapid team in the Europa League group stage who had already dumped Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa. When Scott McDonald’s goal went in I raised my arms and inadvertently punched the safety ladder at the back of the North Stand, the cut knuckles and bruising lasted weeks. It was a stupid incident but captures the, 40-odd-thousand-people-one-heartbeat, phenomenon that we get to experience too seldom in our lives.
I’m going to look out the hoops tonight, been ages since I’ve worn them. Bring on Atletico, Falcao ‘n’ all.
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Estadio- get well soon lhad.
Estadio
There’s a tub of ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter’ sitting on top of the puggy. I can’t guarantee it’ll be there much longer.
Just saying like.
ATB
TBB
Estadio:
As others have said, this can be a (sane if) dull place without you. I hope you’re back to full strength in jig time.
Paul:
To echo the Pantaloon’s words at the top of this blog: “You spoil us”.
FF
morning from a cold, but dry glasgow
really looking forward to the game tonight.
latest from rtc
http://rangerstaxcase.com/2011/11/26/making-a-bad-situation-worse/comment-page-20/#comment-28997
rangerstaxcase says:
30/11/2011 at 6:35 am
From the tax-forum.biz website:
Baxendale Walker LLP comment:
It is helpful to see that the BBC has published the truth about these tax arrangements, after all the speculative rumours that have filled blogs over the last few months.
Those who have read our press release some time ago, will see what it said mirrored in the BBC Report:
“For an EBT to stay on the right side of the avoidance/evasion line, these payments cannot be made on a contractual basis, as that would make them wages and therefore subject to the usual deductions. So they should, on occasion, be postponed and even refused by the trustee, who is, in theory, acting independently of the employer anyway.
HMRC says Rangers’ EBT did not work like this and was, for all intents and purposes, a tax scam. It also says it has proof of this in the form of documents and emails between Ibrox’s top brass and players’ agents. So, last year, an angry taxman hit Rangers with a bill for £35m in unpaid tax and interest and £14m in penalties.”
I hate to sound emotionally fragile , but if someone can point out where this blog has said anything that is in conflict with the above, you can win 100 shares in The Rangers Football Club plc. I cannot think of any blogs which have posted anything that contrasts with this.
Something smells very fishy about that website. So I decided to do some digging.
The web domain was registered on June 2011. (I guess its owners decided to jump on the tax blog/messageboard bandwagon? )
But who set it up? That did not take long to find out:
Registrant Organization: bluebirdfilms
If this does not mean anything to you, let me advise you to not research this firm from a workplace computer. Bluebird Films is the pornography business established by a certain Paul Baxendale-Walker under his pseudonym Paul Chaplin.
Baxendale-Walker can no longer practice law, but is still the owner of a sizeable law firm specialising in tax schemes. (He could, with some justification, claim to have invented EBTs).
I have no desire to comment on the vice or virtue of the pornography business. To my mind, PBW’s involvement in this business should not colour anyone’s judgement of his abilities. However, I am surprised that he would use his porn business to establish a tax messageboard. That the site’s statistics are a little confusing does not enhance its credibility. It appears to have almost no content save for the thread that holds the above posting. Yet it also claims to have 680 posts in 292 threads. A deeper dive into the site’s stats shows that Baxendale-Walker LLP and its employees are apparently responsible for almost all of the content.
I would have thought that Baxendale-Walker LLP, the law firm, would want to establish some formal distancing from its owner. I would have thought that a former lawyer (even one who has been struck off by the Law Society) of all people would be aware of the potential for problems when assets, like web domain names, are co-mingled like this.
Perhaps I should sign up for a membership with my IP blazing and using my full name?
The paranoid and ego-maniacal part my nature would like to think that this website was created to try to get me to do just that. The timing of its creation coming just when the noise from this blog started to become a roar, and the posting above could be seen as a teaser to join in a debate? There again, the simplest answer is that it is just an amateurish shambles. The sort of thing that well established law firms throw together in a half-baked fashion and quickly forget about every day.
If this sounds deranged, look at the image in this link: http://rangerstaxcase.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/pbw.png The date of the threads about Rangers (16 June 2011) coincide with the start of the messageboard. Perhaps, PBW is just very thin-skinned and felt a need to respond to some non-existent perceived criticism of his work?
Still, if you go back to the second posting ever on this blog: http://rangerstaxcase.com/2011/03/28/what-is-rangers-tax-case-all-about/ you can see that what I wrote in March of this year is virtually identical to what Baxendale-Walker have posted above.
rangerstaxcase says:
30/11/2011 at 8:52 am
Back to that tax website.
So a pornography company has created a website that uses the legal name of a law firm and it posts the following:
(SCREEN SHOT OF WEBSITE)
Who posts a press release in a Word document online? You know- the type of file that can contain scripts and malware?
I would not try downloading that file.
And I do not recall a Baxendale-Walker press release at that time. I am sure that someone in the press would have reported on it had they done so.
hail hail
Good new for Craigo Whyte this morning, as a strike by Tax Office workers means a quiet day at Ayebroke Spark.
This is going to be a hell of a day. The start of a fight against the Tories and a chance to get a bit of revenge for Atletico. Does it get any better?
Get out on the streets fholks.
We are in the majority and we are in the right.
Won’t be on again until tonight, away to do my bit.
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!!
Good morning fholks.
Nice to see Estadio up and about this morn,the wife had the same view
of the necropolis a few weeks ago,good thing was we could see Ruglen
in the background.
Hail hail
p.s Chris Torey ,uncalled for rubbish from you earlier.
Will someone please tell Kayal and all the other players to “Shut the F*** Up” about how they are better than Rangers.
Prove it on the pitch by winning the League and then they can tell the whole world. Until then, zip it!
Good morning friends from weather-free EK.
Up the workers!
Jobo
Paul67
Nice article Paul.
The ole celtic European nights are special, it’s almost like a stimulus to Celtic fans, a reminder that we are great Europeans.
We all wear short, shorts
Mon the Hoops
A happy St Andrew’s Day to all CQNers. May the Saltire fly proudly at Celtic Park tonight.
Once again, it’s wild and windy here in North Ayrshire.
Greenjedi
absolutely correct. We need to educate our players in what they can say. After the 6-2 game MON stated that They were still the benchmark while believeing soething completely different.
Lets prove we are best on the field.
Parkheadcumsalford –
Scab ;-)
Jobo
Ole Jobo -‘ weather free’?
like in a vacuum?
Good to see that the glamour friendly in Hamburg went off without incident, or a crowd.
Didn’t quite capture the imagination of the peepil, less than 12,000 – is that another record?
Ratners FC accounts due out today, anyone think we will see them?
Damp, dank, grey and decidedly chilly here in North Ayrshire this morning.
Here’s hoping for a good performance tonight.
Come on the Bhoys!
Sorry, Jobo, but at least I’m no a hun.
Just read tonight’s match programme above,very good.
Was oor JF at a loose end this week?
jhilday –
you as well! I need more help on this picket line here.
Hopefully tonight will also be remembered for our strikers.
Jobo
Morning Celts,
Jobo weather report free doon here innaw!
V
St Andrews day so it’ll be haggis tonight, better get the auld haggis-catcher net out.
V
I don’t drive as it gets in the way of my drinking so I downloaded an app
to toot my horn when passing by the pickets today, passing not through before anyone thinks I’m a scab…. 8-))
toot toot comrades…. o))
Vmhan –
knew I could reply on you.
Jobo
Industrial action in ole DG not due to start ’til midnight.
It’s been decided by the Wilson Picketts.
East Kilbride …… no weather today.
East Kilbride ……. tomorrow, back to normal, weather is horrential.
Jobo,
Sorry, I didn’t think!
Top of the morning from a bright, but chilly Fife.
The wind is fresh and if the weather stays this way the conditions will be perfect for our visit to Dundee on Sunday, which in my mind is more important than tonight’s diversion at Parkhead.
It would though be nice to go into Sunday’s game with a win—any kind of win—under our belts.
Watched Rangers in Hamburg last night and the purpose of this exercise was far from clear. Not for money, not for the fans, but perhaps to try out their new team when Jelavic and Co depart.
The accent was certainly on the physical and under any other circumstances the referee would have given two or three red cards. Some brutal challenges for a friendly. The shape of things to come?
Any truth in the rumour Ragers couldn’t afford an overnight stay in Germany?
greenjedi-Spot on mate,no stupid comments at pressers that the LL will translate in to lies.Do your talking on the pitch.
Ciao —
Sunny , clear blue sky -a feels cold 14 degrees —way down south .
Europa League News —-
The Udinese squad for tonight’s game against Rennes is surprisingly strong . Pinzi and DI Natale included.
A really downbeat pre -departure press conference featured Udinese’s manager bemoaning his player’s profligacy and lack of concentration against Arsenal . ” We screwed up and found ourselves in the Europa League ” He stressed that Udinese’s Serie A game against Fiorentina was much more of a priority than tonight’s game.
Watched Atletico at the weekend —– they were rotten . Been a bad season for them . Hope Celtic make it an even worse one tonight. We owe them a doing ..
Watched India being thrashed by Zambia . If last night is a measure of the quality of the typical Indian player – then most would struggle to get a game for East Stirling.
Napoli 3 —- Juve 3 ——– Great game ! .
BSR
any truth in the rumour they went to Aw_Naws to set up his Gazebo for their going under party?
Bourne-they were in and out on the same day.
Big Nan!!
South Of Tunis!!
nameandshameCSC
Up the workers!
Jobo
From the ‘feeshal site “Injury update”
“Scott Brown, Kelvin Wilson and James Keatings have all returned to training and are now in search of match fitness after their long-term injuries.”
Brown is in consideration for a game tonight. Some way to get match fitness!!
“Long-term absentees Emilio Izaguirre and Mark Wilson are also progressing well. The Honduran left-back is still in rehab after breaking his ankle at the start of the season, but is only a few weeks away from joining his team-mates in training.”
This is buncum, Izzy’s been training for weeks and talk inside Celtic Park was a place on the bench last week. In fact 2 weeks ago Neil confirmed at a press conference he was only a couple of weeks away.
Who writes this stuff? No wonder people seek their news elsewhere when the official site issues uninformed, incorrect generalities.
As my old ma always says to me, better to keep your mouth shut son and let people think you’re an idiot than to open it and remove the doubt.
Not sure what she means.
Anybody think our players just keep stum about us been better tgan Rangers etc… set themselves up for a fall every time. Just get on with doing your talking on the park Beram!!
Should be a busy day today with a few strikers around. Mind you some folk seem to post more when they’re supposed to be working.
Big game tonight. Would love to get one over on an old foe, and a win also keeps our run going. Momentum and morale are important as we chase down the huns
Just checked and the Shabby Chapeau does not have weather free vacuum. Seems there is a cyclone in there. Ought I be concerned?