Tomorrow’s SPL meeting is something of a formality, albeit as dramatic as a formality can be. The main scheduled action of the week is underway at Hampden right now. We hear that after issuing threats to exclude 20 SFL clubs from future access to the top two divisions in Scottish football, SPL and SFA chief executives, Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan, will face irate SFL chairmen.
In mitigation of the criticism coming his way, Mr Doncaster is offering your money, in perpetuity, to buy votes to allow Sevco to gain direct access to the First Division. If passed, they would probably enter the SPL next season, close to debt free, while Celtic carry peak debt of around £35m after playing by the rules and not qualifying for Champions League football during the last three seasons.
In short, if Mr Doncaster manages to persuade the SFL chairmen to back his plan, Sevco will become by far the strongest team in the SPL a year from now.
The plan has been rejected as wholly unacceptable by an impressive list of clubs with no association whatsoever with Celtic, many of whom exist hand-to-mouth and whose vote against will cost them considerable income.
Doncaster’s part in creating this shambles cannot be underestimated. He perpetuated the myth that “Rangers” should and would be in next season’s SPL, allowing people to invest in an undeliverable strategy, including Charles Green.
Mr Doncaster is an employee of the company Celtic are an equal-twelfth shareholder in. His actions are wholly incompatible with sporting meritocracy. As Celtic shareholders we call for his resignation and, if this is not forthcoming, demand he faces a confidence vote.
“Without fear or favour” was the promise from Stewart Regan when he told us he would apply the rules evenly as the Rangers saga unfolded. In advocating rules are torn up and replaced his words are laughable.
His assertion that the actions of Campbell Ogilvie over Rangers EBTs had been investigated and that Ogilvie was found to be without blame was misleading. It is our assertion that the actions of Mr Ogilvie were not investigated at all and that Mr Regan spoke to protect his ally, who remains in position despite being “heavily conflicted” according to Mr Regan, and the SFA being in desperate need of a strong and active president.
Mr Regan is now wholly compromised and must resign or also face a vote of confidence. Two years ago he joined a dysfunctional organisation. He had a great opportunity to make a name for himself as a successful troubleshooter. Instead he’s made matters worse!
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Neilly McCallum was ahead of the rest
By: Newsroom Staff on 03 Jul, 2012 14:06
IT was on this day, July 3 in 1868 that Neil McCallum was born in the Dunbartonshire village of Bonhill – and 20 years later he would score the first ever Celtic goal in the club’s inaugural 5-2 win over Rangers on May 28, 1888.
A team-mate of Jimmy Kelly´s in Renton’s unofficial world championship match against West Brom a few weeks earlier, McCallum scored Celtic´s first ever goal, heading home from a corner after just 10 minutes.
He briefly signed for Blackburn in 1890 but returned the following year to Celtic Park.
Neilly McCallum made 33 appearances for the club, scoring 17 goals, before signing for Nottingham Forest in 1892.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS:
Yeah? So you’re satisfied, are you, with a club that lets other clubs do the fighting for them? That lets is supporters do the talking for them? That allows the hun press to set the agenda? Which remains silent even when our money is being offered in bribes to allow a corruption which will destroy the game?
You’re not even slightly concerned?
Think what you want of me. Say what you like. You are as entitled to your own opinion as much as I am to mine. I long since ceased caring whether what I say annoys people. Your view is that our club is right to maintain silence … that view, in my opinion, is only valid if we’re only concerned with our own interests and not the wider ones of the game … and if our own interests are all that concern us here then we are as well voting for the hun.
Bom dia,
(not had time to scance the blog today – yet, so apologies if this has already been dealt with)
Anyway, today’s Guardian website carries the following article:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/03/japanese-visitors-scottish-guidebook-etiquette
The above article includes the line “…..It implores readers not to approach “men in green or blue football tops”…..”
Anyway, I decided to take umbrage at this and wrote to the author pointing out the error of this statement in connection to the green/Japanese afinity.
Received this short ago…..
I am sorry if I offended you with my remarks. As a matter of fact we never said anything like “avoiding green and blue shirts etc” in our book.
In fact, in the book, there is a chapter titled “When a Japanese footballer came to Glasgow” and I wrote about Nakamura and Celtic team with praise.
Let me explain to you about newspaper article. Everything in that article were not the quote from the Insider’s Guide to Scotland.
There is no “to do and not to do list “in the book as some of the paper suggested.
All the comment in the article were light hearted answers to the questionnaire Scotsman sent to us. We thought it was a general discussion about tourists
since the book is written in Japanese and no use for the most people in here.
Hoewever somehow it translated as a content of the guide book.
We would like to set the record straight when we get a chance.
Mr Green comes out fighting. “We will pursue claims with no chance of success and also ask the SFA to set up a panel to consider requests for the players’ clearances even though I accept the SFA cannot stop issuing them.”
“Any suggestion that I am angry at £10 million prifut walking away for nothing is entirely accurate”.
The above might be a paraphrase, by the way.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/green-well-fight-for-compensation-for-players-who-didnt-join-sevco-rangers-and-lose/
JAMES FORREST 1443
I refer you to my previous answer.
The way I see it…..and correct me if I’m wrong…..most clubs I would imagine don’t run their business day to day. I would guess most….and particularly a club of Celtics size would work at the least to a 5 year business plan. In other words, projections, salaries, expenditure, overdrafts, loans etc are all based on income probably expected in the coming years. Notwithstanding european income, which I’m led to belive is not factored in, most clubs by and large know what kind of income to expect and tailor their needs around this. bearing all this in mind, I would think that legally any club who stands to lose money out of shared gates must be given at least 5 years notice of when it will start. Otherwise I would suggest it is illegal. 5 years would then be more than enough time for Celtic (or whoever) to present their case to UEFA with regard to trade restrictions and to gain approval to apply to another league…..or am I talking bull?
lincolnshire poacher on 3 July, 2012 at 14:25 said:
dont know that i agree, i do think the introduction of television and its demand for 4 celtic vs rangers games per season smashed all hope for other clubs and fans to witness their clubs win the league. the league is not competitive with only 2 team winning it in the last 20 odd years. football is massive in scotland no other sport comes close. however, it is very tribel and i would suggest less senior clubs does not mean more people through the gates of the remaining clubs. our leaders should focus on how to make football work better rather than trying anything to continue with the need for celtic rangers games, which in my opinion should see only 2 of these games per season in the league.
bosman was massive for scotland as is the ever increasing income given to the english clubs. but the leagues in england have never been in more debt than they are today, even with the telvision money and it is unsustainable or will become so in the future.
RIOSKORRIE 1445
I highlighted that article yesterday,but I was only miffed about them dissing wur squerr!
As a fellow exile,you must admit,ye miss it…………
hutchybhoy- Thanks for your kind offer, might take you up before season starts back mate.HH
Thanks to goldstar 10 @ stevebhoy also.
TBB – thanks for those estimates.
Any Scottish football Pay TV channel would have to be attractive to fans of other clubs in order to maximise subscriptions. I remember speaking to some guys who were involved in setting up the Setanta SPL channel and they had targeted 100K subscribers, which they knew would mostly be comprised of Celtic and Ragers fans.
There would have to be decent highlights packages for the top two divisions and a range of magazine shows for the bigger clubs, but these would probably have very restricted budgets.
If we’re stuck in SPhell, then I would definately prefer going down this route as opposed to staying with Sky. If we get out of the SPL, who cares…?! :-)
Che – can’t believe I’ve become Che Mark II….!
T4
It now appears that Regan’s famous quip
“without fear or favour” was actually misquoted due to a very bad line which kept breaking up.
What he actually said was; “life WITHOUT newco in the SPL is so unthinkable that we will use FEAR OR any other skullduggery to FAVOUR our beloved Gers.
JF
Well said!!!!
tommytwiststommyturns on 3 July, 2012 at 14:53 said:
Eh what youve got two expensive step daughters and a wife who cant walk past a travel agents as well?
He who laughs last……
obviously isnt married.
Sky sports news banner saying Craig Gordon fails to agree terms with Celtic.
No word on the Celtic site re Fraser Forster.
What is going on? Has FF actually signed or is it all pare talk? Can’t imagine us going for Gordon and also signing Forster. Don’t imagine either would settle for being 2 nd pick.
Ggh
BMCW 14:52
…..got so fed up about living in a skwer free society that I had a birl at making my own – which turned out no bad. So thanks for reminding me – that’s skewr on the menu for this weekend’s breakfast.
Sadly, though, my ability to find buckets o pigs blood has restricted my abilty to make decent black pudding yet. Any ideas?
James Forrest is Neil Lennon! We are ALL Neil Lennon!
I sympathise with your view but take a position of trust, trust in the board tactics that is.
I happen to think it is good that ordinary football fans have taken the lead in this fiasco. Whether your Chairman is in Kilmarnock, Dundee , Kirkcaldy etc. etc. he can’t help but know the likely outcome from his own fans should they treat Sevco as a special case.
I imagine you were impressed by the spokesman from Annan going into the SFL meeting today. For me a real WOW moment. His supressed anger at being even asked to consider the biased proposals was impressive. I understand why you’d wish a Celtic spokesman to be as forthright but to my view there are more ‘politics’ for Celtic to consider than any other club.
It is not always the case that the best leaders fight from the front and if other generals are out there winning don’t disturb them.
My trust (or hope maybe) that behind the public blank there is purposeful & professional planning by Celtic. Winning friends and influencing people is a good thing to do.
I could be wrong, you could be right but just now I think Celtic is doing OK – just!
,Scottish football has been dying for over 20 years. Whatever the outcome of this weeks deliberations, no decision will change this situation. Excluding Celtic, the SPL is probably below the English 2nd Division in terms of finance and quality. In the 60′s and 70′s we had to fend off the Liverpools and Man United from poaching our young talent, now we see the likes of Coventry, Huddersfield and Scunthorpe showing greater financial muscle.
Football hasn’t died because of what has happened at rangers. Its death has been caused by a combination of 42 league clubs supported by a population equivalent to the West Midlands, freedom of contract, proximity to the over funded english leagues, and fewer boys playing football.
True, all true. The Premier Division commenced in August 1975, strongly backed by our club, and the SPL commenced in 1998, almost entirely to satisfy ourselves and Rangers. Both changes were accompanied by, largely motivated by, a reduction (eventually to zero) of the proportion of gate money paid to visiting teams.
It is not an exaggeration, but rather a plain and unarguable fact, that these two major changes in the organisation of the game have coincided with a huge decline in the standards and achievements of Scottish football. Even Celtic, blessed with a uniquely able set of administrators, a very large support, and every benefit of the present arrangements, are weaker now than they were in 1975. I do wonder why so many rush to defend what is, by any standards, a catastrophic set of decisions.
deliasmith
Both changes were accompanied by, largely motivated by, a reduction (eventually to zero) of the proportion of gate money paid to visiting teams.
I’ve seen it mentioned on here before that clubs used to share gate receipts with visiting clubs. Was this a 50/50 split or merely the amount the visiting fans brought in?
Is there any reference to this situation?
Mort
stephbhoy on 3 July, 2012 at 14:38 said:
Who will provide the equipment for this SPL TV Channel, Sky, BBC the old STV equipment or maybe the clubs?
Tiny Tim or anyone else,
can you explain where the figure of Celtic having £35million
of debt in the future has come from
Delia,
I have more sympathy than most on here for your gate-sharing hobby horse, but I think that to ignore the huge effects of Bosman, the start up of the EPL and the onset of SKY is being more than a bit disingenuous.
For sure Scottish football needs a new model – preferably SKY free – thats my little hobby-horse.
My boss is Peter Principle on 3 July, 2012 at 15:09 said:
stephbhoy on 3 July, 2012 at 14:38 said:
Who will provide the equipment for this SPL TV Channel, Sky, BBC the old STV equipment or maybe the clubs?
…………….
You can hire companies to do the filming
gordybhoy64 on 3 July, 2012 at 15:10 said:
In the article above penned by Paul 67..
Like the look of this –
Law & Philosophy@mdkster
Channel 4 news story on conflicts of interest expected to go live in the next hour or so…been with the lawyers since yesterday morning
Retweeted by CelticResearch
deliasmith
coincided = coincidence
if the reorganisations of 1975 & 1998 hadn’t happened Scottish football would be in the exactly the same position as it is in now.
OG,
care to expand on the above
TBB
Whilst the Scottish game might be irtelevant to Sky, the nature of the contract they have us sign up to is key to desyroying the integrity of the competition.
Not satisfied with lowering the standard by paying more to the EPL they seem to be insisting on terms that destroy the game and then paying peanuts for giving us the privilege for weilding the hammer.
Who is the guy who set up the site that asked who supported an SPL parachute?
Maybe he could find out how many subscribers there are how much they pay and how many will pull out if Sky do not do something to repair the damage caused by treating us as irrelevant.
Bosman ruined football IMO,created greedy players,a million agents and clubs potless.
Starry plough,
is Paul67 not pointing out that we had a debt of £35million in
the past,thats not the case now,Tiny Tim is suggesting that
newco could have a £35 million advantage on us in a couple of years,
there is no way we will run up that debt in the current climate
ada…,
the bosman decision only transfered the power from greedy boards to greedy players.
My boss is Peter Principle on 3 July, 2012 at 15:09 said:
see greenjedi on 3 July, 2012 at 15:12 said:
hopefully AT can blow this pantomime wide open,his timing has been spot on so far.
gordybhoy64 on 3 July, 2012 at 15:10 said:
Tiny Tim or anyone else,
can you explain where the figure of Celtic having £35million
of debt in the future has come from
=======================
I think this is the debt we start off the season with (budgeted running cost for season?) which diminishes when season ticket monies etc.start coming in.
This is my reading of it but, probably total shift:-)
gordybhoy64 on 3 July, 2012 at 15:15 said:
A regular ray of sunshine…
There will be a lot of disappointed people when newco don’t even kick a ball..
Oppps bada
Neil canamalar, 15:13
Can’t add much to that. Should be up very soon
Anyone at Hamilton races?
OG
where will we find it