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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Canamalar,
Like all pendulums, it swung from one extreme to another. The problem is that smaller teams are not adequately recompensed now for developing talent – means that they can’t really re-invest in newer talent or afford to keep a core backbone of experienced players on competitve salaries.
Sadly, cant see how to fix that one…
Neil canamalar, 15:19
Channel 4 online
Tom Malone…,
So the blame must lie squarely with boards, that it led to the action, no
stephbhoy on 3 July, 2012 at 15:17 said:
My boss is Peter Principle on 3 July, 2012 at 15:09 said:
see greenjedi on 3 July, 2012 at 15:12 said:
So you are going to hire companies to film 6 games per week times x 38 weeks = 228 games to be covered?
Starry plough,
i assume your ray of sunshine comment aint a reference to me,
i would be happy if newco are never seen on a football park again
Here’s the link to Thommos blog, but the latest installment isnt up yet…
http://www.channel4.com/news/alex-thomson
HH
lie=lay
I believe that if/when Celtic come out and publicly back Sevco starting fresh in Div 3 at best , is when the Hun hordes will switch from hating Charles Green and focus all their hatred on Celtic, and ANYONE associated with them.
By anyone , I mean everyone, from kids playing in the streets with the Hoops on to guys coming out of CSC’s or Celtic-minded pubs after a quiet pint.
It’s the way their small minds work…..only 1 target at a time….they hated Murray, Whyte came along and they hated him (forgot about Murray landed them in the cr*p)…..Green came along and they now hate him ….(they’ve forgot about Murray and Whyte, who have done the damage but escaped now as there is a new target).
If Peter Lawell (Celtic in their eyes) confirms he voted NO to Newco and wants Div3 (not as a punishment , just naturally what should happen) watch out for Celtic being the sole reason for why the Huns are looking at watching Annan , Berwick etc next season. The SFA , SPL, SFL , Minty, Whytey and Chuck will all be forgotten , and the target will be us.
I assume we are all adults on here , and hopefully we can look out for ourselves , but the ones I fear most for would be kids wearing the Hoops , aged 12 and up, who could become victims to gangs of teenage Hun thugs looking to take their revenge on the people who caused their club to disintegrate.
If Celtic remaining tight- lipped even after the vote means that some poor kid doesn’t get battered , or worse, for wearing the Hoops , then I can live with that.
There probably are too many teams in the combined SPL/SFL in terms of the population. The Hearts/Hibs fans who turned out for the Sc. cup final or the Kilmarnock fans who turned out for the league cup final shows that a decent level of support is there for many teams but they will not turn out for the turgid week by week stuff.
Amalgamating some of the smaller teams is just as likely to drive away diehard fans as it is to attract new ones. No easy answers.
roy croppie on 3 July, 2012
What happened to the Neilly McCallum money?
Sharing gate receipts.
If football was that easy to fix then every successful league in the world would have implemented this idea.
The way to fix Scottish football is to stop the fixing. Allow football to be played, allowing cluggers like Gary Kenneth or Whitaker free rein in booting players up and down a totty field is a recipe for disaster. Hounding skillful players out of our league for playing for the wrong team and allowing a team to buy the league with taxpayers money has to stop.
Sharing gate money is just not the answer.
OG..,
cheers
My boss is Peter Principle on 3 July, 2012 at 15:23 said:
That’s what both Sky and Setanta did at first…
HH
craigwhitesoptometrist says u have 21/20 vision, is that even possible? on 3 July, 2012 at 15:19 said: Anyone at Hamilton races?
pretty sure Henr1k posted earlier he was going.
JAMES FORREST
Let’s cut to the quick on this discussion here,a L-O-N-G time ago many of us knew Rangers were doomed.
I had been discussing it with my family,and with my disbelieving hun mates back home,as early as 2004.
Since I am clearly no genius,but clever enough to know that,in business,you keep a very close eye on your competitors,do you think it is remotely likelythat Celtic PLC were unaware of the problems that Rangers had,and even the extent of them?
With the exception of the PL parallel universe comment,Celtic have sais sod all.
We have not had to.
For blinkin’ years,we have said sod all,and now that we’re getting to the vinegar strokes,you want to blow the strategy out of the water?
What for?
A grandstanding GIRUY that will please no-one but yourself-presuming that they let you write it,of course-and alienate ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE in the game who has come down on the side of natural justice?
I’m well and truly on record as being no fan of the board on a number of issue,but I’m with them on this one.
They are playing a blinder,IMO,and if you are an example of the type who would rise to the top of a CELTIC FC controlled by the fans,then I am bloody delighted with our current custodians.
Historically – yes – it was a form of slavery. It’s one advantage was that it did allow well run teams to compete.
However, it has been replaced by agent inspired anarchy where the rich get astronomically richer and everyone else is just living off scraps.
My boss is Peter Principle on 3 July, 2012 at 15:23 said:
is that what i said?
Seen a guy with Celtic tattoos down his arm in dukes bar, assume it’s prob him. Down on bets at the mo, only 3rd race starting now, need to pick it up.
smaller teams are not adequately recompensed now for developing talent – means that they can’t really re-invest in newer talent or afford to keep a core backbone of experienced players on competitve salaries.
Sadly, cant see how to fix that one…
I can!
Tim Malone Will Tell on 3 July, 2012 at 15:26 said:
Agree with all you say. Mind you, Henrik was a scrap and Lubo was a scrap,
so the right scraps can take you a long way.
gordybhoy64 on 3 July, 2012 at 15:23 said:
Naw Mate it was aimed at those among us who find it hard to believe that the huns are dead and their newco will be lucky to play down the public park no matter how much guff comes from Regan and Dungcaster.
That’s their choice and I should keep my big mouth shut.
Hail Hail
on the whole Scotland doesn’t have any footballing talent which is another part of the problem.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS:
Had you put it like that instead of resorting to personal invective and sarcasm you might have got a different response from me.
Here’s what I think. I think you are right … up to a point.
That point was last week. This is a bigger issue now than Celtic, or NewCo. This is about the people in charge of our game abetting a corruption. This is about smaller clubs being bullied and intimidated. This was a chance for us to be the moral leader of the Scottish game, and to ally ourselves with the people in this game who want genuine reform for the sake of every club.
This was a chance for us to demonstrate our strength, and our convictions, and take a lead, and be a genuine force for good.
More than just money is at stake, more than just punishing the hun for years of arrogance. We’re not getting out of this league any time soon – this is our chance to be at the forefront of the reforms.
I’ve heard on this site over and over again that other clubs hate us as much as they hate Rangers. This is a chance to cast aside the OF orthodoxy forever and to emerge as genuinely different … to forge a COMPLETE break with them once and for all. If we grasp it.
And last week was a big opportunity to start going down that road. Had we spoke up for the smaller clubs, distanced ourselves from the grubby deal (from which, Paul and other would have us believe we were excluded – and I believe we probably were) and to condemn it for what it was, we would have emerged as genuine leaders in this whole sorry affair.
We might get another chance … we might not. I am disappointed it was not grabbed with both hands.
regardless of what you think of agents, they only try to get the best deal for their client.
If clubs are stupid enough to pay over the top, you cant blame a player or agent for asking for the best deal
Starry plough,no problem pal,
as someone posted earlier there are some on here who would like to be able to say “i told you so” no matter what was to develop
Some posters were questioning why we should all cancel Sky / ESPN – the answer is above they are, allegedly, dictating who plays where in Scotland. Send them homeward to think again bhoys – Cancel Sky sports subscriptions NOW
Is there not a clue in the words you use “allegedly, dictating” Who tells you so?
Neil Doncaster? Would you really trust him to negotiate anything on our behalf?
Lions led by donkeys more like!
Larsson and McStay 15.24 – spot on my friend.
My recollection of gate splitting was that the League set a minimum gate price each season for adults say 10 bob. If the gate was 30K the away team received 15K minus half of the match expenses.If the home club charged a quid for the stand they kept all of the difference ie 10 bob per head. Rangers had a significant advantage then because their stand held about 10K whilst our old stand only held about 3K
a post from CHR15 on kerrydalestreet.
They still don’t get it. Whether one club goes under or ten of them do – this is as a direct result of following a completely broken business model. If they’re going to go under now, then it’s going to happen in the future too because the model wont have changed.
If they need Sevco so much, they are going under at some point. Only through breaking that dependency do they have a cat in hell’s chance of surviving long term.
That’s just the business argument.
If they decide that one club can break the rules – knowingly and deliberately break the rules in order to get the top spot and CL money that goes with it – yet are so important they can’t be punished in accordance with the very rules they broke, then the sporting model is broken too.
If the sporting model is broken too, then it’s all over for the sport as a whole no matter what they manage to salvage short term, business-wise.
If they decide that they need the money from TV and Sevco fans more than their own fans, despite the various rule breaches, then they are saying unequivocally that the sporting model is not only broken, but they know it’s broken and they don’t care because they just want to prolong their fingertip survival on the broken business model.
The only way of a sustainable future for both models is to enforce the rules in the sporting model and amend the practices in the business model. Strangely, both methods absolutely demand Sevco is subject to the rules of the game and must apply at the lowest tier of the football league. The sport will remain a sport if that happens. If the sport remains so, then the fans will remain and give the club chairs/owners a fighting chance of recovering through changing the way they budget and spend.
Nothing will ever be able to cleanse the stain on the sport that not applying the rules to Sevco will create. This generation will turn away en masse and just as crucially, they’ll stop taking the next generation to football. Then it’s over completely.
We will either have a sport or no sport by the time the season starts.
Canamalar,
It goes further than that though – every few months we see agents actively trying to destabalize player/team relatonships to get the ‘best deal’. It’s ugly and reflects the worst excesses in our society.
Where I agree with Delia up to a point is that I have a social conscience and recognize that direct taxation is the best way to redistribute some portion of wealth. Fitba’ isnt any different – and I am sure that there will be a price for Celtic to pay in the not too distant one way or another unless we find a way out of the SPL…
They can’t get a bank to process their dd’s and suddenly they will be loaned up to £35mill!!!
Eh!
Could one of you fine gentlemen or T4 copy and paste the C4 blog when it is loaded up please….
camamalar- Agree, if there was a transfer fee,clubs would at least get some money back to re-invest.Clubs put a lot of money into signing on fees, wages,medical bills etc.To get nothing back after 3 or 4 years is ridiculous IMO.We have benefitted from Bosmans too Ledley being a good example.On the other hand Loovens cost £2 mil plus 16-18 k a week for 4 years (only played 89 games,less than FF btw) and walks into a similar win win deal.
Neil Lennon is (and always will be) a Celtforlife (*O*) on 3 July, 2012 at 15:40 said:
Not the huns. We were talking about Celtic.
craigwhitesoptometrist says u have 21/20 vision, is that even possible? on 3 July, 2012 at 15:19 said: Anyone at Hamilton races?
pretty sure Henr1k posted earlier he was going.
Lennybhoy fc is there.Just emailed me he got the 1st 2 winners
The peepul have spoken,
alex thomson @alextomo
Rangers Fighting Fund poll result: 76% of R season ticket holders say restart in Division 3.
Of course this doesn’t explain that they want to start at the bottom to spite everyone else…
Expulsion from the game is the only just punishment for the toxic waste that floods from Govan…
Off topic.
Happy 50th Jobo Balde. Someone on blog this morning called you our very own Sean Batty. I would prefer Judith or Gail any day of the week. But given my 1st choice, guilty pleasure time, it would always be Carol Kirkwood :-)
Right, back to the Algarve sun & dream of the weather(ghirls)…
I view the talk of financial Armageddon with disdain if not scorn.
It is self evident to anyone with a love of the game that those who love football find their enjoyment of the game at any level so whatever may happen the organisation and the level may change but those who love the game will still be there. They will re-organise and the game will survive. As such the banal threats included in the insulting document sent to the SFL clubs will fall on the deaf ears of those who love the game.
What the document indicates for those who had any doubt before is that Scottish Fans are indeed Lions led by Donkeys and my sincere hope is that now that they have found their voice that they will unite to remove the leadership that is so badly out of touch with the views of their ultimate paymasters.
Jock Stein said and believed that “ Football without the fans is nothing.”
That for me is the key now and for the future – to build strong associations with other clubs to ensure change led by principled leaders. Such conduits would soon help to establish just what the actual value is of Scottish Subscribers to Satellite Broadcasters and arm negotiators with real facts to win better deals. Willy nilly cancellations is not at all rational and not at all a mature approach to the issue.
I have said that Its time for those who suggest they lead Scottish Football to show some leadership, and that they could begin by reading and following their own rules.
It is too late for our current leadership. It has failed and it must go – NOW!