You wouldn’t announce an event, encourage others to sell tickets, without booking the venue. You just wouldn’t do it. These things have an order: book the venue, then announce the event. It’s a matter of courtesy to all involved, not to mention being an operational necessity.
Why then, do we have the unedifying scenario of Hamilton Accies releasing a statement to say New Douglas Park is unavailable for the date the SFA advertised a Scottish Cup game between East Kilbride and Celtic would take place? It’s just remotely possible that Accies have reneged on an earlier commitment given to the SFA, but the tone of their statement suggests otherwise.
This is for a game which is scheduled to take place one week on Sunday. Fans have to acquire and distribute tickets, travel arrangements have to be made, police and stewarding have to be booked (by East Kilbride, who are the home team, remember).
This should be a great day for the young club but it’s shrouded in considerable commercial uncertainty: how much will policing, stewarding and stadium rental cost? Who at East Kilbride will guarantees these bills and how? The police and host club may take a lax view on credit, but the stewarding provider won’t. What revenue can be expected? None of these issues can be known until a venue is found.
I’m not going to support Pat Nevin’s views, which offended Dundee manager, Paul Hartley on Sportscene at the weekend. I didn’t hear his comments, so cannot conclude if he was talking “absolute garbage”, or if Nevin had verged into the kind of territory which saw him issue an apology under threat of legal action last month. But I’m not convinced the scope of Hartley’s comments are appropriate.
Dundee lose goals. Lots of them. Their only clean sheet since 12 September came against Hamilton Accies last month. The objective facts suggest their defensive strategy is an appropriate subject for criticism. This season they lost 6 in one game against Celtic and 8 over two matches against Ross County.
Analysis and criticism is the domain of pundits and fans, even those, who Paul Hartley notes, have “never coached or managed a team”. Attacking the pundit (or the programme) is easier than explaining a (subjectively) poor defensive record, or keeping clean sheets, apparently.
Paul said “It’s not what it used to be like, away back in the 1980s when you wanted to sit up and watch Sportscene on a Saturday night”. Back then Archie Macpherson fronted the show. Archie told me about a similar run-in he had with Alex Ferguson, who angrily disagreed with the commentator’s view of a defensive infraction.
Archie’s view on his opinion being irrelevant due to his lack of coaching experience was memorable, “I’ve never laid an egg, but I know when I taste a bad one”.
The Foundation Zip Slide in Paradise takes place on 26 March, bookings are now being taken. This time the slide is higher and longer, leaving the very top corner of the North Stand seating at the Lisbon Lions Stand end, diagonally crossing the pitch to land at the bottom of the Jock Stein Stand, at the South Stand end.
You don’t have a lot of time to get booked and start your fundraising, so get onto it now. Sign up here.
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lbhoys
Hail hail
Still laughing at how incompetent the SFA is.
Like my horse bets 2nd
Hail
nearly….THOUGHT I was gonna be leader of the pack for a moment there.
Good afternoon from a very wet East Lothian
Was there really a foul-up with the venue selection?
Or was the foul-up more likely to have been with the original draw……?
Philbhoy
Wee Archie is obviously a fighter after that type of
operation, he’s now a Celt as far as I’m concerned.
H.H Mick
John Clark’s ‘interview’ with the new(ish) CEO at the SFA and the man who IS the SFA should be a game changer. I wonder if the SMSM will bite?
Nah………………….I don’t really.
Now 8 working days left for EKFC to arrange Marketing, Ticketing and Sales, Stewarding, Policing, Catering, Hospitality and Advertising.
All that, and the small matter of finding a venue.
NB EKFC is staffed by volunteers who have ‘day jobs’.
I’m sure the SFA will come up with something.
I think someone at Hamilton enjoyed giving the SFA a custard pie yesterday,watch the SFA try to bully them into a retreat,just to save face. P67 -Celtic are the only club who could step in and manage this game successfully,from police and stewards,to costs which may have to be paid up front
Bada Bing, yes, Celtic could sort this but I’d prefer a non-home venue for the away team. Motherwell the natural option, but ask first.
Bada
Celtic Park looks to be the way it’s going, but remember Hampden is equally equipped, and the other grounds on the list have resources. Billy Ogilvie’s preference is a smaller, 3G pitch, which puts Airdrie and Broadwood in the mix.
I think, to be fair to Hamilton, they just got knarked hanging about. Can’t blame them.
Paul 67
I agree- ask first. Hugh Keevins last night suggesting Hamilton and the SFA responsible for this mess. His logic was that since ‘ everyone was talking about it being at Hamilton’ then they should have spoke up sooner!
An aside, have you any clue as to why your articles repeat themselves on my iPhone? Only the iPhone, iPad and PC ok? Everyday. At the end of the 2nd or 3rd paragraph, the article starts again from the top? Crazy and no idea why it happens.
So,,,,Broadwood is the SFA,and it appears everything is A OK,nothing to see move along.
Laughable CSC
HH
Kirk Broadfoot has never laid an egg, but he sure knows how to cook ……………..oh, wait……………….
Glendalys
Brilliant! :-)
Does anyone know what is happening in Dalmuir?
Armed cops everywhere and helicopter circling. Gunshots heard! Scary stuff.
Paul67
Sportscene is a national embarrassment. I never heard Pat Nevin’s comments
either but if Paul Hartley says they were garbage sounds about right to me.
It was bad before ‘liquidation’ but got worse when they decided to cover lower league
football with the ‘journey’.
Good chance to further embarrass the SFA with Celtic stepping in and offering the lower
tier to the cup tie, give EK all the money.
Twists n Turns, don’t know about that one, sorry.
Thank goodness the SFA are no organizing the Foundation Zip Slide – you’d have no idea where you would end up.
Afternoon all.
DD
You stay safe buddy. :-))) HH
DD
Possibly this
Man arrested in connection with alleged shooting and attempted robbery at convenience store in Yoker
Posted at 11:53
A 25-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an alleged shooting and attempted robbery at the KOF Convenience Store in Yoker in Glasgow on Sunday.
The man is currently being held in police custody
Delaney’s,
White Audi being chased through Dalmuir, chopper being used too, more to come, follow on the Clydebank Post website.
Stay calm and support the Celtic
DD
armed robbery in Yoker. Shopkeeper shot in the leg and one man arrested
“Gers haven’t yet been able to get another deal across the line.”
@eveningtimes
TheOleGersJustSwooped CSC
Weefra G67
Cheers bhoys. Van from our industrial estate was crashed into by a white Audi with gunman driving.
Wild West Dunbartonshire!
Paul67 –
I posted re: Paul Hartley’s remarks on the last blog. For sure he feels stung by the criticism and that coloured his response perhaps. But it doesn’t invalidate the point he made re: Sportscene. It is truly an awful programme.
Just saw DD flyin’ roo the coarner in his white Audi gettin’ chased wae the polis!
;)
Arnold Bennet
http://www.leggs.es/
roo = roon
t
AR, Coney
Thanks bhoys. Thankfully arrest has been made.
Carlton Cole is one of very very few Celtic players to ‘pass the Celtic trial’.
Hmmm CSC
Was the bloke arrested in Dalmuir wearing a Celtic top?
Jist askin’.
Is anyone going to Xavier Centre in Carfin on Saturday night for the charity event organised?
Bertie Auld, John Clark, Paul67, Willie Collum and others will be there.
Still tickets available at £7.
Is a Celtic trial like the witch trial in Holy Grail?
i.e. if lighter than a duck, you are a witch? Carlton is deffo heavier than a duck so would pass nae bother :-)