Remember when Barcelona were regarded as the model of an ethical football club? I don’t know if it’s just every time I see Tumbling Neymar that I feel a little less affinity with brand Barca but that image has proven to be a mirage.
The clubs tax affairs, specifically over compensation to Lionel Messi, brought it into more disrepute than could be compensated for by the ethically immaculate (cough) ‘Qatar’ emblazoned across their shirts. Tax is not just for the wee guys.
Now Fifa (you know you have issues when these guys can get moralistic with you) have banned the club from signing players for the next two transfer windows and a fine of 450k Swiss francs after investigations into the signing of 10 foreign minors over the period 2009-2013. Their accomplices, the Spanish FA, were fined 500 Swiss francs for their role in the episode.
We’ll see if the Spanish FA have the equivalent of What-school-did-you-go-to Ogilvie in charge, who is able to arbitrarily change which transfer windows the ban applies to, in order to assist the club.
Speaking of Ogilvie, after leaving now-liquidated Rangers he continued his work at Hearts, who administrator Bryan Jackson yesterday admitted were themselves facing liquidation. Ogilvie had a legal responsibility for Rangers during the period they introduced the ruinous EBT scam, some of which was found to be illegal during the First Tier Tribunal, the remainder of which is currently subject to an Upper Tribunal deliberation.
Indeed, the man, who remains president of the SFA, pocketed a £93k EBT, but he can claim no credit for the liquidation of Hearts, which was brought about by the liquidation of the club’s shareholders and lenders. If there were two clubs in the whole world you would ask karma to liquidate……….
Before you react to this acknowledged possibility, check, are you a fan, or player and fan? If you are a fan, feel free to proclaim the situation loudly. If you are player and fan, stop. The SFA don’t want you proclaiming an acknowledged possibility, as though you were a fan. Hearts are going bust, but the only man in football allowed to say this is the Hearts administrator.
I see a bit of push-back against Beram Kayal, which is harsh. After a very promising start Beram is increasingly out of the picture at Celtic and needs to construct a narrative for himself and potential future employers. Everything he said was almost certainly true: he was ‘done’ by Lee McCulloch, leaving him with a poor first-hand experience of our game. Why would he retain a love for a league which is offers him nothing?
The comments about Liverpool and Manchester United showing an interest in him prior to his injury tells you lots about how the game works. Promising, though he was, he was never in this class, but all clubs watch hundreds of players every year. I see no reason why his agent would be unable to get Beram scouted by a couple of top English clubs. This would have been reported to the player, but should not be confused as being a qualified interest.
Seville – The Celtic Movement:
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LionRoars67, cheers buddy.
Off to Inverness to see a good Tim.
Neganon2
Good morning all
Please tell me why you think you are qualified to tell me or anyone what not to post?
There’s loads of stuff on here I don’t want to read but I would never be presumptuous to tell anyone what they can or cannot post.
I would ask that before anyone starts criticising/bullying me like yesterday morning, to read back and get full picture.
Have a nice day.
parkheadcumsalford
Same weather here in North Ayrshire, but darker
Happy Birthday to a great ole Bhoy!!!
Have a special day DOC :-)
Billy Bhoy 05
I didn’t see anyone bullying you mate, just a few posters asking that give the blog a break from the continual posts in favour of the YES campaign.
All the very best Doc, have a good day Mate, life is good!
Doc May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back on your journey to Inverness
Billy Bhoy 05
08:40 on
3 April, 2014
Have a day off from the politics mate, friendly advice thats all
Off oot the day going to Oran Mor pie play and a pint, then 5’s later today
Enjoy your day CQN
Come on, Mr Nevin. Let’s be hearing you; you who will always speak out against racism wherever you find it, according to your good self.
HT, Starry, thank ye kindly.
Laters.
Good Morning from a thoroughly miserable looking part of the world somewhere North of East Kilbride where the sky is as dark and gloomy as Leonard Cohen’s public persona after 5 years in the monastery!
Actually, Leonard is a pretty cheery guy at heart but that is another story.
I recorded a podcast with Harry Brady of Celtic Underground yesterday and he has said it will go live sometime tomorrow night– so easy listening over the weekend.
The main theme was meant to be about Seville- The Celtic Movement — although we wandered off into all sorts of areas and generally had a right good moan about the idiotic life of a football fan in modern Scotland.
Interesting to see the charges levelled against Lee Griffiths — apparently singing about Hearts going bust brings the game into disrepute ad all that guff.
Now the old legal brain finds this interesting because of course Griffiths was not doing the singing in the course of any licensed or regulated football match which falls under the jurisdiction of the SFA. Instead this calumnious crime took place in a pub in his own private time.
So — if he decided to sing the same song in his shower would the SFA feel entitles to charge him? Have we gotten to the stage where the private opinions of football players have to be cleared through the SFA failing which they may well be found to contravene SFA standards?
Yes Griffiths is a registered player and as a registered player should behave in a fashion befitting of a professional player.
However, do the SFA set and determine what that standard is and should be?
And where does their judicial jurisdiction start and finish?
For example if you get a professional player who admits in his own book that he challenged players to a fight in the course of a football match — is he less worthy of a charge of bringing the game into disrepute than Griffiths?
By the way I am not advocating that the player with the book be charged with anything, but both players have said something and their comments are now in the public domain. One player was secretly filmed in what he thought was a private moment when he was effectively off duty from his playing activities and the other makes the statements in the course of an official biography from which he seeks to make a commercial gain and which is sold through his club.
Anyone find the action against one incongruous when compared to the other?
Football, and the regulation of football, in this country is up its own arse to use a well worn judicial phrase.
It is now bordering on the so unbelievably stupid that it is actually becoming funny. I am just sorry that there is not a dedicated series of spitting image devoted to Scottish Football.
In the coming years I fully expect the SFA to adopt a winter break…………… so that the Hampden gurus can complete a pantomime season!
Allgreen
His greatest achievements video will look like a scene from Platoon.
—————————————————————–
Haha……Love it :)
A big happy BURPDAY to DOC, hope your day/year is all you and yours could ever wish for.
Gb
Happy birdie to you, happy birdie to you…………..
Happy birdie dear Do-oc, happy birdie to you……
How good a feeling is it when you wake suddenly and take a quick look at the clock thinking you had slept in for work and then you suddenly remember you have the day off? :)
Happy Birthday Doc!!!
Have a great day!
allgreen
You are spot on about McCulloch as he is quite simply a THUG!
Morning, Doc Happy Birthday.
I remember the game elbows done, yes done Kayal, I was at the there and thought it as soon as he made the tackle. Even more disgusting but less surprising was his managers reaction on him being substituted, a big well done cuddle. More sleekitness…….
Ayrshire is Green and White
Doc,
Birthday greeting from NI
Hail Hail Bhud
HT
Thanks for your comments but obviously our definition of bullying is at odds.
Had a wee drink with a lurker yesterday afternoon and he spoke very highly of you.
Just read the headline in the Scottish Daily Mail….”Scotland’s crumbling schools need £5bn of repairs”
…..politics..?
Can you (really) imagine how you would feel if someone knocked at your door to tell you that your daughter had been killed by a wall falling on her at school……”£5bn of repairs”….I honestly despair
Re- Elbow’s
We were doing our SFA coaching badges******* Whit?
God help us if that aerosol is the future of football.
Happy Birthday Doc.
Gie yersel a badge!
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan (08.51), re: Griffiths…
As you say, when the (alleged) “offence” occurred, Leigh Griffiths was indeed off duty from his footballing activities, and as far as I am aware he broke no laws.
The footballing authorities need to come to terms with the fact that they are not Gods. Their industry is not above society, it is merely an business just like coal-mining, retailing, financial services or manufacturing. And the employees of the practitioners of its business (football clubs) are, when all else is said and done, just doing a job in return for a salary.
As such, why should they be governed by different social standards to anyone else, like solicitors or accountants, doctors or teachers, plumbers or retail workers? If any of those categories of worker were seen taking the mickey out of a former employer’s main competitor whilst enjoying a few drinks with friends, nothing would be said about it. It would be regarded as nothing more than a bit of (perfectly acceptable) “banter”… as in what Neil Lennon has been subjected to on many occasions without the perpetrators facing any consequences for their actions.
But hey, a fledgling club that has had preferential treatment and rules bent in order to assist its progress into and up the Scottish football leagues, is in all sorts of trouble, and potentially in danger of going out of business. And it may yet be subject to a winding-up order from HMRC over infringements of tax laws. But why on Earth would the media and the football authorities want to draw attention to that when a Celtic player has, in his own free time, taken the mickey out of Heart of Midlothian FC? Surely that is a much bigger story, far more worthy of column space in the chip-wrappers and the paid time of the management of the SFA?!
I think I once took the mickey out of both Hearts and the club formerly known as Rangers. I’d best keep my curtains drawn 24-7 for a good while yet!
They are so desperate to keep the spotlight off The Rangers’ woes that any story, however trifling, that paints Celtic in a negative light, is blown up into a major headline piece.
Sad, sad people.
Just back in to say….
Doc – I didn’t know it was yer Birthday when I popped-in
earlier sorry my friend :(
So, I hope you and yer guid fholks have a grand old day !!!
Hail Hail and Many Happy Returns Fella.
Going back oot again afore awe the fecktin starts :)
Off oot.
Thank god march is over.. Disaster of a month to be honest.
April looks to be alot better.. Other half got all clear in hospital and iv a medical tomorrow for a new job .
Upwards and onwards
Sunday, 27th of April will see the smallest crowd of the season at Celtic Park …..unless a much better reason is given than the fact that a third tier team is playing at home on the Saturday.
Is that, in fact, the real reason or just an assumption by a “journalist” ?
JJ
Happy birthday Doc, hope your younger than you look ;-)
Thanks again for the badges
HH
@Proudbhoy
Know the feeling mate it’s great news when all clear given,
nice to see a top positive post.
H.H.
Seriously, something needs done about these SFA halfwits.
I cant enjoy football anymore, they are totally corrupt, and blatantly so.
As soon as Leigh Griffiths signs for Celtic, these bigots in the hun media and the SFA, want to scapegoat him every chance they get.
Its completely unacceptable.
These cheating huns are running rings round everybody, getting away with absolute murder, and its going to get much worse….they are rabid.
Fortunately for me, I have accepted the fact, that in the long run, you cannot beat a rigged game.
Its been going on for a hundred years, and its getting worse, I just cannot bring myself to watch scoddish football anymore, certainly wont be back.
As for Elbows McCulloch….he is nothing but a cardboard gangster, cheat, and bigot, big mouth, but a brain the size of a pea.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he bumped into someone as intolerant as himself , and as a coward, he is sure to come off worse,especially with no referees to protect him:)
Boycott the SFA
HH
jungle jim
Third tier team title party being brought to you live by Sly Sports 12:45 Saturday 26/4
drambowiecelt
09:34 on 3 April, 2014
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Such a weight lifted.
Have a good day buddy.
Keep the faith ✊
proudbhoy
09:31 on 3 April, 2014
Great news for your wife !!!!……..best of luck tomorrow……by the way, “onwards and upwards” …… we’ll put it down to nerves … Hahahahahahaha
Allgreen-re Elbows-His greatest achievements video will look like a scene from Platoon.
VG
Proudbhoy-better luck hopefully.HH
67heaven … i am neil lennon, supporting wee oscar..!!.. ibrox belongs to the creditors
09:39 on 3 April, 2014
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Ha i was reading if after i posted and thinking that doesnt look right.
Cheers buddy
!!bada bing!!
09:42 on 3 April, 2014
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Yeah i told her last week not to worry.. April is gonna be our month. Hopefully it is and my medical has no problems and she gets new job aswel.
Keepingthefaithcsc
Billy Bhoy 05
Clearly your lurker friend is a man of impeccable taste :-)
If I’m honest I didn’t have the opportunity to read all of the posts but from what I did see most were simply asking for a break from all the talk regarding the referendum.
Proudbhoy
Keep that head up fella. Really hope that things begin to look up for you.