The Scottish Football Supporters Association Benchmark 2017 survey results were released yesterday. Over 16,000 fans participated in the survey, conducted by academics from the University of Leipzig, and showed an alarming disconnect between the paying public and the sport’s governing bodies.
I was surprised at the optimism evident in the survey. 73% believe their club is committed to the good of football and 63% believe they are open and honest.
Worse than scandal-ridden Fifa
From a maximum mark of 5, fans rated their own club’s commitment to the good of the game at 4.01. The SFPL and Uefa were almost tied on a low score (1.99 and 2.02 respectively), while at 1.58, the SFA ranked worse than scandal-ridden Fifa’s 1.86.
The SFA also ranked bottom of the pile when it came to perceptions of openness, honesty and trust; good governance and transparency; as well as to a commitment to fans affairs.
Although dissatisfaction with the SFA was across the board, “Rangers” (sic.) fans were significantly more satisfied with the national association than either Celtic fans or all other fans. Perhaps an indication of the work Stewart Regan did in halting the SPFL’s request to review matters surrounding old Rangers.
Fans of all colours want an independent supporters’ organisation to allow fans access to the structure of the game, although, interestingly, “Rangers” fans are significantly less keen on this idea.
Former First Minister, Henry McLeish, said the report uncovered “some very concerning issues, but also provides a real opportunity for change.”
The SFA responded immediately, blocking any change while pointing to its in-house Supporters Direct Scotland body, as a source for their authorised fan liason.
When 16,000 of your customers tell you they believe you to be less honest than Fifa, you have a problem. This is an ideal opportunity for the SFA to grasp the nettle and connect with their public. But what’s the point in raking over old coals? Better to let the game wither on the vine.
Well done to the Scottish Football Supporters Association and the University of Leipzig for this insight.
Tommy’s Runs for The Oscar Knox Fund at Solving Kids Cancer
The enormous pain Oscar endured during his five years, and the continuing pain carried by those who loved him will never be offset. But it is an enduring inspiration that Tommy Melly (in particular) and many Celtic fans in general, work towards solving kids cancer in his name.
Tommy has completed five runs this year, his final effort before taking a winter break is in Glasgow on Sunday. His commitment has been astonishing, this kind of work takes hundreds of hours training.
You can read a wee bit about the story here. And if you want to do your part, you don’t need to run anywhere, just give the support him however you can.
Thank you.
The CQN Podcast: A Celtic State of Mind (EP21) Matchday Special v St Johnstone – When History Was Made…
Kevin Graham recorded the latest episode of The CQN Podcast at McDiarmid Park, as Brendan Rodgers’ side extended their unbeaten domestic run to a record-breaking 63 matches against St Johnstone.
ORDER BRENDAN RODGERS – THE ROAD TO PARADISE WITH A FREE GIFT INCLUDED FROM CQNBOOKSTORE.COM
Brendan Rodgers – The Road to Paradise The Official Autobiography is available now from CQNBookstore.com – the first 100 orders received will come with a free gift.
From a small village on the north-east coast of Ireland to the treble-winning manager of Celtic, Brendan Rodgers’ football journey has been a remarkable one of dedication, hard work, a desire to always keep improving and a determination to succeed at the highest level of the sport … and throughout his life there has always been a love of his team … Celtic Football Club.
In his own words, Brendan Rodgers tells his story – from a promising young footballer growing up in Carnlough and dreaming of playing for Celtic one day through to his professional career – as a player, a coach and now as one of football’s top managers. And Celtic supporters will also enjoy an insight into a remarkable season – from the first competitive game in Gibraltar through to the thrilling Scottish Cup final, with plenty of highlights in between, including the manager’s first trophy triumph and some unforgettable Glasgow derbies.
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BIG JIMMY
I can assure you I’m not brave, but I can put abrave face on.
Doing the doors in Glasgow pubs and giving miss world a knockback, noo that’s brave.
KEEP THE FAITH
I’ve only seen my Da twice since 2001.
last time was when he was hospital in 2008 with several ailments including going blind.
since 2008, that evil step “mother” (?) won’t let me near the house to see him and Ivs heard in recent years that he’s totally blind…and is always asking for me to come and visit him ?
He doesn’t know that it’s his feckin “wife” thats refusing me access !
Knowing that evil bitch the way I do….no doubt she’s been telling him that I am the one who’s refusing to visit him !
He must be around 80/81 years old now. this was the man who organised his and his 10/11 pals trip to drive to Lisbon in 1967.
I miss the Big Eejit.
HH
PHILBHOY on 8TH NOVEMBER 2017 8:25 PM
……………
I’m sorry to read that mate.
HH
Some cathartic posts tonight- very brave
TONYROME on 8TH NOVEMBER 2017 8:26 PM
…………….
Aye doing the doors in Glasgows pubs and clubs had it’s moments especially on and off for about 11 or 12 years.
however, although I most certainly did help to ” look after” Miss World 1984..Marie Astrid Herrera…I can assure you that I din’t “knock her back” ?
when I posted about ” knocking her back”….that was erm a …….big fat lie !
I liked her…a lot….and she appeared to like me too…but whether she fancied me or not….well I wouldn’t think so…….then again ?
She was 18….and I was 29…..not to Big a Gap………..certainly not as Big as certain GAP nowadays between Celtic and the rest.
HH mate.
My wee ghirl is going to Auchwitz tomorrow, 6:30am flight, so early rise for us both.
Gonny try and get a couple of hours sleep, although I aint tired!
Could be a struggle.
Dear God,get the football back soon.
Haven`t read back today, can anyone tell me what happened re the six o clock statements from Celtic and Rangers last night? Didn`t hear any earth shattering news today.
PHILBHOY
If O has time in her schedule,the salt caves near Krakow are worth a visit too.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine
Tonyrome.
Yes, hopefully our paths will cross and we can share a few stories or two.
Big Jimmy.8.30
In my head your story is sadder than mine or Tony’s.
By the time I was 20, I had sorted, in my head, what my relationship was with my Dad and consequently I was able to deal with it. A bit like what Tony has posted
Your Dad is still asking for you, hopefully you will see him before it’s too late.
Hail Hail.
TURKEYBHOY
I think things are remarkably restrained on here,given the double whammy of Poppyfest and an international fortnight.
I congratulate everyone for their honesty tonight. I’m sure they speak for a fair few more on here. I know I’d be lost without the anchor my family provides.
Even though I’ve given them plenty of reasons over the years just to throw me one!
Philbhoy, A very harrowing place to visit. Really affected me badly I would never go back there.
BMCUWP
Thanks!
She is one of 2 pupils going from her school. There will be a plane load of school kids from all over Scotland. So the day is well planned.
She flies out at 6:30am am and I pick her up at 10;30pm!
So it really is a day trip!
I’m hoping she is not badly affected by the trip. She can’t understand man’s inhumanity to man.
She was at a seminar in the Sheraton (Edinburgh) on Sunday for 4 hours and she has another seminar next week in the Grosvenor. She will then do a present to the school with her schoolmate who is going with her.
Full on so it is!
See you Saturday!
Turkeybhoy 8.38.
Don’t you start with your nonsense :-)
I posted about Cascarino, Murdochauld and hay put the link up. No one responded.
I spoke about Badr El Kaddouri and his goal against Rangers, no one responded.
Theres two Celtic football posts right away, fill your boots.
Hail Hail
CORKCELT
I hope she will be OK.
I’ll keep you posted.
As the old saying goes Rome wasn’t built in a day and if the guys building the stand at hearts were doing it,it wouldn’t have been built at all
If I was in charge at hearts I’d put the smsm in that corner, they just make it up anyway.
H.H
PHILBHOY
The wee yin’s got her work cut out-when will she find time to send me a postcard?
I’m jealous of her for the opportunity she has,yet glad it’s not me-for the reasons CORKCELT states. It has the possibility of being a double-edged sword,but O will see it for what it is.
A monument to the triumph over the evil of men.
BMCUWP
She will tell you herself on Saturday.
The girls are picking me up and taking me home…….safely!
In Kraków, you can also visit Płaszów, the concentration camp where the events portrayed in Schindler’s List happened. No guides, no buildings, just the shape of the land, a place for reflection.
Pretty much adjacent are the remains of much of the Schindler’s set, overgrown and rusty- very affecting, it looks like the real camp. The camp commandant and SS houses still exist, both in private ownership (maybe they don’t know?) and part of the road the Nazis built with the headstones from Jewish graves.
In historical terms, it was all just yesterday.
my old man worked 6 days a week sometimes 12 hour shifts. just to put food on the table. there were 5 of us so we got a weeks holiday to rothesay bay every glasgow fair fortnight. and he got my uncle to take us to parkhead.so sad he never got to see his grandchildren.he was 53 years old.
https://heavidor.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/no-more-old-firm/amp/
New York City, November 8, 2017
When Celtic fans and supporters of other football clubs rebuke the Scottish mainstream media for continuing to refer to the Celtic and Rangers coupling as the ‘Old Firm’ it is invariably to do with the fact that the Rangers club currently competing in the SPFL is only five years old and that the Old Firm moniker died when the old Rangers club entered liquidation in 2012. The purpose of this epistle is not to gloat over the demise of one half of what was the Old Firm but rather to focus on why the moniker was used and why it really is no longer appropriate.
The term Old Firm arose because of the economic benefit and superior financial status derived from the religious dimension associated with their respective supporter bases; Ibrox Park’s proximity to Harland and Wolff fuelled religious bigotry in the Govan shipyards inspired similar at Ibrox Park whilst Celtic’s genesis lay with poor Irish immigrants, the majority being of the Catholic faith. Essentially, this meant both clubs were able to attract supporters from out with their respective immediate environs and gave them an economic advantage over all of the other clubs in the then SFL. This manifested in better players and, de facto, more trophies than any of the other clubs.
In these bygone days of old Rangers was the Protestant establishment club, always financially bigger than Celtic, and won more trophies whereas Celtic was very much the outsider and often the victim of anti Irish and anti Catholic racism. This was most evident in season 1951/52 over the flying of the Irish flag at Celtic Park; the SFA had determined that the flag had to be removed but, interestingly, it was Rangers’ casting vote that helped ensure the flag remained. Rangers rationale was clear; there was money to be made out of the relationship and had the SFA carried out their threat to expel Celtic from the SFA, then Rangers would have been financially worse off for it. In short, the Rangers Celtic dynamic was good for business and the Old Firm an appropriate description for their relationship.
However, the Rangers’ alpha male status in the relationship started to fragment in the 1960s as Celtic’s everyman appeal grew accompanied by greater success on the field of play. Indeed, since the appointment of Jock Stein in 1965 Celtic has been the more successful club. Rangers’ final demise and, for most, the end of the Old Firm came in 2012 with the club’s liquidation following decades of financial losses and unsustainable levels of debt.
The successor Rangers and their various boards of directors since 2012 appear to have learned few lessons from the previous club’s demise; three directors of the old club are now directors of the new club and are pursuing the same business model that bankrupted the old club. That business model involves a superior and ‘no one likes us we don’t care’ attitude to all and sundry when, of course, one should care coupled with continuously spending more than one earns financed by unsustainable amounts of debt. I’m afraid to say this adventure only has one likely ending and it’s not a happy one if you’re of a blue hue.
The new Rangers may wear the clothes of the old club but it is not on an economic par. It cannot legitimately be part of any ‘Old Firm’ as it is neither old nor on a financial par with either its predecessor or Celtic. The old Rangers had revenues of £56.3 million whereas the new club has revenues of £29.2 million. This compares with Celtic’s revenues of £90.6 million. So, Celtic’s revenues are 3x those of new Rangers. Celtic also has a stock market value of £175 million which is more than 10x that of the current Rangers’ value. Even when Celtic was at it lowest ebb in the immediate pre Fergus McCann days the divide between the Old Firm clubs was not as big as the current one between Celtic and Rangers. In the absence of a trophy investor with only a passing interest in financial solvency it is difficult to see how the latter can financially compete with Celtic. Indeed, the more realistic challenge for Rangers is to do better than Aberdeen, Hibernian and Hearts where the financial gap between the four is less than the one with Celtic.
In all of this there is a temptation for Celtic supporters to crow over the Rangers predicament. That would be a mistake. Celtic is demonstrably in a financial league of its own and the Old Firm axis is clearly no longer extant. That is a problem for Celtic; if Celtic’s domestic competition is poor, over time Celtic will regress to the mean and the step up into Europe will become greater. Also, Rangers now has more in common with the other clubs than it has with Celtic and if these clubs determine they cannot move towards Celtic the alternative is to pull Celtic towards the rest. With that in mind, beware of any efforts to tinker with the SPFL’s revenue distribution models!
big jimmy, why not just turn up and knock the door.
the wummin must be old as well
FIELDOFDRAMS
Yesterday,indeed. People still alive from those days,my own parents included.
I’m reading an excellent book about WWII at the moment
https://www.amazon.co.uk/War-West-History-Allies-1941-43/dp/0593071670#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
Frightening to see how close the allies came to losing,though the author makes it plain that sheer volume of production and access to raw materials made that unlikely in the long term.
Quite a different view from the norm-logistics over strategy and tactics.
Philbhoy
In years to come she will actually glad that she done this trip . yes it is difficult at times but you learn more on that trip than any other book or film can ever tell.
I should know I went there on my stag do
Love
TSOAL
Yer stag do?
Was Stevenson your other option?
Stevenston. Usual iPhone knows best mantra.
BMCUP
November 2004
You could not fly direct to Krakow from Scotland then
A great place and very good people
Love
TSOAL
My next door but one neighbours are from nearby. Smashing couple. As is one of my mates in Swindon,Jacek. Likes introducing me to pickled delicacies.
They can pickle anything,and do. And still serve it with cream! Adventurous palate,I’ll eat anything.
Birthdaybhoy TOKENTIM will vouch for that! Btw…
HAPPY HOOOOOPY BIRTHDAY to
THE TOKEN TIM!!!!
Haven’t been on for a while.
Been really busy at work.
Just wanted to offer condolences to all those who have recently lost loved ones.
God bless all here
My Mother and Father,back in the day were hard working parents,I never wanted for anything,me growing up brought a lot of bother to our House,my father died in ,1960 he was only 50 yrs old,My mother was left a Widow, working ,2 shift system in Hollins Mill in Boden Street,a 2 minute walk up to Celtic Park,I never heard her complaint,about having to go out and work, especially as I had no intention of getting a job,but after a few yrs I became to reliase i need to get a job,which I did ,gave my mother a few quid,which helped her,but I never really had a good relationship with her,not her fault,me I was the problem,over the years I have casted my mind back,and thought ,they didn’t deserve all that ibrought to 2 Decent ordinary parents,
JIMBOB
Join the crew on Saturday. Early afternoon in Blane Valley-as previously explained-followed by McChuills etc.
You’ll recognise us no bother-we’ll all be in sackcloth and ashes!
BMCUWP
I have read both volumes of that series and I found them both excellent. He has debunked a lot of the myths about the war and placed the blame for the disasters squarely at the door of the incompetent Generals and Politicians.
Looking forward to the third volume being published.
BMCUW
Roughly what time in McHuills?
if your on the list to buy a ticket for the league cup final , you better get it done tonight or tomorrow, all sections have now been opened and there are only a few hundred seats left.
get in there, for the 1st trophy on in next treble.
HAMILTONTIM
I expect I’ll be there about 230ish,and have to queue at the bar cos others beat me to it!
No hard and fast time,really. It’s just a case of turn up when it suits,leave similarly.
Natch,special effort will be made to last long enough for your arrival. That’s what happens when your social secretary doublebooks you!!
OWEN
Don’t tell me how it finishes!!!
Seriously,yes,both volumes so far have been outstanding. At the moment,I’m at Tobruk. And as you say,he doesn’t miss.
It wasn’t only WWII where lions were led by donkeys.
https://twitter.com/Eurosport_UK/status/928026091821961216?s=08
Still Game meet Andy Murray