It’s always encouraging to read positive comment on your club, so the positivity from a sports brand consultant at Brand Finance was welcome. Apparently we are something of a commercial miracle, reaching parts no one else from a small country can come close to.
It’s also delightful hearing about glamour preseason friendlies (not quite announced yet, but coming). We are a club with more than just history, we have a team the best in the world want to play. We also have a future.
We have the league championship trophy in the boardroom, Champions League qualifiers to look forward to, and the sun is shining on Glasgow!
These are great times for Celtic.
You can buy a hard copy of the new issue of CQN Magazine via Magcloud here.
The graphic below is just for a flick through, to read the magazine go here to it’s dedicated site.
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Just to finish off the Lisbon memories.
Gordon has text me tonight admitting that he forgot to mention that our late father, his 3 sons and a cooked chicken all made it to Lisbon and came back to Glasgow. Not sure what happened to the chicken but as Gordon will confirm we planted Lisbon sods near to Ibrox stadium.
Last night I was coming home and London was baking. Outside Selfridges on Oxford Street a man was playing The Fields of Athenry. The 25th May. All was right with the world.
Rangers… scumbags and going down the plug hole… Perfect
Bloke109 is Neil Lennon on 26 May, 2012 at 19:44
Showed the picture of big Billy holding up the big cup(more iconic than yir Che G or Marilyn )
Last night,”look at that ,just look” she looked at me
like I was an idiot.
Now we all know on here ,I’m no idiot…………….
…………………….?????sat rite bhoys?????
How busy will A&E depts in Scotland be tomorrow with folks with sunburn?
Scotland and sun.. We just don’t get it..
It’s tops off and a nine hour frying session ..
I got told recently I’d vitamin D deficiency..
Doh I said to the doctor .. I live mostly in Glasgow..
It rains ten months of the year.. Tell me something I don’t know..
Been topping up the Vit D today. Safely of course. Always wear protection!
HH
voguepunter on 26 May, 2012 at 19:41 said:
We have all known for years what was going on….we knew they at it, with help from their friends, but I certainly didn’t appreciate it was THIS BAD..
Awesome stuff, and it couldn’t be more satisfying, watching their demise.
TRUTH AND JUSTICE WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL
Great feelgood article Paul.
Let the good times roll.
ArranmoreBhoyLXV11 on 26 May, 2012 at 19:49 said:
Good source of Vitamin D…….Cod Liver Oil capsules…1 per day
H H
Paul67 et al
Word up is that Celtic will play Real Madrid in the City of Love that is Philadelphia, Saturday August 11. Do not know if it is true mind you! Home of the Liberty Bell and of a statue of Rocky, but not yet, as far as I know, of the late Joe Frazier. Long way from Linfield too!
garcia lorca
I’m delighted to say that I’ve, sadly too briefly, spent time in Gordon’s company thanks to CQN. A really fine person and I’m sure representative of a lovely family.
I think you said earlier that Gordon lives where Celtic are. I understand that.
evening from a sun kissed Lanarkshire, truly great reading on here last 2 days. Just one question, did anybody just go to Lisbon? You know , get a plane or bus or lify and it never broke down, lost and engine,went on fire , got impounded,fell ina ravine, sank at sea,or just exploded. every body I meet has an apic tale to tell, and I enjoy them all, fair play to you all. I wasjust a wean and watched the game in my wealthy( the ony one) uncles`s house..he had a colour telly he got sent from America. problem was no bugger could set it up so we watched it throeugh a mixture of technicolor and porridge. Then 10 minutes before kick off, weklathy uncle got carted off to law Hospital with swollen appedix. That`s my wee story.
Good to see some interesting stuff from Barca Bhoy /RTC ….this gets better. I am normally a glass half empty man when we talk of thems demise, then I read something I like and I swing like Nelson Riddle andI`m happy again.
Tonight the sun is shining, Budvar in hand and I will never be one of thems… rerasons to be cheerful,parts one ,two and three..Hail! Hail!
apologies for typos`s nae reading glasses!!
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!..Truth and Justice will always prevail on 26 May, 2012 at 19:23 said:
Aiden came only came on at half time, yet won Man of the March !!
He was quiet literally outstanding. Destroyed their defence, hit the post, crossed the ball for the Shane Long goal. Two other crosses should have been converted.
Absolutely brilliant.
The aftermath of Mark Daly’s documentary on the Rangers’ debacle has thrown up a myriad of questions. However, one matter the documentary looks to have put to bed is the matter of the much-fabled second contracts.
© Scotzine
Rangers currently stand accused of breaking the registration procedures of the SFA by giving players two contracts. One of which is the ‘official’ contract lodged with the SFA and the second ‘hidden’ contract lays out payments the player will receive from Rangers’ Employee Benefit Trust scheme. If guilty of this then every player who benefited under the EBT scheme would be improperly registered and thus would have been ineligible to play for Rangers, something which would have catastrophic consequences for Rangers Football Club.
Firstly, let’s look at the rules. Section 4 of the SFA’s official registration procedures states that: “All payments to be made to a player relating to his playing activities must be clearly recorded upon the relevant contract and/or agreement. No payments for his playing activities may be made to a player via a third party”.
Simply put, Rangers and only Rangers may pay the Rangers players for their playing activities and all payments must be included in the player’s contract.
If Rangers were to have given their players a second contract laying out the payments they would receive from Rangers’ EBT scheme and the EBT scheme paid the Rangers players then Rangers would be guilty of breaking both parts the above rule. All payments would not have been clearly recorded on the relevant contract and/or agreement and a third-party (The EBT scheme) would have made payments to players for their playing activities.
The BBC claims to have seen evidence of 45 side letters promising payments to the players from the EBT scheme. This is the smoking gun evidence needed to prove that Rangers have indeed broke section 4 of the SFA’s official registration procedures. Recipients of these side letters range from Barry Ferguson to Pedro Mendes to current Rangers’ player and captain Steven Davis and many more.
If these side letters promise payments to the Rangers players via the EBT scheme (as the BBC claim they do) then there now exists a case, far stronger than just prima facie one, that Rangers have been fielding players that were improperly registered and therefore ineligible over the past decade.
A quick look at Rangers Scottish Cup victories over the past 10 years show the impact that some of the players benefiting from these EBTs had.
In the 2002-03 Scottish Cup Final, Rangers beat Dundee by a single goal to lift the trophy. That goal was scored by Lorenzo Amoruso, a player who received £639,000 by way of the EBT scheme and a recipient of one of the side-letters the BBC has evidence of.
The year prior, Rangers beat Celtic 3-2 in the 2001-02 Scottish Cup Final. The goalscorers for Rangers on that day were Peter Lovenkrands and Barry Ferguson. Recipients of £902,000 and £2,500,000 respectively from the EBT scheme. The BBC has evidence of side letters for both these players as well.
In the 2007-08 Scottish Cup final Kris Boyd scored two of Rangers’ three goals in a 3-2 victory over Queen of the South. Boyd received £215,000 for Rangers’ EBT scheme and is another recipient of the side-letters that the BBC have evidence of.
In 2008-09 Rangers beat Falkirk 1-0 in the Scottish Cup final thanks to a goal by Nacho Novo. Another EBT beneficiary, this time for the amount of £1,200,000 and another recipient of the side letters that the BBC have evidence of.
Rangers came dangerously close to being ejected from the SPL due to charges levelled at the club and Craig Whyte last month which included bringing the game into disrepute amongst other charges. At that point the judicial panel gave serious consideration to ejecting Rangers from Scottish football and they opined that “only match fixing in its various forms might be a more serious breach”.
However, in that case they were wrong, if Rangers are proven to have given players second contracts and fielded these players for over a decade then that too is a worse breach than the disrepute Rangers brought upon the game earlier this season. They stand accused of financial doping for over a decade. Fielding ineligible players they could not afford if not for the EBT scheme which HMRC classed as a tax avoidance scheme.
After coming so close to ejection once, it is hard to see how Rangers could avoid it if they are found guilty of providing second contracts and paying their players via a third-party (the EBT scheme). Further to their ejection, any match which an ineligible player was part of would be forfeit by Rangers. The consequences of that would lead to the loss of 4 Scottish Cups, 6 Scottish League Cups and 5 SPL titles.
Furthermore, Rangers would be liable to claims by opposition teams for loss of earnings. In the 2005-06 Anorthosis Famagusta were beaten by Rangers in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League. Dado Prso and Thomas Buffel both scored in the second leg of the tie to secure Rangers progression to the group stage of the Champions League and the millions of pounds prize money that came with it. Both Prso and Buffel are beneficiaries of the EBT scheme and recipients of the side-letters which the BBC have evidence of. If the players who benefited from the EBT scheme are found to be improperly registered and thus ineligible then Anorthosis Famagusta would have a claim against Rangers for the millions of pounds in revenue they lost due to not making the Champions League group stages that year.
The second contract issue casts a very dark shadow of the past and future of Rangers. If found guilty it is nigh on impossible to see how they could continue in the top flight of Scottish football and also retain the trophies won by the players who were in receipt of the second contracts. (15 trophies in total). What is very clear is that the SFA will need to be prompt in dealing with this situation. Once the First Tier Tax tribunal verdict is in regarding the use of the EBT scheme I would expect the SFA to act as quickly and efficiently as possible in trying to clean up the mess left behind by a decade of financial doping and effectively cheating by Rangers Football Club.
The full (and rather shocking) list of EBT beneficiaries is available on the BBC website.
Written by Daniel Brown
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MadraRua on 26 May, 2012 at 20:05 said:
Good on Aiden …… Can’t believe I missed the game..
Evening from a sun scorched G72.
Go on the Hump.
Philly Rumour
We are rumoured to play Real Madrid August 11th in the City of Brotherly Love.
http://www.justbuytickets.com/Tickets-Active.php?eventID=1892327&venueID=129
I can’t vouch for the ticket site.
Is everyone watching the England match?
aye should been a red for Gerrard.
For what it’s worth I’ve been a great admirer of Barcabhoy’s posts on CQN. I believe he is well connected and has access to matters that the rest of us don’t have.
On this occasion I believe his earlier utterings should be ignored. It’s one thing to know something but another to prove it.
Not sure why he posted what he did but it did no more than add to the general confusion that exists around the RFC(IA).
Barcabhoy, put up or shut up.
Using calomine lotion for the first time since I was six, the best part of 60 years ago. That pesky sun done its worst.
One wee story I remember reading about Lisbon (I don’t think it is apocryphal). A chap had too much drink taken and he was put on one of the planes going back to Glasgow town. He was woken on arrival by the stewardess with the reassurance that everything was ok. He was back home. Dumbfounded, he expiated “But I came by car.” I wonder if he ever got back for his motor?
In the heat of Glasgow…..
Surely one team may die soon with all this heat!!!
Green jelly setting in the fridge, ice cream stocked in the freezer. New CQN badges pre-ordered
Good times ahead :-)
HH
CRC
jmccormick on 26 May, 2012 at 20:01 said:
lol who wants a boring story. Old bhoy down my way. Told me his Lisbon tale many times every time it had diffrent version. Still loved listening to every story. I’m a sucker for old Celtic storys.
Fairly certain the Real Madrid game in Philly is on. I seen the ticket company web page before it was taken down. Apparently Celtic weren’t happy it was up as they hadn’t yet announced it so they asked for it to be removed.
jmccormick on 26 May, 2012 at 20:01 said:
evening from a sun kissed Lanarkshire, truly great reading on here last 2 days. Just one question, did anybody just go to Lisbon? You know , get a plane or bus or lify and it never broke down, lost and engine,went on fire , got impounded,fell ina ravine, sank at sea,or just exploded._____________________________________________
OK, I’m a tart. but just read what I posted earlier
chasbhoy on 26 May, 2012 at 07:48 said:
LAST CAR INTO LISBON
Ok, it’s maybe a day late, but here goes.
A week before the big final I got a phone call from my pal Gerry Loney. He was going to Lisbon in a car with three other guys. There was a space. Did I want to go? I didn’t have a passport, but in those days you could get a Visitors Passport at the labour exchange (honest) which lasted a year. I knew someone at the Parkhead ‘buroo’ who offered to stay on late if I got there with my photo.
Armed with the passport I agreed to go. When were we leaving? Monday night. Whit? The game’s on Thursday I was told. There’s plenty of time.
Monday came. Along with a host of well wishers we met in ‘The Admiral’ in Waterloo St. I met my fellow travellers, apart from Gerry, for the first time. Only two of us could drive, so it was going to be a hard slog for them, but off we set. I felt as though we were in the Monte Carlo Rally as everyone poured into the street to wave us off at about six o’clock.
We were aiming for Southampton and a morning ferry to Cherbourg. We made it to near Lockerbie where the car packed in. End of a dream we thought, but out came the AA, diagnosed an electrical fault and we were off again 90 minutes or so later. We drove all night with only a couple of brief breaks, but it looked as if we were going to miss the boat by about 20 minutes as we neared Southampton. Incredibly, one of us phoned the port and they agreed to hold the ferry. Imagine trying that today.
There was only one other party on that ferry going to Lisbon and the ship’s crew couldn’t believe we had left it so late. Off at Cherbourg and on the road again, the excitement heightened by being in France. I don’t remember much about that day, as I probably slept through most of it. Come nigh-time and the drivers declared that they had to sleep. We drove into Nantes (remember Celtic put them out in an earlier round) and parked at the station.
Us non-drivers vacated the car to give the other two room to sleep and went into the station buffet. The waitress was called Ghislaine and I fell in love with her as I worked my schoolboy French on her. She tried to coax my scarf from me, but I wasn’t parting with it. However, I promised to come in on the way home, give it to her, and probably ask her to marry me.
I think the buffet closed about 3AM, and half-jaked, we returned to the car and set off again.
Near La Rochelle the exhaust fell off the car, and we realised that there was no way we could travel to Lisbon with the roar coming from behind. The car was a big Morris Oxford, and lo and behold the instruction book gave the address of a British Leyland dealer in the city. Re-exhausted, but way behind schedule we set off again heading for the Spanish border.
This was long before Spain joined the EC and there was full passport controls at the border. It was early evening (Wednesday) and a long queue on the Spanish side. I supposed that many Spaniards worked in France and were heading home. Our car was all decked out with green tape spelling Celtic along the side and we stuck flags out the windows at every opportunity. It looked like another hold-up, but suddenly a Guardia Civil officer appeared at the car. With ‘Ustedes son muy tardes’ or words to that effect he waved us out of the queue and walked beside us up to the top of the queue where we were waved through with big smiles and cries of ‘buen viaje.’
We had about 700 miles to go and less than 24 hours in which to do it. Near San Sebastian we stopped at a bar for a drink and life-inducing coffee for the drivers. We had a pow-wow. Do we call it a day? Will we just stay in Spain and watch the game on TV. Incidentally, that night Spain were playing England in a friendly and the bar was full. There was a priest there and I spoke to him as the only one with any Spanish and told him of our predicament. I can’t remember his exact reply, but it amounted to ‘go for it.’
He gave us a blessing as we piled back into the car, our minds made up. We drove all night, the non drivers talking all the time to keep the current driver awake as the other one tried to sleep. It was a beautiful night, the roads were empty and at one point we came across a Spanish army column marching in formation. We stopped, and so did they. We cried ‘Celtic, Celtic’ at the top of our voices and waved our flags. They in turn waved their rifles in the air and hollered back.
We reached the Portuguese border near Ciudad Rodrigo and disaster. Portugal was still a dictatorship and the border closed overnight. There was a queue of people and vehicles waiting to cross. Then came pure farce. A couple of the Portuguese guards came up, looked in the car, and nodded ‘Celtic, Lisboa.’ I tried in Spanish to explain that we might miss the match. They nodded and stroked their chins. One of them smiled and did a little dance with his hands in the air. We finally got it. In the car were two poles for a banner. We laid them cross-wise on the ground and four of us did the highland fling to the great delight of all the onlookers. I still have an overhead camera shot in my head, looking down on this madness at a border crossing at dawn. After much cheering and clapping they raised the barrier and let us through.
We raced on, fearful that we would miss the 5 o’clock (was it 5?) kick off. I remember the snaking drive through the mountains, women selling oranges at the side of the road, and a tragedy that we came across at one point in the late morning. There was a Hillman Imp, with its big end or something knackered. We stopped and spoke to the poor fellow in it. He had broken down the previous night. He had been with three mates and they had all got lifts and deserted him. They had promised to phone his recovery company in the UK to get him rescued and he was still waiting for someone to arrive. We commiserated but had to leave him.
Finally, we reached the outskirts of Lisbon and met up with buses full of Tims coming from the airport. We felt like pioneers as they hung out the windows (yes they could do that) and waved at us. It was around 2PM. We had made it! But there was still a twist in the tail that many will find hard to believe.
As I said earlier, I had never met three of my fellow passengers before. They were nice guys, although I barely saw any of them afterwards. Two of them had trained for the priesthood. As has been said on here, that day was a holiday of obligation and they felt we should at least try to get to mass. So for about an hour that could have been spent soaking up the atmosphere at the stadium we traipsed round looking for churches, but never found one with an ongoing mass. Finally, threats of real violence persuaded them to head for the match.
The rest, they say, is history. Particular flashes of that day come back often – the guy in the green corporation transport uniform which a Portuguese next to us thought was him dressing for the game instead of him leaving his shift and heading for the airport; the police car racing past us after the game with its siren on and the police driver wearing a Celtic scarf; the sheer mayhem after the game; the wild dancing up and down; and, oh aye, the two goals.
We ended up in a square in Lisbon that night in sheer celebration, and at about 1AM started off on the hard slog back home. To appease our two devout friends we went to Fatima the next morning. We had been on our own on the outward journey, but were part of a cavalcade on the way back. Every bar, cafe and restaurant was full of supporters. We were waved at in every town and village we passed through in Portugal, France and Spain. I remember having a pee in a restaurant in Spain and someone I knew came in. We stood chatting for a minute and then parted as though we’d been in a pub in Glasgow.
There was a party on the ferry that Sunday as we drank the ship dry and did a conga round the decks, holding a copy of the cup aloft, to the delight of other passengers.
Our reception driving through England was also great, as people waved to us on the motorways and congratulated us at the services. At last, seven days later and seven nights sleeping in a car, tired and extremely grotty we arrived back in Glasgow to greetings from some citizens and a different kind of greeting from others.
To end on a sad note. We passed Nantes at around 5AM on Sunday morning. My pleas to at least see if the station buffet was open were ignored and I never saw the lovely Ghislaine again.
I, too, can’t believe it’s 45 years ago. Even worse, I can’t believe I’ve never written this down before. Hail hail.
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It was a smashing day for those
strange fellows to be marching up and down
the Queens highway in their toy soldier costumes.
G64
How did barbi go?
ElDiegoBhoy
‘Barcabhoy, put up or shut up’
As you will have seen from Barcabhoy’s posts, it is not his ‘story’ to reveal
That will be done by others
Considering Barcabhoy’s record in providing good snippets of info relating to RFC (IA) in the recent past, your post above is in poor taste imo
Paddy Gallagher on 26 May, 2012 at 17:26 said:
Evening chappies, off out the Soliel Bar in St Helier to get some more photos with the European Cup, courtesy of Alan Thomson who was guest of honour at our CSC dance last night.. Blantyretim met a good Buddie of yours last night.
Someone asked on here about a big Dave from the Drum and had I ever bumped into him, we shared a Taxi last night, big gent. Hail Hail
Christ Paddy that brings back memories.
I lived in St Helier from 1970 -1972 & the Soleil was the local drinking place for all the Jocks ( & English) way back then.
Can´t believe it´s still there.
lennon’s passion on 26 May, 2012 at 20:30 said
AGREED !!! How many people went on a trip to the Matues Rose winery and got a free case of wine that fell off the back of a lorry. My Seville tales have already grown considerable legs, so there you go.
ElDiegoBhoy on 26 May, 2012 at 20:26 said:
Think you should try to be a tad more polite .?….. I actually agree 100% with Barcabhoy……I believe there is a lot worse to come out……..wee chic dung said today that the revelations to date constitute only 10% of what is still to come out………
Jmccormick
I was in Lisbon.End off.
I have been in Lisbon 4 times but far to young for 1967.
Ten Men Won The League
I’ll be delighted to apologise to Barcabhoy if I’ve overstepped the mark. But that won’t be necessary.
Kind of you to reply.
Evening from Cambuslang!now that the orcs have left.
theglasgowcelticway
Uncanny timing.that they are allowed to go along Main Street, Rutherglen just as Vigil Mass is coming out.
67Heaven
Thanks for posting the article by, Daniel Brown, (good name that too) from the Scotzine site. I mentioned a couple of weeks back that, in relatively recent times Rangers rarely lost a Cup Final, even against Celtic, but never, Hearts at Celtic Park excepted, to anyone else. Lots of reasons for this , but Dan Brown has highlighted one of the major ones. None of these teams were likely to win the league, say since 1991, but a few of them at least were robbed of both League Cup and Scottish Cup wins. They took the silver, now they need to take the pain, in public this time.
VP
BBQ was superb however.
The ash from the barbis was blowing so i
moved them across the neighbours garden forgetting they were still alight.
Now he has 2 burnt pieces of grass in the middle
of his garden that look like burnt toast.
I know now.
ElDiegoBhoy on 26 May, 2012 at 20:39 said:
I’m afraid you did overstep the mark on this occasion (out of character, though) …….