Liquidation stalks corridors and the odd marble staircase

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Did you notice a degree of synchronicity in yesterday’s statements by Hearts and Newco?

Newco: “It is abhorrent that certain clubs could be unfairly relegated if the current SPFL proposals were implemented.”
Hearts: “no Club should be penalised as a consequence of these exceptional circumstances”.

Newco: “[We propose] a member’s resolution which would release prize money to be distributed to all clubs throughout Scotland”.
Hearts: “we will be supporting the Members Resolution being put forward by Rangers [sic].

The SPFL proposal, to finish and call the season for the bottom three divisions now, and for the Premiership as soon as it is clear it cannot be finished, is the only possible way forward for Scottish football, and even then, it might not be enough.

Let’s be clear about the decision facing clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two.  They are currently in lockdown, players and other staff furloughed, government dues are deferred, so cash burn is low.  “Prize money” would be handy, but only if you can do the right thing with it.

If these leagues are not called now, but have to finish their seasons after lockdown eases in order that no club is “unfairly relegated”, their cash burn situation changes significantly.  With zero prospect of paying spectators for the early months after lockdown, clubs would need to re-employ players and coaches for the 10-12 weeks minimum it will take to undergo an element of preseason and complete the remaining matches.

That’s the best part of 3 months with zero income and normal outgoings.  “Prize money” that could be used to cope with what is inevitably going to be a difficult new season, will be burned trying to finish this season.  It will not be enough money for any club to offset the increase in costs when furlough is ended.

In order to finish this season, the number of games played next season would have to be curtailed.  Next season’s TV deal is significantly higher than the current one.

The choice becomes having more games under this season’s low value TV deal, while burning your “prize money” on games without spectators, or maintaining a high value TV contract, while keeping your “prize money” to offset the lack of gate receipts for the opening months of the season.  The latter option might be viable for some, the former is a recipe for bankruptcy for most.

And yes, the “prize money” quote must have taken some mental gymnastics at Newco, you cannot have prizes until you know the outcome.  They want the money but don’t want ANY outcome.

I see the benefit in not calling the Premiership now.  Let’s see what transpires between Belgium and Uefa – and we would all like to see Celtic become champions and Hearts relegated on the field.  Celtic are hoping these things happen in August, but I doubt it.

Uefa will eventually issue guidance and all leagues will declare their champions.  The new season will start behind closed doors, but with Champions League and domestic TV cash flowing.  Some solidarity cash will trickle down, giving some a fighting chance.

As for how SPFL clubs will vote?  I am far from confident they have the collective insight to see a path through the next few months.  They will need the Wisdom of Solomon, and if any of them had that quality, they would not be in football.  Liquidation stalks the corridors, even the odd marble staircase!

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  1. Canamalar it looks like OCD obsession on

    Could Mike Pence be committing blasphemy when he tries to manage the end of times?

     

    Or is he as I suspect an entryist working for the devil since it will be the devils work that destroys Gods creation?

  2. Canamalar it looks like OCD obsession on

    Pog..,

     

    There are a few on here that will support that tosh

  3. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Pog

     

    Us Christians can laugh whilst the atheists ,agnostics or Jedi warriors will shake their heads in disbelief 😂😂

  4. BLANTYRETIM IS PRAYING FOR THE KNOX FAMILY on 9TH APRIL 2020 10:53 PM

     

    Pog

     

    Us Christians can laugh whilst the atheists ,agnostics or Jedi warriors will shake their heads in disbelief 😂😂

     

    ——————————————————————————-

     

     

    👍🏻👍🏻 I’m sure the man upstairs has a sense of humour. He let the huns come back from the dead, much to our amusement.

  5. Shuggiebhoy67 on

    BT “shake their heads in non-belief”

     

    fixed that for you,

     

    at least the pagans wont be mything their festival :0)

     

    HH

  6. RON BACARDI on 9TH APRIL 2020 7:33 PM

     

    When I was growing up in Clydebank in the fifties there was a bookie by the name of Halfpenny. He had a son called Bob and a daughter called Penny. Can any old CQNer confirm this.

     

     

    ………………………………………………..

     

     

    Ron, I worked in a pub in Duntocher while a student one of the regulars was a

     

    “Halfpenny”….although the name was pronounced ” Hal- pin “………if memory serves me right he was a good darts player and in common with the other locals could shift a fair amount of beer……..

  7. I knew a family called Hunt and they decided in their wisdom to call their son Mike,

     

    I knew a girl called Fanny Hill & knew a Butcher called Tony Bones.

  8. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Guy in my work called William Hunter and hated his name being shortened to Wullie

  9. See if you’re a Tim and being critical of anyone of faith in these most dreadful of times, a club born out of the starvation and adversity of a downtrodden, abject Catholic community, honestly, get a grip.

  10. SAINT STIVS on 9TH APRIL 2020 5:29 PM

     

    PictureThis Scotland

     

     

    @74frankfurt

     

    Apr 6

     

     

    Bus Stop Of The Day: Gallowgate, Glasgow. (1982)

     

     

    oyster bar,

     

     

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU6oK6cX0AAM72B?format=jpg&name=small

     

     

    ===================

     

    In 1962 or thereabouts after taking up a summer job in the Fruit Market I got used to the idea of money in my pocket whilst still attending school, so I took up a weekend job cleaning mussels and whelks in the cellar of the Oyster Bar.

     

     

    My tutor was an old guy called Shoooey who showed me how to shovel the shellfish into the shink and shtir them under the cold water tapsh.

     

     

    I lasted two weekends, not becaush of the lishp I wash developing but becaush of the shlime that sheemed to cling to me.

     

     

    I felt I was emerging from the cellar (that I never saw Shooey enter or leave btw) like The Creature From The Black Lagoon, which hindered my chances of getting a lumber from The Barrowland, which is the building in the background to the right or St Mary’s Sunday dance.

     

     

    I found a slime free pocket money enhancing job after 4pm (or whenever I had a couple of consecutive free periods in sixth year ) delivering stationary from a shop in West Nile Street owned by McCormick Printers, but I’ll never forget the Oyster Bar.

  11. My Maw – God Rest Her, had a “Wallburger”…(Christian name) in her first class as a teacher………..I believe the family had migrated from The Drum to the relatively forgiving paradise of Whiteinch………

     

     

    :)))))))))))))

  12. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on 9th April 2020 11:24 pm

     

     

    Guy in my work called William Hunter and hated his name being shortened to Wullie

     

    ————-

     

    I work with a guy who chooses to be called Willie Hunter

  13. Dallas Dallas where the heck is Dallas on

    There was a guy in the class above me at primary school called Patrick Pearse Brady known as Pearse.

     

     

    In my year at secondary , we had a Timmy Teague (pronounced Taig) who didn’t like religion and football.

  14. Made me think of some of the great deeds being done on CQN in both the past and the current. 

     

     

     

    HH 

     

     

    The coronavirus crisis could fundamentally alter the internet

     

    This changes everything | The covid-19 pandemic has many of us stuck at home. The result could completely reshape how we use the internet, writes Annalee Newitz

     

     

     

    By  Annalee Newitz

     

     

    AS THE coronavirus pandemic shuts down public life on the streets, a new kind of life is opening up online. Many people who are lucky enough to still have their jobs are working from home, often experimenting with video chats and virtual offices for the first time. Students are attending classes and visiting friends online, too. Covid-19 could change the internet as profoundly as it is changing our handwashing habits.

     

     

    Our arsenal of must-have apps has already started to shift. Almost overnight, the videoconferencing app Zoom has gone from obscurity to necessity. People are using it to hold meetings with colleagues, teach university classes and have quarantine-compliant cocktail hours with friends. For those who don’t want to be “Zoom-bombed”, where an unwanted person joins the video call by exploiting bugs in the app, there are video features you can use in Skype, Google Hangouts and Discord.

     

     

    Popular streaming service Twitch, typically used to watch gaming live, has also had a rise in fortunes. It has suddenly become an all-purpose performance space, with musicians, writers and comedians all using it to broadcast live shows that they have had to cancel – and thanks to Twitch’s tipping and subscription functions, they can get paid for it, too.

     

     

    There is an app for almost every kind of social event, and I am using as many of them as I can. My Dungeons & Dragons group now meets on Roll20, which lets us share a virtual game board. I used to set up extra chairs around the dining room table every Sunday evening, where my friends and I would spread out our maps, dice and snacks. Now most of the chairs are empty, and the table is covered in laptops instead: two for myself and my partner, and one for the Zoom session with our fellow adventurers.

     

     

    To replace the experience of inviting people over for a movie night, there are countless apps for watching media online with friends – though my pals and I simply fire up Hangouts with the sound off, texting and making faces at each other during painful scenes. Though it isn’t as good as an in-person visit, these gatherings have eased my loneliness and made the days more bearable.

     

     

    Though we have had online video chat for years, it has always been a sideshow of most social media platforms. Now it is moving to the centre of our internet experience because it is connecting us with people we would ordinarily see in our day-to-day lives.

     

     

    We want to feel like we are in the room with people we love and depend on, and seeing their faces makes the encounter feel more official and real. And in the age of coronavirus stay-at-home orders, many of us are seeing our doctors via video too.

     

     

    Until recently, the internet was mostly a place of leisure. We went there for entertainment, news and catching up with friends, both distant and imaginary. Yes, it has always been a workplace for some of us, but now millions more people are using apps like Slack and Asana to talk to colleagues all day and organise projects. When the time comes that the majority of us rely on the internet for work, it is inevitable that we will have to take it more seriously.

     

     

    There will always be some apps where anything goes, but more and more, we will expect people in online spaces to behave like they would in the office or a park full of families.

     

     

    Of course, the internet could also become an even more powerful means of escape for the millions of people who have lost work in an economic apocalypse that is almost as terrifying as covid-19 itself. With nothing to lose, shut in our homes, we may be vulnerable to extremist manipulation.

     

     

    After the pandemic is over, the internet won’t feel as much like an imaginary realm any more. It will be as real as a pay cheque – and that might actually make us demand more accountability from our favourite social apps.

     

     

    Before the outbreak, abuse and fake information spread like wildfire on these platforms because very few people considered digital goings-on to be vitally important. But when so many of us have gone online to do our work or see our quarantined loved ones, internet falsehoods won’t seem as harmless.

  15. Up later than usual…….

     

    ……with no commute, that part of the work schedule is easier.

     

     

    It’s Good To Be A Tim……………

     

     

    ;)

  16. Aipple

     

    You can add worship to the list of facilities now widely available.

     

    I had the profound pleasure of Palm Sunday mass from St Athanasius in Carluke. Great to hear a Scottish accent.

     

    With a wee bit of outside the box thinking, each parish is now able to reach a much wider audience.

  17. ‘GG

     

     

    Indeed. Many of these things moving to a dual presence, both physical and via the magical interwebs bring strength and comfort to many.

     

     

    It’s not just Dungeons & Dragons out there.

     

     

    Now the Carlyle accent….. easy there.

     

     

    I jest good sir. Hope your City continues to show hopeful(ish) signs of better days.

  18. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Internet will never replace meeting mates in the boozer or attending a Celtic match

     

     

    Or indeed attending Church

     

     

    KTF ☘️

  19. AULDHEID

     

    “from a shop in West Nile Street owned by McCormick Printers,”

     

     

    McCormick the Printers, that name brought back a few memories por cierto

  20. YORKBHOY on 9TH APRIL 2020 8:20 PM

     

    “Wouldn’t it be funny if Sevco forced everyone to play the games to end the season and ended up third…”

     

     

    :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) por cierto