The exceptional circumstances of season 2020-21, a year without fans, saw both Celtic and Newco furloughed staff and accessed the Job Retention Scheme, through which the government initially paid 80% of wages. Celtic made up the income balance for all staff, Newco, however, paid up only selected staff, reducing their costs and loss accordingly.
Celtic did not make any redundancies during the year, Newco did. If you lost your job while millionaire footballers continued to be paid, you might have a view on “absolutely necessary”. Some of Celtic’s income went towards keeping people in a job during a global crisis. Like Newco, they could easily have sacked staff and left others on reduced pay, but like Newco, they had a choice and chose solidarity with their staff.
In Newco’s chairman statement, Douglas Park opens with a demand that “those in positions of power and influence”, acknowledge the “major strides” the club have made with their diversity and inclusion campaign. I suspect he means the Scottish Government, Celtic would be happy with an equal crack of the whip from the First Minister when she picks her moment to take an interest in football from a podium.
To be fair to Park, he signed the note before reports of more sectarian singing last week. If he is viewing the world through a prism of satisfaction in this respect, I suspect progress under this regime has ended.
Having gone for the Government in his first paragraph, Park dedicates the second to making it clear he would like Neil Doncaster removed as chief executive of the SPFL under the guise of “corporate governance”. Doncaster has steadfastly refused to favour Newco.
“Corporate governance” was the defence then-chairman of Newco, Dave King, gave to the Takeover Appeal Board (TAB) in his appeal against the Takeover Panel decision that he, Douglas Park and others acted as a concert party in their successful takeover of Newco. They lost, TAB upheld the decision.
The October 2019 decision meant chairman King was ‘cold shouldered’, preventing firms regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority from working with him. Those in glass houses should not throw corporate governance accusations around.
The Ghost of Halloween Past.
At the year end (30 June 2021), a Dave King loan of £5m was outstanding, due to be repaid by October 2021. I know what you are thinking. Newco released these accounts on 5 November, surely, Dave King had his money if it was due by October? The first thing that struck me when I read the accounts is that date Douglas Park signed the accounts; 26 October. Accounts are usually dated the day they are released, why were these dated 11 days earlier?
You need to read to page 60 of the accounts to read that King’s loan is discussed as “due for repayment in October 2021”. If it was paid, why not just date the accounts the date they were issued and clarify this point? These things are never random.
The note also reveals King charged 8% for his loan. Nice, if you can get it, not so nice if you are paying it.
There are some key metrics I would like to discuss next. This is all a bit ‘CQN from 2004-2011’, so apologies if we are going over old ground.
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Not sure how much compensation would be due for Slippy and his staff but it will be nothing like the pot of Champions League gold at the end of the season.
And while we can say what we like about him, he’s a huge name. How many signed for Sevco on the strength of Slippy? How many would stay to watch the downsizing under his replacement (I’ve heard Barry Ferguson’s name being mentioned)?
Paul67 said he’d like Slippy to stay and watch us win the title but make no bones about it, this has the potential to seriously derail their season.
AN DÚN on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 12:23 PM
If King’s loan hasn’t been repaid then that’s £12 million or there abouts to see out this season ? They may be taking the chance that a ‘Rangers’ man like King wouldn’t go to court against the club…good luck with that.
King i don’t think will do that as one would have to be majority shareholder.bit like Sir Hunner of Pence when he was suing the now dead rfc with Murray group,not once but twice!!
:-)
HH
Down in the mire csc
McPhail Bhoy 1:27
My point was that they didn’t offer him the job then wait for months for him to make up his mind if he wanted it or not.
The original sadies bhoy
All good here my friend(yup just checked again lol)
Hope you have recovered well from your bout of covid.hope to catch you at a game soon
HH
CONEYBHOY
The first release of semi-final tickets was to ST holders on the HCTS. However, you had to go online or go through the ticket office to purchase a ticket by a specified deadline. After that deadline, tickets were released to all ST holders.
PAUL67
You should know by now not to post negative stories about Sevco on CQN as it upsets quite a few of the more sensitive posters.
I call them the Lynch Mob.
HOT SMOKED on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 2:12 PM
Can you imagine the Media response had Neil Lennon made such a comment?
—————————-
Right? Sadly I can imagine.
Another sad loss as a totally dedicated Home & Away Celt, passes away far too young.
Rest in Peace Stuart Cassells.
I would have thought Calum Davidson would be favourite for huns job
St Tams
Because of his superior record? :-))
ST TAMS on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 4:25 PM
I would have thought Calum Davidson would be favourite for huns job
_________________________________________________________________________
Well has won more trophies as a manager than Slippy G, an upgrade for them?
Can anyone find a shred of evidence to support the Headline claim in this article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59217531
?
TBB
That first post was a classy thing to do.
R.I.P. Stuart Cassells.
YNWA.
HOT SMOKED on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 4:39 PM
Nope, made up push, just like Chinese bids for moreorless😵
Push=pish
RIP Stuart Cassells
RIP Squire Danaher
An Tearman
So glad you’re well. I’ve now recovered from my fright.
PhilBhoy
Sorry for misleading you and the blog.
Aipple
Just glad I made a mistake!
AN TEARMANN on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 3:39 PM
So glad you’re still with us.
Reading back I got an enormous shock. Thank God I read further.
Cheers and HH.
Enjoyable and informative article Pablo.
Thank you.
I, for one, did not know that Sevco made staff redundant during the pandemic.
Unsurprising though.
Not a shred of decency, morality or loyalty within the new club / old place.
Equally unsurprising – not a mention by the SMSM ?
Re Gerrard to Villa … 2 things spring to my mind.
On what basis is he perceived as an upgrade?
Absolutely no intel but, as I’ve said before on here, I’d be amazed if Gerrard is heavily locked in to his contract with Sevco.
At the time of his appointment he would have had better advisors, legal brains, financial management and brand consultancy at his personal disposal than Sevco had corporately.
The desperation of Sevco at the time would also have been well known to them.
If he can’t walk into an EPL for chump change compensation his people (IMHO) have been asleep at the wheel.
All that Paul writes today and contents his editorial yesterday is not to be doubted. We all know ‘the history’ and the way clubs playing out of Ibrox operate.
‘Win at all costs & under any circumstances’ has replaced ‘Aye Ready’ as the club motto.
Regardless of consequences the Ibrox brand survives. The administration/liquidation of the old club, inflicting far more consequential damage than any of us could have ever imagined being dealt out as formal punishment, has done nothing to temper the ‘living on the edge’ mentality extant in Govan.
Once again we can justifiably label the latest *Rangers regime as reckless, feckless and a financial law unto themselves. Many of us (including Paul 67) ‘tieing ourselves in knots’ & ‘scratching our heads’ wondering how they do it. We contrast it with the way Celtic operates, an employment example is given by Paul in his leader today. We feel it unfair & underhand that Ibrox sails along, able to easily beat us to the title last season, paying the same wage-bill as us on a £13m lower turnover, and again in pole-position to win the league and earn automatic CL riches ahead of us this season.
Galling as all this may be, if Ibrox is not breaking the law, football’s, or, legal, what business of ours how they operate, or, if they have director/supporters ready, willing and eminently able, to bankroll & underwrite all financial undertakings, however bizarre it appears?
The bottom-line for us is that since August last year *Rangers have been able to put better than us on the field and in the dugout. This is the real conundrum facing us at this moment in time. How do we turn this around?
Of course after all the regulation fiddling, registration cheating and ‘ducking & diving’ that led up to the collapse of the old Rangers FC, we must be diligent & alert to ensure there is never again the type of flagrant abuse covered up under the Murray regime, but all our energies must, be, winning on the park against an opponent who play a totally different ‘game’ to us off it.
We will not match their ‘living on the edge’ model – if they keep winning, over time their books will eventually balance, and with the likelihood of soft loans/investment presumably still “on the table”, how do we get our heads in front again?
Winning the title this season would be enormous of course. Starting in a challenging position in January and being willing to spend ‘whatever it takes’, might just do it. Can/will we fulfil this criteria?
Gerrard is a former England captain, that means a lot to English fans.
BBC are masonic lodge and lots of other stuff.
Don’t give them an inch.
Its up to you of course. ✊
Any Celtic supporter who knows the history, or can read the script, surely knows that MSM is to be deleted from the Tim psyche ?
MSM lie, people die.
There are millions of examples, start with the MSM’s role during ‘The Troubles’ and all of their blame put upon folk who had no choice but to engage in an armed struggle against, British imperialist oppression, how many Irish good guys would be alive today on the whole island of Ireland if that bold resistance hadn’t taken place ?
We are a minority overspill from another horrible episode on that sacred island, so we need to be that bit extra careful, as a different rool book applies to us.
That’s not paranoia, its a fact.
A fact that ‘we’ have to be aware of 24/7.
Aston Villa job ?
Gerrard destroyed nine years of Celtic efforts to make the 10.
5 of those years there was no OF games as Rangers were relegated ©(Dermot Desmond, Brian Wilson) who’ll be next Celtic executive to unmask ?
Who’ll replace Gerrard ?
Derek McInnes and Lee McCulloch (elbows)
How’s that for a first post ? 👍
hh
Could anyone tell me what’s the obsession with Rangers!?
They must be the most poorly run senior Football Club in Britain.
Douglas Park himself says it will take to 2025 to put the basket case business on an even keel.
So what’s this about? Is it the old, Celtic are run better than Rangers so Peter Lawwell deserved to screw a fortune out of this Club.
Couldn’t believe yesterday’s nonsense, yet here it is compounded again.
Yesterday there was talk about merchandising. May I remind you that some time ago Peter Lawwell took the merchandising “in-house” to allow for greater profitability.
When Adidas saw our set up they insisted on getting JD Sports involved, a professional retailer.
Turnover and profits soar, quelle surprise – it seems tha PL the smartest guy in the room is not the brilliant retailer we were led to believe.
The abject fact, that we need to compare our deals with the old firm and Sports Direct, through puma to castore deals. Is an indictment of how poorly we were run.
Remember the Rangers deal was so bad the Chairman of Rangers led a merchandising boycott.
I’ll say that again, the Rangers Board led a boycott of their own retail arm.
That is what we were better than.
Get off the deludomal guys, the bonus king was incompetent and lazy. Not a great combination.
If any Celt is promoting the old firm nonsense, they have an agenda.
Neil Doncaster was the architect of the 5wa, he manufactured the continuity myth and blocked attempts to see Rangers in the Dock for their crimes.
If any Celt is promoting Neil Doncaster they have an agenda.
Hail Hail
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:15 PM
If I were a Villa fan, I’d be far from convinced that Gerrard is an upgrade on Smith, who it could be argued was quite hard done by.
I’d take Graham Potter over Slippy any day.
Prayer said for Stuart, RIP. Memorare said for his mother. Stuart, his mother, family and friends will be in my prayers at Mass tomorrow.
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:21 PM
Maybe Douglas Park is playing mind games with Celtic PLC, so that another
Willo Flood window will be visited upon Ange, causing mayhem behind the scenes
and unrest in the Celtic stands ?
Did Walter, and David Murray not pull a stunt like that in Gordon Strachan’s last season, pretend they’ve no money, then went on to spend £18 million on last day of the transfer window ?
Apologies in Advance, no disrespect or insensitivity is inferred in any way.
I have read the very sad news about Stuart Cassells.
May I ask, who is / was Stuart Cassells ?. Do many of us inadvertently know him ?
I sincerely hope I am not offending anyone, that is certainly not the intention.
RIP Stuart Cassells.
442 LONG BALL CELTIC SCORE SO Simple @ 5:29 PM,
Yes, this is exactly why we have to forget about being better than Rangers and for Celtic to be the best Club and team they can.
Do you remember our great plan for a generation of Domination?
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/the-problem-of-relative-poverty/comment-page-2/
The “problem of relative poverty”, loosing the league by 24 points, St Johnstone winning the cups.
Tell the about the relative poverty.
And yet, we see the same nonsense peddled…
Hail Hail
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:37 PM
👍 🎯 🚨
I mean no disrespect, but what was Stuart Cassels CQN name ?
Stuart Cassels rest in peace. 🙏
Stuart Cassells RIP
apologies for spelling. ✌
JHB @ 5:15pm
” The bottom-line for us is that since August last year *Rangers have been able to put better than us on the field and in the dugout.”
Do you not think that the way their games are refereed plays some part in their `success` ?
Greenpinata
Stuart Cassells was a home and away dude who was taken to early with covid.He was a regularly in the blame Valley with his mates post game when the bus left George square.he travelled to games with jvr and Garry,our recently departed friend.a harsh one indeed for him and his family.Stuart Cassells rip
HH
442 LONG BALL CELTIC SCORE SO SIMPLE on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:16 PM
——
You make many good points in your “first post”. I don’t necessarily agree with all you say, but I look forward to seeing your views on CQN in the future.
442 LONG BALL CELTIC SCORE SO SIMPLE on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:16 PM
Gerrard destroyed nine years of Celtic efforts to make the 10.
_________________________________________________________________________
Not sure about that, thanks to those efforts we now lead 2-1 in the 9 in a row stakes. and I don’t think ‘therangers’ will ever get the equalizer, just as they will never ever do a quadruple treble, so our efforts during that period will stand the test of time.
Getting the 10 would have been the cherry on top of the cake, but not getting it is not the calamity the SMSM would have you believe, they’ve won 1 league title in their debt ridden existence, big deal.
First line
https://youtu.be/dfbAAiL5ec8
:-)
Lol.
Jeez phone goin a bit mental
HH
AN TEARMANN on 9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:52 PM.
Much appreciated,
So sad.
Cheers.
HOT SMOKED
9TH NOVEMBER 2021 5:52 PM
——
Yes I think it plays a part in the overall result in some games – the red-card stats are eye-opening.
But I honestly don’t think it is as blatant as bygone years – the days before we had universal live-coverage with 10+ cameras scrutinising the action.
Celtic by Numbers does some good analysis on the effect of so-called ‘honest mistakes’. Personally I feel that if we were good enough these ‘odd’ decisions would matter little in the great scheme of things.
We are a minority in Scotland – we will always be on the receiving-end of most things – why would football be an exception?