There comes a time during any endeavour when you have to ask, is this worth all the hassle? News revealed by Phil MacGiollabhain last week and swiftly picked up by the newspapers today that an SFA executive has had his life threatened for what some regard as holding a firm line on application of the game’s rules, are one of these occasions.
This is sport, it is not the struggle against apartheid. It really, really, isn’t worth putting your life on the line for.
The SFA executive who received the threat has not been named but he will hopefully find a degree of fortitude in the face of such intimidation. We have called for resignations from the SFA but not under these circumstances. If the recipient of the threat continues to work as normal they should be commended for their bravery.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to put football back on solid ground but whatever our game looks like in future, it must take on a different face. Ordinary football fans want their sport back, a sport where honesty and endeavour can be rewarded by success on the field.
That will have consequences for us. Celtic are far too powerful for any other club in Scotland to genuinely compete. 35 of our 41 clubs figured out they can do without Rangers and 34 of them know they can do without Celtic too.
They should remind Sevco rules are there for a reason and tell Celtic to stop mumbling about finding another league to play in and go do something about it. I could not be more convinced that every other club in Scotland would be better off if Celtic Park and Ibrox didn’t exist.
Question is, do the rest of the clubs have the balls to do something about it? Is the ‘Arab Spring in Scottish football’ over, or does it still have another chapter?
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weeminger on 25 July, 2012 at 12:09 said:
I always had a feeling that philvis, “doth protest too much”.
I see that after consulting the Scottish public of which 64% stated they did not agree with Gay marriage the SNP decided they would go ahead with it anyway. They have now announced another consultation regarding religion in schools. Looks like the SNP are having their own ‘Arab Spring’ against Catholicism in Scotland…
winningemmell on 25 July, 2012 at 12:04 said:
Really enjoyable read thanks for sharing it.
Traditionalist88
Had a quick look and can’t find the link. It was an interview with the 2 good looking girls eye were simply throwing names at Paul for comment. One of the girls simply said Peter Lawell and Paul’s response was short & to the point, “clever, don’t play poker with Peter Lawell, I wouldn’t”
How long before Lennon succumbs to the pressure and his head rolls?
Pre season disaster
If that is followed by a trouncing in Europe then the laptop loyal will seek revenge in the most apocalyptic fashion.
Graham Taylor turnip heads? You aint seen nothing yet.
RANGERS today released the following statement:
Charles Green, Chief Executive of The Rangers Football Club, said: “We have reached agreement with the SFA and SFL on all matters but not with the SPL.
“As a result, talks are continuing to secure our SFA membership which we are hoping to receive today.”
SonOfDan:
Thank god for that
Ok ok CRC. How about “CRC for Cwizzes” also, or do I have to come through from Embra to support young ‘nae few” Bundoran ! Surely we don’t need a “Badges, badges!! We don’t need no …” dispute. Will mediate over a pint at a match of your choosing ??
Keep up the excellent work
HH
Chaplin,
Ah, got you, will look for it later, cheers
HH
hamiltontim; gorbalstam; weeminger – Except that, unlike Communism or Socialism, what I’m proposing is an arrangement we’d enter into voluntarily, with no need for secret police, gulags, razor wire, propaganda ministries, etc. to enforce it.
In most industries you’d be quite happy to see your competitors weakened or go out of business. In football, our competitors are also our commercial and sporting partners. We are all part of the same ecosystem, so we need them to be healthy and robust or the game’s a bogey.
There are few people more enthusiastic about capitalism and market forces than the Americans. Why, then, do the businessmen who run their highly profitable and highly popular sports franchises insist on a strong element of financial redistribution? Because it’s in their self-interest. (thumbsup)
ht,
are you kidding,
no enough movement or goal attempts
we hade better movement and more goal attempts last night than all the other friendlies put together, that IMO is the best thing we could have hoped for, well maybe a win, we should have won we had enough chances. Enough of those chances you must have missed queueing for a pie and bovril, did you actually watch the game
The Pantaloon Duck – A duck walks into a Waitrose… (thumbsup)
Paul67
From my reading of your latest post; the other Scottish clubs would require to scrap the present league set up, while barring Celtic membership of any alternative set up. That would force Celtic to seek to trade elsewhere (presumably in England). At whatever level of football we could find in the English league, as cross border rules apply, you would appear to suggest that it would be best if we leave Scotland and Celtic Park?
Maybe my take of the above is totally misread. I cannot see how the other clubs could forcibly bar us from participating in any new set up.
Hail Hail the Celts are here?
Hamilton Tim at 11.37
I thought the same, the midfield was slow there was no quick passing, Sammy and then Forrest when he came on made numerous runs into space that no-one in the midfield spotted. Kids are told from an early age to pass and move, there was little of that on show last night.
I am an optimist however and put this down to early season rustiness, but I think Paddy in the role he played contributed greatly to this. Though Twardzik had a great game.
philvisreturns on 25 July, 2012 at 12:25 said:
Not sure why you are attacking Communism or Socialism here.
Beats anything else on offer
On this day in 1997 and 2005 we signed Henrik and Naka respectively…I can dream.
Hail Hail
New Sevco target…..
Italian born — Totò Delusio
WG
Great stuff, as always. October 2013, after we have turned 50, that’s me, that is. Except, I’m doing the walk all the way from the Pyrenees. All my bosses have cleared it.
Incidentally, the cathedral in Santiago also had the effect on me of making me want to go to confession there and then. I think there was a priest hearing confessions in English, but it was at a more propitious time of year than when you went. This has happened to me more recently in St Mark’s Venice, St Paul’s Outside the Walls, a church in Frankfurt and the old Franciscan monastery in Rio. Something about the place. Something about the moment.
philvisreturns on 25 July, 2012 at 12:25 said:
“There are few people more enthusiastic about capitalism and market forces than the Americans.”
…because taxpayers are their insurance. When they make money its private enterprise at its best. When they fail the socialists bail them out. It’s what Jesus would have done.
canamalar
Hello ma pal :-))
Nope I was in well before kick off and didn’t leave until after the final whistle, I didn’t miss a drop!!
If you think that our movement was good/effective and that we had players attacking the opposition penalty box in numbers then that’s fine. It’s not what I saw, from my seat, no’ the pie stall :-)
I’ve said that next Wednesday is when it counts but last night had me concerned about a few things that’s all.
I take it that from your post you were there last night for a wee change :-)
Exclusive: Two withdraw from Appellate Tribunal to rule on Rangers
Michael Grant
Chief football writer
TWO members of the three-man Scottish Football Association panel which imposed a 12-month registration embargo on Rangers will play no further part in the case.
inShare
1
Talks between Rangers newco representatives and the SFA continue
Lord Carloway and Craig Graham, the chairman of Spartans, will be replaced if or when the SFA’s Appellate Tribunal reconvenes to consider the transfer ban again. The panel was ruled to have acted outwith its powers by Lord Glennie when Rangers challenged the SFA in the Court of Session.
Herald Sport understands that Lord Carloway was unhappy that his verdict was contradicted by another judge and wrote to the SFA to inform them he would no longer be available for any future cases. Graham cannot consider the case again because of the possibility that suspending or expelling the oldco Rangers’ SFA membership (which the newco club seeks to take over) could create a vacant league place for which his own club, Spartans, could seek to apply. Graham removed himself rather than face a conflict of interest although he will remain available to the SFA for future cases.
Only former Partick Thistle chairman Allan Cowan remains of the original panel.
That means two new individuals from the dozens who comprise the SFA’s Judicial Panel will have to be drafted in to study the entire case along with Cowan and deliver another verdict.
Glennie concluded that only the specific punishments laid down in the SFA’s rulebook for the charges Rangers faced – namely a fine, expulsion from the Scottish Cup or suspension or termination of membership – could be applied to the club.
The extent of the SFA sanctions imposed on Rangers for charges of bringing the game into disrepute has become a central point in the ongoing talks regarding the transfer of the oldco club’s licence and SFA membership.
During three days of talks this week the newco representatives have so far failed to accept the imposition of the 12-month registration ban – which could still be applied if the club accepted it, despite Glennie’s ruling – as a condition of their SFA membership being ratified. The newco club runs the risk of the Appellate Tribunal reconvening and imposing an even tougher penalty, such as withholding their ability to play at all.
The SFA could still go ahead and grant Rangers newco a licence and membership – if the governing body receives the answers it has sought on the identity of those involved in chief executive Charles Green’s consortium – which would allow the season to begin with the newco playing at Brechin City in the Ramsdens Cup next weekend. But unless the newco representatives change their attitude to accepting the 12-month embargo, and remove the need for the Appellate Tribunal to sit again at all, the season seems certain to start without a resolution to the issue of SFA sanctions still hanging over Ibrox.
IMO if we are serious about moving, but we, I mean our board, we have two years. We want to be off before Sevco are back in SPL. If we go, we must leave TFOD behind.
FA step in over Davis payment to newco
Michael Grant
Chief football writer
THE Football Association have told Southampton not to give the fee for Steven Davis straight to Rangers newco.
The agreed sum of around £750,000 has still to be paid and the FA have told the Barclays Premier League club that, for the time being, they should send it to the SFA.
Southampton officially confirmed 19 days ago that they had signed the former Ibrox captain and, although Rangers newco revealed last weekend a fee had been agreed between the clubs, no money has yet changed hands.
Herald Sport understands that instead of placing the money with the SFA, both Southampton and Rangers newco have agreed to delay the financial transaction until membership of the SFA is approved.
The FA intervened because of the uncertainty that still hangs over Rangers. Oldco Rangers were not entitled to the money because it sold the players’ registrations to the newco, and the newco cannot take any money for Davis either because it is not a football club until it has been granted SFA membership.
After reports last night that talks between Rangers newco and the governing bodies were deadlocked, more discussions are likely to take place today. However, it is only once those reach some sort of resolution, and Rangers have received SFA membership, that the FA permit Southampton to send the money to Ibrox.
Green has tried to negotiate fees for most of the players who have left Ibrox this summer, but was successful in doing so only with Davis and Southampton. Others – such as Everton with Steven Naismith and Norwich City with Steven Whittaker – opposed his view that players who refused to allow their contracts to be transferred from the oldco to the newco were in breach of contract.
Except for Southampton, none agreed with him that Rangers newco were entitled to fees for the departing players. By agreeing a settlement, Southampton were able to process the deal without awaiting FIFA clearance.
Green also revealed yesterday that Andrew Little, the Northern Ireland striker, has agreed to sign a new deal at the club. Little is due to return to Ibrox today, having agreed terms with the club, and will train alongside Ian Black and Craig Beattie, the former Hearts players who are expected to become Ally McCoist’s first signings once the SFA membership is approved.
“Andrew Little is coming back to the club,” Green said. “Alistair has a list of players and he has been speaking to some of them. We have a number of other targets lined up and it’s up to Ally to decide. He picks the ones on the field and I pick the ones in the office.
“Some of our senior players have agreed to stay with us and that’s really commendable because you couldn’t blame them for picking up their bags and going elsewhere. For Alistair now, the balance is getting the players in that can play in the third division but can also move forward as the club moves forward.”
Tell all the huns you know…
European Cup trophy will be on display in the Celtic store at Argyle Street, Glasgow this Thursday, July 26 from 10am to 4pm. So get along to the store and see the famous trophy on display.
Celtic_First on 25 July, 2012 at 12:35 said:
Me tae. Last time I was at Stonehenge..or was it Cullerlie …I broke oot the druid costume sacrificed a few pigs and had 3 unborn puppies on a stick. It just felt right at the time. Call me old fashioned but …..
We will never have a purely football environment in Scotland, particularly here in the West of the country. The sectarian background makes sure this will never be a serious possibility, you might as well hope for complete social integration between the Nationalist and Unionist populations in Northern Ireland. As the Orange Order in Scotland continues to contract- as they become an increasing embarrassment to the rest of the country and their unending walks perceived with greater animosity- the sectarian underclass will hijack Rangers even more in order to “celebrate” their “traditions”. It will only worsen in the future, considering how the lunatic element of the Sevco support truly believe there is some kind of conspiracy against them; when they return we are assured of a revitalised spirit of retribution, of an exacerbation of their insular siege mentality and an intensified resentment that they are now no longer accepted by the wider population.
I agree w/Paul67. Lets wait and see what happens to Sevco and after HMRC butcher a few EPL teams. It will be like a new…ecosystem!
.
Moves Like Sammi..
Summa
inchture bhoy aka neil lennon on 25 July, 2012 at 12:29 said:
I like Forrest but I think his running off the ball is often aimless and counter productive.
He often blocks off space that the player on the ball could/would run into and I sometimes feel that he should move into better/more advanced positions to receive the ball.
But listen he’s been a great addition since he came into the team and he’s young and learning so here’s hoping mate.
ESPN advertising the are covering the SPL.
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The new deals come as ESPN also announced a new three-year extension to its coverage of the Bundesliga, and add to ESPN’s extensive coverage of the best in UK, European and international football. Fans will also see the Barclays Premier League, FA Cup, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, UEFA Europa League, MLS, international football and more on ESPN.
W G
Weally Gweat.
Any news on Mrs Livibhoy?
Italian News —–
AC Milan have officially stated that any supporter who bought a season ticket after the Club had wrongly stated that Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva would not be leaving the club can have a total refund.
Catania FC have announced that they will give free season tickets to the unemployed…
Paddy McCourt [ as good as he occasionally is ] and Andrea Pirlo in the same breath ——– you are having a laugh.
Our DESTINY is in our own hands, Glasgow’s Green and White.
I don’t know about you but I’m sick of hearing about Newco, Oldco, Sevco, even Seb Coe, the only football team that interests me is Glasgow Celtic, and as I said in a previous post, if the SPL and SFA had acted in a decisive manner some months ago we wouldn’t be hearing so much about Newco now.
And if they had acted in a decisive and appropriate manner with regards to comments made by Mr Mc Coist, maybe he would stop putting people’s lives in danger by making further inflammatory and intimidating comments.
Enough talk about the other teams, we need to now concern ourselves with the welfare of our Celtic Team. It has not been a glorious pre-season up until now with only one victory gained, and a big game on Saturday against one of the true giants of European Football in Inter Milan.
What concerns me most in the apparent drop in season ticket numbers this season, everyone knows there would be a financial penalty to pay with the loss of the Glasgow Derby matches, but I had hoped that our support would at least be maintained, if not increased this season.
We all know that football needs to be self-sufficient, the days of Banks lending big money to football teams have gone, and rightly so, the only way for clubs like ours to survive at a decent level is with supporters going through the turnstiles.
Our game does not gain most of its commercial income from television like England and Spain, our main source of income is from supporters attending matches, so like every other business you have to cut your cloth to suit, less supporters through the turnstiles equals a drop in the quality of the playing squad, it’s just as simple as that.
I was asked in an interview last week if I would miss the Glasgow derby matches, I said I would miss the competitiveness of the matches, but certainly not the bile that was brought to them by the opposing team’s supporters, I said that the Glasgow derby could not compete with the big European nights at Celtic Park in terms of atmosphere.
Well here are the realities of the situation, if we don’t get the required numbers of season ticket holders, the playing squad will take the brunt of it, the squad will be reduced, and the quality of player will also drop considerably, that unfortunately is the simple reality.
The money people will tell you quite rightly that we should be strong enough to win the Premier League comfortably with the squad we have just now, but if we harbour any ambitions of progressing to the Champions’ League Group stages and beyond, we need to have a full Celtic Park every week.
So come on you Bhoys in Green, Glasgow’s Green and White, let’s keep it that way.
Joe O’Rourke
Paul 67
I believe that Celtic is now the benchmark for the other clubs to attain to in terms of SPL and also youth development.
As a country, we need to take stock and assess the developments in European football over the last 40 years. Last night at half time , there was a re-run of the Big Game, voiced over by the Big Man, where he mentioned that we were a fitter team than Inter Milan………….
……… generally if you are better then you will naturally appear fitter.
However I would contend that the fitness of the average Scottish team is appalling compared to equivalent countries on mainland Europe, and not all of it is down to what you pay the players.
There needs to be a cultural shift , no bevvy and a concentration of developing players with a good first touch (both feet), and strength & pace……… how long will that take? 15 years or so …….
…. meanwhile, last night …..moved the ball about OK, no cutting edge , centre forward position posted missing the entire evening….. makeshift midfield had little penetration, although occassional good touches ….. still hopeful for improvement next week against Helsinki …
ASonOfDan – The SNP have shown themselves up to be the illiberal, anti-democratic, petty authoritarians that they are.
Unfortunately this is a malaise that afflicts Westminister and our masters in Brussels as well.
It’s partly a consequence of so many useless politicians being drawn from the same useless professional politician class: in the olden days MP’s were largely drawn from the ranks of small businessmen, trade unionists, farmers, and the professions. They were expected to have had significant real world experience before seeking the power to make our laws. Their experiences helped inform their debates, and while they may often have gotten things wrong, at least they were mature adults who made largely rational decisions informed by decades of experience of actually working for a living, like the taxpayers whose money they were spending.
Now, politics is dominated by professional political geeks, people who’ve barely done an honest day’s work in their lives, and who run the country as if they were still back in the student bar.
Take wee Hunza Yousaf, the SNP MSP who enlightened the nation by declaring “hun” to be a sectarian slur.
He entered the Scottish Parliament at the tender age of 26, bringing us the benefits of his wisdom gleaned from doing a bachelor’s degree in politics and working in a call centre for six months, before clambering up the party list by working as a bag carrier for established MSP’s.
Hunza isn’t the only underqualified young man on the make in the Scottish Parliament or Westminster: our political system is hoaching with them. They have that dangerous combination of ignorance about how the world works and the arrogance that goes with believing that having a degree makes them smarter than the proles who pay their salaries.
We should ban anybody under the age of 50 from seeking election to public office, on pain of death.
We should stop paying salaries to elected officials, make parliaments sit part-time, and expect elected representatives to fund their own lifestyles through either having a real job or their own money.
We should also bring back the Athenian policy of ostracism.
That’d ginger things up a bit, and no doubt the call centres of Scotland would benefit from the influx of talent that people like Hunza and friends would bring them. (thumbsup)
KR Reykjavík 1-2 HJK Helsinki (agg: 1-9)
Berat Sadik and Mathias Lindström were on target for the visitors as they completed a comprehensive aggregate win against the Icelandic champions.
After a comprehensive home victory in Finland last week, HJK Helsinki secured a narrow win at KR Reykjavík to complete a sizeable aggregate victory and book their place in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.
Having taken a giant step towards qualification with a 7-0 triumph in the first leg, HJK kept it tight in the first half to ensure there was no way back into the tie for their opponents. Juho Mäkelä, who scored a hat-trick in last week’s opener, set up Berat Sadik to open the scoring with a deflected shot from the edge of penalty area on 66 minutes. Mathias Lindström rose highest to powerfully head in Nikolai Alho’s corner six minutes later to double the advantage and the visitors led 9-0 overall.
Emil Atlason pulled one back for KR on 74 minutes after good build-up play involving Dofri Snorrason, but Antti Muurinen’s men nevertheless claimed a comfortable victory on the night and set up a tie with Scottish champions Celtic FC in the next round.
So,
we’ve accepted football is a corporate sport, the working man being forced to watch more telly.
Aye, lets make it harder to afford going to see your team, lets make it harder to go see your team.
The Scottish done like us, lets run away and take our team further out the reach of the working class glasweigan Celtic supporter.
Our biggest competitor dies, the standard of the competition drops a little, and whats the boards response, milk the cash cow to death and move on.
Spend less and charge more, and blame what, they’re no even got a coherrant argument. The team have been downsized and they are looking to further downsize, the cheapest option every time, downsize everything except the cost to the customer, thats all we are now, regardless of the “family” stuff, thats a delusion only the support are under.
Celtic is a Scottish football club, we and Scotland need a Scottish Celtic football club competing in Scottish competition, a team the Scottish working class can afford to support.
Glory hunters and corporate whores have plenty of teams they can go and watch already in the EPL, but they’re no happy with that they want to suck the soul out of Celtic too.
Can anyone show me anything todays Celtic has in common with the Celtic Football and Athletic Club formed by Brother Walfrid