In his Christmas Day message last year, Uefa president, Michel Platini spoke in the firmest terms possible about many of the issues facing Scottish football right now.
He told us that 2011 was “one of those years where one feels the weight and magnitude of one’s responsibilities, but which equally serves to provide greater strength. Because, the just cause – however difficult it may be – is all the more obvious.”
This is a strong statement of intent. Platini fully understands the position of president is not ceremonial, it has weighty responsibilities. If he believes these specific words, “the just cause – however difficult it may be – is all the more obvious”, he must take an immediate active involvement to protect the game in Scotland.
M Platini goes on to say, “To be a president is not to have an organisation at one’s service, but to be at the service of an organisation, of a game, of football.”
Scottish FA president, Campbell Ogilvie, who has been inextricably linked to the on-going improper registration of Rangers players allegations his organisation declined to investigate, would do well to consider these words. He is in place to serve the game yet he has offered us no information on the subject.
Michel then added, “It has been a year which has underlined the importance of our organisation [Uefa] as one of the guarantors of the values, stability and equity of this sport.”
Uefa guarantee the values, stability and equity of football. They do not work towards equity, they ensure it is imposed, you have the president’s word.
“It has been a year in which certain of our national associations have had to take courageous decisions to preserve the justice and integrity of our sport.”
Here, Michel could be speaking about the SFA, who have to take courageous decisions to preserve justice and integrity in the face of gross charges of financial and regulatory doping on a scale not seen anywhere in Europe.
His most important comment, which reflected on 2011, was:
“A year in which we have also had to remain solid and defend our values – sometimes alone – to guarantee the respecting of the rules and the equity of the competitions, and to prevent football becoming a hostage of a few for their own profit and interests.”
“Respecting… the rules and the equity of the competitions”. This includes player registration rules.
More importantly, “to prevent football becoming a hostage of a few for their own profit and interests”.
This is where we are today. Football in Scotland has become a hostage of a few who will follow their own interests, not those values Michel Platini holds dear.
The president goes on to say that 2011“has been a year in which, unfortunately and at the expense of certain agonies, football has emphasised its need for transparency and governance, aspects which are so important in relation to the respect which is so dear to me.”
There may be other countries in Europe more deserving of M Platini’s intervention, but the crisis in Scotland is acute and urgent, and the SFA appear overwhelmed. We need the oversight only Uefa can provide and its president promised in his Christmas message.
For an extended synopsis of how we got to where we are, catch up on Saturday’s blog.
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Personally I doubt Platini will get involved. He/ UEFA will regard it as a domestic matter for the local association.
Hell, so far not one of the major UK media players (outside Scotland) have spent any time trying to understand/ never mind explain and report accurately the full implications of this story and it’s disgraceful background history.
If only The Guardian could be persuaded to send up Nick Davies and David Conn then there might be some proper MSM expose which wukd attract UEFA interest.
Beginning to think we need 2 CQNs one about our club and one about others. Both are interesting but articles now weighted towards others not our team which is doing splendid :-)
Dislike that MattMcGlone tweet.
Celtic will demand New Rangers had a 35 point penalty every year?
If If If If True. This is narrow self interest from Celtic without regard to the rules being enforced in the manner they should be. This would be an injustice to every club in Scotland that has it’s place in football on merit.
And every fan who pays money for sporting contest.
From a selfish point of view I don’t want the DR publishing “the real league table” disregarding the 35 point penalty.
koo,
yer sleverin,
forrest kicked the ball twice yesterday, apart from that, he done nothing, I’m begining to think ki’s cloak of invisibility is being passed on to forrest.
he needs to be rested along with hooper, both are becoming worse by the game.
Shieldmuir Celtic, cheers.
hailhailplc, will do.
RalphWaldoEllison, good point regarding the IFA Board.
Celtic Mac, 16:53, very good point.
god bless michel
platini uefa president
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. ThomtheThim
Thanks ,pally. fur showin’ yer concern..
Yep. Ah need tae tak care o’ a Few .. Ma Working Parts.. that ur
showing signs o’ Wear and tear….
Wull be goin intae the Hospital.. in a Few Weeks..
Kojo
yer pal..who likes ye aloater.
celticinthesun,
he could have been playing them at their own game, giving false hope the board are actually on side to give them a route back to the spl :o)
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on 12 March, 2012 at 17:22 said:
Agee on Forrest,think he’s been getting away with playing average,at best,for the last month or two.I believe a rest is long overdue for young James.He also needs to up his workrate,far too often he ambles about the pitch like he’s playing down the park with his mates.I hope Neil’s public praise of him isn’t being repeated in private and he realises he’s done nothing in the game yet.
is it so wrong for me to want rangers to die a slow painful death? possibly
is it wrong of me to think rangers newco should have to start at the bottom of the scottish league structure? no
will this have an impact on the t.v. money available? yes
will the league be worse? debatable
will the league be forever undermined if newco go straight into the slp? yes
is t.v. money more important than integrity? are you a rangers fan or a fan of any other team in the league?
What qualifications are required to be an administrator? Seems like a lucrative career.
My dear,dear,dear,friend..canamalar.
Hiya,Pally?
Nice tae greet ye..
Pshaw! My deah chap..
Ye Jest!
Forrest ,is oor Main Man!
He is our CPU…(Whit’s a CPU?…ed)( How Should Ah know? Ye ask Me damnest questions!)
Soon as we Fed him.. the Proper Passes.. in the Second Half..
Oor.. Whole Attacking Formation.. Clicked.
Nice Chattin’ Pal..
Missed Ye.
Kojo
yer pal..who likes ye aloater.
james forrest is a good young player and he will do just fine, like any other player he’ll have good and bad patches and as he gets older he’ll develop a higher level of consistency and hopefully we’ll see the best in him before he goes for stupid money, the same applies to most all our team to be honest. thanks neil
special mention must go to scott brown, he has proven himself a good celtic player and i hope he goes on to be a great celtic captain.
stephbhoy,
there is a school of thought who do indeed think you are wrong to wish for a slow lingering death.
They would be happy with blind mute sheelchair bound for the rest of their existence.
I’m in your camp, death by a thousand cuts nd no hope of return to the game, no banner to follow for the sectarian racist scum to poison football in scotland.
Have to agree that James Forrest’s recent displays have been pretty mediocre but I watched yesterday’s game this morning and I have to side with Kojo….. I thought Forrest made a telling contribution at Tannadice.
No.7@17:30….
No quals required mate….you just need to be a member of the society of the inadequates….
Known as the masons.
How aulds yer granny?
:-)
IMHO with regards to uefa and platini ITS NOT BEFORE TIME you should have shown an interest ages ago . . and while your at it bring up the fraud squad from met as well.
jimtim
Celtic Mac’s good point @16.53 is indeed a good point, but only ‘in a perfect world’.
Unfortunately it omits to acknowledge the cross contamination, and co existence of both entitities of Rangers, and the SFA.
The collusion which existed and still does, will continue to befog UEFA, ad infinitum, I wouldn’t look for European intervention into Scottish affairs.
The main thing here, is that Rangers continue as a ‘viable football club and part of the Scottish Fabric’ © Alex Salmond
sorry ghuys, cant agree on forrest, twice he made decent plays, thats it.
I’m disappointed he is stopping other players getting a chance to prove themselves.
I’m disappointed Neil is playing people because they are favorites rather than on merit, forrest has been poor for some time, dropping him would have given three thing to the team, rest forrest he needs it, kicks forrest up the ass to keep his consistency up, getting lazy IMO and gives other player a chance to prove themselves.
My dear,dear,dear,friend..Jerome67
Thanks ,Pally .. Fur the Nod.
Nice.. of ye.
James Forrest…is a Brammer..
Case Closed.
By the way.. Ah think that.. if there is wan Player who needs
a wee Respite. That is..
Gary Hooper.
He has the Jaundiced.. Wan.. Wappit.. Ah canny think of the Proper Woid tae describe His Recent Form..’
But,
Whatevah is is. . He He is Way aff his Feed.
Ah wid Gie hiv a Few Games.. aff.
Some R&R.. send him tae Rothesay fur a Fortnight..
That wull soon get his Color Back~
Kojo
yer pal..who likes ye aloater.
AndyM,
On Taylor, he might be a “decent guy” but then most are to your face, I mean how did he get that job if he wasnt a friend of the hun.
Gotta Go..
See You Fellahs…. and Gals..
Kojo
seen J. T’s article in record today, its full stream ahead for the save rangers brigade with thinks like sporting integrity seen as an excuse used to demand rangers suffer their dues. is he seriously saying he wants them to cheat for 20 years then walk back in with a warning haha
without rangers scottish football is dead, well o.k then james we’ll try it anyway because with rangers scottish football is dead, its a case of being between a rock and a hard place, but having already been battered by the rock for 20 years you’ve decided to take your chances with the hard place
The Big House Must Stay Open
p.s. and don’t take our history away
KLV
In my humble opinion T.Anguish is pushing sales for his paper’s next day good
will to all huns rope-a-dope article. If he had the true smarts you afford him, he would give up the day job of senior refuge collector and incinerator them daily filled skips at ibrokes and join Michelle Gaunt of the Heralding sunset Times a more pressing and urgent employment…as sweat dripping copy boy catchers in the rye the wealth of excretions from that behemoth that is Jabba, the fat controller.
HH
Sir Kojo.
Sorry tae hear that yer gan into the Infirmary fir an Overhaul….
All this High Livin’ and chasing Snow Bunnies catches up wi’ the best of us,
sooner or later…
Howeva….Rest assured,for whitever time ye are under The Anaesthetic,I will proudly protect and defend the Gilded Eagle of Kojo….from the cohorts of the Darkened Horde,and send them hamewards, tae think again…
Yer pal,who hopes ye’re getting yer daily tomatoes…
Young Forrest has in many ways become his own worst enemy. We shouldn’t forget that rarely do players of his nature dominate the opposition for an entire 90 minutes. In fact I don’t recall him ever doing this.
They tend to play in spells, short bursts. It’s during these windows that they are at their most effective.
At times I’ve found the young man to be wasteful and infuriating to watch but then with one run, a single cross or a solitary pass he has changed the game.
I won’t forget his second half performance at Rugby Park in November, where he along with Tony Stokes altered the course of our season.
god bless her majesty
If der hun do some how manage to escape this without any sanction. I would fully expect Celtic and the band of ten to go full steam ahead with the same plan the huns have used. Precedent will be set rules can be changed and changed and changed.
s, revenue & customs
sometimes dropping players so young has the affect of lowering their confidence, letting a player, who has contributed so much this season, play through his bad patch tells him you are trusted, the long term results of which tend to be a better return for the manager
stephbhoy,
he is complicit in the cheating, he has spent the last 20 years coveing up and killing any story which might lead to this info getting into the public domain, he is now caught up in his own web and can only continue on his chosen path to the bitter end.
They are all in, and holding a busted flush, making loud noises about a good hand is a losers gambit.
stupid huns he he
The huns last balance sheet valued Ipox at £120m.
If they’re liquidated and Ipox is sold/assigned for £20-30m do HMRC, who’ll be left without a penny of approximately £80m owed, have a right to sue the auditors who signed off the balance sheet and/or the surveyors who provided the valuation?
Platini will be well advised on everything that is going on over at the darkside.
I also passed murray mire 4 times today and it all felt a bit surreal after the last few weeks. No orcs hanging about either, although the cooncil should bill them for the mess they have left.
D. Taylor certainly does not favour the orcs, he does however favour our very own hoops that is a fact. His and my better half work together and the conversation has come up once or twice.
Enough death by a thousand cuts, liquidate now. No Newco .
HH
We must be due a new monty python sketch from Duff & Phelps. They have been too quiet today!!
Paul67
I have a question.
If through footballing matters and the application of the minus 10 adminsitration fee Rangers had somehow found themselves at the foot of the table and in line for relegation, would the SFA and the SPL and Alex Salmond etc be stating that relegation would not apply for the good of Scottish Football, not forgetting the very fabric of Scottish society as a whole?
U
Re the TEnglish tweet. I don’t get it at all. Why ‘some’ Celtic fans. Surely all or none?
What’s he getting at? What have I missed?
Should I be scared?