After the failure to launch season ticket renewals at Ibrox in the wake of the Ramsdens Cup final last week, by Friday morning marketing staff, PR people, web designers and printers would all have been primed to press the button this morning, after the anticipated humbling of Dundee United in the Scottish Cup semi-final.
Things started to go wrong later Friday, when Dave King popped up with an intervention. King, who was a director of Original Rangers in the years up to and including their liquidation, appears intent on sending the Newco Rangers to an equally liquidated state. Should we erect a statue to this guy?
For those of you in doubt, his latest questions to Newco Rangers board are priceless:
“Does the board agree it is unfair to ask fans to buy season tickets before they consider the business review?”
No club in the country is asked to submit business plans to supporters before asking them to renew season tickets. What’s more, there is an assumption by King that spending plans should be expansive, exactly as they were at Original Rangers, when King & co presided over the club’s failure.
Newco’s (even newer) management should be allowed to match expenditure with income. This is the message that fans should be asked to back, the days of empire are over. Anyone who tries to undermine a breakeven strategy at Newco is practically ensuring another failure.
“Does the board agree that, given the present financial position of the club, it is appropriate to provide Ibrox Park and Murray Park as security against season ticket advances?”
This is an interesting one. King suggests Newco offers Ibrox up as security (Murray Park is largely irrelevant). If they are boxed into a corner and concede this one, those in a position to utilise that security, which in Dave King’s plan would be Dave King, would have an incentive to see Newco liquidated.
“Does the board agree that in the latter half of December 2013 it was in discussions to obtain finance that would be needed prior to the end of the current season?
“Does the board agree that in the latter half of December 2013 it provided public assurances to the fans that the club had sufficient cash to last until the end of the current season?”
King has been there before and will know more than most how financial forecasting works; there is a clue in the name, it’s forecasting. If a company seeks contingency borrowing for less than 5% of its expenditure (or 2 weeks costs), earlier projections could not have been that far off.
None of this matters right now. Newco’s manager failed to win two hugely important games and that is the prism through which fans will evaluate the performance of their club. King could accuse them of being responsible for his own role in Original Rangers liquidation and some would believe him.
Season ticket sales are the most fundamental aspect to the health and wellbeing of every Scottish football club. This is true even at Celtic, with or without Champions League revenue. Ticket sales will have a greater impact on Celtic’s season ahead than Champions League qualification.
Right now some hedge funds and the Easdales own Ibrox. Ideas of bully them into submission will fail, although it will be enormously entertaining. Go for it, Dave, we’re 100% behind you.
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The Garry Owen? Lol.
http://youtu.be/4m7RPjQxjmA
Via Twitter
@celticfc: Our thoughts & prayers are with the families of the 96 fans who went to a game of football & never came home. (NM) http://t.co/YSz8yO7FL1
JFT96
67heaven … i am neil lennon, supporting wee oscar..!!.. ibrox belongs to the creditors
07:56 on 15 April, 2014
Does anyone remember when we went through a short phase of whistling ‘the songs’ …round about 68/70…….?
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I remember that well we did it mainly against Rangers when we were giving them a gubbing. It was eerie but it was the ultimate form of taking the piss. Great times.
And the 39? fans who died at Heysel . They tend to be forgotten.
Good morning troops…………..a cracking post to savour over your morning coffee……..
……especially for those curious coves……………
………………….. apparently not enamoured by the omnishambles that is the quintessentially brutish farce –
“Whoops, There Goes My Season Buik!”
Thanks Barca……………
Barcabhoy
21:34 on
14 April, 2014
I’m sure this has been covered before, however i must have missed the compelling logic behind The Union of Fans latest brainwave.
The season tickets are an asset of TRFC from the point they are issued until the point someone buys one.
An integral part of buying anything , is paying for it. Now i know David Murray and Craig Whytes Rangers weren’t too keen on that , however normally payment has to be made for ownership to be assumed.
So , this trust is inserting itself , not by board invitation, just arbitrarily into the process. It wants to extract a fee, in the form of a security over assets on the RIFC balance sheet valued at £60 million. In return , it appears that 6,000 fans are considering paying their money to a trust with 2 guys not resident in the UK as trustees. The value of these season books is around £2 million.
Just let that hang there for a second , they want security worth 30 times the value of the funds in trust ………30 times
Then you have the practical aspect. Rangers season ticket renewal software will not recognise a renewal until they have payment in one of the forms acceptable to Rangers. In simple terms the season ticket holder , if he doesn’t renew on the standard basis used by all clubs, will no longer be a season book holder. Whatever funds he has placed in the hands of a South African resident and a resident of the state of California will not be to renew the ticket they have now, because no such transaction will exist.
Then we have the need to have the trust enter into individual arrangements with each beneficiary of the trust. 6,000 pay in, and you will need 6,000 individual legal agreements to ensure that the season book holder putting his cash in trust gets what he expects.
So Fan 1 who sits in section X of the Broomloan next to his son , both in row z , wants to ensure that he gets the seat he has sat in for 30 years. He doesn’t want to end up at another part of the ground. Multiply that challenge by 6,000 or 30,000 and you have an unworkable logistical nightmare on your hands .
And somebody is going to have to pay the cost of the legals and the administrative efforts to fulfil each beneficiaries entitlements from the trust. And its not going to be Rangers and neither should it be.
Then you have the shareholders position. They ponied up in excess of £30 million, and they are expected to sit idly by and watch the assets that allow balance sheet solvency to be securitised by the likes Graham, Dingwall and the Sons of Struth for 3% of their value and for 10% of the funds invested by shareholders.
And at the same time Aim , the Nomad and Deloittes are supposed not to take any action on any of this if the board were crazy enough to go along with this stunt.
Yes, it all sounds like a good well thought out plan. Laxey will just roll over , outsmarted by a collection of over emotional mouthpieces totally out of their depth.
It is a wise man who knows where courage ends and stupidity begins.
Rangers fans are in need of some wise men, because the ones shouting the loudest just now are stupid beyond description
I was driving behind a big black pickup yesterday, RFC on the rear winscreen, the reg -W1 ATP and I thought for the first time ever – I wish I had a tangerine jersey on
Can anyone remember, during the early years of our Nine In A Row in the mid 60s a group of ghuys who stood at the edge of The Jungle with a banner which had the words The Untouchables on it? The banner had a message on it which changed for every game. We used to pass them on our way up to The Choir. They still came to the games with the banner a few years later when we moved to The Jungle.
Ftheoriginalsadiesbhoy
08:38 on 15 April, 2014
Indeed……great times…..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy
08:27 on
15 April, 2014
mild colonial bhoy
05:54 on 15 April, 2014
Teuchter ar la- The version of “putting on the agony” I knew was about the 7-1 game. It was a big favourite on Phil Coles buses. When I first heard it though I thought it was about an imaginary game. In those days (early 60′s) I could not imagine Celtic beating Rangers never mind scoring 7!
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I travelled on Phil Cole’s buses from 1965. You must be one of the many Coatbridge ghuys on CQN.
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Phil Cole bus? Don’t talk to me about the Phil Cole bus (*looks for angry face Smiley on his keyboard*)
We went on it for a Lyon away game – Henrik’s leg break game i think
We had looked out buses in the Times – one’s which would be likely to let us on with a few sherbets.
Now, surely a bus from a town that sells Le Tonique Vino Rouge on optic would allow bevvy on the bus
But naw, we turned up with carry out in satchel, only to be told all bevvy had to go in the luggage hold
Major major harrumphing the whole way there
Rant over
My earliest song memories from Parkhead is one of the hymns like hgsp, The Holy ground or the ‘Celtic cha cha cha’ chant. Celtic yea yea yea is another (she loves you). Glen Daly song not come out till 62-63?
TD67
Where did the Cumbie congregate in the Celtic end..Pope’s corner?
Morning all
Well done the nightshift
Great reading – most of that covered just before my time and real accounts rather than the sanitised stuff you read in books
Well done all concerned
bankiebhoy1
08:43 on 15 April, 2014
There isn’t a wise man among them……on rm, they can’t even understand / agree what a rolling contract is……sally’s on one, apparently …… Don’t they know it’s the roll for sally’s pie
I only ever moved out of the Hayshed, as my Dad has always called the Jungle, when I went by myself to reserve games and then I would go to the Celtic End but often wandered around, as you could do. My Dad still lets all and sundry know that he used to plank me up on the wall in the old Hayshed. I started there when I would have been about 7, maybe younger. The earliest I remember I would have been only 3 or 4 and I was passed from shoulder to shoulder of my Dad and Uncles, in the self same Hayshed.
Another memory i have of a game against Thems.
We scored and our fans started singing ‘we all live in a Green submarine’.
They equalised and sang ‘we all live in an Orange submarine.’
Celtic won and the Celtic support sang, ‘ we all sank your Orange submarine.’ Childish, I know but it was very funny at the time.
marrakesh express
08:49 on 15 April, 2014
…at the back in the middle of the Celtic End
justafan –
Praise the Lord there’s another Celtic supporter who agrees with me re the overblowing of YNWA over the Celtic Park tannoy. It really used to get on my nerves.
They would play it just before the teams came out at the start of the game and again at the start of the second half of every televised game. It was obviously done from the point of view of the show off shouting, “Hey look at us, aren’t we brilliant?”
As you so rightly said, it has its place.
I remember it being played at the start of the second half v Rangers and they ran up the park and scored in the middle of it, which silenced the crowd. I was cursing the stadium announcer for that. We should have been cheering on the team at the start of the 2nd half instead of singing a dirge.
It is brilliant though when it is relevant, especially on European nights and to quote another song . . . nobody does it better.
MINX1888
That’s a pity,but he was in “get in,get out before the missus notices my absence” mode.
My Mum was in M&S round the corner. I believe he got away with it too!
Hoopy-do
Times must certainly have changed if there was no drinking on Phil Cole’s buses. Most of the official Celtic registered supporters club’s buses didn’t alow drinking and some didn’t even allow singing – the Kirkwood Bus was one – and that’s why most people went with Phil Cole’s which had a kind of no holds barred philosophy. He ran huge numbers of buses to big Celtic games and there were a regular half dozen buses which travelled into Celtic Park for home games.
Another thing I liked about the 60s and 70s was how you could watch the first half from behind the goal Celtic were scoring into and at half-time, walk through the Jungle to the other end for the second half.
I think quite a few chants and songs started by the Celtic support went on to become popular throughout the UK.
Just been told that the Tap and Barrel,erstwhile home of Swindon Shamrock CSC,has been taken over by a Rangers supporter.
Numbers had fallen through the floor following recent changes of management. I’ll pop in on Saturday,see what’s what.
Failing that,gonna have to make a few phone calls and find out where everyone else is going.
I wonder what he’s done with all the memorabilia?
bamboo
08:00 on
15 April, 2014
65 final v the origional rangers.
2-1 with two Yogi penalties.
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The Bear,the bear . he`s every —kin where.
Feed the bear,feed the bear.
Accompanied by the blow-up …erm……dolls.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS ………Praying for our WEE HERO!
Shame. I was in to watch a Celtic St Johnstone match a few years ago it was a 6.05pm or 6.30pm KO at McDairmid Park. Really enjoy when you are away from home and there is a boozer with Celtic stuff up on the walls. Makes me feel like I’m in a wee part of Paradise. Met some good Bhoys as well. It wasn’t busy right enough.
LB
67 heaven
That was what I remember. They had the odd scuffle with the Shamrock and someone also said their was an Easterhouse team in there too. Remember this was the bovver boy era 71-72ish when football hooliganism was rife in England. You got to laugh though, the same mobs would be hugging and kissing each other when we scored against the Huns.
bhoys and ghirls there will never be another 15th of April 2014 so make it a good one !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHmJFmXrpPM#t=11
Gold Coast Tom
09:04 on
15 April, 2014
Another thing I liked about the 60s and 70s was how you could watch the first half from behind the goal Celtic were scoring into and at half-time, walk through the Jungle to the other end for the second half.
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With the way the attendances are just now, you can still do that!
gct…08.57…
Blimey! There’s two of us. ;-)
To the tune of hari Krishna
The rangers fans throw bottles and cans and thats why we call them hooligans
Hooli hooli hooligans, hooli hooligans
BTW i cant believe that some fhans think the Celtic end was as loud as the Jungle
Never!
i loved it at CP when even the main stand joined in a song, maybe only once or twice a season, usually against them. A special moment
howabout bye bye miss america pie at tynecastle during the huns 9 in a row period, on the same day that they gave us the yellow polystyrene seat covers and the fans made crosses out of them. The team was crap in those days but the celtic fans who stuck with them were very special (and a wee bit mental)
Sevcodgers coming up with all these brainwaves. Somebody tell them its all in vain. Where were these bright sparks when our hero was being paraded up Edmiston Drive? The dugs in the street knew he was a spiv, but they just would not listen.
mild colonial bhoy
05:54 on 15 April, 2014
A Coatbridge Bhoy, do you still live in the Parish?
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
i’m neil lennon (tamrabam)
09:21 on 15 April, 2014
Pretty sure those events at Tynecastle were separate occasions.
The ‘American Pie’ game was a glorious day and I’m sure we were 1-0 up at half time but ended up getting beat 2/3-1. Also I definitely remembering standing on terracing so it must have been before they put seats in that end.
Mild Colonial Bhoy
03:31 on
15 April, 2014
I have been a CQN regular reader for years but never posted before ( IT not my strongpoint!) However just has to chip in my 2 bob’s worth re YNWA. I was a regular at Celtic Park from season 1960/61. The songs that were mainly heard on the terraces then were the likes of Sean South, Soldiers Song, The Celtic Song and especially Hail Glorious St Patrick. In those days we saw or heard very little from English football. It was after the 1966 World Cup which was televised live that the Celtic “choir” started mimicking and adapting songs that originated elsewhere. (We shall not be moved, We’ll be running Hampden with the Cup etc). We still then had our unique ones like The Holy Ground. I remember seeing around then a documentary about Liverpool (the city and the football club) Part of it showed the Kop in full voice including YNWA. At the time I was a bit annoyed as it gave the impression that no other club had backing like that. I was at the home game with Liverpool in the 1966 ECCW semi. I had a ticket for the Celtic End and on the way in I was offered an exchange for a centre stand ticket. I refused as I wanted to be with my mates in the choir. The singing that night was great but there was no way that we sung YNWA. Indeed if you read the Celtic Programme from that game there is an article that told about the singing from the Kop especially the famous Anfield anthem – YNWA. The first time I can recall YNWA ever been sung at a Celtic game was a few weeks later, the last game of the season at Fir Park. A few guys started singing it but were told to belt up by a surrounding fans including myself as we could not see why we should be singing another club’s song. Over the next few years YNWA became a sort of football anthem and was sung at many clubs although it faded out of popularity other than at Anfield and Celtic Park. In this part of the world it is associated exclusively with Liverpool. My young son once thought he would do me a favour and put YNWA on my mobile phone ring tone. However I got so fed up with people asking me if I was a Liverpool fan that I had to change it. Being a traditionalist I was not originally keen on YNWA being sung by Celtic fans but my father once told me that although it was not originally a Celtic anthem the words summed up being a Celtic Supporter so I have come to accept it. Apologies for the long ramble.
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Excellent post from the night shift
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Gold post Tom
I was thinking of that incident as well when R’gers scored as we were still singing YNWA at the beginning of the second half . Dont think we played 3 at the back for some time after that.
gold coast tom
09:04 on 15 April, 2014
Ah, memories…….I did that at every home game, as did may others….
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
American Pie was sung on a different day to the yellow seat covers. It was all standing at the Gorgie Road end when American Pie was sung. I think we were leading at half time and the Celtic support were in great spirits. The DJ actually pulled the record early and started playing Hello Mary Lou which was even better. The police moved in near the back of the terracing where some guys were dancing and swinging jackets over their heads. That was a brilliant day up to then Hearts came out the 2nd half and pumped us.
The yellow polysterene seats were installed for a cup tie League Cup I think. John Robertson scored late on and they beat us. May have been extra time. Nobody sat down that day because it was lashing with rain. It was one of the few games I ever went to with just me and my sister so I remember it fondly for that. We were stood beside the actor who played the Irish guy in Braveheart and she couldn;t understand why he was shouting in a Scottish accent! I told her he was an actor and she said aw I get it now he is practicing his Scottish accent. I didn;t have the heart to tell her he was in fact a Scotsman.
Good memories apart from the scorelines.
LB
Top of the morning to you all from a sun-kissed Fife.
Good craic with the songs and my own memory is that the Celtic choir singing Hail Glorious St Patrick and Faith of our Fathers’, but the first rebel song I heard at CP was Sean South, I bought the 45rpm record and if memory serves me the other side was The Dying Rebel.
My impression of visiting Celtic Park in the 60 was of the tannoy blaring out the same tunes week after week and one that got big licks then was Joe Sweeney, by Karl Denver!
I have just played it on Youtube and could almost smell the Pale Ale, pish, and hear the boys shouting about Macaroon Bars & Spearmint Chewing Gum.
hoopy-do
08:49 on 15 April, 2014
I was a member Phil Cole Coatbridge CSC for years and helped the Bhoy that ran the Club whilst I was there.
Now the said Bhoy that ran the Bus was not a drinker and was very strict on no alcohol was allowed. However, when it came to singing every song in or out of the song book that you could think of and more were sung.
You were unlucky, not knowing the Bhoy that ran the Bus. I travelled for many a year on the Bus including two trips to Germany and Bremen. As usual we were asked to put the Cargo in the Boot. As one that ignored this, one of many I can testify that by the time we got to Dover our drink was finished and many of us were merry.
I left Phil Cole’s Club circa 87/88 and joined Whifflet St. Mary’s Coatbridge CSC, later running the club until it folded.
I still regularly see the Bhoy that ran Phil Cole Bus in the day at home and away matches. He too no longer travels with Phil Cole Bus. I would never hear a bad word against the Bhoy apart from his no alcohol on the Bus he was and is a good Ghuy to have on side.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Lennybhoy…Supporting the DAM 5, Neil Lennon, Wee Oscar Knox, and CFC until I die
I’m in favour of no alcohol on the bus at home games. It allows the conveners to get the money in and also get organised for away trips and other events.
European away trips are a different story. Travelling by bus without a beer is a long journey!
LB
Scousers were not the first to sing YNWA . Man U fans sung it after the Munich aircrash.
Liverpool FC’s rise to greatness under Shankly coincided with the Beatles and Mersey music scene. It was natural progression for the scouse to adopt these pops songs.
The first song I heard them sing was a very long version of “old Bill Shankly had a team ee i ee i oh , and in that team he had Tommy Lawrence with a great save here and great save there etc right the whole team.