The great and the good (extensive poetic licence used) of the SPL and SFL will gather at Hampden tomorrow to shuffle the deckchairs of Scottish football. For reasons which no one has, or will, explain, it will be suggested that three leagues, with 12, 12 and 18 teams, will be able to resolve the problems of our game.
There will be no consultation with fans, Uefa or neighbouring associations, and no claim will be made that this reorganisation will be able to resolve a single significant issue.
For all its limited appeal, the Scottish Football League is in rude health. On the whole clubs live within their means and in places play important roles in their communities. This is as good as it gets for the likes of Alloa, Montrose or Brechin City. They could all benefit from a higher solidarity payment from above, but this would be the case no matter what level the trickle-down was set at. Their interests would be best served by ensuring that those sending payments down the pyramid are as fat as possible.
The clubs with most to gain from substantive change are those condemned to compete for second place in the SPL. Dundee United, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts have been neutered in recent decades. United and Aberdeen have gone from being the two most impressive clubs in Europe at developing young talent, to clubs who cannot hold onto players long enough to put a competitive team on the field.
Scottish clubs with ample support, stadium and coaching talent have been left behind by smaller clubs in England, from Wigan to Burnley, who benefit from operating in a more lucrative commercial environment.
Hearts are trying to sell shares to raise a few million to keep themselves afloat at the moment. The club would be worth ten times as much if it was located 100 miles down the road, or structural change made it possible for it to benefit from a more valuable environment. Shares in clubs like Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hibs would also be worth many multiples of their current value.
Stephen Thompson has spoken of the financial burden Dundee United place on his family, a regionalised league structure would turn this burden into a vastly more valuable legacy. It beggars belief that Hearts, United, Aberdeen and the rest have not grasped this reality and started to make inroads.
It’s time for some radical thinking.
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Dirtymac is right. The Deady Bears history will look a bit more scant at the end of the exercise, but Sevco will still have intact its full quota of zero trophies.
when i chose my name, rangers are not my favourite team, i was being ironic as rangers are a poisoned sectarian team, i thought the posters here would get this as most celtic fans are scottish or irish and are able to understand the concept of irony.
but this actually proved what i said on saturday night, alot of posters on here are obsessed by rangers and what they are up to 24/7 and have turned a celtic forum into a webpage full of paranoia about rangers. i am sick of reading about rangers non stop, discuss our own club,
i am not the first or last poster whose loyalty has been questioned here, the paranoia is pathetic, celtic is a brilliant club with marvellous supporters as i have witnessed loads of times in celtic park.
but there are a few right nasty posters on this site, complete f**kwits but the vast majority here are brilliant
CorkCelt,
Spot-on regarding the 14 team league splitting into top 6 and bottom 8.
Two down automatically and 3rd bottom into a play-off with 3rd and 4th in second league for the right to play in the top tier. Winner of 3rd and 4th play-off plays 3rd bottom in play-off final. This way it keeps as many teams as possible in the mix for as long as possible.
The second league would also be 14 teams, with a 6 – 8 split and the same format for play-offs at the bottom.
The only thing I would look at differently is some kind of regional set-up below the second tier to encourage supporters to go to games more often, rather than have Stranraer play Arbroath and Berwick play Forfar. This would require a pyramid system to allow promotion from Junior Leagues, which is long, long, overdue.
I have not calculated whether ornot this would mean a quicker or not return of Sevco to the top tier, but that’s not important. What’s important is that we re-construct the league to suit FOOTBALL and FOOTBALL FANS. If Sevco go up earlier, so be it, so long as illegall won trophies are struck from the record, I really don’t care what happens to the new club that the old fans now follow-follow.
ite a regular mecca for fu**wittery :oD))
The Exiled Tim
They won’t be if we find out that the conditions Charles Green said yes to include sanctions inherited from the dead club he posthumously loves so much.
We know there were conditions. We know one of them was the transfer ban. We haven’t been told by the unco guid what the other conditions are. If Sevco shuffled enough peas under cups to get the SFA, the SFL, the SPL and the media all to go along with the charade and pretend they are the Deady Bears, part of the price he agreed to pay could be paying back prize money and sponsors’ bonuses won by cheating. Times are tough. People will want some money back.
They said it would never happen to Lance Armstrong, but it has. Cheated competitors want the prize money they would and should have won. Sponsors want their cash back.
Are the weans no back in school yet in Scotland??
St Stivs and MNCelt,
I’m just watching the live Golf from Hawaii and listening to the commentators giving excuse after excuse for missed greens, missed fairways and missed putts because of the strong winds.
I’ve played Port Glasgow Golf course and I can assure you these guys in Hawaii do not know what wind is.
Rankers are not my fav team etc
It is unusual for Celts to spell out the full word – even in posts never mind in blogname
Maybe you will have less hassle if you alter your name now to Huns are not my fave team or The Rankers are not etc
That would be ironic – no?
Starry
Back today.
Starry
Get it noo :-)))
Could this song be about the Rt Hon Craig Whyte??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBKGhOlJ8rM
rangers are not my favourite team csc
accusing others of being obsessed with the ragers while your moniker includes their former name…. irony indeed
HT
How’s was your first day back Sir??
Celtic_First
Charles Green also said he would settle all football debts !!!!!
And I would doubt he would have been stupid enough to offer to pay back any prize money and return sponsorship money in the event of them getting found guilty of anything.
That’s not really my point, they are still getting help from the referees.
They should have lost the game in Berwick, they didn’t due to cheating, they are assisted by getting a player advantage nearly every week, it won’t change as long as the people in power remain.
2013 will be the year many, many thousands walk away from scottish football, the fix is ongoing.
And if as you say people will want their money back, who will be the first to ask for it…..
a foreign club possibly, but it won’t be Celtic.
I went to the doctors once cos I had a wind problem. He gave me a kite. o))
Starry
It rhymes with fish and begins with ‘p’….
Hope you’re well back in the valley.
Definitely time for sleep now.
I went to the doctors once cos I had a wynd problem; he gave me a map
Dont know if I want to see them stripped. Cant stand the site of them in their normal rag tags!!
HT
The hard times are passing aye and bedtime for me too, much to do the morra, Basel here I come..
The Exiled Tim
They had Green over a barrel. Sevco’s inaugural season was due to get under way two days later with an exciting Ramsden’s Cup tie away to Brechin City. If he had walked away, Sevco would not have kicked a ball in anger.
The statement of July 27 says: “The Scottish Premier League has reserved its position in relation to the ongoing investigation into EBTs.”
And so it should. Claims on the Rangers’ ill-gotten prize money are sure to follow. Maybe it will be from a European club. That would be good as it would bring the story to a European audience. But you can bet your bottom dollar the SPL won’t want to put its hand in its pocket to pay compensation to the wronged.
as i thought
What abt bobby russell posting on here??
rangers are not my favourite team csc
23:13 on
7 January, 2013
when i chose my name, rangers are not my favourite team, i was being ironic as rangers are a poisoned sectarian team, i thought the posters here would get this as most celtic fans are scottish or irish and are able to understand the concept of irony.
but this actually proved what i said on saturday night, alot of posters on here are obsessed by rangers and what they are up to 24/7 and have turned a celtic forum into a webpage full of paranoia about rangers. i am sick of reading about rangers non stop, discuss our own club,
i am not the first or last poster whose loyalty has been questioned here, the paranoia is pathetic, celtic is a brilliant club with marvellous supporters as i have witnessed loads of times in celtic park.
but there are a few right nasty posters on this site, complete f**kwits but the vast majority here are brilliant
—
For a new poster mate you appear to disrespect a lot of people on this excellent blog. Personally do not like your approach and you appear over confident for a new poster, or should that be (im)poster?
Keep the faith!
Celtic_First
The SPL have no powers over the newco.
The SFA will be the only powers who will have, and going by the sfa’s past record of breaking all their rules to allow them a licence, do you really see them doing anything?
A few stripped titles possibly, or maybe’s not, who really knows, but CG is not over any barrel, he is riding roughshod over the sfa, he can say what he wants cos he knows they have neither the balls, nor the will to do or say anything that will upset the hoards, the threat of civil unrest will take precident over anything in our lovely wee country.
The game’s a bogey, it’s on it’s knees, nobody will be paying anything to anyone.
jude2005
what about bobby russell posting? i wasn’t suggesting that someone shouldn’t post, anyone is free to post on here as far as I’m concerned. i was just pointing out the irony of that poster suggesting that the blog is obsessed with the sevco while their moniker contains their name.
TET
Sorry to butt in…
Charles Green also said he would settle all football debts…
It was my understanding that getting oldcos sfa membership was the only way sevco could meet the criteria to join the league. I think it was spartans that were objecting at the time.
Not to have done so would’ve meant 3 years non-sfl football before having to make a fresh application to join an already full league.
The sfa membership is like a library card in that you have to pay the fines & fees before you get to use it, so sevco were stuck with oldcos footballing debts.
SPL offered to strip a few titles & drop the investigation and risk of extra footballing debts, but chuckie declined in order to sell season books at the time.
I don’t think he had an overarching plan, but feel that chuckie is hoping he gets lucky, as if nimmo finds against oldco then chuckie should be liable for whatever bill the spl decide to impose.
Mncelt
If you and your US mates are in the kingdom to play St Andrews, give me a shout for a game at aberdour. As you may know it’s home to THE Open, the cqn open. Can’t promise that it will be held at end of July this year though. Will try and post a date soon, to be honest it’s a movable feast and date depends a lot on when a guest speaker can make it.
Other guys have chipped in (ha!) with some great courses. But bear in mind the braids number 1 in Edinburgh. It’s a public course kept in fantastic nick. The kind of vistas over Edinburgh your mates would love.
Near to the old course is the excellent kittocks course at the fairmont hotel.
Need to sleep now, up early, much to do, everything back to normal after the holibobs.
Take care and god bless Timland.
HH
KTF
Kingsbarns is beautiful but very expensive. Nearby crail is pretty awesome with a lot of history
rangers are not my favourite team csc –
I estimate you to be about one hour away from being accused of being GCT in disguise.
The Brisbane Stalker will be squeezing into his leather G-string as I type this.
Prepare to be flagellated . . . or worse.
:-)
Tet.
I hadn’t seen that documentary before.
Sometimes it good to see it from a neutral point of view.
To think all all the huns on it are zombies now ;-) hail hail
thebhoywithmcgraininhisside
But he hasn’t paid the football debts, and nothing has been said or done about it.
It was all a fix to get them back in asap.
Now I agree that chuck is a gambler and he will take the chance that the sfa will do sfa, he will be right, they will do sfa.
As yet we have no idea what the conditions were, we know the football debts were a part, and that has already been flouted, the whole thing is a charade, corrupt to the core.
I will hold my hands up if I am wrong, but I very much doubt I will be, they are in and they are in to stay.
The Exiled Tim
I know what you mean, honestly. I’ve had this discussion with lots of people.
All I can say is that the SPL appeared to call it right when they “reserved judgement” on the question of the EBTs. The EBTs are key to player registration irregularities. Everybody knows that if there were player registration irregularities, each match should be a 0-3 defeat for the cheats.
Months ago, Paul ran a wee series of comments along the lines of: “Let me be the first to congratulate St Mirren on winning the league cup in 2010.”
I’m sure most people can see why he said that. If Nimmo Smith concludes that Rangers players’ full remuneration was not registered with the football authorities, and each game is 0-3 defeat, that game will have to be a 0-3 defeat and St Mirren will be given the title.
Just to continue with this example, this would clearly also mean that St Mirren are entitled to whatever prize money went with it. Here, my example fails me because it would not be an SPL prize. But it doesn’t matter really. Someone will phone St Mirren and say: “Feel free to add the 2010 league cup to your list of trophies won.” How long before the St Mirren people say: “Thanks very much, can we also have the £100,000 (or whatever) prize money?” Not long; same phone call, I’d have thought.
And at that point, the question becomes this: From whom should St Mirren get that money?
What would have been fair would have been for them to get it from Rangers because Rangers cheated them out of it. But Rangers, as Charles Green will quickly remind us when this happens, are deid and no longer exist. Sevco is not the same club (more’s the pity St Mirren might say). On the face of it, Sevco would be in the clear. So St Mirren will then turn to the SFA or the SFL or the sponsor and say: “We won that title, you said you would pay the winner of the title this amount of prize money. We could really do with the cash, so please hand it over.”
So I am suggesting that it could be here that the SPL’s insightful inclusion of this “reserving judgement” thing might come back to bite Sevco, and to be fair to the SPL this was a few months before rival cyclists and sponsors started asking Lance Armstrong for cash. Sevco wanted in, at any cost. The bill is on its way.
Stevebhoy
Cheers buddy. BT txt’d earlier too.
MWD
sipsini
I hadn’t seen it either, but nearly 600k people had, where has it been ????
It was worth the watch imo, hence why I posted it >)
HH
As a follow-up point, even if Sevco do not have to pay compensation to the cheated, it can only really snake its way out of doing so by admitting what we have been saying for months, that it’s a totally different club. If it were Rangers, it would need to pay up.
At that point, Charles Green might find it harder to sell or even give away match tickets, to secure sponsors and to pay his bills.
It’s exceptionally interesting.
TET
Titles will be stripped by SPL. But if new plan goes through for start of nxt season will SPL still exist. If it is defunct and SPL tribunal is postponed again past end of SPL. No titles will be stripped as there will be no body to do it.
MWD Paranoid Moi!
I hope they find the remains of Moira Anderson today. I can remember the day she went missing as if it was yesterday. The main suspect Alec Gartshore lived abt 200yds from me.This file has been kept closed for to long or in my opinion till the suspects were all dead. Doctors a dentist police officeirs and undertakers have all been mentioned in relation to this evil vile murder.
Rest in peace wee Moira.
Celtic first,
And for the reason you have excellently outlined in your post Nimmo Smith will find no case to answer ( or correspond with FTT initial result and have a small partial case to answer to, slap on the wrist ).
Hail! Hail!