This morning’s article in the Daily Record is not a work of fiction. They reported that SFA chief executive Stewart Regan’s “bid to deliver a broad consensus over the way forward also involved discussions over the appellate tribunal’s transfer embargo on Rangers.”
In short, the SFA discussed changing their rules to disband the Independent Appellate Panel process before instructing Lord Carloway to sit in response to the Court of Session’s rejection of his previous judgement.
With two further Independent Judicial Tribunals still to sit in judgement on the actions of Rangers, for the illegal registration of players and non-payment of social taxes during the EBT era, the SFA will also subvert these rules before ‘Rangers’ are expelled from the Association.
After the meeting Regan left for his summer vacation without instructing Lord Carloway to convene the Appellate Panel.
That’s not all.
The scam to establish an SLP 2 in order to allow the SFA and SPL to co-opt ‘Rangers’ into that league is what the governing bodies have planned for your game.
If rules are changed AFTER a club is found guilty and in receipt of a penalty in order to nullify that penalty the game in this country is broke, ethically and financially. Having established independent judicial panels to deal with serious rule breaches the SFA cannot do Rangers bidding without removing all judicial oversight.
We’re back to the days of George Peat walking in and out of hearings for the Celtic manager.
Most disturbingly of all, YOU are the cash cow for this outrageous enterprise. With Rangers gone from the SPL Celtic fans bring all the commercial and television income into the game, and are set to buy more away ground tickets than all other clubs put together.
You are expected to continue to cough up for tickets to Tynecastle, Rugby Park etc, and subscribe to ESPN and Sky Sports – money which will divvied up among SPL 1 and SPL 2 teams, as well as they rest of the Scottish Football League clubs, to compensate for them missing out on a ‘Rangers’ game.
You will also pay more money for those tickets than any other group of fans in the league. Why don’t you just write a cheque to Kilmarnock, Falkirk or Cowdenbeath today?
This nonsense will not bring another £1 into the game, all it will do is redistribute money from your pocket to clubs who care nothing for you. Partick Thistle yesterday released a statement on their site, “We believe Scottish football needs to be restructured, financial distribution needs to be fairer for all clubs”.
“Financial distribution needs to be fairer”! Patrick Thistle get to keep all their ticket sales, commercial and other income. By “fairer” they mean they want some of your money. If you agree with them, write them a cheque, but if you disagree, you better figure out what to do next.
Thoughts that some great victory has been achieved are premature. Prepare for the next instalment.
Our domestic competition is, at best, uninspiring. This disgusting land-grab for your cash will destroy our ability to compete in Europe, and it’s not just the senior team who will suffer. The Celtic youth system costs millions to operate each year, don’t fantasise that it will survive intact.
Celtic currently employ 27 Scotland youth internationals. They are almost single-handedly carrying the future of our national team. This attempt to bleed your club dry will devastate all areas, with subsequent consequences for the Scotland team.
It’s not often I’ve told you the Daily Record have nailed a story but this one is on the money (your money). I’m at a loss as to what to do next.
We cannot accept this.
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I am beginning to agree with Noam Chomsky’s observation that sport is now the predominant opiate of the people.
If we could expend the energy and talent on tackling the bigger thieves and scoundrels that run the country, nay, they world at the present time that we do on dreaming up ways to make sure them ‘uns get their proper rewards we’d be in a better place.
Of course we could do both!
My own take just now is that there is no point in appealing to the Regans and Doncasters of this world. Saltires en Seville is spot on – they have their own petards, hoist them with those. These people don’t care for integrity, they are for their job, they care for their CV and their next job. Some of them have spent too much time in the company of RFC apologists and activists.
Most people at the ‘top’ are shysters and schemers. This last 48 months in particular has brought me to this cynical, or rather, realistic point of view. Human organisations need robust checks and balances.
In a way, although I often disagree with them, the mineshafter types on here are the reason for Celtic’s relative health. We have a good proportion of people who will cast a critical eye on the club and call it to task. Them uns didn’t have so many and that’s why they find themselves where they are today.
So, trust no one at the top, question them, call them to account and make sure they follow their own rules. If the rules are bad, challenge them.
And remember life outside Celtic goes on with or without you.
Love and Peace
RobertoTressellonio
deliasmith on 24 June, 2012 at 11:06 said
You said “My point is – in contradiction to all the people who say they go to Celtic Park to watch Celtic – no you don’t. That’s right – you don’t go to watch Celtic, you go to watch a game.”
Delia, I will credit you with knowing that this statement is drivel and you are only putting it forward to be argumentative. The panel BBC Scotland on the other hand were quite serious when they spouted this nonsense on Saturday to support a “farer” distribution of money!
40 to 50,000 people go to Parkhead to see CELTIC play a game. If all it took to attract 50,000 was a game then that number would be at every match that took place.
In return for the opposition turning up at Celtic Park, Celtic return the compliment by visiting their opponents ground with the Brucie bonus that they are accompanied by thousands of Celtic fans generating thousands of pounds for the home team. Although I have not asked them all I would hazard a guess that the Celtic supporters who travel to away matches do so because CELTIC are playing and not just because a match is on! In terms of gate receipts CELTIC’S opponents are more than “farely” rewarded.
Hopefully the cryptic title of this blog will lead you to a question: what is the connection between a former football club, a possible future football club and a lizard?
The answer is an obscure one: former US Vice President Elbridge Gerry.
Let me explain. Back in 1812 Gerry was Governor of Massachusetts. He signed a bill into law that redrew the map of electoral districts to suit his own party, taking no account of natural boundaries. The shape of the new Essex County was such a strange one that it was likened to a salamander. No one is quite sure who coined the term, but the Boston Gazette was first to publish a story calling it the Gerry-mander.
The term gerrymander is now in common usage for any attempt to rig a system by changing the structures or rules purely to suit yourself or your side.
And that brings us nicely to Scottish football. But first a quick recap.
We know that Craig Whyte’s Rangers FC PLC (in administration) will not be playing football ever again.
We know that Charles Green’s Sevco 5088 Ltd now owns Ibrox and may soon employ some footballers, or at least Lee McCulloch. And perhaps any other employees of the former Rangers who cannot see that their careers would surely be better served elsewhere.
And we know that Sevco would like to become a football team.
So the initial plan was that Sevco would simply inherit the former Rangers’ Scottish Premier League share and place, and hope that no one noticed any difference. But such a share transfer has to be put to a vote, and so new rules were quickly voted through to allow an entirely new team to apply for an SPL place.
Now it looks like this first attempt at gerrymandering will fail.
The new rules state that 8 clubs must vote in favour of Sevco. Already though statements have been released by the boards of Hearts and Dundee United explaining that they will vote against. They believe that preserving the sporting integrity of our game is much more important than Sevco. Celtic and Hibs have also come to the same conclusion while Motherwell, Aberdeen and St Johnstone are also thought likely to vote against.
This leaves Sevco dead in the water. So the SPL would then need to bring in a team from the Scottish Football League to become its Club 12. And the knock on effect would be a vacancy in the bottom division of the SFL, which the new club Sevco could then apply to fill. In competition with any other club that applied of course.
The rules of football simply don’t allow any other conclusion. The separate structures of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League offer no other solutions to the apparent problem of where the new club could be fitted in. This is only a problem to those who feel it merits some special attention, of course.
So now here comes the second, and much bigger, attempt at gerrymandering. Never mind playing around with the rules. Let’s just restructure the whole of Scottish football so that a higher place can be found for Sevco.
No, this isn’t another scare story. Like RFC into administration, RFC into liquidation and Sevco to lose the SPL vote this really is happening. Once more it is intended that the fix will be in.
Newspaper reports tell us that the leaders of Scottish football’s various governing bodies spent six hours debating a possible more towards a united league structure. In the interim however, this would mean starting next season with two SPL divisions and two SFL divisions. And so a new club would be required to make up the numbers in SPL2.
In other words, the game would be gerrymandered to allow Sevco to join in the second tier rather than the fourth tier of the game.
Now I actually agree that merging the two league bodies into one is the correct way to go. Henry McLeish recommended this in his far reaching report into the future of Scottish football – in December 2010. And we haven’t heard anything of the idea since, so why now?
Reconstruction should be done in a considered and careful manner over a period of time, not rushed through in some half assed attempt to have a halfway house in place as soon as possible – and all purely for the benefit of a team that doesn’t actually exist yet.
I’ve been arguing throughout the saga of Rangers’ long death that there is only one place a new club can be allowed to join the league structures, and that’s at the bottom. Precedent supports this: every other new club has come into the fourth tier. Not one has started its footballing life anywhere else. And basic fairness would indicate that a brand new club should not get any preference over the existing ones in the game.
The next big question therefore is this: if it is wrong for the new club Sevco to join the top division of Scottish football, what is the case for its joining in the second tier?
The other eleven clubs in the top flight of the game are making clear that they will take a stand. They will put sporting integrity, where the only way to advance is by winning football matches, first. They will resist attempts to buy a place or to bully others into conceding one.
So why should clubs lower down the footballing structure take a different view?
The argument, it seems, is a financial one. The game, we are told, needs Sevco and its supposed economic power. If it takes a wholesale restructuring of football to achieve this, we are all just supposed to accept that it is worth it.
It’s the same argument that was intended to compel SPL clubs to let Sevco join. And they saw straight through it – so why should SFL clubs not do exactly the same?
Bear in mind that it is now late June. The 2012/ 13 season is due to kick off in just a few weeks. Is it feasible that a new structure can be created, the relevant votes taken and won, and Sevco admitted so quickly? And that’s before we take into account any legal fallout that may still affect Sevco from the whole Rangers saga. Not to mention the outstanding disciplinary processes that have been paused. There is a great deal still to happen.
It is becoming more and more likely that the possibility of Sevco not having a league to play in come the start of next season is increasing on a daily basis.
Quite where that would leave owner Charles Green and his investors is anyone’s guess.
Just had a thought (not like me)…….
Green needs to pay all players 100% of their wages next week. Since it is MOST likely that he doesn’t actually have the money to do so, which would result in newco going into administration, is he trying to goad the players into signing for other clubs, or refuse to take their pay this month (to ensure they can move out)………. Mmmmmmmmmmmm ………?
A song for the Hundead
The Cramps “Surfin’ Dead”
The Video show supporters of the SPL and League 1 fighting to keep the Hundead at bay! Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozsIKQxEMPU&feature=player_detailpage
Ah, my favorite brain soup –
Cream of nowhere
Ooh baby, your asphalt eater hung ten
The hoedads and gremmies say you reached top end
So do the dead, through the lights
The surfin’ dead, oooh make it tight
The livin’ dead now baby lose their heads
Now baby, doin’ the dead
Yeah you’re a high-rev hauler with all four on the floor
But your a-bone’s busted and you’re through the door
So do the dead, juice the Coupe
Come on the livin’ dead, ooh you’re in the soup
The livin’ dead now baby, like I said now baby, do the dead
Your carburetor don’t carb, got a hammer down this
Your generator gens but your pistons don’t work
Do the dead, run for ten
The surfin dead, c’mon turn it in
The livin’ dead insist, it’s the latest twist, do the dead
Run run run run, now do it
Stay sick!
You square brains out there better beware
Oh this phantom driver down in the ground
You better plant ’em right or they’ll come around
Move out baby, move that mound
Or they’ll dig it up and they’ll shut you down
So c’mon, aw c’mon, aw c’mon . . .
Now life is short and it’s filled with stuff
So let me know baby when you’ve had enough
Oh do the dead, turn blue
Yeah the surfin’ dead, as dead as you
There’s nothing on the radio when you’re dead
There’s nothing at the movie show when you’re dead
There’s nowhere left for you to go when you’re dead
Do the dead, yeah do the dead
Do the dead, surfin’ dead
Sannabhoy
My kids have. Best teacher in the school by a mile until retiral. Unfortunately my youngest didn’t get there in time so had to settle for second best.
HH
:-) Roy – McCulloch should be happy to be getting a game anywhere!!!!
EmeraldBee\o/ proud to be an internet bampot on 24 June, 2012 at 12:07 said:
Thanks for that, i’ll have a wee look while Regans on his hols and see if i can help to ‘Stir It Up’
HH
It’s the equivalent of the Beatles at a concert where they are told that the ventriloquist, the magician, the harmonica band and the rest are getting some of their money because they share the same stage.
Forget that the crowd have come to watch the Beatles.
Now transfer that thought to a football league.
Get it?
No it isn’t.
Like I said, people don’t go to Celtic Park to watch the bhoys, the hoops, the ‘tic. They don’t go to watch their favourites perform undisturbed by other, lesser turns.
They. go. to. watch. a. game.
And it takes two to make a game. And to make an interesting game there has to be some uncertainty about the result, or at least enough resources available to the opposition to make our side have to exert themselves.
And Bobby Murdoch’s Winklepickers:
I don’t call people names.
Sorry guys, havent been able to read back. #TeamOscar is flat out promoting Oscars appeal. Just wanted to drop in and tell those of you in the 6 counties there’s a cracking article about wee Oscar in the Sunday Mirror.
See pic in his latest tweet below…
Oscar Knox @Wee_Oscar
Brilliant write up about me and the @DonttellMerkel crew in the Sunday Mirror today! #TeamOscar http://pic.twitter.com/bzhn9EyQ
Thank you guys for your support, and although i havent been able to catch all the comments lately, i know a lot of you are planning things for the wee man. Thank you so much, it really means a lot!
There are a few videos of him on youtube too, including his BBC & RTE news appearances! Search Oscar Knox Appeal on youtube.
Hope to get on this evening to catch up
Knoxy :-)
Hail Hail
Before Gordon Smith gave that interview, did he go to Captain Blackadder and inform him he had a cunning plan?
hen1rik on 24 June, 2012 at 11:08 said: ……….
Before you Jeely Eaters get too carried away about that Scottish Junior Cup win in 1953, I would remind you that they would have won nothing without the skill & effort of the two Clydebank men who inspired their less talented local team-mates to national glory.
Let’s hear it for Maurice Buchanan & Wee Frank McKeever.
The missionary work of these two great graduates of OHR boy’s guild should never be forgotten.
By Kang Seung-woo
Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-yueng has become
a summer transfer target as clubs from
Germany’s Bundesliga are joining European
rivals in the queue for the Korea
international’s signature.
“It is true that prestigious Bundesliga outfits
Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen are
interested in Ki. Bremen came to watch Ki in
action,” C2 Global said last week in a media
interview.
Bremen, four-time league champions,
reportedly sent a scout to Korea’s World
Cup qualifier against Qatar in Doha on June
9. The German side initially planned to see
the friendly against Spain in Switzerland last
month, but the 23-year-old was not
scheduled to take the pitch.
Leverkusen is known for its interest in
Korean footballers.
Local footballing great Cha Bum-Kun and his
son Du-ri played for the club which also
made offers for Koo Ja-cheol and Ji Dong-
won during last year’s Asian Cup in Qatar.
Korean players Son Heung-min of
Hamburger SV, Cha Du-ri of Fortuna
Dusseldorf and Koo of VfL Wolfsburg, who
has recently agreed to a new one-year loan
spell with FC Augsburg, all play in Germany.
As of Sunday, Ki, whose current contract
expires in January 2014, has been on the
radar of several European clubs.
The Hoops has recently turned down a 6
million pound offer from Russian outfit
Rubin Kazan and English Premier League
clubs Liverpool and Queens Park Rangers
are reportedly interested in landing the
central midfielder. He has been linked with
Tottenham Hotspur and Blackburn Rovers,
as well.
Playing time seems to be Ki’s priority in any
decision to move teams.
“It is most important that I can play on a
regular basis. If I am guaranteed regular
playing time, it does not matter where I
play,” he said last month on his return to
Korea.
“Although it may not be a big league, I will
evolve if I can be on the pitch.”
Ki, dubbed a “poor man’s version of Steven
Gerrard,” is praised for his expansive
passing range and is considered a threat
from long range.
The midfielder joined the Scottish side in
August 2009 and appeared in 30 league
matches in which he recorded six goals and
as many assists in the team’s championship
run this past season.
He has played for the national team 47
times since winning his first cap in
September 2008 and will represent Korea
with the Under-23 squad at the London
Olympics.
@BBCLiamMcLeod: Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker release statement saying they object to transferring their contracts to #Rangers newco
Row z, I’ll pass that thought on. Cheers.
Ps you’re going well in the predictor. Good luck
Naismith and Whittaker do walking away
Drogheda:
40 to 50,000 people go to Parkhead to see CELTIC play a game
Correct.
40 to 50,000 people go to Parkhead to see CELTIC play a game … against somebody else.
It takes two.
They wouldn’t go if there wasn’t somebody kicking the other way. And if the game has to have some meaning then the others need to have some force, some chance.
The wise men who set up professional league football in England and Scotland understood this simple point, and designed the league accordingly. Up until the disastrous decision to set up the SPL their principles obtained, and, not coincidentally, the game thrived.
And “drivel”? Really? Is that what passes for debate in your world?
SSN breaking: Naisy and Whittaker throw themselves overboard.
Whittaker and Naismith leave Rangers. I hope Lambo isny daft enough to sign them.
HH
Kilbowie Kelt on 24 June, 2012 at 12:46 said:
hen1rik on 24 June, 2012 at 11:08 said: ……….
Before you Jeely Eaters get too carried away about that Scottish Junior Cup win in 1953, I would remind you that they would have won nothing without the skill & effort of the two Clydebank men who inspired their less talented local team-mates to national glory.
Let’s hear it for Maurice Buchanan & Wee Frank McKeever.
The missionary work of these two great graduates of OHR boy’s guild should never be forgotten.
share on F’book or Twitter
LoL
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!..Truth and Justice HAS prevailed on 24 June, 2012 at 12:34 said:
”Just had a thought (not like me)…….”
He’s desperate to pay them so he can sell them on.
For a couple of months wages he can make £££££.
I’ve cancelled sky sports so I’ll need to do with updates from twitter or you guys lol.
hen1rik on 24 June, 2012 at 12:34 said:
Perhaps this should be called Billymandering or Masonmandering or Hunsmandering or sevcomandering……..
HH
Kitalba,
I definitely read it somewhere this morning about young Rhys Mc Cabe but I´m damned if I can find the story again.
Possibly it may have been removed in case more of the morons get ideas.
You know what they´re like.
…….If Mailsport are involved……………..brace yersels for a morale-boostin’ hun rallyin’ call from Whittakery, McCullochy or somesuch………trumpeted on the front and back pages……….
Aye!
¿¿⊥Ǝʎ ƃN∩⊥S ןƎƎℲ ∩Oʎ Op ¡ƃNI⊥S ∀ SI SIH⊥ ‘ᖈƎqWƎWƎᖈ – ROW Z on 24 June, 2012 at 12:53 said:
hen1rik on 24 June, 2012 at 12:34 said:
Perhaps this should be called Billymandering or Masonmandering or Hunsmandering or sevcomandering……..
HH
share on F’book or Twitter
LoL
naisy and whitty walk away! girfuy coisty!
Sannabhoy
You’re welcome.
Taking a gamble tonight and going for a draw in a vain attempt to catch Motherwelltim and place the Ancient Capital ahead of the Lanarkshire imposters. May crash and burn in the process.
HH
Bye Bye Naisy…pity Whittaker isn’t staying mind you, He’s gash!
Right lads I’m off for some golf practice and I’ll catch up later.
No …….” Whitakery”………..No “Naisy”…………..
That’s an extra two pages a week some donut at the rectum is gonna have to manufacture nooooo.
Sumbdy get Jim White a tablet, quick.
Shockeroooni!
DELIASMITH
“And Bobby Murdoch’s Winklepickers:
I don’t call people names.”
Clearly not above belittling or ignoring the considered replies of others when their opinions don’t correspond with your own,nor patronising and condescending at all times possible.
In a face-to-face context,the look says enough.
You are simply repeating the same words as often as possible in the hope that you can persuade someone that you might not be spouting arrant nonsense.
Good luck with that……
NO NO NO NO NO ! ! ! OGILVIE ! NO !
@Vandalgrease: All Scottish Football Fans must unite against cheating & corruption. #NoToNewco https://t.co/80TvnaLu
Lads before i go, make sure you watch this video.
@MHately: Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker waling away is like a new signing …
;-)
Naismith and Whittaker walk away. FPLG is too stupid to walk…
Paul67 et al
Two more players, Naismith and Whittaker realise that the club they play for, and the club Ali McCoist is still managing, no longer exists, and decide to look for pastures new. That is the reality, not the fantasies being cooked up by Doncaster, Regan and Longmuir. Who are they trying to kid?
Delia
How many people do you believe would attend a big 60,000 seater stadium in the East end of Glasgow if it was not called Celtic Park and a team called Celtic did not play there?
MWD