You will remember Roy Keane getting all up himself after Celtic celebrated Champions League qualification as though it was something important. Roy’s ability to apply perspective isn’t all it should be.
The Champions League presents levels of success. Lincoln Red Imps achieved theirs this season, as did Celtic. As we look forward to the quarter finals, which begin tonight, Monaco are a different type of winner.
In the round of 16, Atletico beat Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus beat Porto, Barcelona beat PSG, Bayern Munich beat the living daylights out of Arsenal, Real Madrid beat Napoli and Leicester beat Sevilla. All these victors, including apparent underdog, Leicester, are richer than the teams they eliminated. Only Monaco, who beat Manchester City, won against the money.
It’s not easy to congratulate tax haven-based millionaires on succeeding despite being relatively impoverished, so we’ll perhaps withhold our joy, but Monaco’s win was the Champions League’s sole instance in the last round of an outcome which was not significantly determined by finance.
What you are unlikely to hear from those happy to disparate Scottish football as an uncompetitive environment, where outcomes are overwhelmingly determined by the richest club’s money, is that our domestic game resembles the elite competition in this very respect.
This is modern football, in fact, it is increasingly elite team sport across the globe. We can get all misty-eyed for days of yore, when 12 different English teams who the league in 14 years, or 11 guys from a 30 mile radius climbed the highest peak, but the future of sport looks entirely different.
You, me and Lincoln Red Imps fans know our level. I suspect we all know where the net ceiling which prevents us moving too high up the food chain lies. We can and should always plot, scheme and dream of bursting free, but knowledge of our place in the game has value. It grounds us in reality, where surely our dreams do not become fantasies?
Remember the Celtic Disabled Supporters’ Association, Dinner Dance, at the Kerrydale Suiteon Friday 21st April. All are welcome.
After the meal there is entertainment from Foggy Dew, with Jim Craig, Bertie Auld, Tom Boyd and more. Tickets are £25 each and are available from events@celticdsa.co.uk 07514-059870 (office hours).
Let’s say THANK YOU to the Lisbon Lions!
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TONYDONNELLY67
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I hope her doing grand, fella.
Yer flag fly’s eternal on,……
Thee ole JUNGLE roof.
God bless ye, ya auld
Fenian eeeeeedjit ;)
HAIL HAIL
Oh, afore ah forget,……
B.DORTMUND VS MONACO
Tonight on freeview channel 59…..
Anyway,…….
Thoughts and Prayers for all
Supporters of Glasgow Celtic.
………….off-oot.
Well! According to the STV. Sevco are a shoe in for Europe.
Rangers’ failure to secure a crucial AGM vote allowing them to issue new shares could have a knock-on effect should they qualify for Europe in the near future.
UEFA rules on financial fair play could apply to the club because of the scale of financial losses they have reported.
With directors and other related parties having provided upwards of £13m in loans to keep Rangers afloat, being able to convert their cash into shares would have helped meet the criteria.
Those hopes were dashed in a vote lost by just 0.4%.
As a result, newspaper reports on Wednesday state Rangers will need “special dispensation” from European football’s governing body to play in continental competition, should they qualify in the 2017/18 season.
So how serious is this position for Rangers? We’ve gone through UEFA’s financial fair play regulations to establish the facts.
What do UEFA’s rules say?
In a nutshell, regulations are in place to deter clubs from running up significant financial losses.
This is done for two reasons. First, to try to protect teams from themselves. Secondly, to ensure competition is not distorted by clubs being able to run up huge debt while continuing to use that debt to fund football success.
Clubs are allowed to post a maximum aggregate loss over every three-year “monitoring period” of €5m (£4.25m at today’s rates).
Failure to contain losses to under this amount can result in sanctions, with some exceptions.
How big are Rangers’ losses?
For the period relevant to the 2017/18 season, UEFA looks at the financial reporting years of 2017, 2016 and 2015.
Rangers’ accounts for the financial year ending June 2017 will not be published until later next year so it is not possible to establish what profit or loss they will post.
We will get some indication from interim results posted in early to mid-2017.
The early signs are Rangers are going to run into difficulty. Their aggregate losses to date are £11.9m, well above the threshold.
What do Rangers need to do between now and 2017/18?
If posting a profit to level out losses isn’t achievable, there are two simple ways to fall in line.
Having lost the vote on the share issue by such a fine margin, the club could look to call it again. If it passes, it would pave the way for a cash injection into the club which could balance out losses.
This could be done by calling an extraordinary general meeting.
UEFA allows a maximum of £23.6m to be written off over a three-year period in this manner.
Those who have provided loans could also simply turn benefactors and write off their loans as donations – a highly unlikely course of action but one that is allowed under the regulations.
If Rangers fail to meet the criteria, will they be banned from playing in Europe?
No. Not in season 2017/18.
UEFA begins to monitor under the “break-even requirement” at the point a licence is applied for but no club has ever been banned prior to competition for failing to meet the criteria.
What Rangers will be asked to do is submit future financial information to prove they stand a chance of meeting the break-even calculation in the near future.
Even if they do this, UEFA can look to impose sanctions going forward without banning the club from playing in Europe next season.
The matter would be referred to UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body. That group would then study the club’s finances and consider the severity of the breach and other factors, such as the overall trend of the club’s books.
At that point disciplinary measures may be taken ranging from a warning, censure and fine through to withholding revenue from European competition, or placing restrictions on registering players or the squad size for Europa League and Champions League.
Disqualification from competitions in progress or exclusion from future competitions is a sanction available to UEFA. In historic cases, the governing body also has the right to strip titles.
Settlement agreements can also be reached between UEFA and clubs, marking out what the club has to do to rectify their situation within a certain period of time.
This can happen alongside disciplinary action or have penalties added if the terms aren’t met.
What has happened to clubs before?
Numerous clubs across the length and breadth of Europe have been sanctioned, from household names like Inter Milan to smaller sides from the likes of Kazakhstan, Turkey and Poland.
The most common route for UEFA to take is to apply a mixture of sanctions and targets for compliance in the future, imposing settlement agreements that combine a number of elements.
For example, earlier this year Kazakh side Astana were placed under a three-year settlement agreement. They were instructed to reach a break-even position by 2019, ordered to reduce their deficit in each year until then and limit their playing budget to meet those targets.
In addition, the squad size for European competition was reduced, a limit was put on new signings for two years and the club was fined, with the majority of the fine being conditional on meeting other requirements of the agreement.
CSKA Sofia, Kardemir Karabukspor and FC Rostov were given less stringent sanctions, agreeing to break even within a couple of years, handed minor fines and promising to reduce the ratio of player spend to revenue.
The only significant recent ban on playing was for Galatatasray, who were restricted from playing in European competition for the next two seasons. This was imposed after they failed to keep to the terms of an existing settlement agreement.
What is the Scottish FA’s role in this?
The Scottish FA act as the initial licensor and is obligated to ensure any clubs it puts forward as potential European participants meet the financial fair play criteria on an ongoing basis.
Aren’t Rangers banned from playing in Europe anyway?
When Rangers went into liquidation in 2012, their assets and memberships to play football were transferred to a new company.
This automatically triggered a three-year period where the Rangers newco could not participate in European competition. This applied to the 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons.
There is no barrier to Rangers applying for a UEFA Club Licence under article 12, which states any membership with a national association must have lasted “for at least three consecutive years”.
Turkeybhoy – It’s a free world chief – you are entitled to support the Catalan dope fiends, same as I am entitled to wish for their rapid demise.
Each time Celtic have to play against them they are up to their normal histrionics and cheating.
Why do they constantly resort to tactics of scoundrels, if as you say – their team is so many brilliant footballers?
Don’t believe the hype.
HH.
KEVJUNGLE
I’m doing good mate, thanks for asking, hope all swell with you.HH
Tony Donnelly
“special dispensation” whit fae the Pope like:)))))
HH
This ones for BEATBHOY & PETEC
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/police-break-up-fullyfledged-tube-train-rave-with-mc-and-sound-system-on-bakerloo-line-a3512766.html
Hail Hail
Speaking of corner kicks – in modern football – is winning a corner kick even an advantage nowadays?
Can’t find the Celtic stats anywhere – how many goals have we scored as a result of a corner, how many goals have been conceded due to opposition corners?
Think a read somewhere that Brendan Rodgers views opposition corners as an opportunity for Celtic to launch a counter attack.
If true then modern coaches actually view an opposition corner as an opportunity for the defending team to score from, as opposed to the team taking the corner.
HH.
Auroraborealis79
Boom! boom!
Were they playing the 12″ extended remix of ‘Going Underground’ while jammed in the carriage?
Tony, according to Andy Walker on sky sevco news yesterday, sevco have to stengthen to get through the europa league qualifiers next season.
Does he already know that sevco will get the uefa licence by saying that or am I too paranoid .
The SFA will do all they can , in my opionion, to get Uefa to grant them the licence even if its by a special dispensation.
The soft loans provided to them surely have to be questioned with regard to the financial fair play rules.
HOT SMOKED on 11TH APRIL 2017 5:20 PM
So Sevco , should they qualify on the field, might not be eligible to play in Europe next year?
If that is the case, be prepared for a raucous outcry from the hordes who will believe that everyone hates them and that those Fenians at the SFA are unfairly leading them to the slaughter.
If it is true that the SFA are finally doing their job properly, then good but the MSSM have been so wilfully negligent I suspect some form of social unrest is likely.
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I guess we can expect a caravan getting parked up at Hampden (Twadell Avenue style) any day soon.
What I have taken from Phil’s article is that the application has been sent back with a request that they make a fresh application, this time written by an adult….. Or at the very least someone a little more mature that a 5 year old.
Why are we wasting words on what may or may not happen to Sevco? Not to put to fine a point on it, they will be allowed to play in Europe and no amount of bed wetting by well intentioned people will stop the HSFA from waving them through.
The pleasure will be in watching them crash and burn on re-entry. HH
So Paul67 equates Celtic to Lincoln Red Imps on the European arena. Know your place peasants.
But will still take 10 in a row and the bigot buck at home.Know your place peasants.
The OF legitimization continues.
There is an ongoing corporate war of annihilation either directly or via abuse on the non tax paying peasantry of the world. A sort of peasant genocide forcing them into survival mode.(Refugees)
The remaining tax paying peasantry (you and me) are having our tax built infrastructure, education, health and social security systematically dismantled and robbed by the same corporate giants.
The ideological trick learned in WW2 from the corporate/financial conglomerates is that to maintain this trick is to have war and to fool the tax paying peasants that their survival and their culture depends on it. Hence racism and bigotry are encouraged. I see both sides of it on CQN every day
BEATBHOY on 11TH APRIL 2017 6:33 PM
Auroraborealis79
Boom! boom!
Were they playing the 12″ extended remix of ‘Going Underground’ while jammed in the carriage?
—-
Think it was the Carriage Crashers bootleg mix of Going Deeper Underground in The Night Train
JMcCormick
Re-entry?
I’d take more pleasure from seeing the rules applied to them for once, thanks.
And I hope the supporters of the other clubs feel the same, and remember the successful application of their power in 2012 when chairmen looked likely to vote Sevco into the top tier.
What is the star’s?
There had been Irish emigration. to the U.S. before the 1840s but the famine was the dynamic behind mass emigration. The earlier wave was comprised of Germans, Scandinavians and Irish. The next wave 1880-1920s was different. It included emigrants from southern and eastern Europe. But it also included once again the Irish
Despite the poverty and discrimination faced by the Irish in America it cannot be denied that there was more or less an open door policy for Irish immigrants for 80 or so years. It was only in the 1920s when the U.S. was again gripped by Nativism that there was any real impediment to Irish immigrants.
Hope big Judith is ok, not been on for ages….:((
Sandman @ 4.48
Great post.
So true.
BEATBHOY
Re- entry , was for literal effect. I takeyour point
However I truly feel they will get what they need. The force is powerful.
explosion reported on Borrussia Dortmund team Coach
Match looking likely to be cancelled
16 ROADS – CELTIC ÜBER ALLES… on 11TH APRIL 2017 6:27 PM
Speaking of corner kicks – in modern football – is winning a corner kick even an advantage nowadays?
Can’t find the Celtic stats anywhere – how many goals have we scored as a result of a corner, how many goals have been conceded due to opposition corners?
Think a read somewhere that Brendan Rodgers views opposition corners as an opportunity for Celtic to launch a counter attack.
If true then modern coaches actually view an opposition corner as an opportunity for the defending team to score from, as opposed to the team taking the corner.
HH.
————————————-
There have been a few games this season when teams have been sitting deep that an opposition corner has been a chance for Celtic to break at speed. I couldn’t tell how many goals we have scored but we certainly have produced a lot of chances.
Explosion in Dortmund ahead of CL game with Monaco
Reports of a player being injured. No reports on possible cause of explosion, as of yet.
Aurora
Dreadful news. Wonderful city and people.
Explosion hits bus carrying Borussia Dortmund team to Champions League match, injuring player Marc Barta, club says
Bombing team buses ffs, this is getting bad, there’s just no end to this barbaric behaviour, terrible so it is.
Game has to be cancelled.
Decision whether or not to go ahead with game will be taken at 7.30pm
BBC website now reporting explosion close to team bus at team hotel.
Hope the Tiffany branch of the Kafflik hating huns support aren’t planning on watching Juve and Barca. Tims aplenty on that park so I imagine telly’s will be getting smashed in all over Glesga as the various players bless themselves ! Classy shower ’em huns supporters !!
Fans in the stadium are on their phones, getting updates on the situation.
An official announcement on whether the game will go ahead is due at 19:30 BST.
There is reports it was a firecracker and it caused the window to smash
Match cancelled. Game being played tomorrow at 5.45.
Game postponed. Tomorrow mooted. HH
Dortmund game off.
Prediction, Juve 1 Barca 0
There are some absolute pricks in this world. Barca made a tweet, wishing injured Dortmund player well, eliciting for the most part a good response, one genius responds “I hope he is dead”,
People who post that sort of stuff need tracking down and prosecution. Sick Pricks.