It was only in February this year that the proposed Russia-Ukraine joint league first reached the stage of formal meetings between clubs to discuss the viability but tonight a showcase tournament between top clubs from each country gets underway tonight. It is hoped the formal joint league will start this time next year when the top nine teams from each country will form the Unified First League.
Despite discouragement from Fifa, Uefa have insisted only that proper procedures are followed to give their ascent to the league. Gazprom, the Russian energy giant and Uefa Champions League sponsor, has underwritten the project with a commitment of 1 billion euros per annum.
As we know, in football, money talks, and the Russian and Ukrainian clubs, together with their national associations and Uefa, have been talked happy to make change possible.
In order to become competitive with their rivals in the west while meeting Uefa Financial Fair Play rules, Russian and Ukrainian clubs need to increase income, which the Unified First League would go a long way towards. Uefa president, Michel Platini, has long accepted that regionalisation was a viable way forward for domestic leagues, while former powers in smaller leagues have become disenfranchised from the game’s top table.
What does it mean for us?
Well, we don’t have a Gazprom, not yet, anyway, but once Gazprom’s financial and political muscle establishes the principle of regionalisation, that principle is available to all. Former Yugoslavia countries are already in talks, while Scandinavian countries have already had a few abortive attempts at (underfunded) regional cup competitions.
The British region.
Welsh football has managed to retain its national identity, provide an infrastructure for provincial and community clubs, while federating with the FA in England to allow their larger (sic) clubs to find their competitive level.
The model is already established for Scottish football, which has realised living with one (or two for that matter) massive club which completely invalidates their league competition as a ‘competition’ is no longer the best way to order their affairs.
Financial recklessness caused the collapse of one club a year ago while the recklessness of a Lithuanian bank has put another in jeopardy. A handful of other top-flight clubs now realise their financial commitments, not to mention sporting objectives, are no longer viable, with or without the crumbs from the table thrown in their direction when TV cameras and a few thousand fans arrive a few times per season.
Federate with England, just as the Welsh did. It will bring ‘competition’ back to our competitions, put thousands of everyone’s gates and provide access to viable commercial contracts.
Why are our leagues and Association not speaking to the English about this right now? The Football League in England is every bit as much a basket case as Scottish football right now, they also need to change the structural model and, unlike the equally lunatic (English) Premier League, appear to be self-aware in this respect.
Go talk to the Welsh FA, Cardiff City, Swansea, Wrexham or New Saints FC (!) and ask them what organising their game along the lines of the Scottish model would do to them.
Scottish football must federate or it will die. As such, if we stand on the precipice of crisis, let’s make it a good one. It’s the only thing which will get things moving.
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Italy win here it wouldn’t be an upset going on their first half performance.
See the new Hun strip has those ridiculous five stars on the badge
I know I shouldn’t let them annoy me….their very existence does….but, this five stars farce is particularly irritating
Sipsini
Brill, hope jobo got it through the wee windmills and no went roon the sides…..
Jobo
Well done…tried for years and never had 1….
Kikinthenakas
IMO
Spain will be ground down
Italia will nick it
Pfayr:
Perhaps it represents the 5 way agreement?
Floridaghirl
My pleasure
Jobo, good on you getting a hole in one. It must have been the coaching I gave you at Aberdour:-)
Well done siree
Hai Hail.
New to this posting lark. How do you respond to a comment and show the original comment? Is there a technique or is it just copy and paste? I can do that all by myself.
New to this posting lark. How do you respond to a comment and show the original comment? Is there a technique or is it just copy and paste? I can do that all by myself.
New to this posting lark. How do you respond to a comment and show the original comment? Is there a technique or is it just copy and paste? I can do that all by myself.
Some quality comedy on here tonight :-)
Mcglumfer:
Reference to poster’s name and time of post usually suffices… x3 if desired :-)))
Mcglumpher
Like it bud.Are u a Sevconian?
Mark Hately says his son refusing a contract is like a new signing
Spain bringing on Jesus, I would say game over, lol
Jobo- Well done mucker, never had the pleasure of that particular achievement, only saw my first hole in one last year by one of Eurochamps’ mates.
Re Lorraine Herbison, “Clyde News can exclusively reveal that tomorrow is Friday”. Utterly useless.
Well done JoBo!
Rule 19 before next outing.
Jobo,
We need to see evidence.
Do you have a pic of the ball on the hole?
Well done
P
in obviously
Eve all.
Whats the stink today?
…..,PFayr,
Yer right, numbers are great but we need a landslide to drive this home, the initial ideal that the board deal with it before it gets to the floor of the AGM is probably naive, how much better would it be if other clubs decided to ask similar questions :o)
A wee secret, quite a few have joined this campaign by buying shares just to get on board, that IMO can only be good for the club as it drives the share price up.
Imagine other clubs following suit, this could turn out a better summer than last year, we just need to stop dreaming that everything will be alright if we just leave it to the suits.
Is it really surprising that the MSM are Hun sympathisers
Surprised ? ….not in the slightest
Don’t buy them , don’t listen to them ….don’t interact with them at all ….they’ll fester and die
Jobo – golf shot!
Make sure you put the star on your trews.
Burghbhoy
Young hately takes a smashing corner btw.
….pfayr
21:14 on 27 June, 2013
Is it really surprising that the MSM are Hun sympathisers
Surprised ? ….not in the slightest
Don’t buy them , don’t listen to them ….don’t interact with them at all ….they’ll fester and die
Lets hope sooner than they would like to think.
Italy to win on penalties
Seen on TSFM site
Charlotte Fakeovers says:
June 27, 2013 at 7:39 pm
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Sugar Daddy, [TSFM – Mind your manners when you post here please. Civility costs nothing at all, although it compulsory here.], earlier said:
I find it interesting that Charlotte can find the inane Lorraine Herbison stuff really quickly. I trust that lays to rest the “struggling through 15,000 pages of documents” baloney she’s been harping on about for weeks. To my mind Charlotte has always been just spin to help CW get his dough.
Sure some of the stuff is interesting, sure it proves what most of us already knew, sure it embarrases a few of the actors in this farce.
Is any of it “nuclear”?
Naw.
Come on Charlotte, prove me wrong.
—————————————————————————-
150,000 documents at least, not the 15k you refer to.
It’s painstaking work, and of course compounded by the fact that Craig Whyte is not the only person in this saga to have used an alias. SDM will know what I mean,
Gowff needs bigger holes imo!!
You do feel all Iniesta needed was a Messi run…
Most of the stuff Charlotte lets out we all knew, some new stuff but nothing that will make you jump out your seat, interesting but it’s about time she cranked it up a wee bit, it’s getting kinda boring now, she just becoming a tart that teases you ;)
west wales celt
21:06 on 27 June, 2013
Mcglumfer:
Reference to poster’s name and time of post usually suffices… x3 if desired :-)))
———————————————————————————————————-
I’ll try that, thank you
burghbhoy 21.06
No blue blood in my veins but you are quite right to check.
I can join the gang then or do you need my season book number?
for all the doubters…proof of Jobo’s hole in one
….PFayr 20:58:
5 stars on the front and 1872 on the back…they are doing it deliberately to say to the world et al GIRUY…and then a Bus Reg…R1 W(eera)T(he)P(eepil)…how sad, how insular they are, sad, sad, sad.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
McGlumfer:
‘Are you a hun’ is the traditional welcome for new posters, a leg-pull rather than an accusation from Burghbhoy me thinks…
ɹǝɟɯnlƃɔɯ
¿ǝʇsɐd puɐ ʎdoɔ ʇsnɾ
¿ǝʇsɐd puɐ ʎdoɔ ʇsnɾ
¿ǝʇsɐd puɐ ʎdoɔ ʇsnɾ
….PFayr
20:58 on
27 June, 2013
See the new Hun strip has those ridiculous five stars on the badge
I know I shouldn’t let them annoy me….their very existence does….but, this five stars farce is particularly irritating
I just think it makes them look even more stupid, and funnier.
Lennybhoy
Kidding themselves on …post revisionist nonsense
Quite embarrassing
Mata might get Juan
Lennybhoy
what’s this bus reg craic ?
Bournesoup:
Let he who has never multi-posted cast the first stone?