You’re not going to hear a defence of Stewart Regan from me. The job of CEO of the SFA is clearly too big for him, this has been evident for years. But to be fair, the job had been beyond most. Anyone capable of delivering high performance at the Association over the last five years shouldn’t be at the SFA, they should be achieving at a fast higher level.
I know some great candidates for the job but I wouldn’t wish it on them. The SFA CEO job is for a hit and run turnaround expert. Make everyone hate you, fix a small number of things and get out. Of Scotland. Even then, you’ll probably fail.
Anyone who thinks there are simple solutions to complex problems should stick to politics.
We’ll see how effective the old media are at undermining execs in our game. My guess is more than you might think.
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Good Afternoon.
Yes I see the Daily Record is ‘going big’ on forcing out Stewart Regan. And – of all things – it because of the Scotland team’s abysmal record on his watch. Fortunately, I have a plan to rescue Scottish football:
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/scotland-how-to-win-the-world-cup/
And what about Kris Boyd’s suggestion that all our problems are a result of Sevco being made to start in Division 3 in 2012? I fear he has been smoking too many Monster Munch:
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/the-kris-boyd-crisis/
Me!
Take the money,shaft it right up hunnery by telling the truth.
I’m in,where do I get a form?
I’d be vet curious to hear an explanation of why the clubs – especially Celtic – tolerate Regan
PAUL67
Your last paragraph is,erm,highly intriguing.
BMCUWP
Am in as well
Mon the Celtic Clique
GERRYFAETHEBRIG
Geezajob,I can do that(!)
Hello again all you young rebels.
MOOLOOLABA BHOY
Just in and reading back and saw your post, welcome to the
madhoose, our monthly Celtic shindig is this Sunday and the
gowf kicks off at 7 am and then everyone back to the bay for
the music and the banter which starts at 3.30 if you are looking
to play golf i will need to make a phone call in the morning to
see if there are any places left, let me know asap.
H.H Mick
Best laugh of the day ( so far )
” We know Mr Trump well , we have been selling him steel for a long time ” .
Spokesman for The Government of The People’s Republic of China responding to a question re Mr Trump ‘s words re restricting Chinese trade with the good ole US Of A
SOUTHOFTUNIS
Usually takes a bit longer to be called as a hypocrite.
Panic of yesterday over. Got a duplicate ticket from the TO in about a minute. I was the only one there. Never seen it so empty.
By the bye, there are NO tickets for the Barcelona game available. I asked.
Good Afternoon.
(Updated)
Picture the scene if you will.
At maybe 11:30 pm last night I find myself sitting with a cup of tea about ten rows back from the Directors box in the South stand at Celtic Park.
Immediately to my right sits The Angel Gabriel of this Parish, and slightly further on, in the row in front, sits The Minx. Immediately in front of her sits Hamilton Tim who is engaged in conversation with another Celtic Fan who is doing the sleep out.
It is always a pleasure and a privilege to sit and chat with big Fraser (Angel Gabriel) and last night we exchanged some views on something we have in common which affects our respective loved ones. Not an easy topic as it is health related.
However, in a change of topic the big man suddenly says:
“That;s the first time I have ever walked out of the Tunnell. Gee, even in the dark of night that is awesome. Hugely inspiring.” and he says the words somewhat like an awestruck child.
As we look down from the stand there are already about 60 or 70 folks laid out on the track beneath the South stand. They are lying on foil mats, huddled in sleeping bags, all along the track and out in the open. From what I can see no one looks comfortable.
Someone who is not on the track is Tom Boyd. He is not doing the sleep out and he makes it plain that soon enough he will be off to his nice warm bed and he promises me, with yon wicked grin of his, that he will think of me when his head hits the pillow.
The former Celtic Captain is here only to cheer on those who are sleeping out for charity.
Where, once upon a time, we all cheered him coming out of that tunnel and performing in this stadium, he is now here cheering on us in our 8-hour long performance.
In due course, he comes up to where we are sitting and Angel Gabriel tells him how mesmeric it was just to walk out of the tunnel, even at night and asks ” Does that thrill, that sense of excitement ever go away as you get more used to it?”
TB immediately replies “Never! Every single time it just gets you.” he says and adds ” You should try it when this place is full. You can be in the huddle and, as captain, you can be speaking the greatest words you have ever spoken to someone who is no more than 10 feet away and you know they just can’t hear you!”
Tom stays and chats awhile but eventually moves on making sure that he has a word with every single person there, whether they are on their own or in a wee group like ours.
Earlier on, Tony Hamilton (CEO of the Foundation) expresses his gratitude to everyone who is taking part and Dermot Hill, from The Invisibles charity, says a few words about homeless people who sleep rough. How they might not speak to a single person during a whole day or for several days. How many, at times, see no hope, no future, no way of changing things and, worst of all, how many of them just feel forgotten.
What we are doing this evening helps by providing clothes, toiletries, food, sleeping bags and most of all some human kindness and personal contact which can and will make a real difference to some.
I have known, laughed, drank and played football with Dermot for over 30 years ; know how he hates speaking in front of any audience and how making such a speech is a real effort for him, and I watch as he gets slightly emotional as the plight of the homeless really gets to him.
For him, starting the Invisibles was sheer personal choice. Something should be done. Had to be done.
Anyone who reads the Jack Reacher novels knows that Reacher has an internal clock which lets him know immediately what time it is. This is not such a far-fetched notion.
Personally, my internal clock wakes me up regularly at precisely 4:20am.
I did not sleep a wink last night (Saturday) but at precisely 4:20am I find myself all alone sitting in the very back row of the South Stand and I am alone with my thoughts.
In the pitch dark, immediately opposite me, on the facing of the giant North stand, beam the bright green letters which simply say:
CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB
The green letters illuminate the dark and those three words sort of float there like a huge announcement in the dark of night.
Celtic Football Club.
Looking down, I now see Minx with her head on HT’s shoulder wrapped in a foil blanket. Both appear to be asleep. Angel Gabriel is nowhere to be seen and I presume he has gone for a lie down somewhere between the rows of seats, as have many others.
It has gotten colder now.
Down on the track, in the main all is till. People are asleep or simply lying there.
I sit with a cup of tea and look down over the vastness of Celtic park and I see the dark, that great big green announcement and I see friend and stranger alike.
I am as at home in that moment as I would be if I were in my own living room.
I don’t feel the cold though others say they are feezing.
Foundation staff are seated nearer the front of the stand wrapped up as best they can be in sleeping bags and blankets. One (Thomas Buchanan) says his nose is frozen off! JaneMaguire is texting or tweeting but definitely not sleeping — she can’t sleep in these conditions. Her 68 year old mother, on the other hand, is somewhere down on the track under a foil blanket. She manages a couple of hours.
Inside the tunnel area there are Stewards. One of them is “Big Jim” who I have seen at many events and working various sections of the ground and at the ticket office. He is talking to a guy in his seventies from Grangemouth.
You sometimes forget that many of the Stewards are fans and Jim’s discussion with others about players past and present reveals a Celtic man with knowledge.
Eventually I ask the chap from Grangemouth:
” Do you know Davy Morrison?”
” Oh a crabbit oul B****rd?” Says he with a good-humoured laugh.
“Aye that’s him!” Says I
And so he goes on to talk about Old Tim and the last time he saw him ( His name was McManus, Davy)
After, a long chat with various others I head out once again to my perch at the top of the South stand as that is where I have my flask of tea.
CELTIC FOOTALL CLUB still beams out in the dark and again I look down and see people getting on with this as best they can. Some chat: Some sleep: Some shuffle around or toss and turn: Two girls are having a mighty tussle with the foil blankets and from up here they look like two giant Turkeys trying to find an escape route out of the tin foil.
My mind wanders to those who sponsored me to do this. Messages from Hrvatski Jim, Billybhoy, Jobo and a wee personal and very kind message from Tony Donnelly who lost a close friend to bad circumstances and the elements. A message signed “Bono” and another which read “Sincerely L. Cohen”.
There are many others. Too many to name. But all personal. All are here with me in mind and spirit if not in body. There is more than just me up on these seats in the back row. I am just their representative.
I think of the generosity of the Greenock Celtic Supporters Club, ACGR, the guys behind the Celtic Anthology Book, and all sorts of individuals.
A short time later, down on the track people are beginning to stir. Maybe they slept, maybe they didn’t, but they all look bone weary, cold, unnatural, and out of their comfort zone to varying degrees.
What they have just endured is neither natural to them or normal.
This wasn’t the worst of nights, the weather wasn’t at its worst and shelter was nearby with paramedics and safety near at hand. Yet it wasn’t a picnic either. It was an endurance event and every single person there will be much more comfortable tonight.
Inside, we have breakfast, there is a wee speech of thanks from Tony Hamilton and then people start to head off.
Dermot, myself, Big Jim the Steward, Jane Maguire and her mammy Jennifer Livingstone and the ever present Paul McErlane, whose kindness one night towards myself and Whitedighunch in our hour of need will never be forgotten, start to get together the sleeping bags and foil mats which are to go to The Invisibles.
We have to bag the rubbish and take the good stuff down to the cars. I find it hard work. I am sleep deprived and I am now feeling it. I am tired. I say cheerio to various people and after all are gone just a few of us remain to clear away the sleeping bag evidence that we were ever there at all. There is a lot of it. We fill three cars.
Hopefully, the bags and mats will help some homeless folk get through other nights like this one where they huddle in doorways and under bridges instead of under a stand or on the track of a football stadium.
While the sleeping bags etc may help the physical condition, what of the emotional and mental one?
As I say final goodbyes I can’t help think of how some found tonight cold and uncomfortable and imagine how they would feel if they had to do this regularly and on their own away from the banter, chat and humour that we shared as a group?
Being physically uncomfortable is one thing, but the mental and emotional torture of having no home to look forward to, no warm bed to go to, no warm shower to look forward to, no partner to love and be loved by (that doesn’t happen in homeless land on the street), no real friends to chat to, no worthwhile regular income to rely on, no tomorrow that spells “opportunity” and worst of all a constant erasure of hope and the feeling that nobody cares and that you are all alone — so completely alone.
That is the killer. That is what does for the homeless and the under privileged and the hungry. That erosion of the spirt and soul and the joy of your fellow man. Eventually, over time, that will suck all the hope out of you and kill you!
How do you counter that? How do you make that better?
Dawn is breaking over Celtic Park as I swing my car round in the car park. I am the last to leave as even the stewards have gone.
I reflect on the fact that the funds raised tonight will help 250 local families who face real hardship, and that homeless people will be given some cheer and some comfort in the winter months which might just help in the short term at least.
I think of those who took part, those who organised and those who sponsored, friend and stranger. What they did, why they did it and who they did it for and what else could be done for those whose spirits may be broken.
I wonder what help exists for those who are far less fortunate than me – far les fortunate than all of us?
The car turns and in the half-light of the early morning, the headlights catch a sign which describes a place, a group of people both friend and stranger, a belief and a ray of hope.
It reads CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB ……….. like a huge announcement!
If you want to donate, play a part and make a difference, you still can.
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/jamesmcginley2
The press do really talk to people like they are idiots.
“Scotland need a strong Rangers”
Hugh Keevins is a bumhole experiencing a very upset stomach.
Auldheid
You asked earlier if it mattered whether Stewart Regan was ousted due to the perceived failure of the Scottish National team or due to Res 12. I for one believe it does matter. If he is seen to lose his job due to the situation with the Scottish national team rather than due to any pressures from any fallout from Resolution 12, assuming Celtic PLC decide to do anything, then will anything change with regards future administration and enforcement of existing rules to stop bias and maleficence occurring again?
If it is deemed he lost his job due to a wee pishy national team playing pish frequently then nothing will change. Our club will be given an excuse to say, hey look the bad guy is gone and it’s all going to change so we will keep our powder dry a wee bit longer AGAIN, gonny buy season books please.
MWD
Congratulations to Etims on there Biswamoyopterus laoensis discovery
I suppose after they had burned their bridges with Paul and Phil around the Resolution 12 Guardian ad time it had to be Etims this time.
Ever decreasing circles our Trump sympathetic board are operating in.
HH
Perhaps the CEO of the SFA has done exactly the job he was employed to do. When looked at through the metric of his ever rising pay and conditions it would appear some influential people must have thought he was doing a good job.
Cathedral…,
Bingo
MWD
The aim has to be SFA reform and that is no small task as Paul says, but that does not make it impossible.
One model Ive mentioned often is at
http://celticunderground.net/sfa-reform-one-down-three-to-go/
It requires a Service Supplier/Customer relationship to be set up.
The SFA supply the service the leagues and through them the supporters are the customers.
Such a set up guarantees a change of culture and whilst it may cost a bob or two to implement the return from having a professional run game would be worth it.
The first step would be to stop denying that change is essential and explore alternatives.
Aw Naw
Flying squirrels can get shot down. I think that was the intent.
Couple of pieces for your fine selves today …. first on Boyd.
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/11/blogs/kris-boyd-barely-has-the-iq-for-football-only-in-scotland-could-he-get-a-newspaper-column/
And now on the story of the day …
Regan has failed at every level of the SFA, turning our national association into a corrupt joke. It’s scandalous he’s remained in post for this long, to be honest … but the media has no right calling for his head when they’ve helped keep him there this long.
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/11/blogs/stewart-regan-deserves-to-be-sacked-but-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-national-team/
Auldheid
That though does not cover my point and the point you asked the question on.
Does it matter whether Stewart Regan loses his job due to the performance of the Scottish National team or due to pressures from Resolution 12?
If it is the later you may see, in the future with a fight, something that leans toward the reform that you hope for. If he leaves due to a pishy team playing pish again then it is business as usual for the foreseeable and the PLC will happily play along.
MWD
Plus Auldheid, your model measn that a lot of jackets will have to be hung up for good with jollies being restricted across the country. Do you see a day the hauns will shake and squeeze and let that happen?
MWD
MOONBEAMSWD ‘STAND UP ON 15 FOR THE GB’ on 14TH NOVEMBER 2016 1:47 PM
Although they could sack him for the former, whilst really knowing it was the latter. This would allow them to appoint a reformist without actually admitting the faults actually occurred in the 1st place.
Surely it’s “Kris Boyd barely has the IQ OF a football.”
When I was a kid I had an Abbey National savings account with a passbook that had a squirrel on it. So I associate squirrels with good things.
But now squirrels are bad? I find that distressing.
Cue BMCUWP sending me a picture of a squirrel that has had an unforunate accident (again). Does that mean I’m in the squirrel clique Bobby? Squirrels have reddish coats (shirts!)…almost brown though…
This is just nuts.
Weeminger
In your honest opinion, do you expect that would happen?
To me this has a nice blue rinse all over it with the media wash it is getting.
MWD
MWD
I should have made it clearer that the aim of Res12 as I see it is SFA reform so ousting Regan on other grounds and by so doing preventing reform would not be my choice.
I agree the set up is asking turkeys to vote for Xmas but when you are already in a hot oven postponing Xmas might begin to look attractive. :)
I agree a thankless task at the SFA, but no excuse for Regan. Imagine being ‘disliked’ by the Celtic side of the city for decades and decades of underhanded support for Rangers and its progeny, from a ‘Bowling Club’ hierarchy. Only to be now ‘disliked’ by the *Rangers side of the city for not keeping them in the top division, perceived lack of support, and whatever else they’ve dreamed up. This of course feeds the myth that ‘they’re both as bad as each other’ a huge personal bugbear of mine…
MOONBEAMSWD ‘STAND UP ON 15 FOR THE GB’ on 14TH NOVEMBER 2016 2:00 PM
In my honest opinion? No.
I live in hope however.
Cue Mr Stewart Robinson.
Let’s face it. Currently every professional body in this land is corrupted by handshakery and finger presurery with a bit of trouser leg lifting nipple bearing maleficence. Why would any of us believe, whether the SFA became a professionally ran body akin to what Aulheid would like to see, which in any other land would work, will make a lodge of a difference.
MWD
Cathedral View,
Not only pay rises but to ensure any newly employed C.E does not become too honest. Hence why a 5 way agreement architect has to become the next president.
HH
Stewart Regan will be presented with a fine bottle of tequila on his last day in the office. Not everyone will sign his official leaving card and he may get a secret second card from the board, but Sandy Bryson has said there is nothing wrong with this.
MOONBEAMSWD 219
Dammit,I attend that meeting every second Wednesday to meet like-minded people.
I’m totally scunnered that my good nature has been taken advantage of. Not to mention my nipples,foreskin and nasal hair. Et al.
And the goat.
How much for the negatives?
An Teach Solais
You are welcome , I prefer the mystery of the Irish moniker than Lighthouse.
BMCUWP
You in another clique? How many is that?
MWD
And turkey has a point it’s like we’ve come full circle and PL has bowed out to allow the the next Hun to take his place as SFA president with Dixon as replacement CEO job done and normal service resumed all with the help of our own
The French call a fold-out sofa bed a “clic-clac”. Make of that what you will…
Paul 67
The clubs including Celtic have allowed Regan to do what he does, and, recently he had a pay rise, for him to be pressured into leaving because of the National team is a slap in the face to us who know what he has been up to and will not be an acceptable solution for me.I hope this is not the route our board are hoping for, a complete gutting of Hampden is the only solution for me, I would close the midden that is Hampden and play cup finals and internationals across the country, the body that is the SFA is full of blazers who are happy to be wearing a blazer and provide nothing to football. Overrated does not come close to their capabilities
The professional game here needs to be run by a Professional Body independent of all clubs with appointments made from a selection process carried out by independent people, no handshakes getting you up the greasy pole.
The number of senior clubs need to be sustantially reduced but with the opportunity for clubs to enter the upper leagues if they are good enough.