SFA keen to change others while retaining their architect of destruction

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SFA chief executive, Stewart Regan, clearly sees opportunity among the carnage that is Scottish football at the moment as he leaked plans to ambush clubs into a radical overhaul of the league structures to the media yesterday.

Henry McLeish made several recommendations in his paper on the future of our game, one of which was for a smaller professional setup of two leagues (SPL 1 and SPL 2), sitting on top of a grass-roots pyramid of community based clubs, as well as a 10-team top division.  I agreed with both recommendations but relegation-dodgers in the SPL refused to countenance such a deal.

While it seems a 10-club top division is as far away as ever, the SFA are keen to push through a SPL 2 proposal before the start of the new season, something which borders on ultra-ambitious.

An unattributed SFA source (surely Regan himself) briefed BBC’s Jim Spence on their plans but the language was curious:

“Someone has to take a lead and sort out the internal bickering and point scoring and also to ensure that the Rangers situation never happens again.

“We need to use the mood for change among supporters in the country to tackle the current inertia and do what is right for the game.

“Change has to be democratic, but the time for talking has passed. We need action now to save the game.

“The fans are demanding fundamental change. The Rangers situation has intensified the need for a resolution and, over the next few weeks, we will meet with the SPL and SFL to find a solution.”

In order to “ensure the Rangers situation never happens again”, why don’t the SFA start by ensuring former directors of Rangers, who participated in the controversial EBT scheme which precipitated the crisis, are removed from the SFA board?

The SFA president received loans from Rangers EBT which he did not repay despite the club going bust last week.  There is a belief that those loans were never meant to be repaid and that many of Rangers EBT loans were accompanied by written confirmation that they were never to be repaid, making these ‘loans’ an illegal tax scam.

The SFA chief executive claimed to have investigated and cleared the president of any wrong-doing.  No one else is aware of this investigation.  There is a suspicion that all he did was listen to the president’s version of events, compounding an already dreadful situation for the SFA.

We would love to hear how Mr Ogilvie explained why he didn’t repay his loan.

Two weeks ago we spoke about the SFAs inadequate corporate governance on these matters.  If only corporate governance was the extent of the problem, they appear quite shameless.

“Someone has to take the lead…. tackle the current inertia and do what is right for the game”.

Sack the clown before you start to preach to the rest of the game.

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  1. sannabhoy on 18 June, 2012 at 05:34 said:

     

    ………..

     

    Morning Sannabhoy, like the new KF scarves, I’m having one of them.

     

    We’re both still recovering from the Derry weekend :>)

     

    I take it you’ve been enjoying their demise.

     

    HH

  2. *THE KING VIC 67* on

    Why are ex huns receiving RENEWAL forms????

     

     

    They are extinct!!!

     

     

    What does HMRC think of this????

     

     

    What exactly are they renewing????

     

     

    Stupid huns

  3. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    skyisalandfill on 18 June, 2012 at 01:37 said:

     

     

     

    Finding it hard to keep up with the blog right now, so apologies if I’ve missed something earth shattering or stumbled upon a songs debate or a how evil was maggie thatcher fest.

     

    Going to a funeral tomorrow.

     

    The unfortunate chap getting buried is an old friend of about 20 years, an Aberdeen fan who hated rangers slightly more than he hated Celtic.

     

    Nobody knows for sure but he stepped out in front of the bus from Inverness to Aberdeen.

     

    Great bloke with a passion for AFC , a great sence of humour and a talent for cryptic crosswords

     

    I remember being on a training course with him when he got so drunk that he was unable to put the key in his hotel room door and fell asleep in the hotel corridor.

     

    I’m not religious so won’t do the whole praying thing but RIP Graham. Good man even though your team is awful and

     

    Your manager is a funny handshake type.

     

    HH

     

    SIALF

     

    ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

     

    He sounds like some fella,you’ll miss him a lot.

     

     

    Raise a few glasses to his memory and tell a few tales like the above.

     

     

    We should all have friends like Graham.

  4. Tom McLaughlin on 18 June, 2012 at 05:48 said:

     

    ……..

     

    Tom I’m not so sure copying MONS style in this case is ideal. In Lennys early years as manager he should be working with the players constantly, introducing his ideas, concepts and ensuring the coaching staff are on side with his training methods, it’s where his man management skills will be formed and honed.

     

    Im sure MON initially spent more time on the training ground like Brian Clough did before him.

     

    HH

  5. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    SPARKLEGHIRL 0601

     

     

    Careful now,yu’ll upset PHILVISRETURNS with posts like that.

     

     

    I don’t see how a scorched-earth,slash-and-burn approach to the economy will work,and I doubt there are any successful precedents,but,hey,what do I know?

     

     

    Spain is a very strange case though,as it largely avoided the financial side of the crisis then sleepwalked into it by ignoring a spiralling unemployment rate and property crash.

     

     

    It has been able to see the effects on other states,but seems now to want to follow the same road to civil unrest and economic ruin?

     

     

    Utter madness,IMO.

  6. •-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-• on

    In much of Europe there is no safety net, unlike the UK.

     

     

    Benefits may be more generous initially but are time limited – here the maximum is 2 years, no matter how long you’ve worked and contributed. After that, nothing, nada, zilch. If you don’t have family who can support you, you’re on the street and begging.

     

     

    There is a lot worse still to come.

  7. •-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-• on

    Correction (in case anyone is notpicking) – after your two years is up you can apply for a few months of a minimal subsistence payment. It’s not much and when it runs out, that really is the end of the line.

     

     

    As you were.

  8. •-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-• on

    nitpicking. nitpicking. not notpicking

  9. Club-12

     

    What a pity they didn’t pick Club-XXX.

     

    Given the expert legal advice RFCil took which landed them in this sh*t and his new profession….

     

    :-)

  10. Jean-Alain Boumsong

     

     

    “When I discovered it I first

     

    refused to sign the contract,” he

     

    told The Sun . “It’s important to be

     

    able to sleep at night without fear

     

    of being chased by the tax office.”

     

    “My salary was paid normally, but

     

    there was a trust. I was not

     

    comfortable with that, to be

     

    honest. I didn’t know anything

     

    about it until the day I was going

     

    to sign.

     

    “When I discovered it I first

     

    refused to sign the contract and

     

    said: ‘what is this?’ I didn’t want

     

    to sign because it seemed

     

    strange, we don’t have that kind

     

    of payment in France and I

     

    didn’t know anything about it.”

     

    Boumsong added: “When I left

     

    Rangers, for example, to sign for

     

    Newcastle, it was for a normal

     

    contract with normal payment but

     

    the day I was signing for Rangers I

     

    was told it was legal.

     

    “I was not comfortable with it,

     

    because it wasn’t a normal way of

     

    payment, but I was told it was

     

    fine.

     

    “As players we don’t know

     

    everything about the law but my

     

    advisors said: ‘it’s okay, you can

     

    sign it. It’s legal’.

     

    “I wouldn’t have signed otherwise.

     

    If I thought it was wrong legally I

     

    wouldn’t have gone. It’s important

     

    to be able to sleep at night without

     

    any fear of being chased by the tax

     

    office.”

  11. Jeez, are there any Oban CQNers around? Need to get shot of all this bunting around town, butchers aprons everywhere.

     

     

    No to Newclub playing anywhere

     

     

    HH

  12. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. See no evil.

     

     

    The Three Wise Monkeys.

     

     

    My mum used to have on of the above effigies take pride of place sitting on our mantle place. I always hated it and never understood why they were thought to be wise. For me it was a bloody stupid idea to dismiss evil by refusing to recognise or speak of it. It was a horrible, grotesque monument to look at. But the notion of ignoring evil is far more horrible and grotesque than the physical features of the monument. To my mind evil must be recognised otherwise it will go on undettered allowed to fester and destroy all that is good in its path. I never believed that effigy brought anything good to our home.

     

     

    One day however I picked it off the mantle took it out the back door and put it in the bin. An act that went unnoticed, or at least uncommented upon. Growing up I always found it strange that something that took apparent pride of place in our home went without comment after it disappeared. A few years before my mum died I asked her about it, to be told she was given it as a present but was glad to see the back as she did not like it. She disliked it so much that she went about her day trying not to look at it but she could not bring herself to throw it out because it was given to her as a present but also because she did not like touching it.

     

     

    Kinda reminds me of the current plight of Scottish football. There’s something there that no one likes. The media, the sports governance and x-Rangers/Sevco 5088 Ltd remind me so much of that effigy.

     

     

    It’s time for someone to throw them out.

     

     

    MWD

  13. Top of the morning from a bright and sunny Fife.

     

     

    Ref the Sun revelations I suppose Boumsong will be sending his Scottish League Championship medal for season 2004/05 back since he won it by financial doping?

     

     

    The Cheats won the league by one point IIRC.

  14. Shorthouse to head up the no campaigne for independence, got me reconsidering my vote now

  15. Whits the news on players out? Specifically Paddy McC, I would like him to stay with us but only if Lenny can make good use of him over the four competitions we’re in.

     

    HH

  16. Fantasma is Neil Lennon on

    Does Sky know something we don’t ?

     

    Just reported “we’ll be live to ‘rangers’ , as the SPL fixtures are announced, but ‘rangers’ won’t be in them” …… cut to camera outside Hampden.

     

     

    Club 12 must be Dundee. Anything else and the game’s a bogey.

     

     

    Oh, and Happy Birthday to me. :-)

  17. Cracking day on the NW coast, zero wind and blue sky with little cloud, gonnae be a day for the garden later.

     

    DBBIA I don’t think any hill billy boys are on pal.

     

    HH

  18. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    Many Happy Returns to Fantasma.

     

    A.Samaras, Greek politician, can be distinguished from G.Samaras, Greek ghod and Hoopslegend by the former’s lack of lovely hair.

  19. The Spirit of Arthur Lee on

    Morning All last day in my job and off to pastures new tomorrow

     

     

    Any more Lantern pics?

  20. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    SOAL- good luck in your new job.

     

    It’s about time we had someone decent runnin’ the ole SFA.

  21. Invercelt on 17 June, 2012 at 23:49 said:

     

    Ernie,

     

    ‘I feel flattered that you’ve asked me (maybe I shouldn’t!). The answer is that I’m not sure, but I’d guess that as the Greek economy is relatively small, the effect wouldn’t be great. It would be greater if German banks held lots of Greek debt, but so far as I know it’s France rather than Germany that has that problem.’

     

     

     

    But if the dominoes start falling are they not eventually going to knock over the German economy?

  22. DBBIA – Currently on a train going through Carnforth en route to Manchester.

     

    Passed through ole D&G earlier & on a morning like this it’s easy to see why you refer to it as Shangri La.