It would be easy for Celtic to take their eye of the ball. A huge Scottish Cup game at Tannadice last week, which was more difficult than the score-line suggests, before Neil Lennon had what will have been a few traumatic days. The tension in the west of Scotland ahead of next weekend’s game at Ibrox is already tangible; in truth, we could do with some quiet preparation time ahead of tomorrow’s Scottish Communities League Cup Final against Kilmarnock.
Kilmarnock have no such worries. The Cup Final tomorrow is their season. Out of the Scottish Cup and certain to finish in the bottom six of the SPL, their focus will be absolute tomorrow. Kenny Shiels’ team have won only four league games since October but you will not need me to tell you two of those victories were against Rangers.
Two home wins within six days against Rangers and Aberdeen, the latter on 3 December, suggested Killie were certain to challenge for a European place this season, but things have moved south since then. They beat St Mirren on 2 January at Rugby Park before that impressive performance dumped Rangers on their bums at Ibrox last month.
Kenny Shiels made it onto Radio Scotland during the week to tell the nation that Celtic were so good it would be a travesty if they didn’t win the treble. I totally agree (and I’m warming to this guy) but Kenny knows exactly what he is doing. He intends to win the cup tomorrow and will know every potential weakness in the Celtic team.
History suggests he has a decent chance. Since winning five consecutive finals (until 1969), Celtic competed in 20 finals, winning only seven. We have some form to make up in this tournament.
Issue 7 of CQN Magazien is out now! Go to the dedicated magazine site here to read it properly (which you’ll not be able to do below).
We are now shipping hard copies of the magazine from the UK – and sold out last month (unlike Rangers tickets last week). Order your copy by clicking on the link below. If you want a copy shipped overseas (note, seas, not sees) email me, celticquicknews@gmail.com (for Britain and Ireland please use the link below).
Pay by card or Paypal.
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here. Thanks to James, Bart, Bobby and David, all of whom are probably still asleep, and everyone who contributed.
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Moonbeams WD. Kano 1000 \o/ Supporting Neil Lennon 100%. Eating Jelly & Ice Cream. Awe Naw… on 18 March, 2012 at 07:21 said:
KevJungle
Hear bloody Hear.
The miserable love to share misery.
They have nothing else to share.
COME ON YE BHOYS IN GREEN.
SSN say the PEOPLE has a report on Celtic looking to join Div 1 in England.
Any details? Nothing online as far as I can see.
MWD
Fine day. The Merchant Square atmospere was excellent but we couldn`t get a table anywhwere. Ended up having a ” A Winter GardenFish Tea” at the People`s Palace! Surprisingly good. Off up the Hills now. This Final could be another nail in the “Scottish Football needs Rangers” coffin.
Hail! Hail!
JJ
For any interested parties, I received this
Dear Mr …………
One of the biggest weeks of the season lies ahead for Neil Lennon and his players, and Celtic TV is taking supporters right to the heart of the action FOR FREE in a special week-long trial.
From Monday, March 19, to Friday, March 23, the club’s official online channel is free to watch for all Celtic supporters and we could hardly have picked a better time, with a cup final and a big derby date taking place during an intense and important week!
It’s easier than ever before to watch the Celtic TV freeview content. All you have to do is visit http://www.celticfc.tv and select what you want to watch in the freeview section – you don’t have to register, login or give us any of your details.
During the five-day trial you’ll be able to watch our nightly news show, the Huddle Online, which will have all the news, highlights and reaction from the Scottish Communities League Cup final against Kilmarnock and will look forward to next weekend’s big game against our derby rivals.
The Huddle Online features exclusive first-team interviews, match highlights, classic match action, exclusive highlights and reaction from Development Squad and Under-19 games and a host of other behind-the-scenes footage from both Lennoxtown and Celtic Park.
You’ll also be able to watch the entire cup final from 3pm on Monday and any media conferences and special features in full.
The trial begins this Monday, March 19, so make sure you spread the word and visit http://www.celticfc.tv to watch our post-cup final show and find out what else the club’s official online channel has to offer.
Not a big F1 fan, but the setting for the Australian grand prix looks stunning.
A very Good Morning.
Sun shining, ticket already in the jacket pocket.
Prepare breakfast for my lovely wife on behalf of the boys and then go and see my wee maw first thing.
Then I have my well earned jelly & ice cream party at the pub prior to the game.
HH
Regarding Celtic applying to play in England.
Lennon was asked if his team could cope in England, he said yes.
Media might have done the 2+2= Celtic in England!
A son of Dan
enjoy yer day. Jealous, not only that you are going to the game, but that you can visit your wee maw. I will be home next week tho’ and will see my mum then.
Good luck today.
MWD
Re Muamba
BBC say he is in ICU, next 24hours crucial, maybe chance of brain damage due to lack of Oxygen when heart stopped beating..
Think all fans will chant his name at match today…
Seeing some comments on someone saying something about the Ibrox game next week but I can’t find the origin when I search back…
Who has said what about the game next week?
Thanks if someone could enlighten me!
nah bt
Morning all from the sunny Costa Blanca.
I´m 63 today & after a so far hectic weekend i´m feeling every minute of it.
Good luck to Celtic & all our great support today.
God bless Celtic.
jackie mac
GL2 texted me back Friday night..
Bridie Gallachers just down from station or one up from station the jungle?
I’ll pm rocco who lives in Brae, get back to you as quick as I can.
Sky contracts. Complicit Celtic etc….
Has anyone seen the sky contact. Does anyone know anyone who has? Have the old media muddied the water with this?
My understanding the contracrt refers to the right of sky to show 4 old firm (sic) games with reference to the contents of the contractual package they have, split between sky and espn. Sky get all 4 – or however many there are- and Espn get to show games at east end park.
Good to see PL still getting it though. As rangers devour themselves it’s still his fault. Stunning.
Neil Lennon: My Bhoys could hold their own in England
Published on Sunday 18 March 2012 01:06
NEIL Lennon is confident his Celtic team could hold their own in England, and believes the Premiership is not as far ahead of the Scottish game as it is often claimed.
And he is convinced some of his most promising young players will reach the very top.
Asked if he thought 20-year-old Kenyan midfielder Victor Wanyama could go all the way to the highest level in the game, he replied: “I think so. I think James Forrest (pictured) definitely could. He could go now. I think Wanyama could go now. Adam Matthews could go and play at a higher level. I think Thomas Rogne has got a bit of work to do to get there, but he is in a really good place at the minute.
“Charlie Mulgrew could play Premier League, Joe Ledley, Gary Hooper, Anthony Stokes, Georgios Samaras. The majority of them could play Premier League.
“It would be wrong for me to single any of them out, because you just don’t know where they are going to be in four or five years but, at the minute, I would have no problem taking this team to the Premier League and playing.”
The prospect of the Old Firm competing in the English top flight arises from time to time but Lennon insisted he was not trying to revive that debate and had “no idea” if it was still a possibility. “All I know is that people keep saying the English League is so far ahead of the Scottish one, and in some respects it is but this team could play in the English Premier League from what I have seen.
“They would do all right. I don’t know where we would be, but I don’t think we would get relegated.”
“Not just the quality but the prestige, the name, the support, the tradition, the history,” he continued when asked what he thought Celtic could add to the Premier League.
Lennon had a traumatic start to last week, when he was a pallbearer at the funeral of his friend Paul McBride QC on Monday then gave evidence in the trial of two men who are accused of attempting to murder him. He insisted, however, that his team’s preparation for today’s League Cup final against Kilmarnock has not suffered.
“The start of the week was very difficult, but preparations really don’t start until two or three days before a game. There’s not a lot you can talk about on a Monday or Tuesday. On a personal level, yes, it was a tough couple of days, but it is over and done with and I have got something to really get my teeth into. I have lost a good friend and I will deal with that in my own way but, as regards my job, it won’t affect that one bit
timbhoy
many happy returns. Have a great day
one happy bhoy this morning..
I stayed in yesterday so no hangover….
let the merryment commence…well after church and Mrs BT breakfast…
might catch a few of you in KSC club in G72 pre match
jackie mac
rosco will be in touch soon..
BT thanks
it’s for the 7th April league game, I wasn’t thinking- sorry.
jackie mac
if you email me at blantyretim@aol.co.uk I will give you his mobile number and you can contact him..
twists n turns
Thanks very much pal.
HH
happy birthday timbhoy
do what the locals do
go for a coffee with the wee half in it… a nice wee jag first thing in the morning..
Ogilvie’s mea culpa…
* Admits to having an EBT
* Admits to signing player contracts
* Denies any knowledge of impropriety
* Acknowledges potential conflict of interest (but not enough to make him stand down, even temporarily)
* Has a dig at “anti-Rangers” people… (does he mean us?)
CAMPBELL Ogilvie has built a reputation on being efficient, inoffensive and uncontroversial.
Last night, amid the turmoil which has suddenly engulfed his SFA presidency, he sought to salvage it with a personal, impassioned plea in his own defence as he laid bare his involvement in the Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) scheme at Rangers from the mid 1990s onwards. Many – particularly those who inhabit the murky world of phone-ins and internet forums – feel Ogilvie, an Ibrox employee for 27 years and director until 2005, is compromised by the ongoing SPL inquiry into non-disclosure of payments made to players since the scheme’s launch in 1998, and the imminent First Tier Tax Tribunal into the propriety of such arrangements which could cost Rangers £49 million. The questions against his own probity are serious enough that a statement issued by the SFA on his behalf late on Thursday afternoon never seemed likely to suffice.
In revealing more details about his role in the affair, Ogilvie, also a former director at Hearts, admitted he had received three amounts of £5000 from the scheme between 2001 and 2003, in addition to a one-off sum from the scheme of £80,000 upon his departure from the club in 2005. All of these amounts are classed as “discretionary” soft long-term loans, with repayments which do not kick in until some unspecified future date, with Ogilvie understood to have legal letters at the time to indemnify himself against any future action on the matter. Although he claims to have had no involvement in drafting, negotiating or administrating player contracts from the mid-90s, he is aware he is tainted by association and knows a judgment in HMRC’s favour next month could leave him in a difficult position.
“Let’s deal with that when it comes up,” Ogilvie said. “I was a director of the club until 2005 so I know about fiduciary duty et cetera even if I wasn’t involved directly in the drafting of contracts or EBTs. At the moment that is hypothetical. As far as I was concerned they were legally set up with the backing of the accountants and the lawyers and they were operated legally.
“I can’t remember [who offered me my EBT] but I didn’t give it too much thought at the time. I don’t have to give you the figures but there are all sorts of suggestions out there. I got three payments between 2001 and 2003. It was a £5000 payment on each of those dates and then on the termination of my employment, as part of my settlement, I got a figure of £80,000. So I knew the EBT scheme was in place but I didn’t know the extent and which players had them. I didn’t believe they were risky quite simply because at the time they came in, I think in 2001, the Murray Group took a lot of legal and accountancy and tax advice.”
Not that he doesn’t have regrets about the whole issue. Use of the EBTs was a mechanism employed by the wider Murray Group, but as one of seven directors reporting to Murray, Ogilvie wishes he had been more questioning about their use in the club. “I might not have been involved in the bigger decisions but I’m not going to go and hide from the fact I was a director,” Ogilvie said. “At no time would I say I didn’t have responsibility. At the time I tended to get on with what I did. Looking at the situation the club finds itself in now, I regret very much this has happened. Maybe I should have questioned things more.”
He was in communication with Sir David Murray as recently as Tuesday, but has never met Mike McGill, Murray’s tax lawyer.
Knowing what he does now, he would never have accepted that EBT. “Hindsight is a great thing,” Ogilvie said. “They were set up and we went down that road. Now, if it came up again, I wouldn’t.” Where Ogilvie’s position could still become untenable would be if his fingerprints were found on any documents which may have misled the footballing authorities. Hugh Adam, one of Ogilvie’s fellow former directors, has gone on record about the existence of these so-called “dual contracts” even if he clarified his position recently to indicate Ogilvie would most likely have had no knowledge of them. In any case, it remains a source of legal dispute whether redacted copies of documents in the public domain represent second contracts or merely letters of “intent”.
“I have no knowledge of any side contracts and I would be very surprised if that was the case,” Ogilvie said. “There is an HMRC case and SPL inquiry going on. What I would say is that there were player contracts which I would have been asked to sign during my time at Rangers – just as an officer of the club who was present in the stadium. I’ve got a clear conscience on it to the best of my knowledge. Anything I have signed has been in good faith. If anything comes up I’m not aware of then I’ll put my hands up. I have not been approached by the SPL but if I am I would be happy to speak to them.”
Rather than the six-figure salary some would have him being paid, Ogilvie earns £20,000 a year, and finds the constant sniping from some parties grating, if not entirely unexpected.
“I do a bit,” Ogilvie said. “But I’m big enough to cope. With my background, having worked at Ibrox for many years, there will be some people in this country who are not happy with someone from that background coming in. I’ve genuinely always tried to do the best for Scottish football.”
Ogilvie, who left Rangers after finding his role diminished in a boardroom restructure, has been scrupulous about avoiding any conflict of interest with his former clubs.
“From day one I’ve stepped out the room when there has been any committee or disciplinary issue involving Rangers,” he said. “Once I had to step out of the room four times. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase corridors of power.”
another late call for a spare bhoys..
jinkysboy is looking for one for his brother who have travelled up from Kent
McCOIST DELIGHTED WITH EFFORT.
http://www.football365.co.za/story/0,22162,8734_7604008,00.html
Well if Sal is happy with yesterday´s performance then who are we to disagree.
What´s that now. 5 in a row? Wonder if the orcs are happy.
Let´s make them happier next week.Ha Ha.
Ogilvie interview
particularly those who inhabit the murky world of phone-ins and internet forums
That’s us, folks (forums bit anyway)
How MURKY is the SFA world ?!!!?
Rhetorical question, btw
;o)
cheers twists n turns
Have a good day as well.
HH
blantyretim
Thanks mate.have you seen the size of the brandy you get with the coffee ?
It´s bigger.But yes a good curer.
Fricking mother’s day will interfere with my plans to disappear for a few hours to the pogue (finest irish pub in the ‘pool). I wouldnt mind if it was for me old dear mum but it’s me kiddie’s mum and her mum who will be the focus of the day rather than the mighty Celts (except for me of course).
What a great man is NL
“Not just the quality but the prestige, the name, the support, the tradition, the history,” he continued when asked what he thought Celtic could add to the Premier League.
Compare the intelligince, insight and dignity of the man to the tawdry efforts of his hun counterpart, the oldest/youngest, least inspiring/inspirational manager and exactly what thems deserve.
Have a great day fellow tims!
HH
timbhoy
that saved me the morning after the match in Seville..
I always seek out the places the locals go when in Spain for tapas and coffee..
Aye,its good to not have a hangover,had a good day yesterday just listening to the hunnery getting stiffed again,oh how the quiz captain must be thankful for administration,one thing is for certain,he will not be the manager next season,if he is,brilliant.
As for us,I just hope the Bhoys are rarin’ to go and do themselves proud,every trophy they win under Neil Lennon will be massively appreciated by the support after all he’s had to come through.
The making of the man is all about adversity,Neil Lennon is a giant in juxtaposition with his city rival,which is also very telling of the masters they learned from,Martin O’Neill will never have to worry about success being stripped.
Come On You Bhoys In Green!
Thoughts and prayers with Fabrice Muamba.
A super, sunny Sunday morning here in North Ayrshire.
Come on the Bhoys!
Swansea play simple football..easy game pass and move…
.
Twisty..Re; F1 Track in Melbourne..
My Old Apartment was 75 Meters from Albert Park Lake..a Very Noisy 4 Days of F1..Ha..
Summa
Good Morning Bhoys, a bright Cup final morning…..cant wait.
ogilvie is a pompus rat and i think the article will do him more harm than good, uefa must now say WHAT! hes basically admitted to taking a bung on more then 1 occasion and is still the head of the sfa.
Anyway i digest 3-0 to the hoops, 1 of 3
KLV
Posted by RTC a short while ago
The bottom paragraph is a left hook, right hook and then a haymaker. Ouch!
Campbell Ogilvie flushed out.
http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/sport/rangers-administration-campbell-ogilvie-full-of-regrets-and-wonders-if-he-could-have-done-more-1-2181094
I wonder if he has provided these details because he got wind that someone had passed those very same numbers to a journalist?
So Ogilvie has had to rush out to find a tame hack who might report the same in a sympathetic light.
Price of a night out you say? £95K?
The best bit is where as company secretary- and a director- he pleads ignorance:
– I didn’t get involved in player contracts
– I don’t remember who set up my EBT
– I didn’t know that they might be illegal
Absolute bollocks!
As a director, it is your job to know. As a director you have a legal responsibility to ask questions and satisfy yourself that all at the company, including its tax affairs, is above board and legal. If you are unhappy with what you find, you resign and / or report the company to the authorities.
Signing off on the annual reports of a company is saying that you have satisfied yourself that everything is legal. It does not mean that someone paid by the company told you not to worry your pretty little head about it.
Campbell Ogilvie: there is no middle ground that I can see. You are either complicit in directing illegal tax strategies at Rangers (and possibly at Hearts) or you are an incompetent buffoon unfit to hold executive office at the SFA.
Good morning one and all. A beautiful day for a game of footie, perfect. Went to Mass last night so a couple of hours to chill. Have breakfast and a beer before setting off to see Neil’s Bhoys lift the first of three.
Whilst we enjoy ourselves this afternoon, I ask all you whether you are going, listening or watching to remember Fabrice Muamba and pray if you are minded that way that he recovers.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
I can’t believe we’re not allowed to wear the hoops today.
Clashing with vertical blue and white stripes?
That’s even sillier than their “justification” for banning them against Hibs.
Don’t they LIKE the hoops?