Yesterday evening STV revealed the real outcome of last week’s meeting between Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and David Longmuir as a proverbial gun was put to the head of Scottish Football League clubs.
In short, SPL chief executive, Neil Doncaster, no doubt with the support of some clubs but without the prior knowledge or support of Celtic, has threatened to kick 20 SFL clubs out of the senior game unless they acquiesce to his demand to parachute Sevco into the First Division.
The proposal was presented by SFL chief executive, David Longmuir, and appears to carry his endorsement.
Five scenarios are portrayed:
‘Rangers’ remaining in the SPL is dismissed as SPL clubs have confirmed they will vote no.
‘Rangers’ going to the third division is objected to on two grounds, financial (which is laboured a bit) and – wait for it – “The sporting opportunity is quashed for other clubs”.
Ponder that one for a moment, “The sporting opportunity is quashed for other clubs”.
‘Rangers’ to the First Division is presented as being “financially possible to recover from this scenario”.
‘Rangers’ to SPL2 is dismissed as apparently this would create “a bigger divide” than moving ‘Rangers’ to the First Division but not changing the name of the league. It is also noted that a legal challenge could bring paralysis.
Finally, they discuss ‘Rangers’ terminated or suspended, which apparently would lead to “complete financial meltdown”.
Then come the inducements to co-opt ‘Rangers’ into the First Division…. cash, your cash. Lots and lots of your cash, an “immediate cash benefit for all 30 clubs!” The exclamation mark is theirs!!
We could spend all day dissecting this disgraceful document but I’d like to focus on one immediate element:
‘Rangers’ terminated or suspended – complete financial meltdown.
So how do the SFA, SFL and the SPL rogues who participated in this shambles propose to ensure the SFA Independent Judicial Panel does not suspend ‘Rangers’ for subverting our game for over a decade for fielding illegally registered players for that period?
In short, it cannot. The independent judicial process will itself need to be subverted. As I suggested a few days ago, the judges will be told they are no longer wanted, we are back with the hand-selected SFA committee men.
The three most senior executives running our game have told you that one errant club is so powerful it cannot be subject to the rules and must not face the punishments which are due.
I’m not going to dispute the validity of this view (just now), but surely we deserve some honesty? If the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League has accepted the ‘game’ is over, let’s hear from them. Where is the leadership from the SFA president on the collapse of the game under his watch? What are the chief executives saying to their paying customers?
Our sport cannot be subverted below radar.
You have been cheated and the rules will be changed to ensure there are no consequences. This is no longer a sport, it is a financial accommodation where a few executives are threatening to expel 20 clubs, most of whom have over a century history in the senior game, to allow Sevco to start two divisions higher than they otherwise would.
Celtic can have nothing to do with this.
The game here is dead. The leagues are set to collapse, most likely, no matter what happens now.
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I thought McFadden knocked us back to go to everton. That didn’t work out too well. I’d imagine he’ll be looking for big wages to sit on the treatment table. No thank you.
hamiltontim:
Why would I waste my time with a book.
Edinburgh proved that Scotland can’t spell Justice
and that day in Derry British Soldiers shot dead kids in the name of the crown.
And in doing so they were decorated. They were hero’s.
I don’t need to read any more. I’ve grown tired of reading and the sound of silence from those that are mine is the only thing that shames my apathy.
I don’t know what to do.
Top topic of discussion on deadclub Media:
‘Reason not to trust Charles Green – Do we have any?’
You really couldn’t make it up!
HH
alex thomson @alextomo
G Souness has spoken on allegations of EBT payment 10y after leaving RFC…
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
I’ll take your word for it.
I’d still do it…
HH
Stop the Huntalk…zzzzzz
They’re deid…we ain’t…for God’s sake move on.
tlwio,
as much as 80% I think
If McFadden was anywhere near fit he would be at a Championship club now.
Sitting here with the 2 kids playing the ps3 and my bhoy at 3 he’s eating smokey bacon walkers and singing having smokey bacon when the rangers die, wonder who he got that from lol.
I cancelled Sky/ESPN –
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•-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-•
payment? singular? mmmm
Scottish Soccer Takes Another Step Closer to the Professional Wrestling RingBy Daniel O’Connell(Contributor) on June 28, 2012 901 reads
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Next SPL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster. Or is it Vince McMahon…?
I was reminded of a scene in the old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Commando today. The one where Arnie holds a bad guy over a cliff, and says, “Remember Sully, when I promised I’d kill you last?”
“That’s right, Matrix, you did!” responds the baddie.
“I lied,” says Arnie as he drops him to his death.
Why am I reminded of that scene?
Well earlier this week, six SPL clubs bravely told us that sporting integrity trumped financial considerations, and they were rejecting the application of Sevco 5088 to take over the now defunct Rangers FC’s place in the league.
Aberdeen, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Dundee United, Saint Johnstone and Inverness Caledonian Thistle have all said they will be voting against Sevco being allowed into the SPL, all citing sporting integrity as their reason for saying no.
Well, remember when the SPL clubs promised us sporting integrity was very important to them?
They lied.
STV today reports that, following a meeting between the game’s governing bodies, the SPL has presented the SFL with a stark ultimatum – allow Sevco 5088 to join not in Division III, but in Division I, or else…
Should Sevco5088 be allowed entry into SFL1?
Yes
No
Submit Vote vote to see results Should Sevco5088 be allowed entry into SFL1?Yes2.5%No97.5%Total votes: 199
The document presented to the SFL clubs today is, frankly, an appalling perversion of every principle of sporting competition.
In a shameless attempt at divide and rule, it threatens to cut off promotion to half of the clubs if they do not agree to Sevco 5088 being allowed into Division I next season.
Let’s look more closely at why the SFL clubs are being told they must accept Sevco 5088 in Division I:
•Immediate cash benefit for all 30 clubs!
Money, money, money.
•Gate receipt uplift in Division I
Money, money, money. Is there any reason why the Division 3 clubs should not benefit from gate receipt uplifts from Sevco 5088 in their league?
•Potential hospitality & advertising values increase
And this wouldn’t happen with Sevco 5088 in Division III?
•Sponsors receive added value through additional exposure
And this would not happen with Sevco 5088 in Division III?
•Scottish Government remains committed to our community strategy
And this would not happen with Sevco 5088 in Division III? If not, it certainly implies political interference in football, a big no no for FIFA.
•SFL has more influence at the top table
And this wouldn’t be the case with Sevco 5088 in Division III? Ah, the influence won’t come from having Sevco 5088 in the SFL. The SPL clubs will allow them more influence if they agree to parachute Sevco 5088 into Division I.
•Play-Offs restore the sporting meritocracy and deliver additional value
How exactly does allowing a brand new club to jump ahead of twenty others without playing a match promote sporting meritocracy?
AND BENEFITS TO SCOTTISH FOOTBALL
•A unified plan presented to the Scottish footballing public, which offers real possibilities for the game
It may be unified, but that does not make it justified.
•Keeps all 42 clubs together avoiding a divisive SPL2 split
Er, the clubs are split now – twelve SPL clubs are not, “together,” with the 30 SFL clubs as it stands.
•Deals with the need for sporting integrity with regard to Newco
Oh no it does not! The “Newco,” must start at the bottom of the pile to ensure sporting integrity. Giving them a free hand-up destroys sporting integrity.
•Delivers innovation in the form of a single league, play-offs and a pyramid plan
Innovation is not necessarily a good thing. And this proposal is not a good thing.
•Delivers new value for the game
How exactly? If the opinion of Scottish soccer fans on Sevco 5088’s application to join the SPL is any guide, the fans will walk away in droves if they are parachuted into Division I. Where will the value be in the game then?
•Potentially narrows the financial gap between the Scottish Premier League & Scottish League
Will Sevco 5088 in Division I for a single season narrow the financial gap more than Sevco 5088 in the SFL for at least three seasons if they start in Division III?
•Shows leadership for the game in Scotland
Laughable. It shows a lack of backbone.
•Allows fans to engage in the bigger picture
The fans are far more aware of the bigger picture on this one than the clubs are. It’s time they started to listen to their paying customers.
•A positive media outcome
I very much doubt it.
The mainstream media in Scotland will try to polish this turd of a plan, but the demise of Rangers FC has demonstrated that the power of the new media, and anything the old media say to justify it, will be ignored by the only people who matter – the fans.
Let’s be clear on this.
Whoever is responsible for this proposal has destroyed the credibility of Scottish soccer forever.
It does not even matter now whether the plan goes through or not; the fact remains that someone has attempted to gerrymander the game for the benefit of a single club. They are a brand new club, who at this moment in time, are not even a member of the SFA and have never played in a league before.
By even proposing this shambles, SPL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster and his SFA counterpart Stewart Regan prove themselves unfit to govern Scottish soccer. And let’s not forget the ultimate authority figure in the game, SFA President Campbell Ogilvie. A former Director of Rangers FC, and a beneficiary of the now infamous EBT scheme which precipitated its downfall.
Amazingly, he remains in post. Well, it’s only amazingly if you are unfamiliar with how things work in Scottish soccer.
This club, Sevco 5088, have been presented as absolutely vital to Scottish soccer. We have been told that Scottish soccer cannot survive in its present form without them.
Soccer has a habit of throwing up contentious refereeing decisions. Should this plan go through, how could anyone, ever, have confidence in the impartiality of referees who give favorable decisions to Sevco 5088?
The game must not only be a fair sporting competition, it must be seen to be a fair sporting competition.
The SPL plan will create not a sporting competition, but a soap opera. A cheap, tawdry sham where every effort has been, and is, made to ensure the success of Sevco 5088.
Sevco 5088 fans can have the stadia to themselves, as they watch the action unfold on the pitch, wandering what bizarre plot twist the SPL scriptwriters have come up with this week to ensure Triple H… sorry Sevco 5088 wins again.
Sevco 5088 fans could have a new chant, familiar to older viewers who remember ITV’s Saturday afternoon wrestling in the 1970’s.
As the legion of young kids and old ladies who eagerly watched Big Daddy in action would have put it, “Eas-y! Eas-y! Eas-y!”
If this plan goes through, we can say goodbye to Scottish soccer and hello to Soccertainment!
alex thomson @alextomo
Mr Souness says: “This is a private matter. The conclusions drawn in the BBC Scotland programme were entirely wrong.”
McFadden has knocked us back more times than Ally’s visited Greggs!!!
No thank you.
I cancelled Sky/ESPN –
Philbhoy
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Please add your name if you did so too.
!!Bada Bing!!
Would clubs not want to hold off and save paying summer wages for 2 months?
HH
Paul67 et al
“Caledonia delenda est”. Thus spake Campbell the Elder.
As things stand the SPL will begin without Rangers in any form or under any guise in early August. The League flag will fly over Celtic Park once again. Aberdeen will add colour to the occasion. That is the way I see it. What happens in the SFL is something else. At any time during next season the SPL can vote to change its’ own rules in relation to the relegation from or promotion to the League. It can vote to end relegation. It can refuse to admit clubs from the SFL. These things could happen. So could a lot of other things.
Celtic cannot support all other Scottish Football clubs, not financially anyway, what we can support is the clamour for integrity in football expressed by the supporters of just about every other club in Scotland. As Rogue Leader has suggested earlier, we could offer some leadership, we could offer an alternative to that proffered by that most unholy trinity, Regan, Doncaster and Longmuir. We could do it, question is Paul, will we do it?
Has Doncaster been sacked yet??
Interim Rod Petrie or Eric Riley needed now.
Doncaster is single handedley destroying Scottish Football and making the brand toxic to commercial sponsors.
It may be too late already due to damage he has done.
Doncaster has zero chance of success as proved already with SPL newco fiasco. He must go NOW!
StMichaelsBhoy2 on 29 June, 2012 at 14:33 said
I know you posted that link from the bleachers report matey but the last time there was an article from that site regarding Scottish teams needing a licence to play in Scottish football 25 mins later it was removed so i thought it was better to copy and paste it so everyone could read it incase this article gets removed from the same site again.
MIKI67 1405
I haven’t seen anything from you which merits such a reaction,get yersel’ back on here ASAP.
I don’t live that far away from Bournemouth,ye know.
I’ll be down visiting,force-feeding CQN posts whilst holding a dentist’s drill.
Wi that wee fella that was in the Bummer Broon crowd the ither night……..
Your choice,bud,your choice.
•-:¦:-•** -:¦:- sparkleghirl :¦:-.•**• -:¦:-•
Private til Hectors bhoys chap his door.
So Souness answers on his EBT payments: Ah’m no tellin you.
Nothing to hide there then, clearly.
Ah! Celtic Mac, so you are back on, I’m still waiting for you to tell me what was the point of your post to me regards the German invasion????
honestly cant see how this proposal will get the support needed,
I expect full scale rebellion from the associated clubs, the threat of expulsion will hone their sese of justice.
2 for 1 offer…
phone 01698 283 806
Hamilton Races
Tuesday 3 July – Scottish Farmers Market Raceday
first race is at 2.15pm
quote “John Smith’s Offer” for the 2for1
£13 entry (so with 2for1 entry total cost = £13)
pls let me know if anyone is goin along
see you there
:)
traditionalist88 on 29 June, 2012 at 14:58 said:!!Bada Bing! Would clubs not want to hold off and save paying summer wages for 2 months?
On whom mate?
Souness says conclusions drawn by Daly doc were wrong.
What conclusions did it draw? I didn’t think it drew any. Didn’t we just draw our own conclusions based on the fact that GS received EBT payment many years after leaving RFC?
I still think Salmond has got a hand in the save the ex huns campaign.
Sparkleghirl
I think it’s commonly referred to as a guilty conscience and subsequent avoidance.
SPARKLEGHIRL 1506
I think SOUNESS was suggesting that the Daly Documentary implied that 2+2=5.
He is,of course,perfectly correct.
As Souness’ accountant had assured him that,legally,it equalled whatever the hell he wanted……..
Bada Bing
Well, Mcfadden, I thought you suggested that if he was fit he’d have been picked up by a Championship club by now, apologies if it wasn’t you!
HH
!!Bada Bing!! on 29 June, 2012 at 15:07 said:
I still think Salmond has got a hand in the save the ex huns campaign.
Agreed matey.
When they wen’t into admin he asked D&P to be kept upto date and Stewart Regan said the same.
Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
@alextomo Been mentioned before, but just to make sure that people understand- the BBC documentary said Souness got £30k. This is wrong…
Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
@alextomo Mr Souness received several more payments via Rangers’ EBT scheme approx. a decade after leaving their employment. Strange.
Is that what he means by the wrong conclusion..?
cancelled my sky and espn packages yesterday….
no thanks to james mcfadden also, he’s well passed his sell by date
Kayal33,
No thanks finished and looking for a pay day,he had his chance.
Lennon, Stokesy, Tony Watt & James Forrest in Dublin ahead of the AICSC Charity Dinner 2012
http://www.aicsc.com/index.php
HH
I cancelled Sky/ESPN –
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Northerncelt67
afternoon cqn
will green still submit all the documents required for transfer of share to newco today for sfa ?
sfa gave him till today as deadline.
hope campbell can fill out all the required info
then again he may just let the cleaner do it and he will sign it off
campbellsaysyes fc