HMRC’s case against St Mirren, raised because they allegedly failed to pay Kieran Doran the National Minimum Wage, has brought the professionalism of our professional game under analysis. Doran’s first contract as a 16-year-old was for £1 a week, which was apparently never paid. The player subsequently wanted to give up the game for a trade (to study medicine) but St Mirren refused to release him from his contract.
By any reasonable measure this is amateur football. There’s nothing wrong with amateur football, in fact it has great potential, but NOT paying someone £1 a week cannot be described in any other way. St Mirren will not be alone.
I made no comment last month on Newco’s reluctance to pay holiday pay as I thought this was something of an open secret. Holiday pay as been a legal right in the UK since 1871, but at the periphery of our game some clubs just don’t pay it. I’ve spoken to an SPL chairman who openly admitted to the ‘ruse’ (not Celtic, before you ask).
Newco are far from alone on this matter, indeed, I would be amazed if top flight clubs were not guilty. The keenness to contract players from July to May is substantial, I reckon lowering some clubs payroll by 8%, while leaving no time in the calendar for players to take paid holidays.
We should stop pretending there are two distinct groups of clubs in Scotland: the amateurs and semi-pros of the ‘non-leagues’, and the 42 Scottish Professional Football League clubs. St Mirren are one of the biggest and best community clubs we have, they have enormous potential to thrive as such, but I seriously doubt their credentials as an economically viable professional club.
More than 30 other Professional League clubs would also be better served trading with a Community League mentality. Developing the potential of local kids and engaging with their community, without the burden of trying to compete in a worldwide talent pool.
The majority of Scottish football clubs were founded in the 19th Century. It seems like no one has subsequently asked: what is our purpose, why are we here, what will our future look like? Without considerable change, the best future 30 clubs can hope for a decade from now will be suffocating indifference, at worst there will be lots of all-seated follies wasting away.
Reminder for tomorrow:
There are new season tickets issued, if your old ticket is still in your wallet, swap it out or you’ll not get in to see the Mighty Celtic tomorrow evening. If you don’t have your new ticket, better get along early to sort it out.
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tonydonnelly67
13:59 on 14 July, 2015
Well credit to J P Taylor, he called me and told me he would get it sorted, I will let you all know what happens, I have a belts and braces plan B, but that’s not the point………
See that P L he’s useless :)
——-
If you feared you were going to need Vaseline Tony mibbees your belt and braces are a wee bit on the tight side?!!?
HH jamesgang
coolmore mafia
“Stefan Schweinsteiger- translation – Stephen Pigfarmer”
And Per Metersacker- translation – Peter who robs the Electricity payment storage box
Holger Badstuber- Watch out for your toes
Roman Wiedenfeller- A small Gentleman of RC persuasion fae Dundee
So the oul rumour mill has Celtic set to release Anto Stokes. Dearie me, we struggle to find decent forward players and we, allegedly, are going to let one of the best we had in years leave for heehaw? Doesn’t make too much sense to me. Hope its all nonsense
Anyhow Anto leaving will make a few on here quite happy and If he does leave ‘cheers Anto YNWA’.
Oglach
There will be a fee involved if Stokes is leaving and that’s still a big if. Looks like JPT crawls the old CQN por cierto
the long wait is over
14:06
It’s definitely part of the SB. I know – I’ve had to give mine up for the game. Grrrrr!
Just had a wee look at the stadium map on Celtic Tickets and it looks as if there will be a good crowd.
Hope it’s the first of many European nights this season.
Now back to work…..
Oglah
stokesy is FREE to look for a new club, not on a free.
setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox
14:17 on
14 July, 2015
coolmore mafia
“Stefan Schweinsteiger- translation – Stephen Pigfarmer”
And Per Metersacker- translation – Peter who robs the Electricity payment storage box
Holger Badstuber- Watch out for your toes
Roman Wiedenfeller- A small Gentleman of RC persuasion fae Dundee
———————————————————————
Don’t translate Steffan Effenberg – kids read this site you know!!!
Officials at Celtic Football Club have decorated the facade of their iconic home ground with a design that wraps both ends of the venue and stands 21 metres tall and 202 metres long.
It features 58 of the club’s most famous players including current captain Scott Brown, Billy McNeill, Henrik Larsson and Jimmy Johnstone along with words; ‘Paradise – Where Legends Are Made’.
“We are delighted with the sensitivity and thoughtfulness of the design while being awestruck at the sheer scale of it,” said Celtic’s head of marketing and multimedia, Kevin McQuillan.
“Celtic is one of the major brands in world football and our stadium development shows the esteem in which our players are held and their value to the club’s heritage.
“The fans’ response to the new look of Celtic Park has been magnificent.
“It was vital that we could produce something that they could be proud of and applying ‘Paradise’ – how our supporters commonly refer to Celtic Park – quickly became central to the project.”
The design was created by Frame, a Glasgow-based creative marketing agency, and will be admired by the thousands of supporters who arrive at the stadium for Wednesday night’s Champions League qualifying match against Stjarnan of Iceland.
“We’re immensely proud of our local community,” said McQuillan. “We’ve seen an incredible regeneration project transform the look of Glasgow’s east end in recent years and Frame has helped us ensure that Celtic Park is one of the most striking landmarks in the area and something the city can be proud of.”
Frame is in its second year working with the Parkhead club.
“The inside of Celtic Park is recognised and revered throughout world football and we wanted to help make it unmistakable from the outside as well as visible from far and wide,” said Keli Mitchell, client services director at Frame.
“The new branding really captures the spirit of the club and the people who’ve made it special over the years, we’re delighted to have played a part in bringing this to life.”
Frame’s final design was supported by international sports artist, Jim Scullion. Scullion has been involved in producing artwork and design for Celtic for 30 years.
“It was an honour to be asked to play a part in a project that I knew would be loved by the fans of a club I’ve supported my whole life,” said Scullion.
“Younger fans may not be so familiar with the achievements of the likes of Sandy McMahon, Jimmy Quinn and Jimmy McGrory, but it is magnificent that the club has chosen to recognise their achievements alongside the other greats who have proudly played for Celtic.”
Oglach sorry mo chara predictive text.
What does Raphael Scheit translate to? :) pot cierto
Jeez what about the ex dundee utd guy yhat is now at sberdeen
Paul67 et al
Cannot quite recall your response to the setting up of the SPFL, but I have a feeling it was a bit more positive then than it is today. I have argued for a bigger league, and as such fewer games against the same clubs, for years. More recently however you have been advocating a situation where any TV money generated should go to only six clubs, a step down from the ten club solution of 1975. I would scrap the present deal altogether, scrap Sunday football play the vast majority of games on a Saturday afternoon. Give those of us in Great Britain and Ireland who cannot make all the games the option of contributing, say £10, to watch games direct from Celtic Park. You are right about the 42 club league though, thing is didn’t Celtic sign up for it, didn’t big Pete get a position out of it? I think we should be told.
Will add to the good luck Jim Spence messages.
Sportsound will be even worse if that is possible. Only Willie Miller out of the ones remaining seems immune to the Sevco cheerleading.
At a guess I am going to estimate that maybe 2000 individuals have worn the jersey to play for the club.
Imagine having one of your family gracing the hoops. To then be one of the 58 featured in the display well that’s just magnificent.
I often felet the club d I don’t recognise the early greats right up to 1965. Now we do.
It’s quite fantastic.
Loving it.
Well! Looks like yours truly made an arse of it :( I had moved house and let them know my new address is where my brothers ticket was come to and it did, but I never told them that’s where mine was to go there, so they sent it to the old address, so I put my hands up to the lady and took full responsibility for the mix up as it was my fault, Lady said she would send a new one out tomorrow, and she was very nice and anderstanding, so big P L team comes through again, but honestly some of these supporters need to smartin up :)
P’s.
Listened into the lost boys specials on hail hail media.
Quite wonderful podcasts on the history.
The first one is a great listen
We should ban people from having season books if they can’t get their own address right.
-))))))
saint stivs
14:46 on 14 July, 2015
We should ban people from having season books if they can’t get their own address right.
-))))))
Totally agree with you :)
TONYDONNELLY 67
You should have stuck wi the old address officially. That way FoCUS wouldn’t know where to find you!
Glad it’s sorted though.
David Villa – translation – David Villa.
Not David Bighoose?
Harry Boe
1424.
Thanking you.
Sorry you’re missing it.
Hh
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
Good idea, lol.
Right am off to the zoo for a libation, I’m stressed :) HH
TonyDonnelly…..
You could have asked the nice folk at The Celtic Trust to sort out your season ticket problem.
Or not….:)
Tony’s: dafty
Kurly,
in my defence, I wasn’t one of the many who mis-spelled your name.
Honest….:)
Lee McCulloch – translation – Elbows
McCloy,
noun
Origin: Girvan (Schite, hoose)
Meaning: Shitehouse
Fitba news from a wee bar on a sweltering beach .
Fabio Capello is no longer the Manager of Russia . He has been dismissed and given
@ £ 10 million in compensation . . Wee man from the Rusian FA made a big deal of stating that Fabio Capello had also been paid all of the money owed to him.
Tony
A lesser person would have said nothing or simply ‘mix up….sorted’
So well done for serving yourself such a big slab of humble pie and eating it before us all on CQN!
HH jamesgang
“Whit happen’d tae the hoalidy munny!????”
Bizarre Celtic headline on STV site on News Now at the moment.
Not sure about bringing it on to this site though
So the person who parked across two disabled bays gets off with it but the person who publicised it gets jailed for “writing bad words about a person”
Oz woman arrested
on a post completely unrelated to SFTB’s sex toy post (ooops…. let the cat out the bag there) …..
seems in Grimsby you cant even bring inflatable toys to the football anymore!
http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/13/football-fan-in-court-after-hitting-steward-with-inflatable-shark-as-he-celebrated-5294185/
what is this world coming to?!
SFTB,
I think everyone has gone to Newsnow to see what your post is all about!
Jim Scullion ‘international sports artist’
We’ll be claimin’ ole Jim, to go along with international sportswriter H.Mcilvanney and international poet S.Heaney.
DBBIA/WhodoyouthinkyouareCSC
Paul 67 – There is only one club in Scotland.
Prediction
Celtic 0-0 Stjarnan
sftb
Read it – but refused to click on it