You have been presented with a narrative that we should collapse the Scottish Premier League this summer and have the SFA register a new, two-division, league system to resolve the problems inherent in having too many bodies running our game. This is complete nonsense.
Those pushing for a SPL 2 are, perhaps with good intentions, trying to pull a deal together to reduce the impact of the demise of Rangers FC buy allowing a phoenix the chance to gain entry into the league structure two levels higher than what they now face.
It’s a stupid proposal.
As things stand, there is no chance of a Newco getting access to the SPL next season. Despite Neil Doncaster heavily advocating the notion, the idea is simply undeliverable. Our club has been committed to opposing the proposition from the beginning, while many others now realise they have to observe the strong feelings of their own supporters on the matter.
Doncaster should have realised this was a campaign he could not win before he boxed himself into a corner over it. SPL 2 is an attempt to address the ‘No to Newco’ concerns while bringing the income some in the game hope Newco will deliver.
The unnamed SFA source who briefed the BBC on this topic last week made no reference whatsoever to Newco, their focus was all on the administrative challenges of having multiple bodies in charge of the game, but this was disingenuous. If there was a prospect of Newco getting into the SPL we would not be having this debate.
Tell us the truth, be honest, and these random, ill-considered, notions will perhaps be received in a better light.
The hope is that fans of the former club, Rangers, bring their cash along to watch Newco, which would play SPL 2 football next season and would be subject to whatever penalties the various independent bodies impose for years to come for the illegal actions of Rangers. This would allow Newco to claim the history of Rangers, would perhaps maintain the existing BSkyB TV deal and would meet the ‘No to Newco’ demands.
There are several huge obstacles to overcome. The SFA will soon instruct Lord Carloway’s Appellate Panel to consider a new punishment for ‘Rangers’ for misdeeds during the Craig Whyte era. I expect him to suspend the ‘club’ for 12 months. A new independent judicial panel will consider the case against ‘Rangers’ for subverting our game for over a decade through the illegal registration of players. If/when the First Tier Tribunal finds against Rangers a fresh wave of charges will be brought against any club claiming to hold that identity – as a guide, think of the punishments for the Craig Whyte era multiplied by 12.
These three independent judicial panels will destroy whatever is left of what we used to call ‘Rangers’ and there is nothing the football authorities can do about it.
Sevco, who own Ibrox and have applied for SPL access, already face an enormous challenge to meet trading costs for a year, even in the SPL, never mind a lower league (as Dave King correctly concluded). They are prime candidates for another insolvency event any time soon. Best of all, a Celtic fan has now bid for the assets (more on this later)!
Even if Newco overcame these enormous challenges, the SFA and SPL executives, having realised they cannot convince fans of 11 clubs to hold their noses and put up with a Newco-Rangers, will now try to convince former Rangers fans to cough up cash to support a Newco that will be rendered impotent by the most severe penalties in the history of our game.
I cannot see former Rangers fans accepting their role as cannon fodder for St Mirren, Motherwell and (cough) Kilmarnock in a league where the Mighty Celtic romp home by 30 points.
I don’t have an objection in principle to a two-league SPL but plan it properly, don’t allow knee-jerk reactions to dictate thinking. There’s no point in us getting paranoid about this, it’s not some attempt to help the remnants of ‘Rangers’, it’s just a stupid proposal from people who have yet to see the big picture.
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knoxy2000… RAISING AWARENESS OF NEUROBLASTOMA on 21 June, 2012 at 18:27 said:
Will turn over matey before it starts.
Vlads Statement
They pay huge sums to English clubs, whilst in Scotland, where football is better supported per capita than anywhere else in Europe and there are more cable or Sky subscribers per capita than in England, clubs receive peanuts for their broadcasting rights.”
I was actually thinking about this yesterday… The Sky money should be distributed evenly through the countries leagues who subscribe. i e. if Scotland supplies 10% of their revenue then our TV deal should = 10% of the overall pot.
NewMartin @mdkster
“@frasereC4: Ticket for an UNCLAIMED £63.8m EuroMillions jackpot bought…in the Stevenage and Hitchin area” Thankfully not the Govan area!
LoL
starry plough –
I’ve a feeling the next 3 mornings’ reports might be a bit repetetive anyway.
It would seem there’s no more appetite within SFL1 clubs than within the SPL to see newRangers playing there next season. At least within the fans
https://twitter.com/#!/Jagstwit
starry plough-They are just a gang of cowardly animals.Jim Spence has found his voice during the hun demise,he has been superb imo.Traynor and Young try to make him a joke figure (i know..) on Shortbread,he is concise,accurate , opinionated and has no axe to grind in Glasgow football matters.In fact ,what a proper journalist should be.Traynor ,Young etc are the clowns.
I’ve just read Vlad’s statement and well said that man. I make that Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts and Hibs voting against the newco.
Even at this stage where everything/everyone is against them, noone will be 100% sure until they are dumped firmly into SFL3. It’s looking very good now that Scottish Football is going to do the right thing.
Vlad’s Sky comments should also be taken on board IMO.
Snake Plissken won’t be happy. Come on the Czechs. 0:0 first half, Pilar will score for Czech Republic in the second half.
mic1888 – I think it might be hard to have a commercial organisation split it’s spending on sports rights like that, but it should be mandatory for the publicly funded broadcaster (BBC) to do so. I haven’t done my sums recently, but I am pretty sure they are paying a lot more per license fee payer to cover English football than Scottish.
Vmhan on 21 June, 2012 at 18:22 said:
I posted this the other day but got very little feedback, I’d be interested in your views.
The reality is that without supporters there is no club to be a fan of. That is a self evident truth.
The issue for me is one of not having sufficient means to make fans who are not supporters, supporters according to their means.
It is up to Celtic to provide that means and one such way is via the Membership Scheme, that current events have held in abeyance, drawing on the charitable ethos of Celtic.
It is my view over the past few years that in GENERAL terms (I know overseas supporters find their own ways to support) non match attendees, wherever they are, who view on line or TV, can and would contribute more to the cost of supporting Celtic if the means to do so existed and the concept that we are all one as a support was part of our psyche rather than the sterile separatist thinking that drives this current debate.
I will be abroad for the major part of next season and cannot afford both a concessionary SB and the Overseas Celtic TV subscription, but I could afford the concessionary SB book as a pensioner. The proposal I will put to Celtic is that as an Overseas Ambassador of Celtic (we all are btw) I pay the SB price I would normally pay and the balance goes into a fund (like the Kano project) so that if enough subscribers home or overseas sign up to Celtic TV on a SB priice basis, for say every 8 subscriber on concessionary prices we put either two bums on seats at concessionary rates or one bum on a seat at full SB rates.
Variations on the theme to allow all Celtic TV subscribers to put a bum (and I do not mean a tramp ;) ) on a seat at CP can be devised, but it is the underlying concept of spreading the load of supporting Celtic in financial terms according to the Celtic match watchers means of watching that is key.
Feedback welcome.
This is a cracking read.
http://web3dlaw.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/punishments-and-sporting_integrity/ New blog on punishments and sanctions…
Zbyszek
How could you?
Jobo Baldie on 21 June, 2012 at 18:38 said:
Massive thuderstorm overhead here with pretty big hailstones, glad the forward thinking Starry got the washing in!!
SummerfunCSC
Regarding the TV thing, I agree that we should tell Sky to ram it. Celtic should develop/improve Celtic TV and sell it for broadcasting in the UK as well as ex-UK. If they do this they should entice existing Season ticket holders to buy it at an extremely attractive rate available to ST holders only, say £50 per annum, this would allow you to watch the game on the occasions you cannot manage to CP ( you know that inconvenient wedding you get invited to, watch it online during the service) and also allow family members to watch it when you are at the game.
I know that there will be those who say that it won’t happen because it will clash with other games but you will only be selling it to Celtic supporters who will not be going to watch other teams play. We could also offer a cut of the income, UK generated only, to other SPL members/cup opponents.
Remember last season when Sky transmitted league cup games in direct opposition to UEFA games that were being televised despite the fact it was stated that no TV coverage, Internet or otherwise would be allowed. It would also allow us to bring games back to when they should be played, Saturday afternoons, not some wet November night in Inverness.
The ballpark has changed since that landlady won her case in the European Court.
Just my thoughts, fire away.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
!!Bada Bing!! on 21 June, 2012 at 18:39 said:
This is 1 of the reasons i hate them, with this we are the people attitude and we can’t be touched and whoever speaks against us we will punish them.
Boot them down to the 3rd division and no ?’s should be asked.
ABZMike on 21 June, 2012 at 18:42 said:
Obviously its not as straightforward as that but if Vlad’s figures are right we should be getting a hell of a lot more than the pittance on offer at present!
I’m sure I read somewhere that the Norwegian League has a better TV deal for example.
HH
Romanov talks sense!!! I’m stunned-but lovin’ Vlad’s impaling of the former FODs…
HH
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Petec
Hiya,Pally?
Nice tae greet ye.
Flying visit..
Dae ye think the Bella Dodd wiz right?
Ah dae.
Gotta Go..
Seeya.. Pally
Kojo
yer pal..who likes ye aloater.
Still, Laughin’… You Betcha!!
Monaghan. That’s awful. How do you know they can’t get Olivia home? Thanks. HH.
So with their Edinburgh cousins voting NO NEWCO IN SPL that will be 4 defo nos. St. Mirren fan group takes over that will be 5. Bye bye huns. U will be buried not Bury.
Mr Romanov
Take a bow Sir, take a bow
“This is 1 of the reasons i hate them, with this we are the people attitude and we can’t be touched and whoever speaks against us we will punish them.”
They died 2 weeks ago, why are you bothering about them, they play no part in Scottish Football at this moment, the club they used to support is not a part of Scottish Football, these fans that you speak of are part of a NEW Club, trying to participate in Scottish Football in one of the leagues.
As stated earlier on here today.
Ask them if they still have their shares in their former team?
No they do not, their shares have been liquidated along with their club.
They are not to be given the oxygen of comment, as they are DEAD! por cierto.
mic1888 says no to cheats charter no to zombie r*****s on 21 June, 2012 at 18:35
I had a look at the Scots contribution to Sky in 2009 and this is an extract from the article “Can IPTV Save Celtic (and Scottish Football)
The Rant: The SPL had little alternative but to sign up to the Sky/ESPN deal in the summer of 2009 because there was NO alternative. However IPTV, if the SPL want learn from the experience that Channel 67 has gained over a number of years, does offer an alternative. That Sky/ESPN deal was worth £65M or £13M a year to SPL clubs including Celtic. Now the thing about the Sky Sports/ESPN deal is that if you want to make sure of watching all the games that televise Celtic, which will be 15-18 a season, you have to subscribe to both companies. When you subscribe to them you also get EPL games, whether you want to watch them or not e.g. Hull v Wigan. You also therefore contribute to what Sky pay the EPL (and so Hull and Wigan and all EPL teams).
There are no figures available on how much Scots pay Sky Sports but a reasonable guess based on population size can be made. There are 9.5M Sky Digital subscribers in the UK and Ireland. 6M of these are Sky Sports subscribers. The Scottish population is 5.6M and the UK Population is 61.3M, so Scots make up 8.4% of the total. If that portion is reflected in the number of Sky Sport subscribers, then there are just over 500,000 Scots (6Mx8.4%) subscribing to Sky Sports. At £216 a year for a £9 a month each minimum subscription to both Sky and ESPN, then Sky Sports/ESPN are taking in around £109 Million a year from Scots. Quite how the number of Scots who subscribe via Virgin impacts on the calculation is unclear, they might add to the 500,000 or be part of the total, but even if they are included in the 500,000 – £109M a year in receipts is a considerable sum, and even after allowing for production costs etc, it makes the £13M pa that the SPL receive look pretty small beer. It really begs the question just how much ARE Scots paying that goes to make the EPL richer whilst impoverishing Celtic and the rest of the SPL in the process?
Snake Plissken
I know you don’t like. Look at that from the other side. One Ronaldo costs more than whole Czech team.
Watch them tonight. Czechs are poor guys, have no money for razors.
Big thumbs up to wee Oscar there.
http://www.justgiving.com/OscarAppeal
If you haven’t yet please give what you can if you can.
timbhoy2 on 21 June, 2012 at 17:26 said:
No more parks coaches, buses or whatever at Celtic
New Celtic Bus – only to be used after finals!
I certainly think that the Sky Money should surely be our next conquest por cierto.
A fairer distribution of the funds or a switch off from Scottish Football Fans..por cierto
time tae get aff oor knees, talk is cheap.
Por Cierto on 21 June, 2012 at 18:53 said:
They ain’t liquidated yet.
Not only has Vlad unequivocally defended the integrity position, he has also fired a broadside at Sky.
He is warning them that there is an alternative to their derisory pittance.
Plus, of course, he is telling the MSM to stop flying the Sky money kite.
I (heart) Vlad !!
Kojo
I’ve heard the name mentioned before but not really read anything about her. I will have a look now that you have mentioned.
Take it easy if you’re out jigging the night away. :)
Auld Neil Lennon heid on 21 June, 2012 at 18:55 said:
Exactly..So we are essentially helping fund English Clubs crazy spending whilst contributing to the downfall of our own league.
Good on Romanov – would be happy to hear those comments from our board but a lot to be said for the silent assassin approach. Great to read Paul’s assessment of the situation- death by 1000 cuts best way for them to go once the stake is firmly driven in.
mic1888 says no to cheats charter no to zombie r*****s on 21 June, 2012 at 19:03 said:
Auld Neil Lennon heid on 21 June, 2012 at 18:55 said:
Exactly..So we are essentially helping fund English Clubs crazy spending whilst contributing to the downfall of our own league.
share on F’book or Twitter
*******
That is why many of us cancelled Sky Sports years ago.
I advocated that we should all cancel the subscription, but Paul67 shot me down.
Doesn’t seem such a bad idea now, does it?
Saw this on RTC
And after Vlads statement the dam is bust
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=14b0o0o&s=6
If you missed wee oscar try BBC News channel around 7.25pm!!! :-)
I cancelled my Sky/ESPN ages ago when I realised my money was going to help the protectionism of the EPL. I’ve relied on illegal livestreams for the most part as I cant get to CP on a regular basis. I also subscribe to C67 and can watch a recording of the game in full. As a UK resident I can’t watch the game live via C67 so my options are severely limited.
1. Attend the match in person (irregular)
2. Wait for the match on C67 (avoid everything to do football)
3. Use an illegal livestream (No Burley)
or
4. Pay a subscription to Sky/ESPN that helps bloat the EPL while diminishing Scottish football.
It has always bugged me why we signed up for this TV deal as I think we could have made a lot more money from it than we ever could with Sky/ESPN. How many fans based in the UK would use C67 to watch the game live that cannot for various reasons attend CP.
HH
thomthethim CQN (genuine) Badge Wearer on 21 June, 2012 at 19:07 said:
Never mind all that when did you get your badge?