Congratulations to SPL chief executive, Neil Doncaster, who delivered a remarkable increase in the league’s TV deal with Sky and ESPN; £80m for five years until 2017. The one concession he had to trade, was the possibility that he had to subjugate the link between sporting meritocracy and the commercial imperative.
When news of the deal broke yesterday a Rangers fan was quick to suggest that Sky and ESPN would not have bid on such terms if they had any doubt Rangers would survive in the league, however, later details emerged to prove the exact opposite. The entire deal is dependent on a clause assuring Celtic play Rangers four times each season. If Rangers were eliminated from the league, or even if they failed to earn enough points after an administration penalty to finish in the top six after 33 games, the TV deal becomes invalid.
While this clause was crucial in Doncaster getting his deal it does nothing for the sporting integrity of the competition. It has been five years since Rangers finished outside the top two in the league but if they go into administration, or worse, a fire sale of assets and a point deduction is likely.
The league has now introduced a contractual ceiling on whatever penalty would be applied to a financially deviant club, irrespective of the offense. Doncaster will now also set off to find a sponsor to replace Clydesdale Bank, promising the TV exposure his deal with Sky and ESPN provides. By extension, not only will TV income be dependent on four Celtic-Rangers games per season, so too will league sponsorship income.
Can you imagine the goings-on if Rangers enter next season in administration, with a 10-point deduction and a skeleton squad? Beating Rangers, making it less likely for them to reach the top six, could cost each team in the league millions. Clubs have a clear incentive to ensure Rangers are in no danger of finishing outside the top six.
Neil Doncaster, who is likely to be financially incentivised to deliver TV money, is a member of the SPL board who would decide whether or not to admit a prepack company into the league in the event of an existing club failure. His partiality would be compromised by this deal, so too would other board members from clubs without the liquidity to cope without TV or sponsor income.
While TV broadcasters have a clear financial incentive to lobby for whatever it takes to keep Rangers buoyant, the financial incentives will touch everyone with their snout in the trough, and that includes non-TV media and referees.
This is a dreadful deal as it inserts a clause which compromises the sporting integrity of the competition. Can you imagine giving the team talk to a club, safe from relegation, about to face a Rangers team needing a win on game 33? What about the referee who makes a mistake in Rangers favour, late in the season, under similar circumstances? How would Sky, ESPN and others frame the debate in the event of Rangers going into administration?
I can understand why Sky and ESPN want clause, but the rest of us might as well chuck it.
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Off oot bhoys.
Have a good day, at least we are sort of agreeing for a change, the game in scotland is bent.
greenjedi says:
22 November, 2011 at 12:14
‘My brand new allotment will be getting a lot more attention’
Courgettes?
A grim picture being painted Paul, I’m inclined to hope this clause isn’t tested, for our own sake.
I’ve taken some abuse on this topic recently, because I’ve been making the point that such outcomes like this contract were inevitable. Forget all we and they think – the key point is that the TV companies and sponsors don’t think we have a game in Scotland if Rangers aren’t in the league. This much has always been obvious, yet, we’re going to crucify our own club because of it.
I’m, again, disappointed to read posters stating that they will be finished with the game if, this that or the other hypothetical scenario happens. We’re blaming Celtic for someone else’s mistakes.
However, not for the first time, football and indeed major team sports gives in to commercial concerns. Again leaving our own, relatively insignificant league, to one side it does demand a broader debate on the nature of sport and competition, because on one had it’s clear the SPL cannot operate minus a major player, and on the other hand if it can’t survive a genuine sporting failure then is it a legitimate competition in the first place…
I’m not going to say I’ll punish Celtic, quite the opposite in fact, but how can I support the SPL. I really used to be proud of the league.
No matter how bad things get… there’s always somebody worse off-
‘A man accused of injecting a woman’s buttocks with a mixture of cement and tyre inflater has been arrested.
Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was detained in Florida on Friday and charged with practising medicine without a licence and causing serious bodily injury.
The woman, who paid $700 (£446), later suffered with abdominal pain, infected sores and flu-like symptoms.
Police photographs suggest that Oneal Morris may have had a similar procedure done on himself.
Detectives describe Oneal Morris as a transgender man who dresses as a woman and claim he used a tube to inject a woman in several places on her buttocks.
The victim’s body was filled with a mixture that included cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant and the incisions were apparently sealed with superglue.
Sergeant Bill Bamford, from Miami Gardens Police, said that when the pain had become too much Oneal Morris had told the woman: “Oh don’t worry, you’ll be fine.
“We just keep injecting you with the stuff and it all works itself out.”
-lifted from the BBC.
Paul67 –
” or worse ” = ” or better ”
HH
WG
Sporting integrity (a loose term in Scotland) sacrificed!
Roll up! Roll Up! The SPL show must go on!
Scottish football is nothing more than poor entertainment.
Is it possible be shocked but not surprised at the same time?
Headtheball:
All of it has been going on for years? Really? Well I can cast my mind back to 1994, and it wasn’t going on then. Had there been an SPL split, Celtic would have been in real danger of finishing outside the top 6 on more than one occasion. Think rules would have been re-written to prevent it? Our club almost went to the wall that year. Came within inches of vanishing. It’s a miracle we didn’t. His name was Fergus.
No-one in Scottish football cared. No-one came to our aid.
And this isn’t just about Celtic or even Rangers. This is about the supporters of EVERY other club being disenfranchised by an entire structure now built around two teams.
I have long argued, and it seems more relevent today than it EVER was, that the decline of Scottish football is not down to the illegally financed Rise of Rangers but to the fact we DID recover from 1994 and went on to become the second superpower in the game. That is what skewed the picture and let it assume its present horrendous form, the stabilisation and then growth in financial strength of Celtic.
A once in a lifetime chance to break the two-club paradigm which has devastated the footballing landscape here has come along. Take the fact it is Rangers out of the equation. Take out the fact they deserve EVERYTHING they get. Set aside all short term financial incentives for allowing the status quo. Focus on the FOOTBALL, on the Beautiful Game, on the sport itself.
One of the two pillars of the game here is teetering on the brink. If they fall it will have consequences, but, and I say this with no doubt in my mind, those consequences do not HAVE to be negative ones. There are POSITIVES which can come out of them.
The entire structure of the game would change. League reconstruction would be FORCED upon those who resist. A drastic decline in the fortunes of a top club could redistribute the support base to some extent. At the very least, it would galvanise clubs to try and push for the second spot, Champions League qualifyers, and remove some of the fears of “not finishing in the top six.”
The current two-team model is DESTROYING the game, everything about it. The collapse of that business model could be the BEST THING ever to happen to this league and to sport in this country. If we had men of vision in the SPL and SFA they would see this an opportunity for REAL CHANGE, the kind that does some good.
Instead they have voted not to keep up the slow death march of the Scottish game, but to quicken the pace.
I don’t think there’ll be a clause that says Celtic and rangers must be in.
I think it will be more along the lines of here’s how much you get with different TV ratings scenarious.
Including Celtic and rangers in the league equals XXXX amount of viewers so you get this much. X0000000000
Excluding either Celtic or rangers gets you this much.x000
Cue the SPL meeting where a new club are asking to be admitted – ranjurs fc
“just a quick point before we go to the vote.”
“Including ranjurs fc in the league equals 16 million a year in tv revenue”
Excluding ranjurs gets you 1 million.”
Unanimous decision – including Celtic.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS says:
22 November, 2011 at 12:18
Aye, i always know whats coming when that song starts up!!! haha! Sure its good craic!
Regarding your point that we must remain in Glasgow, im not so sure.
We’re not Glasgow Celtic, we’re ‘The Celtic Football Club’.
We began life in Glasgow for one reason and one reason alone. We no longer NEED to remain in Glasgow. Think of it as moving house. We would still be the same family, just based in a different location!
Just throwing it out there!!!
Knoxy
I see the blog is thick with scum this morning
A long, long, time ago, my dad told me that the day would come when government would tax the air that you breathed. I thought my dad had lost it and I argued against his vision. 2011 and the Australian government is taxing the air that we breathe. I often regret my cynicism.
A long, long, time ago my dad told me that if Celtic fielded eleven monkeys, the supporters would still turn up. I did not argue that vision because at heart I knew I would be one of those who would be there.
My dad was a very clever man, a Celtic man to the very core and deeper, before he passed away, but never in his wildest dreams did my dad ever envision the day that Celtic would be complicit in the longevity of Scotland’s shame.
I hope my club don’t shame my dads memory, and the memory and sacrifice of all the others who, with him, have gone before us. I hope my club don’t shame and embarrass me and every other Celtic Supporter the world over who holds the clubs ethos, it’s Raison d’être, heart safe, because if they do… they could turn out eleven Lionel Messi’s but the romance would have withered to disgust; Perpetual disgust.
greenjedi,
“Board don’t scream blue murder and actually do something.”
They have done something, they are signatories to this agreement.
http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/richard-keys-and-andy-gray/blog/2011-11-22/spl-chief-admits-rangers-and-celtic-could-play-game-abroad?
No mention of possible Hun administration.
THE Celtic Song is 50 this month, with the club releasing a special EP containing new versions to mark the Golden Anniversary.
You can buy the EP on iTunes and featured alongside the Glen Daly original is a version by the Celtic support, another by Irish icon Shane MacGowan, one by Celtic band Johnny Mac and the Faithful and the final one sung by the current Celtic squad.
The first team recorded their version up at Lennoxtown a few weeks ago and supporters can now watch the official video on Celtic’s official Facebook page and tonight, on our nightly news show on Celtic TV, The Huddle Online.
Club captain Scott Brown leads the singing, while you can also hear the likes of Emilio Izaguirre, Paddy McCourt and Ki Sung Yueng are in full voice.
The version by ‘Irish icon’ Shane Mcgowan is for want of a better word, rubbish.
The Exiled Tim —–
You would struggle to find an Italian who doesn’t think that Italian football is corrupt. Football is seen to be a business and not a game . Huge numbers of people have given up .. what’s the point? -they say.
TV money is destroying football . I remember being in Casablanca in 2000 and 2009 . Both times I went to the football . In 2000 there were huge crowds .In 2009 the crowds were tiny whilst the bars /cafes were chocca with people watching /supporting Chelsea / Arsenal / Man U/ Barca / Real / Inter / AC etc.
bontybhoy 1221
We are NOT blaming Celtic for someone else’s mistakes.
We are blaming the board in the business part of operating our club of not using their commercial advantage when they had it,and of not forcing regulatory closure/dismantling of their main rivals.
There you go,mate. In language which I know you to prefer-above the level of yer average moron.
In language most of us prefer….
They cheated,they got funoot,and now they want to get away with it. And so does EVERYONE else who matters. And our board are powerless,eh?
Well,the board and the rest of the league are about to find out how powerless our FANS are!
Sorry about that last post. I did use the link creator.
I apologise if it stretches the site. Can someone delete ASAP if it does.
http://www.celticfc.net/newsstory?item=1777
Am I blind or is a certain no 88 missing from this picture? Anyone get the new DVD yet? is it worth a watch?
James Forrest
I was referring to the first paragraph in your post at 1207 in how this has been going on for many years.
I agree with everything you’ve said.
ernie lynch says:
22 November, 2011 at 12:21
greenjedi says:
22 November, 2011 at 12:14
‘My brand new allotment will be getting a lot more attention’
Courgettes?
………………….
Tatties, carrots, tatties, parsnips, tatties, peas, tatties, cabbage, tatties, turnips, mibbie some tatties and other stuff
I wonder if he would settle for £1 in my pocket like a certain other club did…
Vladimir Romanov has placed a £50m price tag on Hearts, having recently announced his plans to sell the club.
The businessman expressed his desire to pull out of the Edinburgh club last week, as he looks to pursue other interests, including a potential investment in the theatre.
Speaking to Russian media agency RIA Novosti, Romanov claims he has invested “about £200m” in the club but says he is not looking to recoup his losses. However, he is looking for a significant amount to allow Hearts to change hands.
“The land is worth £25m, plus the players, the club with a project, are also worth £25m,” he said. “That’s about £50m.
“It’s not the money I spent, but now that’s what it is worth.”
Romanov also claims he has lost such interest in Hearts that he is unaware of when they played their last fixture, having last watched the team defeat Celtic on a trip to Edinburgh in October.
“I don’t even travel and I don’t know when they last played, whether it was yesterday or Saturday, and I don’t know how they played,” he said. “It is the same for my other sports clubs.
“Every time they just ask for money, and every time I promise not to give more, then they promise to make it themselves.”
greenjedi,
pineapple, I like pineapple mmmm
Hope Broon is better at leading the singing than he is at leading the team. I miss him not.
BontyBhoy
You’re forgetting this deal doesn’t work without us, so “crucifying” our own club as you put it might be the only way to ensure both Celtic and the sport survives long term.
South of Tunis
As people often point out, though, crowds are up in Germany and attending matches is very popular.
The future might be valuable TV deals as the bread and butter and clubs generating extra income by bringing fans through the door by lowering admission prices and putting good players on the park. It’s the other way round from how it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire says:
22 November, 2011 at 12:37
greenjedi,
pineapple, I like pineapple mmmm
……………..
Tha allotment is in Oatlands, not the Philipines!!!!!
greenjedi,
quitter :o)
BontyBhoy:
Have you ever stopped to consider others simple values and sensitivities and the perchance that maybe our club might just be crucifying us?
KNOXY2000 1228
Aye,and as good a second serve as I’ve seen for a while.
Paul67.
Celtic would have to agree the deal or the deal would be off.Celtic have all the cards in their hand.
If Celtic don’t agree with any part of the deal,all they have to do is not qualify for the last game,ie make sure they are in the bottom half of the League when the split takes place.
It would mean that Celtic would maybe? have to do a bit of cheating to lose some points,but what is that amongst friends,The whole of this god forsaken League have been cheating for years.
kit,
dont feed the monkey
oldtim67:
Devious…. :-)
Celtic_First
Germany like everything else they do just now have football sussed.
Reduced ticket prices, free children tickets and subsidised travel on match days, means nearly EVERYONE is interested in football there. This has led to large attendances and viewing figures for TV.
Greed as usual, will destroy the game in this country…
As far as Sky and ESPN are concerned the SPL TV product is aimed at Celtic fans and Rangers fans, all the others are fairly insignificant.
If you are a Celtic or Rangers fan and subscribe to Sky and ESPN you will be able to see all of your teams away games and both home derby games. All the other teams fans can look forward to is four home games (two each against Celtic and Rangers) plus possibly one or two other games (local derby’s for example).
Does anybody really believe that Sky / ESPN would guarantee £80M to the SPL over five years without a get out clause in the event of potentially losing almost half their subscribers for that market?
The clause about four Celtic v Rangers games allows them to void / re-negotiate the contract in the event of a major change happening. The unfortunate situation for us is that we have ten teams in the league who rely heavily on TV money and the TV money relies on both Celtic and Rangers being in the league (and top six under current set-up).
This new TV deal has changed nothing, the other teams need Celtic AND Rangers a lot more than Celtic need Rangers. Therefore I share the concerns of most people on here but don’t agree that the Celtic board are to blame. If a newco rangers is formed our board should do everything in their power to ensure they start at the bottom but greed from others will see them over-ruled.
MJM
”Local sex parties” just followed me, on twitter.
I hope I wasn’t recommended as a ”similar to you” Twitterer.
greenjedi,
its a dawdell, cut the arse of a 3litre bottle of skoosh and put it over the seed, tara aw wee greenhouse for greenjedi :oD
Paul 67
in regards to todays post:
“The one concession he had to trade, was the possibility that he had to subjugate the link between sporting meritocracy and the commercial imperative”
can you get back to writing posts i can understand :O) lol
tictalker talking tic