When media collaborate with power you have problems

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A journalist, banned by Celtic, attacked the club in the Daily Record today, suggesting the SFA chief exec Stuart Regan should have told Peter Lawwell to ‘wind his neck in’ and ‘remind him of his duty to the game’ after he wrote asking for clarification after Sunday’s game.

The hyperbole was raised to the extent the notion “Lawwell dragged our game back into a very dark place – somewhere dangerously close to disrepute” was put into hundreds of thousands of hands today.

A dark place, close to disrepute?  For writing a letter asking for clarification? Sounds to me like the know the trouble Peter Lawwell is causing to the vested interests at Hampden and they want him stopped.

By remarkable coincidence, this happens to be the same journo who wrote the puff piece for SFA president, Campbell ‘What school did you go to?’ Ogilvie for writing to Uefa demanding a referee was demoted (while circumventing due process) and asking for a player to be banned.

No mention of winding a neck in or duty to the game for a vastly farther reaching letter.

The same paper gives a platform to Barry ‘EBT’ Ferguson to level wholly inaccurate accusations against Celtic:

“By questioning the reasoning behind [the failure to award a penalty]in the name of their supporters, they were nodding towards all manner of hoary old conspiracy theories.”

Conspiracy you say, Barry?  Who mentioned conspiracy?  An explanation that the standard of refereeing is not good enough and that having 6 officials at Hampden hindered good decision making didn’t occur to you?

Some people are quick to deny conspiracies when a far less controversial response is available.

A concerted campaign has run for days now to ensure that Celtic cannot ask questions without being demonised.  When the media demonise those who question authority we are in a very dark place indeed.

This is intolerable.  It would not happen in England, where the breadth of media is wide enough to escape narrow seams of authority.  It doesn’t matter if it is the government, the Church, the police, big business or sport, if media collaborate with power, you have problems.

Some of it comes from people perhaps bitter that Celtic called them out and banned them, some from those unable to find perspective or consistency between writing about a Campbell Ogilvie letter and a Peter Lawwell letter.  All of them are time-served opinion formers who make money from Celtic’s actions.

We are the last superpower in the game, survivors in the battle of the ages.  This antagonism isn’t going away.  Not until their grandchildren are in place, anyway.

Clubs need to write letters when improvement is needed.  I hear estimates that income to Celtic from winning the Scottish Cup would have been in the region of £1m.  Football is big business and processes and resources need to as good as they possibly can be. If they are not, the very least you can do is ask for improvement.

On Meekings appeal yesterday….

The player’s appeal was right to be upheld, the case should never have been put before the SFA panel in the first place.  The referee Steven McLean saw the incident.  That was not disputed.  He asked his assistant for his opinion.  That was not disputed either.

Meekings representatives pointed out at the hearing that officials are not allowed to re-referee a game after watching TV.  This is a central tenant of the game and was accepted by the judicial panel.

Retrospective action is only allowed for incidents which referees did not see.  It is not permitted for referees to reconsider an incident he saw.  It is blindingly embarrassing to our game that the SFA didn’t know the rules well enough before taking this action.  I hear there was incredulity at Celtic when they heard Meekings was banned in the first place.

…… and you wonder why Celtic write letters.

Last call for the Ben Nevis Huddle……..

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1,190 Comments

  1. West End of East End on

    Reading back on here you get the feeling that posters want Celtic to trip up to reinforce their views and can then gloat in “I told you so” and bore the pants of everyone in the future….Sad really…

  2. I remember the bakers strike, my parents had no dough to buy the bread anyway..

     

    It was a half baked strike..

     

     

    Am away

     

     

    HH

  3. The Battered Bunnet on

    “Manager Stuart McCall says Rangers would never have followed Celtic’s example by writing to the Scottish FA to demand an explanation over Josh Meekings’ controversial hand ball in Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Scottish Cup semi-final win over the Parkhead side.”

     

     

    Writing to the SFA? Well, of course not Stuart.

     

     

    You’d just have phoned Campbell to get him to sort it out for you.

  4. West End of East End on

    NegAnon2 – Read back and you’ll understand it then, it’s not that hard to find…

  5. BIGbones8867 supports wee Oscar on

    Dia Daoibh uilig

     

     

    Found this article on twitter,maybe of some interest to some,about the Scottish connection to the 1916 rising and upcoming events regarding the Rebellion.

     

     

    ‘mise BB HH

  6. Gordon_j

     

     

    Football can learn from the experience of other sports to choose the best option, and to address concerns about possible interruptions to the flow of the game.

     

     

    Where it does flow, that is!

  7. West end so you think that some of us really want celtic to screw up so we can show how terrible they are?

     

     

    Do you include me in that?

  8. South Of Tunis on

    Bakers strike .?

     

     

    Remember it – but

     

     

    My mother made our bread .Part of her – Rely on nobody but yourself- approach to life..

     

     

    Off oot to have a trawl through a vinyl collection being offered for sale by an old hippy.. I fear Quintessence/ The Fugs and – Edgar Broughton but -Hey Ho.

     

     

    You never know / live in hope CSC – way down south.

  9. Mr Regan,

     

     

    Firstly let me congratulate Inverness Caley Thistle and Falkirk Football Club on their achievement of reaching the Scottish FA Cup Final. Hopefully it will be a great day for both teams and their supporters; and the best team will win for the right reasons.

     

     

    As for the match yesterday when Inverness managed to beat my team and get to the final; that’s another story altogether; and another example of blatant cheating involving referees and officials working on behalf of the SFA.

     

     

    I make no apologies whatsoever for using the term “CHEATING” as i was sitting about seventy yards away in the North Stand and clearly saw the hand ball which at least three match officials much closer than me must have seen as well.

     

     

    I have watched the incident back several times and seen the still pictures; i would like the match officials to come out and explain why Celtic were not awarded a penalty and a red card issued to the offending player Josh Meekings.

     

     

    I would also be delighted to hear your opinion on the incident; i assume you were in one of the better seats of Hampden and would have had a good view of the incident.

     

     

    I have said to you before there seems to be an anti-Celtic agenda going on at the SFA; too many situations have occurred for that not to be the case; I’ll mention a couple; you can explain them to me.

     

     

    Derk Boerrigter, cited by the compliance officer and given a two game suspension for simulation. No problem with that; but are we to believe that Derk is the only player in Scottish Football who dived seeking to gain an advantage?

     

     

    Aleksandar Tonev, cited by the compliance officer and given a seven match suspension for making a racist remark to Shay Logan. Not one single witness or technical evidence to support the charge; yet Aleksandar is convicted on the “Balance of probabilities”.

     

     

    Leigh Griffiths, cited by the compliance officer and charged with singing a disrespectful song about Hearts; the outcome still to be decided.

     

     

    John Guidetti, cited by the compliance officer and charged with singing a disrespectful song about Rangers; the outcome still to be decided.

     

     

    I would like to know if the players of Celtic Football Club are the only ones under scrutiny by the SFA. As there doesn’t appear to be the same scrutiny used with regards to players of other teams.

     

     

    Getting back to match officials. Was “Operation Stop the Treble” confined to match officials? Or were board members like you and Campbell Ogilvie also involved? How we have managed to be top of the league and have already won the League Cup is a remarkable achievement in the circumstances.

     

     

    Steven McLean and Alan Muir have a lot of explaining to do with regards to yesterday; and I’m not sure what part the North Stand assistant had to play in the incident. But of course they won’t be asked to explain why they cheated; they will be supported by you and your accomplices; just as they always are.

     

     

    McLean has a history of treating Celtic with disdain; maybe it comes from being a supporter of Rangers; and his brother having played for Rangers. He has been ably abetted this season by Thomson, Madden, and Collum; to name a few.

     

     

    I think the latest “Honest Mistake” might just be the final nail in the coffin with regards to the SFA and the supporters of Celtic FC. We will now organise our supporters groups with a view to exerting the financial clout we have in Scottish Football.

     

     

    There will be no cash cow of the Celtic Support at Hampden for the Cup Final, you will need to be creative for once to try and get more than 20,000 to attend; it won’t be easy not having the Celtic supporters to suck dry.

     

     

     

     

    Joe O’Rourke,

     

     

    General Secretary,

     

     

    Celtic Supporters Association.

  10. Reply

     

    Original Message—– From: Stewart Regan

     

    Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 8:53 AM

     

    To: Eleanor ONeill ; joseph.orourke3@ntlworld.com

     

    Subject: Re: Cheating.

     

     

    Dear Joseph,

     

     

    Given the scurrilous accusations contained within your letter – which is not befitting a general secretary of any organisation – it would be inappropriate to continue this correspondence any further.

  11. I remember the bakers strike.

     

     

    just after the butchers one.

     

     

    then came the candlestick makers one.

     

     

    terrible times

  12. Joes on a loser with this letter,

     

     

    all regan has to do now is cite all the times that the the Rangers, and the rangers before them have also been the victins of honest mistakes …………

     

     

    listing them out with ………

     

     

    sure aitken stole a shy in a cup final once

  13. Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles on

    The best thing about the bakers strike was that there were no currant buns.

  14. It was plain for all to see that the baker’s strike would never last because everyone needed to earn a crust.

  15. Joe only stating his opinion, nothing wrong wi that, will fall on deaf ears, but get it off yer chest I say, only saying what 95% of us are saying or thinking, feck um., the lot of them.

     

    And lurking Huns girfuy.

  16. BIG-CUP-WINNERS on

    NegAnon2

     

    11:49 on

     

    25 April, 2015

     

    West end so you think that some of us really want celtic to screw up so we can show how terrible they are?

     

     

    Do you include me in that?

     

     

    ==========================

     

     

    Can I answer that ?

  17. TOSB, Soz.

     

     

    Season Tickets renewed.

     

    VP, thanks for posting the reminder, been away so much I didn’t realise deadline date was so close. Phew.

  18. prestonpans bhoys on

    Watching the snooker on euro sports, that boy Ding is a far better player than his compatriot Dong!

  19. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    PRESTONPANSBHOY

     

     

    It would be a right battle between those two!

  20. TBJ says Wee Oscar Knox is in heaven with the angels on

    The bakers strike

     

     

    I remember it like it was yeasterday

  21. Baker’s strike failed to get a rise out of anyone, mainly because nobody used their loaf and walked about a bit glazed due to demands being a bit pie in the sky.