A spectre is haunting Scottish Football

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From the TSFM Manifesto 🙂

A spectre is haunting Scottish Football — the spectre of Sporting Integrity. All the powers of the old firms have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Billy and Dan, Blazer and Cassock, Record and Sun, Balance Sheet and P&L.
Where is the football fan in opposition to these that has not been decried as a “sporting integrity bampot” by his opponents in power?

Two things result from this fact:

I. Sporting Integrity is already widely acknowledged to be itself a power for good.

II. It is high time that Lovers of Sport should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Sporting Integrity with a manifesto of fair play.

To this end, Lovers of Sport of various partisanship have assembled on TSFM and sketched their manifesto, to be published on tsfm.scot.

Those who love sport though are challenged not just by the taunts of the monosyllabic automatons in the MSM, but by the owners of our football clubs who have displayed an almost total disregard to our wish to have a fair competition played out in the spirit of friendly rivalry. In fact the clubs, who speak those fine words, are not nearly as outraged as we are by the damage done to the integrity of the sport in the past few years .

In fact the term Sporting Integrity has become, since the latter stages of the Rangers era, a term of abuse; a mocking soubriquet attached to those who want sport to be just that – sport.

Sporting integrity now lives in the same media pigeon-hole as words like Islam, left-wing, militant, Muslim – and a host of others; words which are threats to the established order now set up as in-jokes, in order to reduce the effectiveness of the idea.

In fact, a new terminology has evolved in the reporting of football by both club officials and The Succulent Lamb Chapel alike;

“.. Sporting Integrity but …”.

For example

“We all want sporting integrity, but finance is more important”

Says who exactly?

Stated in such a matter of fact way that the obvious question is headed off at the pass, it is sometimes difficult to re-frame the discussion – perhaps because crayon is so hard to erase?

This is the backdrop to The Scottish Football Monitor and the world in which we live. Often the levels of scrutiny employed by our contributors are far in excess of any scrutiny employed by the MSM. Indeed our ideas and theories are regularly plagiarised by those very same lazy journalists who lurk here, and cherry-pick material to suit their own agendas; regularly claiming exclusives for stories that TSFM and RTC before us had placed in the public domain weeks earlier.

This was going to lead into a discourse about the love of money versus the love of sport – of how the sacred cows of acquisitiveness, gate- retention and turnstile spinning is far more important to the heads of our football clubs (the Billys, Dans and Blazers of the intro) than maintaining the traditions of our sport.

However events of Friday 14th November have given me cause to leave that for another day. The biggest squirrel of all in this sorry saga has always been the sleight of hand employed instil a siege mentality in the Rangers fans. The press have time and again assisted people (with no love of football in general or Rangers in particular) to enrich themselves – legally or otherwise – and feed on the loyalty of Rangers fans.

A matter for Rangers fans may also be the identity of some of those who had their trust, but who also assisted the Whytes and Greens by their public statements of support.

Our contention has been that rules have been bent twisted or broken to accommodate those people, the real enemies of the Rangers fans – and fans everywhere.

Through our collective research and group-analysis of events, we have also wondered out loud about the legality of many aspects of the operating style of some of the main players in the affair. That suspicion has been shared most notably by Mark Daly and Alex Thompson, but crucially now appears to be shared by Law Enforcement.

I confess I am fed up with the self-styled “bampot” epithet. For the avoidance of doubt, the “bampots” in this affair are those who have greater resources than us, and access to the truth, but who have lacked either the will or the courage or the imagination to follow it through.

We are anything but bampots. Rather, we have demonstrated that the wisdom of the crowd is more effective by far than any remnants of wisdom in the press.

I have no doubt that the police investigation into this matter is proceeding in spite of great opposition in the MSM and the Scottish Football Authorities – all of whom conspired to expose Rangers to the custodianship of those for whom football is a foreign language.

I have no doubt that the constant exposition of wrong-doing on this blog, in particular the questions we have constantly raised, and anomalies we have pointed out, has assisted and enabled the law enforcement agencies in this process.

If we are to be consistent in this, our enabling of the authorities, we MUST show restraint at all times as this process is followed through. People who are charged with a crime deserve to be given a fair trial in the absence of rumour or innuendo. We must also, if we are to continue as the spectre which haunts the avaricious – and the real bampots – be seen to be better than they, and give them no cause to accuse us of irresponsibility.

This affair has now evolved way beyond one club gaining unfair advantage over others. For all the understandable Schadenfreude of many among us, the real enemy is not Rangers, it is about those who enabled and continue to enable the farce at Ibrox.

This is now about systematic cheating at the heart of the Scottish game (in the name of cash and in spite of lip service to sporting integrity), and how the greed of a bunch of ethically challenged officials allowed another group of ethically challenged businessmen free rein to enrich themselves at the expense of the fans.

Whether laws were broken or not, the players at Rangers have come and gone and are variables, but the malignant constant at the SFA and SPFL are still there. Last night, even after the news that four men had been arrested in connection with the takeover at Ibrox in 2011, they were gathered together at Celtic Park with their Irish counterparts, tucking into succulent lamb (perhaps) and fine wines, doing some back slapping, making jokes about the vulgarities of their fans, bragging about the ST money they have banked.

The revolution won’t be over until they are gone, and if they remain, it is Scottish Football that will be over.

 

 

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About Trisidium

Trisidium is a Dunblane businessman with a keen interest in Scottish Football. He is a Celtic fan, although the demands of modern-day parenting have seen him less at games and more as a taxi service for his kids.

4,164 thoughts on “A spectre is haunting Scottish Football”


  1. Good Evening
    By lunchtime tomorrow the true nature of the charges will be revealed- it will be in the public domain.

    The shenanigans of the SFA will only get out in the public domain if one of the participants presses the self-preservation button and decides to tell all.

    I suspect the will be a lot of sphincters tweaking before this is all over.

    Why is the 5 way agreement secret?
    Who were party to it?
    Do our chairmen who are ultimately the employers of the blazers know the detail of it?
    If not why not?

    Either the chairmen are complicit or they don’t know. Either position is unacceptable.

    Now is the time more than ever for the fans to put pressure on the club chairmen to redeem themselves and save the game.

    Just my opinion but I think that this week the shares in TRIFC will be suspended and we may see the additional loan to TRFC put on hold.

    Interesting article on BBC website “Are the days of debt now over?” commenting on how well our premier league clubs are doing in this age of Armageddon. Not a word about Sevco.

    In my opinion the game is in a healthier state than when the entitled ones were in the top division, but the SMSM and the blazers would have us be told different.

    The game will not improve by changing the numbers in the top league; it has all been tried before. The game improves by living within your means and developing youth and teaching, training and developing their skills. The size of the league does not improve basic skills.

    We should all be on the alert for any attempt to change the leagues.

    Finally if I were the chief executive of an organisation that has spectacularly failed to attract any form of sponsorship I would feel morally obliged to step aside.

    Then again the SFA and SPFL don’t do moral rectitude.

    We live in interesting times


  2. Sevco Scotland played their first ever game, using borrowed players and trading as Rangers on 29/7/12 using their very own conditional membership of the SFA, as two clubs at this time were RFC the result was reported in the media as Brechin 1 The Rangers 2

    Sevco Scotland changed it’s name to RFC Ltd on 31/07/12 RFC 1872 did not enter liquidation till after this event IIRC Halloween 2012.

    As an aside RFC 1872 (IL) now called RFC 2012 is still listed as a subsidiary company of MIH


  3. essexbeancounter says:
    November 16, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    And there was me thinking practitioners of the dismal profession had no sense of humour. :mrgreen:

    It does appear that Messers Wallace & Nash at least tried to do the right thing, that this has caused surprise & confusion may say more about the perception of the profession than anything else? 😆

    But, doesn’t modern Accounting trace its history, in part at least, back to the Florence of the Medici’s? :mrgreen:


  4. GoosyGoosy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 9:36 pm
    ———————————————
    No idea.
    However I was surprised that Ashley gave this up.
    It had value and it did appear to fit in with his commercial MO.
    It is just an unknown at this stage.
    Well I don’t know.


  5. Why would you want naming rights of a football stadium soon to be mothballed?


  6. Re D & Ps charitable act. Come on guys where’s your imagination.

    Clearly they arrived as the bad guys there to administrate he of whytliness. However it turned out that the whyte one was very undignified so the bad guys became the good guys. But the good guys went rogue although that may just have been because all the big clubs, erm guys, were picking on them but thankfully during their lowest ebb they caught rangersitis, hence the name change so alls well that ends well as long as you accept that what ended didn’t!

    How’s that? Won’t be a million miles away from chick youngs description I can promise you that!


  7. PhilMacGiollaBhain

    I thought that too, it was strange that he “gave it up”. One way it makes sense is if he either owns the whole outfit or will in short order. In that scenario he doesn’t need to own the individual parts.


  10. Scottish Football needs TSFM posters to be very careful with what they state or speculate.

    Loose lips sink ships….


  11. nawlite says:
    November 16, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    It’s clear that Police Scotland submitted the report to the PF in this case. We do not know if the police investigation that precipitated it was caused bay a specific report or complaint. The police may well have acted on their own cognisance as they are free to do.

    There has been all sorts of speculation in the press and on blogs about potential wrong doing.

    That in itself is more than enough to prompt a police investigation.

    That said it is worth remembering failure to report organised crime is in itself a crime which could potentially have serious consequences.

    It would be OFF THE SCALE WRONG to publish speculation on who may have reported a crime in any circumstances.

    A useful article which touches on the subject of failure to report can be found here:

    http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/group/money-laundering-and-crime/changes-scottish-criminal-law-re-serious-crime-and-confiscation


  12. GoosyGoosy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 10:34 pm
    ———————————————
    You really should take care. You are discussing issues which might form part of a serious criminal trial. People have been arrested and charged and you just cannot say the things you are saying without running the risk of a legal move against yourself or this blog.

    And you are also prejudicing the right to a fair trial for any of the people you mention or make suppositions about.


  13. oddjob says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:15 pm

    Big Pink refers to “CtH”. I have almost gone crossed eyed trying to find a previous usage of CtH.
    ========================================================
    Google is your friend 😆

    Search for ‘CtH tsfm’ and you’ll find that Charlotte the Harlot was an early name some tsfm posters used originally to identify the person most of us know as CF.


  15. Hoopy 7 says:
    November 16, 2014 at 10:09 pm

    Good Evening. By lunchtime tomorrow the true nature of the charges will be revealed – it will be in the public domain.
    ========================================================
    If the matter is dealt with by Solemn Procedure the first appearance will be in private and no plea or declaration is given and there might be no details of the charge/s released. Even if there are any details released they tend to be minimal at this stage.

    It’s not a conspiracy but simply how the system works and it’s the same for every accused not dealt with under Summary Procedure.


  16. ecobhoy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:18 pm
    3 0 Rate This

    GoosyGoosy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 10:34 pm
    ———————————————
    You really should take care.

    _______________

    I really can’t help thinking that philmacg’s knowledge of live proceedings and his status as a member of the NUJ, and his most recent blog have created an over-sensitivity on here…

    Can someone tell me, if Goosy had posed his comments as questions, rather than statements, doesn’t that change the whole thing, and keep everyone the right side of the Law?

    Clearly, some of what he is saying is a matter of fact and of public record. And whilst I kept up with it all, avidly, at the time I can’t now recall exactly what happened, or was reported as having happened at the time.

    Of course we could all trawl back over historic blog entries and associated comments on here and elsewhere but a reminder of what we know happened, and what might be considered strange about these events would be useful, and surely the right side of the law.

    As I recall the whole Sevco 5088 not actually buying RFC’s assets and these instead going to Sevco Scotland, didn’t look right then, and doesn’t look right now. Sorry if I’m being thick but why can’t the facts be discussed??


  17. Ecobhoy says

    November 16 2014 @ 11.24pm

    Eco, thank you. I had tried several permutations on Google, without tsfm. I suspected that the answer would be CF.

    I would also like to thank you for the attachment to one of your earlier posts. It was a quite breathtaking article by Paul McConville. He was quite clearly a top class operator.


  18. ecobhoy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:18 pm
    6 0 Rate This

    GoosyGoosy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 10:34 pm
    ———————————————
    You really should take care. You are discussing issues which might form part of a serious criminal trial. People have been arrested and charged and you just cannot say the things you are saying without running the risk of a legal move against yourself or this blog.

    And you are also prejudicing the right to a fair trial for any of the people you mention or make suppositions about.
    ,,,,,,,,,,,,,
    Never thought about it like that

    TSFM Night shift

    Request deletion of speculative post
    GoosyGoosy says:
    November 16, 2014 at 10:34 pm


  19. Where’s the evidence that RFC was ever sold in the first place?


  20. RyanGosling says:
    November 16, 2014 at 10:29 pm
    7 0 Rate This
    —————————————————-
    That’s entirely possible.
    However it is an unknown at the moment-well I certainly don’t know.


  21. thirdmanrunning says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:41 pm
    ————————————
    I am not basing anything I say on what Phil states and in my experience NUJ members have little experience of the intricacies/problems of court reporting unless they spend a lot of time reporting from the courts at all levels and discussing issues with a newspaper’s duty lawyer.

    I am not being disparaging of Phil or his advice but I have no idea what his actual ‘live’ court reporting experience is so I will stick to using my own experience if that’s OK.

    You ask why the ‘facts’ can’t be discussed. Well the simple answer to that is that we often don’t actually know what the facts are but have come to a lot of conclusions on a jigsaw with a lot of missing pieces.

    The actual ‘facts’ will be revealed in any court proceedings where they can be tested and if it’s a jury trial then the jurors can decide what facts have been proven and which haven’t.

    I’m afraid to get ‘facts’ out into the public domain by using a ‘device’ such as posing them as questions – in the current legal situation – will be recognised for what it is.

    There’s nothing to stop any of use looking at the historical background to this but we can’t re-run the discussions publicly and make the conjectures we did at that time.

    And the reason we can’t is that people have been arrested, charged and there appears to also be live police investigations continuing. In the interest of justice for any accused we have to be very circumspect about what is stated and discussed in public wrt background information.

    If you are ever an accused person you might appreciate the reasoning as to why we have contempt of court rules. The ban on comment is there to protect both an accused and also the public.

    I’m sure even in the current situation that no one would want to see an accused person be disadvanataged by rumour and innuendo and false facts being broadcast/published which might be seen by a juror and possibly influence their decision on guilt or innocence. The internet is making that possibilty a lot more likely.

    And similarly I’m sure no one would want to see a trial collapse because of the release of information which wasn’t heard as evidence.


  22. thirdmanrunning says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:41 pm
    ————————————————–
    In the circumstances an “over-sensitivity” is no bad thing.
    I’m sure the TSFM mods will steer a safe course on this.


  23. Until we know whether there are charges or not (and what they might be) keep the powder drier than dry!

    But, by way of advice to me, who in this situation is likely to be providing the Procurator with what they need, and is that of interest,


  24. oddjob says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:53 pm
    Ecobhoy says
    November 16 2014 @ 11.24pm

    Eco, thank you. I had tried several permutations on Google, without tsfm. I suspected that the answer would be CF.

    I would also like to thank you for the attachment to one of your earlier posts. It was a quite breathtaking article by Paul McConville. He was quite clearly a top class operator.
    ==========================================================
    Yes indeed he was something else and his early death has left a gap that might never be filled.

    Because he had the ability to take difficult legal concepts and render them intelligible to the rest of us. In the last couple of days I have been re-reading a lot of his early stuff – because of current events – and it’s uncanny how on the ball he was even in the very early days.

    I like your description of his article as ‘breathtaking’ as it describes his abilities down to the ground and totally modest with it.


  25. Squiggle says:
    November 17, 2014 at 12:16 am

    who in this situation is likely to be providing the Procurator with what they need
    ==========================================
    Well there will be close liason with whatever PF Depute is assigned to the case and the the police carrying out the investigations.

    The witnesses will be determined by the matters under investigation and I would think there would be quite a few professional persons involved because of the nature of the alleged offences.

    But it’s still very early days and after the flurry of publicity from the court appearances it will be pretty quiet unless there are other arrests until the actual trial/s if it’s decided there’s enough evidence to run with at the end of the day.


  26. thirdmanrunning says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:41 pm
    ‘.. thinking that philmacg’s knowledge of live proceedings and his status as a member of the NUJ, and his most recent blog have created an over-sensitivity on here…’
    ———-
    Some time ago, I likened participation on this blog to pub conversations among friends and acquaintances, but on a larger scale: the same laughs, inconsequential diversions, occasional eye-ball to eye-ball huffy fall-outs, the wee personal digs, the thises and the thats, and whose round is it anyway? and then back to the main business…
    And that is fair enough as far as it goes.
    However, we are NOT, sadly, in a pub, where our words and statements and arguments disappear into the void as soon as we utter them.
    What you and I type on our keyboards or phones is on public record-for ever!
    And, as others have pointed out, something that you or I or any other poster may put on the blog might conceivably bugger the chances of conviction of, say, some bent lawyer, or shoplifter, or other offender , being convicted.Never mind the risk that we (or TSFM)could be done for whatever we might be done for!
    Circumspection and careful consideration and even more careful use of language is definitely called for. In terms of natural justice, certainly, but also so that any actually guilty parties may not get an escape route.


  27. nawlite says:

    November 16, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    Sorry, but I’m back to asking for clarification – who actually caused this report to be sent to the PF i.e. who actually made the complaint about these allegedly fraudulent proceedings? I genuinely don’t know (and I hope the answer is not sub-judice)

    —————————————————————-

    I have only ever been involved (in an insurance aspect) with the results of road traffic accidents.
    My understanding was the police did all the preliminary investigation, and compile a “police report” which is sent to the procurator fiscal who then decides whether to prosecute or not. The equivalent in Enland is “The Crown Prosecutor”

    However there appear to be differences as per below.

    “Procurators fiscal make preliminary investigations into criminal cases, take written statements from witnesses (known as precognition) and are responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crime. This includes the power to direct the police in their investigation, but except for serious crimes such as murder, the police normally complete their enquiries before involving the procurator fiscal.”

    So I assume that a complaint of fraud was made to the police and they carried out a preliminary investigation on behalf of the PF and reported back.
    “If the police have enough information to send a report to the Procurator Fiscal (PF), but can’t find the accused person, they can give a report for warrant to the Fiscal.

    If the Procurator Fiscal decides there is enough evidence, the PF can go to a Judge and ask that a Warrant (a document from the court) is granted to arrest the accused so that they can be brought to court to face the charges.

    If the Judge agrees, the warrant will be granted.

    These warrants can take different forms; some will be for Scotland only, which means the person can be arrested anywhere in Scotland. Others will be for the whole of the United Kingdom, which means if they are found anywhere in the UK, they will be arrested, and brought back to Scotland to go to court.”


  28. Was Walter Smith compensation paid to the SFA ?
    ================================================

    “Subject: Compensation query / 5th follow up (+3 weeks).‏
    To: Darryl Broadfooot.
    cc: Stewart Regan, Mark Snell [Comms.]

    Dear Darryl,

    as a customer, I am not satisfied with the responses from the SFA’s Communications department.

    However, both yourself and Mark Snell have helpfully confirmed that the Walter Smith compensation had been paid/received, which was reported as being in the region of £400K.

    To summarise the original email attached;

    A glaring anomaly appears to exist between the SFA’s stated receipt of this compensation and how it has been accounted for within both The Rangers Football Club plc (IL) and the SFA’s audited financial statements. If there is a simple explanation why the SFA did not record this money as an Exceptional Item, (i.e. revenues that will not be recurring), then I would have appreciated receiving that explanation and this matter would have quickly been put to rest.

    In the absence of an adequate response to my repeated, simple question;

    Where in the The SFA Ltd. annual accounts for 2007 is the compensation included ?

    I now have serious doubts that the reported compensation was in fact paid/received.
    And, in my opinion, £400K could go a long way in Scottish football – for example at grass roots level.

    As intimated in the email chain below, I refuse to accept the SFA’s lack of transparency on this material matter.

    After 5 failed attempts to get an appropriate answer from the SFA, I now feel I have no option but to engage various, Scottish football stakeholders to request their assistance to elicit clarification.

    For an organisation with a publicly stated vision to be “Trusted and Respected to Lead”, a customer should not have to approach other stakeholders to extract answers from the governing body.

    Regards,

    [StevieBC]”
    =================================

    In order to avoid possibly upsetting Darryl – and give reason to disengage – I decided not to post his replies.

    I intend to forward our email chain to several contacts – in addition to those mentioned above – and will share any updates in due course.

    [And for clarity: this is not my initiative. It was maybe mentioned during RTC days, but I can’t remember which Bampot raised it. It seemed to get lost in the noise of the multitude of other developments at that time. Can anyone remember who has copyright on this query ? 😉 ]


  29. Addendum last post :-
    We will not know who has made the allegation probably until any court case (I guess!)

    Ecobhoy

    Agree


  30. woodstein says:
    November 17, 2014 at 12:51 am
    nawlite says:
    November 16, 2014 at 9:26 pm
    =================================================
    On 25 June 2012 the BBC ran with the following which I think answers the point:

    The Crown Office asked Strathclyde Police to probe the purchase and the club’s subsequent financial management.

    The investigation into alleged criminality follows a preliminary examination of information passed to police by administrators.

    The club was bought by Mr Whyte in 2011 before going into administration in February this year.

    A Crown Office spokesman said: “The procurator fiscal for the west of Scotland will now work with Strathclyde Police to fully investigate the acquisition and financial management of Rangers Football Club and any related reports of alleged criminality during that process.”


  32. StevieBC says:
    November 17, 2014 at 12:51 am

    Was Walter Smith compensation paid to the SFA ?
    ===================================================
    I doubt if there would ever be a better time to raise your suspicions with the police if the SFA fail to give a transparent answer to a very simple question.

    The tactics they are employing to dodge answering the question leaves me asking myself: ‘What have they got to hide?’.


  33. StevieBC says:
    November 17, 2014 at 12:51 am
    ‘..I intend to forward our email chain to several contacts….’
    ———–
    Good man.
    How absolutely fecking incompetent are these guys? If they can answer a simple question with a ‘there you are, in black and white, we have the cheque for payment clearly shown in our accounts and there it is’ , why don’t they?
    And if not incompetent, what? Lying, deceitful? God almighty, they positively invite us to think the worst!
    Is there, has there been, no one on that feckin’ sixth floor who does not believe that he cannot be called in question, that people ought not to have their legitimate concerns dealt with, that somehow they have a right not to be challenged?
    I’ll go back a bit, and remind myself that I was pleased that Regan, an outsider, was appointed as CEO. I thought it signalled a recognition that true professionalism and expertise was beginning to be important rather than perpetuation of a closed old-boy one of us approach to the administration of Scottish Football.
    I think I was too naive. Closed shop, self-protectionism appears still to be as deeply rooted as it ever was.
    And it is so, so stupid. A statement is made. Evidence of the truth of the statement is asked for. What could be simpler than providing that evidence, and getting brownie points for openness and transparency? What could be more crassly stupid than to behave like sneaks, and incompetent sneaks ,at that?
    The SFA comms department need to get rid of Darryl, in the words of, if I may quote one of his heroes, ‘that’s for sure’.


  34. PhilMacGiollaBhain says:
    November 17, 2014 at 1:21 am
    ecobhoy says:
    November 17, 2014 at 12:11 am
    ————————————-
    For the avoidance of doubt I’m no stranger to Court Reporting AND I was a court social worker (in Glasgow) for 6 years.
    Ask a (Scots) lawyer about “Live Proceedings” and you will be told the same as this :

    http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/live-proceedings/#more-5299
    ————————————————————–
    I have no problem with that advice and have been saying similar things since Friday when the news broke.

    My reply to another poster who thought you were being overcautious was simply to say that I didn’t know what experience you had of court reporting so I would base my response on my own experience and I explained the need to be ultra-cautious.

    I have a wide experience of courts with no need to consult a lawyer on the restraints that ‘Live Proceedings’ impose on court reporting but thanks for your suggestion.


  36. Auldheid says:
    November 17, 2014 at 1:45 am
    John Clark says:
    November 17, 2014 at 1:24 am

    I am not linking to this Telegraph article to upset you but I know it will.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/scotland/11234247/Englishman-Stewart-Regan-has-led-rise-in-Scottish-football.html

    I’ve tried to contact the author. I don’t know where to start.
    =======================================================
    As I reached for the razor I didn’t know where to start either – should it be my throat or my wrist?

    And then in a Eureka moment clarity arrived. Regan’s looking for a new berth in the FA and this is his CV being punted. So let’s not warn the FA how useless he is and they might be daft enough to take him off our hands.

    No matter who replaces him it will be an improvement that’s for sure 😆


  37. “…The SFA continues to campaign for Sepp Blatter’s departure as Fifa president. “If we’re going to get the reputation of Fifa restored, we need a change of leadership,” Regan said…”

    😯

    The ‘author’ Henry Winter seems to have perfectly executed the time-honoured copy/paste job – this time fed from the SFA’s Communication department ?

    Absolute joke churnalism…

    :slamb: :slamb: :slamb: :slamb:


  38. Emailed to Henry Winter, [feel like I’m becoming jc 😀 ]
    ==================================================================
    “Dear Henry,

    I am a Telegraph customer, and I particularly like the sports columns.
    But I feel compelled to react to the above article.
    It reads like a copy/paste of an SFA press release.
    And contains many untruths.

    If you had an awareness of Scottish football you would know unequivocally that most fans view the SFA as a thoroughly discredited, corrupt organisation. [Indeed, it was a senior club chairman who publicly branded the SFA as corrupt: Turnbull Hutton of Raith Rovers.]

    Stewart Regan was initially viewed as a breath of fresh air in Scottish football. The fans now want him out, and this extract from your article is truly breathtaking;

    “…The SFA continues to campaign for Sepp Blatter’s departure as Fifa president. “If we’re going to get the reputation of Fifa restored, we need a change of leadership,” Regan said…”

    And for balance, and to show that this has nothing to do with Regan’s nationality – Campbell Ogilvie the SFA President is even more widely abhorred by Scottish football fans. He is a heavily conflicted, untrustworthy individual who has single-handedly tainted the SFA Presidency irrevocably – and to the point were many now believe that the SFA has to be disbanded – and rebranded.

    I can only assume that you did not write the article content yourself : it is a shockingly inaccurate piece of writing.

    Regards,

    [StevieBC]”


  39. wottpi says:
    November 16, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    Any bookies offering odds on which one of the four will fold under questioning?
    Plenty fun still to be had at this pantomime.
    ==================================

    If it goes to court then given that the SFA and the then SFL gave the newco somewhere to play football, then I will await with interest to see if anyone from those organisations is questioned in court. I guess I can say no more than that.


  40. John Clark says:
    November 17, 2014 at 1:24 am
    Good man.
    How absolutely fecking incompetent are these guys
    ________________________________________________________________

    John C

    It is amazing just how quickly the presumed fresh breeze of professionalism actually turned out to be the same old stench. I believe that Regan joined the SFA in July 2010? Just yesterday I found myself revisiting some of the CF releases and it is easy to forget just how explosive a lot of this stuff is. Your comment brought to mind one particular document containing an email exchange between Stewart Regan and Rangers FC personnel from Dec 2011 regarding questions over the European Licence for 2011 – 12.

    To remind everyone this document shows the bold Stewart drafting a SFA Press Release and sending it to Rangers for their approval before publication…..

    “…Please can you confirm that you are happy with the content. If so, I would propose to issue this later today at an agreed time with yourselves….”

    and then said Press Release was binned at the insistence of Rangers and all were happy…..

    “…All sorted – Held until further notice and I have agreed we will meet Stewart and Campbell for dinner in the next couple of weeks to discuss bigger issues. I also made it clear we were very unhappy with the approach the SFA took last week! Hopefully we can move forward now…”

    Unbelievable…..

    I really want to hear Craigy’s tape from the dinner…and I am sure that this exists…well we maybe get the chance before too long…

    By the way…I can recommend HirsutePursuit’s Scribd archive as an excellent resource…….


  41. I am not linking to this Telegraph article to upset you but I know it will.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/scotland/11234247/Englishman-Stewart-Regan-has-led-rise-in-Scottish-football.html

    I’ve tried to contact the author. I don’t know where to start.
    ===========================================================================
    Auldheid, the most upsetting aspect of this article is that it is written by Henry Winter, who is currently in my eyes at least, the finest football reporter in a very long time…right up there with the Rafferty/Archer/McIlvanney triumvirate.

    Perhaps he is ensuring a friend is seen in a particularly good light for a job he may be looking for? 🙁


  42. Just read Ecobhoy’s post re “punting a CV”…apologies for not reading his post first.


  44. essexbeancounter says:
    November 17, 2014 at 8:08 am

    Just read Ecobhoy’s post re “punting a CV”…apologies for not reading his post first.
    ===============================================
    Great minds think alike 🙄 😆


  46. StevieBC says:
    November 17, 2014 at 2:22 am

    “…The SFA continues to campaign for Sepp Blatter’s departure as Fifa president. “If we’re going to get the reputation of Fifa restored, we need a change of leadership,” Regan said…”

    😯

    The ‘author’ Henry Winter seems to have perfectly executed the time-honoured copy/paste job – this time fed from the SFA’s Communication department ?

    Absolute joke churnalism…
    ————————————
    Pity tomorrow’s game isn’t at Hampden as Mr Winter could be awarded the title of: Scottish Football’s Chief Paster.

    And in a country like ours with so many excellent home-grown contenders for the dishonour it really is a measure of Mr Winter’s journalistic integrity.

    Indeed he might even be eligible for induction into the Succulent Lamb Eaters Hall of Infamy although firstly he has to win The Scottish Limbo Dancers Final to demonstrate how low he can go on a regular basis to prove his Regan hogwash isn’t a flash in the pan.

    The Limbo Dancers’ Champion is more commonly known by the SMSM as the Scottish Sports Journalist of the Year btw. And I’m sure Mr Winter will be intrigued with the rather unusual trophy viz a rubber lamb chop topped by a runny fried egg.

    If nothing else the award ceremony organiser has always had a sense of humour – take a bow Jack. I’m sure you’ll soon be back in the blue corner and at the top table in your rightful place as chief lamb disher-outer. Or mibbes naw !

    The trophy is of course supplied by the award sponsor that well-known Glasgow business: Tam Shepherd and that’s no yolk 😈

    For posters outwith Glasgow: Tam Shepherd is an iconic Glasgow institution which fits easily with Glasgow Humour as itsa trick shop. And for those posters to whom history and provenance is important it was founded in 1886 😆

    http://www.tamshepherdstrickshop.co.uk/


  47. Back to the financial carnage and it’s direct relationship to Rangers not wishing to take heavy defeats going through the leagues.

    A nightmare scenario for Rangers is the upcoming cup match at the end of January, just at the point in time that the coffers are running dry.

    An administration event just prior to that game would be catastrophic for the Ibrox bosses and if it involved management and players contracts being ripped up then they could be on the end of a sore one on the pitch.

    This will be exercising minds now and I would suspect that any administration event will now be in February , even if it means that wages are delayed in January.

    Word of advice : never buy a stolen car as one day it may need to be returned to its rightful owner.

    Further advice : make your signature difficult to copy always


  48. the taxman cometh says:
    November 17, 2014 at 8:42 am

    what time are they appearing in court?
    ——————————————–
    The actual answer to that is: ‘When they appear’. I’m not trying to be smart but there are a myriad of things that affect when people appear.

    I also don’t expect them to appear in public under Summary Procedure in view of the charge details which have been released and IMO there’s a possibility they will be individually dealt with in private under Solemn Procedure either in chambers or a court closed to the press and public. But we’ll know sometime today.

    A lot has to do with what my fellow Glaswegians have been up to at the weekend and how many have attracted the attention of the boys and girls in blue. Custody courts especially at Glasgow Sheriff can throw-up a colourful selection of citizens and denizens of our wonderful City – you can often taste ra Kultyer inra err.

    Always worth a treat if you have a couple of hours to while away people watching especially when an exotic bird – and I don’t refer to Maggie frae Blythswood Square – but rather a more infrequent visitor to our shores ends up with a bunch of weegies speaking an alien language.

    Btw that’s not my fellow Glaswegians with their incessant and earnest pleadings of: ‘Ah didnae dae it. Honest’ and ‘Goat a fag china’.

    No I talk about everyone in the court except the individual accused who is the only one who doesn’t speak or understand the language unless they’ve become a barrack-room lawyer usually through an addiction to drink, drugs or criminality.

    A bit like being a spectator at an Italian Opera where everyone knows their script and all the moves to be made and all in this in double quick time in an inpenetrable language which everyone in court understands – even the sullen non-custodial visitors in the cheap seats waiting for a first glimpse of their man or wee boy being brought into the dock from the custody cells.

    And the most important person in court who is, of course, the accused is left wondering how they ended-up in this madhouse of a pantomime as we don’t really do Italian Opera that much in Glesga.

    But I can hear my sainted granny singing away: ‘Oh my Antonio he’s gone away and left me all alonio here on my ownio’.

    It was the only non-Irish song I ever remember her singing and what a big voice from such a wee sparra who made her home in Scotland and never returned to the land of her birth which held so many heartaches for her.

    Don’t quite know why that snatch of song entered my head.

    http://monologues.co.uk/musichall/Songs-O/Oh-Oh-Antonio.htm


  49. Morning all. I have been away for the weekend.. boy did I choose a bad one!

    But, let me take you back to Friday evening. Firstly, a fabulous result from our boys, finally it looks like we might have a football team (and a rugby team, helluva effort from a very young team there) that are worthy of being followed (politics aside).

    However, following them is not such an easy thing to do. I commented last week that there is no TV highlights package, something that I find unbelievable in these days of blanket coverage. I note that not only was the England (Zzzzzzzz..) game live on TV on a Saturday night, but within an ~hour of the finish ITV followed it with extended highlights (bet they were exciting!).

    The Scotland game – nothing. I viewed the goal thanks to someone who had recorded the Sky feed on their phone and stuck it on YouTube. I have since watched the briefest of highlights in STV, basically a newscast.

    Now I am blessed with a DAB/FM radio, courtesy of Mother Tayred, a Freeview TV and an iPad. I couldn’t get any coverage from BBC Radio Scotland of the game on any of those. It was available on AM (which none of these devices can receive) and some format that is incompatible with my iPad. I had the choice of sitting in the car to listen to it, or listen to it on 5Live. I chose 5live, as it was cold out.

    To be fair the coverage with an Irish commentator and Pat Nevin was ok. But still, on evenings like this a bit of biased commentary instills a bit more passion.

    Why is our national broadcaster not providing coverage of our national team of our supposed national sport? Why is the SFA not making the most of these exciting times by ensuring proper promotion of our national team? They should be going all out, we have an exciting team, worthy of support, sell it for god sake!! Even if you don’t actually make money from the rights, by allowing people to join in with these heady occasions you will keep them involved and hence far more likely to be drawn to watch live football, to buy merchandise, and perhaps most importantly to get their kids interested in the Scottish game!!!

    What the hell are Regan and his mob actually doing these days? Completely inept in everyway save banking their overinflated pay cheques, and Olympic quality dodgeball with anything that resembles a difficult question from the fans.

    Rant over, and no I don’t feel any better for it!


  50. On purely footballing matters (safe territory), I read a rather amusing-but-ttrue piece yesterday in the DR or SM. In some ways it struck the same chords with me as Big Pink’s post of 2.11pm yesterday. A few choice bits:

    Michael Gannon: Scottish football may be a one-eyed, three legged dog but it’s our pet and we must look after it

    …It’s brainwashing. The big kick-off yesterday?

    QPR v Stoke. Leicester v Everton. West Brom v Sunderland. Super Saturday? Do me a favour, I’d rather have the soup.

    Even the bigger clubs spend most weeks up against teams you wouldn’t watch unless you were tied to a chair and had your eyelids held open like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange…

    In the meantime forget about the EPL self-promoting pirates and hop on the good ship SPFL. It might be sinking but we can have a blast on the way down.

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/michael-gannon-scottish-football-one-eyed-4063952

    I have an IPTV subcription and it has almost every game available. Fact is, though, I haven’t watched a single EPL match all season. CL nights leave me bored rigid in the league stages. I have watched almost every available match from the SPFL.


  51. I have long had a high regard for Henry Winter, an excellent analyst and one of the few English football writers who does not automatically turn up his nose and scoff at the Scottish game.

    He seems to be genuinely impressed by what he sees taking place on the surface — and, in truth, there is good work going on, as he points out — but, not being close enough to understand what has actually happened, he has been totally taken in by the inept, at best, spoofer that is Stewart Regan.

    Given the deluge of emails that will have descended into his inbox this morning, 😀 we can be sure that at least one English scribe is up to speed with our ongoing scandal! I will be interested to see if he takes a closer look in the future.


  52. Were TRFC/RIFL to be liquidated (I almost typed ‘again’ 🙂 ) I wonder if anyone (Mike Ashley?) has given any consideration to a new entity being called Football Rangers Club Limited? I only suggest this as this would avoid having do to anything with those famous blue gates at Ibrox…?

    PS: I wasn’t suggesting Phil was being over-sensitive, he has, essentially, more to lose than any of us, I’d expect, from a professional perspective, but I note the words of caution and comments, as well by other posters.

    FWIW, the Yorkshireman with horses on the Continent must be baffled by all of the recent goings on. 😀


  53. Auldheid et al

    Re Telegraph article

    I can’t agree with the growing consensus over this article. We have been crying out for our football authorities and the MSM to promote the good things that are currently happening in Scottish football.

    Regan and Winter have done so. This article is perhaps the first in the UK wide media to accentuate the positives in Scottish football since ‘Armageddon’ and, as such, I welcome it.


  54. Ecobhoy

    Re the Regan interview I had same thought as you. Job hunting.

    Quite a remarkable piece claiming credit for Gordon Strachan ‘ s work.


  55. ecobhoy says:
    November 17, 2014 at 9:04 am
    0 0 Rate This

    The trophy is of course supplied by the award sponsor that well-known Glasgow business: Tam Shepherd and that’s no yolk 😈
    =============================================================================
    Ecobhoy…priceless memories…many thanks.
    I particularly remember the fake “fried egg”…!


  56. Torquemada says:
    November 17, 2014 at 9:59 am

    I have long had a high regard for Henry Winter, an excellent analyst and one of the few English football writers who does not automatically turn up his nose and scoff at the Scottish game.

    He seems to be genuinely impressed by what he sees taking place on the surface — and, in truth, there is good work going on, as he points out — but, not being close enough to understand what has actually happened, he has been totally taken in by the inept, at best, spoofer that is Stewart Regan.

    Given the deluge of emails that will have descended into his inbox this morning, 😀 we can be sure that at least one English scribe is up to speed with our ongoing scandal! I will be interested to see if he takes a closer look in the future.
    ====================================================================
    Torquemada…an apt summary of the position…Mr Winter would be proud of your summary and analysis.
    But as Ulyanova has said, at least some positve aspects are being aired as opposed to the gloom of Armageddon!


  58. I’m not too bothered about Winter’s piece on Regan. It’s the bog standard interface between journos and administrators that keep both in a job. Regan will always be “social unrest” and “armageddon” to me no matter how good a chief clerk his cv makes him out to be.
    The important thing is that some non-compromised journos take a cursory look at what is going on here. See –
    SouthernExile says:
    November 16, 2014 at 11:27 pm
    ================
    That Daily Mail (blimey!) piece is what we need more of. No agenda (either way!), straight forward story with the whole shambles laid out including naming the sainted one. picter of same (thus giving up any chance of succulent lamb), mention of the L word, oldco, side letters (i.e. the important fitba bit), the fact that laws were broken etc etc. They’ll be on the list at this rate.


  61. the taxman cometh says:
    November 17, 2014 at 8:42 am

    “what time are they appearing in court?”
    ———————————
    I was down at the Sheriff Court this morning to inquire. Withey and Grier appeared on the receptionist’s order of business. I thought Betts was the other name but I should have asked after Clark and Whitehouse but I presume they’ll all be appearing pretty much together. I was told to call back after 12.30 pm when the custody courts itinerary will be settled.

    I’ll head back down shortly.

    Presuming I gain access to the court I will only be able to post who was present, the demeanor of the accused and the nature of the charges.


  62. Looks like £24M was received from settlement of the Collyer Bristow case, out of court.


  63. ulyanova says:

    November 17, 2014 at 10:06 am

    2

    14

    Rate This

    Auldheid et al

    Re Telegraph article

    I can’t agree with the growing consensus over this article. We have been crying out for our football authorities and the MSM to promote the good things that are currently happening in Scottish football.

    Regan and Winter have done so. This article is perhaps the first in the UK wide media to accentuate the positives in Scottish football since ‘Armageddon’ and, as such, I welcome it.
    +++++++++++++++++++++
    I think Humble Pie captured the mood towards the SFA last April at

    http://scottishfootballmonitor.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/scottish-football-and-the-case-for-a-bismarck/comment-page-43/#comment-47095

    In any case the article was more about Regan claiming some credit for the football success which is obvious for everyone to see and a deflection from matters of governance and integrity, which are a constant irrespective of football form.

    I give credit to Regan for updating the Disciplinary Process when he arrived and I’ve no doubt he has other less obvious claims to success but what I’ve seen tells me his judgement is as suspect as his knowledge of SFA responsibilities with regard to UEFA FFP.

    Perhaps he left that to the game’s Great Administrator in which case its a case of rule evasion not avoidance.


  64. Castofthousands says:

    November 17, 2014 at 10:58 am

    Presuming I gain access to the court I will only be able to post who was present, the demeanor of the accused and the nature of the charges.
    +++++++++++++++
    What! No drawings? 🙂


  65. easyJambo says:
    November 17, 2014 at 11:01 am
    1 0 Rate This

    Looks like £24M was received from settlement of the Collyer Bristow case, out of court.
    ——

    Was this noted as ‘uncertain’ with trial next year?


  66. easyJambo says:

    November 17, 2014 at 10:55 am
    ———————————

    Re the EBT appeal to the Court of Session, if my reading of the BDO report is correct:

    The appeal will be heard in early 2015 (not long to wait perhaps); and
    BDO think that the company’s position is robust – i.e. RFC(IL) will win any appeal?


  67. EKBhoy says: November 17, 2014 at 11:15 am
    easyJambo says:
    November 17, 2014 at 11:01 am
    1 0 Rate This

    Looks like £24M was received from settlement of the Collyer Bristow case, out of court.
    ——

    Was this noted as ‘uncertain’ with trial next year?
    =========================
    There were two claims, one for the return of money held in a Collyer Bristow client account and the other was the “Part 7” claim against CB. The former has still to go to court next year.

    When you compare this report to the last one, you can see the sum split between the RBS Bank account and the lawyers client account.


  68. From the BDO report-

    4. The Former Joint Administrators
    The Joint Liquidators have requested, from the former Joint Administrators, detailed
    explanations regarding certain aspects of the strategy implemented by them during the Administration. There remains on-going correspondence in this regard.
    Once full explanations have been obtained, the Joint Liquidators will consult with their legal agents and the Committee regarding what futher action, if any, will be required in relation to the matter.

    Overtaken by events, I guess?


  69. Auldheid says:
    November 17, 2014 at 11:15 am

    “What! No drawings? :)”
    —————————
    According to the Channel 4 ‘contempt’ guidelines posted by Martin, making sketches is not allowed. I think maybe there is a nominated court official who does this job when the case demands it. I’m afraid I’ll have to substitute any vistas I view with a thousand words.


  70. Just a wee word about Henry Winter. He actually went to Edinburgh University, and indeed, played for the university football club at the same time as me. A very pleasant guy, and in my opinion, a first rate journalist, who is very likely still reasonably familiar with Scottish football. I seem to recall that he ghosted Kenny Dalglish’s autobiography, or wrote his biography, can’t remember which. I only mention all this as he is, I believe, very far removed from the sort of football journo knocking about in the SMSM.


  72. Castofthousands says:
    November 17, 2014 at 11:25 am

    According to the Channel 4 ‘contempt’ guidelines posted by Martin, making sketches is not allowed. I think maybe there is a nominated court official who does this job when the case demands it. I’m afraid I’ll have to substitute any vistas I view with a thousand words.

    Typically the court artists make observations and notes (and who can prevent them from perhaps doodling an outline sketch when others around them are making notes?) within the chamber and then complete them outside the chamber.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/aboutbbcnews/hi/news_update/newsid_3866000/3866845.stm


  73. Re BDO report,

    The following caught my eye.

    “To date, the cost to the Liquidation of participating in the EBT proceedings has been minimal, with the costs being funded by a third party. Going forward, the third party has asked for the Liquidation estate to make a contribution to the future costs of the process. Having liaised with the Committee, we are now seeking to agree an apportionment of costs acceptable to both parties.”

    Who’s side are BDO on in the BTC. Are they trying to help Hector and thus add the BTC claim into the list of creditors to be paid out? Or are they with MIH in defending the BTC in oreder to maximise the return for other creditiors?

    Genuinely don’t know can anyone enlighten please?


  74. Tincks says: November 17, 2014 at 11:37 am
    ==================
    BDO will be working on behalf of the creditors, so will be on the side of MIH.

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