Where transparency exists accountability inevitably follows.
This is an extract from a post on SFM from 2015. The subject was Transparency and Slow Glass
The message then was that football governance has to catch up in realising that football has to become more transparent in its dealing with supporters and so more accountable to them.
That transparency is already here via social media because of the ability to share, but the light of truth is constrained by Slow Glass.
Slow Glass from a short story by Bob Shaw slows down the light passing through it.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_of_Other_Days
In the story and others, you have Slow Glass of different thickness in terms of the time it takes for the light to emerge.
You have Glass a day thick/long to Glass ten years thick/long and more.
Resolution 12, if measured from the Celtic AGM in 2013 when it was tabled and adjourned, has taken 6 years for the light of truth to emerge, although it could have happened sooner had main stream media removed the dust of PR that slows the light, but light is inexorable and it is emerging at an archive of events since 2011 that can be read at
https://www.res12.uk/
It is in two parts.
Part One relates to events in 2011/12 including a very interesting link between UEFA Licence 2011 and the commissioning of Lord Nimmo Smith to investigate use of EBTs with side letters by Rangers FC where non-disclosure benefited Rangers FC in 2011 AND 2012.
Part Two concentrates SFA activity (or lack of it) from 2014 to date as result of the adjournment of Resolution 12 in November 2013 that provided shareholders with the authority to seek answers.
The archive has been constructed in chronological sequence to help readers understand better the detail and separate what took place in 2011/12 which is in the past, from the SFA handling of shareholders legitimate enquiries from 2014/15 to date, which remains current and is a mirror of SFA performance in respect of the national football team.
Many narratives will emerge as a result of the transparency, some Celtic related, but a system of governance, that is accountable in some way to supporters as stakeholders in the game, can only benefit the supporters of all clubs and they are encouraged to read through the archive.
As Phil Mac Giolla Bhain has written here in respect of Celtic and the SFA
accountability has to be the outcome of transparency to wipe the face and soul of Scottish football clean.
How that is achieved will be up to Scottish football supporters everywhere to take forward via their Associations and Trusts, in collaboration with the clubs they support, but it does seem to me, and I know others with more legal experience, that the SFA would find it difficult to resist a challenge to their refusal to engage with people (in this case minority shareholders of member clubs) who are affected by decisions that they make.
Cluster One 26th May 2019 at 11:26
'…this is when the SMSM have a free hand in speculation just to try and sell a few more copies of their daily rags.'
===============
Someone once remarked [humourously, I hope ] that Scotland will not be free until the last minister is strangled with the last copy of a certain Sunday journal.
Believe it or believe it not, a copy of that journal found its way into my home this morning. (Something to do with photo coverage of yesterday's cup-final, and sending some pages to Australia, among which will be the pages with Oor Wullie and the Broons for the grandweans to marvel at ).
As an example, perhaps, of the point you make ,Cluster One, how about this bit of reportage , by one Sean Hamilton:
The opening sentence is
" Steven Gerrard admits his phone is ringing off the hook with enquiries about James Tavernier."
Some paragraphs further on there is this quote from Gerrard
" There have been calls about Tav, with clubs interested. I'm sure there still are"
which sort of suggests to me that the opening sentence is a load of guff!
John Clark 26th May 2019 at 21:51
……………….
From China no doubt.
Cluster One 26th May 2019 at 17:46
'…Is there no one in this ibrox saga that has not been in court for one reason or another.'
============================
I am given to understand that Mr Hughes' lawyers appealed to His Honour Judge Drew to have the charges dismissed , and he ruled in their favour on 15th May 2017. Hughes' damages claim has moved quicker than some others!
Echoes of the kind of cocked-up prosecution work that we have seen in recent times, with hints of police stupidity or worse in the gathering of evidence, and ,at best ,ineffective/incompetent Crown Office lawyers/prosecutors!
Lord knows, it's difficult enough to secure convictions even when cases seem to be well -supported by indisputable evidence, properly gathered and assembled and presented, and actually get to trial!
To handle basic procedural matters so badly as to leave a judge with no option but to dismiss charges so that a case doesn't even get to trial is, frankly, unforgiveable.
[ not that I have an opinion on Mr Hughes : there is nothing to have an opinion on, since no one has charged him with any offence!]
We were told that Scottish football needed Rangers 'back in the top flight to make the league competitive.
In the 3 years they've been back Celtic have won every trophy
In the Armageddon years I think 6 clubs won honours!!
PS
Wanted Dundee United to get promoted today but maybe next year. John Beaten was hopeless as the ref today
StevieBC 26th May 2019 at 16:13
'..Following my accurate assertion that Clarke would never take on the Scotland job…'
=============
Resign! Resign! a la JJ ( see eJ's post at 16.29 today)
No, don't! Only kidding: you were expressing your own opinion.
Whereas JJ ( as I understand from eJ's post) self-confessedly relied on a fact from an unreliable source. ( JJ blocked me years ago!)
Bill1903 26th May 2019 at 23:20
'..Wanted Dundee United to get promoted today but maybe next year.'
==================
I remained determinedly neutral throughout ,until I remembered that our Chick, Clyde-estuary sailor and bon viveur of such wealth as to consider £90-odd grand as about enough to fund 'a good night out', is a passionate life-long supporter of St Mirren.
And then I thought: naw, he isnae.( but, fair do's, he did insist that the Al Johnstone 'nod' took place!)
And I returned to my neutral position.
It's late at night, the blog's not too busy, and I am going to take the liberty of sharing with you a wee poem that at first made me laugh, before becoming reflective.
It was in the magazine section of Saturday's 'The Scotsman'
It's by Shug Hanlan, frae Falkirk, and comes from his collection 'The Look-out Man', and is entitled
'A Murder Witness'
" Brady wiz hit across the heid wae a golf club
or if it wiznae the heid it wiz the tap of the back.
The upper half of the body, definitely
Metal woods, golfers call them, coz the end bit's made of metal no wood.
A metal wood, swung one handed.
The left hand
there wurnae a great deal of force in it.
It could have been onaybody.
They're aw keen golfers
ah ken it's a big hobby in that scheme."
Bill 1903
A point well made. Celtic’s dominance over the last few years may not be directly due to Rangers introduction to the top league, but the experience of the Armageddon years demonstrates that the presence of any one club is not necessary for competitiveness.
Big Pink 27th May 2019 at 07:12
"…the experience of the Armageddon years demonstrates that the presence of any one club is not necessary for competitiveness."
=============
It also demonstrated that 'competitiveness' is not necessary in order to win sporting honours : a six-year-old club has been credited ( would you credit it?) with the sporting honours of a club that went out of existence and is allowed to advertise itself as being the club that actually competed for those honours.
And that demonstrates that a readiness to cheat is the default position of the SFA and was not confined to one wretched club.
The passage of time cannot change the fact that there is a rottenness at the core of Scottish Football.
As it's very quiet:
A dreadful game in Paisley yesterday: poor football from both teams, an idiosyncratic referee & a high wind all contributed.
I wondered what other teams had failed to score with their first four attempts, as United did, in a penalty shoot-out.
The highest-profile match seems to have been the 1986 European Cup Final between Steaua Bucharest & Barcelona which ended 0-0 after 120 minutes. Steaua missed their first two penalties as did Barcelona, then scored their third. Barcelona missed the third, Steaua scored the fourth & Barcelona missed again, the Romanians winning the shoot-out 2-0. All four Barcelona penalties were saved by goalkeeper Duckadam, who had to retire from football a few months later due to a medical condition.
Incidentally, Barcelona won their semi-final that year 5-4 on penalties against Gothenburg!
Bill1903 26th May 2019 at 23:20
Wanted Dundee United to get promoted today but maybe next year. John Beaten was hopeless as the ref today
……………………………………………
John Clark 26th May 2019 at 23:47
I remained determinedly neutral throughout ,until I remembered that our Chick, Clyde-estuary sailor and bon viveur of such wealth as to consider £90-odd grand as about enough to fund 'a good night out', is a passionate life-long supporter of St Mirren.
And then I thought: naw, he isnae.( but, fair do's, he did insist that the Al Johnstone 'nod' took place!)
And I returned to my neutral position.
……………………………..
Aye, it's a great tragedy that the bigger club, favourite of so many from the SMSM, did not prevail and allow DUFC to return to the league in which they belong…
And despite them being aided by abject refereeing from, as Bill1903 aptly names him, Beaten – who was unable to find a bent rule by which he could deny St Mirren those defining shoot-out penalties.
My Old Man 'tears of emotion' are now dried, palpitations subsided.. so thought I'd pop on here to quote a Buddie on our forum – about that refereeing performance.
"Think what we witnessed yesterday with the referee was the SFA in full corrupt mode.
Never a penalty
Perfectly good goal chopped off
Pawlett should’ve walked
Connolly should’ve walked
Nazon never a red
Anybody see the footage of Doncaster when the cameras were panning the crowd? Not even applauding his play off champions. Devastated. GIRUY!!"
I know we can all be a wee bit partisan, but my 'objective'
assessment of the refereeing matched the above.
The game was very poorly refereed.
"The game was very poorly refereed."
======
Well done the SFA!
I suppose that's what is called 'perfect symmetry'.
On the first day of the season we had poor refereeing wrt our favourite panto villain Morelos.
Followed by a full season of poor refereeing, 4 penalties, 'missed' red cards, etc…
Then, a final play-off game at the end of the season…with poor refereeing.
I wonder what initiatives the SFA has in place over the summer break – to help these 'top referees' improve for next season?
[:tumbleweed blowing across the Hampden steps:]
The SFA
"Disrespected and Trusted to Cheat."
Not exactly Tiny Wharton refereeing from the half way line, but has anyone else noticed what an unfit or lazy sod John Beaton is.
Ive noticed a couple of times at Tynie this season that he only patrols 30 metres either side of the halfway line.
Watching the game on TV yesterday, again he seems to be completely averse to going within 30 metres of any goal.
c
Big Pink 27th May 2019 at 07:12
Bill 1903
A point well made. Celtic’s dominance over the last few years may not be directly due to Rangers introduction to the top league, but the experience of the Armageddon years demonstrates that the presence of any one club is not necessary for competitiveness.
________________________
I read somewhere recently that King (I think) had repeated the desperate nonsense that, should Celtic achieve 10 in a row, it won't count because TRFC (he called them Rangers) were not in the top flight for four of the ten seasons. Now that was always, as I say, nonsense, but how could he stack it up, and no hack point out the stupidity of it, when, with the best team TRFC have ever had (and it improved in each of the years of the club's existence), it still fails to even scratch Celtic's dominance? Where was this challenge going to come from in the first four seasons of Celtic's record attempt even if TRFC had been shoehorned into the top flight?
There's nothing wrong with a club's officials bumming up their club's achievements, no matter how small they might be, though downplaying a rival's achievements could be seen as more than a little unsporting, but when the media let it go unchallenged – repeatedly – then they make themselves even worse than the perpetrator(s) of the nonsense.
The unchallenged (except online) lies and untruths that emanate from Ibrox continue without stopping to take breath.
Jingso.Jimsie 27th May 2019 at 11:57
I wondered what other teams had failed to score with their first four attempts, as United did, in a penalty shoot-out.
………………
I don’t know the answer to that one.But i can name you a team that can get four penalties in a game that had no penalty shoot-out.
………….
Allyjambo 27th May 2019 at 14:16
I read somewhere recently that King (I think) had repeated the desperate nonsense that, should Celtic achieve 10 in a row, it won’t count because TRFC (he called them Rangers) were not in the top flight for four of the ten seasons.
…………
I read somewhere that king stated Take my dough,or it’s ten in a row.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ClusterOne2/status/1133038800026984453?p=v
I wonder if he was counting them then? or is he expecting Celtic to get 10 before he parts with his money to stop them getting 14 but believing it’s just ten.
Just in after an afternoon…
Anyway, this morning I read John James following up his "David Moyes will be Celtic's next manager" blog with "Back me or sack me." (talking about himself-on comments that he monitors/approves/writes.)
Last time I looked 194 folk had opined. 193 were right behind him. Most don't know when "whom" is appropriate. Such aligns them with their host.
However a couple of hundred folk sending you dosh monthly would keep spine from keyboard.
Now I'm blocked.
Anybody else?
My loss.
This morning
No idea where that last "This morning" came from.
I, whom are guilty, apologise.
Bill1903 26th May 2019 at 23:20
We were told that Scottish football needed Rangers 'back in the top flight to make the league competitive.
==============================
Those who were saying that are interested only in Rangers being top. They couldn't care less about it being competitive. The only problem they have is it's the wrong team who are winning. They would not care if a bank was biased enough, or stupid enough, to extend Rangers a level of credit there is no business case for. If the same bank made a very real attempt to put Celtic out of business altogether, then so much the better. Neither would they care if Rangers were illegally withholding PAYE in order to fund a better product on the park. They didn't care when all those things were happening in the past, therefore they wouldn't care now.
upthehoops 27th May 2019 at 21:51
Bill1903 26th May 2019 at 23:20
We were told that Scottish football needed Rangers 'back in the top flight to make the league competitive.
————-
and we were told about Armageddon and so on…
Previously we were not told about the EBT "problem", and hence the RTC blog.
We are still all mushrooms to the SFA and SMSM.
macfurgly 27th May 2019 at 23:17
'..We are still all mushrooms to the SFA and SMSM.'
===============
We may be the mushrooms, macfurgly, but they are the fundaments from which the manure comes, as they persist in maintaining what they know to be a fiction : they , including especially the odious JT, initially reported the truth that Rangers of 1872 is as dead as Gretna and Third Lanark and that their timeline ended in 2012!
And then, brave 'journalists' as they are!, crapped themselves, abandoned truth and went with the lie, all principle and all common sense abandoned out of fear, or personal bias and prejudice, or catatonic shock that the unthinkable had happened.
When we think of the specious arguments conjured up in desperation:
'relegation' rather than 'liquidation';
'buying the history' ,
'demotion to the fourth tier' rather than 'extinction' even when the corpse of Rangers 1872 is lying in the limbo of Liquidation while a new club ponces about ,stealing trophies and honours won a hundred years and more before it even existed.
and when we remember the Brysonism and the non-disclosure of relevant material to the LNS inquiry , and the absolute shadiness of the UEFA licence award and the bloody-minded refusal by the SFA to open that up to proper investigation…..
we can only conclude that the game is still a bogey……prate on the SMSM as much as their lying tongues and pens or keyboards allow.
I just reminded myself of this article written in 2000. Where do you even begin with it? The best of it is that there are still journalists working today who would tell you people like the late Ken Gallacher were brilliant journalists. In truth stuff such as this in the modern area would be written by bloggers, who the media deride at every turn. There is much more stuff like this out there.
=======================
MURRAY'S BLUEPRINT – By Ken Gallacher : March 2000
Scotsman newspaper
———————————————————————–
Just as promised, Rangers are moving on to another level from the rest of Scottish
football, as chairman David Murray announced a new investment of £53m for the
Ibrox club, with a further massive cash boost soon to follow. The eventual cash
injection could soar as high as £80m as Murray guides the club into what he believes
will be a new, golden era for the Scottish champions. The money involved, the
biggest financial boost for any Scottish football club, will enable them to move into
Europe's elite over the next few years. Yesterday, however, Murray maintained, as
always, that he will not turn his back on Scottish football to play in any other league,
and that while he remains in charge of the club, he will retain a responsibility to the
domestic game.
It is clear from this latest move, however, that the Glasgow giants are setting an
agenda that no other Scottish club can match – and that appears to include their Old
Firm rivals, Celtic, who are trailing by 15 points in the Premier League championship
and are now looking at a financial gap which the Parkhead club might not be able to
bridge. There have been hints around Glasgow that Celtic could be ready to attempt
a share flotation of their own, but it would seem unlikely they would be able to match
the financial clout that Murray has put together. The Ibrox chairman promised his
shareholders good news and a more prudent financial strategy at the last annual
meeting of the club. He has now delivered this by taking on board several very
heavy financial hitters, South African-based David King is worth around £300m –
£20m of which he is investing in the club he followed as a young man in Glasgow.
The Ibrox chairman has spent several months and many sleepless nights piecing
together the plans which will eliminate Rangers' debt, currently sitting at around
£40m, provide finance for the new training centre and the soccer academy which will
be housed there, and still allow cash to invest in new players. He said: "I want to
make it clear from the outset that while our small shareholders, our supporters who
have an interest in the club, will have the opportunity to invest again if they want,
there is no pressure on them to do so.The bulk of the rights issue is being taken up
by myself and David King and some other smaller investors, including Alastair
Johnston, who is a long-time Rangers supporter. We also have Trevor Hemmings
coming in as an investor and Tom Hunter will join us some time in the future.
Essentially, the investment we require is in place and we also have a major media
deal in the pipeline which is very exciting and will bring in further serious investment
to the club. I told you earlier this week that I had run the club up to now on a
high-risk strategy which has involved carrying large debt."
"These days are over. The whole method of running the club is going to change,
because we are in a situation right now where we do not need to take the risks we
have had to take in the past. We don't have to spend the same money on players,
for example, as we have had to do over the past two years when we were
restructuring the team after the arrival of Dick Advocaat. At the moment, we have
two new players set for next season, Allan Johnston and Fernando Ricksen and Dick
is looking for another quality striker. He is working hard on that right now. Dick and
myself know what we are aiming for. We want to be in the Champions League every
season. This is what we want for the club and this is what we have been working
towards. However, we shall not be going on any wild spending sprees in the transfer
market. We have a player or two to add to the squad – a top-class international front
player, as I said, but we don't need to buy Numan, van Bronckhorst, Mols, Reyna, or
McCann – because we have these lads in place already."
"Believe me when I tell you that we are going for it this time – we want to be
successful in Europe, and the money we are raising now will take us there."
"This is the last part of the jigsaw for me, but we shall always be a part of Scottish
football and we will take our domestic responsibilities seriously. We respect the other
teams in the Premier League and we know this news will make them try even harder
against us. But, so be it. Barcelona don't win every week. Bayern Munich don't win
every week. Manchester United don't win every week. Yet, our supporters expect us
to do so and we shall always try to do that. What we do know is that to be in the
Champions League, we have to win the Scottish title, and that is our aim every
season. We shall always be here with our roots." However, the mega-deals Murray
has been working on are sure to carry Rangers out of the reach of their rivals here
at home and unless Celtic can somehow find the means to strengthen their own
financial standing even the age-old rivalry between the Glasgow giants will be
threatened as the Ibrox men grow ever stronger.
UTH@07.02
Classic stenography. I think it was around that period that the late Hugh Adam expressed some deep disquiet about those reckless plans and was ostracised for his troubles.
Regardless of opinion on the managerial decision…
WRT the actual decision-making process at CFC…
it would seem like Lawwell took advice from the SFA's Maxwell.
John Clark 28th May 2019 at 00:05
"We may be the mushrooms but they are the fundaments from which the manure comes"
You've come up with a few beauties in your time on here, John.
Add that one to the list
HS
MURRAY'S BLUEPRINT – By Ken Gallacher : March 2000
Succulent lamb journalism that followed the initial use of the term by James Traynor in November 1998. (Even a mention for 10 in a row! )
SECRET FEAR THAT DRIVES ME TO WIN 10 IN A ROW
Daily Record – November 19, 1998
Exclusive James Traynor
Rangers chairman David Murray opens up on the highs and lows of his decade in charge of Rangers and promises that the best is still to come
RANGERS owner David Murray doesn't often allow his true feelings to surface, but currently he is finding it difficult to disguise a pain which has been gnawing away inside since the end of last season.
After a period of almost total dominance of Scottish football during which Rangers racked up 17 trophies the club met with failure.
Celtic won the championship and the League Cup and Hearts beat Rangers in the Tennents Scottish Cup final, leaving Murray with nothing to show for a massive investment in time and money.
Even now he winces when he thinks of that season, but it is the vivid memory, and the pain of defeat with which he now suffers, that combine to drive him on.
Last night as he looked back on a decade as Rangers' owner – come this Sunday, the 22nd, it will be 10 years since he paid Lawrence Marlborough £6 million for the club – Murray's desire to avoid the miseries of another barren season could not be disputed.
To hear him speak was to listen to a man who believes himself to be charged with some kind of great and mighty mission. Murray, who chose to talk only to the Record about his dreams and ambitions for Rangers, said: "No one should doubt that Rangers are the biggest club in the country, but I know that talk is cheap in this business and that we will have to prove just how big we are.
"That doesn't really bother me because as long as I am able to influence this club we will be the biggest and we will be the best. "I have spent 10 years of my life, and I know that sometimes I gave up too much of myself to Rangers, but I am not about to give up now.
"Neither am I willing to stand aside and allow another club to overtake Rangers. The failure of last season hurt me a lot and that pain was something I didn't need nor want.
"It is also a pain which I never want to suffer again, but by God that sort of thing just makes me even more determined to succeed. I am still as driven, still as enthusiastic and I will welcome the challenge of anyone out there."
Murray was referring not only to the Kenny Dalglish/Jim Kerr consortium who are stalking Celtic, but also the as yet uncovered groups who are bound to make bids to buy out Fergus McCann.
If the past 10 years have taught Murray, who is one of Britain's wealthiest individuals, anything it is how to win and he believes Rangers will continue to grow and prosper.
"I look upon these last 10 years as a having been a great era, but it is over and Rangers are about to head on into a new era," he said over a glass of the finest red.
He was about to take in another mouthful of the most succulent lamb – anyone who knows Murray shouldn't be surprised to learn he is a full-blooded, unashamed red meat eater – when he put down his knife and fork.
It was like a statement of intent and looking directly across the table to make sure I hadn't yet succumbed to the wine, he said:
"Bring on the next 10 years, there's more to come for Rangers.
"Understand that I care passionately about what I'm doing with Rangers and believe that in 10 years time we will still be setting the pace.
"Too many of us have put too much into this club and we won't let someone come along and take it all away.
"What I'm saying here is that no matter who buys Celtic from Fergus, they will need to have the deepest of pockets imaginable.
"The fresh challenge would be good for the Scottish game and lift the profile, but Celtic's new owners had better be prepared to spend.
"In the past, Celtic's people maybe just haven't fancied trying to take Rangers on financially, but if I have to go in deeper to keep my club up there then I will. I have done it too many times to be frightened now."
From anyone else such talk could be dismissed as no more than empty rhetoric, but with Murray you just feel it is more than bluster and besides, he does have a track record as a spender.
There have been times in his 10 years when he has taken Rangers somewhere between £15m and £20m into debt and he knows that if this season goes belly up like the last one he could be looking at a potential debt of £20m. However, having taken the value of Rangers from £6m to approximately £186m in 10 years he knows how far he can gamble in pursuit of success.
This season alone he has allowed his new manager Dick Advocaat to spend almost £30m, but he refuses to lose any sleep over it.
He said: "I don't because I consider spending as much as £5million on someone like Andrei Kanchelskis as a necessity. If a club like ours doesn't do that then we fall by the wayside.
"Look, I have many other businesses so I could find many other things to worry about, but I love sport and I want Rangers to be successful. I know this won't be accepted by some people but this isn't about making money. "£56m has been invested in the stadium and in my time £200m has been turned over and after interest our trading profit is minimal. Perhaps as much as £60m has been spent on players and I have even paid in about £1m in hospitality but never taken a salary from the place.
"I get six complimentary tickets the same as everyone else and if I want extra I have to pay for them the same as everyone else.
"There are no free lunches for David Murray at Ibrox and I have never taken part or been at the centre of any of the numerous victory celebrations we have had."
Murray disappears to celebrate success with a small group of close friends, leaving the roar of the crowd to wash over the players and management.
"Supporters don't want chairmen hanging around, even though they look to people like me to provide some kind of direction and the new ways to keep moving the club on," he said.
"I hope I can say that in my 10 years so far I've been fairly good at that, but the day I run out of ideas is the day I'll know it's over. I'm sure someone will tell me because I have good people around me, I always have.
"But I'm not ready yet to step back and I see enough fresh challenges, staying ahead at home and winning a place at the European table, ahead in the next 10 years to keep my own adrenaline flowing."
He knows roughly how much it will cost him and he's heard the rumours that ENIC, who have invested £40m in Rangers, are uneasy at the club's spending policies but Murray claims these backers have always been supportive of his methods.
He said: "They could kick up a fuss but they don't. Besides, I am the owner of the club and so far most people seem to like what I've done."
An amusing aside…
another blog site has defiantly decided against pulling down its shutters.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the blogger's innumerable alter egos had voted overwhelmingly to keep the blog going.
upthehoops 28th May 2019 at 07:02
'..However, the mega-deals Murray has been working on are sure to carry Rangers out of the reach of their rivals here at home and unless Celtic can somehow find the means to strengthen their own
financial standing even the age-old rivalry between the Glasgow giants will be
threatened as the Ibrox men grow ever stronger.'
==========================
Mercifully, the late Ken Gallacher did not live to see what an ar.e he made of himself by swallowing Murray's guff!
Those other scribes who also wrote unquestioningly what in effect were untruths from the deceitful mouth of Murray did live to see what kind of lies they ,open-eyed ,swallowed, hook, line and sinker.
They have not learned any lessons but continue to propagate untruth.
They have zilch in the way of respect for their profession.
And even less respect for themselves as people of any kind of professional or sporting integrity.
They will die in their turn , un-mourned by me if ,as is statistically likely, they go before I go.
Bad cess to them.
JC, yes that 'succulent lamb' piece from Traynor sums up the SMSM from 20+ years ago, and it is STILL wholly relevant today.
Gallagher, Traynor, Keef, Jack, English et al were/are not ‘sports journalists’ in any sense of the term.
They are simply more akin to traders, IMO.
They provide unqualified access to their communication mediums for the best price…
whether that price is better access to a club and its players, coaching staff, or team or club management. Plus a few extras like a wee trip on a plane with fine dining thrown in as well?
The only problem though is that the trading value of current 'copy/pasters' is falling exponentially – in line with print circulation numbers.
Soon to be obsolete.
Oh well…
Nice to see that Stevie Clarke has selected some guys who can play on plastic pitches . I'm sure there are games where their expertise will be invaluable , like Khazakstan away .
https://twitter.com/govindajeggy/status/1133344342205243398?s=21
Well I laughed.
A nice , regionalised group set for the first round of the Betfred Cup , but I doubt that it was drawn , as is stated on BBC .
Another belter of an article from the past about Rangers, written by someone still operating as a so called journalist to this day. How on earth can this man ever be taken seriously about anything?
===============
The Scotsman Alan Pautilo
MURRAY EYES 20TH PRIZE AND THEN THE WORLD
IT IS a measure of David Murray's continued success at Rangers, that should the Ibrox side taste victory in the Scottish Cup final tomorrow, a fifth of the trophies the club has won in over 127 years of history will have been collected during his 11-year spell as chairman.
Indeed, Saturday may prove a milestone for a club for whom records – they have justcompleted a league season an unprecedented 21 points ahead of their nearest title challengers – are becoming commonplace. Victory over Aberdeen will ensure the Ibrox trophy room of its 100th hunk of silver, and Murray of his 20th.
This bald fact – more so than the recently announced 53 million pounds share rights investment, and the soon-to-berevealed major media deal – gives the Ibrox chairman utmost pleasure, as does the statistic that shows his manager and friend, Dick Advocaat has won five of six possible domestic trophies since his arrival here two years ago.
Their relationship has given Rangers a level of dynamism every Scottish club is struggling to cope with. Such synergy perhaps emphasises where indeed they are going wrong.
Scour other club boardrooms, and you will not find a chairman-manager bondso strong. Certainly not at Celtic, where you sometimes wonder if chief executive Allan MacDonald, the Parkhead board and Director ofFootball/Interim head coach Kenny Dalglish have ever been in the same room together. And, at Dens Park you would notexpect to find the Marr brothers and Jocky Scott engaged inbanter -tossing over a bottle of Chianti, or Hearts pair Chris Robinson and Jim Jefferiesplotting a caravan tour of the Highlands together.
While Advocaat and Murray are close socially, their relationship at Ibrox is never less than business-like. Advocaat targets the players, Murray signs the cheques. Or doesn't, as the case may be.
The chairman recounts a favourite story involvingAdvocaat, one that underlines his 'Little General' sobriquet. He and Advocaat have many discussions regarding players, and some talks are allowed to progress further than others. Murray recalled entertaining a potential purchase – a striker – in his Edinburgh office this time last year: "We had agreed on everything. Then suddenly Dick phones me up, and says 'I have decided he is not good enough!' I asked him if he was sure, because he is sitting in front of me. I had to sit there with this player and his representatives, and bring them round to thinking it was their idea not to come. That is what Dick is like. He is very intense. He does his homework."
Such is Advocaat and his Dutch brethren's influence at the club, that Murray can see no harm in the controversial idea for fans to wear orange at Hampden tomorrow, despite the nefarious connections people will make and have done already.
These "Dutch" strips are not being produced fast enoughto meet the demand, andHampden won't have seenanything like it since Dundee United last trundled into town. Murray believes it akin to Manchester United fans arriving at Old Trafford during the Eric Cantona era waving French tricolours.
"I don't think there is anything wrong in it and I will tell you why. We are clearly aScottish club, and it is an orange strip with a lion rampant. If we had not put that on it, then I could accept people going 'what's the story here?'
"If people still want to interpret it any other way then that is their problem. Why are there Irish strips at Celtic matches? Has there ever been a bigger contingent of players from one foreign country at a club in Britain? Half the team will be Dutch next season, as well as the manager and his assistant. There is bound to be some association."
Murray may not court controversy, but won't baulk from stirring it. His refusal to let Ibrox host the forthcoming Mike Tyson-Lou Saverese fight, now to be staged at Hampden, does not stem from any principled stand. The financial package offered was not acceptable.
"What Tyson did was wrong, but does that mean that any person of any celebrity status who has done something wrong won't be allowed into this country? Where do you draw the line? It's just people jumping on a bandwagon again. The government agreed to it. Who are we to sit and judge someone's morals?"
Celtic – who refused on ethical grounds to host the fight – clearly believe such a responsibility is theirs, though fans of the club might wish they would concentrate on occupying the footballing high-ground.
Murray, an obviously competitive man, must have some qualms regarding the ease with which Rangers claimed their tenth title in eleven years?
"It is not my concern," he replied, abruptly. "But what I would say is it is a bloody tough job running a football club.
"I've had defeat in Europe as other chairmen have had defeat by us in Scotland. It's not a nice feeling. It's bloody horrible.
"Stewart Milne has not gone into Aberdeen to get rich quick, he's there because he loves the club. Allan MacDonald is getting a hard time and he doesn't even own Celtic. He's just a hired hand and he's getting pelters. So I do have some sympathy, but with the greatest respect my job is to beat Celtic, just as it is to beat Hibs and Hearts."
Murray conceded there is not 21 points between Rangers and Celtic this year: "It should have been closer. But we got the breaks when we needed them. We are the better team, butI know Dick is not being complacent. We are further ahead than anybody in strengthening the team for next year."
Rangers have already signed Fernando Ricksen and Allan Johnston and hope to add Feyenoord's Bert Konterman and Bolton's Paul Ritchie next week. A striker is also beingsought from a short-leet of seven. Celtic, meanwhile, have still to name a head coach who can then only begin such scouting.
Yet you sense Murray's sights extend far beyond putting one over the east end of Glasgow. He rails against the parochialism of Scotland – "we used to be such an expansive nation, but parochialism mixed withbigotry has been the downfall of this country" – and now aims to take Rangers to the world, in a broadening of horizons such as Manchester United have achieved. His son, also David, has masterminded a takeover of Australian club Northern Spirit. It is only the beginning.
"There is nothing to stop us hopefully having three or four clubs, with our own world TV channel, playing in the same strip, with the same sponsor." The thought of there being four "Rangers'" in the world might be enough to send many to the brink, but Murray is adamant each club will retain its own identity, and own name.
Meanwhile at HQ Ibrox you can imagine the chairman and Advocaat, with white furry cats on laps, drinking a toast to the global march. Indeed, Holland, as Hampden will prove tomorrow, has already been taken.
RMcGeddawn 28th May 2019 at 11:38
To hear him speak was to listen to a man who believes himself to be charged with some kind of great and mighty mission. Murray, who chose to talk only to the Record about his dreams and ambitions for Rangers.
…………….
That won’t go down too well with the ibrox fans who believe the record has an agenda against them.
(But, but Murray would only speak to the record and i thought we hated the record)
Such confusion for the ibrox minds.
…………………
We all know why he would only speak to the record….. succulent lamb – anyone ?
……………….
I have even paid in about £1m in hospitality but never taken a salary from the place.
…
But the Former Rangers owner Sir David Murray was the biggest beneficiary of an Employee Benefit Trust operated by the Murray Group and Rangers FC,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18169501
………..
And i believe he was paid as a consultant for the EBT’s. Why rip the Ar** out of it by drawing down a salary.
And after reading that I wonder what DM had on Traynor for him to right such guff.
Cluster One 28th May 2019 at 20:32
And after reading that I wonder what DM had on Traynor for him to right such guff.
=====================
I'm guessing that DM probably had Traynor's tongue firmly lodged right up his…erm, somewhere…
Minty, as we all know now, is a chancer of the highest degree, willing to break any rules to suit his megalomania and greed.
Traynor though – based on the quality of his writing and debating skills on TV and radio – just came across as loud, insecure and not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Don't think Minty would have needed to expend much effort to dictate whatever he wanted to the fawning SMSM 'journalists'.
…and the irony is that today it's Traynor himself and King who dictate what the SMSM publish about the Ibrox club.
upthehoops 28th May 2019 at 19:30
'How on earth can this man [I think you meant Patullo of the Scotsman?] Patullo] ever be taken seriously about anything?
2
===============
Well, of course, he is not to be taken seriously and never could be taken seriously as a journalist.
And I suppose Murray had as much contempt for him as he had for the other Press poodles to whom he fed 'succulent lamb'.
Nothing, of course, can match the contempt we have for Murray and his vile cheating.
UTH@19.30
I was unfamiliar with that Patullo article. There certainly seemed to be competition between Messrs Traynor, Patullo and Gallagher in trying to outdo each other in obsequiousness towards David Murray. A recent internet chart showed how Manchester City had won the majority of their honours in the last few years. Alan Patullo, in his piece above, highlights the fact that Rangers (IL) had won one fifth of their honours after David Murray had taken control. From memory I’m pretty certain LNS stated that there was no link between money spent on players and success on the pitch.
The SMSM at the time also made a big deal of the England internationals coming to Rangers (IL) because English teams were banned from playing in Europe. It was a very useful squirrel and helped deflect from how much they were being paid.
This is my favourite quote:
"There is nothing to stop us hopefully having three or four clubs, with our own world TV channel, playing in the same strip, with the same sponsor."
It was clearly a mistake to sign Hubris as well as all the other stars. Decent midfielder that he was he caused more problems than he was worth.
What about this one from Bill Leckie, who is still masquerading as a journalist. It must be a very painful existence for these guys in the present day.
====================================
Bill Leckie (1997)
All I can say is, massive respect is due to Rangers – and Muz in particular – for keeping Brian Laudrup in the game.
And before all you Celtic fans – including the one standing over me with a
rolling pin as I write this – start giving it the there-ye-go-ah-always-
knew-he-was-wanna-them paranoia, remember one thing.
Rangers also beat you when Laudrup WASN'T playing.
This time last week I was all set to write a piece on how they had finally,
eventually, taken the leap forward they've threatened for so long; but then
the news broke that their greatest asset was leaving.
Suddenly all the summer's advances – the arrival of a foreign coach, the
signing of Thern and two top-drawer defenders, the Defenders lost their
sheen.
You wondered just what a downer there would be on the day their Great Dane
went walkies for good.
A couple of seasons ago, last summer even, you wouldn't have bet tuppence on
Muz being able to talk the boy round. But something has happened at Ibrox,
something you can't put your finger on, which seems to have propelled them
into a different orbit.
And so, as Ajax sat back waiting with a spacecake and an Oranjeboom and
Fergie came out gloating that the player was his, Muz quietly got down to
the business of making Laudrup stay.
Were I a Celtic man, I would be so afraid. No manager, no sign of a manager,
two biggest names threatening to do a bunk, no sign of new blood, season
ticket holders in a major huff.
Call me picky, but things do not look good. And hell mend them.
I cannot believe how quickly and how far Fergus McCann has allowed things to
slip, especially after Tommy Burns took them so close.
It is easy to say now that Burns was a failure, but what is nearer to the
truth is that he was a very good manager with the wrong club.
The closer he got to toppling Rangers, the more his emotional attachment to
Celtic overtook the rational thinking his job required.
Others would disagree, but I reckon Burns will go on to be a huge success
elsewhere, starting in King Kenny's bootroom at the Toon.
What is not up for argument, though, is that Celtic are in a far worse state
without him than they were with him. Rangers are leaving them further and
further behind with every passing day and there is no white smoke from the
Parkhead chimney to signal a comeback.
The Ibrox men are, I reckon, one more signing away from finally leaving
their greatest rivals – and, therefore, the rest of us – so far behind them
they will be no more than a dancing dot on the horizon.
Who is that signing? I'd go for Batistuta – though Muz says no – but whoever
they end up with he will be big time and he will be here soon.
It's enough to make any Celtic fan hide behind the couch. Sorry? Oh, you
already are.
UTH@07.23
IMHO that article stands out as the most cringeworthy article of all time in relation to that period of Rangers (IL) history. Referring to David Murray as “Muz” sets the tone and as well as lauding David Murray the article also criticises Fergus McCann in no uncertain terms. History will judge their respective contributions to Scottish football.
This is my favourite quote from Bill Leckie’s article.
“But something has happened at Ibrox,
something you can't put your finger on, which seems to have propelled them
into a different orbit.”
If only Mr Leckie had asked a few questions at the time he might have discovered what had fuelled the propulsion of the Ibrox club. Whether or not he would have published the answer to such questions is another matter entirely.
https://twitter.com/patricktimmons1/status/1133392729306800129?s=21
Baku, great place for a UEFA final.
'The New Yorker' is not a journal most of us would turn to for 'Soccer-ball' stories.
Nonetheless, I think most of you will find the link below to be a magnificently researched and presented, fascinating and rewarding read …
'How Football Leaks Is Exposing Corruption in European Soccer
While Rui Pinto sits in jail, his revelations are bringing down the sport’s most famous teams and players.
By Sam Knight – May 27, 2019'
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/how-football-leaks-is-exposing-corruption-in-european-soccer?utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Magazine_Daily_052819&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9e9813f92a40469fd9064&cndid=49956612&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Daily
Ex Ludo 28th May 2019 at 23:47
'..From memory I’m pretty certain LNS stated that there was no link between money spent on players and success on the pitch.'
=============
He opined that no sporting advantage is obtained by a club by having more money to spend than its rival clubs.
LNS was a retired judge. He was in no way exercising the powers of a Judge presiding in a Court of Law when he chaired the Inquiry which bears his name commissioned by the SFA.[ The fact that he was a 'Judge' is cited by the 'do not strip us' panic-merchants as weighty support: in the same way as they cite the ASA's expertise in football matters!]
His opinion on whether having more money to spend on better quality players than rival clubs did not confer a sporting advantage is so at odds with everyday football experience as to call into question whether he lived in the real world, however eminent he may have been in his very narrow specialism in his full-time job.
And is of no more weight than yours or mine.
It also, in my humble opinion, shows him to have been as much of an a… as any of the SMSM about whose absurdities we have been reminded of!
It appears that Scottish football is in rude financial health with no clubs showing signs of financial distress, at least according to corporate restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor.
https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/assets/uploads/pdfs/5303_SCOTLAND%20Football%20Report.pdf
It makes me wonder if the "Traynor" part of the name is in some way related to an associate of a club that has spent more than it earned in each and every year of its existence.
easyJambo 29th May 2019 at 13:17
It appears that Scottish football is in rude financial health with no clubs showing signs of financial distress, at least according to corporate restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor.
https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/assets/uploads/pdfs/5303_SCOTLAND%20Football%20Report.pdf
It makes me wonder if the "Traynor" part of the name is in some way related to an associate of a club that has spent more than it earned in each and every year of its existence.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Wow!
States "None of Scotland's league football clubs are showing serious signals of financial distress".
Then backs it up using statistics lumping all the clubs together!
So Mr Patullo, a club in 10's of £millions in (internal) debt, needing to borrow £millions of external debt to see out the season and facing significant litigation costs and damages, are in rude financial health????
The further quote of "The huge waves caused by Rangers administration and subsequent journey through the tables", tells us something of his attention to detail. Another one to completely omit/ignore "Liquidation" and another phrase for verbal gymnastics list.
Begbies Traynor will not be carrying out any due diligence work for me based on Mr Patullo's utterings.
I'm guessing that Begbies Traynor report might come back to embarrass them…unless 'clarifications' are being prepared as we speak?
The summary conclusion quotes;
"The fact that distress is effectively nil in Scotland's clubs…"
You don't need to be an accountant to be shocked at such blatant misinformation.
normanbatesmumfc 29th May 2019 at 13:53
================
I have emailed Mr Patullo as follows:
To:ken.patullo@begbies-traynor.com
29 May at 15:29
Dear Mr Patullo,
I'm afraid you have done yourself no favour by attaching yourself to any report which contains a paragraph such as this:
" The huge waves caused by Rangers' administration and subsequent journey through the tables have now settled down"
You must know that Rangers Football of 1872 club did not emerge out of Administration but went into Liquidation, where it still is ,because of huge debts that no prospective buyer could even contemplate taking on in order to buy the club as a going concern.
To write something that is so patently misleading as to suggest that today's 'The Rangers Football Club Ltd' is the same club as that which is in Liquidation is to betray a lack of diligence in research, or a readiness to propagate the biggest sporting lie in the history of Scottish Football.
Your credentials as any kind of objective reporter on the Scottish Football scene are blown sky-high by such an intrinsically foolish paragraph: one naturally questions anything else your report says.
Yours sincerely,
John Clarke
Edinburgh
The SFA's written reasons for the Flanagan decision.
https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/media/5281/reasons-jonathon-flanagan-rangers-fc.pdf
The extract from the decision that is beyond belief:
In simple terms the Fast Track Tribunal accepted the evidence given by Flanagan himself.
The C.O. had described the incident as follows:
Easyjambo@18.15@
So striking an opponent is ok. What a precedent to set.
A bumper from 2008 by Chick Young. Public licence fee money is still paid to this utter clown of a man.
—————————-
Murray should be hailed as visionary
BBC
Chick Young | 13:22 UK time, Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Ask yourself honestly – if your ship came in would you push the boat out and buy a football club?
It's lunacy. Madness. Financial self-flagellation. Why not just put your £100 notes in a shredder and save a bit of time?
Of course, given the lottery win, I would probably be certified insane in that department just like the rest of the fruitcakes through history who have bled themselves dry over the love affair of the local footballing institution.
We should all be locked up in another kind of institution actually.
It's twenty years since David Murray bought himself a piece of the action. Two decades since his pal Graeme Souness tipped him off that Rangers were up for grabs and that just £6 million would clinch the deal.
It was a shrewd piece of business to persuade Lawrence Marlborough to walk away. You certainly don't get much for £6 million these days.
Of course the running costs can be a little excessive. Murray freely admits to pumping in a further £100m just to keep the club ticking over.
Rangers chairman David Murray
Murray – now Sir David of course – has picked up more than a knighthood along the way. He is an international businessman and Rangers are just a piece of his global jigsaw.
Or "ten per cent of my business, 90 per cent of my grief" as he likes to put it.
I like the man – a heinous crime in the eyes of some observers who see me and various colleagues as his lap dogs. Apparently the canine parallel for interviewers should be Rottweilers.
Over the years he has been accused of much nonsense, including asset stripping – a difficult, never mind illegal, concept given that he actually owns 90 per cent of the club.
At various times he has been lambasted for not spending enough on players or spending too much, highlighted of course by his bête noir when the sorcerer Dick Advocaat wooed him into believing Tore Andre Flo was worth £12 million.
To paraphrase Bill Shankly, ten million wouldn't buy him and I'm one of them.
But then again Murray massaged a deal for Alain Boumsong, a transfer which was to cough profit the likes of which usually only comes with six numbers and a bonus ball.
I cannot, for the life of me, fathom the reluctance of a percentage of the Rangers support to embrace his stewardship of the club.
No chairman has served longer, no other has witnessed such a sustained period of success.
Only in the wake of the Ibrox disaster did the stadium undergo more surgery, but after a century and more he became the first chairman to actually do something about the alarming absence of a training facility worthy of the name.
From the day of my first by-line I preached and recorded the lunacy of both Rangers and Celtic's determination not to have a training ground and youth academy and continue to work their players in various car parks, public pitches and glorified allotments where dog mess was as big a threat to their well being as a straight legged tackle.
Men of vision? In the sixties and seventies there were directors at Ibrox and Parkhead who couldn't have seen their own reflection in the boardroom table.
And think on this: Murray Park cost twice his initial investment in the club.
He blew away a century of signing policy which should have been banished with the slave trade and dragged swathes of the club's support screaming and kicking into the real world.
We still have bigots supporting Rangers, but the club doesn't privately condone them anymore. And for all the Famine Song nonsense, progress has been made in those twenty years.
I came out of the front door at Ibrox when Mo Johnston signed and watched so-called supporters rip up season tickets and burn red, white and blue scarves.
In the days that followed there may even have been Old Firm games with more Catholics in the Rangers team than in Celtic's. Possibly, possibly not, but the point is that few would even bother to work it out.
It doesn't matter…and that is breathtaking progress.
Murray should enjoy his anniversary celebrations. Twenty years is a long time in the job and for sure he won't repeat the shift.
They will miss him when he's gone. Just see if they don't.
Critics of sis david murray and insisted the former chairman’s rangers legacy is intact after the club’s tax tribunial victory.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ClusterOne2/status/1133811712145207296?p=v
…………….
I wonder if Ally and all the Bill Leckies of this world still believe murray’s legacy is still intact?
Ex Ludo 29th May 2019 at 18:23
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Easyjambo@18.15@
So striking an opponent is ok.
………….
So long as it is towards the neck or chest area and not the face.What a precedent to set right enough.
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Easyjambo@18.15@
So striking an opponent is ok. What a precedent to set.
——————-
What makes you think a precedent has been set? A precedent would suggest that a point has been made that could be used by ALL players involved in such an incident. We know that this will not be the case.
Just how many TRFC players have won appeals on blatantly spurious grounds this season? Another world record?/
https://twitter.com/kieranmaguire/status/1132993707983216641?s=21
BT Sport have the EL Final on a “taster” this evening. If you like EPL football then I suppose it’s ok as a contest but it’s all a bit dèja vu for me. I went onto Twitter instead and found this wee chart.
After this latest nonsense from Hampden, justifying yet another 'missed' red card…
Would it not be refreshing if ALL the SPL clubs made a collective statement – in response to their customers' dissatisfaction with their 'product'.
Or more precisely: to publicly tell the SFA to sort out the unacceptably poor refereeing standards in the SPL for next season.
Or else, the club's will collectively seek alternative solutions?
I know, wishful thinking.
But any 'normal' business would actually listen to their customers, value their feedback – and tweak their operations accordingly.
We've already had the 'Referees Summit' in Perth back in February, when VAR was apparently muttered over tea and biscuits… then nothing.
And the poor refereeing continued almost immediately, with the 4 penalties to TRFC game. (A blatant, arrogant 'message from the refs' IMO.)
When are refereeing standards going to improve?
Who is/are going to be responsible for driving this long overdue shake-up to the management of match officials in the Scottish game – and for implementing competent oversight?
I haven't posted for a while on SFM, having taken a sabbatical and chosen to 'lurk' on here and many other sites without actually contributing much to any of the debates, very occasionally asking some questions.
What strikes me as common to many of such sites is the automatic assertion that a Rangers-leaning set of people rule the Scottish football authorities and, depending on who you listen to, have done so for many decades, if not centuries.
On numerous occasions and on numerous forums, I have provided links to the current boards of both the SFA and the SPFL and referenced recent past ones, and asked who exactly are the pro-Ibrox suits? Absolutely nobody seems capable of even attempting to answer that question.
I've frequently made it clear that I couldn't spot an Orange Order moron spitting on a priest at 20 yards, nor could I identify an alleged mason involved in dubious romantic liaisons with a goat, but I'm confident that people of the stature of recent SFA board member Peter Lawwell and recent SPFL board member Ann Budge might not only be slightly more discerning, but also immune from accusations of pro-Ibrox leanings.
So, apart from Rangers board member Stewart Robertson, who, on his own, can hardly decide SFA/SPFL policy unopposed, who is it you are accusing of being a closet Ibrox season-ticket holder from the array of board members assembled from our various clubs and independent members?
For the avoidance of doubt, I don't for a second disagree that a preponderance of baffling decisions go in favour of the new Ibrox club – I'm just baffled as to how! I totally understand the importance of the commercial angle to club chairmen versus the sporting integrity to the average fan……
Highlander 29th May 2019 at 22:24
I’m just baffled as to how! I totally understand the importance of the commercial angle to club chairmen versus the sporting integrity to the average fan……
………………
The 5 way agreement could answer some of your questions. But it will never be published.
Does anybody know of any (auto)biography of (Sir) David Murray , former owner of RFC(IL) ? I can find nowt online and think it a bit remiss of our writers/journalists not to give the man his place . They cant all have been scared off .
Highlander@22.24
I’m not sure where you’re getting your ‘automatic assertion “ from. Any comments on here are generally backed up with evidence. Both the RTC site and Scotslawthoughts presented a lot of evidence and analysis which tended to point towards the SFA and the SMSM consistently backing both iterations of Rangers. As has already been pointed out the secretive 5 Way Agreement really ought to be made public and clear up any misunderstanding.
Ex Ludo 29th May 2019 at 23:27
Highlander@22.24
I’m not sure where you’re getting your ‘automatic assertion “ from.
=======================================
Perhaps from the fact that not one solitary sole has been able to offer the name of a current, or at least recent, board member of the SFA or SPFL, who they know to be biased in favour of the Ibrox club (save for Stewart Robertson of ‘Rangers’).
It might be useful if the downthumbers at least made it clear who they reckoned were clearly guilty.
This made me smile with incredulity! Could anyone ever believe that a wee country like Portugal could really believe what this man Marques is supposed to have said? Could never happen in our wee country.
From
'How Football Leaks Is Exposing Corruption in European Soccer
Marques has a show on Porto’s TV channel, and in the weeks that followed he began to read the Benfica e-mails aloud on the air. He excluded personal gossip and salacious material, and focussed on evidence of Benfica’s attempts to control the Portuguese game. In one instance, he shared secret briefings distributed to pro-Benfica commentators on Portuguese TV. In another, he read an e-mail correspondence referring to the “priests”—a group of eight referees who could be relied on to favor Benfica at decisive moments—which ended, “Now delete everything.”
Off to bed now, chuckling at the serendipity of having just watched Endeavour's boss taking a bribe from his boss and then reading that! (We tend to watch old stuff on replay!)
Oops – when I typed 'sole' in my previous post, I clearly meant 'soul' and let's make no bones about it. I didn't spot my typo when proof-reading in reel time despite realising there was something fishy going on. So, be shellfish and sack me, but I already know my plaice! I often support injured creatures and promise to donate sick squid to charity. Before I clam up altogether, I'm off for a cuppa char.
Back to lurking I think.
Highlander 30th May 2019 at 00:14
Perhaps from the fact that not one solitary sole has been able to offer the name of a current, or at least recent, board member of the SFA or SPFL, who they know to be biased in favour of the Ibrox club (save for Stewart Robertson of ‘Rangers’).
………………..
Stewart Robertson may be the only one on an ibrox board but when the chip’s are down no matter who is on the SFA SPL at that time or now The SPFL they are all biased in favour of keeping the ibrox club going in any form, The big house must stay open feck integrity and morals the cash cow must stay afloat the tv deals must keep going and the bonuses will get paid.
If 2012 happened again down ibrox way no matter who the sfa spfl members have leanings towards the biased to keep an ibrox club thing in the top flight would be the same as 2012.
You ask, who they know to be biased in favour of the Ibrox club (save for Stewart Robertson of ‘Rangers’).
Every single corrupt one of them, then and now would sell their granny to keep the show on the road. They are so scared it could happen again to the ibrox club that they changed the rules(will look it out later)for no relegation from the SPFL if a club goes into administration
StevieBC 29th May 2019 at 22:08 After this latest nonsense from Hampden, justifying yet another 'missed' red card… Would it not be refreshing if ALL the SPL clubs made a collective statement – in response to their customers' dissatisfaction with their 'product'. Or more precisely: to publicly tell the SFA to sort out the unacceptably poor refereeing standards in the SPL for next season. Or else, the club's will collectively seek alternative solutions? I know, wishful thinking. But any 'normal' business would actually listen to their customers, value their feedback – and tweak their operations accordingly. We've already had the 'Referees Summit' in Perth back in February, when VAR was apparently muttered over tea and biscuits… then nothing. And the poor refereeing continued almost immediately, with the 4 penalties to TRFC game. (A blatant, arrogant 'message from the refs' IMO.) When are refereeing standards going to improve? Who is/are going to be responsible for driving this long overdue shake-up to the management of match officials in the Scottish game – and for implementing competent oversight?
__________________________-
Stevie, what makes you think that they, the SFA, have not listened to, and responded to, their customer base – or, at least, the customer base that matters most to them?
That particular customer base has made plenty of noise, since before it even came into being, over how their club has been (mis)treated by the game's officials, and the SFA has clearly paid a lot of attention to them, though they (that particular customer base) continue to cry out that they still get treated badly by all and sundry.
The SFA know, with absolute certainty, that if they ever managed to achieve absolute fairness in everything they do, that particular customer base, the one that matters most to them, would view it as a conspiracy (a Catholic conspiracy, most likely) against them, and that the SMSM would do everything in it's power to ensure the SFA returned to it's old idea of 'fairness'.
AllyJambo
The SFA's customer base is the clubs of course, and they are indeed listening to them.
The clubs will do a cost-benefit analysis on the desirability of listening to their customer base. It would appear that doing nothing is better for the bottom line.
A corrupt SFA would have difficulty operating if the clubs had integrity. Sadly they don't.
Big Pink 30th May 2019 at 11:08
AllyJambo
The SFA's customer base is the clubs of course, and they are indeed listening to them.
The clubs will do a cost-benefit analysis on the desirability of listening to their customer base. It would appear that doing nothing is better for the bottom line.
A corrupt SFA would have difficulty operating if the clubs had integrity. Sadly they don't.
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While this may well be true, there is still no excuse for a corrupt SFA. Is it not the SFA's duty to ensure that Scottish football is run with integrity, regardless of any lack of integrity at the clubs it governs?
While the rest of Scottish football's clubs sit on their hands and take no action where action is needed, I doubt very much that they would object if the SFA dealt with TRFC in a manner equating to fairness and justice.
There is a cowardice within Scottish football that prevents integrity blossoming in our game, and it has always been so. The fear of pushing against the tide of favouritism is well ingrained in our clubs and until and unless at least one club stands up against that favouritism (followed by the rest), it will remain as a blight on Scottish football to it's end.
It is the SFA's job to govern Scottish football, not the clubs. The SFA should lead and the clubs follow. Sadly the clubs follow the SFA's lead and a corrupt SFA leads to a corrupt game.
I very much doubt that the clubs have ever said to the SFA that they must favour TRFC (or Rangers before them) or that the clubs would be up in arms if TRFC were treated in the same way every other club was treated.
The clubs are to blame for their own cowardice; the SFA is to blame for aiding and abetting one club to ride roughshod over it, and, as a result, over those cowards.
As to the cowardice prevailing in our clubs, I think the SMSM have a great deal to do with that. Could you imagine the media's negative reaction to the board members of any club calling out TRFC and/or the SFA's favouritism? Could you imagine the harm to any Scottish business owned by a member of that board? I've always thought it telling that the only club owner to call out the SFA and the 'Old Firm' was a man whose business interests lay mainly outside of the UK and well out of reach of any angry bears. Think how the SMSM treated him!
Good point well made AJ.
I despair that my own club don't speak out about the whole TRFC entering the league and continuity scams but I also get where the problem lies. You only have to read the old SMSM stories of succulent lamb highlighted in the last few days on here to gauge the level of hubris and entitlement Scotland's institutions' favoured football club carries with it. If we think that they see the errors of their ways now that Rangers have gone down the tube and another club prevails then we are ignoring a fundamental of human behaviour: institutional bias, and indeed bigotry, does not get changed by logical thought, rather the inherent hatred and elitism is stoked up by public failure and ridicule. Hence all the "good as Messi" pish and £10m bids from China. The SFA and the rest of Scotland's blazers hate what is happening now. The atmosphere is getting toxic and will get worse next season. It will take a brave man to speak out IMO.
(I say this as a Dons fan btw and really don't have much truck with Celtic either! However they appear to have won what they've won based on bigger crowds and Euro money which is galling to the rest of us but that's the way of the world, fair enough.)
11 Feb 2014
The Scottish Professional Football League has abandoned plans to punish clubs who enter administration with automatic demotion
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-football/10631856/Scottish-football-abandons-plans-to-automatically-relegate-clubs-in-administration.html
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Scottish Premier League clubs have voted at Hampden not to introduce fixed punishments for clubs reforming as new companies known as ‘newcos’.
Instead sanctions will be imposed on a case-by-case basis with the decision taken by all 12 member clubs.
30 May 2012
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/18263819
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I love this part..
“The clubs have decided that, should they be in a situation in future where they were considering an application for the transfer of share to a newco, it would be on the basis that the members could impose a sanction proportionate to the individual circumstances.
“So the fixed penalties were deemed obsolete and therefore withdrawn.
“But I think it is important to stress that there is no newco application for us [to consider].
“There is a CVA proposal which has gone to creditors and on that basis we are not anticipating a newco proposal to come forward.
“In most instances, today’s rules are likely to see any sporting sanction for going into administration seriously increased from the 10 points at the moment and that’s a big change.”
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“But I think it is important to stress that there is no newco application for us [to consider].
Doncaster must have believed the hype That charles Green had had the nod.
Stewart Robertson may be the only one on an ibrox board but when the chip’s are down no matter who is on the SFA SPL at that time or now The SPFL they are all biased in favour of keeping the ibrox club going in any form, The big house must stay open feck integrity and morals the cash cow must stay afloat the tv deals must keep going and the bonuses will get paid.
If 2012 happened again down ibrox way no matter who the sfa spfl members have leanings towards the biased to keep an ibrox club thing in the top flight would be the same as 2012.
You ask, who they know to be biased in favour of the Ibrox club (save for Stewart Robertson of ‘Rangers’).
Every single corrupt one of them, then and now would sell their granny to keep the show on the road. They are so scared it could happen again to the ibrox club that they changed the rules(will look it out later)for no relegation from the SPFL if a club goes into administration
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So scared that Charles Green may pull the plug they guaranteed no title stripping
http://scottishlaw.blogspot.com/2013/09/questions-over-nimmo-smith-inquiry-as.html
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Boiled down and stripped of legalese the shameful guarantee states: ‘The SPL hereby undertakes solely and exclusively to Sevco and to no other Person . . . that the SPL shall not . . . take or commence disciplinary proceedings against Sevco . . . in respect of any EBT Payments and Arrangements’.
What is even more incredible is that this deal was struck and distributed with the 5-Way Agreement before Lord Nimmo Smith began his enquiry and before the FTTT announced its verdict on the Rangers tax allegations.
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Green could have asked anyone in the SFA or SPL to bend over and show their backsides he knew they would be biased against the rules and grant him whatever he wanted.
You ask, who they know to be biased in favour of the Ibrox club (save for Stewart Robertson of ‘Rangers’).
Every single corrupt one of them, then and now would sell their granny to keep the show on the road. And with the 5 way agreement they are locked in and now can’t rock the ibrox disaster they see coming their way.
My answer to your question Highlander..
who they know to be biased in favour of the Ibrox club (save for Stewart Robertson of ‘Rangers’).
So, apart from Rangers board member Stewart Robertson, who, on his own,
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No single person but a collection of self serving people that see profit before integrity.
Ps. sorry for a lot of posts
Just a short update on the Bonnyrigg licensing situation. While there have been no updates from the club, there was a written answer given to an MSP's question at Holyrood a couple of days ago. It doesn't change anything for the moment, but one thing I did note from the response was that "we have discussed the matter with the SFA". Will the SFA change their stance in light of "political" pressure being brought to bear?
I believe that both the Lowland League and the East of Scotland League have their AGMs next week, with the SFA holding theirs the following week. Hopefully the clubs affected will get some clarity by then.
Shirley somebody is able to demonstrate that the 5-way agreement is legally compliant , and compliant with the rules of the governing organisation ? How else would we know that everything is kosher ?Are we just to take their word ? You would have imagined that Plod and the financial authorities have looked at it and nodded it through , and there would be documentation .
Headline from the DR;
"Rangers being sued £1.1m after ditching Ibrox Disaster memorial wall plan"
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Just what the Ibrox club needs: yet another time and money sapping legal action – and yet more public evidence for other entities to avoid doing business there like the plague.
Even just reading the "club insider" quotes which are personalised and dismissive, it looks on the face of it, that TRFC has simply reneged on another commercial contract.
StevieBC@08.15
I’ve just been reading the print version of that Record article (barbershop copy) and there are several references to the “club” but no mention of the company. Shurely shome mishtake?
You also have to admire the optimism of the wall company entering into a 125 year contract to build and run the facility.
None of us , of course, would knock the idea of any organisation erecting a memorial to victims of disastrous accidents that occurred on their premises.
Certainly, I thought at the time that the proposal to use a bit of otherwise apparently not particularly useful ground for such a purpose was a creditable one.
But I was struck by the incongruity of a club which was really toiling to find the wherewithal for daily running expenses and having to borrow from its directors, being so improvident as to contract for a million quid of expenditure on a, basically, unnecessary project at a time when it was by no means certain that the club would continue in existence long enough for folk to enjoy it if and when completed!
There seems to be a kind of lack of rationality in many of the decisions taken by TRFC Ltd, decisions that almost certainly had to be authorised by the Chair of RIFC plc.
My researches into 'Memorial Wall Ltd' -both by referring to that company's website and by reference to Companies House, suggest that it is a very new company. The loss of a relatively big contract would clearly be a serious matter for them and legal action their only chance of redress.
I reckon that someone on the RIFC plc board, unwilling to contemplate having to honour the contract in straitened times, and realising the relative weakness of Memorial Walls Ltd, decided to adopt standard bully-boy tactics.
And has discovered that Memorial Walls Ltd is made of strong stuff.
And as with many things to do with RIFC plc, the PR people are simply not able to avoid the company looking mean, arrogant and above all, like a cheat, trying to worm his way out of a deal.
I think I might just apply for JT's job!!