Armageddon? What Armageddon?

Now that we are at the end of the league season, and with respect to the job still to be done at Tannadice and McDiarmid Park, it seems like a good time for a post holocaust report.

Average Weekly Attendances SPL 2011-2014

Fig 1 Average Weekly Attendances SPL 2011-2014

Peppered around this page are three charts and a table* showing the attendance figures for the SPL in the last three seasons. A school kid could tell you that there is a positive trend in those charts and figures, but the people who run our national sport will look you straight in the eye and tell you “that can’t be right – Armageddon is coming!”

It is one of the most ridiculous and mendacious situations I have ever come across. The people who run our national game, aided and abetted by those in the MSM (sans the eye contact though) are actually trying to persuade us of how awful our game is and how unsustainable it will be in the absence of one, just one, club.

Think about that. The SFA and the SPFL trying to talk us out of supporting the game unless we all recognise the unique importance of one, just one, club. That is what has happened, no matter how they try to spin it. And despite evidence to the contrary contained in these figures, not one of them has admitted to an error, never mind the downright lies that they told to support the position they held, the one where anyone speaking of sporting integrity was mocked and ridiculed.

 

Whilst growing up as football supporter in the 60s, one of things I was constantly bombarded with via the medium of the tabloid newspapers was that football clubs should be grateful for the publicity afforded them via their back pages. These were probably reasonable claims, especially in the light of the relative lack of access to players and officials conceded to the hacks in those days, and the pre-eminent cultural position in which they helped to place football. Alongside that, the broadcast media, particularly Archie Macpherson’s Sportscene and Arthur Montford’s Scotsport could be relied on to talk the game up. Of course, there was something in it for the papers – sales. The more column inches devoted to the national sport, the further northward their sales, and consequently advertising revenues travelled.

ex Celtic & Rangers

Fig 2 Avg. Attendances excl Celtic & Rangers

The situation was further cemented by the fact that the press in that ante-interweb era held a monopoly over the exchange and dissemination of information. That symbiotic, win-win relationship between football and the press was as much a part of football reality as the Hampden Roar. It also endured for decades. The press would talk up the game to such an extent that folk often remarked that they hadn’t realised how much they had enjoyed a particular match until they had read Malky Munro or Hughie Taylor’s report the next day. Archie Macpherson is on record as having said the same thing about legendary commentator David Francey, “It was a much better game to listen to than to see!”

Today that symbiosis is broken. The press themselves, in print and in front of microphones consistently belittle the product, talk of crises and Armageddon, of our own version of the Eisenhower domino effect of clubs going to the wall one after another.

Aided and abetted by the two chief bureaucrats in charge of Scottish football, Stuart Regan and Neil Doncaster, who have consistently helped to hammer home the message that Scottish football is not good enough, and cannot sustain itself financially without Rangers, a club that could not itself sustain itself financially to the extent that it is being liquidated.

At a time when Scottish football was clearly in crisis, and badly in need of sponsorship which could mitigate the effects of that crisis, the press and the authorities sought to strengthen their own negotiating hand by making negative claims about the state of the game which never came to pass, and for which they have never apologised. The actual situation, which would not have been hard to predict had anyone actually bothered to analyse the business of Scottish football, is summarised quite easily by saying this;

  1. Since Rangers’ liquidation and subsequent absence from the top league, the average home attendance of the other clubs has INCREASED overall (See Fig 2).
  2. In this season, the other clubs have added 50,000 fans to home attendances compared to 2011-12 (the last year Rangers were in competition).
  3. In that time the league has been won (twice) by Celtic, and the other honours have been claimed by St, Mirren, Aberdeen, Celtic and (either) Dundee United or St Johnstone.
  4. In that time, both Dunfermline Athletic and Hearts (who both had historical financial problems) entered – and exited – administration after fan-led buyouts.
  5. Dundee United have cleared off their bank debt.
  6. Kilmarnock have restructured their bank debt, freeing the club from a precarious long-term situation.
  7. League reconstruction has allowed some money to trickle down to the second tier clubs in an attempt to mitigate the immediate effects of relegation and to reward ambitious clubs.

table

Looking at the table of attendances above, it is pretty clear that immediately upon Rangers exit, the overall figures took a dip. However there was little difference the in the figures if you leave Rangers out of the equation (Fig 3) – despite Celtic’s attendance taking a hit that year (down by around 5,000 per home match).

Taking Celtic out of the calculations, it is clear that there is a 6,000 uplift in this average (Fig 2).

It is still undeniable that less people overall are watching football (Fig 1), but the trend is upward if one leaves the Ibrox club out of the picture.

Furthermore, this statistic exposes the double edged sword that is retention of home gates. The fact that gates are not shared is predicated upon the notion that the bigger clubs do not depend on the smaller clubs for income. And since the smaller clubs are no longer recipients of big club largesse, their fortunes are not affected, at least not as much as was suggested by the Regans, Doncasters and Traynors of this parish. The “Trickle-Down” theory of Reganomics said otherwise – but clearly and demonstrably it was wrong.

The abandonment of gate sharing has made Scottish football less interdependent than it once was, but the irony is that it works both ways. There is hardly a club in the country that depends on Rangers for their own existence, and here is the news; small clubs are no longer financially dependent on the former Old Firm.

Excluding Celtic

Fig 3 Excluding Celtic

The fact, that is F-A-C-T, is that Scottish Football attendances in the top division are on the increase. The absence of Rangers has made no appreciably negative difference to any other club, far less caused a catastrophe of biblical proportions.

Even if the fools who were the harbingers of our doom were simply guilty of making an honest mistake, it is clear that they are uncontaminated with the slightest notion of how the game in this country operates. The Old Firm may be dead, but the OF prism is still being peered through by Stuart Regan, Neil Doncaster and the vast majority of print journalists. The latter who failed to honour that age-old football/press symbiosis because they believed, erroneously that David Murray’s dinner table was the hand that has fed them for over a century.

The irony is that as job opportunities diminish in the print sector, so too will the fine dining and patronage. I think they call that evolution.

 

Two years ago, in the wake of the fans’ season ticket revolt which saw the new Rangers forced to apply for membership of the league and begin at the bottom, those same MSM hacks taunted fans about putting their money where their mouths were. The fans responded splendidly as our statistics demonstrate, but typically there has been no recognition of this either at Hampden or in the media.

And the message from those fans is this: Scottish football is not dying. Not any more. At least not as surely as it was when David Murray started to choke the life out of it in the late 80s. The supporters are returning in numbers to see a competition untainted by the outrageous liberty-taking and rule-breaking of the last couple of decades, and all but one club has emerged from the mire of the Moonbeam Millennium looking forward to a new era.

If authorities allow the new era to thrive by restoring sporting integrity to the agenda, then the numbers, like the opportunities available to more and more clubs, will grow. The question is … will they?

Admittedly, these figures, like any set of statistics, can be cherry-picked to suit almost any argument that you care to construct. The fact remains though, that whilst it would be fanciful and ridiculously over-optimistic to claim that they bear witness to a burgeoning industry, it is utterly dishonest to conclude that they represent financial Armageddon. Armageddon? Aye right!

* Source ESPN          

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John Cole

About Big Pink

Big Pink is John Cole; a former schoolteacher based in the West of Scotland, He is also a print and broadcast journalist who is engaged in the running of SFM . Former gigs include Newstalk 106, the Celtic View, and Channel67. A Celtic fan, he is also the voice of our podcast initiative.

2,810 thoughts on “Armageddon? What Armageddon?


  1. ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 9:27
    Two of the clubs are there due to their own incompetence. One of the clubs is there because the incompetence of Rangers FC created a space for a new club. Two of these clubs are lucky to be in existence. Where on Earth should these three clubs be playing next season? The Champions League? This is just another example of my club’s misfortune (for want of a better word), joined now with that of Hibs, being used to further the argument (non-argument) for fast tracking TRFC into the top tier. It’s been going on for a while now, and will continue for a good while longer. Sadly there will continue to be a long line of players, ex players and managers prepared to take the tainted shilling for puff pieces like this.


  2. Carfins Finest says:
    May 27, 2014 at 11:07 am
    11 0 Rate This

    WRT The wonderful new Championship in Scotland for next season. There will be an Edinburgh Derby. Thats Good. No Glasgow Derby. Not so Good.
    ———————————-

    Thanks to Danish Pastry for pointing out the obvious error in the above.

    Carfin, you really need to brush up on your geography… 😛


  3. Danish Pastry says:
    May 27, 2014 at 11:22 am
    5 1 Rate This

    Carfins Finest says:
    May 27, 2014 at 11:07 am
    2 0 Rate This

    WRT The wonderful new Championship in Scotland for next season. There will be an Edinburgh Derby. Thats Good. No Glasgow Derby. Not so Good …
    ———

    Partick Thistle may wish to debate that assertion 🙂

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

    Partick are in the Premiership next year I think. Or do you know something we don’t? 😉


  4. Para Handy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 9:44 am

    I believe it was the correct thing to do for sporting integrity. A club should be able to defend any cup it has won (assuming it is still in business).
    —————————————
    (re. rules bent to get Liverpool into Champs league)
    My point thought was not that clubs shouldn’t have the right to defend a trophy they have won or not (and this varies eg World Cup holders now have to qualify I think), but rather that the rule was hammered into the desired shape AFTER the season had ended and the club’s placings, and qualifying positions, were known. That is not right in any competition, and does not sit well at all with sporting integrity – if they had made it the rule for the following season, so that clubs knew what they are playing for, no problem.


  5. Personally I am looking forward to seeing how both leagues handle their relative challenges, new teams, new managers in SPFL, Utd and Aberdeen look like they are improving. Lots of youth coming thru. Celts big challenge to get into Europe proper. Championship 3 big teams who will need to set up on youth teams (well should in rangers case), all other teams in that league will want a go at the big name clubs… Gonna be a great season and in 2 or 3 years time we may see some emerging talent from Armageddon 1 & 2.


  6. Matty Roth says:
    May 27, 2014 at 12:16 pm
    1 0 Rate This

    Partick are in the Premiership next year I think. Or do you know something we don’t?
    ———

    Haha, no secret knowledge of forthcoming events. If only.

    I was just referring to the fact that merely because TRFC will be in the Championship doesn’t mean an actual Glasgow derby does not exist. Partick Thistle are now the 2nd Glasgow team in the top tier and are there entirely on merit. I’ve enjoyed watching Thistle’s matches this year. As things stand though, there may not even be a Glasgow team in the Championship. I would have thought they’ll have a job convincing their accountants and the high heid yins that they are a going concern.


  7. Tele argument may actually have the reverse effect of course, as long as it is carefully managed, and we have the right people in charge 🙄

    Aberdeen St J to choose two off the top of my head are notoriously turgid affairs. If they are being televised, simply because ND has promised that AFC and St J will be shown x times in the season to try to balance/ mask the fact that CFC will be shown 3x times and throw in some crap weather then tv in no way adds to the occasion. As we all know, a 12o’clock kick off and a smaller than it otherwise would have been attendance has exactly the opposite effect. [And for the record/balance fair play to Sevco and CFC who of course have to deal with this factor 3 times more often] Alternatively, if I know that (again for arguement’s sake) Sevco hearts to go top is on a Friday night having been “swapped” for the afore mentioned premiership clash then I will probably watch it. Then if I wake to middling weather on the Saturday, but in the knowledge the game isn’t on live then I’ll go along to that too. Everyone seems to win in that scenario, including the 3’o clock on a Saturday brigade which I very much support. We’ve got to watch and not cut off our noses here. But it does need common sense, intuitive, imaginative management and a non entrenched negotiating position.

    ((Thought for the day – can you be self entrenched?))


  8. On Neil Doncaster.

    I thought he’d been brought in as CEO of the SP(F)L for his expertise and negotiating skills. Expertise that the board, and the rest of the league’s chairmen, don’t have but could rely on to make decisions on what was a good, or bad, deal. I also thought he’d be putting forward ideas created from that expertise to the board, with particular emphasis of what is, and isn’t feasible. I doubt very much the board sit down, without Doncaster’s input, and decide that they will engineer a crap TV deal, then tell Doncaster to go out and get it. I think even the SPFL board could work out that if all Doncaster does is their bidding, then he really doesn’t earn that huge salary with bonuses he’s on. I’d expect it is more likely that the board tell him to go out and get the best deal he can, and he comes back with an explanation of why x-y was all he could get. He then tells them that ‘because it’s in all the papers that even we’re saying Scottish football is rubbish, they initially offered x-x’. They then reply, ‘well done, Neil, you’ve earned another bonus’.

    I think the board, and therefore the clubs, are complicit in the poor deals because they’ve handed the power to Doncaster to do the negotiating they don’t feel competent to do. That doesn’t let Doncaster off the hook for his failure to get a better deal.

    It’s not only in the nitty gritty of the negotiations that Doncaster has done badly. Surely it is an important factor in creating a good TV deal, and sponsorship, to boost the public image of the product, to tell the world that, despite the odd setback, Scottish football is an exciting game. Surely it was his job, without the need for the board’s blessing, to downplay the impact of Rangers’ demise on the SPL. That man has singularly failed to make any statement boosting the game and has instead made a number filled with doom and gloom. The fact that he was so publicly taken for a ride by an obvious shyster like Green must make him particularly easy prey for the TV hard men on the opposite side of the negotiating table.

    I may, of course, be totally wrong about the CEO’s role, and he may just be the message boy of the SPFL board, with no responsibility for the deals he carries out in their name. It might also not be the CEO’s job to ensure the product is shown in the best light at all times. Gerald Ratner just might have created a very effective sales model too!


  9. Danish Pastry says:

    May 27, 2014 at 11:22 am

    6

    3

    Rate This

    Carfins Finest says:
    May 27, 2014 at 11:07 am
    2 0 Rate This

    WRT The wonderful new Championship in Scotland for next season. There will be an Edinburgh Derby. Thats Good. No Glasgow Derby. Not so Good …
    ———

    Partick Thistle may wish to debate that assertion
    ==-=====
    Partick Thistle will be in the premiir league and therefore in the Glasgow derby mentioned for the top league. Hope this makes sense. My geography is fine.


  10. Para Handy says:

    May 27, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    1

    2

    Rate This

    Carfins Finest says:
    May 27, 2014 at 11:07 am
    11 0 Rate This

    WRT The wonderful new Championship in Scotland for next season. There will be an Edinburgh Derby. Thats Good. No Glasgow Derby. Not so Good.
    ———————————-

    Thanks to Danish Pastry for pointing out the obvious error in the above.

    Carfin, you really need to brush up on your geography…
    =================
    Please read the post again. As I stated the PREMIER league in Scotland will continue to have a Glasgow Derby. The championship will not.


  11. Interesting tweet just popped up in my timeline regarding compensation to the SFA at the time of Walter Smith’s untimely exit:

    Sevco Next @hen1rik:
    @bbcjimspence Did Rangers actually pay SFA £400k for Walter Smith? http://t.co/VsMPnAvr5O Jim you want to ask the ? or is it a sweep sweep


  12. Carfins Finest says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:10 pm
    2 0 Rate This
    ——

    Sorry @Carfin, it was the phrase ‘the return of’ in the same sentence that threw me. You are of course correct. I misunderstood that to imply there would be none until it returned. Silly me. I am now suitably chastised and will now do 50 lines 🙂


  13. Forgive me if I’m wrong but out with ICT, what actually has Terry Butcher done of any significance in the role as manager? I don’t buy into this idea of Butcher bringing in youngsters and successfully building a young team. His managerial record is pretty dismal and Hibs only adds to that fact.

    Hibs had been playing lovely free flowing football under John Collins but since then, they’ve been nothing to write home about. IMO for what it’s worth, Fenlon should be a touch peeved as he had them consistently mid table with little chance of relegation. Fast forward a few months and it’s Armageddon for the Easter Road club. Butcher should’ve walked and as for Petrie, I think he would prefer a back seat among the blazers.


  14. Why are people having a pop at the Championship all of a sudden?

    It’s not our fault we’ve ended up as a sink division for Scottish football’s problem children. 😛


  15. Allyjambo says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:01 pm

    On Neil Doncaster.

    I think the board, and therefore the clubs, are complicit in the poor deals because they’ve handed the power to Doncaster to do the negotiating they don’t feel competent to do. That doesn’t let Doncaster off the hook for his failure to get a better deal.
    ========================================================
    The SPFL hasn’t handed over TV negotiating solely to ND but has a TV negotiating committee which in 2012 comprised of reps from 3 clubs who presumably were picked by the SPL, at that time, for their negotiating skills.

    My point has been that it’s a mistake IMO to blame ND 100% for the TV deals and I acknowledge that you don’t adopt that position. Of course ND has a measure of responsibility for bum TV deals but the clubs have the ability to say cheerio to him on those grounds – instead they have rewarded him.

    I just don’t believe all the club reps on the SPFL can’t recognise these TV deals as useless because if their business skills are that poor then I fear for the financial future of their clubs.

    However it’s one thing to assign negotiations to ND and it’s totally another to accept and sign sub-standard agreements. But as I have said perhaps those were the only deals on the table and if the TV companies really were prepared to go to the wire on it then it doesn’t really matter what negotiating skills are employed on the SPFL side.

    However would Scottish Football be able to survive a year without a TV contract being signed especially as they would probably be forced into accepting even less if they returned to the table a year later.

    Sadly the big problem for Scottish Football is that many people choose to watch alternatives these days and we really are a tiny country in terms of providing a TV viewing audience especially when in direct competition with the top two English Leagues.


  16. Allyjambo says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:01 pm
    ‘……That doesn’t let Doncaster off the hook for his failure to get a better deal. ‘
    ———-
    Correct.
    It is true, of course, that a CEO is an employee, hired by his employers to work under their broad, strategic guidelines. But in even any normal company, the CEO has responsibility for translating the broad strategy into operational effect: he/she formulates the policies and procedures required to deliver the goals set by the overall strategy. The CEO can in effect become the main driver, because of his supposed grasp of detail and the executive power he has even over the operational personnel.With even just the tacit support of the Chair, and sometimes even without it, the CEO heavily influences everything, and should nearly always have his major decisions and proposals rubber-stamped by the Board, if he is at all earning his corn.
    In a company of which the shareholders are the owners of a number of individual, separate and competing businesses, and the Board members are elected from personnel with affiliations to those individual businesses, the ‘neutral’ , professional CEO has scope for exercising even greater power and influence.
    ( One thinks of how successive “Secretaries” of the SFA became virtual dictators whose word was absolute)
    So, in my opinion, Neil Doncaster must carry a heavy responsibilty for how the SPL responded to the damage done to RFC by its cheating, duplicitous ‘dupe’ of an owner, and for the less than satisfactory commercial operations since then.
    The Eichmann defence is of no more avail to him than it was to Eichmann himself. Even if he is not the only baddie.


  17. Danish Pastry says:

    May 27, 2014 at 1:25 pm

    0

    0

    Rate This

    Carfins Finest says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:10 pm
    2 0 Rate This
    ——

    Sorry @Carfin, it was the phrase ‘the return of’ in the same sentence that threw me. You are of course correct. I misunderstood that to imply there would be none until it returned. Silly me. I am now suitably chastised and will now do 50 lines
    ============
    Danish. Apology accepted. I agree it could have been better written.


  18. ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 9:50 am

    “With Rangers, Hearts and Hibs all now involved in the Championship, it remains to be seen if the two main broadcasters come back to the table in a bid to strike a new contract to show more Rangers fixtures as the Championship gets set to take centre stage next term.”

    Now that’s interesting; The addition of Hearts and Hibs might lead to more coverage of… (The)Rangers!! I wonder which teams would have had to leave the Championship to cause a reduction in the coverage of The Rangers!

    It never seems to stop, everything is just about TRFC. Surely, if written from a non-TRFC perspective, it would simply have read, ‘to show more Championship fixtures’. Of course, that perhaps falls into insignificance if we look at the next few words, ‘as the Championship gets set to take centre stage next term.’ No it won’t. It will still be the second tier. My club is playing in it, so it will take centre stage for me, and all the supporters of teams just joining it, but it is just one step up from the third tier, and two from the bottom tier, where these leagues were won by a very boring team over the past two seasons. The Championship could very well be just as boring next season. It’s a division into which the Premiership losers go. Centre Stage my @rse!!!


  19. John Clark says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    in my opinion, Neil Doncaster must carry a heavy responsibilty for how the SPL responded to the damage done to RFC by its cheating, duplicitous ‘dupe’ of an owner, and for the less than satisfactory commercial operations since then.

    The Eichmann defence is of no more avail to him than it was to Eichmann himself. Even if he is not the only baddie.
    ===============================================
    I’m not sure how much responsibility ND has to carry for RFC considering that he didn’t join the SPL until 2009 – I think the die was well cast for the eventual fate of Rangers by then.

    []

    However my position is clear that ND has been following orders it’s just that those issuing the orders – from the Scottish Football clubs – would appear to be a bunch of financial incompetents.

    However I don’t believe for one moment that ND tells the ruling clique within the SPL/SPFL what to do. He knows what is required of him and has provided the goods and if he hadn’t he would have gone.

    And if these club reps don’t give a fig what he does or are so commercially inept that they can’t see the flaws then gawd help Scottish Football because it surely is doomed 😆


  20. Sorry Carfin, as with Danish it was the wording that threw me. Not so sure that the absence of a Glasgow derby from the Championhsip is that big a deal. Last time there was one in that tier was probably when Clyde ground shared with Thistle in the 80s.

    Anyway, where is Carfin again? 🙂


  21. ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    In my post I was trying to throw the net wider over Doncaster’s role, and so his responsibility. He is, after all, a full time employee, unlike the club chairmen, and was employed to promote the game. I see getting a good television deal as involving much more than sitting round a table negotiating with hard nosed TV men; if the product is allowed to diminish in the eyes of the TV companies the way the SPL was, and was, in fact, actively made to look a joke by those charged with promoting it, then even the best negotiators, and Peter Lawwell might indeed be one, would have an impossible job to achieve a better deal. OK, maybe it was made difficult for him (Doncaster) if the SPL chairmen (or some of them) were pushing him to ‘save’ Rangers, but he didn’t have to do it in a way that made the rest seem so unimportant. His first duty was to the whole of the SPL, and TRFC weren’t a part of that. The minute TRFC were not voted into the SPL Doncaster should have, more or less, washed his hands of the new club, and instead concentrated on those clubs he represented. If he’d done that, he might have come up with a strategy to promote the SPL, he didn’t even appear to set out on a damage limitation exercise. On another tack, if Doncaster only acts on the board’s decisions, and isn’t paramount in getting the TV deals and sponsorship, what did he get his bonus for? Asking how high?


  22. John Clark says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    The Eichmann defence is of no more avail to him than it was to Eichmann himself. Even if he is not the only baddie.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++
    In the corporate world the Eichmann defence does work, JC. A board of directors take collective responsibility for the decisions they make in the board room. If they don’t like a decision, they have a choice, lump it or leave.


  23. John Clark says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    John,
    You’ve just put into words, much better than I ever could, just what I was trying to say earlier. Thanks for that 🙂


  24. Para Handy.

    3rd star from the right and straight on til morning 😀


  25. ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 2:00 pm
    ‘..I’m not sure how much responsibility ND has to carry for RFC.’
    —–
    I was not suggesting that Doncaster bears any responsibility for the death of RFC-only for his necessary part in the shabby pretence that they did not die and for his even shabbier part in trying to frighten his ’employers’ into bouncing a new club into the SPL.
    And of course it is ‘only football’. But the ‘Eichmann defence’ is that of the plea of ‘only obeying orders’. And I’m pretty sure that Doncaster was rather more influential in shaping affairs than a lowly employee would have been, and should not be allowed that ‘defence’.


  26. More pressure on rangers to get the old boys back in, Miler, Boydy imo, however I did read a ghost post from Hateley today saying he was excited about the ‘dynamic duo’ and their partnership for next season.. The dynamic duo in question is actually clark and daly… yeah you did read ‘DYNAMIC’.

    –Has Hateley been instructed to hype up the current strikers though, why would that be? Check out what the Bears den say about their big Irish striker, I think most rangers fans will be hoping he is for the chop.


  27. No word on the rangers tour of the US & Canada… DK quiet also then he doesn’t really need to say anything, the battle to starve the club of upfront funds seems to be winning. If what has been suggested recently that they need funds in to pay people their redundancy cash it does not bode well I fear. Not to mention the loans.

    I am sure ND is asking questions of rangers. If rangers cannot start the season it will be interesting to see what tv contract we end up with based on past negotiations.


  28. justshatered says:
    May 26, 2014 at 5:18 pm
    19 0 i
    Rate This

    Always interesting when I hear or read fans saying of a certain owner, chief executive, manager or player that “he owes us”.
    Fans are entitled to ask for commitment, loyalty, and decency from their players, managers and officials for the duration of their contracts. Nothing more.
    ________________________________________

    It’s very easy for fans to make such demands, when they will never in a million years find themselves in the position of having to make a decision between loyalty to a club over the opportunity to further themselves professionally and financially. 99% of them would act as professional players do in the same situation, or are we led to believe by some statistical freak that only pathological opportunists ever make it to professional level over all the good guys.

    On a similar note, I noticed something of a furore on Facebook in response to Celtic’s ‘Pay to play’ inititave, where 5-14 year olds were to be given the chance to train with coaches on the Celtic Park pitch for a fee of £70. The general reaction was one condemning this as corporate greed/destroying the heart and soul of the club and demanding that the offer should be available free of charge.

    If people feel like that then that is all well and good, but I am quite sure a majority of these keyboard che guevaras will be at the front of the queue when the transfer window opens demanding the club make many multi million pound player signings, a sense of entitlement justified on the basis of being a ‘paying customer’.

    You can’t have it both ways. In the absence of free money from the state or cosy arrangement with a financial institution willing to fund debt forever, the money has to come from somewhere. Personally, I trust the club does it’s best with the resources available.


  29. Having Googled Carfin and checked out the Wiki, I was amused to find this snippet:

    “The golf course, named after Sam Torrance (Torrance Park), was funded by former Rangers chairman David Murray. It has never been finished.”

    I take it the hover pitches never appeared either?


  30. Tartanwulver says:
    May 27, 2014 at 6:32 am
    ————————-
    At the level of European competition, money-spinning potential can trump sporting rules – the year after Liverpool won the Champions’ League, they finished one place too low in the English league to qualify the next year. A rule was hastily invented over the close season that the holders should get in, and was effective immediately – if memory serves, a team from the Euro boondocks was made to play an extra qualifier to free up a space, although whatever the mechanism was, it didn’t get much publicity. The lubrication of Liverpool’s access to the competition was simply taken as an entitlement.
    ———————————————————-

    Yes this was a rather odd arrangement that resulted in Liverpool ending up in Chelsea’s group, a scenario that would never be allowed in normal circumstances where clubs from the same nation are kept apart until the QFs.

    The only reason I can think of is that the additional place was created for the current holders regardless of nationality and by treating Liverpool as a club with no nationality effectively, in some modern Orwellian PR speak way, UEFA could say that England was only allocated 4 places for that tournament, it just so happened that the current holders were from England and hadn’t already qualified.

    Like you say, I don’t remember much being made of this at the time, although that is from a UK Sky Sports/BBC dominated media, it would be interesting to see if the media in Spain, Germany etc. were so on message also


  31. Allyjambo says:
    May 27, 2014 at 2:30 pm
    ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    Quite simply if ND was still representing the interests of TRFCL when they were no longer members of the SPL then why did his employer continue to allow him to do so? It may well be of course that his employer was of the opinion that the future of TRFCL was of importance to the SPL and were not only aware of what ND was doing but had approved it.

    And this is really my gripe – there is no transparency offered to the fans from the SPL Board who hide behind ND and pay him handsomely for providing a deflection shield.

    So I just don’t accept that ND is the sole villain of the piece and I don’t think it unreasonable to expect the SPL/SPFL Board Members to be capable of formulating policy decisions and setting the parameters within which their chief exec operates. And I also believe that the Board has a duty to explain its decisions to football fans.

    At the end of the day fans have no direct control over ND but we do have the means of exerting pressure on our individual clubs and the distinct reluctance to go down this route in favour of nailing ND to the wall – or as well as nailing ND to the wall – mystifies me.

    ND isn’t the problem as he will be disposed like a used nose wipe when it suits his employer and another fall-guy introduced with a fanfare herlading a new era of transparency We’ll see how long that lasts before it’s back to business as usual in the corridors of power.

    As to what he gets his bonus for? I have stated on many occasions that is purely to do his employer’s bidding and to carry the can when the natives get restless so the faceless ones can hide from any responsibility or accountability for their decisions. We know the SMSM won’t ask the questions of these Board Members but it’s a bit disconcerting to see some posters here adopting that as an acceptable line it would appear.


  32. Para Handy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 3:31 pm

    “The golf course, named after Sam Torrance (Torrance Park), was funded by former Rangers chairman David Murray. It has never been finished.”

    I take it the hover pitches never appeared either?

    Hovergreens would be more useful?


  33. ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 3:34 pm
    0 0 Rate This

    Allyjambo says:
    May 27, 2014 at 2:30 pm
    ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    Quite simply if ND was still representing the interests of TRFCL when they were no longer members of the SPL then why did his employer continue to allow him to do so?

    This was exactly my argument on both the Ogilvie re-election scandal (and it is a scandal) and the 5-way agreement. The clubs are all in this up to their necks (if not over their eyeballs). Doncaster is clearly incompetent, but still getting paid more and more for doing less and less. Why pay someone a 6 figure salary plus bonus, just to have his hand held on any important issue by an SPL committee? Surely the 16 year old who reloads the SPL printer on could do just as well, if all you need is a “yes man”?


  34. I’m trying to ignore the massive championship is better than premiership campaign but I have to say these twisted myopic journo’s are already spoiling all optimism I have for the season ahead.

    After such an exciting season being constantly ignore and endless airtime given instead to greeting about how we can all bare it without Rangers winning everything, I’m not sure I can take another season of this pish.

    Are the people in charge of our game, the people charged with promoting it and the people whose job it is to report on it and offer their insight all so twisted of mind that they’d prefer to destroy everything good in our game rather than see it flourish without their beloved team winning everything that is on offer, be that by hook or by crook. Do we really have to put up with these folk?


  35. TV and Doncaster
    ================
    Interesting debate from AJ, Eb, JC and others.
    For me, Doncaster is the CEO so the buck stops with him. Any queries/complaints should be addressed by him. If he feels he is being impeded in executing his role he always has a choice to resolve or leave.

    But I would also consider the following points;

    1) How much autonomy does ND actually have ?

    The general consensus, IMO, is that ND is doing the clubs’ bidding. But, 3 reps assisting aside, I would guess that most CEO’s of clubs do not have the luxury of a big staff, [PL excepted perhaps]. So the club CEO, [and/or Chairman ?] could be the de facto FD/HR director, team bus driver and chief bottle washer ! [Maybe in the lower leagues that is not far from the truth.]
    So these club CEO’s are probably pretty busy already – they may also have other, private business interests to attend to – and possibly they just don’t have the time to really dedicate to the SPFL.
    Perhaps they give ND a broad remit, and they ‘manage’ him by exception: i.e. don’t bother us unless it’s a major issue.
    Only a guess of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if ND pretty much gets on with it himself – whilst aware of the general expectations of club chairmen/woman. 😉

    &

    2) What forecast did ND present to the clubs in 2012 ?

    We saw the SPL CEO talk down the Scottish game in the media – which many of course thought was just madness. He didn’t present the paying customers any figures/projections for this doom and gloom without the Govan club in the top league/SFL1.
    That’s how ND presented himself to the public a couple of years ago.
    Now, I would presume he must have drafted up his own financial forecasting/projections for the SPL, [& SFL?], to show the effects with and without the Govan club in the top league(s).
    So my wild speculation is: what if ND presented absolutely shocking/scary numbers to the club chairmen ? He could have been highly creative in painting Armageddon+, with the numbers suitably tweaked to fall ‘off a cliff”.
    What if ND effectively painted a worst case scenario for the clubs, and when he delivered a crap – but not dreadful – TV deal everyone sighed with relief, and the ‘Golden Boy’ got a bonus for his good work ?

    ND is a lawyer/MBA, [i.e. not a dafty], and maybe he is happy to let the fans believe it’s all the clubs’ fault ?

    In the absence of transparency at the SPFL, we can only guess: just a thought from a different perspective.


  36. ND as CEO presents the clubs with ‘plausible deniability’ as the CIA used to term it.

    He is the sacrificial anode protecting them until a time comes when he is spent and will then be replaced.

    This doesn’t mean that he is beyond criticism as his behaviour and statements have been unprofessional and detrimental to the good of the Scottish game.

    At some point he will be off back down south to spend more time with his bonuses.

    Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.


  37. ecobhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    Eco,

    I’m not for one moment suggesting that the SPL board, who I believe, represent the member clubs, are in any way not responsible for the mess that has been created. I do think, though, that they rely heavily on Doncaster’s advice and figures produced and that a better CEO would have done things very differently. I am very much in agreement with John Clark in his description of a CEO’s role, it is definitely not passive and his/her input is of vital importance in forming the plans and direction of any board. We will never know how much of what Doncaster has done, was done of his own volition, but what he has done publicly has not shown a man determined to do what’s best for all the clubs in the SP(F)L, but more like a man blinkered by the age old belief that a ‘Rangers’ is vital in the top league.

    I do not absolve the SPL chairmen of blame for the shambles, they, as you correctly said, must be happy with Doncaster’s performance. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t misled them in his efforts to do what he believed was best for the SPL, or maybe just best for him.

    Again I’ve not put this at all well and so would direct anyone interested to John Clarks excellent summary of a CEO’s role, and the power he holds @
    John Clark says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:40 pm


  38. andygraham.66 says:
    May 27, 2014 at 3:39 pm

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10858328/Police-investigate-World-Cup-friendly-between-Scotland-and-Nigeria.html

    as it says in the link.
    ====================
    Oh dear.

    So, just as the Scottish team is about to miss out on a 4th consecutive World Cup, an SFA organised friendly is enveloped in allegations of corruption.

    Well the Nigerian FA was taking a risk dealing the SFA…[too strong ?]. 😐


  39. Today’s Press & Journal carries the news that “Former Gers boss Murray expands into oil and gas supply work” by acquiring Manchester-based Alphastrut.

    David Murray’s “family investment firm snapped up (the) supply chain business”.

    Alphastrut specialises in lightweight aluminium – I would have thought Murray had more experience in brass recently….

    Great news I am sure and maybe an indication that Murray will be paying back his multi-million EBT loan(s) to help out the poor pensioners at his previous companies?

    Scottish Football needs a strong First and Second Division in the coming season.


  40. Para Handy says:

    May 27, 2014 at 3:31 pm

    3

    0

    Rate This

    Having Googled Carfin and checked out the Wiki, I was amused to find this snippet:

    “The golf course, named after Sam Torrance (Torrance Park), was funded by former Rangers chairman David Murray. It has never been finished.”

    I take it the hover pitches never appeared either?
    ========
    A local stushie re the land deal done with Murray and the fact he seemed to not want to do anything with it until planning permission for a 5 star hotel and Spa was granted. The council refused and the course lay unused for years. It is now however a very trying course having been taken over by the council.


  41. Nigeria versus Scotland match fixing claim

    When Lord Chief Justice M’Buzi of Bakru Province, Nigeria e-mailed me yesterday promising me $10 million dollars if I forwarded my bank details and a £300 facility fee, I did not appreciate I would have to back Scotland as well.


  42. Strap line for TV coverage of next season’s Scottish Championship – not the Good, the Bad and the Ugly but . . . .

    The Liquidated,
    The Administrated
    and
    The Humiliated


  43. Anyone know what Phil means by the ‘Internal administration’ route???


  44. JimBhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 5:25 pm
    Anyone know what Phil means by the ‘Internal administration’ route???
    ===============================================================
    JimBhoy – I think he means radical cost reduction without administration by pumping in money to fund redundancies, breaking contracts etc to balance the books in order to have a chance of conning individuals and institutions into buying shares again later in the year. Speculate to accumulate 🙂

    As Phil says, one of the two “not good” options available.


  45. Para Handy says:

    Having Googled Carfin and checked out the Wiki, I was amused to find this snippet:

    “The golf course, named after Sam Torrance (Torrance Park), was funded by former Rangers chairman David Murray. It has never been finished.”

    I take it the hover pitches never appeared either?
    ================================================================
    Wicked Para Handy…what on earth would McPhail say…?


  46. StevieBC says:
    Oh dear.

    So, just as the Scottish team is about to miss out on a 4th consecutive World Cup, an SFA organised friendly is enveloped in allegations of corruption.

    Well the Nigerian FA was taking a risk dealing the SFA…[too strong ?]. 😐
    ==================================================================
    Certainly not StevieBC…but I imagine this one will just “peter out”…just some idle mischief making by the Torygraph in advance of the referendum…methinks.


  47. @MCFC Phil, I thought that’s what was on the table, couldn’t work out how they could break those onerous contracts though if they were tighter than a camel’s @ss in a sand storm…

    Phil great comment on the MSM and their next week exclusive… 😆

    Either option is gonna p!ss off the fans as they need to watch a small cheap squad, no superstars or journeymen pro’s looking to top up their pensions, so we are gonna have to assume the current coaching team will also be part of those cuts.

    Maybe my various posts about negative results on the park and the fans response to that will deal the killer blow.


  48. JimBhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 5:57 pm

    @MCFC Phil, I thought that’s what was on the table, couldn’t work out how they could break those onerous contracts though if they were tighter than a camel’s @ss in a sand storm…
    ======
    As tight as an SPL TV contract, perhaps?


  49. JimBhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 5:57 pm
    The, ahem ‘onerous’ contracts are very well crafted.
    They essentially bleed money out of the club.
    A formal Admin wouldn’t shift them.
    However an Administrator might ask some awkward questions.
    When Laxey got the planned insolvency ducks in a row (Jan) they were not aware of the extent of these contracts or their provenance.
    It all makes sense to them now…


  50. PhilMacGiollaBhain says:
    May 27, 2014 at 7:04 pm

    The, ahem ‘onerous’ contracts are very well crafted.
    They essentially bleed money out of the club.
    A formal Admin wouldn’t shift them…
    ===============================
    twopanda says:
    May 27, 2014 at 7:21 pm

    Brilliant! from Phil
    Join the dots time
    ==============
    Was never very good at ‘Join the Dots’…
    Unless I’m being thick: are we talking Intellectual Property rights here ?


  51. Didn`t understand that JB
    My understanding is that the present lot – and the whole lot of them – should go
    How they do that – and the manner of their PR – is irrelevant

    They should go
    It is very simple


  52. @TWOPANDA who knows where this is going the fans have no clue, the board clearly haven’t a clue and many a twist, turn and roadblock along the way until those ‘who should go’ get to the end of the puzzle with maximum wedge.. No clear plan and things getting made up along the way…


  53. Some interesting stuff coming out of the Rangers fan participation moves which shows it can be very hard to squeeze extra revenue out of supporters.

    Being a cynic I see the whole strategy of creating an official fan membership club as being a way of raising extra cash for the annual subs on top of the ST dosh and also part of the mechanism of setting up a Fan Representation Board which Rangers as a club would recognise as the ‘authentic’ voice of the fans and allow them to sideline all these other rather truculent fan groupings.

    Obviously the more you want to charge fans for an annual club membership sub then the more you have to offer them to part with cash to join this ‘exclusive’ group. Often this means in mmy experience of similar schemes ‘padding’ the joining sub with slow moving mechandise or 2 for the price of 1 offers and such like.

    But in the latest fan participation email responses it reveals that only 2% of fans think providing them with an exclusive merchandise pack is important. The top 3 club membership “value for money” benefits wanted by fans were identified as: Retail Merchandise Discount, Free Stadium WIFI and Exclusive Merchandise. The last item seems to jar with the earlier finding that only 2% of fans think providing an exclusive membership pack is important which seems to be a rather curious glitch in the figures.

    Interestingly a Rangers Membership scarf was perceived the least important membership pack item with just over 3% favouring it.

    Of the fans responding – who one would think are probably the more committed Bears – 85% don’t subscribe to RangersTV and nearly 60% of the remaining 15% answering the survey only have the standard subscription.

    The largest factor for Bears cancelling RangersTV was the price and over 40% of fans not wanting to pay anything for video content and 34% saying the subscription is too expensive.

    When it came to what they wanted to see on Rangers TV 88% of subscribers wanted to see Live Matches

    Rangers don’t reveal the numbers of those responding but in the first ‘Ready to Listen’ exercise over 50% of fans said they would participate in further exercises and the Club states: ‘From that 50%, the uptake was overwhelming’. However they neither give the percentage or numbers of those who actually responded from that original 50%. It is therefore hard to know just how ‘overwhelming’ the response was – indeed the figure might have made grown men weep so gawd knows how they would have reacted if it was underwhelming.

    The second sampling of fan opinion was split into three areas viz: Fan Engagement (86%); Club Membership (58%); and Digital & Media survey (66%). The percentages in brackets refer to the percentage response to each separate survey from the unknown amount of responses received for the second.

    So if I was sitting in Ibrox I would be a bit worried about how much extra cash this exercise would raise as it looks as though the Bears want club benefits for free that they currently pay for. Tricky one.

    All the responses are on the Rangers site and I am amazed at the amount of what I would regard as commercially sensitive info of value to competitors that is being revealed.


  54. Yearly costs of MP if they just had to shut the place down could still be a drain especially with ongoing service contracts and security and they would have to pay up for an alternative or some public park somewhere..


  55. JB – Agree on that – would add – their numerous support hasn`t been just been led up the garden path – they`ve been kicked in the teeth for their loyalty – exploited core rotten by exploitative spivs over TWO seasons
    MSM…………………?


  56. @TWOPANDA MSM pretty much complicit to the whole fiasco for a few decades. If I can look back on all this in a few years god willing I hope to see something positive of it all…. Hope we are all in a happier place and Scottish football is thriving with some professional guardians looking over things.. And we beat Brazil 5-4 in the world cup final with an avg players age of 22. Dream on. 😉


  57. Kicker Conspiracy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 1:36 pm
    Why are people having a pop at the Championship all of a sudden?
    It’s not our fault we’ve ended up as a sink division for Scottish football’s problem children.

    Good point. The Championship (old 1st; older 2nd) has for a long time – with the exception of the odd year – been a much more competitive league than the top one. (Even when old Rangers were in the SPL, the old 1st usually had 2 and sometimes 3-4 clubs challenging for promotion and often it was a different group of clubs challenging). As others have said, it may not be the 3-horse race the SMSM talk about: there are full time teams there and one or more of them may challenge also.


  58. Just been reading through a couple of Phil’s latest posts and the comments section.

    It seems that the Sevco are due Commonwealth Games monies soon, which will keep them afloat for a while.

    What a bonus for them, staging some of the ol’ CG events in their run-down stadium, eh? Wonder how they managed that…

    However, reading between the lines, I get the impression that they wanted to go into Admin before the season ended BUT COULDN’T because of their CG commitments.

    Well, you can’t always have cake and eat it too, can you?


  59. I particulalrly love this wee bit from Phil’s latest:

    However the Blue Pitch and Margarita chaps are not keen to see this citadel of sporting excellence close as some of their service contracts are connected to Murray Park.

    However some of the most ‘onerous’ ones aren’t tied to any physical site and while RIFC exists then the remittances on the contracts must be paid.

    My mind boggles that contracts exist being paid out of the Rangers fast-dimishing kitty that aren’t tied to any physical site. I can’t even begin to figure out what they are and look forward to Phil revealing all in due course 🙄

    I can see why Deloittes will be especially worried about what happens with the ST money in view of the assurances given in Imran’s case. Of course we still have to see how successful the rights issue turns out to be.

    I am having a little difficulty getting my head round why any existing shareholder with nice earning contracts might want to invest more money to effectively cancel their dripping-roast arrangements. Of course perhaps they might be worried about the longer-term viability of Rangers so this could be a good way to remove the final choice cuts before all that is left are bear bones (intentional btw).

    It looks as though it’s damned if you do – damned if you don’t.

    I think the money will go to clear the contracts and I don’t mean those of players or coaching staff – because when the final whistle sounds then who needs a football operation to throw money away on.

    Anyone any idea how long it will take to get the rights issue up and running?


  60. Wallace should be worth a punt shortly, might get £750k-£1m for him, pays the wages for another month…No speculation as yet prolly because of the SB mibees ayes mibees naws..


  61. “Anyone any idea how long it will take to get the rights issue up and running?”

    And how much it would cost?


  62. JimBhoy says:
    May 27, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    Wallace should be worth a punt shortly, might get £750k-£1m for him…
    =======================
    So then, how much would they get for the Easdales ?
    Could do a BOGOFF offer too ? 😯


  63. JB — Didn’t understand that one either

    I know her indoors and her pals are nuts [over quite a few years]
    OK so nutcases – I love my better half to bits
    It’s how it is


  64. Courtesy of one of the Celtic Forums this gem has been unearthed. It is an article written by Bill Leckie in 1997. For those wondering who ‘Muz’ is, it is David Murray. Clearly, Lamb was Leckie’s favorite meal in those days.
    ==========================================
    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.


  65. ECOBHOY

    I am not sure that there is any guarantee that there will be a share issue?

    With the board split down the middle , the existing money will be drained away , as the discussions about what to do , meander along ( 4 months and counting) , and when the runaway train hits the buffer …… both camps in the Board will blame Dave King.

    FUBAR has never been so apt.


  66. upthehoops says:

    May 27, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    Courtesy of one of the Celtic Forums this gem has been unearthed. It is an article written by Bill Leckie in 1997. For those wondering who ‘Muz’ is, it is David Murray. Clearly, Lamb was Leckie’s favorite meal in those days.

    Hope someone emails him with it


  67. upthehoops says:
    May 27, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    But something has happened at Ibrox, something you can’t put your finger on, which seems to have propelled them into a different orbit.

    ————————————————

    We mere mortals know it as TAX EVASION! 😈


  68. Phil, do any of these onerous contracts relate to trademarks and media rights?


  69. Could it be that those ‘onerous’ contracts are indeed the history that Charlie bought and that to keep peddling the ‘same club’ myth means they will have to continue to pay through the nose for the privilege.
    Some one also mentioned earlier that the Intellectual Property rights may also be part of the ‘onerous’ contracts.
    Imagine that, every time a fan buys a top Charlie gets a cut.
    Every time a bit of merchandise is sold with the crest Charlie gets his cut.
    Every time a programme is printed showing the History Charlie gets his cut.
    Oh the irony!
    To be the same club costs ‘The Rangers’ a fortune every year for all eternity.
    Surely Charlie’s Rangersitis wasn’t a con was it?

    Now if that is true, and it does come out, then the fans will go tonto……………….. well even more tonto.


  70. Cluster One says:
    May 27, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    Hope someone emails him with it
    ==========================================
    Like he will have any shame.

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