Good Try Mr. McKenzie

Guest Blog by Shyster and Shyster

Anyone hoping for some “on the record comments” made under oath in the Kinloch v Coral case is Court last week would have been sorely disappointed.

Like many people I followed James Doleman’s tweets from Court with interest. However, it became clear very early on in the proceedings that there was to be no seminal moment in the OCNC debate – despite the obvious defence available to Coral which would have made it so.

A tweet from Mr Doleman (see below) makes it clear that Coral sent a letter to Mr Kinloch explaining the reason why they would not pay out on his bet.

The reason, in a a sentence was that “Rangers were demoted, not relegated”.

Here is that Tweet from Mr Doleman.

I assume then, that an employee of Coral communicated this letter to Mr Kinloch without getting it “legalled” first.

That is extraordinary for a number of reasons; firstly, it is factually incorrect, and secondly it can be argued that this position leaves Coral open to exposure in other areas.

I find it difficult to imagine how this letter left Coral without the approval of their legal people, especially given that £250K plus legal costs was at stake.

If I was in Kinloch’s position, I would on the phone to the nearest no-win-no-fee lawyer I could find, because in the light of their explanation for refusing to settle the bet, and using terminology that Coral would understand, he is better than evens to win the case.

I think it would be fair to conclude this employee may be facing disciplinary action, and that this action will turn up as a case study in the training manuals sitting on shelves in every bookmaker shop in the country.

However just because the OCNC debate sat on the bench last week it doesn’t mean there wasn’t something juicy on show.  The SPL’s legal representative, Rod McKenzie – a defence witness in the case –   made some very interesting comments in his evidence.

Before I go into his comments further I would like to address some unfair criticism aimed at Mr McKenzie.  As most of us know, he is the lawyer who helped create in elusive 5 Way Agreement.

Nothing has blurred the lines of the OCNC debate more than this document, and Mr McKenzie himself is most likely to have authored the 5 Way Agreement, and provided a rationale for his client, the SPL signing up to it. But the SPL would have outlined what they wanted in the Agreement, so any anger directed at McKenzie is misdirected.  He was, quite rightly, looking after the interests of his client.  It is not his fault that his client is an idiot.

Notwithstanding this, Mr McKenzie said – or rather didn’t say – some very interesting things.

  • He told us that the 5 Way Agreement contains (what appears to be) nuclear grade confidentiality clauses.
  • He couldn’t – or wouldn’t provide a definition of Relegation.

The man who wrote the rules for the SPL says he cannot define relegation.  Well he can, but he chooses not to.

Conclusion? I can only infer that there is something in the 5 Way Agreement that precludes him from saying more.

I have seen (online) what are alleged to be draft versions of the 5 Way Agreement. In Football term though, and despite of existing Corporate Law,  the OCNC debate cannot be fully settled until the actual and final terms of this agreement are known.

If only there was a way to see that document.

358 thoughts on “Good Try Mr. McKenzie


  1. ALLYJAMBOFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 11:19    have everything click into place, good players, good manager with different ideas, and a good slice of luck, just at the time Celtic have taken their eye off the ball, and the worm turns…
    ———————
    In a way what i was trying to say in my post but  you wrote it much better than i could have and in a way i wanted to


  2. THE UNGRATEFUL DEADFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 09:13   
    The size of  fan base of clubs in Scotland has always been skewed because of the nature of the OLD FIRM rivalry which sees fans from all over Scotland travelling to their matches instead of supporting their local clubs. However the idea that a well run club like CFC should redistribute some of their HONESTLY earned revenue is absurd imo.

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

    I’m going to have to be controversial here.  Firstly people have the right to support whichever team they want, no matter where they live and where that team plays.  Secondly, I grew up as a Celtic fan in the 70’s, which was the decade in which I attended away games the most.  The first really vile sectarianism I experienced was, ironically, from fans of the senior club closest to my home town, albeit many miles away.  Celtic fans were not welcome anywhere, and I am in no way saying all Celtic fans are angels either. However, for many people growing up in the West of Scotland Celtic Park was the only stadium they felt comfortable in. I realise times may have changed to an extent, but it is a point which can’t be ignored. 


  3. artesianFebruary 4, 2017 at 02:23
    ‘……although every industry I have worked in has relied on a steady stream of raw talent of sufficient quality being available to enable it to flourish and grow .That’s not the case in Scottish football ……….Until we address this fundamental issue Scottish football is going nowhere …’
    _________
    Just back from Auckland last night ( Friday ), and back to my lap-top instead of the ‘stoopid wee tablet’, and have been reading with great interest some of the very good posts about the malaise in Scottish Football, as you , artesian (‘Well fan?), ably describe.

    It would, of course,  be wrong of me ( or of anyone) to attempt to attribute this malaise solely to the huge, and absolutely unforgiveable, cheating of SDM.

    I’m as aware as anyone else, I think, that there’s a whole barra-load of reasons for the decline in the standard of Scottish Football over the years.

    Among these, a really critical one was the ‘teachers’ strike’, one consequence of which was the loss of that freely given support for schools football by those great guys ( and gals) who, as primary and secondary school teachers, gave up their entire Saturday mornings right through the season, engendering or building up enthusiasm for ‘organised’ football.

    I don’t doubt that schools football is presently given a serious place in the scheme of things, but  huge damage was done in terms of the loss of the primacy of football as ‘the’ sport, in the minds and hearts of at least a few generations! And the lost ground simply has not been made up.

    Other reasons are well documented: economic decline in towns that once had tens of thousands of supporters for their local team; the greater awareness of the range of other attractive sports both to participate in and to enjoy as spectators; the availabilty on TV of the ‘artistic best’ in the sport of football; and the, to my mind,  cult of phony ‘fanship’ for foreign teams (based on ‘fashion’ or TV nonsense about ‘special ones’ etc etc), and a whole lot of other factors, chief among which is the effect of ‘TV money’.

    All of these factors have been present and have affected the fortunes of Scottish Football long before the cheating of SDM.No question.

    BUT that cheating, in my view, set off a chain-reaction of virtually uncontrolled debt-acquisition in many of our senior clubs which fell into the borrow-easily-now, and hope- to- be-able – to-repay by success on the pitch.

    The massively cheating club, as we all know, died as a consequence of its cheating ( or rather, from the fear of the gutless SDM that his cheating had occasioned such a debt to accrue to the taxman that he had to get out , and sell , for a pound! ,to the chancer who actually was the tool which effected the execution of RFC(IL) by running the famous old club into Liquidation.

    The death of any football club is, of course, a general matter of regret.
    But the death of RFC as member of the then SPL , and of the SFA, shocking as it was ( and it WAS such a shock , because the SMSM had failed to track the business affairs of SDM and question where the hell he was getting all this money!), gave rise to the much, much more shocking revelation that our Football Governance body was ready to lie and cheat: first, to try to save RFC(IL) by creating the myth that a new , applicant club, was RFC(IL), then by trying to bludgeon the then SPL into admitting the new applicant club to that league, and then, that effort failing, ‘persuaded’ the then SFL to admit that new club, but, to their chagrin, only to the bottom-most tier.

    And then, of course, we learned that the very same Football Governance Board had, years earlier, allegedly lied to UEFA so as to be able, fraudulenty, to  award a UEFA competition licence to SDM’s RFC, thus sliding a few million quid to the unentitled club.

    Now, whatever may be the malaise of Scottish Football as a Sport, it is not going to be cured by an organisation that suffers from the  malaise of being seen as a lying, cheating Governance body.
    Sins of incompetence, of well-intentioned but ineffective sports governance, can be forgiven…although ‘incompetents’ have to be replaced.

    The sin of fundamental betrayal of trust and destruction of the Sporting ethic are, well, damnable. And, frankly, there is no forgiveness for those-none of those- who betray an office of trust. ( or, more basically, who play their customers for suckers)

    Those who have posted recently, honest and respected posters as they are, about the need to sort of move on, and tackle the ‘problems’ that Scottish Football faces, need to keep in mind the truth that  Scottish Football is presently living a lie.
    And that a lie cannot be sustained forever.

    It has to be faced, sooner or later.

    Otherwise, there is no point to the game.

    And our kids and grandweans and great-grandweans might be better advised to choose another professional sport on which to lavish their time, their money and their devotion.


  4. Welcome back, JC.
    I agree with much of what you say and especially that a ‘clear out’ of those involved in the cheating years would be welcome.
    I wonder, however, if we are ready for what that would really mean. I think that on this sensible, informed forum it is accepted that there is a wider responsibility than just those figureheads in the SFA/SPFL offices (Regan, Doncaster, Ogilvie etc) for what happened around the demise and ‘resurrection’ of Old Rangers into New Rangers.
    Like you, I now wouldn’t trust the likes of Regan and Doncaster to be involved in anything to do with the future of Scottish football. As I have no real commitment to any team, I also see clearly that there are others who would need to go along with them to effect a true clean break, but I don’t know if others would be as willing to see that happen.
    Would Celtic fans, for example, be willing to see Peter Lawwell forced out at Celtic? Would Roy McGregor have to leave Ross County despite being otherwise ‘good’ for them? In my opinion, anyone proven to be involved in or supportive of the ‘let them in/same club’ initiative would have to be forced out for it to be an effective clear out. Would I be happy with a halfway house clear out? Not really, but I can see how difficult it would be for ALL those involved to go – how would we replace them?
    It seems to me that the set up within each individual club means we can’t effect the real change that is required.
    I don’t see the point in fighting for the sacking of Regan and Doncaster if the underlying supporting mechanisms and thinking simply carry on in their absence. What does that leave for us to fight for? It would be really interesting for this forum to try to identify exactly what future we want to see. I’m struggling to know what I/we am aiming for. I know just about everything is wrong in Scottish football, but not sure what I want done about it.
    Apols for the downbeat post!!


  5. nawliteFebruary 4, 2017 at 14:00
    ‘…I wonder, however, if we are ready for what that would really mean. ‘
    _______
    Not alone in your wondering, nawlite!
    It’s a bloody mess entirely.
    I, as a former public servant, would be ready to ‘defend’ the likes of Regan and Doncaster as merely paid officials doing what they were told.
    But from the Jim Farry days, we know that the ‘paid officials’ exercise ( like the Sir Humphreys) a great deal of power and influence  over and against their ‘elected masters’.
    Jim Farry in his day ‘was the SFA,’ such was the power he , as a paid employee, wielded  over club chairmen and committees.
    And any paid officials who can wield such influence over their supposed masters might have to be looked at seriously as having been serious players in any allegedly , and possibly criminal, kind of nonsense in the discharge of their official duties.
    But they are the easy targets, and, like Nuremberg accusedd, will fall back on the ‘obeying orders’ defence.
    The really bad bast.r.s are those Board members who either  instructed them, or were happy to be instructed by them.
    I have not yet writtten to Celtic plc: I have to wait until my boiling bloody rage subsides to the point where I am able to remain reasonably civil as i ask what they intend to do about asking questions about the Res 12 issue.


  6. HomunculusFebruary 4, 2017 at 11:46 
    If all is doom and gloom in Scottish football and it has no future what do the Aberdeen fans think about their club trying to get permission to build a new stadium. Or the Hearts fans think of their club extending the existing stadium’s capacity by increasing the size of the main stand.
    Are these exercises in futility.
    http://www.afc.co.uk/stadium.php
    http://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/5098
    ______________________

    Nope, Homunculus, I’d say it’s more a case of justifiable optimism. Unlike the supporters of RFC(IL) and TRFC, Hearts and Aberdeen (and every other club) supporters are used to long periods of no success, and watching the league being won at a canter by some other team. As has been said so very often, it makes no difference if Celtic have the league won by Christmas, or two teams constantly battle it out – with our club out of it by Christmas! All we ask is that we are allowed to challenge on match-days, with no Davisgate type decisions because a favoured team needs to beat us to stay at the top of the league!

    I’m sure all Celtic supporters were able to understand the feeling of Hibs supporters when they, at last, won the Scottish Cup. Well it would be the same, only greater, should Hearts, one day, win the league, but tinged somewhat should it only come about as the result of some handicapping system brought about by financial changes that somehow only disadvantage Celtic!


  7. ARTESIANFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 02:23 
    CORRUPT OFFICIALFEBRUARY 3, 2017 at 23:54Very True -although every industry I have worked in has relied on a steady stream of raw talent of sufficient quality being available to enable it to flourish and grow .
        ————————————————————————————————————————–
       Thanks for the reply ARTESIAN. 
            I agree a method needs to implemented whereby a conveyor belt of raw talent has to be improved upon. I touched upon it as a KPI, with more funding going to clubs who direct players upwards in the system.  As well as the transfer fee, they would receive a bigger slice of any “communal fund”. 
        Over-all, I am attempting to find ways to “encourage” smaller clubs with ambition, to do more to help themselves. Those who do, receive additional assistance. In the main, that is what the larger clubs have done, and through similar methods, i.e. transfer improved players. increase gates, and receive rewards for success.  
        I would also try to get an “adopt a club” scheme in place, whereby larger clubs with better facilities could perhaps allow an ambitious local club use of them during down times. Maybe the occasional session with the better, “specialist” positional coaches, offer tactical awareness classes, to aspiring coaches of lower clubs, etc. It would be practically a free improvement, other than an hour or two of peoples time, and a bit of electricity. This could be done conveyor belt stylee, with every club assisting a club from the division below. 
        Perhaps more importantly, some business advice, on raising, negotiating, and securing sponsors, and attracting “customers”, maximising and increasing current revenues, and creating new ones.
        All relatively cheaply implemented, and a win win for all. There are many ways to expand such a system, and encourage it to grow.


  8. ALLYJAMBO
    FEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 15:35
    ======================================

    “justified optimism”, well said.

    Teams not only sitting still but building for the future. I believe Tynecastle has a capacity of around 17,500, with home attendances this season of about 16,500. I believe you are looking at about 20,000 or so when the work is done.

    Expanding the capacity with a view to increasing attendances demonstrates justifiable optimism as you so rightly say.


  9. HOMUNCULUS FEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 01:23 

    No worries.

    I tend to give a nod to the original post by putting in the original tag so that people can refer back to see what the thread is related to.

    I’ll try and make more of a distinction between general comments on a  topic  and direct replies to avoid any confusion in the future.


  10. On the future of Scottish football:
    I cannot, on occasion, park my car outside my house due to the number of parents/spectators who come to watch their children playing football on the public park opposite. I am irritated by the inconvenience but overjoyed that the xbox and playstation haven’t yet totally taken over.The teams range in age from 5yrs old to 14yrs old and are well organised and coached by a cadre of volunteers who obviously know what they are doing. It has been ten years or more since I found difficulty in parking on a Saturday. I hope it is at least another ten.


  11. Just had a word with Oor John, who was over at Ibrox today . He left at half time, along with thousands of others .He says that some of the guys who left at the same time as he did were the old-timers, the staunch,loyal brigade . Disnae bode well,if that’s the case .


  12. Would like to see a few teams back up in the top tier, esp. Dundee Utd. and Hibs but not at the expense of demotions.  Should we expand the top tier?  To say 20 teams, playing each other twice. H/A   No need for a split. A lot of fans don’t like the 3 or 4 times a season meetings.


  13. GUNNERB
    FEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 17:25
    On the future of Scottish football:I cannot, on occasion, park my car outside…
    ================================

    That’s an encouraging anecdote G – especially if it’s being replicated around the country.

    It seemed pretty obvious to me from the early 90’s onwards that kids were simply no longer casually playing football on local pitches – or in all weathers. Empty pitches in daylight just didn’t exist in my youth, and probably for most Bampots as well.
    It was also obvious then that this must have a significant, negative impact on the Scottish game, (nevermind the health of the population).

    Whatever the sport it has to be a good thing – healthwise and socially – for kids to be involved with a team. 
    And ‘snowflakes’ or not, it has to be made appealing for the youngsters.

    Trying to avoid hypothermia, playing on a blaes pitch and in the gloom of winter is not as appealing as it was to us in our masochistic youth!

    Thank God we didn’t have computers in those days…  


  14. StevieBC, how’s the weather over your way just now?  Heard it can be atrocious at this time of the year.  It’s quite mild here, thank goodness.

    John C, that seems ages you’ve been in Australia. When you due back? I miss your late posts when I can’t sleep!


  15. Now with a tiny minority of fans calling for MW head.If they don’t progress to the next round of the scottish cup and if hearts keep the good run going that tiny minority may grow. With MW on a new extended contract the board would have to pay a pretty penny to pay him off,Gardening leave for another ibrox manager would be a now go i believe,and if things go wrong and he has to be paid off somehow if the majority of fans demand it who would take the job? the club would be looking at 5 managers in five years.A new manager would have even less money at his disposal than MW had.
    If MW stays but most fans want him gone, how do you sell ST on the back of that one?
    If MW goes and a new manager get’s in with even less money to spend how do you sell ST on the back of that one?


  16. CLUSTER ONE
    what is this extended contract ? not seen anything about it


  17. Glesca humour
    You cannae beat it
    Livi Ger
    Does anyone still want Warburton as manager
    ?Blue AvengerThere are many who want to keep him as manager and the vast majority support a team in the east end.


  18. TONYFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 22:33       Rate This 
    CLUSTER ONEit’s ok,googled it,they are in trouble
    —————-
    Is it a contract until 2019? i believe that is what i read


  19. CLUSTER ONE
    FEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 22:12…
    If MW goes and a new manager get’s in with even less money to spend how do you sell ST on the back of that one?
    ===========================
    I believe the technical term for that scenario is: ‘f…’ (better not 16 )

    The smarter bears will realise that the dwindling value for money / time supporting TRFC is just not worth it.
    They might think it better to take a break and return ‘when the team is back were it belongs’ and winning.

    And this could mean that only the ‘really, real hardcore’ support is left.
    A la Green, the way into their pockets is extreme hype and belligerent language from the boardroom and seeking confrontation.

    And that does not bode well ‘for the good of Scottish football’. 


  20. STEVIEBCFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 22:42
    And this could mean that only the real hardcore support is left.
    —————-
    Would it get to the stage were (they say about other clubs 40,000 turn up for a cup final) but were are the fans the rest of the league games?


  21. CLUSTER ONE
    that’s what it looks like,so between him and barton it could be costly


  22. STEVIEBCFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 20:15
    Youth football is in Rude health in most areas of west central Scotland .Over 200 teams between 4-19 yrs  in the South Lanarkshire area alone .Check out the following websites 
    LFDA- http://www.leaguewebsite.co.uk/lanarkshirefda 
    CFDA – http://www.csfda.co.uk/
    http://www.ersda.co.uk/news.php.
    http//www.leaguewebsite.co.uk/westofscotlandyf
    http://www.leaguewebsite.co.uk/theglasgowanddistrictyouthfootballleague
    They will give you a good idea of the number of teams in the Glasgow area alone.
    There is also great demand for the sport in the schools which is not being met .25% of my sons year- 70 boys ,10 girls – turned up for 1st year school team trials .Only 18 got to play .It was the same in primary .More kids got turned away than got to play .
    Quite incredible .The demand is there but it just isn’t being catered for for financial and political reasons .

    There are however only 10 3G pitches in the whole of South Lanarkshire for hire .
    http://www.slleisureandculture.co.uk/info/180/football/629/football_-_synthetic_pitches
    (By the way don’t be fooled by the number of 7 side pitches indicated in the table  .Its the same full size pitch divided into three smaller pitches .)
    This means your average team will get 3 hours of training per week max if they are lucky .
    Again, even if there were 1000 3G Pitches ( the same number  pitches per head as there are in Holland ) the clubs couldn’t afford it ,not at £70 pounds per hour  .
    And of course you aren’t allowed to train on the grass pitches in winter in case you cut them up and in the summer you have to pay to train on them .
    Yes ,Youth football is a cash cow and  Yes the councils are in the business of exploiting our children for financial gain .
    Its a fiasco .
    As for Coaching -Its a mixed bag really .Some teams have excellent coaches some not so good .No consistency there at all .It tends to be the better organised clubs have connections with Senior clubs and have access to better coaches . .It is also no great surprise that the clubs who have there own facilities tend to do better overall because they can train more often .
    Apologies for the somewhat disjointed post .I ain’t no wordsmith .


  23. jimboFebruary 4, 2017 at 21:21
    ‘…John C, that seems ages you’ve been in Australia. When you due back? I miss your late posts when I can’t sleep’
    _________
    Bit of a left-handed compliment, that! 0319
    I’m back from Auckland- but only back to Birkdale/Brisbane. Went to NZ as a way of extending the Oz visa, and I’ll be here for another couple of months.


  24. Went to Pittodrie yesterday, thoroughly enjoyed it…eventually.  The problem with Scottish fitba?  10,000 crowd. Pathetic.  Fair do’s to AFC for clawing a second place challenge out of that support though.


  25. TONYFEBRUARY 4, 2017 at 23:09       3 Votes 
    CLUSTER ONEthat’s what it looks like,so between him and barton it could be costly
    —————-
    That’s why i just can’t see another gardening leave episode. Just how many Directors, managers, players have been on gardening leave for a couple of years old club?


  26. I have little to no sympathy with Mark Warburton for the position he finds himself in, in fact, for most of my working life, I would have gladly changed places with any under fire football manager. Still would, to be honest, though life is now fine, with work totally stress free16 But I digress…

    I was never taken with Warburton, who seemed, to me, to talk down his nose at Scottish football. He was there to hone his managerial skills, at a club he saw as making ‘looking good’ easy. What’s more, it is entirely his own fault he has ended up at a club run by liars and men who, it is certain, filled his head full of thoughts of easy cup victories and a future of ding-dong battles with Celtic and Europe’s elite. He was (is), supposedly, a top ex-City trader, a profession full of Kings and Murrays (of both D & Ps)! If he wasn’t able to recognise such people, then it’s little wonder he had to leave the City and return to football. He must surely (unless bloody useless) have known the value of doing a full due diligence on potential new employers, and have had the wherewithal to carry it out, so couldn’t be all that clever if he ended up at Ibrox thinking it was anything better than what it turned out to be – a ‘journey’ with liars and illogical expectations. He was lied to, I’m certain, but decided to run with that lie past the point of innocence.

    That said, the man has had his career taken (his own fault, though) to a point that is much lower than his earlier high expectations, and is now being chased, it would appear, from Ibrox – by the very media that lauded him and bowed at his feet until that Cup Final last May. With so much damage done to his career, by that high expectation so publicly unachieved, as well as the ongoing SMSM witch-hunt, it would be very surprising for him to leave of his own volition now, for he has that lovely wage to take home each month, regardless of how well his team does, while his agent must now be running around in some career damage limitation exercise for him (if he did due diligence when choosing his agent, that is).

    He’s been taken for a mug once, by the lying board, so there’s no reason for him to go now just to make life easier for them. Besides, should he meekly leave, he’d only make it look like he’s accepting the blame for all that ails at Ibrox, and that could only damage his managerial prospects even further!

    I don’t think he’s a bad manager, just not as magical as he was at first painted, and is perhaps not best suited for a club that doesn’t have the financial clout (to buy the quality of player he needs) he thought TRFC had. I’m sure his chances of a managerial job with the salary he is currently receiving must be minimal, so he will surely hold on until his contract is up, or until TRFC pay him off; and if there is any truth in the belief that he hasn’t been paid last season’s promotion winning bonus…


  27. David Provan.
    The midweek Tynecastle defeat was proof of a bang average rangers team desperately needing investment. But a board unable or unwilling to fund improvement, are doing nothing to support their manager.
    If warbs sees out the season he should walk in the summer while his reputation is still intact.
    —————————
    If warbs walks he would walk with a pay off most likely by mutual agreement.That will cost the board lot’s of money. Then the board will need more money for a new manager and even more money to give him for transfer targets, in the meantime all or most of warbs signings will still need paid.
    just were does David think this money is coming from to fund this? They may be unwilling to fund improvements as there are no “FUNDS” there in the first place  to support this manager.or any other manager.


  28. Cluster OneFebruary 5, 2017 at 13:40 
    David Provan. The midweek Tynecastle defeat was proof of a bang average rangers team desperately needing investment. But a board unable or unwilling to fund improvement, are doing nothing to support their manager. If warbs sees out the season he should walk in the summer while his reputation is still intact.—————————If warbs walks he would walk with a pay off most likely by mutual agreement.That will cost the board lot’s of money. Then the board will need more money for a new manager and even more money to give him for transfer targets, in the meantime all or most of warbs signings will still need paid. just were does David think this money is coming from to fund this? They may be unwilling to fund improvements as there are no “FUNDS” there in the first place  to support this manager.or any other manager.
    ________________

    Ah, but you see, CO, it’s ‘Rangers’ he’s talking about, not TRFC, and the owners of ‘Rangers’ must always ‘fund improvement’ whenever the supporters demand it. But I see that piece you have shown of what Provan said as part of the ‘get rid of Warburton’ media campaign, this time it’s a more stealthy effort, with a subliminal message that there might be funds available but the board aren’t prepared to trust the current manager with them! It also suggests that Warburton should go, but only in his own best interest, of course. No thought given to the fact that his own best interest might include holding onto the best salary he’s likely to make anytime soon!

    I’m no PR expert, but I’d suspect a good media campaign to get rid of, say, a football club manager, would include these milder critiques, amongst the all out demands for his exit, where it is suggested he’s not that bad, but his ‘reputation’ is diminishing the longer he remains. ‘Go soon, mate, before it’s too late,’ type friendly advice.


  29. ERNIEFEBRUARY 5, 2017 at 09:35   
    Went to Pittodrie yesterday, thoroughly enjoyed it…eventually.  The problem with Scottish fitba?  10,000 crowd. Pathetic.  Fair do’s to AFC for clawing a second place challenge out of that support though.

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

    I think Ryan Christie will do Aberdeen a turn. Of course, there is a conspiracy theory he was loaned to try and stop TRFC finishing second. I think he is a fine young player, but is not guaranteed to change things to that extent.  I think the explanation by Brendan Rodgers that the lad is going to a really good club with a Manager Rodgers knows is a plausible one. Christie himself said it was the conversation with Derek McInnes which sold the move to him. 


  30. ALLYJAMBOFEBRUARY 5, 2017 at 14:46
    ‘reputation’ is diminishing the longer he remains. ‘Go soon, mate, before it’s too late,’ type friendly advice.
    —————————
    And please go with no pay off, the least you can say is you managed “the most successful club in the world” (his words not mine). And we have no money to pay you off.How much smsm  friendly advice.will MW take before it becomes too much.
    His most successful rant is were he lost any sympathy from me, that was up there with Charles Green clapping along to if you hate the SFA, and Ally’s who are these people


  31. Rangers aren’t the only ones with problems you know! We had to start a game today without a striker for goodness sake!  OK we brought one on the second half and he scored a hat trick but it’s not easy!


  32. These decisions all even out over the course of a season.  So I’ve been told. ( I thought we’d go down to ten men)


  33. Well it was an interesting weekend of football, but being respectful of the site’s parameters I will keep to the MSM.  I liked this headline:

    “Manchester City 2-1 Swansea City: Jesus the saviour for Guardiola’s side ”

    I thought Jesus was a Celtic supporter?.  So don’t believe everything you read in the press!  21


  34. Below is a Guardian article from July 2012 which proves that not all journalists dined on tainted lamb. I appreciate the article has previously appeared on SFM, but you can’t get too much of a good thing.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/16/rangers-lowest-league-victory-fans?CMP=share_btn_tw

    It’s worth getting a few things straight before kick-off. This isn’t about “relegating” Rangers. Rangers don’t exist any more. This isn’t about Craig Whyte. Craig Whyte’s not around any more. It’s about a culture of failure, a total lack of transparency and connivance from the very top of the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association in a rigged cartel that has brought Scottish football to total crisis. The good news is that the inept coterie at the top of the game has been bypassed by ordinary fans and smaller clubs. This is what democracy looks like.
    Just when you thought the corporate takeover of society was just about complete, an event takes place or a movement pops up to renew your faith and make you realise that big change is not just possible, it’s inevitable, because right across society the elite that runs our world is being exposed daily as a corrupt and incompetent failure.

    Sevco 5088 Ltd being forced to start their existence in Scotland’s lowest league is one of these events, and the sweeping grassroots network that made this happen is one of these movements. Only a few months ago this was completely unthinkable, and only a few days ago it seemed like efforts to parachute this new entity into the First Division – the next tier down from the Scottish Premier League – by Neil Doncaster, the now utterly discredited SPL chief executive, would succeed. Sporting integrity, or integrity of any kind, would, it seemed, be crushed under the weight of corporate expectation, a conflation of embedded sports and business journalists and the staggering sense of entitlement of Rangers and their allies in the governing bodies.

    Instead, incredibly, we’ve just seen the transformation of Scottish football, realised almost entirely through Twitter and key websites that have proliferated as the story has dominated every media outlet for over a year: the award-winning Rangers Tax Case, fans site Pie and Bovril, rebel journalist Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, Wings Over Scotland, Scotzine and Paul McConville to name a few. These sites give us hope that what may follow is not just a renaissance in Scottish football but in Scottish media. A core part of this saga has been the failure of the sports and business media with allegations of laziness, partiality and just a complete lack of any critical faculties.

    Whatever you think of the rights and wrongs of Rangers, the fact is that the SPL chairmen would have quite happily connived to drop the newco into the top flight. Without the resistance of a network of ordinary fans unconvinced by the governing bodies’ (or the mainstream media’s) account of things, the money men’s perpetual short-termism would have prevailed. Faced with (unsubstantiated) apocalyptic scenarios, ordinary fans put huge pressure on their own clubs in advance of the vote at Hampden this week, withholding their season tickets.

    The collapse of Rangers and the shock it’s put through the entire Scottish game has wider consequences. The allegations of widespread tax evasion and the brutal gangster behaviour of football executives has exposed an entire class of feral businessmen.

    But this is about more than exposing bad business. The model of endless growth has been challenged. The consequences of consigning Sevco Scotland to start where any new club would start may well mean drastic cuts in Scottish football. Some clubs may have to close or downsize. This is no bad thing. We know we have too many clubs in this country. Endlessly chasing an utterly unsustainable model is failed economics.

    This has been a profound failure of governance, not just among the series of dodgy geezers who lined up to fleece Rangers fans for decades, but the entire edifice of Scottish football, especially the leadership of Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster. The reality is that the SPL, founded in 1998, has failed by any metric you can choose: attendances, club success in Europe, entertainment value, national team success. Incredibly, since the SPL began, five of its member clubs have entered administration. The newly leaked email from the SFA’s Stewart Regan marks him out as a clueless fixer, who’s failed at every effort to collude with Rangers. BBC Scotland reported yesterday that a vote of no confidence in Regan was proposed and seconded at last Friday’s Scottish Football League meeting.

    By having the courage to break from the old failed model, the SFL clubs have done the whole of Scottish football a huge favour. There won’t be any “social unrest”, there will be renewed enthusiasm. More people in Scotland per head of population watch their domestic top-level league than any other European nation. Let’s rebuild, let’s transform Scottish football. Let’s learn the wider lessons not just about the failed corporate economies but the lively powerful networks that can offer an alternative.


  35. HighlanderFebruary 6, 2017 at 07:28

    The writer, Mike Small, got just about everything right in that article, except for the optimism that sporting integrity had been saved. I do wonder, though, what the writer would write now if commissioned to do a short history of Scottish football since 2012!

    Would he write how his optimism has been dashed by the continuation of the myth and all that surrounds it, and be justifiably angry at the men who allowed integrity to be lost?

    Or! Would he give an explanation of how he, and everyone else, got it wrong in the aftermath of the failed CVA, and that the SFA, the SPL and the media just needed to take the word of a lying spiv to learn why a club called Rangers could never die?

    Or! Would he just write it as though he’d never written that fine article in the first place and be as complicit as all the rest?

    I have to wonder how a journalist, for that article was clearly written by someone deserving of that title, could write such a scathing summation of the SFA and SPL and, in particular, Regan and Doncaster, and yet be so silent over the Resolution 12 issue! That must have seemed like manna from heaven to a journalist who could write, just a few years earlier, of the saving of sporting integrity, as this was a signal that something much worse than the loss of any sort of integrity had taken place! If he genuinely believed, as this article suggests, that Regan, along with Doncaster, should have been chased from Scottish football, here was the perfect opportunity to make that happen!

    I can only assume that Mike Small has retired, or else has allowed his own journalistic integrity to fall beside the sporting integrity of Scottish football! Shame.


  36. Seems to at least that the reverse of an old joke happened in Manchester at the weekend. The keeper saved and Jesus scored from the rebound.


  37. Nice one ex ludo!!
    On fitba and wealth I see a wee puff piece in the DR this morning (they manage to get TRFC a mention!) about Real Madrid pushing through the elite Euro carve up.  I guess this has to go down as “why should RM share their hard earned dosh with anyone else”.  To be fair they have another 20 or so clubs in mind.  I’m sure it will be great for them but I suspect the viewing public will tire of it in the long run:  it would be good if “the rest” were to take the initiative here instead of adopting the position.


  38. Today’s ‘Column Of Keith’ in the online DR is a gem.

    For example, in regard to last season semi-final victory over CFC: “In that one afternoon, Warburton managed to raise the expectations of his own board and supporters to levels way beyond the bounds of reality.”

    That was in no way assisted by the SMSM, was it Keith? You (and your ilk) are just as responsible as Green, Whyte, Somers, Wattie, SuperAlly, Warburton et alia. You just don’t get it. 

    A wee song from 1966 for eveyone:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AglW6QpmPp8


  39. ALLYJAMBOFEBRUARY 6, 2017 at 09:58 The writer, Mike Small, got just about everything right in that article, except for the optimism that sporting integrity had been saved. I do wonder, though, what the writer would write now if commissioned to do a short history of Scottish football since 2012!
    Would he write how his optimism has been dashed by the continuation of the myth and all that surrounds it, and be justifiably angry at the men who allowed integrity to be lost?
    Or! Would he give an explanation of how he, and everyone else, got it wrong in the aftermath of the failed CVA, and that the SFA, the SPL and the media just needed to take the word of a lying spiv to learn why a club called Rangers could never die?
    Or! Would he just write it as though he’d never written that fine article in the first place and be as complicit as all the rest?
    I have to wonder how a journalist, for that article was clearly written by someone deserving of that title, could write such a scathing summation of the SFA and SPL and, in particular, Regan and Doncaster, and yet be so silent over the Resolution 12 issue! That must have seemed like manna from heaven to a journalist who could write, just a few years earlier, of the saving of sporting integrity, as this was a signal that something much worse than the loss of any sort of integrity had taken place! If he genuinely believed, as this article suggests, that Regan, along with Doncaster, should have been chased from Scottish football, here was the perfect opportunity to make that happen!
    I can only assume that Mike Small has retired, or else has allowed his own journalistic integrity to fall beside the sporting integrity of Scottish football! Shame.

    Looks like it was a minor detour into matters football AJ. See link for la list of Guardian articles. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mikesmall


  40. Completely off topic, and perhaps not really suitable for this blog, but I felt I really want to share this here. Basically it is an essay by Ron Rosenbaum, an eminent, as far as I am aware, authority on Adolph Hitler’s rise to power. He has been asked, a number of times, to compare Hitler’s rise with that of Donald Trump, and only now can see the true comparison. But it’s not for Trump’s rise that I draw this to your attention, but as an example of how seemingly quite ignorant, apparently unintelligent people can, through ruthlessness and lies, sell a great, destructive lie.

    Many people on internet blogs compared certain aspects of our saga to Hitler and Naziism, but that comparison was, rightfully, discouraged as trivialising the horrors of the Nazis, and, in particular, the Holocaust. I am not suggesting that anyone should read this as a tool to compare anything, or anyone, involved in the ‘Rangers Saga’ with Hitler or Naziism, but merely as an example of how people can come to power by hoodwinking the public, and how the lies they use can be ignored and ‘normalized’ once they are in power.

    I leave it to the reader to decide whether or not Ron Rosenbaum is right in what he says about Trump and Hitler, and he is mainly comparing tactics rather than character, and warn that it has left me feeling rather more depressed about the world than I was before reading.

    On it’s value to this blog, I do find the last sentence to be most pertinent, and, again referring only to what we seek, it’s most depressing words, for they are his only hope for the truth to triumph. I am sure you will, without reading Rosenbaum’s essay, understand what I mean when I say it was;

    ‘Support your local journalist.’

    Please read, though I can assure you, you will not enjoy;

    https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/normalization-lesson-munich-post/


  41. bluFebruary 6, 2017 at 11:26

    Thanks for the update, Blu, it does explain the journalistic quality to the piece. It doesn’t, though, excuse his apparent reluctance to pursue the issue, and subsequent issues, to it’s logical conclusion! I can only assume he was asked by his editor to do a proper journalistic review of what had happened, and has not been asked to, or has been discouraged from, follow it up in a true journalistic manner.

    The link in my last post shows how only one voice, or newspaper (the Munich Post), is not enough to stop the big lies becoming the ‘normalized’ truth! It is, in my opinion, only the continued efforts of online blogs like this, whether we bring ‘exclusive’ news and leaks or just continue to analyse current and old information, that prevents the ‘normalization’ of lies such as the ‘Continuation myth’! 


  42. bluFebruary 6, 2017 at 11:26
    AJ @ 11.26

    Even if the writer wanted to revisit it, not from the perspective of the rights and (several) wrongs of the case but instead ask the question “What are the consequences of this new ethereal landscape?”  There are three fairly obvious starting points. 

    Firstly the view of the financier whereby one might explore how an investor would now view a football investment as opposed to previously when he thought he was nicely involved in immovable bricks and mortar (Mackenzie’s club) not imaginary franchise thingies (Mackenzie’s Club). 

    Secondly, you would question how opposition clubs (or is that Clubs 07) would view the situation.  The downside risk of excessive leveraging appears to have been removed.  Forget Chick Young spouting forth about returns from Abysses, extinction and killing stuff.  Now we have a cloudy thing that, apart from staying onside with their other Club chums to get the entry level vote they’d require*, they can now view a minimum of three years in the lower divisions as the maximum downside risk.  If you took someone like Gretna of Livingston who started from that point that wouldn’t seem like the worst gamble in the world.

    Thirdly, you would have to consider the fans.  Big isn’t always beautiful but apparently it does now buy immortality.  I can tell you from experience it was hard enough before to sell the diddy game to kids of 6 or 7, kids who incidentally mockingly laughed in my face as I explained in simple terms Bryson’s money doesn’t buy sporting advantage theory. 

    The Author won’t win the right or wrong argument but he could relatively easily write a piece on the implications of it, if he wanted to. 


  43. ALLYJAMBOFEBRUARY 6, 2017 at 12:05
    SMUGASFEBRUARY 6, 2017 at 12:39
    I fully accept the points you both make but can’t speak for the writer. Freelance for the Guardian – they decide what goes in the paper (David Conn hardly looked at the story). Bella Caledonia has a different, and dare I say it, bigger agenda.  


  44. With Chris Jack piling the blame for TRFC’s problems squarely on Warburton’s shoulders, and continuing to push the idea that there is money available, but not to an incompetent manager, and even letting us know that it was Warburton who wanted Joey Barton and was ‘backed’ by the board, Keith Jackson joins in the ‘Warbo must go’ Monday morning Level5 push with the following:

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/sport/mark-warburton-been-wounded-one-9763040#ICID=sharebar_twitter

    And what to make of this from Jackson’s spread?

    ‘It was almost as if, having restored order behind the scenes at the club, some of the inflated egos inside that boardroom believed they were more deserving of the adulation and respect which Warburton was being afforded by the club’s supporters.
    And especially so when they felt strong armed into doubling his wages later that summer, in the knowledge they might be hounded out of office had they refused.
    The truth of the matter is King was forced into fulfilling a promise he made to his manager and he did so through tightly gritted teeth. But it meant that Warburton and his bosses were on uneasy terms before a ball had even been kicked in this season’s top-flight campaign.’

    See that Warburton, expecting good men like Dave King to fulfil promises! What next, refusing to give up on a lucrative contract without compensation, even if confronted with the evidence that TRFC really, really can’t afford to honour it?

    Perhaps Warburton should go, before he loses his ‘legend’ status at Ibrox!

    It may be worth noting, though, that Jackson’s puff piece, while continuing with the downgrading of the manager, doesn’t completely exonerate King and the board, but the words he uses are sufficiently soft to be missed by all but the most enquiring bear. For it is at the bears, and the bears alone, that these pieces are aimed.


  45. Slightly surprised by the ‘Rangers have money, but don’t trust Warburton with it’ stories in the press recently. Have the people peddling them (i.e. Ralston) actually think through what they’re being asked to print, and what it implies?

    So, just to be clear, Rangers don’t trust their manager, but won’t sack him, despite, apparently, there being money available to sack him, because, well, y’know, just because. 14

    However, as a Clyde fan, I’d be delighted if Barry Ferguson was appointed in his place, as is being mooted on several Rangers message boards.  A) We’d receive money to buy out his contract and B) We’d then be able to approach the likes of Alan Moore, or even Darren Young – someone who actually knows what it’s about at our level.
    Rangers could then once again look forward to the likes of Marvellous Marvin’ pairing up with Clint Hill in their defence.


  46. bluFebruary 6, 2017 at 11:26
    ‘…Looks like it was a minor detour into matters football AJ. See link for la list of Guardian articles. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/mikesmall…’
    _____________
    Maybe a detour, blu, but by no means ‘minor’.
    It was a brilliantly simple  piece of factual reportage that the SMSM  as a whole ought to have been capable of, and indeed had a duty to emulate.
    No matter how ‘facts’ are used , they remain facts.
    It was no ‘nationalist propaganda’ that killed RFC, but the worst type of exploiter of the ‘ Union Flag’ in his frankly disgusting cheating of Scottish Football.
    Small did what every honest ‘journalist’ should do. State the facts, first, and then, perhaps, go on to give his/her ‘interpretation’ of the facts.
    As has been frequently noted on this blog, ‘facts are chiels that…etc etc.’
    There is simply no getting away from the legal, commercial and sporting  fact that the RFC of our fathers and grandfathers, greatgrandfathers, simply are no more as a member of Scottish Football! And it doesn’t matter a damn if 500 000 000  people world-wide choose not to accept that fact!
    Reference has in previous posts   been made to Galileo Galilei whose ‘eppure si muove’  may be loosely translated as ‘ it doesn’t matter a bugger if everybody on earth thinks the sun goes round the earth; it is still the earth that moves round the sun!
    And all the Regans and Doncasters and Dave Kings and BBC Radio chiefs and Radar Jacksons and ( God, how tedious to list them all..) deniers of that fact cannot, with all their denial, change the fact!


  47. AllyjamboFebruary 6, 2017 at 11:48
    “…….an example of how people can come to power by hoodwinking the public, and how the lies they use can be ignored and ‘normalized’ once they are in power.”
    ___________
    Possibly the supreme example of ‘hoodwinking’ a ( too ready to BE hoodwinked public!) was the farcical absurdity of the wee black-haired smout of a runt like Adolph getting the herrenvolk to subscribe to the ‘Aryan blonde, blue-eyed , racially ‘pure’ Germanic ideal! He was absolutely the very opposite-and nobody noticed!

    And that  they should listen  to men who preached ‘eugenics’ who were themselves less than physically perfect specimens of humanity, like the club-footed Goebbels, or the insane Hess, and the whole lot of dirty, evil bast.ards who variously made up the Third Reich’s ‘1000 years’ elite.

    Gott strafe their unhallowed memory!

    And, similarly, Gott strafe our lying, deceitful SMSM and , double strafe our rotten deceitful Football Governance people who created the Big Lie of Scottish Football.

    Which, like the herrenvolk of the 1920s and 30s, our general public are only too ready to swallow because ‘it’s what the papers say!’

    How many radars had the German press?
    better question: how many journalists in the German press were NOT radars?
    and in relation to the Scottish Press, what answer would we truthfully get in response to the same question?


  48. Interesting how the political world is throwing up all sorts of insightful articles on how to convince (i.e. Lie) to people. 
    Nick Cohen did it yesterday. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/donald-trump-lies-belief-totalitarianism
    “Compulsive liars shouldn’t frighten you. They can harm no one, if no one listens to them. Compulsive believers, on the other hand: they should terrify you”  
    could have been written with Scottish football in mind


  49. A bit of a dilemma for the Ibrox board, What do we do about Warburton & Weir?  It’s now patently obvious that Warburton has lost the support of the fans.  Article after article on New Now confirm this.  Even the SMSM are asking the question now!

    But the thing is he is contracted to the summer of 2019.  So even if they allow him to stay until the end of the season, it’s going to cost them a pretty penny to sack him/them.  And rumours abound that he is still owed £500k bonus for his accomplishments last season.

    Of course they will need a replacement.  McInnes or Wright would seem obvious fan choices, but again both these managers are tied to their current clubs until 2019.  So a fair bit of compensation required there. I don’t think Barry Ferguson would be serious contender.

    The problem is the sale of season tickets for next season.  Someone mentioned today there could be a drop in the region of 10k if there is not a change in the management team.  Maybe that would alter if they win the Scottish Cup. But I don’t t think if they qualify for the Europa – and are allowed to compete in it – that will change the minds of the fans.  They don’t trust him domestically so why would they want him leading the way in Europe, where he has no experience.

    What to do, what to do!

    (Oh for a war chest!)


  50. John ClarkFebruary 6, 2017 at 14:53
    ______________________________________________________
    Hi JC, off topic, forgive me, but you maybe forgot to mention Winston Churchill as a Eugenicist and all round b*****d.


  51. ALLYJAMBOFEBRUARY 6, 2017 at 13:30   
    With Chris Jack piling the blame for TRFC’s problems squarely on Warburton’s shoulders, and continuing to push the idea that there is money available, but not to an incompetent manager, and even letting us know that it was Warburton who wanted Joey Barton and was ‘backed’ by the board, Keith Jackson joins in the ‘Warbo must go’ Monday morning Level5 push with the following:

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

    You did mean to say ‘push’ there AJ? Just checking it’s not a typo! 22

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