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Everyone on this site has football experiences, views, stories and opinions. Everyone also wants things to be better in the future too. These are bonds that make us who we are and this forum what it is.
I’ll share a few experiences with you now.
I will never forget an impromptu and inspirational 60 minute Q. and A. masterclass by Davie MacParland to a group of relative youngsters at Hampden in 1975 after Scottish Unis had played a friendly with his team.
It was “over the moon Brian” time for me on finding a £5 note in my shoe. This was after I played my first game (unexpectedly) as an S form in the Highland League when my club’s Aberdeen-based players had been held up by a road incident.
So happy and corrupted was I that I never questioned the widespread practice of giving money to amateur players thereafter so I’m part of the problem.
I also sat next to a young Jim Leyton who came to Butchart to watch himself on a match video after he had let in two goals when we dumped Deveronvale (where he was on loan) out of the Aberdeenshire Cup. It was the very early days of video and Jim had never seen himself on a tv before.
Every person in the SFM community will have equally diverse and interesting experiences and I’m going to share one more with you now in a little more detail.
In the mid 90s I was given an amazing insight into how Scottish football really worked. In many ways it hasn’t changed much since.
Back then I was part of a small group brought in to help find funding for the upgrade of Tynecastle with the urgent need to construct three new stands. At the time it was a massive requirement for a very financially challenged organisation and at a push there were potentially just about enough pots of monies available from several sources to trigger the investment from the Football Trust and squeak over the line.
The most critical pot was mobilising the fans.
My role was to find a way of getting them to come aboard working with some fine lifetime Hearts fans like the late Alex Kitson so it would all look like a Hearts Community rather than a Mercer initiative.
The then, colourful Hearts majority owner was under constant pressure on other fronts at the time.
The team was not really performing with relatively new manager Jim Jeffries trying to get best out of predecessor Tommy Mclean’s mixed bag of old pros and kids. Making things worse was a growing, highly critical and very vocal consortium of local business people trying to get Mercer out (and themselves in).
I guess you could say in today’s parlance that they were RHM and civil war was very much happening down Gorgie way.
Anyway I can’t now recall all the detail and apologies if my memories have fused a little but a key AGM type meeting for Hearts shareholders at Ingliston was coming up and there was an agenda that looked like it might hurt “The Chairman” as Wallace liked to be called.
Never any flies on him though, he had seen the danger signs and was ready in his own way.
He turned up with his trusted few and simply yet quite brilliantly hijacked the negative agenda and ignored the real issues. He didn’t have a solution for them and couldn’t implement the changes that were in reality needed but quite simply he kicked all the trouble into the long grass.
He did this because he fundamentally understood that most shareholders in the room were just ordinary football fans and wanted nothing more than to be able to talk about football the game, Hearts their club, who they were due to play next and who would be playing.
It was that simple.
Mercer’s message to all that night was “Yes things have been tough but our best possible future is with me”.
He rammed this home by confidently telling the assembled body that Hearts were on the up because we had a new manager who needed time and then blew everyone away by announcing he just signed three amazing new players for them, Giles Rousset, Bruno Pasquale and Hans Eskilsson. After the applause and mayhem died down he had won.
Bruno and Rousset were newsworthy in any Scottish football context one being a French International and the other an ex Juventus tough guy with a EUFA and a couple of Coppa Italia winners medals.
Oh and Eskilsson had amazing hair.
Mercer’s simple bit of insight, showmanship, brinksmanship, call it what you like, led to the survival of his regime.
In a parallel maybe to what the SFA did after their meeting with Craig at the Hotel Du Vin in Glasgow, Mercer had enough time to be ready for the trouble he knew was coming and used his power to ignore the real issues and the detail and move on with a big gamble.
Looking back Wallace got a lot right .
He understood what the majority of ordinary football fans wanted. He’d also learnt that good press was needed and came from feeding the football writers enough tasty exclusives so they’d look after him in a symbiotic relationship, the kind of relationship that remains much the same today.
Even back then in the days when there were less full-colour pages pre-allocated to certain teams to fill and more able journalists to fill them, the sports pages were about game reports and gossip rather than insight.
The packs of hacks all craved being handed tasty semi-exclusive stories.
It was and ever is thus and in those days the Daily Record was a wee gem with circulation nearer 700K than the 200K-ish today and amazingly all its costs were covered by it’s advertising revenue alone. The proud boast of Endell Laird was the purchase price was pure profit.
With hindsight Wallace may only have postponed the inevitable campaign by the RHM rebels that night at Ingliston. History tells us that the Robinson/Deans rebellion eventually forced their chance. They did have to dig much deeper financially than they ever wanted when their time eventually came, and soon fell out too, but that’s another story.
Wallace’s long grass was just never going to be deep enough to hide the issues he wanted to ignore but to his credit on his watch the stadium was upgraded and the first Scottish Cup since 1956 was paraded to the fans.
Mr. Mercer was an operator who like others before and since could see personal and business value in owning a club.
He cultivated friendly football writers.
He learned that the SFA could be difficult to deal with but much less so when you placed people on their various management boards. That was key to the inner power sanctums and brought you at best influence and at worst early warnings.
He may have been autocratic but knew you needed powerful friends at other clubs too and was always close with David Murray in particular.
So what has this little piece of retrospection and a handful of Finloch football stories got to do with a blog on SFM?
Last week I met Big Pink for the first time over a few coffees.
It was like meeting an old friend in the pub because of all the stuff we’ve lived through and shared over the last 5 or so years.
We talked about stuff and traded stories and opinions on life, football and about SFM what it does and what we are.
We got on to the subject of it’s future and with my business background he asked me to consider a piece for the blog about where the SFM, our fledgling business might go from here.
I maybe agreed too hastily because I have found it challenging to gather and spell out my thoughts.
So this is very much a starting couple of steps to bring in the SFM minds and set up future discussions following this blog and when we meet in Perth in April.
My starting point was to first consider what we are today.
It’s a personal view but to me SFM is a valued medium I come to most days. It’s for when I want to find out or to discuss what is happening.
It is populated with a bunch of people with different backgrounds, skills and insights, is always polite and often very funny.
I’d actually like to see more headline blogs because I enjoy them but our biggest value will always be analysis discussion and good humour.
SFM is fundamentally different to the MSM back pages that still offer us all a mono diet of whatever day-to-day gossip they have been spoon-fed by the Level 9’s of this world or made up and maybe embellished with a random phone call for a quote.
Yes their world is declining and will inevitably see fundamental restructure and change but that change has in reality nothing to do with how they cover and will continue to cover Scottish football.
I’d even posit (to use a wee word I’ve learned from the excellent JJ site I visit sometimes) that the red tops currently see their style of football coverage as a way of slowing their inevitable declines because it delivers the difficult to reach male audience their advertisers crave access to.
As a spectator I’d say the MSM in Scotland mostly seem to suffer from a polarised demographic focus/ bias too but that can never excuse their revisionism or the Spiers and Haggerty episodes we’ve just witnessed.
There is one benefit though. One you maybe hadn’t thought about from all the dreadful MSM football reportage.
The stuff they collectively generate enables all of us to have daily conversations with friends and strangers without actually saying anything about anything.
It gives us our daily top-up for the international language of football minutiae we all converse in every day.
I’ve been able to speak it fluently since I was in my teens. You know the kind of thing – the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the comings and goings and the toings and froings.
The good news, the bad news the made-up news – its all part of being involved with a team or indeed just being a football fan and it’s all conversation for the males of our species.
There are plenty of places I can and do get access to that kind of stuff but SFM isn’t and never has been a source.
I quickly found out that most of my pals don’t want to talk about side letters in the pub on a Friday, or the need for asterisked titles because they are more interested in tomorrow’s match and who will be out of contract at the end of the season.
Without being disrespectful in any way I think they are cut from the same wood as the majority of Mr. Mercer’s Hearts shareholders and if I’m honest part of me is too.
That has given our administrators and clubs too easy a ride.
Beyond the gossip it is fair to say in the last 40 or 50 years football has changed beyond all recognition.
It has become a source of power and money and as we know proverbially and in real life power can corrupt and money can be the root of all-evil.
The stuff happening at FIFA now can be no surprise to any fair-minded fan and I’d be inclined to think that there have been finagled decisions at the top for longer than the current stewardship of Mr. Blatter.
Way longer.
Football-land is a dirty world. A world where all the transparency is for show and real stuff has always been controlled and rewarding for those in the right places.
Closer to home football in Scotland is no different. Power and money have been the origins of our own North of the Border soap opera saga.
Its sometimes been very funny, often been entertaining too but is ultimately tragic and a sad indictment on our country.
Being Scotland nothing is ever as simple as it should be.
We started from a unique kind of place where for over a century we have had to live with an unhealthy, quasi-tribal, two-club duopolistic domination of all things football including the fans, the trophies, the money, the media attention and the administrators controlling our game.
The stark reality of 2016 is our biggest club/economy now finds its real ambitions thwarted, potentially forever, by its location in our restrictive league structure. It has nowhere currently to go and annoyingly the biggest league in the world is just over the border and part of the same country in political terms.
This is a destabilising influence on our game that won’t go away until change allows the next evolution.
Our second biggest economy as we now know had to cheat a little to keep up, post Fergus, and is now making its way back to the top end but with some truly nuclear baggage that I guess we still really only know the half of. Nothing will be simple in its return to what we’re told everyday is its rightful place. It too is a latent destabilising influence awaiting like a grumbling volcano.
What depresses me is the fact that the much-vaunted return of our dysfunctional duopoly is not a formula to recreate the European success we all took for granted for so long. Those days will never return.
The decline of the Scottish giant that was and is Rangers has dominated our thoughts because it encapsulates so much more than what is wrong with our game.
It is a huge business and establishment fall from grace. A shocking story that has become an elephant in the room to our politicians, our media and many of our fellow fans and is still playing out to deafening silence in some quarters.
In the manic run up to the decline of David Murray’s club we benefitted from insights from the seminal RTC and were bombarded with mass denials from almost everywhere else.
We witnessed the £1 sale to Craig Whyte, the subsequent McCoist European failure, the eventual slide into messy liquidation with tax issues etc.
Our administrators failed us all the way through because they had a different agenda.
Our MSM didn’t want to know partly because it involved more than regurgitating press releases and partly because it was real news for real reporters and not back pages gossip.
Their editors failed us there too, big time.
Now the revisionism and invention of the post-liquidation ephemeral club and company scenarios has been creative to say the least.
I remember Mr. Traynor’s initial headline and smile how he and others are now wading in a contradictory swamp of their own making. It’s all confusion when it needn’t be.
I only know the kind of stuff that really happened because of this site and its RTC predecessor.
Four or five years on and I think these guys (SFA, SPFL) acted like Wallace Mercer did at Ingliston and ran roughshod over process to “win”.
These well paid admin staff were never off-piste though and our clubs share complicity for their actions to varying degrees.
If I was Regan’s or Doncaster’s devil’s advocate I could just about comprehend that they acted because they feared for their TV revenues. The prospect of being without half of their duopoly ace card and the blue fans scared them and they were mandated by the clubs to maintain the status quo.
I don’t mean all the clubs but if we look at the key committee structures we’ll easily see who were in that inner sanctum at the time. They collectively decided to throw their rulebook out the window and there is no grass long enough to bury their collective actions because truth always outs.
Cast yourself back a few years not long before the St Valentine’s day 2012 news when the push was all for a 10 club league.
I remember Stewart Milne aggressively trying to sell us all a 10-club league because of the TV revenue it delivered (to the few).
At that time there seemed to be a collective “TV Gold Fever” prevailing in the cabal of top club chairmen that makes the real decisions and tells our administrators what to do.
Luckily they failed.
They nearly failed again too in 2012 with their tawdry 5 way agreement and we all owe a debt of gratitude to the late Turnbull Hutton whose personal integrity, bloody-mindedness and leadership meant a significant change to the premeditated 5 way plan that our top clubs had all signed off.
Since then we’ve all suffered from Armageddon and long may it stay.
SFM has been at the forefront of the last five years. A place where fans from all the clubs come together to question, analyse, give insight, balance, consciousness on all aspects of the meandering road that has been this story so far.
It’s all recorded on our archives somewhere too. We’ve noted and discussed the following and more –
- Two different signatures from the same club on the 5-way agreement
- Two different and concurrent memberships of the SFA
- Players TUPE-ing for free and no lawyers getting rich in trying to get them back
- Pre-season games being cancelled because of registration and insurance issues
- The Brechin game coming too soon for the paperwork
- The entry-round in The Ramsdens Cup for the old club or is it the new club?
- Record crowds, an even more aggressive songbook
- Ian Black getting a surprise call-up and a bit of a game to legitimise The New Rangers with their first cap
- Millions raised from a gullible city and desperate fans but still several last gasp saves needed to avoid new financial stramashes
- A charity that pays for holidays in America
- Quasi-legal stuff with dodgy parameters for questionable enquiries like Nimmo Smith
- Bryson and his logic that Spartans could and should have used to stay in the cup
- A “Hopelessly Conflicted Chairman” re-elected and a new one who has fitted in seamlessly
- Real legal stuff like HMRC appeals, and phrases like side-letters
- Charlotte Fakes and maybe even Fake Charlotte Fakes
- Fit and proper persons running our clubs
- Recorded conversations
- Onerous contracts
- Metaphysical concepts of what football clubs in our courts with big bucks being spent on our behalf by our administrators
There is and has been a whole lot more and more to come on the schedules too.
How much of this would I have found on our MSM?
Very little – so thanks to those who go the extra mile for us including John Clark, EasyJambo and others at the courts, Phil who will never go away, James Doleman and others too including JJ – all playing blinders where the hacks don’t dare.
Finally fast-forward to today.
Most Scottish fans probably know a little about the stuff I’ve touched upon and we’ve debated in depth. Not enough though.
But we have Darryl Broadfoot who is the SFA so we can all sleep rest assured each night.
Going forward we must address how we communicate as a medium to spread the word.
Ask yourself – Is what we do more important than knowing Rangers signed Dean Windass’s son from Accrington Stanley on a free because he’s going to play for England one day and stuff like that?
I’d say it is different although both have a place.
Our challenge is to create more impact with ours.
In finishing I have one serious starting proposal to make as a community but first a thank you.
Thank you to all the blog writers and posters because we have collectively created a site where real stuff can be dissected and discussed politely and in a non-partisan way.
Well done to the mods in particular and to our community In general
My simple proposal as our first step forward is to start a Wikipedia style library of the facts and keep it on our site.
Dates, happenings, people and all the stuff that will not allow any of it to stay buried forever in the long grass. The kind of detail that is in Auldheid’s amazing and resolute Resolution 12.
Chapter and verse whys and wherefores with dates and names.
This will achieve three things.
- It will create bedrock for us as a trusted media channel whatever we decide to become.
- It will put stuff factually into the public domain forever.
- It will contradict any highly paid revisionists trying to change what really happened for their own agendas into the future.
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Mr Regan
I’m proud to be one of John Clark’s people.
Like John I’m also not particularly anonymous as a person and lots of my pals call me Andy.
I’ve played football at a good level coached kids teams and still work behind the scenes occasionally for an aspirant East Coast diddy club for whom I buy an annual season ticket.
For what it’s worth I wouldn’t be upset if Celtic and Rangers get beat every Saturday and would quite enjoy it if truth were told.
I also know a little more than most Scottish fans about the events in the run up to and during 2011, 2012 and since because of sites like this.
None of it paints you or your committees and our leading clubs in a particularly good light.
In fact many of your actions are contradictory to a lot of what I fundamentally think is important in sport and life .
Bit by bit all the facts are leeching out and will be pieced together by ordinary supporters like us and sites like this.
To fans like John Clark and me Scottish Football is not a well paid job with a plush office at Hampden, first class perks and a PA to write up my notes when I’m rushing to another important meeting.
Its a simple game and we as stakeholders want it managed fairly and honestly.
You’re not doing that for us because while I trust everything John Clark says I can’t say the same about your own particular output or anything that emanates from your self satisfying and or self important committees.
I think we all owe our thanks to John for his courage. Not an easy thing to go to an event like this and risk being alienated by the audience – and his courage is in stark contrast to that of Regan when he was confronted by a request for the truth- a request which harshly ejected him from the comfort zone of his slick PowerPoint Presentation.
The West of Scotland thing, the Rangers/Celtic thing, and the ‘people who don’t use their own names’ thing; these are all variations of an ad hominem attack designed to deflect the argument.
That tactic highlights the weakness of people like Regan whose sense of self entitlement (entitlement not to be held account for his actions) is staggering. The fact that he made a complete bahookie of the answers may invite similar ad hominem attacks on him. Frankly that is unnecessary.
His answer to John betrayed how little he understood the actual question. That in itself is ridiculous, but his subsequent claim that he would do nothing even if presented with incontrovertible proof that his organisation had participated in a fraud shows just how much he seems to be out of his depth – and is the soundbite of the year so far.
This from a guy who moments earlier had been lecturing an academic audience on the governance problems at UEFA and FIFA.
Hats off to JC, and indeed all those that take a pro-active part in this sorry saga. My own part hasn’t been much – firing off letters and emails to my own club mostly, one or two to Hampden. Not much in the big picture, but hoping that ‘every little helps’ as it were.
I often think though that what is needed is something more visible, more vocal, more amenable for those that turns up week-in-week-out to the game hoping to be entertained to become part of the revolution comrades! While they may be angry at the ineffectual/downright damaging SFA many/most just don’t have the time, energy or willingness to have to waste his or her time composing messages to the unworthy reprobates involved in this scandalous affair.
What we need is to put it simply is a catchy ditty. “Peter-Pawlett-Baby” made national news, put a record in the charts – I’m sure there have been others but I can’t recall right enough. I’m no songwriter, it doesn’t need to be overworked, something simple, catchy and succinct (and preferably clean!) that the combined masses could let rip at Regan and his cohorts. The use of an old record may help in that it may help catch the interest of national papers – even while they might not understand initial why its being sung.
I would suggest that somewhere other than Pittodrie might be a good place to start things off – the old girl not known for its raucousness. Anyway, just a thought, maybe a daft one, but a though none the less!
Yes bp, it was the ‘nothing’ reply that was the most significant. Earlier this morning I was annoyed by the Celtic/ Rangers innuendo, the bampots innuendo. But as the day goes on, it’s the ‘Nothing’ reply that is important.
“His answer to John betrayed how little he understood the actual question. That in itself is ridiculous, but his subsequent claim that he would do nothing even if presented with incontrovertible proof that his organisation had participated in a fraud shows just how much he seems to be out of his depth – and is the soundbite of the year so far.”
He (they) would do nothing! Really. Who else does this cabal include? Why are clubs so silent?
the only thing these people understand is money,pull the money you get some sort of change without doing that they will stay at hampden forever,you can have 5000 posts on this topic but it wont make a difference,5000 people at a semi final with the world waiting on an “old firm” game will have better effect,just my opinion though
Welcome Mary Kate great to see you on here at last
Brilliant stuff JC, chapeau. Been working all day so I’m a bit late to the table
I wonder how much protection Mr Regan would have needed had he answered “nothing” to the question.
“if I were to provide incontrovertible evidence that Club X had cheated RFC out of an UEFA place in 2011 what would you do?”
Of course that would be the most hypothetical of hypothetical because we all know that it would never have been allowed to happen with any other team.
I have often said that the petition and letters was never going to be the most effective way to tackle this but it does highlight the difficulty faced by any of the effective actions. That is “What support would effective action receive from the ordinary fan.”
For instance, One of the simplest, cheapest(free) and safest would be a “Turn Your Back on the SFA” protest. I would suggest
that at the 20 minute and 11 minute (2011) point in the match those on the terraces stand, turn their backs to the pitch and slow hand clap for a minute. The problem is though that you would very quickly find that it would be a minority that would actually do it. The majority of fans do not have the attention span to understand the full facts of the matter. Reading JC’s report on confronting Regan would be abandoned after the first or second paragraph. They would turn to the more gratifying job of posting that their opposition fans are not true fans because there were empty seats in their stadium.
I wish that it were not true but unfortunately it is.
Of course we could always tell them that they would actually be doing it in respect for we Jimmy’s recently deceased hamster. That would get them to act.
Sorry, but I am in a cynical mood today.
REIVER
they wouldnt care about the handclap mate,dont buy a ticket,then they would notice as this is to them the biggest game in the calendar
This is what enthralls and irritates me so much about this forum.
On the one hand, one of our number – Well done JC – forces from the deceivers a very damaging statement i.e. if you had genuine proof of wrongdoing by one of our members we would do nothing about it.
On the other hand, it appears that, having got that admission from Regan, we can do nothing about it?
That is genuine proof that Regan (perhaps the whole SFA) is not doing the job he is supposed to do, so how come there is no method of forcing any action from it?
Even if we all write the SFA, experience suggests they’ll ignore us and try to tough it out. If we all write to or call the newspapers/radio, experience suggests we won’t be published or allowed on air.
So fed up with this!
Tony.
My point isn’t about what we need to do it is about how alone we would be doing it.
We need to find a way to engage those who don’t care. They don’t care if there is a risk that what they are watching is fixed.
Afterall, people pay money to watch professional(????) wrestling.
All that many of the fans are interested in is “belonging”. It doesn’t really matter what is going on in front of them.
Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.
Tony
T’other thing is that you have less control over whether people will boycott that you do over an action inside the ground. At least some will join in just to be part of it. If they don’t go to a match then very few people will know of their actions. If a boycott is arranged then a alternative venue must be set up for the absentees to congregate at. That way they will get kudos(in their own heads) for having “been there”.
That probably doesn’t make sense but it is being typed as it rolls of my head.
I lasted 10 minutes of Sportsound tonight and that was enough. Yet another round of Ronny Deila bashing. Richard Wilson justified it by saying they were only reflecting what some Celtic fans discuss on social media. I guess they will be announcing a Resolution 12 special programme sometime soon then.
I suppose that is the one advantage of the petition. The more reticent can still join in later if their “pals” have said they have.
Unfortunately it is like watching paint dry and, if I am honest, I hate decorating anyway.
REIVER
i’m having a one man boycott,easy decision to make for me
Many thanks 4 your sterling efforts jc. You are a shining light to football fans everywhere. Alex Thompson must be considering revisiting this story. He knows this is a big story, and its about to blow. Bigger than Sharapova and performance enhancing drugs, Soviet athletics and systemic doping. Bigger than corruption at FIFA & UEFA.
HERO REQUIRED, EXPOSE & RID SCOTTISH FITBA OF THESE CHARLATANS NOW
I don’t do the “thumbs up” but I gave you one there.
Now there is quote that will be trending on Twitter.
Stuart Reagan has amply demonstrated one thing.
So long as this is seen as Resolution 12, Celtic PLC and the Celtic support, with no other clubs involved or no other support involved then the SFA and the media can paint this as a West of Scotland, two club rivalry issue.
In the unlikely event that UEFA contact them about the situation that is how I see them playing it.
Unless we can see a repeat of 2012, where it was clearly the majority of Scottish football taking the same stance, then I doubt any pressure will come to anything.
Well done John. Great effort. You’ve inspired me to write again to various authorities, including the members of the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body as well as their respective associations. We have to turn the heat up somehow. Your individual efforts deserve our support
Was going to post on this yesterday until JC blew my socks off . It is regarding A McC’s support of NL and the quote (stolen from Clumps)
But what was even more heart-warming was what McCoist said next:
“Our own club went into administration then liquidation. You get players turning up and they don’t know if they’re going to get paid. There are restrictions on you all over the place. It is an extremely difficult job”
I haven’t seen it mentioned elsewhere . Is the seal broken ?
I’m late to the ‘well done John Clark’ party… but nevertheless…. well done John Clark!! Terrific work.
Great work from JC, with the supporting wings of JJ and TC pushing forward it looks like a good forward line and Reiver is tucked in behind as sweeper to make sure the momentum keeps up!! Maybe these chancers will be brought to justice yet.
On a more serious note I was hoping some of the Motherwell boys could help me out, It’s tremendous to see the club is now not “Waiting for the Great Leap Forward”(that’s me showing my age, a great wee read in the late eighties,early nineties) and is now in the process of achieving fan ownership thru the Well Society. What’s at the back of my mind was that nasty rumor some weeks back about possible administration. I was glad it was deemed to be untrue but I was wondering what sparked it off? I’m not trying to be a killjoy, the sources being quoted were from usually reliable circles, I’m just wondering if there was any tie up between this and the transferring of the club over to the Well Society. Thanks in advance.
yours in sport
Gaun the Killie
Welcome back to you, Brenda
Our numbers are growing
Thanks, again, JC.
Shocking performance from the boy Regan. Surely he’ll be released from his contract after another nightmare display! He just can’t cut it at this level and can’t even talk a good game.
He may also find it’s not just the West of Scotland that has a problem accepting corruption and fraud.
So Mr Regan. Anonymity ! Don’t make me laugh
. Ask your disciplinary hearing members how that went. Or Raith Rovers. People who should have been protected. And then make snide remarks about those who remain anonymous and not to be communicated with . Whit a dumplin’ .
Daryl I am The SFA
EBT Ogilvie
Balls up Macrae
Bryson ‘The Imperfect’
Nuthin Regan
Two hats Topping`
Lawell `’the Silent One’
The SFA what a shower.
John
Just a question. Did Reagan appear just as assured face to face as when presenting.
I guess I’m looking for a sense of his demeanour changed? or just as confident?
Excellent work JC Front Page on 3 of the top blogs our own Ed Murrow. Truth from the front lines.
Well done John Clark that chap Clark Kent hasn’t got a look in when you are concerned !
killie1962March 17, 2016 at 21:01
Great work from JC, with the supporting wings of JJ and TC pushing forward it looks like a good forward line and Reiver is tucked in behind as sweeper to make sure the momentum keeps up!! Maybe these chancers will be brought to justice yet.
On a more serious note I was hoping some of the Motherwell boys could help me out, It’s tremendous to see the club is now not “Waiting for the Great Leap Forward”(that’s me showing my age, a great wee read in the late eighties,early nineties) and is now in the process of achieving fan ownership thru the Well Society. What’s at the back of my mind was that nasty rumor some weeks back about possible administration. I was glad it was deemed to be untrue but I was wondering what sparked it off? I’m not trying to be a killjoy, the sources being quoted were from usually reliable circles, I’m just wondering if there was any tie up between this and the transferring of the club over to the Well Society. Thanks in advance. yours in sport Gaun the Killie
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And Gaun on Saturday plenty at the Well forums of the betting persuasion think you will have a point a least.
As for the Admin stuff. In short nonsense.
Les has handed back his shareholding early to Well Society. (Some speculate he is ill)
What the unknown is exactly how much he is still owed and what the SOC funds are at and the term.
Couldn’t help but have a wee chuckle when logging on. The advert at the top of the page was for The Scottish Chamber Orchestra – Bach’s Requiem. As I continued scrolling down my eye caught the guidelines bit about No talk about religion! Maybe that ad. should be sent to the naughty step!
IANAGAINMARCH 17, 2016 at 22:54
Thanks, that’s good news, best of luck moving forward.Hopefully we will get that point on Saturday(maybe more? fingers crossed)
Gaun the Killie
By a series of unconnected events I was able to attend an event broadcast on 5Live and also on Channel 4 in March 2012. The show was hosted by Mark Chapman and the subject under discussion was Rangers who had just gone into administration. A few well kent faces turned up including Henry Mcleish. Nothing substantive was achieved then but I was wondering if 5Live’s interest might be piqued by Mr Regan having dropped an n-bomb yesterday? Has anyone been in touch with them?
I know I’m not adding a lot of value saying this, but the comments attributed to Mr Regan are appalling. “Nothing.” A lot of people have said recently “this is not about Rangers” etc., even leaving that aside, if in any situation you ask someone in a position of power what they would do in the face of evidence of wrongdoing and they nonchalantly reply “nothing”, it just fills my soul with an overwhelming fatigue that I can’t describe.
Ryan, I disagree, your comment is as valid as everyone else today. Regan is a no user no matter which club we support. I can’t add anything to your sentiment.
Welcome to the new, open and transparent SFA.
. He has confirmed what we already suspected, as there is little doubt he does not already have the evidence at his disposal, and they have done precisely that. Nothing !
Our complaints must be taken out of the country now. It’s as simple as that.
Lets see if the Celtic board are bluffing now, because he has just called it.
Over to you now Peter. Raise or fold.?
KopwebMarch 17, 2016 at 14:06
‘… I wonder if the professor chap who referred to it as a Rangers/Celtic thing may actually have been Professor Grant Jarvie, .’
_______
Kopweb, I got home from very pleasant afternoon/evening lunch and glass of wine or two ( or was it John Barleycorn?)in the Maltman in Glasgow, and afterwards in the Horseshoe, so I’ve only just seen your post.
Yes,that is the very man , and my apologies to him for not getting his name right.But he’s very quiet-spoken (and ,God knows, maybe my hearing is not as keen as once it was) and he hosted the proceedings with quiet efficiency.
And, you know, sitting in one of those wee chairs with the wee swivel writing-desk thingy ( I don’t remember them being in vogue at Glasgow Uni in the early ’60s.Were they?) I experienced a quite powerful wave of nostalgia, and for a moment or two I was again young and somehow more alive. It was a great feeling.
RyanGoslingMarch 18, 2016 at 00:01
‘….. if in any situation you ask someone in a position of power what they would do in the face of evidence of wrongdoing and they nonchalantly reply “nothing”,.’
_______
And I do assure you and everyone else ( and Professor Jarvie ,as I now have been informed is his name, was witness) that I asked the question in those words, and Regan’s reply to that direct question was as I reported.
A more able, more streetwise,less contemptuously dismissive self-satisfied ponce of CEO would have had the savvy to say that if they had been misled they might, of course, have to look into the matter and blah blah blah.
But Regan reeked of such self assurance that he was invincible that he must know that his employers are ready to back him and support the Big Lie.
Never mind FIFA or UEFA:it is your club’s directors and my club’s directors who allow this lie to be propagated as truth.
And they haven’t even the savvy, or honesty of conviction, to say simply: screw you, it’s all about our personal profit ,and ‘sporting integrity ‘ is la-la land for mugs.
To which, of course, there can be only one answer from each of us:bang goes this mug’s financial support for a rigged sport.
Simplea.
ianagainMarch 17, 2016 at 22:23
‘..Just a question. Did Reagan appear just as assured face to face as when presenting.’
________
Oh, absolutely bureaucratically self-satisfiededly smug, and only too eager to dismiss any questioning as just emanating from one club paranoia. Not as assured and relaxed and matter-of-fact as a man speaking entirely truthfully would be.In my (not terribly high )opinion of him.
Following on from Stewart Regan and his ‘nothing’ statement. He wouldn’t get away with it if the media were willing to ask questions of him. Recently I tried to appraise two elderly people of the Resolution 12 issue and their response was ‘if there was anything in that it would be all over the papers!’. That is what we are up against, and the SFA and media know it. For many in modern day Scotland the daily newspaper and broadcast news is still their bible. It simply doesn’t cross their mind that media organisations can be involved in cover ups as much as those who have a case to answer. We really need the dam to burst. As long as the media line up beside the SFA it’s going to be very difficult. It’s utterly shameful that a valid complaint regarding one club can’t be discussed because the SFA (and probably the media) reckon the only complainers are fans of the rival club. Where on earth does that end?
This morning I e-mailed customer services at Celtic Park to express my disgust at the Club’s inactivity in relation to Res12.I have also notified them that any compliance or collusion with the chicanery of Regan,Doncaster et al will result in me not renewing my season ticket.As a Celtic supporter of sixty years plus and a season ticket holder for many of those years,this is a huge step for me.However,enough is enough. If my club is by its silence, in collusion with those who are corrupting the game in this country then they do not deserve my support. They should also remember the words of Jock Stein. “Football Without Fans Is Nothing”.
It’s Friday.
Will this be the day Peter Lawell breaks his silence? After the furore yesterday by John Clark’s report, mentioned widely on social media, will he don a bunnet and contact UEFA regarding Res. 12?. Will he decide to face down the SFA over a deluge of issues?
Or, will he maintain his silence safe in the knowledge that the UEFA licence issued in 2011 is about to time out in terms of lodging an appeal/ complaint.
The thing is I don’t think this going to go away. The folk behind Res. 12 always speak politely, in measured tones and just keep repeating the facts. Correcting others on the way when needed. I’ve never met any of them but you can’t read their postings over the years without getting an impression of some kind of character trait. I would suggest they have a steely determination. So if Peter Lawell thinks the end is in sight I think he is badly mistaken.
On every Celtic blog it is awash with talk of a season ticket boycott. People are sick to the teeth of all this. Granted there are many fans who are not engaged in the ‘politics’ of the game and just want to watch their team, happy to be in blissful ignorance of the corruption going on. Sometimes I wish I was one of them. But it’s too late.
As Ryan said last night:
“if in any situation you ask someone in a position of power what they would do in the face of evidence of wrongdoing and they nonchalantly reply “nothing”, it just fills my soul with an overwhelming fatigue that I can’t describe.”
I think we all feel like that at times.
Just to add my own thanks and admiration for John’s efforts in taking the fight to the nest of vipers. I love how John always returns it to, as the young uns say (I understand), FACT.
Opinion? – em no, facts actually Stewart.
I won’t convince you? – em no, not without your facts to counter my facts Stewart – but by all means if you’ve a collective Email from all the clubs supporting your view, in the absence as we suspect of any material facts then you feel free to publish it, preferably prior to season ticket time.
West of Scotland issue Stewart? well, em, no, firstly and secondly, with respect if you perceive that there is an unhealthy west coast issue (meaning simply, I hope, an unhealthily strong rivalry, unhealthy that is to the wider footballing environment) I have of course paid you handsomely to address the fact not fec’n support it in its original format, nor seek to recreate it in its new blinkered, cloud cuckoo, metaphysical sense.
If he is carrying out the wishes of the member clubs in this fantasy then fine, let him come out and say it publicly.
And finally, if “self-satisfiededly” isn’t a word it damn well now should be!
JC, our very own Sztrelnikov, just hopefully with a happier ending. And if anyone claimed they didn’t shed a tear at his “I was young again” comment then they aren’t trying! Or old.
JIMBO MARCH 18, 2016 at 09:10
While I appreciate the views of some that this should not be a ‘Celtic issue’ are we all forgetting that Peter Lawwell is on the SFA board.
He therefore is a board member who has publicly been presented with evidence, via Celtic Shareholders, of potential wrongdoing within the SFA.
If we are applying the rules of bampottery without fear or favour then the knowledge that Mr Lawwell now has and his inaction to resolve the issue one way or another, as a member of the SFA -not Celtic, is no more damming than the situation involving the ‘conflicted’ ex-President Campbell Ogilvie, who similarly chose to do nothing and deflect matters away from himself and what he knew.
When all members of an organisation is singing to one hymn sheet and many of their customers are openly singing to another then we should all be worried about how such an institution is run.
John Clark we can never say thank you enough or too often your work is beyond the call of duty!!
Another email to Celtic this morning and again I ask as many readers as possible to contact their club requesting action or even a statement regarding Regan.
His offhand remarks and manner in which he spoke to a man who in my eyes is a spokesman for football fans of all clubs is just downright disrespectful as the man in the magic hat would say.
The Clumpany has a cracker just now!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3496522/Motherwell-edge-closer-fan-ownership-Les-Hutchison-explains-agreed-sell-stake-1-14-months.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Bit more info on Les and where fan ownership is at at the Well
Didn’t know he was pally with DD.
Wottpi,
Yes Pater Lawell wears two hats.
I would rather it not be a Celtic issue. I wish it was the fans/clubs of others leading the charge. For instance Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee UTD etc. But that hasn’t happened. As others have pointed out, it looks like it will take a club the size of Celtic to take the lead. That is why I directed my post in the direction of PL.
But for other reasons also.
PL wears two hats. As CEO of Celtic he should have been all over the SFA regarding RES. 12 and other issues – ‘imperfect registrations’ & title stripping for instance. Celtic were most affected in all of this. He had a duty to act. But he didn’t. This talk of his hands being tied by company law – act in the best interests of the shareholders – I am not convinced. How much money did Celtic lose over the years by the cheating?
As a member of the SFA board he seems to have toed the party line and kept quiet.
It’s obvious there is a conflict of interests. So why did he decide to be more SFA minded than Celtic minded?
How complicit is he in all that has gone? His signature may not be on the 5 way agreement, but he sure as hell knew all about it as it was being drafted and presented. And everything else.
Why is he more of an SFA man than a Celtic man? Who pays him nearly one million pounds per year? Certainly aint the SFA although he will get a nice wee treat there too, and maybe a knighthood in the future.
He deserves to be called out at every turn.
Green’s appeal for legal costs against RIFC dismissed.
http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/charles-green-legal-proceedings/#.VuvwHOzNGYE.twitter
BP since no-one has mentioned your new, I must say, improved avatar. I will – “I’m Smith your Jones”
Concerning Res 12 I know my club’s shareholders have been very active on this issue as I read all about it on social media. By all accounts PL and Celtic have also been in some sort of communication with the SFA conncerning this matter. Can someone tell me what other club or fans have done antyhing of this nature concerning this Resolution?
Do not make it a one club protest, this effects all of the clubs in Scotland. The SFA/smsm make it a paranoid issue (with most things related to newco it becomes a Celtic Rangers issue) and by doing so openly mock my club and it’s fans, it is what they do with free reign. Do fans of all other clubs think this ok to mock one team and it’s fans because they actually brought this issue up and have made some sort of challenge to the SFA? If so then armmaggedon is closer than I thought. If other clubs do nothing then nothing will change. As fans we changed things in the past, we must all challenge this issue together. The smsm and SFA are happy and smug (it is a west of Scotland thing), what they do not want is it to be a whole of Scotland thing (although they know it is). I cannot thank people enough like JC, Aulheid and Reiver but the more the merrier. Imagine what next season will be like when the Ibrox club are promoted, the smsm will be beside themselves with joy. Fans of all clubs may not share this joy when this team plays at their ground, can you imagine how smug (and hateful to all that say they are a newco) the Govan fans will be as they according to the SFA they are the same club and they will never be challenged by the SFA in anything.
The SFA are not fit for purpose and if they are not removed our game will not be fit for purpose (unless you are the Govan club) there is a growing feeling on some sites that boycotting season tickets is or may be back on the agenda. Things do need to change and soon.
VALENTINESCLOWNMARCH 18, 2016 at 13:24
Who knows what the other clubs have been up to, hell we hardly know what Celtic have been up to despite the actions of the Resolution12 massive. What I can tell you is the numerous Aberdeen fans have written to the AFC board to make their feelings crystal clear. AFC Fans have also been photographed with banners at matches and outside Hampden making their feelings clear. I can’t recall seeing banners anywhere else to that end? Perhaps due to tighter policing, or more likely due to the media blanket ban on reporting such mischief making.
What is clear that until one board, any board, breaks the silence and comes out and says “hold the phone – this just isn’t right” then we are collectively screwed. It’s going to take a brave board to make that move, and they will have to be fully confident that everyone else is going to align behind them and do so pretty damned quickly. Given the behaviour of the collective boards over the past few years its difficult to imagine such a scenario playing out. Unless the ghost of 2012 comes back and season ticket sales are under threat…
Meantime, as a Glasgow band once said:
And nothing ever happensNothing happens at allThe needle returns to the start of the songAnd we all sing along like beforeAnd we’ll all be lonely tonightAnd lonely tomorrow
The difficulty faced by most supporters is that their clubs are not publicly owned companies and so, while they can support the club, they cannot raise issues at shareholder meetings. They can ask questions, but the boards are generally under no obligation to respond to such queries. They are, of course, entitled to withdraw their funding or have demonstrations or the like but it’s at the PLC’s where the fans/shareholders can actually make their feelings and questions ‘official’ and make things difficult for the boards to ignore. It’s not called Resolution 12 for no reason.
Sorry for being late to congratulate you John excellent work. Re: Resolution 12 and SSB/Clyde I found out that you can contact the BBC about SSB not replying to complaints, I have sent many. Read the first line on their website. You can possibly also contact the Scottish Communications Ombudsman. I can’t confirm that as their phone rings about 10 times and then cuts out. I tried it twenty times. The first thing they will probably ask you is have you contacted the BBC complaints. Unfortunately they ask for a case number which would be in a reply Also the Press Commission for the papers. I haven’t checked as my internet connection is playing up.
Just posting this info in case anyone wishes to use it.
Damn tablet.
With today’s announcement regarding the courts finding for TRFC in the Green’s court cost plea we once again get it hammered home that it is up to each and every one of us to act. For the last six – nine months we have had fans on just about every football thread cheering the fact that one case or another was going to blow this thing wide open. First it was MA who was going to ride in on his white charger a smite GASL and then follow up by doing the same to the SFA. He was after all a man who didn’t like losing and had billions to spend on this. Well they must be doing a roaring trade on whimpers at Sports Direct. Even if he had had one victory the dream that was being spouted that the truth will come out through the cases was never going to happen. Greens lawyer smashed the same club myth we heard and now when the court reports its findings it will be in black and white. Unimpeachable. What happened to that?
Next it was going to be the SFA in court. That was going to allow the dog to see the rabbit. We would all be in a better place with the truth spilling out all around us. Their first appearance in court had everyone saying “There we go, the metaphysical comments from the judge shows that we are about to get to the real facts”. Well weeks have passed and we hear not a dicky bird.
Of course the fraudco trial too was a Pandora’s box full of truth and clarity. Wasn’t it????
One by one the skittles have been removed from the lane until we have one single target left. It is not just a matter of whether we can hit it or not but we have to pray that it falls the right way. If we haven’t got the message by now then the education system has failed us.
Right now the best chance of action can be found in our own bathrooms. Get up an go through there. I am sure you will find what is needed. The mirror. Have a good look and you will see the person who will fix this.
IT is up to us. It is DOWN to us. It is the only chance for change.
Of course you can always just say “Bugger it!” and get back under the duvet but here’s the thing. What are you going to say to your kids and grandkids?
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-football-association-return-integrity-to-football-administration-in-scotland-94421b40-2d6b-4d4b-9cff-912c9849478f
What are you going to say to your kids and grandkids? Forward link to kids and grandkids!
This son, is a nine iron. You use it to approach greens from about 125 yds and then putt out for par, sometimes birdie.
I’m not fighting for the game. Let the game fight for me!
Sad. But there you have it Mr Regan, Milne, Lawwell, Doncaster, King…. the ultimate end game of your incompetence.
Look kids, thats where Granda used to go every 2nd Saturday and get ripped off by charlatans and rogues.
REIVERMARCH 18, 2016 at 15:10
The result for Green today is not a surprise to me as I said long ago it does seem that there are so many unknowns and jiggery pokery re the take over that any insurer (not just the club on its own) would be fighting not to pay out given the issues involved.
Their Lordships on this matter have taken a common sense view, IMHO.
While I am not sure I like the idea of T’Rangers shouting to the rafters about an apparent ‘success’ I do think it is actually a good result for the game as a whole as it goes down as a warning to those who may seek to operate ‘sharp practices’ when taking over and running clubs.
Mr Green will now of course have to rely on what defence he can afford and whether that has any effect on the upcoming case, only time will tell.
This popped up in my inbox today. Thought it might interest some of us.
UBS V HMRC – TAX AVOIDANCE SCHEME REJECTED BY SUPREME COURT
MARCH 2016
In this week’s budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced that he intends to introduce measures to close tax loopholes for companies, making it harder for them to avoid paying tax in the UK. Just a week before the budget, the Supreme Court issued its decision in a long running case about the validity of schemes set up by investment banks designed to avoid bankers paying income tax on their bonuses. It did not go well for the banks.
‘In our society, a great deal of intellectual effort is devoted to tax avoidance,’ said Supreme Court Justice, Lord Reed, at the start of his judgment, ‘the most sophisticated attempts of the Houdini taxpayer to escape from the manacles of tax….include elements which have been inserted without any business or commercial purpose…’ Unfortunately for the banks, his lordship went on to say that tax avoidance schemes that lack commercial purpose will not be protected even if they meet the strict letter of the tax legislation, thereby slamming shut the door on schemes which have ‘no commercial rationale beyond tax avoidance.’
Collectively UBS and Deutsche Bank had a bonus fund of £182 million which was payable to their respective employees. But payment of the bonuses by means of salary would have given rise to large income tax liabilities. The Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 provides income tax exemptions for certain types of shares known as ‘employment related restricted securities’. That, as the catchy name suggests, is a share awarded to an employee which has to be forfeited if, for example, the employee fails to meet future performance targets. Dismissal for misconduct may be one ground for forfeiture.
Since at the time of the share award there is no guarantee that employees will receive the benefit of the shares (since they might have to be forfeited) it would be unfair for employees to be taxed on the value of such shares at the time of the share award. The 2003 Act therefore provides that no income tax is chargeable then; it is chargeable later on. This made sense to Lord Reed. It was clear to his lordship that the purposes of the restricted security exemption in the 2003 Act were to protect employees who receive shares conditional on future events, and to encourage employee participation in share schemes, but only in ways that did not diminish tax receipts for HMRC in the event the shares were not later forfeited. It is in respect of those purposes that the banks’ schemes had to be judged.
As it then stood (it has since been amended to remove the loophole), the 2003 Act exempted certain types of employment related restricted securities from the payment of income tax altogether – both when the shares were awarded and later on.
To make use of this exemption, the banks incorporated companies in Jersey and the Cayman Islands; created a special class of share in them (the restricted securities), purchased the shares with the bonus funds and allocated the beneficial interest in the shares to the employees, with the employees having the right to redeem the shares later on. No liability for income tax arose and, providing the employee waited long enough, the structure was also capital gains tax efficient. On paper, the schemes worked.
The problem, however, was that the schemes looked artificial to the Supreme Court because there was no realistic prospect of the shares ever being forfeited. The key element of a ‘restricted security’, namely the risk of forfeiture, simply wasn’t there. As the bonuses had actually been earned and awarded, it was not in the interests of the banks or their employees to see forfeiture happen. Unsurprisingly, the forfeiture provisions in the schemes were drafted so that the chances of forfeiture were extremely remote.
In the Deutsche Bank scheme, the shares were forfeited only if the employee resigned his or her employment within 8 weeks. Dismissal by Deutsche Bank, even on cause shown, was not a ground of forfeiture. Redundancy, death or disability also had no impact. The matter of forfeiture was therefore within the sole control of the employee.
In the UBS case, forfeiture was conditional on the value of the FTSE 100 index reaching a certain pre-defined level at the end of a three week period. Aside from being an arbitrary event that was highly unlikely to occur, UBS also hedged against the risk by obtaining insurance which would have paid out sums equivalent to the bonuses in the event the shares were forfeited.
Accordingly, the chances of either UBS or Deutsche Bank employees forfeiting bonuses, and suffering any losses, were remote. As a result, the court held that there were no ‘restricted securities’ because there were truly no contingencies – the shares were always going to be retained and the employees were always going to receive their bonuses – and thus the exemption could not apply. The court held that income tax was chargeable on the value of the shares at the time that they were awarded.
Although each case must of course be decided on its own facts, Lord Reed’s judgment (which was unanimously approved by all five justices) appears to lay down a marker for future cases. We can expect to see tax avoidance schemes more routinely unpicked by the courts. As Lord Reed put it:
‘There is nothing in the background to suggest that Parliament intended that [the exemption] in section 423 (2) [of the 2003 Act] should apply to transactions having no connection to the real world of business, where a restrictive condition was deliberately contrived with no business or commercial purpose but solely in order to take advantage of the exemption.’
There are further big tax cases coming up, most notably the liquidators of Rangers FC’s attempt to persuade the Supreme Court to accept the validity of the Employment Benefits Trusts (EBTs) the club used to pay some of its high profile players from 2001 – 2010. Watch this space.
Sorry, should have credited this. Blog by Steven Guild, solicitor Advocate with Burness Paull
Jm15 March 18, 2016 at 17:26
===================
I see that John James has plagiarised part of Steven Guild’s blog in his latest musings, without giving credit to the writer.
http://johnjamessite.com/2016/03/18/taxing-matters/
…. and a link to the original blog
http://www.burnesspaull.com/blog/2016/03/ubs-v-hmrc-%E2%80%93-tax-avoidance-scheme-rejected-supreme-court
……… and JJ wonders why I criticise him at times.
REIVER
MARCH 18, 2016 at 15:10
Mike Ashley has some hideous business practices. Zero hours contracts for example, a dreadful way to treat people.
You may consider it possible for him to ride in on a white charger, I most certainly don’t.
Jm15 March 18, 2016 at 17:26===================I see that John James has plagiarised part of Steven Guild’s blog in his latest musings, without giving credit to the writer.http://johnjamessite.com/2016/03/18/taxing-matters/…. and a link to the original bloghttp://www.burnesspaull.com/blog/2016/03/ubs-v-hmrc-%E2%80%93-tax-avoidance-scheme-rejected-supreme-court
……… and JJ wonders why I criticise him at times.
Hi Easy Jambo,
In all fairness JJ was trying to do three separate articles earlier today and then get it all shot thru before maybe settling down to watch his team in action this evening(or in my case afternoon), one of those articles has been sentenced to Cyber Space and thus becomes a “collector’s item” and in one of them somebody was criticizing the fact that he took a whole 90 minutes to respond to the media releases on the court hearing!!! Maybe in his haste and excitement he forgot to include the credit, I find it hard enough to do one wee piece as a post, that poor bugger has to write a blog, post it and then check/vet all the replies to make sure that they all pass the “naughty chair” muster. Anyway hope all the games are good tomorrow and all three points stay at home with the Rugby Park team!!!
yours in sport
Gaun the Killie
killie1962 March 18, 2016 at 20:21
===================
The “poor bugger” as you describe him doesn’t have to write a blog or anything else. I’m pretty sure that he isn’t paid by the column inch, so his productivity is dictated by himself.
He is certainly prolific as a blogger, with some of his content both interesting and divergent from commonly held views, but it’s a common courtesy, as a writer, to reference sources. He readily does it with the comments of other posters on his blog.
Scottish football needs a strong…erm, case to remove these ‘disrespectful’ plastic pitches…
StevieBC,
If it is considered fair game to post mocking posts here whenever Rangers lose, then I’ll feel free to post gloating comments whenever we win, and expect no negative feedback as it is, after all, fair game.
I should add a well done to Falkirk for a mighty impressive “Bayern Munich sequel” comeback.
If there was two regular posters on here I would not have more respect for it would be John Clark & Easy Jambo. I would doubt it.
I honestly don’t understand where EJs stance comes from regarding JohnJames. He seems to come from the same stance as the rest of us. What’s wrong?
RYANGOSLING
MARCH 18, 2016 at 23:09
StevieBC,
If it is considered fair game to post mocking posts here whenever Rangers lose, then I’ll feel free to post gloating comments whenever we win, and expect no negative feedback as it is, after all, fair game.
I should add a well done to Falkirk for a mighty impressive “Bayern Munich sequel” comeback.
==================
Thumbs up from me ryan have to agree even if i am a hibee.
Good Morning Ryan, I didn’t take it, Stevie BC comment re plastic surfaces, as much as mocking your sides defeat, but more a tongue in cheek ‘bullseye’ on the Manager of the Year, the much respected Warbo who, respectfully, is dignity personified.
I do not concede your point about an improvement JTM – just different is all
Regrettably I also must decline your invitation to join me as co-leader of the Gang, since I already have a Thaddeus of long standing 🙂
Many years ago, an old friend and I were chasing a #64 bus along Argyle Street (as only teenagers can), and we came to the conclusion (in mid-pursuit) that we had to “get out of this BUS-iness”.
I decided to be Smith, not because he was better looking, but because I was the smart one
Homunculus
You misread me. I am of the same opinion as you re MA but the point I was making is that everywhere we were reading contributors to comments sections saying that all the courts actions were going to lay truth out so all could see and no longer would it be possible to ignore it. MA’s actions were part of this new enlightenment. The truth is that, like many fans’ prayers for their club, they were hoping that someone with money would come along and make things right. It was never going to happen and would result any in action eventually being taken by the fans being too little too late.
If you want something bone properly, do it yourself.
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-football-association-return-integrity-to-football-administration-in-scotland-94421b40-2d6b-4d4b-9cff-912c9849478f
Easyjambo
JJ has form on plagiarism and I personally have been on the receiving end of it. I wrote a comment a while back regarding Johnstone Press’s banning the use of some words that were not offensive, Sevco being the most prominent one. John chose not to print. Fair enough it is his choice but what wasn’t was the fact that within days he printed article containing that very content implying that it was all his own work.
The irony is clear in that in censoring a post on censorship where no offence is involved he goes on to report on the very same subject.
Therein lies the problem where moderation of a site based on personal whims.
Hi All, been away for a while, taken 2 days to catch up!
Mr JC. I can only imagine the gut wrenching feeling that must have come over you at the ‘Nothing!’ response to your query. In my working life I was unfortunately made redundant a few months ago, which is why I’ve been away. I have now secured a good position locally so all’s well and all that.
Very early in the redundancy process we entered a ‘Period of Consultation’ and I met with a ‘Reganesque’ MBA wielding cliche spouting non-entity from HR. I stopped him in full flow and asked what he honestly expected the Consultation Period to achieve and was met with the response ‘Nothing!’. I swiftly negotiated a payment to cover the period and was gone.
My point is that in all walks of life, wherever there is a position, or more importantly an entrenched self interest to protect, that is what we, the ordinary guy, will come up against.
The SFA is nothing if not composed of a passel of self interested entrenched individuals which makes up the ‘whole’ and as such, in my opinion (no pun intended!) is lesser than the sum of its parts. A kind of reverse synergy.
On the football front, I am continuing to support my team and will be at Hampden for the semi-final. My view is that I am not going to let the scandal that is Scottish Football governance spoil my lifetime enjoyment. I would consider being part of an organised campaign of withdrawal of patronage but for the meantime I will enjoy the highs and lows as they come.
The Court cases have not happened yet and there are reporting restriction in place with regards the evidence which will be led.
I have always taken the position that I will wait until the evidence is in the public domain before forming an opinion on what they shed light on. It is difficult to imagine, assuming cases actually do go ahead, that we will not be better informed. What is currently speculation may well be substantiated.
We may not actually learn much which is new, however it will be accepted as being true and it will be in the public domain. It may not be reported on the back pages of the papers but there is every likelihood it will be on the front. There will be independents like James Doleman to ensure that the information is made public, even if the mainstream media try to ignore it.
Homunculus
Sorry but you are hoping for too much.
There have been court cases and the parts that help to clarify the situation but who is it that is now enlightened. It is as you say, those that read Doleman’s tweets. In other words the same people who already know what is going on. Where in ANY of the UK media is the reporting of the “metaphysical” comments from the judge? Nowhere! And that is how it will remain. There are many of these facts raised by lawyers and judges in the court appearances that are not subjudice.
Go take a straw poll at any match today. Ask “What was Stewart Regan’s answer to JC’s question regarding how he would react to categorical proof of breach of UEFA rules” I will guarantee you that less than 1% will know(not guess, cos that would be easy) the answer. These are the people that we need to connect with the issue to shed all this apparent corruption that infests football administration in Scotland.
We need to stop relying on some external influence to clean up our game. We can only do this for ourselves but there are still too many fans who do not know what has happened. Their action in 2012 was because it was impossible for the SFA/SPL to succeed and have it hidden. For everything else wool can be pulled.
https://www.change.org/p/scottish-football-association-return-integrity-to-football-administration-in-scotland-94421b40-2d6b-4d4b-9cff-912c9849478f