Look Back to Look Forward

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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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1,978 thoughts on “Look Back to Look Forward


  1. goosygoosy 21st February 2016 at 9:56 pm #Castofthousands 21st February 2016 at 9:29 pm #I had intended to respond to a comment by goosygoosy I saw a little earlier but it seems to have been deleted The point that goosygoosy made concerning patterns of newspaper headlines in my opinion is a symptom of this deception unravelling that we are all capable of. This blog has a long history of speculation, discussion, elimination and ultimately verification. Seeing through the smoke and mirrors is what we are all about. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, You put my point much more eloquently than I did in my post……… which I did not delete And without implying as directly as I was That IMO The MSM Rags in Scotland  regularly reduce the impact of positive football news about my club with a negative story in the same edition written around a minimal  “quote” from a named ex player of yesteryear And have been doing so for a very long time
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Whilst two clubs battle for domination of the Daily Record back pages spare a thought for the rest of us outcasts.

    The clubs who have no dough to spend on PR Consultants and struggle to stay afloat and barely get a mention..

    Sometimes I feel bad about getting in the way of youse big cheeses and your plans for World Domination.
     


  2. Reiver 20th February 2016 at 10:16 pm
    I’ve shared your petition to my 44 Facebook Friends and asked them to share it with their Facebook Friends.

    I hope that this helps to increase the number of supporters from the current 1,894.

    Keep up your good work in publicising the corruption eating out the heart of Scottish football.
    Sanno


  3. ianagain 21st February 2016 at 10:03 pm 

    Oh come on folks!
    Ash at Queens park my whole fitba life. 13 pitches some great teams and players on there.
    Get a life everyone.
    ————————
    Iainagain,

    I only had the misfortune to try to play fitba oan Queens Par (W)Rec(k) once or twice in my childhood.

    The one I recall most was the one I played in on a typically rainy day after a typically rainy week.
    ..
    I went on a mazy run from right back past several opponents and then knocked the ball beyond another and raced on to it. The next thing I knew was that the ground below me had “disappeared” and I was black ash body-surfing along the pitch on my front as the ball rolled to an opponent.
    I picked myself up and looked down to see red blood flowing profusely from my hands and knees mingling with the black ash that had stuck to them.

    For some reason from then on I’ve rather admired the anarchist flag as a symbol of fighting oppression! 22 


  4. Sannoffy

    Thanks, that is just what we are needing. Spread the word in any way we can.


  5. jimbo 21st February 2016 at 11:53 pm #
    ________________________________________________________
    You better give me a good part!!09


  6. easyJambo 21st February 2016 at 10:49 pm #Gary Harkins tells it how it is
    GRINNING Gary Harkins has taunted Rangers by branding the Ibrox outfit a new club. The Dundee ace is looking to set up a Scottish Cup quarter-final clash with the Govan side by dumping Dumbarton in their fifth round replay at Dens tomorrow night. Mischievous midfielder Harkins couldn’t resist lobbing in a grenade to wind up Gers who vigorously maintain they are the same club following liquidation in 2012. The playmaker faced the Light Blues several times with Killie and Dundee before the financial meltdown at Ibrox four years ago. But Harkins insisted he’d never faced Dundee’s potential opponents in the last eight as it’s not the same side. Harkins said: “They’re just a new club. I’ve not played them before, so I’m looking forward to that. It should be good.
    ————————————————————————————————————————
    A wee story:
    I bumped in to a well known local RRM on Friday night. He was coming out of the pub (so had had a few) as I was going in. He couldn’t resist taunting me with ” Ah see Aberdeen bottled it AGAIN this week and are letting Celtic run awa wi’ the league”. Now from most guys that would not have ruffled any feathers (I might even have agreed!) but coming from this particular [edit – person] I have to say my hackles were a tad raised. I replied along the lines that at least we were there challenging and not a new team that had never been in a top league etc etc etc. Did that upset him? Not one bit. He laughed and said ” oh yer no still tellin that auld story. That’s a been proved wrang an abody accepts we are the same Rangers!!
    Now writing this fails by a long way to convey the confidence/arrogance of his dismissal of my comments and I relate the tale just to demonstrate how difficult it will be to break that down. If in fact we can. Glass half empty!


  7. Hi mods
    I tried to put in a post last night but still not up is it in moderation or was I just a technaphobe as usual 


  8. justbecauseyoureparanoid 22nd February 2016 at 12:19 am 

    While many people are talking about pitches I’ve jusr watched Sportscene and couldn’t believe the state of the playing surface ar Celtic Park, especially towards the main stand. What is that all about? 
    ————————————————————–

    It’s been the wettest winter for many years, no sun, even the heat lamps can’t bring on growth.

    Add to that, some think it’s almost alchemy keeping a pitch in good condition in enclosed stadia, where the pitch (or parts of) is constantly in shade . I’ve seen it described as akin to ‘growing grass in a closed matchbox’.

    I remember seeing an interview, pitchside, with Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest. 

    There was a sign stuck in the pitch which said ‘Grass grows by the inch, but is killed by the foot. KEEP OFF THE PITCH’.

    Rather says it all..


  9. I will try again.
    I was asking if a pattern was developing with managers of what ever you want to call them 
    Firstly we have Ally Mc  stating he had proof of players who liked to bet although he was quick to to state he had proof he never actually showed it.
    Now we have Warns stating he has proof that Waggie was injured because of the plastic pitch has he showed anyone the proof or do we have to take it as gospel because both he and Ally said it was.


  10. Jingso.Jimsie 22nd February 2016 at 11:22 am #
    It’s been the wettest winter for many years, no sun, even the heat lamps can’t bring on growth.
    Add to that, some think it’s almost alchemy keeping a pitch in good condition in enclosed stadia, where the pitch (or parts of) is constantly in shade . I’ve seen it described as akin to ‘growing grass in a closed matchbox’.
    I remember seeing an interview, pitchside, with Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest.
    There was a sign stuck in the pitch which said ‘Grass grows by the inch, but is killed by the foot. KEEP OFF THE PITCH’.
    Rather says it all..

    I remember that sign well!
    It’s rained a lot (probably more in fact) in England as well but the top sides there still manage to maintain their bowling green surfaces.
    Always fond of a good conspiracy theory I just wonder if there’s more to it than that – yet another wee bit of cost cuttery perhaps?


  11. Boris (lying through his teeth), gets skewered by Eddie Mair, best hatchet job i’ve witnessed.
    We have corrupt people with their hands on the tiller (and in the till) in all walks of life, great to see the get filleted now and again, if only JC had a camera with him when the words “I am the SFA” were uttered.

    Enjoy, I’m trying to get this trending, not being on Facebook and/or twitter is a drawback 14 

    https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjqz7vrqYvLAhWBfxoKHf-9DrwQyCkIITAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZAxA-9D4X3o&usg=AFQjCNEsZnghszuAhrPoORXU-fiORnCE7w


  12. redlichtie 21st February 2016 at 11:47 pm #How about “The SFM Engine Room Subsidiary Event’?
    Those who elect not to attend could then be descibed as not being ERSEd…
    The SFM Engine Room Scribblers Event works for me too.
    Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.

    Does that mean that anyone speaking there (especially as they leave) will be talking out of their ERSE? 01


  13. James Doleman tweeting that BDO’s hearing to appeal to the Supreme Court  has now been put back to Tues 8th March.


  14. bordersdon 22nd February 2016 at 10:54 am

        “” oh yer no still tellin that auld story. That’s a been proved wrang an abody accepts we are the same Rangers!!”
       ——————————————————————————————————————
       Did he show you the proof Bordersdon, or was he just waving some busted bookie lines at you? Maybe he has found the long lost evidence of when Rangers(I.L.) changed their name to Sevco, before changing it back again. 21  #Tworabbitswanhat


  15. bordersdon 22nd February 2016 at 10:54 am
    ‘…….just to demonstrate how difficult it will be to break that down. If in fact we can. Glass half empty!’
    __________
    Do not be disheartened. You know the truth, your big friend also knows the truth-but is prepared to swallow a lie. Would you rather be him? Of course not, because he is either a chump, or a liar. And for what? A ‘just cause’?
    No! but simply  to prop up a phony institution set  up by seriously and serially morally defective chancers who , by their blind insistence on shouting  about their ‘legitimacy’ demonstrate their consciousness of how illegitimate their claims to be continuity Rangers actually are.
    But whose guilt, great as it is,  is yet as nothing compared to the guilt of the ‘guardians’ of our Sport, whose negligence bordering on collusion allowed that wrongdoing to go unchecked for years: and whose further perversion allowed, and continues to allow, a new club to pretend to have the authority to claim to be the old, cheating RFC of our fathers and grandfathers.In flat contradiction of the facts, and to destruction of belief that they are honest men of sport for whom Sporting Integrity is paramount.
    Remember, this is not a thing that ‘is all about opinion’: there are hard facts here, that will sooner or later come fully to light, to show how cynically we as supporters have been lied to.
    We will get them in the end.
    Nice new blazers with shiny buttons cannot hide the moral  ugliness of the men who wear them.
    And their sons and daughters will be like the daughter of Idi Amin, interviewed on radio 4 this morning:  ashamed even to speak of the dirty deeds he did, and almost psychologically pushed to attempt to deny the undeniable.


  16. Bl..dy hell! I missed the High Court session this morning! I need a diary secretary secretary.
    So the two little pawn-like men have the charges against them dropped.Fair dos.
    _______
    On a quite separate, abstract question of history, I wonder if it has ever happened that the prosecution of a criminal case has been less than whole-hearted, a wee show by the authorities that they are taking things seriously, while quietly sabotaging  their own case? The sort of opposite of the ‘show trials’ of Soviet Russia and Mao’s China, which were designed to find the innocent guilty? It would be a bit of a novelty to have a ‘show trial’ designed to let the guilty walk free!


  17. I have stopped receiving automatic e mails of any comments lodged on the site. Is anyone else having the same problem?


  18. John Clark 22nd February 2016 at 1:54 pm    

       John, “They’re living the lie”, mate
    Pretendyger…….”Errrrrr…Whit aboot the “F”
    Sane man………”After liquidation, there is no effin life !” 21


  19. Just saw a previous post saying all charges against fleck administrators have been dropped, is that a worrying sign or are the authorities after the bigger fish.
    Does anyone know who is left to face any charges or are any more charges likely to be dropped.
    I just have a bad feeling that eventually there will be no more people left to be charged


  20. justbecauseyoureparanoid 22nd February 2016 at 11:59 am #Jingso.Jimsie 22nd February 2016 at 11:22 am # It’s rained a lot (probably more in fact) in England as well but the top sides there still manage to maintain their bowling green surfaces.

    Almost all the top sides in England use hybrid Desso pitches where natural grass is combined with synthetic fibres. The artificial grass fibres are injected 20 centimetres deep, and cover about 3% of the surface. While the grass is growing, the roots intertwine with the artificial fibres.  The top rugby pitches like Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millennium also use hybrid pitches.
    They are reckoned to stand the rigours of winter far better than pure grass, but they do deteriorate and need replacing in time. I read somewhere that the Easter Road pitch is a hybrid, as is Ibrox (although the latter looks as though it is past its sell-by).  I don’t know whether there any hybrid pitches in the SPFL Premiership.


  21. Just a thought on the latest developments re the former joint administrators.

    A person cannot be compelled to give evidence when giving that evidence would incriminate themselves. However if they are not an accused person in the case they can then become a compellable witness.

    It is sometimes worth considering which route best serves justice.


  22. Homunculus 22nd February 2016 at 3:10 pm  
       “It is sometimes worth considering which route best serves justice.” 
        ————————————————————————————————
      A fair comment Homunculus. If they are required to provide evidence, depending on what evidence they give, it may, or may not, activate the charges held “In reserve”


  23. Billy Boyce 22nd February 2016 at 12:50 pm
    #James Doleman tweeting that BDO’s hearing to appeal to the Supreme Court has now been put back to Tues 8th March.————————————————————————————
    Hmm ..a’body of a suspicious mind might believe the ‘establishment’ are trying to ensure a decision is not forthcoming until after season ticket renewal time, but that would be just a daft wee conspiracy theory.


  24. More and more this all looks like it is going to turn out as my paranoid personality led me to believe. At the most there will be one or two minor charges against probably CW. No great exposures of the SFA and SPFL and nothing that will make them consider quitting. Ashley’s legal assault on them will come to nought and we will be left with the cancer the we have come to know and hate so well.
    We will look back on this time and think of what might have been and wallow in a guilty fog for not acting. If we did not know before then surely we know it now, we can rely on no-one but ourselves. So stop waiting for the big exposure that will cause a seismic shift in the running of our game and make the move to rid the game of the poison that is killing it.
    SIGN the PETITION

    SUPPORT the PETITION

    SELL the PETITION

    There will not be another chance.

    https://www.change.org/p/scottish-football-association-return-integrity-to-football-administration-in-scotland-94421b40-2d6b-4d4b-9cff-912c9849478f


  25. Just had a read on one of the Rangers fan sites they are wishing allsorts on Mr. harkins__________________


  26. Kopweb 22nd February 2016 at 2:38 pm #
    …Almost all the top sides in England use hybrid Desso pitches where natural grass is combined with synthetic fibres. The artificial grass fibres are injected 20 centimetres deep, and cover about 3% of the surface. While the grass is growing, the roots intertwine with the artificial fibres…
    =============================
    Great input Kopweb, and that is why I like reading and learning stuff on this site.
    Didn’t have a scoobie about how ‘grass’ was currently grown. 
    =============================
    And since it is ominously quiet down Govan way, [Warbling p!sh aside of course]…
    I used to play at the old Helenvale astroturf pitch in Parkhead for school sports, every week for 2 years.
    It must have been a 1G surface, like concrete, with a tendency for pooling deep puddles.
    Never had any injuries, [although once committed to a slide tackle in the wet there was no stopping!]
    The ideal was to trap the ball on the bounce, as it’s trajectory could be highly random.
    But what I did like about the artificial surface: it was very difficult to mishit a ball, i.e. no divots or ruts to make the ball bobble before you scuffed it and make yourself look a plonker !

    But the worst, IMO, surface was the astroturf with a sand base layer.
    My God, if you slid on that your skin was shredded – and it brought back suppressed memories of playing on blaes pitches and having permanent scabs on both knees !

    I’m sure the current generation of artificial pitches is considerably better, but the bottom line is that there is risk in any sport – and on any surface.  To state the bleedin’ obvious !

    A perfect grass pitch: you can get your studs caught and pop your knee ligaments.
    A half decent grass pitch: you can go over on your ankle if there are ruts / divots developed. 
    A well watered pitch: you can skite off the pitch into the advertising hoardings, or another player.
    A non-watered pitch in May: like playing on concrete / or even on an ‘unforgiving’ artificial surface.
    Playing indoors 5-a-side for training: can be lethal on the ankles.

    If you want your players to be guaranteed to be injury free, then keep them safely inside the bookies…well a certain previous manager implied that most of the professional football players ‘were at it’ anyway’ !  14


  27. Kopweb 22nd February 2016 at 2:38 pm #

    Great info. Many thanks for that. 
    Most pitches get relaid every so often so maybe our teams are missing a trick here?


  28. Afternoon all.

    A wee twist in the tail?.
    STV News ‏@STVNews 8m8 minutes ago
    Crown Office says it will bring fresh indictment against former Rangers administrators
    http://bit.ly/1Qxkz3V 
    ——

    The Crown Office has said it will raise fresh charges against the former Rangers oldco administrators.

    David Whitehouse and Paul Clark were accused alongside former owner Craig Whyte, 44, ex-chief executive Charles Green, 62, and three other men over a number of allegations relating to their dealings with the club.

    On Monday, a judge at the High Court in Edinburgh dismissed the remaining charges against the two Duff and Phelps employees, two weeks after the Crown dropped five charges against the pair.

    The Crown dismissed charge three on the indictment against the pair, which accused them of not disclosing the identity of a “person engaged in money laundering”. The prosecution also deserted another allegation they faced pro loco et tempore, meaning the procurator fiscal could return to it at a later date.

    On Monday afternoon, the Crown then released a statement of their intention to bring a fresh indictment against Whitehouse, Clark and Green.

    A spokesman for the Crown said: “It is not the case that charges have been dropped. The charges against Paul Clark and David Whitehouse in the current indictment were dismissed.

    “The Crown will proceed to raise a fresh indictment against Paul Clark, David Whitehouse and Charles Green in due course and within the statutory time limits.”

    Whitehouse and Clark were accused in the charge which was deserted pro loco et tempore of conspiring with Whyte, Green and former Rangers finance director Imran Ahmad to defraud the club’s creditors of funds and assets.

    It was also alleged in this charge that the pair allowed Whyte, Green and Ahmad to acquire the club at “significantly below the true market value”.

    The charge claimed Ahmad paid Clark and Whitehouse an exclusivity fee of £200,000 as the joint administrators of oldco Rangers.

    Whyte, Green, David Grier, Gary Withey, 51, and Ahmad still face a number of charges relating to their dealings with the club.


  29. @JC – You have a PM.  I hope to see you in court tomorrow, 10am prompt.


  30. In the absence of guilty pleadings, these court cases concerning 1 football club are going to run for years…and continue to linger around Scottish football like a bad smell.

    You would think that by now the other 41 senior clubs would be absolutely fed up / disgusted with this malevolent presence in the SPFL.

    …well the paying fans seem to be scunnered… 11


  31. StevieBC 22nd February 2016 at 4:05 pm #
    ——————————————
    The latest artificial surfaces are built with water permeable substrate of tarmac or blaes. On top of that is laid a “shockpad”, a polyeurathane layer of around 3in, which is meant to provide the cushioning effect on impacts. The artificial grass goes on top, but the fibres of grass are actually quite long (5″-6″), but sand is filled in at the bottom with a rubber crumb on top.  It also helps keep the fibres upright.

    It is the mix of the sand, rubber crumb and the remaining length of fibre which largely determine the playing characteristics of the pitch, the bounce, the pace of the ball across the surface etc. As with a normal grass surface, a little watering will allow the ball to zip across the surface more than a dry surface.  

    Artificial surfaces still have to be well maintained with regular brushing to keep the pile and the distribution of the sand and rubber consistent.


  32. torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958)

    Now that is interesting, it seems they are not going to be witnesses but are to be re-indicted.

    I suppose with the being professional enablers and effectively working for the Court at the time Crown Office will really want to prosecute them if possible.


  33. sickofitall 22nd February 2016 at 4:05 pm
    ‘..Just had a read on one of the Rangers fan sites they are wishing allsorts on Mr. harkins..’
    __________________
    Bit much when even a football player can’t express an opinion on an opposition team’s credentials!


  34. easyJambo 22nd February 2016 at 5:54 pm
    ——
    Thank you, eJ.Message acknowledged. I’ll be in Court tomorrow.


  35. torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958) 22nd February 2016 at 5:34 pm
    ‘…The Crown Office has said it will raise fresh charges..’
    ________
    I’m glad you posted that,tjb.
    It suggests that the Prosecution’s heart is in the right place.
    I was surprised, incidentally, to learn from James D that it’s not uncommon in criminal cases for charges to be dropped only to be replaced by fresh charges,and that a lot of these preliminary hearings are precisely about refining the charges that will ultimately be brought.
    I clearly didn’t watch ‘Sutherland’s Law’ with enough attention. ( maybe it’s time for an updated version of a TV serial with a Procurator Fiscal as the main character, to remind us that we do things a wee bit differently from the stuff you see in English and American crime and court-room dramas.)


  36. I remember the panic that ensued in the Whyte camp upon learning that D&P (their preferred administrators) were in danger of not getting the gig.HMRC seemed to acquiesce a little to easily at the time. Bear this in mind when considering the charges.


  37. John Clark 22nd February 2016 at 7:27 pm Bit much when even a football player can’t express an opinion on an opposition team’s credentials!
    ————————————————————————————————————
    According to STV, Harkins has tweeted an apology for his outburst saying it was only done in jest.
    Has the management of Dundee F.C. (been forced to) put pressure on the player to retract his statement? 
    Will the SFA Compliance Officer now haul the lad up for bringing the game into disrepute because he told ‘lies’ about a fellow club?
    Four years on and not one club or one individual is prepared to stand up and be counted – quite remarkable.  Any self-respecting law firm would jump at the chance of a “no win no fee” defence for any poor soul should the Ibrox entity try to sue him over the OC/NC claim.


  38. gunnerb 22nd February 2016 at 8:36 pm
    ============================

    Whyte stood on the steps at Ibrox and said that the club may be going into administration within a couple of weeks as I recall.

    HMRC then took the matter to the Court of Session. They agreed that Whyte could appoint the administrator so long as administration happened right away. That was agreed. Bearing in mind the insolvency practitioner is acting at the behest of the Court effectively.

    They got exactly what they wanted, bearing in mind that no-one could have predicted how the appointed administrators would act during the process. It is better not to go into detail regarding that just now.

    Given that HMRC were never going allow a CVA it was all pretty much academic from that perspective. They did however insist on appointing the liquidator, they picked who would be investigating what happened … from the inside. The liquidator will be passing the results of their findings to the Police, which will be assisting their investigations and the Crown Office prosecutions.


  39. Homunculus 22nd February 2016 at 9:00 pm
    _____________________________________
    They got exactly what they wanted, bearing in mind that no-one could have predicted how the appointed administrators would act during the process. It is better not to go into detail regarding that just now.
    ___________________________________________________
    Quite so Homunculus, quite so.


  40. Billy Boyce 22nd February 2016 at 8:50 pm
    ——– Any self-respecting law firm would jump at the chance of a “no win no fee” defence for any poor soul should the Ibrox entity try to sue him over the OC/NC claim.
    ————————————————–
    B.B. *** hell will freeze over before the entity from ibrox or that other entity at our Hampden would go near any court of law with this – it’s a non starter!!


  41. Sorry to be a complete bore but Shrewsbury Town’s pitch looking much better than Celtic Park? WTF as the young folk say?


  42. BORDERS DON, my glass is half empty at times with this issue. the key word for me in a conversation with the denialist’s is incorporation.,followed up with, once you have beaten the yolk into the white there is no going back. this has seen two denialists go red in the face, unfortunately many of them look at me in a bemused manner, simply left scratching their heads.
     the up coming court cases is key now to putting this lie to rest.
    if that hasn’t settled it , then the dons matchday program will. that will be the clubs last opportunity to call a spade a spade, no dancing around the subject will do for me on this issue.

    2016 ,the year  when justice will finally be served or the year when some or many of us wash our hands of the big fix.. 
    JUSTICE FOR FANS!


  43. Billy Boyce 22nd February 2016 at 8:50 pm
    ‘..According to STV, Harkins has tweeted an apology for his outburst saying it was only done in jest.’
    _________
    Ha, ha! Many a true word is spoken in jest! As  a’body’s auld grannie would have said.
    And I hope the Compliance Officer and/ or the Directors of the club appreciate that telling the truth in jest cannot be equated with telling and living a lie in earnest! It is TRFC who should be made to apologise to us all, if anyone is to apologise.


  44. jimbo
    shouldn’t even be talking about it after  4 years,complete joke 


  45. I think we all pretty much agree on here that it is technically a new club but accept that its fans can believe it’s the same club if that gives them something to support and allows them to feel better about its death. The big caveat to that is that we can’t stand for any of them trying to claim that their belief means that the existing titles can continue to be claimed for the new club. And we certainly can’t approve of a supposedly regulatory body that allows THAT fact to be a grey area.
    The big problem for us is that while it is so obvious to our clique that it is a new club and “we shouldn’t even be talking about it after 4 years” is that because the authorities and the media continue to propagate the big lie those fans have exactly the same take on it as us i.e. “We are the same club and we shouldn’t even have to talk about it after 4 years”. Everyone tells them what they want to hear so why listen to us?!?!
    I get so angry listening to commentators talking about how any club playing them last played them in 19xx or that the new club last reached the semi-final of the SC in 20xx or whatever.
    That is why, regrettably, we DO have to keep talking about it after 4 years!!!!!!


  46. nawlite
    i know we do have to do it mate it’s the fact that we have to do it is the joke, one that’s not funny though


  47.  Isn’t pretending to be something else / impersonating not just plain fraud? After all there might be some financial benefit accruing from that deception? One might wonder if any regulatory body assisting any such fraud to the detriment of others might not be dragged into some court or other sometime?
    (Questions, questions, especially when certain things are actually in certain courts)


  48. Today’s latest Daily Record banner headlines surround Mark Warburton saying the under 20’s development league is a waste of time, and he has all but pulled Rangers involvement in it. There was a lot of debate over MW’s thoughts on here a couple of days ago, but it would help if the media didn’t present his thoughts like an Edict is being issued. His opinion is no more relevant than any other manager’s. It really is time for the media to get off their knees. 


  49. upthehoops 23rd February 2016 at 6:58 am

    As discussed yesterday I can understand why, due to custom and practice,   the SMSM has a fixation with what comes out of and Ibrox manager’s mouth but it is the fact that is goes unchallenged.

    I get where Warburton is coming from re the U20s, however putting his talented youngsters out on loan to play against the ‘plumbers and joiners’ of the lower divisions is exactly the opposite of the complaints that emerged from Govan re Oduwa having to take a few hard ones from lower league players.

    There are actually two articles on the same subject available on the DR web site and as usual they follow the same pattern. It really is rather tiresome and goes back to the inability of the stenographer to do anything more than churn out repetitive rubbish to fill pages and get a wage.
    Warburton disses the Scottish game but under the cover of trying to be innovative (something we all could do). 
    Mention what is happening with clubs in the top flight down south as though that is miraculously going to convert T’Rangers to EPL standard.
    Get a mention in about what he did at Brentford
    Get a mention in about his involvement in the Next Gen series
    Get a mention about wanting to play the best in Europe.

    No questions about how a club that is still £1m short this season according to their own chairman is going to have enough cash to send a young team away to Europe to play every second week, if his dreams come true.

    No question if the youngsters heading out on loan to other Scottish clubs are there for free or are the other clubs helping pick up the tab?

    No questions about how the likes of young Robbie Crawford and Andy Murdoch are expected to develop their skills and maintain their  physical fitness when being loaned out to Alloa and QoS respectively and playing on those horrendous plastic surfaces!!!!!!!!!!!


  50. Warburton’s comments read more like justification for getting a bunch of wage-earning young players off the payroll for a few cost-cutting months, rather than any thought-through strategic plan to develop hungrier first-team players.

    English PL experience suggests that a loan system only works if the parent club has a strong network to maintain close contact with young players during the loan period. Have *The Rangers* actually got this kind of support network in place? Even then, some managers feel loans are counter-productive in coaching terms and are bringing players back to play in their development squads.

    I posted a link last Friday to an article on the academy system by Stephen Fraser. His proposed solutions are now posted at Solutions for the academy system in Scotland. It at least has a bit more substance to it than the ‘Warblings’ reported in the DR.


  51. bad capt madman 23rd February 2016 at 12:10 am
    ‘… Isn’t pretending to be something else / impersonating not just plain fraud? ‘
    __________
    I’m so glad I’m not on the Board of any organisation which used its ‘authority’ to legitimise a possibly false IPO prospectus. I would feel very silly, as I had my collar felt.02


  52. motor red 22nd February 2016 at 9:33 pm #
    …………… the dons matchday program will. that will be the clubs last opportunity to call a spade a spade, no dancing around the subject will do for me on this issue.
    2016 ,the year  when justice will finally be served or the year when some or many of us wash our hands of the big fix..  JUSTICE FOR FANS!
    ——————————————————————————————————————
    Yes I agree that the match day programmes of all clubs in the Premiership next year will be an acid test of where they sit on this. Any mention of “welcoming back” the team from Govan to the top league will be the final word and confirmation that the Boards of the clubs have ignored the fans of the club. As seen before the only thing that will make Boards listen is the fear of the loss of fans dosh so ALL fans of ALL clubs need to make it very clear that they will not support any stance other than the new club one. Will this happen? Where’s that glass again!!


  53. motor red and bordersdon:

    Same for me: should Sevco manage to survive the season and get promoted, (amongst a small number of other key matters) the content of any Sevco match day programme ‘words of welcome for our visitors’ next season will be monitored very closely by many of us, to help determine whether or not we should continue to invest our time, energy, emotion and hard-earned cash in Scottish football.

    Should it come to the crunch: where I feel so much dismay that I am compelled to turn my back on the game: the only thing that would rival the heaviness of my heart would be a discovery that so many fellow supporters were prepared to shrug their shoulders and put up with such a depressing scenario …


  54. upthehoops 23rd February 2016 at 6:58 am # Today’s latest Daily Record banner headlines surround Mark Warburton saying the under 20’s development league is a waste of time, and he has all but pulled Rangers involvement in it. There was a lot of debate over MW’s thoughts on here a couple of days ago, but it would help if the media didn’t present his thoughts like an Edict is being issued. His opinion is no more relevant than any other manager’s. It really is time for the media to get off their knees. 
    ______________________________

    uth, Might I suggest that the manager of any club in extreme financial difficulties might find maintaining an under 20 squad is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of much needed first team squad funding? Regardless, though, the thoughts on the subject, and many more, are hardly worth bothering about if the ‘thinker’ has just over half a season of experience in Scottish football, especially when that experience was gained in the second tier of the league, where usually team managers’ opinions are seldom, if ever, considered worthwhile asking for!

    I’d also point out that this is another in a growing number of Warb pronouncements that smack of stealth cost-cutting preparations.

    TRFC, world record BS providers 191919


  55. nawlite  23rd February 2016 at 10:12 am #As if the protection of (1) a league system rather than the one-off knockout rounds and (2) a seeding system favouring the ‘big’ clubs wasn’t enough………http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35640050

    If only we had some forward thinking progressive administrators… Time for diddy leagues to get together and wave these numpties good bye. Imagine if we had some people who could dream up a properly competitive league system, a proper European competition where every club that entered has some (even if highly remote chance) of progressing through to the later rounds. A proper cup competition would be nice, a 2-leg, anything can happen competition rather that the grinding leagues we are told we have  to find so enthralling.

    I imagine that would become a very interesting prospect for fans (and yes eventually for broadcasters too, but let them broadcast but not control). I watched my first game of English football for a long time last week on BBC – Chesterfield versus some premier team. That romance of the cup – the diddy taking on the big club. That’s lost from European football now. The diddies never get a chance to have those big floodlight nights anymore. Its boring, predictable and it is clear it is going to get a lot worse. Time to break away, go for an interesting product for the fans rather than a money driven repetitive snoozefest that is the Champions (aye right!) league. I can pretty much guarantee what the fans (real football fans I mean) will eventually switch to wanting to watch.

    I was lucky enough to watch my team take on and beat Bayern Munich over two legs. The atmosphere that night at Pittodrie for the 2nd leg was something that I doubt I will ever experience again. What I do know is Euro leagues have made that chance a big fat zero. Bored of them, lets get shot of them and stop the slow strangling to death of the local football clubs.


  56. Kopweb 23rd February 2016 at 8:46 am

    Warburton’s comments read more like justification for getting a bunch of wage-earning young players off the payroll for a few cost-cutting months, rather than any thought-through strategic plan to develop hungrier first-team players.
    ::

    Allyjambo 23rd February 2016 at 10:08 am 

    Might I suggest that the manager of any club in extreme financial difficulties might find maintaining an under 20 squad is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of much needed first team squad funding?…

    I’d also point out that this is another in a growing number of Warb pronouncements that smack of stealth cost-cutting preparations.

    —————————

    Exactly this, but unfortunately the SMSM (and by osmosis, if that’s the correct word, TRFC fans) see pronouncements such as these as innovative, rather than prudent, management, as wisdom rather than notice of austerity. 


  57. Tayred, couldn’t agree more!
    We came together on this forum primarily because of the corruption issues, but as we widen our outlook/debate, I find it really interesting that most of us seem to want the same sort of setup with better/fairer competition and a chance for all clubs to achieve something, even if only for one night.
    Is that just something to do with our typical age? Are most football fans just like the journalists, owners and administrators who salivate over the money? Do most football fans just want their team to win at all costs and keep the others down?
    If not, and the majority of football fans feel the same way as we do, how did it come to this?!?!?


  58. Re : The relationship of Warbuton & SMSM – it is not only the DR that publish his “warblings” , I take The Times on a daily basis & Michael Grant (Chief Scottish Football Corresp.) regularly regurgitates them (including a large quarter page photo of Kenny Miller celebrating his goal at the w’end on the back page) .
    You have to wonder how his “warblings” end up in papers so regularly (esp recently) –  for a 2nd Tier Manager he does get a lot of coverage – it makes you wonder if he sits down with Level 5 to discuss plans for what is going to be served up to the Scottish football press on a weekly (daily?) basis – he is only human & probably quite likes seeing his thoughts on football getting so much airing in the press (a long way from a weekly chat withe the sports reporter of the Brentford Gazette ) .


  59. A little reminder from Clumps of an outstanding fine imposed by the SFA on RFC via the LNS enquiry. Under the 5 way agreement, this was due to be paid by TRFC.

    https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/

    There was a tribunal (another one, sigh) to adjudicate on TRFC’s duty to pay this fine at the end of October 2015. There has been no update on the progress/decision/indecision from the SFA. Unsurprisingly, the SMSM have made no noises over this slow recovery of money owed to Scottish football.

    Now, going totally against my natural instincts, I am going to suggest there may be some justification/reasoning behind this typical SFA tardiness when dealing with all things consequential at Ibrox!

    Could the SFA be holding back any decision pending the result of the BDO appeal? Could it be, and I know it’s a long shot, that they have grown, or been forced (via legal advice) to grow, a backbone, and are holding off imposing the fine, and costs (£400,000 in total), not as one might expect – because the club have absolutely no way of paying it – but because, should the BDO appeal be rejected, LNS will have to be revisited and to have imposed the penalty might cause complications?

    I have to admit, it does seem rather strange to be suggesting some sort of proper governance at Hampden Bunker World.

    On the ‘TRFC can’t afford to pay it’ theory, I wonder how that might affect the apparent £1m shortfall, if, say, the SFA were to announce, just before the Ibrox pay day later this week, that the tribunal had found against TRFC! Or, what an end of season dilemma it might create, if delayed much longer; pay the manager his (rumoured) £0.5m bonus, or the SFA fine!


  60. justbecauseyoureparanoid

    It could be that Celtic Park is further north and has bigger stands round it.
    The south stand is still lower than the other three to let more sunlight at it.


  61. According to the wee Steve in IT, assuming he still runs the club website, T’Rangers have six players out on loan.
    Only four of these are in the 18 strong U20 side on the website
    The U17 side has 25 players listed so having a few of the older ones step up nicely balances out both squads to around 18 to 20 players which seems more than enough to be going on with remembering that Warburton tells us he likes compact squads and Durranty is still in a job coaching the U20’s (was his contract ever renegotiated!!) and Kenny Miller was supposed to be helping him out. 
    A good chance some lads were going to move up come the end of the season anyway, so whats the big story??


  62. Joeninho 23rd February 2016 at 12:28 pm #justbecauseyoureparanoid
    It could be that Celtic Park is further north and has bigger stands round it.The south stand is still lower than the other three to let more sunlight at it.

    I’m sure that all these factors have a bearing but it is nevertheless sad to see the pitch in such a poor state. It’s not that long ago that the club used to moan regularly about other surfaces – notably Hampdump.
    Take a look at the Emirates tonight to see how a pitch can look even in the depths of winter.
    I promise this is my last post on the subject – I’m boring myself now! 20


  63. IMO, there is another HUGE issue which the blazers at the SFA & SPFL don’t seem to be addressing – yet anyway.

    Assuming TRFC get promoted to the top league for next season…

    On the one hand you have the fans of the SPL clubs who will be growling at the TRFC fans, and singing appropriately disparaging songs / chants about the new club – as per normal footie banter.

    On the other hand, I don’t think the TRFC fans will boycott away games, but instead turn up in large numbers to voice their disapproval at their ‘enemies’ who ganged up on the Ibrox club. 14

    Their could be the threat of trouble before/during/after games – and in assorted pubs showing TRFC SPL games across the country, and of course especially in Glasgow. 

    There seems to be a distinct lack of any middle ground between TRFC fans and the fans of the other SPL clubs.

    All the ingredients for a thoroughly unpleasant introduction of the new club next season for all involved.

    So what can the SFA / SPFL do to try and mitigate this risk ?
    I’m not sure…but I do know that hiding in the Hampden bunker and refusing to address the fans’ concerns about all things TRFC related is not going to help anyone.

    And the clock is quickly running down before the new season starts…


  64. There is a quite disturbing (I found it disturbing), though well written, post over on John James latest blog. I won’t post a link nor mention the poster’s name as I’m sure he’d have posted here if he’d wanted to. It is about RF. I’ll leave it to everyone who reads it to make up their own mind about what this concerned TRFC supporter is saying.

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