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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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Allyjambo 23rd February 2016
Disturbing but surprisingly expected. Transparency and integrity are terms not related to this club, where gagging is King. From top to bottom there are things not right at this club and they are similar to the SFA totally embarrassing. Real fans of the Ibrox club should be worried, really worried how all things related to the club are run.
valentinesclown
what post does it come under?there are several,
The Emirates is a Desso hybrid pitch.
Desso @ Wembley
Emirates
tony 23rd February 2016 at 5:05 pm
JJ article The Metaphysical Games.
It is comment 3 timed at 3:14pm
Last week as I read of the plans to build a new 264 seater stand at Murray Park or Auchenhowie, whatever mood takes you. I had thought maybe this was to offer some comfort to those attending under 20 games.
Today though I hear that the former City trader and now TRFC manager has effectively said that league is worthless in his eyes at least so hardly worth investing in a stand I would have thought.
Why, then, the need for the stand other than to filter some cash from RFF to RIFC or did we all get another load of space filling SMSM bull last week?
James Doleman@jamesdolemanBreaking: Crown office issues “correction” of its statement on Rangers fraud case charges issued yesterday. 1/3
James Doleman@jamesdoleman”The Crown will give consideration to raising a fresh indictment against Paul Clark, David Whitehouse and Charles Green.” 2/3
James Doleman@jamesdolemanCrown Office say they are considering a new indictment within statutory time limit, understood to be September 2016.
A wee bit off topic but after reading (don’t really bother with the Daily Record these days, only when I need a chuckle and as I am now based in the USA I needed a laugh!!)) about Partick Thistle’s backlog of games and the fact that they may have to play 10 games in 8 weeks I began thinking about my own team, the mighty Killie. What irritated me was the following piece in the article
“Back in 2008 when Rangers played in the UEFA cup final the Light Blues were forced to play four league games in the space of a week which effectively cost them the Premiership title.”
Back when men were men and Big D, Derrick McDicken terrorized forward lines all over Scotland, Killie were involved in a dog fight with Dundee to see who would accompany Hibernian in the drop from the Premier League to the First Division. In season 1979/80 Killie were a part time team managed by Davie Sneddon and due to a back log of games and a bunch of eejits running Scottish Football(some things never change) they were ordered (even as Part timers) to play 4 full time teams in one week !! This was major as Killie needed every point possible to win the fight to stay up.On Saturday 19th April we duly lost 3-1 at home to the eventual Champions Aberdeen and on the Monday traveled thru to Easter Road to play the already relegated Hibernian, the Blue Boys spanked them 2-1. On the Wednesday they played the original Rangers at Rugby Park where a win would see them safe, this was imperative as they still had to travel up to Dundee on the Saturday to play our relegation rivals Dundee who were coming of a great result, 5-1 tanking of Celtic at Dens!! The Killie boys were up for it and sent the Gers home with their tails between their legs courtesy of a 1-0 drubbing.This tired band of brothers limped up to Dundee on the Saturday to play game # 4 against full time opponents and in a party mood duly dispatched Dundee 2-0 on their own patch with that man Big D wandering up the park and scoring a screamer!! Now even though Killie pointed out how unfair this was they were told to play—-or else!!!!
Next time I hear any greet-in’ from overpaid Prima Donnas about having to play 2 games a week(or heaven forbid with a squad the size and supposed quality that the original Rangers had back in 2008 four games) I will pick myself up off the floor after falling down laughing. Is it just me or were the Scottish players a much hardier breed in those days!!!
Gaun the Killie
Yours in sport
Sean Michael KTID
Optimistic / delusional / misleading / ignorant Warblings from the newcomer;
“…Warburton said: “It’s fantastic for the fans and for the players to experience a game of that nature and it has to be our target. Four Old Firm games would be tremendous for the city…”
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/rangers/14295791.Rangers_boss_Mark_Warburton_relishing_potential_Premiership_Celtic_clashes/
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Really ?
An obedient copy/paste action performed by Chris Jack at the Evening Shark-Jump, [(c) The Clumpany 2015]
tony 23rd February 2016 at 5:40 pm #
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A bit of back tracking from the Crown Office from yesterday’s statement that they “will” bring new charges
Crown Office Press Release;
For your background, further to the information you received from us regarding future proceedings against Paul Clark, David Whitehouse and Charles Green, the Crown today undertook to the court to correct the position, which is as below.
Attributable to a Crown Office spokesperson: “The Crown will give consideration to raising a fresh indictment against Paul Clark, David Whitehouse and Green within the statutory time limits.”
easyJambo
it’s all a bit baffling,oh well we wait and see
tony 23rd February 2016 at 5:53 pm #
easyJambo
it’s all a bit baffling,oh well we wait and see
======================================
It isn’t baffling if you were in court to hear what was going on, but unfortunately, neither I nor JC can say anything about what was discussed.
Regarding ICT v Aberdeen Will Collum “fiasco” as the Press dubbed it and my view that Derek McInnes would not be charged by the Compliance officer for post match comments.
jimmci 16th February 2016 at 6:40 pm #
tayred 16th February 2016 at 3:41 pm
I’m sure it will come. Why would you think it wouldn’t? Or do you think that only happens to Celtic managers!? Good grief!—————-
Sorry, Tayred, I think we are in broad agreement on refereeing standards. My earlier comment was not so much on refereeing standards – I did say I thought they are awful in this country – but more the way the media then report said refereeing howlers!
As to McInnes being called up before the beaks? We agree he should be. The fact you think he will while I suspect he won’t is just another example of the arbitrary and discretionary approach to these things at Hampden and our lack of trust in them to behave consistently.
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We’re now a week on and as I suspected the Compliance officer appears not to see fit to charge Derek McInnes for impugning the ability of the referee and the integrity of Ross Draper who was the ICT player who won the penalty or “conned the ref”.
It appears my suspicions were indeed well founded and that the workings of the Compliance officer remain a mystery to most of us.
Meantime it appears that Mr Collum is being appointed to three lower division games by way of punishment and hopefully to rebuild his confidence to be fit to take charge of a top tier game. I suspect the Press will have a field day with this news.
Killie 1962, What a great story, I don’t remember it but aye things have changed! Prima donnas.
easyJambo
you could put on a false moustache and glasses and tell me
StevieBC 23rd February 2016 at 5:44 pm #Really ?An obedient copy/paste action performed by Chris Jack at the Evening Shark-Jump, [(c) The Clumpany 2015]
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The Evening Times has performed a feat that most would have said was impossible. It makes the Daily Record look like a newspaper.
That is the level (5PR) to which Glasgow’s proud tradition of quality journalism has been reduced. Sad, sad, sad. Four (at least, and counting) Warburton blatant puff pieces in the Record and Evening Times today. It really is unbelievable- but oh so believable at the same time, if you know what I mean.
tony 23rd February 2016 at 5:53 pm
‘…it’s all a bit baffling,oh well we wait and see.’
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tony, my learned friend easyJambo is correct: our lips are tied, hands sealed.
But I can say that the ‘Macer’ approached me after lunch and asked whether I was taking notes.I looked at the notebook in my hand and the pen in my other hand and got a sudden flash of insight into a 5-year-old-child’s mind when I was tempted to look innocent and say ‘no’.
But commonsense prevailed, I owned up, and was told it was not permitted! I didn’t argue.
I doubt if the ‘Macer’ was acting on his own initiative, and I doubt if His Lordship would even have noticed : so I suspect that someone in the public ‘gallery’ ( which included a lawyer or two) sitting behind me might just have had a word during lunch.
I have to assume that the Macer is telling it as it is: note-taking except by Press not allowed. Whether that is only in cases where there are reporting restrictions ,or more generally, I will have to investigate.
Anybody with experience in such matters care to estimate how much this PR must be costing. Is it a fixed monthly fee and the do PR company have to place such material even when negative publicity is non existent; to justify said??
John Clark 23rd February 2016 at 7:09 pm #
Don’t understand the legal niceties of court proceedings so my question is simple or stupid.
why, in so many cases throughout this farrago have reporting restrictions been imposed?
normally you can’t get enough of Rangers – club or company – in our media except court proceedings
John Clark
so basically you can’t take notes but jamrs doleman is ok? as long as someone can it’s okalthough intruged as to why you can’t in a public court
tony 23rd February 2016 at 7:33 pm #John Clark so basically you can’t take notes but jamrs doleman is ok? as long as someone can it’s okalthough intruged as to why you can’t in a public court
___________________________________________________
It’s because James Doleman and Keith Jackson are respected professionals and our John Clark is just a scallywag.
55 55 comments gunnerb 23rd February 2016 at 7:45 pm #
Sorry James..and for that matter John.
gunnerb
james may be,but the other one aint
I think it’s to do with when a case goes to trial and it involves a jury, they don’t want potential jurors influenced by press reports prior to the trial.
“But I can say that the ‘Macer’ approached me after lunch and asked whether I was taking notes”
It reminds of a game in the sixties where Celtic were visiting my second home, Easter Road. Five minutes till half time
Reiver, wish you would expand on that story.
“But I can say that the ‘Macer’ approached me after lunch and asked whether I was taking notes”
JC
It reminds of a game in the sixties where Celtic were visiting my second home, Easter Road. Five minutes before half time and my bladder told me that the referee’s watch was wrong. I nipped up to the top of the high east terracing and I realised that without a sherpa there was no way I could make it down to the toilet(note singular) intact. Remember these were the days before Tena-Lady’s were on the market. Anyway, I pointed my pride towards the east and went with the flow only to be interrupted mid stream with a deep authoritive voice. ” Excuse me sir, what do you think you are doing”. Like you, I was confused as to how the question could be asked. I stifled the smart-assed answer and went for. “What do you think officer? But no- one can see me”. Bright, as only a member of the constabulary can be, he retorted “There are 35,000 (Ah, those were the days) people in the ground here”. Five minutes before half time, Celtic on the attack but 35,000 watching and admiring this majestic genitalia. I don’t think so!
Confident of my position I chose the ideal put down.
“Yes sir. Sorry sir, I won’t do it again.”
Ah The attraction of trailing a story, whet the appetite
Either that or, as in this case, hit a keyboard shortcut that posts prematur (Oh shjit, I’ve done it again)ely.
gunnerb 23rd February 2016 at 7:45 pm
‘…and our John Clark is just a scallywag.’
______
And ,as Shuggy K might splutter, ‘ ..an internet bampot scallywag’ at that.!
John, I often wonder if he imagines us ‘internet bampots’ to be daft wee boys, when we’re actually daft old boys! (For the most part anyway)
I don’t understand ‘due process’. The setting aside of all these indictements (sp) recently has me a bit worried. Are they all going to get off scott free? There are some more knowledgable people who post that this is ok. Narrowing it down so to speak. Refining the charges.
When will we see justice?
Why can’t justice be provided on a plate by Rangers directors like King a few years ago – we need to apologise -, Like Regan & Doncaster at the time of the 5 way agreement – strip Rangers of 15 Titles if they agree to go into 2nd tier.
They either deserved to lose those 15 titles or they didn’t. Not depending on an outcome of votes.
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.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Nope
What`s wrong with the under 20 league is the pain it inflicts when the magic hat looks at the league table
Celtic P 18 won 17 drew 1 lost 0 52pts
TRFC P 19 won 8 drew 3 lost 8 27pts
Can anybody remember the last time the under 20 league table was published in any of the Rags?
Or put another way
If TRFC were leading Celtic by 25 pts after half a season would there be more coverage in the MSM?
goosygoosy
if TRFC where on top of that league SMSM would no doubt use it to promote the utter brilliance of murray park,of that i have no doubt
jimbo 23rd February 2016 at 6:21 pm #Killie 1962, What a great story, I don’t remember it but aye things have changed! Prima donnas.
Thanks for the compliment Jimbo, just to finish it off completely we had to play Rangers at Ibrox on the following Wednesday, 30TH April 1980, this was our last fixture. The team ran out of steam and went down narrowly by 1-0 in front of an atrocious crowd of only around 8000. This completed 5 full first team fixtures in 11 days!! The press never said a word nor in fact did Killie, we were just so happy to stay up.
Again in sport
Sean Michael
Re Development league
To be fair to Sevco, if they were to win all their games in hand, they would be joint fourth with Aberdeen.
http://spfl.co.uk/development-league/
Killie1962,
I all honesty I have been to hundreds of home games at Celtic Park. But I was never an away supporter. I could go on all night how they are our pride and joy. But sometimes I would prefer their singing book to be about Celtic only.
I’ve got a question for you, why do supporters for instance like Kilmarnock, sing Rangers anthems at Celtic supporters? I just don’t get that. Sing your own songs.
goosygoosy 23rd February 2016 at 11:33 pm #
Corrupt official 24th February 2016 at 12:53 am #
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The Development League table is a waste of time as the approach adopted by each team to any game is so variable. The league is nominally an U20 league, but you are allowed to play up to five overage players. It is already a Reserve League in all but name.
Some clubs use it to give their fringe first team players regular games, while others see it for development purposes only and generally play their U20s and U19s with the odd U18, U17 or even younger players, with the only overage players being those coming back from injury lay offs.
Celtic are by some distance the strongest team in the division but they have still played overage guys in their side like Allan, Rogic, or Mackay-Steven.
I go to most of Hearts Development League games and can usually predict fairly accurately who will win the game simply on the basis of the ages of the players. If I was a betting man (which I’m not), I could make a good profit over a season.
The youth cup is a better indicator of who has decent youth squads as teams are limited to U20s only. The semi finals this season are Ross County v Motherwell and Hearts v Dundee Utd, which in no way reflects the Development League table.
Reiver, Think it’s time you started a new petition, ‘Strip SDM of his title’.
Easyjambo
It was always said that the ones singing the Rangers songs ,like at Kilmarnocks ground where Rangers fans that could not afford the bus fare to Ibrox.
I think there is a traditional GIRUY attitude towards Rangers and Celtic, most notably encapsulated in the behaviour of Hugh Sproat, the former Ayr United and Motherwell goalie.
Sproat comically used to wear a green jersey against Rangers and a Blue one against Celtic. The fans in general follow that lead with songs designed to wind up folk who are forever in a headlong rush to take offence.
In fact the traditional goes back further. I remember an uncle telling me of a Motherwell keeper in the 50s who did the same.
Of course that does tend to have Rangers and Celtic fans infer the old Bears/Tims without the busfare situation 🙂
The only time I can remember a recorded instance of third party supporters being credited with influencing the outcome of a match was (as a boy) reading an older (1958) Scottish Football Book under the headline, “Whistling Blues Win Clyde the Cup”. The final was played between Clyde and Hibs, Clyde winning 1-0. Hugh Taylor’s article was predicated on the notion was that Rangers fans had turned up at Hampden to loudly and effectively cheer on the Bully Wee, not as a gesture of civic fondness, but because they felt hard done by in the semi when they were beaten by Hibs in a replay.
My guess is that Clyde fans will suggest a better reason why their team won 🙂
The Times (yesterday) from Paul Forsyth , Scottish Football correspondent on the Gary Harkins story ;
“Harkins’ comments were less considered . By all accounts he was smiling as he said it but only the Celtic fans were laughing yesterday . Their Rangers counterparts fulminated and the rest groaned about the return of Scottish football’s most wretched and tiresome subject to its news agenda .”
If he finds The Rangers story “wretched and tiresome” I think he should look for another job , maybe at the DR or even better The Evening Times would be his natural niche by the sounds of it . Pathetic “journalism” .
jimmci 23rd February 2016 at 6:17 pm #
Jimmci, seems you were correct on that one, although I don’t know what the official deadline for non-compliance issues to be flagged up is? Perhaps having reviewed the footage they decided there was no counter argument and the embarrassment of citing someone for telling the truth might be too much. Yeah, ok I know SFA compliance doesn’t have much of a history of embarrassment. God knows.
Maybe a trade off – McInnes gets a behind the scene don’t do it again, Draper gets a behind the scene rap on the knuckles (for the “dive” and for his cringeworthy outburst in the press), while Collum quietly gets locked out of the top games for a few weeks.
My personal thoughts are that the aim in keeping quiet is so to allow Collum to drift out of the spotlight and do his time off camera in the lower leagues. Once the dust settles they can reinstate their “top man” back to his “rightful place” in time for him to be ready to jet off to the Euros and embarrass the hell out of us all in France. So really its another case of everyone down into the bunker and we can ride this one out too – avoiding the issue, avoiding making any unnecessary decisions – cowardice is another way of putting it.
Yet more from Warburton in today’s Record. I have absolutely no doubt that the Evening Times will follow suit later. The amount of column inches devoted by our press to the thoughts of Chairman Warburton over the last few days is nothing short of astounding.
What Warburton says is of little or no interest to me, but what does interest me is why Level5 PR (for it is they) have launched this media onslaught now. It is clearly intended to deflect attention from something else, which generally means bad news from the Blue Room is imminent. I wonder what it could be?
Re Killie singing ‘Rangers’ songs when they play Celtic.
I think they sing their Killie boys song at all games whoever they are playing. Same with Dundee and their version.
Indeed lots of English clubs sing a version. I believe the original is marching through Georgia or something similar.
I believe Celtic sing that famous Liverpool anthem ‘You’ll never Walk Alone’
John Clark 23rd February 2016 at 7:09 pm
It’s a few years old now but ‘The Silent State’ by Heather Brooke might interest you. If you don’t know of her already, she is an investigative journalist who was heavily involved in exposing the MPs expenses scandal.
The chapter on the UK courts might be of particular interest to you, and easyJambo, given your recent experiences. She shines a light how difficult it’s made for the average person to get access to information, to attend or report on events happening within a system that as taxpayers we pay for. Of the low level intimidation and how citizens can be treated with suspicion for simply wanting to know what’s going on.
neepheid 24th February 2016 at 9:23 am
Actually it is the other way around the Evening Times ran with the Warburton supports Colts Teams last night.
The DR have just followed on.
Interesting to note that on the DR web site is a story dissing WH Ireland who apparently have been fined £1.2m for not having the right systems and controls in place to stop “market abuse being detected or occurring”.
Can’t see how they failed in that duty given their clear warning of appointing convicted tax dodgers to chairmanships but, hey there you go.
Funny how the DR can suddenly dig deep into market news and financial matters linked to T’Rangers when the story puts out spin against those who are not RRM but not one question is ever asked re the financial goings on of King and Co , or indeed anyone who has held power in the Blue Room until after the event!
You would think they were getting spoon fed by someone?
wottpi 24th February 2016 at 10:05 am #neepheid 24th February 2016 at 9:23 am
Actually it is the other way around the Evening Times ran with the Warburton supports Colts Teams last night.
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Well, yes, but surely Chris “Union” Jack has some new words of wisdom from the oracle lined up for later? Which the DR will then follow with at least a couple of Warburton articles, which the ET will slightly rejig and publish, to be followed by——-.
How long can they keep this up?
neepheid 24th February 2016 at 9:23 am # Yet more from Warburton in today’s Record. I have absolutely no doubt that the Evening Times will follow suit later. The amount of column inches devoted by our press to the thoughts of Chairman Warburton over the last few days is nothing short of astounding. What Warburton says is of little or no interest to me, but what does interest me is why Level5 PR (for it is they) have launched this media onslaught now. It is clearly intended to deflect attention from something else, which generally means bad news from the Blue Room is imminent. I wonder what it could be?
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There’s a post I referred to yesterday on JJ’s site under his Metaphysical Games blog that might give a clue to what Level5 could be under orders to ensure stays out of the SMSM. It’s a very serious, but well written, post from someone who genuinely seems concerned, and with good reason. As I said yesterday, if he’d wanted it posted here, he’d have done so himself, and out of respect I prefer to leave it to others to search it out if they want to read it.
It involves RF and suggests they are running an organisation, that, in theory, might see millions pass through it’s hands, in a less than transparent manner (my point, not his). Also, if you’ve been wondering why no one from RF has defended/explained the loan that never was, you might find the answer in that post too.
Another controversial saga, succulently ignored by the media, brewing, I think.
For the record, neither I, nor JJ’s poster, are suggesting there has been any financial impropriety, just that important information is being/has been withheld from RF members and questions are going unanswered, and that is not a good thing.
Big Pink 24th February 2016 at 8:02 am #I think there is a traditional GIRUY attitude towards Rangers and Celtic, most notably encapsulated in the behaviour of Hugh Sproat, the former Ayr United and Motherwell goalie.
Sproat comically used to wear a green jersey against Rangers and a Blue one against Celtic.
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Ah Hugh “Shuggie” Sproat, one of my favourite ever Motherwell players. Swinging on the bar, having a snowball fight with fans during a game, his mazy runs up the park with ball – he really did prove you have to be mad to be a goalkeeper!
My first line of reference to football matters now is the Johnjames site. Better written and more forensic than PMG, and more honest than CQN, which does seem to toe the party line re Celtic.
He was scathing about the Celtic reaction to last season’s SFA cup semi final.
I actually think he’d be a better Celtic man than many who purport to be so.
Add to all that, he has not been challenged by the High Heid Yin’s on any of his stuff—compulsive reading, and that is from someone who seems to have been blocked from commenting on the site.
Is the new stand at the trainng ground so that THE rangers fans!! have a place to watch them when they can’t use inbox anymore or for when they go POP and have to restart again as THE THE THE THE ETERNAL thingy that has got everyone so confused as to who and what they are.
I am no financial wizard but it looks like a waste of money to me maybe we should ask the Warbmeister as he seems to be the man to go to for advice and ideas of whAt is wrong with our game
Allyjambo 24th February 2016 at 10:40 am #
There is a new post on the subject of the Gagging Order by JJ himself. The plot thickens. Aye, ithn’t it thickening?
Kopweb
this one
https://johnjamessite.wordpress.com/author/sitonfence/
Ally,
I saw that post on a fan forum, maybe FF? Then I saw it posted again on the JJ site, and then your reference to it here. On the plus side, it was actually posted on a fan site, and the reaction was not the usual “take him out and hang him high” stuff from a few years back. Some posters actually shared his concerns, and there appears to be a welcome increase recently in critical thinking among the Bears generally.
Opposition to the £500k Auchenhowie stand project seems quite widespread, so it looks as if the bears are finally asking questions. I find that wholly positive.
On the specific points regarding accountability, the lack of minutes of meetings of RangersFirst really struck me. There was apparently an undertaking to supply minutes within 24 hours. Admirable but clearly unrealistic. However no minutes for almost 2 years, using that as an excuse? With £500k in the bank? Hmmmm . If I’d put any money in, I’d be asking questions too.
And a gagging order? Not a super injunction, surely? For a two bit small business? That is truly worrying. Can’t someone get information from the courts on this?
Raymac 24th February 2016 at 11:59 am #
The sitonfence site can be an interesting read, however he gets too much wrong for it to be relaiable. Some of it fairly basic stuff.
I think sometimes he reads things on the internet, thinks he understand it but doesn’t really, and posts blogs based on his mis-reading. It is reasonably well written so there is an assumption by the reader that he must know what he is talking about. His opinions are often written as fact.
PMGB is more of a traditional journalist in my view. He quotes sources of information and occassionaly goes to experts to analyse things, then posts the opinions of those experts.
I read both, however if I were to choose one it would be PMGB’s blog and I’m not suggesting for a second he gets everything right or doesn’t allow his own opinions to cloud his judgement. He is also what a lot of people cry out for, open about who he is. It’s questionable whether the person calling themselves John James really is even a Rangers supporeter.
Kopweb 24th February 2016 at 12:31 pm # Allyjambo 24th February 2016 at 10:40 am # There is a new post on the subject of the Gagging Order by JJ himself. The plot thickens. Aye, ithn’t it thickening?
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Thanks for the pointer, KW. King certainly seems able to find ways to entice people away from their hard earned money, and it must appear to be all too easy for him when the people are so desperate to oblige. Now imagine if a newspaper was to get a whiff of this, they’d be hotfoot down to both TRFC and RF to ask all the right questions. Sadly, we only have the remnants of a once proud newspaper industry left, and so the reality of what’s happening to OPM (Ordinary Peoples Money) will remain ‘gagged’ until, once again, it is much too late.
On the appointment of Richard Gough, does anyone involved with this ‘lender of last resort’ not think it would be a good thing to ask themselves, ‘what if this was Ally McCoist (with no known previous connection to TRFC) oozing his way onto the RF board with the encouragement of Dave King, would we have believed every word he said, or would we be suspicious?’
I am pretty certain they would be welcoming him with open arms, totally convinced that he’s a Real Rangers Man with no interest in lining his own nest. In fact, exactly what they thought of him prior to discovering the reality. McCoist was Whyte, then Green’s man, then whoever just happened to pay his ludicrously inflated wage. What can it take to get the members of RF, and any of the other organisations targeted, to realise that being a well loved ex-player doesn’t instil honesty, integrity or any other quality required to take good care of other people’s money, especially when they are tied to people of such known immoral and criminal backgrounds?
All they need to do is insist on security over the assets of the company, not just to ensure the safety of their ‘investment’, but to achieve what every bear must surely want, the safe harbour of the club’s assets in the safest hands they will ever find! Their own.
I know the likelihood of there being much in the way of assets available is very slim, but to insist on such security would, at the very least, force the truth out into the open! Whether the organisations’ leaders might then realise that they are flogging a dead horse with their members’ money, would be an altogether different matter, but it might allow the more sensible members to get out before they lose any more, assuming they can’t get out what they’ve already put in.
neepheid 24th February 2016 at 1:00 pm # Allyjambo 24th February 2016 at 10:40 am There’s a post I referred to yesterday on JJ’s site under his Metaphysical Games blog that might give a clue to what Level5 could be under orders to ensure stays out of the SMSM. It’s a very serious, but well written, post from someone who genuinely seems concerned, and with good reason.Ally, I saw that post on a fan forum, maybe FF? Then I saw it posted again on the JJ site, and then your reference to it here. On the plus side, it was actually posted on a fan site, and the reaction was not the usual “take him out and hang him high” stuff from a few years back. Some posters actually shared his concerns, and there appears to be a welcome increase recently in critical thinking among the Bears generally. Opposition to the £500k Auchenhowie stand project seems quite widespread, so it looks as if the bears are finally asking questions. I find that wholly positive. On the specific points regarding accountability, the lack of minutes of meetings of RangersFirst really struck me. There was apparently an undertaking to supply minutes within 24 hours. Admirable but clearly unrealistic. However no minutes for almost 2 years, using that as an excuse? With £500k in the bank? Hmmmm . If I’d put any money in, I’d be asking questions too. And a gagging order? Not a super injunction, surely? For a two bit small business? That is truly worrying. Can’t someone get information from the courts on this?
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JJ has produced a blog today based on the post in question. In it he suggests that it is not a ‘Gagging Order’ placed by a court, but rather King using his influence and power over the supporters’ representatives/board. I suspect there’s a few people been promised coveted positions should this loan go through, and these might well be seen as effective ‘gags’! No minutes = effectively gagged!
Certainly there can be no moral justification for any organisation to keep it’s dealings secret from it’s members, especially one with such a simple aim – collect money, buy shares! It might even be against the law not to keep members fully informed of all matters, especially financial (I’d be surprised if it’s not) and I doubt it is even acceptable for them to change their function by adding loans to their agenda, particularly unsecured loans, in such short order and without advising their membership accordingly with the full legal implications spelled out.
I doubt very much that the SMSM are not now aware of the poster in question’s (and others) concerns, but I’m sure they are all too busy collecting quotes from Warburton to bother trying to do their job by ensuring that the silence of the press over unpalatable truths around Ibrox is not repeated.
Could it possibly transpire that once the £500k was safely lodged (pun may or may not be intended), some little planning problem will arise, thereby postponing commencement of the project?
In the meantime, the cash will rest in someones account, in an offshore island. #craggyisland
Re the comment here and on the JJ site regarding Rangers First CIC….
In 2014 I understand that Richard Gough said :
“King is the only man offering investment, he is the only person prepared to give fans a say in the running of Rangers…..Dave is a man with a plan. In fact, he is a man with a plan B, C and D.”
Is the Rangers First CIC loan his Plan D then?
What authority oversees the conduct of entities like Rangers First CIC?
Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.
yourhavingalaugh 24th February 2016 at 6:45 am #Easyjambo It was always said that the ones singing the Rangers songs ,like at Kilmarnocks ground where Rangers fans that could not afford the bus fare to Ibrox.
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YHAL: Well, at least I admit to spouting nonsense.
As a young Killie fan, I wasn’t even aware of the darker blue version of our song. My father and grandfather would never expose me to the ‘Old Firm’ games, so I never heard any of their mock-religious ditties.
I can assure you that the song is sung on most occasions when Killie play, but, for reasons which will be apparent to most of our readers, it has been heard much less over the last season or two.
As to fitba’ players being cossetted these days compared to those of yore, I have a couple of examples from the past. My father used to play for Crossoose Waverley in the Juniors in the late 1930s. He told me of one away game they played in the depths of winter at a mining village in Ayrshire – it may have been Annbank way. He said that not far behind one goal there was quite a big pond. Half way through the first half a shot went well over the bar and landed plumb in the middle of the pond. After some discussion it became apparent that this was the only ball. As it started to snow, the home team’s big centre half – a hard, hard man according to my father – plunged into the pond; swam to the ball and retrieved it; shook himself like a dog and then carried on playing.
From my own experience, after we emigrated to Englandshire I ended up playing for a (very) minor team in a Blackpool League. Up the back of Blackpool was the former location of the original Blackpool Airport. It was a bleak windswept place at the best of times, but there were a number of football pitches on it. On one famous occasion, we played there in the winter in short sleeved shirts in a half decent gale. Two of our players were taken off with exposure – they were shivering uncontrollably and turning blue. The rest of us managed to finish the game, but we were very pleased when the ref. blew the final whistle.
Here is a good (in my opinion) summary of the current state of Scottish newspaper sales- it’s Wings Scotland, so don’t click if you have some sort of issue with his stuff. He is genuinely numerate, however, which I already know annoys his detractors to distraction. Since most of them are totally innumerate- in my opinion.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-sands-of-the-times/
redlichtie 24th February 2016 at 2:15 pm # What authority oversees the conduct of entities like Rangers First CIC? =====================================
They are registered at Companies House but there is also a separate CIC Regulator based in Cardiff:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-regulator-of-community-interest-companies
The latest accounts of Rangers First show them having reserves of nearly £1M.
Scottish Football needs a strong regulator as well as a strong Arbroath
Can we just have a little clarity with regards to the fans money that is sloshing around waiting to be plundered.
As I understand it :-
Cash from the fans one off £500 donations and monthly direct debits are under the control of the Rangers First (RF) umbrella. The idea is that all the disjointed supporters groups band together under this umbrella to assist the club financially through Rangers First 2014 CIC (Community Interest Company).
It was Rangers First who had a vote recently to loan £500k to the club but this was rejected.
Since then that offer has been shelved, the club denied they asked for it or needed it and a new board for RF was voted on the other week and this included Richard Gough.
The Auchendowie stand proposal is coming from the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund (RFFF) who were set up to gather cash at the time of the original administration and say on their website have £488,774.61 in the Rangers Assembly Bank Account.
Their committee has put forward (presumably thinking all is well!!!??) that the money held in the account be spent on a stand and changing room facility at Auchendowie. (ref Sons of Struth facebook page) However they do appear to be open to other suggestions and there is a meeting on Monday where the matter can be discussed.
While the Rangers Assembly are one of the groups under the proposed RF CIC umberella it would appear, on the surface, the intention is not to use their RFFF cash to buys shares or pay leccy bills but to contribute to lasting (?) infrastructure.
How the conspiracies pan out re any of the above monies getting into King’s hands, then lets wait and see.
Happy to be corrected if the above is inaccurate.
AS I understand it
the RFFF money was originally aimed at funding legal fees to defend the “club” against “haters” who wanted title stripping. I believe they funded a legal team at the LNS tribunal? A lot of the discussion on their forum appears to centre on whether the title stripping threat has really gone away, or whether the £500k is best kept in reserve, in case the matter arises again.
However, it seems that the whole thing was not very tightly defined at the outset, so those controlling the money can come up with the youth development grandstand scheme, or whatever.
Kopweb 24th February 2016 at 2:51 pm #redlichtie 24th February 2016 at 2:15 pm # What authority oversees the conduct of entities like Rangers First CIC? =====================================They are registered at Companies House but there is also a separate CIC Regulator based in Cardiff:https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-regulator-of-community-interest-companies The latest accounts of Rangers First show them having reserves of nearly £1M.Scottish Football needs a strong regulator as well as a strong Arbroath
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Off the top of my head, I didn’t know what a CIC was until I heard about RF.
I checked it out, and posted previously a quote about CIC’s which, to paraphrase;
“is an entity which is less onerously / tightly regulated as a registered charity”.
Based on what we observed previously with the Rangers charity, re: funds transfers, whitewater rafting etc., [allegedly], and the complaints to the Charities Regulator…mibbees someone was being ‘smart’ wrt to the creation of an RF CIC – to enable maximum opaqueness wrt future transactions and information sharing ?
Allegedly.
jimbo 24th February 2016 at 1:15 am #Killie1962,
“I all honesty I have been to hundreds of home games at Celtic Park. But I was never an away supporter. I could go on all night how they are our pride and joy. But sometimes I would prefer their singing book to be about Celtic only.
I’ve got a question for you, why do supporters for instance like Kilmarnock, sing Rangers anthems at Celtic supporters? I just don’t get that. Sing your own songs.”
Good morning Jimbo, there is an 8 hour time difference and as I am in California it takes me a wee bit longer to reply.Looks like some of the fellahs think you are Easyjambo,now is that not a scary thought!! In answer to your question as a Killie fan growing up in the 60’s and 70’s attending a lot of games we sung our own version of this song without much thought of the Rangers connection. Our words tended to be molded round whoever we were playing (Dundee, Aberdeen etc) but always threw Ayr United into the mix at every turn!! There was never anything sinister, they tended to give the Rangers support laldy as well as the Celtic crowd too. It was usually a wind up. Ayr United tended to get the brunt of some of the songs, but Killie fans (well most) are in their element belting out Paper Roses and that song my friend has been sung in pubs,bars and streets in all corners of this wide world, usually by Killie Expats or visiting Killie boys with the locals joining in and wondering about our sanity!! Rangers stole their anthem off General Sherman’s boys as they cleaned out Georgia and left it as barren as an Aberdonian’s pocket on collection day!! If you want to hear a really good song written by a Dundee fan just check out “The balled of Wullie Reilly”,(youtube) a tribute to one of their biggest fans who sadly passed away a few years back from a nasty illness. I’ll bet every club in Scotland has at least one of these characters following their team, that’s the patter and feeling that makes up the Scottish football fan’s psyche.
Finale on Hugh Sproat (another Ayrshire man, from Auchinleck)our song to him was alaways “Oh Sproat the Looney” to the tune of “Oh spot the looney” !!
your in sport
Gaun the Killie
@Auldheid – you have an email and PM (urgent)
phil’s latest
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/development-story/#more-7336
easyJambo
don’t usually bother with thumb up/down but getting one down for wanting to speak to auldheid??? weird
tony 24th February 2016 at 6:32 pm
phil’s latest
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/development-story/#more-7336
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You don’t need an insider at Ibrox to tell you that next year’s operating budgets are disappointingly constrained.
Look at the manager: eight points clear (at time of writing) in the league, in line for a £500k bonus, still in the Scottish Cup (and Petrofac Training Cup), yet he’s developing the thousand-yard stare of someone who’s cornered & feeling the pressure, perhaps for the first time at Ibrox.
I wonder when he’ll be forced to make his ‘We are where we are & this is it for the forseeable future…” speech.
“What if this is as good as it gets?” — Melvin Udall.
Interesting to see Harkins say that his remarks were ‘tongue and cheek’ after the barrage he took.
Also interesting to see that is was reported that his club ‘were going to have a word with him over his comments’.
Why would his ‘club’ have a word when everyone knows there is no such thing according to the media!!!
While this, yet again, ignites the OC/NC debate no one in the media ever seems to ask the correct questions.
Stewart Regan in answer to a question asking if they were the same club said ‘If you want them to be’. Why could he not give an unequivocal answer? If the Chief Executive of the SFA cannot give a straight answer to an easy question then something isn’t right and any journalist worth his salt would start sniffing.
We are often told that it is all about opinions yet when anyone does voice an opinion that does not fit the party line then the press are only too quick to print it in large letters. If it is indeed ‘all about opinions’ then someone stating the opposite would be water off a ducks back however what we see here is the attempt to stamp out any other opinion accept the recognised one.
To make sure that the ‘new club’ theory does not gain traction everyone that mentions it is immediately targeted by some of the worst elements of ‘The Rangers’ support, and a media out of touch with reality. Badger, bully, and intimidate the messenger until they conform. Reporters asking basic questions, announcers at other clubs, players’ at other clubs are all fair game yet no one dares to ask even the most basic questions. Why are they so afraid?
It would have been interesting if Harkins had answered, when questioned by the Daily Record, that it was tongue in cheek but if it is not true why did ‘The Rangers’ not sue the Daily Record for their headline the day after the CVA failed or, if they did how much did they pay in damages, and finally, if ‘The Rangers’ were that unhappy with his statement then they could sue him.
He could have crowd funded his defence and would have had enough in a couple of hours but that would have created a much larger story that the media would have been terrified to report.
When you have a media who are a major part of the story then there is a real problem. They are now being dragged into the eye of the storm and they cannot escape the scrutiny of the public. They have failed in their fundamental duty to report truthfully and accurately to the detriment of our sport and their profession. The pressure is building on this story; it isn’t going away.
What are they going to do when the various court cases start are they just simply going to ignore them!
They are creating the vacuum and that is why sites like this, PMcB, and John James are now being read by more people than their publications. That this is a big story of interest to a large number of people is undeniable. It transcends club loyalties and crosses over into the corporate and financial worlds. What message should that send to the owners/editors of every publication in the country who are watching their circulation dry up?
tony 24th February 2016 at 6:32 pm #phil’s latest http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/development-story/#more-7336
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Phil stating that CEO Stewart Robertson has given a reasonable, objective assessment to the Board, and cuts are required – but apparently some ‘areas are off limits’.
If the CEO doesn’t have free reign to slash & burn costs – even after updating the Board – then shirley his personal choice of action is rather limited ?
And if he is as highly regarded as Phil asserts – then again – Robertson wouldn’t want to be the Captain of the Ship drifting into Administration waters ?
You would think ?
So, if Phil’s right, TRFC* decide they can’t afford to continue competing in the Development league and presumably they, or L5 discuss how they can spin that decision so as not to alert the fans of their increasing skintness. They decide to spin it as questioning its effectiveness in developing players and someone then has to go to Mark Warburton and explain “Right, Mark. This is what we want you to say….”.
Is it likely that a football manager would be so willing to go along with that? I hope Phil’s right and money is as tight as he suggests, given that it would prove what we calculate to be the likely situation, but I’m not sure I can see a football manager going along with that sort of duplicity. Maybe I’m as naïve as my old boss said I was!
Homunculus 24th February 2016 at 1:14 pm #Raymac 24th February 2016 at 11:59 am #
The sitonfence site can be an interesting read, however he gets too much wrong for it to be relaiable. Some of it fairly basic stuff.
I think sometimes he reads things on the internet, thinks he understand it but doesn’t really, and posts blogs based on his mis-reading. It is reasonably well written so there is an assumption by the reader that he must know what he is talking about. His opinions are often written as fact.
PMGB is more of a traditional journalist in my view. He quotes sources of information and occassionaly goes to experts to analyse things, then posts the opinions of those experts.
I read both, however if I were to choose one it would be PMGB’s blog and I’m not suggesting for a second he gets everything right or doesn’t allow his own opinions to cloud his judgement. He is also what a lot of people cry out for, open about who he is. It’s questionable whether the person calling themselves John James really is even a Rangers supporeter.
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I don’t think jj liked your post.
neepheid 24th February 2016 at 3:20 pm #
AS I understand it 14 the RFFF money was originally aimed at funding legal fees to defend the “club” against “haters” who wanted title stripping.
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Loads of people believe that, including most Rangers supporters I have read. I think it’s probably to do with the name.
However it isn’t actually true. It was originally set-up to provide funds during administration, to try to keep the club alive and avoid liquidation. Even they realised that if a business in administration totally ran out of funds then there was no option but to liquidate it. They also realised that the club would die at that stage.
This is from the RFFF homepage. It is quite clear and reflects my memory of reading minutes of meetings.
“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
On the 14th of February 2012 our proud football club found themselves in a dire situation, we had entered the dreaded administration feared by all connected to Rangers…
In the following days it became clear that our 140 year history was at serious risk via the potential of liquidation….
The Fund has been set up for supporters to make cash donations that will directly affect the Club now and will go a long way towards helping secure its future. Be assured, it has been agreed, with all parties, that not one penny of this fund will go to the current owners or the administrators, every single penny will go to the daily running costs of Rangers Football Club.
The committee that had been put in place headed by Sandy Jardine and a number of chosen individuals who represent the fan base chosen by the supporters groups present at the meeting at the Ibrox Suite on Saturday 10th March 2012 .
The Fund (fully endorsed by the three major fan groups – the Association, the Assembly and the Trust) is working with others to ensure that the club is put back on its feet with stable finances.
Without immediate help the club were at a far higher risk of going into liquidation. Our one and only goal was the ongoing survival of our beloved club ensuring the 140 year timeline is maintained.
With great thanks to the rangers family fanbase we achieved our goals in safeguarding many aspects important to us all.
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As I understand it from the original set-up the committee is within their rights to fund building the stand at Murray Park. They agree that once the need for the fund (preventing liquidation) then they could decide how to spend any residual amount.
shug 24th February 2016 at 8:12 pm
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Can I assume he mentioned it and disagrees, that’s fair enough, I wouldn’t expect him to feel any other way.