Questions, questions, questions

 

As SFM folk will know, Scottish Football authorities can be enigmatic at best, puzzling and corrupt at worst, and downright crazy and incompetent in either situation. On this blog over the years, we have asked questions constantly of the authorities and the clubs, but like anyone with a fan-centred interest at heart we get ignored. “Fans are not a homogenous entity”, they say, “there are more opinions than there are fans”. This artful premise gives the clubs an excuse to ignore fans’ input, and other than on platforms like this, fan opinion is seldom gathered or curated.
The following blog, put together by Andy Smith, the Chairman of the Scottish Football Supporters Association, asks a lot of simple questions that don’t get asked often. He also invites fans to raise their own questions and opinions.
Of course, there are headline atrocities committed by the people in charge of the game.
The Five-Way Agreement, the continuity myth, the refusal to punish the biggest incidence of systematic cheating ever experienced in the game, and the casual adoption of the post-truth model introduced so successfully by venal politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.

But what enabled those assaults on the integrity of the sport? In order to get away with the big con, there have to be wee cons. Ticket allocations, kick off times and dates for set-piece occasions which make it difficult if not impossible for fans outside of Glasgow to participate, refusal to hold match officials accountable in the way an underperforming player or a misbehaving fan would be, and countless other incidences where fans are inconvenienced, or even put at risk. 

The only way to combat that level of arrogance is to unite where we can, and although in a partisan sport that can be difficult to achieve, SFM is testimony that it can work. This blog is an invitation for us to begin to look forward, and not get distracted by the past. I  hope SFM-ers participate and make their views clear.

Big Pink

 

What did Alan Dougherty, Gordon Harvey and Eddie Hutch have in common?

They were teachers who gave their time, to thousands of kids, including me, and asked for nothing back. To a man they gave up, overnight, as part of a ‘work to rule’, in an ugly pay dispute in the early 80s.
They were never thanked properly by the game?
They were and are sair missed.
Why did football let that happen?
Why has nobody ever grasped this particular nettle since?



Should you be able to have a beer at Bayview watching East Fife play Clyde on Feb 5th?

Just like the fans at Murrayfield, just over the Firth can and will, at the sell-out game vs England on the very same day.



Should you be allowed to enjoy a beer at Celtic Park watching Celtic vs Rangers on Feb 2nd?

A smaller crowd than Murrayfield too, and very few away fans. But some history and maybe a different situation altogether.

 


Are our leagues too small, leading to constant pressure and short termism by clubs?

Club CFO’s say the pressures are brutal and when their team is in trouble everything else gets sacrificed to avoid the financial chaos of relegation.
Many CFO’s dread the thought of promotion too knowing full well the seesaw implications of our small leagues.



Should the bottom of SPFL be an automatic relegation to open up the pyramid?

Our unique, one league only, convoluted play-off formula was only ever a last minute switcheroo/deal by the SPFL2 clubs at the time to protect their places in the SPFL ‘old boys network’.
I’d suggest East Stirling, Brechin and Berwick would change their votes if asked again.

 

Your Invitation to Say What You Think


Scottish Football Alliance Fan Survey January 2022

The Scottish Football Supporters Association is an independent and growing fans organisation in Scotland with circa 80,000 members. We have members from all senior clubs in Scotland and throughout the pyramid.
Many of those members regularly visit the SFM site.

We have been asked by the new Scottish Football Alliance (http://scottishfootball.org/) to provide an independent insight into what fans think about various aspects of our game, in particular what fans think our game needs to move forward. It is time for change, and football seems incapable of change from within.

Scottish Football might not acknowledge it, but it really needs the input of supporters like you. The fact none of us have been asked our opinions in the past says a lot.

We need to help and tell those running our game and other stakeholders like the Scottish Government what football needs to do.

Scottish football certainly has to think longer term and get closer to its fans.
In any business overview we are the core stakeholders.
The way we are treated and ignored is quite commercially bizarre.

To that end we have commissioned a short two minute survey, but we’d also welcome and appreciate any more detailed insights into what Scottish Football needs to do or do better. Please email those insights (in addition to participating in the survey) to me, at andrew@scottishfsa.org

I know from experience that when you get a group of fans in a room to talk about football, after the local rivalries and stuff gets dealt with, usually with humour, we can all see what the game has done for us, the power of good it can be for our communities and the things that need to change.

I constantly find that most fans not only see the bigger picture but also collectively want to give something back.

When this survey ends we will aggregate and analyse the results and share them far and wide inside the game and to other interested stakeholders like The Scottish Government.

The results will also become the foundation of policies The Scottish Football Alliance will publish and circulate.

At each stage moving forward we will work closely with The Scottish Football Alliance providing then with further fan insight.

And we will keep you and all other fans involved.

Survey Notes
You can participate in the survey by follwing this link:
https://s-f-s-a.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/scottish-football-alliance-survey

The questions are simple Yes/No and there are no right or wrong answers, just opinions and insight into what fans think.

837 thoughts on “Questions, questions, questions


  1. Nawlite 20th July 2022 At 18:15
    ‘..quotes from the BD –
    “Happy days. Between this and Kenny Macintyre taking the lead on Saturdays sportsound is good moves.”’
    +++++++
    Mrs C thinks that McIntyre got the job as an appeasement and the price of getting the BBC back into Ibrox.
    I am ready to concur.
    Unprincipled to the nth degree!!


  2. John Clark 20th July 2022 At 20:06

    Nawlite 20th July 2022 At 18:15
    ‘..quotes from the BD –
    “Happy days. Between this and Kenny Macintyre taking the lead on Saturdays sportsound is good moves.”’

    +++++++++++++++++

    BBC Scotland’s Scottish Football coverage is already massively overloaded with ex-Rangers players in comparison to other clubs. With Kenny MacIntyre now in the chair for Saturday Sportsound it doesn’t bode well. No matter how much anyone protests it’s simply not possible to have coverage with such an imbalance and expect the pundits to be impartial. This HAS to be by design. A person, or persons of influence within BBC clearly believes that people from a Rangers background are more trustworthy and reliable. Fans of all other clubs will have their views, but mine as a Celtic fan is that having ‘token tim’ Pat Bonner as the only regular Celtic contributor smacks of employment practices when I started working. It’s just not good enough to have such an imbalance towards Rangers…this is being funded by public money.


  3. Upthehoops 20th July 2022 At 21:02
    ‘… A person, or persons of influence within BBC clearly believes that people from a Rangers background are more trustworthy and reliable’
    ++++++++
    UPH,
    I’m not the most proficient user of the internet, but I have found it difficult tonight to find out who is ‘in charge’ at Pacific Quay, and who might be ‘Head of Personnel’ or ‘staff hiring, promotions, etc etc’.

    Beyond finding that there is a BBC ‘Scotland Committee’ [on which Muriel Gray serves as chair, I think] and not finding any fairly recent minutes of that committee and therefore not finding any note of discussion of ‘audience’ numbers and such like, I cannot get anywhere near finding out who appointed McIntyre as a possible move to conciliate the lying football club.

    I haven’t even found the name of the current Controller[ Scotland]!
    Mea feckin culpa!
    Whoever he or she [ the last one might have been a ‘they’ for all I know] may be, he/she is ultimately responsible for the disgraceful failure of BBC Scotland to tell the truth about the death of Rangers and for propagation of the lie that RIFC plc is the holding company of the Rangers Football Club of both my grandfathers’ days!
    Honest to God, you couldn’t be up to the duplicity and deceit at the heart of BBC Scotland and the print SMSM generally.
    They KNOW the truth.
    Yet, wilfully, and for the meanest and self-degrading motives, they protect and propagate a lie.
    And cannot even BEGIN to defend that lie by reference to objective fact.
    That’s the test!
    And the BBC , once revered by the whole feckin world ,as well by me, as a bastion of Truth has for the meanest of commercial and/or sectarian partisan reasons, sold its soul.
    God, the contempt welling up in me is indescribable.
    Guys like mad Putin at least lie in important matters.
    Pacific Quay lies in the relatively trivial matter of football!
    And no abstract notions here: there are individual rotten liars and deniers of truth in office at Pacific Quay-whose salaries we are all paying!
    They know who they are.
    We ,unfortunately, do not- so cannot dig into them and their motives or ask them personally why they propagandise a lie.
    May they never sleep with an easy conscience , as betrayers of the Truth.


  4. Upthehoops 20th July 2022 At 21:02
    ‘… A person, or persons of influence within BBC clearly believes that people from a Rangers background are more trustworthy and reliable’
    ++++++++
    UPH,
    I’m not the most proficient user of the internet, but I have found it difficult tonight to find out who is ‘in charge’ at Pacific Quay, and who might be ‘Head of Personnel’ or ‘staff hiring, promotions, etc etc’.

    Beyond finding that there is a BBC ‘Scotland Committee’ [on which Muriel Gray serves as chair, I think] and not finding any fairly recent minutes of that committee and therefore not finding any note of discussion of ‘audience’ numbers and such like, I cannot get anywhere near finding out who appointed McIntyre as a possible move to conciliate the lying football club.
    I haven’t even found the name of the current Controller[ Scotland]!
    Mea feckin culpa!
    Whoever he/or she [ the last one might have been a ‘they’ for all I know] may be, he/she is ultimately responsible for the disgraceful failure of BBC Scotland to tell the truth about the death of Rangers and for propagation of the lie that RIFC plc is the holding company of the Rangers Football Club of both my grandfathers’ days!
    Honest to God, you couldn’t be up to the duplicity and deceit at the heart of BBC Scotland and the print SMSM generally.
    They KNOW the truth.
    Wilfully, and for the meanest and self-degrading motives, they protect and propagate a lie.
    And cannot even BEGIN to defend that lie by reference to objective fact.
    That’s the test!
    And the BBC , once revered by the whole feckin world ,as well by me, as a bastion of Truth has for the meanest of commercial and/or sectarian partisan reasons, sold its soul.
    God, the contempt welling up in me is indescribable.
    Guys like mad Putin at least lie in important matters.
    Pacific Quay lies in the relatively trivial matter of football!
    God rot its soul!


  5. Oops,I think I may have posted a slightly amended post without scrubbing the original one. Sorry about that.


  6. I suppose if I was cynical I might think that the powers beyond Pacific Quay have an absolute requirement for Scotland’s voices of unionism to be working together over the next year or so.

    As we head towards 2023, things are likely to get very serious.

    I’d assume an order to ‘get things sorted – whatever it takes!’ will have come from London.

    If you thought the media generally failed to present a fair and balanced view in the lead up to INDYREF1, you may well see the BBC Scotland/Sevco reconciliation as a frightening portent of things to come.


  7. HP
    Certainly not beyond the possible. Much bigger game being played on the Indy highway than in the narrow lanes of Rangers*


  8. More swift, decisive action today regarding a club fielding an illegible player.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62252834

    Surely these teams being punished for one player would have been far better playing a huge amount of ineligible players over an entire decade? That way they would actually have received the full blessing of the authorities for doing so.


  9. Upthehoops 21st July 2022 At 20:59
    ‘Surely these teams being punished for one player would have been far better playing a huge amount of ineligible players over an entire decade?’
    ++++++++++++++
    And ” Hibs issued an apology to supporters…”
    Honest to God, what a farce that there should still BE any ‘ ineligibility’ rule in the book, after that lying RFC of 1872 spent whole seasons fielding dozens of ineligible players and went unpunished!
    Why all hell wasn’t let loose against the habitual, serious sport cheating by the thankfully now dead RFC of 1872 shows what rotten governance structure there was then, and what weak, cowardly club boards we had then and still do have, to accept being ‘disciplined’ by hypocritical lying governance bodies.
    Scottish Football will never recover its lost honour and integrity for s long as 10 year old club is allowed to claim titles and honours that should have been stripped from SDM’s cheating Rangers.
    Our club owners should show a bit of gumption and self-respect and refuse to accept being disciplined for ‘ineligibility’ offences until RFC of 1872 is expelled retrospectively for its mass cheating, and all honours etc won in the EBT years stripped from it.


  10. HirsutePursuit 20th July 2022 At 23:43
    ‘..I’d assume an order to ‘get things sorted – whatever it takes!’ will have come from London.’
    ++++++++
    No doubt, HP.
    The BBC is quintessentially English in that it equates ‘english’ with ‘british’, as do most people in England. It sees ‘Unionism’ as Putin sees Ukraine as being Russian, as if Scotland was merely a subservient part of England since history began.
    Of its own accord, the BBC abhors the idea of Scotland asserting its right to dissolve the Union, if it were to decide so to do by the democratic vote of the people.
    It will therefore quite happily kow-tow to a football club whose substantial numbers of follow followers need to be appeased and who are politically like-minded.
    BBC Scotland lied in 2012 on behalf of TRFC and continues to lie on their behalf to ensure votes for the Union.
    It will lie again as often as required to support politically the ‘Union’.
    No doubt about it.


  11. I read recently that around 75% of under 35’s in Scotland support Scottish independence. The same report states that for the over 55’s, it’s about 70% in favour of the Union.

    What’s interesting about that, is that the younger generations are tending to move away from standard ‘linear’ TV viewing. If a young person watches BBC output, it is more likely binge-watching a drama series via the iPlayer. The same would be true for STV/ITV output. Consequently, the opportunity to be exposed to random news and current affairs output is much more limited than it has ever been in the past. With physical newspapers a thing of the past, Scotland’s young people have never had such an opportunity to make up their own minds – free of the influence of an inherently biased media.
    The UK government knows who makes up the BBC’s audience. It is absolutely not the majority of the young people of this country.
    It’s a large section of the older generation, desperately clinging to an idea of Britishness that, in my opinion, hasn’t really existed since the 1970’s.
    The BBC in Scotland will be working even harder than usual over the next year to persuade as many people as it can that being British still means something.
    It can’t do that if it has alienated the unionist leaning audience it is seeking to speak to.
    As BP says, there is a much bigger game being played here.


  12. I hope the forum doesn’t descend into an independence bandwagon. There are plenty of other places on social media for that. On other football forums where independence is heavily debated the level of insults and intolerance from many angles belies the notion of the fairer, more tolerant world most people would want to see. I even saw on a Celtic forum people saying if you don’t vote SNP you are not welcome in Celtic Park. Words fail me. Everyone is of course entitled to whatever opinion they choose, as long as it is respectfully presented. Personally I see the BBC capitulation to Rangers as nothing other than the same old cultural bias towards Ibrox that we’ve had to put up with for decades. I seriously doubt it is part of a wider push against those who wish to see Scotland become independent.


  13. @JC – you are not alone in struggling to get any corporate data out of the BBC website. I have submitted a FOI request seeking information from them on their “line-ups” on Sportsound over the course of last season and the cost of these pundits. They promise a response within 20 days…


  14. Upthehoops 22nd July 2022 At 10:09
    ‘,,I hope the forum doesn’t descend into an independence bandwagon.’
    ++++++++++
    So do I, UTH!
    I was attempting to run three ideas together and draw a conclusion:
    a) the BBC has already lied and continues to lie in a matter of ‘ sport’ to appease that [significant enough] section of the football supporting population of Scotland which vociferously espouses ‘Unionism’
    b) the BBC is already regarded with some suspicion by the present Government and is in fear for its continued existence as an independent broadcaster
    c) the BBC is itself , in my opinion, thirled to Unionism
    I conclude that the BBC , listening to a friendly word of advice from a Cabinet Minister in a Unionist government worried about the break-up of the Union, would be only too happy to reply ,”Yes, Minister”

    I’m sorry if my bungled post can be read as any kind of direct political statement, rather than just an assertion that I don’t take on trust anything that BBC Scotland says. They lied and continue to lie in a mere matter of Sport:
    What will they not lie about if they feel the need?


  15. Wokingcelt 22nd July 2022 At 10:26

    +++++++++++++++++

    Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to provide the information. I expect they will say they don’t have to, hiding behind the ‘creative journalism’ line. When I made a similar request to yours that’s the response I got.


  16. Wokingcelt 22nd July 2022 At 10:26
    ‘..struggling to get any corporate data out of the BBC website. ‘
    Upthehoops 22nd July 2022 At 14:14
    ‘.Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to provide the information…’
    +++++++++
    Gentlemen , it pains me to realise that earlier this evening, at about 5.00 pm, I think I missed the chance to buttonhole none other than the Chair of the BBC Scotland Committee.
    Mrs C and I were in the Sainsbury’s at Middle Meadow Walk [Edinburgh, of course]
    I was at the only ‘manned’ ‘ check-outpoint, waiting to pay for a couple of items. I was behind a white-haired crop-headed, middle-aged woman, likewise purchasing just one or two small items.
    As she turned away to go to the exit I recognised her as being none other than Muriel Gray, who, as I mentioned the other day , is the Chair of the BBC Scotland Committee.

    Now, if Mrs C had been close at hand instead of yards away looking at the shelves , possibly comparing prices with those in our big Sainsbury’s, I think I would have tried to have a few words with Miss Gray, to say that I would be writing to her about BBC Scotland’s complicity in the biggest sporting lie there has ever been in Scottish Football and asking her to put that subject on the agenda of the next meeting of her Committee. Missed the chance!
    But I will write to her in any case.
    Although she is usually described as being a ‘journalist’, I think she is essentially an ‘artist’ in the sense of being a seeker after ‘Truth’ and valuing Truth for truth’s sake. And she is very much her own woman!
    [ maybe I might just have asked for her autograph, though, ha ha!]


  17. Upthehoops 22nd July 2022 At 10:09
    30Rate This

    I hope the forum doesn’t descend into an independence bandwagon.

    ….
    Personally I see the BBC capitulation to Rangers as nothing other than the same old cultural bias towards Ibrox that we’ve had to put up with for decades. I seriously doubt it is part of a wider push against those who wish to see Scotland become independent.
    ……………….
    ……………….
    Apologies UTH, if you thought my recent post was lowering the level of debate.

    However, I think when the current political landscape impinges on the reportage of football matters, surely it is relevant to comment on it here.

    When you talk about the ‘old cultural bias towards Ibrox’ do you believe that the attitudes within that culture are representative of Scotland’s people as a whole?

    As an aside, I’m not sure, in this particular case, how cultural issues can be separated from politics.

    In any case, I don’t think that particular culture is particularly widespread these days – and probably hasn’t been for 30 to 40 years. That is not to deny its existence – institutionally, it has persisted through many management structures and networks. But it can be argued that BBC Scotland (and STV to a lesser extent) has, since the mid 1990’s been much more culturally diverse than the equivalent service provided in other parts of the UK.

    Would that ‘old cultural bias’ you mention have allowed a BBC employee to have reported on sectarian/racist behaviour within the confines of Ibrox in the past? Would it have provided support to that employee when they were targeted for simply doing their job?

    Remember also that BBC Scotland argued that the original Rangers were liquidated. It was the BBC trustees in London who adopted the contrary position.

    The BBC Scotland capitulation is important – firstly for purely football reasons. In its wake, can we trust anything the BBC tells us about Rangers* in the future – especially in relation to off-field matters?

    But secondly, we should openly question where the recent decision originated. If, as I fear it has been, a London edict, the next question has to be why?


  18. HirsutePursuit 23rd July 2022 At 17:36
    EDIT

    “..Remember also that BBC Scotland argued that the original Rangers were liquidated. It was the BBC trustees in London who adopted the contrary position”

    Hmm I think ‘argued’ should perhaps be replaced by initially reported,as I can’t ever recall any BBC scotland reporter/journalist/employee or even press release vehemently advocating the normal consequences of liquidation.Apart that is for Jim Spence and his idle speculation on the alternative ‘facts’. For which he was duly shot down and eventually had to leave the BBC.


  19. HirsutePursuit 23rd July 2022 At 19:20
    “This is how I remember it:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-22951447
    ++++++=
    The liars at Ibrox were the ‘complainers’ to the BBC Trust [like calling unto like?]:
    “The complainers objected to this, maintaining that it was only the company which ran the club, and not the club itself, which was liquidated.”

    The official records of the the SPL show that the holder of a share in that league was The Rangers Football Club, not some other ‘holding company’

    They show also that Rangers Football Club were required to surrender that share and ceased thereby to be a member company of the SPL.

    The official records of the SFA show that membership of the SFA was withdrawn from Rangers Football Club when they ceased to be a shareholder member of a recognised football league.

    And, of course, the official record of ‘Insolvencies’ , the London Gazette [published also in Edinburgh and Belfast] will make no mention of any ‘holding company’ going into liquidation while the football club carried on!

    And, if Rangers Football Club of 1872 was not the entity that was liquidated, why the heck was SevcoScotland required to buy a share in any Scottish football league company that would have them, before they could even apply for membership of the SFA?

    We have been down this road since 2012.
    But it is important to keep banging on about the Truth. [I am reminded of an old saying in cod Latin ” nil illegitimi carborundum.’ – “don’t let the bast.rds grind you down”] Because that is what , Putin-like, the SMSM, the Ibrox Boards and BBC Scotland have been trying to do since 2012, when RFC of 1872 ceased to exist-as the SMSM and the BBC truthfully reported at the time.

    The liars know they are lying. The Football governance boards know they are lying. The SMSM and BBC Scotland know they are lying.
    And we know that they all are lying.

    Mercifully, no one is dying or physically suffering as result of the Big Lie. [ although maybe certain people in football governance might not be too happy in their consciences]
    But one wonders whether any of the liars would care even if there was such an outcome?

    Because men too frightened to speak Truth in an incidental matter of sport might quite readily, like say Putin lie regardless of consequences for others in order to save their own ‘professional’ skins or bank balances.

    There’s a lot of bad folk in this world generally.
    And a disproportionate number in the relatively small world of Scottish Football.
    In my opinion, of course-but the evidence is there!


  20. JC I agree with what you say. I would only make the point that BBC Scotland initially tried to tell the truth, but were compelled to adopt the alternative reality by a greater power.

    As an aside, it is interesting that the chair of the BBC committee dealing with the complaints has subsequently gone onto a PR career, specialising in crisis management. Another committee member had spent 30 years as a journalist in Northern Ireland (including during the 1970’s). Another, the member for Scotland, is an engineer/businessman who was also on the Board of the British Transport Police Authority.

    I am not questioning the integrity of any of these people, but I would find it surprising if the board, as a whole, did not recognise the cultural/political significance of the demise of Rangers.

    They had the cover of the LNS sham enquiry which set out, in its terms of reference, the purported separation of club and company. The SFA and SPL had already sold their souls as signatories to the scandalous 5WA.

    As part of the British establishment and understanding that an Independence referendum was imminent (the BBC Trustees decision came in 2013) realistically, what other decision could they make?

    My point is that BBC Scotland has attempted to present the facts from a viewpoint that would be recognised by the majority of Scots as mainstream. The decision to present the more fantastical interpretation of the events at Ibrox did not come from Pacific Quay.


  21. HirsutePursuit 24th July 2022 At 00:32
    “JC I agree with what you say. I would only make the point that BBC Scotland initially tried to tell the truth, but were compelled to adopt the alternative reality by a greater power”
    ++++++++
    Yes, HP, I have previously acknowledged that BBC Scotland [ like James Taylor !] initially told the truth.

    But the BBC Controller Scotland should have resigned and caused n almighty fuss rather than accept an INSTRUCTION from the BBC Trust to tell the absurd and absolute lie that it was the company that died but the club lived on.
    The supporters and directors and Administrators of Heart of Midlothian PLC bust a gut to avoid being Liquidated by getting the creditors to agree a Voluntary Arrangement, thus allowing ownership of the club to change hands and continue in existence as a member of recognised football league with an unbroken history of membership of the SFA .
    Why would they bothered if they could just have let the ‘company’ die , set up a brand new company and football team and get the Governance bodies to sell their rotten souls and create the myth that Hearts FC lived on?


  22. JC, I suppose there are two distinct (but interconnected) issues.

    There is, as you detail so well, the personal responsibility that people have for telling the truth. Ultimately, it is up to each person to live with their conscience and decide which direction to take when faced with the dilemma of truth against personal interest. I wonder though, how invested must someone be in a truth (or a lie!) to decide to throw away a 30 year career? Is the particular truth in question so important (from their own perspective) that they would be prepared to make that self sacrifice?

    That is the stark choice the staff at BBC Scotland are faced with. I certainly don’t condone their compliance in propagating falsehoods, but I do understand the challenge they face.

    The greater sin, in my view, is not committed by the people who follow an instruction that, in all honesty, may not hold any great personal importance. My greater concern is the people who design and control the systems and structures that, for cultural/political reasons, seek to distort or flatly deny facts and circumstances that should be uncontroversial in the real world.


  23. This made me laugh:[ today, from Conor Matchett of ‘The Scotsman]
    “Police Scotland has been ordered to release details of discussions between the force, the SPFL and the Scottish Government on the planned operations around Rangers fans’ “shameful” celebrations after the club’s title victory last year… In a transparent victory for ‘ The Scotsman’ the force has now been told to release the information after a ruling by the Scottish Information Commissioner”

    “The Scotsman” seeking the Truth about possibly discreditable matters involving TRFC? Well, I never!
    Having a pop at Police Scotland for supposedly being coy with the truth is a piece of disgusting hypocrisy on the part of ‘The Scotsman’, which propagates the absurd and monstrous lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872.


  24. Incidentally, In case anyone wants to check the London Gazette(Edinburgh edition] remember that, while it could still be done, the name of Rangers Football Club plc was changed to RFC 2012 plc, so better to search under the unchanged company number SC 00 4276. It was Rangers football club of 1872 that went into Liquidation.

    https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/E-27190-44


  25. HirsutePursuit 23rd July 2022 At 17:36

    Upthehoops 22nd July 2022 At 10:09

    When you talk about the ‘old cultural bias towards Ibrox’ do you believe that the attitudes within that culture are representative of Scotland’s people as a whole?

    +++++++++++++++++++

    Obviously not as a whole. However those in a position to influence such as the mainstream media and politicians have firmly declared their hand towards Ibrox. Likewise we are entitled to question why other Scottish football clubs and many of their fans are so happy to ‘move on’ when so many wrongs have not been righted and never will be. I think it’s fair to say that Rangers* have won the culture war in the key battlegrounds. It’s probably a mixture of bias, fear and total indifference, but there seems no route whatsoever for anyone to be held to account. Even when we have the quite outrageous, and in my view sinister malicious prosecutions at massive expense to the Scottish taxpayer, the mainstream media and politicians sit in relative silence.

    Rangers* fans have a saying ‘it’s all about the Rangers’. In terms of those in a position to hold Rangers* to account, it looks like they’re right.


  26. What are they like?
    This morning, from MSP for Central Scotland Graham Simpson :
    ” The dates for this industrial action [ on the subway] have been cynically chosen to maximise the disruption to Rangers fans”.
    I don’t remember him uttering a single word about the cynical destruction of the Integrity of Scottish Football by those in football governance who support the cynically calculated lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872.
    [see ‘The Scotsman’ report by Katherine Hay]


  27. I had a wee laugh at this:
    ” Posed the perfectly reasonable question as to whether he had a starting team in mind for embarking on their title defence at home to Aberdeen on Sunday, he [i.e. Postecoglou] replied with a certain contempt
    ” Yes, I don’t know what it is, but I’ll have a starting team and there will be at least 11 ready for it”.
    And no, the questioner as far as I know was not Kenny Mac.
    Presumably it was not Andrew Smith either, whose report in ‘The Scotsman’ is where I read that comment.


  28. John Clark 26th July 2022 At 12:17

    What are they like?
    This morning, from MSP for Central Scotland Graham Simpson :
    ” The dates for this industrial action [ on the subway] have been cynically chosen to maximise the disruption to Rangers fans”.
    I don’t remember him uttering a single word about the cynical destruction of the Integrity of Scottish Football by those in football governance who support the cynically calculated lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I wonder if he cared about the disruption and wreckage caused during Rangers fans ‘celebrations’ in Glasgow last year, culminating in carnage in George Square?

    Anyway, the purpose of a strike is to cause maximum disruption, in order for those being disrupted to urge employers to come to a deal with the striking workers. I’m amazed that so many people seem to think strikers should withdraw their labour only in a manner which won’t cause inconvenience!


  29. The Deloitte Plan for the SPFL?
    I’m just reading what Ron Gordon of Hibs has said (as reported in today’s ‘The Scotsman’] about 5 clubs having ‘commissioned’ ‘ consultants Deloitte to ‘conduct a review of the SPFL’
    I vaguely remember something about that, and wondering whether the SPFL board had authorised such a commission and/or would co-operate in deliberating over the findings/recommendations ?
    Gordon says the findings and proposals will be presented to ‘all top tier’ clubs in the next couple of weeks.
    Will this be at a full meeting of the membership of the SPFL?
    And where the hell is Doncaster and the Board in all this?
    Is the membership in effect reflecting the view that the SPFL board are without authority, having shown abject cowardice and readiness to lie and cheat?
    Trouble ahead, I expect, and further division and rancour .


  30. Briefly, there is an email in my inbox from the ICIJ, from last night:

    about the whole’ Uber’ readiness to lie and make use of incidences of violence. and the lobbying of senior politicians in various countries etc etc

    A whistle-blower named MacGann gave the ‘Guardian’ stacks of emails etc etc….

    All very interesting, but of course we kind of expect politicians to be liars-comes with the territory.

    I simply ask: when will there be a whistle-blower about how the biggest sporting lie [probably] in modern times came about?
    The truth about it will inevitably surface.

    Forsworn ‘football governance bodies which we expect to be honest and true will [ as the individuals on those bodies well know! ] be sooner or later denounced as betrayers of Trust by someone in their ranks who knows the truth about the dirty’ 5-Way Agreement’ which allows a ten year old club to claim the honours and sporting titles of a dead club-whose very founders would be appalled at being associated with a monstrous lie!
    May I live to see the day.


  31. I see the wee dod o’ yite has his claim in for £10million!
    Honest to God, SDM’s cheating not only killed RFC of 1872 but has cost the rest of us tens of millions already, and looks set to cost us millions more!
    Loathsome creatures all.


  32. John Clark 28th July 2022 At 10:01

    ++++++++++++++++

    It was only a matter of time before Whyte put a claim in. Yet David Murray remains untouched throughout, and still appears to be revered by some members of the media. It’s quite incredible, as without Murray’s unlawful tax dodge all of those who have been maliciously targeted would have been nowhere near Ibrox.


  33. Taking a step back you have to ask what on earth has gone on here. I am fairly confident that the UK Government will face a public inquiry (or is that enquiry – I can never get that one right!) over Covid loans and procurements made. Not saying that it will put right the wrongs but at least there will be a report. I have zero confidence that any such inquiry will be held in Scotland to account for the untold millions – by my reckoning north of £100m which if scaled up would be north of £1.2bn in UK terms. And all for a football club – totally unconscionable.


  34. Wokingcelt 28th July 2022 At 21:13

    Taking a step back you have to ask what on earth has gone on here. I am fairly confident that the UK Government will face a public inquiry (or is that enquiry – I can never get that one right!) over Covid loans and procurements made. Not saying that it will put right the wrongs but at least there will be a report. I have zero confidence that any such inquiry will be held in Scotland to account for the untold millions – by my reckoning north of £100m which if scaled up would be north of £1.2bn in UK terms. And all for a football club – totally unconscionable.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    The Scottish Government have said an independent inquiry will be held once all the legal processes are complete. The trouble is, how do you guarantee true independence in such a matter in Scotland? Nothing should be more independent than the Police and the legal system yet that is what will be under scrutiny. I doubt the Scottish Government will want any inquiry to say that there is institutional bias towards ‘Rangers’ because that would then lead to so many other questions. I suspect a lot more taxpayers money will be spent on a whitewash, with the real truth emerging in 30 years time. The very fact that so many politicians and media commentators stay silent on what is an absolute scandal tells us all we need to know. If it concerned any other football club there would be outrage. Old attitudes don’t die easily, and are clearly passed down the line. We should be truly thankful that HMRC do not answer to the Scottish Government.


  35. Very quiet the past couple of days, and John Clark tells me he’s having difficulty posting. I have posted test messages from three accounts and all seems to be well, however if anyone is having difficulties, please contact me by email at sfm@sfm.scot

    Cheers
    John


  36. Discovered a wee hack folks, which has prevented hundreds of users from posting. Now fixed. I’m off to hunt the hackers and close the door again 🙁


  37. Big Pink 1st August 2022 At 12:19
    ‘Discovered a wee hack folks..’
    ++++++++
    Well done, BP.
    I wondered for a while what I was doing wrong, even to the point of wondering whether I had changed my password and forgotten that I had done so!
    I then noticed that no one seemed to be posting.
    Glad to be back.
    I note from Companies House that George Alexander Taylor, esident in Hong Kong with aa shareholding RIFC of 43 074 998 shares (9.96% of the total, the third largest holding after King and Park] has been named as a Director and person with significant control as of 26 July 2022.
    Who he? Is he well-known?


  38. JC – 1st August 2022 At 17:23 ………….Who he? Is he well-known?

    He is/was one of the named Three Bears, Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor, Hong Kong businessmen/bankers or some such, they acquired some shares around 2014/15 when big bad Mike tried to purchase more shares in Sevco, pretty sure that effort from MIke was blocked by the SFA as he would then have Dual Ownership, (Newcastle).

    regards


  39. John Clark 1st August 17.23
    Who he? Is he well-known?
    …………………………………………………
    He was one of the Three Bears alongside Douglas Park & George Letham.

    He is the Head of Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific and is the son of the former Conservative MP Sir Teddy Taylor.

    There have been whispers in Rangers circles that George & Stuart Gibson are looking to become more involved in the future.


  40. Fitbawfan 1st August 2022 At 18:42
    ‘..He is/was one of the named Three Bears, ..’
    ++++++++++
    Ah, yes. The China thing. Thanks, Fitbawfan.
    That’s now 3 directors normally ”resident’ in Hong Kong.
    Is there something brewing, I wonder, other than Chinese tea?


  41. One of the many little tricks used by the propagandists of the ‘Big Lie’ is to keep to a minimum any reference to ‘Rangers International Football Club plc’:
    they need to keep constantly referring to ‘Rangers FC’ to try to maintain the deception implied in the IPO Prospectus, which as we know referred to the new plc company being launched on the market as being the holding company of a 146 year old very successful club , when in fact it was and is the holding company of a mere 12 year old club. [Not a lawyer, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there had been a breach of finance rules somewhere in that Prospectus, because as far as I can see, the club of which RIFC plc is the ‘holding company’ is TRFC, not RFC of 1872, which is in Liquidation.
    So much so is this the case that , as far as I can see, RIFC plc has no official web-site of its own.
    Oh, no:
    To find information about directors, shareholders, and such like one has to go on to the ‘Rangers FC ‘ website, and then scroll through all the normal football and commercial stuff till you reach a page with sponsors, and then a page with (in smallish print)] ‘investors information’
    And only there do you find the information about directors.
    If it is up-to-date, that is!
    I looked at it a wee while ago, and there was no wee biographical note about the new director appointed on 26 July, Taylor!
    Slack work by Company Secretary, I would say, in terms of keeping supporters informed about foreign based directors.


  42. Has the scottish media looked into figures at A&E sites last night. I suspect there could have been a number of broken bones, sprains, pulled muscles etc. as Ranger fans fell off the bandwagon. What is it with Rangers and some of these relatively small clubs in the qualifying rounds. Did the Belgium club not realize who they were playing and should have stood in awe and the European finalists strutted their stuff. I believe Aaron Ramsay is still looking for a club and its rumored that Diallo is available for another loan spell.


  43. Vernallen 3rd August 2022 At 19:28
    ‘..Did the Belgium club not realize who they were playing and should have stood in awe..’
    ++++++++
    Well, Vernallen, would you stand in awe of a ten year old club that hasn’t really achieved hellish much and is living on the back of a lie, claiming to be a much more successful but defunct club?
    Of course you wouldn’t.
    The whole of European Football knows that the ‘mighty’ Rangers FC of 1872 foundation is in Liquidation and is no longer part of Scottish Football!


  44. John Clark 3rd August 2022 –19:13

    John, my tongue was firmly planted in my cheek when I wrote that line. It was an indirect reference to the constant harping on the EL finalists ( last season) and not so much in regards to the on-going saga surrounding a 150 year old club?, a 10 year old club, and all the other nonsense written and reported and presented as factual and truthful. The only truth to emerge from the other night is that they are in deep doo-doo and a loss next week could trigger some emergency sales with over hyped figures.


  45. Well done Dundee Utd., a very credible European performance. I’d actually forgotten they were playing such was the limited pre-game coverage of the game. I was flicking through the channels last night and was pleasantly surprised to find the game was on ‘council tele’.


  46. So it trundles on……….
    From the rolls of Court of Session

    “LORD HARROWER – S Alexander, Clerk
    Friday 12th August
    Procedural Hearing
    between 9.00am and 9.30am

    CA71/20 Duff & Phelps Ltd v The Lord Advocate ”

    When did this whole ‘Rangers’ saga begin, that has already cost you and me, as tax-payers ,multi-millions and corrupted the very spirit of Scottish Football and the very souls of those charged with duty of protecting the integrity of our Sport.
    What was the cause, who was responsible? Who has not been called to account who richly deserves to be called to account ?


  47. Vernallen 4th August 2022 At 22:56
    “they are in deep doo-doo and a loss next week could trigger some emergency sales with over hyped figures.”
    ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    With respect Vernallen, speculation about the current incarnation going under financially has been ongoing for more than a decade now and is nothing more than tiresome wishful thinking.

    The reality is that the current entity has weathered the storm and is in relatively robust financial health, not least thanks to the recent sales of Patterson and Bassey.

    I’m not saying they’re currently balancing the books, but if they didn’t ‘die again’ in the few years immediately after 2012, they sure as hell aren’t going to be allowed to succumb now.

    Trust me, nobody would’ve been more delighted than me if their [cough] operating company had become insolvent again, but the reality is that their ‘speculate to accumulate’ strategy appears to be paying off, as evidenced by last season’s European run, and even I have to grudgingly applaud them for reaching the point they’ve reached.

    None of which alters the fact that the original Rangers of 1872 died the death of liquidation in 2012 and the current club is fraudulently claiming the titles and trophies of that defunct club, aided and abetted by a compliant media and the woefully inept governance body of Scottish football.


  48. Gunnerb 5th August 2022 At 19:14
    ‘….Improper registration ?? Surely not..’
    +++++++++++
    Is Bryson still Head of the SFA’s registration department?
    If he is , we can be sure he will shut Daniel Ossa Giraldo up, with the kind of s.ite that the Nimmo Smith Inquiry accepted without a blush!
    Have a wee refresher look at
    https://sfmarchive.privateland.net/everything-has-changed/?cid=34067
    I haven’t enough Spanish to try to get into how Giraldo is being reported in the Colombian sports press, and he may be quite , quite wrong.
    However, in my opinion it is axiomatic that even if Giraldo has his facts correct and can prove that the Registration rules have been breached by TRFC , there will be NO disciplinary action taken that would result in inconvenience for TRFC.
    The already forsworn Governance body wouldn’t have the moral fibre and the basic guts to call the Ibrox board(s) to account, having in 2012 permitted them to lie about TRFC being RFC of 1872.
    True or not, one wonders why the DR ‘reported’ Giraldo’s claim, only to rubbish it themselves? Is there something else that they do not want pubic interest to focus on?
    [geez, they’ve got me nearly as bad as themselves!]


  49. Seems unlikely that Morelos is part owned by anyone else. However there’s only way of testing either theory is if he is transferred, and that seems an ever decreasing outcome given all we have talked about for the last four years is how much he will be offloaded for.
    Also, what happens if he runs goes contract down? Would that mean that the 14% would also disappear?
    Just doesn’t sound right at all.


  50. Big Pink 6th August 2022 At 09:41

    Seems unlikely that Morelos is part owned by anyone else. However there’s only way of testing either theory is if he is transferred, and that seems an ever decreasing outcome given all we have talked about for the last four years is how much he will be offloaded for.
    Also, what happens if he runs goes contract down? Would that mean that the 14% would also disappear?
    Just doesn’t sound right at all.

    ++++++++++++++++++++

    You may well be right, however given all that’s come to pass since 2012 I don’t think it can be ruled out either. If it is a breach of the SFA’s registration procedures what confidence would we have the SFA would do anything about it anyway? The absurd LNS investigation springs to mind. Also, the SFA themselves found there was a case to answer regarding the award of a European licence in 2011, then went on to just drop the case!

    The tax thieving American businesswoman Leona Helmsley once said “taxes are for the little people”. In the same way, SFA rules are for the little people, who are every other club bar the one playing out of Ibrox. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.


  51. Big Pink 6th August 2022 At 09:41
    ‘..Seems unlikely that Morelos is part owned by anyone else. ‘
    ++++++++++’
    I have to keep 3 different concepts in mind, so as not to confuse masel:
    a) selling-on fees: this is where club ‘A’ buys a player ‘B’ from club ‘C’ and the contract stipulates that when ‘A’ itself sells ‘B’ at a future date, club ‘C’ will get a percentage of the transfer fee received by club ‘A’. That kind of arrangement is entirely a matter for the clubs.
    b] the mandatory 5% share of any transfer fee that is to be paid by a transferring club to clubs which were involved in the ‘training and development ‘ of the transferee when he was with them as a young player.
    c) contracts with a player under which his transferring club retains for ‘x’ years [ specified in the contract] a right to a percentage share in any future transfer fee obtained by whichever club is selling him !
    Giraldo seems to be claiming that Medellin has such a contract with Morelos (who signed with them in 2011] .
    The thing is:
    that category ‘c’ was banned in May 2015 and has not been allowed since then.
    HOWEVER, any such contracts entered into before May 2015 remain valid and in force. They cannot be renewed when they expire, of course.
    But it is possible that what Giraldo refers to is that kind of contract , signed by Morelos or his agent in 2011 , which may still have some years to run.
    Who knows, that may be the reason why Morelos seems not to be particularly wanted on the transfer market!
    I mean, who wants to pay £x to TRFC if 16% of £x is going to Medellin for eff all!
    Best to wait until not only the TRFC contract runs out, but also the 16% contract that Giraldo seems to be claiming to exist.
    Maybe there’s a nice big legal case ,of the kind that the Ibrox boards seem to like, on the horizon!
    I’d enjoy that!

    Incidentally I found this link quite entertainingly informative about the footballer transfer process generally
    https://www.reevaldo.com/story/meet-reevaldo


  52. Upthehoops 6th August 2022 At 21:20
    ‘.SFA rules are for the little people,’
    +++++++++
    But of course, UTH, the little people of Scottish football did what ‘little people’ do: caved in to falsehood and allowed it to ‘triumph’

    There was NONE of them principled enough and brave enough to support , publicly, the late and great Turnbull Hutton-the lone voice of Sporting Integrity. [God rest him]

    He KNEW things were not all square, but found little support, and was a lone and unsupported voice when he denounced ,bravely, the Governance body of Scottish Football on its own doorstep.
    I will lay garlands on his gravestone: and spit scornfully on the graves of those craven persons who created and/ or accepted the Big Lie in 2012, and/or continue to propagate it.

    But my deepest scorn is for those in the SMSM who ought, ought as a matter of journalistic duty, as being the very essence of ‘journalism’, to have got right into the stupid, stupid, lie that a football club in Liquidation was somehow still participating in Scottish Football as if it had not died!

    Honest to God: we are ill-served by partisan hacks who know not the meaning of truth, or, knowing the truth, continue to lie in defence of untruth
    In my opinion.
    And none of them, not one ‘journalist’, has ever given any kind of explanation of how , overnight, the death of RFC of 1872 as reported by them, suddenly changed into the death of a ‘ holding company’! -When there wasn’t a ‘holding company’ that they can name!

    In reality , the holding company of RFC plc was RFC plc, which held the share in the then SPL. Which it had to surrender. And , in consequence, lost its membership of the SFA.

    Not even that evil bast.rd of a Propagandist-Goebbels – could match the absurd lie that RFC of 1872 did not die and cease to exist as a football club participating in Scottish Football!


  53. Beaton’s just an absolutely terrible referee! Allows a match to be about who’s the toughest. Horrible watch.


  54. John Clark 6th August 2022 At 23:42

    But my deepest scorn is for those in the SMSM who ought, ought as a matter of journalistic duty, as being the very essence of ‘journalism’, to have got right into the stupid, stupid, lie that a football club in Liquidation was somehow still participating in Scottish Football as if it had not died!

    +++++++++++++++++++++

    For me the most disappointing thing is journalists who we know are not cheerleaders for all things Ibrox, being cowed into submission, I could mention them here, but basic human decency makes me know they have a job, and a family, and an employer who is beholden to all things ‘Rangers’. However, they really need to ask themselves why they ever bothered becoming journalists in the first place, because the ‘seeking the truth others don’t want to hear’ claim really doesn’t hold water! They’ve sold their soul, and they know it!


  55. I noticed some bumph about UEFA co-efficients from some data geek in Switzerland. It annoyed me.
    So I have sent this email:

    To:
    swissfootballdata@bluewin.ch

    Sun, 7 Aug at 23:27

    Simon,
    Naughty boy!
    Naughty data journalist, not checking the facts!
    I refer to your reference to ‘Rangers’ in your stats about UEFA’s co-efficient scores from 1955’56.
    The ‘Rangers’ you refer to ceased to exist as a football club when it went into Liquidation in 2012!
    The new club, the current Rangers Football Club, was founded in 2012, and was admitted into Scottish professional football by the Scottish FA only in that year.
    In other words, it did not even exist prior to 2012, and cannot be regarded as being the Rangers that was in existence in 1955/56.
    A huge lie has been told in Scottish Football.
    And as any kind of ‘data’ man, you should have checked the facts before you drew up your stats table.
    Check them out now for yourself: and then revise your stats and analysis.
    Not for my sake, but for your own -as claiming to be an an analyser of factual data, rather than an accidental propagandist of a Sporting lie created by a dishonest Football Governance body in bonnie wee Scotland!
    You owe a duty to football Truth [ otherwise, what’s the point?]
    In the hope that you made an honest but mistaken assumption that a football club that ceased to be a member of the SFA in 2012 is somehow still alive and participating in Scottish Football,
    Yours sincerely,
    JC


  56. The Scottish media appear to gloss over the fact that Rangers beating the Belgians paves the way to the CL group stages. Not much mention of a playoff with Monaco/PSG to garner advancement to the group stages. It shouldn’t take much digging on their part to put that fact forward. As for tomorrow’s game the imminent return of Morelos and Kent has Ranger fans all agog. It could be a massive gamble on GVB’s part as both are coming off injury and lack serious game time. What happens if both play and get re-injured and are lost for a lengthy period of time which could impact the league and any European landing spot.


  57. Paddy Malarkey 8th August 2022 At 21:44
    ‘…Pay your fucking debts and tax or close.’
    +++++++++
    That’s a brilliant spot, PM!
    Even a poster on Follow Follow can understand the concept of inability to meet debts ‘ leading to extinction as a football club!
    Honest to God, why can’t our Football governance bodies bite the bullet and admit they gravely erred in allowing the new club to claim to be continuity RFC of 1872?
    And, more importantly, why did our Financial ‘watchdogs’ allow a new PLC get away with marketing itself as being the ‘holding company’ of RFC of 1872??
    Maybe for the same reason that allowed Rabbie Burns to keep his excise job in spite of gun-running to the French Revolutionaries.
    Who knows? Why, they do, and may they suffer for their lying and failure to do their duty.


  58. This is in TODAY’s issue of the rolls of Courts, which I’ve only just seen, and would not have appeared before about 4.30 pm!
    No possibility of arranging to listen to the proceedings if they have already taken place before notice is given!
    ” COURT OF SESSION
    CALLING LIST
    Tuesday 9th August

    A272/21 Craig Whyte v Chief Constable Police Service of Scotland &c”
    Maybe there’s a misprint and a correction will be made, or some explanation given?


  59. It being a quiet night, I think it may be permissible for me to refer to a comment on another blog (on which I do not post and very rarely look at]
    It is a blog on which I read this a little earlier tonight:
    ” bringing in the qualities / talent we need and shipping out the deadwood and the marginal.”

    It’s that cruel use of language that describes young men trying to earn a living as professional footballers [ on the books of one’s own particular club!] as ‘deadwood and the marginal’ that annoys me.

    Whoever it was who posted that on that blog/forum should maybe consider that perhaps he himself in his own line of work or profession might have been considered as being ‘deadwood and marginal’!
    Dreadful way to describe anyone!


  60. From today’s online Sun:

    ‘ TODAY is the tenth anniversary of the start of Rangers’ journey back through the divisions.

    Dumped in Division Three after liquidation, the Ibrox side’s first SFL match came against Peterhead at a packed Balmoor on August 11, 2012.’

    At least the article mentions the ‘L’ word though still can’t quite make a consistent statement of truth with regard to being ‘dumped’!!!!


  61. Westcoaster 11th August 2022 At 16:08
    ‘..At least the article mentions the ‘L’ word though still can’t quite make a consistent statement of truth with regard to being ‘dumped’!!!!’
    +++++++++
    The sheer absurdity of it all !
    No mention of Team 12 and the ‘conditional’ membership to let CG’s eleven play Brechin City.
    And no remembrance of this :
    ” A joint statement on behalf of the SFA, SPL, SFL and Sevco Scotland Ltd – the company relaunching Rangers – read: “Following the completion of all legal documentation, the Scottish Premier League will conduct the formal transfer of the league share between RFC (IA) and Dundee FC on no later than Friday 3 August 2012.”

    It is self-evident that there was absolutely no possibility of Rangers’ share being transferred to CG’s eleven, as if CG had purchased RFC of 1872,
    Liquidation cost RFC of 1872 its entitlement as a shareholder in the SPL to be in the SPL and therefore its eligibility for membership of the SFA.
    CG’s eleven eventually got a share as a new football club in the SFL and on that basis became eligible for membership of the SFA.
    The liars in Scottish Football Governance who share responsibility for the biggest sporting lie in Scottish football will die knowing that their very hearts are rotten.
    I shall probably predecease them all, of course, but if I outlive even one of them, I shall make a point of spitting on his grave!


  62. Chocolate fireguard is nothing in it when one hears that there are at least 700 000 companies registered with Companies House that are fraudulent/non-existent tax dodge creations . [BBC Radio 4 today, ‘You and Yours’ programme]
    Companies House just accepts, with no check, what any Del Boy chancer / Eastern European sophisticated bad bast.rd of a gangster tells them when they set up a company
    There is no check!
    If some lying bast.rd sets up a company and gives your address as his company’s address it’s you who have to prove that it’s your address, if you query why you get mail addressed to that company.
    That kind of mirrors , in my opinion, the lack of check by the FCA of the Prospectuses [ prospecti?] of new PLCs .
    The Prospectus of the new RIFC plc claimed that RIFC plc is the holding company
    of RFC of 1872 .
    As a matter of law, it was not.
    It was the holding company of a brand new football club .
    Now, it’s one thing for lying businessmen to lie.
    It’s quite another thing if the organs of State have no mechanism to spot the lie; or, worse, buy into the lie without question as readily as the SMSM buy into a particular lie.


  63. What a difference a week can make from the zenith of a well earned 1-0 home victory Dundee Utd. to the nadir of a 7-0 reverse in Holland. They actually didn’t start badly and seemed to be settling into a ‘hit on the counter’ game plan before it all went wrong.


  64. Should the member clubs of the SPFL pose the following question to Neil Doncaster. Are you reactive or proactive and secondly how much effort went into securing a new TV contract. If he’s proactive he should have facts and figures to back up his eagerness to push the SKY contract through. Did he contact nations of a similar size and apparently with better TV contracts on how they did it. Or did he just sit in his office, look at his to do list and see that SKY called and that enabled him to check another item off that list. Did they not bend over backwards to ensure that the broadcaster was guaranteed a minimum of four Celtic/Rangers games per year. If this derby is as famous world wide, as alleged, surely there must be other broadcasters willing to take a run at the deal.


  65. Vernallen 13th August 2022 At 17:06
    ‘.. how much effort went into securing a new TV contract..’
    +++++++
    Vernallen, I’ve only just had a look at
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/american-football/c2-a3150m-spfl-tv-deal-could-be-rubber-stamped-next-month-but-doubts-remain-over-rangers-vote-intentions/ar-AA10C2Df

    and quite agree with you.
    As it happens, I also find myself in agreement with Stewart Henderson’s comment:
    -“Managing director Stewart Robertson has also insisted that the game is undersold by Hampden powerbrokers.” ![Well, even I have to admit that my baddies cannot always and automatically be wrong! ]
    And, incidentally, note the weasel , misleading words of the SPFL about the cinch contract:
    “The SPFL announced over the summer that the Ibrox club were no longer contractually obligated to do so.”
    They haven’t the honesty to admit that TRFC was not at any time contractually obligated to comply with the cinch deal!
    That sneaky use of language to imply something is true that was not true at any time is consistent with the SPFL’s readiness to create, or accept the lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872!]

    Honest to God: that such people should be in any kind of governance office in Sport, being neither of moral integrity nor possessing [in some kind of ‘compensatory’ way] creative, pro-active business nous and drive!

    And as for ‘The SPFL’s stance is that the broadcast market is declining so securing an early deal makes more commercial sense” ?
    Since when did accepting the first offer from the only person to whom an offer is made ever make sense?
    Geez, even private folk on ebay are not daft enough to do that! ( oh, anyone looking for a snowboard, and/or size 11 [ US] boots and 33 inch salopettes?…]
    As a limited company, the SPFL board is doubly damned:
    as a governance body that forsook its duty to uphold the Integrity of Scottish football by accepting the lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872
    and as the board of a commercial limited company whose directors are commercially naive and incompetent!
    I could add that their PR is about as bad as that of RIFC plc!


  66. I see where Ranger fans are having a moan about Derek MacInnis’s record against Celtic. However they don’t appear to want to dig into his record against Rangers. It would be interesting to see if anyone can come up with a comparison. Seems the 5-0 Celtic win on the weekend set them off as their short lived time on top of the league came to a sudden end.

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