As we all know, this site emerged from the ashes of RTC. The wish of the original administrator of the site, one which I wholeheartedly share, was to keep together the wonderful community RTC had built, in terms of both personnel and spirit. There are still many individuals around who were also part of RTC, and regrettably many who are no longer with us. The RTC spirit however, that of a cross-party football site where issues can be discussed in a respectful and insightful manner remains. The “wisdom of the crowd” phenomenon is also with us to perhaps an even greater extent than before, and consequently SFM’s credentials as a formidable alternative to the print media have grown.
In recent times, many contributors have expressed frustration that we are pretty much a talking shop and little else; characterised as “a lot of gum bashing and no teeth”. I think that is fair comment up to a point, but then again our aim – up to now – has been to simply present an alternative view – a view that has increasingly become the fan view as opposed to the industry view (the industry being made up of club officials, players, and press).
In fact the way I see it personally, SFM has evolved to a point where it has become the watchdog (monitor if you will) of an industry which is subject to very little oversight. The Rangers situation will eventually be done with (no laughing at the back please), and like everything else will be consigned to history (albeit more than one). The same self-interest and lack of regard for sporting integrity though will still remain, and the need for oversight will remain also.
Having arrived at those conclusions, we have two alternatives; the first is to remain as we are (which is not a bad place to be), and the second is that SFM has to expand its role.
In recent weeks, the mods have met to discuss this, and we think that we ought to give the latter option a try. As to how we want to achieve that, and we have come up with a skeleton plan as follows;
1. We need to move into the area of gathering news content as well as commenting on what appears elsewhere;
2. We should act as a cross-club portal to get good fan site content from all clubs to a wider audience;
3. We need to highlight the positives in the game as well as the negatives;
4. We should become an actively campaigning body, aligning with fan groups to lobby for the changes we think important.
In order to achieve these objectives, more time will need to be spent on communication like podcasts, adding news content, expanding membership and building links with other fan groups. Time will also need to be spent setting up features, attending press conferences etc. Later in the year, one of the mods will have much more time on his hands to help achieve this.
Podcasts, premium content, labour, organisation and all of the above costs money, and ultimately a subscription based model backed by sponsorship seems to be our best way of achieving that. In order to give us a head start, we will in the next few months be putting together a business-plan and a pitch for Crowd Funding investment.
This is not to say that our existing model has been a failure. We have successfully managed to keep ourselves afloat through the ad-hoc generosity of people in our community, although the inability to keep the podcasts going has been a bit frustrating. Finding income streams which are more solid will allow us to respond to events more quickly (for example mounting an ad campaign to respond to some event or other, or buying new equipment), and hopefully achieve all of our objectives – and build a bigger audience base for our message.
Of course a move of this nature will require that, in the interests of transparency, anonymity of SFM will have to be set aside. That will not affect any of our contributors, and our practice of using (sometimes) imaginative names on the blog will remain. However, for crowd funding to be successful, we will require to have a board in place, and there is no hiding place from Companies House. The make up of the board is also crucial, and in addition to consideration of blog members for that role, we will be looking to have respected people from without.
I imagine there may be a consequent subtle effect on moderation policy to take into account.
The reason I have made this post is to keep the community up to speed with events. Although we have decided to move forward to see if we can get support for our business plan, that plan is by no means finished. As I said earlier, the “wisdom of crowds” has made our community unique and given it its credibility. There’s a lot more wisdom out there we hope to tap into before we go ahead with our initiative.
We already had someone in mind for chairman of the new board, but events have conspired tragically to rob us of that – and had the effect of postponing this announcement. However we would like to hear suggestions for suitable outside candidates for board and committee places.
We also want to hear from you if you have a suggestion to be added to our wish list of SFM function above – or even if you think it is a mistake to embark on this course.
This is a very big move for SFM, so we don’t want to rush into anything. We need to listen to what you folks have to say, because if the merging SFM is not considered a better SFM by our community there is very little point in looking to fund it.
Aye Clumps, and Roddy is using the idea of an ‘ambush’. I blame aw that abseiling aff the stand, an’ thon sodjurs merching aboot Ibrox 🙂
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/11631951/Rangers-news-Dave-King-ready-to-ambush-Mike-Ashley-at-Ibrox-general-meeting.html
TheClumpany says:
Member: (36 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 12:22 pm
Another good and entertaining read, Clumps, bringing together much of what is being said here and elsewhere, except in the SMSM.
With so many glaring holes in this latest piece of Sevcoism, why has no one from the MSM raised at least one of these points? (Rhetorical question 😉 ) They (the points) do seem extremely obvious, unless there is a desperate need to believe in Mr King!
I’m sure PMGB has a smile as broad as Big Mike’s rear end right now, as much of what he has said is beginning to become (more) evident with every King/Murray(P) announcement. In fact, the latest piece of PR spin makes things look as bad at Ibrox (KJ’s 7 year itch) as only Phil’s inside info has previously revealed 🙄
It’s amusing how the incumbents’ PR, when dealing with awkward events, has moved from extreme optimism to the (official)revelations of just how bad things really are. The only thing that remains the same is the amazing ability of the bears to see it as a sign of strength from a board they ‘trust’ – for the time-being!
Roddy “Esher” Forsyth
Roddy Forsyth has excelled himself today with this conconction of day dreams, contorted logic and vaporized Valium for the bears.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/11631951/Rangers-news-Dave-King-ready-to-ambush-Mike-Ashley-at-Ibrox-general-meeting.html
So Ashley is on the ropes and at the mercy of King and all is good with the Ibrox world. Does Roddy have his eye on the Neil Patey Crystal Ball Award 2015?
I watched a very interesting documentary about Joan of Arc last night. Apparently in those times hearing voices from deities was not considered a sign of insanity – and so needed to be taken seriously. So faced with an uneducated teenage girl, without a drop of royal blood predicting that she and she alone could vanquish the English (steady there) because she had been told so by God – well – she had to be taken very seriously by the King.
The only dilemma for the King was whether the perfectly reasonable super natural voices Joan heard were much needed deliverance from a just and caring God or a devious trick from the Devil himself? Good news for soothsayers, orb gazers, roon-readers, theologists and psychics – bad news for black chickens.
Ring any bells ?
To this day I’m still trying to figure out how Keith Jackson was chosen as TRFC main PR rep ❓
Especially how TRFC fans can believe a word he prints
With his support of Craig Whyte/Charles Green and his
Off The Radar Billionair
Nonsense
Do the ppl feeding him the tripe he is spouting think the TRFC fans or anyone for that matter has forgot ❓
tcup 2012 says:
May 27, 2015 at 1:39 pm
To this day I’m still trying to figure out how Keith Jackson was chosen as TRFC main PR rep
Especially how TRFC fans can believe a word he prints
With his support of Craig Whyte/Charles Green and his
Off The Radar Billionair
Nonsense
Do the ppl feeding him the tripe he is spouting think the TRFC fans or anyone for that matter has forgot
______________________________________________
Voting Radar as Scottish Sports writer of the year is like voting Nick Leeson stockbroker of the year, or Gerard Ratner salesman of the year, yet it’s happened, what? 3 years in a row. Evidence, if any was needed, that football journalism is a mickey mouse industry in Scotland
MoreCelticParanoia says:
Member: (71 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 1:46 pm
tcup 2012 says:
////////////////
Is there such a thing as Football Journalism in Scotland any more?
While it is never good that there is corruption, it is very good news when corruption is tackled.
The FBI are to be congratulated on the indictment of the FIFA officials, as announced today.
It’s possible , of course, that those indicted are
relatively small fry.
But it’s odds-on that, like Treasury Agent Ness, the
“Untouchable” who got Capone on a tax rap rather
than on Prohibition legislation, the Feds are after
the bigger fish in Middle Eastern waters.
More power to their elbow.
Scottish Football corruption is of a different kind.
I don’t seriously believe that individual members of
the boards of our football authorities took personal
backhanders from ,say, SDM or CG.
Perhaps our SMSM chappies allowed the
succulence of lamb, provided free by SDM if they
wrote nice things about him and the club that he
was ,under their very eyes, destroying by his
insanely hubristic mega-spending, to turn them into
hollow men of no moral worth as well as of no
journalistic worth.
And perhaps one or two chappies at the BBC were propagandising on the promise of future jobs. Who knows?
What we do know is that our football authorities and the individuals who comprise them lied to and cheated the sport they are supposed to govern,and continue to try to maintain the complete fiction that RFC of , what is it, 1873 ? or whatever, is still playing football at Ibrox.
Quite why they prostitute themselves in this way is a matter for sociologists.The fact of their prostitution is a matter of recorded history.
No need of an Elliot Ness here to uncover facts:we already know the facts and the truth.
So do they.
We must insist that they admit their guilt, and throw themselves on their swords. A polite way of saying they must get to hell out of our faces, and let honest people try to restore some integrity to the SFA and SPFL.
If the survival of Scottish Football means submission to the idea that an oft-repeated lie somehow becomes the truth, then Scotish Football is already in terminal decline.
The 5-way agreement must be rescinded, The new club founded by CG must not be allowed to ‘claim’ the sporting history of the club that died an ignominious death by Legal and commercial Liquidation.And the titles and honours that the dead club ‘won’ by cheating must be erased from the official records.
Simples.
I see that our esteemed SFA CEO has briefly emerged into the sunlight, to throw a few stones at Blatter – before scuttling back into the Hampden bunker.
And the ‘planned’, imminent FIFA presidential vote has created an opportunity…
Ogilvie for FIFA President ! 👿
LTL, latest update (22/5/15) has this to say for cases FTC/15/2013 and FTC/16/2013
.
The wheels of justice grind somewhat slowly.
Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/upper-tribunal-tax-and-chancery-register-of-cases
With TSFM’s stated aim being “to ask the authorities to govern the game in accordance with their own rules,” how much extra in monthly contributions would it cost to engage the services of an American District Attorney?
John Clark says:
Member: (869 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 2:02 pm
—
All very well, but what if lots of bears do walking away and Scottish football is left as a much smaller ‘product’, attracting fewer fans and far less cash than it did in the halcyon days of David Murray? People will point and laugh and call it Mickey Mouse.
Whereas, if you concoct a nice five-way agreement and denounce anyone calling for rules to be applied and the rescinding of titles won by sleight of hand, the bear numbers and the bear pound might be yours again. Yes, people will point and laugh and call it Mickey Mouse, but not the people that matter. Just bampots.
smartie1947 says:
Member: (29 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 2:32 pm
With TSFM’s stated aim being “to ask the authorities to govern the game in accordance with their own rules,” how much extra in monthly contributions would it cost to engage the services of an American District Attorney?
=======================================================
See if Marilyn Mosby’s available?
Esteban,
Or, just accept that the club as was danced with the devil himself and didn’t get burned, didn’t get singed, didn’t get mildly anything, it roasted good and proper.
However, the brand, the ethereal cloudy clubby thingy lives on, the wee boys can wear their scarves, the big boys can sing their ditties and the show continues in their hearts, minds indeed everywhere apart from where ‘the club’ needs to be legally recognised as a disparate being from what went before.
And that should have started with the name engraved on the Div 4 trophy in May 13.
I see on the BBC website that Stewart Regan of the SFA has tweeted “Hearing that 5 of the FIFA Confederations have lobbied the world governing body to delay Friday’s Presidential election”.
So actually what are you doing there Stewart. Suggest you bin the lamb lunch and start finding out what is going on and see what happens when football is not administered correctly and rules are abused!!!
At least we now have [self proclaimed] evidence that you can “hear” but can you LISTEN to the hordes of Scottish Football fans that are fed up with your own organization and ready to do walking away from games.
Unfortunately, for now at least, Blatter relies on the block vote from places like Africa (albeit assisted by CAF President Hayatou – different name same result) because he gives them all money and because the majority of African FA’s have FA money their Governments rely on whatever FIFA gives them to cover up the cracks. As a result the country FIFA representatives will not vote for anyone else in case what they get (a) reduced income from now until whenever and (b) if money does reduce then whoever made that decision will lose their job. That is just how it works and why I am not surprised our 41 clubs say nothing – but it still upsets me, and many others too it seems?
Links between Scottish Football, FIFA, and Qatar quite appropriate for today.
MoreCelticParanoia says:
May 27, 2015 at 1:46 pm
Voting Radar as Scottish Sports writer of the year is like voting Nick Leeson stockbroker of the year, or Gerard Ratner salesman of the year, yet it’s happened, what? 3 years in a row. Evidence, if any was needed, that football journalism is a mickey mouse industry in Scotland
—————————————————————-
Careful, Disney’s lawyers might be on the case objecting to their trademarked rodent being compared with someone who notoriously peddles “total crap”. And they may be none to happy about comparisons with Ratner either.
The RIFC EGM is on June 12th – has the location been published?
If the English Championship play-off, Middlesborough v Norwich, was worth a reported £120mil to the winner, how much is the Scottish Premiership play-off worth?
I’m just surprosed the number hasn’t been flung about in the MSM as justification for Topping’s equivalence rant prior to his audience with the BBC’s Ms Slater.
ffs I just despair. First the smsm with the ticket joke concerning Motherwell game. Then PR guff concerning King and battle with Ashley. I thought no more please and I read this. ffs
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/775175062?-11344:801
The Sevco board’s arrogant, spiteful response to Mike Ashley has put them on a collision course with a guy who could chew the marrow from their bones, spit it out and plaster the walls with it. Madness.
http://www.onfieldsofgreen.com/making-enemies/
Testing avatar
Valentinesclown at 5.11pm
Apart from the fact the ‘SPL” doesn’t exist anymore, Charles Green said, by admitting
..”the fines have nothing to do with us (Sevco), as we (Sevco) have never played in the SPL”
http://saltnsauce.freeforums.net/thread/2
valentinesclown says:
Member: (156 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 5:11 pm
ffs I just despair. First the smsm with the ticket joke concerning Motherwell game. Then PR guff concerning King and battle with Ashley. I thought no more please and I read this. ffs
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/775175062?-11344:801
=======================================================
Well, I suppose from some people’s perspective, [i.e. the bears, the Hampden lot], the Motherwell tie is indeed the most important game in decades…probably since 1972…[Manchester didn’t happen] 😯
And it is all falling nicely into place, with the completion of the journey and the ‘return’ to their rightful place in the top league.
Wonder what the odds are for TRFC winning over the 2 legs ?
Betting your house, wife, and your juvenile/amateur footie medals on TRFC is probably the safest bet…in decades in Scottish football ! Absolutely.
And as we have observed over the last 3 years in particular, Hampden is a den of iniquity, and cares not a jot for its gutter level reputation.
With so much riding on these 2 games, one would think that the bent administrators would ‘ensure’ that TRFC wins – by whatever means necessary, both on and off the park.
Justified in their own tiny minds again, as being for the ‘good of Scottish football’.
I would have scoffed at that suggestion a few years ago.
Now ?
Anything crooked is possible wrt Scottish ‘governance’, IMO. 🙁
StevieBC says:
Member: (682 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 7:04 pm
Wonder what the odds are for TRFC winning over the 2 legs ?
====================
Currently TRFC are 8/11 to get promoted, Motherwell 11/10. At those sort of odds, definitely not a bet I am interested in, but the market clearly fancies TRFC to get through. That’s just weight of money, though. In fact on that basis I expected shorter odds on TRFC, to be honest.
From @mooted on Twitter . Hamilton Accies version of Armaggedon and Long slow death !
BBC
Rangers will target the signing of Hibernian midfielder Scott Allan this summer, but the Edinburgh club will demand at least £500,000 for the player who has a year left on his contract. (The Sun)
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Did I read that correctly?
Celtic will target the signing of Hibernian midfielder Scott Allan this summer, but the Edinburgh club will demand at least £3m for the player who has a year left on his contract. (The Sun)
valentinesclown says:
Member: (156 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 5:11 pm
_________________________________________________________________________
What were you expecting to read on that site? We’re not the intended audience so it really shouldn’t have come as any great surprise. You went looking for it. It’s just platitudes devoid of any real substance or insight and the Rangers fans that frequent such websites are poorly served by them. I feel sorry for the decent Rangers fans that seem to have no representation online. I absolutely believe there is an opportunity for someone to claim that ground for those Rangers fans out there. There is enough of them.
There is an uncomfortable truth in what was posted on Ibrox Noise. It could be the Scottish football equivalent of ‘shy Tories’ but many fans do miss a Rangers in the top division. I know plenty of them and they’re not interested in many of the things that preoccupy us on SFM. These are smart people and football fans who think Scottish football as suffered because of Rangers absence from the top flight. I disagree with them and prattle on about SDM, EBTs, European licences, the SFA and a piss-poor SMSM to no avail.
One thing I am curious about is that on occasion when posters have taken issue with articles (linked on here) by James Forrest or PMGB the mods have stepped in and stated that if anyone has problems they should take it up with them over on their websites. Should the same not hold true with the content of the Rangers websites? And if not why not?
However, [Derek] Johnstone has been informed that a number of Rangers supporters have already reserved seats in the Motherwell end and knows the security concerns that will bring.
“That is the worry and it is going to be down to Motherwell,” he said.
“I have heard of Rangers fans getting tickets in the Motherwell sections.
“I am not going to say that there is going to be trouble, but it could cause problems and Motherwell have to take the blame.”
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/motherwell-play-off-ticket-snub-to-rangers-could-turn-second-leg-of-208198n.127225821
========================================
I know it’s only DJ quotes, but it does raise another concern.
If, in the extremely, highly unlikley event, Motherwell win the tie – will the bears be gracious losers ? 😐
Mibbees Doncaster will also want to avoid ‘social unrest’…
Rangers have announced a general meeting will be held at Ibrox – the third in six months
——————–
How much is it costing to hire a Gazebo for the third time in six months
I turned on Radio Scotland at 6:30pm tonight to listen to their regular Rangers magazine program. Sometimes its quite interesting to hear the thoughts of the various Rangers fans that host and appear on the show. I know its a regular show because I’ve listened to it at this time slot many times before.
Can anyone tell me when they have their regular Aberdeen magazine show as I seem to keep missing this one? Is it a late night time slot perhaps?
The Radio Four PM programme tonight had an Eddie Mair interview with investigative writer Andrew Jennings about the FIFA arrests. AJ has been involved both with the FBI investigation (for seven years) and with the Panorama exposes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05w3wfh
Praising Panorama, he was however scathing at the response of the MSM, and BBC Sports reporters in particular, to allegations of corruption in years past.
There was virtually no interest from the UK media who “sent sports reporters to do a journalist’s job” and he continued that sports reporters were effectively not doing a “grown up job”.
Specifically he said that the “BBC has to investigate what on earth BBC Sport has been doing over the years taking the press release rather than the story”.
He stated that the BBC were “robbing the licence payer”.
Thank goodness we don’t suffer from any of that up in Scotland! 😉
Scottish Football needs the media to wake up and smell the coffee. Time to be journalists not churnalists or stenographers.
I think it’s a bit rich of King and co to demonise Ashley in the way that the EGM has unfolded and the SMSM coverage is reporting the issue.
This is the same Dave King who sat on the RFC board from 2000 to 2012, in the middle of which the club negotiated a 10 year retail deal with JJB sports that only guaranteed an annual income of £3M to the club. What was probably more attractive about that deal was an up front payment of £18M which help SDM balance the books for a short period. Net Debt was brought down to £5.9M in 2006 as a result, only to go as high as £31.1M just three years later, before being reined in by a combination of CL qualification and Lloyds influence, before they went bust.
The impact of the JJB deal saw retail income drop from £17.7M in 2005/06 to £4.472M in 2006/07. However, the income figures do not reveal the costs in each year. We can assume that the latter figure is close to a net figure, the bulk of which represented the JJB royalty payment. The 2007 accounts give a clue to the extent of the costs of the retail operation with the following statement “Net operating expenses reduced by £11.8m or 22% to £43.1m (2006 – £54.9m) largely due to the discontinuance of the retail operation.” We can see from these figures that the profit margin in retail operations is not as high as some would have you believe.
During the JJB deal RFC wasn’t immune from some of the costs that have been incurred during the SD deal. In 2007 they reported a loss of £955K in discontinued operations, and another £579K in 2009. The loss on discontinued operations relates to contract and lease terminations associated with the retail activities. These disclosures are similar to the losses reported with the recent closure of the Airport and Belfast stores.
When the Board gets round to revealing the details of the SD contracts, Rangers fans should also be made aware of what was involved in the JJB contract.
Cluster OneCluster One says:
Member: (162 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 8:21 pm
How much is it costing to hire a Gazebo for the third time in six months
————
An onerous gazebo contract? Is nothing sacred?
StevieBC says:
Member: (683 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 2:16 pm
I see that our esteemed SFA CEO has briefly emerged into the sunlight, to throw a few stones at Blatter – before scuttling back into the Hampden bunker.
————————————
Good Evening.
Yes Stevie, I was very amused (and not necessarily in a good way) to see/hear Mr Regan piping up about FIFA today. I wonder if it occurred to him that some of his calls to FIFA could equally be made to the SFA?!
Here are some more thoughts on the matter, entitled “The Irony-Free Zone”.
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/the-irony-free-zone
Enjoy the rest of the evening!
Tartanwulver says:
Member: (169 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 4:36 pm
The RIFC EGM is on June 12th – has the location been published?
,,,,,,,,,
Top Floor Hampden?
They have also threatened to put forward a new rule which would effectively prevent Ashley voting.by banning anyone who falls foul of SFA dual influence laws….Todays papers.
—————————-
Would they,the board still be able to threatened to put forward a new rule which would effectively prevent Ashley voting.by banning anyone who falls foul of SFA dual influence laws….
If they still owned the Arsenal shares?
redlichtie says:
Member: (217 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 8:45 pm
———-
Brilliant quote that. Deserves it’s ain wee box. Sadly, the BBC is failing across its range of news output.
Listening to tonight’s radio shows tells me the pundits now feel they can almost touch the top league for Rangers. I think the summer media coverage will be unbearable should they make it. It seems clear to me the programme Editor’s have given the pundits the all clear to throw any notion of impartiality aside and go on an all out offensive to help get Rangers over the final hurdle. Shocking, shocking stuff.
James forest
Excellent article.
There is no way that king is about to throw down the gauntlet to ashley. A child would write a better script. Of course the bears will accept it as king intends – the appearance war! He wants ashley to force the issue – liquidation, but I’d nearly bet
ashley is cuter than him.
Expect some ridiculous maneuvering, but deadly serious at the same time.
“…As he went about his work divvying up the cash, Blatter became convinced that he and his body were a force for world betterment. Through the World Cup he insisted that his organisation could kick-start economic development. Surrounding himself with sycophants, feted with the trappings of a head of state, insisting at all times he be addressed as Mr President, he saw himself not as a sporting bureaucrat but a world statesman. His reward, he came to believe, would be a Nobel Prize…”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/sepp-blatter/11634692/Sepp-Blatter-the-man-with-no-shame-who-faces-reckoning-after-latest-Fifa-crisis-and-it-cannot-come-soon-enough.html
===================================================================================
Mr.President !! 😯
Blatter’s worse than we thought.
redlichtie says:
Member: (217 comments)
May 27, 2015 at 8:45 pm
The Radio Four PM programme tonight had an Eddie Mair interview with investigative writer Andrew Jennings about the FIFA arrests. AJ has been involved both with the FBI investigation (for seven years) and with the Panorama exposes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05w3wfh
Praising Panorama, he was however scathing at the response of the MSM, and BBC Sports reporters in particular, to allegations of corruption in years past.
There was virtually no interest from the UK media who “sent sports reporters to do a journalist’s job” and he continued that sports reporters were effectively not doing a “grown up job”.
Specifically he said that the “BBC has to investigate what on earth BBC Sport has been doing over the years taking the press release rather than the story”.
He stated that the BBC were “robbing the licence payer”.
Thank goodness we don’t suffer from any of that up in Scotland! ?
Scottish Football needs the media to wake up and smell the coffee. Time to be journalists not churnalists or stenographers.
————————————–
Red
He also in (maybe a separate?) interview said The English FA thro Dyke and their previous leader had commented adversely on FIFA Blatter etc. He then said what about the “Scots the Welsh Irish FA nothing absolutely nothing”. He continued and stated all National FAs in the UK should be disbanded and return to the regional groups of the 50s. Why? their all tainted by the same brush.
No a bad idea.
I wonder if Lanarkshire FA would have picked the one awful choice of ref we find ourselves with for Sunday?
It’s OK – they bought it outright from Lidl in one of their ‘events’ for £9.99
Weve been composing our playlist for Sunday. You know to entertain the guests!
Number 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B1zs6fF8Xs
“What School did you go to” by everyone’s favourite Hibees.
Still on cloud 9 after Monday. For clubs like mine, it doesn’t and won’t get better than that. My 7 year old thinks this is now normal, but I told him it took me 30 years to get back to Wembley! (BTW, I couldn’t give a stuff about the TV money, in fact it frightens me.)
Anyway, I just wanted to offer a tribute to Alex Neil. I expect many of the national journos had pre-written their narrative of the sophisticated Mourinho heir versus the blood and thunder Scot.
The truth is far from that though, he is a thoroughly modern, intelligent technical manager: the theme from all the players is that they have never experienced such meticulous preparation for games (17 wins from 25 since taking over, and unbeaten away from home in 2015).
One example given by midfielder Gary O’Neil was that Neil and assistant McAvoy had identified that Middlesbrough’s Tomlin always came inside for fullback George Friend so the Norwich right-sided players were drilled to force Friend out to the touchline and cut off that supply line. Nathan Redmond said they had watched the home defeat against Middlesbrough 10 times in the video room to point out where the weaknesses were and what would be done differently this time.
Another example: a fan found a dossier in the dugout after the Ipswich game describing in detail where each Ipswich player was most likely to strike a penalty.
Cheers, Accies. 🙂
Sports Direct bought JJB.They would have been able to look at what to expect in shirt sales.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17063863
I think Big Mike was covering his back, just incase The Rangers didn’t sell 500,000,000 tops, Charles Green style!
The arrest of several high-ranking FIFA officials in an investigation into alleged corruption, has put world football’s governing body under renewed scrutiny.
FIFA: Who can fix football’s governing body?
The Inquiry is broadcast on the BBC World Service on Tuesdays from 12:05 GMT/13:05 BST. Listen online (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p029399x), download the podcast. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rq84j) or read at (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-32884783)
Not anyone from the SFA, that’s for sure. 😳
Well not unless the BBC is implying another meaning of the word “fix” in their headline. 😉
On the Andrew Jennings story, I wonder if BBC Scotland’s Controller will make a comment about his failure to see to it that the whole murky shenanigans were adequately and professionally investigated and reported on.
From the earliest days, it was abundantly plain that the story was not a simple sports reporting story, but something much more insidious.
And if Controller Scotland’s mind was affected by other influences than the need to do his duty, he should be made to answer, and removed from his post.
Seven year rolling contract…..2022 vision right enough then 🙂
Waiting breathlessly for the press release, sorry story, from Keevins, Jackson et al…..
Surely the solution to the Blatter/FIFA problem is staring us all in the face?
Step forward Mr F&PP Dave King.
What a dream replacement for Blatter.The mostest vetted man in world football (a world record?)
What could possibly go wrong?
Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.
Morning All.
The sudden explosion of media interest in the setup of the governing body of world football with the rounding up of the rogues (allegedly of course) yesterday at FIFA 5* hotel is perhaps something that SFM should be looking to exploit.
Perhaps it might be worth looking into a national advert (UK press, not just Scottish press) something along the lines of that posted by Celtic supporters before their first meeting with TRFC earlier this season. I’m sure draft versions of such an advert must already exist, pointing out that corruption and blatant disregard of supporters is rife in a place much closer to home than Zurich. It might not cause too many feathers to ruffle, but it just takes one serious national journalist to become interested… I’m sure they will be more sensitive to such a story right now than they have possibly ever been.
Just a thought, something for the SFM community to ponder perhaps? Time being the enemy before the MSM move on to their next topic of choice
It must be the biggest match in the world ever – even the Bee Gees referenced it in their 1977 disco anthem:
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother,
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive.
Unfortunately Barry, Robin and Maurice did not predict that one of the clubs would not be staying alive. Or are those ‘ha ha has’ ironically prescient? 🙂
Quiet day, so let’s rake over some boring but salient and unresolved old stuff. If The Rangers are promoted they will earn more money but they will also incur greater costs – not least bonuses to all and sundry plus more expensive onerous contractors – they already have SPL level salary bills.
But which increase will be larger: earnings or costs. Is that elucidated in the short to medium term business plan that King and Murray (P) promised before the last EGM and again after the coronation?
Perhaps the only real positive to the clumpany with no bank credit will be to inflate the hubris balloon to world record levels.
I’m sure Ashley’s minions have it worked out to the nearest bent penny.
Some speculate that Ogilvie could be in line for promotion to FIFA once he is forced to leave the SFA – by the rules. But I can’t see a place for him in a disinfected FIFA under intense journalistic scrutiny. But I can see a retirement home for life for Blatter as the world’s second best football administrator and corruption-buster at the SFA.
Interesting article by K Jackson in DR.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/keith-jackson-baws-burst-fifa-5774902
” It’s just a pity De Gregorio completely overlooked one enormous and obvious problem: If all of this has been going on around him in his own organisation for the best part of 20 years how exactly did Blatter fail to spot it? At worst he’s complicit. At best he’s incompetent on an imbecilic scale and therefor fundamentally unfit for purpose.”
But before accusing KJ of missing the point he ends
” And yet there was a heavy irony about it too. After all, this was Stewart Regan, right? Calling for the head of a footballing administrator? In the name of improving governance and credibility? Talk about a lack of self-awareness.
Who knows, if Regan keeps this up he just might be FIFA material after all.”
Which is what makes it interesting although how SFA President Campbell Ogilvie fails to get a mention, given his knowledge of ebt use since 1999 at Ibrox is puzzling.
There is an important message too in these two paras from the DR.
“Or in other words: Yes, these World Cups may well have been bought by dirty money. Yes, the game might be corrupt to its Nike stockings. But so what? Move along now. There’s nothing to see here. We’re are FIFA – we do what we want.
How hopelessly out of touch are these people? How contemptuously must they behave towards the supporters of this game before the rest of the world finally stands up and grabs our ball back off them?”
Grabbing the ball back off them in terms of making the SFA accountable is what Res12 to the Celtic AGM of 2013 is about.
Although the Res asked for UEFA to investigate the processing of the UEFA 2011 licence, by making it a resolution from small shareholders in a club, one of the motives was to make it difficult if not impossible for the SFA to refuse to answer questions not posed via the filter of club membership of the SFA and so send a message of wider accountability.
That battle is still being fought, but if it is won then our game at least will know that accountability can be achieved, although hopefully the lessons learned from the exhaustive and exhausting Res12 process will lead to an introduction of a much more responsive accountability mechanism.
Res12 might have had to use the UEFA 2011 licence as the vehicle to get the SFA to answer, but what RFC said to keep the licence, whilst needing confirmed, is now with the passage of time and events since, of less importance than the SFA actually answering the questions posed to them.
Who knows reasonable answers might put RFC and the SFA in the clear, but getting specific answers to pointed questions in itself would be a victory for accountability.
Having transparent accountable football governance is for the benefit of supporters of all clubs. Transparent and accountable governance WITH PROPER POLICING would have protected our game since 1999 when the lack of it allowed the ebt nonsense.
It would also have prevented the very questions Res12 wants answered because those doing the policing would know they were answerable for doing so as intended.
For where matters are on Res12 check
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/?p=17395&cpage=16#comment-2587514
As regards the arithmetic mcfc I think D King has already answered your question and who’s to doubt the word of a F&PP?
King said if they get up then an affordable business plan will be presented at some point in the future so that’s all fine and dandy, eh Keef. If they stay down then, I think, was it 7 or maybe 8m more was required to achieve the same end (hence prompting the discussion re the safety net description of any proposed future reconstruction).
Now to me, and any decent journalist looking in 😯 , that absolutely screamed the question why would RFC* in the top division be 7-8m better off than in the Championship? The only reasonable answers I could factor in were that they were assuming euro qualification, and extended participation, or secondly that King and other’s investment was proportional to the division that they would find themselves – not really a revenue item granted, but its never stopped them before.
Otherwise, I cannot believe the commercial attractiveness of being back where they belong extends to £8m. I just can’t see it!
And of course, there is the triflingly small issue that an RFC* in the top division losing £8m per annum is indeed better than an RFC in the Championship losing £16m. In the same way that standing in labrador poo is different to an Alsation. You’re still in it nonetheless.
Auldheid,
Your efforts regarding Res12 are as inspiring as they are admirable. All power to your pen. You may not want to answer the question publicly, but out of interest, whilst I understand the motive of entering the dragons den via a member club as they then have no option but to respond, but how confident are you that the answers received will then be distributed free of ‘club politik’ – and its CFC I’m referring to for the absence of doubt?
Smugas says:
Member: (801 comments)
May 28, 2015 at 11:18 am
Good analysis of what King said – but he needs to say the same numbers on three occasions before I even disbelieve him – and that hasn’t happened yet 🙂
Otherwise, I cannot believe the commercial attractiveness of being back where they belong extends to £8m. I just can’t see it!
———————————————————–
Funnily enough neither do I but there is that statement Peter keeps reverting to about how Celtic have suffered most due to the loss of competition from their City rivals and he consistently claims we are 10m pound poorer for rangers not being in the top league. Now, if that is true, perhaps there is a lot more money in this old firm malarky than we realise.
Smugas
With thinking like that you should be part of the small Res12 team. 🙂
I cannot answer at this point, but making such an outcome unlikely is part of our thinking although there is no indication in our dealings with Celtic that is something that might arise.
Apart from which events in the football governance world may be with us in having full transparency.
Highland Bhoy
Does PL keep repeating the £10m loss to Celtic as result of RFC’S demise or did it get said once but the msm keep repeating it.
Check Barcabhoy ‘s posts re Celtic profitability in last three years, something not achieved when RFC were “competing”.
Arise Sir Andrew ?
Bampots everywhere should raise a glass to Andrew Jennings, patron saint of bampots and lost causes. He’s been plugging away relentlessly at FIFA corruption for years and has been dismissed as an obsessive crank by many in officialdom across the world and treated like the village idiot by FIFA officials – but guess what – once a serious investigative organisation without a vested interest got involved – suddenly his outlandish bampotery has become valuable, factual, objective evidence. Well done Andrew – enjoy your days in the limelight.
re Celtic profitability in last three years, something not achieved when RFC were “competing”.
========================
Yes but most of Celtic’s profits have come from CL and selling our best players, we have become a selling club. Therefore I would suggest we would have to look at that profitability dependent on the source of that profit. (It sure as hell isn’t from match day tickets or season tickets)
Highland bhoy @ 11.45
Ah, so when every commentator asked to contribute says “for the good of Scottish football, by your ‘old firm’ thinking….
insertlargestirrythingemoticon
Well knock me down with a feather.
And to be clear, as Barca has demonstrated previously, CFC can’t clear £10m on ‘old firmism’ and I understand they own their IP and Retail rights.
insert
Auldheid says:
May 28, 2015 at 10:17 am
Interesting article by K Jackson in DR.
” And yet there was a heavy irony about it too. After all, this was Stewart Regan, right? Calling for the head of a footballing administrator? In the name of improving governance and credibility? Talk about a lack of self-awareness.
Who knows, if Regan keeps this up he just might be FIFA material after all.”
________________________________________
The mind boggles as to what grievance Mr Off the Radar Rangers PR stenographer Jackson has exactly with Stewart Regan given the SFA have bent and thrown out every rule in the book to assist TRFC?
Could it possibly it be not vetoing Craig Whyte’s takeover?
What was that Radar was saying about self-awareness…. :slamb: :slamb: :slamb:
upthehoops says
May 27, 2015 at 9:28 pm
Listening to tonight’s radio shows tells me the pundits now feel they can almost touch the top league for Rangers. I think the summer media coverage will be unbearable should they make it. It seems clear to me the programme Editor’s have given the pundits the all clear to throw any notion of impartiality aside and go on an all out offensive to help get Rangers over the final hurdle. Shocking, shocking stuff.
_________________________________________
Raman’s STV report on Tuesday night began with “Rangers’ play-off final on Thursday night against Motherwell…”.
RANGERS’ play off final?
Not simply the SPL play-off final?
Is it ICT’s Scottish Cup final at the weekend or Falkirk’s?
Subtle but revealing.
We are beaten around the head with their sense of entitlement so much that I don’t think many otherwise rational people can actually help themselves
“we have become a selling club.”
aw naw, when did this happen !!!
Now that football corruption is a world news story, is there a chance that Alex Thompson could pick the story up again, if prompted by SFM? What would it take to make it an interesting enough story for him/C4 to run with? Obviously, the whole ‘it happens closer to home too!’ angle would appeal, but I’d imagine that without a new EBT court case to focus on, the context would have to be more than ‘the SFA helped Rangers into the league after liquidation’.
Could Auldheid’s Res 12 piece do it? Could King being (ridiculously!) a F&PP do it?
What does anyone think – is there a big enough story for SFM to take to AT asking him to get involved on the back of the FIFA corruption?
pau1mart1n says:
May 28, 2015 at 1:26 pm
“we have become a selling club.”
aw naw, when did this happen !!!
==============
Hay to Chelsea
Macari to Man U
Dalglish to Liverpool 😉
But actually I think he probably meant more
Hooper to Norwich
Ki to Swansea
Foster and Wanyama to Southampton
Biton to ???
I don’t agree though because of my first list and other players that have been developed at Celtic and then sold on in-between, including Nicholas to Arsenal, Petrov to Villa and McGeady to Moscow. Yes the books have looked good for the last couple of years because of a few high profile sales but they also have in many of the years since the transfer fee explosion started in the 70s
Now let’s think ahead,if DK and his prediction of hearing champions league sounds at Ibrox,would this then mean we would have PL saying that having Rangers in the SPL is costing CFC more than 10m a season.
nawlite says:
Member: (144 comments)
May 28, 2015 at 1:28 pm
Or…could we invite him, Alex Thomson, to do a podcast, and hopefully peak his interest in corruption/favouritism at all levels of football governance? The hypocrisy of Regan’s comments about FIFA, since the arrests, might be a good place to start, and certainly invites a workable comparison of the two bodies.
nawlite says:
Member: (144 comments)
May 28, 2015 at 1:28 pm
What does anyone think – is there a big enough story for SFM to take to AT asking him to get involved on the back of the FIFA corruption?
==============================================
If FIFA is so corrupt could British football be corrupt too? What steps do they take to protect thenselves against the corrupt and criminal – oh look – Dave King – is he really fit and proper? Not just the convictions but what about the other charges that were not pursued – money laundering, fraud etc. After all. Blatter has never been convicted of anything – there are accusations that have not even reached the level of charges but he is under the microscope now.
But there is a danger the question might swerve off and focus on England’s Abramovitch, Shinawatra, Yeung, Cellini …
Highland_Bhoy says:
Member: (17 comments)
May 28, 2015 at 12:26 pm
re Celtic profitability in last three years, something not achieved when RFC were “competing”.
========================
Yes but most of Celtic’s profits have come from CL and selling our best players, we have become a selling club. Therefore I would suggest we would have to look at that profitability dependent on the source of that profit. (It sure as hell isn’t from match day tickets or season tickets)
//////////////////
Celtic have more season ticket holders than 80/90% of teams in the EPL. So don’t know were you are coming from there
EPL main revenue comes from TV
And 99% of EPL trams are upto there eyes in Dedt. TV deals colapes so do they
As for a selling club
So are every team outside the Top half of the EPL and to lesser extent the lower half of theEPL as wellas the top teams in Spain and Germany
So don’t know what you are getting at there either
Now that Regan has broken cover to have a pop at that ‘dodgy’ Blatter and FIFA…
When his group returns from its very expensive jaunt to Zurich, you would think that the SFA CEO would then be very keen to address the widespread allegations amongst football supporters that the SFA itself is a corrupt organisation ?
And, shirley, at least one SMSM ‘journalist’ could be emboldened to follow this up with Regan – especially when Regan has now ‘opened’ that particular line of questioning himself as fair game ?
I know. :slamb:
Maybe in a future SFM set up we would have the resource / opportunity to do just that…for the good of Scottish football, of course. 🙄
nawlite says:
Member: (144 comments)
May 28, 2015 at 1:28 pm
The hypocrisy of Regan’s comments about FIFA, since the arrests, might be a good place to start,
=====================================
I know a few lifers at Sellafield, and when Chernobyl blow up they ran to the local hills to take readings and – shock horror – they found sky high radiation levels – bloody Russians polluting the environs of our nice, clean plutonium factory. Parallels?