The scandal in which Scottish football has become embroiled is neither equivocal nor complicated. It happened. It is easily seen to have happened. It is certainly not a degree course in nuclear physics. Why then, are simple facts ignored day after day, week after week, by not just the so called purveyors of truth in the media, but the body of the SFA itself, the clubs?
Five years or so ago, systematic cheating by a club involved in Scottish football was uncovered as a consequence of the club slipping into liquidation. This is easily established as fact.
It soon became clear that the authorities had been aware of the situation for as long as it had been going on, but instead of applying their own rules, which would have saved that club from it’s ultimate demise, they chose to enable it and cover it up. Also, backed up by documentary evidence.
As a consequence of the slide towards liquidation, the authorities went into cover-up overdrive to protect their own position. Inquiries based on rhetorical “you’ll have had your tea!” questions were set up to arrive at predetermined conclusions. The post-truth era in Scottish football had begun in earnest.
The claims of corruption which subsequently emerged were dismissed out of hand by the authorities and the press; first by accusations that it was only Paranoid Celtic fans looking to put the boot into Rangers who were behind the claims, then, when it became clear that it was not only Celtic fans who were angered by the way the integrity of the sport had been shattered, the “mad Celtic fans” epithet was amended to “mad online conspiracy theorists”.
The tactic was clear. NEVER address the issue. Attack the messengers. Ridicule them, mock them, demonise them. Despite that, the message of SFM and others was gaining traction and dangerously for the authorities, becoming difficult to ignore.
Last Autumn SFM was approached in confidence by senior figures in two print media outlets. The request was for us to provide them with the facts we had in bullet points – to make it easier for them to reach their audience, an audience they claimed was not sophisticated enough to absorb the detail and minutiae of the story.
The role of journalists is to do exactly that of course. They had access to the same documentary evidence we had (we know this because we gave it to them), but they wanted us to do their job for them? Leaving aside the scant regard I have for football journalists in this country, I don’t believe they are incapable of carrying out that simple task – but we humoured them anyway and provided them with the “SFA Corruption for Dummies” guide that they asked for.
But what were they really up to?
Remembering the RTC thread where he pointed out that genuine whistle-blowers in this saga were reluctant to come forward because of trust issues – they feared any contact with the MSM would result in their details being provided to those they were exposing – we proceeded with some caution. Amusingly, the same three questions was asked at each meeting; “You must know who Rangers Tax Case is?”, “any idea who John James is?” and, “what team do you support?”. (FYI, my answers were, “No”, “No”, and “Celtic” respectively).
Interestingly, for people who needed clarification by bullet-point, they were well enough versed in the minutiae to attempt to argue the flat-earth case and try to sell us the “it has been established legally that <insert something that hasn’t been established legally here>”
Our only conjecture was that they were trying to convince us we were wrong, or ascertain how firm a grasp we actually had on the facts to better see who and what they were dealing with, or (most probably) they were reacting aimlessly to online pressure and not really following any plan at all. Perhaps they were seeking to reassure themselves that it was just Celtic fans who were angry – although I fail to see how Celtic or their fans have less credibility when asking legitimate questions about the running of the game just because Rangers were involved.
Subsequently, despite the platitudes of “print and social media should work together” and the like, and despite being furnished with the aforementioned bullet points, no further contact was made with SFM other than a couple of childish comments about SFM on Twitter.
Facts might be facts to us all, but in the case of the print media, they can be ignored on the basis that mad internet bampots are not a credible source, although metaphysical hypotheses are clearly thought to be a far more sensible line of inquiry!
However, facts ARE indeed facts, and in the hands of real journalists like Alec Thomson and those in The Offshore Game (TOG), they are given the credence they merit. Since TOG published the report on the SFA (see below), the facts have emerged from not just the so-called internet bampots. Those facts have survived the scrutiny of several reputable journalists involved in TOG – and their legal advisers.
Accusations more blunt and unequivocal than we have ever made have been published. The genie is most definitely out of the bottle, but the prodigious MSM Twitterati, so meticulous in their investigations into the occupation of Craig Whyte’s female companions, appear to have run out of batteries on their keyboards. “No answer” is the loud reply, since TOG cannot be ridiculed quite so easily without exposing themselves to the same scrutiny they have failed to apply to the SFA.
If I can be as unequivocal about this as possible. Senior journalists in at least two MSM print outlets KNOW there has been a cover up, and that systematic cheating took place. They knew that before the TOG report, long before it, but still they did nothing. Even now they do nothing. They are now playing a reactionary role – as counterpoint to the accessible online truth – involved in actively concealing that truth from the offline public. An Offline Game if you like.
Of course we are not surprised by that, and as the falling-off-a-cliff circulation figures show, fewer and fewer people are playing their game. Even those who still purchase newspapers believe little of what they read.
The clubs are a different matter. Fans of every single club in this country – and that includes TRFC – will benefit from an inquiry into the handling of this matter. In the light of the TOG report, there is no excuse for the clubs to ignore calls for an inquiry to be set up. In fact by doing so, they are actively embracing corruption.
As we have said time and time again, this is no longer about Rangers. It is about institutionalised mal-governance at Hampden. By assisting the cover-up, the clubs are ensuring that the same corrupt practices are in place, ready to go again when necessary. Those practices which saw journalists and SFA officials cede editorial control (both statements backed up by documentary evidence) of their output to one club, and allow damaging conflicts of interest to circumvent rules.
The Offshore Game has thrown a media spotlight onto a cover-up. The MSM have attempted to bury it in the offline domain, but corruption, however well established,is not unbeatable. We can beat it if we work together – and here is how.
Season ticket renewals are dropping through letterboxes as I write this. If we do nothing other than protest, the clubs will do – just like Stewart Regan says he will – NOTHING!
There is only one way to establish the Independent Inquiry that is demanded in the wake of TOG report. Ask your club if they will vote for an Independent Inquiry to be set up.
If they agree, there is no problem. They are doing the right thing and will be deserving of our support.
Otherwise, send their renewal forms back to them unsigned.
It really is that simple.
http://www.theoffshoregame.net/475-2/
MATTY ROTHMAY 27, 2016 at 21:05Picked this up on another forum from an ex-Bear who moved on to support another team.Glad I found it as it restores some faith in a strange way, I always wondered why the “decent majority” stick it when they see what some people are determined to make RFC stand for. I know I wouldn’t stick around if my club and fans went down the same road.http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sonppj
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Spot on
…I know a few people like him
…And many many more who think joining the silent majority somehow lessens the damage done by the bigots
Sadly
When you are on the receiving end
…It doesn`t
I don’t feel any need to abandon my team actually. We’ve got some bad fans, and have gone through many years of bad management which has had knock in effects to many others. But they’re still my team, and I hope for better days.
Thomthetim,
You seem to be labouring under a misapprehension. Rangers were liquidated, that’s a simple fact which I have never debated. I believe there is an old club / new club debate which the mods set up for people such as yourself who take pleasure in discussing these matters. I suggest you go there, but don’t expect immediate responses as most people are bored with it.
RyanGoslingMay 28, 2016 at 01:08
‘..there is an old club / new club debate which the mods set up for people such as yourself who take pleasure in discussing these matters.’
_________
There is in fact no ‘debate’ about the fact that TRFC is a new club, Ryan. It is an absolute fact that RFC are in Liquidation. It ceased to exist as a member of the SPL and of the SFA. It ceased to exist as a commercial concern. Its employees, God preserve the innocent, ceased to be employed. Its creditors and debenture holders were stung for substantial sums in aggregate. And you and I and the rest of the tax-paying paying people of the UK were stung for millions.
Rangers Football Club ceased to exist.
And all the stupid nonsense about ‘holding companies’, and ‘the spirit’ and ‘manifestations’ and ‘the club is the supporters’ is just meaningless, pointless nonsensical buggering about. RFC may ‘live on’ in spirit in the same way as my dad lives on in spirit: I can see him now, as I type, decent and war-wounded man that he was. I would wish he was still able to buy me a pint or conduct any other business of life.
Sadly, he cannot, and the registrar of deaths etc etc knows that, and the Passport people know that, and his bank knows that, and I know that.
‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd’, aka as either Sevco5088, SevcoScotland, Rangers 2012, is in every sense-legally, commercially, and sportingly, absolutely NOT the Rangers that was bought by Craig Whyte and by him run into asset-stripping Administration and Liquidation.
There is no room for ‘debate’ , let alone for suggesting that this blog has manufactured a ‘debate’.
There were bad men out there trying to make money by conning people. Some of us believe that they were aided and abetted in so doing by people whose duty it was to have prevented that but who not only failed to do so, but actively supported and continue to support the con.
Some of the conmen are convicted criminals. Part of their skill lies in being good liars. And of conmen we might expect as much.
What we do not expect is that the men who had a duty to all of us football supporters whose money and emotion sustains the whole feckin industry should have so breached their duty and so compromised their personal integrity as to countenance the destruction of the ideal of Sporting Integrity.
There is nothing manufactured about the Truth.
We have been cheated appallingly first by SDM, then by CW, and subsequently by successive, squabbling-among-themselves successive Boards of a a new club which spits unholy defiance even against the very corrupt hand that fed and nurtured it, as well, of course, against every honest club and every honest supporter of clubs.
There is no ‘debate’. There are facts. I may say, even incontrovertible facts.
JC @01.43 28 May 2016
Absolutely spot on & very eloquently put .
We need reminders like this of the truth & to cut through the crap thrown up by the media .
JOHN CLARKMAY 28, 2016 at 02:14
Perhaps because your post was so accurate, it was deemed by a “higher” authority that it needed no alteration John. I hope your research into your fathers past is bearing fruit. We owe him, and his generation eternally.
John Clark “If the evidence of innocence is there, why indeed don’t the SFA simply shut us up for good by merely producing it in open forum?”
Very well put.
JOHN CLARKMAY 28, 2016 at 01:43
Wow! (or as was said in a different time) Chapeau!
I don’t think I have read a more eloquent or passionate destruction of the big lie.
I wonder what Mr Regan would have to say about it?
Further efforts to repeat this jaded pernicious nonsense and bring it into the political forum I see:
http://www.abbup.org/#!Hampden-Cup-Final-Shame-The-Roots-of-the-Violence/r982r/574859aa0cf264264f3fba4c
Meanwhile nothing is ever said of the comments from Police officers that state the slow response on the pitch was actually direct result of a mob of fans outside of the ground blocking the path for the crowd control officers to enter the stadium. I wonder why that is?
Chapeau, JC.
Watching things unfold since the Cup Final its clear there is a lot more to this than the simplified version of the events being forcibly presented by one side.
It seems to me that since Rangers were liquidated there have been a sizeable group of individuals determined to take revenge on the whole of Scottish Football.
Everything they do appears to be driven by a deeply warped mindset hellbent on either outright unquestioning control over Scottish Football or if that is not possible then on Scottish Footballs complete destruction.
Like a spoilt brat who takes the ball if he isn’t allowed to score the winning goal.
I wouldn’t describe these people as true Rangers fans but they are certainly being allowed to take office within the Club, take leadership roles within the fans organisations and their collective voice merrily leads very many along behind them who unthinkingly repeat whatever warped tropes their leaders provide.
The official response of TRFC and public comments of their senior staff will now serve to ensure that this sort of trouble will in all likelihood continue next season.
I fear the worst is ahead and unless there is a huge change of attitudes the consequences may be very severe.
If this nonsense continues unstopped it really will be the death knell of Scottish Football as a sport for decent people.
Armageddon if you will.
MATTY ROTH
MAY 28, 2016 at 09:29
=====================================
Just to be clear, the excellent Wings Over Scotland analysis of the the timeline shows that the Police had officers on horseback on the pitch and in the process of separating the rival supporters around 4 minutes after the first supporters started their pitch invasion. That was in addition to other officers on foot dealing with the situation, including stopping the fighting.
Given their remit, and the fact that so few were actually in the stadium (presumably the SFA trying to save money) I thought their response was excellent. I believe to describe it as “slow” is a bit unfair on the Police.
The fact that it took so long for those outside to actually get into the ground is another issue. The Rangers’ support should be ashamed of themselves. To try to prevent the Police carrying out their public order function, in any circumstances is not on. No matter what retrospective justification you may come up with.
Matty RothMay 28, 2016 at 09:29
Further efforts to repeat this jaded pernicious nonsense and bring it into the political forum I see:http://www.abbup.org/#!Hampden-Cup-Final-Shame-The-Roots-of-the-Violence/r982r/574859aa0cf264264f3fba4c Meanwhile nothing is ever said of the comments from Police officers that state the slow response on the pitch was actually direct result of a mob of fans outside of the ground blocking the path for the crowd control officers to enter the stadium. I wonder why that is?
_________________
Genuine question, Matty. Is that an official Unionist Party site, as in Tory site? Or is it a site representing Rangers supporters and their political views, masquerading as the site of a recognised political body?
I only read the first paragraph, by which time the bile was rising in my throat, but already I could see it was no more than a rallying cry for the worst of the moronic bears, possibly written by the half-wit who wrote one or more of the TRFC statements.
May I recommend this for your delectation. Our good friend Clumps showcasing a cheeky wee video from the excellent and talented Billy No’Well.
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/
‘Sorry’ of you’ve already watched it
Indeed Homunculus ,the description of the response as slow wasn’t mine, i’m merely pointing out that some quarters have attacked the police for a slow response. Not sure if you believe I am saying they were slow to re-act, i’m not really making that judgement but as the criticism was made I think its only fair to understand the situation the police were facing.
The off the record comments I’ve seen from police officers in attendance suggest that the lack of policde numbers in the stadium was not the SFA saving money – it appears the police had large reserves outside the stadium but in the event some of these officers were not able to enter the stadium due to fans deliberately blocking their path and attacking the police vehicles.
To be clear I personally think the Police response was quite acceptable but others seem to be trying to cast aspersions on them.
MATTY ROTH
MAY 28, 2016 at 10:27
==================================
As I understand it the club (in this case the SFA) pay for Police within the ground, and possibly in the immediate vicinity. The Police are responsible for public order and have to cover anything happening further away as it is no longer a “football” matter.
If there were not enough Police Officers inside Hampden, or it’s immediate vicinity it is because the SFA chose not to pay for them.
As I said that is just my understanding of how it works. It is also why we see more stewards and less Police officers in and around grounds nowadays.
Re the Police Officers comments, I would agree that they are unattributed, however they are hardly “off the record” when they have been reported in newspapers.
Sounds like there were plenty in attendance in the immediate vicinity but perhaps not in the right place at the right time, which is hardly helped if they were prevented from entering the stadium when needed.
“Unattributed” is the word I was looking for, much better thanks.
MATTY ROTH
MAY 28, 2016 at 10:44
=================================================
As I said earlier
“The fact that it took so long for those outside to actually get into the ground is another issue. The Rangers’ support should be ashamed of themselves. To try to prevent the Police carrying out their public order function, in any circumstances is not on. No matter what retrospective justification you may come up with.”
John Clark,
You posted in response to my post last night. Perhaps I used the wrong word when I said the mods had set up a “debate”. “Thread” may have been a better word. While your post was all fine and accurate, I just want to make sure you know that I didn’t require it.
A proposal to deal with the SC final events .
As initiators of the pitch invasion, alleged assaults on players and officials and confronting opposition supporters, Hibs fined £500k – £50k to be paid before the start of the new season and the rest suspended and will be dismissed should there be no recurrence during the next 12 months . For sectarian singing, invading the pitch and confronting opposition supporters, TRFC fined £300k, £30k to be paid before the start of the season and the rest suspended and will be dismissed should there be no recurrence during the next 12 months . May help with the singing aspect .
Paddy Malarkey,
I’m so bored with the singing thing. Your suggestion for fines after the final is ok, but to be honest this is not a difficult thing to deal with. First league game of the season, Rangers win but sectarian singing is witnessed. Docked three points. Second game, same situation. By this point Rangers have “won” two games but are bottom of the league. Third game, someone pipes up with the Billy Boys, how long do you think it’ll take the Rangers fans to shut him up?! Job done.
So I am absolutely in favour of strict liability on this one as it is the only way to deal with it. Plus it is the easiest way. And if it didn’t work then I’ll admit we’re beyond hope and should be shut down.
AllyjamboMay 28, 2016 at 10:07
“I only read the first paragraph, by which time the bile was rising in my throat, but already I could see it was no more than a rallying cry for the worst of the moronic bears,..”
————————————
I must apologise in advance to Rangers supporters who may be reading this blog, for the comment I am about to compose, as I sense it might lack the fullest objectivity.
To balance that likelihood I would premise my remarks by re-iterating that it was the pitch invasion by Hibs fans that has provided the opportunity for the narrative to become warped. Hopefully this experience will help inform the bahaviour of all supporters in the future.
Like you Allyjambo, I only skim read the article as the content appeared ill-informed. Not that I would necessarily shy away from ill-informed content as everyone is entitled to their opinion, however the tone of certain commentaries inform of the content without the necessity of absorbing its details.
Rangers are unlikely to mount a serious challenge for the top division title next year. If I am proven wrong then that will mean that they bring with them a strong element of competitiveness and whilst surprised, I will be grateful for that added element of endeavour which will further enhance the top division.
Should my prediction have any substance then it will likely be reflected in the mindset of many, including the owners and operators of The Rangers Football Club Limited.
If you know you are starting a competition at a disadvantage then you will have to latch onto other levers that might assist you in your endeavours. Sports psychology has always been in the game even before it was dubbed with this epithet. The ‘twelfth man’ is one element within psychological makeup that can be recruited to good use.
It seems to me that the twelfth man is getting his adrenalin inducing inspirational team talk before he takes his particular field of play. I have seen a number of examples of this already and the article posted by Matty Roth is just another piece of evidence.
It is a very unfortunate cocktail to be cooking up. Racial hatred found acceptable, attacking players on the pitch an unremarkable occurence, football authorities lacking ethic and principle all part of the prevailing landscape.
I never really believed the doomsday scenario that the SFA were digging the grave of Scottish football. I am admittedly rather naive at times.
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/resolution-12-and-the-importance-of-perseverance/#more-7584
RyanGoslingMay 28, 2016 at 11:31
Aye right ! You are in with the big boys now and it could be a while before the first three points are won
I have just read James Forrest’s latest and it is magnificent. On fields of green.
James Forrest .http://www.onfieldsofgreen.com/resolution-12-campaign-leaves-sevco-facing-a-european-ban/?
JUSTBECAUSEYOUREPARANOIDMAY 28, 2016 at 09:28
JOHN CLARKMAY 28, 2016 at 01:43
Wow! (or as was said in a different time) Chapeau!I don’t think I have read a more eloquent or passionate destruction of the big lie.I wonder what Mr Regan would have to say about it?
——————————————————————-
I’m going to guess he would say “Nothing”.
From James Forrest..
A Must Read for every fan that want’s a clear out at Hampden and those who bend rules punished..
Resolution 12 Campaign Leaves Sevco Facing A European Ban
This is an article that was almost written last week, but then the need for it was removed at a stroke by a late Hibs goal at Hampden.
Amidst the mayhem that followed that goal, this story was put on the back burner. Events have moved forward this weekend.
For the last couple of years, a group of dedicated Celtic supporters has been working away, diligently, on the matter we call Resolution 12. Much is at stake; the credibility of the game here in Scotland, SFA reform and exposing the truth about some of what was going on during that period.
Yet Celtic fans, and those of other clubs, still appear largely ignorant of the real scale of what’s up for grabs here.
Celtic supporters have long wondered whether or not getting to the roots of this will do much more than embarrass Stewart Regan and his cohort at Hampden.
This was never about embarrassing people.
One of the consequences of it will be removing them from office entirely.
If it’s found that the SFA helped Rangers to deliberately conceal tax payables owed during the UEFA licensing process then that’s the ball game for everyone involved in that matter. They are gone.
But there’s always been another side to this, and some of the Resolution 12 guys have been wholly aware of it for a while, and their legal reps and those at the SFA most certainly are.
Celtic is well aware of it too, and it’s one of the reasons for their reticence in making a public statement. I am glad to be able to make that clear, and it’s something that only came to my own attention in the last weeks.
Let me make something else clear; Celtic has no interest in this beyond establishing the facts. Our club doesn’t want blood here. It’s not the reason the club or fans are pursuing this matter and you know this because at no time have the guys behind Resolution 12 presented demands for that in a public forum, as a stated objective of the campaign.
But it’s always been accepted that if their case is proved that there will be consequences for people.
So what are these consequences and what do they mean for us?
Well I can tell you now that one of them will be Sevco facing a lengthy European football ban.
Yesterday, the Offshore Game published an addendum to their stunning report into these issues, a document which clarified certain issues. But it also mentioned the UEFA disciplinary committee and its remit to punish clubs after the fact.
I’d heard that might be a possibility in this case a week or two ago. I had been planning to write a piece on the day after the cup final, if Sevco had won, but of course that game went far better than many of us had expected.
But the issue is now starting to come to light anyway. People are beginning to open their eyes to the true consequences should Celtic fans and the club manage to compel a UEFA inquiry into these matters.
This explains a few things about the last week, and in particular the reason Sevco is going on the offensive over the level of “hate” they have to endure. For these things are all connected, all entwined, and people at Ibrox are laying the groundwork for a fresh PR campaign in the event their club is hauled before the beaks.
It will be the most important PR offensive in their history.
Over the last couple of years I’ve written extensively on what we refer to as The Victim Myth, but never more so than over the last few days.
That myth has been allowed to grow to monstrous proportions and at the centre of it is the notion that all of Scotland is determined to hurt their club and that we all played a role in the destruction of the OldCo and would happily send the NewCo the same way.
In the last week I’ve written numerous pieces in response to these fantastic and paranoid claims, but as I wrote every word I knew there was more to them than simple self pity.
When you consider that at the same time as this wailing is going on in the background, that board members have been telling the press that the game has to “move on” you see more to their bitching than might at first be plain.
Go ever further, consider that King himself actually openly criticised the Resolution 12 guys earlier this month, accusing them of having an agenda. Why would he say that, if these issues were not able to impact Sevco?
It’s here that you start to see the outlines of what’s really going on behind the scenes.
People at Sevco are worried about this campaign.
Aside from the Victim Myth, the other toxic issue at the centre of Scottish football is that other great lie on which so much of our game is built; the Survival Myth.
Anyone familiar with these issues knows this one is a real article of faith for many of them. In fact, some of them have accused those of us who scotch it of using “dehumanising language” to refer to them.
I call them Sevconians. They object to that word. Others call them zombies. They object to that even more strongly. One demented article from yesterday appeared to compare the atmosphere in Scottish football to that in Nazi Germany with the Sevconians in the role of the Jews.
It’s an offensive idea, and not just because of how over the top and crass it is. After all, there’s only one club in this country who’s fans stand accused of having used the hated salute of Hitler’s despotic regime; I’ll give you a clue. It isn’t Dundee.
These sort of articles are intended to wed the Victim and Survival Myths, and fuse them into one, and they are a recent addition to the Sevco PR arsenal.
Believe me when I tell you that’s not a coincidence.
Until this week, when the Victim Myth was hyper-charged, I had believed the Survival Myth to be far and away the more damaging and corrupting of the two. In some ways it still is, but it’s not as dangerous to wider society as this notion that their support are social pariahs, “denied their human rights” as that hysterical piece yesterday alleged.
The Survival Myth is hateful not only because it denies reality but it places our game in mortal peril. If this is idea is followed to its natural conclusion clubs which overspend will know they can dump debts, reform and carry on as before.
It will allow guys like Whyte to come and go as they please, looting clubs like a business at the centre of a Mafia style “planned bankruptcy” before walking away knowing the football authorities will barely blink an eye.
It would be open season for con artists, charlatans, even organised crime groups, to come in and use Scottish football for all manner of schemes and scams, and we can’t survive the damage that would do.
Yet at the heart of the Survival Myth and its inherent contradictions, I always believed there were dangers for the club itself.
When Mike Ashley’s loans were all that was keeping their lights on and he seemed as if he might get the whole thing in his grip I wrote that the Survival Myth and this daft idea the holding company and the club were two separate things had created a deadly possibility; that the holding company might well end up in the hands of someone who made a similar distinction. With no ownership over its own stadium, image rights, intellectual property or merchandising the club would be no more than animals in a circus, there to provide the entertainment to a dwindling band of followers, with the company cutting accordingly.
I still think it’s the most stupid – and potentially deadly – separation of a football club and the people who run it that I’ve ever heard of.
How close did Sevco come to ending up just like that? At one point Ashley had an iron grip on nearly the lot of it but ironically the club itself was too unsure about its own hold over the stadium to grant it to him as loan security.
What underpins the Survival Myth is the Five Way Agreement and it’s here the current problems for Sevco exist and present the gravest danger should Celtic fans succeed and UEFA open an investigation into the granting of the European license for 2011-12.
Because that document, whilst giving Sevco a “no title stripping” guarantee, also forced them to accept certain things. The key one was that it should assume responsibility for any “football penalties” the SFA chose to levy.
In the end a dirty, grubby deal was done and those penalties amounted to nothing … but it’s in there, in black and white, and nothing anyone does can change it now.
One of the funniest things in all of football is listening to a Sevco fan or journalist try to square the circle of liquidation and death and the “continuation of history.”
The current club is always trying to distance itself from the old one did, but they want all the good bits for themselves.
The SFA tried to ride the middle of the road on the issue too and it still sits uneasily on the perch where they placed it.
The Resolution 12 guys can blow that all to Hell.
If UEFA opens an investigation into these events – as looks increasingly likely – they will ask for all the information that’s in the public domain and a lot more besides. If they conclude that people with-held information from them there will be sanctions.
Some of those sanctions will fall on the SFA, as the licensing body. Associations have been heavily fined by UEFA for their failures to get to the bottom of licensing disclosures.
But UEFA will also punish the club, and that’s where life becomes interesting.
Because they’ll ask the SFA whether it stands by the claim that Sevco and Rangers are one in the same. What the SFA says in response will dictate whether the Survival Myth is reversed or whether its tenants are upheld.
UEFA do not make the club – company distinction, and they never have, but in handing down a punishment they will be guided by SFA conventions. One of the big issues the SFA will face is the legally binding “Five Way Agreement” wherein whatever they argue, they and the club will still be bound by its numerous clauses, one of which is that Sevco will accept any “football punishment” levied on Rangers.
And then there’s the Survival Myth itself. The SFA cannot escape a choice on that and if they uphold the Survival Myth UEFA will drop the hammer on Ibrox and there’s simply no way anyone can mount an argument against it.
The NewCo will be banned from European competition from anywhere between one and three years. There will be little prospect of an appeal, because the only defence Sevco and the SFA will have is the one they have been busily destroying for the past few years, that these actions were carried out by another club.
Just making that argument will burn the Survival Myth to the ground once and for all and fully vindicate all we’ve said these past few years, which is why the SFA and Sevco are going to have no choice but to stick to their guns on this, to pretend the Ibrox club is still Rangers and take whatever’s coming their way. For either organisation to reverse course on this issue now would be devastating for them.
Had Sevco won the Scottish Cup this would have been looming in front of them all summer long. As it is, the issue remains but it’s no longer one that will disrupt anyone’s passport application process.
Yet I fully expect that before next season starts Europe’s governing body will be well on the way to a decision in this matter and that decision may well have horrendous consequences for the Dodgy Dave King business plan, which is heavily reliant on European footballing income for the club’s very survival.
This coming season will be Year 5 away from that stage. It is not inconceivable that Sevco might spend its first decade without ever playing a game on the continental stage, still paying the price for what its predecessor club did.
I personally don’t think that’s fair.
From the beginning I’ve argued that footballing sanctions shouldn’t be applied to Sevco, that it’s a perversion of natural justice to punish one for the sins of the other just because they play out of the same stadium and wear the same jersey … but through all that time I’ve been told that I’m wrong, that I’m motivated by hate, that the clubs are one and the same. The press and the SFA have backed that line to the hilt.
In the bed they’ve made, now let them lie.
A reckoning is coming, as many of us suspected it would.
The Resolution 12 guys didn’t know this when they opened the can of worms.
It wasn’t even on their radar, far less an objective of the campaign.
But Celtic grasped it quickly and part of their low-key public response was based on that. The SFA and Sevco understood it just as fast, which is why the stonewall strategy came first and now the elevation of the Victim Myth goes into high gear, and with it one last plea for people to “forget the past” and move on.
In this case, the past is like a murder victim, lying in a shallow unmarked grave. Sooner or later someone was always going to stumble over it, and then an investigation would start. Whatever evidence there is out there will find its way to the right place and when people in positions of authority start to piece it together we’re going to see a show.
Then punishment will follow, like night follows day.
Strict liability sounds like a wonderful idea however I live in the real world and know that is a really stupid way to go I am sure we would end up with undercover supporters sneaking into the other supports end to sing some songs they may hate but would take the hit for their team. I am sure many have noticed the fans with no colours on who seem desperate to celebrate when the other team scores.lol
That article by James Forrest is spot on. So good I had to go and post a reply to it as follows
“Brilliant just bloody brilliant article James. The resolution 12 guys have done a tremendous job sticking with it. As have the guys continually tweeting and helping this all stay in the public domain. I admit to having times when I felt like logging off and forgetting about it all but then articles like this one come along and give me the belief again that Scottish Football can be saved and the wrong doers eliminated from our sport. Integrity is so important to me and I think I just may be able to go watch my team again (Aberdeen). Keep up the great work and keep the blogs flowing. They really do have an affect on us all”
So many people seem to think it’s about Rangers but really it isn’t. It’s about corruption and unfortunately for Rangers fans their team is at the centre of it all. To me it wouldn’t matter which team was at the centre of it (including my own) I’d still feel the same, and the reason…..I and others are paying a lot of money for Scottish football and deserve a fair competition. We also deserve fair and honest media coverage but alas it seems this is another area that’s willing to sell it’s soul for financial gain.
It felt really encouraging reading JF blog and that their is light at the end of this long dark tunnel. It looks like I may just be sitting watching my team at Pittodrie again after all 🙂
There is in fact no ‘debate’ about the fact that TRFC is a new club._________
I’m with JC here in that there is no question of the facts but any chance of a proper debate would be a fine thing though. The most depressing aspect of the new club / old club Rangers identity crisis is that our media won’t even invite the idea of a debate. The recent BBC phone in (when Rangers first guaranteed promotion) was an embarrassing example of how the national and supposedly impartial broadcaster dismiss the notion that Rangers are a new club. The female presenter of the phone in just kept repeating “Its the same club”.
So here’s a challenge to the BBC or any broadcaster . Screen or transmit on radio an open debate on the question. Is Rangers a new club?. A question that is high on the agenda of Scottish football fans and isn’t going away. Let’s have the debate why don’t we?.
As I’ve said before there’s hard empirical evidence to inform us that present day Rangers is a new club. I don’t know of any evidence that supports the same club theory..only people ( with vested interest) telling me it is so.
There have been persistent comments here today which have been designed to bait Ryan Gosling. Ryan conducts himself in the spirit of this blog at all times – off message or not.
Persistent and repeated mockery aimed at a poster is trolling. Trolls will be paced in moderation until they agree to conduct themselves in the same way that Ryan and everyone else here does.
I know it only happens occasionally, so it is all the more disheartening to see ugly behaviour reappear.
Please folks. If you disagree with someone then by all means have a debate. If your only means of debate is to play the man, you are in the wrong place.
Hi Allyjambo,
I missed this earlier sorry.
Its certainly not a Conservative and Unionist Party site.
I believe they are a newly created scottish Party for the Union and had a candidate/candidates standing at the last Scottish Parliament election.
I think it’s quite clear the stance The Unionist Party is taking and why.
JUST A SINGLE BEAR AT HOLYROOD
Putting the SNP’s problems with naked sectarian bigotry aside, there is the more mundane yet no less pressing issue of the unrepresentativeness of the Scottish Parliament. When MSPs last year were quizzed on which football team they support, there was just a single Rangers fan amongst the respondents . By contrast, almost thirty percent of the fifty-three respondents said they supported Celtic, almost twenty said Aberdeen, almost twenty Hibernian, a dozen Inverness Caledonian Thistle. And just a couple of percentage points went to Rangers with their lone fan. That is a quite astonishing figure considering that Rangers have by far the largest support of any team in Scotland. Given the fact that SNP MSPs can openly state they are anti-British and their elected representatives can display all sorts of anti-British racism and anti-Protestant sectarianism with impunity, perhaps this should be of no surprise. Whatever the cause, it is impossible not to wonder how Celtic fans came to outnumber Rangers fans by around fifteen to one at Holyrood. Or indeed how Hibs fans outnumber them by around five to one. It is only when we take on board these figures that we can start to make sense of the almost total lack of condemnation of Saturday’s events coming from the parliament.
MAC GIOLLA BHAIN, SPIERS & HAGGERTY
This lack of representation for a certain demographic is, while systematic, very mundane when compared to the vitriol which is directed at them from the nationalist ‘new media’ in Scotland. A classic example is Phil Mac Giolla Bhain, who blogged satirically about a hideous creature which barks the Rangers phrase “we are the people”, created by a “Professor Struth” (for those unaware, a reference to famous Rangers manager Bill Struth) from the DNA of a criminally insane murderer and a ten thousand pound gorilla. Mac Giolla Bhain, a particularly vile bigot by any measure, almost managed to have his book “Downfall: How Rangers FC Self Destructed” serialised in the Scottish Sun from 2012, only for it to be cancelled following protests by Rangers fans.
……………………………………..
There’s plenty more, however I think it’s quite clear where this group is coming from.
RyanGoslingMay 28, 2016 at 10:58
‘…Perhaps I used the wrong word when I said the mods had set up a “debate”. “Thread” may have been a better word.’
_________
I puzzled over this for a while before I understood what it meant ( remember, I’m in some respects like Tam Cowan, who made me laugh today when he related how , when buying a new phone, he realised that the one he had was older in years than the sales chap who was trying to sell him a new one!).
I am a strong resister of the idea of there being separate ‘threads’ of discussion , because in my opinion, this can deflect attention from, or marginalise , something that is at the very heart of the parent blog, and reduce it to the status of a ‘minority interest’.
I understand that you personally are entirely up to speed with the ( sometimes badly expressed) main thrust of this blog’s arguments, and don’t need to be reminded of them. And I perfectly well understand that you would wish to ‘move on.’
The trouble is that there really cannot be any ‘moving on’ until the wrong done has been officially recognised, and, with good grace or bad , corrected.
The SFA must strip the titles and honours ‘won’ by a club fielding for years a whole tribe of ineligible players.
And must state publicly that TRFC is what it is: a four year old club, and refuse to accept that that club is the RFC that existed when Third Lanark existed, and I was a young man.
On top of that, the SFA now has to prove that its hands are clean in the matter of the Res 12 issue.
Each of these three issues lie at the heart of what this blog is about.
I know now that you were not in your previous post implying that the ‘debate’ had been ‘set up’ as some kind of artificiality, and was merely a reference to there being a separate thread on the OC/NC matter. ( I don’t know how to find it, though!)
And, incidentally, that’s a great photo of you with Russell Crowe in today’s ‘The Scotsman’ magazine!
We have been told that this blog and its aims were delusional. We were described as bampots such was our ill informed speculation. Apparently we should have given it all up years ago; the behemoth of the main stream media would gobble us up. At certain moments we might have been tempted to believe such naysayers but in the end we didn’t.
Not long now.
https://youtu.be/TLV4_xaYynY
HomunculusMay 28, 2016 at 22:56
‘..I think it’s quite clear the stance The Unionist Party is taking and why.’
_______
I’ve just read the full statement.
A chill ran down my spine.
And in my mind’s eye I saw a huge square in Nuremberg, massed ranks of helmeted soldiers, hundreds of banners….
and that mind’s eye picture prompted me to have a wee look at real pictures at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8jFwRvx3kw and I was reminded of the hideous little evil sod and his half-mad rantings that the statement put me in mind of.
Not that I would ever equate the author of the statement with the foaming-at-the-mouth Adolf. Adolf had a better sense of just how much crap people would be ready to believe.
Learned something this evening which may or may not explain TRFC’s headlong rush into confrontation with the SFA. It appears that some “Hong Kong businessmen” (with wealth off the SARS radar), have been sniffing around Carlisle United. My source tells me that successfully obtaining a controlling interest in that club could see Carlisle renamed as TRFC (transforming Carlisle into the same club that was founded in Glasgow in 1872), but retaining Carlisle’s licence to play in England.
Subsequently a relocation 90 miles down the road – and a break from Glasgow and Scottish football – would take place.
It is worth noting that two Hong Kong based businessmen who have recently “invested” in TRFC have a significant interest in Worthington Reds held under the name “Ibrox Park Holdings”.
My source (a former CEO of a Football League club), remarking on a similar move by Celtic in the not too distant past which was thwarted by a hesitant and conservative Celtic board said;
Given the belligerent rhetoric coming out of Ibrox in the past week it would certainly make more sense to me that it was initiated, not by a wish to deflect from on-field or Res 12 related issues, but as an engineered opening gambit in a tactical withdrawal from the game in Scotland.
King wants his money back. At the current rate of progress, he’ll be waiting for the NEXT time Hibs win the cup 🙂
Alternatively, leading the Bears – Moses-like – down the M74 in a victim fuelled exodus to the promised land may appear to be a quicker route to riches.
Of course this is only speculation (or at least the conclusion is), but if King thinks TRFC are unpopular here, wait ’till he hears the fans and residents of Carlisle!
Have you still not got it , JC (if I may be so bold)? They want their (?) country back to the way it was before the underclasses raised their heads and hands and demanded parity . Nothing has been freely given . You’re fighting the good fight, as are others but I think you will have to knock these custodians out to get a draw . Lying, cheating violence and abuse seems to be the Christian way of doing things (not excluding any other religion or sect) , if you take the Scottish Establishment and SMSM as examples. As a country, we are a long way from being civilised . A guy in a CFC top summed it up for me tonight on the late bus by opining ” The bus is full of Chinks and darkies . can a white man not get a seat ?”. Different underclasses, different days .
Completely and utterly off topic, but after years of posting here I just want to let everyone know that my posting alias was chosen due to his ridiculously impressive torso. If anyone has seen the film crazy stupid love they’ll know what I’m talking about.
Back in topic.
John Clark,
Your post brings up conflicting thoughts and emotions for me. On one level, probably the only one that matters for readers of this blog, I agree with you that titles should be stripped, particularly given the sanctions imposed on other clubs for improperly registering players. However on another level, I’m confident that if he hadn’t employed EBTs “Sir” David Murray would still have signed the same players and paid the same wages, he’d just have borrowed more money to do it and we’d have gone bust quicker. So yes the titles should be stripped if indeed the players were improperly registered, as it certainly seems, however I still think we’d had won those titles with those players if we’d followed a legal route. Completely irrevelant really, but it’s a bank holiday weekend and I’ve got time to spare to talk nonsense!
Your mention of Third Lanark was interesting. I’d certainly heard of them before Rangers’ implosion (think I’m younger than a number of other people here) but I’d looked them up more after the Rangers disaster. What struck me was that when people are resurrecting the Third Lanark name now, I happily viewed them as a continuation. Maybe because nobody associated with the recreation of the name went mental about how they were exactly the same team. But I thought it quite romantic that decades after the team went bust there are still people trying to bring it back.
And for my final thought in the old club new club discussion, for what it’s worth, and what will bring me massive thumbs down on this post. I think it’s something that needs to be dropped from the ongoing comments in the blog. There is barely a day goes by when there isn’t some reference to it here. The position of the blog and its contributors has been made crystal clear and there is little if any debate in it. But there is a stated aim by many to get more engagement from Rangers fans on here, and I can almost guarantee it will never happen if every day people come in and post comments about how, to sum it up concisely, “you’re not Rangers any more”. I’m not arguing with the statement, but a Rangers fan logging on would read it and promptly leave. Unless they’ve got a torso like mine, apparently.
Big Pink,
“Dave King wants his money back”
Has he put money in?!
Sorry, that was well off topic and nothing to do with Scottish football but it was heartfelt and could be considered wrong in some eyes. I will leave it to the mods. Respect .
BIG PINK
That all sounds interesting ! I’d expect, if it all came to pass, that in Dave’s first presser he would proclaim that Leicester City’s rise through the English Leagues and top tier triumph was tainted…because The Rangers wurnae in it.
Ryan Gosling
I admire and enjoy Ryan’s posts and genuinely respect his views but I am of an opposite stance on his claim that there are too many posts that refer to New club Rangers .
I for one, and I suspect many others, do not dispute all that did survive liquidation.The Rangers culture, the Rangers establishment, the Rangers phenomenon, the romance of Rangers, if you will, survived. This is all too evident and the survival of these parts is down to the huge support of the fans.
What didn’t survive is the Club, the actual, the technical, the financial, the trophy winning machinery part of the organization. Our media reported this unambiguously at the time but have since changed their collective opinion. We should be asking why and seeking an explanation.
Until there is an explanation and acceptance I think it is important that there is always an appetite for posts on this topic.
BP @ 0138
If that were true then, for a large section of the TRFC support, the traveling to home games would be a little easier as the route to and from ferry terminal would be quieter.
It would though be a disappointment for us as it would put an end to the pleasant Saturday shopping trips to Carlisle.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2016/04/competitive-balance-european-football?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/competitivebalanceineuropeanfootballhowtoreformthechampionsleague
An interesting article, which makes grim reading for anyone interested in the Scottish game. However, having watched last night’s CL Final last night, I have to say that the Scottish Cup Final was a far superior footballing spectacle. I don’t think I’m alone in losing interest in the CL, at whatever stage. It seems to me to be a pretty poor “product”, and the pathetic TV pundits can talk it up as much as they like.
On BP’s post about King moving the mighty Gers to Carlisle, I doubt that the good citizens of that fine town have much to worry about. The plan will no doubt be to play all home games at Ibrox very soon after any take over. I don’t think even King could sell many season tickets for games at Carlisle. In fact he wouldn’t have that many tickets to sell, with a ground capacity of 18,000 at Brunton Park.
BIG PINK
MAY 29, 2016 at 01:38
=================================
If the Rangers’ support wish to start supporting Carlisle United en masse they can do so with my blessing. I say that noting your (transforming Carlisle into the same club that was founded in Glasgow in 1872) and read it with the large pinch of irony I believe you intended. If they (the people who buy Carlisle United) and the English League agree to that taking place then the best of luck to both parties. It would still be Carlisle United and I don’t believe the good people of Carlisle, or local law enforcement, would take too well to thousands of supporters arriving to watch a team (which they believe to be an entirely different team) every other week.
They may be even less supportive of the traditions that support brings with them. There’s only so much that bringing some money into the local economy (offset by the cost of additional security measures) buys.
That would however leave a PLC sitting with a limited company subsidiary with no trade to take part in. Presumably both would be liquidated in that scenario. There being no requirement for either to exist as they weren’t actually doing anything. What would happen to their assets, primarily the traditional home of the now (once again) defunct club and it’s training ground. Indeed what would happen to the legal claims over them by other parties.
I don’t think this is something which could be achieved “overnight”. Too many parties involved who may not simply acquiesce.
Personally I think it’s a wizard wheeze and would be all for it. Though I suspect it is more likely to be yet another deflection, that is not to suggest you were not told it in good faith by someone who came by the information in good faith. Dreams of a move away from the hated land to where the streets are paved with gold are just too convenient with everything else going on.
Paddy @0145
The thing is that they are, in the main, the underclasses. Their claims of “We arra peepul” and being the establishment club is nothing more than an attempt to convince themselves that their standing within society is more than it actually is. The REAL establishment sees them as a necessary nuisance that has to be suffered just in case they need to call on these deluded ones to fight in war to protect the real establishment’s privileged lifestyles. The pride these underclasses have in “fighting for their country” is no more than another delusion that these privileged ones are happy to engender. The underclasses are no more members of the establishment than they are all the prime minister of the UK. They are used and abused just like the rest of us. They just need to look at the outcomes of the last century’s wars where their like minded predecessors fought and died for their country. Whose country was it after the wars were finished?. We, and those who delude themselves into believing they are the establishment, have more in common with those occupying the bus seats that you refer to than we do with the real establishment.
Pawns and cannon fodder nothing else.
Matty RothMay 28, 2016 at 22:19
AllyjamboMay 28, 2016 at 10:07 35 1 Rate This Matty RothMay 28, 2016 at 09:29 Further efforts to repeat this jaded pernicious nonsense and bring it into the political forum I see:http://www.abbup.org/#!Hampden-Cup-Final-Shame-The-Roots-of-the-Violence/r982r/574859aa0cf264264f3fba4c Meanwhile nothing is ever said of the comments from Police officers that state the slow response on the pitch was actually direct result of a mob of fans outside of the ground blocking the path for the crowd control officers to enter the stadium. I wonder why that is? _________________ Genuine question, Matty. Is that an official Unionist Party site, as in Tory site? Or is it a site representing Rangers supporters and their political views, masquerading as the site of a recognised political body? I only read the first paragraph, by which time the bile was rising in my throat, but already I could see it was no more than a rallying cry for the worst of the moronic bears, possibly written by the half-wit who wrote one or more of the TRFC statements.Hi Allyjambo, I missed this earlier sorry. Its certainly not a Conservative and Unionist Party site. I believe they are a newly created scottish Party for the Union and had a candidate/candidates standing at the last Scottish Parliament election.
________________
Thanks for the update, Matty.
So it’s just a site for idiots and wannabe politicians
I suppose I should be relieved that an established political party is not pandering to the mind-set of a large proportion of their number whose political ‘beliefs’ are based on the ‘Britishness’ of the ‘institution’ they support.
I’ve read two on line items recently that gives me hope that my belief there are many decent Rangers supporters who wish to distance themselves from the current regime, is not baseless.
JJ has put some focus on one at
https://johnjamessite.com/2016/05/28/a-broad-church/
and the whole item including comments is encouraging.
On a related theme I used to scoff a bit at what I saw as over emphasised claims of dignity that sometimes came from Ibrox, but in its total absence now I can see what was meant.
Neepheid @ 0845
I have long felt that being isolated from the game in Europe would be good for the game in Scotland. Sure, UEFA have marketed the game well and have, in so doing, seen it attract the obscene amounts of that is now there. Huge amounts of money that is so unevenly spread that it is concentrating the attraction of the game to just a few geographical areas and within those areas to an even fewer number of teams. The rest of us just scurry around around the table legs picking up the scraps that may fall from the overindulgent few sitting above.
In this time of luxury for the few UEFA and FIFA have sanitized the game till it no longer resembles the sport that those of my generation witnessed while growing up. The SC Final compared to the game last night gave a good comparison showing how much it has changed. The SC final, while only a pale comparison to the sport of the past. gave far more entertainment and excitement for the spectators. It is here that we see why I think that our financial isolation may be an advantage.
We are now at stage where our top team has so many obstacles to it reaching the stage where they should be as champions that we really should question whether the financial gains could not be exceeded going down a different route. What I am suggesting is a breakaway of the sort that happened within rugby decades ago creating union and league. We say no thanks to UEFA, strip away all the superfluous changes that they introduced and eschew the “prawn sandwich” brigade returning the game to those from whom it was stolen.
We see the changes that will be enforced on all leagues in the upcoming season and we see again the addition of complexity that leads to confusion and difficulty for the referees and fans. Next season no longer will the referee have to decide only whether the player fouled had a goal scoring opportunity to award a penalty he will have a number of other criteria to assess. We have seen many other rules, like whether hand ball was deliberate or not, where the referee’s opinion is required and that will often be at odds with a large section of the spectators. The referees then, on a decision that they have to make in a split second, are vilified by the support and invariably we get the situation that we have seen this season where the ref’s neutrality and integrity is questioned. This not only affects the confidence in the result but affects what happens on the pitch as well. Players feel aggrieved and refs feel the must “make up” for questionable decisions. The quality of the match deteriorates subsequently.
Football was originally a simple game and that simplicity made it exciting. A creation, no, a re-creation, of the sport would attract the fans back. We cannot do that within Europe.
The sport is about the atmosphere not about an analytical viewing of it on a TV screen. Re-build from the bottom, tell the TV companies to take a hike and run the sport’s finances with the view that the punters need to be attracted in if the clubs are to make money. No more easy TV money and sponsorship deals that insist on conditions. Truth be told they do not put money into the game. Sounds contradictory I know but TV puts different sums of money into different leagues with the effect that the overall price of all players reflect what is given to the top leagues. It means that rump end countries like Scotland pay stupid money and get ordinary players, the income from TV is lost on paying these increased costs. I would accept outside money but it would have to be buying into the a game as it is, without conditions laid down be outside influences. They would have to buy “as is”. Develop our own players who, despite it being a different sport, could be sold to clubs in the UEFA sport and we then would see the playing field leveling out.
Often comments like these are put down to the age the writer is and his belief that times gone by were better. I hope I won’t be dismissed for that reason. Much that has come into our game has been an improvement but these things are mostly technology based. Lighter ball, lighter boots, communication between the officials and goal line technology. There are things I would leave behind in the game of my youth. The lack of technology obviously, the reckless tackle and the passback.
In would come minimal, simple rules without the need for subjectivity by the ref with the exception of the tackle. The tackle would be deemed dangerous if the referee decided it was so, no immediate free kick if studs are showing or two feet are used. The argument is that these are dangerous, well so is heading the ball particularly if two players are challenging for it. Do we ban that? Hand ball would be hand ball no matter the intent. That is the condition that means decisions DO even out over the season. I would also add a couple of my own preferences. Offside starts, not from the halfway line but a line on the outer edge of the centre circle and one I think would hugely add to the excitement in the game, shielding the ball is allowed ONLY if you have touched it. No more players running the ball out for a bye kick while they obstruct access by an attacker.
The biggest change would be a return to an old tradition. Kickoff can only be a regular set time on a Saturday or Wednesday evening. Attending matches in the days when big crowds were a norm was a habit, a routine. You knew which pub your friends would be in and when. No planning was necessary especially with the wife, the family and your work. Games are often missed nowadays because of relatively late TV changes mean the clashing with social events in the fans’ lives. We need to compete with the modern attractions particularly the home based ones of TV and video games. Predictability can help.
We need to take our game back.
Off to watch the Juniors . Hope the final is as good as last week’s game
and that nobody hurts their knee .
hello everyone, i have been travelling of late visiting my grandchild downunder,so it was easy to stay clear of the site as scottish football was trying it’s best to implode. so a big thank you to the SFA and SEVCO for a highly predictable outcome of comments or lack of etc, they serve us so well.
going off topic slightly, don’t know if it’s been said, but a creation of a financial weight divisions in europe would look like the obvious solution to the champs league etc. lets have clubs competing in there own financial weights just like boxing, where a heavyweight wont meet a lightweight, yet the light weight can claim to be the best in europe in it’s own financial division. a worthy proposal?, .
well done to hibernian in winning the cup in a wonderful game of football.
MOTOR RED
MAY 29, 2016 at 11:49
===============================
Do you mean like adapting the Champions League / Europa League where clubs above say a certain turnover were not allowed to qualify for the Europa League.
So if it was say the fifth place in the EPL and their turnover was too high then it would move to the next team until it reached a team whose turnover was low enough for it to qualify. With the place potentially even going to a championship team, given the mad money in the EPL.
I note that in John James’s latest someone in the comments section makes reference to Linfield’s stance on the Billy Boys and sectarian issues.
Checking the net it seems that that half of the Blues Brothers still have issues with some fans.
However how many points could the club from Ibrox have gained if they had issued at statement at the weekend such as the one Linfield issued last November.
http://www.linfieldfc.com/latestnews.aspx?id=14637
If they have any sense T’Rangers should just keep that Linfield statement of file and have it ready for an immediate press release when they and Hibs get punished for the events at the cup final.
My guess is Hibs will issue something highly and suitably apologetic then take their rightful punishment on the chin.
Going by current form I fully expect T’Rangers will go crying to the courts at the injustice of even being mentioned in proceedings.
damn you homunculus, thats a serious hole in my port side.lol.obviously my proposal would require some tinkering of sorts
.
i shall now walk humbly back to my drawing board.
WOTTPI
MAY 29, 2016 at 12:55
=====================================
The thing I like about that statement is that the club identify the sectarianism as being wrong. They do not just ask the support not to do it simply because it may hurt the club financially and reputationally (which they also do) but they also express their opinion that it is simply wrong to do it.
I think it is an important position to take. I would ask that others follow their lead.
“Linfield again state our utmost objection to bigotry and sectarianism of any kind. The Club has already provided guidance on the unacceptability of all versions of the song known as “the Billy Boys”. Other sectarian singing and chanting is equally unacceptable. Any spectator identified as singing such songs or using sectarian language during a match taking place under the auspices of Linfield Football Club or partaking in similar repellent behaviour will also be dealt with as outlined above. “
REIVERMAY 29, 2016 at 09:00
I know what you mean but I think it’s important to acknowledge there are many decent Rangers fans who do not see themselves as superior to others simply because of who they support.
However I do find the mainstream media, who are part of the establishment, extremely unhelpful in how they portray people associated with Rangers compared to others. As soon as a man is elevated to the Rangers board he is given a level of respect that no directors of other clubs are given. Just look at the fawning over Stewart Robertson this week. Did we ever read or hear about him when he was at Motherwell? It also means that people like King, and the Director who approves of the Billy Boys (we all know who he is) are afforded a respect that convicted criminals and people who approve of religious bigotry should not be given. I opined to an old Rangers fan the other day that Celtic have people on their board of a quality and standing in business that Rangers couldn’t get anywhere near. Like many older people he forms his views largely on what he reads in his daily newspaper. The look on his face told me everything. He was totally bemused at the very notion the Rangers Directors are not all top businessmen of the highest integrity.
It is always very surprising to me when I hear others talk about how people outside of Scotland, or others who do not read specific blogs (like SFM) or even some of my fellow fans who don’t seem to know or even care about the facts relating to RFC’s demise.
Well I was on my way to Hamburg on Thursday, myself and a German guy, a Hamburg and Semi-Rangers supporting friend and I discovered the same thing. We were going to the stadium to watch an AC/DC concert and before anyone mentions it, I am aware of the irony considering how many of the original band were actually present.
We got to talking about the appointment of Rodgers and the signing of Barton, we both agreed that these guys would on some level, raise the profile of the game within the media but I argued that the game was not too bad considering the spread of teams winning different tournaments in the last few years and that Rodgers may only help Celtic, and only in a European sense, Barton may cause more harm than good with the emotions currently being displayed at Ibrox.
So he proceeds to tell me that it was a crazy decision for The SFA to demote Rangers in the first place and that is why there is no focus outside of Scotland, of course I questioned why he thought they were demoted, his exact response was this “because that is what the German media states, it’s what I have read in the newspapers or seen on TV”.
So I gave him the 5 minute summary of events which led to the ending of one club and the start of another, it was fair to say, even being a Rangers fan, that he was totally surprised that a new club had to be started as he thought the club just went bust and another person bought it and brought some money in to sort it out. He was equally stunned to hear the sums of money involved as they are never mentioned and his perception was that the SFA punished Rangers for allowing the club to run out of money, by demoting them to the lowest division.
Forget Rangers, forget The SFA, this is the power of media spin and control. The German media is usually very good at reporting stuff like this so it is clear they are only reporting what they have been told as if it was a German team, they would investigate further. The Scottish MSM is a big problem and I have long thought that someone is controlling them, it is not all about the customer demographics. Jim Traynor has attempted to stifle debate on many occasions before he was on the direct payroll of Rangers, when he landed the job at Ibrox after leaving The Record, I wondered back then if that was them just formalising his salary!
When this all comes out, and it will come out, the real challenge is creating a sports media that represents all clubs. This is even more important for the other clubs than it is for my team as I think they currently (and have always) receive more than a fair share of coverage, how to force that change will be when the hard work really starts. Some state that this is not an issue as the printed press is dying out, well the TV media is not and the printed press are just converting to digital, the spin is still there.
Then fans need to force the issue by letting any or all stakeholders know the truth and will make spending choices based on how others recognize that, the fans have the control, they always had and will always have in the future, they just need to learn how to use it.
MADBHOY24941MAY 29, 2016 at 18:24
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Thomas Jefferson
http://twohundredpercent.net/scotlands-football-press-history/
Contributors How Scotland’s Football Press Rewrites Scottish Football Historyby Mark | Mar 19, 2016
The recent emergence of twitter account @mintys_lamb has re-emphasised the inadequacies and/or dishonesties of many of Scotland’s mainstream football journalists. The account focuses on how Scotland football press (SFP) covered Rangers’ financial collapse, how they covered other clubs who avoided that fate and how they are re-writing Rangers’ history. This article is not about whether the current Rangers is four or 144 years’ old. Instead, it highlights how little the SFP can be trusted to inform that debate, given the diametrically opposed narratives they have produced, without explanation for, or evidence to substantiate, that change.
When Rangers Football Club plc went into administration on February 14th 2012, the SFP were unequivocal that the “club” was undergoing the process and that the “club” avoiding liquidation would be the “club’s” salvation. Between mid-February and mid-June, this line was largely unerring. Given the timescale, it was reasonable to assume that it had undergone full research and journalistic scrutiny. And the logic was commonly understood throughout the media.
In the Scottish Daily Mail on February 15th, Donald McGruther, the “director of insolvency at Glasgow firm Mazars,” with “a heartening first-hand knowledge of great escapes by financially-ruined Scottish clubs,” said: “If Rangers are to emerge from administration, and preserve 140 years of history, they must get 75% of unsecured creditors to accept a CVA (Company Voluntary Agreement).” And BBC Scotland’s Brian Ponsonby wrote: “The days ahead are now about the very survival of Rangers.” On March 7th “BBC Scotland football pundit” Chick Young wrote of “a new club and the everlasting memory that, just like dear old Third Lanark, a once proud institution died of shame.” The Daily Record’s Keith Jackson, who was “all over the Rangers story from day one,” reported on March 13th that Rangers ex-director Paul Murray’s “Blue Knights” consortium had “made it clear their first aim is to prevent the club from sliding into liquidation and breaking its 140-year history.”
Ten days later, Daily Herald and Glasgow Evening Times chief football writer Matthew Lindsay tweeted of “how great a battle the Ibrox club faces to preserve its 140-year history.” And in April, Jackson reported that Sale Sharks rugby club owner Brian Kennedy would “not… allow the club’s 140 years of history to be wiped out” as other bidders’ proposals “could put Rangers out of existence completely.” On April 13th, Jackson’s boss, rotund Record sports editor James Traynor, fumed in his weekly column that “the club’s history… would end with liquidation.” And news agency copy on April 30th said: “a new club would be banned from Europe for three years and the Scottish Premier League clubs are…to discuss points and financial penalties for such a club.”
Trappy Yorkshireman Charles Green was a… cough… game-changer. But he too insisted that rejecting the CVA meant “the history, the tradition and everything about this club is set aside.” And among all the questions fired at him in his early days in the Rangers spotlight, he wasn’t questioned on that. Supporters followed suit, informed both by the SFP coverage and higher-profile fan representatives, most notably the oft-televised Chris Graham, who tweeted on February 14th: “Liquidation and administration are different. HMRC liquidate, the club die… Admin, they don’t.”
Liquidation “would effectively mean a full stop in the club’s history,” wrote the Herald’s chief football writer Michael Grant in his report on fans’ “show the Red Card to Liquidation” protest when Rangers hosted St Mirren at Ibrox on April 7th. The Record’s Lynn McPherson wrote that 7,000 “Rangers fans marched to Hampden” on April 28th “in protest at the SFA sanctions they say could kill off the club.” “We are the People” tweeted on April 1st (I know… I know): “Liquidation must not be allowed to happen no matter what! WE ARE RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB, NOW AND FOREVER!!!!!!WATP!!RTID!!!NO SURRENDER!!!” And with so many capital letters and exclamation marks, who could argue?
On June 14th, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs rejected the CVA. The Record front page duly noted: ““Rangers were plunged into liquidation yesterday by the taxman – bringing down the curtain on 140 years of history.” And other headlines were clear. Indeed, it is barely conceivable that news desks would have been so clear without fact-checking furiously. “RIP RFC – Taxman passes death sentence on 140 years of Rangers history” (Record). “Day the Taxman buried Rangers” (Scottish Sun). “RFC. Born 1872. Died 2012” (Herald). “140 years of Rangers ends in 8 minutes” (Evening Times). Like the old “Remember World War Two?” joke, Rangers’ death was in “all the papers,” with wreaths-a-plenty by way of illustration.
Yet the front pages were barely framed and mounted by Scottish football fans elsewhere (mostly but not exclusively Celtic) before the narrative began changing. And by the time of this season’s Scottish Cup semi-final draw, Rangers’ now-144-year history was restored. The SFP didn’t explain their rewriting of a history they’d recorded with such emphasis, detail and clarity. Instead, they began a long-term exercise in tautology, referencing the liquidation of Rangers “operating company,” “holding company,” “the company that owned Rangers,” “the corporate entity that formerly housed Rangers,” “the liquidated company which ran the club” etc…
This reached a nadir on the BBC Scotland TV commentary of last season’s League Cup semi-final between Celtic and Rangers, when commentator Liam MacLeod “informed” viewers that Rangers midfielder Lee Wallace “chose to sign up for the Charles Green company away back in the wake of the financial situation Rangers found themselves in.” The tautology, and more, continues, now that Rangers’ corporate structure includes Rangers International Football Club, which “holds” the “Rangers Football Club Limited” (TRFCL). The Herald’s Martin Williams showed vivid imagination, describing TRFCL as “the engine room Rangers subsidiary.” You’d credit him with a keen sense of satire, if you could guarantee he wasn’t deadly serious.
A May 24th 2015 news agency piece was headlined Fifa insist Rangers ARE the same club. It said: “Fifa have stepped into the Rangers argument by announcing the Ibrox side ARE the same club,” and that “following the operating company’s liquidation” Fifa had “rejected claims” to the contrary. This all-but-stated that Fifa had formally ruled on the matter. But it was only “the latest edition of their weekly magazine” saying: “After their enforced relegation in 2012, Glasgow Rangers are in the hunt for promotion back to Scotland’s top flight.” And the BBC facilitated this new reality by letting Scottish Premier Football League Chief Executive, the execrable Neil Doncaster, declare Rangers a new club, through selective quoting from a league-commissioned report by former senior judge Lord Nimmo-Smith, quotes clumsily edited into the interview without one question on the subject…as if Doncaster asked for their insertion, in isolation, and the BBC complied.
The “policy” of avoiding suggestions that the “club” was liquidated was defensible… if it was applied consistently. But not only was it inconsistent, it only appeared to apply to Rangers. Gretna went pop in June 2008, with the BBC dutifully reporting that administrators felt “Gretna has “ceased to exist as a football club.” And you would search in vain for any claim that the newly-formed Gretna FC 2008 were in the Scottish Premier League in 2007/08 or were Scottish Cup losing finalists in 2006. The administrator “let Gretna 2008 buy the rights to the old club badge,” the Scotsman reported on August 29th 2008. But the report also made it clear that “a new club, Gretna FC, has won each of three competitive games this season” while Gretna FC was “the extinct football club.”
Since whatever died at Ibrox died, Heart of Midlothian and Dunfermline Athletic were threatened by liquidation. And all connected events in Edinburgh and Fife were equally dutifully and consistently reported as happening to the club. In the Herald on March 14th 2013, Richard Wilson wrote of Dunfermline: “The club owes £134k to the tax man, and if that sum is not paid within eight days then HMRC will lodge a further petition to liquidate the club.” And on April 1st 2014, Wilson, then of the BBC, wrote that “liquidation was the worst-case scenario for Hearts,” with the article containing only one reference to a company, in the very next sentence: “A precedent was set when Rangers Football Club plc entered administration…” The sub-editors presumably thought Wilson was playing an April Fool’s joke and left this contradiction unamended.
The BBC’s Kenny Macintyre has wearied of the argument. “What big issues in Scottish football would you like us to discuss?” he tweeted in advance of a recent BBC Sportsound phone-in. “Surely this subject has had its day,” he replied when one of his followers suggested looking at the @mintys_lamb material. “Is that the most pressing topic you want to discuss,” he added, the following day. But, as another of the twitterati (me) suggested: “The “pressing” topic is: You say one thing in 2012 and the opposite now. How can we trust you?”
Jackson, Wilson, Williams and others deserve no understanding. Rather than report the news, they have shaped their narrative to suit that of the very bodies and authorities they should be holding to account. They either lied before Rangers’ liquidation, or they’ve been lying ever since. Either way, how can we trust them?The boorish Traynor did at least claim a legal basis for his change of narrative… purely co-incidentally just before, formally, becoming Rangers’ director of communications. In a July 2013 interview with Rangers’ then-boss Ally McCoist, Traynor admitted that he had written of Rangers’ death. But: “When you start to examine it and speak to corporate lawyers and legal experts, you realise you’ve made a mistake.” Designed as out-of-character humility, this exposed the fundamental fault with the SFP.
On February 16th 2012, Traynor wrote that “it really could be Rangers FC, RIP” if the newly-appointed administrators at Ibrox could not “do a deal” with the tax authorities. In April, he wrote that Rangers’ history “would end with liquidation.” On June 13th, he declared: “Rangers FC as we know them are dead…the creditors’ meeting will still go ahead. But Rangers FC won’t…140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended… a newco equals a new club.” Exactly one month later, he said Scotland’s football authorities should let “the new Rangers into the First Division.” On September 17th he suggested it wasn’t “an EBT habit…which closed Rangers.” And on October 18th, “Rangers had to go (to the third division) because they were a new club starting over.”
So, only after eight months and two days did Traynor “start to examine” the situation “and speak to corporate lawyers and legal experts,” i.e. the research any competent journalist would have undertaken before writing one… single… word. And if a sports editor didn’t do that, can we trust the rest of them? That question applies whatever age you consider the current Rangers to be. It applies whether you believe the SFP dishonest or incompetent, or both. And the answer is “clearly not.”
HighlanderMay 29, 2016 at 19:48
‘ Contributors How Scotland’s Football Press Rewrites Scottish Football History by Mark | Mar 19, 2016’
_______
Many thanks for putting that reminder on of how many glib liars there are in the Scottish football reporting world!
It reinforces the view that they really do deserve every unpleasant epithet that has been applied to them, even more so than the odious, contemptible, knighted cheat, or the equally vile South African based “convicted criminal but somehow ‘fit-and-proper’ director.”
People ‘reporting’ on football, a sport, for heaven’s sake, not on high-level politics or on organised crime ,in which areas many a real journalist has been murdered.
People like our ‘sports journalists’ ( honourable exceptions excepted) would have done very well working for the Third Reich, where their venality and prejudice would have made them cheerfully work for Goebbels himself. No fear of them having to be threatened with death before they complied with the latest order from that most evil of men.
This is not hyperbole, for if a so-called journalist can lie glibly about ,and consistently misrepresent, the facts of any matter when telling the plain unvarnished truth has little in the way of serious personal consequences, he certainly could not be trusted to report Truth if, as in Nazi Germany, there was real danger.
How I despise them.
I wish to celebrate the Resurrection of the Govan club. What date should I pencil in for the day the stone was rolled away from the tomb?
EKLOONMAY 29, 2016 at 21:31
I wish to celebrate the Resurrection of the Govan club. What date should I pencil in for the day the stone was rolled away from the tomb?
=======================================================================
You’ll be lucky EKL. Billy Nimmo and Doncaster still can’t agree when the crucifixion took place. If I can paraphrase Billy Nimmo, he said, “What does it matter?, They’re still deid!”
EKLOONMAY 29, 2016 at 21:31
I wish to celebrate the Resurrection of the Govan club. What date should I pencil in for the day the stone was rolled away from the tomb?
…………..
Draculas Birthday
…………Theres one every day
Madbhoy24941May 29, 2016 at 18:24
‘….the real challenge is creating a sports media that represents all clubs. ‘
_____________
I’d be inclined to add ‘fairly, truthfully, and not as PR’, but I know what you mean, Madbhoy!
There is not a lot we can do about lying, prejudiced, newspaper editors/journalists, except not buy their newspapers.
But I myself take great umbrage at the pointblank refusal of the BBC (at Pacific Quay) to get right into the ‘saga’ the way it can get right into other stories .
And even greater umbrage that, on the contrary, they assist in the propagation of the Big Lie-despite not getting right into the story.
They have taken everything that came from the mouths , first of SDM’s Rangers FC, then of Craig Whyte’s Rangers FC, then, when they had liquidated RFC, of Charles Green’s/ Craig Whyte’s Sevco 5088, then of CG’s SevcoScotland/Rangers2012/TRFC as bible truth, with absolutely NO attempt at any kind of investigation into what in fact had happened and continued to happen.
BBC Radio Scotland has had EBT recipients as ‘pundits’, presenters who defended TRFC against those who challenged its nonsensical claims to be RFC( before(?) going on the payroll of TRFC), panels of pundits of which the majority had played for RFC or had other connections ( some also with the SFA ), and sometimes whole panels of RFC supporters, desperate to lend their support to the Big Lie.
And, of course, the nice wee line in wheeling in Quisling types of former/ current Celtic players to speak about the ‘dreadful loss ‘ occasioned by the absence of ‘Rangers’, and how good it would be to have ‘Rangers’ back where ‘they belong’.
The BBC has appeared to be ‘Rangers Radio’.
[ And , I may add, some of their newsreaders are the absolute pits. And as for ….. I could go right off topic here and gie masel a coronary!]
‘..and gie masel a coronary!’
______
Stand up that boy who said ‘ I wish you would!’
I commend your honesty and frankness. Forget getting a job with BBC radio Scotland, though.You wouldn’t get in the door.
John Clark
May 29, 2016 at 22:51
“There is not a lot we can do about lying, prejudiced, newspaper editors/journalists, except not buy their newspapers.”
Being done as per above.
The synapses of the brain do funny things. And my recent posts touching on sports journalists fired some of my synapses enough to send me to wikipedia to look up a sports reporter called Damon Runyon. I think I may have mentioned him before.
My interest in him is not in him as a baseball and boxing sports journalist, though, but in his brilliant, brilliant, short stories.
The wiki page has a wee extract from one of his stories which gives just a wee flavour. Even if Damon Runyon had been a presenter of ‘Sportsound Rangers FC’, I think I would still love him.
Here is the extract, to save you having to look it up. The link is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon
“If I have all the tears that are shed on Broadway by guys in love, I will have enough salt water to start an opposition ocean to the Atlantic and Pacific, with enough left over to run the Great Salt Lake out of business. But I wish to say I never shed any of these tears personally, because I am never in love, and furthermore, barring a bad break, I never expect to be in love, for the way I look at it love is strictly the old phedinkus, and I tell the little guy as much.“”from “Tobias the Terrible,” collected in More than Somewhat (1937) ”
I beseech you, one and all, to get hold of a copy of Runyon’s stuff. I can say that there are several stories that I read aloud to my toddler son in 1976 ( not for him, but just to get him to sleep!) that I could not continue to read because I was so emotionally moved that I could not speak. Only to hear him ask ‘ Why are you are crying?’, and explaining ‘happy crying’.
,TRAYNOR admitted that he had written of Rangers’ death. But: “When you start to examine it and speak to corporate lawyers and legal experts, you realise you’ve made a mistake.”
no MR TRAYNOR, should you come across this post i would like to remind you of what the QC ALAN DEWAR SAID.
”The Rangers football club does not exist, it is an idea in people’s minds, a myth of continuity. No-one knows what the Rangers football club is, but it has no legal personality.”
so my traynor , you can dress it up all you like ,Rangers died ,while having made life extremely difficult for many clubs during their reign by just trying to compete never mind win games against the former club.
rangers fans would boost how the dons hadnt won a game at ibrox in over 20 years, well since they were found guilty of cheating with the use of EBTs ,the slate is virtually wiped clean as far as many dandies are concerned.
over to you MR TRAYNOR / MR LAWMAN?
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks11/1100651h.html
I thought it was you who had previously pasted this legal link , Mr Clark(without an e ).I may be mistaken (again) .
PS My particular favourite is “Tobias the Terrible” – should be taught in schools .
The formal link that the continuity brigade can’t break is the link between debt and success (measured in titles). If you try to deny that link and argue that therefore the success can be carried forward but the debt can’t then you have no argument. Period.
Ryan, if SDM had gone bust sooner then he wouldn’t have won the same titles. You know better. (I know what you meant though
). I am reminded of a blue pal who opined to me once that RFC would have won the same titles, but the EBTs allowed them to win them with style! I wasted half a pint spluttering and recovering from that one.
And finally, having now taken advantage of the bank holiday to catch up i.e. I now know why the hell everyone is going on about Carlisle, I would offer the following.
Could RFC (in whatever guise) go it alone on this without their partner of convenience? Personally I doubt it. Neither club will try it alone and neither will try it without a ‘colt’ safety net back home.
JC @2054
“People ‘reporting’ on football, a sport, for heaven’s sake, not on high-level politics or on organised crime ,in which areas many a real journalist has been murdered.”
I wouldn’t be too relaxed about that statement, John. We probably have already been touched by the hand of the Russian mafia during Romanov’s time at Tynecastle. His protector when he fled to Moscow, Ramzan Kadyrov, is labelled by a number of human rights organisations as being responsible for ordering the death of Moscow journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was shot dead in the lift in the block flats that she called home. There was also an occasion where the administrator responsible for processing Vlad’s debts in Russia was attacked in a street in Moscow by some “heavies” and warned not include Vlad’s $75M property in central Moscow in his assessments.
Should we ignore events like these then we could easily overlook other events within Scottish football that have the hallmarks of money laundering of the type laid out so clearly in the Financial Action Task Force’s publication “Money Laundering through the Football Sector” (I attach a copy for anyone who maybe interested). I would warn though that, if you read it, you shouldn’t fall into the trap of believing that the conditions surrounding the loan that paid off Ashley seem to be straight from the publication. We do not want to wrongly start believing that something was amiss with that.
Organised crime has its grubby hands in sport all around the world why would Scotland be left out?
Can’t see TRFC heading down south, the EFA won’t sit idly by and allow that to happen and certainly won’t allow them to sign up and then simply play their games in Glasgow. The good folks of Carlisle certainly won’t just sit back and allow it to happen without a big fuss either, and I have a feeling a good amount of TRFC fans won’t be at all happy about it. It wasn’t that long ago that Celtic fans were up in arms about moving a few miles away from Celtic park, Aberdeen fans are grumbling about moving 8 miles out to Westhill! Moving 80 miles or so South, to another country.. nah.
Plus yes, for the move to work it would require the “other” team to move also. It’s not going to happen. Not that way at least.
On another subject altogether, I note the general apathy towards the Champions League final again, short of the wailing about cheating and “professional” fouls. Yes, these teams are most certainly more technically proficient. But, the link between quality and excitement, as I have said before, simply doesn’t exist. In fact its often quite the opposite, these quality teams are so highly drilled the effectively nullify each other. Plus, given the closed nature of the Champions League especially, they are now playing each other almost every year so there isn’t that unknown factor anymore, with the same goldenboy managers moving around Europe it just installs a bland uniformity to the game. You don’t have and “English” game versus an “Italian” team anymore, with the tactical battle therein – you just have European teams. The International game is suffering in exactly the same way as everyone plays the same game now – its boring and it’s only going to get worse. The big boys have completely lost touch with what football is.
We can’t compete in Europe, we can’t compete internationally. If only we could just admit that and then turn our attention solely to our competitions. Improve and develop our youngsters, our facilities and develop the game to excite the paying customer. The new League cup I think is potentially the first move to that direction, the smaller clubs get some exposure and experience, the bigger clubs have an ideal way to blood youngsters, try out a few things outside the heat of the top league. Lets hope its not the last development. It’s the only way Scottish football can ever hope to become anything approaching a force again. And by-the-by, allowing TRFC/CFC colt teams would be a colossal mistake.
JJ’s latest
https://johnjamessite.com/2016/05/30/the-tjn-addendum/