A Blog for Scottish Football Monitor by Stuart Cosgrove
At the height of summer of discontent I was asked to contribute to a BBC radio show with Jim Traynor and Jim Spence. ‘Armageddon’ had just been pronounced and if the media were to be believed Scotland was about to freeze over in a new ice-age: only a cold darkness lay ahead.
To get the radio-show off to a healthy and pretentious start I began by saying that Scottish football was experiencing an “epistemological break”. It was an in-joke with Jim Spence, who I have known since we were both teenage ‘suedeheads.’ I was a mouthy young St Johnstone fan and Jim was an Arabian sand-dancer. But even in those distant days, we shared a mutual distrust of the ‘old firm’ and in our separate ways wanted a better future for our clubs. We both grew up to become products of the fanzine era, Jim as a writer for Dundee United’s ‘The Final Hurdle’ and me as a staff writer for the NME. Without ever having to say it, we had both engaged in a guerrilla-war against what Aberdeen’s Willie Miller once characterised as “West Coast Bias”.
The term ‘epistemological break’ was shamelessly borrowed from French Marxist philosophy. It means a fundamental change in the way we construct and receive knowledge and although I used it on air as a wind-up to test Spencey’s significantly less-reliable Dundee schooling, deep down I meant it.
Social Media has proved to be one of the greatest disruptions in the history of the football supporter – greater than the brake clubs of the 19th century, the football specials on the 1970s; or the fanzine movement of the post-punk era. The pace of change in the way we send, receive and interrogate information has been so dynamic that it has wrong-footed administrators, asset strippers and sports journalists, alike. No matter who you support we are living through media history.
2012 had just witnessed an unprecedented summer of sport. The Olympics provided a snapshot of how sudden and pervasive the shift to social media has become. Over 40% of UK adults claim to have posted comments on websites, blogs or social networking about the Olympics and in younger age-groups that figure tips conclusively to a majority – 61% of 16-24’s posted Olympic comments. Think about that figure for a moment. Well over half of the young people in the UK are now participants in social media and pass comment on sport. The genie is out of the bottle and it will never be forced back. That is the main reason that Armageddon never happened: we no longer live in an age where the media can guarantee our compliance.
On the first day of the 2012-13-season, Rangers were in the deep throes of administration and facing certain liquidation. With no accounts to meet the criteria for SPL membership, one among a body of rules which the old Rangers had themselves been an architect of, the new Rangers could not be granted entry without a wholesale abandonment of the rules. It was not to be.
St Johnstone launched their new season at Tynecastle so I travelled with misplaced hope. We were soundly beaten 2-0 and both Hearts goals were entirely merited. On the day, I did a quick if unscientific survey of two supporters’ buses – the Barossa Saints Club, a more traditional lads-bus and the ‘208 Ladies’ a predominantly female and family-friendly bus. On both buses, over 75% of fans had mobile phones with 3G internet access and the majority of them posted updates or pictures before, during or after the match. They mostly posted via micro-blogging sites such as Facebook or Twitter, many commenting on the game, their day-out and the surroundings. Most were speaking to friends or rival fans. Some were publishing pictures and updating forums or blogs. And when he second a decisive goal went in some were undoubtedly taking stick from Gort, Webby DFC and DeeForLife, the pseudonyms of prominent Dundee fans, who as the newly promoted ‘Club 12’ were suddenly and very temporarily above St Johnstone in the SPL.
By my rough calculations, well over half the St Johnstone support was web-connected. I have no reason to think the Hearts supporters were any different. This small experiment reflects an unprecedented shift in the balance of communication in Scottish football and in the truest sense it is an ‘epistemological break’ with past forms of spectatorship. Social media has been widely misrepresented by old-style radio ‘phone-ins’ and by journalism’s ancien regime. The presumption is that people who are connected to the web are at home, in dingy rooms where they foam at the mouth frustrated by loneliness and mental illness. The term ‘internet bampots’ (coined by Hugh Keevins) and ‘keyboard warriors’ (Gordon Strachan) speaks to a world that is fearful of the web, irked by alternative opinions, and the threat that the new media poses to the traditional exchange of knowledge.
It further assumes that opinion from social networks is naïve, ill-informed, or unreasonable. Whilst some of this may be true, mostly it is not. No one would dispute that there are small enclaves of truly despicable people using social networks and comment sites, but they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by the multitude of fans who simply want to talk about their team and share their dreams and memories.
Social media is porous. By that I mean it has cracks, lacunae and fissures. This inevitably means that information leaks out. It can be shared, released and in some cases becomes so energetic it becomes a virus. It is no longer possible to ‘keep secrets’, to withhold information and to allow indiscretions to pass unnoticed. Newspapers have been caught in a whirlwind of change where views can be instantly challenged, authority quickly questioned and pronouncements easily disproved. Many papers – almost all in decline – have been forced to close down their comments forums. Undoubtedly some of that is due to breaches of the rules, the cost of moderation, and the rise in awareness of hate crimes. But another significant factor is that ordinary fans were consistently challenging the opinions and ‘facts’ that newspapers published.
Talking down to fans no longer works and we now have evidence – Armageddon did not happen. The beast that was supposed to devour us all was a toothless fantasy. In the more abrasive language of the terraces – Armageddon shat-it and didn’t turn up.
In one respect the myth of Armageddon was an entirely predictable one. Tabloid newspapers make money from scaring people – health scares, prisoners on the run, fear of terrorism, anxiety about young people, and most recently ‘fear’ of Scottish independence is their stock in trade. Almost every major subject is raised as a spectre to be fearful of. Most newspapers were desperate to ‘save Rangers’ since they themselves feared the consequences of losing even more readership. It was easier to argue that a hideous financial catastrophe would befall Scottish football unless Rangers were fast-tracked back into the SPL. Newspapers found common cause with frightened administrators who could not imagine a world without Rangers, either.
So we were invited to endorse one of the greatest circumlocutions of all time – unless you save a club that has crashed leaving millions of pounds of debt, the game is financially doomed. You would struggle to encounter this bizarre logic in any other walk of life. Unless Rick Astley brings out a new album music will die. That is what they once argued and many still do. That is how desperately illogical the leadership in Scottish football had become.
Armageddon was a tissue of inaccuracies from the outset. It tried to script a disaster-movie of chaotic failure and financial disaster and at the very moment when senior administrators should have been fighting for the livelihood of the league, they were briefing against their own business.
Armageddon was a big inarticulate beast but it faced a mightier opponent – facts. One by one the clubs published their annual accounts. Although this was against the backdrop of a double-dip recession and fiercely difficult economic circumstances it was not all doom and gloom. The arrival of Club 12 (Dundee) meant higher crowds and the potential for increased income at Aberdeen, Dundee United and St Johnstone. To this day, this simple fact remains unfathomable to many people in the Glasgow-dominated media. The arrival of Ross County meant an exciting new top-tier local derby for Inverness Caley Thistle and a breath of fresh air for the SPL. St Johnstone insisted on the first ever SPL meeting outside Glasgow to reflect the new northern and eastern geo-politics of the Scottish game.
European football meant new income streams for Motherwell. Of course times were tight, football is never free from the ravages of the economy and some clubs predictably showed trading losses. But the underlying reasons were always idiosyncratic and inconsistent never consistent across the board. Inverness had an unprecedented spate of injuries and over-shot their budgets for healthcare and so published a loss £378,000.
Meanwhile Dundee United published healthy accounts having sold David Goodwillie to Blackburn. Celtic reached the Champion’s League group stages with all the new wealth it will bequeath. St Johnstone – led by the ultra-cautious Brown family – had already cut the cost of their squad, bidding farewell to the most expensive players Francisco Sandaza and Lee Croft. The club also benefited from compensation for their departed manager, Derek McInnes and player-coach, Jody Morris. Paradoxically, Bristol City had proven to be more important to the club’s income than Rangers. Again this was not part of the script and proved unfathomable (or more accurately irrelevant) to most in the Glasgow media.
Hearts failed to pay players on time due to serious restraints on squad costs and internal debt. They were duly punished for their repeated misdemeanours. Motherwell and St Mirren despite the economic challenges were navigating different concepts of fan ownership. By November most clubs – with the exception of Celtic – were showing increased SPL attendance on the previous season. Far from the scorched earth failure that we were told was inevitable what has emerged is a more complex eco-system of financial management, in which local dynamics and a more mature cost-efficient reality was being put in place.
It may well be that Armageddon was the last desperate caricature of a form of media that was already in terminal decline. Flash back to 1967 when Scottish football had a so-called ‘golden age’. There was European success, we tamed England at Wembley and names like Law and Baxter brightened dark nights. Back then access to knowledge was a very narrow funnel. Only a small cadre of privileged journalists had access to the managers and players, and so fans waited dutifully for the Daily Record to arrive at their door to tell them what was happening. That system of ‘elite access to knowledge’ was in its last decadent throes nearly thirty years later, when David Murray would dispense wisdom to his favoured journalists. We now know they drank fine wine and ate succulent lamb in Jersey and the most loyal attended Murray’s 50th birthday party at Gleneagles. One journalist was so proud of his invite he danced round the editorial office mocking those who had not been invited. This was the early height of the Rangers EBT era but it is now clear that difficult questions went unasked by either journalists or by football administrators.
Although it may not suit the narrative of this particular blog my first realisation that David Murray’s empire was living on leveraged debt was from a small cadre of Rangers fans. It was around the early years of the Rangers Supporter’s Trust (RST) and they were determined to shake more democracy from the Ibrox boardroom. Whilst real fans of the club argued from the outside, the press took Murray at his loquacious word. He was in many respects their benefactor, their visionary – their moonbeam.
By the 1990s onwards, football journalism had ritualised and festered around the inner sanctums at Ibrox. This was an era where relevance meant being invited to a ‘presser’ at Murray Park, having Ally’s mobile or playing golf with ‘Juke Box,’ ‘Durranty’ or ‘Smudger’. Many journalists, showing a compliant lack of self-awareness, would use these nicknames as if conveyed closeness, familiarity or friendship. It is desperately sad that careers have been built on such paltry notions of access and such demeaning obsequiousness.
Around this period I had become a freelance radio-presenter and was presenting Off the Ball with my friend Tam Cowan, a Motherwell fan. We both wanted to fashion a show which saw football not trough its familiar narratives, but through the lens of the ‘diddy’ teams, a term so demeaning that we tried to reclaim it. Refusing to peddle the inevitability of ‘old firm’ power we sensed that journalistic compliance at Ibrox was now so ingrained that it was ripe for satirising. This was the main reason that Off the Ball branded itself as ‘petty and ill-informed.’ It was a self-mocking antidote to those journalists that could ‘exclusively reveal’ breaking stories from ‘impeccable sources,’ which usually meant they had heard it on the golf-course, from Walter, a man who needed no surname.
Many fans are astonished when I tell them how the journalism of this era actually functioned. On Champions League nights, journalists from opposing papers gathered together to agree what to write. Circulation was in decline, money was tight, agency copy was on the increase and foreign trips were under-scrutiny. No one dared miss the ‘big story’. So sports journalists who commonly boasted about their toughness and who ‘feared no one’ were often so fearful of returning home having missed an angle, that they agreed by consensus to run with variations of the same story. Celtic fans may wish to recoil at the image – but journalists would go into a ‘huddle’ at the end of a press-conference to agree the favoured line.
So the summer of 2012 witnessed an ‘epistemological break’ in how knowledge and information was exchanged. But let me go further and taunt Jim Spence one more time. It was the summer we also witnessed an ‘amygdala-crisis’ exposing the way the media works in Scotland. Amygdala is the nuclei in the brain that manages our tolerance for risk and is the key that often unlocks creative thinking. Many people in relatively high places in the media – a creative industry – demonstrated that they could not conceive of change, nor could they imagine what football would look like if Rangers were not playing in the SPL. They not only resisted change but lacked the imagination to think beyond it. A common language began to emerge that tried to ward off risk and an almost a childlike fear of the dark. ‘Scottish football needs a strong Rangers,’ ‘But there will no competition’; ‘other clubs will suffer’; ‘Draw a line in the sand’; ‘It was one man – Craig Whyte’, ‘They’ve been punished enough’ and of course, the daddy of them all – ‘Armageddon.’
The biggest single barrier to change was the lingering and outmoded notion that Rangers subsidised Scottish football. As a supporter of a club that had spent seven economically stable years in a league that Rangers have never played in made me deeply suspicious and I was in the words of the we-forums ‘seething’ that St Johnstone were portrayed as somehow ‘dependent’ on a club that was already fatefully insolvent. Because so little is known about the experience of the fans of smaller clubs, they are often misrepresented. For seven years my friends and I, travelled home and away in the First Division, often narrowly missing out on promotion as rival clubs like Gretna, Dundee and Livingston all used money they did not have to ‘buy’ success. It remains an incontrovertible fact that St Johnstone FC has been among the most consistent victims of fiscal misdemeanour in Scottish football. That is the irreducible issue. Several clubs have very real reasons to loathe financial mismanagement, rogue-trading and those that gain unfair advantage on the back of unserviceable debt.
Social media has allowed these smaller incremental versions of history to be told when the established media had no interest in telling them. Blogs can dig deeper than the back pages ever can and fans are now more likely to meet on Facebook than on a supporter’s bus. Many players now bypass the press completely and tweet directly with fans. Rio Ferdinand’s recent attack on racism in English football has been conducted entirely via social media, over the heads of the press. In the Rangers Tax Case context, restricted documents are regularly shared online, where they can be analysed and torn apart. Those with specialist skills such as insolvency, tax expertise or accountancy can lend their skills to a web forum and can therefore dispute official versions of events.
Not all social media is good. Open-access has meant a disproportionate rise in victim culture. The ‘easily-offended’ prowl every corner of the web desperate to find a morsel that will upset them but that is a small price to pay for greater transparency and even the most ardent bore is no excuse for limiting the free exchange of information.
We have witnessed a summer of seismic change. A discredited era that largely relied on ‘elite access to knowledge’ has all but passed away and information, however complex or seemingly unpalatable, can no longer be withheld from fans. The days of being ‘dooped’ are over.
It has been a privilege to participate in the summer of discontent and I yearn for even greater change to come. Bring it on.
Stuart Cosgrove
Stuart Cosgrove is a St Johnstone fan. He was previously Media Editor of the NME and is now Director of Creative Diversity at Channel 4, where he recently managed coverage of the Paralympics, London 2012. At the weekend he presents the BBC Scotland football show ‘Off the Ball’ with Tam Cowan. He writes here in a personal capacity.
Is it not a coincidence to see such positive PR for both Walter d’EBT and Sounness in this morning’s MSM after next to nothing for months.
Jack is working hard for his sheckels and the MSM and the football authorities are compliant.
Charlie Brown says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 03:57
Maybe the internet is not enough? Maybe we really need to beseige Hampden with pitchforks and chase this lot out?
I think demonstrations would be counter productive at this point in time. The internet has been a great device allowing fans access to information via RTC and the subsequent high level of informed debate and investigation has taken fan participation to another level.
Hopefully the FTTT will be out soon and this will prompt further discussion and debate – while also opening up the sins of the past.
Given that fans saved the game over the summer and continue to save the game by going to watch football, buy shirts etc. I have felt for a long time that there should be fan representation on the board of the SFA.
Internet bampottery needs to remain at the highest level. I hope that those with information can continue to release this into the public domain when it is safe and correct to do so, so that we can then debate and discuss and use this to hold others to account.
Doontheslope
Nailed it you have,Sevco now to be known as the Bad,gers.
Finloch
In such a poignant week I would have thought the msm would have ran with Walter Your Country Needs You,but no ,when he lets them down for the second time ,the lure of the Bad,gers was to great an [fianancial] incentive,they spin in the expected direction ,down the way.Its a long way down Watty.
Charlie Brown says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 03:57
Rate This
… are all still in position and now ‘guiding’ league reconstriction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charlie,
I hope the typo was deliberate because I think it sums up the latest proposal beautifully.
this new proposal for league reconstruction will come to nothing and some will ask why, simply put the spl this season has seen a large increase in attendances now that all teams are playing on a level playing field, the spl is actually very good to watch this season ,
not only that celtic have no wish to see a new club who got in through the back door thnx to the cheating SFA elevated to the highest division, after all that has gone on with the now dead RFCil ,we still have to resolve the cheating punishments, we all know they done it for over a decade, they know we know, so they want in at the big table before it hits,they then screem we`re a new club the cheating has nothing to do with us lol,also dont forget the sevco-newclub are in dire need of funds i cant see them lasting a full season without some kind of financial help and that wont happen while in the lower league ,you just have to look at the fact there has been no share issue in the chipwrappers its all gone rather quiet lol, ohh chuckie is on his roadshow but that has more to do with sweet talking some dosh from stupid people to see them through the season without it they are dead in the water again ,the agenda driven DR and jabba along with all the other smsm are desperate, they know the way the wind is blowing and can see the gravy train heading for the bridge that is no longer there which will also see an end to the DR lol,
so dont worry this is another armageddon scare story that will land on deaf ears, lets not forget that it was the old now dead RFC who put an end to the reserve league, all because they could not afford a second team and knew that they would be fined, so they brought about its end to the detrement of all other teams, these things must never be forgotten, those in charge of sevco are of the very same mind set as the old now dead RFC nothing has changed in that respect, all they crave is cash, yours and mine because their own is not enough ,so dont worry the other clubs can see a better more attractive SPL without the cheats and will not abandon this new dawn
Now that we have Smith and Sounness coming out of the woods, could the EBT ruling be less destructive an informative than we think?
Stunney says,
Is that the same Souness who got EBT payments when not an employee of RFC?
There wouldn’t be any sort of lack of objectivity here at all? In any way? Would there?
Looks like the pressure is still on these poor EBT recipients to toe the line, but it does makes you wonder what that pressure could be.
thereek says:
Monday, November 12, 2012 at 23:34
8 0 Rate This
thereek says:
Monday, November 12, 2012 at 23:26
0 0
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neepheid says:
Monday, November 12, 2012 at 23:11
neepheid – can you copy the address you used for MoD ? Responses can be shared on this site.
======================
I contacted the MoD using the form on this page:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/ContactUs/AskAMinister.htm
scottc says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 08:09
1 0 i
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Charlie Brown says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 03:57
Rate This
… are all still in position and now ‘guiding’ league reconstriction.
______________________________________________________________________________
Well at least Campbell Ogilvie will have something to do now
– or did I read that he would like to engage with Charles Green, Bad-gers Chairman, to discuss the future of Scottish football !
S’truth.
Where to start with the plans for league reconstruction to be put to the SFL clubs on Wednesday, proposed by SFL CEO David Longmuir, presumably after discussion with the SPL Board (and Charles Green!)? This smacks of a business negotiation, what is perceived as in the interests of the SFL teams and then take it from there (the BBC article says that there is no indication that any top tier team would be in favour). What is their logic?
A 16 team top tier would mean the opportunity for 4 more teams in the top flight. Does this include the 16 breaking up into four 4 team groups at the end to bring total games played to 36? Colt teams means that lower tier teams make some money out of Celtic and Rangers B teams. Beyond that, I’m struggling with their thinking.
As already commented on here, colt teams are likely to just further widen divisions in terms of wealth in Scottish football. What is the logic of 16 teams in a top flight, only 10 in a second and 18 in a third? It sounds contrived, biggish league, small league, big league.
Has nothing been learned from the summer? Fans of Scottish football were preparing to desert the game in their droves because they were repulsed by the actions of scottish football authorities who were willing to come to any shabby deal behind closed doors which preserved what they saw as their interests without reference to principle, fairness or the views of the fans.
The restructuring of scottish football needs to open itself up to the daylight, to be a transparent debate which honestly set out the pros and cons of alternative proposals and seeks real, not token, fan engagement. Why not start by setting out principles to guide the restructuring. How about improving the competitiveness of the Leagues? More meaningful games leading to more excitement for spectators? Work up the proposals from the principles. This should be an opportunity to re-launch scottish league football with customers enthused by being involved and consulted. But a mess of a deal concocted behind closed doors, a shoddy outcome of compromise between various competing interests without consideration of what the fans want to see would risk the opposite.
I’m sure I was once told that ‘ ibrox ‘ means badgers home 🙂
http://m.scotsman.com/sport/football/spl/hibs-sack-pa-announcer-after-taxman-aired-at-easter-road-1-2630101
Fun, fun, fun, there it goes…
Sir Walter of Cardigan = Phoenix Knight?
Lord Wobbly says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 08:59
http://m.scotsman.com/sport/football/spl/hibs-sack-pa-announcer-after-taxman-aired-at-easter-road-1-2630101
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Will all decent minded and fun loving Hearts fans who have been trying there hardest to get 5-1 mentions, photos etc in the face of Hibby’s since last may please start a campaign to get this guy reinstate if this story is indeed true.
Brenda says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 08:55
I’m sure I was once told that ‘ ibrox ‘ means badgers home
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Brenda, surely ibrocks?
Probably important to state that the song ‘Taxman’ at Easteroad was cut short half way through by Hibs officials. It was not the result of any complaints by Jambo fans (unless they were extraordinarily quick off the mark.)
Unless it was the Dundee Utd no. 51 who complained.
Rate: 11 Name withheld
010173
8:56 PM on 12/11/2012
From todays Scotsman, by ‘010173’
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spl/the-rumour-mill-monday-s-scottish-football-news-and-gossip-1-2628902
(Addressing The Bad-gers:-)
Its not all about money, its about playing fair. Don’t take my word for it, ask fans of 11 spl clubs. You have no remorse and no concept of how much your club is despised by the majority.
Keep your gatemoney and while you’re at it, pick up your ball and go home. We do not want you, we do not miss you.
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/200240-ex-rangers-director-dave-king-has-scottish-restraint-order-revoked/
Interesting
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/13/omnishambles-oxford-dictionary-word-year
Interesting tweet:
[tweet https://twitter.com/Swan70/status/268294005111005184%5D
Sorry, failed link above.
https://twitter.com/Swan70/status/268294005111005184
@rangerstaxcase RFC 2012 PLC SIC classification: 93120 – Activities of sport clubs. SIC Code for a holding company is 70100 not 93120. #dead
Chris McLaughlin@BBCchrismclaug
#SPL clubs say they will not be swallowed by SFL and have started discussions about a top 16 league of their own.
[now what was I saying about translating tales from the tabs]
Morning jack
`Express` round robin turn for today’s `news` – two no less
Just some housekeeping first mate – the sloppiness with punctuation going a bit further askew with the extra failure that the on-line express outlet “Scottish Correspondent” is having some difficulty with spelling `Scottish`. You need to add a `c` to “Sottish”. Not vital but you might as well get it right. – “…….involved in ripping Sottish football up and starting again.”
Afraid this was a poor show by first giving the game away that such `new appointments` means some `old appointments` have vamoosed without explanation and why they needed to move so quickly and so quietly – funny that.
Second foible was giving the game away that the SFL restructuring plan seems to have been been `approved` by CG + co – and by going to such `lengths to distance` CG from the `Rubberstamp` Believe York is between today`s planned Edinburgh and London `roadshows`.
And – silly billy jack – was that giving the game away on the `controlling consortium`? tut tut – could there now be more than one consortium involved and one controls? – I think we should be told – or could this be a new [secret] “multi-way agreement” on the cards? CG good at those.
What I really didn’t respect at all was throwing out a statement; CG: “We are just focusing on winning the Third Division and getting promotion.” Which isn’t true – evidenced by the welter of activity on `SPL will bite the dust` – shares a go-go – and such and so forth – is a bit lame really
Back of the class – `F` for Fail – must try better
Chris McLaughlin@BBCchrismclaug
#SPL clubs say they will not be swallowed by SFL and have started discussions about a top 16 league of their own
=====================================
considering the source…..probably pish
Has McLaughlin been right on anything?
BBC Sportsound @bbcsportsound
RT @bbcchrismclaug: 2 plans on the table. 16 team top tier and 2 leagues of 12. discussions ongoing. meeting on December 3rd. #BBCSportsound
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12m BBC Sportsound BBC Sportsound @bbcsportsound
RT @bbcchrismclaug: Proposal for SPL2 with 2 leagues of 12,would see a break into 3 leagues of 8 midway through season.
OT perhaps, but pertinent in light of SFL proposal.
Turbine Town
There is a small ex-fishing town of a few thousand people on the west coast of Scotland. The good people of this town take great pride in their local area and are extremely protective of what they see as their unique environment, wildlife, heritage and culture. Despite this, over the last decade or so, as with much of rural Scotland, the local area has seen a large number of the now ubiquitous wind-farms being constructed. Many of these so-called ‘green’ sites appear benign and unobtrusive (at least from where you can see them) while others are no more than a hideous blight on an otherwise stunning and untamed landscape.
A couple of years ago, a large foreign company came to the town and proposed the development of a number of new ‘offshore’ wind-farms to the local Council. The Council, no doubt tempted by the prospect of the promised job-creation potential of the project, were of a mind to approve the scheme. Three of these proposals involved erecting ‘small arrays’ of around forty large turbines each on the local seabed close to some of the small uninhabited islands around the local region. These small islands provide excellent natural habitat and breeding grounds for some of our most endangered seabirds and other wildlife and a safe stop-off point for some migratory birds on their way south. This alone would normally have been enough to put an immediate stop to any developments.
However, there was one other planned ‘green power generation facility’ included in their scheme. This one involved erecting two hundred 30 metre high turbines, placed in a geometric arrangement, less than two miles offshore from one of the most beautiful and popular beaches in the country. When the proposals were eventually put out for ‘public consultation’, this site, as you can imagine, was the one which caught the attention and ire of the local community and stoked immediate controversy. Within days, word got around, as it does in a small town, of this outrageous plan to ‘blight our beach’, ‘destroy our environment’ and ‘damage the local tourism industry’.
For a number of weeks the local newspaper ran regular scornful articles and published letters demanding that someone prevent this ‘affront to our way of life’. The local community were justifiably ‘up in arms’ and their anger was palpable. A contentious ‘consultation meeting’ was called with the developers and representatives of the local Council which was attended by a record number of concerned citizens, as well as the usual contingent of local busybodies. Despite a well-presented lecture on ‘scientific studies’ regarding the potential economic and environmental benefits of the proposed wind-farm, professionally produced ‘mock-ups’ showing the minimal impact on the scenery and the usual reassuring platitudes of ‘we want to work with the community’ and the like, the people were having none of it and they made their objections forcibly and abundantly clear.
Afterwards, some ‘local’ people took it upon themselves to form an ‘Action Group’ committee in order to ‘Save Our Beach’ from this shockingly intrusive and ill conceived plan. Almost 50% of the adult population of the town and the outlying villages signed a petition demanding that the proposal be withdraw or that the Council simply refuse the developers’ application for planning permission. They subsequently discovered that the seabed actually belongs to ‘the Crown’ and therefore did not require the go-ahead from the local Council, but that’s another story. In the end, as you might expect, the Action Group was ultimately successful in its objective and, much to the relief of the local population, this particular site was excluded from further consideration by the developers who claimed they were ‘listening to the community’. ‘We Won!’ exclaimed the local rag.
The only problem is, it was NEVER going to happen, and the developers knew it all along. Therefore, you have to ask – why did they spend all that time, money and effort planning, justifying and defending an evidently unachievable and exceptionally unpopular proposition?
Meanwhile, construction at two of the other offshore sites is now well underway, despite continued objections from a few local ‘twitchers’ and wildlife enthusiasts, while the rest of the community basks, triumphantly, in its apparent success at ‘coming together’ to defeat the might of ‘non-local’ corporate interests. However, in my humble opinion, if it had not been for the ‘hyper-attention’ placed on that ‘one’ blatantly unrealistic proposal, the good people of this community would, no doubt, have ‘stood up’ for the gannets, curlews and oyster-catchers against these other less conspicuous monstrosities.
The moral of this story is, when presented with an obviously illogical, unfeasible and patently absurd proposition – best ignore it! Someone is attempting to deflect your attention away from the ‘real’ plan.
Does anybody know whether Celtic have actually supported this league fixing?
paulsatim says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 09:24
I’m sure I was once told that ‘ ibrox ‘ means badgers home
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Brenda, surely ibrocks?
————————————————————————–
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrox,_Glasgow
Time for supporters to speak up again and refuse to allow further corruption.
Grant Russell @STVGrant
The SPL and SFL have been working on separate reconstruction plans, independently from each other. http://bit.ly/TGgMzA
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1m Grant Russell Grant Russell @STVGrant
STV understands the SFA-led “working party” of 3 SPL/3 SFL reps to discuss league reconstruction was never formed
Grant Russell @STVGrant
So, in short, the SPL and SFL were tasked with working together on a new league in July and failed to do so
Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
@STVGrant Is this indicative of no SPL interest in diluting revenue by sharing with so many clubs?
3m Grant Russell Grant Russell @STVGrant
@rangerstaxcase Exactly that.
The last time these people tried treating the supporters in Scotland like irrelevant idiots they simply intensified their resolve. Now they believe we are so stupid that waiting 3 months will see gullible supporters in Scotland forget the corruption and bastardisation of of our Sport. I am actually quite disgusted by how little they think of the fans. Hope we can all stand firm once again and protect the game we all love.
SPL clubs to discuss proposal for new 16-team top tier
By Chris McLaughlin Senior Football Reporter, BBC Scotland
Scotland’s major clubs are pursuing plans for a new 16-team top tier but will not be swallowed up by the Scottish Football League.
All 12 SPL clubs will meet to discuss the issue with a new league of 16 top of the agenda.
The SFL propose a set up that would involve SPL clubs giving up their power and merging with the lower leagues.
But SPL sources have told BBC Scotland that there is no chance of their clubs agreeing to the plans.
The SPL’s recent discussions on reconstruction ended in stalemate and were put on hold following the Rangers crisis.
Clubs believe a league of 16 is the popular choice of the fans but have always been held back by a broadcasting contract that insisted on four Old Firm matches a season.
However, with Rangers now in Division Three, that is no longer an issue. Another option being discussed is an SPL 2 format, with two teams of 12.
Clubs will meet on 3 December and there could be a show of hands. Should there be broad agreement, there may even be change as early as next season.
exiledcelt says: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 02:18
briggsbhoy says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 00:54
Having a reserve Rangers or Celtic in a lower league will only benefit both and nobody else and establish a bigger gulf. I previously would have thought otherwise but being on here has opened my eyes to the alternative view.
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The biggest benefit is to TRFC – they have created a mentaility whereby the TRFC fans will boycott the away games where TRFC are playing to teach DUFC etc a lesson – this si why they will try to have a reserve game as an alternative for them to go to watch. This is why I think the idea has come from CG.
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I agree with you about the reserve teams. Have Celtic actually supported this?
Regarding DUFC etc., DAFC will give them a dilemma, to boycott or not. On the one hand John Yorkston, on the other Gavin Masterton, exRFC and David Murray’s greatest benefactor over many years.
I might be wrong, but didn’t this person “lend” BoS’ and HBoS’ money up to £750 mil to DM? Am I right in thinking that about £49 mil of this was given to exRFC, and has since had to be written off? I believe this casino bank and its losses is now owned >40% by the taxpayer. The financial gurus will correct me if I’m wrong I hope.
Why would fans of RFC(IL) now TRFC boycott the man who provided the funds to buy the Lord alone knows how many trophies, and then passed 40+% of the bill to the taxpayer?
Grant Russell @STVGrant
So, in short, the SPL and SFL were tasked with working together on a new league in July and failed to do so
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and what of the SFA’s role in this?
3 bodies and not one brain between them. I’m beginning to think they should just shut the game down in this country.
Grant Russell @STVGrant
Money talks. SFL model proposes straight line distribution of wealth down 3 leagues. SPL want to retain wealth amongst top clubs.
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2m Rangers Tax-Case Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
@STVGrant Am I missing something? What leverage does the SFL have to force any change?
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No one’s mentioned reconstuction for months now all of a sudden it’s all the rage.Why?.
Given that 2 clubs will drop out under the SPL reconstruction plan,I wonder if clubs will be ask to provide 3 years accounts to qualify for SPL2. 🙂
Anyone give a clue to what this means?
@rangerstaxcase RFC 2012 PLC SIC classification: 93120 – Activities of sport clubs. SIC Code for a holding company is 70100 not 93120. #dead
torrejohnbhoy says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:45
By Chris McLaughlin Senior Football Reporter, BBC Scotland
Another option being discussed is an SPL 2 format, with two teams of 12.
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I think FIFA may allow a 2 team league but will have something to say about playing 12 a side !
nowoldandgrumpy says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:53
Anyone give a clue to what this means?
@rangerstaxcase RFC 2012 PLC SIC classification: 93120 – Activities of sport clubs. SIC Code for a holding company is 70100 not 93120. #dead
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I’m only guessing but I think RTC is saying that if RFC2012PLC(oldco) were just a holding company then their liquidation doc. would be classified as a No. 70100.
Their doc.is classified as 93120,therefore a holding company didn’t die,the club did.(I think).
iki says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:55
torrejohnbhoy says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:45
By Chris McLaughlin Senior Football Reporter, BBC Scotland
Another option being discussed is an SPL 2 format, with two teams of 12.
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I think FIFA may allow a 2 team league but will have something to say about playing 12 a side !
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some think they’ve been playing against 12 men for years anyway
Talk of “Colt teams” is outlandish, it is a poor ruse to allow for “compromise” as was so eloquently put by Humble Pie above. Crooks conspiring to favour the Establishment Club once again so they can all get back to laundering their money and avoid paying multi millions more in Tax.
Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
Problems of Scottish football need more imaginative solutions than “add a couple more wee clubs to SPL” or spread cash over more clubs.
9m Rangers Tax-Case Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
Deck chair shuffling about league structure is crazy. Since 1975 we’ve had many format tweaks, but none have had any positive effect.
I have been pondering why The Cardigan and Mr. EBT Souness have decided to join Green?
To me it now seems obvious…David Murray…he is the only person I can think of that would have enough influence on these 2…
The concern that SEVCO could now be running out of Money would seem to have prompted this sudden need to have not 1 but 2 trusted people that Murray can turn to get involved…
One would think having 2 men so closely linked and still associated to Murray would be a concern for Green…not unless of course..
1. He will be leaving side exit shortly
2. He is also linked to Murray and has been playing his part in this outrageous scandelous sham…
There is also the following that needs considerded…
1. They (the lot of them) cannot afford an Administration so soon…which would make the lie even more difficult to support that “this is still Rangers…honest it is”…
2. How would the SFA explain such a problem so soon after granting them permission to play…
3. How would the SFA decide what the points deduction should be? Based on Rangers (liquidated) points of last season or based on SEVCO this season…
Smith and Souness I would imagine and it is just a hunch…are in place to buy SEVCO from Green on Murray’s behalf…to avoid the administration…and the other bagage that would follow..
There is no other purpose for Smith or Souness to be there…unless of course anyone else can come up with what these 2 will be doing at Ibrox with Green?
SPL and SFL at loggerheads over Scottish league reconstruction plans
By Grant Russell 13 November 2012 11:28 GMT
The Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League are both working on separate plans for reconstruction of the country’s league setup.
STV understands a working party of three members from both bodies, chaired by a Scottish FA representative, failed to come to fruition after initially being proposed in mid-July by the governing body.
An SPL delegation is considering two proposals for league reconstruction, which it will discuss at a meeting on December 3.
The first would be for a 16-team top tier, with no plans yet in place for SFL clubs underneath.
The second would lead to the introduction of an SPL2, with the top two tiers both comprising 12 clubs respectively. The leagues would then merge in mid-season, breaking into three leagues of eight teams.
On Monday, the SFL took the initiative by formulating its own three-tier senior plan, which will be put to its 30 member clubs at a meeting on Wednesday.
The proposal, driven by SFL chief executive David Longmuir, would see a 16-10-18 system introduced. It also recommends the inclusion of Celtic and Rangers reserve teams into the third tier.
A pyramid structure would also be brought in, with play-offs between each league from the top tier down, comprising four teams per competition.
The financial distribution of the SFL-led league would be in a “straight line” format, dropping incrementally based on final league position throughout the three tiers.
STV understands the SPL has had no input and little knowledge of the SFL’s proposal. The league strongly believes it holds the power to block any plan its clubs do not agree with.
An 11-1 vote of top flight clubs would be required to disband the league and merge with the SFL.
The Scottish FA had set a deadline of November 30 for the leagues to agree on a plan for reconstruction, threatening they would instead push through with their own plans to bring about change by the 2013/14 season if an agreement could not be reached.
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i wonder if this is just the start to a couple of weeks of frenetic activity before the SFA deadline kicks in.Deadlines seem to be flexible in Scottish Football however.
Also.the SFA must surely realise that any plan rushed in will be debated and accepted/rejected by the fans.they’d be stupid not to take the fans views into account,especially if there’s any attempt to artificially promote TRFC.
Scottish Premier League plans for league reconstruction outlined
STV 13 November 2012 12:13 GMT
Neil Doncaster is expected to present plans to SPL clubs on December 3.
The Scottish Premier League is considering two plans for potential reconstruction of the country’s club football structure.
The failure of the SPL and the Scottish Football League to jointly formulate plans for a new league has led to both bodies working on separate plans.
SPL clubs will discuss the two alternatives presented by their league on December 3.
Both models, at present, pay no regard to teams existing outwith the top flight, except the respective four or 12 who would be invited into the breakaway league as a result.
Here is a closer look at the first proposal which will be put to SPL clubs.
League structure
Four clubs would be invited to join a new, 16-team SPL. It is not known how promotion/relegation to the SFL would be affected, but the bodies would remain independent.
Financial distribution
The financial distribution model would be modified accordingly to accommodate the four new teams, but there would be no amendment to the spread of wealth to the SFL.
A look at proposal two being tabled by the Scottish Premier League.
League structure
Two leagues, an SPL1 and SPL2, would be formed, both consisting of 12 teams respectively. Each team would play each other twice in their respective divisions, creating 22 fixtures.
After two rounds, the leagues would then merge and split into three groups of eight. Each team would again play each other twice, leading to a total of 36 games being played across the course of the campaign.
The clubs in the top eight at the split would contend for the title and European spots, and would be guaranteed a place in SPL1 in the new season.
The middle group would arguably be the most competitive. The teams finishing in the top four positions would play in SPL1 in the new campaign, with the bottom four playing in SPL2.
The bottom group would fight it out to avoid relegation to the SFL. It is not clear at this stage how many relegation spots would be opened up.
Financial distribution
Finances would be further diluted amongst 24 clubs, but again all revenue would be retained by the league.
monsieurbunny says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:29
Dont be so smug, will be your turn after the bad ger culling!!:-)
The SFL clubs have no power to ‘swallow up’ the SPL clubs…and have no power to reconstruct involving the SPL clubs…they can of course reconstruct the SFL but knowing how the clubs voted when there was an attempt to give SEVCO unfair preferential treatment to join the SFL then I doubt the vote will favour them this time either..
This sounds very much like a PR front from certain individuals at the SFL who have a lets help SEVCO agenda to their background…
Re all the reconstruction stories. Clearly remember Lianne Dempster from Motherwell and I believe Dundee Utd also said absolutely nothing was going to be discussed until the 11-1 voting was sorted. So its all moot as far as Im concerned SFL can talk all they like. Its a Chuckles RM production anyway.
ianagain says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 09:49
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/200240-ex-rangers-director-dave-king-has-scottish-restraint-order-revoked/
Interesting
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Indeed it is
First Lord Cardigan of Nosurname arrives, then the former Leeds and ROI fullbakc Ian Harte (ok – not that one then!) arrives…….then my old mate Dave King is suddenly able to invest again…….
Given that it was puzzleing he asked SFA in March if he could be a fit an proper person to be involved with Newco, this now means he is free to go ahead with the next phase….
Given he is the first link between old and new club and that Lord Cardigan of Nosurname is now the other link between the old and new club, the jigsaw is beginning to fit into place……..
nowoldandgrumpy says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:53
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Anyone give a clue to what this means?
@rangerstaxcase RFC 2012 PLC SIC classification: 93120 – Activities of sport clubs. SIC Code for a holding company is 70100 not 93120. #dead
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It means Rangers Football Clun plc (as was), was never a holding company and was always a sports club. Might be interesting to see the sevco SIC code
paulmac2 says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 12:07
I don’t believe that SDM was ever truly out of the picture. He kept very quiet for long enough, but now that we see his placemen emerging from the shadows, all becomes clear. Whyte, Green and D&P were just part of a Murray holding operation while the debts were extinguished.
Now he will pay off Green and Whyte (anybody else notice that Whyte has vanished again?), D&P haven’t done badly, and Murray gets his beloved toy back debt free for a relative pittance- or for nothing, if Green can persuade the bears to cough up £20million to pay everyone off.
This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on creditors (that’s you and me, folks) in the history of corporate insolvency in Scotland. What will be done about it? I’m guessing nothing. The “establishment” are in this right up to their collective necks, so there will be no effective action taken. SDM knows where all the bodies are buried, of that we can be sure, so all our “betters” will play ball nicely.
Poor wee Scotland, that it should come to this.
neepheid says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 12:28
I cannot see (S)DM ever coming back to the Club – his safest option, in my opinion is to walk far, far away from it and to have nothing more to do with it.
If (S)DM was pulling the strings in the background – would HMRC move in for the kill – a phoenix Club? Again, walking away seems the safest option for (S)DM.
I also think that the Club has outlived its usefulness to (S)DM – I am not so sure that he was a fan. He wanted to milk it for the (preceived) status that RFC brought.
paulmac2 says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 12:07
2 0 i
Rate This
I have been pondering why The Cardigan and Mr. EBT Souness have decided to join Green?
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Totally agree with your hypothesis. They are all linked as has been suggested and tentatively proved on this blog many times. Murray, Smith/Souness, Whyte, Green, SFA/Ogilvie all complicit, and now they are all raising the game to change the goalposts again to resurrect the dead club and help the new dying club. This is all going to kick off in big style now as armageddon didn’t arrive, the share issue is pants, the SPL looks healthy enough and it’s now a good competition, and TRFC are looking at administration pretty soonish
monsieurbunny says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 11:29
paulsatim says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 09:24
I’m sure I was once told that ‘ ibrox ‘ means badgers home
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Brenda, surely ibrocks?
____________________
Surely its Ibrok-en
exiledcelt says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 12:22
6 0
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ianagain says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 09:49
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/200240-ex-rangers-director-dave-king-has-scottish-restraint-order-revoked/
Interesting
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Indeed it is
First Lord Cardigan of Nosurname arrives, then the former Leeds and ROI fullbakc Ian Harte (ok – not that one then!) arrives…….then my old mate Dave King is suddenly able to invest again…….
Given that it was puzzleing he asked SFA in March if he could be a fit an proper person to be involved with Newco, this now means he is free to go ahead with the next phase….
Given he is the first link between old and new club and that Lord Cardigan of Nosurname is now the other link between the old and new club, the jigsaw is beginning to fit into place……..
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I wonder if corsicacharity has a view on this King news ?
neepheid – thanks for the link.
So 4 teams would be ‘invited’ to join the SPL, surely they wouldn’t be inviting Sevco as one of them, would they?
They can thrash out any plans they want between themselves, behind closed doors and amongst the chosen few.
Eventually they have to make the plans public.
If we don’t like them then we wont buy season tickets.
Plans in tatters.
Simples.
Thereek,
I don’t have view on King’s re-emergence other than it fits with corsica’s thoughts on the whole scam that he was always the “kingmaker”. Next step will probably be that he will now underwrite the share issue or even private offering and lo and behold end up with majority shareholding come January/February 2013.
I think Murray is behind it all. i reckon the Ticketus that has always dealt with rangers is funded by murray – he has used it for years to cream off cash from the club. he reckoned that it was a no-brainer that rangers would be back in the SPL and he would then cash in with his Ticketus season book scam., the reason why ticketus did not sue for their cash was that it would have revealed murray as the backer. the reason for sending in Green and the whole charade of SEVCO is to see it handed over in a distressed state to murray who will then hopefully get his cash back. i think he’s shitting bricks at how far it has all gone off plan. the FTTT may derail it all of course.
I think a billion in debt – on the prospect of possibly being pursued personally and legally over the EBT’;s and losing 24 mill on the Ticketus Whyte takeover scam – Murray is a man on his knees and Watty and Souness as accomplices on the EBT thing are in his pocket and doing their mater’s bidding.
Makes sense to me – not a shred of evidence and probably utter tosh though!
I can’t make sense of it any other way!
A thought about the 2-becomes-3 SPL league proposal.
I can see how those teams who end up in sections 1 and 3 can carry on after the split with the points they have gathered up to then but what happens in section 2?
I’m not one for conspiracy theories but if Dave King is now allowed to come to the rescue then this whole thing stinks. The delays of the liquidation, SFA investigations, shoe horning into the 3rd division and now the delays to the FTTT findings.
This is beginning to look like one giant carve-up with the upper echelons of the government being involved.
Hope I’m wrong and just being paranoid.
So, can someone just assure me that I’ve got a grip of the facts?:
– The SPL was dying
– The same teams won every year
– Attendances were dwindling and teams were in trouble
Under those circumstances, apparently, a 16 team league was only advocated by those who didn’t deal in financial realities.
– The SPL is currently the most competitive it’s been in years
– The average attendance for all teams are up, with the exception of the one whose fans are expected to fork out for Champions League matches, and the one who has yet to play the best supported teams at home and is having its own self inflicted financial problems.
And because of this, we need league reconstruction? Have I missed something?
Lord Wobbly says: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 08:59
http://m.scotsman.com/sport/football/spl/hibs-sack-pa-announcer-after-taxman-aired-at-easter-road-1-2630101
Fun, fun, fun, there it goes…
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You can be assured that Hearts fans are equally dumbfounded by this decision.
……… and Hearts players too.
Ryan McGowan@rmcgowan89
Haha can’t believe I’m hearing hibs have sacked the stadium announcer for a bit of banter….worlds gone mad #cantcrackajoke #chillout
Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
If King is involved in Sevco it would have also have been a criminal act- but timing of it all may just be coincidental.
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4m Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
King: coincidence? If he is behind Sevco, it would set the Phoenix signal use of RFC branding would violate Insolvency Act.
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30m Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
Media would not mention his restraint order when it mattered, but publicise its lifting? Proof of bias.
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31m Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
The MSM finally admit that King could not legally buy a car in Glasgow let alone Rangers.
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33m Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase
MSM reporting that Dave King has his restraint order preventing him buy assets lifted. After years of linking him to RFC takeovers…
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So Sevco’s way of ensuring that they don’t face punishment for their crimes is to simply get rid of the the SPL? Aye, that’ll work, I’m sure the SPL clubs will willingly vote for that. Not.
It’s embarrassing just how far the administrators in scottish football go to indulge Sevco. Of course it’s not so difficult when you actually support them. Did they learn nothing from this summer? I think it might be time for another bampot revolution.
Reconstruction has to be done for the right reasons, not just so we can gerrymander Sevco into the top flight. Especially when they’re are no guarantees that Sevco will even see out the season without an insolvency event. What then?
What is so damn important about saving the biggest cheats in football history? Does Scottish football have no shame?
And because of this, we need league reconstruction? Have I missed something?
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league reconstruction is needed……but it should NOT be around the short term financial interests of clubs in ANY division.
1st and foremost, have a look at the countries co-efficient. It’s dropping like Kris Boyd/Peter Lovestodive after a hard stare from an opponent!
Simply enough, we are not producing players of a decent standard.
The reconstruction doesn’t need to simply be about the number of teams in a league or how many times they play. But needs to be about the best way to promote and develop the game in this country.
Reconstruction should be focussed on the roles and responsibilities of the SFA/SPL/SFL – we are top heavy with administrators (apparently we have more football administrators than FRANCE, a country with 10 times our population)
We also have a league full of journeymen pro’s instead of the products of our own youth development. That needs to change to encourage promotion of our own youngsters….and in the short term, that means we need to endure a slightly worsening of the product on show.
Then we can look at the league set up, TV deals and sponsorship etc.
A MAJOR overhaul is needed. simply jiggling the same old crap teams into new league tables won’t cut it this time.
I bow to others’ wisdom on this, but I can’t see how SDM* could simply walk back in as owner again. Surely the stated aim of HMRC was liquidation to allow pursuit of those responsible for the tax fraud? Once proven, that will include SDM* and if he is then also seen to benefit by claiming RFC* without debt , that would be the final nail in the coffin – for him and the then obvious phoenix company/club.
Nice catch on the SIC codes – another piece to disprove the holding company argument. Wonderful!
Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 13:48
To be honest, you won’t find me disagreeing with anything you’ve said – I just find the timing to be inexplicable. When the SPL is finally proving that it could just about be a viable entity, they now decide to change it – not when it was absolutely dying on it’s @rse!
I think we can expect league re-construction stories to pop up regularly over the next few months. There wil be more plans than an architects office but I seriously doubt they will come to anything.
The main purpose of such stories will be to allow Jabba and the other churnalists of his type to fill column inches with nonsense while ignoring the real stories, which if my memory serves me correctly include –
-the results of the FTT
– the proceedings of Lord Nimmo’s inquiry
– the potential financial demise of Old Rangers’ tribute act
– what really was included in the five-way agreement?
and maybe half a dozen other potential avenues for investigation that have been suggested on this blog and its predecessor over the past many months. You would think any decent “journalist” would give his eye teeth to get stuck into stories like these.
areyouaccusingmeofmendacity says:
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 13:37
And because of this, we need league reconstruction? Have I missed something?
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Yes, part of the fabric of Scottish society was torn into shreds.
First post.Test
From Auntie Beeb
Rangers: New date awaited as EBT commission is delayed
No new date has been set for the start of the hearing into alleged undisclosed payments to Rangers players.
A Scottish Premier League-appointed independent commission was scheduled to start hearing evidence, but the process has been put back due to illness.
The SPL will make an announcement when the members of the commission have arranged a new date.
Its hearing will be chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith, who will be assisted by QCs Nicholas Stewart and Charles Flint.
Rangers chief executive Charles Green and former chairman Alastair Johnston have both questioned the independence of the commission team.
But Lord Nimmo Smith insists they will not be burdened by the SPL in their investigation.
It is alleged that the Ibrox club failed to disclose secondary EBT payments made to players during the years 2000-2011.