Why the Beast of Armageddon Failed to Show?

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.

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Tom Byrne

About Trisidium

Trisidium is a Dunblane businessman with a keen interest in Scottish Football. He is a Celtic fan, although the demands of modern-day parenting have seen him less at games and more as a taxi service for his kids.

3,744 thoughts on “Why the Beast of Armageddon Failed to Show?


  1. I have been following you all with great interest over the past year or so and have now decide to voice an opinion or two,which will hopefully prove thought provoking.
    I am baffled,to a degree,as to how or why the “5 way agreement”has remained,in the main,concealed from public perusal/scrutiny.Football supporters,whether those who attend or pay tv subscriptions should be aware of what exactly the authorities have signed up for on their behalf.
    As taxpayers we can ask questions as to what the sfa are doing,on the basis of the millions of taxpayer’s £s they receive.
    CG now seems to be poo pooing this agreement,implying he will ignore any future liability the new Gers may have under this agreement.
    What really baffles me here;who out there is doing anything to protect any newgers fans;they cannot even contemplate “investing” when it would seem they have no real knowledge of this agreement,which may have serious future financial consequences for newgers.
    It must be in everyone’s interest that this agreement is published,I would have thought all sections of the media could spin this in their favour……..or maybe not


  2. The Rangers share offer

    Anyone else think Chuckles has made a gaff in his talking up of deals with companies like Apple, Dallas Cowboys, Adidas? His consortium (still not named) of 20 high nett worth individuals, pension fund managers investing, deals with guys like Ashley and Sports Direct, talk of 500M fans worldwide and streaming media rights to the phone and even the introduction of Walter and Harte to the board?

    All this does, IMO, is convince the bears that SOMEONE ELSE WILL PAY.

    The bears like nothing more than a sugar daddy to pay the bills and LEAD them – they can’t organise themselves to do anything as it ends up in a drunken bar room brawl.

    Follow Follow indeed.

    Charles might be playing them like an Orange flute in july, but he has misjudged their mentality when it comes to taking responsibility for their actions.


  3. briggsbhoy says: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 08:15
    Willmacufree 14 Nov 02:26

    I am well aware of that fact as I’m sure Frank is but my point refers in particular to the 6 counties as it is a UK Government Census Report that has as yet only been partially reported but I’m it will raise some eyebrows when it is.
    =========

    I misunderstood your post. The phrase “the minority ethnic population of Ulster” used by Frank and cited by you, threw me. I didn’t read it properly, sorry.


  4. Breaking 09.40

    Servco Prospectus nominated for the prestigious Man Booker prize for fictional writing,
    Experts in the know say it’s a shoe-in.


  5. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 00:42

    “Why are the fools on SSB so desperate to convince everyone that supporters of every other Club “miss Rangers” ”
    __________________________________________________________________________________

    My guess is that if the SPL teams and fans are enjoying life without Bad-gers, and this after only a few months without them, then after 2 or 3 years without Bad-gers, the feel good factor may be so strong among the clubs, that they’ll want to keep Bad-gers out of the top league.

    That’s why. The fools are afraid. Very afraid.

    I mean, you wouldn’t let anybody piss in your pint now would you – not twice.

    Or, to put it another way, why would anyone want to have to clean dog shit out their trainers every week.

    The Bad-gers just spoil things for everybody else.

    They’re not worth it.


  6. ‘The bears like nothing more than a sugar daddy to pay the bills and LEAD them.

    _____________________________________

    Remember the ‘Sugar Daddy’ exacts a high price in more ways than one.


  7. mirrenman says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 08:14

    re rememberance day posts

    I personally feel that this issue should be kept out of this blog, it being The Scottish Football Monitor
    ———————————————————————————————————–

    You are obviously entitled to your opinion. I basically was posting addressing details to assist people already posting and I think someone mentioned getting 250 TUs on the matter when he first posted it on Saturday night so there appeared genuine interest.

    I have no wish to get into semantics but personally I don’t equate ‘loyalism’ with religion and it seems difficult, to me, to effectively monitor Scottish Football if ‘Loyalism’ is a banned word. I also believe that if the MSM, as far as I can see, chooses to completely ignore what happened at Ibrox then there is a need for someone to Monitor not just what happened but the reasons behind the media black-out.

    It’s funny how different people see the same words in a different light because I believe, as long as there is general interest, then the subect of Remembrance Day posts most defintely should be discussed here, it being: The Scottish Football Monitor.

    I was drawn to this site through the RTC and its dogged work in dealing with an unfashionable Establishment issue, in MSM terms, which was also very thorny. I’m afraid if we followed your path then our role as monitors would end-up as discredited as those of the United Nations.


  8. League reconstruction………..well, tinkering with the leagues

    for what it is worth, i like the idea of 2 top divisions of 12 each, play home and away (22 games) then split into 3 leagues of 8

    reset the points across the board (but keep the goals for and against – in case it comes to goal difference at the end of the campaign) the top 8 go for the title and europe over the next 14 games

    the middle 8 fight for top flight league status the following year

    the bottom 8 fight against relegation from the 2nd division

    that gives us 36 games – 18 home and away in a balanced league format, plenty of interest all through the league all season and a good mix of teams coming up and down – there could be as many as 4 new teams a season in the top division and 8 in the second division (4 relegated from division 1 and 4 promoted from lower division)

    You could have 4 regional leagues – encompassing lower league clubs and junior clubs vying for promotion to div 2 – they could have play offs with the teams finishing at bottom of division 2

    Would certainly be an interesting league with almost every game important.

    of course – without changes to sfa/sfl/spl and rules on money/squad size/finances etc put in place, it’s a pointless reshuffle. But just thought i’d say, i like the idea of 2 top leagues splitting into 3 smaller leagues


  9. One thing I take from the PPT presentation is the reference made several times to the company being “free of bank debt”.

    Is this what Mr Charles means when he refers to his “debt-free” club? That money that they owe to people other than the bank is not actually a debt?


  10. tcup2012 says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 01:05

    re: Value of Ibrox

    Slide 8 states ibrox Value £65m valued by independent valuers in October 2012
    Did chuckles not state on an interview on STV that he had it valued at £80m 😉
    —————————————————————————————————————-

    I think that the £80 million comprised £15m for Murray Park and £65m for Ibrox which totals £89m. However, I have seen that this £80m was discounted by 40% because they were only in SFL3 although nowhere was it stated whether the £80m was therefore an SPL-based valuation.

    However, like so much Rangers info, the 40% deduction seems to have disappeared into Lorna Doone territory.


  11. seedyloner says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 00:04

    If this were genuine would they have misspelled ‘Edmiston House’ as ‘Edminston’?

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Absolutely. They don’t do detail. It would not be the first time Charles Green has called it exactly that. For what it is worth, I think the PP is genuine. A spoof would at least try to look professional.


  12. seedyloner says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 00:04

    If this were genuine would they have misspelled ‘Edmiston House’ as ‘Edminston’?

    =======================================

    YES, funnily enough, if anything, this simply confirms it’s genuine as Chuckie made this mistake once already. It was when he first brought up buying EdmiNston house. he had spent a day with Minty and talked about it. He said Minty would be prepared to sell on favourable terms….it came out on another bad news deflection day – been so many i can’t remember what it was though.

    Anyway, on the radio interview he called it Edminston – bears were up in arms about getting it wrong.


  13. As ecobhoy points out this is “The Scottish Football Monitor” As far as I’m concerned anything which has an effect on the well-being of our national game should be up for discussion.

    The hijacking of the poppy, both here and down south, has been a national disgrace. I served in the armed forces during most of the 70’s and at no time did I feel the need to wear a poppy. I took my lead on this from my Dad who signed up on September 3rd 1939, did his training and then spent the next 6 years in Africa and Italy. His opinion of the Remembrance Day parades was that “by and large the only people who want to remember wars are those who never fought in them” Coming from a man who was very highly decorated for bravery I’ll take his view over others anytime.

    The use of the poppy as some sort of a sign of Britishness is disgusting. The sooner this practice is stopped the better, we certainly don’t need it being used as a rallying point in Scottish society.


  14. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:

    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 09:34

    Agree totally.

    I have read through The Rangers Football Club Limited presentation to potential investors, yes it may be a spoof but I would far from surprised if it is genuine.

    Either way, it is a very poor summation and assessment of the current position of the company and market place. It is bereft of any realistic aims, objectives or plans as to how the company would capitalise on potential opportunities, it is merely an uncoordinated assortment of meaningless facts, figures and sound bites. A bit like Mr Green’s recent series of interviews really. I eagerly look forward to any Prospectus.

    This effort will achieve nothing and any genuine potential investors will be unimpressed leaving excellent opportunities for the loyal fans to dig deep, but they wont. As before, they will leave it to the benefactors, but will there be any? Not if this is anything to go by.


  15. Sorry, that should read “would be far from surprised”


  16. Looks like Levein doesn’t do walking away:

    Gregory Ioannidis ‏@LawTop20

    Happy to announce Levein v SFA near you soon!


  17. For the first time ever I tried to get through to SSB last night.

    The utter spin, doom and gloom coming from the mealy mouth of Dawell King has finally done my head in.

    At the start of the season who would have guessed that Celtic would be trailing Hibs in the SPL and that the league is the most competitive in years. Ask most supporters and I bet they would say they are more than satisfied with the season so far.

    John, the caller from East Kilbride, had his attendance spreadsheet and stated that attendances at 7 out of 12 SPL clubs were up on lasy year. This clearly didn’t suit Dawell’s “We’re all doomed without my beloved Ranjurs” agenda and the call was cut short by Delahunt.

    I would love to ask King what is in the worst state – Scottish Football or Newspaper circulations ?

    Radio Snyde lost yet another SSB listener last night.


  18. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:03
    ‘… i like the idea of 2 top divisions of 12 each, ..’
    ——
    The really interesting question for me will be how it will/would be decided from the off which teams were to be in which division and on what basis?


  19. Quote from FF, Chris Graham on the child like PP: “As far as I understand yes it is 100% real. People are getting their knickers in a twist over this. The detail is what matters not what is on the slides that accompany it”


  20. Multiple issues

    Power Point – not sure it isn’t a hoax. If it isn’t then Lord help them.

    Hibs Statement re Announcer – Very dignified and the club clearly didn’t want to offend their neighbours by rubbbing their noses in it. Top marks to the club. However still think sacking the guy seems harsh as it was funny.

    Armed Forces at Ibrox- Well done to those writing letters to the powers that be. I agree the whole thing is a shambles. However if taking those steps can people be careful. As far as I can see the event was on Saturday the 10th at half time at the game v Peterhead. People have referred to Remembrance day itself and Alloa Athletic.

    Similarly, a search on Google images will show that poppy banners and flags are red in colour and that the ‘orange’ comes from a poor video reproduction (maybe like the powerpoint). There may well have been orange scarfs sashes or whatever present but I would not be wanting to stand up in court basing my evidence on a poor quality video.

    Clips can be seen on youtube now.

    On this one below at 4:11 you can see a two sided rangers/poppy scarf can be seen. It looks blue and red to me

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX9ZwFt7spM

    This one shows that guys in the crowd with decent camera phones have better equipment than Rangers TV.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6d1TZE9ZFk&feature=related

    Also I note from youtube that it appears that this nonesense happened last year.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIV9bBAwaLs&feature=relmfu
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL3bVsZIvj0&feature=related

    And also in 2010 – but slightly more refined!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjBGqWjjbw


  21. I see that yesterday the dual Contract hearing was postponed with no date set for the future.Reason given was “ill Health”.
    I don’t wish health problems on anyone but I think some more info should have been forthcoming,ie,who is ill,is it serious?.
    You don’t need to go into personal details,just some info that would help people understand what’s going on.


  22. torrejohnbhoy says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:49

    I see that yesterday the dual Contract hearing was postponed with no date set for the future.Reason given was “ill Health”.
    I don’t wish health problems on anyone but I think some more info should have been forthcoming,ie,who is ill,is it serious?.
    You don’t need to go into personal details,just some info that would help people understand what’s going on.

    ——————————
    I seem to remember seeing that one of the members was involved in a serious car crash.


  23. John Clarke@10:43
    I always though it was extraordinarily strange that the likes of Cove and Spartans said nothing when the place in the SFL they have spent years aspiring to was being openly stolen by Tribute Act FC. What assurances were these Clubs given to make them keep their gobs firmly shut during the blatant corruption of the League system? Who gave them assurances and on who’s authority? The 5 way collusion/agreement doesn’t look like the only dodgy deal being made behind closed doors.


  24. torrejohnbhoy says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:49
    0 0 Rate This
    I see that yesterday the dual Contract hearing was postponed with no date set for the future.Reason given was “ill Health”.
    I don’t wish health problems on anyone but I think some more info should have been forthcoming,ie,who is ill,is it serious?.
    You don’t need to go into personal details,just some info that would help people understand what’s going on.
    ===========================================================

    indeed, it was Rod Mckenzie of Harper mcLeod – he was in a car crash on the A9 last week

    someone died in the crash and McKenzie has been in hospital

    so, that is the circumstances

    however, i thought Harper McLeods involvement was now over after they established a prima facia case?


  25. Until the current collusion and corruption by the football authorities and RFC and their Tribute Act are fully investigated and dealt with transparently, reconstruction of any kind should be resisted at every turn.


  26. tomtomaswell says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:54

    torrejohnbhoy says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:49

    I see that yesterday the dual Contract hearing was postponed with no date set for the future.Reason given was “ill Health”.
    I don’t wish health problems on anyone but I think some more info should have been forthcoming,ie,who is ill,is it serious?.
    You don’t need to go into personal details,just some info that would help people understand what’s going on.

    ——————————
    I seem to remember seeing that one of the members was involved in a serious car crash.
    ————————————————————————————–
    I believe it was Roddy McKenzie QC. who was involved in the crash.If this is the reason for the postponement then why not just say so.A simple stayement saying he can’t make it due to injuries sustained would suffice.
    the way the SPL have left this hanging only adds to the conspiracy theories going around.


  27. ianagain: Neither did Rangers Tribute Act have a right to leapfrog all of those Clubs, but they sat back and said nothing, so why speak up now about a Jabba/Green colt team fairytale that has zero chance of success.


  28. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 11:02
    0 0 i
    Rate This
    ianagain: Neither did Rangers Tribute Act have a right to leapfrog all of those Clubs, but they sat back and said nothing, so why speak up now about a Jabba/Green colt team fairytale that has zero chance of succ

    Dont know either. Like you wondered if they got anything in return for silence?


  29. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:58

    prima facia [Latin, On the first appearance.] A fact presumed to be true unless it is disproved.

    Therefore Harper McLeod looked at the evidence and said there was a case to answer in the same way the Police take their evidence in steps by arresting someone then charging them. Then a decision is taken by the Procurator Fiscal or Crown Office to take the case to court.

    The SPL believed their was enough initial evidence to go to their ‘court’ The Commission was set up to look at all the evidence in more detail and then pronounce a ‘sentence’ or punishment if required.

    Harper McLeod are still required as they still have to present their intial findings and presumably even more detailed investigations as evidence to Lord Nimmo Smith.


  30. wottpi: The Circus created by RFC and its Tribute Act on Remembrance Sunday’s would be almost laughable if it wasn’t so undignified and disrespectful to those who died. Disturbing that so many thousands of people and hundreds of servicemen see nothing wrong with throwing an Orange Triumphalism party while the rest of the World sombrely reflects.


  31. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:45

    Quote from FF, Chris Graham on the child like PP: “As far as I understand yes it is 100% real. People are getting their knickers in a twist over this. The detail is what matters not what is on the slides that accompany it”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    That being the case then points of note from the PP…

    Page 2: They intend to become a public limited Company (PLC) from memory that requires approval from the court and or BDO as Rangers plc are currently in liquidation.

    Page 3: poor Grammar

    Page 4: Timetable should be interesting especially the 17th of Decenber 2012.

    Page 5: has Walter and Ian Harte been registered at CO yet?

    Page 6: Misleading

    Page 7: Who is Oldco? why use a slang reference, would that be to hide their real name?

    Page 8: Highest UEFA categorisation…no they don’t the UEFA categorisation changed a number of years back and Ibrox has never been re-categorised. Therefore misleading

    Page 9: No revenue forecasts…wages are allegedly down to 8.2 million …no cost forecasts..

    Page 10: False statement that the club were relageted…the deall with JJB was with the OLDCO (WHO IS THIS OLDCO)

    Page 11: Irrelevant space filler

    Page 12: Nmae Celtic as part of the plan to leave Scottish football…Are Celtic awar eof this and did they provide approval for their name to be used in this document in this way?

    Page 13: Irrelevant

    Page 14: Irrelevant

    Page 15: No mention of unable to participate in UEFA ccompetitions for at least the next 4 seasons

    Page 16: Irrelevant

    Page 17: GSpelling eror and what is the £2m ‘other’ cost referred to?

    Page 18: space filler

    It strikes me that a lot of the information regarding other clubs such as Celtic, Man Utd Bayern Munich etc is simply to legitimes their scheme..

    It has to be said it is very poorly structured and executed and a lot of the detail is vague, misleading. and just wrong..


  32. ClashCityRockers says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 09:07

    Turnbull Drier

    Apologies if you found my comment, regarding the First Minister, at 19:51, a tad insensitive or rude. I was being a bit facetious and was typing under the influence of Italian beer.

    ____________________________________

    Nope, no offence taken at all, beer mmmmm. That’ll be tonight now that Levin has gone…

    I just thought I’d post the Scottish Govenrment quotes. I knew I had read them somwhere…

    As for (-s)DM, I was unaware his aleagence had changed, but found the link below…

    I would still like to hear what the First Minister would say if questioned directly on the Hearts issue, but that is now unlikely unless they do get wond up or go into admin..


  33. hmm, that didn’t quite work as planned.. sorry…


  34. ianagain: I cannot see any other reason for their silence. They have either been given assurances of reconstruction or they are all weak and stupid or fearful of a Govan Fatwa (copyright Humble Pie?) being issued on anyone getting in the way of the bully Club and its tribute act. And I don’t believe for one moment it is because they are all weak and stupid. Fear is a possibility but not likely to have been enough on its own to hold back Clubs who have spent decades aspiring to get into the SFL.


  35. A couple of points.

    1. re: Remembrance day. Mirrenman – in ideal , indeed in even remotely sane circumstances – I would agree that this should not be a matter of controversy to be discussed on this blog. Individuals at games over the weekend should and in most cases were given the opportunity to observe a respectful silence to remeber the fallen – and that we all understand the sacrifice /stupidity/futility/courage of all of those who have been killed in wars.

    The problem here is the appalling display at Ibrox on Saturday by serving soldiers! I showed it to my wife who was genuinely distressed by the coverage – she was shocked and appallled at its insensitivity and crassness. This outrage on our sensibilities was perpetrated by an ersatz team whose predeceesor in whose honour it still plays had systematically defrauded all of us of significant sume of cash to achieve an advantage on the field of play. It was SEVCO who orchestrated and celebrated what looked like a drunken brawl as some supposedly fitting act of remembrance. This happened in a football stadium during a league game in Scotland – and as such discussion of it is, sadly, wholly valid here.

    Perhaps John Clarke – an erudite, composed and temperate letter writer, unlike myself often, should also write to the Royal British Legion about the damage to reputation such scenes have inflicted upon an event of genuine personal significance for many of us. .

    2. The attempt in league reconstruction once again by CG to hijack CFC to his cause. His proposal deliberately slots in a Celtic colts side to go along with his Rangers 1 and Rangers 2 wet dream teams – a proposal clearly designed to fill Ibrox every week and to achiev literally nothing else. I think a simple statement from PL that Celtic have no plans – nor any desire – to enter a youth team in such a league as the present arrangements are clearly far more beneficial in terms of nurturing Youth talent at Celtic Park would suffice. The SFL (Ibrox Stadium) proposal is inflammatory and insulting to clubs like Cove, and Spartans, and Whitehill and if left uncommented upon by Celtic, will result in fusillades of abuse being targeted entirely unjustly Celtic’s way because of the SFL backing of the ramblings of a halfwit.


  36. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 11:24

    Fear is a possibility but not likely to have been enough on its own to hold back Clubs who have spent decades aspiring to get into the SFL.
    =======================
    I must admit that I was astonished that none of the obvious candidate clubs, Spartans, Gala, Cove, etc, raised as much as a cheep at Sevco being shoehorned into the SFL. So I agree. They are all on a promise of a new structure that will get them what they want. What I want to know is who promised them what and when. Longmuir? Regan? Ogilvie, even? Can they deliver? We’ll get the answer to the last question soon enough, I guess.


  37. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 11:16

    No argument from me. From the youtube clips the 2010 effort at least tried to have a bit of order and decorum. However the more squaddies they have allowed in the more of a shambles it has become. Someone somewhere has clealry decided to allow them to let their hair down on the day.

    If Mr Charles is checking in here is how they do it at the Dallas Cowboys 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9kcR0sISTY


  38. I am surprised by the lack of comment on my post yesterday, that David Stoker Livingston FC director, has never had sight of the 5 way agreement.
    Has any club chairmen or director had sight of this so called agreement?
    Perhaps anyone with contacts could make enquiries.
    It would be incredible if the only eyes on this agreement were those present at the meeting.


  39. neepheid says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 08:48

    “ …. A lot of you are saying the PP presentation is so pathetic that it must be a spoof. On the other hand, surely anyone creating a spoof presentation would make a much better job of it? Unless the perpetrator is under the age of 12. ….”

    Perhaps you should have included that this PP presentation was aimed at people with the stock market intelligence of an average 12 year old. The generally accepted position on here is that Charlie has no chance of institutional investors and he is targeting the bears. So this is where this PP is being pointed towards? All they need is glossy presentation and extravagant figures, backed up with an occasional vague moonbeam. It’s part of the propaganda, which Charlie will in due time, declare as the latest “Timmy plot” to destabilise the share issue. But the deluded bears will have already made the subliminal link between the PP and the rosy glow of dawn on the horizon. It will be their letter from Santa to tell them what they should be asking for this Christmas.


  40. If I were Cove or Spartans I’d be even madder at the idea of Rangers and Celtic Colts getting into the SFL ahead of me. Just how many made-up teams are going to be accommodated before one genuine candidate is allowed in?


  41. paulmac2 says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 11:19

    great points paulmac! I’m still reading through the document.

    Page 7 is interesting in that it states “HMRC claimed use of an Employee Benefit Trust shielded Rangers from £49m tax payments”

    Not only does it claim that the actual tax payments were £49m and not the amount paid into the EBTs (£49m) to be taxed, but this statement is in the section titles “Recent history of Oldco”

    I was also intrigued by a number of tweets with RTC in which the SIC number and registration with Companies House would end any debate in regard to oldco/newco/oldclub/newclub etc.

    As a child I was always able to wait until Christmas morning for my presents (albeit at 5am).

    This Christmas may definitely be coming early! perhaps as early as the 17th December it seems 😉


  42. nowoldandgrumpy: I don’t believe anyone outside of the original conspirators who made up the 5 way collusion have seen the agreement. I am not certain of this but I asked on here about a week ago when it was mentioned by the poster Brenda and that was the consensus.


  43. p17 is very interesting. “Use of Proceeds”

    They would have been better titling “Running Capital Costs”

    These costs are normally associated with the running of any club…… including what looks like a hefty fee for Jack 😉


  44. Phil MacGiollaBhain þ@Pmacgiollabhain
    Have Alloa FC been asked to be “patient” about receiving their share of monies from a recent cup-tie? Have they? #CashFlowDéjàVu


  45. Said it before but its worth repeating
    The most lucrative opportunity in the death of Rangers Foorball Club was the Ticketus ST contract. It guranteed a return of £40m +tax benefits for an investment of £27m
    Nothing, not even the acquisition of Ibrox and MP assets for a song is remotely close to the profit from fulfilling theTicketus contract. It provides enough profit to pay off all the Spivs

    And If I can figure this out then so too can all the Spivs
    Meaning
    Everything we have seen to date is probably window dressing.The Ticketus debt will have been secretly rolled over from RFC to England registered Sevco 5088 as part of the purchase deal thus legitimising the ST contract under English law
    Sooner or later Sevco will have to admit the continued existence of this contract, This may be planned to follow Sevco going into Administration after a failed share issue. A CVA sale to a Ticketus Nominee Co follows during which it is publicy declared that the ST contract is alive and capable of surviving a Sevco liquidation


  46. ordinaryfan on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 11:55
    0 0 Rate This
    ——
    Also as the outcome of the agreement lead to a conditional membership, something that did not exist within the SFA rules, would/should that not have been something that had to be agreed or voted on by the directors of SFA membership Football clubs.
    Or does the SFA have the authority to change the rules when it so decides?


  47. Whether or not the PP presentation is aimed at the average bear or the institutional dogsbody who is getting work experience it should at least be professional in its appearance.

    It’s a long time since I’ve had to do any sort of presentation, either in person or in print, but the very least I would have done was to make it look good, even if the content was lacking in desirability.

    It’s almost as if they don’t want the flotation to be a success. Reggie Perrin and GROT comes to mind.


  48. TBK: Have you any thoughts on why Walter Myth and Graham Sourness are so willing to help Green on the Share Issue? Why would they be so helpful if it is going to potentially cost them money at a later date when Green does a runner? They would surely be hopeful of their own Share Issue at a later date to raise funds because there is no chance of them 2 investing their own money into that shambles.


  49. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 12:18

    TBK: Have you any thoughts on why Walter Myth and Graham Sourness are so willing to help Green on the Share Issue?
    ————————————————————————————————————

    I have wondered since Walter got involved whether he was just overwhelmed as an aging legend by chico smothering him in snake-oil and playing to his vanity and younger ‘glory’ days.

    If cardigan’s mates couldn’t raise £5.5 million in May how can they ‘rescue’ the club when the circus leaves town? It just doesn’t compute for me.


  50. I don’t think we need to worry too much about the aesthetic appearance of the PPT presentation.

    I was originally a hot-metal typesetter, and I bet I could pick all sorts of holes in any document or presentation most of you guys come up with that you think looks professional. 😉

    I even despair at the quality of character spacing on roadsigns. The missus just rolls her eyes nowadays. 🙂

    Having said that, there could well be good reason for the p!sh appearance of the presentation … if you make it easy to read and understand, people will know what it’s actually saying.


  51. celticfcblog 26 minutes ago Post #2957 [Tweet]
    Sevco Masterclass Part 1 – How to make a Positive out of a Negative:

    Problem: Your Credit Rating is so low (ie, non-existent) and your frontman is such a well-known shyster that no bank will give you a loan or even an overdraft facility.

    Solution: Boast that you can guarantee you will be “Free of Bank Debt”.

    In much the same way that I can guarantee I will be “Free of Paternity Charges from Beyoncé”.


  52. ordinaryfan says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 12:18

    ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 12:27

    One for the techies on here. The EBT’s were “loans” which were never meant to be repaid, but if they were, then who would they be repayable to? If RFC in all of their reincarnations were dead and gone, would the loan debt die with them? Would the trustees still be the mix? Would HMRC be free to pursue the cardigan and the rest for the tax, as it now became due to the “deaths in the family”? Questions,questions?


  53. Angus1983,

    When the layman can spot the holes that’s when you know you have a problem. 😀


  54. Just seen this and thought it was a fairly positive spin on things! ;

    2.3 Million people will attend SPL games in 2012/13
    Approx 60,000 fans will go SPL games each week
    This means the SPL is the best supported league in Europe with 1 in 90 people in Scotland attending each weekend

    Scotland: 1 In 90
    Holland: 1 IN 95
    England: 1 IN 147
    Spain: 1 IN 163
    Germany: 1 IN 213
    Italy: 1 IN 248
    France: 1 IN 328

    See, it is possible ….. if you want to! ;


  55. Re earlier posts today re TV audience figures for CL matches on Sky obtained from official BARB figures.
    I tried to examine this earlier this season, but found I came across too many imponderables as to make comparisons meaningful.
    Factors which can skew figures include the following:-
    a) Is there a simultaneous CL match on English ITV or even STV?
    b) As some Sky viewers don’t have all 4 Sky Sports channels, then this can affect results dependent on which channel shows which match.
    c) Matches in the latter stages of Group stages become less attractive if qualification is already guaranteed.

    If I am being honest, the real reason for my labours was to try to ascertain the figures for TRFC matches on BBC Alba. Unfortunately Alba attracts such pitifully small audiences that it does not even feature on BARB. Which may start another debate as to why Holyrood is throwing so much money at a service nobody watches. BARB in essence list all channels which in a calendar week have at least 10 programmes who acheive more than 1,000 viewers each. Hard for Holyrood to justify on these statistics.


  56. Earlier this year, when Mark Daly, and Alex Thomson were exposing this shambles of a Football club for exactly what they WERE……cheats, Tax avoiders etc, someone sounded the bugle, and the culprits and beneficiaries retreated into their respective burrows. The Cardigan, (-s) DM, Souness even Big wrEck. They hit the Air Raid shelters almost simultaneously.
    However just in the last week the all clear seems to have sounded, they are suddenly all back in circulation, Sir Brogues in his Non exec role with Chuckles the clown, and the other two Pontificating on football matters.
    Have we all missed something ? I now await Minty arriving in his (borrowed) limousine with the Tin hat still on.


  57. If cardigan’s mates couldn’t raise £5.5 million in May how can they ‘rescue’ the club when the circus leaves town? It just doesn’t compute for me.

    =====================================================

    yeah, but the cardigan and chums were looking at SAVING a club with a huge tax bill in the background and a debt to ticketus

    now, the debts and obligations are gone, they have been through the shame of liquidating and losing the club – but they have kept the fans onside and are still playing football

    Once chuckles takes his money (share money) he may be happy to take £5.5M for the club/assets etc – after all, he’ll have got his money back (and then some) plus may still hold onto a decent shareholding for their trouble

    Lets Walter ride to the rescue – and he has 3 years of running on minimal squad costs to get back to the SPL – of course, he’ll just have to find ways of squeezing money out of ra peepil to fund it


  58. In one sense Stewart Cosgrove is wrong, the beast of Armageddon has not failed to show, as the plans for reconstruction illustrate,it is simply taken place elsewhere in a different form.

    If it is true that you cannot fix a problem with the mindset that created it, it also true that the same mindset, if not corrected, will replicate the same problem at some future point.

    This insane mindset thinks that what was Rangers was strong. If that is so why are they no more? Strong clubs do not die.

    However and more important, how can we possibly fix the problems that bedevil Scottish football when the mindset that created them as personified in the likes of Campbell Ogilvie, Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster are still in a position to influence the future with the same kind of thinking that ruined the past?

    These guys have their equivalents in the msm, Jim Traynor in particular being cheerleader but with a guid few fear filled followers.

    At Rangers the arrival of Walter Smith only reinforces that the same mindset, the one that produced something that simply did not work, is back to have another go, unless Smith has confessed to his part in Ranger’s downfall and I missed it..

    They are all driven by fear and must be removed one way or another and replaced by men of courage, integrity and vision, men who seem to be in short supply.

    Lets hope there are such men out there with the courage to say “Enough”, with the courage to stand up to the crazed mindset and tell them those days have finally gone.

    When the FTT final reveals its secrets I hope that such men will emerge and take Scottish football forward on an ethical and sporting basis.

    There is an armageddon taking place you know, but its not on the football field or between angels and demons, its in the mind field where a battle between right thinking and wrong thinking is taking place.

    We are in a time of correction, when reality asserts itself, the quicker we all march to the beat of its drum the better for all, including the wrongminded on the Soo side.


  59. wottpi says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 10:48
    ‘… People have referred to Remembrance day itself and Alloa Athletic. ‘
    —–
    Thanks, wottpi. The version of my letter that was actually sent was amended to change ‘Alloa’ to Peterhead: I mistakenly put the incorrect version on to the blog. ( Haven’t quite got used to not having a PA to see to these things for me! 🙂


  60. nowoldandgrumpy says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 11:43

    I am surprised by the lack of comment on my post yesterday, that David Stoker Livingston FC director, has never had sight of the 5 way agreement.
    ================
    I don’t know why I didn’t comment, sorry for that, because this 5 way agreement has been an itch I can’t scratch for months now.

    I find it fascinating that Stoker knows nothing about the detail. To me that says that the only people who have seen that agreement are the people who signed it. Charles Green released a draft at one point, but the final version has never seen the light of day. There is something (perhaps many things!) in that agreement that the parties to the agreement don’t want us to know about.

    Oldco were a party to that agreement, so a copy must be in the possession of BDO as liquidators. The SFA, SPL and SFL also signed up. Surely we can put the squeeze on these people, and find out what is really going on here? Or put the squeeze on the various clubs, who are the members of the SFA/SPL/SFL? We need to get a campaign going to bombard these people until the truth behind this agreement is revealed.

    Every club in Scotland is involved. This is a matter of fundamental importance. Unless we know the precise terms on which Sevco obtained the RFC membership, we are just whistling in the wind. One thing I am absolutely sure of- the 5 way agreement could not stand up to public scrutiny. When you consider how brazen and brass-necked these people are, the fact that they keep this under wraps speaks volumes. It affects us, the fans, the people who actually pay the wages of every single person involved. We are entitled to know what they have signed up to.


  61. Auldheid,

    Albert Einstein: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

    But I’m sure the likes of Jabba, Ogilvy and Regan know better than that guy.


  62. forweonlyknow says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 12:45

    Just seen this and thought it was a fairly positive spin on things! ;

    2.3 Million people will attend SPL games in 2012/13
    Approx 60,000 fans will go SPL games each week
    This means the SPL is the best supported league in Europe with 1 in 90 people in Scotland attending each weekend

    Scotland: 1 In 90
    Holland: 1 IN 95
    England: 1 IN 147
    Spain: 1 IN 163
    Germany: 1 IN 213
    Italy: 1 IN 248
    France: 1 IN 328

    See, it is possible ….. if you want to! ;
    ***************
    Corsica alluded to this months ago…

    “Scottish football is reliant upon TV income. Once again, a complete myth. PWC – an internationally recognised firm of accountants and business advisers – publish an annual report on the state of Scottish football finances. The most recent one stated quite clearly “Even before the collapse of Setanta, the SPL was in a unique position compared to the other big leagues such as the Premiership, Ligue 1, Serie A and the Bundeslige, with ticket sales forming the SPL’s most important revenue stream (with TV and radio deals being second and sponsorship taking third place). This means the SPL clubs have been hit relatively harder by the declining attendance levels than other major leagues.””

    As corsica’s figures showed (and this appears to be confirmed by recent analysis and data) even 200 extra fans at each home game can make a huge difference.


  63. ordinaryfan :Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 12:18

    Just to add to ecobhoys comments, I believe they intend to ‘serve penance’ for what may come.

    Don’t loose sight of the bigger picture.

    Murray succeeded in selling to Whyte.
    Whyte succeeded in getting to the end of the season by withholding tax and forcing administration wonderfully ‘performed’ by D&P
    Duff & Pelts managed to prolong the admin to succeed in scaring off any reasonable business plan, instead selling to Green (out of left field). Of course he and his consortium were always to be the ‘preferred bidder’
    Green offers a share value, fans buy in as you will not see outside investment of worth (Ticketus still interested), compliant media & authority attempt to restructure for the good of the game, Green leaves the *club in the hands of Rangers men but ‘cleansed’. Job done!


  64. Gents – the only public 5 way agreement contents came in D&P progress report on Aug 24th

    As has been widely publicised, the Purchaser was unsuccessful in its application for the transfer of the Company‟s SPL share and following further negotiations with the Football Authorities, ultimately agreed such terms as were necessary to obtain the transfer of the Company‟s SFA membership and gain membership of the SFL. The terms of these agreements were, inter alia:
    6.4.1 that the Company‟s SPL share was transferred to Dundee Football Club.
    6.4.2 that the Company‟s SFA membership was transferred to the Purchaser.
    6.4.3 that the SFA Appellate Tribunal, which was due to be reconvened following the Interlocuter of Lord Glennie on the Club‟s Judicial Review, was empowered to impose the Transfer Embargo.
    6.4.4 that the Purchaser is required to assume liability for all football-related creditors, being all creditors of the Company that are football clubs, the Football Authorities or clubs of the other national football associations. This includes outstanding transfer fees and SFA disciplinary fines arising from the SFA Disciplinary Tribunal commented on in previous reports.
    6.5 For clarification, any monies due from the SPL were included amongst the assets of the Company sold to the Purchaser and were reflected in the sale consideration paid. It was therefore for the Purchaser to negotiate with the SPL regarding payment of these monies, which was concluded in the above noted agreements.


  65. Auldheid (@Auldheid) says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 12:57
    ‘how can we possibly fix the problems that bedevil Scottish football when the mindset that created them as personified in the likes of Campbell Ogilvie, Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster are still in a position to influence the future with the same kind of thinking that ruined the past? ‘
    ———-
    You’re right.

    A thoroughly discredited SFA Board, and discredited SPL and SFL leadership, simply do not have the moral authority to lead Scottish Football into an incorrupt , ‘fair play’ new world.

    The very idea is laughable.

    What is needed is for the present elected board members and leaders to stand down NOW, of their own volition , and for new people ,who can command the trust and earn the support of the general run of SFA members, to be elected.

    Failing that, some ten SFA members MUST be persuaded to call for an EGM to force the issue.

    (And while Mr Godwin of Supporters Direct may be busy with Hearts at the moment, I think that that ( publicly funded) organisation should be much more pro-active in helping to cleanse the Augean stables at Hampden.)


  66. why so much interest in world record breaking attendance figures…. you would think a Ticketing company had some interest in the NEW*Rangers then, now and forever?


  67. exiledcelt says:
    Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 13:24
    1 0 Rate This
    Gents – the only public 5 way agreement contents came in D&P progress report on Aug 24th

    As has been widely publicised, the Purchaser was unsuccessful in its application for the transfer of the Company‟s SPL share and following further negotiations with the Football Authorities, ultimately agreed such terms as were necessary to obtain the transfer of the Company‟s SFA membership and gain membership of the SFL. The terms of these agreements were, inter alia:

    =========
    Thanks, but it’s those damned “alia” that interest me!


  68. Neepheid – I never claimed it to be complete unfortunately – only that is was the one and only public viewing of anything that was agreed……….its absurd no one has published it – much like the Sky deal that claimed it was needing 4 derbies a year even thought there was a possibility (remote) that after a split it could be all toast.

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