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.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/the-rangers-football-club-plc-initial-public-offering-presentation-pages-4-7/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XMwhj4NBbo
Here’s Scotland Tonight’s Peter Smith with a look ahead to tonight’s programme. Discussing an exclusive on Rangers share issue
The SFL reconstruction proposal has improved with the dropping of the colt teams, so we now have a 16/10/16 proposal. However a 16 team top flight still means potentially only 30 games, less value for fans or lower season ticket prices, less income for clubs plus the prospect of meaningless games towards the end of the season for many.
How about 14/14/14? Say they are called Premiership, Championship and 1st.
After 26 games go into qualifying groups of 8. Introduce a system whereby the points earned from the 26 games give bonus points for the next phase discounted at 50%. It may sound complicated but it isn’t!
The qualifying groups of 8 play each other home and away, giving a total of 40 league games (26+14).
The top 8 of the Premiership play in a Euro qualifier group. The points they earned in the Premiership are reduced by 50% and rounded up. Logic, recognition of previous performance but a tightening of the competition to make it more competitive.
Next qualifying group: The bottom 6 of the Premiership are joined by the top two teams in the Championship. Bonus points are carried forward by the points difference between 9th to 14th in the Premiership and 1st to 6th in the Championship, discounted at 50%. So for example if after 24 games 9th in the championship has 34 points and 14th has 14 points, 34 – 14 * 50% = 10 bonus points for that team (9th), none for the team that was 14th. Bonus points for top two teams joining from Championship worked out by difference between points they have earned and points of team 6th in Championship.
After their 14 games are complete, the top 4 teams in this group automatically qualify for the Premiership next season, the next two are in play offs and the bottom 2 automatically go to the Championship next season.
Use similar principles of bonus points in splitting out groups of 8 going right down the leagues so that you can take teams together from different leagues into qualifying groups and at the bottom invite 6 non league teams to make up a final group which would battle for the final two 1st Division places.
If that’s too complicated, 12/12/18 with first two leagues splitting into three groups of 8 as SPL have suggested with relegation and promotion into bottom tier for non league teams.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/the-rangers-football-club-plc-initial-public-offering-presentation-pages-8-10/
Slightly off topic, but congratulations to Inverness Caley and their first Scotland cap. Makes a slight change from the ‘Old Firm and English’ mantra from previous Scotland managers.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/mystery-over-imran-ahmad-solved-well-mibbes-by-ecojon/
OT but I’ve just seen a masterclass from Zlatan Ibrahimovic against Eng-er-land. His fourth was simply stunning.
No doubt he’ll be on the TRFC wishlist then.
Neil Patey! I am kind of expecting somebody in the back row to shout “HOUSE!” at this point.
Can anyone help, please?
How can you reduce your wage bill by £20m from a starting point of £28.2m when all of your staff have TUPED over on existing terms and conditions?
By my reckoning, Sevco did not take on wages for the following:
Maurice Edu, Steven Davis, Allan McGregor, Steven Naismith, Steven Whittaker, Kyle Lafferty, Jamie Ness, John Fleck, Rhys McCabe, Salim Kerkar, Sone Aluko, Jack Werndly, Joshua Robinson, Robbie McIntyre, Tom Skogsrud, Kim Skogsrud.
But they did add the following to the wage bill:
Francesco Stella, David Templeton, Francisco Sandaza, Emilson Cribari, Kevin Kyle, Ian Black, Dean Shiels.
and I do not for one minute believe that Templeton, Sandaza, Black and Shiels are on anything less than £5k per week gross (£260k pa each).
In addition, it is now clear that the majority (if not all) of Kyle Bartley’s wages were being paid by Arsenal (see D&P and Arsenal accounts) so we can probably discount his costs. I think Carlos Bocanegra and Alejandro Bedoya have both gone out on loan so one would have thought that the parent club (Sevco) would be paying a portion of wages.
If we take out the fluff from the leavers (Ness, Fleck, McCabe, Kerkar, Aluko, Werndly, Robinson, McIntyre, Skosgrud x2) and assume that their wages equated to the arrivals, are we seriously being told that Edu, Davis, McGregor, Naismith, Whittaker and Lafferty (and even Bocanegra and Bedoya) were between them earning £20m? That’s an average of £48k per week (or EPL wages of you prefer).
I can only assume one of the following to be true:
(a) players subject to TUPE either agreed to reduce their salaries or defer part of their salaries (presumably for the good of the cause);
(b) players subject to TUPE agreed to accept shares in lieu of salary (again, presumably for the good of the cause);
(c) players subject to TUPE have been forced to accept reduced terms and conditions and been badly advised by their representatives (perhaps for the good of the cause);
(d) I have completely forgotten about an entire cadre of players who were registered to Rangers FC but who have not TUPED over and left;
(e) Chuckles is lying.
Lord Wobbly says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 21:36
OT but I’ve just seen a masterclass from Zlatan Ibrahimovic against Eng-er-land. His fourth was simply stunning.
No doubt he’ll be on the TRFC wishlist then
==================================
LW – can’t help thinking that if he was Scottish he would have had all his flamboyance – and showboating – ‘coached out of him’ at an early age !
We all like to see outrageous goals – and it’s an added bonus that it was against the Auld Enemy ! 😉
Jane Lewis @JaneLewisSport
#Alloa say they’re expecting to receive Scottish Cup money from #Rangers tomorrow. No request for late payment, cash always due on that date
http://local.stv.tv/glasgow/200640-rangers-plan-wage-caps-and-season-ticket-hikes-to-revive-club/
Rangers’ owners are planning to impose a strict wage cap and sharply increase season ticket prices as they seek to avoid the excesses that destroyed the club’s previous incarnation.
Documents seen by STV’s Scotland Tonight programme show that the Sevco consortium wants to restrict wages to 33% of turnover, barely half the average ratio for SPL clubs.
The owners also plan to increase season ticket prices by 20% in 2014 followed by a further 15% hike the following year as the club is expected to climb up through the divisions.
Notes from broker Cenkos Securities, seen by STV ahead of the stock market flotation of The Rangers Football Club Ltd next month, reveal the season ticket prices would return to similar levels as last season, prior to the financial collapse of the oldco.
Cenkos’s projections state that although the company will run at a £3.5m operating loss in 2013, it could bring in an operating profit of £10.9m in 2015. Rangers chief executive Charles Green has endorsed the pre-initial public offering notes made by the brokers.
Watch the livestream of Scotland Tonight online from 10.15pm
The severe constraints would put top European players beyond Rangers’ reach, but the brokers believe that fiscal discipline will give the club a long-term advantage over “irrational competitors”.
The projections by Cenkos claim that the value of shares in the newco club could “more than double in three years”, but this has been described as unrealistic by football finance expert Neil Patey.
According to the brokers, Rangers directors are committed to a maximum ratio of players’ wages to turnover of 33%, which is almost half of the 2010 Scottish Premier League average ratio of 61%, while English Premier League clubs sit at a current wage-to-turnover ratio average of 70%.
The notes state that in 2013 the first team payroll is to constitute 26% of all revenues with it currently sitting at around £7.5m, which will reduce to 18% of all revenues in the next two years as Cenkos predicts turnover to hit £46.5m by 2015.
Cenkos states that it “believe that this will be achievable with our growth revenue forecast and the current level of players wages being paid gives significant room for manoeuvre.”
The brokers also believe that the policy would be in line with UEFA’s financial fair play regulations, which stipulate that wage-to-turnover ratio should not be higher than 60%.
Cenkos states: “We suggest that investors should take comfort from UEFA’s reforms which are designed to end financial instability within football clubs.
“We believe the high level of player wage inflation and transfer fees driven by irrational competitors will be significantly reduced and, as one of the 20 best supported teams in Europe, the requirement for clubs to live within their means should work towards Rangers’ competitive advantage.”
Comparisons in the document are made to Celtic and Manchester United’s share market flotations as successes, with the brokers stating: “In our view the old notion that revenues from television are the only driver of value for football clubs has proven to be incorrect and it is the potential for selling branded product on a global, multi-channel, basis that has resulted in the value of the leading football clubs appreciating significantly in the past decade.”
The forecast is based on several assumptions set out in the document, including the season ticket price increase, as well as a £1.5m reduction in unspecified overheads.
According to Cenkos, non-matchday cash, including the £3m-a-year retail deal with Sports Direct, will bring in £17.5m in 2012-13 financial year, out-weighing matchday revenue of £13.5m. For the 2012/13 Third Division season, Rangers raised £8m through selling 36,000 Ibrox season tickets this year and £1m from corporate hospitality sales, according to the document.
The Sevco consortium led by Mr Green purchased the club’s assets from oldco Rangers, now RFC 2012 Ltd, in a £5.5m deal in June after administrators Duff and Phelps failed to maintain it as a going concern.
Mr Green and his group are aiming to raise around £20m through the initial public offering, with payments scheduled to be processed on the scheme by December 17.
Directors of the club are currently involved in road shows pitching the flotation to fans groups and possible investors across the UK.
In 2000, under Sir David Murray, oldco Rangers, now RFC 2012 plc, was floated on the stock market with the aim of raising £53.1m to pay off some of their debts. This resulted in £38m of investment, £32.3m of which was from Sir David’s Murray Sports Ltd and the remaining £6m from around 3500 small shareholders.
Four years later Sir David oversaw another share issue which aimed to raised £57m for Rangers. It brought in £51m, only £1m of which was from the fans – the rest being underwritten by the Murray MHL Limited, one of the owner’s companies.
This came after the Rangers Bond scheme in 1991, which saw 6700 fans raise £8.5m through buying debentures to construct the Club Deck at Ibrox Stadium. When Rangers went into administration, those who bought into the scheme became creditors.
corsicacharity says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 21:43
1 0 Rate This
Can anyone help, please?
How can you reduce your wage bill by £20m from a starting point of £28.2m when all of your staff have TUPED over on existing terms and conditions?
By my reckoning, Sevco did not take on wages for the following:
Maurice Edu, Steven Davis, Allan McGregor, Steven Naismith,
Steven Whittaker, Kyle Lafferty, Jamie Ness, John Fleck, Rhys
McCabe, Salim Kerkar, Sone Aluko, Jack Werndly, Joshua Robinson, Robbie McIntyre, Tom Skogsrud, Kim Skogsrud.
But they did add the following to the wage bill:
Francesco Stella, David Templeton, Francisco Sandaza, Emilson
Cribari, Kevin Kyle, Ian Black, Dean Shiels.
and I do not for one minute believe that Templeton, Sandaza,
Black and Shiels are on anything less than £5k per week gross
(£260k pa each).
In addition, it is now clear that the majority (if not all) of Kyle
Bartley’s wages were being paid by Arsenal (see D&P and Arsenal accounts) so we can probably discount his costs. I think Carlos Bocanegra and Alejandro Bedoya have both gone out on loan so one would have thought that the parent club (Sevco) would be paying a portion of wages.
If we take out the fluff from the leavers (Ness, Fleck, McCabe,
Kerkar, Aluko, Werndly, Robinson, McIntyre, Skosgrud x2) and
assume that their wages equated to the arrivals, are we seriously being told that Edu, Davis, McGregor, Naismith, Whittaker and Lafferty (and even Bocanegra and Bedoya) were between them earning £20m? That’s an average of £48k per week (or EPL wages of you prefer).
I can only assume one of the following to be true:
(a) players subject to TUPE either agreed to reduce their salaries or defer part of their salaries (presumably for the good of the cause);
(b) players subject to TUPE agreed to accept shares in lieu of
salary (again, presumably for the good of the cause);
(c) players subject to TUPE have been forced to accept reduced
terms and conditions and been badly advised by their
representatives (perhaps for the good of the cause);
(d) I have completely forgotten about an entire cadre of players who were registered to Rangers FC but who have not TUPED over and left;
(e) Chuckles is lying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(f) Chuckles is really, REALLY bad at arithmetic.
paulmac2 says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 14:41
7 0 i
Rate This
whullie says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 14:16
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Need to check with FIFA…the issue being that the SFA are deemed the governing body for Scottish football therefore you would need to a member of that body in order to participate in UEFA competitions…for FIFA to oust them may require more than just a we don’t agree with them…I don’t know of any other association this has happened to?…I know of national associations that have been suspended…but not disbanded and replaced.
Secondly the SFA are one of the bodies on the world decision making for football…where there are only 8 members who decide…I’m sure there will be those within FIFA who would bend over backwards to remove one of the 4 home nations from the board…but I’m not sure how that could be achieved..
I will now go and see what I can find regards the changing of a member associations governing body to a new entity.
________________
Thank you for the speedy response.
I was thinking that UEFA may well be more receptive to a “coup” given what they already know of the recent failings of our governing body, regardless of their lofty status within the decision making “glitterati”.
The threat of mass resignation would also scare the Hampden 6th floor occupants right out of their positions.
I look forward to the results of you search wrt change.
Thank you agin but my computer skills are sadly lacking hence the question asked of more expert folk.
Directors of the club are currently involved in road shows pitching the flotation to fans groups and possible investors across the UK.
yet nothing leaked from anyone attending. at all.
first rule of sevco……..
After watching that embarrassment in Luxembourg I now think that what little talent that Scotland players had has been completely coached out of them.
Pass the ball sideways back and fore for about 10 passes then punt the ball up the park.
Further to my post, I thought I should go back to the D&P report to see if this shed any light on the wages situation.
I found the following to be the only indicators of wages:
Pre Administration Wages/Salaries = £479,513
Post Administration Wages/Salaries = £2,299,658
PAYE/NIC = £1,752,972
and that was for the period 14/02/12 – 29/06/12 (say, 4 months or 1 quarter).
Am I safe to assume that post admin wages is the deferred salaries?
In any case, how can wages balloon up to £28.2m per annum from this basis? Perhaps Lord Wobbly is right and Chuckles is really, really bad at arithmetic?
Does that look like a bruis on chuckie’s left cheek?
For every pound they spend, we’ll spend 10…………………………………………………………………. (p)
Chuckles latest… abbreviated – Wages will be cut… drastically. No need to wonder why.
STV love in once again
Is that it? I’d love to rub Neil Patey’s face up and down a roughcast wall!!
Coming up, the funniest man in Scotland – I thought we’d just seen him.
A couple (or three ) things on that Cenkos statement
How is Charlie going to generate £46.5 million t/o without Europe and SPL membership
How is non matchday revenue going to generate £17.5 million income per year
To achieve that he would need to sell over £300k of “something” every week
Where is £11 million profit coming from
Finally, if he thinks he is going to run a successful team that can generate serious European income, with salaries capped at 33% of t/o, then as I said in another post, he must be able to turn water into wine
In my eyes, it looks like more bullshit from the bullshitter in chief, aimed solely at Sevcovians
Money money money, always follow the money.
That has always been the key to this ongoing mystery saga…..
Now, if the “Money man” Mr Commercial Director, abandons his leading Man role with a West End production due to his sudden desire to join a provincial acting company, because he believes it has the potential to become a World leader with (I’ve lost count) how many potential paying customers, fair play. Good on him!
A week or so later, instead of starring in the new forthcoming production, He is, er, doing something a bit further down the pecking order. Not entirely sure what, but definitely doing something.
I might be thinking now that this guy has had a bit of a “Stephen Fry” moment (With the greatest of respect to Mr Fry).
Or I might be thinking something else entirely.
if the 33% wage ratio is really the way forward
(everyone should be doing it really, financial fair play and all that)
can someone ask charles – what ratio were you sitting at before you signed templeton ?
and after ??
of course, the cenkos document is designed to get people to invest……what they do AFTER that may be a very different story altogether
Does this mean the document we all saw yesterday is a fake?
Amazing figures from Cenkos. 17.5 million of non match day income. 3 million on shirt sales and14 million from…..what exactly. Is that the adidas dallas cowboy tie in. And even with these magical millions they are still projected to show a 3.5 million loss and that assumes that they can unilaterrally cut the wage bill by a third. Basketcase heading for collapse by Feb is what numbers are actually saying. 8 million needed to get them to the summer.
Andrew Woods says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 14:38
Either Mr Charles firmly believes that there are Berrs out there with loads of money stuffed under mattress’ or he is utterly desperate and in real need for this to work as soon as possible. The timing, one, week before Christmas, is very odd. Shirley he doesn’t want his audience to deprive their kids of their Christmas and divert the money into his scheme. That would be too mean spirited even for Mr Charles ?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Nope
The IPO game was a bogey when the FTT decision got delayed and was swiftly followed by a delay in the SPL Tribunal. It wasn’t helped by the worry that Whyte may have Green on tape saying what he really thinks about the gullible ex Bears
I reckon Green is now operating on Plan B.
This assumes a failed IPO blamed by Green for a subsequent Administration. Court appointed Administrators will then reveal that the Ticketus contract is alive and well and (having been switched to English Law) will survive any Sevco liquidation. The good news will be that the Ticketus repayment period will be extended at a punitive rate of interest.
Green will depart with a public show of tears orchestrated by Media House and a private brown envelope from Ticketus
A Snow White Cardigan will offer to run Sevco on behalf of a Ticketus CVA and appeal yet again for the gullible to rally round with their cash. His real motive is getting information support from ex RFC files to avoid paying HMRC for illegal EBTs
All the chicanery will then be above board. Sevco will face a debt mountain of £40m and their supporters will face either paying debt for years with a rubbish team or walking away
STV sold that document like it was the Zimmerman Telegram. Given the way that Green was discussing it to camera, it is more likely that he simply gave them it at some earlier point. In other words, the whole thing was yet more fluff: perhaps a softening up exercise to prepare the faithful for the contents of the fabled prospectus.
anyone able to quickly compare this income projections against OLDCO income numbers?
i take it the wage bill numbers they are talking about are just about what they have at the moment – but in SFL2, SFL1 and perhaps the SPL
given they are struggling to overcome teams in SFL3 with that squad, are they really gonna come up the leagues and then perform well enough in the SPL to keep the hordes attending?
good luck with that one
Lord Wobbly says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 21:57
corsicacharity says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 21:43
1 0 Rate This
Can anyone help, please?
How can you reduce your wage bill by £20m from a starting point of £28.2m when all of your staff have TUPED over on existing terms and conditions?
By my reckoning, Sevco did not take on wages for the following:
Maurice Edu, Steven Davis, Allan McGregor, Steven Naismith,
Steven Whittaker, Kyle Lafferty, Jamie Ness, John Fleck, Rhys
McCabe, Salim Kerkar, Sone Aluko, Jack Werndly, Joshua Robinson, Robbie McIntyre, Tom Skogsrud, Kim Skogsrud.
But they did add the following to the wage bill:
Francesco Stella, David Templeton, Francisco Sandaza, Emilson
Cribari, Kevin Kyle, Ian Black, Dean Shiels.
and I do not for one minute believe that Templeton, Sandaza,
Black and Shiels are on anything less than £5k per week gross
(£260k pa each).
In addition, it is now clear that the majority (if not all) of Kyle
Bartley’s wages were being paid by Arsenal (see D&P and Arsenal accounts) so we can probably discount his costs. I think Carlos Bocanegra and Alejandro Bedoya have both gone out on loan so one would have thought that the parent club (Sevco) would be paying a portion of wages.
If we take out the fluff from the leavers (Ness, Fleck, McCabe,
Kerkar, Aluko, Werndly, Robinson, McIntyre, Skosgrud x2) and
assume that their wages equated to the arrivals, are we seriously being told that Edu, Davis, McGregor, Naismith, Whittaker and Lafferty (and even Bocanegra and Bedoya) were between them earning £20m? That’s an average of £48k per week (or EPL wages of you prefer).
I can only assume one of the following to be true:
(a) players subject to TUPE either agreed to reduce their salaries or defer part of their salaries (presumably for the good of the cause);
(b) players subject to TUPE agreed to accept shares in lieu of
salary (again, presumably for the good of the cause);
(c) players subject to TUPE have been forced to accept reduced
terms and conditions and been badly advised by their
representatives (perhaps for the good of the cause);
(d) I have completely forgotten about an entire cadre of players who were registered to Rangers FC but who have not TUPED over and left;
(e) Chuckles is lying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(f) Chuckles is really, REALLY bad at arithmetic.
========================================================================
Guys…he may be inclined to mendacity…he may be inclined to being challenged arithmetically…but one thing is for sure…has has a way of literally twisting facts, figures and words to suit his audience(s)…and he can do so effortlessly…without blushing!
The man should have been an accountant…!
In the INTRO to the STV piece they mentioned ‘naming rights’ being part of the IPO, but didn’t go into it during the show.
Did I miss that part? (My good lady can choose to talk at the most inappropriate times)
jean7brodie says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 22:32
you’ll need to be careful not to harm his lovely comb over!! Also, who was the fat Graham Spiers? Never heard of him.
In case anyone missed it, courtesy of Amac on CM, http://youtu.be/JRjPx8DItsM
Warning, includes the vile chris graham
Charlie’s aim has always been to raise the money he needs from the Sevcovians
All this talk of roadshows, pension funds and institutional investors, is no more than an attempt to convince the Sevcovians to empty their pockets and piggy banks
After all, if it is a good deal for all of these professional investors, why should the Sevcovian in the street not be part of it
Sorry Archie Gemmill , but Ibrahimovic’s goal just demoted yours to second place in my all time list.
FTT Result
Sorry if this has been posted earlier, but been busy lately & trying to catch up.
A reliable HMRC employee told me it is indeed the MIH legal team that is delaying
the result. It is thought that they are trying to remove all personal information before
it is released to the public. For example Mr Walter Smithy becomes Mr X.
Mr Graham Sourpuss becomes Mr Y.
Mr Minty becomes Mr Z.
etc. etc.
I do not know if this is common practise in these situations or if it is legal, hopefully some
experts on here can shed some light on this. It may however explain how some old faces
have suddenly re-appeared over the last week or so looking a bit SMUG !
Sevco business plan reliant on fans staying loyal at current ST levels, and watching a marginally improved squad join the rest of Scotland chasing 2nd place.
If they survive to next season, an increase in ST prices will see a decrease in uptake.
‘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’
_________________________________
It appears likely that only those who attended the meeting laid eyes on the five way agreement, If this be the case then it seems even more incredible that all properly registered clubs in Scottish football would sit back and accept this unbelievable situation.
By not raising holy- hell about this grotty agreement (this worries me) these clubs will be complicit in the eventual downfall of the game in Scotland. That may be a strong statement but the facts are, the game in Scotland is on a life-support system, created by the most inept administration in World football, and needs every help it can get. Clubs putting their collective heads under their wings is not what the game needs right now.One other thing,any club which decides not to pursue outstanding cup monies which fall due and are not paid in a timely fashion are also complicit in this slow death.
.
All the World’s a stage,
In line with my usual habit of starting a sidetrack at this time of the evening (and purely for amusement I emphasise ) may I present:
with a Shakespearean theme to tonights performance………….
Mr Charles “Chuckie” Green starring as Shylock
Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 22:50
Does this mean the document we all saw yesterday is a fake?
——————————————-
No NTHM, the document is real, it’s the author who’s the fake
Ask yourself one simple question, has Charles Green ever run a company that’s been a success?
And to those who predict the FTT(T) result on Monday, looking back at the RTC blog we had the same prediction exactly a year ago from a reliable source – think it was someone whose taxi driver’s ex-girlfriend’s dog’s mother’s facebook friend was having an affair with the guy who stocks the vending machines at Centre 1 who in turn overheard it in a meeting between two top HMRC executives as they mulled over the choice between a packet of Lamb-flavour Pringles and Walkers Cajun Squirrel Crisps, apparently, so it seems.
Even a stopped watch is right twice a day
Reference Alloa payment for scottish cup tie heard from a reliable source the money was paid yesterday.
areyouaccusingmeofmendacity says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 21:09
Slightly off topic, but congratulations to Inverness Caley and their first Scotland cap. Makes a slight change from the ‘Old Firm and English’ mantra from previous Scotland managers
===================================================================
there is no such team as inverness caley.
what is a fact, is that there is a team called, inverness caledonian thistle, or inverness caley thistle or caley thistle.
there was a merger of two seperate clubs in inverness.
one was called inverness thistle
and
one was called, inverness caley
neither of these clubs exist now!
just as rangers do not exist now!
rustyploughbhoy says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 23:19
1 0 Rate This
FTT Result
Sorry if this has been posted earlier, but been busy lately & trying to catch up.
A reliable HMRC employee told me it is indeed the MIH legal team that is delaying
the result. It is thought that they are trying to remove all personal information before
it is released to the public. For example Mr Walter Smithy becomes Mr X.
——————————————-
if this is the reason for the delay, then surely if the principle is agreed, is should take about an hour to do a FIND/REPLACE on the document and it could be published immediately after
so, is someone arguing that the names should be revealed
Personally, i’d be happy to see it anonimised and published ASAP – then, if the argument over saving the poor children from embarrassment is lost, they can publish it warts and all later
The Accountant chappy on STV seemed to be fair enjoying himself, almost a wee smirk when discussing Mr Green’s plan to play in the UCL whilst only paying max 33% w:t/o!
The blue eyeshadow wearing Chris struggled to see the irony in the situation where his Club were happy to have a ratio closer to 133%.
Sit back and watch the show. Years ago Charlie would have got away with this. Not now.
Just saw the STV in depth debate on sevco and I must admit you have got to hand it to the Chuckster he has them eating out of his hand ,he can say anything and they follow follow ,I almost think that after every appearance when the cameras stop rolling you can hear Chuckster saying
One ,two ,three ,your back in the room .
Chris Graham “CG said when he first came in that he would let the fans buy shares in the first year and he has stuck to his word ” .Of course he has Chris me old son the fans were always going to be the ones who were going to pay,hell he even sounded as if he was thanking CG for giving him his cash .
Also was it said that sevco the debt free club who would have the best books of any Scottish club at the end of the season ,were likely to post a loss of 3.5m ,this with world record breaking crowds every week and after slashing their wage bill by 20m .Did I not read that they had 17m in the bank in the piffle point presentation ,if so does that mean that sevco will require 20.5m just to get to the end of this season in Div 3 of Scottish football .
Hawd on till I get ma wallet
OT,have just seen this, ‘Omnishambles’ named Oxford Dictionaries word of the year,also does any one think their is any more to come from the Craig Whyte tapes or Charles Green tax investigation that caused RTC to set up Sevco Tax Case Twitter account ?
So am I getting this right.
2015 they have a turnover of £46.5m, that means money in.
They want £10.9m to be profit.
At 33% the players wages will be £15.3m
That means they will be spending £20.3m on other things.
Any ideas what these things will be?
McCoists 25 year contract, the hotels, the cancer centres, the worldwide footballing academies where promising youngersters will be developed to a high standard to go and sign for clubs paying better wages
Also if they are predicting £46.5m coming in and season books are in the region of say £600 and they sell 40k thats £24m. Add on the pay as you go’s and some cup income at £25 a pop then you are maybe up to £28m in sales for games.
Therefore all their other activites are going to have to raise £18m,
What is that going to be from
Hospitality
Strip sales
Sponsorship
Naming rights
zendavista says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 23:55
I prefer “zombieshambles”!
Another wee nuggat out of the STV farce ,sevco will just have to rely more on their scouting system and bring the talent through .
Chris Graham ,yes we have the structure there ,so we just have to identify the players and sell them on at a profit (I can see it now sevco having to keep a couple of hundred seats for all the major clubs scouts fighting over the next sensation coming from the Scottish 2nd division ).I wonder what the world record transfer fee is for a Scottish 2nd div player .
Question.
We have Accountants, Lawyers, Businessmen off all backgrounds etc here. Pretty much all of whom are rolling around the floor laughing at the attempts to sell Charlie Chuckies dream factory.
I have to admit it is great fun.
Can someone with a Football background donate their tuppenceworth?
Tin hat is firmly in place but I mean well…..
Watching via STV link to The Rangers growth plans. I notice the biggest threat to them was not mentioned. By that I mean Celtic.
If I were Celtic/PL my biggest worry would be that for Green’s plan to succeed, Celtic would have to fail. I have no worries that on the field Celtic can more than hold their own, it is what takes place off the field to minimise the risk of failure at The Rangers that would worry me.
If I were Celtic/PL I would be insisting on the tightest of financial controls and removal of any ability the SFA might have to control referees by their reporting on them and rewarding their performance.
It would make life a lot simpler if their share issue fails.
angordub says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 00:17
—————-
We all have a football background … of A description I assumed 😉
Some names?
I’ll pester on the twittersphere. Don’t expect too much grey matter though …. only jesting!
J
Auldheid (@Auldheid) says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 00:34
Auldheid, I hesitate to take you on here as you are an Auld hand but to be honest I still hold to my original thoughts re Celtic. Why open yer mouth while the other lot are making Horses Ars*s of themselves?
The Kaiser, as us Dubs call him, hasn’t made a wrong call eh, ever, as I can recall. Unlike certain other world famous businessmen.
He will be missing nothing in this pantomime and will make a move when he deems fit. Uniquely he seems to have made very few enemies.
Mind you, I’m still keeping an eye just in case 😉
I have said it all along ,IMO since the intended new owner/s (after hector on the rest of the mug creditors were ditched) didn’t fancy parting with their cash by being sugar daddies the hordes were earmarked for the job of throwing their money away .Then and only then would the knights on their chargers ride to the rescue of the newly formed club that has been set up to fill the void left by the dead club .
What if an agreement was reached for the hordes to fund the plan with their ST money
What if by Sally being not too good a manager he scuppered that ruse
What if when that ruse was rumbled another plan had to be implemented
What if that meant another face having to be brought in before the new club was free of the obligation when Sally mucked up
What if the hordes could be persuaded to stump up by different means
What if the hordes looked like they were getting cold feet
What if a couple of the rescuers could be drafted in to get allay their fears
What if a sanction that would have the hordes seething could be delayed just long enough for the share issue to come about
What if the other face could scream that he would fight this sanction all the way (or at least long enough to get the hordes cash )
Why would a company give a Scottish football cub a massive amount of money in this financial climate ,Who injected that money into that company to facilitate this .Follow follow the money and the truth will out
Then would the only problem left be getting into the SPL after those pesky FOOTBALL fans scuppered the peepils part .
Just heard a certain fellow has had a restriction order withdrawn and someone enquired to their FAPP suitability lately
Funny how things come about eh !
This is an actual comment on RM, Honestly,
“They were all free transfers and our first team squad was down to less than 10 players when we signed them so we were not adding to a huge wage bill. The wage bill must have been next to nothing for a period and now it is only at £7m. Are we already living outwith our means and with this level of player? I understand revenue being down, that is obviously to be expected but we have sold over 37000 season tickets and have sold out almost every home match so far then there is our merchandising revenue and sponsorship, corporate etc even if it is down a little. I don’t see how we could possibly be running at any sort of loss. Green said we wouldn’t.”
I’m speechless.
I must be missing something in the Cenko’s figures: (btw – any link to the full figures?)
http://local.stv.tv/glasgow/200640-rangers-plan-wage-caps-and-season-ticket-hikes-to-revive-club/
They state: “in 2013 the first team payroll is to constitute 26% of all revenues with it currently sitting at around £7.5m”
So, if wages are 7.5m, and are 26% of revenue, that makes revenue 28.8m for 2013.
They then state: “According to Cenkos, non-matchday cash, including the £3m-a-year retail deal with Sports Direct, will bring in £17.5m in 2012-13 financial year, out-weighing matchday revenue of £13.5m”
Now, my reading of that is in 2013 they will bring in 17.5m + 13.5m = 31m. So the figures don’t match up. However, there is noway turnover will be 31m. Where on earth did they get 17.5m non matchday cash from? Maybe it was badly worded and they mean 17.5m would be total turnover (13.5 matchday – still too high IMO by about 3m). BUT – if its 17.5m, then wage % would be around 45%, not the 26% stated…
Further, they state there will be an operating loss of 3.5 for the financial year. Hmmm. So, revenue will be either 28.8m or 17.5m depending on which figure you take. Wages we are led to believe are 7.5m.
Taking the 28.8m figure, and the 3.5m loss, that would mean there are 24.8m in expenses outside the wage bill.
Now, if we then take the target wage turnover of 33% and apply it to their estimated turnover in 2015 of 45m, that would give wages of 15m. Add to that the 24.8m expenses and we get 40m.
So – 45-40 = 5m profit a year. That requires a wage/turnover ratio half of any other club in world football and champions league football every year. So, basically win the league every year, make it through the qualifiers to the champions league every year AND maintain a world record low wage budget.
Yep – I’m ready to invest right away…:) What am I missing?
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/sfl-vote-for-new-three-tier-league-with-all-42-clubs-under-one-roof-1-2633658
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spl/foundation-of-hearts-vow-to-keep-talking-with-a-hope-and-a-prayer-1-2633664
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/top-football-stories/wimbledon-chief-calls-on-milton-keynes-to-drop-dons-from-name-1-2635171
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/longmuir-calls-for-end-to-self-interest-as-sfl-unveil-blueprint-for-change.19422736
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/a-cunning-plan-but-with-one-sizeable-obstacle.19425532
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/is-there-a-sustainable-model-for-supporter-owned-clubs.19419847
apologies, if this has been posted before.
http://news.stv.tv/scotland/200640-rangers-plan-wage-caps-and-season-ticket-hikes-to-revive-club/
A bit of Chris Graham’s input was edited out last night…..”of course player’s wages need to be contained to a maximum of 33% of turnover, how else will we be able to finance the hover pitch, stupid.”
Senior says:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at 23:25
14 0 Rate This
‘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’
_________________________________
It appears likely that only those who attended the meeting laid eyes on the five way agreement, If this be the case then it seems even more incredible that all properly registered clubs in Scottish football would sit back and accept this unbelievable situation …
————-
That 5-way thing was and is still puzzling, as is the mysterious agreement Duff & Phelps entered into with Green.
Why has Green been able to operate under the radar of public scrutiny?
So I was googling around on the subject of D&P and Green, as you do, and found this article on CQN. Probably old news to disciples of the case but a possible new twist for me …
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/?p=10659
Instead of wasting money on consultants to redo the leagues just so Chuck can have 2 teams to do a nice little earner, can we not spend the money on a few of these? BVB Dortmund have this – and they can pass the pall – unlike Scotland’s players last night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Qf15Fz8Ek&feature=share
Call me cynical but do you think this document was ‘released’ by cenkos just to see what the reaction would be/ how much b@@locks they could get away with befor they sent out the actual document? I just dont think stv are that good at uncovering stuff!
creepylurker says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:21
Call me cynical but do you think this document was ‘released’ by cenkos just to see what the reaction would be/ how much b@@locks they could get away with befor they sent out the actual document? I just dont think stv are that good at uncovering stuff!
___________________________________________________
Perhaps lamb is being provided.
redetin says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:31
creepylurker says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:21
Call me cynical but do you think this document was ‘released’ by cenkos just to see what the reaction would be/ how much b@@locks they could get away with befor they sent out the actual document? I just dont think stv are that good at uncovering stuff!
___________________________________________________
Perhaps lamb is being provided.
===========================
Given T’ Rangers new regime, more like mutton…..
I might have missed this in an earlier post, but can anyone shed any light on why the 3 articles of analysis Paul did on his blog yesterday are no longer there?
easternexpat says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:43
redetin says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:31
creepylurker says:
Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 08:21
Call me cynical but do you think this document was ‘released’ by cenkos just to see what the reaction would be/ how much b@@locks they could get away with befor they sent out the actual document? I just dont think stv are that good at uncovering stuff!
___________________________________________________
Perhaps lamb is being provided.
===========================
Given T’ Rangers new regime, more like mutton…..
*************
Nah – mutton is too expensive – even the frebies are being capped – so a lamb doner kabab then!
Seriously though – if you thought the first document was amatuerish, how bad does that information from the new/improved document look?
Also – if CG was indeed doing roadshows, photos would be popping up along on the internet in his tangerin colours along with Tweets of the meetings…. Methinks its all a load of nonsense. At the weekend he said that the SFL changes meeting would be attended by the club secretary as he was too busy doing the roadshow in London – so I assume STV camera crew were in London then?