Over the past couple of years, we have built a healthy, vibrant and influential community which recognises the need to counter the corporate propaganda spouted by the mainstream media on behalf of the football authorities.
The media have, not entirely but in the main, been hostage to the patronage of those in charge of the club/media links, and to the narrow demographic of their readership. Despite a continuing rejection of the media’s position by that readership (in terms of year on year slump in sales) there is an obstinate refusal to see what is by now inevitable – the death of the print media. The lamb metaphor in fact ironically moving to the slaughter.
The football authorities in Scotland, once the country that gave the world the beautiful game, are rigid with fear that their own world will fall apart – because they are wedded to the idea that only one football match actually matters. To that end they will do whatever it takes to ensure that it continues. They have long since dispensed with the notion that football is an interdependent industry, and incredibly, even those who are not participants in that match follow like sheep towards the abattoir.
The argument is no longer that one club cheated and got away with it. The debate that we need to have is one about what is paramount in the eyes of the clubs and the media . Is it the inegrity of sporting endeavour, or box-office?
For out part, independent sites like this have accelerated the print media’s demise, and there have been temporary successes in persuading the clubs to uphold the spirit of sport. However our role has up to now been to cast a spotlight on the inaccuracies, inconsistencies and downright lies that routinely pass for news. News that is imagined up by PR agencies and dutifully copied by the lazy pretend-journalists who betray no thought whatsoever during the process.
Despite our successes, it really is not enough. We have the means at our disposal to do more, but do more we need to change ourselves, because the authorities sure as hell aren’t gonna.
We need to provide meaningful insight into the game that removes the Old Firm prism from the light path. We need to provide news that has covered all of the angles. We need to entertain, inform and energise fans of sport and all clubs.
We need to do that from a wholly independent perspective. None of this refusing to tell the truth about club allegiances. There is no reason why intelligent men and women can’t be objective in spite of their own allegiances (although the corollary absolutely holds true). Our experience of the MSM in this country is that the lack of arms-length principles in the media has corrupted it to such an extent that they barely recognise truth and objectivity. We need to be firm on those arms-length principles.
In order to do that we have put together a plan (with enough room to manoeuvre if required) as follows;
We will rebrand and re-launch as the Independent Sports Monitor. We have acquired the domains isMonitor.co.uk and IndependentSportsMonitor.co.uk, and those will be the main urls after the re-launch, hopefully later in the summer.
The change in name reflects the reality of our current debate which is not always confined to Scotland or football. It will also give us the option in future of applying the success of our model to other sports and jurisdictions through partner sites and blogs. This should also help in our efforts to raise funds in the future. However any expansion outwith the domain of Scottish football is some time away, and will depend on the success we have with the core model.
Our mission statement will be;
- ISM will seek to build a community of sports fans whose overarching aim is the integrity of competition in the sport.
- ISM will, without favour, seek to find objective truths on the conduct and administration of sport. We will avoid building relationships with individuals or organisations which would bring us into conflict with that.
- ISM will provide a platform for the views of ALL fans, and guarantee that those views will be heard in a mutually respectful environment.
- ISM will also endeavour to inform and entertain members on a wide range of topics related to our shared love of sport.
- ISM will seek to represent the views of sports fans to sporting authorities and hold the authorities to account.
We have estimated our (modest) costs to expand our role as per recent discussions. The expanded role will take the form of a new Internet Radio Channel where we hope to provide 24/7 content by the end of the year. It will also see a greater news role where we will engage directly with clubs and authorities to seek answers to our questions directly. And we will seek to contact the best fan sites across Scotland with a view to showcasing their content.
We have identified individuals who we want to work (initially on a part time basis) towards our objectives, we have identified premises where we want to conduct our business, and we hope to move into those premises during this summer.
To finance these plans there are a couple of stages;
- Initially (as soon as possible) we need to pay accommodation and hosting costs for the first year. To do so, we hope to appeal to the community itself. Our aim is to raise around £5000 by the end of August.
- There are salary costs (around £15,000) attached to our first year plan, but these have been underwritten by Big Pink, and equipment costs (est. £3000). These will be reimbursed if the advertising campaign we recently started bears any fruit (we will not know about that for a few months).
- It will not be too discouraging if we make losses in the first couple of years, so if necessary we will seek crowd-funding to finance our plans if the resources of the community itself prove inadequate to smooth a path to break-even point.
Our first year may be a perilous hand-to-mouth existence, but I am certain the journey will be an exciting and enjoyable one. We will also need to search our community resources for contacts at clubs; players, officials, ex-players, local journalists etc. Please get in touch if you have any in at your club.
We also hope to tap into the expertise of our community for advice, comment and analysis of developments, and we will be looking for any aspiring presenters, journalists, sound and video editors, graphic designers (and lots of others) to help us find our feet. Any offers of assistance would be gratefully accepted.
We mustn’t lose sight of why we are doing this. It is because we love our sport, because we want to be able to continue to call it that, and because the disconnect we find in Scottish football, that of the conflicting interests of the fans and the money men, will never be addressed as long as the fans are hopelessly split.
The ultimate goal is to allow sport – not our individual clubs – to triumph over the greed and corporate troglodyte-ism of those people who run it. I am confident that we as a community desperately want to be able to make a difference. That is why I am confident we can achieve our aim of becoming a significant player in the game.
I managed to watch the second half of ‘The Rangers’ versus Hibernian today.
I thought the movement was good, passing crisp and, considering that this is really only their second competitive match, this bodes well for the future as it will only get better with time.
A relatively youthful team. Halliday caught my eye as the midfield enforcer and yet he can pick a pass. A lot of commitment in the tackle and yet if any of a few had been even slightly mistimed then the team may have been down to ten men. This may have to be curbed in future matches.
We are always told you can only beat what is in front of you, with the exception of the Premiership of course, so how Hibs played today should be relatively considered irrelevant.
A bonus for the Ibrox club is that todays display will probably entice a few thousand fans to purchase season tickets. Another bonus will be the massive confidence booster in the support and playing staff as well as sending a warning shot across the bows of any future opponents.
While fans of the club will be rejoicing tonight, and rightly so, is it not a pity that so much money was squandered before, what looks like a competent manager, was installed.
Meanwhile there is always the spectre of a lack of cash loitering in the background.
All in all a good day on ‘the journey’.
As for Hibs; well if you were a fan you would hope to put it down as a ‘bad day at the office’ and yet we have been saying this about Hibs for years now. This result today will leave a psychological scar that may not be healed this season. To lose so heavily to one of your competitors for the Championship will be a big blow. It will be interesting to see how they react.
Homunculus says:
July 25, 2015 at 10:56 am
Like I said earlier, watching streams is legally no different from buying a CD and copying the contents onto you iPOD (other personal music systems are available). It is a potential breech of copyright.
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On the 1st October 2014 Regulations introduced an exception into UK copyright law permitting the making of personal copies, (CDs DVDs) as long as they were only for private use.
For about 7 months this was the case, then :-
“ Music industry organisations have won a high court battle over measures introduced by the government allowing people to lawfully copy CDs and other copyright material bought for their own private use.
A judge ruled that the government erred in law when it decided not to introduce a compensation scheme for songwriters, musicians and other rights holders who face losses as a result of their copyright being infringed.”
So now it is illegal again!
——————————————–
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/19/music-groups-win-court-battle-private-copying-cds
Big Pink says:
July 25, 2015 at 4:54 pm
================================
I was at Celtic Park for the Rennes friendly today. I heard a few reports of how bad Hibs keeper and defenders had been, but clearly the reports will have been biased. Equally, the inevitable media praise for Rangers will (in many cases) be biased.
As for Scott Allan, Rangers offered fees Hibs were never going to accept, but you have to ask if it was job done because he didn’t play. I think it’s tine for Hibs to publicly state the fee for Scott Allan is £1M in cash up front, or shut up. Shouldn’t be a problem for his Glibness, should it!
woodstein says:
July 25, 2015 at 9:14 pm
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/17/high-court-quashes-regulations-copy-cds-musicians
Friday 17 July 2015 16.33 BST
High court quashes regulations allowing people to copy CDs
Move follows judge’s recent ruling that government was legally mistaken in deciding not to introduce compensation scheme for musicians who faced losses
The high court has quashed regulations introduced by the government to allow members of the public to lawfully copy CDs and other copyright material bought for their own private use. The move follows a judge’s recent ruling that the government was legally incorrect in deciding not to introduce a compensation scheme for songwriters, musicians and other rights holders who faced losses as a result of their copyright being infringed.
The decision was won by the Musicians’ Union, UK Music and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, with a legal team led by two QCs, Ian Mill and Tom de la Mare. UK Music estimated that the new regulations, without a compensation scheme, would result in loss of revenues for rights owners in the creative sector of £58m a year.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said when introducing the new regulations that they would cause only zero or insignificant harm, thus making compensation unnecessary. But Mr Justice Green, sitting in London, ruled last month that the evidence relied on by the government simply did not justify the claim that the harm would be “de minimis”. On Friday, in a further decision, he said: “It is clear that I should quash the regulations. I make clear this covers the entirety of the regulations and all the rights and obligations contained therein.”
The changes had come into force last October under the Copyright and Rights in Performances (Personal Copies for Private Use) Regulations 2014. Prior to 1 October, it was unlawful, for example, to “rip” or copy the contents of a CD on to a laptop, smartphone or MP3 player for personal use, although the format-shifting activity had become commonplace. The regulations introduced an exception into UK copyright law permitting the making of personal copies, as long as they were only for private use.
Jo Dipple, CEO of UK Music, said: “Last month, the high court agreed with us that the government acted unlawfully when it introduced an exception to copyright for private copying without fair compensation. We therefore welcome the court’s decision today to quash the existing regulations. It is vitally important that fairness for songwriters, composers and performers is written into the law. My members’ music defines this country.”
The judge stressed that the case had raised a range of legal issues of wide significance for UK and EU law, most of which he had decided in the government’s favour.
During a three-day hearing in April, Mill told the judge the law on private copying had been in an unsatisfactory state for decades. But the problem had been “massively exacerbated” by new digital technology and the internet, and the quality and speed of reproduction and copying they allowed.
Mill said the music industry welcomed the government’s new measures “but objects to the lack of a fair compensation scheme to compensate rights owners for the harm caused – both historically and in the future – by private copying infringements of their rights”. The UK government, unlike the majority of other European countries, had failed to provide appropriate compensation, he said.
Pushpinder Saini, representing the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, contended that no credible evidence emerged during a lengthy consultation process that prejudice to rights holders “would be anything other than minimal”. The measures adopted by the UK authorities were far more limited in scope than those adopted in other EU member states, Saini submitted.
Under the new regulations, only the individual who purchased the original copy of the work, and not others such as a friend or family, is legally allowed to copy it.
Saini argued that the music industry case “boils down to an opportunistic attempt to obtain a financial benefit which, if the exception had never been introduced, they would never have received”. But the judge rejected the government’s stance, saying it was “simply not justified” by the particular evidence it was relying on with regard to the compensation issue.
neepheid says:
July 25, 2015 at 7:14 pm
Group F: ENGLAND, Slovakia, SCOTLAND, Slovenia, Lithuania, Malta
So what do we all think of Scotland’s chances of qualification out of that lot? I’m fairly confident, since I really don’t rate England. Slovenia might be tricky, though.
======================
A decent draw in my view. England in the past twenty years have had shoe-in groups, but they can’t say that with Scotland in there. Overall I find it quite sickening how football at club and international level has been gerrymandered to suit the so called ‘big nations’. Scotland v England is a leveller – bring it on!
scapaflow says:
July 25, 2015 at 5:45 pm
________________
Excuse my pedantry but that would make the centre of gravity of Scottish football Newtyle Hearts, home ground circa 800m from Kinpurnie Tower from where Schiehallion was used to measure the weight of the world.
Trisidium says:
July 26, 2015 at 12:14 am
‘… so we will be moving into an office/studio in the Emirates Arena, hopefully within the next seven days.’
_______
When I first half-read this, and saw with half an eye that office space had been found, I was pleased..The fact that it is in that splendid Emirates Arena did not really register.
Now that it has registered, I am suffused with delight.
The association of the Arena with the name of a brilliant, Scottish, sportingly-clean sportsman from a sport that began to face up to the difficulties created by sports cheats,and its broader association with the highly praised Commonwealth Games, is just the kind of association of ideas that SFM can use to advantage.
We have had a major bi-fold incidence of sporting cheating in what is our national sport.
We had a major football club which for a decade and more deceived its competitor clubs and lied to the Football authorities about how much it was secretly paying players; and we had people in those Football authorities who, it is believed, knew that lies were being told, but not only chose not to take action over many years, but when action of a sort began to be necessary, engineered (so it is widely believed) matters to ensure that the guilty club ( long dead by that time) escaped any real censure and punishment, and all sporting punishment. And further, allowed a new club to be , in flat contradiction of law-of-the-land legal facts as well as of football-law facts, a ‘continuity-Rangers-sort- of-entity’.
My hope is that SFM, now or soon to be a legal person, will constantly strive to howk out the dirty work done by that dead club and by the Football Authorities whose actions have so besmirched them, and our belief in the integrity of our Sport.
Howk it out, demand the truth, and hold the guilty men to account, taking its inspiration from one outstandingly clean sportsman and knight of the realm, as against those who were led by the nose and their wallets by the knight of Ibrox.
Promised Friday night update on the fund raising: You folks have contributed 52% of the target and we are at the halfway stage of the project.The ads have added another £100 or so to that.
We had a take-it-or leave it opportunity for office space on the table this week. Recent fundraising developments gave us the confidence to say “take it!”, so we will be moving into an office/studio in the Emirates Arena, hopefully within the next seven days.
That will give us a platform from where we should be able to attract guests for our radio programmes – and also the credibility we are looking for as we seek to be taken seriously as a responsible, representative and accountable medium.
Big Pink will run the office full time, and no doubt some other blog personalities will join him from time to time with support.
That commitment now gives us an even greater focus on the need to try to achieve our financial targets by the end of August. I am confident that we will.
The advertising has slipped back a bit this week from a promising position. I put this down to poor targeting by the ad companies. Hopefully next week they will be of more interest to people. Thanks also to those who used our Amazon banner before purchasing from that source.
Ultimately we see advertising replacing subscription/donation as the main income stream to keep the show on the road, so we will persevere with it for the time being.
Thanks again for all the support in terms of advice, suggestions, volunteers and cash. It is not easy to raise funds as substantial as we are looking to for something so potentially ephemeral and abstract as an online community. We have been around for a bit now though, and I think the progress we have made is testament to the hard work and commitment of EVERYONE connected with our community.
Scottish football needs and honest SFA, a truthful media, and a very strong Arbroath. Together we might just get all of the above 🙂
macfurgly says:
July 25, 2015 at 10:47 pm
‘..Excuse my pedantry but that would make the centre of gravity of Scottish football Newtyle Hearts, home ground circa 800m from Kinpurnie Tower from where Schiehallion was used to measure the weight of the world.’
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Without necessarily endorsing your comments,macfurgly,or arguing against them, I revel in the specialist knowledge that so many of the blog’s contributors have in so many fields.
To my shame, I have never heard of Newtyle Hearts.
There’s Only One Willie Miller says:
July 25, 2015 at 9:00 pm
Interesting article by Gabriele Marcotti on a different model for football on TV. It’s about England but something similar could easily be done in Scotland too.
http://www.fsf.org.uk/blog/view/scrap-the-tv-ban-on-3pm-kick-offs
————-
Indeed it is. He sees the problems for ‘lesser’ teams and their support faced with endless media promotion of the select few. Gabriele is a pleasure to listen to annaw.
@Justshatered Spot on analysis. I saw the 1st half and the home team weren’t at all bad. A little lightweight though. Their pretty passing met an agricultural end as the game progressed. Was expecting a sending off but I suppose ‘hard but fair’ is in the eye of the beholder. Those new imports from south of the border were not only robust but bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Funny Stubbs having spent time with Moyes and yet not really appearing to have worked out a tight defence.
As competitive debuts go then all credit to Warburton for yesterday’s result. Only caught bits of the game but as far as I could see T’Rangers have started of the way Hearts did last season. Play from the back, two full backs flying up the flanks and nice little triangles when passing and everyone putting the cliched 110% effort. The mystery is how Hibs didn’t appear to be prepared for this.
Fair play to Mr Warburton great start to the season. I only caught the first half and thought it was a good game. Hibs where the better team until the equalizing goal. Cannot comment on second half but great result. Although it was only the first game of the season it makes for an interesting season in the Championship. Austerity should have taken place in Govan 4 years ago (if truth be told much longer than that) and if it had taken place with a new manager back then, then who knows where the Ibrox club would be. I am NOT looking forward to the press coverage concerning this club but then again that is one of the reasons for visiting this blog.
A long way to go yet, but an undeniably impressive first game for Warburton with the Rangers, even if it was just a ‘pre-season’ game for them. Certainly grounds for optimism amongst their support as far as the playing side goes. It casts McCoist’s approach and abilities into even deeper shadow though.
macfurgly says:
July 25, 2015 at 10:47 pm
Sounds like the perfect location for those fed up with the Glasgow tunnel vision of the authorities 😆
I note comments relating to an impressive result for Rangers yesterday, and it undoubtedly was. However, the option to undermine opponents by making unrealistic bids for their players in the week leading up will not always be available. I think that has to be said.
upthehoops says:
July 26, 2015 at 11:36 am
Hoopy, to be fair, that has been covered for at some length. I suspect there is general agreement that cheating by PR needs to be nipped in the bud. We all know who the members of the Professional game Board are, perhaps a few polite missives to these gentlemen would be in order, as well as Ms Budge in her new role?
Andrew Smith writes, in Scotland on Sunday, his take on next season’s Scottish Premiership. Guess which club he mentions, by my quick count, no less than nine times! You’ve got it!
It’s a bit like that advertising ploy, I think they call it ‘placement’, where bottles of coke, or pepsi, or some other products are slipped into movies to put the thought of the product into the viewers’ minds without them realising it. It’s the kind of thing a ‘journalist’ might receive ‘payment in kind’ for, such as access to stories, from some PR agency on behalf of some impoverished, but high profile, client!
We are about to enter the fourth year without the name ‘Rangers’ appearing in the top flight of Scottish football. Time enough, one might think, for the press to have discarded the need to discuss the ‘effect’ no ‘Rangers’ might have amongst the elite of our game! It is, after all, exactly the same as the preceding three years – uplifting!
But, Scotland on Sunday publishes…
“Andrew Smith: Business as usual in top flight
Last seasons champions Celtic are almost certain to lift another title this season. Picture: PA
Last seasons champions Celtic are almost certain to lift another title this season. Picture: PA
by
ANDREW SMITH
published 00:39 Sunday 26 July 2015
13 comments
Have your say
THERE will be plenty of positives on show this coming season in top division still without the Rangers brand, writes Andrew Smith
Picture the scene. It is the early years of this millennium and a would-be auteur is pitching his idea for a film about Scottish football’s top flight as it would stand on the eve of a fourth consecutive campaign devoid of the Rangers brand. Of course, he tells producers, the cinematic offering would require to be of the post-apocalyptic genre, set in a bleak and barren landscape.
That very Premiership campaign is now only days away. And apart from Rangers, and Hibernian, not featuring in it, business appears altogether usual, with light and life in all corners. There is a title sponsor for the first time in three years. In Ladbrokes, the much derided Scottish Professional Football League has attracted a decent name. Television deals have been extended with the forthcoming exposure in China. Admittedly, that deal will bring in bawbees. A familiar tale. Yet while all commercial contracts in Scottish football are pretty paltry, they are no worse than those signed in a supposedly prosperous past… And on top of all this, by crikey, thanks to Aberdeen we even have a team capable of putting in some sort of title challenge to Celtic.Alright, so there is no doubt that this season Ronny Deila will claim his second championship with the Glasgow club. However, just as the Norwegian’s remodelling of Celtic has proved a source of great interest and entertainment, so that is what the Pittodrie men provided in spades with their exceptional league form under the admirably shrewd Derek McInnes.
Celtic had three games left to play when, only in May, they were crowned champions for the fourth consecutive season. That meant the title remained a live issue longer than was true in six of the past seven seasons Celtic ran out winners of a top flight with Rangers in it.
In adding to their squad without taking away, there is no reason why Aberdeen cannot keep Celtic on their toes for the next ten months. Indeed, if the Pittodrie side can find a way to stop losing against Deila’s team – they were defeated in all four meetings last season – then we could perhaps even be treated to a compelling run-in. Mind you, the manner in which Celtic hit their stride in the second half of Delia’s first season might mean that is still asking too much.
What also excites about Aberdeen’s filling of the void created by Rangers’ liquidation in 2012 is that this could extend to the continental arena. McInnes’s team, and Celtic, face hazardous European qualifiers this week. Yet the pair are also presented with possibilities in these winnable encounters. The trek to Kazakhstan to face Almaty for Aberdeen and Celtic’s hosting of Azerbaijan side Qarabag could effectively move them to within one tie of the Europa League and Champions League group stages respectively. If both were playing in continental competition until Christmas this season, that really would be transformative for the game in this country.
Aberdeen’s remarkable 5-2 aggregate defeat of a good Croatian side in HNK Rijeka means they have now recorded more notable wins in Europe in these past two years – Groningen were defeated on their own patch last year – than Rangers did in their last four years in the domain. Their efforts were instrumental in the country’s coefficient points total last season being the second highest in seven years.
Celtic and Aberdeen have distanced themselves from the rest of the top flight, but plenty feel that the next team on their heels will be a Hearts metamorphosised. Their obliterating of all opposition in the Championship has had their supporters genuflecting at the feet of the trinity of owner Ann Budge, head coach Robbie Neilson and director of football Craig Levein.
A first season back in the top flight could catapult them straight back into Europe for twofold reasons. Practically selling out Tynecastle every week affords them a resource base that gives them better buying power than the other teams likely to be vying for third – Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee United, Dundee and St Johnstone likely to be in that cluster.
Having retreated from accenting youth – and that means we really ought to desist from the gushing over the Gorgie club’s player production line – they clearly mean business. Budge patently wants them to barge their way back to their former status without a bedding-in period. As one of the Scottish game’s grandees, it is a delight to have the Tynecastle club back in the top flight. What could potentially hamper Hearts in their rush to reassert themselves is what could prove problematic for the other clubs in their orbit: the absence of a real predator.
It is slightly concerning that so many teams have lost or lack goalscorers. Inverness, following their unforgettable Scottish Cup-snaring, third-place claiming season, no longer have their three main attacking threats from last season with Billy McKay, Marley Watkins and Edward Ofere gone. McKay could yet front up at United, who seem to have had the heart ripped out of them as a result of selling Stuart Armstrong, Nadir Ciftci and Gary Mackay-Steven to Celtic. However, as with natural-finisher bereft St Johnstone, there has been a durability about the Tannadice men that may not yet have been lost. That said, Dundee will scent blood in the pursuit of local bragging rights.
Ross County have their backers when it comes to pushing for the top six. The major surgery that Jim McIntyre performed, both to extricate the Highlanders from a seemingly hopeless position at Christmas and give them a British identity, made him seem like Scottish football’s answer to pioneering heart transplant surgeon Christiaan Barnard. McIntyre’s tremendous efforts provided another indication that, whatever else may be lacking at the top level of Scottish football, the coaching is almost universally of a commendable standard.
We have witnessed this with John Hughes following Tommy Wright in making Inverness and St Johnstone major trophy winners. Meanwhile, Dundee neighbours Paul Hartley and Jackie McNamara have produced attractive football teams for little outlay. Further down the pecking order, Alan Archibald at Partick Thistle continues to squeeze more out of a collection of ordinary players than seems plausible. How long that can continue must remain a doubt. The influence of a commanding coach was never better evidenced than the nose-diving of early pacesetters Hamilton Accies – the very idea still astonishes – once the prodigiously talented Alex Neil had left for Norwich City in January. Mercifully, the Lanarkshire club did eventually stabilise under Neil’s successor Martin Canning. Around about the time that Kilmarnock started to fall to pieces under Gary Locke.
The Ayrshire club, as with Partick and Accies, could find the going heavy this season and it is hard to look beyond that trio for a team that will be consigned to the Championship next season. Motherwell endured that near-demotion experience before whipping Rangers in the play-offs but in those games they demonstrated their position was perhaps false.
The monumental profile of those matches illustrated the clear downsides of having no Rangers in the top flight. Certain supporters, especially those of Celtic, attempt to deny there are any negatives to there being no team from Ibrox in the upper tier. In doing so, they seem to pay little heed to their icon Jock Stein’s mantra that “football without fans is nothing”.
Brutally, it must be stated that last season also demonstrated just what a disaster a 16-team top league would be for the credibility of the Scottish game. At times last season, four of the six games could attract fewer than 4,000 spectators apiece. In the case of Hamilton, who just don’t have a support, the figure was far lower. And that was when they were playing top-of-the-table encounters. It was a similar story at Inverness, if not quite as pronounced. Were these teams, and others such as Partick, to be scrapping it out for ninth or tenth place in a 16-team set-up, crowds of 1,500 could become standard across half the programme.
A certain nothingness, to borrow from Stein, can settle on games which are watched by so few spectators. Were Rangers in the top flight, by contrast, 700,000 more fans would be added to top-flight attendance totals. Throw Hibs into the mix, and if we had an elite ten, or the two 12s splitting into three eights that will be pushed for next summer, you could have any one of four Premiership games playing host to more people than a total of four matches might do in the coming season. The Scottish Premiership is a fine set-up as it stands, but that doesn’t mean to say that bigger clubs wouldn’t make it better.”
Danish Pastry
Only One Willie Miller.
That Marcotti article http://www.fsf.org.uk/blog/view/scrap-the-tv-ban-on-3pm-kick-offs is worth everyone reading.
It comes from a respected journalist who is looking ahead and putting his thoughts into a more main stream consciousness.
The technology is here but the thinking has still to catch up.
I’m reminded of the days of BOAC that became BA and the cost of flying was high but so too was the service on offer.
Then came Laker followed by Easy Jet and Ryanair and flying became much more affordable without the frills.
Sky have the frills but I watch to watch the football, not get annoyed at presenters with an agenda or ex footballers with giant IPADS demonstrating their touch screen mastery.
At the end of the day you need a couple of cameras pointing at the game, a couple of commentators, one for each side playing, to commentate, pump the pixel bits captured by camera into a distribution box and then stream it out to paying customers.
Budget level service is a change repeated the world over. Yesterday’s Tesco is today’s Lidol. It’s unstoppable imo.
“However, the option to undermine opponents by making unrealistic bids for their players in the week leading up will not always be available. I think that has to be said.”
how no ??
Ally Jambo
In sheer pragmatic terms Scottish football as an industry like any industry would be richer from having more paying customers.
The problem is football is more an emotive industry than a practical one and until such times as the game deals with the cause of those negative emotions, practical measures are going to be resisted no matter how much sense they make.
So perhaps an inventory of the emotive issues that need addressed would be a start.
The first is dislike and mistrust across the support base in Scotland for the Ibrox club because of their behaviour.
Then a dislike and mistrust from the same broad support base for the football authorities.
The reasons are the unchecked behaviour of RFC and the attempts to ignore that behaviour in moral terms and minimise the consequential financial damage caused by that behaviour by ignoring key evidence of moral and regulatory wrongdoing.
That is the running sore that Scottish football needs to address. Not by putting an elastoplast over a set up where one of the practicioners of misbehaviour at RFC is given a position in football authority and told that is to the benefit of our game by CEOs who seem to think our heads button up the back.
Strip away the emotions that the foregoing give rise to and that article contains much to commend it in practical terms, but first the proper emotional foundations for any restructuring need to be laid.
Articles on that subject, particularly the mistrust element, are likely to be more pragmatic at the end of the day.
“DPRK News Service
@DPRK_News
Ministry of Culture releases additional guidance on mens footwear, to reduce excessive and obscene brogueing.”
Auldheid says:
July 26, 2015 at 12:38 pm
Auldheid,
The gist of the article may make some good points about the season ahead, and there may be some worthwhile point to make about the drawing power of ‘a Rangers’, but surely 9 mentions of a club not in the league is overkill!
Even if there is a point to be made, yet again, about the missing blue pound and it’s effect on the top tier, then surely that should/could have been limited to one paragraph! Instead we are treated to a repeated mention of the word ‘Rangers’ in a way that suggests they are somehow more relevant than any other club to a league in which they are not participating.
He also fails to mention, naturally, that there has been a general stabilising of finances within the Premiership in complete contrast to where we were with a ‘Rangers’ present!
An article that could have been a good critique of what the season ahead might hold is nothing more than, yet another, ‘why we need a strong Rangers’ puff piece!
He even uses Jock Stein as part of his ‘stealth’ cry for a ‘Rangers’ in the top flight. I don’t think this is quite what Jock stein meant, in fact, I think he more likely would prefer to see 4,000 supporters of an honest team, than 50,000 shouting on a club that cheats – or is somehow fast-tracked to the top tier just because their drawing power is required!
“The monumental profile of those matches illustrated the clear downsides of having no Rangers in the top flight. Certain supporters, especially those of Celtic, attempt to deny there are any negatives to there being no team from Ibrox in the upper tier. In doing so, they seem to pay little heed to their icon Jock Stein’s mantra that “football without fans is nothing”.”
Actually, just what has that paragraph got to do with the Premiership season ahead?
Allyjambo says:
July 26, 2015 at 1:51 pm
I’m not suggesting you don’t have a point Ally J, you do and so does the author of the article.
My point is that no matter how good Andrew Smith’s points, unless the emotive element is addressed supporters will resent reconstruction being steamrollered through and anything that seems to be part of that process without addressing the fundamental issue of trust in a system of football governance, that is perceived to be caught like a rabbit in blue headlamps, will be resented by the supporters of all the other clubs..
Ally Jambo
On this para
“The monumental profile of those matches illustrated the clear downsides of having no Rangers in the top flight. Certain supporters, especially those of Celtic, attempt to deny there are any negatives to there being no team from Ibrox in the upper tier. In doing so, they seem to pay little heed to their icon Jock Stein’s mantra that “football without fans is nothing”.”
I think that if Jock Stein were alive today he would say
” football without integrity will have no fans and football without fans is nothing.”
I do begin to wonder if we SFM contributors are living on a different ethical planet.
Auldheid says:
July 26, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Yes, more or less my take on what the great man said. He was on the side of the fans, not the money men. To misrepresent what Stein said to back up the ‘we need Rangers’ argument, however, or wherever, that argument is hidden, is nothing short of a disgrace!
Auldheid,
With regard to living on a different ethical planet, the one thing that the contributors to SFM so obviously possess is a moral compass.
We instinctively know what’s right and what’s wrong.
If you can stomach a peek over in the Den you will soon see the difference between us.
Similarly, the scribes of the SMSM are lacking in this area.
I prefer being where we all are on this here Planet Fitba’.
mungoboy says:
July 26, 2015 at 3:13 pm
__________________________
And therein lies the crux of the problem we face in appealing to bigger numbers of Rangers fans on this forum, so that we can at least start to discuss and agree the way forward. I, too, look in on the Bears Den to gauge the feeling and tbh just about all I see there is hatred, revenge and victimhood.
I am sure Ryan and others will tell me that’s not the site to see the more sensible TRFC* fans, but can anyone see us ever getting the chance to have a ‘truth and reconciliation’ experience with sufficient numbers of TRFC* fans to allow progress? I think the lack of that opportunity is what drives some of the belief that a ‘starting over’ of TRFC* (i.e. a truly new club) is the best option to provide that opportunity for progress. I am sure, however, that wouldn’t be seen as a good option even by sensible TRFC* fans and indeed would probably see us labelled as Rangers-haters (again!).
Trisidium/Bp, do you see the new premises/new ideas helping us to reach sufficient TRFC* fans to influence their thinking – and they, ours? I’m not sure I understand how we can achieve this.
Hamilton Accies “just don’t have a support”. How very dare he. Ok he has a point. We did get over 4000 for a home game while top, on a Friday night live on BT, though Aberdeen’s travelling contingent did swell it a bit.
Incidentally if there is ever a league that splits into three that is the time for me to pack in Scottish football.
The Scotland v England match at Hampden scheduled for a Saturday in June 2017 at 5pm.
An accident waiting to happen?
so we will be moving into an office/studio in the Emirates Arena, hopefully within the next seven days.
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SFM is grateful for your help which allows it to continue its work. You can now subscribe or make a single donation.
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Great news about the office/studio in the Emirates Arena.If i was passing by, can i or anyone hand in a donation,no matter how small or large.
Emirates Arena location will be regarded by some as proving the Celtic bias here. The only worse offence will be state subsidy in the eyes of the more radically demented.
Nawlite, I often start my daily look at football news through ‘News Now’ I have Celtic & Rangers on my favourites bar.
Why not have every time a new article is posted on TSFM the Mods ask News Now to post a link to all Scottish football clubs filters? Plenty other blogs and forums come up regularly like CQN, Celts are here, Ibrox Noise, Do the Bouncy etc.
Maybe that would draw some potential other fans towards us.
Twitter comments that Scott Allan was out ‘celebrating’ with TRFC players last night.
Silly boy.
If true, could be construed as quite disrespectful to Hibs, and a bit premature to say the least.
jimbo says:
July 26, 2015 at 7:05 pm
Good idea. The first time I joined a football forum it was through NewsNow.
I read an article written by someone on a forum, liked the style and went to that forum to have a look. I liked what I saw so joined up and started posting on.
It makes sense to have the blog articles linked through newsnow. The actual blogs are infrequent however getting them to a wider readership does make sense. It may even encourage others to join in.
Allyjambo says:
July 26, 2015 at 11:50 am
————
The interesting thing about that Andrew Smith article for me is the use of the term “Rangers brand” in the opening two sentences to describe what the top division needs. Later he refers to Rangers being liquidated in 2012. This is ND’s line I think, but as with most compromises, it will not satisfy either side of the debate.
TRFC fans do not believe they are supporting a brand, they think they are supporting a football club. Others think the club they are supporting is obviously not the one that is being liquidated.
If a consensus has been reached across Scottish football that the clubs we have been familiar with thus far have morphed into franchises and brands then I have missed it.
Give up the sophistry, it’s already looking tired and you know it will never work.
They went bust.
Tell it the way it is, start a new history and it is at least possible that the top division may in due course be attracting the 700,000 envisaged in the article as those fans who have never bought into the survival myth return.
Apologies if I’m a bit out of step with the current discussion or if my comment is covering old ground, however I am doing a bit of catching up and have jumped back to the future to vent my ire.
I just seen the Hibs Rangers Petrofac result this morning and was surprised by Rangers margin of victory. A very commendable result, though replacing my partisan bunnet mused that early season fixtures can throw up unlikely outcomes. Nevertheless this augurs well for Ranger’s new management team.
I was reading through Fridays comments and came upon the furore concerning Scott Allan. One poster suggested that this publicity might lead to the player’s exclusion from the Hib’s line-up. I have the benefit of hindsight so checked the match report. There was Hib’s talented playmaker sitting on the bench.
That got my goat.
Predictable it may have been and if so then how much more so for the instruments who’s machinations appear to have brought about this eventuality.
Not being an aficionado of the Scottish press I could only take it as read that other posters comments concerning the press coverage of this story was overblown. I only had benefit of the national broadcaster who merely ran the story twice an hour for a few days on their Scottish Radio programme.
Now I may be suspicious that this sort of leverage is widely applied and that Rangers are by no means the only culprit in such matters. However from where I stand that does not constitute mitigation. This is scandalous behaviour.
The result now looks far less impressive. Indeed it is sullied by this whole affair in my eyes. A club that should be trying to rehabilitate its reputaion, in the way that Hearts appear to have successfully done, far from this, is prepared to indulge in the questionable practices that led to its previous demise.
Not a phrase I have a wont to use. I’d like to cut Rangers supporters a bit of slack. I’ve never referred to them as the ‘deid club'(until now) because I appreciate how hurtful this must seem to the fans.
However if you wanted to embed such a mantra deep into the psyche of a broad swathe of Scottish Football fans then you could do little worse by conducting the campaign I have just witnessed.
The offers made for Allan appeared derisory and if this was merely a tactic to unsettle Hibs ahead of a game with a team with a new and relatively inexperienced manager then it is truly reprehensible in my opinion.
Not only are they deid but they have hired a PR firm to nail the lid solidly down on the coffin.
This sort of behaviour really does need to be buried. It needs to be called out whoever the perpetrators are. This isn’t sport and anybody that gains by these methods isn’t sporting. How anyone could imagine that such tactics could advance the prospects of their team in the medium to long term is utterly bewildering to me. It is a massive own goal.
The asterisk key on my computer will be worn smooth by the time such shenanigans are brought to a close.
At some point Ranger’s fans need to stand up and be counted.
Castofthousands what exactly do you mean by “Rangers fans need to stand up and be counted”? What would you have us do?
Castofthousands says:
July 26, 2015 at 8:01 pm
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Oh please CoT..serously? C’mon this is a grown ups professional game and Scott Allan and his representatives are just as guilty.
It’s churlish to suggest that TRFC lost the match due to an ‘enforced’ absence of a promising young player. The game was won fair and square and
credit needs to be paid to the winning side, however grudgingly.Hibs need to regroup and look at themselves. Scott Allan and his reported desire to
play elsewhere is neither here nor there.
This might be a little late to the table but. I listened again tonight on Pulse 98.4 a local channel of volunteers in Barrhead, on the internet (sunday nights 8-9pm). It was hosted by Andy Muirhead from Scotzine about lots of Scottish Football clubs & the National Team. A bit like TSFM Radio casts a few weeks ago. It is very good.
Could we not (TSFM) get a weekly hourly slot in their schedule – to begin with. They are always asking for new presenters and ideas. Share the costs etc.? A studio already set up? maybe expertise shared too? At least to begin with for a few years? I dip in and out during the week for their usual ‘radio shows’ and honestly they are as good as you get, without the usual R1, R2 R Clyde stuff. Normal people. (Not punting the station here folks & absolutely no attachment)
Of course if we are committed to a strategy otherwise it’s a moot point.
Sorry, but I always seem to go back on topic. I couldn’t argue myself out a paper bag on match reports.
gunnerb says:
July 26, 2015 at 10:22 pm
Rangers had a well deserved win, no argument with that.
However, tapping up is against the rules, it is cheating. It should make no difference whether the tapping up is done by a manager, or by an orchestrated PR campaign. If there is a case to answer, action should be taken.
Otherwise you just encourage people to push at the boundaries of the rules, and pretty soon you find there are no rules at all.
It’s very good to see Baron Sewel having the sense to recognise that the mere allegations made against him about his PRIVATE behaviour (i.e , not in exercise of his parliamentary duties)were enough to make him resign his public office as an enforcer of Parliamentary standards….
Oh, that football administrators who have allegedly abused their OFFICE had the same level of integrity!
How wonderful it must be to have a clean sport governed by people of some personal integrity who would resign rather than destroy their sport by aiding and abetting large scale cheating over a decade or more…!
John
I await with interest a minister calling for a Sewell Motion, or indeed, a Reverse Sewell Motion
A nomenclature change is no doubt imminent
scapaflow says:
July 26, 2015 at 11:29 pm
‘..I await with interest a minister calling for a Sewell Motion, or indeed, a Reverse Sewell Motion.’
______
I knew I had heard the guy’s name before in that kind of ‘motion’ connection, but couldn’t quite place it. I’ve looked it up this evening,and confess to be being a tad dismayed that he had Aberdeen academic connections. But relieved that his alleged snorting was not aff a sheep!
John Clark, Totally understand your connection there. The difference is, the villains in our piece did what they did in public. Ogilvie’s and others, EBTS are in the public domain, although some aspects are SO FAR legal, but still challenged by Her Majesty. The ‘Secret 5 way agreement’ is not a secret including all the…..I’m trying to describe how to name these people without getting myself taken to court!
These were not mere allegations unlike the revered Lordship. My Lord Sewell is a saint compared to some people I could think off. You couldn’t burn there necks with a blow torch.
Is there any evidence at Ll that an orchestrated campaign was conducted by Rangers themselves? As far as I am aware Rangers submitted bids for a player which, while very low, they were perfectly entitled to do.
They’d hardly be the first club to low ball a bid for a player with one year left on his contract.
Ryan
Hence my question to the legals:
Is a club liable if it’s PR agent breaks the rules
RyanGosling says:
July 26, 2015 at 11:48 pm
‘Is there any evidence at Ll that an orchestrated campaign was conducted by Rangers themselves? …’
________
Ryan, the natural response to that very legitimate question ( to which the answer may very well be ‘no’) is that they have no need to campaign!
The SMSM do their campaigning for them, free, gratis and for nothing, including free advertising relating to ticket purchase etc etc.
Remember that the focus is not really on the present day new club, but on the cheating of the old club and how that cheating was ignored, denied and ultimately defended by the Authorities, and on how the SMSM were heart and hand part of that defence of the indefensible.
And continue to maintain a fiction, by refusing to dig deep and ask some real journalistic questions.
And those few journalists who did try to tell it as it is, ended up in trouble.
Even Andrew Smith has had to be very, very careful with his words and descriptions of the ‘new club’.
RyanGosling says:
July 26, 2015 at 9:46 pm
“Castofthousands what exactly do you mean by “Rangers fans need to stand up and be counted”? What would you have us do?”
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My vitriol was perhaps a tad presumptuous as of course even the most well meaning individual on their own cannot necessarily alter perspectives that appear widely held.
What I was thinking was that, if I as a Celtic fan perceived that my club were involved in such tactics then I would be a bit ashamed by such an approach. Blu in the earlier Friday comments drew attention to the GSM pre-contract agreement with Dundee United and perhaps this needed closer examination at the time it happened. My recollection of that particular event is not sufficiently succinct to make clear parallels with Scott Allan.
However if in that earlier case it could be credibly deduced that Celtic had acted in some way prejudicially or unfairly then I would like to think that I would have had to fall into agreement with that view point. If Celtic betrayed a pattern of such tactics then again I’d like to think that my own narrative on the blog and in my personal life would reflect a disenchantment with such behaviour that appeared unfair. If there were enough people like this perfect personification of myself then perhaps over time such tactics would be seen as inappropriate and unacceptable amongst the wider fan culture and more importantly amongst supporters. If such an attitude gained traction then I think those executing such campaigns might be made to feel hollow in their efforts.
I can appreciate that if things fall in your favour then there will be a natural reluctance to question how they have come about. However if patterns are perceived that suggests that such ‘luck’ occurs as much by design as by co-incidence then I think it is not unreasonable for those finding themselves benefiting from such good fortune might question the basis for such ‘co-incidences’. Whilst it might be foolish to question your own good fortune I think it is not unreasonable to examine where any such good fortune might stem from. Should it stem from machinations that are perceived as unfair then should this not engender discomfit; embarrassment even. Might any such embarrassment over time not lead to a wider change in attitudes.
I can’t prove that Scott Allan sat on the bench because of the Rangers interest in his services but to an alien arriving unexpectedly from outer space I think it would be the obvious conclusion to reach.
I’m not perfect so can’t reasonably ask others to adopt utopian stances, however I don’t think its unreasonable to expect sporting behaviour in a sporting environment. Should Celtic exhibit such behaviour in the future and have the conduits with which to execute it, I would wish that the likes of yourself would draw attention to it and that we should debate any such instances on the blog. I’d like to think that my own opinions might be informed by such a debate and that in time such informed attitudes would penetrate more widely into the supporter base and over time effect a change in approach.
We all need to take responsibility for our world. If this sometimes means challenging the prevailing attitudes then that is something that I personally am prepared to do; even if to do so threatens to alienate me from those with whom it might be thought I should naturally be in agreement with.
gunnerb says:
July 26, 2015 at 10:22 pm
“The game was won fair and square and credit needs to be paid to the winning side…”
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That is precisely where my ire stems from. When I read the result it looked like an impresssive and commendable win. By the time I had read Friday’s comments and seen the team sheet, that credit was sorely diminished.
Of course the absence of one player, even a crucial and talented one, cannot in itself be shown to have had a critical bearing on the outcome of a football match. However that is to put the cart before the horse. The example of Legia Warsaw against Celtic last year shows how the antithesis of the Scott Allan exemplar is treated within the football environment. In that case it was not the absence of one player but the inclusion of a single individual that led to UEFA overturning the result.
It is not possible to extrapolate what the outcome of the Legia Warsaw fixture would have been if that player was never fielded but instead another took his place. The vast majority of Celtic fans would probably have agreed that given Legia’s margin of victory that the presence or exclusion of one player would have made little difference. However rules are not generally executed in hindsight using a method of discount. The stipulations are laid out in advance not because a single individual would have made such a huge difference but because we recognise that a single player can make the outcome of a fixture other than what it might be.
I am not arguing that had Scott Allan played for Hibs and that the team had not been unsettled, that the result would have been radically different. However it could have been. The rules in their very execution inform us of this and our own intuition recognises the truth of this.
It only took one poster to suggest in advance of the game that Scott Allan might be absent for me to recognise in hindsight that I had witnessed circumstances that to me seemed deeply unfair. Hibs might be peppered with players who would accept a contract from Rangers but their names were not being mentioned in media outlets every hour on the hour.
I am not identifying Rangers as the only perpetrator of such tactics. However as we have become ever more savvy at interpreting the media then such skill is accentuated. Perhaps Scott Allan is the first case where the tactic has been sufficiently closely examined for it to be called out. I have little doubt that this is indeed the case and that it has happened many times in the past. However just because it happened in the past doesn’t make it right. Just because a player might be tempted by a contract with a new club doesn’t mean he can expect the wholesale participation of the nations media to help him achieve that goal.
What happened here was clear. Hibs were nobbled. That shouldn’t happen. Should something like this happen again then it should be called out for what it is.
gunnerb says:
July 26, 2015 at 10:22 pm
‘…The game was won fair and square .’
________
And that simple observation, gunnerb, contains the whole philosophy of ‘Sport’- fair competition, all square with the rules agreed.
That notion is embedded in our very nature.
There is no ‘sport’ when games or leagues are rigged, or referees are bought or biased, or players put bets on the opposing team winning, or when judicial tribunals are misled, or officials turn blind eyes to the rule-breaking of a favoured club etc etc etc etc.
And those who ‘win’ by cheating are rightly called out as cheats, and their ‘winnings’ are stripped from them.
And those charged with the responsibility of enforcing the rules who secretly among themselves decide, for the basest of reasons, not to enforce the rules in order to protect a particular offender, are deserving of the deepest pit of hell.( If Dante were alive today,which (magic)circle of hell would he place them in?)
Sporting achievements won fair and square under the rules, thumbs up.
Titles and honours won by breaking the rules? Thumbs down.
Accommodation of cheats by the Authorities? Emphatic thumbs down.
Accommodation of cheating authorities by the SMSM? An even more emphatic thumbs down, because their wickedness is even greater.
Perhaps I’m being facetious, but Rangers’ next game is against Peterhead. I’m not aware of any bids from Rangers for a Peterhead player. If we win that one, what will you all find to get upset about?!
I’ve obviously gone too far, but as I hinted at previously, I’ve seen no evidence of wrongdoing by Rangers in the Scott Allan situation and it has been used as a stick with which to beat an impressive Rangers side. Calling us cheats for putting in a low bid, in the absence of any evidence of any underhand campaign, is outrageous. Sharp evidence of why we don’t get more Rangers fans here. Rangers won so they must have been cheating.
RyanGosling says:
July 27, 2015 at 1:39 am
Just watched and listened on the I player . The team was impressive, the fans less so .Don’t think Hibs will play that badly again for a while (whole second half) but The Rangers still looked to have something in their legs at the end .On the Scott Allan thing, I don’t see anything wrong with what The Rangers did . Hibs should just say “give us £1/2million in cash now and he’s yours or wait until the end of the season and get him for nowt if he’s willing to join you”. Is this the week Dave jets in ? He might bring his wallet with him this time and a deal can be done .
RyanGosling says:
July 26, 2015 at 11:48 pm
Is there any evidence at Ll that an orchestrated campaign was conducted by Rangers themselves? As far as I am aware Rangers submitted bids for a player which, while very low, they were perfectly entitled to do.
They’d hardly be the first club to low ball a bid for a player with one year left on his contract.
================================
Ryan,
It’s surely all to do with the timing of the bid, and the almost certainty that the two bids submitted would never be accepted. It may not have been leaked from Rangers directly, but the net effect was Allan could not start the game on Saturday. He may not have affected the eventual outcome of a Rangers victory, but he is currently viewed as Hibs most talented player. Job done if you ask me.
In terms of clubs being entitled to bid for players you are absolutely right, but I give you this potential scenario. Celtic offer Hibs £500K up front now with add ons. Hibs accept but Allan says no way. Hibs tell Rangers there’s your price but Rangers can’t afford the deal. What would the media reaction to that be? I say it only because I’m convinced it’s exactly the same thing David Murray would have done in the halcyon days of the Bank of Scotland backing his club. Personally I don’t think Scott Allan would get a regular berth in Celtic’s midfield in any case, but I wonder how much of a problem the very same media would have with Celtic putting a bid in that Rangers simply can’t match. Would they question the motive, or just say Celtic are entitled to do so?
If we can go through life believing bad things have happened only when we can prove they have happened, we will all live blissful, but easily duped, lives. If, on the other hand, we had a press that can be relied upon to ask all the relevant questions and to dig deeply into all possible cases of rule breaking, a press that will, if they can’t find the necessary proof, publish stories that might force the wrongdoers to defend themselves – in court if necessary, then we might well be in a position to accept that wrongdoing is not going unchecked. We could then blissfully believe TRFC were not directly, or indirectly, involved in the disgusting media campaign of last week.
But, when we all know that wrongdoing goes on. When we all know that the authorities charged with ensuring that wrongdoing doesn’t happen don’t do their job properly. When we all know that the press are complicit in that wrongdoing and the cover-ups; I believe we have to believe that the beneficiaries of any wrongdoing are somehow involved in it’s instigation.
My take on the Scott Allan shenanigans:
In the week leading up to a match with Hibs, TRFC put in a ludicrously low bid, set up in the most ludicrous terms, that can’t possibly be one they believe Hibs would accept. Immediately the press start a campaign turning Hibs into the bad guys for not letting the player go to their main rivals for a pittance. The media, too, don’t ask the obvious questions over the farcical payment scheme that clearly points to TRFC not actually having the ludicrously low sum they’ve offered. This is the same media that took swipes at Celtic for offering, and paying, millions to Dundee United for three of their players. Dundee United, while undoubtedly weakened, are undoubtedly better off financially, however much United fans might feel the players were undervalued. On the other hand, Hibs would not only be weaker as a team, they would, in all likelihood, be poorer if they had accepted, even the highest offer that TRFC made, as their crowd for the rest of the season would undoubtedly suffer.
Basically, TRFC put in offers they knew would fail! The media started a campaign to embarrass Hibs and to turn the player’s head. It worked. Not only was Allan adjudged not to be in the right frame of mind to play, Alan Stubb’s mind was deflected from his own planning (any manager not deflected when his best player is under such pressure wouldn’t be human).
I will give Mark Warburton credit in that the quotes I read from him indicated he had nothing to do with the bids (insults) and was more than a little embarrassed by it all. He, at least, could ignore it all and get on with his preparation with the players he knew were ALL up for the match.
Did TRFC ask/instruct the media to start this campaign? No need, they have a PR company briefed and ready, 24 hours a day, to step in and do it for them. It will happen again, unless, or until, TRFC go bust.
Now, it would appear, there’s an online rumour that Allan was celebrating at the weekend with his prospective new teammates! Whether he was or not, such rumours smell of PR tactics and will only destabilise the player’s Hibs future even more!
It’s now quite feasible that Scott Allan’s form will drop off and he won’t be as effective as he was last season. It will be interesting to see just how interested TRFC are in him once his contract is up!
I posted the SFA rule on “tapping up” a couple of days ago, but since the issue seems to be current, here it is again-
neepheid says:
The key point is the phrase “directly or indirectly”. If the media onslaught over the past week, clearly aimed at unsettling a Hibs player with a view to engineering his transfer to Ibrox on the cheap, is the work of Level 5 PR, on behalf of their (only?) client at Ibrox, then in my view the rule has been broken, just as much as if the campaign had been orchestrated by an in-house PR department.
Some pictures were posted on Twitter yesterday. allegedly of Allan “celebrating” in a bar with a group of Ibrox players on Saturday night. I have no way of knowing whether the photo is what it purports to be, but whether genuine or not, someone has put the photo out on social media for a purpose, which I take to be making Allen useless to Hibs as a player, leaving the club with no choice but to get what they can for him now.
I ask myself whether Level 5 would be capable of such “dirty tricks”? Well, I really couldn’t say, but maybe it’s what they get paid for.
And just in case anyone thinks I’m a total fantasist, I will put on record that there is more chance of me being the first man on Kepler-452B, than there is of the SFA Compliance Officer investigating these matters.
jimbojimbo says:
July 26, 2015 at 10:28 pm
This might be a little late to the table but. I listened again tonight on Pulse 98.4 a local channel of volunteers in Barrhead, on the internet (sunday nights 8-9pm). It was hosted by Andy Muirhead from Scotzine about lots of Scottish Football clubs & the National Team. A bit like TSFM Radio casts a few weeks ago. It is very good.
—————
Good call. I listen to that one as well. I saw a tweet earlier in the day by Andy saying that an occasional poster from here would be on the show last night, so I caught the replay later as I missed it live. Good stuff with Kevin Rutkiewicz, although his other guest was stuck in traffic, which was a pity.
Andy is maybe not as smooth and articulated a presenter as the pros but he asks good questions and fairly moves around diverse topics. Considering it’s a live broadcast he does very well.
I quite like The Terrace Football Podcast podcast. It’s maybe aimed at a juvenile audience and is at times a bit too noisy, giggly and raucous but they do some very decent coverage of the lower leagues (all the way down to Clyde & Montrose 🙂 ) which is something you don’t generally get. Also, being from Edinburgh region it is nicely non west coast centric, another novelty you don’t get too often from the usual sources.
Can anyone help with the BBC report on Saturday:
“Rangers could be in trouble with the Scottish Professional Football League due to the behaviour of some of the club’s fans during their win over Hibs.”?
Why “could” they?
I thought this had been consigned to the Nothing To See/Hear Here; Move Along bin as the Club had done all it could or there were too many involved or something. Or was that the SFA?
Supra cranium they “could” have been in trouble following games against Berwick, Falkirk, Queens Park, Celtic, Hibernian, Motherwell, Hearts…but as it turned out they weren’t.
What is the point or purpose of the Match Delegate making reference to the behaviour in the Match Report if there is no action which can be taken? Might as well report that in the course of the game on a number of occasions the Referee blew a whistle.
Allyjambo @ 8:33am
When clicking a star just isn’t enough.
Well said.
100% Bang on.
Just read this James Forrest blog. It’s a very good summary of the Sky interview with Dave King, but one thing stood out for me, and it’s where James suggests the Scott Allan transfer fiasco was a deflection from the disaster that was the King interview! If it was, and I’d think James is right, it turned into the most amazingly fortuitous piece of PR I’ve ever seen, hitting two birds with one stone – deflected successfully from the King mess, and weakened, morale-wise at least, the club viewed as TRFC’s main promotion rivals.
http://www.onfieldsofgreen.com/
Kilgore Trout says:
July 27, 2015 at 9:07 am
Allyjambo @ 8:33am
When clicking a star just isn’t enough.
Well said.
100% Bang on.
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Thanks for that, KT. Normally I’d feel a little frisson of wicked pleasure 😈 at Hibs’ travails, but was thoroughly disgusted by the media backed attack on our ‘hated’ rivals.
They were the victims of something much worse, more sinister even, than gamesmanship!
We article on the possible long-term financial implications for Hibs of the Scott Allan saga:
http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/33673232
RyanGosling says:
July 27, 2015 at 1:39 am
Perhaps I’m being facetious, but Rangers’ next game is against Peterhead. I’m not aware of any bids from Rangers for a Peterhead player. If we win that one, what will you all find to get upset about?!
I’ve obviously gone too far, but as I hinted at previously, I’ve seen no evidence of wrongdoing by Rangers in the Scott Allan situation and it has been used as a stick with which to beat an impressive Rangers side. Calling us cheats for putting in a low bid, in the absence of any evidence of any underhand campaign, is outrageous. Sharp evidence of why we don’t get more Rangers fans here. Rangers won so they must have been cheating.
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When Neephied posted the ruling re tapping up I commented and implied that the club could easily adhere to the rule (and indeed Warburton’s comments on the matter have been well measured and keep the club onside) because the press would clearly do the tapping up work for them.
You mention the next tie being against Peterhead. Well I give you the Scott Allan / Dundee Utd bid. Not that scientific but Google it and you will see results on a page and included in that is mention of last weeks story. Google Rangers and Scott Allan and you get a good few pages of results.
I agree that those who say the club are ‘at it’ don’t have much to go on, because as you say many a club will have bid for an opposition players at a time that didn’t suit the opposing club.
I think what gets up most peoples nose on here is that a transfer bid between two championship clubs for a players probably worth £500k at best (IMHO) had has so much attention. Using your Peterhead analogy If this was say Falkirk and QoS nobody would be batting an eye lid and we certainly wouldn’t have had the Clyde Manager devoting the whole of his newspaper column on how he believes Allan will most likely be a Rangers player shortly.
All the press attention re Allan put all the pressure on Hibs and Rangers/Warburton didn’t appear to come under much scrutiny with regard to their build up for the match. That was surely the bigger story (which Warburton passed with flying colours BTW).
A bigger story within the Allan transfer saga was of course that why are the club p!ssing about with derisory bids when the bloke with the big wine cellar indicated a while back he would do what it took to get the required squad together.
However as usual nobody seemed to want to go there.
A combination of all of the above is enough to make most on here ‘upset’.
Stubbs reiterated Hibs’ stance with regards Allan before revealing why their star player had not started.
He said “I will answer with three words. Not for sale.
“I am not going to keep answering questions on it. You have to respect a club’s stance when you say a player is not for sale.
“I spoke to him before the game. I don’t think it would have been right for me to have put Scott in the game today with what has been going on, the circus of the last few days.
“He is a professional footballer, he is a human being, it would have affected him.
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Alan Stubbs admits the “circus” surrounding Rangers’ interest in Scott Allan made him start the midfielder on the bench.
WONDER WHO THE CIRCUS RINGMASTER WAS?
IIRC was there not a CF e-mail or other document that noted the previous incarnation of Rangers having retained a PR agency to place negative stories in the SMSM about other Scottish clubs? Anyone have that document to hand?
Scottish Football needs a strong Arbroath.
Article in The Guardian re football club’s relationship wit external media . Celtic get a mention, but not in a good light .
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/26/football-clubs-ban-journalists-newcastle-united
RyanGosling says:
July 27, 2015 at 1:39 am
Perhaps I’m being facetious, but Rangers’ next game is against Peterhead. I’m not aware of any bids from Rangers for a Peterhead player. If we win that one, what will you all find to get upset about?!
I’ve obviously gone too far, but as I hinted at previously, I’ve seen no evidence of wrongdoing by Rangers in the Scott Allan situation and it has been used as a stick with which to beat an impressive Rangers side. Calling us cheats for putting in a low bid, in the absence of any evidence of any underhand campaign, is outrageous. Sharp evidence of why we don’t get more Rangers fans here. Rangers won so they must have been cheating.
*********************
Let’s be honest , Rangers have done what they usually do. It isn’t/wasn’t a serious bid because if it was , it would have been made long before now (just how soon does the league season start ?). It was a serious bid in the context of making their fans think they are actually interested in the player and to deflect from the lack of spending power (and more broken promises from King).
It reminds me of the days when HMFC were in their rightful place and our fans used to regularly suggest headlines for upcoming fixtures against Rangers : almost without exception there would be a jocular reference to a nonsense bid or expression of interest from Rangers for a Hearts player – that so often would materialise that would pop up in the DR fanzine.
I’m not in the least bit surprised that Rangers went after Allen – but we should (and on here , certainly do) see it for what is really is. Deflection.
redlichtie says:
July 27, 2015 at 11:08 am
“IIRC was there not a CF e-mail or other document that noted the previous incarnation of Rangers having retained a PR agency to place negative stories in the SMSM about other Scottish clubs?”
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There were a number of documents concerning interaction between PR organisations, football clubs and the press. The one example that is closest to the current discussion concerns a bid for David Goodwillie in 2011. Having read it over it does not appear to implicate any wrong doing but perhaps others will be interested in its content and be able to place more meaningful interpretations concerning its content than I am able to.
I’ve copied this to ‘Word’. Some of the tweeted documents were not easily to download and I suppose this one fell into that category.
In addition there are a number of other files concerning Goodwillie. I can’t scale these up to make them readable but their very presence suggested that they are important for the narrative. Perhaps someone out there will be able to make these readable. If you can and they do not appear libelous, please repost the readable versions.
And another.
Another.
Finally.
paddy malarkey says:
July 27, 2015 at 11:55 am
Article in The Guardian re football club’s relationship wit external media . Celtic get a mention, but not in a good light .
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/26/football-clubs-ban-journalists-newcastle-united
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One of the BTL comments, by BigBananaFeet:
“There is nothing in football more depressing than the idiotic, parrot fan who regurgitates every stupid line from their club and manager as a mark of loyalty. Loyal? No, just irredeemably gullible.”
By George, I think he’s got it!
If the DR is a TRFC fanzine why is it regarded by some supporters of TRFC as precisely the opposite? They use the tedious putting an h as the second letter of a word to call the record the Rhebel.
If they did that h thing with Clyde it would sound like something howked up from the lungs of an old miner or the esteem in which I hold our “manager”
I see Phil McG has hinted that DCK has gone back with the begging bowl to Big Mike in what seems like an effort to get enough cash in the door to have the accounts signed off. As many have stated here the season can only last so long without a decent inflow of cash but it seems that DCK wants it to be OPM again.
From the SMSM to Jim White no in depth questioning and no documentation to back up any sort of plan. I just continue to be amazed (though not surprised in the least, more is the pity) that our administrators continue to do nothing about an impending train crash. You would have thought one of them would be sufficiently geared up to try and protect themselves against not being accused of doing anything in time – but it seems not to be?????
Shameless. Scottish Football needs a stronger East Fife and Arbroath.
tet