Why Stop At 16 - Keep The Fun Going

LIVING as I do on the outskirts of a small former mining village in darkest Ayrshire, I am divorced from the greater excesses of the on-going religious/Irish political side-show in Scottish football. But this week, wee Liam (aka the only pape in the village) has been finding himself unusually popular; one or two of the guys have been  buying him drink to celebrate his team's success in reaching the last 16 of the Champions League.

 

And quite right too. Celtic and Scottish football badly needed the boost which qualification has given them and when you review the list of the seven sides, one of which will be their next opponents, then I don't think Celtic have too-much to worry about. After all, if they can beat Barcelona, why should they worry about Malaga?

 

As Liam said: "Well I would love to see auld red nose greetin' efter the final" - so yes, let's avoid MU the noo, but, if they believe - why shouldn't Celtic make it to the last-eight, or further for that matter.

 

 

 

SO, the English Premiership is "The best league in the world" - aye right. That typically over-the-top Saxon belief took a hammering this week as Chelski and The Sons of the Desert tumbled out.

 

As the more erudite of you residents of the blogsphere are well aware, the Sons of the Desert are the members of the world-wide fraternity of Laurel and Hardy fans, and there is something truly comic about the mess Manchester United's noisy neighbours find themselves in this week - bounced out of Europe and set to take-on the Joneses they thought they had overtaken rather than kept up with.

 

But, give them time and surely the Premiership cheerleaders within the Evil Empire of the Dirty Digger and the assorted red top rottweillers from elsewhere will again soon have lots of people convinced Premiership is best, and this week's showing-up didn't happen.

 

 

 

THE 2020 European Championship finals COULD be coming to Glasgow. Haud me back. IF the proposed dog's dinner of changes do go through and IF the planned move to 12 different venues, prior to the semi-finals and finals being held in a 13th does happen - IF the finals are in the UK, they will be in London. After all, even on Platini's new-look level playing field - money will still talk, loudly, and they've got a lot more up in that there Lunnun than in Glasgow.

 

However, with three stadiums of over 50,000 capacity and a fitba-daft fan base who would be all-too-ready to come out and party, why not Glasgow?

 

That said, going to 24 teams in the knock-out stages wasn't in my opinion Wiggy Smith's best idea, and he has had a few belting bad ones over the years. Call me old-fashioned, but I reckon the final stages of the Euros should be for the best eight teams and for the World Cup the best 16.

 

Diluting the final stages, simply to have more games, dilutes the product too-much. Less is more in my view.

Celtic Fans - Enjoy Neil Lennon While You've Got Him

NEIL LENNON clearly has an image problem; I have only occasionally been in the same room as the Celtic manager, at post-match press conferences, so I canot say I know him or have much experience of him. However, those few members of the Scottish Football Writers Association's A-team: the guys on Old Firm patrol, who still speak to me, tell me, away from the pressures of work, say in one of the West End bistros he sometimes visits, he is stimulating and funny - great craic as they say in his home island.

 

If we take the Brian Clough dictum that there is one inevitable outcome to any managerial career - the sack, then Lenny should enjoy his present time at Celtic Park. Of course he got some flak after last Saturday's loss to Inverness CT, that goes with the territory. There is a sizeable sect or sects within the Celtic Family which is incapable of accepting that their team can lose to another Scottish side, other than a Rangers team vying with the Hoops for the title.

 

The Celtic Family (ok, some of them) will (reluctantly) accept losing to Rangers - in the moments after it is shown that the penalty Celtic didn't get wasn't a "stonewaller", while though it was a soft one, there was a case for giving Rangers their match-winning one. But, losing to Inverness, or St Johnstone or say St Mirren - no, they couldn't possibly have lost because every man jack of the opposition played above themselves, or because Celtic enjoyed absolutely no luck.

 

Never, Celtic lost, because the players let the jerseys down, or the manager got his tactics, his substitutions, his motivation wrong. If you beat Celtic (or Rangers for that matter) it wasn't down to you, it was because the CEltic (or Rangers) players let the side and the fans down - and they must be punished for this, even if that punishment amounts to no more than a stream of invective.

 

I ask the Celtic Family - how much of this would you be prepared to endure? If, at your work, you go in every day and do your best, week-in, week-out, you go home at night, having worked well, or maybe spent the day skiving on the internet, but, your work-mates don't line-up at the door to shout abuse at you. How would you feel, if, like Neil Lennon, you had to endure such treatment?

 

The pressures on Lennon particularly are immense - he HAS to keep Celtic winning; his team may be the best in Scotland, but, in European terms, they are a mid-table side. They may be the richest club in Scotland today - in Europe, they are paupers.

 

He is doing a great job at Celtic, he's a young manager, with ambition. He has played in England, he must surely, deep-down, wonder: "I cut it as a player in the top-flight in England, could I also cut-it as a manager"?

 

The riches available down there are eye-watering in comparison to what even he can get up here. There will come a day when Lennon will jump - it is not too-outlandish to suggest, he's the right age and with the right "apprenticeship" to be a credible potenital successor to the Govan Grump at Old Trafford.

 

Those dissenting Celtic fans might do well to ca canny in their criticism; don't push, enjoy him while you've got him.

 

 

 

I LIKE Owen Coyle. He was always good value when learning the managerial trade in the First Division in Scotland. His sacking by Bolton was typical of the short-termism in the English game today and he is keeping his profile up nicely by his media work just now.

 

Given what he did at Airdrie, St Johnstone, Burnley and Bolton - getting not quite top-drawer players to produce the goods - he has the skill sets for the Scotland job. But, so too has Billy Stark, just as Craig Levein and George Burley had these same skill sets.

 

What I am saying, almost anyone could be Scotland boss - without getting us winning more than our average 40% of games, and without getting us to the European Championships or World Cup Finals.

 

The Scotland job is a poisoned chalice and will continue to be thus until we get the entire Scottish Football model changed for the better.

 

Can you see this happening under the present shower of Hampden blazers?

 

No, neither can I.

 



Daddy - I Think I'll Call The House - Murrayvilla

THIS blog has never deviated from the view that the matter of the decline and fall of Oldco Rangers will run and run. There are sons and daughters of prominent Scottish lawyers who ought some day, when they grow-up, in gratitude, to become share-holders in whatever form "Rangers" then take - for forward tho a canna see, I guess and fear - I have no doubt that, like the poor and (ironically) taxes, Rangers will always be with us in some form or other.

 

These precious children of 2012 should become Rangers shareholders, because sorting-out the can of worms which were opened when HMRC went after Murray International Holdings' Employee Benefits Trust will take years, and this will enable their fathers and mothers to fund their school fees, make certain they are well looked after at university and in a few cases will even I would wager fund the purchase of their first homes of their own.

 

The least they could do in thanks was buy shares in Rangers.

 

However, all that lies ahead, that's long-term, what of the short-term. I was this week directed to a blog post by a gentleman I first encountered through the now deceased 'rangerstaxcase' blog; he goes by the pen name of 'Brogan, Rogan, Trevino and Hogan' and is a Celtic-supporting lawyer.

 

This guarantees a modicum of anonimity, for it is said the best list to consult if you are looking for a good criminal lawyer is not the Scottish Law Society's listing, but the list of Celtic season ticket-holders and share-holders. BRTH could be any one of thousands.

 

BRTH writes sensible opinions on the on-going matter of the BTC and the repercussions thereof and his dissection of the findings is as good a place as any for the layman to look when, as so many of us has, that layman asks; "How did we get here?"

 

As BRTH points out, the reason for the 2-1 Rangers "win" at the FTT is simply explained, the two members who sided with Rangers were lawyers, the one dissenter, Dr Poon, was an accountant. In law, HMRC lost the battle, so the lawyers HAD NO OPTION, but to back Rangers.

 

In the real world, however, the belief that Rangers/MIH were "at it", is the stronger currency, so the accountant went against the club.

 

This division of opinion, I might add, re-opens the age-old saloon bar argument - come the revolution, which tribe do we shoot first: the accountants or the lawyers?

 

So, in law, Rangers are innocent; in the real world - guilty. This raises another vexing question - is Hampden in the real world? Because the next act of a saga which makes anything written about Noggin the Nog seem plausible will be fought out in the committee rooms along Hampden's corridors of power, when Lord Nimmo Smith and his SPL tribunal convenes.

 

I reckon  ths SPL is on shifting, unsteady ground on this one - largely thanks to the tribalism in Scottish football and almost everyone else in Scottish football's fervent wish to kick Rangers while they were down and when everyone but the lunatic fringe of Vanguard Bears believed the club was guilty as charged and had somehow fiddled HMRC out of around £100 million.

 

In the over-heated climate of a few months ago, the SPL cast-out Rangers - now the club has won the FTT, that can be seen as a big mistake.

 

Sure the SPL tribunal can meet, adjudicate and maybe rule that: yes, Rangers did indeed break SPL rules during the period 2001 - 2010. They might well then decide to strip Rangers of the five SPL titles they won in this period. However, they cannot then re-assign these titles to Celtic and expect to retain any credibility.

 

The Rangers of 2001 - 2010 no longer exists; the current Rangers can and will say: "nothing to do with us guv". They will not remove a single star from the jersey, they will not take down any of the titles from their records. From Charles Green down, they will say: "These titles were won fair and square on the field, the SPL tribunal was not independent, they had no right to rule and we will ignore their findings,since they cannot compel us to recognise them".

 

The mainstream media will agitate for a few days, then move on and, in 100 years' time, if I was able to come back, I believe I would still find Rangers credited with those five titles - perhaps with a side-bar *title subsequently rescinded by an SPL tribunal.

 

What I will say is this - Rangers will NEVER again play in the SPL. Indeed, by the time Rangers are in a position to re-enter the top flight of domestic league football in Scotland, while there might be a "Premier League" or a "Premiership", the SPL as presently constituted will be no more.

 

Some small-minded men, in driving Rangers out of the top-flight, for whatever reason or reasons, boobed badly. Since league football started in Scotland in 1890, Celtic and Rangers have always been the two biggest and most-successful clubs. Sure, there have been spells when one or other has slipped a bit: Rangers had a sticky spell during the reign of Edward VII, Celtic weren't so-hot during the long reign of Bill Struth at Ibrox and in the New Firm era of the late 1970s - early 1980s, Rangers, having battled bravely to compete during the Jock Stein Years at Celtic Park, finally ran out of puff before the Souness Revolution chagned things.

 

But, even when the Old Firm were the undisputed joint number ones or one and two, Scottish football found a way of coping. The other clubs competed well when one side slipped - Hearts, Hibs, Airdrie, Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, both Dundee clubs, even dear old Third Lanark - they all had seasons in the sun when one half of the OF slipped. But, while they enjoyed the moment, they NEVER thought of really putting the boot into the struggling giant.

 

In kicking Rangers out of the SPL, they boobed, because, they have given the Ibrox hard-liners the upper hand and when Rangers get back, they will remember and they will seek retribution.

 

Events have, in my opinion, shown that the SPL ought to have kept Rangers inside the tent, pending the resolution of the FTT. They could then have decided either to accept the majority view - the "Not Guilty" verdict - and moved-on; or they could have decided, notwithstanding the FTT finding, there was a case to answer in the matter of the club's player contracts and convened the tribunal.

 

That tribunal would then have been acting against a member club, it would have had greater credibility and its final findings would have been accepted. As it happens, when the ruling eventaully comes, it will probably contribute nothing other than further muddying of already dark brown waters. And shortly afterwards, a new model will be announced for senior football in Scotland, but, that new model will contain no mention of a body named 'The Scottish Premier League'.

Celtic Inconsistency - Good For Football, But It Will End

REPORTS of "Armageddon" - the end of Scottish football in the wake of the liquidation of Oldco Rangers - have indeed proved premature. The re-birth of Newco Rangers is, of course, an interesting side show; the real story is the way Celtic has, as yet, failed to roll over all opposition. Those who forecast the SPL would be over by Christmas have been proved wrong.

 

It has nearly always been the case in Scotland that, when one or other of the Old Firm clubs has a bad spell, the other half drops unexpected points and one or two other clubd emerge from the pack to challenge.

 

What many people seem to forget is, Neil Lennon is working with quite a young squad, one which is still - a work in progress. I will still be absolutely amazed if Celtic does not win the SPL with something to spare, but, right now, their inconsistency is making for a interesting campaign - let's home the interest can be maintained.

 

 

 

AS I have been saying for months, the whole Rangers "thing" - EBTs, double contracts, Craig Whyte, Ticketus, HMRC, did they cheat? To what extent did they cheat, if they did? - will take ages and ages to sort out. I assume it will be - some day.

 

I remain more than ever sure that the only winners will be the massed ranks of the corporate and tax lawyers who are gathering around the carcass of the old club.

 

I can still see some of the old Rangers' SPL titles being taken away from them. However, I cannot see these titles being re-assigned to Celtic, much as some of the wilder elements in the Celtic Family might wish this.

 

From what we know, so far, there is cause to believe that certain Rangers players had "double contracts" or "side letters", which might not have been legal under SPL rules.

 

However, I would suggest that, since the purpose of these dcs or sls was to allow the players involved to keep a bit more of their wages, they would in all probability still have played for Rangers without them - some other method of tax avoidance would probably have been used.

 

Therefore, Rangers won their titles fair and square on the field, so, if the sanction(s) put in place for any illegal dcs or sls include the loss of titles, the titles cannot be re-assigned elsewhere.

 

"Financial doping" isn't like regular sports doping through the use of performance-enhancing drugs. You can strip an Olympic title from somebody proved to have used drugs - you cannot strip a league title from a club whose payroll administration processes were dubious - since the same players would have played anyway.

 

But, if you think what has transpired so-far has been a huge stair-heid row - well, once the SPL tribunal reports - you aint seen nuttin yet. 

The Scots - The Lost Tribe of World Football

WE here in the First World countries of the Western Military-Industrial Complex nations often, as we watch various Second and Third World nations tear themselves apart in a fury of ethnic and tribal violence, shake our heads in wonderment and ask ourselves: "Why cannot they be more like us"?

 

But, are we all that different? I must admit, my first instinct when it comes to politics and politicians is: why should I allow someone who wants to rule over me do so? My second instinct is: don't vote - it only encourages them.

 

Then, like so-many, I go into the polling booth and cast my vote. When I first gained the right to vote, I tended to vote Conservative, simply because in what was then the South Ayrshire constituency, the Labour vote was weighed rather than counted, so I could freely cast my vote, then say, don't blame me, my vote doesn't count.

 

Indeed, such was the overwhelming support for the People's Party, among Ra Peepul, who dominate God's Orange County, that I could freely quip with the now Lord George Foulkes of Cumnock, when'er I bumped into him in that town: "Election coming-up George, that you feel you have to show your face here"?

 

At the said election: George and I would have a wee conversation along the lines of how heavy his majority would be - usually along the lines of some four stones (if you weighed the number of voting papers which equated to his majority).

 

No, we may vote into office politicians such as dear old George - who was, by the way, like his exalted predecessors Jim Sillars and Emrys Hughes and excellent constituency MP - we may also vote in some of the charlatans who are or have recently been guests of HM the Queen, but, at heart we are no different from those citizens of the Second and Third World who, when faced with a ballot box, tend to vote along tribal lines.

 

Scotland today, is still tribal. We may not go into the orgy of killing which marks the differences between the various branches of Islam or the tribal differences which have cost so-many lives in Africa and Asia or the ticking time bomb which is Israel's position - surrounded by neighbours wishing to wipe that nation from the face of the earth, but, sophisticates though we think ourselves to be, here in Scotland relations between Catholic and Protestant can still become heated.

 

They are certainly heated now, at least in matters involving the largely-Catholic following of the team currently leading the SPL and the overwhelmingly-Protestant followers of the side heading the Third Division of the SFL.

 

This follows this week's majority verdict on behalf of Rangers FC (1873-2012) in the matter of their dispute with HMRC. The verdict wasn't so much "Not Guilty" as "Not Proven" and those Rangers followers celebrating the success should perhaps reflect that public conception of the uniquely-Scottish "Not Proven" verdict has always been to regard it as: "We ken ye did it, but we canna prove it".

 

Reflect on this Peepul - the case will go to appeal and with a different tribunal panel, the result might well be different. Don't crow now, is my advice.

 

The unavoidable fact is, as was the case with his foray into basketball which set his thinking towards his stewardship of Rangers - David Murray opted for a management model which was unsustainable in the long term.

 

In basketball - he took Murray International Metals to near the peaks, then watched it crumble.

 

In football - he took Rangers to near the peaks, then watched it crumble.

 

MIM no longer exists in basketball. I admit it is unlikely, but, now liquidators BDO have full access to the books at Ibrox, there is still a likelihood that in a year or two, Rangers may not exist.

 

The fall of Rangers has been a disaster, but, like so-many disasters, it was not brought about by one cataclismic event, but by a series of misjudgements, mis-calculations, wrong decisions and events not panning out as expected, over a period of time.

 

Sure, Craig Whyte, Duff & Phelps, "Mr Red" (the mysterious MIH employee who failed to co-operate fully with HMRC) and sundry others played their part, but, the main character in the Fall From Grace of Rangers FC was David Murray - Rangers fans would do well to remember this.

 

 

 

FAREWELL then Robert de Matteo, the latest fall guy in the English soap opera which is Chelsea FC. And welcome Rafa Benitez, hero of Anfield and sundry other stadia. Can he last-out the season? Perhaps, if he can help Senor Torres re-discover his mojo, but, I will not wager too-much of my hard-earned on this.

 

 

 

LET'S face it, fitba is in a mess in Scotland; but, it's in a richer mess in England. Why do we bother?

The BTC Verdict Is Not The End

SO, we finally know - for the moment - that Murray International Holdings, the former owners of Rangers Football Club, has won what is known as THE BIG TAX CASE. This "victory" may yet be challenged by an appeal by HMRC, indeed, given the two-to-one verdict in favour of MIH of the three-person tribunal, I can definitely see an appeal coming.

 

So, what has this got to do with fitba? In truth, nothing. Oldco Rangers is still deid; Newco/Sevco Rangers is still in Division Three of the SFL and Scottish football is still heading down the stank faster than last night's curry and lager.

 

For sure, we will get a lot of hot air; the cyber-warriors, both pro-Rangers and anti-Rangers, will still enthral us with their insights into this over-long, over-complicated but entirely spurious case; Santa will still arrive overnight on 24-25 December and life will go on.

 

The Oldco could still be stripped of their SPL titles won between 2001 and 2010, but, since the Newco/Sevco will NEVER play in the SPL, this will matter little, since, even if the titles are eventually stripped once Lord Nimmo Smith's SPL tribunal finally reports - the disputed titles are highly-unlikely to be re-presented to Celtic.

 

You see - and here I hate to argue with my late uncle Wullie's "mucker" down the pit - football isn't even a matter of life or death, far-less far-more important than that. Modern football is a very good and healthy way of passing free time, which has, thanks to over 100 years of professionalism become a cynical, nasty, over-inflated business of little moral or physical benefit to the majority of the population.

 

It has given some of us a good living, either playing, administering, managing, or in my case, commenting and reporting on. But, while deep down, it's a great game and, at its best, it can lift, inspire and make us feel good about ourselves and life. At its worst, and the noise and fury around the BTC has been an example of this, it can depress, humiliate and be an example of the worst of human nature.

 

The fact is, as I have said before - the Murray model for running Rangers was always going to be unsustainable. Those few of us journalists who had seen what the then Mr Murray did to Scottish Basketball feared he would do the same to Scottish Football.

 

Our fears have, to some extent, been proved correct and, this whole business has still some way to run, further casualties could and probably will follow. I would suggest - you aint seen nothin' yet.

 

 

 

JUST as I feared they might, beating Barcelona did not encourage Celtic to kick-on and beat Benfica last night. However, it wasn't all bad news and while there might still be some nail-biting to be done, I am still convinced Neil Lennon and his men will beat Spartak in their final group game and clinch their last 16 Champions League place.

 

After what has gone before, only getting into the Europa League would be a huge anti-climax.

 

 

 



Wanted Leaders: Apply Hampden Park - NOW

DO YOU remember the simpler, good old days of the 1970s, when Billy Connolly was till funny, and proved this with a series of LPs (remember vinyl) which had you rolling on the floor, simultaneously laughing and crying from your aching sides.

Back then, the Big Yin did a spoof on the Army recruiting film of the time, which featured a semi-barracks-trained neanderthal tank commander - the modern-day Gary's ancestor, who was: according to Connolly: "A born leader", with a bolt in his neck and a zip up the back.

I fear said "Jock" became officer material and morphed into one of the "Ruperts" of the genuine Tartan Army's legend - you know, the sort of officer the "Jocks" would follow anywhere - out of a sense of foreboding and morbid curiousity.

It gets worse, I think he has left the army and is now a Hampden "blazer", since the sort of leadership we are currently getting from the National Stadium at this crucial juncture in the history of our game is being delivered by "born leaders" whom the young Connolly could and did spot was right for parody.

In evidence M'luds I offer the shambolic goings-on concerning Rangers/Rangers FC/The Rangers/Sevco, twixt February and the start of this season. This could be summed-up as a goalmouth stramash-cum-stairheid row-cum-mutual hair-pulling session, which did nothing for the good name or reputation of our game.

At a time when the game called for calm, resolute and decisive leadership, we had a Commander-in-Chief in President Ogilvie who was up to his armpits in the sludge, a behind-the-scenes-fixer and string-puller in Peter Lawwell who was trying to stituch-up things to suit his club, two supposed Chief Executives in Steart Regan and Neil Doncaster who were too-busy doing dirty back-stairs deals designed to make their organisations look good and in Charles Green, the new boy in town whose motives had not yet been established and whom nobody trusted.

This was a recipe for disaster, at a time when the game needed a Big Man to step in, sort-out the mess and put us on the correct path to a shining future.

Today, the mess is still piling up in the Hampden car park and we are no closer to sorting it out. And, while the "blazers' bicker and fight, our game goes further down the stank.

Is there nobody inside Hampden who can sort things out? Must the game implode totally before anything is done? And, by the time the 'blazers" remove their heads from their own arses and o something - will anyone still care?