BrahimHemdani

It's got absolutely zero to do with who's on the SPFL Board, on the contrary the administration would want to go out of their way to ensure there are no possible grounds for an accusation of that type of bias.

As I said in answer to Frankie give me a team full of dross midfielders who can score 13 goals and 9 assists a season and we'll be unstoppable.

This proves clearly that Mr Graham has no idea what he is talking about.

The investigation in that case would be against Stranraer and it would have to be the SFA not the SPFL; as far as I recall the SFA rules mirror the SPFL rules in that respect or to be more precise it's vice versa.

No point whatsoever. They are going through the motions to satisfy the SG that's all, then they can say they investigated it and could not take any action under the current rules.

I can see where this is going and am more than happy to rise to the bait. I think that in terms of recent Rangers players, Messrs Mohsni and Oduwa would be well ahead of Law who if I have to remind you yet again is proven at SPL level for Motherwell and is a proven goalscorer and assister for us.

I don't really give a toss about Mr Stokes but he should be charged with impersonating a footballer.

The investigation is irrelevant because the SPL will put the "evidence" to the Clubs and the Clubs will reply that they did everything they could to prevent it. In the unlikely event that we are charged (and so far as I am aware no Club has ever actually been charged with the unacceptable conduct of their fans) we have a complete defense in terms of the "reasonably practicable" rule which means that so long as we can prove that we made announcements etc and had the right number of stewards and police as per our licence there is nothing the SPL can do under the current rules. As was seen yesterday, the Clubs will not grasp the nettle of "strict liability" because they know full well that it means they would be held fully accountable for the actions of their fans.

I meant this George Adams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Adams_%28footballer,_born_1950%29 Wikipedia says he played for Petershill which is where I probably remember him from.

Thanks, I couldn't bring the team to mind after too many Magnos last night, thanks. If I recall one George Adams was the captain of that lot, one of the dirtiest players I ever came across, and I don't mean interms of the black ash.

I once refereed a junior match somewhere, I think it was on the black ash at Possil and stepped out the penalty box at 15 yards and the spot was on 10 yards, which the groundsman swore was correct and "has been that way for years".

I think you know that I didn't mean illegal in terms of the law of the land, I mean it in a football sense. I don't know anything about how darts is organised but I suppose another analogy would be boxing where you might end up with three or four world champions. Is that what you would like to see? FIFA gets and disburses its money from running the World Cup every four years and I imagine UEFA gets its money from a levy on the European League games and TV rights etc. The 2014 World Cup generated $4.8 billion in revenue for FIFA compared to $2.2 billion in expenses. Over the four-year cycle, the event turned a $2.6 billion profit. http://www.businessinsider.com/fifa-brazil-world-cup-revenue-2015-3 More than one billion fans tuned in to watch the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, with the competition reaching a global in-home television audience of 3.2 billion people, according to final figures from FIFA and Kantar Media. http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2015/m=12/news=2014-fifa-world-cuptm-reached-3-2-billion-viewers-one-billion-watched--2745519.html The 32 clubs that competed in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League shared almost €988m, not including play-off contributions, in payments from UEFA – €36m up on the previous season. Each club was entitled to a minimum payment of €8.6 for participation in the competition. Additionally, performance bonuses were paid for every win (€1m) or draw (€0.5m) in the group stage, as well as for each knockout round successfully negotiated, while monies from the market pool were divided according to the proportional value of the national television market allocated to each individual club, among other factors. The performance bonuses for reaching each knockout round were €3.5m for the last 16, an additional €3.9m for the quarter-finals and €4.9m more for the semi-finals. FC Barcelona collected €10.5m for winning the final in Berlin, and runners-up Juventus received €6.5m. The 20 clubs involved in the play-offs shared €42m, which meant that total participation payments reached almost €1.030bn. An additional €3.5 allocated to the European Club Association in accordance with a memorandum of understanding with UEFA brought the total distribution from the 2014/15 season to over €1.033bn. Teams that did not advance past the three qualifying rounds were rewarded with fixed sums, with extra solidarity bonuses for national champions that missed the play-offs. Meanwhile, €85m of the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League revenue will help top-flight clubs which do not take part in the competition. The revenue is being redistributed to those clubs for use in youth development or local community programmes, and is being made available for distribution via the professional leagues or national associations. The associations are split into two categories for these payments – those with participants in the UEFA Champions League group stage (18 associations receiving €71.1m), and those without participants in the group stage (36 associations receiving €11m). An additional payment of €2.9m in total will be made to the 19 national associations that were represented in the play-offs. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2294532.html Champions League surpasses Super Bowl THE growth of the Champions League into a football phenomenon has been underlined by a new study which reveals it has usurped the Super Bowl to become the world’s biggest annual sporting event. In 2012, the Super Bowl achieved an impressive peak audience of 111.3m. However, the Champions League attracted a global TV audience estimated at a staggering 300m. (2013 - 360 million) http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/366335/Champions-League-surpasses-Super-Bowl I don't know how much revenue there is in darts but I found that the prize fund in 2015 was £1.5M with the top prize increased to £300,000 - going up from the £250,000 paid to 2015 winner Gary Anderson http://www.skysports.com/darts/news/12288/9908886/world-darts-championship-a-record-prize-has-been-confirmed-for-the-winner The live coverage on Sky Sports Darts reached over four million viewers across the 14 days of the William Hill World Darts Championship, including a record audience of more than 1.7 million for the thrilling final between Anderson and Phil Taylor. (2015) http://www.pdc.tv/world-darts-championship/article/svhw0jqu5mdr1cm69xw93szh4/title/world-championship-smashes-tv-records So darts is a tiddler in both money and audience terms and fairly easy to set up on your own I would think. Are football clubs and countries going to start a new FIFA and UEFA, I doubt it. If Blatter and Platini had not been suspended then England MIGHT have pulled out, although I doubt it; but start a rival FIFA, there's as much chance of that as Rangers and Celtic playing in England or a breakaway league i.e. none at all.

I think you sum it up very well, Boabie.

I'll make time to check the rules Boabie but I think you've answered the point by saying, correctly, that the SFA are empowered by FIFA/UEFA so if those bodies were to sanction a move it's hard to see the SFA threatening their own existence by standing against them. We are certainly agreed, it's not going to happen.

It's a form of sexual deviation so I'm told

The difference there Rab is that effectively the SPFL was the entire Scottish senior football scene, without which the SFA would have ceased to exist so they had no choice but to sanction it, given that it is made up of mostly the senior Clubs in any event. A pirate league made up of one or two Clubs from different leagues is a different matter altogether.

I'm not sure your right about that MacK. IIRC there were more than 10,000 in Derby for the pre-season friendly in 2014. You're probably correct about some of the long distance venues but I think we'd take thousands to Manchester, Newcastle/Sunderland, Liverpool. Worth remembering too that there is a sizeable ex-pat Scottish community in London inc many Rangers fans. I think our away support would be as big if not bigger than most.

There is absolutley no value whatsoever in a pirate association, quite simply it would be illegal football with all that entails, a complete non starter IMO.

Firstly, I would not regard the result of a debate on any Forum Board, least of all the one you mention, as being a settled decision on any football matter under SFA jurisdiction never mind FIFA or UEFA. Theoretcially you may well be correct, in fact I wouldn't doubt it, as all football in Scotland has to be sanctioned by the SFA , but, and it's rather a big BUT I would suggest, in practice I am not sure that they would go against FIFA/UEFA or that they would succeed if they tried. Anyway it's not going to happen because the only possible invite might be from the English non League system where some Clubs might see it as financially beneficial and let's face it we're not going to start again at the bottom, now are we?

In the entirely hypothetical scenario of Rangers applying and being accepted into any level of English Football and such a move were to be sanctioned by FIFA/UEFA I cannot see the SFA attempting never mind succeeding in preventing Rangers playing home matches at Ibrox or anywhere else in Scotland for that matter.

You are confusing the Scottish Football Association who control all football played in Scotland with the English League who only control who plays in their League, they don't control the rest of English Football, which is controlled by the FA, which is perhaps what you meant. Whilst we have to be registered with our own National Association to play football at all e.g. in Europe, I am not sure that the SFA could prevent Rangers playing in an English League or Timbuktoo for that matter. (Since I'm on holiday I'll leave it to others to check the SFA Articles on this one and will stand to be corrected.) They MIGHT try but I doubt that would survive a legal challenge for restraint of trade. We would have more to worry about with FIFA/UEFA but there are numerous examples of this all over Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_football_clubs_playing_in_the_league_of_another_country. Indeed there are so many examples that it would be difficult to argue that each is a special case.

Unless the Premiership does a complete breakaway we would have to start in League Two at best. We just climbed through the Scottish Leagues (almost there!) are we ready to do the same again in England? The EPL is already under pressure from UEFA to reduce to 18 teams, so are the turkeys in the bottom half going to vote for Christmas, I doubt it. If we got in, our attendances would put us in the top 6 but it's a pipe dream, not going to happen.

The fact that Miller who is old enough to be his father, seems to be preferred to Hardie and Clark has only played 90 minutes in a couple of league games tells its own story. Clark needs to move on and Hardie needs to go out on loan.

Bit like Zelalem perhaps? Sorry couldn't resist.

That's very true, Scott; but he simply didn't develop the way he should have, perhaps the various changes of management last season slowed his progress and it has come to a complete halt under MW. It's conceivable he could play on the right of a front three with McKay on the left, which potentially could be devastating; but IMHO Waghorn is the best we have on the right of a front three and it's generally accepted we need an out and out striker. That said he's still only 21, perhaps a fresh start elsewhere will reignite his career.