Mountain Bear

Very good statement from JT. Season 2012/13 has been rendered meaningless by the 12-12-18 league reconstruction plan. That means that both halves of the Old Firm will now have a meaningless title this year. Maybe we should just scrap all the league competitions this year and treat the season as F1-style pre-qualifying!

Apologies for posting a link from the Celtic Wiki, but I found this about 18 months or so ago while engaging the Rangers Tax Case blogger in a bit of "banter" about the hypocrisy on show from his acolytes regarding Rangers' failure to pay PAYE & the BTC (you know the stuff, "How many hospitals etc...). http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Average+Attendance+-+Season-by-Season Anyway, my point was that it was common knowledge that Celtic had so hugely under-reported their historic attendances (and therefore their income and tax liabilities), that their fans should think twice before taking the moral high ground. Interestingly enough, the RTC blogger's response at the time was basically that yes, it happened, but no-one can prove it now. So much for sporting integrity, eh? Anyway, back to the link. You'll note that their average gates rarely exceeded 30k, even during their golden age of the late 60's, early 70's. It was only after Parkhead was redeveloped in '96/'97 that the gates increased to the high 40k's. Now just imagine the tax bill on that little lot if you could prove the actual attendances!

We should all guard our civil liberties jealously and respect for authority shouldn't be unconditional, but I have a major issue with a football supporters group which chooses a pseudo paramilitary name with obvious Irish republican connotations and then bleats about their human rights being infringed when they ignore official instructions. If you want to engage in civil disobedience, then accept you're going to have your match day experience spoilt you clowns. As for the genius who takes his kids on an illegal protest march...

Of course I will. Our club still needs every supporter it can get and will do for the foreseeable future. Some people have very short memories and they should have a look at the recent financial statement to see just how high a proportion of our income comes from gate receipts at present.

That's an interesting point about the SFL rule which prevents league restructuring from negating promotion DB; "...which shall exclude any club formerly in membership of the League or which shall exclude a club formerly in membership of the League from being promoted to a higher division of such League where it had a legitimate expectation of such promotion when a member of the League, unless such club shall consent in writing to such exclusion". The authors of the proposal may argue that the 18 team league IS higher than our current 4th tier. I wonder whether they would also have the nerve to use our lack of full membership and voting rights in the SFL to circumvent this rule? Either way, I think they have some serious explaining to do on this point.

Wonderful news indeed. A great day for a great Rangers legend and gentleman.

Dear Celtic, Thank you for your continued interest in our Club, but who exactly appointed you as the spokesbody for "much of Scottish football"? Also, as the EBT's were ruled to be legitimate, please can you explain exactly what sporting advantage you think we got from not disclosing them? Cheers. Jim Traynor

On a serious point about the statement from Celtic - who appointed them to speak for "much of Scottish football"? Also, their surprise at the Commission's view that we didn't gain sporting advantage from non-disclosure of "payments" displays a complete (perhaps deliberate) misinterpretation of the facts. They seem incapable of distinguishing between the BTC ruling and the Commission's decision. If the EBTs were legitimate, what advantage did we get from not declaring them to the football authorities? I'd love someone to ask that of Celtic. Come on JT!

Brilliant! Celtic playing to their own gallery and getting absolutely hunted for it by the radio presenter. Funniest thing I've heard for ages.

Come the Autumn, you'll see their product being worn by Range Rover drivers at Murrayfield!

I listened to Spence's comments on the same show Chris refers to and was shocked that he was getting away with such a relentless tide of negativity, misrepresentation and slanted questions. Cosgrove often irritates me with his smugness (count how often he says "the truth of the matter is..." when he's actually only giving an opinion) and Spiers usually looks and sounds like he's been violated whenever he has to discuss the Gers (at one point in a recent TV show he referred to "unfortunately" having followed Rangers' fortunes for 40 years), but Spence is just so blatant in his dislike of our club, it's embarrassing he's allowed to get away with it on a publicly funded station. Keep up the good work Chris.

So, so many moments to choose from. We've already had some of the top ones in this thread, so I'll offer up the 1996 league cup final against Hearts at Parkhead. McCoist scores the first two goals (a great turn and low shot from the edge of the box and then a stooping header from about two yards out), but Hearts get back to 2:2 and start dominating play through McCann. Coisty goes mental at Gazza who has drifted out of the game, shouting in his face to get his finger out and Gazza then responds with two of his best goals to win the Cup. We should never, ever, underestimate the man's will to win and his capacity to keep coming back again and again until he gets it right. Legend.

I believe so, albeit (probably) accidentally.

More than one!!!

Not quite. Rangers Football Club Limited are the renamed Sevco. They owned (and most likely still do) Ibrox. RIFC plc was created to buy that company.

It's a holding company created around the time of the IPO to purchase the shares of Rangers Football Club Limited plc so that investments could qualify for tax relief. If you like, it's the company which owns the company which owns Ibrox.

Gersnet is better than this. There are other places where your sectarian nostalgia might be welcome, but it's not here.

You're right Rab, that time does come for most football managers, but generally it's when there's something critical at stake (titles, relegation etc), or the team has failed in its key objective for the season. It's an odd situation with Ally, because on one hand he's going to win Div 3, and the cups were only ever supposed to be a bonus this year. On the other hand we really should be competing more effectively with SPL teams given our squad and we lack fluency and drive against all levels of opposition. I understand why most folk on here tonight think its time for him to go, but I just happen to think that with nothing critical at stake in the short term and in recognition of the unique circumstances he's had to cope with since he took over, we can afford to be a bit more patient with him. As for nepotism, I'm not close enough to Durrant / Murray's coaching / scouting credentials to comment on their suitability for their roles, but I do think its a bonus if you can combine the right calibre of coach with knowledge of the history of the club.

I'm sorry mate, but you're very fond of saying things "simply aren't true" when you actually mean you don't agree. I referred to factual events, all of which had me very worried about the future of the Club at the time. Anyway, I've given my reasons for thinking that Ally deserves the benefit of the doubt for the time being. You don't think they are valid, which is ok with me.

Not true? We had Sheriff officers at the door in August, court orders freezing assets in September due to the risk of insolvency, Directors resigning in October, tax tribunerals sitting in November. We then sold our best player in January. I think some of that might just have started to affect the players' psychology before Feb.

The club going into financial meltdown last year makes it unfair to judge him on most of last season, so as long as we win the league this year, I'd allow him to recruit players for next season.

By your standards Celtic have also been shamed by cup exits to Ross County, Kilmarnock and St Mirren recently, but you don't seem to consider them a laughing stock. My patience with Ally isn't limitless, I just think it's too early to write him off.

I said after what "he" had to go through, because we're not discussing whether you or I deserve the benefit of the doubt. As for being shamed? United stuck with their last manager after being shamed 7:0 at Ibrox. We've had disappointing performances and results this season but we've not been shamed.

Maybe because he believes in himself, even if you don't believe in him? Maybe for the same reasons he didn't walk away last summer? Maybe because as a player he'd miss chances, have the fans on his back, but still pop up with the winner? If any manager in the history of Scottish football ever deserved the benefit of the doubt, then after what he had to go through last year, it's Ally. I'm prepared to give it to him for now.

That'll be the :1 then. :-(