calscot

The champs will be in Q3 and play a team who gets through Q2. Of course a team could progress from Q1... They'll avoid direct Q3 entrants Anderlecht and FC K�¸benhavn due to seeding, which will also avoid the best of the teams that arrive in Q3. I think it's unlikely we'll get Rosenborg, Sparta Praha or Levske Sofia due to their reasonably high ranking. The winners of Q3 will play each other in Q4 for the CL berths. Q2 Lovech / Levske Sofia Viktoria Plzen / Sparta Praha Sturm Graz / Red Bull Salzburg / Autria Wien Maccabi Haifa (probably) APOEL Nicosia Rosenborg BK Slovakian champs Malm�¶ FF Serbian champs Polish champs Dinamo Zagreb BATE Borisov Shamrock Rovers HJK Helsinki Bosnia champs Ekranas Panevezys Skonto Riga Moldovan champs Sloevenian champs Hungarian champs Georgian champs Neftchi Baku Breidablik Macedonian champs Tobol Kustanai Flora Tallinn Sk�«nderbeu Kor�§�« Pyunik Yerevan Bangor City Montenegran champs HB Torshavn Linfield Belfast Q1 F91 Dudelange FC Santa Coloma Valletta FC San Marino champs

I'm more in agreement with than than the OP.

PPS The runners up and cup winners (or third place) will have two qualifiers for the EL group stage. The third or fourth team depending on the cup winners will have three qualifiers. Next year, the cup winners will have one qualifier, third place will have two and fourth place will have three. This year we'll have four teams and so our points divided by four, next year we'll have five and that will water down our coefficient further.

PS the champs in the draw will be from Belgium, Denmark and all countries below Scotland. As one of the top seeds we're unlikely to get the first two.

I'm pretty sure we will have two qualifying rounds - CHQ3 (CHampions Qualifier) and CHQ4. We will only play other champions (NOT Man City, Villareal, Bayern Munchen etc) and likely to be seeded both rounds. If the CL champs were not already qualified in their league (both MU and Barca are) then we'd be in CHQ2. As we'll be in 15th ranking, next year's champs are guaranteed CH3 while the runners up go into NCQ3 (Non Champions Qualifier) and will have two qualifiers also against non-champions. After that, unless Scotland has a great couple of years in Europe, champs will likely be in Q2, which is champs only, with runners up in the Europa.

It's to do with the law and segregation. The announcement and any chucking out of fans will be to cover their arses and also keep trouble to a minimum. I think privately they are happy with the sell out but want Rangers fans to help with the subterfuge that they are applying their segregation rules. Basically they are saying, "You can come to the home end but you have to pretend your a home fan or neutral." To me it's fair enough and you wouldn't expect anything less.

My nails would prefer tonight...

Maybe I should take that back, as having looked at all the results, nobody did that much consistently in April - and we lost to Dundee Utd despite going on a good run after that. Lennon seems to get it by default.

Not as incisive as usual - a bit rambling and difficult to see his point. His numerous spelling mistakes don't help... I was expecting something far more sensational.

Don't know why OF managers get MOTM without doing anything much of note. It's pretty easy for them to get a string of results and other teams' managers are often more deserving.

Bought the android version as the website was asking me to buy every time I loaded a page on the forum which was getting really annoying. However, I wasn't impressed and much prefer just using my phone browser where I can at least use tabs to open multiple pages which means I can read one page while another few are downloading in the background. That dramatically reduces perceived latency time. At least the nag screen has gone...

Don't know anything about these rankings - I used to be fairly up on UEFA rankings but only due to spending an inordinate amount of time studying Bert Kassies' site, while the press were totally clueless at the time. Thanks for the compliment though... PS UEFA should pay Bert a goodly wage to put what he has on their official site; the guy is a total legend.

The trouble is that the last share issue has shown that it's just money down the drain for fans. The share price has dropped dramatically since then and the benefits to the fans for this loss in money has been zilch - with the club not even being in good financial shape before the takeover. With zero representation you have to wonder what the hook is - apart from raising money for the club, but that has often been squandered in the past.

One thing is clear - they are DESPERATE for HMRC to hit us for around 54M (or whatever) and have turned a current court case which could go either way into a foregone conclusion in their own minds.

I think he'd make a good squad player but I don't think he'd want the kind of wages such a position brings at Ibrox. I'd take him on 10 grand a week but that's never going to happen.

You seem to be arguing this a bit too aggressively for me. The 22M does not quite have to be a gift, it could be the de facto purchase price.

I'd prefer not to even think about how many in row before we actually secure number three...

I thought he'd need 100% of the shares to go private - 90% allows him to compulsory purchase the rest of the shares. Therefore no shareholders to show...

Ah, but the price has maybe just gone up...

My memory has a few Celtic players winning the POTY and then them NOT being champions. Could be a nice omen...

I did say Celtic were due a bad result... Trumpet loyal... :spl:

The stupid thing is that on the one hand he's trying to say Weir was trying to wind the Celtic fans up but ignoring the fact that to be wound up by this kind of stuff shows how bad you are, then on the other hand he says Celtic fans weren't wound up but ignoring the fact he just had a massive rant in the press about it. Either you are wound up or you are not - he's wound up, and to be wound up over a congratulations to a royal wedding, really shows what a twat he is. He also showed how bad Celtic are by saying their equivalent to a Rangers player congratulating a royal wedding was to embroider a remembrance to Bobby Sands - a convicted terrorist. He's right, I think that shows the true equivalence of the two clubs and their fans.

Sorry. I don't have a clue what happened at the meeting bar the press release, and to me it sounded a bit like one of those from the club where they don't always demonstrate an understanding of the situation. My biggest frustration is that our side of the story is almost never told and then everyone else jumps on the incredibly selective, overly PC bandwagon to condemn us without trial or even thought on on the subject.

It seems to me that the long term plan should be to clear the debt and structure the club in a way in which we can live within our income on a continuing, stable basis - while obviously looking for ways to increase revenue streams. Rather than proof of ongoing funding, I'd prefer proof of ongoing financial diligence with a proper, intelligent balance between prudence and competitiveness on the pitch.

I'm finding it hard to believe that CW is just moving and increasing the debt to buy the club in a Glazereque way. Surely such an offer is so obviously not in the interests of Rangers that it should have been booted to touch on the first day? Surely this can't be SDM's "legacy" of ensuring the new owners take the club forward? If this is the case it SHOULD be rejected and the real reason stated. The fact it has not been mentioned in five months of buggering about is very strange indeed.