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http://www.sportinglife.com/football//news/article/26854/9012286/violence-mars-hoops-clash Violence mars Hoops clash Last Updated: November 6 2013, 23:34 GMT Celtic's Champions League trip to Ajax has been marred by a clash between supporters and police in the centre of Amsterdam before kick-off, following which 15 fans have been arrested. Amsterdam Police told Press Association Sport that fans armed with bottles and sticks attacked plain-clothed police in an incident described as "coming out of nowhere". Eight police officers were injured with one knocked unconscious following the fighting in Dam Square, in the city centre. Police said the majority of those arrested were Celtic fans, although it is believed that supporters from other clubs were also involved. "At the end of the afternoon a large group of Celtic supporters attacked police officers in plain clothes," a spokesman told Press Association Sport. "Eight were injured and one was knocked unconscious. "A few of them had broken noses and needed stitches above their eyebrows and on their lips. "Bottles and sticks were used in the attack which came out of nowhere. "There were 15 arrests, mostly Celtic supporters." Celtic lost the match 1-0 and face an uphill battle to reach the knockout stages of the competition. Amsterdam Police said it expected the number of 15 arrests to rise during the night and that a final figures would be "high". It is thought that fans from other European clubs were involved, although police said they "had kept themselves covered". Celtic supporters had been urged by the club to be careful after an attack on Hoops supporters in a city-centre bar on Tuesday night. Thousands of Celtic supporters flooded into Holland for the Group H game at the Amsterdam ArenA. A statement on the Celtic website said: "Celtic Football Club is urging all supporters in Amsterdam for tonight's UEFA Champions League tie with Ajax to be extra vigilant following an unprovoked attack on Celtic fans last night "The attack in the city centre by an element of the Ajax support resulted in a number of arrests. "Celtic are urging all supporters to be extra vigilant in the city centre and at the Amsterdam ArenA, and to only stick to the advised areas for safety reasons." At the pre-match media conference on Tuesday afternoon, Ajax coach Frank De Boer expressed hope that the tiny percentage of fans he describes as "crazy" would not disrupt the game. UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings against the Dutch club after some of their supporters clashed with police and stewards at Parkhead last month during a match which the home side won 2-1. The case will be dealt with by UEFA's control and disciplinary panel on November 21. De Boer admitted that some Ajax fans remain a concern when asked if he was confident of the game passing off trouble-free. "I am confident in that but you never know," said the former Rangers player. "There is always some crazy people (who) try to disturb something but hopefully it will not happen."

KEITH says only in this business would the people at the top go out of their way to make winning trophies even easier for Neil Lennon and his players. LET’S start by making one thing very clear. It’s not Celtic’s fault. None of it. It’s not Celtic’s fault David Murray sold Rangers for a pound to Craig Whyte in a ruinous bit of business. Likewise, it’s not Celtic’s fault that, as a result, they have been left to operate in a domestic top flight which is only marginally more stimulating than a Miranda Hart box set. No, Celtic can’t be blamed for any of that. All they can do is make the most of it. Pile up the silverware and kill time until Rangers are worthy of more than just ridicule and ready to be taken seriously as a rival once more. Assuming such a day ever comes. But, even so, only here in this nuthouse of a business would the people at the top actually go out of their way to make winning trophies even easier for Neil Lennon and his players than fate has already decreed. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the SFA and its chief executive Stewart Regan. Don’t get me wrong. There is much to admire about Regan’s leadership of the game in this country. For a start, he’s nothing if not reliable. In fact, over the years, he has displayed an uncanny knack for bravely taking on every big issue confronting our game and making a complete and utter mess of it. If there’s a decision to make, Regan and his board will botch it. You can be sure of it. With that in mind, perhaps it ought not to have come as a surprise when it was announced last week that this season’s Scottish Cup Final will be taken to Parkhead. Regardless of which sides may actually end up competing in it. Now you don’t need to be on Ian Black’s speed dial to know Celtic will be odds on to be one of them. So now not only are Lennon and his players winning a league of one but they’re also afforded the chance to make it a double by winning a cup final on their own pitch. Only inside the SFA’s increasingly muddled mind could this possibly seem like a good idea, one that would even get close to passing the sporting integrity test. Deep down even Lennon himself might be left to bristle with indignation if he should end this season clutching a league and cup Double amidst suggestions his side was helped across the finishing line. Again, this is not a mess of Celtic’s making. And let’s be clear here too, Lennon has assembled a side which is miles in front of all the rest. If Celtic do go on to secure another double then they’ll thoroughly deserve it because of the enormity of their domestic dominance. There is, after all, a reason they are playing Ajax in the Champions League this week and that is because they belong in that environment. But – and mark my words here – there will be little snide digs flying all over the place the closer we come to the Scottish Cup Final if Celtic are still involved. In fact, that’s the only thing the SFA got right about this announcement. Making it so far in advance was a smart call as right now it’s not a live issue, merely a distant dream for the teams involved in the early rounds. But the deeper we go into this competition the more ludicrous their reasoning will be made to appear. Especially if Celtic – and maybe even Rangers for that matter – make it into the latter stages. Because the flip side of this predetermined lunacy is that both semi-finals will be hosted at Ibrox. Even if one of them is between, let’s say, St Johnstone and Caley Thistle. You don’t need to have booked a 52,000 all-seater stadium in advance for that one. You could hold it in a phone box in Dundee. Sorry, that’s me being facetious. But Tannadice would do just fine. Regan and his cohorts though do not appear to have given consideration to things such as geographical common sense or even just plain old sporting fairness. All of it has been ignored in an empty-headed rush to make another baffling decision. And let’s take it a step a further. What if the other semi-final is between Rangers and Celtic? Now that very thought ought to be keeping Regan up at nights because if he had stopped to think this through he would surely have realised the prospect of an Old Firm showdown, either in a semi-final at Ibrox or the final at Parkhead, will cause him a living nightmare. Yes, it might seem far off in the distance right now and Regan will doubtless be hoping this perfect storm does not come to pass but if it does then the SFA will have some serious explaining to do. Fans of both clubs will quite rightly demand to know his thought process because one of these sides will go into this meeting – the first Glasgow derby since the Rangers meltdown of 2012 – hugely disadvantaged and with one almighty chip on its shoulder. And that’s all this potential powderkeg of a fixture would need. Short of building a new purpose-built stadium on the dark side of the moon and the sanctioning of a midnight kick-off, such a coming together of this furious twosome, complete with a 50-50 split of tickets, would represent a security dilemma the scale of which has not been seen since someone stole Dawn French’s play piece. And Regan’s SFA will have added to this volcanic volatility by making a decision which ranks right up there beside his most baffling contributions to date. If the worst-case scenario should unfold over the next few rounds, this one might make “let’s give Levein another go” seem like one of their better ideas.

ALLY McCOIST has no issue with the SFA hosting the Scottish Cup final at Parkhead – but admits he’s ‘baffled’ by the choice of Easter Road as the Ramsdens Cup final venue. It was announced yesterday the last game in the country’s main knockout competition will be staged at Celtic’s home ground next may, with the semi-finals taking place at Ibrox. And while he feels it might have been worth waiting a little longer before making that call, the Rangers manager is content enough with that decision. He’s less settled with where the Challenge Cup decider will take place given demand for tickets is likely to significant exceed the capability to accommodate. Hibs’ stadium in Leith holds just over 20,000 fans and it could be argued the ground is a size which is reflective of the competition it will host the last tie for. Past figures suggest Gers would easily fill the stands in Leith themselves and McCoist doesn’t see why somewhere bigger couldn’t have been selected. He said: “If the Scottish Cup final can get held at Celtic Park, I’d have thought the Ramsdens Cup final could have been held at Celtic Park too. “That baffles me, to be honest. If I’m the managing director of the sponsors, I’d want it at the biggest venue. “It would have been an opportunity for coverage and revenue. That would have been more sensible to me. “They’ve decided to take the game to Edinburgh and in doing that, I would have given it to the club (Hearts) that needs the money. “I’d have given the final to a team that’s in administration and tried to help them out that way but for whatever reason the game’s at Easter Road. “We are fine about that and I don’t have a problem with it at all. For the reasons I’ve given, it’s maybe a strange decision but we’re not going to moan about it. “We’re delighted to be in a cup final and we’ll go to Edinburgh but I can understand why our fans aren’t happy about it. “I’m on their side. I want as many Rangers supporters wanting us in that cup final as humanly possible. “We’ve got 36,000 season ticket holders and I don’t think there’s any doubt we could fill wherever with our supporters.” McCoist admits he wasn’t consulted on the Ramsdens match venue, which will host that game on April 6, when it is fair to think he might have been. He’s more at ease with the Scottish Cup climax happening at Parkhead, even if he thinks it would have been worth seeing how far the Old Firm went in the tournament first. McCoist added: “There are arguments for and against it. A similar argument would be that if we were lucky enough to get to the semi-finals, we’d have a home tie. “I can understand if people aren’t happy with it and I’d certainly be happier with it if I was Neil Lennon and Peter (Lawwell). “One thing I would say is at least we know where we are. A marker has been put down and the rules have been made so we can get on with it. “Possibly it would have been better to wait and for me that would probably have been more sensible. “If ourselves or Celtic weren’t in the competition, a decision could have been made in terms of taking a home advantage away. At the same time, we are where we are.” Copyright 2013. Permission to use quotations from this article online is only granted subject to appropriate source credit and hyperlink to http://www.rangers.co.uk http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5431-a-baffling-decision

Parkhead is out apparently because the cost of hiring the pig sty and policing costs could make it too expensive. Easter Road only holds about 20,000, Tynecastle even less. Ibrox Stadium was mentioned a few times by the commentator at last nights game as if he was 'certain' of it. Who pays the hiring fee, is it the SPFL? Is Ibrox cheaper to hire than the piggery?

Taken from FF Sectarian Songs that are now being targetted by the Focus group include Include - Carsons Army (We're the volunteers of the UVF) Build My Gallows (Altogether for the YCV - Described as being not the YCV of the 1916 WW but the right wing youth element of the UVF?!) Fathers Advice (**** Bobby Sands he's Deid is now being classed as sectarian) No Pope of Rome (no nuns and no priests **** yer rosery beads) Focus are filming the crowd and if you are identified and witnessed singing these songs you will be arrested for this Im not wishing to dicuss the rights and wrongs of this, to me the whole world has gone PC mad, Ive spoken to admin about how I got the information and thought it was only right I try and warn fellow Supporters. ----------------------------

It is widely known that Dave King has settled his issues with the SA tax people. There are also many, many reports that he plead guilty to approx 41 charges which resulted in a massive fine. My question is.....did these charges result in a criminal prosecution & resulting in a criminal record, or was it simply King effectively agreeing to paying the outstanding monies on 41 separate counts with the remaining charges/claims being dropped???? King has been referred to in many reports as a criminal....how accurate is this description???

A TEMPESTUOUS afternoon at Easter Road ended with Kris Commons picking up a hamstring injury that means he will almost certainly miss Celtic’s vital Champions League meeting with Ajax on Tuesday night. The loss of another go-to man in the wake of Scott Brown’s suspension comes as a desperate blow to Neil Lennon. It is a game, he concedes, that Celtic cannot afford to lose. Lennon’s frustration did not begin and end with Commons, however. Hibs opened the scoring with a goal that should clearly have been ruled offside. On top of that, the Celtic manager was heavily critical of Hibs’ physicality. “I haven’t looked at the goal but I didn’t need to,” said Lennon. “You can see he [Paul Heffernan] is at least a yard off. I’m not here to criticise officials but when it’s as blatant as that, you have to ask ‘why did you miss that?’” On the loss of Commons, Lennon said the player knew instantly that he was in trouble. “He knew straight away, he felt a pull. We don’t think it’s a tear but if it’s a strain it’s at least a couple of weeks, so it’s not looking good for Tuesday. It’s a huge blow. Commons has been fantastic this season. He’s at the top of his game, in great physical condition. He just stretched for a ball and felt something.” Lennon, right, was furious at some of the tackles put in on his players, though that is not how Commons suffered his injury. He called some of the challenges “absolutely shocking and reckless”. “I’m all for competitive football, but seriously, they were borderline tackles. I didn’t really say anything to Pat [Fenlon] but I made my feelings pretty clear to the fourth official. I don’t think it was any player targeted in particular, it was across the board. Even the ones at the end. Without singling players out, the tackle by [Rowan] Vine on [Darnell] Fisher was rugby-esque. “We’ve got a big Champions League game and I’m not asking any favours, I don’t mind teams being competitive, and the physicality of the game was good but I felt it was over the top. We’ll play Hibs again, though...” “Look, I’ll get criticised because people will say it’s a man’s game, and it is, no question. But the tackles were late, high, reckless. You lot are asking the questions so you must see it as well. My opinion may be different from Pat’s. He’ll say he sent his team out to get in our faces and I don’t mind that at all, but the ref should take more of a grip on it sometimes.” Fenlon said he was delighted with his team’s physicality. When asked for a response to Lennon’s accuations, he said he was happy that his team have finally got the message that they have to be in the faces of teams in order to get a result. “Neil is entitled to his opinion,” he said. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/neil-lennon-vents-ire-after-injury-to-kris-commons-1-3148908

ON the advice of police, Brian Stockbridge, the Rangers finance director, has had to improve the security system at his family home following a photograph of the property being published on the front page of a newspaper on Friday. Police went to his home and installed “what can be legitimately called a panic button” according to a person familiar with the story. Stockbridge has come in for heavy criticism over the way he has managed Rangers’ finances and incurred the wrath of the fans when videoing Malcolm Murray when the former chairman was under the influence of alcohol. Much of the flak has been par for the course for an executive in his position, but lately there has been a number of more objectionable threats made online and the publication of a picture of his distinctive home alerted the police to a possible risk to his safety and the safety of his family. On various supporters’ websites there was anger over Stockbridge purchasing the house with the help of a £200,000 bonus awarded to him when Rangers won the Third Division title. The house was purchased a year before, however. Stockbridge has resisted calls to resign, but protests are ongoing. Stockbridge and James Easdale are the only remaining directors on the plc board following the recent departures of Ian Hart, Bryan Smart and Craig Mather. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/rangers-brian-stockbridge-improves-home-security-1-3148990

getting that stupid lennon video playing again each time I come to main site, please stop it, his voice drives me nuts.

I pride myself on paying absolutely no attention to anyone or anything in the Scottish game apart from us. However, if you open this forum at the moment you hear Neil Lennon at a press conference . Also, he was possibly pished but he seems to think Neymar is called Nemwar haha

An magnificent example of how the sport should be played......if that sport is running around, chasing after where the football used to be 5 seconds before you got there for 90 minutes and then kicking people when they're lying on the ground. Even more magnificently, they managed to restrict Barcelona to a mere 82% of the possession - a huge improvement on the 88% Barcelona had last year. I'm looking forward to wee neil explaining how, despite being made to look like a shower of talentless tits for an hour and a half, Celtic were actually the better side, how Brown didn't deserve to be sent off for kicking Neymar in the back and how they can still qualify for the knockout stages.

Greenock Morton knocked out the scum at the paedodrome when after 90 goalless league cup minutes the game went into extra-time. It was Dougie Imrie who was the hero slotting home a 97th minute penalty. 0-1. Get it right up ye Lennon.

The daily mail have McCoist and Lennon in the frame for the job... Do journalists just make up stuff nowadays....

BARRY FERGUSON vents his anger at the sentence passed down to Gunning for flicking a boot at Celtic’s Virgil van Dijk, and says it is a common occurrence during matches. 20 Sep 2013 07:22 Vincent Lunny.Vincent Lunny. I DON’T care much for the SFA. I’m unlikely to get a job offer from them any time soon, that’s for sure. And this column won’t help my relationship with them either because I find it impossible to discuss the people in charge of our game without working myself into an angry rant. Here’s the problem. This should be a positive period for the Scottish game. The national team is on the way back under Gordon Strachan and Celtic were a credit to the country in the San Siro. As much as it might stick in my throat as a Rangers man, Neil Lennon and his side were excellent against AC Milan. They were the better team for 75 minutes and didn’t deserve to lose. So that’s all good. We should be feeling better about ourselves again. I should be able to look guys in the eye in the dressing room at Blackpool again and say: “You see, I told you Scottish football isn’t as bad as you lot make out.” But then the SFA go and do something stupid and you’re left to wonder why you bother. The people who run the game in this country seem hellbent on turning us all into a bad joke. And I’m sick of it. For the last week I’ve had guys down here laughing at the Ian Black betting case and asking me: “What the hell is going on up there? Can you guys not get anything right?” And there’s nothing I can say in Scotland’s defence. Down here it’s a different story. The game is run with total transparency, clear rules and disciplinary procedures that are set in stone. Everyone knows where they stand. Cameron Jerome? He broke the rules on betting and got a 50 grand fine. It was all done and dusted in a matter of days. But how long was the Black saga allowed to rumble on for? It dragged from one week to the next, one meeting to another. Even when he was finally hauled to Hampden the SFA kept everyone waiting for the decision. They hummed and hawed but said nothing for hours. And when they did, they refused to give out the details. Would it have been so difficult for chief executive Stewart Regan to come out and explain exactly what had gone on? To give details of the games in which Black had bet against his team and the reasons behind his punishment? Why would he NOT want to get the facts out there? I just don’t get it. I’ve had my say on Black. If he was in my dressing room I wouldn’t be happy with him. But I’ve also been in trouble so many times at Rangers that I know the club’s disciplinary procedures inside out. They get you in, it’s done and dusted within an hour or two then they make a statement. Why do the SFA find it so hard to act as decisively? There’s another thing that annoys me. Can anyone tell me what Vincent Lunny does? Does anyone know his remit or on what basis he decides which player he’s going to ban next? Does he sit in his house with his feet up and glass of red wine on a Sunday night watching the highlights on the BBC? And if he sees some incident replayed in slow motion, is that when he takes it upon himself to act? Because that would be a disgrace. I’ve been playing top-team football for going on 18 years. In that time there must have been about 10 incidents in every game which could have led to a player being slapped on the wrists or fined. It happens all the time. If Vincent wants to apply the rules fairly and across the board he should be watching every minute of every game or, if that’s too much, employ people to watch them for him. There are plenty of ex-pros out there looking for work. But all the games should be reviewed by someone. Anything less is just not right. Look at Gavin Gunning at Dundee United, who was banned for three matches for flicking a boot at Celtic’s Virgil van Dijk. I must flick out a leg three or four times in every game I play. Now Lunny is giving three-game bans for it? Is that what Scottish football has become? On my Rangers debut at Tynecastle, Neil Pointon nearly took my head off 10 minutes in. He smashed me in the face with his shoulder, elbow and fist all in one go. And I thought to myself: “Welcome to first-team football.” I was so dazed I hardly knew where I was. But it was a great lesson for a young player. I knew I was in a man’s game. And that’s the way football should be. Look, if there’s some bampot running around charging into tackles that can break legs or end careers, Lunny should throw the book at him. But three games for flicking out a leg? Come on. I like to see a wee ding-dong out there. Players who are fired up and getting in a few faces. That’s what it’s about in the heat of battle. But I guess Lunny wouldn’t know that. So let me give him some advice, from the front line straight to office desk. The fans love to see these flashpoints too. It’s called passion, Vinny. It’s what this game is built on – and the more you stamp it out the less people will turn up to watch. They don’t want some faceless guy at Hampden making decisions on a random basis that can harm their team. It’s the same for the players. How do you think Gunning would feel if he was sitting suspended and saw a player doing the exact same thing as he did ... and then finds out Lunny hasn’t spotted it on TV? Would that be fair? Look, I get that the whole idea about this compliance officer was to try to modernise the Scottish game. But please, make it fair. It’s the same for Black. He’ll know plenty of players who have been betting on football matches. And yet he’s the only one who gets done for it. I can’t help feel if you’re at Rangers or even Celtic the chances are they will be all over you like a rash. That’s the way I felt when the SFA were dealing with me. And the treatment Black has received shows that, despite their talk of modernising the game, nothing much has changed.

I was wondering if any Gersnetters knew the name of Jum Spence's 'zine? He founded and Edited it for several years and his current designation at BBC Scotland is as a direct result of this particular publication. It was a case of BBC Scotland wanting to be seen to embrace the new media. I would like to peruse a copy/copies to how Jum referred to Rangers and Rangers supporters? Further, as Editor; what content was approved?

IT IS unlikely that Ian Black is going to sit down any time soon – if at all – and explain what he was thinking about that day he struck a bet on East Stirlingshire to get a draw against his own team, Rangers, at Ochilview on April 27. That’s the first question you’d like to ask him. Not about the 159 other bets he placed that contravened the SFA’s betting rules, but that one wager, as part of an accumulator, on Scottish football’s most hopeless senior club getting a draw against the newly crowned Third Division champions with Black himself at the heart of their midfield on the day If you leave to one side the fact that any such betting on football was against the SFA rules, how did Black come to the conclusion that that was the wager he wanted to place? What weird rationale made him opt for a draw? East Stirlingshire were not only bottom of the league but they hadn’t had a draw – not to mind a win – in any of their previous eight games. In fact, they ended up losing their last ten games of the season conceding 39 goals in the process. In the games leading up to Black’s bet on a stalemate, East Stirlingshire had lost 5-1 to Queen’s Park (the week before the Rangers match), lost 2-1 to Annan, lost 6-0 to Peterhead, lost 2-0 to Clyde, lost 2-1 to Montrose, lost 2-0 to Berwick and lost 9-1, yes, 9-1 – to Stirling Albion. Where was the form-line that suggested they were capable of holding Rangers? East Stirlingshire had conceded 101 goals in their 41 games leading up to Rangers match. Black had already played against them three times that season. On none of those occasions was there the slightest bit of evidence that the worst team in Scottish senior football was capable of getting a draw against Ally McCoist’s side. In the first match, Rangers beat them 5-1. In the second, Rangers won 6-2. In the third, Black’s team won 3-1. Three games and an aggregate score of 14-4 and then Black goes for a draw? Does that make sense? Black has been found guilty of betting on football, and betting against his own team, but is there no suggestion of anything more sinister, such as deliberately underperforming in that East Stirlingshire game in order to make the draw a little more likely. Black scored the goal that put Rangers 3-2 ahead, thereby helping to sink his own bet. In that regard, he was a bookmakers’ dream. A punter who deliberately stymied his own wager? That’s nirvana for a bookie. All of this is weird and demands explanation but we won’t get it because Black won’t talk (not for a while at any rate, you’d have to imagine) and the judicial panel won’t publish their findings. None of this is helpful. Here is a footballer who has admitted to betting against his own team and yet, effectively, he will serve the same suspension as a player found guilty of a bad challenge. On Friday, Rangers manager Ally McCoist said that he had no issue with Black or his betting and that, too, is unsatisfactory. How could the Rangers manager not have an issue with one of his players taking the field having had a bet on his team not to win the match he was playing in? McCoist’s words are actually a betrayal of sorts. Imagine McCoist trying to explain himself to a Bill Struth or a Scot Symon? Imagine those gentlemen trying to get their head around this business of Black betting on Rangers drawing with East Stirlingshire before going out to play against them? Amid all the hoopla surrounding the Black case, there was one point on which nearly everybody was agreed and that was that a player should never bet against his own team. Black has admitted to doing precisely that at the end of last season. The Rangers man has been fined, in essence, little more than a week’s wages and is banned, in effect, for three games, the same punishment doled out to Dundee United’s Gavin Gunning a few weeks ago for having a sneaky kick at Virgil van Dijk of Celtic. At times like this the easy thing to do is to give the SFA a shoeing for a verdict that makes little sense to most people but what has to be remembered is that it was their judicial panel which handed down this sanction on Black and that that panel is independent. It stands alone but it is the SFA that must deal with the fallout. Three matches, with seven more suspended, does not amount to zero tolerance of players’ gambling on football. Players gambling isn’t really the nub of the Black affair, of course. Players have a punt. Managers have a punt. Many people in the game have a punt on football even though they are not supposed to. But they don’t bet on their own team not winning. That’s crossing the line. Quite frankly, you won’t stop players betting. It’s instructive to note that Black’s punishment only relates to betting on games involving the club he was registered with at the time. For more than a hundred other breaches, all admitted by the player, he received nothing more than a slap on the wrist. What is the point of a rule if there is no sanction when it is broken multiple times? From the outset of this case, the major question was whether Black had bet against his own team in a match in which he was playing. He did and he deserved a bigger sanction than the one he got. He certainly deserved harsher words than his manager was prepared to offer in public. McCoist didn’t have to sack Black, although Rangers fired Fran Sandaza for a lot less under the pretence of disloyalty. Isn’t betting against your team the very essence of disloyalty? We still don’t know why he did it. That’s the truly mystifying part. The panel discounted match-fixing and ruled out any notion that he tried in any sinister way to influence the game to bring up his bet. Once he stops breathing his sighs of relief at such a lenient punishment and the undeserved support of his employers which followed in its wake, Black might want to explain what he was thinking. The bet, as part of the accumulator, flew in the face of form and logic and integrity, it was against the rules of the game and against the spirit of the dressing room. For breaking the one rule that most football people (McCoist excluded, it seems) say cannot be broken, Black will serve a three-game ban. Hard to fathom, just like his bizarre wager at Ochilview that day.

From the DR: from the BBC: So the fine for repeat offences actually goes down???? Given the number of charges that have been raised against us for "offensive" singing/chanting.....UEFA must be paying us now....

Glen Gibbons: Ally McCoist’s claim to have as formidable a squad of players as any club in the country outside champions Celtic would do nothing to dispel the impression that his tongue these days is quicker than his wits. The words had hardly left the Rangers manager’s lips when his side were beaten 3-1 at home in a closed-doors friendly by Hibernian, who could not reasonably be described as the galacticos of the SPFL’s Premiership. The former striker’s readiness with the impulsive, unconsidered response may be rooted in his history as a media-friendly figure. He has, after all, been what is known these days as the go-to personality for the telling quote for as long as anyone (including himself) can remember. It is possible that McCoist has become so practised in the art of filling space that he cannot break the habit. Even so, he has been steadily compiling what might be called a portfolio of outbursts, some of them grossly ill-advised and even dangerous. McCoist’s errant views began at Dunfermline two years ago when, without having seen the incident, he insisted that Steven Naismith could not be guilty of elbowing Austin McCann because “he’s not that type of lad”. Naismith, of course, was caught on camera and suspended. There followed the infamous “we want to know who these people are” demand in the wake of the review panel who sat to consider Rangers’ rules breaches in the wake of their entering administration. A similar noise was made over the question of Rangers being fined for their indiscretions while Hearts and Dunfermline were not. On both occasions, the SFA revealed that McCoist (and, in the latter case, his chief executive, Craig Mather) already knew the answers. Perhaps most seriously of all, McCoist declared himself “appalled” by the arson attack on the bus depot which housed Rangers’ new luxury coach, clearly implying that it had been carried out by rival football fans. The subsequent police investigation disclosed that the crime was not related to football. If these previous retorts are a measure of his judgment, there is unlikely to be a stampede of punters desperate to plunge on Rangers for the only “major” left to them, the Scottish Cup. http://www.scotsman.com/news/glenn-gibbons-scots-send-in-the-clowns-1-3081141

Anyone know how long this has been used? http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/rangerstv/item/4972-freeview-tunnel-cam And how many,,,,,,,unsavoury incidents it would have caught.

CELTIC will have to play the home legs of next season’s Champions League qualifiers away from Parkhead, with Murrayfield emerging as a possible alternative venue. Celtic Park is hosting the opening ceremony for the 2014 Commonwealth Games on 23 July and the likelihood is that the pitch will have to be relaid before it can be used again for football. Glasgow 2014 staff reckon it will take “weeks” before the playing surface is ready for Celtic, and the Scottish champions will be forced to look for another ground. Hampden and Ibrox are also out of the running because they, too, are Commonwealth Games venues, so the home of Scottish rugby is being considered. Celtic played their first home game this season on 23 July when they met Cliftonville in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. Eight days later they played host to Elfsborg in the third qualifying round. If the Parkhead side are to participate in next season’s competition, it is likely they will enter at the same stage as this season. Celtic have accepted they will have to play the second and probably the third qualifying rounds (Q2 and Q3) away from Celtic Park but are hopeful their home pitch will be ready if they progress to the play-off stage. A Celtic spokesman said: “In the event of Celtic’s qualification, Q2 and possibly Q3 would be played away from Celtic Park. We are presently considering possible venues for these matches. “We would of course plan to be back at Celtic Park for the European Play-Off rounds, if successful, and the start of the season.” Manager Neil Lennon stressed last week how important qualifying for the Champions League is to Celtic, both financially and in terms of prestige. Around 58,000 were at Celtic Park for the Play-Off round match against Shakhter Karagandy and helped create a raucous atmosphere as Lennon’s side overturned a 2-0 deficit, winning 3-0 to qualify for the lucrative group stage. Lennon later described the result and reaching the Champions League proper for the second successive season as “the greatest thing I’ve ever done in football”. Last season’s run to the last 16 of the elite competition earned the club £22 million in television and prize money. This season, they will receive £14m for reaching the group stage to go with the £1.8m for participating in the Play-Off round. By contrast, if they’d lost to Karagandy and dropped into the Europa League they would have been guaranteed just £1.87m. The stakes are incredibly high and Celtic will be mindful to avoid anything that threatens their qualifying prospects. Murrayfield is the biggest stadium in Scotland with a capacity of more than 67,000. Celtic are unlikely to need a stadium that size for the early qualifying rounds. However, there appear to be precious few alternatives. Celtic attracted crowds of 30,000 and 40,000 for the matches against Cliftonville and Elfsborg and no other available Scottish football ground could accommodate such numbers. The biggest club grounds are Easter Road (20,000) and Pittodrie (22,000). Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park would be a handier venue for the Celtic support but its capacity is just 18,000. The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games will feature the athletes’ parade, with up to 4,500 participants from the 71 competing nations taking part. A Glasgow 2014 spokesman said: “Glasgow 2014 is committed to returning Celtic Park to its pre-Games state as part of the Venue Use Agreement. “Glasgow 2014 is developing contingency provision for an alternative venue for the fulfilment of the club’s competitive 2014 fixtures that are scheduled to be played at Celtic Park during the period of the organising committee’s use of the venue should that be required.” The east end of Glasgow is undergoing major redevelopment and regeneration as a result of the Games. Celtic Park is situated at the heart of the action, with the athletes’ village currently being constructed nearby. A stone’s throw from the ground are the new Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and the Emirates Arena which will host the cycling and badminton events in 2014. Murrayfield has hosted football before, with Hearts playing a number of Uefa Cup and Champions League qualifying matches at the ground between 2004 and 2006. The Edinburgh side first played there against Braga in a Uefa Cup qualifying round match in season 2004-05 after it was claimed the pitch at Tynecastle was too small for European matches. Murrayfield was also the venue for Hearts’ and Hibernian’s friendly matches against Barcelona in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Almost 58,000 watched the Hearts v Barca match, the largest crowd to attend a football game in Edinburgh for 51 years. Celtic playing home games away from Parkhead is not without precedent. They made Hampden their base for the duration of the 1994-95 season while Celtic Park was rebuilt. However, taking their games to Edinburgh presents a new set of challenges. While Murrayfield’s capacity more than meets Celtic’s needs and its proximity to Haymarket station is a bonus, playing in Edinburgh would mean an 80-mile round trip for the majority of the club’s supporters. The Games will also mean Hampden becoming a football-free zone for the best part of a year. The national stadium is the athletics venue for 2014 and will close to football in November. The playing surface will be raised and an athletics track constructed, reducing the capacity to 44,000. It means this season’s domestic cup finals and semi-finals will be played at alternative venues. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/champions-league-celtic-to-play-at-murrayfield-1-3074428

Amidst his unsurprising defence of Jack Irvine, it's interesting that Bill is suggesting a deal to avoid an EGM is 'likely'... http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/civil-war-stalemate/

WHEN Dundee chief executive Scot Gardiner invited John Brown to be interim manager in February, he knew he was not getting a shrinking violet. Indeed, with Dundee’s survival chances looking bleak at the bottom of the Scottish Premier League, Brown’s ability to stir things up was one reason why Gardiner wanted to hire him. However, it has since also got him into a lot of trouble. Gardiner has stressed to Brown that this has to stop: no more talking about Rangers, and no more talking in depth about other clubs, even if that is likely to put an end to his invariably colourful turns of phrase in newspapers. It is an order backed by Dundee’s new American investors, who are intent on promoting the club as a family-friendly place. Steps have been taken to ensure that Brown is aware of the dangers of speaking his mind – particularly about events that don’t concern Dundee. “We’ve had to say: ‘John, you now see this is how the game is’,” said Gardiner. “I think he took over with 13 games left and before the season had started, before we’d kicked a ball, he’d had three SFA charges. Some managers might go five years without getting one. “They are all related to things that he’s said in the papers, so if that affects his job then it affects Dundee and I’m there to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Brown was censured by the Scottish Football Association at the end of last season after comments made about referee Alan Muir, following the match which confirmed Dundee’s relegation after Aberdeen’s Peter Pawlett earned a penalty through simulation. The Dundee manager will return to Hampden Park next week to contest two of the latest notices of complaint made against him by the SFA. The first is for calling former Dundee goalkeeper Robert Douglas a liar in a newspaper interview, and the second concerns comments made in another interview in which, according to the charge levelled at him, he was “suggesting the use of violence” in connection with Charles Green, the former Rangers chief executive. It is the number of times that Brown has been drawn into the debate about the Ibrox club, where he spent nine years as a player and later took up a coaching post, that has begun to exercise Dundee, although Gardiner appreciates that it is a two-way street: journalists phone up Brown for his views on Rangers, and he is happy to entertain them with his often trenchant thoughts on the matter. The result is usually the receipt of a letter on SFA-headed notepaper. “Your truth is someone else’s disrepute charge,” acknowledged Gardiner yesterday. “John’s the go-to guy when something happens at Rangers and he can’t be that guy any more because he has a very serious job to do for Dundee,” he added. “John’s sole focus is Dundee, going forward. He’s very clear about that now. I think you’ll see that.” It wasn’t an easy baptism at Dundee for Brown, who had to deal with a section of Dundee fans who were angered by his appointment. Although he was a much-admired player for Dundee in the mid 1980s, many struggled to disassociate Brown from Rangers. His much ridiculed, although since partly vindicated, rant on the steps at Ibrox last summer didn’t help. Neither did his willingness to comment on Rangers’ affairs since taking over at Dundee. However much he admires Brown’s determination to tell it as it is, Gardiner has stressed to him that he has to be cute about what he says in a public forum. “Sadly you’re not able just to tell people what you think and that’s not acceptable to the SFA for a manager just to tell you what he thinks,” said Gardiner. “So we have to address that, along with John, and make sure he’s not in the papers every week for the wrong reasons. Dundee, who were recently taken over by a new, part-American controlled consortium, have now ordered Brown to avoid being lured into offering comment on the situation at Ibrox, and, especially, to desist from using images of violence. Brown was disgusted by Green’s comment that Ally McCoist had to win a trophy this season, on top of League One. He assured reporters that had his directors issued him with that instruction, he would have “taken every one of them by the throat”. That earned him a charge for breaking Rule 82: making offensive comments and suggesting the use of violence. Although they will support him as he defends himself on Thursday, Dundee’s desire for Brown to stop earning headlines with his hard-hitting views on Rangers is part of a drive to restore the reputation of the Dens Park club. Gardiner accepts that Dundee’s conduct in recent years has been less than exemplary after two administrations. “We’re working very, very hard to get our reputation back because there’s been a lot of hard moments in the last ten years,” said Gardiner. Even a recent experiment as a supporter-owned club ended with recriminations and bitter infighting. This month the Football Partner group, backed with finance sourced in Texas, took control of the club after a protracted process that required the Dundee supporters’ society to vote to allow their majority shareholding to be reduced. “The Americans are Ivy League, blue chip companies and individuals who have invested in us and we have to remember that we are 120 years old this year,” said Gardiner. “I’m working hard to get the club back to where it was off the field, earning respect and behaving in a certain manner as it once did and was respected for. John knows his part now and how we intend to conduct ourselves as a football club. If you call John about Rangers he has to realise it doesn’t matter. For Dundee fans, it’s very important his focus is only on Dundee. They have to fully believe that their manager is only concerned about the well-being of their team.” http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/dundee-s-john-brown-urged-to-stop-rangers-talk-1-3068970

IT’S not easy being a Rangers fan at times like these. While Celtic spent yesterday with all eyes on Monte Carlo, my old club was trying to get excited about a League One visit from a team from Methil. The club has fallen so far from grace over the past couple of years it has been hard to make sense of it all. Much of it has been a blur, just one heartbreaking episode after the next. You reach the stage where you’ve taken so many kickings you’re just grateful still to be alive. But then you have a week like this one, when you see your old rivals qualifying for the Champions League and gearing up for trips to the Nou Camp, the San Siro and the Amsterdam ArenA. While Ally McCoist and his players are preparing for East Fife at home. As reality checks come, this one makes the eyes water. Since Wednesday night, I’ve been speaking to a few of the boys at Blackpool about it and they were asking me if I think Rangers will ever get back to that level. Or if the Champions League is gone for good. If too much harm and damage has been done for Rangers to ever recover their old status. Now – and I know I’ll be slaughtered for this – but I believe Rangers will be back in the Champions League. And they’ll be back within five years. Yes, I can see why that may seem ridiculous right now but I’m deadly serious. First thing’s first, we need the likes of Jim McColl and his men to take control of the finances and to clean up the mess in the boardroom. And, yes, I know that’ll be easier said than done. But with the right people in charge off the pitch, Rangers won’t need decades to close that gap. They might be in the third tier but as far as I’m concerned, with the new signings available, they’ve got the second strongest team in Scottish football. If they were in the top flight this season they’d finish runners-up. I’m sure of it. So they’ll rip their way through League One this year and it’ll be the same in the Championship. That means in less than two years’ time they’ll be back where they belong. And I honestly believe it’s being realistic to say they’ll be Scotland’s champions again inside of three years. And then these players will have the chance to enjoy what Celtic experienced on Wednesday night. And as someone who knows what I’m talking about, believe me when I say it really doesn’t get any better. I was genuinely pleased for Celtic’s players the other night. Aye OK, maybe that’s pushing it. But as a player I could understand exactly how much it meant to these guys to get through against Shakhter Karagandy. I know Neil Lennon wouldn’t have needed to give them a pre-match team talk. And it’s not just about the finances and the bonuses either. As players, you realise money just can’t buy nights like that. I remember how I felt when that Champions League music started up – it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was an incredible feeling – totally different from a Saturday. It didn’t matter if it was Barcelona coming to Ibrox, I was so pumped up I truly believed I could go out there and take them. I see a lot of similarities in some of the current Celtic players. That atmosphere does the same thing to them. It’s hard to describe but there’s something electric about these kind of games. I remember driving up to the stadium on the bus and seeing the fans going mental on the streets outside. By the time you walked in through the front doors you felt eight foot tall. You realise the game is going to be televised all around the world. This is your chance to show everyone what you can do against the best. I’ll always remember playing against Lothar Matthaus and Bayern Munich in 1999 when I had just got into Dick Advocaat’s team. I was just a wee boy and had total respect for that guy but as soon as I crossed that line I wanted to destroy him. Anyway, I must have been a pain in the a*** because he poked me in the eye during the away game against them at the Olympic Stadium. I had been in about his ankles from the start and he probably thought, ‘Who’s this skinny little runt from Scotland, running about with the plooks on his chin? What have we got here?’ And I have to admit, I loved it. I knew right then I was giving him a game. Lothar Matthaus, one of the greatest players in the world, had just poked me in the eye. I couldn’t have been prouder. Now I’m older I look back and I see it from his point of view and I laugh at myself. I know what it’s like when you’re up against kids who are trying to fire in about you. But that’s the attitude you need. I turn into a different animal out there and that’s the way it has to be. The downside is that people get a perception of you from what they see on the pitch. And that sticks. I know people still look at me and think this guy’s a wee ned – all because I ran about with my face all screwed up, shouting and bawling. That used to bother me. But you get older and wiser and you learn to accept things. I look back now and say, ‘Look at him, he’s running around like a f****** idiot’. Then I realise it’s myself I’m watching. So I can’t blame others for thinking the same thing. It’s just the way I need to play in order to get the best out of myself. And if you can’t get the best out of yourself in the Champions League then you’ve no business being there. Another big European night that stands out was the qualifier against Copenhagen 10 years ago. I went into that one knowing it would be my last game for Rangers as I would be signing for Blackburn when we got back. And another 48 hours later I remember realising I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. That was a weird night. On the one hand we were celebrating with the fans, and on the other I knew deep down I was away. I remember thinking to myself at the time, ‘I’ve just left Rangers, what am I doing?’ And so now every time I watch a Champions League game it reminds me of that night. It sends a shiver up my spine when the music starts. It’s crazy what that tune does. And I know the Celtic boys would have been feeling the same way. Now they’ve got the group games to come and every one of them will be looking at where Victor Wanyama, right, and Gary Hooper ended up. These guys will be thinking they could be next to get a move to the EPL. That’s what the Champions League offers players, a big-money move. And it’s why Rangers must keep ploughing on through all the hard miles until they’re hearing that music for themselves. Trust me, it’ll be worth the journey.