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Hello, I was hoping for a few fans opinions on the following: I am currently entering my third year at university and am about to begin my dissertation. For this I have chosen the subject of fan ship. Specifically I am looking at the relationship between Rangers and Celtic fans. The main focus of the study will be how this relationship has changed since Rangers changed operating companies. Issues I will be examining include: Is the relationship as intense considering the two teams are no longer challenging for the same titles? Is this change a benefit for Scottish football and Scottish society, for example is the league more or less competitive? Does the new league structure provide lower leagues more money? Is there a reduction in societal issues such as violence etc...? Or has the loss of the “Old Firm” damaged the commercial pull of Scottish football? Ultimately I want to know whether people believe the relationship between the two sets of fans has changed due to the transformation in Scottish football? As part of my study I am hoping to speak to fans from both sides and ask them their opinion on some of the topics mentioned above, hence this post. I realise a lot of these are in-depth questions and may take some time to answer; I appreciate all the replies and feedback that is given. Thank you in advance for any responses

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5579-club-statement Now that's a statement we can all agree with. Let's hope club means what they say rather than offering a sop to concerned fans.

By Gordon Waddell SPFL and SFA go to war over £1m league reconstruction bill 10 Nov 2013 09:04 BOSSES of the two organisations are on collision course due to a fall-out over who was to foot the bill for the summer's big switchover. THE SPFL and SFA are on a collision course over the £1million tab for league reconstruction. MailSport understands fuming league bosses are claiming SFA chief executive Stewart Regan and president Campbell Ogilvie are reneging on an agreement to foot the full bill for the big switch-over in the summer. However it’s believed Regan is equally adamant that was never the deal they agreed and has the email trail to prove it, leaving the two bodies at loggerheads. The matter has been discussed both at SPFL board level and at a meeting of the 10 Championship clubs within the past 10 days. Former SFL chairmen in particular insist the SFA supremos gave them an unequivocal commitment to foot the bill for the nuts and bolts of the move to one league body at a meeting. At the time the SFA were desperate to see the two bodies unified and a pyramid system in place, putting another brick in the wall of their 2020 vision for the game going forward. But with the legal and accounting costs of dissolving the SFL and SPL, as well as creating the new set-up, the bill has skyrocketed close to seven figures. However, the SFA have issues with what it contains. It’s understood a six-figure pay-off for departing SFL chief executive David Longmuir is included as a “cost” of the reconstruction, one which will be hotly disputed, as well as the accountancy costs of the SFL’s due diligence into the top flight. The SFA’s understanding of their offer was to partially fund the legal costs but to make a wider contribution to the cost of the play-off system, pyramid set-up and parachute payments for SPL teams taking the drop. That deal would have exposed them to a figure in excess of the £1m mark but over a longer period of time. MailSport, however, believes several league chairmen want a hardline stance taken in any negotiations, despite the fact their coffers have swollen in the past week with a £2m a year deal with Chinese TV. It’s also understood the probe commissioned into secret bonus payments made to Longmuir during his SFL tenure is ready to be presented to clubs at the end of the week. The payments – totalling more than £400,000 – were discovered during the reconstruction process. Then-president Jim Ballantyne claimed to have the discretionary power to award the cash without SFL board approval. It’s believed some of the money could already have been paid back – however that may not be enough to satisfy the clubs awaiting the report.

Scotland's claim to be fighting the cancer of sectarianism and hatred took a severe dent at the weekend. Perhaps sadly, the decision not to hold a one minute silence prior to the Ross County vs Celtic match, came as no surprise to many of us. Its embarrassing, unedifying and sickening to hear a one minute silence being disrupted and dishonoured. But there is something worse, far worse in fact - not holding such a ceremony at all. Because in failing to do so we have acquiesced to the morons, the bigots - we have handed them victory on a plate. Let the moronic and shameful actions of bigots within the Celtic support shame all the devils in hell - rather that than our country is forced to fail to remember the fallen whose sacrifice ensured our freedom from evil and tyranny. This morning I wrote to Ross County asking for an explanation into such an omission on Saturday and in particular who made the decision to dispense with the one minute silence - was it from someone in the club or from outside the club? The Ross County support have previously made their club aware of the importance of Remembrance Day and its significance within their support. http://www.north-sta...oldiers-667.htm Furthermore this is an issue which must ascend Old Firm rivalry and the often tit for tat churlish and pedantic tribalism. It is time for the Scottish press and media to stop avoiding the issue and to speak out - ignoring it will not make it go away. It is untenable and unacceptable that men who laid down their lives in order to defeat that which is unacceptable cannot themselves be remembered and honoured due to the actions and behaviour of some in our society which is in itself – wholly unacceptable.

chucks gona get the jail

Football's governing bodies have questions to answer and obvious action to take, but they're opting out, again SO FAR, everyone and everything has come under the microscope. The vermin rump of the Rangers support, the police, the Rock Steady security personnel, the Manchester City Council, Tesco, the heat, the Mancunian element, the travelling Northern Irish. We've heard it all from every conceivable side but the people we've heard precious little from are the men from UEFA. This was their party after all. Their show. Where have they been the past few days? Michel Platini? David Taylor? William Gaillard? Have you nothing to say beyond the blindingly obvious? It was a disgrace? You don't say. Your thoughts are with the Russian fan who got stabbed? How reassuring. You will launch an inquiry? I see. UEFA's inquiry, as they've already made clear, will begin and end at the City of Manchester Stadium. It will involve the stabbing of the fan and the pitch invasion of the Zenit St Petersburg supporters and nothing else. That is the top and bottom of UEFA's responsibility as they see it. That's what's written in their constitution. Anything that happened away from the ground and it's ostrich time. Mayhem on the streets after their event. Police assaulted after their event. Cars ransacked after their event. Innocent people scared half to death after their event. Tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage after their event. FTP, UVF, ****** blood before and after their event. Nothing to do with them, though. Away from the stadium, see. How can UEFA absolve themselves of responsibility in this way? Are they a governing body or not? By rights, UEFA should be getting ready to suspend Rangers from European competition for a year. They should look at a video presentation, beginning with the incidents involving PC Mick Regan and the second involving another constable whose own pitiful plight was revealed on BBC Scotland on Friday and decide that they have no other option. Two officers down and two officers extremely lucky to be up and about today. They could have been maimed or killed. That's your starting point, UEFA. Do you condone the brutal assault of these policemen? If not, what are you prepared to do about it? UEFA will not ban Rangers because a precedent of outrageous leniency has already been set. They favour fines but most of all they opt out. In Italy, nobody gets banned despite violence and murder at their football. Outside the stadium again, though. They can't go and ban Rangers now after turning a blind eye to Italian clubs whose hooligans cause death and destruction seemingly every season. The fighting in Manchester was by far the most disturbing thing but the blight of sectarianism was there in force, too. As a club Rangers have already had their warnings about bigoted chanting and, to the undoubted mortification of Sir David Murray who has done all he can in this regard, these warnings were ignored by factions in the support last week. Sectarian songs could be heard all over Manchester on Wednesday afternoon. They could be heard in a service station on the road down there on Wednesday morning. At 8.45am I heard them myself. A group of about 20 started up and only stopped when an elderly fan shouted: "Now, now boys, no sectarianism today." "Football owes itself to be an example in our societies," said Platini last August. "Football must teach values to Europe – honesty, courage, fraternity, tolerance and peace. Football includes, integrates, and welcomes. It excludes no one, it discriminates against no one, it persecutes no one. The battle that we have undertaken against racism and discrimination is a combat which will only stop when these phenomena have disappeared from our stadiums." Football persecutes no one. Gosh. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in the fantasy world of Michel? Again, note the words 'disappeared from our stadiums'. Do what you like outside is the message. Riot on somebody else's doorstep. Just don't do it in our backyard. Taylor has come out with similar waffle since being appointed general secretary. "I don't know who they (the bigots and racists) are," he said. "I don't know what interest they have in football. They are not welcome in football or anywhere near it. UEFA has its approach to these problems. We will kick clubs out of European competitions, even national teams if players or supporters act in a racist way. These sorts of sanctions are there and UEFA will not be afraid to use them if the circumstances are serious enough. So we have no tolerance for racist behaviour." What utter bunk. What unadulterated garbage. UEFA will act if the "circumstances are serious enough," says Taylor. Since making that statement last year players have been racially abused all over Europe and Taylor hasn't said a word. In November, Zola Matumona quit FC Brussels after being singled out by the Belgian club's president who told Matumona to think about other things than "trees and bananas". In France, in September and February, fans at Bastia and Metz and Grenoble were involved in racist incidents. One black player gestured to the people who were abusing him and got sent off. In Montenegro, DaMarcus Beasley and Jean-Claude Darcheville were abused. In Russia, Zenit fans are serial offenders. Dick Advocaat says he cannot sign black players, that the club supporters wouldn't have it. In Germany, Cottbus continue to get away with horrendous chanting. Closer to home, Russell Latapy was targeted by Hibs fans last September. None of these were serious enough for the fearless Taylor and the organisation that is "not afraid" to use heavy sanctions. FK Zeta got a ?9,000 fine for their hateful treatment of Beasley and Darcheville. And UEFA have the brass neck to talk about football's courage, honesty and fraternity. Platini and his cohorts speak no more sense than the violent wasters who wrecked Manchester on a breakfast of Buckfast, a lunch of lager and a dinner of a combination of the two. No wonder Platini rose to high office. His Gallic shrug would have deeply impressed the delegates. "What can we do, my friends? We are powerless to act. It says it here in our rules." UEFA don't do unpleasantness if they can help it. Platini is a great man for presenting medals. If there's a function to speak at, he's your guy. If there's an anti-racism drive to champion he'll happily pose beside little children of all nationalities and vow to stamp out this terrible cancer in the beautiful game. Then, five minutes later, some unreconstructed Serbians will hound a visiting black player with monkey chants and bananas and Michel will weigh in with his "zero tolerance" mantra, the upshot of which will be a nine thousand euro fine and a UEFA request that they cut out that sort of thing in the future. Like their big brother FIFA, they are here only for the finer things in life, so expecting them to do or say anything of use in the wake of the Manchester riot is a forlorn hope. Given that so many of them flew through the air the other night you might hesitate to bring bottle into this, but this is a question of nerve and UEFA don't appear to have any. Look at the tapes of the trouble, Michel. Your final. Your night. But not your job to interfere? How's that then?

Lifted from FF: From the Sun website: SFA boss in Savile twitter bust-up Beast's victim blasts Regan Exclusive By PAUL THORNTON Published: 10 hrs ago A SICKENED victim of Jimmy Savile last night slammed footie blazer Stewart Regan for comparing the Rangers saga to the scandal over the TV pervert. The SFA chief executive’s shocking Twitter gaffe came after a fan asked him about the Ibrox spat between former club supremos Craig Whyte and Charles Green. Regan, 49, bizarrely replied: “Over four decades, many people believed Jimmy Savile was a paedophile. Yet he still walked free. Actionable evidence was necessary to provide the proof. “The same is true in any democratic judicial process.” It sparked an immediate storm of online protest from stunned followers. And Caroline Moore, 54 — molested by Savile as a helpless 13-year-old — branded Regan an insensitive “idiot”. She said: “He’s a prat, an absolute idiot and should think before he says something. “Nobody would say the Savile thing is anything like the same as a row at a football club.” Wheelchair-bound Caroline, of Paisley, was attacked by Savile in 1971 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Bucks, following an operation to fuse her spine. And she is furious that Regan used the monster’s name to debate sport. Caroline added: “He’s made himself look stupid and I would imagine he’ll regret it.” Twitter users were also horrified, and one message from ‘Sharpie’ simply read: “Embarrassing.” Liz Corkhill also slammed him for “pursuing that tasteless analogy.” Former Top of the Pops host Savile was exposed as a serial sex predator following his death, aged 84, in October 2011. Last night, the SFA refused to comment on the Regan row. But it’s not the first time the footie chief has had problems with Twitter. Regan called in cops and closed his account in July 2012 after it was flooded with abusive comments. These related to his handling of league reconstruction and the financial collapse of Rangers. At the time, he said: “When you get threatening messages on Twitter and you get emails and letters that are uncomfortable, you have to listen seriously to what the police are saying.” Whyte and Green were infamously locked in a battle over the ownership of Rangers. Yorkshireman Green claimed he duped his rival to get his hands on the club. Former brewing executive Regan replaced Gordon Smith at the SFA in 2010.

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.

Have just read in sunday express website that Neil Doncaster and a delegation from celtic ( lieswell ), are currently in China to promote the Scottish leagues. Is it just me being paranoid or is their some kind of friendship between the S.P. HELL and septic. Surely not. Question is why can the other teams in the so called big league not see that the sphell are only puppets put their to try and promote septic and F--K the rest. This makes me so angry i will need a beer to calm down.

Ringing fugitive on Interpol wanted list not unusual in new world of Rangers KEITH tells how trying to make contact with a man on Interpol's most wanted list is hardly unusual in the weird world which Rangers now inhabit. IT’S not every week you speak to someone on Interpol’s most wanted list. In fact, after 20-odd years writing about football for a living, this was something of a first. Not that it was actually much of a conversation. “Hello, Mr Rizvi,” “Hello, who is this?” “Keith Jackson from the Daily Record newspaper in Glasgow, I want to speak to you about your involvement in Blue Pitch Holdings.” “I think you have the wrong number my friend, I would ahem (click)...” “Mr Rizvi? Rafat? Hello?” “BEEEEEEEEEEEP!” That was about the size of it. Hardly earth-shattering stuff. In fact, the only truly remarkable thing about this conversation is that it needed to take place at all. But this is the way of it at Rangers in 2013 – this club has long since disappeared through the looking glass. Vanished into a world which is as much about the fugitives as it is about the football. I phoned straight back but Rafat Rizvi, or whatever this plummy-voiced gentleman calls himself these days, didn’t answer. So I followed up with a text message, offering to speak on or off the record and pointing out that the identities of those anonymous investors behind Blue Pitch and Margarita Holdings were likely to be made public soon. Again, no response. Perhaps he was just busy. Then again, perhaps men who are on the run from the authorities over a £600million bank fraud, facing a potential death penalty in Indonesia, don’t do protracted conversations. Not with press men at any rate. Which would be fair enough were it not for the fact the future of Rangers hangs in the balance all over again and that there are many thousands of supporters out there who are beside themselves with worry and who are asking for one simple thing from their club, the truth. Remember that? It’s not easy where Rangers are concerned. This is a club which currently employs more spin doctors than it does directors, a business which is engulfed in a cloud of its own toxicity. A company which attempts to confuse its own customers with an unrelenting barrage of spin and counter-spin. The truth? So many lies and so much misinformation has been spread in the name of Rangers that the truth has become a complete stranger. It has been twisted and distorted to such an extent that it has become almost unrecognisable. And it has to stop, for the sake of the fans and for the greater good of the Scottish game in general. It is time for Rangers to reconnect with the truth. Which is why it would have been nice had Rizvi stayed on the phone for a longer chat. He might have been able to clear up many of the issues which continue to distress these supporters and cause them sleepless nights. Just who are Blue Pitch for example? These mysterious offshore backers of Charles Green, who financed the Yorkshireman’s takeover, buying up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip thanks to the stupendous generosity of administrators Duff and Phelps. It would also have been of interest to ask Mr Rizvi, a long-standing associate of Green and shamed former commercial director Imran Ahmad, if he could shed any light on some of the names of those behind the equally mysterious Margarita. Between them, Blue Pitch and Margarita hold a 15 per cent stake in the club and their voting power – which has been handed over by proxy to the Easdale Brothers – could swing the balance whenever this club finally allows its shareholders to vote on the make-up of the boardroom at its long awaited agm. Could it be that Brian Stockbridge, for example, is to be found standing behind Margarita’s door? Just asking because if the financial director was to be among these penny-a-share investors then it’s no wonder they are attempting to block the changes that would ultimately lead to Stockbridge’s removal from power. Right? Here’s another thing. Did you know Stockbridge and James Easdale last week signed off on a robustly worded warning to the club’s entire workforce, making it clear that information leaks from inside Ibrox will not be tolerated? That’s right. Stockbridge, who infamously filmed former chairman Malcolm Murray worse for wear at the end of a long night out, and Easdale, who endorsed the return of a certain spin doctor to the club. The hypocrisy is mind boggling. In fact, it smacks of yet another hamfisted and ever so slightly sinister attempt to suppress the truth. The fact that their internal memo has already been leaked out on to the internet is a delicious irony. Much has gone on behind the scenes of this club in recent times which defies belief. Senior, trusted and hugely respected figures have been horribly intimidated. These people too have a story to tell. Just like Rizvi. It would do Rangers a world of good if one day the whole truth emerges from this distasteful debacle, no matter how unpleasant or even inconvenient that truth might be. The truth is all that can pull Rangers back from this world through the looking glass and allow it to look at itself in the mirror once again.

Hear we go with another 'spokesman', this time it's a London Stock Exchange spokesman.... Get yer pinches of salt at the ready.

For your Sunday morning consideration. Just like the best newspaper keech, brought to you the night before! Unseeing seems to be the order of the day, alright. From the lights going out at Ross County, to the media blackout of celtc's 'Oranje Bastard' ditty, to media and SFA Prophets of a New Dawn, proclaiming Great Days Ahead. Those of you who played the music above will no doubt be reflecting on the stirring, rousing tune which inspired so much hope, fear and ultimately despair, as the Soviet Union sank from revolution to eventual collapse in 1991. I imagine those with no time for the doctrine of Marx and Engels can concede that, coming from Tsarist Russia, it was a noble attempt, even if it failed in gallons of the blood of its own people. What does this have to do with Rangers, I hear you ask? Hunners. Images of the old Soviet Union rushed back into my mind last week when the Pacific Quay CSC, in a move of unparalleled daftness even for them, decided to ask Jim Spence to cover the latest Rangers story; and then Josef Vissaronovitch Rhegan himself emerged on the back on some decent results for the national team to laud his latest useless initiatives. Perhaps Spence was being tested to see if the he could actually manage to report on Rangers without being inaccurate; perhaps it was to punish the listeners by making them listen to his awful ,stuttery, regional accent more than usual; perhaps it was an 'up you' to the Rangers fans who apparently lined themselves up with those other emblems of totalitarianism, the Nazis and the Stasi, by invoking the feared, Gestapo like tactic of emailing the BBC complaints department. Many of the survivors of world war two have, now you think about it, mentioned in their memoir the resemblance between the BBC and the authoritarian regimes they had help destroy, so this should come as little surprise. Who can forget Airey Neave's classic 'Colditz? A Holiday Camp Compared to the Beeb', or Douglas Bader's 'No Legs is Nothing Compared to No Freedom at the BBC'. Anyhow, those images of communist days. As a young leftie, I often watched with open jaw as representatives of the USSR came on the screen to tell us how everything there was wonderful and the western media were lying. That this was so obviously untrue left one wondering what it was they were trying to do; and the obvious answer was, of course, that they were trying to cover up the truth. Those old enough to recall the Chernobyl disaster will perhaps also remember the special, English language edition of Pravda which was on sale in Britain, and which sought to limit the consequences of this aged nuclear reactor blowing up to roughly akin to those of Kirk Broadfoot microwaving his breakfast. No-one was fooled. All the more nostalgic then, that Soviet Jim Spence should wind up his piece last week with a heartfelt op ed about how wonderful things were in the Scottish footballing garden, and that only Rangers were kept inside, locked in a permanent argument with its mum and not being allowed out to join in. Pravda got nothing on you, boy. No doubt the fans of Dunfermline & Hearts, going through their own miseries, felt a trifle piqued at being lumped in with the everybody happy! gang. It's unlikely many premiership treasurers are licking their lips at the thought of Hamilton winning the championship and bringing the bonanza that is the Accies travelling support (last home games, attendances 1,113 against Raith and 1,059 against LIvingstone) to the behemoth that is the SPFLP. Big Money!!! Kilmarnock fans, fighting their board to see who can hurt their club the most, might take issue with his comments; it goes on and on. Aberdeen close stands; the game is vibrant, apparently. celtc hide empty swathes of seats with banners; never been better! If only Pravda still existed, a job would be made for Spence instantly. The lights going out at Ross County during their game against ICT the other week says it all - if you don't want to see it, you don't need to see it. You can't help but think of Zaphod Beeblebrox's 'danger glasses' in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which black out whenever danger threatens. Cool facewear, and great writing, but no basis to plan the future of the game. And what about us? A tartan version of Trotsky, exiled to the Mexico that is the fourth division, one can sense the ice-picks being readied lest we attempt to get back to what it known, apparently without irony, as the top of Scottish football. This expression seems to me to be akin to trying to find the top of your arsehole, but let that pass. The terror among some media commentators lest someone with money to invest get inside the doors of Ibrox is palpable; Rangers, the betamax to the SPFL's VHS, the Oracle to it's Teletext, the Scott Brown, if you will, to their Mezsut Ozil, are going to face some serious barricades which are being hastily erected to hold us back. Red Rhegan has broken his recent and extremely welcome media silence to re-assure the fans of other clubs that should Dave King try to get a job at Rangers, well, blimey, he will certainly have a good look at it and by gum, there will be no hiding places! Only the best of people for us! No doubt we'll all sleep better tonight knowing Stewart is looking out for us. Only a churl would recall his total lack of action when not one but two shysters bought our club, and conclude that he's more afraid of Rangers getting themselves organised than he is of any more damage to the club. We certainly have our problems and some our fans are probably as blinkered as Spence on some issues. But at least we don't pull the commissar's cap down over our eyes and insist that paradise is just around the corner. The bad news for Rhegan and his media mouthpieces is that our eyes are well and truly open now...we see you, and we know what we're looking at.

Did I hear this correctly today? If so, could Rhegan tell us what the SFA did to prevent Craig Whyte getting ownership of Rangers two and a half years ago? Despite warnings about Whyte's background from the likes of AJ and Jeff Randall the SFA sat back and allowed Whyte to get his hands on Rangers and we all know how that ended up. Did Whyte make any such prior application to the SFA ? If so can we see it? Or did Liewell & his PGB call the shots & allow Whyte ownership knowing what was likely to happen as that would benefit Liewell's club ? So what's changed regards Dave King ? is it because his arrival at Rangers & subsequent investment might be of considerable benefit to Rangers that an 'application' now has to be made ? Do some people at the SFA not like the thought of Rangers returning to the top of Scottish football? Also has the fat,sweaty, bespectacled lawyer been working behind the scenes to change the rules? King's arrival yesterday certainly seemed to concern the usual suspects in the mhedia. English for one.

RANGERS’ surviving directors were last night linked with a dramatic move to bring former Scottish Football League chief executive David Longmuir on board in a bid to stem the tide of support swelling behind Jim McColl and Paul Murray’s attempt to take charge at Ibrox. McColl, a millionaire businessman, and former Rangers director Murray last night hosted a meeting with representatives of three leading supporters’ groups where the plans they outlined were positively received. Now it is understood the current directors at the club – finance director Brian Stockbridge and non-executive James Easdale, along with the latter’s brother Sandy who sits on the separate football board – are considering Longmuir as a potential new chief executive. Longmuir has been out of work since July when he lost out to former Scottish Premier League chief executive Neil Doncaster for the role in charge of the new Scottish Professional Football League. The 48-year-old had been at the helm of the SFL since 2007, having previously spent 20 years working for multinational drinks firm Diageo. During his final two years at the SFL, which saw the fallout from Rangers’ financial collapse land in his lap when the SPL refused the liquidated club a place in the top flight, Longmuir was perceived by Ibrox supporters as more sympathetic to their plight than either Doncaster or SFA chief executive Stewart Regan. However, it is unclear if Longmuir would be interested in discussing a move to Rangers in the current circumstances. Last night’s meeting, held at McColl’s Clyde Blowers offices in East Kilbride, took place on the day Rangers had been due to hold their first annual general meeting since the club plunged into administration and liquidation last year. But the agm had to be postponed when McColl and Murray won a Court of Session ruling last week which declared the current board had been wrong to prevent them requisitioning for the removal of existing directors and appointment of new ones at the meeting. That prompted the resignation of Craig Mather as chief executive and departure of non-executive director Bryan Smart. Last night’s meeting lasted around three hours with members of the Rangers Supporters Trust, Rangers Supporters Assembly and Rangers Supporters Association quizzing McColl and Murray. Full details of the meeting will be released today but Andy Kerr, president of the Assembly, made it clear there was backing for McColl and Murray. “I think the majority of fans are behind this,” said Kerr. “It was a very successful meeting. The main purpose was to gather information and we have done that and we will share that in a meaningful format with the fans. We were quite happy with what we heard from Jim McColl and Paul Murray and the key now is to communicate that information. We will put it together in a Q and A format. “The AGM is going to be the pivot for all of this. We heard that a board is ready to go in and that a CEO and financial director are lined up and that was good to hear because it was something that was causing us anxiety. We have some level of assurance and heard nothing that has given us any concerns.” No new date has yet been set for the agm. Dave King, the South African-based former Rangers director, is expected in Glasgow this weekend as he looks to return to the club. It remains to be seen whether he will do so with the existing board or lend his support to the McColl-Murray group. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/rangers-board-linked-with-bid-to-recruit-longmuir-1-3156598

It was only fit and proper that Paul Murray should have once again have raised the issue of who it is who really owns a large chunk of Rangers. For without knowing who they are, there is no way of knowing what their motivation in investing in Rangers was and what their intentions are. The two major players who continue to hide behind a cloak of anonymity, who keep cowering behind collective names and who operate in the shadows without any clarity are Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita Funds Holding Trust, who, between them own more than 10 per cent of Rangers. As things stand the combined Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita stake in Rangers are votes in the bank for chief executive Craig Mather and financial director Brian Stockbridge as they fight to keep their well paid jobs. The assumption must therefore be that Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita are pleased with the way the board’s only two executive directors – particularly financial director Stockbridge – are doing business inside the Rangers boardroom on behalf of their investment. That, despite the fact last month Stockbridge was stampeded into going public with an admission that, of the money from two years of season ticket sales, plus various other substantial income streams over the past year, along with the £22.5M from the share issue in December, only £10M remained. The current Rangers directors have been keen to get to the bottom of who it is who is behind the Jim McColl-Paul Murray led moves by concerned institutional investors from the Square Mile to unseat them at next month’s Annual General Meeting and they have had them jump through hoops. However, McColl and Murray have been happy to do so. For they are businessmen of absolute acumen, complete probity and reputation. People, just like those institutional investors, with nothing to hide. On the other hand, the Rangers directors have continually refused to reveal to the rest of the club’s shareholders, including those Square Mile institutional investors who are dissatisfied with the way they are running Rangers, just who it is who is behind Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita. Why? If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding it? If the shadowy people who lurk behind Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita have nothing to hide why do they continue to hide? A year ago the man who was then the main representative on the Rangers board of Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita, former chief executive Charles Green, denied that Arif Naqvi of Abraaj Capital, was the man behind Blue Pitch Holdings. Green, however, tellingly admitted that Naqvi was a personal friend and that he had approached him to become involved in Rangers, but that he had not invested. Green then named Mazen Houssani as the front man for Blue Pitch Holdings. But then again, as we know from many of his pronouncements - Dallas Cowboys and Manchester United, anyone? – Charles Green says more than his prayers. Something else which Charles Green said, was that the Scottish Football Association were made aware of who all the beneficial owners of Rangers were at the time of them granting Rangers a licence to play. Perhaps there may be some legal option open to Jim McColl and Paul Murray to get a sight of the list Charles Green says he gave to the SFA. Or, perhaps the SFA, in the interests of honesty and openness and in the interest of a founding member club’s safety and continued good financial health, may feel they should take the bold step of revealing who all of the beneficial owners of Rangers are. For as things stand, the men inside the Rangers boardroom seem hell bent on ensuring that the rest of the club’s shareholders cannot decide for themselves just why two far eastern based, seemingly shadowy organisations, should want to invest substantial sums in Rangers when it is almost certain there is no opportunity for their investment to provide any substantial profit. Therefore, if making a substantial profit is not the motive for the Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita investment, just what is their motive? That is the question which should be troubling and exercising the minds of all of the other Rangers shareholders, individual fans, supporters organisations, others such as Mike Ashley and institutional investors alike. At the moment, the only way of getting to the bottom of what may give the appearance of being the sinister purposes of the Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita investment in Rangers, is for the current two executive directors to be voted off the Rangers board at the Annual General Meeting and men who will get to the bottom of this sordid seeming tale and who will unmask who is behind Blue Pitch Holding and Margarita Funds Holding Trust, voted on.

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 admit it, you got to me the other day. When my team reached the giddy heights of the Ramsden Cup semi-finals, I expected the usual doom laden chorus of nay-sayers to come floating out of the crypt, issuing dire warnings. probing the entrails of goats and generally bringing everyone down, lest anyone of a Blue persuasion experience anything akin to happiness. And sure enough, there was Hugh Keevins, sternly informing me that to actually be happy at winning a minor pot would be very, very wrong, and possibly raise the wraiths of Struth and Waddell to bring down the walls of Thebes (or Ibrox). He was easy to ignore. He is, after all, no prophet. A Tit, yes. A Tiresias, less so. You, though, were harder to dismiss. An ever popular figure amongst fans and media, your brash denunciation of the Cup Final being held at Ibrox bit to the core. You mentioned integrity and you balanced it against the mere accumulation of money. You spoke with feeling about how much more it would mean to Raith Rovers to win a pot themselves, rather than merely enrich themselves by a few hundred thousand pounds. A tear was not far away, I confess. And then, as I sat there reflectively stroking a pensive eyebrow, I realised that Rangers had no chance in this fight. For when you, Turnbull Hutton, say something, there is neither man nor beast can stand in your way until thy will be done! Who can forget your tireless efforts to bring about the vote of no confidence in Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster, first announced by your good self, with the usual gravitas, back in about April of this year? Doubtless the delay in that vote actuaaly happening is merely administrative. Those slow moving apparatchiks at the SPFL will feel your well fed wrath descend upon them shortly, of that I have no doubt! For when Turnbull Hutton speaketh, the earth trembleth!!! I for one have firmly believe that we shall see you at Hampden soon, bringing down the statue of Belial and emerging from the dust like Charlton Heston in a Cecil B DeMille movie...only, you will be the better actor. It is the same with your unquenchable Corinthian spirit. Only a churl amongst us would point out that the man who spent over a year helping to re-arrange the deckchairs on the SPFL steamship Titantic - with the specific aim of bringing more money into division one clubs, of which Raith Rovers just happened to be one - didn't seem to be overflowing with the sporting ethos of the game when he shafted every part time club in the country to gain a few more pounds. It is not for mere mortals such as we to wonder why you have gone from money grabbing backstabber to embodiment of the Olympian Spirit in the space of a few months. I have already slapped down a few coarse, crude types who tried to suggest you were an enormous bag of wind, which the media let open every so often and print the resultant ephemeral, noxious but essentially meaningless gas. Their low minds don't appreciate you the way I do, Lord Turnon of Bullhut. They cannot see how you represent all the aspects of Scottish football in the way I do. They say: he's a bumbling hypocritical oaf, who loves the sound of his own voice but can only just make it out because his head is so far up his own arse. I say: Smite them, when thy has the time. I believe in you, oh Lord Bull! I believe!! Were any sign needed of your great omnipotence, it is the way you gave your people Your Word on the Cup Final location BEFORE THE DRAW WAS MADE!!! Once more, some gutter dwelling people have suggested that the way you anticipated avoiding Rangers in the semi final and getting a fairly easy ride for The Rovers into the final looks like the draw was fixed. If only they could understand that Your Vision is limitless, they would easier come to heel. All kneel before Turnbull Hutton, avatar of morality, principle and integrity!!!

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5104-ian-black-exclusive Does not wash with me.

Mate sent me these quotes from today's Mail. Has Regan or Lawwell admitted before that they knew each other before Regan got the job? Don't buy newspapers so cannot verify quotes. "Peter was previously interested in what was going on in England and wanted to talk about opportunities for the future, so I met him when I was at the Football League" "I get on well with Peter"

Scotland manager Gordon Strachan has called up four players ahead of their World Cup qualification double header. Craig Bryson, Chris Burke, Kevin Thomson and Lee Wallace have been added to the squad after West Brom's James Morrison and Graham Dorrans withdrew. Strachan's side host Belgium on Friday before a trip to Macedonia the following Tuesday. Morrison withdrew with a groin problem while Dorrans's injury has not been disclosed. West Brom midfielder Morrison, who scored in Scotland's 3-2 defeat by England, suffered a groin injury in Sunday's defeat by Swansea. "He felt a pain in his groin just before half-time, the last couple of minutes in the first half," said Albion boss Steve Clarke. "The medical people will assess it but I would imagine he is doubtful for the Scotland trip." Scotland currently sit in fifth place in qualifying Group A with five points from seven games.

Those of us old enough to remember the arcane system of Imperial weights, measures, and currency, do so with the absolute necessity of attention to detail. There were 20 shillings to the pound, 12 pence to the shilling, and 240 pennies in the pound. We were conditioned, look after the pence and the pounds will look after themselves. The pence was the basic building block and it is similarly so with the former Tayside college Law lecturer, Jum Spence who wants his Dundee cake and to eat it too. Prefacing all his comments on Rangers with, "I am saying this from the safety of the east coast"; was a flagging up of his march to martyrdom. He was anxious for immersion into the warm waters of victimhood. Last summer, he demanded contrition from Bears, shrugged-off Bears' legitimate grievances with the word, 'consequence', and led the charge to extinguish our club with the battle cry, 'sporting integrity'. Jum eulogised the Rangers Tax Case blog and often flashed his professional background to legitimise the blog's message. Jum's broadcast vocabulary such as, 'industrial scale' became a parrot of the blog. He was an absolute devotee, he worshipped at the altar. When Rangers won the big tax case and the entire blog was deleted that evening, Jum lamented the Orwell prize winning crib sheet. Jum's need to chorus was quickly sated with the appearance of Charlotte Fakes. Like Cosgrove, he acknowledged it's more than dodgy relevance; however, he opined the requirement to ignore it's provenance because the information was too damned good. Credential flashing was supressed in favour of big fun. Again, like his pal Cosgrove, CF was vital because it exposed the sour underbelly of Scottish football. Since CFs only referred to Rangers, it appears Jum and Stuart accepted Scottish football can be distilled down to the Bears, there we can agree. It's interesting that Jum is concerned reference Scottish football's sour underbelly, Cosgrove defined it as a certain club's heavy influence over particular journalists. In other words, the succulent lamb effect. In April of this year, the 12-12-18 plan for the future of Scottish football was first aired on BBC Radio Scotland. On the Thursday evening Spence presented Sportsound and described the idea as exciting and a panacea for our footballing ills. Roddy Forsyth pointed out that 12-12-18 confined Rangers to the bottom tier for another season, Jum dismissed his concern with, "it's not all about Rangers". I wonder if you agree that Jum's retort sounded a bit sour and if that truly was his conclusion; why such unequivocal support for Charlotte Fakes? Two days later on Saturday afternoon's Sportsound, Jum was allowed to reveal he had been in possession of the twenty-something page 12-12-18 plan for over a week. In fact, he had given the entire plan to his late teenage junior playing son for a couple of days, and he agreed, "really exciting". Rheinhart Gordon joked, "how did you manage to come by this"? Jum laughingly replied, "ah hiv ma sources". Again, the concern of Rangers remaining in the bottom tier was summarily dismissed. Fifteen minutes after Jum's BBC Radio Scotland had backslapped him heartily, three Chairman called in and wanted to know where Jum got the plan and could they send it to them because they had NOT seen it. I am informed more than three club Chairs called to expose Jum's underbelly but BBC Scotland's Producers were intent on fire fighting on his behalf. We know that Jum founded and edited an Arab 'zine for a decade, we know Dundee United's Chair, Stephen Thompson was a big mate and a member of the SPL committee, and we know Jum loved the idea of stiffing Rangers. Further, we know a big part of Jum's depression last week was his beloved Tangerine's decision to ban him and BBC Scotland because of Sportscene's trial by TV. Jum, and today's presentation of his predicament have conveniently ignored this fact. It got lost in the interference being run whereby Jum evoked Pastor Niemoller's words and compared himself with holocaust victims and ra Bhoy in Corduroy found his inner-Dorothy and labelled Rangers supporters complaining as, "the Stasi". Charlotte Fakes also disappeared into the blue nowhere while Jum suffered the slings and arrows of martyrdom. The situation has changed and maybe Jum will adhere to his legal training and begin to consider opposing arguments and objective presentation of evidence? I suspect shops will return to displaying prices in guineas(one pound and one shilling) before Jum succumbs to being fair about Rangers and Rangers supporters.

Petition by Sevco Scotland 5088 Glasgow, United Kingdom 134 Million pounds was lost to the Scottish taxpayer when Rangers died and were liquidated. Now a year after their liquidation they are claiming the 5 stars of the liquidated club. This club has only won the now equally defunct SFA Division 3 of Scottish football and claims to the contrary are a disgraceful attempt to claim the history of a liquidated club. Transparency is needed. If they claim the oldco's history then they should pay its debts! http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/spfl-take-the-5-stars-of-the-oldco-rangers-off-the-newco-s-shirt

I posted this in the footie thread,however I think it has a place here as he says ''He’s in charge of the biggest and most successful club in the country''. IF THERE was a Richter scale for Twitter then the news that Peter Lawwell had been appointed to the main board of the Scottish Football Association would have measured about a 5.5, the digital equivalent of a mighty earthquake. When the news came through on Tuesday there was a sudden tremor online, a reverberation that could have only meant one thing. Something had happened in Old Firm land. Again. There are very sound reasons why Lawwell should be on the SFA board. He’s in charge of the biggest and most successful club in the country. He’s run the finances of that club expertly. He has contacts and knowledge and experience. If it was any other country in the world then there wouldn’t have been such a hubbub about his nomination. The gist of the argument against it appears to be this: He’s Celtic and therefore anti-Rangers. He’ll have too much control. He’ll feather the nest of his own club and shaft the rest. Suspicion and conspiracy and poison, too, but not a lot in the way of commonsense. On Twitter the other night we waited for something that went beyond the usual one-eyed hysteria, some level of criticism of the appointment that had any merit. Eventually, a point was made quietly. And it was an interesting point, whether you agreed with it or not. Is it right that Lawwell should sit on a board that exists to protect Scotland’s footballing interests when his own club have argued for so long that the sooner they leave Scotland the better? That’s a legitimate talking point. Much of the rest of the reaction to Lawwell’s new role was depressingly predictable, though. After the online earthquake of Tuesday, the after-shocks will continue in cyberland for some time to come. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/tom-english-lawwell-s-sfa-appointment-causes-stir-1-3076647?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

http://sport.stv.tv/football/238344-celtic-chief-executive-peter-lawwell-appointed-to-board-of-scottish-fa/ Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has been appointed to the board of the Scottish Football Association. The 54-year-old has been nominated as the representative of the Professional Game Board, which contributes to the running of football in Scotland. Lawwell joins the Scottish FA's chief Executive Stewart Regan, president Campbell Ogilvie, Alan McRae, Rod Petrie and Barrie Jackson on the board.

http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/164607084