SPFL Season declaration challenged legally (ongoing discussion)

[CammyF 6,779]

5 minutes ago, MacK1950 said:

I know we are totally despised but think that to throw money away in a fruitless attempt to prove anything against Liewells cobalt (I think that's the word) would be a complete miss-use of our finances as an independent inquiry will never take place.

As previous posts the best way forward is to deprive all these teams the value of the "blue pound".

So we just accept getting fucked over once again? What happens the next time the SPFL want to fuck us over (it'll come)? Just scontinue to sit back amd accept it? There has to be a line in the sand and it has to be now. 

[Gaffer 1,665]

Just now, CammyF said:

So we just accept getting fucked over once again? What happens the next time the SPFL want to fuck us over (it'll come)? Just scontinue to sit back amd accept it? There has to be a line in the sand and it has to be now. 

I'd love us to do something but the ONLY tool we have is withdrawal of the blue pound at this precarious time in football.  Let's make sure our own club gets all the funding and screw the rest of them.  I really can't think of anything else we can reasonably achieve at this time.  It makes me sick to the pit of my stomach that this is our only option.  I wish I could see an alternative but I can't.  I hope (and expect) that we will have some victories in the future when many of the clubs die off.  I really want to see that happen and I will take great delight in that, as petty as it may seem.

[CammyF 6,779]

ItLo

SPFL reshuffle 'like herding mice' after 'strangest' victory leaves division


After five days of bitterness, rancour, suspicion and confusion it was somehow fitting that the SPFL rounded it all off with a valedictory statement on Wednesday that added slapstick to the mix.

In announcing that their controversial resolution had now passed and that the lower leagues were thereby over for the season, SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan and chief executive Neil Doncaster thought it a good idea to congratulate the immediate winners from the vote - Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers, all now champions of their respective divisions - without commiserating with the big losers - Partick Thistle and Stranraer, who were now relegated.

Thistle, in particular, were the most notable casualty in the resolution being passed. They're bottom of the Championship, so they're automatically down despite being just two points behind Queen of the South with a game in hand.

Thistle and Stranraer weren't mapped in the original statement. Not to mind sympathising with them, there was no mention of their fate at all until a clarification was put out five minutes later confirming that, yes, the pair of them were going down. There was no accompanying quotes from MacLennan or Doncaster. No empathy. It was all so matter-of-fact. Insult added to injury.

The conduct of the SPFL board has been called into question repeatedly during this saga and so it was again after they issued their missive on Wednesday. Had you hoped that some contrition would be shown by the board then you'd have been disappointed. Had you expected some form of acknowledgment that an unseemly mess had been allowed to happen and that they bore some responsibility for it then you were wasting your time.

This has been an intense and divisive week. Accusations have been flung about like confetti. The SPFL has been accused of bullying and coercion, of telling cash-starved clubs that they only way to get financial help was to vote for their resolution. One club said they felt like a gun was being put to their head. 'Vote for us or else...'

'Anger doesn't cover it'
The SPFL has also been accused of ignoring their own rule book when allowing Dundee to change their vote from their original No to their final Yes, the one vote that proved decisive.

Partick Thistle got a QC to examine SPFL rules and the conclusion was that the league body was in breach of its own articles. The SPFL has said nothing in reply. Instead of tackling Thistle's conclusions point by point, they allowed Dundee to resubmit a vote that saw Thistle relegated. From a Partick perspective, anger doesn't even come close to covering it.

We're now at the end of phase one in this tortured business. Phase two is the exhumation of the reconstruction debate. We're now led to believe by the SPFL and others that there is a growing appetite for the very thing that many Premiership clubs have been dead against for years, that there is a gathering consensus for a 14-team Premiership next season - maybe for just one season - with three other leagues of 10, or some such model. It would be a revamp that would save Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer from relegation. Mend some bridges, perhaps. Take some heat out of the current situation. Remove the injustice.

Reconstruction needs a majority of 11-1 in the Premiership and 75% in the other three leagues. One senior figure in Scottish football said on Wednesday evening that it had a chance because clubs were now beginning to see beyond their own self-interest. Another said that it had no chance because enough clubs will never see beyond their own self-interest.

In the context of clubs suddenly coming together in harmony and voting for change, it's worth looking back at what's happened over the last week or so. Rangers have alleged bullying and coercion on the part of the SPFL. Rangers said it publicly. Others said it privately.

Dundee U-turn remains a mystery
Rangers have called for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the SPFL. They've called for the suspension of Doncaster and SPFL legal advisor Rod McKenzie. Dave Cormack at Aberdeen has also been critical of the SPFL. Ann Budge at Hearts has threatened that she may sue the league. Scot Gardiner of Inverness Caledonian Thistle has called out the board in the most emphatic way.

Partick Thistle brought in a senior counsel and a junior counsel to examine the SPFL's articles and concluded that "court action can be commenced" if the resolution was pushed through, which it now has been.

Dundee have been quite something throughout all of this, voting No then switching sides days later without ever properly explaining who they spoke to in the meantime to cause such a U-turn.

Their statement on Wednesday has angered some in the game. Far from accepting that changing their vote has caused deep suspicion they sought to portray themselves as a bastion of good practice, a footballing Mother Teresa here to bring comfort and hope to all. "We have worked tirelessly to achieve solutions to help those who were disadvantaged and sought to find ways to help them," they said. It might have been hard for Partick and Stranraer to stomach that given it was Dundee's second vote that disadvantaged them.

"We have discussed options with a variety of member clubs to show solidarity to the clubs most negatively impacted by the SPFL proposal," the statement continued.

The people at Thistle may have choked on that one, too. The only solidarity they wanted from Dundee was for them to hold to their promise of a No vote, a promise they didn't keep. "Through our discussions it appears that there's an appetite to provide various forms of support from other member clubs...these acts of kindness and solidarity will be worked out amongst member clubs."

'Strange victory leaves division in its wake'
As Dundee wrote about acts of kindness towards the poor clubs who now find themselves relegated because of Dundee's volte face, some other clubs might have been thinking more along of the lines of disbelief and incredulity. Dundee's words won't have been much of a balm to those who are now left to pick up the pieces in the wake of their vote that never was.

Dundee's behaviour shredded the credibility of the vote. By Wednesday morning even avowed Yes supporters acknowledged that the integrity of the resolution was shot to smithereens and needed replacing by something new. The SPFL board ploughed on and got the result they were looking for. It was the strangest kind of victory that left division in its wake.

Having previously threatened legal action, Budge, along with Hamilton's Les Gray, are now heading up a reconstruction task force. Presumably, that's the end of the legal action chat from Tynecastle. Budge's club sit in bottom place in the Premiership. Gray's club are one from bottom. Like turkeys campaigning for the cancellation of Christmas, you wonder how far they're going to get before they start getting hit by accusations of self-preservation.

Budge was once of the view that 42 senior clubs was too many for Scotland. "You're looking at half that number," she said in 2016. Now she'll be arguing for a model that will likely increase the number of senior clubs to 44. When crisis hits, expedience rules.

Perhaps we're at a point now where clubs can set aside their own personal agendas and vote for a reconstruction model that would undo the injustice perpetrated on Partick Thistle, but we'd be as well holding on to our scepticism for now. It's been hard-earned. Experience tells us not to abandon it so easily.

Reconstruction would cost each Premiership club money. There'd be 14 mouths to feed instead of 12. And that's where the doubts grow. Maybe they truly are at a point where they'll put aside their own interests and vote this through, but like Dundee's vote, you wouldn't bank on it.

While we wait to hear what, if anything, the most vocal opponents of the SPFL - Rangers and Partick Thistle - are going to do next, Budge and Gray are about to embark on their bid for reconciliation and reconstruction. It'll be like herding mice at a crossroads. Good luck to them.

 

Tom English latest article - how crazy this situation is when you have to agree 100% with Tom English! 

[der Berliner 3,240]

22 minutes ago, CammyF said:

Said earlier in the thread, I'm at that point. If we don't fight this (legally) then I'm out- I'll never set foot in another Scottish Football ground, including Ibrox - will break my heart, but what's the point? Fucked at every turn and as we stand, we've never fought back. 

... and rest assured, should next season be closer than this or we are ahead of them, they will whip up strict liability and rob us points for TBB and the like, nae problem.

[Scott7 5,153]

12 minutes ago, MacK1950 said:

Liewells cobalt

Cobalt is blue, Mack, so Liewell won’t be involved with that. The word whirling around in the back of your brain is cabal. 
 

I know what it’s like when the chambers of your mind open and shut without warning and the word you need pops out disguised  as something else.

[Uilleam 5,409]

5 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

Cobalt is blue, Mack, so Liewell won’t be involved with that. The word whirling around in the back of your brain is cabal. 
 

I know what it’s like when the chambers of your mind open and shut without warning and the word you need pops out disguised  as something else.

I thought he meant 'kryptonite', which is green, a f a I recall. 

[Scott7 5,153]

31 minutes ago, CammyF said:

Said earlier in the thread, I'm at that point. If we don't fight this (legally) then I'm out- I'll never set foot in another Scottish Football ground, including Ibrox

I know how you feel but giving up the Rangers gives victory to celtic and their archdemon. Some might argue celtic need Rangers in the league but they don’t. Their aim is perpetual representation in Europe and without Rangers, they’ll get it.

[buster. 4,808]

1 hour ago, CammyF said:

So PTFC are out, can't "afford" to take legal action at this time and don't want to "stop monies going to other clubs" (when will this lie stop?). 

 

Wanting to put whole sorry affair behind them and look forward and not backwards. 

 

Shitbags or been nobbled? 

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/partickthistle/status/1250792821709328388?s=12

Wasn´t going to be any other way.

Pushing reconstruction to the fore has catered for the self-interest of the relegated clubs.

 

Frankly, they´d be stupid to do otherwise (unless reconstruction isn´t such a sure thing as it currently seems)

You have to think Celtic have indicated a willingness to vote in favour.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by buster.

[buster. 4,808]

40 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

I'd love us to do something but the ONLY tool we have is withdrawal of the blue pound at this precarious time in football.  Let's make sure our own club gets all the funding and screw the rest of them.  I really can't think of anything else we can reasonably achieve at this time.  It makes me sick to the pit of my stomach that this is our only option.  I wish I could see an alternative but I can't.  I hope (and expect) that we will have some victories in the future when many of the clubs die off.  I really want to see that happen and I will take great delight in that, as petty as it may seem.

Withdrawal of the Blue Pound was heavily pushed on the messageboards in 2012 and look what happened.

 

Who knows, with some of the timescales being banded about, we might need a second reconstruction within the same close season ?

 

14-10-10-10...becomes..... 12-12 ?

[CammyF 6,779]

41 minutes ago, Scott7 said:

I know how you feel but giving up the Rangers gives victory to celtic and their archdemon. Some might argue celtic need Rangers in the league but they don’t. Their aim is perpetual representation in Europe and without Rangers, they’ll get it.

Sorry but I've had it with this corrupt league. Celtic will get perpetual representation with our without Rangers, they just keep changing the rules and moving the goalposts as they are doing now. 

 

Im at stage if we don't fight this time, I'm giving up - we can't win so what's the point of participating?