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A scottish appeal
Today Scotland's most sucsessful club filed for Administration. For just £10 per person this once great club could once again survive dept free. Please give generously.
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Fingers x 4 ya don.
54 - HMRC = 0
Buying refs, i suspect you need to assess the Celtic goal line.
Meaning 0% of the income comes from any other teams? Strange, I've had to pay into most games I've been to that involve neither.
I'll grant you both sides of a very ugly coin provide a high percentage of the income. Mainly due to gloryhunters from the length and breadth of the country that have no affinity with Glasgow supporting them. Thus allowing them, due to their financial superiority, to rpe and pillage Scottish Football for more than a century. And then complain about lack of competition.
Nothing personal Don but I hope the ramifications forra peepul are severe. I'd be surprised if any neutral didn't. They won't die though. Celtic and The SFA (weegie mafia) couldn't afford for them to.
If this happened 2 years ago i could have seen Dundee United going from strenth to strenth but again they lost a large chuck of a very good squad, when Goodwillie, Conway, Bauben and Gomis left. Hearts wont be far behind Rangers either. Taking 2 of the top 4 clubs out of Scotland could be disasterous for the game.
In Response to Re: A scottish appeal:
English League 2 is miles better
But. And it's a big but. I'm going to have to disagree.
In fact I'm too drunk to do this argumrnt justice. Wow.
But you're so wrong. The hate-filled bigot brothers have brought Scottish football to it's knees. In fact football is utterly horrible. I used to be found running up and down a snow flled village pitch pretending I was Bryan Robson. Mock that if you will but he was a sporting hero. Now we have bling filled pimps. Now we have rascists. Now we have idiots making more in a week than PEG1 can make in a lucky day. (lol, I like that line.) Now we dodge tax. Now money means everything. Football is pure mammonism, it disgusts me.
Even poker's purer than football.
I'm well drunk. Have forgotten where I was going with this post. But I'm sure it was pure of heart when it started.
lol.
the whole of football nowadays is about a bunch of chancers and parasites looking to make a fast buck of the back of clubs and players.
theres a qoute from keith hill the barnsley manager on the pompey page of the sky sports website saying he has no sympathy for pompey because weve cheated by spending money we havent go to buy players we cant afford,which unfortunatly is 100% correct for us,rangers and about 70% of clubs in this country
Being honest ill reply to what i think your point is. I dislike teams who buy sucsess. Ive never liked it and i never will. However i was born and Rangers fan, and ill die a Rangers fan.
What my point was, not wanting to be disrespectful to smaller clubs in Scotland.
A number of SPL clubs are heavily in dept. This inludes Hearts, Dundee United, Aberdeen, Killie, Motherwell, Hibs, Dunfermline, St. Mirren. Infact every club in the SPL. This isnt just a Scottish problem. Manchester United's dept isnt exactly sestainable by any means either. However in Scotland Sky and ESPN's contract with the SPL states both half of the old firm have to be in the SPL.
So say in theory Rangers go bust. That contract is then breeched. Sky and ESPN pull out of their deal and est 1mil a year per club is lost. Put on top of that, that Rangers play 2 away games on average every season against each club with an increased traveling support we'll call that est 300k a year per club. (about 150k per away game) That would also be lost. Plus some sponsorship deals state that TV rights have to be in place. So those deals are lost. Others state that they must be in the top 6 split for a bonus as they play the old firm an extra 2 games that season, that bonus would be lost. So ive already accounted for potential of a 2m loss per season for a number of SPL clubs.
This would be made worse if Sky/ESPN/Sponsors then decided to sue the SPL for breech of contract. This all piles on. A number of these clubs would follow Rangers into the history books. Hearts are already on the verge of administration themselves. Imagine if they lost 2m every year. Even the best administrators in the world would struggle to right what i believe is around £30m i dept.
This would be good for the lower scottish clubs i admit. The likes of Hamilton, Ross County and Ayr to name a few would probably get a free promotion due to SPL clubs not being around any more. But then Celtic would be competing on a lower level without the same amount of income and therefore players that would currently sign for them wont. They would then be ill prepared for Europe.
IMO and i may be wrong but the SPL would plunge into even darker days. Scottish football would be at the same level as the much lower leagues in the European game.
Now again i will state i believe we did over do it chasing a European dream that was never going to work with what we had. But i think that has to be a big warning for the current "sugar daddy" clubs.
Imagine if Man Citys owners sold up tomorrow. Thy would be in a much worse situation than us.
However I know wrongs have been done. And i know they probably will happen again within European and even Scottish football. However i think we need to look logically here. Scottish football will be plagued into the dark ages without both sides of the old firm. Now if we do go bust and get bought over we could always go back into the third division, just as Livingston did. However that would still be a minimum of 4 years without the tv rights, old firm games (big income games) and potentially lower income for most Scottish clubs.
I know this sounds harsh to some clubs witch have budgeted pretty much perfectly, and there are some in the SPL who are running at about break even/small profits. And i know they would also struggle without this increased income. And it is punnishing them without any real need. However i do feel sorry for them. Mis-management by 2 spererate Rangers chirmans really havent helped.
David Murray did spend too much. But then again maybe he didnt spend enough. Look how much a team at the top of Europe would cost now. Then look at what we spent, about 10% of that fee. Again £12m for Flo was just crazy. And during the 90's when Celtic wherent exactly spending a lot of money to say we'll spend a tenner for every fiver they spent was crazy. I dont think we needed to spend money on some players during that time. Infact i believe we spent £5mil on a player who played a total of 2 games. Thats crazy.
So on the whole i do believe we where mismaneged. However i also believe tht we need to be realistic in what we all expect if Rangers go broke.
If they've been able to stay at the top of the pile by not fulfilling their financial responsibitlies then other clubs have suffered from this and could have been bringing in more income themselves through more high profile games and European competitions.
I can't see Rangers as a club being shut down unless there really is no altenative, but I think you should be looking at Celtic who are back where they are after their going into administration rather than arguing that Rangers should be a special case. With the fan base Rangers have they'll find their way back.
As for Man City, yes they would be in a huge hole with their wage bill if the current owners were to pack up and leave. If City were in this position with someone like Siniwatra at the top I'd be massively worried, but the way the infrastructure as well as the team is being improved is encouraging. I've followed City for 35 years, admittedly from a distance so I'm very used to seeing the dark lining to any silver cloud, but I think the new owners are in for the long haul.
Also fwiw, i agree we should be punnished for our mistakes. However i suspect that that theres more to it than what the press are giving out. Im not actually making this appeal for Rangers, but for the Scottish game in general. A game that has been on the decline already. One that could use a lift more than anoher knock back.
My use of Man City was completely an example of other clubs that potentially face similar problems. I agree building infrastructure can help. But lets remember Rangers also done this during the Murray era.
sell-ic could always apply to join the EPL; good luck with that. Which of the bottom 6/7 teams will vote in a team which MIGHt take their EPL position from them. Which of the 4th-8th position teams will vote in a team which, in a couple of years, MIGHT take away a european spot from them. Which of the top 3 teams would be interested in playing sell-ic anyway.
SPl needs a strong old firm, they also need the other teams to be stronger. if its teams that go out of business you want, why dont hibs and hearts ammalgamate and form one big edinburgh team? The same foe dundee and d/utd. Thats the way to better the SPL, not to see one of its 2 giants fold.
WATP.
i do have an extremely strong footballing knowledge, and i know yous where bailed out. Guessing now that was before you went into administration then??
I also know when you where most at risk your attendence was little over 10,000. and your average attendance for the same year was 24,000
Ive googled the issue and would appear they where filing for administration but got bought over before they actually went into it.
I cringed when i seen the first team for todays game with ICT, although some of the young lads came in and done very well. Little particularly impressed for me. However when your looking at a centre back playing in both your full back posisions you need to question squad depth. When one of them is Kirk Broadfoot, you need to question your signing policy.
However i think we do have a good side if we have every player fit and no suspensions still. But even with a full strenth first 11, id worry about an old firm game as soon as you compare the benches. Even 2 weeks ago in the Dundee United game id much rather have had the Dundee United Bench.
I know think this is the time where Murray Park has to prove whats its worth. I know its made its building costs back with the sales of Alan Hutton, Charlie Adam and Danny Wilson. Alan McGregor also making us some money with fantasic performances when required. However theres only 3 players that a £14 million facility has produced that i think could play at the top level. Compare that to other facitlities of similar nature and its not close to its potential.
Obviously a new crop is comming through now with Ness, Wylde, Perry, McMillian, Fleck and Little all getting the odd game.