Celtic Banter Archive November 18 2013

18 Nov 2013 23:30:16
The press are still printing the monstrous lie that RFC were demoted and relegated. Somebody needs to complain to the press complaints commission about these lies. There's no records of either demotion or relegation. The club went bust and it's assets were bought. Greens new club applied to get into spl and got refused, no membership granted. It applied to sfl1, refused, was allowed association membership and entered sfl3. It's not even an error it's deliberate lies.
Apologies and corrections by papers need to be forced by pcc.

Prove legally there was no relegation or demotion and ergo it's a new club.

Think the comment from pl will be interesting as msm not to critical as they know the truth and the response comes from a sevco spokesman un named as yet.
The sevco fans demanding action but silence from their board would suggest they are unsure how to proceed with this one.
1/if no protest then pl in the clear
2/ if protest do they risk a can of worms being opened

With the ongoing court case in London of the NOTW miscreants and the new press framework being put in place, this persistent deliberate lying needs jumped on. A one paragraph correction stating rangers were not demoted or relegated legally means it's a new start club. Get that and you've got them over a barrel. {Ed007's Note - Why didn't Rangers get any money due then from the failed Sentanta deal?

Rangers missed out on a share of a £600,000 pay-out from former TV company Setanta - because technically they don't exist any more.
Clubs who were part of the SPL between 2009 and 2012 received payments this week as their final dividend for the company going into administration back in 2009.
But Rangers got nothing because they were classed as a club which no longer exists after their liquidation in June 2012

Almost every complaint on press complaints commission website is a Clause 1 (accuracy) complaint.

Demoted and relegated very aptly falls into this. Go get it Bhoys.

They qualified for the champions league as runners up, but did not take up that place. Why? There can only be one reason.

A different club qualified for the champions league then died. The players walked away and the ground was sold. A guy called green started a brand new club.

The same club would have had their club SFA membership. Greens new The Rangers didn't have a membership and got a dispensation to play a cup game. They were then given an "Associate" member status, less than full member. The first instance of that in SFA history.

18 Nov 2013 19:23:50
Does anyone know if any clubs in Scotland pay the living wage as we seem to be the only supporters that have raised the issue and was shamefully blocked by millionaires. Is this celtics shame or should others be brought into this issue. It's fair to say pl managed to deflect any headlines with his Rory jibe away from this story in the mainstream media.
Jim {Ed007's Note - I don't know of any club in Scotland that pay the Living Wage but I think you are wrong abut Lawwell, he was asked a question and answered it, it is hardly his fault and the Sevco ilk have latched onto it.
PL would have been crucified by the press and us fans if he had avoided the question and conspiracies galore would have sprouted up about why he didn't answer it. I still don't understand why so many people are upset by it, it was a quick-witted retort to a stupid question.}

I don't have a problem with his Rory joke but I do think it was a carefully thought out comment that would grab the headlines rather than face media talking about the living wage at a club that posted massive profits.
Jim {Ed007's Note - I was all for the Living Wage motion and if I am honest I am disappointed the way it went.
All PL done was make an insignificant remark about an insignificant club, the twist in it through media should be of no surprise to anyone. They need their headlines.}

18 Nov 2013 11:16:02
What's everyone's thoughts on regional leagues rather than national leagues? I know it's something PL touched on at the AGM. Personally, I'm all for anything that drives a better financial result for the club as long as it helps us drive forward at playing level. A British & Irish league would work in my opinion, but the main issue is England don't suffer from the financial restraints other leagues do. So where does that leave Celtic/Scotland? Who else could we realistically partner with? Would a "Celtic" league with IRE, NIR + WAL be any more of a financial success? I don't think it would.

HamiltonBhoy

Looking in to it a bit further at Europe as a whole, the obvious regions you can divide up are:

- Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
- Benelux and Low (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
- British Isles (England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, R. Ireland)
- Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia)
- Nordic (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Iceland)
- Alpine (Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Germany, France, Italy)
- Danubian (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine)
- Mediterranean (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar)

I know I’ve missed out certain nations or duplicated others.

Also, some of them would need to be trimmed down further and then you have to take into considerations countries with political conflicts as well.

It would be a great idea for the smaller countries, but I think it would have too many complications!

Welsh clubs can play in the EPL so they have no need to join up with a Celtic league. But the often raised prospect of a northern atlantic league would be a good bet. the smaller nations who have terrible TV money could band together to make a pretty decent league. Most of these countrys have 1-2 big teams that would be a huge spectator draw a table something like this

Celtic
Ajax
Standard liege
Porto
Benfica
Fc Basel
Grasshoppers
AZ Alkmaar
Anderlecht
Brondby
FC Copenhagen
Rapid vienna
FC Red Bull
Malmo
AIK
Rosenberg
Stromsgodset
HJK Helsinki
FC Honka
Rangers

RANGERS! lol why would a second rate bunch of cloggers like them get in

You're having a laugh right?!? Where to start on this.

the 'Mediterranean' Region - that's going to be some league! - Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Greece. Why would these countries want to join together, far less incorporate Albania, Cyprus, Malta and the like.

Same goes for Germany - the best league in Europe right now - why share this with bulgaria/moldova?
And why have Ukraine in the Danubian region when they're actively trying to resurrect the old Soviet championship with Russian clubs.

As for that league in point 2, barring the obvious joke of 'Rangers', You can't seriously expect fans to travel to belgium, holland, scandinavia, austria on a fortnightly basis. And hopefully have champions league ties on top of that. Imagine over xmas you're away to alkmaar and AIK - who the hell is going to pay to go to that? Especially as it'll no doubt be on TV which will become our God.

People need to get a grip on this, we are where we are, deal with it. I for one never want TV money to play a bigger role than fans in our club. I've had this out with my mates in England all the time, the most important thing to teams like Newcastle, Sunderland, Villa etc is SKY TV, the most important thing to CFC is our fans. That's the way it should stay.

No 3 quite simply TV money

@3 who? Do you mean sevco5088, ., .kbarry

I don't see any of that ever happening. For me the only route out of Scotland for Celtic is if Sky say so and they demand that they be allowed to join the English league system. I do however believe that any such chance is slim and would never happen until Rangers are in the SPL challenging Celtic are in the position to go at the same time, England will never have one without the other in my opinion. {Ed007's Note - TV companies have no jurisdiction over what teams participate in competitions. Until there is major change in FIFA/UEFA statures this is never going to happen.}

I Know ED there is not a chance at the moment but can't help think Sky might have to do something extraordinary to replace the Champions league or risk falling apart and allowing BT to take their market leaders position. It would be niave to think TV have no say in how our game is run. You can bet it will be something big. Murdoch doesn't like to lose not sure if there is a chance it would involve us but can hope. {Ed007's Note - The top clubs all meet behind TV companies back regarding the financial distribution. One of the threats against the FFFP regs is that teams like Man Utd, Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern etc etc would break away from UEFA and form their own Euro Super-League where clubs can negotiate their own exclusive TV rights. The power people give UEFA is greatly enhanced, the clubs have the power and UEFA will bend over backwards to accommodate the bigger teams.
A number of clubs take the opportunity once or twice a year to discuss various issues including changes in rules, television rights, the power of UEFA, exploitation issues for new technology streams, etc. These discussions, the last of which were on August 25 2013, also always turn to the possibility of a breakaway pan European league. Several are G14 clubs, several are not, and some clubs decline involvement in such discussions. They would break away from their national leagues and UEFA. They accept that players would initially be banned from FIFA competitions as well, but know that FIFA would be looking to negotiate in any case. It would be the end of UEFA in all probability and UEFA are aware of this. It would also result in a restructuring of many of the national leagues. They would renegotiate their television rights, rights of distribution via other streams etc.. This is the greatest fear of UEFA and all major national authorities are aware that one day it could happen.
The Russian team Anzhi stated, before their current financial problems they had no intention of meeting FFFP regs rendering them banned from UEFA competitions, this was the supposed acorn from where the oak would grow but Anzhi developed their own financial problems and became insignificant.
UEFA are afraid of the the ECA (the old G14) a lot more than the ECA are afraid of them. All the Euro big hitters have the immense combined power to do as they want if, and when, they decide to.}

@ Ed007

Fair point, I did wonder about that but sort of presumed Sky would potentially have that power somewhere down the line. Given the money they pump into the game down there, you couldn't exactly grudge it eh!

@gerrymurphy If you read both my posts Gerry, my main point was about a British or a Celtic League (IRE, NIR, SCO + WAL).

RE: The other regions, underneath I wrote I know I've missed some countries out and also some of those regions would need trimmed down due to size and political restrictions. Another point I made was I feel it's unlikely to happen due to too many complications (again, political conflict + certain leagues don't have financial restrictions).

My main points for the post is it was brought up at the AGM, a continuing talking point about Celtic is ways of exploiting financial exposure and there doesn't seem to be much chat when he have the International breaks!