Superb article from Bill Leckie about the mankies

[Winston Ingram]

Nicked from Brokeback

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/2727834/Youre-not-big-enough-for-them.html

Superb article. Couldn't have put it better myself:top marks

[Hibercelona]

WELL, it looks like we're stuck with them.

Not only is Rangers and Celtic moving to England not viable, it's not desirable.

England's words, not mine.

Oh yes, the Premiership's all ears when it comes to talking about forming a second tier.

They just don't want the Old Firm in it.

Which means that unless they take my advice and break away to play each other 36 times a season, they're going to be part of Scottish football from now until the end of time.

But don't let them even DARE come back and try to tell the rest of us how it's going to be. Don't let them THINK about planning for the future on their own terms.

It's like sitting the missus down and going: "Look, I know I said it was over and I was leaving you for a young, rich, gorgeous model, but it turns out she doesn't want to me any more, so even though you're a bit ragged round the edges, I'll just settle for what I had. Now go and make my tea."

It'd be a race to see what hit the pavement first, your clothes or your backside.

And let's be honest here. Why should Scottish football's reaction to the Old Firm getting a knock-back from England be any different?

They treat us like the poo on their shoe. They nick all the best players, don't play them, then moan that there's no competition.

Half of their fans can't be bothered going to away games, yet they STILL peddle the myth that they fill our grounds and keep us afloat.

They take the bulk of the TV cash, even though it takes two teams to make a game.

They demand free advertising every time they want to flog tickets, then when you turn up to cover the game they put up every possible obstacle between you and their players.

They're greedy, selfish, arrogant and monumentally deluded about their status in football's world order.

I mean, give me a break from all this guff about how if they left, we would be the League of Wales/Ireland/Isle of Man/delete where applicable.

When did Ireland or Wales ever have a Hearts, a Hibs, an Aberdeen, a Dundee or a Dundee United?

When did they have clubs like Motherwell, St Mirren and Killie supplying players to the international scene?

I've said it a million times and I'll keep saying it. All those clubs and more would not only survive without the Old Firm, they'd THRIVE.

Sure, there might not be the same telly money or sponsorship deals. But what the idiots can't see is that it's since they started chasing those pots of fool's gold, since they made cash more important than trophies, that the game's gone into decline.

My dream is to see Scottish football in a position where it's the fan who matters most.

A democratic set-up where realistic wages paid to home-grown talent led to more affordable admission prices, bigger crowds, a much better atmosphere and a truly competitive league.

Is anyone seriously going to tell me that's NOT more preferable to a boring two-horse race where those two horses only raise a genuine gallop when they're neck-and-neck in the final furlong?

That's why we should be using the Old Firm's utter failure to prostitute themselves to the Premiership to force them into being part of something new, something fairer, something better.

We should make them realise that rather than begging Sky for the extra millions that would let them hire yet more mercenaries who won't make a blind bit of difference at European level, they should cut their cloth, balance the books and go back to producing teams their supporters can identify with.

Were the Celtic fans ever happier than when they won the European Cup with 11 Lions born within 30 miles of The Jungle?

Were Rangers fans ever more proud of a team than in the Jock Wallace era of boys who would have walked over broken glass to pull on the shirt?

The answer in both cases is no - and if they can't admit that, they're both doomed to continue on this downward spiral of boom and bust.

But I'm damned if we should let them drag us down any further with them.

Rangers and Celtic believe they ARE Scottish football. Well, think again, chaps.

There are 40 other clubs with as much right to breathe the air as you do. You only have 11 players with two legs each, the same as Montrose or East Stirling.

In the wake of this watershed decision by the Premiership, it's up those 40 clubs to decide what they want for their game - because it IS their game.

Do they want to seize the day and push for change, to reunite the two league bodies and get back to the split of divisions that almost everyone seems to want - 18 in the top flight and a 24-team second flight, playing each other twice a season with the gate money fairly divvied?

Or are they happy with being talked down to, treated as lower class, merely waiting for the next airy-fairy escape plan to be hatched?

For me, unity and change is the ONLY option.

It's time for the Old Firm to sit down and admit they're no better than anyone else, that they're only part of something and not the centre of the universe.

But if that much humility is beyond them, maybe it really IS time for them to be in a league of their own.

:top marks

[Joe's ice cream]

Nicked from Brokeback

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/2727834/Youre-not-big-enough-for-them.html

Superb article. Couldn't have put it better myself:top marks

Read this earlier and thought that it was spot on, sums up exatly what i think of it all.

[Alex Trager]

Not :top marks but 50/10. That sums up my hatred toward the **** that is the old firm

[Hibstrooper]

Excellent article. It's funny how we can all see that Scottish football is in need of a big shake up however the people at the top paid the money to guide our game can't.

[fordie2]

The problem with that article is it is too idealist! We don't live in a perfect world, people at the top don't listen to the minnions at the bottom of the tree!

[Horse]

Very good article. Sums up what most real fans of Scottish football have known for years. Scottish football is not about glory hunters who suddenly bought a Celtic/Rangers season ticket/replica shirt when it became fashionable to do so. Scottish football is about generations of families who have followed their local clubs through thick and thin. We could certainly survive without the OF, the LOI and LOW comparisons are bull****, Hibs, Hearts, and Aberdeen attract crowds that are bigger than all the teams in these two leagues combined and I see no reason why supporters of other teams would disappear just because two horrible sectarian teams left. As is well documented, no-one else wants the sectarian franchise so we're stuck with them, as embarassing as it is the OF are a uniquely Scottish problem and what's worse is not only do they provide a public platform to show off Scottish bigots and fascists to the world they also import bigots/facists from other countries to help heap shame on our beloved game.

The idea of an 18 team top tier and 24 team 2nd tier is spot on aswell. Throw in some relegation play-offs involving 4 teams from each division and you have a far more exciting set up than the current shambles.

[Winston Ingram]

...and Jim Spence joins in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jimspence/2009/11/old_firm_facing_economic_chill.html

:greengrin

[Viva_Palmeiras]

donno if irony is the correct word however...

Sun = mouthpiece of Rupert Murdoch of Sky fame
Sky = strangle-hold and mega influence on the game in the UK and other nations.

SKY would be one of the key players (from a financial sense) that could/would open the door for the OF (perhaps even making it a condition for increased rights payments - surely not??? hmmm).

So is this short term selling newspapers stirring up controversy and following it all the way until the ultimate move (or non-move)...?

With the report on recommendations for free-to-view TV matches have inflated TV revenues become the millstone around the neck of football? [before answering - Who gets the increased money - players, clubs or back to grassroots/fans with subsidies? Is it a false economy? :rolleyes:]

[Brando7]

Don't think Rangers crowd problems over the last 2 years would have helped the cause either :greengrin

We all knew this was ever going to happen n not surprised by the getting told to bolt

[Steve-O]

Excellent article. It's funny how we can all see that Scottish football is in need of a big shake up however the people at the top paid the money to guide our game can't.

Farcical really. Until that non-entity who is SFA Chief Executive is removed, NOTHING will change. All that clown cares about is diving. He'd be better off as head of the Scottish swimming team.

[Danderhall Hibs]

Farcical really. Until that non-entity who is SFA Chief Executive is removed, NOTHING will change. All that clown cares about is diving. He'd be better off as head of the Scottish swimming team.

You know that the SFA don't run the SPL, don't you?

[CapitalHibs]

Ooooooooooh! - reality check fer a certain Mr Regan:violin:

[broonie27]

nothing from that paper, or any other red-top, is worth the (cheap) paper it is written on.

[Steve-O]

You know that the SFA don't run the SPL, don't you?

Yes I do, but you do know that for a wholesale change to take place in Scottish Football that the SFA would need to be part of it don't you?

[poolman]

...and Jim Spence joins in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jimspence/2009/11/old_firm_facing_economic_chill.html

:greengrin


Quote from the article


These guys and the rest of the SPL bosses can only dream of being able to pay 10 and 12 grand a week to players, and yet this season in particular, as one half of the Old Firm cannot and the other half will not pay to bring in the quality of player of yesteryear, the gap between Celtic and Rangers and the rest looks much less daunting than in the past.


There's a strange lot no a million miles away paying their players that and most of the time they canny be arsed turning out to play :greengrin

[NaeTechnoHibby]

nothing from that paper, or any other red-top, is worth the (cheap) paper it is written on.

FWIW Bill Leckie, Graham Speirs and JimTraynor were all saying these thing back in their Herald days :agree:

Jim Traynor has copped out, these days, for the bucks and fame :rolleyes: :agree: Bill and Jim both write for the same group of newspapers, which still give some freedom to their columnists and I think their words are true :agree:

Jim Spence is not an OF apologist either :thumbsup:

[PedroEdin84]

Absolutely perfect statement, just wish more of them had access to this and would sort themselves out, absolutely pathetic and needs somes true fans to stand up to this nonsense and accept this is there only way forward. They have good players but will need to sell a few to make the books balance. (Nade, Goncalves and Kingston) Beat the real teams! (ie born and bred teams in Scotland). This will lead you to the best team ever to grace the **** turf of tynecastle. The team that your scared of every season! We have the wages, players and signings you can only dream of just now!! (Btw HFC is the team!) It always seems to be. Just fed up tho

:notworthy::notworthy::notworthy::notworthy:

[Judas Iscariot]

Great article :top marks

Hopefully the clubs react to recent events and put the GFA in their place..


nothing from that paper, or any other red-top, is worth the (cheap) paper it is written on.

That's why you read it online :rolleyes:

Is it not worth the bandwith either :cool2:

[Danderhall Hibs]

Yes I do, but you do know that for a wholesale change to take place in Scottish Football that the SFA would need to be part of it don't you?

But if the SPL is to stand up to the OF then how can the SFA affect this or lead this? The clubs resigned from the SFA to form the SPL - they have their own board etc. I don't see what Gordon Smith can do about it until the SPL are on board.

He wouldn't be hammered like he is if he wasn't ex-hun.

[Steve-O]

But if the SPL is to stand up to the OF then how can the SFA affect this or lead this? The clubs resigned from the SFA to form the SPL - they have their own board etc. I don't see what Gordon Smith can do about it until the SPL are on board.

He wouldn't be hammered like he is if he wasn't ex-hun.

Not true. I couldn't care less where he played. What has he done as CEO do far?

He doesn't exactly seem to be lobbying for change does he? He's in quite a powerful position to at least make some noises about the situation.

My point is more about the whole of Scottish football from top to bottom than just the OF by the way.

[Phil D. Rolls]

The problem with that article is it is too idealist! We don't live in a perfect world, people at the top don't listen to the minnions at the bottom of the tree!

Yeah but, as the article points out, the OF are in exactly the same position as everyone else. They actually need us more than we need them if we are being honest.