A guest blog by former Celtic & Scotland defender, Jim Craig
“What time is this to come back?”
Dolores McCann (her Mother had been a great fan of foreign films) stood in that classic pose of the wounded woman – up to her full height and chin forward – as she glared at her husband who had just come in the front door. Before he could say a word, she gave him another volley;
“you left the house at half-past-two for a three o’clock kick-off, it only takes you 20 minutes to get to the ground, a match lasts only one-and-a-half hours plus ten minutes for the break and you’ve just walked back in the door at half-past-seven! So where the hell were you?”.
Wayne McCann (his father liked Westerns) tried to calm her down.
“Dolores, you don’t know what it’s like at football matches nowadays ; it has changed out of all recognition; a match goes on for much longer”.
“In what way?” Dolores asked.
“Well, for a start, the players and even the managers can complain about any decision that is given against them. If that happens, the referee then goes and has a word with firstly, the two assistant referees, then the fourth official and gets their comments before he reflects on the situation. If he is still in any doubt that he made the wrong decision then he can ask the guy upstairs sitting in front of a television screen what he thinks. And, of course, all through this, the managers and players of both teams can chip in with their comments. That all adds a fair bit of time to the match”.
“Aye…but turning up at half-past-seven is still a bit over the top…is it no’?”
“Well, no’ really……you see, nowadays you are not allowed to have a drawn game, so if the match is level at the full-time whistle, there is extra time, which takes a minimum of half-an-hour”.
“The time is still no’ matching up!”
“Aye, mibbe so, if that was the end of the match. But if the match is still level at the end of extra-time, then it goes to a penalty shoot-out. I told you…you are not allowed a drawn game”.
“ A penalty shoot-out disnae take long”.
“That might have been the case at one time but because so many keepers were being accused of moving before the ball was kicked, nowadays they are strapped in to a harness which anchors them in the middle of the goal. They can only move when the foot of the guy who is taking the penalty actually touches the ball. So, after each kick, the keeper has to be put back into the harness and it all starts again. And, of course, you get the complaints from the managers and players that the harness wasnae working properly or that the officials who put the harness on didnae put it on right. That all adds up to the time factor”.
“Did you go to the pub?”
“As God is my judge, Dolores, after the match finished, I came straight here”.
“Who won anyway?”
“That’s a difficult question… there was so much noise and kerfuffle both on the pitch and in the stands, nobody was quite sure what the final score was. And the guy who usually does the announcing had gone home. Somebody said that he had a date. Anyway, if you let me turn on the radio, I’ll hear the score there. And Dolores?”
“Yes”
Wayne walked over to the drinks cabinet and took out a couple of glasses. “I don’t suppose you would fancy a wee drink”
We will leave the smooth-talking Wayne to his attempts to mollify Dolores and reflect on the situation. What you have just read is probably the ultimate scenario for those who wish to tamper with the current rules of football. Do I think that the game needs radical changes like that? No but I do think that some change is necessary and in one specific circumstance.
Now, I was a professional footballer for 9 years and in all that time, I can put my hand on my heart and state with complete conviction that I never pulled any other player’s jersey. Did I try to half him in two with a tackle, yes! But no jersey-pulling. And, of course, I was penalised for the challenge.
Today, though, I feel that there is a lot of body-checking and jersey-pulling going on in every match. Very often the referee lets it go and then you get the ridiculous scenario at a corner kick when all those waiting for the ball to come in are pulling and pushing, with the referee watching it and ignoring it. It is a foul, ref!
When the referee decides that an offence has been committed, then the player will be spoken to first. If he does it again, he will be given a yellow-card. The problem is, though, that the offence might possibly have affected the play in the match, whereas the yellow card does not affect the player’s participation.
If the player is daft enough to do it again, then of course he gets another yellow and will be off. Most, however, are sensible and keep the head, so they go unpunished as far as the current match is concerned. What we have to find is a punishment that affects the match in which the transgression occurred. Which means that we have to consider the sin bin.
This works very well in rugby and gives the referee a means to punish an offence a little more harshly – yet more efficiently – than a yellow card but without having to go for the ultimate, drastic – and for many unpalatable – option of the red card. I hope it comes in soon.
HOMUNCULUSAPRIL 22, 2018 at 13:32
And the now classic “We Deserve Better”
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I really don’t understand that thinking. We all support our clubs and we all want them to do as best as they can but I’m not sure we actually ‘deserve’ anything. We may get angry at the players and directors from time to time (as Rangers fans are right now), but what constitutes ‘deserving’ something?
I suppose ‘We deserve better’ is a bit strong. Not as bad as ‘Where we belong’ but in the same mould. They could be talking in terms of a return for their money, in which case they might have a point. As far as their board is concerned, do they deserve better?
Expectations might be better terminology. Even although their expectations are too high it’s better than deserving.
Every club has expectations – at various levels.
It’s certainly true that there is an additional level of interest with them playing their close rivals at the end of the season. It does make certain games much more interesting but there are always going to be winners and losers with the home/away mix and the 18/19/20 Home/Away games. I have got kind of used to it though and since it will never affect my team, don’t really mind whether it stays or not.
jimboApril 22, 2018 at 19:29I suppose ‘We deserve better’ is a bit strong. Not as bad as ‘Where we belong’ but in the same mould.
I read this as in their case as wishful thinking that they think “We deserve better” but instaed their endeavours put them “Were we belong” liquidated and dead
Roll on mid-day next Sunday .
The ‘We deserve better’ banners have been doing the rounds since 2012
Since it’s quite, a small question if i may.
At the ibrox POTY award, what happens if kenny win’s it?
CLUSTER ONE
Kenny has done nothing this season to be in with a chance tbh.
Just for fun, on a quiet night, I went back to look at an article I read last year, and was kind of annoyed at.
After reading it again, I composed a letter to its author, more as a wee mental exercise than anything else.
But I might just print it out and send it snail mail tomorrow. Bloody annoys me when people fudge!
Here is what I have written:
Ms Selina SagayamGibson,Dunn and Crutcher LLPTelephone House,2-4 Temple Avenue,London, EC4 0HB
Dear Ms Sagayam,
On July 22 2017, you posted on the “Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation” a contribution entitled “Learnings from some recent Contested Cases before the UK Takeover panel”.
May I refer you to the section therein headed “Rangers International Football Club plc:Concert Parties, Breach of Rule 9 Mandatory Bid regulations & Compliance Orders”, and within that section to the part headed “ Background Facts”?
In this summary of the facts, there is a strange hiatus between “the club(Old Rangers) ran into financial difficulty,it entered into administration and in July 2012 in (sic) entered into liquidation” and “ in December 2012 a new company, Rangers International Football Club plc (Rangers) was incorporated in Scotland…….”
I would like to fill in the gap in your record.
Rangers Football Club, incorporated in 1899 went, as you say, into Administration . It is most important to emphasise that it was not bought out of Administration, via any kind of CVA or other arrangement to pay its creditors.
No, as you also correctly say, it went into Liquidation , where, even as I write,it presently languishes under the name of ‘Rangers 2012’ ( its name having been hastily changed just before it was Liquidated )
The most significant consequence of being liquidated is, for a Scottish professional football club ,loss of membership of a League, which entails loss of membership of the Scottish Football Association.
That is, the football club ceases to exist as a recognised professional football club entitled to participate in Scottish Professional Football. In other words, it dies the death of Liquidation, as many clubs have done, even in recent times.
Some of its assets ( excluding, notably, some football players under contract who could legally walk away from their contracts) had been sold by the Administrators to new company , SevcoScotland, in 2012.
Contrary to the view expressed by many so-called journalists in Scotland, this new company was not a ‘new owner’ of ‘Rangers 1899’.That club was, still is, in Liquidation and was not available for purchase!
But the new company aspired to found a new football club.
Now, to obtain membership of the Scottish Football Association a new, would-be professional club, has first to be in membership of a Scottish Professional Football League.
SevcoScotland , renamed as “The Rangers Football Club Ltd”,duly applied for membership of the then Scottish Premier League(SPL), but was refused membership.
It then applied for membership of Division 1 of the then Scottish Football League(SFL) , and was denied such membership.
It was not admitted to membership of Division 2 ,either.
Finally, in a process described at the time by one most honourable ,now sadly deceased, club Chairman as ‘corrupt’, it was finally admitted into Division 3 of the SFL.
Back in 2011, a company known as ‘Rangers Football plc’ had been set up ,on 16 November ,company number 437060.
The shareholders of ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd ‘ did a deal with the shareholders of “Rangers Football plc”, under which “Rangers Football plc” became the holding company of ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd’
“Rangers Football plc” changed its name to ‘Rangers International Football Club’ on 27 November 2012.
And under that name launched an IPO, in the prospectus of which they claimed to be the Rangers of 1899 vintage!
A claim which is arrant nonsense, of course, because Rangers of 1899 is in Liquidation.
So there you have it: a more complete record of facts, so that no one is deceived into believing that the chairman of RIFC plc who , in a precedent-setting move by the Takeover Panel,was taken to the Court of Session and ordered by that Court to comply with the Takeover Panel Appeal Board’s order to make a mandatory offer under Rule 9, is chairman of anything other than the holding company of the 6-year-old ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd’, and not at all Chairman of a holding company of Rangers of 1899.
Not that these additional facts have any immediate bearing on the purpose of your article about Rule 9.
But I just wanted to let you know.
( And you will know by now, of course, that the principal member of the RIFC plc ‘concert party’ has indicated that he will obey the Court of Session’s order to make an offer, and has until Thursday of this week to do so)
Yours sincerely,
me.
( and I’ve just noticed her name-SAGAyam!)
Again, bugger. 5 mins isn’t enough to put posts into decent paragraphs for easy reading! See wordpress! see feckin annoyance!
Level42 will need to instruct the SMSM to copy/paste some World Class Whoppers this week.
Trying to talk up the current TRFC team is a lost cause.
So, IMO, attempting to destabilise CFC is all they have left.
I’m going for;
Brendan Rodgers “is understood” to be signing for Arsenal – immediately after wrapping up the League title. [I know.]
And “it is also understood” that his first signings for the Gooners ‘could’ be; Dembele, Tierney, Roberts.
John Clark
Why don’t you write it out on notepad first and then copy/paste?
If I may reply to FinnMcCool on behalf of those who have fallen foul of the 5-min edit – writing it in notepad doesn’t work 100% as the paragraph spacing doesn’t translate as it looks – you can put double returns in and that should work but it doesn’t always and the changing of para breaks can change the emphasis of what’s written.
As regards the “We Deserve Better” campaign – jeezlouise, where to start? Firstly no, you don’t – to quote that existential philosopher Leigh Griffiths “yer club’s deid mate”, and it does on your watch.
The writing was on the wall to see and the warnings were shouted out loud (regardless of source) but you did too little too late.
Prospective buyers from overseas were ridden out of town on a rail. Even when you got an actual UK billionaire you chased him out of town, until you got enough RRM to blow “Surrendering No” smoke up your collectives to meet a quorum (Latin for concert party?)
Their talk of being “back where you belonged” resonated with your misguided sense of entitlement and you happily bought season tickets pumping more of your money into Frankenstein-like “clumpany*” cobbled together from body parts from the previous club and some brand new bits, all the time that Green was filling his boots and King was sitting in Joburg paying for a team with other people’s money. The model wasn’t fixed, he’ll it wasn’t even tweaked – we WILL spend more than we can afford and we WILL get into Europe and we WILL get the case we need to bail us out because “we are Rangers (sic) and that’s our right!” This despite the fact it didn’t even work before…
I do feel sorry for the silent majority of Rangers fans who aren’t swayed by “tangerine” tops and songs about Irish blood, but you only have two choices – live within your means or go bust again. Maybe not this year, maybe not next, but you will go bust again and mark my words, the powers that be will not be able to obfuscate your way back again…
In summary – you are getting entirely what you deserve and will cnever nynue to do so unless you change your model and your mindset.
Jockybhoy, Don’t hold back now!
Case in point re. edits – went underground on the tube seconds before hitting the edit/send….”In summary – you are getting entirely what you deserve and will continue to do so unless you change your model and your mindset.”also *copyright The Clumpany
finnmccoolApril 23, 2018 at 03:15
‘..John ClarkWhy don’t you write it out on notepad first and then copy/paste? ‘
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That’s what I did. All beautifully laid out, nicely spaced. But when I lift it and post it, the spacing all goes to hell. When I then go in to sort it in ‘edit’ it’s difficult to move fast enough to finish in time to beat the 5 minute you get. And if you don’t, none of the editing you’ve so far done is saved!
Same happens when you lift the text of an email and post it.
Unless (which is entirely possible) I’m just a hopeless user of the technology. I much prefer the old tech of dip-in pen and ink!
woodsteinApril 23, 2018 at 12:58
‘..A free alternative to Microsoft Word is Apache Openoffice,..’
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It is Openoffice I use, Woodstein.
The difficulty lies in the fact that if one has used italics, or bold, or inverted commas or other punctuation marks, it’s quite difficult to find the beginning and end of each sentence because the technical bumph about each process appears. So, for instance, if I had used bold for ‘so for instance’ what appears on the edit screen are a number of words in front of those words and behind those words explain that the words are going to be within inverted commas!
And so with every word or para that is being edited.It takes me a few minutes to find where my careful paragraphs begin and end, so that I can get the proper spacing restored.
I’ll post this post now, and see how it appears to you.
There are five paras, with 4 words in bold The first is a one liner, ending with Woodstein, the second with commas (in bold), the third, with ‘restored’, the fourth with ‘to you’ and the fifth with this word ‘this’.
T
my immediately preceding post. It has come up without spacing between the paras.So I’m going in to edit it.
Clock’s ticking John…
and an example of what I see is : because the technical bumph about each process appears. So, for instance, if I had used <strong>bold</strong> for ‘so for instance’ .
Over a long post, it takes me more than 5 minutes to see where I need to create spaces, even though my original post was spaced!
JockybhoyApril 23, 2018 at 13:25
‘..Clock’s ticking John…’
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Thanks for not telling me the obvious solution to my editing problem: to stop writing longish posts!