After nearly two months experience of our new shiny Forum platform, it has significantly failed to impress users at SFM who have – almost from day one – hankered for a return home to the familiar blog format.
Of course we wanted to give the new format as much time as possible to bed in, and to give our members as much time as possible to get used to it also.
Just as deciding to have a child is never a solution for a broken marriage, it seems that neither was our decision to give birth to our own new baby to boost the popularity of the blog.
So we are back to where we we were, but we will be updating the look of the old place soon. In fact we would have done so before re-opening the blog, but there was such a clamour for an early return (in private messages and emails) that we decided to take the leap now.
We hope the return to familiarity will make more of us happy than disappointed – but SFM will evolve and survive.
One of the obvious indications of the new format’s unpopularity has been the almost invisible response (compared to previous times) to our Winter appeal for funds. Perhaps we should have completed that before moving to the new Forum, but after six weeks of fundraising, we have raised only around £200. In a similar period last year we raised nearly £1800.
So I hate to make the first blog leader of the re-launched SFM (in part) an urgent appeal for funds, but that is where we are today. We have agreed to write off the cost of the new Forum software (may even make some use of it in the future), but we still need some assistance to keep the show on the road. In keeping with that aim we will keep the Winter Appeal running for another couple of weeks in the hope that we can recover. We will send an email to everyone about that in the next few days.
In the meantime, there are a multitude of things going on the game at the moment which should be a worry to all fans. Rangers as we know are still a financial basket-case, but with their huge salary bill, Celtic have slid from a position of financial dominance to unprecedented (in recent times) losses.
Covid has changed our routines, our workflows, our leisure and shopping habits, and our expectations not just of our football clubs, but our own daily existence.
The recent SFA report on child abuse has highlighted the massive crimes of individuals representing football clubs against the very lifeblood of those clubs, and as yet, no-one seems to want to take responsibility. It may be true that unreserved apologies are only words that cannot heal the broken dreams and lives of the victims of child abuse, but an apology sure as hell can’t do any harm.
Acceptance of responsibility, no equivocation, and a plan to help mitigate the effect on sufferers is required.
Can we also make it clear that whilst we respect the right of anyone to hold with Hover Pitch theories of the nature of a football club, we also expect that our right to not take those folk seriously is also respected.
SFM is not a place where we should tolerate discussion of whether or not Santa exists, or that TRFC are the same club that was sent to the breakers yard of liquidation in 2012. No need for us to constantly restate the bleedin’ obvious. We really hope that fans of Rangers can come here and feel welcome, but we can’t seriously entertain primary school playtime chat. As we know, these matters are metaphysical in nature, and following on from good practice we will have no metaphysical debate for fear of offending the believers.
We have much to discuss, matters far more serious to consider, so welcome back to SFM.
One thing I did like about the Forum was the occasional music chat and banter. We could bring back the Buddy Press feature which would allow us to address non-football matters from time to time.
Anyone up for that?
Thank goodness!
I know the change was made with the very best of intentions and I’ll repeat my apology for the cheek of a very infrequent contributor such as myself weighing in, but the loss of clarity of purpose was evident and a ‘site like no other’ lost something. Maybe like many things in life you don’t appreciate what you had till it’s gone.
I agree that the occasional forays into music or whimsy added to the pleasure of SFM and the reactions to them , appreciation or irritation, were manageable without the need for silos. I’ll chuck in another extra couple of quid to put my money where my mouth is and would urge others to do the same.
Welcome back.
Voted for new, now old forum, but democracy wins the day.
I completely missed the funding request. Donation sent
And echo the request to keep things civil. Yes we need to be reminded about the reasons for the blog in the first place. But can we stop the NC OC debate again?
Hindsight being a wonderful thing, it’s a pity that you didn’t opt for one of the many various free forum softwares available, to use during the test period, that I recommended in the last thread (honestly not an I told you so in any way) just something to consider if you ever feel another freshen up is required.
As for the appeal drop, I’m sure many in these difficult times are experiencing a drastic drop in revenue, and the change may not be as directly related to the software move as you think.
I confess to never using or even registering at the new SFM forum, as I use another forum with the same format and software, and it just grates me having to login to that forum, after they moved to Xenforo. I’m glad (on a personal level) to see the old format back, even though the migrated forum software works well at first, I have found that it tends to become very annoying over time, with, (in your face) adverts, the bug bear of my life. Though i fully understand that advertising does tend to help with running costs, and are acceptable as pretty much the norm now, on many other forums these days.
Welcome back, looking forward to continue reading from the many talented SFM contibutors.
Logged in will send a bit extra this week. Now that i have said it i can't back out;-)
I had, for several months before the change of format, been a daily reader of, but a non-contributor to, SFM but I stopped logging on entirely after the introduction of the “new” platforn because I found it unnecessarily cumbersome. I also felt that, if the reason for the change was to somehow reduce the number/frequency of suspect/deflective/ derailing posts, the baby had been well and truly thrown out with the bathwater, and the trolls’ objectives had been inadvertantly aided.
It didn’t help the new format’s case, either, when I discovered while registering that I was unable to use the “handle” that I’ve used since RTC days because it had too many characters. That was the deal breaker!!
I’m very glad, therefore, that the previous format has been reinstated.
I’ve lobbed in a few extra quid to celebrate its return and anxiously await publication of this comment, to see if my user name has somehow survived, not unlike …
Must admit I'm glad to see the forum revert to the original format. I suspect the multi threaded appearance may have appealed more to the younger and/or more social media inclined demographic. Afraid I'm non of the above, and just found it awkward and more difficult to follow.
Hope things can pick up here, as this site is still badly needed.
So the Wild Rover has returned to his parents and confessed what he's done. An adventurous couple of months but I'm grateful for re-uniting with my old friend. I was losing touch and only learning of one or two of his more lurid encounters. I'll find him much easier to keep an eye on now.
EKloon 16th February 2021 at 19:35
Mind , none of your caressing now .
I would’ve liked to have given the new format a bit longer to find its feet but obviously the majority of people weren’t keen. No harm in trying something new. Hopefully some of the regular posters who didn’t engage on the new website will return here and do so again.
IncredibleAdamspark
There still may be a use for the Forum going forward. I share your disappointment though I am fearful that we may have set the whole thing back, perhaps irretrievably, by the switch.
We can but hope.
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2021/02/17/an-inconvenient-court-date-looms-for-the-sevco-high-command/
Suggesting it's personal and Ashley wants to destroy King but may do a deal out of court to give him the retail deal long term . Doing a deal out of court for a favourable retail deal doesn't land a blow on King . If the bill is as high as 17m then forcing an admin event would certainly damage King , it could also damage others who were part of the coup that forced him out (such as Park) .
Big changes taking place in European competition timetabled for 2024. Celtic Trust today reporting that the club have hinted that UEFA would be publishing plans in the next few weeks.
Big Pink, any hints as to what this might be? The Europa Conference League is due to start next season. Meaning there will be a third European club competition and good luck to anyone who can figure out how qualifying works for that.
The impact of Covid on all clubs, but especially the big European ones, will likely have them attempting to grab even more for themselves. They’ll want to guarantee their access to this money whilst making it very difficult, if not outright excluding, clubs from outside the ‘big five’ leagues.
I think UEFA are due to be doing presentations soon, in a matter of a few weeks. Understandably, folk are being tight-lipped about it right now until UEFA set the hare loose, but the changes are “radical”. Or so it was claimed by Celtic.
The last article I read about this had UEFA expanding the CL to 36 teams and the number of games from 125 to 225. France would get an extra place to make four teams and England could get 6 teams.
They would do away with the groups and have one league of 36 teams playing 10 games each, top 8 teams qualify automatically and the next 16 teams would play off for the remaining 8 places to make up the last 16.
Not 100% sure how the qualifying would work but I’d guess that most of us could write down the majority of the teams that would make up the league.
Edit: This was a UEFA proposal designed to stop the clubs forming their own breakaway league. Can you imagine what the clubs themselves would come up with?
IAS
Yes I think you’re close to the truth. Would explain why Celtic are telling folk that their ‘review’ is focussed on their plan to be participants in the new set up.
IAP, I believe that proposal has just been rejected by the EPL and the European Leagues Body. The EPL are concerned about fixture congestion. (Hardly a surprise given they can probably sell the EPL rights for more than they’d get from consolidated ECL sales – money, money money with them!)
The Leagues Body are unhappy that the proposal grants more of the extra places to the Big 5, whereas they want them to proportionally help the Champions of the smaller leagues.
I’d be inclined to agree with them. The proposal is just another example of them protecting the big clubs i.e. if Barca had an unexpected really bad season, they still qualify as a result of their past 5 years coefficient.
https://www.deccanherald.com/sports/football/european-leagues-tell-uefa-to-rethink-champions-league-reform-952525.html
I think the UEFA proposals wanted the English League Cup scrapped in order to accommodate the increase in CL fixtures. That one might be a tough sell.
I’m all for progress but in the context of European club competitions it has to surely benefit more teams and nations than it does at the moment. The recent collapse of the French broadcast deal with Mediapro (worth almost £1b per season) will also have an effect on the speed of change.
I think the Europa League is a good competition and probably about the correct level for Celtic and Rangers. If more money and attention was sent in that direction it could be even better. The CL is completely overrated, in my opinion.
Two faced barstewards working in the media
https://twitter.com/RatedRobson/status/1362457468786397184
https://www.thenational.scot/news/19101992.crown-police-face-7m-payout-rangers-wrongful-prosecution-case/
The amount of money lost to the public purse because of this ibrox debacle, there has to be a public enquiry.
Pity the old club is dead as it could have offered up an apology.
ClusterOne
Can we now begin to calculate not only the cost of los tax income under old club but now the cost to the taxpayer for the wrongful prosecution. A previous blog suggested it was time to move on, if so how much has this cost Scots taxpayers? (Donation on its way)
RMcGeddawn 19th February 2021 at 13:15
how much has this cost Scots taxpayers?
……….
Eye watering amount.
Would anyone from the SMSM be brave enough to add it all together and put to print?
The thing is the cost is still to rise, it may be a few years still untill we can add up the true cost in just money alone.
Cluster One 19th February 2021 at 11:57
How can we guarantee any public inquiry into these malicious prosecutions woud be independent? In my view the only way would be to have it chaired from outwith Scotland by someone completely unprepared to have Terms of Reference handed to them with a pre-determined outcome.
Innocent men could have gone to prison. Was this a quest to prove ‘Rangers’ were victims of fraud when they were simply victims of their own cheating of the tax system which came back to bite them? I doubt if anyone from Scotland would have the balls to come to the conclusion that people were warped enough to try and send innocent people down in order to save the reputation of their favourite club. Maybe that wasn’t the case, but I’m really struggling to think of another reason.
Reads very much like you’ve reached your own pre-determined outcome? I’ve read quite a bit of innuendo and accusations towards those involved in the purchase and subsequent liquidation of Rangers on here and from other prominent bloggers over the years.
I appreciate that online speculation is a very different scenario to real life events but it would be nice to get to the truth of the matter. Whether that’s possible or not, I’m not sure.
incredibleadamspark 20th February 2021 at 17:44
I did say maybe it isn’t the case, but the Crown has admitted these prosecutions were malicious, which by definition means setting out to cause harm. The more and more I think about it, the more of an outrage it seems. I just don’t think a Scottish led inquiry would get to the bottom of it, and neither would it want to.
In terms of those involved I understand they will still have to answer in a court as to why no attempts were made to maximise the sale of every asset to repay creditors, and so they should. The public purse is owed millions.
Agreed, it’s an outrage and the cost to the taxpayer from the payouts so far is only going to increase. The final bill for this fiasco should be large enough to ensure individuals are properly held to account for their actions…. but when those in positions of power mess things up at a level like this I think you’ll see a reluctance for that to actually happen.
The reasons for that reluctance will be speculated on without ever arriving at a satisfactory answer. Depends on ones perspective on a number of issues, I guess.
incredibleadamspark 20th February 2021 at 19:51
Given that the final bill is likely to be over £100m there will be an Inquiry. Will a Scottish Judge be prepared to shine a bad light on the Scottish legal system and keep asking the why questions until the actual root cause is established? I just can’t see it.
upthehoops 20th February 2021 at 12:53
Cluster One 19th February 2021 at 11:57
How can we guarantee any public inquiry into these malicious prosecutions woud be independent? In my view the only way would be to have it chaired from outwith Scotland
………………………..
There are already calls for that. Even Imran Ahmad never wanted to return to scotland as he knew he would not face a fair hearing. And Ashley has made sure his hearings are made south of the boarder
I had a wee quiet smile to myself this morning when I read Brian Wilson’s article in today’s ‘The Scotsman’
The article is ,as you would expect ‘political’ – about ‘the Salmond-Sturgeon truth’.
It has him say this ” This whole affair has long since gone beyond the bounds of Salmond versus Sturgeon.. .Rather, it is about the whole way in which Scotland is run, with every tentacle of power and control intertwined”
That’s a bit rich, coming from a Board member of Celtic plc.
The Board of that club refused to insist on an independent investigation into how a football club, financially in deep doodoo , was offered the financial lifeline of a being awarded a couple of million pounds -and the chance of many more millions- by being granted a UEFA competitions licence when it quite possibly was not entitled under the rules to that award.
Wilson appears to think that our Football Governance authorities would not possibly be wrapped around by some of the intertwined tentacles!
Wilson was a member of a Board that lacked the testicles to call for an examination into the possibility that there were intertwining tentacles that might ,by a criminal conspiracy, have done the shareholders of Celtic plc out of millions.
Let him think on that, before he chunters on about ‘the whole way Scotland is run’!
He and the Board he sits on may be part of the problem by being selective about which tentacles they want examined.
upthehoops 20th Februa
ry 2021 at 12:53
‘…Maybe that wasn’t the case, but I’m really struggling to think of another reason.’
“”””””””””””””””””
We know that it was the Administrators themselves who first raised suspicions about the sale of the football club (note, not a ‘holding company’ of the football club !) with the police.
What we don’t know is why Lord Hodge delayed discharging them as Administrators until things had been looked at by their professional ‘governance’ body.
Whatever he was told, Lord Hodge seemed happy enough to discharge them.
I’ve often wondered about that, about the sequence of events right from the off, of D&P being appointed as the Administrators by CW, unopposed by HMRC
And then themselves raising concerns , before facing charges themselves!
Whatever the truth of it all, there’s a great story there for a crime fiction story writer.
Where’s Ian Rankin when you want him!
ps nice to have the old format.
John Clark 21st February 2021 at 00:03
John, I had to read your post a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t getting my tentacles and testicles mixed up!?
I agree with your comments re our return to the old format.
Cluster One 20th February 2021 at 21:45
A question often asked since the day Rangers entered Administration was ‘are they too big to fail’. While a court oversaw their financial failure the Scottish establishment circled the wagons in an alternative way and simply decided ‘Rangers’ can never fail and will exist forever, even though the club had been liquidated and gone out of business. As far as I am aware no other Scottish football club has that guarantee. It is little wonder Mike Ashley does not feel confident of having his cases heard in the Scottish legal system. It truly is quite incredible the influence ‘Rangers’ has within Scottish society. Very few in the media are willing to speak out against it, although hats off to Graham Spiers for pointing out yesterday in the Times that it’s now very much a North Korea type administration at Ibrox, who simply banish anyone from the premises who is not prepared to be a happy clapper. Spiers of course was banned many years ago. Even the Covid breaches associated with the club do not draw the same fury from the First Minister that she venomously administered to Celtic and Aberdeen. In fact, the first time they had a breach the SNP Govt. rushed to praise them for their response, which was no different to the responses made by Celtic and Aberdeen. When even the Government feel they must walk on egg shells around this club it tells you the scale of the problem. I don’t think anyone was ever paranoid enough.
Working on the new look for the log today. Hopefully will have it finished by the end of the week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56168698
This is sad news today and more research needs to be completed on the effects of heading the ball in football and it’s potential for serious injury. I can’t recall the title (perhaps ironic) but there was a film released in the last couple of years attempting to highlight the dangers in american football of brain damage caused by constant clashes of the head and of course it has long been a suspected result of professional boxing. Whatever the outcome and however it may change our sport this condition is a terrible curse on the victim and friends and families. Gordon McQueen was a fine servant to all his clubs and the national side too. Very sad.
I give the gist of the reply I received by email today from the Insolvency Service:
“THE RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED
Thank you for your complaint about the above company, which we received on 22nd
February 2021
Our decision
It is not appropriate to use the powers available to the Insolvency Service to
investigate the company at this time.
How we reached our decision
In certain circumstances the Insolvency Service has powers to carry out investigations into
companies that are currently trading. These powers are reserved for cases where there are
very serious concerns and there is suspicion of ongoing fraud or very serious misconduct
and the matters of concern are not the responsibility of any other regulator.
We considered the information you supplied, together with other information that is
available to us. We found that there were either no grounds, or there were not enough
grounds, to ask the Secretary of State to authorise an investigation.
Further guidance regarding company investigations and what we do can be viewed here.
…
…
The decision not to investigate should not be seen as an endorsement of the
company’s operations or business practices….”
Disappointing, if not surprising.
I do not expect anything better from the Lord Advocate, of course. I believe that there are a couple of other more pressing and more fundamental matters on his mind than the tawdry affairs of deceitful football clubs!
Ranger fans looking to make “Simply the Best” number one in Britain. They may be better served looking to a Sonny and Cher tune containing the line, “before it earned, all our money is spent”. It was also interesting recently to discover the mathematical ability of many of their fans who could quite, almost, clearly lay out how the title could be claimed by a number of wins, ties, etc and still not understand the debt that the team has run up over the last number of years. CL money will not clear this as I’m sure there will be a number of people lining u to get what they feel they deserve for services provided, loans, and, lightweight shares…
So Neil Lennon has resigned.
He ,in my view , does not carry the major blame for the biggest football fcuk-up in my lifetime.
That lies at the door of Peter Lawwell and the Board.
While the readiness of that Board to accept the cheating nonsense of the 5-Way Agreement may not directly have caused the collapse of the 10IAR adventure, it is perhaps a fitting and deserved punishment for their pusillanimity in not pursuing football and sporting truth.
The history books will now show a false record of sporting success in showing that an eight year old football has rather more league titles than it could possibly have won on the field of play, and the disgraceful collapse of a Celtic Board more interested in gain than in Truth.
For many years people have been waiting for the mainstream scottish media to do some serious reporting on the ills of scottish football. Today’s DR has a sub headline that puts the notion to rest, “The Irishman’s resignation has resigned from his post after club chiefs held crisis talks on Tuesday.” Who does the editing, checking etc, ..Would it not have been better to use his name rather than the Irishman..You get what you pay for and the pay scale throughout the media must be at the lower end.
The use of concussion substitutes in the SPFL will be allowed on a trial basis from 6 March until the end of the season, after a vote by all 42 clubs.
Clubs will be permitted to use a maximum of two such replacements in a match, regardless of the number of substitutions already made.
The rule change follows an announcement in December that system could be trialled until August 2021.
When a concussion sub is used, the other team can make another change too.
The Scottish FA refereeing department has began to brief clubs on the rule change.
From BBC Sport
Paddy Malarkey
At least there will be some consistency then – if the refs are doing the briefing 🙂
paddy malarkey 24th February 2021 at 17:30
‘..The Scottish FA refereeing department has began ‘
It’s bad enough that the BBC propagates a myth.
It’s quite atrocious that they now seem to employ writers with no knowledge of the grammar of the English language!
The ‘ he has went’s and the ‘he done its’ of the players-turned-pundits are acceptable enough , in that footballers are not employed for their academic skills.
The pig-sh-t ignorant staffer who wrote that piece should never have been employed by the BBC. ‘has began’, forsooth!
Turning a pandemic into a bigot fest takes some doing, does Paisly jnr have no shame.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p097x24d
People are the lifeline of football and football worldwide wants them back for the good of the game and employment as does business revenue streams and the economy, whislt there is a pandemic on it’s crucial that all people are treated equal in the fight against the pandemic to ensure that we get back to normal as asap, if people with poilitical views want to put discriminatory policies to who gets what, then it’s worth highlighting it and since people are supporters then it fits in nicely. Hope that answers your query.
Vernallen @15.12
.. and all the while referring to Sevco manager as GERRO!
Hi folks. I have got the new look (subtle changes) in good enough shape to make the big switch.
I have added some emphasis on the home page to remind us of some past highlights o the blog.
More than keen to have some folk test their writing skills also. There are some placeholders contained within the pages of the new structure which will be replaced as we go along.
I am not unaware that the contributions in terms of engagement, page views and comments, has dried up alarmingly. I’ve had a chat with Tom, and we’ve agreed to give it another few months to see if it picks up. Of course Tumbleweed doesn’t make a sound, but nobody sees it either. 🙁
That apart, I hope everyone agrees the new look has freshened the pages up a bit. Over to you.
Is the SFA waiting for Rangers to advise them of the penalty/suspension due to the covid 5. Its rather shocking that the team decided to welcome some of the offenders back in the fold this week, even, with internal discipline it does not send a positive message to their young fans who have been following the rules, and, they may now think if that’s all the punishment the team is allocating maybe I can bend the rules. It was good to see some of the comments from other fans on this issue. Nathan Patterson scores one goal and is now being suggested as a call up for the national team. I think a few more games under his belt might be a better judge of call up time. One last thing, the Europa league has generated just over $6 million pounds and this is described as a windfall.. This windfall barely puts a dent in the accumulated losses of close to $60 million and may not cover a lot of potential legal fees and expenses.
Sheesh!
From Today’s ‘The Scotsman”:
” A man who named women who gave evidence against Alex Salmond has been jailed for SIX MONTHS.
Mr X breached strict court order which prohibited the identification of the complainers who gave evidence at the former First Minister’s trial last year”
Where was Lady Dorrian when she might have done us a favour?
I note incidentally and separately that the Faculty of Advocates has expressed the view that ‘ ..no one in public life is beyond reproach and healthy public debate surrounding the justice system is to be encouraged. However, when the public discourse fails to respect the basic tenets of the independence of the system, it is in danger of leading to irreparable harm..’
I relate that observation to the SFA.
Obviously, I know that the SFA is NOT in law a ‘public institution’ in the way that the Courts and the COPFS and Parliament are: it is merely a private limited company, and as such is legally answerable only to its membership.
But, of course, it is rather more than an ordinary business; it glories in being accepted, and in having been accepted since its foundation, as the Governance body of Scottish Football.
And I have no hesitation in saying that in exercising that function it is operating in a way that, while not related to ‘public’ or State business , has such huge influence on the general public and the administration of a multi-million Sport, funded ultimately by ‘the public’, as to be considered as a ‘public institution’
A Sport – a “Sport”, I say- that has a presence in every community, village, town and city of the country and which, of all ‘businesses’ ,should be seen to be honest and true in its Governance and as wholly independent in arriving at its sport’s governance rulings as in its business practices.
Now, where the Faculty of Advocates speaks of a situation where ‘the public discourse fails to respect the basic tenets of the independence ‘, I submit that in the case of the SFA and the matter of the UEFA licence question and of the 5-Way Agreement it is the very Governance body, not ‘public discourse’ ,which has failed ‘to respect the tenets of independence’
The SFA refuses out of hand to investigate the ‘Res 12’ matter, and sits comfortably behind a ‘Secret 5-Way Agreement’ that makes a mockery, a real nonsense, of the concept of sporting honour and sporting success!
Those two major abuses of office have actually done irreparable harm to Scottish Football, where there is now a clear perception that the sport can be rigged for a price, and that honours and sporting achievements can be bought and sold rather than earned in good, honest, old-fashioned sporting endeavour on the field of play.
It gars me greet!
Anyone else puzzled why the five players from Rangers who breached covid rules have had no action taken against them by the SFA? In all other cases, including the previous two from Ibrox, action was taken to issue suspensions fairly quickly, yet these players are already back in the fold as if nothing happened. The fact the media and the Scottish Government have not condemned Rangers for the immorality of that is no surprise at all. Their anger is reserved for other clubs.
There is a constant moan from both sets of fans of “he can only score against so & so” ..Is there a statistics form or info available that can display who, say, Morelos or Edouard garner their goals against in league play, shows the importance of said goal, i.e, winner, tying goal, penalty..I think most fans might be surprised at the outcome..
While I voted to return to the original set up of the site I miss the banter especially for ones chosen team. The new set up was too open to abuse but I think a half way house might be well received. How do other members feel?
Upthehoops 27th February 2021 At 14:01
‘..Anyone else puzzled why the five players from Rangers who breached covid rules have had no action taken against them by the SFA?..’
“””””””””””””””””
Mrs C asked me this very afternoon what punishment had been meted out to the party-going 5.
“My dear”, I replied, “have you been with me since forever and still do not understand? The ‘rules’ simply do not apply to TRFC any more than they did to RFC plc. Not just ‘football rules’, but the rules governing the BBC and the SMSM generally in relation to the concepts of impartiality and truth.”
” Whit?”[there’s a wee private joke between us there about my speech] she cried in alarm ” Are you saying that there is any kind of suggestion that the SFA is “tainted with apparent bias”, [a phrase she had picked up from Lord Pentland in one of his [unconnected with football] recent judgments.]
“Sadly, my dear ” replied I, ” the track record of the Governance body of Scottish Football suggests that that indeed is the case”
” Oh, John”, she cried in horror, ” you cannot be serious! Surely you are mistaken?”
” Whit?” replies I ,” Have you not wondered whit the hell has oftimes kept me at this flaming keyboard late into the night in spite of hearing your enticing calls of ‘come to bed?’
But of course you are absolutely right, uth.
The SFA is a failed ‘institution’, incapable of any kind of proper governance because it has lied, and continues to lie ,and the liars cannot agree among themselves because each individual knows that every other individual who lied along with him cannot now be trusted not to lie to him!
As said before , a fish rots from the head.
And the SFA rotted in 2012, with the SMSM’s wholehearted participation and support.
May every one of the liars not rest as easily in their beds this very night as I go!