I am told that several members of the Sevco High Command will have a sit down on Tuesday apropos the stadium that John Brown played for.
Of course, in a normal media environment, my reporting last year on the issues at Ibrox would have been picked up.
The fact that I gleaned evidence from an FOI request that in December 2016 there had been an emergency meeting of the Safety Advisory Group regarding Ibrox should have sent the hares running.
That’s how normal journalism operates.
Someone gets a lead and others try and chase down other aspects of the story.
Of course, we know that there are high-Level rules about matters Ibrox.
Remember, it was an emergency meeting.
I excavated what I could from the heavily redacted documentation that was released to me by Glasgow City Council on appeal.
You may recall that my FOI request was initially rejected on the grounds of public safety.
Yes, you got that one correct the first time.
That is the initial ruling from Glasgow City Council was that a journalist putting in an FOI request regarding stadium safety was in of itself considered to be endangering the public!
I appealed and it was upheld.
Consequently, I received the documents that were covered by the FOI request.
What I DO know about the situation at the stadium is that there hasn’t been any major renovations carried out since the SAG met in December 2016.
Quite simply such a re-fit would have been highly visible and almost certainly at least one stand would need to be closed while the work was underway.
I’m told that the Tuesday meeting was arranged on late Friday afternoon.
I can report that the stadium was not discussed at the morning meeting of the High Command.
However, something transpired later that day that prompted the Serious Professional to set up the Tuesday meeting.
My only information at this point is that there is a meeting that day with one item on the agenda:
The stadium.
When I know more about this matter then so will you dear reader.
Of course, the excellent inter-galactic PR machine that serves the Holding Company Vehicle could always clear up what this planned meeting is precisely about.
In the interests of transparency…
Finally got to see Armando Ianucci’s excellent Death of Stalin last night. Am I the only one struck by the uncanny resenbalence between a certain PR Guru and Simon Russull Beale’s brilliant protrayal of Lavrentiy Beria, People’s Commissariat for Internal Affair (aka NKVD).
Let’s hope they don’t meet the same undignified end when the Boss is no more.
Phil, did you ever get an explanation from GDC why your FOI request was endangering the public?
I’m sure your readers would welcome an insight into the thought process of those responsible for the initial reply.
It beggars belief that a request in relation to a public safety issue was denied on the grounds of public safety!
Oh come on, we have to know who put their name to this beauty……..if they dared.
It’s unfathomable that any coherent, professional organisation could have penned such nonsense.
It says a lot about GDC’s shortcomings that a person or persons thought such a response was appropriate.
If my Council Tax is being squandered on the wages of the responder I’m not getting value for money. If this is the work of a lone wolf then fair enough but if a senior figure is responsible then we should know who these people are.
Has disciplinary action been taken? The response certainly warrants it.
Whats my chances of making a FOI request to GDC asking who wrote the reply and what was the thought process behind it?
Perhaps they’re praying for a Celtic win tomorrow so they can bury this bad news afterwards.
Looks to me like they will hope for a home defeat to Bayern Munich and then release and hide the accounts under the cover of the generously proportioned coverage afforded by the Scottish Sports Media.
Or am I just a cynic?
SCOTLAND A WEE COUNTRY wae a big Masonic / Orange presence in all aspects of life in that poor little BIGOTED space on this planet, I don’t that the decent foulke in Scotland will ever be rid of the “cancer” I.E SEVCO SCOTLAND, YIR GAME IS RUINED .
If I may….
Much as I enjoyed your post could I suggest that you should have finished with…..
Yir game’s a Coco….
An old Glasgow expression which roughly translates as…..
yer f#@ked….again
I take it I make myself clear….
Cheers.
If they have any slates on the roof, that is where the baw is.
Aye, an it’s burst.
Maybe SDM stripped all the led off it b4 he sold it to Whyte! ?
I love how they pick timely dates for all their crisis talks…
Halloween is quite apt for a ‘Horror Show’
I reckon Glib and Bears are all in for £16m loans now. I don’t believe it’s foreign money. I reckon the appetite for a Directors box chair has worn off.
The experiment is over. The fan base cannot sustain cash needs. Unknowns such as the stadium could crash the business.
Administration simply allows them to walk away from it. Dump it on another’s lap. Don’t overthink the value to them of Admin. It saves them pumping more cash in and they get to claim as creditors.
Admin may assist King as he won’t be able to buy the £11m of shares ordered by TOP. The company will be bust.
Yes but will they pull the sdm stunt and put a radar Billionaire in there first? To do the dirty for them?
Watch this space…….. the return of the Whyte, asset owner by dint of sevco5088 and new club owner……… whoops sorry it’s an Admin….. again..
Club 1872 really are the gullible losers in all this.
One of the key things to investing is to know when to cut your losses.
Shut down the dump with immediate effect. HH
Phil thanks again,very well written with expert timing.
It will take a hell of lot more than a new manager to right sevcos wrongs.
That wee sentence ending in ‘considered to be endangering the public!’ well that shows exactly where the West of Scotland is as a society.These sevco fans have beaten,battered and threatened their way into the very fabric of society,so much so,that people like myself chose to move away from there.It really is Scotland being held to ransom by the sevco thugs when the biggest council in the whole of Scotland has to think twice before issuing a F.O.I. request.
If these same fans tried what they readily get away with in Scotland in any other part of the U.K.,they would be dealt with swiftly and harshly by the Police,and rightly so.So,Scotland has these sevco thugs at one end of the societal spectrum and at the other you have the Police and a judiciary system run by masons!
So in my country of birth,you can meet these animals on the street and IF you make it past the Police to court,well,you get it from the judge.Scotland is the only country in the World where such a scenario is the NORM.Masons and sevco thugs are,to a certain degree,running the West of Scotland.Well they are almost certainly influencing it.
So very,very sad.
“Remember, it was an emergency meeting”….
Are there any other kinds of meetings at Ibrox?
Meanwhile, recall this:
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/708553/graeme-murty-reveals-his-celtic-mad-family-gave-him-four-hours-of-pelters-after-taking-rangers-job/
Celtic and Celtic brought up guys pulling the Sevco out a tight spot as usual.
Our greatest ever manager was a Rangers fan
Wrong tense. “Had been” a Rangers fan.
Like all decent people, he grew to despise them.
Aye,but he sure made up for it eh?
Is it a coincidence that the SFA are currently listening to alternatives to Hampden for internationals etc? Could it be that Queens Park have found a long term tenant for said Hampden in the guise of the current (or future) incarnation of Rangers and they have no choice?
What about maybe the SFA moving in to Ibrox, and their ‘fee’ would be to contribute towards it’s repair?
Would not surprise me one bit. After all, it is their spiritual home.