I have spoken with two well-placed sources today and they both the same thing apropos the way forward on Planet Fitba.
One of them said that the folks who run the game in Scotland had a date in their desk diaries:
April 15th, 2020.
That is D-Day for what to do next.
What they both described to me was a way in which all of the current unresolved issues could be dealt with.
This plan did not envisage football re-starting before September.
The topflight in Scotland for season 2020-2021 would have a14 team topflight.
This would deal with the possibility of Hearts litigating should the league be called now and they are relegated.
It would see Dundee United and ICT automatically promoted.
There would be no playoffs.
Celtic would be declared champions.
On the European front UEFA would have a highly streamlined qualification route.
One thing that the folk in Nyon have to deal with is that many countries on the continent might have closed borders as they seek to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.
There might just be a one leg qualification knockout affair with the away team being compensated by UEFA for then lost gate money.
I’m told that UEFA are not in favour of the null and void option and are consequently looking to other solutions.
Again, there is nothing remotely ideal about this situation.
However, the grownups have to take tough decisions.
Aod rud eile…
Of course, all of this stuff is rather trivial to what the world is now facing.
I hope that you are staying safe and keeping your distance.
This is a time for taking stock on what time you have left.
I’ve been getting in touch with dear friends that I rarely speak to.
However, each time you do it is like you only spoke to them a couple of days ago.
Last night I had a heartwarming chat with the Faloorie man before he stepped out for his walk around Howth Head.
He wanted to know how the manuscript to my next novel was coming along.
It was the nudge I needed.
There is no such thing as a new old friend.
Be well.
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In February 2019 Rangers released 6 monthly unaudited accounts claiming a profit of £5m plus for the period to December 2018.
The numbers were greeted by the Scottish media as proof that the club was on the right track financially and with a not so subtle message ‘Celtic beware.’
When the audited numbers for the full year were released a £14m plus loss was revealed.
No one attempted to explain or question the dramatic turnaround in the numbers. The MSSM did as they always do and looked the other way as if nothing had happened.
With revenue at best in line with the previous year this financial year’s results are liable to be significantly worse.
Further player recruitment, including a £7m fee for Kent and improved contracts for a number of the squad and management team with no significant incoming transfer fees tells its own story.
Thats without taking into account the Sports Direct fiasco of their own making which, like it or not, will have to be included in the numbers as no doubt Kingco know exactly what Ashley’s final bill will be.
In the unlikely event of peace breaking out suddenly it may well be that a deal has been struck in the background that sees Morelos and Tavernier swapping the light blue for black and white stripes the moment the next transfer window opens.
Unlikely? Maybe, but not as unlikely as a far east donation of £20m heading for the black hole on Edmiston Drive!
It’s amazing how the new creation has followed the path of the previous owner who took the club/company/thingy to financial armageddon before passing it on to a saviour from Motherwell with wealth off the radar.
Donald Park and his family must be wondering how the hell they got involved in the first place. Not only will they have written off millions, never to be seen again, but in the event that they decide to walk away their brand will take a hit in the west of Scotland market and they too will be added to the long list of haters despite their previous generosity.
Such is life.
Phil supporting Motherwell fan here, Motherwell don’t need short term cash to survive. Far from it. Obviously different story in a few months time, like most businesses.
Apparently, sevco fans heard about this pandemic, and are asking their club to get him on a loan, and turn him into a £50 million player!!
Tea cosy beanie wearer, pish patter like this will drive people away, desist.
I don’t see it as patter you see that . It’s may of describing the Klan nobody is asking you like it .
Don’t think they can pay it back, already sucked into the debt pot. What price at the bookies for The Rankers coming out Friday with “the players have accepted a 50 % reduction in wages, all by themselves we didnt even need to ask”
Dave shall be so delighted I’m mean proud….
I see one of sevco bloggers in the daily ranger doing an article on Defoe praising the rookie FAILURE manager at his club . What a waste of space this guy Mark McDougall is spewing out absolute nonsense in a nickel & dime interview that Defoe did with Tallsport . You would think the interview was with the daily ranger itself. Lol blagging it from a radio station then running with it in his so called newspaper. Talk about getting paid money for doing nothing . That paper can’t have to much life left in it now .
Anybody who thinks football will be starting soon should google press stories appearing today that 35% of Valencia players/staff have tested positive for coronavirus after their game in Italy last month. Football is in serious financial trouble.
Dear Phil,
I had no option but to go out today and get essentials from the town.
I also have two dogs who need exercise so have been masking up and wearing vinyl gloves as a precaution.
Driving into town today I was met by a sight that beggars belief.
2 local Council Operations workers were busy planting flowers in the planters round the town!
Someone seriously has their priorities wrong methinks.
No one cares
Yet here you are.
The point in case you missed it was that we have the Government on one hand stating self isolation is a necessity for the sake of the population whilst we have a Local Council risking the lives of its employees to bed plants in the middle of a Pandemic?
I chose to write it in the style of yer typical whining British Subject on the BBC’s Points of View.
If you don’t find it either informative or funny then that’s fine.
There is absolutely no need to be a mangina about It.
Get yersel some Vagisil whilst stocks last.
Won’t be much of that £375k plus vat payment remaining once Defoe gets his monthly salary.
Sevco the first to put their hands out for the much needed cash but the Klan still shouting for null and void you could not make it up .
An absolute belter of a tea-cosy beanie wearer on FF tonight . He has put out a post asking are sevco financially equipped to sustain the cash crisis hitting every club right now . He finishes it saying that sevco are debt free (no laughing at the back ) even though they need £10 million see out the season . You see it’s people like him that the Daily Radar appeal to with all these stories about £15 million quid being spent on players in the summer and they suck it all up .
TRFC will merge with The Blue Brazil`s.
Good health and good sense one and all.
God Bless.
I think what they are suggesting is by far the fairest solution all round. I would still love to hear Gerrard’s opinion on whether Liverpool should be awarded their title. Damn this self-isolation.
By accepting the £375k plus vat interim SPFL payment the Ibrox club has just driven a bus through their sporting integrity claims if the league is curtailed because of the pandemic.
There are teams below them in the league who can overtake them, no different to the argument about Celtic still being catchable.
But hey where do you start with sporting integrity claims when the club spouting them has claimed the trophies won by the previous club playing out of Ibrox which died in 2012, RIP.
Sporting integrity indeed but only applies to other clubs!
14 teams. What’s not to like about it. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. H&A = 26 games. Split into two sevens. H&A = 12 games. Total 38 same as now. Everyone in each half plays everyone in the same half H&A twice. NO meaningless games as everyone scrambles for top seven and another guaranteed home game against both Celtic and sevco.
The one obvious problem with a 7/7 split is that one team in each half is going to finish their league fixtures before the other six teams in their half. A 6/8 split would avoid this, top six play 36 games, bottom eight play 40, and the final round of fixtures all kick off simultaneously, thereby reducing the risk of paranoia/conspiracy theories etc which an imbalanced final round of games might give rise to.
I don’t see that as any kind of problem.
The team in seventh position at the split will NEVER be challenging for the title unless the league is a helluva lot tighter than it has ever been in my lifetime. The fixtures can be arranged so that they finish first and miss out the last round of fixtures.
In fact, under my proposal, ALL the fixtures could be pre-planned for both halves of the league at the start of the season simply by numbering the positions 1-7 and 8-14. The same would apply for the team in eighth place at the split as they would be unlikely to go down.
This is infinitely better than the system presently in place where this season it’s possible Celtic could play two teams THREE TIMES each away from home and Sevco could play THREE teams THREE TIMES each AT home. Even though this season is an extreme example of what CAN happen it’s grossly unfair and has been a major problem with the present set up since day one.
You’re right in that 7th is never going to be challenging for the title and neither is 8th likely to get relegated but having one team in each half finishing earlier allows other teams to know what they have to do to finish above them (e.g win by 3goals, score 4 goals etc) so there is a slight unfairness that way – I prefer the 6/8 split as that way the bottom clubs get extra games to avoid relegation and the top clubs (who are the ones in Europe and already playing too many games) play less games.
I see where you’re coming from but I still prefer my set up.
The favourable side of your set up is, as you say, less games for the top teams plus two extra home gates for the bottom eight. This would go some way to balance missing out on the two big home gates against Celtic and Sevco.
If the SC were to be played at the end of the league season as I proposed, the bottom eight would NEED to play the extra games midweek to avoid an over lap.
Either system is infinitely preferable to what is in place at present.
I expect Rangers to return their SPFL payout as with 8 games to play and the possibility of being caught by teams below them then sporting integrity has gone straight out the window.
We all know how keen they are to uphold sporting integrity at all costs…..oh wait, what about those titles won by the previous club playing out of Ibrox now claimed by the current incarnation.
They are only interested in sporting integrity when it is applied to others and not a club playing out of Ibrox.
Off course the timing is excellent with March payroll pending though once Defoe’s salary is satisfied there will be little left of the £375k plus vat for others.
See a lot of ex Harry Duns coming out every day to the madia saying if all 38 games are not played then the league should be void, if not its a tainted title……..
So how do they stand on every single title won by every club in Scotland up until season 1954/55 where the league finished after 30 games! Are they all void and tainted!
What about titles won while using tax avoiding methods? Or even buying titles off a club in liquidation? All of those OK!
We can legally say now that it was tax evasion not tax avoidance.
The latter is legal the former is not.
Here we go again. Daily Rubbish headlining with 3 SPFL clubs being paid out £375k plus vat from the SPFL pool of monies.
The headline includes the words much needed, as if all 3 are in the same boat and desperate for the cash.
Clubs are Celtic, Rangers and Motherwell. My guess is that the much needed part of the headline applies to 2 of the clubs one of whom is due to pay significant instalments on players brought in over the last 2 seasons.
Fortunately that much mooted £20m donation from wherever must be in the post by now so no worries there.
The latest hilarious musings from Ibrox Noise has the Silly Billies frothing at the mouth about the impending season having an open transfer window, like the pre-Bosman days. To the younger reader, this was a normal thing, where clubs could still trade players during the whole year, rather than the current two windows per season.
Now – my question is: why does it matter to them?..
THEY ARE (LIKE THE NAME OF ONE OF THEIR PLAYERS) BARASIC!!
It reminds me of the not so distant past, where their thick fans were demanding a tax rebate on money they never paid to HMRC in the first place.
So Celtic Motherwell and sevco all needed that lifeline of £375,000 LOL more fake news this time with a name to the article .Michael Gannon. Celtic certainly don’t need it not sure about Motherwell but sevco where desperate for this . Imagine even trying to draw us into a situation about us needing a few coppers a very poor so called journalist trying to mix up .
Phil
15/4/2020 , I think that is the date when contracts are renewed by players.
P.s ‘Time we have left’ scary!
Really enjoyed The Squad . Looking forward to your next novel.
This would be a reasonable solution if it goes ahead. Celtic champions for the ninth season in a row. I wonder how the Sevco obsessed SMSM will react if this comes to pass – not well I’d guess!
It’s not trivial at all Phil. A sense of normality is vital psycholigically etc.