amms

There's a commercial issue here that's being overlooked. The BBC pay to show the SPL highlights in Sportscene and online too as well as radio rights, it's in their interests to talk up the SPL. They are stakeholders in the SPL, they aren't impartial and as such this can't be taken all that seriously. Indeed as a publicly funded organisation someone somewhere should ask questions about that.

"Ship of Theseus" is an interesting headline to use on that FT blog, suggests a certain viewpoint.

I hadn't realised that, so we're worth £40 million now? That seems even less likely.

So we were 'worth' £5.5 million in June but close to £20 million now, just goes to show you. This just doesn't make any sense to me. When we looked like we might close for good we couldn't raise that kind of money, why does anyone think we'll be able to now that we're 'safe'? Green clearly has a plan however I find his timing very strange. He must know something we don't.

Thinker also mentioned something related to leagues contested by teams from different countries. This was in yesterday's Herald, it seems attitudes are softening. I'm personally against it, I don't think it solves the problems but I'm in the minority I accept that. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/uefa-begin-to-soften-in-attitude-to-cross-border-leagues.19115281 "The former states of Yugoslavia are considering forming a regional Balkan League, starting in 2015, with UEFA believed to be prepared to grant approval to the cross-border competition. According to a report in Croatia's Globus newspaper, the topic was raised at a meeting organised by European football's governing body, and is being seriously considered by eight countries. The league would involve teams from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro, along with Hungary and Bulgaria. Michel Platini, the UEFA president, has expressed his support for cross-border competitions, even though the governing body has previously held reservations. The meeting discussing the proposed Balkan League was held last month, and chaired by the deputy secretary-general, Theodore Theodoridis, and, if the competition was to be established, it would set a precedent. The Old Firm were once involved in discussion about forming an Atlantic league with teams from the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Belgium. UEFA were against the proposal at the time, but that was 10 years ago and attitudes have changed. UEFA recently set a precedent by agreeing to clubs competing in a cross-border women's football league in Belgium and the Netherlands being allowed to contest European tournaments. That development would allow for clubs in a Balkan or Atlantic League being granted access to the Champions League."

The 'unusual' thing about Spencer at the time was him being a Rangers supporter. I wonder if we'd have signed him if he hadn't been a fan. He still made the front page of the paper when he 'signed' though.

Ah, great, thanks.

What corruption did they expose?

As a matter of principle we should have issued a statement mocking both Forbes and Pritchard for this line "Kudos to the player reps and union who used the club’s insolvency to their advantage but effectively rendered the club impudent as a result." They rendered us "impudent", really? Maybe Americans can't tell the difference between being cocky and not being able to use your cock.

Listen, I can teach you how to write stuff Tims love if you want, obviously they don't actually understand it but that's beside the point. :-)

No, it's really not meant that way. I'm glad you didn't take it that way. When I first submitted it to Gersnet I actually asked if it read as 'anti-Green' as I was concerned it might. No one said it did so I let it go.

Bloody hell, this is a nightmare. Half the Rangers support think it's a pile of shite but the Tims fete me. <heads off for a long look in the mirror>

Brilliant stuff Andy. I've a good Sandi Toksvig story, unfortunately it'll need to wait until the Gersnet Christmas party for an airing.

Oh gawd, did I? I'll have to change my signature back again now.

I'm not happy about this 'elitist gang' term. Gang is so not the correct noun to use. An elitist troupe, an elitist assemblage or an elitist convergence, I could have lived with. There are so many synonyms that could have been chosen, the English language offers the discerning poster an agglomeration of possible alternatives. All Rangers message-boards should have a mellifluous flow, attractive on the eye and an almost musical cadence on the cerebral cortex.

But would they benefit. So pooling the TV money will in theory increase the amount available. However will it be anything like enough to compete financially with a Bundesliga club for example, the answer to that is no. So all it does is increase the gap between the bigger Dutch and Belgian clubs and the smaller Dutch and Belgian clubs. The gap between Ajax and Bayern Munich will still be huge, never mind between English or Italian clubs. The SPL was an 'elite' league, as ridiculous as that seems now. The SPL created more money for it's members, initially at least, but the gap between Scottish club football and Europe didn't close. More money isn't always the answer, currently more money just means better paid players, not better players. I agree that in a small nation there aren't enough quality teams, but there can be. The last World Cup saw both Holland and Uruguay in the semi finals, both small nations. If their players were still playing in their domestic leagues they'd have pretty strong leagues. You mention supporters wanting to see games between quality teams every week, surely then the answer to that is to increase the number of quality teams. UEFA or FIFA has the power to do this, whether they've the stomach for the fight I doubt. But something has to give, eventually, football is unsustainable in its current format.

I've no idea, but to be fair to him he didn't get paid for a large part of it.

Green couldn't have made an informed decision about McCoist then, none of us could. I'm still not sure we can. Our football 'situation' has been hampered by everything that's happened in the last 12 months, Green not taking control until mid-June didn't help, firing McCoist at that point would have led to us being in a worse postion than we are now. He could have replaced him with Guardiola I still think the support would have turned their backs on him.

Who benefits from it, serious question? In my lifetime both Belgian and Dutch clubs have been serious European powers, both are reasonable sized countries with strong footballing pedigrees, why should they have to amalgamate their leagues, who benefits from that? I don't understand how creating fewer, elitist leagues helps club football. Both those countries have established, well supported clubs, what's needed is support for their respective FAs to protect and build those leagues again. We've spoken about this before but Ajax, one of the greatest club sides ever, are basically a feeder club now for German, Italian and Spanish sides. It's ridiculous.

Even with FFP we'd still struggle due to TV revenues. Short of leaving the country that's not changing either. If Green made that statement of intent I don't think many would criticise him.

Swansea, bloody hell, you're a genius sir. I was searching for an example for the piece and they and their South Wales neighbours are perfect. Cardiff City have sold everything, almost literally. They changed the colour of their strips this summer and their badge, can you imagine doing that, all in the misguided belief it will create more revenue. Is nothing sacred anymore? Down the road you have Swansea City, who have achieved everything Cardiff haven't, whilst retaining their identity and enhancing their reputation. Of the two clubs Swansea are the smaller as well.

My concern with this is historical precedent. I can't think of an occasion in the course of club football history where the bigger, richer clubs have decided to include smaller, poorer clubs in their plans if they didn't need too. Why would we be invited into a European league, if we were at what level. I just can't see where we fit into it, that's why I think we need to have some sort of plan.

It wasn't my intention to write a 'Green basher', I remain wary of him but I've no real reason to criticise him, indeed I've been pleased with some of his work. I strongly disagree that money is the only solution, what's it the solution too? McCoist and the team are employees, it's up to the board to create the vision.

I disagree, some kind of grand-plan doesn't need to be first team manager dependent, depending what it is of course.