buster.

Interesting Gaffer ! Are you 100% that this falls within the remit of CAS (not disagreeing, I just don't know) All seems to come down to what evidence we have. A CAS procedure would take months and they seem to be booked up until at least the end of June. https://www.tas-cas.org/en/general-information/news-detail/article/list-of-hearings-2.html Is there a stage (internal remedy) we would have to go through with the SFA prior to CAS ? It would be interesting to listen to the conversations in the SPFL bunker speculating on I.D. of whistleblower and what the evidence may consist of. McKenzie might lose some weight with the effort. I optimistically hope some clubs are recording any phonecalls from the SPFL lobbyists in the days leading up to this 42 club meeting ?

Next stage is the 42 club GM (whenever that is). No significant disclosure and IMO it's doubtful there will be an Independent Enquiry. If we don't show and don't get the vote through, the main focus surrounding this will become us, rather than the SPFL. Basically we've placed everything on red (the evidence). Smoking gun - we win (probably to a significant level) Damp squib - we lose (don't want to go there)

A long game points to the title question being more or less conceded weeks ago. I don't think there was ever much doubt that the league would be called and Celtic awarded the title. I labour the point but it was about discrediting such an award. We were late to that game and for the time being, have let up on it. As for a long game. Given present circumstances, it doesn't make sense to me, unless the dossier would persuade a court to act against the individuals in the SPFL and it might implicate or stain the organ-grinder. IMO (but without knowing what the evidence is) this should be about a sprint and not a marathon.

We knew about this type of thing years ago but practically, you can only really look to alter or change what is within your grasp. The question on such a support structure becomes....WHY do we lag so far behind and WHAT can we do to improve/change it.? We asked this question on FF about a decade or so ago and got various responses that centered on the WHY but predictably nothing much on a very difficult WHAT. As of today, we appear to be in the same place.

So, a 42 club meeting to look at our resolution this week. Look's like...... - Difficult ask to get 32 clubs to vote yes. - Probably a non-starter if we don't give other clubs a taster+ of the whistleblower evidence and they regard it as strong enough. - If strong evidence is presented to clubs, good chance of Independent Inquiry Do we show the clubs or not ?

The word in Gorgie is that Ann has reading up on what Gafferposted.

Ann Budge seems to be telling the players to take a cut now or contract will be suspended. i wish there was an option other than a temporary wage cut but after careful consideration it is the only way for the club to proceed with financial certainty. having paid the players’ wages in full for march, i have written to them today to request the formal notification of their acceptance of the temporary wage cut proposed in order that we can process salaries next week. i remain hopeful that the players will accept for the reasons outlined above, as the only viable alternative is that their contracts remain suspended under clause 12 of the standard spfl contract which means that they will not receive any wages during the period of suspension. to reiterate, this is the least palatable of the viable options available to us and even if this is ultimately the route we have to take, we would continue to be open to dialogue with individual players on a month-by-month basis. https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/article/chairmans-update

The scope of the Deloitte investigation is almost laughable but reality is that it will probably help the SPFL to persuade enough clubs to shelve the whole affair and get on with the crisis management surrounding C19. Hardly convincing it is not a difficult sell in these circumstances. Part of me now looks toward the existential threat coming into focus for football clubs, including our own and wonders why we continue on this route. If there was a realistic chance of getting 75% of clubs to vote in favour of a resolution for an Independent Inquiry, then perhaps but I don´t think there is.....What would happen after that ? Some of the posters who know about finance point towards an IMMEDIATE prioritisation and action regards getting costs as low as possible. As well as bringing in as much revenue as possible. Today we hear from Club1872 that season ticket renewal time is close. Perhaps our latest move does have something to do with the real priority, perhaps not. The still hidden trump card that could inject disinfectant into the 6th floor at Hampden, to clean it out so to speak and render some of what is written above as pish, is the Whistleblower evidence/dossier. Given what we have said, how do we get it out there if the clubs do not vote for an Independent Inquiry ? Would then going a legal route (if this were to be the next option) be feasible and give us a realistic chance of success? What would that success look like and would it be worth the money spent at a time of impending financial crisis?

Saudi´s at Ibrox Instead of Mediahouse, they bring in the Turkish death squad. ?

Deferrals rather than cuts weren´t an encouraging sign. I´d hope the club at least asked for cuts first, even if the players then refused. We´ve run a structured loss for a number of years and this pandemic has arrived at a point when we were looking to get a lot closer to break even, without soft loans or share issues to keep us going. The last couple of seasons has brought in significant European cash. If we were to lose out on that in 20/21, it would be a big hole to fill. You also have to wonder when we get the UEFA cash for this season regards cashflow.

Every week, the timescale estimates seem to be gaining 6 months ? It shouldn´t be beyond the collective wit of man to come up with more timely solutions. If your 18 month at least were to be accurate....Rangers and Celtic would probably be starting from scratch.

If the roles were reversed and the circumstances the same. Personally, I´d allow them to make the noise up until the title is awarded, then as a club put out a statement saying that although we´d take the CL entry, we wouldn´t consider it a full title and the number going into a prospective 2020/21 would still be 8IAR.

A good post is a good post. You are very capable of good objective anaylsis when it doesn´t involve politics of any kind.

Good post Bill ! Focuses on the stark reality that faces the club and deserves a bump.

This thread shows the importance we place on European football. For me it has to be the penalty shoot-out win in Florence and what it signified, ie. a European Final. Something, that by that time in our history, I never thought I´d see.

Thinking back to Barry Ferguson, it re-enforces the old adage if you are good enough, you are old enough. Barry was a real player but also had a real attitude that helped him cope with the huge pressure of playing for Rangers. I think you need both at Ibrox. Regards youth development, if they aren´t good enough for the first team sqaud by the time they are around 19, I doubt they are going to be much practical use to Rangers. The economic fallout may mean more get a chance.

An unpredictable pandemic, economic chaos and the very questionable quality of political leadership around many parts of the world is a toxic mix. Who knows,...geo-politics might end up kyboshing any thoughts of a 2020/21 season.

They are doing it to raise funds for outside agencies fighting the virus.

Newcastle Utd fans have had to relatively suffer the reign of Mr.MASH for a number of years. Suddenly it seems as if a takeover will lead to another rich bastard (Saudi oil money) in the door but one that is more likely to splash the cash. The Geordies have a way of attracting bad luck as well as cnut investors or now murdering bastards and at the same time, the oil price hits zero. That will obviously change but there is something poetic in the symmetrical about that. Regards big clubs, it´ll be about to what levels they will need to downsize, how long will it take to recover and managing the process. My off the cuff guess is that Bayern Munich may come out of this on top of the pile.

I can´t think of a comparable precedent in terms of scale and unifomity throughout the world and industrial sectors and that´s not taking into account of uncertainty wrt to timescale/evolution of the virus ,..but that is drifting to Lounge territory. - Will the upcoming economic situation reduce ST/ other revenue numbers ?................Yes (will be the same for all clubs) - General downsizing will mean lower quality of squad as a whole - It will come down to good/bad management of what resources you have. - Going into next season, we already have player contracts to honour that must be at a level that any up to date projected budgets might struggle to cover. - Big cost cutting hopefully starting weeks ago - Should be wage cuts, not defferrals (needs to change) - We are accustomed to running at a structured loss but approaching the time when projections/plans pointed towards breaking even and not requiring shareholders to fill holes. - Are the major prospective investors (looking at proposed share issue) doing it for emotive or investment reasons ? We were in the process of making the club more professional at various levels (eg. commercial, youth development, etc) as well as edging towards on the pitch success and employ Steven Gerrard who adds glamour. What happens now is that the player trading market will bomb for at least the short term and in Scotland, may never get back to the numbers we were starting to see Celtic receive. That would severely restrict potential to make any money and discourage investors. Brings us to individual assets, eg. Morelos. Do we accept what would be a cut price deal to get some money in and his wage off the books ? I think the risk that he loses interest in a sea of red mist is too great and we sell, even if the fee is low. Needs be. In hindsight, re-signing Davis and Defoe was a mistake. McCrorie and Docherty should be kept IMO. They are the type who might excell at a Rangers forced to downsize. Gerrard might not be madly keen on them but SG is going to have to consider a practical Plan B or he´ll be for the off. etc, etc. Brightside is we have some decent youths coming through. I´d like to think players such as Kelly are ready for the step-up to a squad with what will have to be a significantly lower wage bill. ps. I apologise for the disjointed and rambling nature of the post.

Any cartoonists amongst us bored in Lockdown ? Scene: Three Amigos in SPFL bunker, eating tinned food and breathing recycled air with suitable conversation, perhaps something to do with Peter, the organ grinder having locked them in and disconnected the wifi/telephone connection.

I really don´t think they are going to be able to use any such award to count as a credible 9th title IAR. Down the ladder, back to 8.

No one can say Ewan Murray at The Guardian is pro Rangers or being used as such. He is simply laying out the state of play, highlights the Sound of Silence from the SPFL and it still stinks.

Given my location, I haven´t been to Ibrox for a while but would you or anyone say the demographics within our support point to a fair proportion of retired gentlemen attending ? Surely they will be considering the risks involved with anything other than social distancing until a real solution is found. That said, I guess OAP tickets/ST´s represent a lower revenue number/potential loss. Whilst on demographics, I wonder how the younger generation react to this. We have supporters not far from leaving school age who haven´t seen us lift a trophy. If Scottish football heavily downsizes, it´ll be a challenge to keep a hold of them all, at least as future fans who actually attend and invest, so to speak.

Interesting and a somewhat scary post, Gaffer ! You point to delayed effects (12-18 months) but for football, what state are Scottish football clubs in 8 months, if there is little revenue ? And specifically, us ? I guess one of the main difficulties for economists interested in an objective assessment is that there is no historical precedent to use for comparison or model on. It´s increasingly looking like new and genuinely scary territory.