Look set to go out of business

Well, well, well! It looks as though the rattle snake that was always potentially lurking just around the corner for the SPL clubs is about to strike.

Come on…you know of which snake I speak. It’s the one that each and every SPL chairman was told “This could turn round and bite you on the arse”. But no.  The clubs couldn’t help themselves. All they could see were the pound signs. “Pay TV is the way to go!” they all told us.

And now what?

I’ll TELL you what! NOW there is a huge opportunity for the Old Firm to show that they DO want to help Scottish Football survive. And how do they do that?

DITCH THE 5% TAX! AND DITCH IT NOW!!

Everybody knows that when those fan blades come into contact with the brown stuff that is currently being fired their way the two clubs that will be LEAST affected by the drop in revenue are Rangers and Celtic.

I’m not saying for one second that the “big two” won’t feel it…far from it. And to be honest they could be forgiven for being very angry chappies. After all they, along with Aberdeen,  didn’t want the Setanta deal in the first place. But, although they will still lose out, they will lose a far smaller percentage of their income than any other club.

So will they stand, united once more, and say “We are scrapping the 5% charge” (at least for the forseeable future) in an attempt to lessen the blow felt by the rest of the SPL?

They might … but I’m not about to hold my breath!!!

My letter was forwarded by Sir David Murray to a lady called Jacqueline Gourlay (Head of Business Management) who was good enough to read through my letter and try to clarify Rangers’ thoughts on the charge and why the charge was put in place.

Due to the fact that I feel that the content of the letter needs some extra clarification, or, at least some more discussion, I will not, for the moment, be placing the contents of the letter onto the blog.

All I will say for the moment is that, whilst I can see their point of view, as regards why they felt the old system was unfair to them, the letter has, however, raised yet more questions in my, ever cynical, head.

As a result I will write another letter to Jacqueline Gourlay at some point over the next day or two. I will, of course keep the blog up to date with any new developments.

Gimme hope jo-Henry

The letter was basically just an outline of what I think the damage the 5% tax will do to Scottish Football. I also pointed out how blatantly apathetic the SFA and Scottish Government have been regarding the situation.

And, of course, I gave special mention to the SPL’s “If we don’t have a specific rule banning it then the Old Firm can do what they want to who they want” stance.

The letter also included a link to this blog and I really hope that Mr Mcleish or somebody working on his behalf will be able to take the time to read through the blog entries and the petition.

Sorry for borrowing the catch phrase for the title from “Jesse’s Diets” but it’s true.

This week I will sit down and pen a nice long email to Mr Mcleish regarding the future of the 5% tax.

You should all write to him too. In fact he has requested that Scottish Football fans DO! So what are you waiting for?

The address you need is footballreview@scottishfa.co.uk

You could hear a pin drop!

As promised, I did indeed write a letter to Sir David Murray, asking if he was thinnking of reducing the tax. I also asked him what made him ever think that taking money from the 10 no Old Firm sides would be likely to see his “dream” of facing stronger competition in the Scottish leagues, or to put it in his terms create a “more interesting menu”.

And guess what?? (okay, the title of the blog entry may have given you a clue)

I have heard nothing in terms of a reply. Zip! Zilch! Nada! Nowt! A big fat Zero!!

I find it a little bit strange actually that, in a business which is supposedly a form of entertainment, the owners and chairmen of the current/chief execs SPL clubs find it either impossible or beneath them to write back to a member of the public who has written to them in good faith.

Since the start of this season, I have now written emails, letters or both to the chairmen of ELEVEN out of the twelve SPL sides.

Only TWO have had the decency to reply to me.

I must admit that, given the subject of this blog, I never really expected Sir David Murray to reply. But I need to be honest here. I feel that the men and/or women running the eight clubs that never so much as acknowledged that they received letters from me should be ashamed of themselves.

I decided to take on the task of highlighting how the FANS felt about this. Their fans. I never once looked at this simply from a Hearts fans perspective. I was attempting to try and do something that could have possibly benefitted their clubs.

As for the journalists that I wrote to. I can only say “Thank You” to each and every one of you! (could anybody spot the sarcasm there?)

Of all the press and media people I have contacted, only four saw fit to either contact me or publicise the petition in some way. So I would like to give genuine thanks to

Mr Mark Donaldson
Mr Stuart Bathgate
Mr Andy McGilvray
Mr Tam Cowan

It has amused me to no end over the last few weeks that several members of the press/media have been commenting on a bias which their fellow hacks seem to have towards the Old Firm. Strange that this should be there thinking after decades of saying it wasn’t so.

Could it be that they are just being a teeny bit spiteful due to a fear that, if Celtic and Rangers DO manage to head down south to pastures new, that some of these “long suffering” fellas who have suffered “years at the coal-face of Scottish football” might just find their services are not in quite the same demand to report on the clubs who are left to fend for themselves?

Don’t worry though dear reader. The above text does not mean for one minute that I have decided to call it a day. I said a couple of times, fairly early on in this little campaign, that I thought I was reaching the end of the road. No more though! I’m having WAY too much fun writing to my new-found pen pals to be giving up any time soon.

In fact. This blog (and the petition) will run until either this unfair, anti-competitive tax is dropped or Mr Lex Gold and his chums at the SPL have a vote and manage to have OFFICIAL notification of this practice written down in the SPL Handbook! (or of course the “big two” bugger off down to England)

So, I will keep writing and I will keep updating this blog. Just because I can!

The Sound of Silence??? Not from my side of things there won’t be!!

Take care ’til next time kids.

I wonder if I could possibly draw your attention to the article in this link? Old Firm shaken by SPL revolt

In that article the journalist, Roddy Forsyth, stated…

Just in case you missed it, I will highlight that last part again. “Probably it will not, but neither will the politics of Scottish football go back to where they were 10 days ago.”

If you took the time to follow the Daily Telegraph link you may have noticed the same thing that I did. Well? Did you notice it?

That article was published in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, 16 April 2002. Not only would it appear that Mr Forsythe was a tiny bit mistaken as to the fact that Celtic and Rangers would EVER have the brass neck to, once again, display their contempt for the rest of Scottish Football but, sadly, it took them less than a decade to do it.

6 years, 3 months and 16 days to be exact.

Yes, that’s right. Only 2,299 days between the publication of Mr Forsyth’s article and Dundee United being forced to accept their 5% tax demands under the threat of no Celtic supporters turning up at Tannadice for the opening game of the season.

Now I may be wrong. But surely this 5% tax is every bit as much of a bully-boy tactic as the TV rights issue ever was!

WHY then did the “wee 10″ not manage to stand together and be counted on this one? It’s really got me beat.

Maybe it IS time for them to move on to pastures new down south. Scottish Football would struggle to cope, of that there is no doubt. But it WOULD survive in some guise. I really hope that the EPL DO allow them entry to their league (and if John Boyle wants to take Motherwell too – so be it). Let’s see how they get on when they try to bully the Man United’s, Chelsea’s and Arsenal’s of the world.

Setanta want to retune SPL deal

Publication date 17/04/09

So, what does this mean for the Old Firm’s unfair tax on the smaller SPL sides?

The one thing that you can practically guarantee is that this potential re-structuring of the SPL television deal will affect the 10 no Old Firm sides far more than it will affect the “Big Two”.

Will Celtic and Rangers have the brass neck to say, raise their tax from 5% to 7.5%? Probably not. Buy, hey! Who would have thought that they would have ever got away with a 5% tax in the first place?

One thing IS damn sure and that is the simple fact that the TV bubble in Scottish Football seems to finally be about to burst.

No longer will money gleaned from TV revenue be able to finance the successes that the Old Firm teams have in European competition. Oh…hang on a minute. What do you mean “They haven’t HAD any!”?

Could this new twist in the comic-book organisation that is the SPL actually turn out to be a GOOD thing for Scottish Football then?

Might we be on the verge of what most “right thinking” Scottish football fans have wanted for years? Will the Old Firm do their utmost – and finally succeed – in moving out of Scottish football? Could it really be true that these vile, hatred filled institutions AND their equally vile and hate filled supporters might end up being somebody elses problem?

Could we be about to usher in a “Brave New World” in which, for the first time pretty much ever, we have an almost level playing field in the Scottish game?

Of course not! That’s just ridiculous dreaming on my part. After all, who would want them? Yes, the Celtic fans do seem to behave when on European duties and widely attempt to sell themselves as “the worlds’ best fans” but you can’t simply take one without the other or their reason for being would disappear. No, if you take Celtic…you have to take Rangers. And, who in their right mind would want THEM?? The people of Manchester? Spanish bus drivers? No…thought not!

Sorry folks. But it looks like we will be stuck with the ugly sisters for a long time yet. And all the time that we are, OUR clubs will be being bled dry by the two biggest leeches to ever (dis)grace the beautiful game.

Surely this means that there will be one less wolf hovering at the door of the ten non Old Firm clubs. No?

I mean, think about it! Both Rangers and Celtic stated that they needed to charge this 5% to pay for…wait for it…Admin Costs!! Then this MUST mean that, if their admin costs are lowered as a result of having less admin staff to pay in the first place, that Rangers can now drop their claim for the 5% surcharge. No? Really?

I know that a few members of the football hierarchy in Scotland are probably all ready sick to death of my new found love of letter writing. But do you know what? I think I may be doing just that very thing at some point today. I’m quite sure that Sir David Murray will be only to happy to explain to me in detail why they will still need to charge what is, in my opinion, an unlawful and anti-competitive tax on those clubs not lucky enough to have 50,000+ season ticket holders.

I may even include a stamped, addressed envelope to save him another few pennies.