SPFL and Covid ( Leagues 1 and 2 to restart )

[Boof]

10 minutes ago, Heartsmad1874 said:

It was only about one thing and thats it, awarding Celtic the title and to hell with the other 41 members plus Kelty and Brora.

 

Let them get all excited about their award - not winning - of 0.79 of a title. I know how pathetic it makes them look. If they lack that level of self-awareness, tough shit.

[robbo1874]

The more "noise" from that section of the media just means to me that they're concerned that we'll win our case. 

[SectionDJambo]

16 minutes ago, Ethan Hunt said:

We have multi millionaire benefactors, a multi millionaire Chairman, a 2 QC lead legal team, and a number of high profile supports in positions of influence and you don’t think we are controlling the narrative. Or could it be that there is a strategy to all this that you simply can’t see? Maybe this is a well thought out strategy designed to do a number of things, right a wrong, expose the SPFL as not fit for purpose, fully expose Doncaster et al as the incompetents they are, address the imbalance of power within Scottish football, change attitudes, save lower league clubs...........

 

This is Scottish football. The one way to easily control the narrative is to control the media. A large proportion of the media have already nailed their colours to the mast. They have attacked Hearts at every turn. They continue to print negative stories regardless of any of the positive work done by Ann Budge.  She is the only person to have displayed any type of leadership throughout this whole process and she has been slaughtered in the media for having “self interest”. Even some of our own ‘supporters’ have slaughtered her. We can not control that. Others have agendas, and others are exercising control.

 

We can only concentrate in what we can do. The decision to relegate the three teams was unfair. Most reasonable people will agree that. A flawed resolution was drawn up and a dodgy vote passed that resolution. AB led a Task Force to look at reconstruction. It was booted into touch before the submission of any paper. AB kept going. She subsequently submitted a discussion paper. The reaction to the paper has shown the vast majority of people involved in Scottish football do not recognise the extent to which this pandemic will damage Scottish football. The paper revealed there were benefactors willing to help the Scottish game and it was completely overlooked. No-one in the media (that I know of) even mentioned that part. They were all drawn in by the structure and the “it’s all about saving Hearts”. Small mindedness at a time of huge crisis. AB again reveals the benefactor help in a Sportsound interview. During that interview her demeanour is noticeably different. It’s was fighting talk. She called out the lack of leadership at the SPFL and asked why she was being left to do the work. The media picked up on the benefactor, with some immediately dismissing it as nonsense, while others called it “financial blackmail”. Small mindedness at a time of crisis. The benefactor has subsequently been named. There would appear to be a direct quote from him in an article suggesting he was happy to be named (which I think) or knew it was going to happen anyway. What will be small minded and vindictive people have to say now?

 

Given the above at what point have we not controlled the narrative? especially if that narrative is to ultimately lead to us to standing in a court room. You are confusing our narrative with other peoples. You are confusing their narrative for noise. Their noise is just that, noise, it changes nothing. The media are being shown up as idiots. Their agenda is being shown up for what it is, an agenda. Every time we play a card they just shout louder and louder, and the noise gets angrier and angrier, and the words become more and more malicious.

 

I don’t think we have lost control, far from it. Forget the noise. Enjoy the silence that will be coming.

 

16 minutes ago, Ethan Hunt said:

We have multi millionaire benefactors, a multi millionaire Chairman, a 2 QC lead legal team, and a number of high profile supports in positions of influence and you don’t think we are controlling the narrative. Or could it be that there is a strategy to all this that you simply can’t see? Maybe this is a well thought out strategy designed to do a number of things, right a wrong, expose the SPFL as not fit for purpose, fully expose Doncaster et al as the incompetents they are, address the imbalance of power within Scottish football, change attitudes, save lower league clubs...........

 

This is Scottish football. The one way to easily control the narrative is to control the media. A large proportion of the media have already nailed their colours to the mast. They have attacked Hearts at every turn. They continue to print negative stories regardless of any of the positive work done by Ann Budge.  She is the only person to have displayed any type of leadership throughout this whole process and she has been slaughtered in the media for having “self interest”. Even some of our own ‘supporters’ have slaughtered her. We can not control that. Others have agendas, and others are exercising control.

 

We can only concentrate in what we can do. The decision to relegate the three teams was unfair. Most reasonable people will agree that. A flawed resolution was drawn up and a dodgy vote passed that resolution. AB led a Task Force to look at reconstruction. It was booted into touch before the submission of any paper. AB kept going. She subsequently submitted a discussion paper. The reaction to the paper has shown the vast majority of people involved in Scottish football do not recognise the extent to which this pandemic will damage Scottish football. The paper revealed there were benefactors willing to help the Scottish game and it was completely overlooked. No-one in the media (that I know of) even mentioned that part. They were all drawn in by the structure and the “it’s all about saving Hearts”. Small mindedness at a time of huge crisis. AB again reveals the benefactor help in a Sportsound interview. During that interview her demeanour is noticeably different. It’s was fighting talk. She called out the lack of leadership at the SPFL and asked why she was being left to do the work. The media picked up on the benefactor, with some immediately dismissing it as nonsense, while others called it “financial blackmail”. Small mindedness at a time of crisis. The benefactor has subsequently been named. There would appear to be a direct quote from him in an article suggesting he was happy to be named (which I think) or knew it was going to happen anyway. What will be small minded and vindictive people have to say now?

 

Given the above at what point have we not controlled the narrative? especially if that narrative is to ultimately lead to us to standing in a court room. You are confusing our narrative with other peoples. You are confusing their narrative for noise. Their noise is just that, noise, it changes nothing. The media are being shown up as idiots. Their agenda is being shown up for what it is, an agenda. Every time we play a card they just shout louder and louder, and the noise gets angrier and angrier, and the words become more and more malicious.

 

I don’t think we have lost control, far from it. Forget the noise. Enjoy the silence that will be coming.

You are absolutely bang on.

The odious idiots who just keep coming up with ludicrously negative stories, or answers, to anything postive or fair that Ann Budge proposes, only reveal themselves to have an agenda and purpose to hurt Hearts, no matter what the collateral damage will be. Even more ludicrous is that many of those coming out with the bile are going to be part of that collateral damage, and they're too thick and short sighted to see it coming.

They keep saying that Hearts are only in it to save themselves. I say that if Hearts had not been bottom, at the arbitrary suspension date, the club that was would not have had this poisonous response to trying to persuade the rest, that 3 clubs should not have to take the most punishment for a global pandemic engulfing us. That sticking together, to save everyone, was a better option.

[Last Laff]

14 minutes ago, colinmaroon said:

At the very least Mr Anderson should say that in the light of his name being made public, he is considering his position.

 

Also, it's good that he doesn't read Kickback, else he might reconsider his position in the light of some of the boomers on here.  Actually, he is almost certainly perceptive enough to see through them.

 

 

Why try and put words into the mouth of “Mr” Anderson (someone you didn’t know of ten minutes ago) to suit your opinion?  Fortunately his motives seem completely genuine.  I also don’t think he builds the reputation he has by being less Christian than yourself. 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Last Laff

[David McCaig]

24 minutes ago, Ethan Hunt said:

We have multi millionaire benefactors, a multi millionaire Chairman, a 2 QC lead legal team, and a number of high profile supports in positions of influence and you don’t think we are controlling the narrative. Or could it be that there is a strategy to all this that you simply can’t see? Maybe this is a well thought out strategy designed to do a number of things, right a wrong, expose the SPFL as not fit for purpose, fully expose Doncaster et al as the incompetents they are, address the imbalance of power within Scottish football, change attitudes, save lower league clubs...........

 

This is Scottish football. The one way to easily control the narrative is to control the media. A large proportion of the media have already nailed their colours to the mast. They have attacked Hearts at every turn. They continue to print negative stories regardless of any of the positive work done by Ann Budge.  She is the only person to have displayed any type of leadership throughout this whole process and she has been slaughtered in the media for having “self interest”. Even some of our own ‘supporters’ have slaughtered her. We can not control that. Others have agendas, and others are exercising control.

 

We can only concentrate in what we can do. The decision to relegate the three teams was unfair. Most reasonable people will agree that. A flawed resolution was drawn up and a dodgy vote passed that resolution. AB led a Task Force to look at reconstruction. It was booted into touch before the submission of any paper. AB kept going. She subsequently submitted a discussion paper. The reaction to the paper has shown the vast majority of people involved in Scottish football do not recognise the extent to which this pandemic will damage Scottish football. The paper revealed there were benefactors willing to help the Scottish game and it was completely overlooked. No-one in the media (that I know of) even mentioned that part. They were all drawn in by the structure and the “it’s all about saving Hearts”. Small mindedness at a time of huge crisis. AB again reveals the benefactor help in a Sportsound interview. During that interview her demeanour is noticeably different. It’s was fighting talk. She called out the lack of leadership at the SPFL and asked why she was being left to do the work. The media picked up on the benefactor, with some immediately dismissing it as nonsense, while others called it “financial blackmail”. Small mindedness at a time of crisis. The benefactor has subsequently been named. There would appear to be a direct quote from him in an article suggesting he was happy to be named (which I think) or knew it was going to happen anyway. What will be small minded and vindictive people have to say now?

 

Given the above at what point have we not controlled the narrative? especially if that narrative is to ultimately lead to us to standing in a court room. You are confusing our narrative with other peoples. You are confusing their narrative for noise. Their noise is just that, noise, it changes nothing. The media are being shown up as idiots. Their agenda is being shown up for what it is, an agenda. Every time we play a card they just shout louder and louder, and the noise gets angrier and angrier, and the words become more and more malicious.

 

I don’t think we have lost control, far from it. Forget the noise. Enjoy the silence that will be coming.

I genuinely hope that everything you say is correct and obviously victory in the court of session is what matters not victory in the court of public opinion.

 

However, it is now hard to see how this isn’t going to court, which then begs the question why didn’t we just go there, when reconstruction was rejected out of hand first time around... and when SPL Clubs were £7m poorer?

[Mikey1874]

I think it's going to be really hard to find anything negative about James Anderson.

 

He has an impeccable reputation. He has criticised self interest and the failure to properly respond to the banking crisis for example. 

 

And he has been very successful. This sort of project seems right up his street.

 

And a hint very much of someone who looks at the long term.

 

A quote from a decade ago

 

"The pay off for staying true to your principles is absolutely huge. It shows yet another danger of looking at performance numbers on a short term basis".

[Des Lynam]

18 minutes ago, colinmaroon said:

At the very least Mr Anderson should say that in the light of his name being made public, he is considering his position.

 

Also, it's good that he doesn't read Kickback, else he might reconsider his position in the light of some of the boomers on here.  Actually, he is almost certainly perceptive enough to see through them.

 

 

 

That’s not very Christian of you Colin. 

[David McCaig]

16 minutes ago, colinmaroon said:

At the very least Mr Anderson should say that in the light of his name being made public, he is considering his position.

 

Also, it's good that he doesn't read Kickback, else he might reconsider his position in the light of some of the boomers on here.  Actually, he is almost certainly perceptive enough to see through them.

 

 

Colin,

 

I don’t think anyone on here is being critical of Mr Anderson.

 

The only issue I have here is Ann allowing herself to get into a position where people are clearly (and possibly deliberately) conflating Mr Anderson’s magnificent philanthropic gesture as being initiated by Hearts with a view to future benefit.

 

And with reference to your previous post, I never for one moment suggested that Ann was responsible for James Anderson’s name getting into the public domain, in fact I stated that Hearts had done a phenomenal job of protecting his anonymity.

[Mikey1874]

Look forward to the follow up articles by Keith Jackson and others on how you can't have any influence when you are the fan of one club. 

 

Someone on Twitter questions how a Celtic fan can fund buying Hampden for example. 

[ToadKiller Dog]

16 minutes ago, colinmaroon said:

At the very least Mr Anderson should say that in the light of his name being made public, he is considering his position.

 

 

 

I dont think he should Colin , he isnt offering help for the ugly sisters the spfl board or even the chairman of the lower league clubs .

He is doing it for the benefit of the game and the supporters and communities that the lower level clubs belong .

To remove the offer would be playing to the ugly sisters and media game.

If the Spfl/celtic board ,some club chairman and Dungcaster feel a bit ashamed because of this offer its there own behaviour that's caused that not Anderson .

 

 

[Simmo]

22 minutes ago, Vlad Magic said:

Post of the year and won’t be beaten.

 

👍👍

Ethan

absolutely the post of the year. and still the SPFL nutters are looking for a guarantee that the assistance is in no way linked to reconstruction. It was never ever stated that it was but of course that is not newsworthy.

[jambmoz]

If nothing else this just shows you the kind of cesspit this country has become. Everything from government to sport is controlled from the west and anything that doesn’t suit them won’t be tolerated. Not sure why anyone bothers anymore.

[Steve_Jersey_HMFC]

16 minutes ago, Boof said:

 

Let them get all excited about their award - not winning - of 0.79 of a title. I know how pathetic it makes them look. If they lack that level of self-awareness, tough shit.

 

I still cant quite understand why Celtic were not more active in trying to get the season completed, everyone knows aside from the most deluded rangers fans, that they would have strolled to their ninth title. Now they have an * next to it and any claims of 10 in a row if they win next season.

 

 

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

So, offering to help clubs in extreme circumstances - bad.

 

Screwing up league structures to ensure 4 x Gruesome games a season - good.

 

Burn the whole lot down.

[manaliveits105]

There will be no more succulent lamb for Keith and Gary at Tynecastle  just these and a boot up the arse 

 

 

 

[Pasquale for King]

3 hours ago, hughesie27 said:

 

You are allowed to train whilst on the furlough scheme.

Yes I know that but it’s different as training for a football player is part of their weekly tasks in their job, it’s slightly different but hopefully they will need to come off the furlough scheme.

[Heartsmad1874]

Same situation, massively different headlines. This rag of a paper certainly has an agenda against Hearts and Ann Budge.

[highlandjambo3]

Sorry to ask, lots of pages to go through and I’ve just skimmed the surface so, who is this benefactor and how did his name get out there?

 

[Pasquale for King]

10 minutes ago, Steve_Jersey_HMFC said:

 

I still cant quite understand why Celtic were not more active in trying to get the season completed, everyone knows aside from the most deluded rangers fans, that they would have strolled to their ninth title. Now they have an * next to it and any claims of 10 in a row if they win next season.

 

 

The loss of four home games must’ve cost them a fair bit of money too. I’ve still not seen anything that warrants them to be so desperate for it to finish.

[EIEIO]

Can't see the clamour to ban the gutter press and their back page Hemingways from Tynecastle. I for one would love to meet Keith Jackson on the way to or from Tynecastle on a match day, suspect he wouldn't enjoy the experience as much.

[Mikey1874]

4 hours ago, comradejambo said:

Shocking this comes out as soon as Doncaster gets the name. The guy wanted to remain anonymous. Such a classless group the SPFL (obviously the DR also!)

 

4 hours ago, Des Lynam said:

 

I’d probably suggest that Mr Anderson is more than comfortable with these revelations. 
 

Any tweets from Tam yet? 
 

 

Can't really do this and stay anonymous. 

 

You need to have credibility when dealing with clubs and face to face meetings. 

[kingantti1874]

They Wanted it done becuase they were scared about what guidance UEFA would issue, or if the whole of Europe N&V

[Francis Albert]

When Rangers went bust the weegie media urged every rule in the book should be broken to keep them (or rather their successor)  in the same position as they were before they went bust and ceased to exist, or failing that under protest in a slightly worse position of being "relegated" (ie inserted  against the rules into a league as near the top league as possible). Even when the rules were blatantly broken to allow them into the leagues rather than starting from scratch the media continued to whinge endlessly about their treatment and the damage it was doing to Scottish football. Yet the media cheers as rules are made up to demote the third biggest team and potentially threaten its existence.

Scottish Football is increasingly looking like a club I'd rather Hearts didn't belong to.

[jamboinglasgow]

54 minutes ago, Ethan Hunt said:

We have multi millionaire benefactors, a multi millionaire Chairman, a 2 QC lead legal team, and a number of high profile supports in positions of influence and you don’t think we are controlling the narrative. Or could it be that there is a strategy to all this that you simply can’t see? Maybe this is a well thought out strategy designed to do a number of things, right a wrong, expose the SPFL as not fit for purpose, fully expose Doncaster et al as the incompetents they are, address the imbalance of power within Scottish football, change attitudes, save lower league clubs...........

 

This is Scottish football. The one way to easily control the narrative is to control the media. A large proportion of the media have already nailed their colours to the mast. They have attacked Hearts at every turn. They continue to print negative stories regardless of any of the positive work done by Ann Budge.  She is the only person to have displayed any type of leadership throughout this whole process and she has been slaughtered in the media for having “self interest”. Even some of our own ‘supporters’ have slaughtered her. We can not control that. Others have agendas, and others are exercising control.

 

We can only concentrate in what we can do. The decision to relegate the three teams was unfair. Most reasonable people will agree that. A flawed resolution was drawn up and a dodgy vote passed that resolution. AB led a Task Force to look at reconstruction. It was booted into touch before the submission of any paper. AB kept going. She subsequently submitted a discussion paper. The reaction to the paper has shown the vast majority of people involved in Scottish football do not recognise the extent to which this pandemic will damage Scottish football. The paper revealed there were benefactors willing to help the Scottish game and it was completely overlooked. No-one in the media (that I know of) even mentioned that part. They were all drawn in by the structure and the “it’s all about saving Hearts”. Small mindedness at a time of huge crisis. AB again reveals the benefactor help in a Sportsound interview. During that interview her demeanour is noticeably different. It’s was fighting talk. She called out the lack of leadership at the SPFL and asked why she was being left to do the work. The media picked up on the benefactor, with some immediately dismissing it as nonsense, while others called it “financial blackmail”. Small mindedness at a time of crisis. The benefactor has subsequently been named. There would appear to be a direct quote from him in an article suggesting he was happy to be named (which I think) or knew it was going to happen anyway. What will be small minded and vindictive people have to say now?

 

Given the above at what point have we not controlled the narrative? especially if that narrative is to ultimately lead to us to standing in a court room. You are confusing our narrative with other peoples. You are confusing their narrative for noise. Their noise is just that, noise, it changes nothing. The media are being shown up as idiots. Their agenda is being shown up for what it is, an agenda. Every time we play a card they just shout louder and louder, and the noise gets angrier and angrier, and the words become more and more malicious.

 

I don’t think we have lost control, far from it. Forget the noise. Enjoy the silence that will be coming.

 

Great post.

 

It feels like there is momentum building and the SPFL are too stubborn to realise. Each step she takes builds up to a clear case of one person doing everything to help Scottish football being met by the other side who refuse to do anything as it would as part of it help Hearts. It does appear everything is being done to make a stronger and stronger court case.

 

Its the thing that has amazed me through all this, that the SPFL have offered no proper concessions (setting up a reconstruction panel doomed to fail is no a concession.) They could have sorted this out two months ago by simply having no relegation and expanding leagues by two in each. Would remove the biggest criticisms and teams challenging it, kept goodwill (and legal agreements) with Lowland League and Highland League, would have shown that they are helping teams out, still allowed Celtic to get their title, other teams to deservely get theirs. But they didn't. They became stubborn and refused to change. Their refusal could well be their downfall.

[Beast Boy]

26 minutes ago, Mikey1874 said:

I think it's going to be really hard to find anything negative about James Anderson.

 

He has an impeccable reputation. He has criticised self interest and the failure to properly respond to the banking crisis for example. 

 

And he has been very successful. This sort of project seems right up his street.

 

And a hint very much of someone who looks at the long term.

 

A quote from a decade ago

 

"The pay off for staying true to your principles is absolutely huge. It shows yet another danger of looking at performance numbers on a short term basis".

You can see why he got involved with Hearts then. That is a description of Ann Budge to an absolute tee. She has stood by her principles and thrown straight dice, often in the face of a clamour of abuse. 
 

Looks like all these community projects etc, have actually helped secure massive financial investment in our club. Perhaps the simpletons who constantly bleat on about it will finally shut the **** up now? Maybe they will even start attending games now? Doubt it though.

[Mikey1874]

2 hours ago, GinRummy said:

https://www.quiltercheviot.com/uk/private-client/in-the-spotlight-james-anderson/

https://citywire.co.uk/investment-trust-insider/news/james-anderson-uncut-our-full-in-depth-interview/a1163991

 

Now the genie is out the bottle. A couple of articles I found. Mostly financial chit chat but gives a wee insight. 

 

 

Nice one, cheers.

 

He may not be directly involved in the running of Hearts but he is impressive. Likes the long term investment and how things can change and develop. 

[stuart500]

24 minutes ago, Mikey1874 said:

Look forward to the follow up articles by Keith Jackson and others on how you can't have any influence when you are the fan of one club. 

 

Someone on Twitter questions how a Celtic fan can fund buying Hampden for example. 

 

Will he insist referees declare which club they have an allegiance to because they have ultimately more influence than anyone.

 

Why for example was a Celtic fan allowed to referee the team he supports in the last Scottish Cup Final?

[SE16 3LN]

1 hour ago, Ethan Hunt said:

We have multi millionaire benefactors, a multi millionaire Chairman, a 2 QC lead legal team, and a number of high profile supports in positions of influence and you don’t think we are controlling the narrative. Or could it be that there is a strategy to all this that you simply can’t see? Maybe this is a well thought out strategy designed to do a number of things, right a wrong, expose the SPFL as not fit for purpose, fully expose Doncaster et al as the incompetents they are, address the imbalance of power within Scottish football, change attitudes, save lower league clubs...........

 

This is Scottish football. The one way to easily control the narrative is to control the media. A large proportion of the media have already nailed their colours to the mast. They have attacked Hearts at every turn. They continue to print negative stories regardless of any of the positive work done by Ann Budge.  She is the only person to have displayed any type of leadership throughout this whole process and she has been slaughtered in the media for having “self interest”. Even some of our own ‘supporters’ have slaughtered her. We can not control that. Others have agendas, and others are exercising control.

 

We can only concentrate in what we can do. The decision to relegate the three teams was unfair. Most reasonable people will agree that. A flawed resolution was drawn up and a dodgy vote passed that resolution. AB led a Task Force to look at reconstruction. It was booted into touch before the submission of any paper. AB kept going. She subsequently submitted a discussion paper. The reaction to the paper has shown the vast majority of people involved in Scottish football do not recognise the extent to which this pandemic will damage Scottish football. The paper revealed there were benefactors willing to help the Scottish game and it was completely overlooked. No-one in the media (that I know of) even mentioned that part. They were all drawn in by the structure and the “it’s all about saving Hearts”. Small mindedness at a time of huge crisis. AB again reveals the benefactor help in a Sportsound interview. During that interview her demeanour is noticeably different. It’s was fighting talk. She called out the lack of leadership at the SPFL and asked why she was being left to do the work. The media picked up on the benefactor, with some immediately dismissing it as nonsense, while others called it “financial blackmail”. Small mindedness at a time of crisis. The benefactor has subsequently been named. There would appear to be a direct quote from him in an article suggesting he was happy to be named (which I think) or knew it was going to happen anyway. What will be small minded and vindictive people have to say now?

 

Given the above at what point have we not controlled the narrative? especially if that narrative is to ultimately lead to us to standing in a court room. You are confusing our narrative with other peoples. You are confusing their narrative for noise. Their noise is just that, noise, it changes nothing. The media are being shown up as idiots. Their agenda is being shown up for what it is, an agenda. Every time we play a card they just shout louder and louder, and the noise gets angrier and angrier, and the words become more and more malicious.

 

I don’t think we have lost control, far from it. Forget the noise. Enjoy the silence that will be coming.

Excellent take on things. 

[Mikey1874]

2 hours ago, Ex member of the SaS said:

Can't believe I am posting this but I can see where he is coming from. Money given and Hearts get reconstruction and it looks like a bribe, if Hearts go down then it really would look unconditional. Sometimes these cretin reporters write stuff without looking at how it's worded instead of making a clear point.

Had he simple said if Hearts stay up then this would look like a bribe and therefore not unconditional. However his bile and bias won't let him make such a simple statement and he needs to fill a page so goes about reporting it in a way that simply annoys folk.

 

Yeah

 

Like Celtic can't play in the Scottish Cup because a Celtic fan helped buy Hampden.

[Des Lynam]

1 hour ago, Ethan Hunt said:

We have multi millionaire benefactors, a multi millionaire Chairman, a 2 QC lead legal team, and a number of high profile supports in positions of influence and you don’t think we are controlling the narrative. Or could it be that there is a strategy to all this that you simply can’t see? Maybe this is a well thought out strategy designed to do a number of things, right a wrong, expose the SPFL as not fit for purpose, fully expose Doncaster et al as the incompetents they are, address the imbalance of power within Scottish football, change attitudes, save lower league clubs...........

 

This is Scottish football. The one way to easily control the narrative is to control the media. A large proportion of the media have already nailed their colours to the mast. They have attacked Hearts at every turn. They continue to print negative stories regardless of any of the positive work done by Ann Budge.  She is the only person to have displayed any type of leadership throughout this whole process and she has been slaughtered in the media for having “self interest”. Even some of our own ‘supporters’ have slaughtered her. We can not control that. Others have agendas, and others are exercising control.

 

We can only concentrate in what we can do. The decision to relegate the three teams was unfair. Most reasonable people will agree that. A flawed resolution was drawn up and a dodgy vote passed that resolution. AB led a Task Force to look at reconstruction. It was booted into touch before the submission of any paper. AB kept going. She subsequently submitted a discussion paper. The reaction to the paper has shown the vast majority of people involved in Scottish football do not recognise the extent to which this pandemic will damage Scottish football. The paper revealed there were benefactors willing to help the Scottish game and it was completely overlooked. No-one in the media (that I know of) even mentioned that part. They were all drawn in by the structure and the “it’s all about saving Hearts”. Small mindedness at a time of huge crisis. AB again reveals the benefactor help in a Sportsound interview. During that interview her demeanour is noticeably different. It’s was fighting talk. She called out the lack of leadership at the SPFL and asked why she was being left to do the work. The media picked up on the benefactor, with some immediately dismissing it as nonsense, while others called it “financial blackmail”. Small mindedness at a time of crisis. The benefactor has subsequently been named. There would appear to be a direct quote from him in an article suggesting he was happy to be named (which I think) or knew it was going to happen anyway. What will be small minded and vindictive people have to say now?

 

Given the above at what point have we not controlled the narrative? especially if that narrative is to ultimately lead to us to standing in a court room. You are confusing our narrative with other peoples. You are confusing their narrative for noise. Their noise is just that, noise, it changes nothing. The media are being shown up as idiots. Their agenda is being shown up for what it is, an agenda. Every time we play a card they just shout louder and louder, and the noise gets angrier and angrier, and the words become more and more malicious.

 

I don’t think we have lost control, far from it. Forget the noise. Enjoy the silence that will be coming.

 

Best post on this thread Ethan. 

[Sarah O]

Stuff the rest of Scottish football Mr Anderson. 

 

 

Throw us a cheeky wee £100million and watch us fly! Hearts only. Hearts always. 

[GinRummy]

Again for those interested here’s his fund manager rating  https://citywire.co.uk/funds-insider/manager/james-anderson/d333?periodMonths=
 

and here’s how the investment trust he runs rated  https://www.trustnet.com/factsheets/t/be08/scottish-mortgage-investment-trust-plc

He’s clearly mega rich and at the top of his game. In charge of billions of pounds of investments.

 

[Mikey1874]

2 hours ago, ToadKiller Dog said:

There will be a certain club or clubs who's nose will be out of joint because of the potential benefactors aid to the game .

The daily ****** Jackson will have had a whisper in his ear try and put a negative spin on it .

It's just a sad bitter twisted article looking for sinister motives which clearly aren't there.

In fact that article sums up every way what's wrong with many involved in our game .

 

Totally.

 

But this could be done as a partnership with others. Others can come in now too. 

 

I wasn't sure for example if the story about Celtic and Ross County finding a low cost testing system was for all clubs. 

[GinRummy]

@Ethan Hunt very good post 👍

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

I'm quite relaxed about expulsion now. 

 

We have to accept we have never been in control of the situation despite the fantasies that continue to pervade through the thread. 

 

If we were,  we would not be where we are. 

 

Put in our compensation claims via the legal system,  play in whichever League it is and watch many others implode. 

 

We will come out of this stronger than nearly all,  in these circumstances,  I am therefore now leaning towards, not acceptance,  but a course of direction,  we are among many in Europe suffering the same thing. 

 

Decency,  common sense don't really exist in Scottish football,  which flaws the logic we are somehow in control. 

 

Jealousy,  acrimony and fear do. If the last 8 weeks has taught me anything,  these are in ample supply. 

 

Small minds,  bloody minds,  stubbornly holding on to their castle,  far too fearful to relinquish the crumbs off the sparse table,  they will not change and they will not accept investment that appears to invade upon their existing property. 

 

With that, we should end any discussion,  take what is given and make our way through the legal system 

[Hagar the Horrible]

Monday morning assessment…….its official Scottish Football is actively aiming to choke on its own vomit! Like some self-believing god like rock star guitarist who has fallen for his own publicity.  The Singer has just been found in the wardrobe with a belt around the neck and an orange in his mouth, The Bass player is just about getting his next fix?  And the tambourine player thinks the band is all about him?

We are more like Dave Grohl having been stuck behind the Drum Kit when the one trick pony that has a stranglehold over all creativity has gone, then what’s left is bigger, better and quite frankly more stable.  We will be the Foo’s!

 

Right now we live in Celtics Nirvana. 

 

Yet we still only have the Jive Bunny's greatest hits in our record collection...how very sad

[Ethan Hunt]

46 minutes ago, David McCaig said:

I genuinely hope that everything you say is correct and obviously victory in the court of session is what matters not victory in the court of public opinion.

 

However, it is now hard to see how this isn’t going to court, which then begs the question why didn’t we just go there, when reconstruction was rejected out of hand first time around... and when SPL Clubs were £7m poorer?

Reconstruction wasn’t rejected out of hand. It was rejected, and if you want to use the term “out of hand” I’ll go with that, but it was rejected by Premiership clubs.

 

If you are going to take the SPFL members to court then all of them should have been allowed to have their say on reconstruction first. The re-visit does that and a lot of Chairman have been shown up as being completely of self interest. Some of them have even been quoted as saying “what’s in it for us”. What better way to defend an accusation of self interest than to prove that those making the accusation have shown equally or more self interest themselves. 

 

Stopping the cash would have done little. I’d be interested to see how much of the money some of these clubs have left at this very minute, I’d wager the majority of it is already spent. The remaining fee money was a lifeline, something to grab onto to provide immediate help. AB has offered a survival plan, something that will save them. If some people are too stupid to see that then hell mend them.

[luckydug]

2 hours ago, Cruickshank for Scotland said:

The media will be after this guy now trying to dig up any dirt they can! Scumbags!

Correct !  His life will no longer be his own. 

Hope he doesn't decide to withdraw from helping football now. 

Why can't people just accept a kind offer of help for what it is ? 

 

 

[David McCaig]

1 minute ago, Ethan Hunt said:

Reconstruction wasn’t rejected out of hand. It was rejected, and if you want to use the term “out of hand” I’ll go with that, but it was rejected by Premiership clubs.

 

If you are going to take the SPFL members to court then all of them should have been allowed to have their say on reconstruction first. The re-visit does that and a lot of Chairman have been shown up as being completely of self interest. Some of them have even been quoted as saying “what’s in it for us”. What better way to defend an accusation of self interest than to prove that those making the accusation have shown equally or more self interest themselves. 

 

Stopping the cash would have done little. I’d be interested to see how much of the money some of these clubs have left at this very minute, I’d wager the majority of it is already spent. The remaining fee money was a lifeline, something to grab onto to provide immediate help. AB has offered a survival plan, something that will save them. If some people are too stupid to see that then hell mend them.

Out of hand in the sense that the SPL clubs didn’t even have the courtesy to let Ann make her presentation.

[David McCaig]

15 minutes ago, Sarah O said:

Stuff the rest of Scottish football Mr Anderson. 

 

 

Throw us a cheeky wee £100million and watch us fly! Hearts only. Hearts always. 

Make it £101m and I’m more than happy to see Tynecastle rebranded The Baillie Gifford Dome or away down in Gorgie at Anderson Park 😎

[The Verminator]

2 hours ago, Geoff Kilpatrick said:

Oh Jimmy, Jimmy! Jimmy. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Anderson.

 

Sorry, Barmy Army moment there. I ignore the noise of the R-tard. During the toilet paper rush, people still wouldn't bring themselves to wipe with that shite.

 

 

I look forward to Cosgrove denying his existence.

And we have a new chant for whenever we are allowed back into the ground

 

And Broady`s 8-15 is one of my fave non-footy sporting moments!

[GinRummy]

7 minutes ago, luckydug said:

Correct !  His life will no longer be his own. 

Hope he doesn't decide to withdraw from helping football now. 

Why can't people just accept a kind offer of help for what it is ? 

 

 

I hope he doesn’t withdraw from football either. His anonymity should have been respected.

 

Thankfully there will be absolutely no dirt on him though. The media can rake about in his past all they want. His reputation will remain impeccable, I’d stake a years wages on that. 

Edited June 1, 2020 by GinRummy

[Taffin]

I'm confused as to why we are involved in this or how it benefits us to have got involved?

 

We're now being painted as trying to bribe the SPFL. Couldn't the gifting of the money to Scottish Football have been done between those two parties without our involvement? He could have then continued to remain anonymous in relation to the donations to Hearts. 

 

On a more important topic, a massive thank to him for all he's done for us so far. Incredible! 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Taffin

[Ethan Hunt]

30 minutes ago, jamboinglasgow said:

 

Great post.

 

It feels like there is momentum building and the SPFL are too stubborn to realise. Each step she takes builds up to a clear case of one person doing everything to help Scottish football being met by the other side who refuse to do anything as it would as part of it help Hearts. It does appear everything is being done to make a stronger and stronger court case.

 

Its the thing that has amazed me through all this, that the SPFL have offered no proper concessions (setting up a reconstruction panel doomed to fail is no a concession.) They could have sorted this out two months ago by simply having no relegation and expanding leagues by two in each. Would remove the biggest criticisms and teams challenging it, kept goodwill (and legal agreements) with Lowland League and Highland League, would have shown that they are helping teams out, still allowed Celtic to get their title, other teams to deservely get theirs. But they didn't. They became stubborn and refused to change. Their refusal could well be their downfall.

The SPFL board have lacked any kind of sophistication or finesse. Instead of finding sensible, considered decisions that took the long term effects of COVID19 into account, they chose to bludgeon a flawed resolution through. Even their own legal team told them to expect legal action as a result. How Doncaster is still in position is beyond me. He lead a course of action knowing the severe impact it would have on three member clubs in particular. That, at the very least, it wilful neglect and complete and utter incompetence.

[Glamorgan Jambo]

I've invested in Scottish Mortgage for many years and being a bit of a nerd read the reports and the clear and interesting views of the managers (James is now a co manager). A few years ago when the trust was worth a lot less than it was today in an interview (either CityWire or Morningstar) he stated that one of his goals was to own 5% of the trust. Today it's valued at £10 billion. Even if he hasn't got there yet it's pretty easy to do the maths.

[Mikey1874]

11 minutes ago, Hagar the Horrible said:

Monday morning assessment…….its official Scottish Football is actively aiming to choke on its own vomit! Like some self-believing god like rock star guitarist who has fallen for his own publicity.  The Singer has just been found in the wardrobe with a belt around the neck and an orange in his mouth, The Bass player is just about getting his next fix?  And the tambourine player thinks the band is all about him?

We are more like Dave Grohl having been stuck behind the Drum Kit when the one trick pony that has a stranglehold over all creativity has gone, then what’s left is bigger, better and quite frankly more stable.  We will be the Foo’s!

 

Right now we live in Celtics Nirvana. 

 

Yet we still only have the Jive Bunny's greatest hits in our record collection...how very sad

 

But how the Championship and Leagues One and Two clubs respond to this offer can change everything. 

[S Form]

I still think there’s a lot to be played out here and I’m sceptical that football will start on 1 August. If the figures being bandied about are correct and clubs need £100,000 per month to carry out testing there’s no way the likes of Kilmarnock, Ross County, St Johnstone, St Mirren and Hamilton can afford it. 
This outlay is on top of the wages they’ll have to start paying their players as soon as they start training - that’s them getting back to work so their wages won’t be covered by the furlough scheme.

Even if these clubs get some Sky money up front it will soon run out.

I think even the OF will feel the financial pressure pretty soon and will need help from outside investors over and above the cash they’ve brought in from season tickets.

This tale might even beat the Huns liquidation saga for twists and turns.

[Tokyo Drifter]

Ethan Hunt make good points and I agree with most of it.

 

However there's no getting away from the fact that regardless of who controls the narrative it's the SPFL which ultimately controls events, and that organisation went into the whole process with a preferred outcome - the league being called and Celtic being declared champions - and despite the shambles over the Dundee vote the SPFL was pretty canny about finagling the process so that ending the league could be achieved relatively simply. It's c called divide and conquer.

 

Doncaster has taken a PR hit but has achieved the desired result, as he sees it. Two of the three available outcomes satisfied Celtic and their financial need for European football (calling the league and completing it) so the SPFL plumped for the easiest one, despite it being the least fair. The third option was declaring the league null and void, which was never going to happen.

 

Had Celtic been four points behind Rangers with eight games to play, the SPFL would have made much more strenuous efforts to complete the league. That's obvious to everybody but nobody in the media will ever come out and say that, and if Hearts fans point it out the're accused of paranoia/self-interest/anti-Celtic bias.

[Ethan Hunt]

6 minutes ago, David McCaig said:

Out of hand in the sense that the SPL clubs didn’t even have the courtesy to let Ann make her presentation.

Can you see why she had to revisit it though? It had to get to a stage we’re all member clubs had a say in it. We are there now and if the members - as would appear to be the case - can’t come to an agreed position two things happen, the SPFL board use their executive power to force reconstruction, or we go to court. If we go to court we will be able to evidence that reconstruction couldn’t be agreed on, why, because of the self interest of clubs. They then have a self defeating argument.

 

Don’t let the noise fool you. The media have effectively become the Iraqi Information Minister, Comical Ali, they know what’s coming but are trying to deflect it hence the vitriol toward AB and Hearts is being ramped up.

[Francis Albert]

16 minutes ago, Sir Gio said:

I'm quite relaxed about expulsion now. 

 

We have to accept we have never been in control of the situation despite the fantasies that continue to pervade through the thread. 

 

If we were,  we would not be where we are. 

 

Put in our compensation claims via the legal system,  play in whichever League it is and watch many others implode. 

 

We will come out of this stronger than nearly all,  in these circumstances,  I am therefore now leaning towards, not acceptance,  but a course of direction,  we are among many in Europe suffering the same thing. 

 

Decency,  common sense don't really exist in Scottish football,  which flaws the logic we are somehow in control. 

 

Jealousy,  acrimony and fear do. If the last 8 weeks has taught me anything,  these are in ample supply. 

 

Small minds,  bloody minds,  stubbornly holding on to their castle,  far too fearful to relinquish the crumbs off the sparse table,  they will not change and they will not accept investment that appears to invade upon their existing property. 

 

With that, we should end any discussion,  take what is given and make our way through the legal system 

As an aside, when crowds can return a wee European competition between the shafted clubs could be an attractive proposition.