Jesus. Is that true? I didn’t know that. Then again, the pulling power of the Old Firm teams should hardly come as any surprise. But still. That's impressive stuff. Without the Old Firm the Scottish league would be like the Welsh league? Hmm. Who knows? I’ve heard people say that it would become like the Irish league. They say this as if it’s a bad thing, however, whereas I struggle to see the problem (and actualy find the comparision quite favourable). The Welsh league, though? That’s a step too far. As for those crowds you mention.....that's a sore one. I'm not sure anything will bring those days back, right enough, but it would be lovely to at least see a swing in that direction.
Very good point - and, as such, far too sensible a suggestion to ever be implemented by the terminally cash-crazy.
aye psycho - they just dont want it - they want the sit down no noise prawn brigade who are willing to pay well over the odds! What they really want is bevvy swilling diehards munching on pies and necking vodka laced bovril, suppose the odd coke swilling pizza faced kids could be coped with and well we all love a bit of footy top wearing totty. These are the types of folk we need at football. And if the price is right we'll all come on down and fill the stadiums but not at 25 - 40 quid a prawn salad bowl.
Vodka laced bovril? Them were the days. Although, to be fair, my smuggled vodka - trapped inside the waistband of trousers was the best way, I found - would be mixed with diet-Coke if they had it (middle-class, effete, finely-toned ponce, I know) or a full-strength Coke if I was feeling particularly feisty and tough. But still, your points are sound. How in the name of God is someone on minimum wage, for example, expected to be able to afford these prices? Moderate to middling incomes would even take a beating if you throw some kids into the mix. I don't get why people would waste their money this way or why they might reasonably be expected to do so. Utter. Madness. (Certain women in football tops have always made me feel slightly weak. No idea why. It really, really shouldn't be attractive - just look at the men - but it is.)
Face it Sky want the viewers for the Rangers, Celtic & Old Firm games. If the deal at the minute is minimal, what kind of deal would the SPL get without the two? A pretty ****ty one I would imagine. Well that's what I meant, no decent money coming in. So Motherwell, Livingston, Dundee etc went bust because they were trying to compete with the Old Firm? There simply isn't enough money coming into the game. That's why I said it would get worse. But if the standards drop & the money isn't there the young lads coming through the ranks could still be picked up by the Old Firm. A competitive league with ****tier football or the Old Firm playing the best teams in England. Which do you think people in Scotland would rather watch? I know football hasn't always been about money and it's sad the way it has gone were you have ****head little footballers earning thousands upon thousands at 17 years old, but unfortunately that's the way it is now.
Sorry, Medro, I didn't see that you'd been back here yesterday. Righty.... Yes, the remaining teams would probably get a comparatively ****ty deal, no doubt, but you seem to agree that they would still get a deal of some sort? And this, to me, suggests that your assertion that Scottish football would “die” without the Old Firm may be viewed – not only as guesswork, of course, as I think we both agreed? – but also as incautious hyperbole. (If football “died” as a sport in Scotland, after all, following the expulsion of the Old Firm – and let’s remember that we’re talking (very, very hypothetically) here about the other teams breaking away from the Glasgow pair and booting them out of the league, or that’s what I started off talking about, in any event – then it seems unlikely that any broadcaster would offer a deal to something already pronounced dead. And yet here we both are, seemingly agreeing to the fact that some sort of deal would be offered. So I detect a future pulse, Mr P, how about you?) You also mention Sky again – you arch villain, you - which makes me feel less guilty about repeating a question I asked previously: did Scottish football survive (or die) in the days before the advent of Sky TV? If it survived, as we both know it did, is there any particular reason it can’t (eventually) do so again? (I have no arguments, incidentally, with your claim that Sky are only really interested in Celtic and Rangers and Old Firm games. But try for one moment, please, to imagine how bored the rest of us are with this dulling fixation, always at the expense of our teams. I’ve only ever watched two Old Firm games in my life and both of these were last season. (And I really enjoyed them, incidentally, although I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to watch another game in the future – possibly ever.) But this is what makes your following question so vexing: “A competitive league with ****tier football or the Old Firm playing the best teams in England. Which do you think people in Scotland would rather watch?” Seriously? If Aberdeen were playing the ****tiest football (not hard to imagine) against the ****tiest team in the ****tiest league in existence, I would watch this game – given the chance – every single time, no matter who Celtic or Rangers were playing, no matter how intrigued I may be to see how they might get on in England. How is this not obvious? You are unfamiliar with the notion of (quite often barkingly irrational) loyalty? Because Barcelona play better football than either Rangers or Celtic, Medro, would you choose to watch them playing Seville, say, rather than sit down to watch the Old Firm do battle, should the matches directly collide? I’ll save you the bother on this one, okay – no, you wouldn’t, because Rangers are your team and you’d be a total fruitcake of a fan if you chose to watch someone else at their expense. Please afford the same consideration to fans of other teams. We may be less in number, but don’t make the elementary and patronising mistake of deeming us lesser fans, somehow so enthralled by the Old Firm that we might drop everything to gratefully catch a glimpse of their squidgy little thighs and momentously puffed-up fans. Deary me. Am I being unfair? If so, how? “But if the standards drop & the money isn't there the young lads coming through the ranks could still be picked up by the Old Firm.” True. Good point. But the Old Firm, if they were to survive being booted out of the Scottish league before they’d fixed themselves a deal in England – and I don’t think they would (on either count) – would hardly need all that many players in their soon to be extinct two-team dump of a league, to be fair. (Yes, yes, I know, I know, I’m hardly making a serious point, although the more I adopt this hypothetical position I never really wanted to adopt in the first place, the more righteous and indignant I become. I fancy I’ll be threatening to hunt you down and batter you soon, you know. Nightmare. What a petty little lout I look set to become.) “I know football hasn't always been about money and it's sad the way it has gone were you have ****head little footballers earning thousands upon thousands at 17 years old, but unfortunately that's the way it is now.” Nicely put, and yes. My only qualifier, I suppose, would be that none of us need buy into this new ideology. Liberation! And just because something is presently so, we needn’t be deterred from actively hoping for something different and seeking to effect a change – which may involve thinking the previously unthinkable and adopting measures which might seem absurd to those people whose primary interest in life would seem to be the pursuit of money at the expense of all else. And now, with regret, my poor Mr Pendes, I must violently batter you to death. Take it easy…..
Is it called the British Premier League? No. It's called the English Premier League, which covers the England & Wales regions as Scotland has a hair up it's arse about independence and so can live with it's wishes instead of chasing the coin. You ****s.
Aha. I shouldn’t worry about it, really, as most people seem incapable of anything but fevered dribbling on this site – and I’m proud to consider myself an arch dribbler. (I tend to take a very long time over my own dribbling, however, savouring every globule that escapes my flatulent mouth, before rushing to the nearest mirror to congratulate myself warmly. To spend the day any other way would seem preposterous, frankly.)
