The English Premiership's P******** Plan seems to be working... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18278621
Nice to see we have gone for category 1 status.... Let's hope we get it! If not, maybe we can pretend we have scrapped our Acadamy, and operate it in secret then tell them we are just picking up kids from a 'local school'.
good plan there Kev. We always said we'd be going for Category 1, somehow i can't see us getting it, not sure why...we're just never flavour of the month...
This strikes as a very odd situation when people running the club do not know what is happening. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18412335
Well if we fail any lingering doubt that money is everything to those greedy tossers in the Premiership will be well and truly put to bed.
Curious how some clubs are attractive to investors and others are not. The very rich buy at a level they can afford and then the less rich a bit lower and so on. I am not sure how Portsmouth get owner after owner quickly with all their failures or other clubs are suddenly taken over, or then there is Watford who whenever this happens any take over takes a very long time and is possibly very bad for the immediate health of the club. Then there are the rumours which are just as bad, and when nothing happens it is even worse after destabilising.
I've long wondered why we're not seen as attractive to American investors. A solid fanbase as a starting point, the opportunity to build in a town centre location, the town's proximity to London, distinctively coloured shirts already in place (no need to upset the fans in order to get there), the fact that it wouldn't be too difficult or controversial to brand us as the "Watford Hornets" stateside, the Sir Elton John connection, the values that the club stands for, the possibility of getting into the Premier League relatively cheaply, the similarities between us and the Oakland Athletics...
Although it seems to be doubtful as to the outcome, would the TV companies allow them to go missing? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...ers-to-be-excluded-from-SPL-fixture-list.html
Are you saying that Rupert Murdoch will decide? The SPL/SFA are caught between a rock and a hard place here. Kick Rangers out of the SPL and the media will be unhappy, given their mistaken belief that everyone in Scotland wants to watch them on the box. Keep them in and there is a potentially expensive lawsuit waiting in the wings - Livingston will be wanting to know why they were demoted to the Third Division when they were in similar difficulties. And if it is down to the other SPL clubs to decide, then I suspect that Rangers will be looking either at Division Three or England next season - they don't have too many friends around the country.
BB - I hope the SFA/SPL take the tough decision and hope it sends the message to these spivs and wide-boys that they cannot get away with fleecing people reliant on the fact that football clubs are "different"...we need a few of the bastards slung in the chokey for a year or so.
I go along with the view that Rangers dropping down to the Third Division would be good for Rangers. Celtic's spending would have to drop back in line with matchday income, rather than depending on the TV money, and clubs from cities like Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh would be able to at least compete without bankrupting themselves. In the same way that at the moment we can compete with the likes of Leeds and Derby with less money, but wouldn't be able to if they offered European football or doubled their wage budgets. In the meantime, Rangers would turn a profit and start building up a base from which to eventually compete when they go back up.
Might share a bit of wealth around the struggling Div Three clubs too - three big payday fixtures a season, always assuming that Ranger's fans maintain their interest - one home fixture for them brings in about fiftenn times the attendances for all the Div Three fixtures combined. The trouble is though, that a capacity attendance for a small club may not make up for all the trouble the Rangers Neanderthals cause - they really have a high percentage of undesirables in their midst.
That last point is a good one, and I think the issue of policing costs needs to be dealt with nationally. Because the oppressive Scots, Irish and Welsh have forced us to give them parliaments yet refuse to let us have our own, "nationally" refers to the UK. The "baseline" cost: what you would reasonably expect it to cost to have 2,000 well behaved away fans visit your ground, should always be met by the home club. But the "aggravated" extras: what the police are likely to demand if 2,000 Millwall or Forest fans visit, should be met by the away side. Only then are clubs going to get serious about dealing with the behavior of their fans. Of course, there should be a slightly different rule for games which are obviously going to be highly-charged. If we were to visit the Kennel again, it would obviously be perverse if the L*t*n fans knew that the worse they behaved, the more Watford would have to pay in future (and in theory vice versa if they visit us).
