Barely Regal

The news that Rangers FC could be going bust would come as a shock only to the pliant Scottish football media (CEO Chick Young) and the follow followers who believe that talking frankly about football finance is some form of treachery. For those who have been following the likes of  Phil Mac Giolla Bhain for the past year, the ‘news’ will come less of a surprise.

We’ve been saying for months that if Rangers were any other club they would – according to SPL rules – be docked points for financial mismanagement. They’ve been run by the bank for some time now and have at various times admitted as much. A short time ago Walter Smith let this slip in an interview and the club rapidly back-peddled and re-spun his very clear words. At the time of Ally McCoist’s appointment they said the same again. McCoist’s statement when he was appointed is extraordinary. Here’s what he said:

“I know what’s happening. I am as aware as anybody of what’s happening at the moment. The club is struggling – we are not on our knees, but financially we are looking for a buyer. We are struggling to bring players in, but I knew that and took it all into account. There are a lot of negatives, but an awful lot of positives as well”.

This was his statement on being offered his dream job. For all the facts on the perilous state of Rangers FC read Phil’s account of how the tax element of this shambles eventually has became mainstream. It’s not just another story about financial crisis nor is it just of interest to football fans. It’s about how the cosy consensus that is the Scottish sports press and the love-in that the mainstream media has with big business (slavish adoration of Sir David Murray is routine) is crumbling.

Why? Mostly because people like Phil are able to dig-out ‘scoops’ like this despite the submissive media and the culture of deference that hangs around the club lounge-suites and press conferences.

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  1. And wouldn’t it be a huge blessing if they did go bust, followed by Celtic and the whole lot of them. Here we sit on the edge of the ecological crisis, with Scotland only a month away from an election, the country on the brink of bankruptcy yet engaged in three wars and yet go into any pub in the land and what are people talking about? Football. It’s not as if each team represents a community. A huge percentage of the key players come from abroad, and they often swap sides , so any kind of loyalty to a location or philosophy is absurd. The whole thing is entirely some kind of extraordinary displacement activity, mixed with some kind of sense of cultural loyalty.
    Tne other night, this is true. I said to a football fanatic in the pub that i had no interest in football and he replied. “That’s not your fault it’s your Father’s, he should have taught you!”
    Rangers going bust? Hurray. Scotland will not be free until the last pub bore droning on about this spaghetti of nonsense joins the real world and starts engaging in real issues.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Hi Max, I don’t agree that the whole of football is a blight on our land…but its interesting to think how much vested interest and prejudice would disappear overnight if a giant institution like Rangers FC fell in financial chaos – the hubris of big business and the paradox of such a big brand flopping would be no bad thing.

  2. David McCann says:

    I could’nt agree more about Neil. Not only had he a giant intellect, he was a fantastic human being

  3. Celyn says:

    Huh. Should Rangers or the other big lot go to the wall, it would indeed, as Maxwell MacLeod says, be a huge blessing. I think my sorrow at such an event would be easily contained.

    However, I tend to suspect they will manage to carry on somehow, with no matter what kind of unusual “behind the scenes” tax deals. Bread and circuses to keep us distracted – very important, that is.

    I would REALLY like to be wrong in this. 🙂

    1. Ray Bell says:

      Watch their “loyal” fanbase evaporate when they start losing matches on a regular basis.

  4. Doug Daniel says:

    Like the banks, who were “too big to fail”, Rangers will not be allowed to go to the wall – somehow, it will be saved. Which is a shame, because many of the problems in Scottish football have Rangers at their heart – on and off the park. The only problem would be it is difficult to see how we could avoid Celtic being automatically crowned Scottish champions every year.

  5. Ray Bell says:

    The whole joke is that Elizabeth cannot stand football. The only sport which appears to interest her is horse racing. She is hardly ever seen at football matches – her grandchildren turn up, she doesn’t usually.

  6. Tocasaid says:

    Would be very happy to see both Celtic and Rangers – along with their mock-Irish and mock-English fans – disappear for ever.

    As to Phil MacGiollaBhain – its a shame that Bella gives this bigot space. He has opinions on lots of things, most notably the ‘tide’ of anti-Irish racism that is supposedly engulfing Scotland. As an (ex?) IRA supporter (going by one of his articles in the Cetlic League journal CARN) I looked to his page to see if there was any comment on the arguably sectarian killing of a Catholic police officer in the Six Counties. None. Instead, I find a schoolboy type piece of football paranoia about Hearts’ fans who a Hibs player imagined may have being going to abuse him at a forthcoming match. The fact that an Irish Catholic plays for Hearts isn’t mentioned.

    Many Scots have Irish blood – and this as well as someone’s religion is neither here nor there for roughly 95% of the population. Significant swathes of Scotland were never touched by the reformation and its interesting that in still predominantly Catholic areas of Alba such as Lochaber or the southern Hebrides, you don’t hear of these complaints. In Na h-Eileanan Siar where large numbers of Sabbatarian and fiercely Presbyterian Gaels who are taught by their churches that anyone else – be it the Pope or another strand of Free Presbyterianism is in league with Satan – sectarian incidents are unheard of (I’m sure Phil has the journalistic wherewithal to gain the stats) . There aren’t even separate schools and in mixed areas like Benbecula kids go to different churches but the same schools. More importantly, growing numbers are going to no church.

    As someone who has a fair amount of Irish blood on both sides of the family, a smattering of the Gaeilge even and whose Irish Catholic great-granny settled in Gorgie to raise a generation of Hearts’ fans, I don’t see any institutionalised prejudice. True, there are bigots but most are young eejits and they are outnumbered. These eejits are present at Parkhead too. An auld acquaintance who happens to be a black African-Scot and active anti-fascist was racially abused in a Celtic supporters’ pub many years ago by a guy with PIRA tattooed on his knuckles. Fortunately, most of us can see beyond this and not resort to similar prejudice by tarring a whole nation with the same brush.

    1. Ray Bell says:

      “As to Phil MacGiollaBhain … As an (ex?) IRA supporter (going by one of his articles in the Cetlic League journal CARN) I looked to his page to see if there was any comment on the arguably sectarian killing of a Catholic police officer in the Six Counties. ”

      Firstly, the Celtic League is not a sectarian organisation and has nothing to do with religion, let alone Celtic F.C.

      When did he actually write an article in Carn, and what was it called?!

      1. Seoras says:

        Phil has been peddling the anti-Scottish line for decades now. He’s little better than Iain Paisley – nothing is getting better and we should always resist not to mention his skill at self-promotion. And, if you disagree, you must be a Scottish sectarian bigot. About 99% of Scotland has moved on from hating the Irish – though the roots of that were religious. The Irish are included in the race relations act – some protection that native Gaels don’t enjoy.

        Phil is a loose cannon. Bargepole. Don’t. With. Touch. Him.

  7. David S Briggs says:

    Phil is a psuedo Irish, born in Scotland, bigot who loathes Rangers Football Club and it’s Supporters.

    He loves Celtic Football Club and it’s IRA supporting hordes.

    Should you really be associating your site with such a purveyor of poisonous fairy tales?

    His maunderings are hardly objective are they?

  8. bellacaledonia says:

    Which poisonous fairy tales? It seems to us he speaks a lot more sense than most of the mainstream media.

    1. David S Briggs says:

      The fairy tales that Rangers are on the point of going out of business.

      Do you actually believe what he writes?

      I repeat …………. he is not objective.

      Do you think that someone who is so blinkered in his views, dare I say biased, can be trusted in his version of events.

      He is a Fan of Celtic ………..he prefers that Rangers didn’t exist.

      If you repeat a lie often enough then he presumably thinks it will be recognised as being the truth …………he is wrong.

      He lies, fabricates makes up things, conducts campaigns to discredit the Club I support.

      You have a strange idea of what constitutes ‘sense’

      I detest the mainstream Scottish mhedia and their Unioninst blathers, but they don’t tell the lies this man does.

      He fled Scotland to live in Eire for a reason and it wasn’t because he was driven out by bigots.

      I vote SNP as do an awful lot of Rangers supporters nowadays.

      I found this Post having started to subscribe to NewsNet Scotland thence to Moridura and now to your site.

      Sorry if I sound a bit angry, but I hate seeing one sided comment about Scottish Football especially involving the Club I support.

      Take either Rangers and Celtic out of Scottish Football and there would be in a very short time be no football in Scotland at all.

      To be quite frank Phil is to far gone in his blind ravings to realise this.

      Any way ……….. thanks for replying

  9. bellacaledonia says:

    Well David, the Rangers chairman admitted that the club could go bust, its hardly the conspiracy theories of mad Celtic fans:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/12932160.stm

    We support no team but we’re glad you found us via Newsnet.

  10. David S Briggs says:

    Well bella if you believe in Phil you must believe in Chic.

    In the World of super journalism a nod becomes ‘yes’ to Mr Young.

    ‘Wow this is a scoop …………..I’d better confirm straight away that the nod is actually a yes’ says the bold Chic to himself.

    Well no, Chic didn’t and in the world of what passes for journalistic expertise he gets a mark of zero out of ten.

    Traynor made a fool of Chic and he was correct to do so.

    Even Chic’s journalistic knowledge and expertise dwarfs Phil’s miniscule talents.

    We SNP folk denigrate the output from BBC Radio Scotland, but you Post it’s drivel to justify yourself in this case.

    They lied when they said Elmer Fudd wiped the floor with our FM in the STV debate ……….. don’t you think they’re capable of other falsehoods?

    Perhaps you believe what suits, but that’s up to you.

    By the way Rangers don’t owe the Bank 29 million …………… a lie that has since been refuted by the Rangers Board in the most vigorous terms.

  11. David S Briggs says:

    Hi again Bella!

    BBC Scotland didn’t say Elmer had ‘wiped the floor’ with our FM.

    They made no comment at all, I now recollect.

    Sorry to tell fibs …………I promise to try not to do it again.

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