All things sporting

Basically the feelings of a Rangers fan start to finish can be summed up thus:

Why don't the other teams want to let the Rangers back in, anyway? Are they just jealous of the Rangers' past success or is there some legitimate grievance?

Fan power i think. Fans of the other teams said they would not watch their team play if they let Rangers back in the SPL.

Basically we cheated Eldo.
The people who ran the club were fiddling the finaces, so Rangers where buying players they could only afford because they were pulling tax dodges and the like- then the tax office saw a chance to have a go because of some particular offshore deals as part of players contracts (so they wouldn't pay tax on them).
The cost of all this put the club into administration- so the league automatically inflicted a penalty of a 10 point reduction.
But for the 'bringing the game into disrepute' charge and in the name of sporting fairplay many clubs wanted greater punishments. But before that could be decided the club collpased completely- a newco was set up, it bought all the clubs assets, the stadium, car park, trainin g grounds ect- but as they are techniquely a new club they had to reapply to re-enter the league again.

The other teams, some for sporting fairness reasons, some for old grievences, decided to put the boot in and voted against them renetering in the Premiere.
The leagues preferred choice is to put Rangers into the next division down (as that way they will most likely be straight back up again and the tv money and fans cash assured).
However the division one teams quite rightly dont want them- Rangers will almost certainly win it meaning one of them won't, so one of them will miss out on promotion.

That leaves the last option- Rangers enter at the very bottom- division 3.
This is actually the preferred option of Rangers fans, myself included- as usual fans are the victims of all this but most recognise that what went on behind the boardroom doors, whilst sectret from us, was dishonest and bad for the game. For the integrity of the game and sporting spirit the only fair thing is to put them in at the bottom. Rangers would anyway be back in the Premiere League in 3, maybe 4 years at most as the fans will not go away and Rangers will have a revenue much greater than any other club in division 3,2 or 1.

However the league and the other premier teams dont want Rangers in the 3rd division- the tv money comes from SKY and SKY's contract stipulates a minimum of 4 Old Firm games (Rangers v Celtic) per season. No Rangers for years, no money.
By the leagues own estimates if Rangers have to go into the 3rd division the revenue loss to the Premiere league will put anything from 3-6 other clubs into adminsitration- effectively collapsing the league and the entire game in Scotland.

The decision as to which league, 1 or 3 the newco Rangers gets put into is made today (friday 13th! )

That seems rather complicated. I don't entirely understand the switching between leagues thing. Do the winners of Leagues 1-3 each year get to move up to the next level? And do the lowest-ranked teams get bumped down? I don't think any of the major sports leagues in North America have levels in that way, so I'm a little lost.

Could the contract with Sky be re-negotiated? It does seem fair for the new Rangers to start at the lowest level but at the same time it's not fair for the entire league to collapse over one team. Although from the little I know of Scottish football the whole system seems disproportionately centered on Old Firm.

It is disproportionatly centred on the Old Firm- they have been the two biggest teams for over 100 years. They are Glasgows two football teams- one side Rangers is associated with Britishness, the army, Queen and country. Protestants- the other, Celtic, was set up by immigrant Irish Catholics.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland- with Catholic Irish IRA at war with the British Army only made the whole thing ever more hostile and bitter between the two teams and fans -up until the 1980's Rangers had never signed a catholic player for example.
To this day Celtic fans protest and boo during the minutes silence held before matches start on Poppy Day (Remembrance Day for those killed in service). Despite the fact famous Celtic players fought in both World Wars.

As to the league thing is pretty straight forward.
There are 4 leagues.
The Premier at the top- then 1st down to 3rd.
The winner of the 3rd, 2nd and 1st divisions all get promoted up a league.
The losing team of the premier, 1st and 2nd all go down a league.
Actually its a little more complex with playoffs- but dont worry about that. Thats the basic idea.
The top two teams in the Premier get a place in the Champions League which basically = £££££££

SKY will renogiate- they will just offer a lot, lot less. The Premier league in Scotland is a two horse race, the last time another tema outside the Old Firm won it was in the 1980's (Aberdeen under Scotlands greatest ever manager Alex Ferguson, now the famous manager of Man Utd).
Without Rangers it will be a one-horse raise. Celtic will romp to the league with a margin I would guess of 20 points or more, the league will be over by xmas.
Interest will slump, gates will slump, SKY won't get advertisers- so whatever deal SKY do offer it will be poor in comparison to the current one.

It's coming across as a no-win scenario. I would think that if the league is really such a big business that people will do something to save it, though. Surely Sky would rather have one (or four) meh years followed by the return of the status quo then have their Scottish sports section lose its biggest attraction...?

I'm actually kind of curious now. Will keep my eyes peeled for news tomorrow (later today, technically).

Is this not kind of good for some other teams though? If it is the top 2 that go in to the Champions league, some others may have a chance of getting some decent money in and maybe begin to close the gap up the top.

There are plenty of other sports channels that I am sure would pick the SPL up if Sky decided they didnt want it, or were going to start paying out less.

Surely this new rangers will be so superior in finance, that even if they are placed right in the lowest SFL league, they'd pretty much have promotion guaranteed each year until they reach the SPL. The other clubs obviously want rangers punished, but not to the extent where the entire league loses out financialy. I remember a similar thing happen in England with the collapse of ITV digital where clubs such as Swansea and Wrexham really struggled.

I don't know how much clubs in Scotland rely on broadcasting revenue, but I guess it could cause mayhem like it did with ITV for some clubs

Its not just tv, there is sponsorship of the league, advertising revenue, and gates- for clubs in Scotland the biggest gare recepits are when Rangers and Celtic come to play. And the SPL knew this which is why teams in Scotland played each other 4 times a season (not including cups).

'Rangers chief executive Charles Green says he will not challenge the vote by the Scottish Football League to place his new club in Division Three.
At Hampden, 25 of the 30 clubs were against Rangers being in Division One.
"We are grateful to be accepted as members of the SFL and accept their decision to vote us into Division Three," said Green.
"We made clear we would play where we were told to play and we just want to get back to playing football."


So div 3 it is and now it gets interesting as we see if the SPL survives at all. Next move is SKY's and what they offer.

Various news sources are all reporting that the SFL voted the Rangers into Third Division. The Guardian is reporting that the SFA could override the vote if they think the league is in danger, though.

EDIT: Simuled with Petty. I hope that Sky will be reasonable, for your sake.

There is more behind the vote to send Rangers down than just dealing with Rangers here.
The rest of Scottish football has always wanted a fairer slice of the pie and to restructure the league.

'Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston said it would not be a shock to see the SFA and SPL formulating plans for an SPL2, something which has already been mooted.
He said: “That wouldn’t surprise me. The 10 First Division clubs sent out a message today saying that we are looking for a 42-club solution, the vote was 25 to five so I think that was fairly unanimous.”
Yorkston was echoing Longmuir’s comments which made up part of the statement read to the gathered media.
Longmuir said: “Something I would like to say very clearly today is that he First Division clubs in particular made it very clear to us that they are looking for an all 42-club solution to Scottish football’s restructuring issue — that was a very clear direction of the will of all SFL clubs.”- The Scottish Sun

Rangers go into 3rd- financial situation means SPL faces meltdown- the only solution is to restructure the league and this time collectively the smaller clubs are holding better cards this time. This is not the end of this by a long way, sadly.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/rangers-relegated-to-third-division-in-scotland-following-vote-of-scottish-football-league-chairmen/story-e6frf423-1226425910964?from=public_rss&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

I see no good coming from any of this, sadly.

Oh how the other half live! I can today see 5 superyachts docked outside of my office with more expected to arrive this week including Mr Abramovich's. Paul Allen's has already arrived and just squeezed in to the dock on Friday evening. Waiting for his chopper to arrive and land on the helipad at the back!

And I felt bad buying 2 new pairs of trainers at the weekend.....!

Yes, this is linked to sport as they are supposed to be here for the Olympics. Wonder how many of them won't actually see their owners and just host parties.

I worked for a brief time in an office for a tour company that was located in a marina. I was the poorest thing within a half mile radius I think. Some of the yatchs and boats were just breathtakingly expensive. Obviously I hated and envied them all, but that only natural.

Go Team GB! Women's football starting tonight and there are even Scottish players in it!!

Think the yachts are all in that are coming. Rumour was that Abramovich's yacht was coming but there isnt any room now, plus it is still moored up in Barcelona!

Womans football. I'll give that a watch- I like a laugh!

Women's football is better!

-much cheaper
-family atmosphere
-no loutish behaviour (usually)

The players still have great agility and technical ability and even if, as so many claim, the standard of men's football is better it doesn't make it any less entertaining IMO

Just balancing out the sexism guys

Quite right Ally- cant have any sexism.
On that note a friend was earlier telling me how they are going to watch the Olympics on Sky so they can watch in full glorious HD.
I said I didn't really see the point in seeing some people running from a wide shot in HD- then he pointed out this to me.



Now I see the point.

Well done Team England.... ahem.... sorry, dodgy throat.... Team GB!

Well done Olympic organisers for a simply fabulous cock-up at Hampden last night. Hosting a womans football match involving North Korea they somehow managed to put up the South Korean flag on the board- result the N Korean team refused to take to the park for over an hour!
Of all the countries flags to get mixed up there are few worse than those two!

I also watched the England (sorry team GB) match)- I think I know what it is about womans football that makes it seem to bad- woman are simply terrible goalkeepers. The goal England eventually scored the keeper was laughably bad.

"Olympic officials in London are to blame for a flag row which jeopardised a women's football game at Hampden Stadium in Glasgow, it has emerged.
BBC Scotland understands the video package was sent from London and Hampden organisers had no input.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it was "an honest mistake. We shouldn't over-inflate this episode - it was unfortunate, it shouldn't have happened and I think we can leave it at that”
BBC Scotland's Olympics correspondent Kheredine Idessane said: "These video packages are sent centrally from London, out to the other venues, so, this isn't a Glasgow problem.
"There were the correct North Korean flags flying in the top tier of the stadium." -BBC

Leave it to the English to make us look bad!

Interestingly N Korean TV didnt mention the mix up just reported their teams 2-0 victory.