Just because it's not against the rules...

...doesn't make it right!

As you can see from the picture (click on it to read it in full) I have had a - very prompt - reply from the SPL.

In the letter, Lex Gold stated that the 5% charge "is in compliance with the SPL rules". I will shortly be penning another letter to Mr Gold as he obviously doesn't realise that even although no rules have been broken, this charge is grossly unfair and perhaps the rules should be changed to close the loophole that allowed the plans for this charge to be brought about in the first place.

As you will also see from the letter, Mr Gold sent copies to the same four people whom I had also contacted regarding the charge. I have yet to hear back from any of those individuals but will keep you all updated if and when they do.

Okay THIS is the last (five) throws...

We're back to those good old dice again folks. And, this time, I'm afraid it really is the last chance saloon for the petition.

I have decided to take Stuart Thomlinson's advice and write to the "relevant football authorities". Due to my honest belief that writing to the SFA and the SPL will bear no fruit whatsoever, I have decided to go one or two steps further than that.

I have written to both of those governing bodies, but I have also sent a copy of the letter to three larger football authorities.

The letter and a copy of the petition (now containing 2,470 names) has been sent to the following people (from smallest to largest):

• Mr Lex Gold - SPL
  
• Mr Gordon Smith - SFA
• Dr Manuel Macedo de Madeiros - European Professional Football Leagues
• Mr Michel Platini - UEFA
• Mr Joseph S. Blatter - FIFA

Now, I know that some of you will scoff at this list and will quite rightly question if ANY of these men will ever actually see the letter in person. But, they just might see it. Even if they don't, somebody within those organisations already have seen it and will have seen a list of recipients printed right at the top of it.

This week, we have heard that the SPL is putting more stringent controls in place regarding clubs finances yet they still seem to ignore the fact that their two biggest clubs are deliberately weakening the finances of the other 10 clubs in the league.

Whether clubs like Hearts, Hibs and Falkirk are distributing the tickets themselves or clubs like Motherwell and Caley Thistle are bowing to the full 5% charge. They are ALL losing money this season that they have not had to pay in previous years.

I will await the replies to all five of these letters and I will keep you all posted. If I get any glimmer of hope at all from those replies, I will keep going with this little fight. I will continue to be a fly in everybody's ointment. But if, as I suspect, I yet again get no joy from the people that CAN do something about it, then I'm really sorry, but I will have to admit that it's the...

David Murray reveals his brass neck

In this morning's Scotsman newspaper "Sir" David Murray has poured his wee heart out on why he believes the Old Firm will never be allowed to play in the EPL.

I found this passage particulary interesting.

"We are restricted by playing in Scotland, we compete with Celtic. Hearts split us one year and, early in my tenure, Celtic weren't always second but really, it is a bit of a foregone conclusion most of the time. That does not make the menu as interesting as it could be."

Dear Mr Murray

Try NOT charging your competitors an extra 5% to play against you! Try NOT buying up all their talented young players as soon as you see that they might be a threat to you.

That way, you might not win all the time, but you might find that the "menu" is far more palatable for yourself AND the rest of Scottish football.

Scottish Government not interested in helping Scottish football!

That is the sad truth I'm afraid folks. I have finally had a reply from the Scottish Goverment regarding the 5% charge. (you can click on the picture to read the letter i full)

It was good of them to reply but as you can see from the scan of the letter, it was very short and of absolutely no help whatsoever.

If this situation - the two largest clubs in Scotland bullying the rest out of money "is not something in which government can directly intervene" - what is?

I will be replying directly to Mr Thomlinson shortly, I will also heed his advice and contact both the SPL and the SFA. We all know that it will pretty much achieve the square route of zero but I'm going to do it just the same.

In case you are wondering about the lack of updates. That, I'm afraid, is simply down to the lack of anything happening. It took the government almost a month to reply and I have STILL had no reply of any sort from club owners or chairmen other than Campbell Ogilvie at Hearts.

I know that this plea might fall on deaf eyes and ears. But, if you are a supporter of one of the clubs that have agreed to pay ANY of this charge, then contact your clubs. Make an absolute pest of yourselves, get your main supporters clubs, trusts etc involved and let YOUR clubs know that you demand, yes DEMAND that they do not pay this "tax" to be able to play against Rangers and Celtic.

Fighting the good fight in Paisley

Got an email from a St Mirren fan called Pete last night along with some pictures he sent of the banners that the "supras paisley" have had made.

Not only did they get the banners made but the photos show them being displayed at their recent VICTORY over Rangers.

What better way to tell the Old Firm where to stick their charge than doing it whilst beating them?

Well done lads!

This is EXACTLY the kind of thing ALL fans of non Old Firm clubs should be trying to organise!

Folks. Let your owners see that the names on the petition are REAL. Let them know that, although I set the petition up, that you are all against this charge and want your clubs to do whatever it takes to get the Old Firm to drop this ridiculous idea.

Last throw........

Due to the continued silence of 90% of the non Old Firm clubs in the SPL, I have taken the decision today to have one last throw of the dice. I have decided to go right to the top. And no, I haven't written to the SFA or SPL. I'm not nearly stupid enough to think that would do any good.

So far I have written to:-

• The 10 non Old firm Clubs - I have heard back from only 1 that has received the petition.
• Newspaper journalists - Only Stuart Bathgate (Scotsman) replied to me, although Tam Cowan did mention the petition in his Daily Record column before I contacted him.
• Radio journalists - Only Mark Donaldson (Talk107) sent me a reply, although I believe that Tom Miller mentioned it on his show (I'm too far north to hear it).
• The Office of Fair Trading - Got a nice reply from them, but due to the clubs having the choice to sell the tickets direct, there is nothing they can do.

So, with that in mind, I have taken the decision to contact ther First Minister Alex Salmond. I have emailed a letter and a copy of the petition to him today in the faint hope that he might have something to say about it.

Interestingly enough, as I was composing the letter to him, I came across this Enterprise and Culture Committee Report from 2005. Below is a passage copied and pasted directly from it.

Finances

10. The Committee recognises the need to secure the long-term financial viability of football clubs in Scotland. We note the many innovative ideas for achieving this goal that were set out in the evidence we received, such as a review of broadcasting revenue, the introduction of wage and/or squad caps and a sharing of match receipts between the home and away clubs (paragraphs 67 to 94). The Committee agrees that decisions on whether to implement these ideas are a matter for the clubs and the appropriate authorities within football, but that all must work towards the financial stability of the game.

Have another little read of the part in bold text. Are Rangers and Celtic REALLY expecting us to believe that this 5% charge is working "towards the financial stability of the game"???

As always. I will keep you updated on any and all responses that I get regarding the petition.

Cheers, youngy

The silence of the lambs!!

I don't think that the title of today's blog entry could possibly be more perfect. As I (and I think we all) expected, the silence from the non Old Firm SPL clubs has been quite frankly deafening!

So far, I have had only one reply to the letter that I sent out along with the petition. Thats right ONE reply. I must confess that the one reply I did get has filled me with a little pride. Because that reply came from my "own" club, Heart of Midlothian. The rest of the SPL chairmen and chief executives, I assume, decided to adopt the pose that you can see in the above photograph (although I'm not exactly certain which particular person is in the picture). As per usual the majority of the SPL clubs seem quite happy to act like meek little lambs whenever the "big two" shake their fists or rattle their sabres. ONE day, they will all wake up and realise that they have let it go too far. ONE day, they will realise that they don't actually control the fates of their own clubs anymore.

And as far as I am now concerned, they seem to deserve everything that they get! I can only assume that they had to get a note from their doctors to be able to get their collective heads up their asses in the first place! I mean something had to stop Rangers and Celtic from shafting them long enough to enable them to get their heads up there didn't it?!

As for the reply from Hearts. Campbell Ogilvie was good enough to write back to me and ask me to give him a call to discuss the matter further, which I was only too happy to do. This is a man who aparently does not give interviews to the media, yet was only too happy to recieve a call from someone who is basically nothing more than a disgruntled football fan. I'm quite sure that he has more than enough to contend with at Hearts on a daily basis to be taking time to take calls from the likes of me. Yet he did. He was prepared to do just that. Not only that but he was prepared to actually discuss the matter, not just fob me off with some "nothing we can really do" type of story.

I had never had any dealings with him up until I sent emails and letters to him regarding the petition. But I would just like to state here and now. Mr Ogilvie, thank you. You sir, are an absolute gentleman!

So, in closing folks. I think it is now, sadly, safe to assume that, as we pretty much knew from the start anyway, the petition has failed. It would seem that the owners, chairmen and chief exectutives that control YOUR clubs can't even be bothered to acknowledge that the people who should be the most important thing to their clubs want them to stand up for themselves for once!

Cheers, Youngy

Well, well, well. It would seem that not only are Celtic presumably delighted that Dundee United felt the need to bend over and take the 5% charge up the rear. It would also seem that they want to hang on to ALL of the takings from ticket sales to their fans to squeeze a few more pounds in interest payments before they pass the cash on to United.

Just have a look at this story taken from www.bbc.co.uk/sportscotland yesterday.

Dundee Utd report Celtic to SPL

Dundee United have reported Celtic to the Scottish Premier League alleging late payment of ticket monies for the match at Tannadice on Sunday 17 August. United say they are owed in the region of £85,000 for tickets sold by the Glasgow club for the game in Dundee. League rules state that payment must be made within 10 days of the match.

The complaint comes in the wake of Celtic imposing a 5% handling charge for tickets sold by them to the Glasgow club's fans for away games. Celtic and Glasgow rivals Rangers imposed the charges despite opposition from rival SPL clubs, including United.

Petition update

Just a little update folks.

The petition has now been printed 10 times as promised. This weekend will see it stuffed eagerly into envelopes and posted along with another letter to the 10 non Old Firm clubs (either owners, chairmen or chief executives).

They will be receiving the petition containing 2426 names, which in just under one month, only being publicised on internet forums (and one small newspaper story) is pretty damned impressive in my opinion.

But PLEASE! Don't let it stop here. Keep it going. Get more people to sign it and get them to get more people to sign it. The more names we get, the more chance we having of stopping this nonsense.

Cheers

youngy

Dear Mr John Boyle

Dear Mr Boyle

The picture above shows pretty much exactly what a lot of your supporters would love to do to you right now.

It is your supporters that seem to have done the most work AT grounds to try to have this 5% charge stopped. And all you can do is ask "Exactly how far would you like me to bend over??"

You really should be ashamed of yourself!

On August 15th I wrote an entry to this blog telling of the huge profit that Celtic Football Club had made in the last financial year. In fact, I pointed out that they had, in fact, made an even bigger one the previous year.

I once again asked the question "Just why do they need this 5% surcharge when they already turn a very, very healthy profit?" The answer of course is that they don't need to claim this 5% from the 10 non Old Firm fans at all. They just simply want to! It's a nice easy way to further weaken the other teams in their league after all isn't it? For all of their annual posturing over the fact that they don't have enough real tests or competition in the SPL is no more than empty words.

Today, Inverness Caledonian Thistle have published their annual accounts. And guess what? Yip, you guessed it. They made a loss! A loss of £432,000 So, of course it makes perfect finanical sense to start paying a charge to another club that you never had to before doesn't it? It makes perfect sense to WEAKEN yourself and directly STRENGTHEN your opponents at the same time doesn't it?


NO IT BLOODY WELL DOESN'T!!

Do boxers let their opponent fight them with weighted gloves? NO!

Do Ice Hockey teams send only half of their players out with sticks? NO!

Do NFL teams say "We won't wear pads today fellas"? NO!

Would these 10 non Old Firm clubs send their players out to play against the Old Firm wearing loafers instead of football boots? NO!

That would be just plain silly now wouldn't it? So, why should they be asked to hamstring themselves in a financial sense? And more to the point. Why the hell are they sitting back and allowing it to happen?

The petition has made it to 2,420 signatures but (probably due to me not updating the forums for a few days) the number of names being added has slowed quite dramatically.

I would really like to have 2,500 names by the end of the week. Whether that happens or not, I will be printing off the petition and sending it to the 10 clubs. So, come on folks. Let's get as many names on this thing as we can!!

Cheers,

The 'Well boys do it again

An even better banner this time and a stronger message too. Thanks to Owen from The Well Boys for sending us this picture taken at their game against Aberdeen last weekend.

Money grabbing Celtic turn a profit!

Yes folks, you read the title correctly. Celtic Football Club - you know, one of the clubs that is demanding a 5% fee to distribute tickets to their own fans - made a PROFIT. A profit in the region of £4.44 MILLION! Not only that but they have lowered their debt to £3.52 M. Add this years figures to the fact that they also made an enormous profit of £15M last year and you really do have to start asking yourself what this 5% demand is all about. If you can turn massive profits WITHOUT other clubs paying towards your ticket office costs. Why the hell do you need it?

How many of our clubs can boast a profit? Never mind ones as large as Celtic are making. Most of our clubs run in the RED! Yet they are expected to put themselves deeper into debt to allow Celtic (and Rangers) to get stronger!

Let's keep the petition going folk. Even if you have to go down the route of "tell 10 to tell 10 to tell 10". Our clubs and the press need to be told that it is a MAJORITY of their fans that want them to stand up to this money grabbing. And they have to stand up to it NOW!

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.html

OFT let down

Hi folks

On the 9th August I told you that I had written to the Office of Fair Trading regarding the 5% scandal.

Well, yesterday I received a reply from a nice gentleman who pointed out that, on this occassion, it wasn't really a matter for the OFT.

The main reason that the OFT won't look further into it is mainly down to the responses given so far by Falkirk, Hearts and Aberdeen. Because Hearts and Falkirk have chosen to sell directly to Old Firm fans, the charge is obviously not mandatory. And given Aberdeens reaction of also charging 5% TO Rangers and Celtic (which I still believe to be shortsighted at best) competition would, on the surface, appear to be alive and well.

So, unfortunately, the fact that these 10 clubs have not shown a united front from day one, may in fact see the "big two" ultimately get away with robbing yet more money from the rest of the SPL.

cheers
youngy

Media catching on at last!

Quote from Alan Esselmont - Head of programming at MG Alba the gaelic channel that are going to show some games from the SPL with gaelic commentary.

"The SPL is more than just Rangers and Celtic," Esslemont added. "As a channel we are about grassroots Scotland and about giving coverage to areas that don't regularly get television coverage.

"I'd be very interested in showing the other teams in the division and giving them the showcase they deserve.

"I also believe the SFL is where local talent can thrive. As a television channel what we want to do is to create a showcase for local talent and hope that talent can reach a level of national and international significance."

Okay, it may be a very small, fledgling channel but their stance is to be applauded. THEY realise that there are clubs outside of the Old Firm. Why can't everybody else?

Minor update

Unfortunately, the gremlins would seem to have gotten into my email system on Friday and the update letter was NOT infact sent out to the 10 non Old Firm clubs.

I have sent it today and have made sure that it has been sent this time.

(petition signatures currently standing at 2123!)

cheers
youngy

Well done to the "Well" Boys

Excellent work by the Well Boys '86 at Tynecastle yesterday.

Just the sort of banner that is required. If we ALL let our respective owners, chairmen or chief executives no what we think, this won't get simply brushed under the carpet!

If you have other pictures that might be useful to the cause, email them to me at bloglinks@viewfromgorgie.co.uk

cheers
youngy

Second open letter to SPL clubs

Yesterday, I emailed the 10 non Old Firm clubs with an update on the petition and a PDF copy of the petition with the first 2007 signatures on it. I will copy and paste that letter below this entry.



I also had a little brainwave which may prove to be completely pointless, but which I figured wouldn't do any harm to try. I sent an email to the Office of Fair Trading. To my mind, if charging a huge number of your business competitiors for something that has both, not been charged for before and even if reciprocated is vastly weighted in their favour, isn't going against fair trade amongst football clubs, then I don't know what is.

Cheers 'til the next update
youngy

________________________

To: Mr S Milne, Mr E Thompson, Mr C Christie, Mr R MacDonald, Mr V Romanov, Mr C Ogilvie, Mr R Petrie, Mr G Fraser, Mr M Smith, Mr M Johnston, Mr J Boyle, Mr S Gilmour.

Cc: Mr M Donaldson, Mr T Miller, Mr S Bathgate, Mr T Cowan, Mr B Leckie, Mr A McGilvray.

Dear Sirs,

On the 4th August, I wrote to you telling you of the online petition that I set up in the hope of highlighting the feelings that the supporters of your clubs have towards the proposed 5% ticket charge put in place by both Rangers and Celtic.

First of all, I would like to thank those of you who replied to that letter. When I wrote to you previously, we had almost 1400 signatures on the petition. We now have over 2000 and we are still receiving more.

If you would like to take a look at the pdf file that I have also attached to the email which contained this letter, you can see those names for yourselves. And if you click on the word view on the same line as a person’s name, you will also be able to see the comment that the person wrote.

If you perhaps think that the people who have signed the petition are biased simply due to the fact that it is the Old Firm clubs that have made the proposal, then I’m afraid that you would be wrong. The petition has even been signed and supported by a few fans of both Rangers and Celtic. Take the signature which prompted this update for example. Signature #2000. That entry was made by a gentleman named Thomas McQuade from Glasgow and he left the following comment when he signed:
“I'm a Celtic fan, but I agree with you all on this, let’s drop this 5% nonsense now and have a more competitive league, the money belongs to the other teams not Celtic or Rangers, good luck with this”

I applaud Aberdeen FC’s recent press release regarding their stance on the 5% charge, but to be honest I don’t believe that this is an adequate solution at all. I’m quite sure that much like my own team (Hearts), Aberdeen will probably take far less fans to Glasgow than either Rangers or Celtic send the other way. So by charging them the same 5% to distribute tickets to your own fans, all you are doing is tipping the scales a tiny bit back in your favour.

Falkirk’s solution would seem on the surface to be a far better one. But you can guarantee, that if just one Rangers fan steps out of line on Saturday, that it will be splashed all over the back pages of the countries “red tops” under the headline “WE TOLD YOU SO!” One thing that you can guarantee is that any trouble at Falkirk will not be brushed under the carpet in the same way that some of the Rangers fans apparently embarrassed both themselves and their club in Europe, yet again, on Tuesday evening.

All I ask is PLEASE, take a look at the petition. See what YOUR fans think of this and stand together! Show a 10-club united front against these two clubs for once. Do not allow yourselves to be rail-roaded yet again by clubs that for too long, have been much too big for their boots.
Adopt the same attitude that I’m sure you would love your teams to adopt and show Rangers and Celtic exactly the same respect that they show you.

None at all!

And REJECT this proposal. Do not accept it in any form or bend over in any way that will allow the Old Firm clubs to achieve an even stronger financial position over you than they already have.

In my last letter, I asked if any of your clubs can afford to lose any more money than you do already. If you give into these demands, that is exactly what you will be doing.

We all know that you don’t like the thought of this charge. Hopefully my petition will allow you to see that not only do your fans not want it, but they are sickened and angered by it. Even fans of these two clubs are worried that it will make them “even more hated”.

As I said once before. Take a step back and try to look at this situation with a bit of clarity. You are actually in a much stronger position than you perceive.

You CAN survive and may even prosper without Rangers and Celtic. They CAN NOT prosper without you.


Yours sincerely,

2000 signature milestone passed

Well, it would seem that my prediction of passing 2000 signatures actually came to pass a little bit quicker than I thought.

Shortly before 12:30 this afternoon we reached exactly that number. Not only that, but, the person who was #2000 on the petition was actually a celtic fan. And he added this comment beside his name.

"I'm a Celtic fan, but I agree with you all on this, lets drop this 5% nonsense now and have a more competitive league, the money belongs to the other teams not Celtic or Rangers, good luck with this"

This afternoon, I will send the petition as it stands in pdf format to the 10 clubs. I also have one or two ideas in mind which, if fruitful, I will post here.

youngy

One week on!

Hi folks

Today marks exactly one week that the petition has been running and we are currently sitting on a tally of 1989 signatures.

I would like to extend my thanks to each and every one of you who have already signed.

At some point either today or over the weekend, I am fairly certain that we will pass 2000 names. Not bad at all when you consider that it hasn't had a HUGE amount of publicity.

But there is still a long way to go folks! YES Aberdeen may have come up with a one club solution and YES Falkirk, Hearts etc. may be seeking to sell tickets to the Old Firm directly. But, I really do believe that these plans may still all ultimately fail for one reason or another.

The biggest reason that I can see these plans failing is the fact that, so far, all 10 clubs - whilst talking to each other - are pretty much standing alone. I believe that all 10 clubs NEED to show a united front. If they do that, then this 5% charge will either be dropped or will be taken to some rules committee or other to be voted on. Then, even if one or two of the clubs bow down to the Old Firm as usual, there should still be a large enough majority to defeat Rangers and Celtics plans.

So PLEASE. Spread the word! Send the address of the blog or the petition to as many people as you can and let YOUR clubs know how you feel.

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.html

I will shortly be sending emails to the 10 clubs again this week which will contain a PDF version of the petition. I will also be POSTING copies of the petition to them too.

Also, if you know anybody who might be able to help us promote the petition somewhere in the media that hasn't already picked it up, either tell them about it or let me know how to get in touch with them and I'll do it. Just send an email to bloglinks@viewfromgorgie.co.uk

Thanks
youngy

Petition gains more support

With the petition now fast approaching 2000 signatures it has been noticed and is being supported by The Hamilton Advertiser.

Andy McGilvray - sports reporter at the paper - has signed the petition and has pledged the support of the paper to the petition's cause.

Thanks Andy - much appreciated!

Hopefully, as more and more names are added to the petition, more and more members of the media will either become aware of it, or will simply be unable to ignore it any longer.

The wider the petition is reported, the better chance we have of persuading OUR clubs to come together and show a united front against any tax to be allowed to play against the Old Firm!

Aberdeen respond to 5% charge

Courtesy of BBC.co.uk/sportscotland

Aberdeen have announced that they will increase prices at Pittodrie by £1 for matches against the Old Firm.

Controversially, Rangers and Celtic are to charge the ten other SPL clubs a 5% administration fee for selling tickets to their own fans for away games.

The Dons will now charge home and away fans in the South Stand £1 more, though Reds fans can then get a £1 discount on a subsequent non-Old Firm match.

Aberdeen will levy a 5% fee for tickets they sell for away Old Firm games.
The move by the Old Firm to recoup their administration costs involved in selling tickets to their fans for away matches has not generally been well received.

Rather than pay the levy, Falkirk themselves sold tickets for both home and away sections for Saturday's SPL opener against Rangers.

And the Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston described the plan as stirring up "a hornet's next".

Now Aberdeen have changed their pricing policy so that both home and away fans in the South Stand will pay £1 more.

SPL rules forbid clubs from charging home and visiting fans different prices when located in the same part of the stadium.

As a way of compensating their own fans for paying extra, Aberdeen say that any fan who pays more for an Old Firm match can claim a £1 discount for a non-Old Firm match as long as they do so within two matches.
___________________________________

Whilst Aberdeen and Falkirk have both come up with completely different solutions to this problem, I can only applaude them.

At least their stance has shown the Old Firm that they will not simply be run all over.

Falkirk have thumbed their noses at the charges altogether by selling tiskets directly, whereas Aberdeen have said "OK. You can have your 5% but YOUR fans will be the ones paying for it!"

Hopefully now, Dundee United will now re-think their stance on the charge rather than just bending over and letting the "big two" get away with this!

Open letter to non Old Firm SPL clubs

Hello again folks.

Thank you once again to Mr Stuart Bathgate of the Scotsman Newspaper for printing sections of the open letter in Tuesday's edition of the paper.

Below I have posted the entire text of the letter that I sent to the 10 clubs and 4 journalists.

Cheers
youngy
________________________________________________________

To: Mr S Milne, Mr E Thompson, Mr C Christie, Mr R MacDonald, Mr V Romanov, Mr R Petrie, Mr G Fraser, Mr M Johnston, Mr J Boyle, Mr S Gilmour.

Cc: Mr M Donaldson, Mr S Bathgate, Mr T Cowan, Mr B Leckie.

Dear Sirs,

I am writing this letter to you in reference to the 5% surcharge proposed by Glasgow Celtic FC and Glasgow Rangers FC in an attempt to prove to you that not only can the Old Firm clubs be stood up to, but in fact your supporters want you to stand up to them.

I believe that all 10 non Old Firm clubs received letters during the close season stating that both Rangers and Celtic intend to start charging a 5% handling fee to distribute tickets to their own fans for matches that they play away from home. Not only that, but they now seem intent on using whatever tactics they can to bully you into accepting these proposals. I know that I am not telling you anything new when I state that this is an absolute outrage!

Dundee United received a letter from Celtic stating that if they did not accept this 5% charge, that there would be “no Celtic fans at Tannadice”. That was the very moment that the Dundee United board of directors should have called a meeting with the rest of the league. That was when all 10 non Old Firm sides should have stood as one and said “Don’t send any fans then!” That was when you all had the opportunity to either sell those tickets to your own fans (even if you had to discount them a little) or leave those areas of your grounds empty.

In leaving your grounds empty, you could have achieved three things.

1. You would undoubtedly have saved money in policing/stewarding costs for the game.
2. Perhaps more importantly, you could have highlighted to TV audiences all over Britain, just how petty and ridiculous these two clubs can be. If I’m not mistaken, ALL away games of Rangers and Celtic are televised. Yes? Then let the TV company show no fans, let the rest of the country see empty seats where they would normally see seas of red, white and blue or green, white and gold.
3. And perhaps more importantly still. You would have had these two clubs’ massive supports complaining bitterly about being locked out of away matches. They would complain to you, they would complain to the SPL and the SFA but most importantly they would complain to their own clubs. And you could sit back and be the ones to laugh for once. You, if you all stand together (as these two clubs seem capable of doing when it suits) and you could say “Tell your clubs to drop these ridiculous charges and you all get back in!”

Not so long ago, when all the non Old Firm clubs in the league stood together and stated that if Rangers and Celtic did not back down over plans to gain huge percentages of TV deal money for themselves and leave scraps for the rest, that they would all resign from the league and start again without these two clubs. It worked than and it can work now!

When you take a step back and look at our league from a distance. It is actually plain and simple to see that Rangers and Celtic need the other clubs MORE than those other clubs need them!

If you all resign and start your own league, where does that leave them? Nowhere! They are not allowed to go and play in England. They cannot gain entry into European competitions if they don’t gain entry via a domestic competition. So what do they do?

Do they attempt to become some form of foot-balling Harlem Globetrotters? I doubt it.

I am in no way stupid, however. I realise that you quite obviously need the money that these games bring to you. Obviously in expelling Rangers and Celtic from the league, you would be changing the face of Scottish Football forever. I know that you would instantly have to cut wages, trim your squads and probably have to let admin staff go too.

But again, I believe that the game in Scotland would recover. Just look at the towns and cities that your own clubs play in. How many children and teenagers do you see walking around wearing Old Firm tops and tracksuits? If it wasn’t for the “big two”, I believe that at least 75% of these younger generations would naturally gravitate to supporting their local sides. Why? They quite obviously have an interest in football, they presumably have a wish to take the “easy” way and follow a successful side.

Why not yours? If you no longer have these two enormous leeches bleeding you dry and keeping you down in any way they can. What’s to stop your club being the successful one?

I am a Hearts fan. Forget the admin side of things for a minute and take a look at what happened to my club in 2006. At that time, we had a side that (despite some ups and downs) split Rangers and Celtic in the league for the first time in many a year and won the Scottish cup in the same season. What happened to the crowds? They swelled! So much so, that our owner was able to tell Rangers and Celtic that they would no longer get a full stand at Tynecastle because OUR fans had a right to those seats.

Gain success and the crowds would come back to all of your clubs. The older generations may be lost but the younger ones would have a chance to make a better choice. Most of them probably have never been to Ibrox or Parkhead. Many of them probably never will. So, if they have a successful club on their doorstep, I’m sure they gladly go along there rather than hope that one day they might be able to make the journey to Glasgow.

On the morning that I read of Celtic’s threats to Dundee united and the subsequent acceptance by United to the 5% charge. I took the decision to start an online petition. I opened accounts on only 1 internet message board for each club and posted a link to the petition along with a small description of my reasons for starting it. I also asked Mark Donaldson, a sports journalist on Talk107, if he could mention the web address of the forum.

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.html

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics/signatures.html

By midnight on August 3rd the petition had been signed by 1380 people. It was still rising this morning when I checked it and mention of it had also appeared in Tam Cowan’s football column in Saturdays Daily Record.

The most important people to your clubs are the fans! I urge you to log on to this petition and read the comments from fans of ALL of your clubs. There have even been signatures from fans of clubs outside of the SPL.

I believe that Aberdeen have now also backed down over this charge citing “safety issues” as the reason for capitulating.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with safety! Do what Falkirk has done if you must and sell tickets directly to Old Firm fans. You will all have databases already to keep your own fans details. What is wrong with adding some more names and addresses to that database to allow you to know who bought tickets and which seat they were sitting in? Post the tickets out to them so that false addresses can’t be given. If you wish, charge THEM a 5% fee on top of their ticket. Perhaps this is another way that you can get them to complain to their clubs. It’s easy and it could work.

The bullying of Scottish Football by just two clubs needs stopped now! Unfortunately the fans can’t do much on this occasion.

YOU can.

Listen to your supporters; they WILL back you on this. Stand up against these bullies. Do you really think that they will be happy to have no fans at away grounds? Do you really think that they will be happy to play every away game at grounds that are 100% against them? Do you think that their players will be happy to never have vocal backing at away grounds?

NO!

That is why you have the ability to stand up against this ridiculous charge! Because you have the ability to hurt them more than they can hurt you!

It’s just like bullies in a playground. If we stand together they will NOT be able to impose their will, if we submit, they will pick off the weak and rule as tyrants. Let’s show them that we will stand for bullying NO more!

Yours sincerely

Alan Young

Petition update 5th August 2008

Hi Folks
Just a little update on the petition for you.

First of all. To those of you who have already signed it. THANK YOU! If we shout loud enough, this CAN be stopped!

As some of you might know already, the petition has been signed by Tam Cowan and received a mention in his column in Saturdays Daily record. How much this promoted it I'm not sure yet as unfortunately the address of the petition was not mentioned. But it was a nice gesture by Tam all the same.

Yesterday I wrote an open letter to the chairmen/owners of the 10 non Old Firm clubs telling them that the petition existed, urging them to have a look at it, and, informing them that I will deliver hard copies of the petition to them soon.

I also sent this open letter to a few journalists.

It was sent to:
Stuart Bathgate at the Scotsman - who has kindly written a short peice about it in this mornings paper (you can read it here> http://sport.scotsman.com/football/Petition-takes-on-Old-Firm.4356484.jp)

Tam Cowan at The Daily Record - If he can get more about it printed that would be great.

Bill Leckie at The Sun

Mark Donaldson at Talk107

I have received replies from Falkirk (who say the letter is being passed between directors etc) and Aberdeen (who have stated that despite reports- they have NOT agreed to pay the 5% charge as yet)

The petition also been signed by a few Old Firm fans.
One Rangers fans has posted this comment "Signed by a Rangers fan. Our club already charge us a handling fee for away tickets so this aint for the benefit of the fans."

Tells you all you need to know about this charge as far as I am concerned! This is not about the big two "meeting costs". This is about the big two FLEECING THE REST!

Remember folks, the address of the petition is> http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.html

Email it to people, post it on other forums, send it to journalists of YOUR choice. Lets just be heard on this matter and try to force the Old Firm to back down for once!

Cheers
youngy

The time has come to stand up to the bullies!

Hi folks

First and foremost, let me explain myself. I am a Hearts fan and I would like to ask you all to do me a favour. Well actually I hope that your actions will do Scottish Football a favour.

I was saddened and angered today (1st August 2008), when I read that Dundee United were forced to accept Celtic’s demand for a 5% away ticket surcharge after Celtic threatened them that there would be NO Celtic fans at Tannadice if they did not accept the demands.

As a result. I have set up an online petition which you can view and sign HERE> http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.html

I will send copies of the completed petition to all 10 clubs so that they can see how strongly their fans feel about this ridiculous situation.

As far as I can see all 10 non old firm clubs need to stand up and be counted against these two leeches. How many of our clubs can afford to incur yet more losses? Why should OUR clubs be asked to swell the coffers of Rangers and Celtic? Why should our clubs be asked to pay a TAX just so we can play against Rangers and Celtic at our OWN grounds?

These two “fierce rivals” are quick enough to always unite when it suits their agenda or can earn them more money.

It’s time yet again that the other members of the league put a stop to their attempts to steam roller smaller and less well-off clubs.

It worked once before over TV money. It can work again!

Please feel free to post this link wherever you like.

Thanks
youngy