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

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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,