The Sound of Silence

The main blog-site has been updated folks.

You can read the latest entry here >>> blog.viewfromgorgie.co.uk

Could the tax be set to rise?

Read the full blog entry here>>> http://blog.viewfromgorgie.co.uk/2009/04/17/is-the-tax-set-to-rise/

Moving home

Hi folks,

The Stop the Old Firm bullies!! blog is moving! From now on you can keep up to date with this one man's attempt at seeing fairness brought about within Scottish Football here >>> blog.viewfromgorgie.co.uk.

 I have decided to host the blog myself as it gives me a little more freedom to expand the site if required.

I would also like to state that neither viewfromgorgie.blogspot.com, blog.viewfromgorgie.co.uk nor www.viewfromgorgie.co.uk have any affiliation with gorgieview.blogspot.com.  

Cheers,

youngy

Retraction and apology to Mr Lex Gold

***Blog entry deleted as the terms of equal prominence requested by Mr Lex Gold of the Scottish Premier League have now been met***

Liar, Liar

***Blog entry deleted at the request of Mr Lex Gold of the Scottish Premier League***

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