Tag: SFA

The New TV deal: Money talks as BT walks!

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So finally the SPFL have come to an agreement over the new TV deal something which has been getting discussed far and wide across the Scottish footballing spectrum for the past 18 months or more.

And the winner is…….Sky. That brand that we all know and love with wonderful coverage being provided by the gorgeous Hayley McQueen flanked by the stunning pairing of Kris Boyd and Kris Commons.

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Dream Team

Safe to say it isn’t the winner we wanted. By we, I don’t just mean Celtic fans but all of Scottish football. A recent online poll found that 90% of Scottish football fans surveyed would prefer BT to win the rights as they generally provide superior coverage with far more in-depth analysis and passion for the game up here.

The likes of Chris Sutton, Steven Craigan, Michael Stewart and Ally McCoist might not be everyone’s cup of tea – each one’s popularity usually depending on what team you support – but they sell the game as opposed to Sky who’s coverage often borders on apathetic to the point of disrespect.

Commons was a wonderful servant to the club but he usually gets lost in his own analysis and Boyd wavers from boring to confusion then onto anger and all in one sentence. Either way, both are pretty limited pundits and would be blown out of the water by the BT guys.

Hayley does her best to fit in what she can from her meagre surroundings in the blink and you’ll miss it introduction and post-match analysis segments and there is a general air of disinterest about the whole thing. The general impression is that they can’t wait to get back to their beloved English Premier League

BT, on the other hand, are fronted by wisecracking Darell Curry who is often required to act more like a referee as opposed to a presenter in order to reel in the often hilarious quarrelling that occurs between Sutton and the rest of the panel. Added to that every game no matter how seemingly inconsequential it might appear in the grand scheme of things is given a worthy amount of build-up and analysis so in other words…..respect.

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The BT boys delivering the goods. 

So bearing all that in mind it’s come as a surprise that BT was so easily outbid by Sky and not only that have lost all rights to the Betfred League Cup as well.

That means that BT will in just over 18 months have literally no relationship with Scottish football at all which is pretty shocking considering the effort they have put into promoting the game during these past five years.

Now as much as I would have preferred BT to have gotten the rights the facts are that they refused to put their money where their mouth is. The deal has now been unofficially confirmed as being worth £160 million over a five year period beginning the season after next with Sky Sports having inclusivity to all 48 top flight live matches.

I can’t mention my source but all I will say is that he is a board member of a Premiership club. All members were asked to take a final vote yesterday at around 2pm and the decision was unanimous. Some had earlier baulked at Sky’s offer believing the rights could be worth somewhere in the region of £40-50 million per season but the facts are that BT’s preference was to continue the current carve-up between themselves and Sky whilst individually investing less and that the likes of Amazon, Eleven Sports etc when sounded out just weren’t really that interested. Sky’s offer of just over £32 million per season was by some distance the best financial package and an initial offer of three years was actually negotiated up to five to give extra long-term security. The deal was apparently brokered by a consultant who had been involved in the English Premierships’ last round of TV contract negotiations and he was keen to point out to the members the fact that TV sports rights in the UK across the board are generally decreasing in value as opposed to increasing.

The EPL themselves have seen their own rights tumble pretty dramatically from £5.1 billion for a three-year deal to £4.775 billion which begins next summer. That’s a drop of £325 million, around about £108 million a season. Even then those figures are pretty optimistic with some sources claiming the drop was nearer the £500 million mark.

The final two packages available in the first round of bids back in February actually went unsold and weren’t negotiated until six months later when Amazon and BT picked up what was left. Not long after Richard Scudamore announced he was stepping down from his role as the EPL’s Executive Chairman which he had held (though previously called Chief Executive) since 1999. Coincidence? Hardly.

As much as I, like just about everyone else it seems,  prefer BT’s coverage the facts are that they were have thrown the kitchen sink at both Champions League and English Premiership TV rights to such an extent that they have hardly any money to invest in anything else. So it shows where their priorities lie. The SPFL is not the only rights they failed to retain as they have also lost the rights to Serie A, UFC and NBA with all being picked up by the new player Eleven Sports.

This unsurprisingly goes hand in hand with the departure of chief executive Gavin Patterson who back in 2013 led BT’s assault on live sports rights. The hope was that impressive sports packages would also entice new broadband customers but this strategy has failed dramatically as the number of new subscribers each quarter having apparently collapsed. As a result at the time of the announcement about Patterson’s future, or lack of, BT’s share price had fallen around 14% over the previous four weeks alone with full-year results showing a 1% drop in revenue, not helped by the company dealing with the aftermath of an accounting scandal at its Italian division, which resulted in a £530 million write-down and a major fall in its share price last year.

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Neil Patterson in more affluent times.

Shareholders at BT had wanted Patterson out for some time and with the news, any hopes of BT being capable of competing with other major providers for sports rights renewals went with him.

The new deal will see 48 matches – a reduction from the 60 shown previously between both Sky and BT – all appear on one format each season along with six playoff matches and kicks in the season after next. We can only hope that in that time Sky takes on board the feedback and improve their coverage to match a significantly increased investment.

It’s not only the league games though that BT failed to retain. They’ve also let the Betfred League Cup slip through their fingers and into the hands of Irish broadcaster Premier Sports. Again their coverage there was spot on and they played a big part in changing the format so that it would feature regional league matches played in the summer by teams not competing in Europe. This coverage came at a cost of a measly £8 million over four years but was by all accounts much better than the previous deal in place with the BBC. Premier Sports offer whilst apparently better wasn’t significantly so but BT once again failed to invest and just as with the league games their coverage will cease to exist from the summer of 2020 onwards.

The Scottish Cup rights are a whole other kettle of fish with Premier Sports and the BBC sharing them with Sky letting them go, and of course, the BBC has also renewed their deal with the SPFL which will see them retain league highlights as well as showing 20 live Championship games per season starting in a few months, on a new channel, to be unveiled next year.

I’ve seen some people unfavourably comparing the deal to the new one signed by the EFL down south which is a £595 million contract over three years. The thing about that is it covers 130 matches per season across three leagues and 72 clubs and also includes League Cup games so actually in the grand scheme of things most English clubs have got a poorer deal than the SPFL.

All in all, it’s more money. How much more is difficult to quantify but we do know that it was widely accepted that the total pot of TV income was £21 million last season with £17.5 million of that coming from the league TV deal alone. This new deal secures at least £32 million per season and could be more when factoring in a new foreign TV rights deal with beIN sports as well as the new Scottish Cup and League Cup deals.

Is it what we wanted? No. But is it the best deal we could get……yes. And just like in every other aspect of life money talks and there was no way Scottish football was walking away from an extra £10 million plus per season.

I like BT. We all like BT. But the fact is they obviously don’t like us as much back. That and the fact that they are skint.

Weekend review: Albania 0 – 4 Celtic, sorry Scotland. What the hell just happened?

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I took this game in on Saturday evening from the Electric Bar in Motherwell. Not my local but my other half’s who hails from that part of the country. So not dissimilar a setting to Tirana then where the game was taking place.

It proved to be an apt name though as Scotland produced a free-flowing performance, devoid of suicidal defending and where the referee Vladislav Bezborodov actually showed he had a pair and made the rights calls.

Albania tried some neat passing at the back but Ryan Christie was having none of it and stepped in to feed Ryan Christie who charged into the box before curling it past Etrir Berisha in the Albanian goal to make it 1-0 after a mere 14 mins.

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Alex McLeish tries to make sense of that he’s looking at. 

Usually, it would be all downhill from there for the national team but then the Albanian captain, the wonderfully named Mergim Mavraj, stepped up and wrote his name into Scottish football folklore with a fabulous one-two. The first one was a challenge over the ball on James Forrest and the second was an unnecessary headbutt on Ryan Christie. He got a yellow card for each one resulting in an early bath. Did Christie milk it? Probably. But every other nation on God’s green earth does it so for me he was just being streetwise.

From there Scotland took full advantage. An Armstrong free kick on the edge of the box was needlessly handled by striker Rey Manaj and resulted in a penalty which one-time Celtic target Steven Fletcher duly dispatched on the stroke of half-time and Scotland were now really in dreamland.

I, on the other hand, had to depart to the function room next door to join in the 50th birthday celebrations for Elaine – a woman I’d never met before and didn’t actually get to meet during – but was able to get back through under the pretense of needing some fresh air to witness most of the second half which featured a dominant Scotland display that included two more goals both of which were executed by James Forrest.

The first came after the Celtic winger was released through by teammate Ryan Christie before squeezing it past Berisha and the second was a wonderful goal. Christie found Fraser out on the right wing with a beautiful pass from midfield and the Bournemouth man fed Forrest in the box who knocked it up with his right foot past substitute Kastriot Dermaku before buying it past Berisha again with his left.

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Wee Jamesy scores a belter.

There should have been more and substitute Scott McTominay should have done better with an effort from the edge of the box that clipped the bar though replays showed a wicked bobble just before it got to him.

The pub was actually eerily quiet during that second period. Most people sat, pint in hand with their jaw agape wondering what the hell was going on and when they would awaken from their slumber as only a dream state could explain what they were witnessing on the TV screens before them.

All that aside Callum McGregor was magnificent in the holding role that he has also really stood out in for Celtic recently and is a perfect example of playing a guy in a position where he is playing well in for his club and hey presto….it works for the national team as well.

I’m no fan of Big Eck and think he’s made a bit of a pig’s ear of the Scotland job thus far considering the position the national team were in when he took over but some nights it just clicks and Saturday was one of those nights.

Scotland can now win their group if they beat Israel on Tuesday. The Israeli’s have proven to be a  far more capable outfit than hapless Albania and have far better players, especially in the forward positions, but are also renowned for not performing and the momentum is definitely with Scotland as well as the home advantage.

The contribution from the Celtic players was immense with Christie pivotal in three of the four goals and being smart enough to react to Mavraj’s stupidity as opposed to standing his ground and likely getting a yellow himself. McGregor ran the show and Forrest continued the free-scoring form that has seen him bag 26 goals for the Hoops in the last 18 months.

Injuries aside I’d image the exact same team will take to the field on Tuesday night in the group decider. But then again with Big Alex at the helm……..

 

A review of Super Sunday: Celtic break Hearts and the Dons mug Gerrard.

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I took in our game on Sunday from the Dolphin pub in Partick, a good Celtic boozer if you have never been. The green and white sign with the ‘EST1888’ above the door should be a giveaway.

Anyway there with a few friends, I witnessed our match with league leaders Hearts at Murrayfield in front of a crowd of over 60,000.

Due to Hearts pretty incredible results since the start of the season – which has seen them win 13 from 16 matches with two draws and only one defeat – combined with our own patchy form since the start of the term this had been built up as a near 50/50 encounter with many favouring the Jam Tarts.

Indeed they had already defeated us 1-0 earlier in the season at Tynecastle and bounced back from their only defeat of the season so far against Rangers at Ibrox three weeks ago with wins at home versus Aberdeen and away to Dundee to maintain their spot at the top of the Premiership.

But the Celtic side that lost to Hearts back in early August has fairly ramped up the performances levels since then, especially in the past month, and with the capital side also without long-term injury absentees Christophe Berra, John Souttar and Uche Ikpeazu I was personally quite surprised at how close so many thought it was going to be.

Still, that meant that interest had peaked for it and led to not only a magnificent attendance at Murrayfield but also a large crowd in the pub which would be otherwise unusual for any normal national cup semi-final involving us and anybody but Rangers.

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A packed our Murrayfield sees green smoke.

The first half was pretty scrappy stuff with Hearts veteran striker Steven MacLean grabbing all the headlines via standing a mile offside as he placed the ball into the Celtic net only for it to be flagged and also grabbing a handful of Eboue Kouassi’s testicles into the bargain. He’s since been cited for it and according to his ex-St. Johnstone teammate James McFadden on last nights Sportsound he’s known for it so I’d imagine he’s facing a ban. Then again Morelos got his red card rescinded for trying to volley Scott McKenna off the ball at Pittodrie earlier in the season so who knows.

Hearts talisman Steven Naismith also walked off early doors with a knee injury and you sort of suspected any chance they had of beating us walked with him.

That aside Scott Sinclair had an excellent effort saved by the Hearts keeper but by in large it was competitive but uninspiring stuff to such an extent the guy sitting beside me announced he’d had enough and staggered out leaving a full bottle of Peroni and an untouched whiskey chaser behind him. Outrageous.

In the second half, we got a spot-kick after Ryan Christie went down under a Ben Garrucio challenge – hardly a stonewaller but the type of incident which is given all the time these days – and Sinclair stepped up to smash it home. Then the Herts keeper Zdenek Zlamal tried to gather a speculative Rogic drive which escaped his grasp and trundled over the line before he clawed it clear. James Forrest was on hand though to bury it and put to bed any necessity for the linesman to make a call. And just in case there was any lingering doubt Ryan Christie capped off a fine few days in a Celtic jersey following on from strong display away in Leipzig on Thursday night as he buried a 25-yard piledriver past the despairing Zlamal on 72 mins.

Thereafter it was a bit of a turkey shoot as Celtic rained down wave after wave of attack on the Jambos goal but a combination of Zlamal atoning for his earlier error plus some last-ditch defending kept the score respectful. Though one of my mates was gutted as he had us to win either 4-0 or 3-1 with the bookies. A sore one indeed.

All in all, it was a professional performance and Celtic have now won 21 consecutive cup ties and have booked their place in their fifth consecutive cup final in doing so. The ‘Treble-Treble’ now really is on plus we also got to shut-up serial moaner Craig Levein who despite his pre-match defiance saw his side ultimately check out with a whimper.

Of course, this was all pretty much night and day compared to Thursday night’s display away in Germany where a toothless Celtic side limped to a 2-0 defeat to Red Bull Leipzig.

Having the suspended James Forrest back was undoubtedly a factor – as was the inferior opposition of course – but also returning was the imperious Tom Rogic and central defender Filipe Benkovic both of whom hadn’t made it for Thursday nights game. No one is really talking about it but personally, I’m a bit disappointed that Sunday was clearly given precedence over an away tie in Europe and one which I honestly think would have been very winnable against Leipzig’s second string if Rogic and Benkovic had been involved. The notion that they suddenly returned to full match fitness in the space of 64 hours is, of course, total bollocks.

Europe now does seem to now be firmly regarded as a pipe dream with domestic success being given the superior status based on decisions like that.

Anway we’re in another cup final on December 2nd so the question is who would we be playing?

That game, of course, took place later on that evening at Hampden Park where Steven Gerrard’s apparently rejuvenated Rangers would battle it out against Derek McInnes’s toiling Aberdeen.

Even with their only real striking options out for this one just about everyone I knew made the Govan side the clear favourites with most regarding it a mere formality.

It proved to be anything but as the Dons produced a classic smash and grab performance that ex-Rangers manager Walter Smith himself would have been proud of as the nephew of Barry Ferguson headed home the winner on 79 mins. He’s called Lewis Ferguson by the way and he won me a not unsubstantial amount of money as I found the long odds on the reds to be too tempting not to indulge.

Even with over 10 mins plus injury time remaining my money looked safe as the toothless light blues failed to breach a pretty rock solid Aberdeen defence and 1-0 is how it finished.

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Stevie G congratulates Goldson on their loss.

So it’s Aberdeen in the final in five weeks. I must admit to being a tad disappointed as an Old Firm final would have been far more appetizing and despite undoubtedly impressive results at home and in Europe, the Stevie G project looks decidedly shaky anytime it’s taken out on the road with Sunday being a perfect example of that.

What with them out of the first domestic competition of the season combined with sitting only joint fifth in the league I wonder if rumours will now abound of an unsettled dressing room, player fallouts and acrimonious relationships between the manager and the board? Or is that only reserved for our manager? I think we all know the answer.

Oh, and what happened to that Richard Wilson’s tweet from Thursday evening which claimed that after Sunday was out the way there would be ramifications due to the performance and result on Thursday night? It’s Tuesday and still nothing. Maybe it will all kick off tomorrow. Or maybe it was all bullshit to start with.

 

Post-match analysis: St.Johnstone 0 – 1 Celtic. Better in the Betfred!

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Not the greatest performance by any means but a win and a deserved one at that.

As predicted the Saints sat in still licking their wounds from a 5-1 pasting at Ibrox on Sunday.

In an action replay of Celtic’s last half dozen or more displays, Celtic lacked tempo and mainly passed the ball aimlessly around at the back for the majority of the first half as the Perth side rarely ventured into our half.

Despite that, both Leigh Griffiths and on the stroke of half-time Callum McGregor passed up stick on chances as Leigh headed straight at the keeper and Callum raced through one on one only to clip it past the far post.

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A whisker away. 

In the second half, Celtic came out like a team clearly given a boot up the backside by Brendan during the half-time team talk and played like a team determined to actually win.

It was all one-way traffic with Zander Clark producing some fine saves in the opposition goal and Leigh Griffiths passing up a few more chances you would usually fancy him to bury.

The men in blue did break away on a few occasions and David Wotherspoon was unlucky to see his curling drive from the edge of the box whistle just past the post but that apart Celtic were dominant.

Just rewards were delivered as Griffiths pounced on a loose ball in the box to bury it and give a deserved lead and eventual winner on 83 minutes. His third goal in as many games and it was good to see him not give up the ghost after a frustrating evening.

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If at first, you don’t succeed……

That was pretty much it bar Boyata getting a senseless straight red card moments later for dissent towards referee Steve Beaton. Replays showed Beaton originally planned to only dish out a yellow but the Belgian internationalist refusal to A) walk over to him when asked and B) keep his mouth shut leading to the claret-coloured one instead.

Scott Bain, in goal for the night with Craig Gordon on the bench, then had a rush of blood in the last few seconds and came for a ball he was miles away from almost resulting in disaster but thankfully it came to nothing.

Aside from that Bain literally had nothing to do all night bar gather up a few speculative crosses and shots from distance.

On the whole, the second half was more like it from Celtic. Showing determination and a real will to win they created chance after chance and it was inevitable one would eventually be taken. It really is amazing what injecting a bit of intensity to the play can do.

Lewis Morgan came on and looked good once again and he is starting to cement a pretty solid case for a starting place.

To the minus points though and the man Morgan came on for, Edouard, again looked ineffective showing very little and there would appear to be slim hope of a partnership with LG up front working as both are way too similar.

Boyata’s straight red rules him out of the semi-final which is cause for concern though it can be appealed. However, I’d hold out little hope of it being successful.

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Boyata walks. No one looks surprised. 

As for the semi-final we got Hearts which is a refreshing change from Rangers who we’ve been drawn against in three out of the last four cup semis.

It brings up the also potentially controversial situation of either ourselves or the side from Govan having to play their semi on the afternoon of Saturday the 27th of October, just 40 hours after a scheduled Thursday night Europa League match.

Rangers are at home in their game against Spartak Moscow whilst we’ll be away to Red Bull Leipzig.

The possible solution is to play both matches on the Sunday with one at Hampden and the other through in Edinburgh at Murrayfield. Outside of that, I don’t really see how it would work. Playing one after the other at Hampden on the Sunday will be kyboshed by the police and having one semi remain on the Saturday will lead to outcry from either half of the Glasgow divide claiming bias.

Watch this space.

George Peat……remember him?

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We really do live in revisionists times.

In the past few months over in America, I noticed that chat show darling Ellen De Generis has rolled out George W Bush like he’s some old cuddly darling grandad of American politics.

This is, of course, an attempt to use the political elite to have a go at Donald Trump’s presidency. Like we need George W to tell us how much of a shit show that all is.

In amongst all the fawning over the ‘good ol’ president’ everyone conveniently forgets of course that Mr Bush and his UK cronies took us all into an illegal war in Iraq which cost the death of hundreds of thousands and created the legacy of Isis and complete destabilisation in the middle east. And all based on a huge lie as confirmed in the Chilcoat report which has also been conveniently forgotten about.

It’s funny how easily and selectively people forget.

In the past few days, it appears George Peat has emerged from his crypt.

Good old George eh?

He was president of the SFA during that glorious period for Scottish football between 2007-2011 just in case you forgot.

Right before he did his latest interview with BBC’s Sportsound which was broadcast via their podcast on Monday I swear I could hear the Adams Family theme playing in the background as we once again got a glimpse of Scottish football’s very own Uncle Fester.

As the interview unfolded George wheezed out all the old dust that had accumulated in his lungs over the past seven years and then wiped off some of the cobwebs from his SFA / bowling club blazer to give us his earth-shattering insights into the state of Scottish football.

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George being ‘ironic’.

 

To sum up the highlights………he negotiated a big SFA TV contract with Sky before he left his role the money from which has not been used satisfactorily – if at all, the current SFA are incompetent, he threw Gordon Smith – his appointment as SFA chief executive – under the bus and then claimed a prominent Scottish club chairman had contacted him requesting the SFA didn’t help Rangers as the 2007/08 season reached its climax.

That last one in particular really stuck in his throat apparently.

George wouldn’t identify the chairman directly of course. Instead, he relied on winks, nudges and general innuendo.

But then Goegoe once said that he was the “kind of guy if someone asks me a question, I will give them an answer”.

That is until the question is: “So who is the chairman you are making these rather serious allegations against?”

In this instance, the reply is: “I’m not saying but you can guess.”

Yeah, the thing is that isn’t an answer George. But then George always was a coward.

Originally an accountant by profession he spent 22 years on the board of Airdrieonians FC. They, of course, were liquidated due to financial mismanagement.

“Then the club went out of business. And the ultimate irony is that far from being held responsible for a club going to the wall, Peat pulled another club’s blazer on at Stenhousemuir, kept his privileges with the SFA and went on to become the top man in the game.” – ex-Airdrie defender Chris Honor, Daily Record, 12/06/2011.

George doesn’t talk much about his time at Airdrie. I wonder why.

Many years back I remember writing an article for the Celtic Underground. It related to George’s handling of Neil Lennon’s six-match ban which had just been handed down at the time.

Here’ an insert:

“Perhaps Celtic should devote more time to their own responsibilities and discipline than questioning others.” George Peat.

Are you being serious George? What like how you dragged your heals over Hugh Dallas’s sacking, relegated Dougie McDonald to 4thofficial status for a few weeks after he’d admitted to doctoring post-match reports and how no investigation was conducted into the circumstances surrounding the resignation of assistant referee Steven Craven amid claims that the head of referee’s (the aforementioned Hugh Dallas) bullied and intimated Scottish referee’s and asked him to lie in his post-match report in regards to the previously mentioned incident involving McDonald? – Celtic Underground, 13/01/2011.

Apparently, the events above didn’t stick in George’s throat too much.

But a chairman having the temerity to request that he was “not to help Rangers in any way” did.

The thing is George that you were the president of the SFA. You could have moved the cup final – which would have seen Rangers’s opponents in said cup final Queen of the South go without a competitive game for four weeks in the lead up to it by the way but I guess that’s life eh? – but being that you had no involvement with the SPL at the time you couldn’t have done anything to reschedule their league games. Nothing at all in fact.

The SPL, under the leadership of Lex Gold did, in fact, extend the league season by four days, with the final games played on Thursday 22 May, instead of the previous Sunday.

So to sum up George has decided to conjure up a ten-year-old issue for nobodies benefit but his own. You see George always did love the attention.

“He’s now trying to portray the SFA changes as some kind of victory for him. Yet he doesn’t see the irony that his stewardship contributed to the game needing a total overhaul. All that tells me is he never loved the game – he just loved the power.” ex-Airdrie defender Chris Honor, Daily Record, 12/06/2011.

George’s selective memory doesn’t stop there. He also has a dig at the current SFA leadership for the way they handled the failed Michael O’Neill appointment. Yeah George, because your appointment history was just bang on, wasn’t it?  Let me see. First, you appointed George Burley and then it was Craig Levein. Both were unmitigated disasters but why dwell on that when you can have a dig at the current men in power?

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No love loss.

Then there’s also his recollections of Gordon Smith’s time at the SFA. Smith has persistently claimed that his decision making power was limited when the chief executive of the SFA.

So, does he regret taking the job?

“No, I think I was right to.” Adding in his experience in business, he thought he was well-qualified. “If I hadn’t taken it, I think I would have regretted not having a go. The one regret I have, what I didn’t check beforehand, was the scenario regarding how much control you actually have as chief exec.”

Does he mean how little?

“Well, an awful lot – nearly everything goes to committees or the board. I mean, I was able to offer my opinion on certain matters, and I was happy that a lot of things were accepted, but if I’d known about the procedures I might have thought: if I’m going to do this job properly I’d like to have a bigger say. I didn’t get the final say.”  – Gordon Smith, The Scotsman, 02/10/2010

George though remembers it different of course.

“I thought it would do Scottish football good to get a football man in. Unfortunately, it didn’t come off because Gordon lacked the business experience………”

How much power does that man actually have?

“He has a lot of power. At the end of the day, a lot of the decisions have to go to the board. But if the chief executive strongly recommends something, nine times out of ten the board will approve it. It’s only if something unforeseen happens that the board would turn down a recommendation.” – George Peat, BBC Sportsound, 17/09/2018.

George also claims that Hampden needs an overhaul. The thing is George it needed the same overhaul ie: bringing the stands closer to the pitch, back in 2007-2011 too but you did sod all about it.

He also takes credit for securing the Sky TV deal before his departure. Though the sum part of George’s involvement was signing off on the offer that Sky had made the SFA. Any delusions by George that he was a tough mediator locked in a room all night with hard-nosed negotiators from Sky’s London office trying to get the best deal for Scottish football are utter fantasy. I believe the meeting went something like this:

“Come in George. Sorry for the delay.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I was just admiring your marble staircase and how it reminded me of ……..”

“Okay so sign here please.”

“Eh, yeah. I mean everything looks in order. Can I…..”

“Just sign it George.”

George glances eagerly at the large oak table in the middle of the room on which a buffet lunch has been laid out.

“Yeah, sure. Are the sandwiches and mineral water free?”

Anyway, George has grabbed the headlines once again in a sad attempt to live out former glories.

He’ll be relevant for a few days and then it’ll all calm down.

Rangers will make some noises about it but there’s little they can do because, as they are often keen to point out, this is really a matter for the ‘old club’.