Ivo den Bieman

God knows. A statement from the club really would be helpful.

Livi Lions rumour that "Livi" squad has been instructed not to turn up at Shire tomorrow. Either the club has folded or it's going to appeal, suspect the latter

This has just been posted on LiviLions: er... ...I'm sure Ross County will be delighted to play a provisional fixture against a third divison team, instead of a competitive fixture against Airdrie! (any club announcement is obviously being delayed whilst the triumvirate look for wriggle-room. I'm not sure they have any left, and whilst they can still cause major disruption I don't really now think they're in any position to negotiate. Not sure screwing up the start to other teams seasons is the best way to curry favour in terms of future appeals/votes, either)

It could be the club's last-ever game, somehow I don't think they're going to be too worried about the fine print of the laws regarding "provisional" games. In any case, they're the only club that's not flying blind here, only they will know whether the game really is "provisional" or not, in the event of an appeal being launched.

what benefit is there to them not playing, even if they do appeal? They will merely incur the wrath of the officials and fans of a club who are supporting them in the plight they find themselves in. Only if the triumvirate pull the plug will this game not go ahead, and, if they were intending doing that, I'm sure we'd have heard about it by now.

sadly this is pretty true. I get the feeling that in ten years time the third division won't still exist.

Bah, a chewy afternoon ahead but am off to Belgrade next week. I will be watching Partizan Belgrade play some obscure provincial team when Montrose play "Livi" next weekend.

well, that's that then- must do some work today- I'd expect some kind of news from Almondvale at some point, although there's nothing anywhere else about the press call Airdrie had heard about.

So, if this "press conference" is going ahead this afternoon then "Livi" obviously have found some way of making a go of it in Div 3.

no, it's a brutal winner-decides-all six-sided game of cribbage that's under way, and already there's been controversy as the joker hadn't been shuffled out of the pack before the first cards were dealt, and some of the pieces from the scoreboard were missing, plus it was difficult to distinguish in the morning sunlight between the blue and purple pegs. Trust me, this one will run and run.

It's clear the member clubs are hopelessly divided over the issue. Dundee's intervention is pretty significant though as they are the one club to speak out publically who aren't really affected by all this, and know for certain where and who they are playing tomorrow. Fearn is pissed off because his club almost certainly won't be playing tomorrow, and Airdrie and Albion were directly involved last week.

funny, I got told one of the blazers slept in after the bowls overran last night, and he got to bed late.

Fair enough, just that this has been repeated on a number of occasions that "Ballantyne took the decision" when it's not true. Suspect that whatever happens later today you'll be cooling your heels. Livingston will either appeal, and the game will be off, or they'll cease to exist - either way Shire will have a blank weekend.

You're right there. What a balloon the man has been shown to be. Still think they'll fight on, why fold it up now? Edited to add: won't surprise me now if the SFL wait for this "press conference" and let the triumvirate make the decision for them (as they have done with the Court of Session, McGruther, before).

It's documented that Ballantyne took no part in the discussion or decision making process whatever as he had a conflict of interest. Not sure why people keep banging on about this- Ballantyne took no part in it.

Press conference could also be to indicate that they are fighting on, will appeal etc etc....

Posters on the 8,400 post strong "Livingston-All Threads Merged" thread today reacted with dismay when the thread was relegated without warning to the third division by the Pie & Bovril management committee. "We feel that, having bored the first division forum for the whole of last season, explained P&B Secretary Div, "that relegation to the third division gives this thread the best possible hope of survival on P&B". However, a wide range of posters queued up to lament the almost inevitable extinction of the thread. "This is the death knell of the thread" complained KingfaetheSooth, who vowed to set up a Thread Trust in oder to ensure fair governance and a voice for all, with the thread finding its own level in future years. Meanwhile, the interested SkylineDrifter-qos75-Yoss consortium was urgently seeking a meeting with the authorities, to establish a new location for their nuanced observations on league management. "It's going to be very difficult" posted a tight lipped Yoss after crunch four hour crisis talks in an internet cafe in Kirkcaldy. There are real fears that the collapse of the thread will have knock on effects in the local economy, with internet cafes across the country reporting a 448% drop in revenue in real terms, pointing to serried ranks of empty chairs previously occupied with Champions-League standard procrastinating fans. Virgin media bosses warned of the likelihood of administration after seeing a 2.7 GB-per-user-drop in bandwidth consumption in the last 24 hours. Most damningly, posters across Scotland now face the ghastly prospect of actually having to do some work. As activity drained from the thread, with poster after poster leaving with a bitter "ah'm no slummin it doon here" valediction, at the eleventh hour, a cigar smoking Stadio delle Almondvale arrived to announce that he was here to save the thread, and that he was ready to write 60,000 posts immediately, in order to ensure its short term survival. He was last seen being pursued by an angry mob from the internet, however, whilst the discussion sank to the humiliating oblivion of page four on the third division forum, falling below little visited titles such as Update on Chris Jardine's toenail fungus, Berwick's new fourth change strip available to pre-order online, and the Prohibition of Promotion for Montrose Football Club (Scotland) Act 1996 .

yes, well, as I said, that was without thinking of the cost implication.

one of the reasons Kim Jong Il met Clinton yesterday was to ensure that he got a visa for the UK, allowing him to buy a season ticket, pay off the creditors and have Almodnvale re-named "The Kim-Jong-Il Dear Leader Juche Thought Workers' Stadium"

okay- fair enough- I don't agree that a football Stasi should be set up whereby a club is thrown out the league for defaulting on a hire purchase agreement for a sit-on lawnmower. I take on board what you have said about cost. I think annual audited accounts is the way to go. yes, expensive, but the chaos surrounding Livingston and their very late relegation is going to be costly in other ways, too. And, unless something is done about it, with the economy in its present state, this kind of thing is going to keep happening. When I grew up watching the game Third Lanark were the last team to go bust and back then people thought it would never happen again to another club. That's four clubs gone down the toilet since 2002 for different reasons. perhaops its time to introduce a set of regulations so we all know what exactly is going to happen when the next "Livi" comes along- and also a system whereby clubs can be helped when they are in financial difficulty.

again- who is suggesting that? the system is very simple. Clubs must submit accounts on a six monthly basis for inspection. Clubs which fail to do that will face severe sanctions, also in the case of any kind of insolvency, or default on player or non-playing staff wages. I agree that the horse has bolted re: Livingston but I don't see what the great harm is in discussing how situations like these can be better managed, so that a "Livi" situation doesn't play out again in the way the last week or so has.

again- who is suggesting that such a system, if initiated under the auspices of *either* the SFA or SFL, would work like that? In your desperation to paint the SFL in the best possible light you are reducing other people's arguments to absurdities. Anyone can do reductio ad absurdum- it's dead easy- but it doesn't really get your argument any further forward.

Is it such a ludicrous notion that they might employ some staff competent to look at these books when they are submitted?

So, he's a "fucking liar" then, yes? Until about 5pm yesterday the opponents were Livingston, he'd have heard nothing to tell them any different, especially after the outcome of the meeting the previous week. It seems to me that he's far more worried about loss of hospitality revenue, anyway, and that's likely to be a far more significant sum for the club.