Thumper

What would be amusing is for Sky to state clearly and unequivocally that they will continue with the deal on its present financial terms. And then for ICT and St Mirren to be relegated in successive seasons, and go bust.

Haw you. I believe you made a promise regarding your avatar should jelly and ice cream indeed be provided.

Yet.

Players usually aren't very bright. They are also, as others have pointed out, quite explicitly in it for the money rather than the love of their clubs in most cases, and indeed are the primary cause of most clubs' financial troubles. Little point in being too hard on them for their misspelled, punctuation-free ramblings on their iPhones.

Do you still have a sign advertising season tickets which promises access to games against Celtic and Rangers? Another grim casualty of this debacle.

In fairness, that's precisely what the email Tomo leaked this morning says. Regan was convinced it was a done deal. If the SFA try anything now they'll get huckled.

Regan's bluff has been called. 11-1 and 25-5 are killer figures to defy.

Ayr is in Scotland. That's a little far from Dumfries.

Erm, aye they were. The stapled-together presentation ending with WE ARE RANGERS?

I thought the latest update was that season ticket sales were on hold. Safe to say that I can't see 39500 bank accounts getting raided the week before payday in any case.

The smaller SFL clubs are "little more than social clubs for their communities" according to the Hutt today. Crappy wee diddy teams, to coin a phrase. I cannot wait until he's out of a job.

"They say jump and ya say how high Ya brain-dead Ya gotta fuckin' bullet in ya head..."

You're forgetting that Ross County got promoted. So it's plus-one, minus-one.

The relegation fix is off the table. SPL rules are apparently unbendable in that regard. Regan apparently furious when this was pointed out.

The Non League Show moving to 5 Live for next season. Already an outstanding bit of news for grassroots football today.

Both Dundee and Dunfermline will be given permission (through resolution iii) to waive the usual two-year notice period for resignation from the SFL today, but neither will actually resign yet. On Monday, the SPL will vote on which of the two are to be invited, and then that club will resign.

Pretty sure rules were put in place post-Clydebank to either prevent that outright or require a readmission vote from the SFL. Regardless, it's irrelevant: the only club to even hint at an outright "no" are Clyde, and presumably the matter of who actually owns Sevco and where they're going to get the money to stick it out for a whole season will be on the agenda at this very minute.

So putting Tomo's blog post together with other snippets, Regan's master plan was the "vote into the SPL and then relegate them" fix. He mailed his buddies on the 23rd of June to get this rolling. Some time between then and the 4th of July, it became apparent that the SPL's rules wouldn't allow for Rangers to be relegated - and then the fans kicked off anyway, meaning a yes vote in the SPL became (ahem) untenable. Since then the entire operation has been improvised. I'm actually more confident in Doncaster and Regan leaving office today than in any other development.

War correspondents have a disturbing habit of coming home and actually trying to investigate things. See also that American correspondent (whose name I sadly cannot remember) who reported live from ground zero on 9/11, went to Iraq, and was promptly blakballed for actually reporting on what she saw there.

I defended Archie on Off the Ball, but that was pathetic. Malice is not motivating SFL clubs, most of whom have nothing but positive recent interaction with Rangers-That-Was (a massive cash boost from cup runs for most of those below the First0. Gordon Smith and that fud with the speech impediment were little better.

In fairness, that's a prime candidate for the "all RM posters are sleeper trolls" hypothesis. Ordinary orcs would have gotten it immediately. I know folk who were deeply suspicious of Charles Green because he had a PayPal account.

To be fair, a lot of this does look like astonishing, scoop-worthy stuff until you realise quite how bent the game is. Look at the general incredulity shown to the latest round of massive FIFA bribes. Honest people cannot believe that this is standard business. Tomo, as an outsider, has yet to acquire the level of cynicism / submission expected of an appraiser of the Scottish game.

That press release says "effective from 13 July", does it not? [edit] Delicious irony here. What if mister Goodwin's first major task is to negotiate a fan buyout of a certain South Glasgow phoenix club?

From Supporters Direct? Not surprising considering how busy they've been with the Kettering / Darlo / everyone else madness. The Non League Show still tries to help with matters Scottish (the Sevco situation got an airing this week due to Dave Anderson's allegiances): could always try tweeting @nonleagueshow to get Caroline to poke them.

Massively active and well-respected in non-league darn sarf. Not much point up here where, at least up until now, the survival of clubs has been entirely up to who knows who in Hampden's inner chambers.