pollymac

He told me just the other day that apart from his initial £4m investment in 1994, all of the shares in Celtic he's purchased since, has come from his London City mattress.

Aye, when the Irish Government sold him London City airport for £25m, he fair done a number on them.

Really? 'He ripped off the Irish Taxpayer to cheat Celtic's path to titles'. He bought shares in Celtic.

3, to an amount much, much less than the £51m put in by Moonbeams a few years ago and one of which where a large amount of the money went to Fergus McCann.

Not, it's not relevant at all. This about the methods of financing/propping up an SPL club, not the personal finances of shareholders. I would imagine that amongst the very, very large number of Celtic shareholders that there are more than one or two who have been convicted of speeding, assault, murder and numerous other crimes. Which is also irrelevant.

Sheesh, thought I done the lot, will edit...

It probably merits a mention, but I'm at a loss as to why it's at all relevant.

Not sure what your point is. Desmond has paid out roughly £30m to buy shares in Celtic, much of which went to Fergus McCann. Celtic's inherent turnover is approximately £10-15m more than Rangers. Celtic's Artmedia season: £57.4m, Rangers' Kaunas season: £39.7m Celtic's CL r2 season average: £74m, Rangers CL r2 average: £62m edit to add: In the most recent 'proper' accounts for both clubs, i.e 09/10: Celtic not getting out of the EL groups: £61.7m Rangers not getting out of the CL groups: £56.3m Celtic received €2.1m from Uefa for EL participation Rangers received €17.45m from Uefa for CL participation.

1/2 of Aberdeen's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/4 of Celtic's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 2/3 of Dunfermline's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/3 of Dundee United's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/3 of Hearts' first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/2 of Hibs' first team squad is out of contract this summer. 3/4 of ICT's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/3 of Kilmarnock's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/2 of Motherwell's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 1/3 of St Mirren's first team squad is out of contract this summer. 2/3 of St Johnstone's first team squad is out of contract this summer. Each of these teams have under-19 squads with players out of contract this summer and players who are not (enough to move into their respective first teams). The cuts required to mitigate the loss of Rangers can be made and it wouldn't even require not renewing everyone's contracts. It seems to me that the hard choice that is staring us in the face is simple: make the necessary cuts or vote them straight back in. It really is that simple. edit to add: Dunfermline. Also worth noting that every other player, 8 from the 24, are out of contract next summer.

The boycott thing is a funny one. One of the arguments put forward as to why the SPL 'needs' der orkenkind, is that they bring a large travelling support with them, but if they boycott, aren't they simply removing one of the reasons to keep them? And also: if they do boycott on the basis that they're kicked out of the SPL, who gives a flying f**k, are they gonna boycott ICT v Aberdeen? 'Aye, that'll learn ye for kicking us out of your division.'

Probably.

I'm not particularly sure, although I'm happy to be corrected, that 140 years of history happened in the last ten years. FYI - financial doping at Mordor in the last 10-15 years... Dave King - £20m Joe Lewis - £40m Tax dodging - £48m Tax dodging - £3m Tax dodging - £14m NTL Media - £32m MIH debt write down - £51m JJB Sports deal - £18m None of those deals, with the possible exception of the JJB one, are the sort of ones that club could ever count on again. And certainly three of them should never have happened in the first place. Without that money, how competitive do you think your mob of shysters would have been?

The greatest 'long-term' asset is a club, called Rangers or similar, playing football. Spend £10-15m on the club and getting an 'agreeable' CVA together and within a couple of years of being a well run FC, you have assets of easily the same and a very strong likelihood of a business running a turnover of £30-40m per year. Orkenkind aside, why would you not buy it?

You do understand that it was only a two horse race these last ten years or so because of the financial doping at Mordor, don't you?

Does it come with fuzzy felt badges?

So, no opinion on what it would do to your club?

Not sure I wholly agree with this, given the size of the fine, but it's an interesting point. What would the fine (proportionately or otherwise) and transfer embargo do to your club? edit to add:

That gets me every time I see that pic. I keep thinking it's been 'shopped, but no, it's on numerous facebook pages etc.

Irony: a definition

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1619689.html?cid=rssfeed&att Would it be churlish of me to suggest rating that article? 5 stars, how ironic

Because they are the p... ach, forget it.

ffs, I'm gonna waken the bairns at this rate.

All of them feel they should be punished, but that the punishment should be 'fair'. A £3.50 fine it is then.

Be even better if they do it on the wrong weekend.

^^ still doesn't understand what 'if' means and is evidently raging about it.