weeyin

It was Barry Hearn that summed it perfectly a few years ago: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearn-stuns-sfa-with-attack-on-scottish-football-1-3624056 And of course, we did nothing about it: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/scottish-football-learned-nothing-from-barry-hearn-1-3949710

The difference between the NFL and the SPFL is the NFL has saturated its multi-billion dollar market and is looking to expand. The SPFL can't even negotiate a reasonable deal with the TV companies in Scotland. Same goes for the EPL who also have a multi-billion pound product they are looking to expand. In one sense, it seems like a reasonable idea to grow your market, but there is so much more that could be done domestically it sounds more like a money making scheme for Celtic than an actual attempt and increasing the visibility of our game. They'll feel at home in Philly, though. The fans there for all sports are pretty brutal...

They also tried sin bins at one of the U18 international competitions.

I think that system was invented by famous Texan, Hank Hill: Soccer

The situation we're in, selling a player for 200-300k each season would be a big help. If could have a 1 million quid transfer that would be great business, but even 200k represents a significant % of our turnover. We did well with Ojamaa and Anier, but then we seemed to stop being interested in selling anyone.

You mean the 2 goals he let in because he had double vision, cracked ribs and a ruptured spleen? I don't think he should have a testimonial, and I believe his save at the end of extra time was huge. Blaming him for 2 goals, however, is a little bizarre.

I agree with Andy_P. If the OF ever did leave our league and finagled a B side to remain, I honestly think I'd give up on the game in Scotland.

It's also early in the 5 year plan and, I believe, a loss was expected at this stage. The important thing is that we do continue to bring spending back under control. Les definitely gave the organization of the club's infrastructure a much needed overhaul. And I believe the longer term plan of small transfer fees and developing youngsters with a view to selling each year is definitely the way to go. In recent times we lost focus on the selling part.

Is this the same Derek Weir who admitted at one of the Q&As that he, and his fellow board members, consistently set budgets that were too high because they got carried away with their success? I have a lot of time for Mr Weir, but it was that set of board members that put us in the position where only Les would buy us.

I think a lot of us "proddies" at proddy schools encountered that which possibly tilted us into the anti-rangers camp at a younger age. Segregated schools meant we were never exposed to the same nonsense from Celtic fans on a daily basis. Over the years, however, I think it balances out given the levels of sectarian stupidity that pours out of both teams. As The African said, though, I think hate is too strong a word. More like a healthy derision for both and a little embarrassment that some of their antics would have a place in the 21st century.

I think 10th and no cup run is what Les had already put in place before McGhee signed up.

Not if you use a phone line. An audio line is a reasonable alternative to nothing at all. But there are plenty of ways these days to broadcast meeting across the globe. From webex at the top end to Twitch at the bottom end. All it takes is one microphone and a decent moderator. I'm boring myself now, though. Seems like I have been moaning about this forever. I'll just get back to the "loading" screen on Periscope and wait for the approved minutes to be published.

A bit strange that they can put up the Q&A on periscope without an internet connection. Maybe they could lend the club the money I have contributed over the past few years to install a telephone.

Well that's OK then. Take my money and don't let me participate in the society's affairs. Seems like a good deal. Maybe we should not allow questions from the people who attend the meeting too. Because that could result in chaos if 2 or 3 people speak at the same time. Most businesses that organize these things use some kind of conference call facility. During the meeting, the phones are muted to all we can do is listen. If we have a question, they can be emailed (or otherwise transmitted electronically on skype, slack, twitter, social media of choice) and the moderator in the room asks them on behalf of the questionier. If they use something like webex, or join.me they can even present slides etc. to the remote callers. This isn't new technology. I have been using it for 20+ years. We have continued to be shut out of these meetings, unable to contribute, question or even read minutes of the proceedings.

Law's move to Rangers was always going to be a bad career move as there is no way you can improve as a player by dropping down 3 divisions in the same country. You need to be playing against better players to develop. I'd still take him back, though as we have never adequately replaced him. I don't care that he made a stupid choice. No chance he'll be here, though. Plenty of clubs down south will be happy to pay much more than we can for his services.

I have complained about it on a regular basis since about a month after I joined. It's doubly annoying as they like to make a big deal about their members across the globe. Failing to mention that those members are excluded from participation in all meetings. The stock answer is "you can submit a question beforehand" which is almost pointless given you can't follow up and your question might be in relation to something that arises during the meeting.

The long distance/overseas attendance will be poor as, once again, they are not granted access to the meeting.

I don't think Stokes' man-of-the -match performance went down too well with them either.

Sad thing is that the media will gladly lap up that stuff and happily repeat it until it becomes "fact". The Ibrox Pravda generates a press release, the Scottish media rebroadcasts the message without question and the Ibrox faithful say "See, it's in the papers, so it's definitely true".

I'm just glad Hibs pulled it off. Was delighted to see them win it and they certainly deserved it. Was amusing to hear some of the commentators talking about what a great season it was for Rangers because they won the Championship. I've seen us do that twice so we must be brilliant. As for the crowd issues, I can see both clubs getting into trouble. It was idiotic Cup Final behaviour that resulted in the drink ban at games.

Aye, I used to play BB football against him sometimes when he was on S-forms at Motherwell and he always a 'Well fan. He often played centre forward in those days.

Do Las and Hammell get paid for their work with the youngsters? If so, it might be a case of losing some footballing salary but making some extra with coaching duties.

The CL was set up to keep the big money with the big clubs. TV revenues are so much higher now they could probably afford to dole out the same large amounts of money to each club even if they reverted to the straight knock-out format. That would certainly get me back as a viewer.

After his howler in the Cup Final I jokingly posted on here that maybe we didn't want him after all. He is a quality keeper though, even with the occasional mistake. No doubt Killie offered him more money than we would have.

Aye, there's a reason they abandoned the group structure the last time it was tried - and it wasn't because there was too many great games to watch.