Andy’s Sting In The Tale (28/02/25) “Managing Change”

Date: 28th February 2025

(Photo:@Homesoffootball)

Change can be almost imperceptible even when it is constant like the seasons changing tonight from meteorological Winter today to Spring tomorrow.

But this week ‘imperceptibility’ went out of the window across the world.
I don’t just mean the inevitable cull and somewhat rushed farewell to Rangers’ ‘Belgian Waffler’ that made our headlines for the proverbial 10 minutes after a growing fan revolt.
A board decision that will prove to be an expensive move even if the fans never get told the real financials because getting rid of well-paid fully contracted and lawyered-up workers who were only head-hunted recently is never cheap.
However change leads to change and we now have the appointment of ‘The 4 Staunches’ in good time for season book renewal so all is well.

(I laughed out loud when I got sent the recruitment plan by one of my Rangers pals).So big news in our wee insignificant patch at a time when there is real change worldwide.

And for now it comes from the host of Infantino’s special wee World Club Championship and then his next World Cup, Kind Donald of Mar-a-Lago.
He, and his ‘Nouveau Oligarchs’ marauding at will over the USA establishment have spectacularly catapulted the world from the famous economist, JK Galbraith’s ‘Age of Uncertainty’ into ‘The Age of Certainty about Uncertainty’ in less than a month.
And Newton’s 3rd Law tells us downstream carnage is guaranteed because every action has an equal and opposite reactionTime will tell but I’d guess, like FD Roosevelt, back in the ‘30s with his ‘New Deal’, some of what King Donald has done and will do will be good and some of what he does will fail.
There will also be mixed-bags aplenty with unintended consequences everywhere.

AKA Chaos.Because that is his mantra.We’re well into the ‘Age of Chaos’ and that is why our own Charlie Windsor has invited him for a visit. And we know Sir Keir and John Swinney and everyone else will cow-tow and become modern day courtiers because it suits the current agendas.And fear not, immediate history will be written in his favour by his pals with hooks into every aspect of social media.

Depressing times indeed.

Andy’s Sting in the Tale

1. IFAB Hit Belfast
2. Blatter and Platini Back in Court
3. A Tough Nations Group
4. The Monetization of Staunch and Bhoyishness
5. The Fine Line Between Banter and Racism
6. A Non- Football News Perspective

1. Look What They’ve Done to Our Game Ma

(With thanks to Ms Safka for the headline).

To the chagrin of many other envious nations all four home nations have a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board, IFAB.
It is the forum who control the rules of the game and they meet for their AGM tomorrow in Belfast.
And they are not just there for the ‘Beer Cycle-Buses’ or the Boxty.
For some reason we never get told about this organisation, who goes from Scotland and what they do.
It should be a big story.
But for now here are some insights to what whoever represents us from the SFA will be discussing.

i) Offside Rule Proposed by Arsene Wenger
A player will be considered offside if their entire body crosses the last defender’s line. This means offside decisions based on a few millimetres will no longer be penalised.

ii) Referee Decisions Will Be Explained Through Microphones to the Whole Stadium
After consulting VAR Refs will explain their decision and why
iii) The Consultation System
Each coach will be allowed to request a limited number of VAR checks during the match to review a controversial actioniv) Referees Can Stop the Clock
To assess a situation or in case of a severe injury. The goal is to eliminate time wasting and to prioritise playing time Andy Would Like Ifab to Deliver

A game with no pulling and pushing especially in the box. (like it used to be)

2. And Don’t Stop There

Acquitted in 2022, Blatter and Platini to face appeal trial in 2025 as FIFA and Swiss judiciary demand blood - Inside World Football

My heart sang when I heard that Swiss Authorities have appealed the previous not-guilty judgements that a Swiss Court came to over corruption charges at Fifa fronted at the time by Blatter and Platini.
The case re-opens on Monday.
Fifa has long been hi-jacked by an inner sanctum and people on a mission to get rich and powerful.
Here’s a few snippets from one of our members on the subject and what’s sad is it captures how many of you out there who write to me feel.“Your column is an essential reminder of the blatant corruption and downright immorality at the top of football.
– I would love to see countries getting together and withdrawing from Fifa and Uefa till they are replaced by accountable organisations.
– I’ll retreat to the comfort of lower league and local football ignoring the hype.
– Football has forgotten the fans and is attracting big club fans who just want to win”.

3. It’s Hard to Build a Team Against Superior Sides

As we thought there are no easy games in the Women’s Nations League.
Building a team when playing Germany, Netherlands and even Austria was never going to be easy.

4. Season Books to Sell?

I smiled when a friend reminded me that 2 of Rangers new management team had been sacked as managers of my club ICT and another by Alloa.
That’s football.

Ferguson on surprise return, being judged & seeking a 'different Rangers' - BBC Sport

I wish Barry and his new team all the luck they deserve because it’s a tough gig and since 2012 and the receivership Rangers have had 7 permanent managers and 7 interims.
In the same period Celtic have had 6 managers 2 of which were returners.
Liverpool had just 3, Man City just 3.
Going back to the roots is a smart move for now.

5. Learning From England

In January 2022 the Crown Prosecution Service in England defined a common football fan’s ‘Rent boy’ chant aimed at the club’s players and supporters as a homophobic slur and said that anyone singing it is committing a hate crime and could be prosecuted.

Steve in his 20’s sang the chant recently, got lifted and is going through a fan education programme put together by ‘Kick it Out’.
He’s not the only one and the message is getting across.

“It all made me aware of how there’s a fine line between what’s considered banter and just abuse’.

I don’t know when Scottish Football was tarred with two polarised sides of the Irish divide.
As a lifelong marketing guy I can now see both sides monetising the fact that it polarises population groups and leads to a lifetime of revenues.
Football authorities ignore it, and so does Society.
They shouldn’t.

This week I’ve seen a celebration TIFO and heard songs that should be no part of mine or anyone’s life in Scotland.

Our Crown Prosecution Service turn and look the other way, our clubs gladly accept the financial benefits, and our media don’t report any of it as the racism it is.

6. Headline News

Our media today is dominated by all things Trump, Starmer and ‘The Special Relationship’.
Like the world and his wife are talking about it.
And it’s all Absolute Bollocks!

Reading the New York Times this morning there were no headlines about Starmer being in Washington, no discussion about any Special Relationship and no info about an unprecedented second ‘State Visit’.
There were around 30 diverse headlines covering what Americans are talking about today.
None of it is Keir’s meeting at the White House or Charlie Windsor’s Special Invitation to dress up and meet the royals.

We are all mushrooms.

Andy’s Sting is:A weekly column about stuff and football that tries to get underneath and beyond the white noise and past the blatant self-interest that prevails.
Any opinions are mine.

Andy’s Album of the Week

Steely Dan: The Royal Scam

OK it’s maybe not even in my top 3 favourite Steely Dan albums, but in a week when Charlie Windsor has invited King Donald to normally restricted places with big rooms and nice food it was too good a link to miss.
Maybe they’ll discuss how our Royal Family somehow don’t pay inheritance tax like the rest of us and how King Donald knows a few ways to minimise tax too.

Anyway, Steely Dan were a special band who actually weren’t.
Apart from maybe for their first album, ‘Can’t Buy a Thrill’, Steely Dan were never really a real living entity you might call an act.
I guess a better description is they were more of a project/vehicle for two geniuses, Walter Becker and Donald Fagan.
Either way I didn’t give a monkey’s then and still don’t but I’m grateful that they took me on a journey from when I first heard ‘Do it again’ on Radio 1.
I smile thinking how it was introduced by the dreadful ‘Toe Knee Blackburn’. A man who in his abject ignorance of all things musical called them Steeleye Dan.
Twat.

Right from the very start they grabbed a younger Andy by taking their particular version of high quality pop music and injecting jazz, funk and soul into a sound that stood out from most of the single dimensional fare blasted at us over the airwaves in the same seminal way that Joni Mitchel blew away singer-songwriting.

Steely Dan’s albums have really stood the test of time and make you ask the question of where has the talent like that gone?
There is a whole generation who have never experienced this musical legacy and that is sad.

Rolling Stone revisited ‘The Royal Scam’ album a while back and gave it the 5 stars it always deserved.

I remember buying my vinyl at The Other Record Shop in Inverness on sunny July Saturday and had it on my Pioneer for weeks.
It was just different, and harder than my other Steely Dan albums.
Haitian Divorce was such a departure and still makes me smile, in the same kind of way as Egyptian Reggae by JR himself.

The Royal Scam has been described as Steely Dan’s hardest edged album and my stand out tracks would be the first three, Kid Charlemagne, The Caves of Altamira and Don’t Take me Alive but it’s an album rather than a collection of tracks so listen to it all.

Next week I’ll share my favourite Steely Dan album and it will be a tough choice.

Posted in: Andy’s Sting in the Tale, Latest News

Andy’s Sting In The Tale (28/02/25) “Managing Change”

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