BILLY BREMNER MEMORIAL JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN
Date: 31st January 2025
(Photo:@Homesoffootball)
What was more offensive was some of the usual pro-IRA stuff, minimal because of Uefa’s Strict Liability, but in the week of the well-publicised Omagh Bombing enquiry plain wrong.
Nothing footballish about 29 people being murdered while out and about on a Saturday afternoon.
And I’m old enough to remember the Birmingham bombing in 1974 killing 21 people and injuring 220 even if the majority of the fans weren’t even twinkles in their parents eyes at the time.
It’s all a nasty part of the cancer in our game and goes unreported week in and week out.
It is not the heart of a wonderful club and is a deep embarrassment to all but the few.
What a Tosser.
I’d foresee an away fans ban for Munich, a stronger Uefa warning about future conduct and a fine.
Scottish football needs less Tossers.
Meanwhile Back Home
A great outcome for Rangers in defying all the odds by first winning with a depleted squad and team and then the results combined in their favour, I think it was the Nice equaliser against Bodo/Glimt.
The combination would have been some bet.
Straight into the next phase and well done to Phillipe Clement who I think has overdelivered since he arrived.
UEFA Gold and Golden Trickle
So far Celtic can reasonably budget on £45- £50M if the play offs are their exit point.
Rangers get less in the middle league but the best estimate I’ve read £18-£20 M so far and I think their journey may well continue.
Hearts got about £5 – £6 Millions from their shorter journey.
That takes us to what I’ve called the Golden Trickle and thanks to Matthew Lindsay of the Herald for flagging up the forthcoming SPFL vote.
SPFL and Divvying the Golden Trickle
It is the Uefa solidarity payment to clubs who miss out on European football to attempt to maintain competitive balances in the top leagues and stop the big guys dominating.
The numbers are a little confusing so apologies if I’ve got them wrong because there are two payments per season in March and June.
Matthew’s figures suggest the Divvy-Up will see the following, subject to previous Divvys but he doesn’t say if it is per club or pot totals.
Dundee, Hibs, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Ross County and St Mirren will get £1.6M
Aberdeen and Dundee United £1M.
Hearts and relegated Livvy £650,000.
I’m sure all of it is already earmarked and committed among the expectant clubs.
But If the Point of the Fund is to Equalise Clubs?
Why not think about equalising it in the SPFL?
In Germany the Bundesliga asked Uefa to distribute all solidarity money to their second division and that is what happened.
Would That, Could That happen in Scottish Football?
The Championship have been lobbying to equalise the difference between the two top leagues.
They say some top league clubs support them.
Here are some snippets from Jamie Swinney chief exec at league leaders Falkirk.
“Clubs in the Premiership currently receive 84% of SPFL monies and 100% of Uefa solidarity funding.
So in excess of 90% of SPFL money goes to 12 clubs”.
“The gap just gets wider and wider each season”.
“It is difficult to do anything different with the SPFL Articles requiring an 11-1 vote for change”.
“£150K per annum would allow us to run a full academy from 10 upwards rather than just under 16s and under 18s”.
Is it Just a Lack of Spondulix in Our Game?
Yes and no.
Yes, there is insufficient commercial funding currently in our game to feed 42 clubs properly to do the things that communities desperately need.
And our top clubs will always need more to compete not just in Scotland but also in Europe.
And at the wrong-end there is huge pressure not to be at the bottom of the bottom of SPFL2 because it’s a huge shock and a tough re-climb.
This type of pressure at the top and right through has brought short termism and lack of investment in any real type of future at most clubs.
What About in Cash Rich England?
The disparity of funding is one of the key tenets for the approaching appointment of an Independent Football Regulator.
The top clubs there have long forgotten their old comrades in their rush wherever and the clubs in the EFL feel let down and want more.
It’s not just a Scottish Issue.
Andy’s Sting in the Tale
1. Wisdom Courtesy of Peter Crouch
2. The Curse of Fan Intimidation
3. Infantino and King Donald His New Football Chum
4. Chairman’s Award
1. Will Postecoglou Hold the Faith?
‘A night Made in Tottenham’
It was a game going nowhere at home to Elfsborg at 0-0 with 20 minutes to go.
Then goals from a 20yd old substitute Dane Scarlett a 19-year-old debutante, from sub Damola Ajayi on the pitch for just 3 mins, and finally from starter Mikey Moore a 17 year old running and shooting like he’d always been there.
Mikey also broke Jimmy Greaves 67 year old record as the youngest English scorer in a major European competition.
All products of Tottenham’s Academy.
A fan quipped to commentator Peter Crouch, “Spurs don’t need to buy any more, Just play the Kids”.
Will Ange keep them in the team at Brentford on Sunday?
No, no chance but I hope they make the squad.
The gap between the top academy players and the first team needs real game time and the younger you are the easier it seems. It was a delight to see the three goals, all crackers.
Fresh back from King Donald’s Coronation where he applauded contradictory stuff with Gusto, and was treated as usual like a VIP.
He and Donald are transactional and always looking for the next deal and Gianni delivers to those who step up.
Think Russia, Qatar and now Saudi.
On return, with a bump, Gianni is said to have led a delegation trying to explain and fix the ever increasing football calendar and its pressures on the players.
Gianni’s brand new revamp of the old World Club Trophy is causing real issues with some clubs who have threatened to strike.
It’s really a fight over money.
He also still hasn’t sorted out compensation for Qatari world cup construction victims and is avoiding any uncomfortable discussions about his plan for the World cup to take place in Saudi.
That’s about money too.
World football is not in the safest hands.
4. Andy’s Two Under-sung Heroes
More later but a most deserving pair to win this year’s ‘Chairman’s Award’ and my good friend Rose Reilly will present the Caithness Glass trophies in the near future.
Sometimes football has to do the right thing and terrestrial TV has to treat all four nations equally.
Pay per view is not normal for internationals anywhere across Uefa countries despite what we’ve been told.
Andy’s Sting is:
A weekly column from me, sitting writing this from a new room on the fourth floor of the QEUH in Govan.
I’m now officially on day 1 of my new life and so far so good.
Nasty chemo infusions finished and I now have a life-saving gift of enriched blood bursting with immature blood cells looking for a home in Scotland.
Donated via the Anthony Nolan Trust from a 23 year old German who doesn’t know me and never will.
The NHS are looking for young donors like him and I can’t think of a finer gift to make.
As always,
Sting is Sting, any opinions are mine and are just that, opinions.
A man of just two solo albums that inspired the Eagles and their dedicated song My Man on their ‘On The Border’ album.
Gram is also said to have influenced Jagger’s timeless ‘Wild Horses’ where the recently deceased Marianne Faithfull also had a starring influence.
(I loved her ‘As time goes by’ and even more how she got her act together after her troubles)
My favourite tracks on Grievous are Hickory Wind, Bass Buttons and Grievous Angel inspired by the train on Gram and Emmylou’s ‘Ramshackle Tour’.
Beats the hell out of gigs like Beggar’s Opera at the Ice Rink in Inverness!
A snippet from a positive review of Grievous Angel in the NME said,
“Hauntingly beautiful and desperate work. A blend of country rock origins with raw emotion”.
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