Just to clarify, the story on the site yesterday about Celtic and Rangers groundsharing was made up. After all, it couldn’t happen because Rangers don’t exist anymore.

And anyway, who would believe anything on this site ? You should know by now…

Although one of the replies to the Diary has got me all excited.

The story about playing Newcastle in dublin and Boston has yet to be confirmed, but an interesting point from bgbhoy makes sense, as he claims ronny has vetoed the US trip, and instead will train at St. Georges, which is where Eng;and train, and its just up the road from me in Burton on Trent, so thats the summer holidays sorted.

It’s not necessarily a good idea allowing the players to train in a town which is famous for it’s brewing industry, and the permanent aroma of marmite can lead to excessive intake of fluids, but I’ve already found an Elvis impersonator on a summer gig, and thats me and Stokesy sorted for a night out.

One of the bigger stories to emerge over the last few days is the reported interest in Hearts defender Danny Wilson. What does Ronny say about that ?

 Wilson? He is one of many names we are looking at. I know all about him, of course. He is a good player but there is nothing in that right now.”  

Just as well. This plundering of other teams has got to stop. It’s weakening the opposition, destroying competition etc, etc.

Like it did when Old Rangers used to buy up players to have their three teams for different competitions. Oh, wait, that was re-investing their money in the Scottish game to help other clubs.

Well, technically it wasn’t actually their money, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, Ann Budge says Wilson won’t leave Tynecastle on the cheap. According to the Record…

Ann Budge tells Celtic’s Ronny Deila:

Danny Wilson won’t be leaving

Tynecastle on the cheap

 “We have been successful. There has been and will be a lot of interest in our players and management team.

“If we lose one or two players we will be disappointed, but it won’t bring everything to a standstill so we will go with the flow.

“Am I confident we can hang on to the majority of the people we currently have? Yes, I am. The majority have bought into what we are doing and that’s good. 

“However, it is a commercial world out there and if someone comes long and offers someone something hugely substantial then who knows?

“The next few months will tell. We have more than a nucleus. We have a fantastic base on which to build and I hope we can hold as much of that together as we can.”  

Thats not what she said at all. She hasn’t said anything in that statement. Or is it just that I don’t have the capacity that some in the MSM to see or hear things that aren’t actually there ?

Both Deila and Budge brushed aside any talk of Wilson moving to Celtic, but Ronny did want to talk about Virgil van Dijk, who by now, if he really wants to leave, must be considering a plea to the United Nations to send in a task force.

Maybe, just maybe, van Dijk is happy where he is…

“Virgil is our player and he will stay. That’s what we want, to have him through the Champions League. Any money we could get for Virgil can’t compare with the money we would get from the Champions League.

“He is so important to us. He still has things to work on to become even better. His chance will come in the future, but he is one of the players we really want to keep. 

Woah ! How long have we waited for a Celtic manager to say something like that ? Champions League is more important than cashing in ? Alright, he’s had to use a financial argument to possibly overcome board opposition, but who cares how he does it as long as he does it ?

 And then theres Jason Denaayer, who earned his first full cap in the week for Belguim. He has acknowledged that his debut came as a result of his time at Celtic. Is there a possibility that our central defence could remain unaltered for next season ?

Ronny kept us up to date on developments;

“Jason is still only 20 and it is so hard to play for Man City – if he gets in there he is world class. I think he should get more experience.

“He knows he’s in the right environment here and going in the right direction and it’s important to keep consistency. I’ve told City and him about that and hopefully we can arrange something. As it is now, he is going to go back to Manchester for pre-season.

Another year wouldn’t do either of them any harm.

As far as incoming are concerned, Deila told a press conference earlier this week;

“We have three players we are thinking of on Bosman but we haven’t agreed anything with anyone,” 

Well, it’s a start, I suppose.

Theres been a big development in the way European football will be run from now on, with the announcement of a Memorandum of Understaning between the European Club Association and FIFA/UEFA.

Celtic have released a statement;

CELTIC Football Club today welcomed the announcement by the European Club Association of a new Memorandum of Understanding with FIFA and UEFA.

Representatives from 145 ECA Member Clubs attended the 14th European Club Association two-day General Assembly in Stockholm, with Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell represented as an Executive Board Member.   

In particular, Celtic, who played an important part in negotiations over several months, warmly welcomed the introduction of a new structure which aims to share the revenue growth of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League competitions, more evenly among European clubs. 

ECA AND UEFA RENEW MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING UNTIL 2022
At the 14th ECA General Assembly in Stockholm, ECA and UEFA have announced the renewal of their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) until 31 May 2022. The renewed agreement is a testament to the strength of the strategic partnership ECA and UEFA have developed since 2008, with the new memorandum now including, for example, both the 2018-21 UEFA club competition cycle and UEFA EURO 2020. The agreement sets a new benchmark for the relationship between clubs and national associations, providing clubs a greater role in top-level governance and an increased share of funding. 

ECA to join the UEFA Executive Committee
The UEFA Congress last week ratified the principle to allow stakeholder representation in the UEFA Executive Committee. As of its next meeting, two ECA Club Representatives will participate in the UEFA Executive Committee, as ‘co-opted’ members. The presence of club representatives as full members with voting rights in the UEFA Executive Committee will be implemented at the next UEFA Congress, pending the necessary statutory changes. This is a major achievement for ECA and a strong statement of UEFA’s commitment to modern and dynamic governance models. Most importantly, it is an unequivocal acknowledgement of clubs’ importance to the European Game. 

Increased role for UEFA Club Competitions Committee
The new MoU further increases the role of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee, wielding more meaningful influence on top-level decision-making. The UEFA Club Competitions Committee refers directly to the UEFA Executive Committee and will retain a ‘Referral Right’ on a number of issues affecting clubs or club competitions. It will also be informed and consulted on marketing and financial matters and be composed exclusively of club representatives. 

UEFA EURO 2020 club benefits
For the first time, at the 2020 tournament, the clubs’ financial benefits from UEFA EURO will be calculated as a percentage of the total gross revenue. Clubs will receive 8% of income from broadcast, commercial and ticketing/hospitality, with the minimum set at €200m – a €50m increase on the clubs’ share of UEFA EURO 2016 revenues. 

Club competition distribution concept
ECA and UEFA have together developed a revolutionary distribution mechanism for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, aimed at sharing the competitions’ revenue growth more evenly among European clubs. A record funding pot of €2.24bn – combining 32% higher UEFA club competition revenues with UEFA finals ticketing and hospitality income – will be divided with a new focus on solidarity. A greater proportion of funds than ever before will go to UEFA Europa League participants, to participants in the qualifying rounds and to clubs in medium/smaller championships. The concept means more funding for all, because the new percentage-based system ensures that every stakeholder will benefit proportionally from the competitions’ continued growth. ECA is proud to have completed this virtuous circle for the good of the European game in collaboration with UEFA. The full details of the new distribution can be viewed here.

20150325_ECA MoU public version_en

Well, theres five minutes you won’t get back. Download the full version, your eyes will glaze over and start to bleed.

Anything that has a “public version ” means its a load of bollocks.

Like anything that comes out of Ibrox, for instance.

With the Easter holidays almost upon us, todays the day when the new board at the new club have to name their nominated advisor, or NOMAD.

If they don’t , they will be de-listed from the stock exchange, effectively rendering their shares worthless. And its finally getting through to the support that perhaps Dave King and Paul Murray are, as we kept pointing out, full of shit.

Of course, the Scottish papers won’t dare ask whats going on, but theres a French paper who seem to know…. ( Thanks to Arsene Parcelie on KDS for finding this )

The Rangers are bankrupt and could die before the end of the season.”

Merlin, on rangers supporters Loyal, explains it better than most;

Lastly it is likely that if no Nomad is in place by close of business Thursday the club will face permanent delisting. This will very probably lead to significant losses by major shareholders and remaining institutions. My information is that, as Dave King categorically said that a Nomad was imminent, various shareholders are talking about suing and/or reporting him to the Police/FCA for a) misleading investors and b) causing them material losses through these statements.

Of course, whether or not these shareholders make good on such threats remains to be seen (some reports I have heard say this process has already started) but it is a sobering reflection of how serious the situation is. Actual share price may mean little to supporters but it is of utmost importance to investors and a decimated share price is bad for business – and anathema to any future prospective investors.

Thats from an excellent article that will most likely never be seen by those who need to see it, the poor sods who have been repeatedly fleeced by the spivs and venture capitalists who have raped their club for years. It’s worth a read.

RSL article

I’ve always thought that prison was beckoning for some of those involved in the debacle at Ibrox. The article offers an insight into how it could happen. Or , as we had heard from elsewhere, how it is happening. Long way still to go, though.

Dundee United are having a bit of bother as well. a statement by the Arab Trust, lengthy and well, lacking in humour and funny pictures, probably explains why Jackie MacNamara hasn’t been his usual self;

Arab Trust Statement

Some amount of statements today, you’d think James Traynor was writing this one.

Room for another , though, as Celtic are annoyed at the price for tickets at the semi final against Inverness.

CELTIC will face Inverness Caley Thistle in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup at Hampden on Sunday, April 19.

The ticket prices for the match have been set as follows:
South Stand – £23
North Stand – £23
East Stand – £15 adults and £5 concessions (under 16/65+/students)

The Club has released the following statement regarding the ticket prices for the Hampden semi-final.

‘Celtic Football Club is extremely disappointed with the ticket pricing for our forthcoming Scottish Cup semi-final match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Celtic argued strongly that the pricing for North Stand tickets should be reviewed and lowered, to be brought closer to prices for other parts of the stadium.  

As in previous years, due to Celtic supporters being in the vast majority, a huge number of our supporters will be required to pay a ticket price which we believe is too high.

‘Clearly, we feel that SFA and other Clubs involved should have taken a common sense approach to this matter in the interests of fairness for our supporters and to ensure attendances at the matches are as high as possible.’  

I’ve thought of a better way of getting the message across to those at Hampden-in the form of a word quiz !

Dear Stewart Regan 

                                               Using your skill and judgement, fill in the missing letter (s) to fully understand the views of the Celtic support on your ticket pricing policy for the upcoming Scottish cup semi final with Inverness.  

Yours, Ralph.  

Thats how you do a statement.

The shirt pictured in the diary yesterday was that of cavalier full back Cha Du Ri, who retired from international football after fourteen years and 76 caps for South Korea. He was popular at Celtic, most of the time, but that pales into insignificance with how the national team revered him.

Have a look at this, his farewell match;

Cha Du Ri Farewell

Then have a look at this picture of Celtic and a team who were the champions of their country at the time . Who are they ?

Thanks to St. Anthony for that picture.

Now listen, if any of you are thinking of flying out for an Easter break, try to find an airline with pilots from Liverpool. Theres no way one of them would ignore a sick note and turn up for work.