{"id":15513,"date":"2020-04-10T11:09:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T10:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=15513"},"modified":"2020-04-10T11:09:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T10:09:36","slug":"celtic-diary-friday-april-10-d-day-but-theres-no-end-in-sight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=15513","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Friday April 10: D Day-But There’s No End In Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

By 5pm tonight, clubs will have voted on the SPFL proposal to end the season.<\/p>\n

Keith Jackson of the Daily Record has called it D-day, but D-day in this context is wrong, because whilst the legendary day of june 1944, which signalled the beginning of the end of the European war , we are still a long way away from the end of the current crisis.<\/p>\n

Then again, even the headline infers that Celtic are demanding to be “handed ” the title, as though they don;t deserve it….<\/p>\n

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Jackson also bizarrely claims that its all about Celtic and “rangers “, when Celtic have clearly said their choice is to complete the season.<\/p>\n

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How typical that it should all boil down to an angry stand-off between\u00a0Celtic<\/a>\u00a0and Rangers. How utterly infuriating.<\/em><\/p>\n

And yet that\u2019s exactly where we stand today as our clubs go to the polls.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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There is no stand off.<\/p>\n

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In the interests of public health and safety, primarily the league cannot be resumed yet.<\/p>\n

“rangers ” are demanding the prize money, to help other clubs, and a resumption of the league when it is feasible.<\/p>\n

Therefore, both clubs agree on that point, but “rangers ” need the money now. Celtic don’t.<\/p>\n

Thats not to say Celtic won;t be feeling the economic costs of the lockdown, and no doubt they will have plans to adjust, but just now, the sense of panic eminating from Ibrox leads one to think that they have financial obligations that are a little more pressing than their Glasgow neighbours.<\/p>\n

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They’re by far from unique in that aspect, but the Close Brothers finance company have payments due to them, and they are secured against club assets, which means they may prefer not to be as forgiving as a regular bank.<\/p>\n

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“rangers ” are also due to pay a significant sum to Liverpool as part of the deal for Ryan Kent, who turned out not to be worth \u00a37m after all, and failure to pay may mean that he returns south, which won;t please the hordes.<\/p>\n

again, thats not a unique problem. Other clubs throughout the world will have instalments to pay on players, and that particular issue alone could see a lot of clubs in trouble, and if they can;t pay, those expecting the money may find that they cannot pay a few bills.<\/p>\n

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The whole industry could unravel, which is why paying monies due at the end of the season might as well be paid now, to possibly buy a bit of time in the hope that football might return, although, and I’ll explain why later, that is unlikely at best.<\/p>\n

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The crux of the Scottish problem is that of “rangers ” are unwilling to concede the title, then Aberdeen and Motherwell are equally entitled to claim that “rangers ” cannot claim second place.<\/p>\n

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And as they depend on season book uptake at this time of year to balance the books, to an extent, they cannot afford to be seen to concede anything to Celtic, especially a ninth successive title.<\/p>\n

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But they do need that money from the SPFL, and no matter how they dress it up, they will have to compromise.<\/p>\n

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Whatever the SPFL pay, and whenever they decide to pay it, its going to have to last quite a while.<\/p>\n

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The viral pandemic isn’t going away any time soon, and it’s going to prevent football restarting quite possibly this year, never mind this season.<\/p>\n

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We may even see a twelve month break and resumption where we left off this time next year.<\/p>\n

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I can see you shaking your head, but can any responsible government permit the movement of vast amounts of supporters around the country before a working vaccine is in place ?<\/p>\n

There would be a new wave of infections every week.<\/p>\n

Fans in cars, pubs, on buses, trains and in the stadium would not be able to keep two metres apart, and it would only take one carrier , mingling all day, to start infecting others, who would infect others, who would…you get the picture.<\/p>\n

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Thats without taking essential medical people away fro where they are needed to grounds where they might be needed.<\/p>\n

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Thats without police being forced to attend when they will be required elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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And thats if fans can afford to go to the football in the first place.<\/p>\n

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Over a million have registered for Universal credit since Lockdown began, and many businesses will disappear.<\/p>\n

Households may go from two working to one and even to none. Less income means less disposable income, and clubs such as Celtic will be aware of that.<\/p>\n

There will be less money to go to the football, and less money to pay for it on tv.<\/p>\n

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Whilst clubs will be praying for all of this to end, they know it is going to take a long time to get back even to where they were before this all started.<\/p>\n

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Well, most clubs know that.<\/p>\n

One seems to think that won;t apply to them….<\/p>\n

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By turning all of this into a Celtic “rangers ” stand off, Jackson, and everyone else in the media, are not looking at the wider picture, the wider implications, and may be stoking up issues that are really of little relevance to anyone except club owners, who rightly will be looking at their own balance sheets and checking their credit rating.<\/p>\n

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Which explains why “rangers ” are perhaps a wee bit more in need of help than most….<\/p>\n

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Jackson knows that, and the way his article is worded suggests he is doing his bit to play down the Ibrox crisis, and help them shift some of the blame for wasting millions of pounds of supporters money.<\/p>\n

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The world is changing, and football is no exception to that rule.<\/p>\n

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Clubs will more than likely, despite pressure from Ibrox and Tynecastle, accept the season is over.<\/p>\n

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That way, they can start to look at adapting to what will be a long period of minimal income.<\/p>\n

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Celtic , for instance, may have a huge kit deal to tide them over, but they can;t exactly class football strips as essential items, and there is no way adidas will accept any launch that doesn’t get maximum publicity and sales.<\/p>\n

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They can afford to wait, Celtic probably can as well, but there will be cutbacks.<\/p>\n

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Of course, there is no such worry at Ibrox, they haven’t got a kit deal….. but they do have a man on the SPFL board fighting their corner, and no doubt he was a little shocked to be accused of being part of a board that is riding roughshod over the rules in a recent Ibrox statement…<\/p>\n

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Rational, fair, balanced…..they probably need to look up what those words mean.<\/p>\n

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They are losing the plot over there.<\/p>\n

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Then again, depending on what they’ve secured the Close Brothers deal against, they might lose a little more than that….<\/p>\n

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Yesterday, we had this….<\/p>\n

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Corrupt Official<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n