"Don’t anybody start talking about morals, because we don’t have any in football" - the rolling Scottish football thread, season 2014/15

Hrm, the romantic in me would rather we won the league at tynecastle. And I'd always rather hibs beat rangers. I can wait a week. (he says, invoking the wrath of roman god of hubris AlbertKidd)

Congrats youse on the league cup btw- though your constant dundee utd fixtures are doing nothing to disprove the old saw that there are only two teams in scottish football

Congratulations to Hearts and all their supporter.

(watched about ten minutes of Hibs v Sevco. Not very good)

:D

congratulations Hertz

Neil Lennon talks a bit of pish:

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2881/scottish-football/2015/03/23/10109402/lennon-rangers-return-to-premiership-essential-for-Scottish

Crown jewel Samaras sold for £0.00

Guidetti charged with singing "the huns are deid" on Dutch telly.

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2566&newsCategoryID=1&newsID=14500

Aye. And we never sold players ever before that xpost

please tell me he pronounced it "deid"

There's a video of it somewhere. It's deid to rhyme with super Swede.

(maybe the offensive comment is referring to himself as a super Swede rather than an average Swede...)

"he's a super Swede and the huns are deid, walking in Guidetti wonderland". He was asked about songs sung about him and sang it. I have zero clue how the SFA are going to make this stick, and Celtic should fire their lawyer if it does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UljTJvS8Dic

http://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/4268

good stuff all round

http://www.celticfc.net/news/7948

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.’

^^^this over £23 ticket for cup semi vs ICT.

Celtic are currently selling tickets for Partick Thistle in the league next Wednesday for £26.

Fucking clowns.

wow, mcnamara supposedly made half a mil off armstrong and mckay-steven

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/jackie-mcnamara-cashed-in-over-player-sales-1-3737692

RIP Turnbull Hutton. Slightly less morals in Scottish football tonight :-(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32195362

Fewer, even. Stupid grammar.

Ah damn, he seemed like a good one. Didn't know he was ill. RIP

Post-split fixtures out, and Celtic don't have a single 3pm Saturday kick-off.

Oh, and Rangers get to play their final game of the season a day after everyone else (except Hearts, obv, but they've already won). Hibs understandably unhappy about this.

http://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/news/5353

Rangers = Sevco, obviously. Oops. Nearly made it through the season without doing that.

Half of the players who are set to contest the play-offs are out of contract before they start.
Keith Jackson tweeting that it'll cost one club £100 on short contract extensions.

er that should be £100k

Can't believe the powers that be didn't anticipate someone from their predicted best league in Scotland/only show in town Championship (ran away with with seven games to go, like...) might get into the Scottish Cup Final. Thought Hibs, Hearts & Sevco were too good for everyone else and all that carry-on?

Also, let's have a think about this. You are a very skint club. Would you pay £100k for a temporary extension to a few players who are leaving anyway to try and guarantee Premiership football when there's a perfectly good chance you'll be papped out at the first attempt at it?

And then there's the Championship final day fixture fiasco when Sevco could go into the Sunday to play against a team that's already won the league knowing exactly what they have to do to secure a certain path in the play-offs since the rest of it was all decided the day before. One of the beneficiaries/losers of your scenario are your opponents' biggest rivals and cash cows. Is this fair on anyone?

Neil Doncaster still has a job. Why?

Apparently the Hearts game has just been moved back to the Saturday after they supported the Hibs complaint and raised one of their own that it was too late in the day to be changing matches to suit the tv.

loved the SPFL statement that basically said "WTF are you all moaning about?"

omg what a fucking shitshow

Neil Doncaster still has a job. Why?

so so so otm

The fact that this game was against Hearts (I believe they have a rivalry of a kind with a team called Hibernian) makes the sheer effrontery of it even more 0_o

Aye, all games now Saturday lunchtime: http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/spfl-statement-on-fixtures/

Original SPFL statement for posterity:

"In response to recent criticisms of the Championship fixture scheduling for the weekend May 2/3, we'd like to clarify some specific points. On this weekend, the Hearts v Rangers match is scheduled for Sunday, May 3 to be broadcast on television and it is not clear to us why this has caused so much surprise.

"This is a key game in the Championship season and will inevitably attract huge interest from fans around the world.

"It is unreasonable to expect all Championship fixtures that weekend to move to the Sunday when a number of them will be unaffected by the Hearts v Rangers tie.

"However, as a result of this fixture, all Championship clubs have been invited to submit a request should they wish to move games to the Sunday.

"To date, the only feedback we have received is from one Championship club which has asked for its match to remain scheduled for the Saturday.

"For the avoidance of doubt, we have had no request from Hibernian FC to move its fixture to the Sunday at the time of writing.

"We also note speculation that Police Scotland expressed concern to the SPFL about the scheduling of the Hearts v Rangers match.

"However, Police Scotland confirmed to us that there were no security issues with the scheduling of all Championship fixtures that weekend.

"Whilst we regret any inconvenience to supporters caused by rescheduled fixtures, the circumstances surrounding the matches on the weekend of May 2/3 are in no way unusual."

I believe the one club who asked for its match to remain on the Saturday was Hearts :-)

Aye, Hearts complained first:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32325215

"When it also became apparent to us that our fixture was the only game to be moved, we were equally alarmed as, rightly or wrongly, this casts a shadow over the sporting integrity of the Championship," she (Ann Budge) said on Hearts' website. "While it may not be enshrined in the newly merged rule book of the SPFL, it is protocol the football world over for fixtures such as the last day of the championship to be played simultaneously. To move only one (or even two or four) out of five fixtures would seem to be leaving our game wide open to unsavoury accusations. I will be sending in a formal complaint to the SPFL in relation to this appallingly late decision."

Well said, Jambo lady, fucking dicks

(I've just thought of a good headline if a player or official of Hearts FC is ever found to be dealing in untruths: Jambo Liar).

Absolutely the correct statement from Ann Budge. The fact that the SPFL need to be told this should be shocking, but, y'know, it's the SPFL.

Ann Budge in danger of becoming Scottish fitba's voice of reason.

I honestly can't get over that SPFL statement "it is not clear to us why this has caused so much surprise" - seriously? You don't know why every other footballing event in the fucking world has league games finishing at the same time?

"For the avoidance of doubt,

SPFL spokesperson has been reading too many Phil MacG blogs and this annoying phrase has stuck.

"for the avoidance of doubt" site:philmacgiollabhain.ie
About 80 results (0.55 seconds)

(then again, Jim Traynor often used the same phrase when he was the Sevco PR)

“The SPFL would like to thank Sky Sports for its flexibility and understanding and we’re sure all football fans will look forward to an exciting climax to the Championship season.”

Fuck these fucking clowns.

Two sets of fans have had to change their arrangements *twice* (some of whom took refunds and are now trying to get their tickets back) and the others all have to rearrange travel for a lunchtime kick off and the SPFL thanks fucking Sky for its understanding?
No hint of an apology for this fuckup anywhere?

You know if Doncaster had completed Objective #1 of running a league and got some fucking sponsorship for it, they wouldn't be so fucking beholden to Sky's pittance screwing over the people actually still care about this shambles of a league.

Utter, utter, clownery.

The way I've read a couple of statements, i.e. the Hibs one, it looks like Sky may have actually taken some kind of lead to sort the SPFL's mess for them.

Other than that, well said Ms Budge. I was missing the Romanov-era Hearts press releases, but having a voice of reason will do in place.

So, the upshot of every official on the pitch missing Josh Meekings's handball is that he's being retrospectively charged with handling the ball by the SFA. Caley Thistle have appealed it.

"Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC can confirm that it has declined the fixed one match suspension offer in relation to the Notice of Complaint issued to Josh Meekings following an alleged breach of Disciplinary Rule 200 at the ICTFC v Celtic game on Sunday, 19th April 2015."

“The club intends to vigorously defend our player and is taking legal advice on the issue."

“We are extremely disappointed that this has arisen and the player himself is mentally shattered at the turn of events."

Josh Meekings looking mentally shattered in the pub:

http://i.imgur.com/geneoy0.jpg

he's trying to smile but all around him is darkness

I find that happens to me in pubs in Inverness a lot too.

Someone's shrunk Leigh Griffiths!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/11150449_10153750901378998_8853562112423108354_n.jpg?oh=e194ce49c4d073c5a97ca4d081ab9d4d&oe=55D59357&__gda__=1439829178_d8c23c3867ccdb087364151b4d8aaf2c

GMS and VVD making a play for the unintentionally homoerotic images thread.

Considered putting it there too.

FIFA's refereeing boss in "talking total pish" non-shocker:

"It doesn't help us if someone gets banned. I don't think that's right. I don't think he did it on purpose, the ball was going very quickly. It was reaction, but it was a clear handball, a red card and a penalty.

"I hope that he will play, the best players should always play in the final. I don't think it is a positive thing to ban anybody."

Um, does someone want to tell him that if it was a clear handball & red card, then Meekings would be suspended for the final had the referee done his job right? I wonder, if Celtic had sneaked through, if he'd advocate wiping Craig Gordon's red card? Of course not, because that's not how punishments work. Or is he advocating scrapping suspensions now?

Sorry, link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32416795

And why is he speaking in a personal capacity to the press anyway?