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Sevco Fans & Scottish Football’s Twisted Priorities

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Today has been another strange one for those of us who are keen observers of Scottish football.

First comes the fallout from the appalling way The Herald has treated its number one sports journalist, Graham Spiers, in making an apology, in his name, for an article he wrote on Sevco.

I’ve covered the story over on Fields and it’s a sordid tale alright, and a depressing one for those of us who still believe in the importance of our media.

You can read it at the bottom of the page, if you want to check it out.

The position he’s been put in is so alarming that one of his former colleagues at The Herald has blogged on the subject, to say that in more than four decades at the sharp end of journalism he has never seen a more obvious example of a newspaper failing to back one of its writers, and that says it all.

The indictment is damning.

This is the latest in a long list of times when Sevco fans and the club have harassed journalists and publications to the point where they’ve simply quit and folded the hand. It would be scary if it wasn’t so ridiculous. We really do have a weak, spineless, media class in this country.

Whenever Sevco speaks, these people listen.

Whenever Sevco makes anger or disapproval clear these people crawl under the bed.

Today the club gets set to take a Hearts midfielder, Billy King, on loan.

To those of who expected a ruse like this, it looks obvious; it is their way out of having to keep their promises to the support over big name signings.

O’Halloran isn’t coming – despite weeks of constant media pressure to get St Johnstone to accept a pittance, culminating in a scandalous mock up picture of him a Sevco shirt which appeared on an official SPFL website; the constant pandering to them is a disgrace – but a loanee is.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been astounded if many of the Sevco fans were swallowing it.

Today I knew they would be, and they are, and the reason they’re so willing to ignore the truth, that this reveals their chairman and his board to be comprised of guys for whom truth is an alien concept, is the name of the player.

Their forums are ecstatic.

They can’t believe their luck.

Some of them actually think this gives them license to sing The Billy Boys without fear of legal consequences. That this is indicative of the thinking shows how bizarre the reality in which some of them live has become.

This is how cheaply they are bought off, how easily they are distracted from the glaring inadequacies of their board of directors and huge gaps between the fantasy they are constantly fed and the reality they live with.

They do this to themselves too.

They are their own worst enemies, because they are so busy focussed on what people think and say about them that their club continues to rot from the inside.

Even as this is going on, some amongst their support continue to look outside the club for “enemies”, trawling newspapers and twitter feeds for any comments they don’t like, and more of them are harassing journalists to comment on stories that most people couldn’t give a damn about.

Funny, isn’t it, how they are all for “journalism” as long as it’s saying what they want to hear, right?

This isn’t double standards as much as it’s doublethink, the Orwellian concept of being able to hold two flatly contradictory ideas in your head at the same time and not even consider them different.

As all this is going on, we have Alan Brazil, telling us that “the good of Scottish football” depends on Sevco getting promoted this year … another in a long line of people with some connection to Celtic who simply can’t get past the concept of our club intrinsically tied to one from Ibrox.

I understand it to an extent; some of these people don’t have to live here, don’t have to put up with this day after day, don’t have to read the newspapers up here and see how they act towards even their own employees when they go against the “establishment club.”

Those of us who do have to endure it are pretty clear on how we feel.

This is a club with twisted priorities that now seems to subsist on a daily diet of hate and anger. This is a club who’s directors are clearly unfit to be on the board of any organisation which believes itself a social institution. This is a club who’s official line is that they are a continuation of one that lied, cheated, stole and defrauded millions of pounds … for which they’ve offered no apology or even the slightest modicum of regret. This is a club which is still seeped in sectarianism and bile.

Court cases in relation to their former board are ongoing. The governing body is investigating their fans for sectarian singing. Police Scotland is looking into the threatening nature of one of their fan websites. Their supporters and the club itself are hounding journalists for writing the truth. The press continues to heap praise on their chairman, a man a judge once called a “glib and shameless liar”, and who takes them for absolute mugs. Their manager doesn’t think the rules ought to apply to his team and without soft loans from dodgy geezers and their own directors they’d be trading whilst insolvent … and are still telling the world they’ll spend millions on players.

Is this a football club or an “ongoing criminal enterprise”?

This is something Celtic needs?

This is something Scottish football needs?

What’s wrong with this picture?

In what world do these people really live?

To read Spiers “Apology” Heralds In Dark Days For Scottish Journalism click here

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  • Liam MUrray says:

    They like King Billy, but they prefer bilking – they’ve bilked paper shops, flower sellers, HMRC……

  • Gavin says:

    Awesome article. I love how you finish it, In what world do these people live in and what sort of luck do we have to be there neighbours! In any other city in any other country anywhere else on earth this fantasy would have been squashed like a bug within hours.

  • Gerry Graham says:

    And we have a board who are so spineless it’s a wonder Liewwell & Co can stand up straight..Our board should be doing more to expose Reg 12 but they’re sitting on there Fat arses doing nothing..As for Sevco what else do you expect..Its the country we live in..They’re all down Traynors work for him and Covering it all up nicely..We should be miles in front but we ain’t and that’s down to the Cowards we have in the Boardroom..Don’t be surprised with all the cover ups & lies And the rest..This is them at there best..The only way to beat this Scum is on the park HH

  • H says:

    Zimbardo argues that it’s not the apples in the barrel that’s rotten but the whole barrel. The fact is that a huge percentage can and do sing the ‘Billy Boys’ because they know that the people with the power to take action are probably leading the choir.
    A club steeped in sectarianism, a police force steeped in sectarianism. a judicial system steeped in sectarianism, media steeped in sectarianism and the powers that be in our own club say little and do little.
    Sad, very sad indeed!

  • Jimbo6770 says:

    James, the only other place this nonsensical saga could go on is Ulster! Wonder what they have in common!

    • Brian Fearon says:

      Jumbo it couldn’t go on in Ulster, Cavan Donegal and Monaghan wouldn’t entertain it, the remnant might.

  • joe mccormack says:

    The Res 12 thingy is really sticking in my throat.

    I handed in a letter addressed to Lawwell more than 4 weeks ago expressing my concern at the lack of action on Res 12, the cheating in the Scottish Cup semi final last season , the improperly registered players and a couple of other things.

    I’ve not had the courtesy of a reply. I’m a fan of 60 years plus and a long time ST holder….up till this season.

    The silence from our board has me convinced that our board are as complicit as the SFA.

    The Rangers Euro licence was gained by fraud……pure and simple.

    Everyone knows that to be the case, the police should be investigating this, not the SFA, whose dirty hands are all over it.

    We even know the names of those responsible, it’s not rocket science. Auldheid at TSFM even has a paper trail.

    Come on Lawwell get the finger out before it’s too late.

    If you think that there will be an upsurge in ST sales when Rangers return to the big boyseague then you are in for an almighty shock.

    Thousands of fans will walk away if no title stripping takes place, if no criminal action is taken against those who perpetrated the UEFA licence fraud and if no action is taken against st the officials who compleed Mission Stop The Treble.

    • Sean McDermott says:

      I don’t get it your giving Sevco AKA Newco
      credence by calling them Rangers returning to SPL .Sevco has never been in SPL

  • plum says:

    The only reason they can get away with everything is through the backing of the sfa, who are an extension of sevco, could you imagine the global coverage and questions asked if all supporters boycotted a semi final or final showpiece.

  • Mr Banjo says:

    The irony is that in the media’s short sighted “re invent the old firm” desperation, all the bluster of King revolutions, magic hats and competing with celtic for players etc, they are simply repeating old mistakes. Painting a picture all is spiffing and the recovery is well underway, all the while only serving a distraction to the cloven hoofed that their whole existence is once again hanging by a thread.
    Once the inevitable happens these rags will not only loose the readership of their fans, as they will have no club to write about, they will be left with reputations in tatters for destroying any journalistic integrity the ever pretended to have.
    Grab the popcorn for the final scene for all concerned is coming.

  • seldomsober says:

    To beat them don’t buy they product they sell, I refuse to buy a DR because of the hypocrisy that’s within in it, i”ll never buy the currant bun again due to the carry on with PMGB serialisation of the downfall and they’re backing off to print it because a few neds weren’t happy.
    I also refuse to phone in(used to listen to SSB) now I don’t just entertain any of it listening to the drivel from BFDJ and snivelling, they just spout the garbage the peepul want to hear.
    Any Celtic supporter that phones in is just giving them ammunition and is not right in the head.

    PS. I’m also off the drink

  • TonyB says:

    Is it just me or are any others quite happy with the way the meeja toadies are feeding the hun paranoia and bigging up the sevco crooks and con men who are shafting the gullibles left right and centre, thus preventing them from developing as a club and a football team and assisting in their inevitable second demise.

    I think it is feckin’ hilarious and look forward every day to the latest chapter in the best comedy in town.

    As for The Bears Shitebags, they are too pathetic and cowardly for words.

    If there are any decent intelligent huns out there, and I’m yet to be convinced, they must dread every dawn and the next cringeworthy episode in their club’s short toe curling history.

  • TheCellticWay says:

    I live in England James and it’s true that people dont know the full story of what’s going on in Scottish football, all they see is the Establishment team no longer plays in the top league because they had “financial problems” this is due to the lack of proper information an miss-information from the likes of Talksport/Sky/BT The only way for this abomination to be cleansed is for UEFA to step in and “CURE” Scottish football from the corruption/gerrymandering/Sectarian/Racist bigots that are the power in our game and the only way this can happen is if the very vast majority of decent football supporters take the action(s) needed to start that process.
    Great Article !!”

  • larsson7 says:

    Nailed it again James,there are some dangerous people out there,old firm. No way. H H

  • Shoogwolf says:

    if I was working somewhere and a colleague was being hung out to dry then I would soak myself and go and stand beside him. Why don’t the journalists do the same? Without them there would be no publication. What’s more important? Filling the paper with news or with adverts? Once this has been established we would see the bully boys shrink into insignificance and they crawl into the sewers where they belong. Was it not said that the pen is mightier than the sword? The people who used the advertising money as a blackmail tool would soon find themselves battling to save their companies reputation and we would soon see things in a different light. If only!!!

  • jamesy o'd says:

    It’s like the KKK down south in the u s a you know how they think but they never really say it out loud , but when some one does say it , it sends them into a frenzy as they don’t want anyone outside ther sick group to know how they really look on the rest of the world , its also funny how the KKK and the orange lodge have near exactly the same views and policies to ther white right wing protestant takeover the world battlecrys , these people hate any body that is not of ther thinking and violence and threats go hand in hand with who they are , its just scary how far ther tentacles reach in are society , but good will ALLWAYS over come evil ,and its up to us all to fight it ,

  • derek j says:

    The Espanyolification of Rangers/sevco/deidco (delete as appropriate) will be our revenge on the rancid mob,and every lackey of theirs in the MSM

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