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Sevco Releases The Squirrels. Another Shady “Investment” Plan Is Floated For The Debt Dome.

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Oh how I love a Sevco squirrel, and my favourites are these “investment incoming” stories which contain so many if’s buts and maybes that they might as well be filed under fiction.

The source of the latest one – Andy Devlin at The Sun – is especially delicious.

He’s one of those guys the Sevco PR operation knows it can leak this stuff to without worrying about analysis.

The story is ridiculous, but the spin being put on it is even worse.

This is cash for the war-chest!

What part of UEFA’s regulations does the media not understand?

What part of Financial Fair Play isn’t clear to them?

Even if every single penny of that money was being earmarked for first team improvements, Sevco would not be able to spend it that way … this stuff is fairly basic, it’s in the regulations in black and white.

Violations of those regulations have put clubs all over Europe, including PSG and Manchester City, in the firing line.

And let’s bear in mind, those clubs attempted to disguise the “investments” behind massive sponsorship deals. That tactic just won’t fly here. If someone gives Sevco £20 million in cold hard cash to spend on the team, alarm bells will ring at Hampden, Celtic Park and in Nyon.

In spite of our public stance over Resolution 12, I do not believe, for one second, that our club would stand by and allow such a blatant violation of FFP regulations to sail through without asking serious questions. It would be so egregious that no-one could ignore it.

Of course, none of that will happen because even if the facts of this story are broadly correct – and I say that’s a big “if” considering how little detail there is in the story and how many qualifiers it it has – this is about stabilising their dire financial position more than it’s about anything else.

Remember, the last published accounts said they needed £10 million to finish this season.

(And their six monthly interims are now weeks overdue … is anyone asking questions about that?)

On top of that, this is not “new money”, it’s the share issue they’ve been promising for over a year.

How much of the money will go into the club and how much will be siphoned off to the current shareholders as a means of finally cashing in on their loans? Unknown.

Because Devlin didn’t want to ask that or look too closely at it.

And the idea of a “mystery investor” isn’t going to fly either of course; these individuals are going to need to be scrutinised by the governing bodies.

I know that the idea of this is almost ridiculous, but it’s actually a requirement.

I laughed when I read that story this morning.

You all know that I wasn’t pleased with the way Celtic has done its own season ticket renewal campaign, but we never lead the fans down the garden path with obvious nonsense such as this. Because in the end, I reckon that’s what this is really all about; it’s a way of convincing their fans that Gerrard will have money, that the good times are just around the corner and that everything will be alright.

It amazes me that they constantly pull this stuff on their supporters.

I am not surprised that their supporters consistently fall for it.

They are the most gullible fans in football, and any one of them who believes that Gerrard will get £20 million to spend to stop us doing ten in a row … well, I have a bridge to sell them.

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