The SFA and the SPFL have released a statement tonight confirming that the Ibrox club will be decamping to the National Stadium for a while. The statement is so vague that it is basically embarrassing. They owe the clubs a much deeper description about the terms of this deal than they’ve given in their brief statement.
They also need to stop misleading the Ibrox fans about the length of time this deal is good for. The Ibrox club has agreed to pay for the laying of “lay and play turf” as I discussed last week. That will not have been cheap. It’s possible Ibrox is paying it in lieu of a fee for the stadium itself; that would be the SFA selling our game short. Either way though, it’s expensive.
None of this will be cheap. Not for the club and not for the fans, who still have no idea of the enormity of what this is going to cost them on so many levels. The relaying of the turf is just the start of it. And the SFA statement fudges the issue of the time-scale.
“The arrangement includes the club’s home matches up to Scotland’s UEFA Nations League fixture at home to Poland on September 5 and the SPFL Board has approved (the club) playing such matches away from their own Registered Ground.”
The arrangements “includes”; you notice the use of that word? It’s crystal clear what that word means and they are hoping that it will slip by people, in the way the Ibrox club thought they could lie to their own supporters when it told the media that “as many as five” games up would be played away. That took the club right up to the date Hampden confirmed.
And you know what? The SFA has basically admitted that the club will play more games at the National Stadium than they are letting on.
Because that word “includes” makes that plain, and both the club and the governing body already knows full well that’s the case. Still, they continue to grossly mislead their own fan-base with rubbish about hoping to be finished by then. They won’t be.
Scotland will play on 5 September, and then the ground will be back in use by the Ibrox club. Queens Park have already been screwed over. Their wishes are in the toilet. And there’s something the Ibrox fans don’t want to consider but should; according to UEFA regulations, as confirmed by my good friends over at Born Celtic, if they play one, even one, European Group Stage match at an alternate venue they have to play all of them there.
And the costs of that are going to be astronomical, and this is another thing they are trying to keep from their own supporters and eventually will have to admit.
If they make it to the Champions League, their first Group Stage games are 17-19 September. The first Europa League Group Stage match-days are on 25-26 September.
Their club is seriously racing the clock to have Ibrox ready for those. I think their chances of it are slim at best.
It is high time all involved in this farce owned up and told the truth about the likely timeframe of this. Ibrox is not laying a pitch for the SFA in order to play five games. Nor is the use of that word “including” merely a poor choice of words.
There is major fallout to come here. There are huge implications to this, and everyone wants to pretend it’ll be fine.
More fool any Ibrox fan who believes it.
The latest CelticBlog podcast is online now folks. You can hear it below.
The SFA and The SPFL will give them what they want…
Utterly INCREDIBLE when you see the way Sevco have treated them and the trouble they have caused for them…
Yet they gave The deceased ‘Rangers’ everything and they are doing it for their bastard child doppelgänger of a club Sevco as well…
It’s truly beyond the pale so it fuckin is !
I’ve heard that clubs can switch grounds in UEFA’s competitions. They can apply for special dispensation and there are precedents for this happening.
Knowing The Rangers right enough, they’ll forget to apply for it.
Ipox won’t be ready till October, my downstairs neighbour has been laid off till 1st week in October, she works in the copland refreshment /food kiosks this is fact.
Suppose all we can do is sit back and watch,
with a big bucket of popcorn? 🙂
The bad news has to come out – eventually.
And those delightful ibrox supporters
are not the most forgiving…
The SFA and The SPFL have done everything they can to assist. What makes everyone think that The SFA have not mitigated the cost for The Ibrox Club as much as they possibly can?
The cost of Celtics one year sojourn at Hampden was excessive and many conditions ( and had a minimum term of a season?) . How does the 2024 version of this issue compare?
You do know that the DNS for thecelticblog.com isn’t working James, right? It hasn’t been working since yesterday evening. I thought the whole site was down. Go to thecelticblog.com and check for yourself. I guess the people getting in are taking a different route as I had to just now.
Yeah I think we had some issues.
SHOULD be resolved my friend.
It seems they are trying to sell their entire squad. Reading today the rangers would have to sell Butland if there as a £20m bid on the table and against Clemente’s wish no less… LMAO.
They are in need of a cash injection to cover their recent screw up. We will read the extension to the lease of Hampden in a few weeks as you suggest James.
Unless the rules change they would need to play all their first quarter home games at Hampden like St Mirren a few years back.
I believe they have given up this season before it starts, gonna be a fun watch.
Lord “Finding” Nimmo fined Rangers £250,000 for not disclosing payments to the relevant authorities but let them keep their titles so they could be magically passed on to a new club after they died which is hilarious. Can you imagine the authorities actually insisting they were paid. No money will change hands here either and who could prove otherwise.
Once the games have been played the “lay and play” guys will have to sue for their money like everyone else.
The question is when will the pox pay for it, 2 years time?. Not clear is it and the rest of scottish football need to know if they a carrying the can for an interest 2yr instalments loan for said play and lay plus add ons
They are extracting the urine once again and here we are standing by admiring the spray.