Is there a motive behind the Kilmarnock chairman's comments?

[Joe O'Rourke]

[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]I’m finding it extremely difficult to read the mind of Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston after his latest comments regarding the appropriate punishment for a Rangers Newco entering the SPL.
[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]I would have thought it was in his, and his clubs best interest to encourage supporters of all the other clubs in Scotland to come to Rugby Park, his latest comments I believe will alienate him even more from the other ten clubs supporters.
[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]I sometimes wonder how these people see their place in Scottish Football, what do they bring to the game in Scotland? In supporters terms not a lot, they brought just over 300 to Celtic Park this season, in a match held about half an hour up the road from Kilmarnock, and in the League Cup Final against Celtic, they had less supporters present than they had at the semi-final, what does that tell you?
[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]There are strong feelings amongst the Celtic Support regarding a selective bhoycott of away matches next season, whether that comes to pass or not remains to be seen, but if you ask the Celtic Support which grounds they would like to bhoycott, Kilmarnock would be very high up on the list, if not at the very top.[/COLOR:ba597d88]
[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]Johnston has consistently spoke out publicly in support of Rangers, that is his prerogative, but I suspect there is more to it than just blanket support, maybe he thinks if a Rangers Newco is demoted to Division 3, then lots of the Ayrshire Rangers supporters will go to Rugby Park instead of travelling to some far flung part of Scotland.
[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]Maybe Mr Johnston should have kept his powder dry until all the results of the investigations are known, even the documentary tonight on BBC Scotland by Mark Daly promises to be very revealing and controversial.
[COLOR=#000000:ba597d88]Kilmarnock is famous for their pies, but it’s usually the mince variety, it could turn out in Mr Johnston’s case to be the humble variety.

[Guest]

Firstly. Kilmarnock are a parasitic football club. Pure and simple. They exist purely because they sell a massive part of their ground to visiting Celtic and Rangers fans as many times a season as they possibly can. I have no doubt that if a Newco is not allowed into the SPL then Kilmarnock will be one of the first clubs to die because they rely so heavily on the revenue the Rangers game brings. He knows that a boycott by Celtic fans is unlikely to be agreed by our support so he throws his weight behind Rangers because that way he believes he will generate maximum revenue from both sets of fans.


As for a boycott. I have to admit I agree with Mr Johnston's no doubt belief that we can't pull it off. The Celtic support is not a union. Even if you managed to get association affiliated supporters clubs to boycott what about those clubs not affiliated? What about all the people that just do their own thing and travel to games in cars? To actually organise a successful boycott would be a massive operation and the only way I could see it happening is if the club got behind it and it wasn't "fan led".

[Joe O'Rourke]

You might be right in terms of a 100% bhoycott, but even a 75% bhoycott of some clubs would do a lot of financial damage. It might even be that the support would want some kind of support present, that would be hard to organise. SPORTING INTEGRITY ANYONE ?????

[fernhoops]

Watching this saga unfold from outside Scotland has been a real 'eye opener' to me! Celtic Supporters have always been portrayed in the Scottish media as Paranoid. Well you have not been Paranoid enough!!

It is unbelievable and quite extraordinary that the Kilmarnock Chairman is speaking out publicly on this matter AND in support of Glasgow Rangers who his team are in direct competition with!!!! The analogy is the Chairman of Tesco speaking out in favour of Sainsburys if they had been caught circumventing planning permission or Linford Christie pleading for Ben Johnson to be allowed to keep his gold medal at the Seoul in 1988.

The usual suspects in the Scottish Media are not only in denial about this but are also complicit. Why are they not camped outside Sir David Murrays door? After all he can hardly run away can he!!

Then there was the disgusting rant from McCoist demanding to know the identities of the 3 man SFA Panel when he knew who they were all along. Why is McCoist not on a charge?? The condemnation of this has been deafening! Jim Delahunt from the BBC on twitter!


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Then there is Jim Traynor who still blames the SFA/SPL for allowing Whyte to take charge of the H*ns! and of course there are the fantastic journalistic specimen's Chick Young and Bill Leckie. What chance have you got of getting any fair reporting in the Scottish media when the media is so institutionally biased in favour of Glasgow Rangers.

And then a proper Journalist called Alex Thomson from Channel 4 comes along. He exposes the whole rotten media/Rangers cabal and is then subsequently threatened by a fellow Journalists. There is an ongoing Police investigation into this.

It is time UEFA got involved in this as it too big and complicated for the brain of the Kilmarnock Chairman to deal with!

[Kiwibhoy]

Of course there's a motive behind his comments - money. And the SPL needs to be challenged on that, because they are all dead scared of the financial effects of Rangers being kicked out of the SPL, whether or not it comes back as a Newco.

The other point, too, is that Celtic still needs to have other strong sides in the SPL. The great local sporting rivalries, and not just in football, rely on having a good team or teams to match yourself against. In rugby, for New Zealand, the rivalry has been South Africa or Australia, and sometimes France; in Spain it is Barcelona/Real Madrid; and one could go on and on. We should be careful what we wish for, especially because the game in Scotland is not that strong overall - which is why so many of the best and the brighest head south, and why so little of the national side actually play [I:a80cda25]in[/I:a80cda25] Scotland.

[Kiwibhoy]

This is also fairly insightful ...

[URL:ce515fcb]http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2012/05/23/rangers-in-crisis-the-downfall-of-sir-david-murray-by-former-chairman-and-ally-alastair-johnston-86908-23870056/[/URL:ce515fcb]

[pensionerbhoy]

Penalties and the SPL should not even be discussed. If there is a liquidation then they do not exist. A new club MUST apply to SFL not to anyone else just as any other non-league club would have to do. This is the ONLY TRUE JUSTICE. It is insulting and wrong to give any new set up in Govan preferential treatment over ANY other football club in Scotland. I thought Scotland, even with all its bigotry and bias, being so steeped in religiosity, at least had some sense of morality. Disappearing fast, along with my faith in it!

H H

[fernhoops]

What are you advocating? No relegation? Because if the H*ns in whatever form start in the SPL next season there is a good chance they will have further points deducted and also they could be struggling to field a team due to the transfer embargo and also the probable mass exodus of established players. What do you want then? Make the league bigger?

You seem to be echoing the sentiments of the media Cabal in Scotland by saying Celtic need Rangers to survive, but the bottom line has to be sporting integrity can't be brought.

No Celtic fans bother with the Daily Record, I am surprised you are posting links to that rag on here.

[Kiwibhoy]

@Fernhoops - OK, to clarify:

Integrity cannot be bought, but how do you get through the SPL's complete unwillingness to part company with Rangers because of the resulting financial consequences?

There are sounding sporting reasons why Celtic needs a strong domestic opponent. If not Rangers, then who?

I found the Daily Record article, an expose by Alastair Johnston of the SDM regime, quite interesting. However, if that is not to your taste, you might find the BBC a little more objective:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18179264

[fernhoops]

The only Rangers that will be playing in top flight football in Britain next season will be Queens Park Rangers!