Neale Cooper in Fergie Rises: “He (Franz Beckenbauer) said I was possibly the closest he had seen to a player like himself at that age. That was quite a compliment. But I always say that it goes to show, even Franz Beckenbauer can talk some amount of shite.”
Unashamed plug for my Syrian friend Muhanned Alwen who is rebuilding his life in Scotland and has set up his own bakery in Alloa - Alwen Cakes. The man is a genius
Why is
@policescotland
facilitating (again) a racist anti-Irish march, no kettling or arrests? If they replaced Irish with Pakistani/Muslim police would act, so why not now? Irish famine killed 1 million (Protestants too!) ended in 1852 it’s now 2021🙈
Didn’t think I’d see a Scottish team in the semi-final of a major European competition again in my working life. Well done Rangers. Great job. Don’t @ me angry Twitter Celtic fans. This is a huge night for your rivals
Been a while since Celtic Park rocked like it did tonight. Wonderful performance by Ange Postecoglou’s side. Nine of the starting 11 were signed by him. A massive rebuild done in the relative blink of an eye. Quite something.
Honest to God, A party night for Ange Postecoglou and his terrific champions and yet a sizeable number of the visiting support are belting out the full IRA songbook. Is this their only way of expressing their Irish heritage? Pitiful
If I’m reading BDO’s documents correctly the revised tax bill stands at £68.3m. Correct me if I’m wrong. In those circumstances, blaming an HMRC ‘blunder’ for the implosion that wrecked Rangers could be considered, er, a bit of a reach.
A multimillion-pound blunder by the tax authorities is being blamed for the financial implosion that wrecked Rangers Football Club and sent shockwaves through the sporting world
Hat-trick for Sam Cosgrove. That’s six in four this season and 25 in his last 32 games. The big Chinese clubs must be getting interested at this stage...
Steve Clarke - the Great Redeemer. He took a dejected team and a demoralised nation and turned the whole thing around. The players are men reborn under the excellence of his management. A colossus.
The sectarian filth coming from the Rangers support - clearly audible even here in the studio - is in total contrast to the excellence of their team on the field
So, Dundee voted, the vote got held up somehow. In the meantime, they emailed to cancel the vote. The vote then landed and was deemed irrelevant. Funny how the email with the vote didn’t land first time but the one cancelling it did.
No end of Celtic people on here crying conspiracy. Funny how all the poor refereeing decisions that go in their favour are air-brushed from history. In three recent Cup finals, against Hearts, Aberdeen and Motherwell, they got three dodgy penalties. Give it a rest lads
Touched a nerve with a few Celtic fans I think. Neil Lennon celebrating like he’s just beaten Guardiola’s Man City instead of relegation strugglers Dundee is a touch embarrassing. That’s all. Celtic fans very quick to mock Rangers when they do the same.
Some wish to portray this as Rangers vs the SPFL. In the last few days we’ve heard unprecedented criticism of the SPFL’s governance from Rangers, Hearts, ICT, Partick Thistle, Falkirk, Stenhousemuir, Stranraer, Kelty and Brora on top of Aberdeen’s stated support for an inquiry
Hibs have every right to be furious about this Celtic-Dubai farrago. SPFL moves a game just to facilitate Celtic and now Hibs have to play against a team whose own assistant manager has admitted to “minor slip-ups” in COVID protocols in Dubai. Today should be very interesting
So many people getting uptight about the Rangers’ dossier. This is very simple. If they have serious evidence of wrong-doing then they’ll be doing the game a service by revealing it. If they don’t have serious evidence then they’ll be humiliated for making a major deal of it
Colombian media outlet with almost four million followers and presumably possessing a fair old knowledge of South American culture, describes Alfredo Morelos’ throat-slitting gesture as a stain on his brilliant career.
Neil Doncaster says if Rangers paid for the independent inquiry then its independence would be undermined. Tell that to the law lord who would head it up. He presents the Deloitte report as an example of proper independence. Who paid for it and how much did it cost? He won’t say
I’m not allowed to work on the Celtic game tonight from a studio at Ibrox along with Neil Lennon as Stewart Robertson the Rangers CEO says we are a security risk. Good to see Rangers ground breaking diversity and inclusion campaign ‘Everyone Anyone’ is working well…
Celtic aren’t champions yet, but it’s only days away and it will be one of the very best they’ve won in the last decade. They’ve been terrific today. Matt O’Riley top notch, Twenty-one years old, £1.5m. Superb. You get the sense that Celtic are only getting started under AP
Never mind the ‘joke’ or the slap - what about Will Smith’s acceptance speech? “I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world.” You make movies pal. Come back to us when you have the cure for cancer
These Celtic fans claiming that Everton officially revealed Nathan Patterson’s transfer at £4.5m are a humorous lot. That’s what he costs on Fantasy Premier League lads. And, no, Mo Salah is not actually available for £12.8m...
Seven Olympic medals now for Duncan Scott - two gold, five silver. Most people probably wouldn’t recognise him in the street (I suspect he likes it that way) but he’s one of the greats in the history of Scottish sport. An extraordinary and enduring talent
Great Britain take gold in the Men's 4x200m freestyle relay!
They led from the off and never looked back. Absolutely brilliant!
#BBCOlympics
#Olympics
#Paris2024
I’ve been living and loving life in Scotland for 16 years. A glorious place. Magnificent people. Very much my home from home. However, I have to conclude that when it comes to football everybody is completely and utterly off their rocker...
Head on head. No mitigating factors. High degree of danger. This is a red card in rugby not to mind football. Disgraceful decision. Kyogo appears to be out cold. Can’t quite understand why Sky could say there was no concussion
What did Dundee United think was going to happen? Hearts and Partick Thistle standing up for themselves is no surprise. Lawyers are expensive is not exactly a revelation. What did United expect? This is a bareknuckle fight.
So the torturous SPFL vs Rangers legal saga over Cinch ends. Rangers don’t have to carry Cinch branding. That was their point from day one. How much is this going to cost the SPFL in legal fees? No mention of that in the SPFL statement. All of this could have been avoided
In recent years, Celtic have made about £100m in player sales while losing CL qualifiers to Legia Warsaw, Malmo, Maribor, AEK Athens and Cluj. Cluj put out of Europe last season by Dudelange of Luxembourg. This ‘We’re a Champions League club’ mantra from Celtic Park is nonsense
It’s got nothing to do with luck, has it? Well-run club buys and sells astutely and makes profit on player trading to help fund a rebuild under a new manager. The fact that AP had money to spend didn’t happen by chance
🗣️'In the last 12 months he's spent more than what Steven Gerrard spent in three and a half years' 🤑
Michael Beale on what motivated his 'lucky man' comment about Ange Postecoglou ⤵️
Hear more from Beale on Football Focus in the coming weeks.
#BBCFootball
Oh, and if Harry Maguire is an £85m centre-half then Motherwell and Aberdeen better steel themselves for £150m offers for Declan Gallagher and Andy Considine...
If this transpires then it’s a remarkable deal for Sky. The right to screen 60 games at less money per game than they currently pay while possessing the power to stop anybody (club or secondary rights company) broadcasting any other game that they don’t broadcast. Blimey.
A Scotland XI: Marshall - Tierney, Souttar, McKenna, Robertson - McGregor, McGinn - Forrest, Christie, Fraser - Griffiths
Nobody is gonna persuade that this line-up, along with a very decent set of subs, won’t qualify for a major tournament very soon
The Six Nations is supposed to be played in near silence but the Scots made a hell of a lot of noise today. Never mind the scoreboard, they were miles better than England in nearly every department. A stunning win. The boys of 1871 will be up there cheering their heads off
Why do so many Celtic fans on here oppose an independent review of the SPFL behaviour? Why would they not want it? Null and voiding of the league was never, ever gonna happen so what’s the fear here?
This is grossly misleading and unfair. “Burnt through his fortune”. He gave very generously to charity, looked after friends and set his family up for life. This headline - and others elsewhere - are really unjust
Three weeks ago Roy MacGregor said that “all clubs need to stick together.” Two days ago he said that Hearts need to “take their medicine.” So much for sticking together.
That Celtic game was great fun. Goals, chances, shots off the woodwork, missed sitters, brilliant mayhem and a really excellent home win. Celtic had nine players who were 22 years of age or younger on the field tonight. Impressive
I think a lot of people allowed themselves to believe that Scotland could win or draw without anything, recently, to back it up. It was just blind hope. 5-1 is horrific though. Even allowing for Germany’s brilliance, Scotland were dreadful. The senior players never showed up
Steven Gerrard wants a fence built around Rangers’ training pitch to stop Rangers people watching his team and leaking his formation to their mates...This has been a long season for the new manager.
Watching James Forrest yesterday...Obvious issues but, God almighty, if Scotland can’t do anything with Robertson, Tierney, Souttar, McGregor, McTominay, Fraser, Christie, Forrest and others then it’ll be an unforgivable waste
The ball was down. It was a try. TMO thought it, then the ref thought it. Then they started to unsee what they’d already seen. Scotland should have had it wrapped up, of course. France were negative. Didn’t want to play. Got away with a lot at the breakdown, but they won 🤷🏻♂️
Rangers win the title in a landslide. It’s been a very long snd extremely torturous road but Steven Gerrard has been outstanding. His players are transformed. Mea culpa. I thought the pressure of the job would eat him up. Instead, he’s revelled in it. Congrats Rangers
Aberdeen at home and in good home form - 19% possession, zero shots on target. Celtic 10 on target, 33 attempts overall. Dons got what they deserved. Negative beyond belief. Showed no belief in themselves. Do the fans really want to see their team play that way?
Add those two cross-field kicks to Finn Russell’s greatest moments. Absolutely Finnomenal. Scotland can play a lot better than that but, bloody hell, they’re so hard to beat now. Can they handle the pressure, asked Eddie Jones. He has his answer.
Farewell to the big man Hugh McIlvanney. More than the greatest sportswriter, he was a giant of sports literature. What a stunning body of work he leaves behind. RIP Hugh
Bizarrely, the penny hasn’t dropped with Jon Daly, Christophe Berra and Glenn Whelan. Hearts are bottom of the league lads. What do you expect Stendel to do?
Former Hearts coach Jon Daly is critical of new manager Daniel Stendel's handling of his departure from Tynecastle - and the German's treatment of players.
No such thing as a red card offence in Scottish football anymore. Every club should appeal everything next season. Decent chance of winning. Chaos guaranteed
I note that “diving” has now been recategorised by some as being “streetwise” in the wake of the Raheem Sterling thing. I await the reaction on Sunday: ‘Streetwise Italy win the Euros with controversial last second penalty’ ‘It wasn’t a penalty, but I don’t care,’ says Lee Dixon
Jose Mourinho used to be a charismatic and inspirational character. He’s utterly morose now. Manager of a great club and yet he makes it look like a miserable existence
Football/rugby/racing fans back. Excellent. The decision, driven by Premiership clubs, to bring forward their winter break was entirely the right one. Most people, but not all people, recognised this at the time
Ten of the 12 richest football clubs in the world have either introduced pay cuts or are currently talking to players about pay cuts. But shame on Hearts, right? 😳
If you have to go through so many years of stress and anger about what’s going to happen to your football cub then that’s the way to bring it to an end. Rangers win in a landslide. A fine team with a lot of bottle. Good on them.
The wording of the notes to the
@spfl
resolution is key. You CAN’T revoke a ‘yes’ vote. But there’s no explicit guide (here) regarding a ‘no’ vote. It’s now clear
@DundeeFC
sent a ‘no’ vote which somehow arrived AFTER they said ‘consider our vote not cast’... Lawyers, anyone? 💰
Well said Steve Clarke. SPFL and SFA utterly shameful in their total shirking of the issue of sectarian and terrorist chanting in this country. Clarke should work on his board as well. As a club, they’re against strict liability. This is what you get as a consequence
What a wretched business. Putting rivalries aside, no club deserves to be treated like this. It’s just plain wrong. A shameful conclusion. Of course Brechin avoid the same fate as Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer, so that’s nice...
Hearts, Partick Thistle and Stranraer have had their relegations confirmed after only 16 of the 42 SPFL clubs indicated that they would vote in favour of league reconstruction.
High time football introduced a rule that the captain, and only the captain, is allowed to talk to the referee. Farcical scenes in this game and others
That's it for Andy Murray, the most glorious sporting drama - Rocky with a tennis racket. A thrilling champion and a quality guy. What a wonderful career and what great crack we all had following it. Looking forward to seeing what he does next
Calcutta Cup, 2019. The famous Scotland comeback game. Darcy Graham’s day ends after this incident with Owen Farrell. No card issued, just a penalty. Still happening four years later.
Always has to be somebody to blame apart from the people who are to blame. 3-0 up. See it out for God sake. Where were the leaders at 3-0?? Instead: ref was rubbish, VAR is crap. Come on.
Clubs were told prior to the meeting that their microphone would be unmuted if they wanted to speak. That didn’t happen. The SPFL clubs were denied a discussion with the SPFL executive.
Not sure what this has to do with celebrating winning the league, there is no justification for this, for sectarian anti-Catholic chants, no justification for the violence, thuggery, disorder & destruction- Glasgow has had enough
Liel Abada doesn’t get the coverage that Furuhashi and Jota get (and you can add Hatate and Maeda to the list) but he’s been a brilliant signing. Twelve goals already, from out wide. Twenty years old. An amazing return and a very big goal today