"New Rangers" begin with a last-gasp equaliser at, er, Peterhead, then. And five stars above the club badge on their shirts. What do those represent? The five weeks they've been in existence?

So the SPL YouTube channel then, or any excuse to link to Kenny McLean's goal
From about 1:00

A bit behind as I was away this weekend but can anyone explain why Killie weren't in the EL draw? I was always of the mind that the League Cup meant a place in Europe or have I got this spectacularly wrong?

No, you are not wrong, the League Cup does confer a place. But only for the competition winners. If they don't take up that place (for whatever reason) it does not pass on to the runners-up, but instead goes to the highest finisher in League without a spot. This is a UEFA ruling about secondary cup competitions (same is true in England and France), so not something one can blame the SFA for.

Similarly, the Europa League place for a main cup competition can only extend as far as the beaten finalist. If a Cup Final is played between two teams who have also qualified for the Champions League, the Europa League place would go unclaimed and so revert to the League.

Janik wrote:
But Killie are the competiton winners. I'm confused now.

Hmm, this article suggests that the winners of the League Cup do not, in fact, get a European place.

They did away with the European spot for the League Cup winners a few years ago, can't remember exactly when.

Belhaven wrote:


"splofficial" - that sounds like a website for some sort of sexualy peccadillo.

Rogin the Kitten Minder wrote:


I'm told that they forgot to take a change strip and realised after arriving to stay the night at an Aberdeen hotel that they did not have the correct kit. Which is borne out by this link and picture.
static.foxsports.com/content/fsc/img/201...11030960_660_320.JPG

forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=234795

A shambles, like their performance...but I don't know what the stars represent.

Jeez, are you still talking about Rangers? That's an unhealthy addiction you've got there, try and focus on your own team again, painful as it will be it'll be better in the long run.
How'd sell out Saturday go for you then?

Aberdeen had an attendance of 14 thousand and something for a not very entertaining 0-0 draw with Ross County.

I'm not sure how many County took down, I was sitting at the other end of the South Stand because the central areas were full. There were big gaps around the main stand though.

Full house tonight V Man Utd though. Good to see Darren Fletcher playing the 2nd half.

See, if only you played Man Utd every week!

Going on past history 14,000 isn't a bad crowd for a match against a newly promoted club, but probably a bit short of what might have been hoped for. A nothing each draw probably won't entice some of them to go again either though. Still, if you can sustain increased attendances, for whatever reasons, that can only be a good thing.

Suspiciously promising start to Thistle's season, with 4 wins out of 4 so far (admittedly, 3 of those were against lower division teams in cup competitions, but still). And it's always nice to send Falkirk back up the M80 with no points.

As for the league cup winners no longer getting into Europe, that's been the case for a few years now. The wikipedia article on the league cup states that the last time the winners got into the UEFA cup was 1995, but I'm sure that's inaccurate - I've got a feeling the change happened around 2002 when UEFA rejigged the number of European places each nation got, and as Scotland lost one the league cup route was dropped.

Some more twists and turns today I found interesting.

Charles Green issued a statement on Tuesday saying that all Scottish football debts incurred by 'oldco' had now been paid in full by 'newco' (there are still debts to clubs outside Scotland that haven't been paid). There is no football creditor rule in Scotland so this is a bit dodgy but that's for Ticketus and HMRC to worry about for now. It was widely known that the SFA expected Rangers 'newco' to clear any debts owed to member clubs by the 'oldco', fair enough.

Then on Wednesday Dundee Utd issued a statement saying they hadn't been paid by Rangers for an amount outstanding after a Scottish Cup tie last season. This fully contradicted Green's statement from the day before, and led the BBC Scottish sport website all day. There were more than a few questions asked of Green's honesty on Rangers messageboards too.

Today we discover that the SPL agreed to pay this money to Dundee Utd. The SPL initially denied this, however STV have a copy of the letter where they agree to it.

It transpires that the SPL have witheld Rangers prize money from last season's second place finish, over £2 million apparently, and so agreed to pay the £30,000 or so owed to Dundee Utd from that.

Quite how they could refuse to pay this money is unclear, Rangers were only in administration at the end of the season and so due any prize money surely. That money would have gone to the creditors of the 'oldco', not Green or the 'newco' it should be pointed out.

What is now being suggested is that the SPL told Rangers they would block any application to play football in Scotland at any level if they pursued this money. It also seems that it was agreed by the SPL clubs to split Rangers prize money between them. Well, what else would they do with it, no conflict of interest there.

For added irony it seems that the SPL are having 'cashflow issues' and so haven't actual paid this money out yet. Dundee Utd's statement has opened another can of worms which can be left in the corner with all the others as well as the maggots feeding on the decaying corpse of Scottish football.

If all that is true, HMRC should be injuncting the SPL to prevent them distributing the prize money to the other SPL clubs. It was contractually due to Rangers oldco, who have significant debts they are legally obliged to settle as well as they can.

"It transpires that the SPL have witheld Rangers prize money from last season's second place finish, over £2 million apparently, and so agreed to pay the £30,000 or so owed to Dundee Utd from that."

AAMS, do you have a link for the statement above? The money clearly belongs to RFC plc, and therefore the creditors' pot. I can imagine the liquidators, BDO, pursuing a sum like that unless the administrators signed it away somehow.

But with Regan and Doncaster I could believe anything.

11th paragraph down.

"The businessman also agreed to waive any claim to £2.55m in prize money earned by Rangers for finishing second in the SPL in 2011/12. STV understands that money will instead be redistributed amongst the other 11 participants last campaign, using the league's percentage based distribution model."

Seems to suggest that the 11 SPL clubs have stolen money due to Rangers' creditors. Scandalous if that's the case.

Is this an oldco / newco thing? The CVA hadn't failed on the 18th of May.

The SPL told oldco they would keep their money to settle debts, but liquidators stepped in and demanded the payment once the CVA failed? Newco then claims to have no football debts?

Until all the correspondence is published we will never know.

Jordan Rhodes just equalized with a diving header in off the angle of post and bar on his scotland debut. Australia took the lead with a screamer from a corner first.

Good attacking game this, Levein will have words at half time no doubt.

Ball had gone out of play before the corner (and over the goal line) before the goal. Aussie goal was great but an unfit keeper maybe made it look a bit better.