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officially shit.

rangers, celtic and hearts all out of europe...

OptaJoe on Twitter: "0 - For the first time since European club football began in 1955, there will be no Scottish teams in contention on September 1. Wipeout."

On a brighter note, congratulations to Shamrock Rovers who somehow won away at Partizan Belgrade and qualified for the EL group stage!

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Alioune DVToure wrote:On a brighter note, congratulations to Shamrock Rovers who somehow won away at Partizan Belgrade and qualified for the EL group stage!

[youtube]vOfNq6JY_BE[/youtube]

That's quite an accomplishment for them. Hope they do well.

Why is this a surprise to anyone? There will be alot of mock outrage and talk of it being our worst night ever but in reality Scottish teams having been going out at this stage for the past 15 years.

Sure Celtic and Rangers have had the odd decent run however they were batting way above their means financially and are now paying for it.

that's a cracking goal for rovers there.

Can't really call the scottish teams going out "surprising," as like many of said, scottish football has been in decline for awhile. Personally, I think it's only a matter of time before the league collapses and they are brought into the english league system. Don't know how that one will be handled though.

Alioune DVToure wrote:On a brighter note, congratulations to Shamrock Rovers who somehow won away at Partizan Belgrade and qualified for the EL group stage!

[youtube]vOfNq6JY_BE[/youtube]

Going through results last night, I somehow missed that. Amazing feat really. Away games at Belgrade aren't easy for ANYONE.

Excellent result for rovers, hope they get a decent draw

Well done rovers(shower of cnuts ;)), great for them, should see them have monopoly on irish league for next few years, considering some of the teams that didn't go through its some achievement!

kinkylola wrote:that's a cracking goal for rovers there.

Can't really call the scottish teams going out "surprising," as like many of said, scottish football has been in decline for awhile. Personally, I think it's only a matter of time before the league collapses and they are brought into the english league system. Don't know how that one will be handled though.

By telling them to go and fuck themselves. Except Berwick Rangers obviously.

It will all be the fault of foreigners, rather than the complete failure of the whole Scottish football system to produce any decent players whatsoever. England have been following the same path of ineptitude in producing top quality players but I recon City are going to rescue it in the future.

This fucking keyboard is crap, I have to type everything twice.

seems that celtic may get a second chance....

Celtic, knocked out of the Europa League by Sion, could be reinstated if the Swiss club is found guilty of flouting a transfer ban by fielding ineligible players inthe playoffs.

Celtic lost the second leg 3-1 to Sion to lose by the same score on aggregate, leaving Scotland without a representative in either the Champions League or Europa League group stages.

"It seems to me that Sion have completely broken the tranfer ban imposed on them and are in direct violation of the rules and Celtic could come back in," UEFA president Michel Platini told reporters ahead of the draw for the group stage.

"But we must wait and see what the outcome is, it is a legal issue that has to be resolved. But to me the issue seems clear and Sion have broken the terms of the ban."

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino added: "We expect to receive Celtic's appeal in what has been a long-running saga regarding Sion.

"The Disciplinary and Control body will decide on the issue before the group stages start, although Sion's name will be in the draw. Sion has the right to go to CAS (the Court of Arbitration for Sport), who will settle the matter."

Sion, who were banned from buying or selling players for two transfer windows, have already taken their case to FIFA and the Swiss Supreme Court but a provincial court ruled in their favour last week, prompting the current discrepancy.

Sion were banned after FIFA ruled the club was guilty of inducing Egypt goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary to break his contract with Cairo club Al Ahli in 2008.

Sion claim they have already served the ban but FIFA say it runs until the end of this year.

Sion had five players in their squad -- Feindouno, Mario Mutsch, Gabri, Jose Goncalves and Billy Ketkeophomphone -- who are, as far as the authorities are concerned, ineligible.

However, following the provinicial court's ruling, the squad was approved by the Swiss FA who, along with the club, have reportedly been warned by Infantino they could face more sanctions with Sion expelled from the competition.

Is it just me, or are teams being banned more and more regularly in recent years? From the top of my head:

The Italian fiasco
A host of teams from everywhere not receiving UEFA licenses
Greeks, Turks and now Swiss banned

This is all after being cleared by UEFA to play in competitions' qualifying stages. Was it like this back in the good old days? Or is it just because the qualifying process has become so lengthy and convoluted that UEFA can't sort out problems before qualifying goes ahead?

What fucl is Platini doing commenting on a legal issue that hasn't been resolved yet? That team could try and argue he's just prejudiced the outcome.

Im having a good chuckle at some of the nonsence been spouted about the decline of Scottish Football this morning. As I posted last night. It has been this bad for 15 years. Sadly I remember when the decline started and there was all sorts of think tanks and league changes proposed and it's only got worse.

I follow the Swedish side Sundsvall. I spend a bit of time up there so would go along to their games. They are a yoyo club who go from the top and 1st division. I first went to one of their games with some friend almost five years ago now with a group of friends and it really was like watching pub football. It still is. However I started remarking last year that when I went to one of their games that it was now better than Scottish football and my Scottish friends scoffed at me. Two players who were released from Sundsvall went to Kilmarnock a stalwart of the SPL on trial and Kilmarnock were keen to keep them but couldnt give them the wages on offer from a Swedish div 1 team and they went back home. Rangers defeat to Malmo was no surprise to me.

The constant mention of money in Scotland is a convient exuse. Firstly it was Scottish sides namely the Old Firm that put themselves in this postion when they walked away from a Sky TV deal which had them on in a prime time Saturday night slot. However how much money to Shamrock Rovers get from TV? or the sides that knocked Celtic and Rangers last night. Copenhagen and Rosenborg are have been CL mainstays for over the past decade. Dutch and Portugese sides who are also in the shadow of England, Spain and Germany who arent half the clubs Celtic and Rangers are but will continue to qualify for the CL or get to the later stages of the Europa league.

I'm hearing how Scotland arent producing players anymore. This isnt true either. I'd go as far to say that the current aquad is packed with players of Premiership and Championship quality players. On paper it's the best Scottish squad since the one that took us to France 98. I suspect we will get to the playoffs for 2012 and with a bit of luck may make it. People go on about a previous era of Daglish, Souness and the like. How did the national side do when those players were in their pomp? World Cup wins? Never got past the group stages. Euro Championship sucsess? Never even qualified. Sure there arent as many top Scottish players playing in England anymore but the world has changed for the better since the 80's. The break up of the Soviet Union and the old Eastern Block as well as the Bosman rule and the emergence of Africa as a footballing continent screwed Scottish football.

The national league requires radical change. Far to many league teams. The league needs to streamlined into two leagues and the rest should be cut a drift and regional leagues should be introduced with a pyramid system brought in to allow for teams to progress. I have long argued that Scottish Football should be a summer sport. Our current TV deal pits us up against Premiership. Whilst City are playing Spurs on Sky on Sunday. Celtic are playing St Mirren and I can assure you that outside Glasgow more people in Scotland will be watching our game. Considering the fever that build up over summer and the excitement that greets meaningless pre season friendlies and the Master tournament on Sky surely Scottish Football would benifit from putting itself in the spotlight.

The old arguement against summer football was that it would harm our European aspirations. Well it's still summer and theres not one side left. In the highly unlikely event that one of our sides gets past CL or Europa League the league can adjust to it like it does for Copenhagen. We are willing to bend over backwards this year to allow Celtic and Rangers to play glamour friendlies so I am sure they can do it for a big game in the later stages of a European tournament.

The blame does not lie purely at the door of Celtic and Rangers. The Edinburgh clubs, Dundee United and Aberdeen are big clubs. Bigger than quite a few of the clubs in the Premiership but they have constantly out performed by the likes of Inverness and Motherwell who have fan bases of three thousand people and pay 500 quid a week to players.


Could go on all day. Gives me a sore head just thinking about it.