[Angle_eyes]

Surprised no-one's opened a thread to talk about their current plight.

They've obviously gone into administration and seem to be struggling for survival on a daily basis. They've asked for their weekend match against Aberdeen to be postponed and it seems they can't afford to insure their players, meaning they might not be able to field a team. Brooks Mileson has apparently run out of money to fund the club and he was pretty much their only source of income. Any thoughts on any of it?

I know i'll get criticised for it, but I think Mileson's an idiot. He was a successful businessman and yet he's seemingly blown his fortune on a dream that could never have a future. Maybe he'll think it's been worth it because they've reached the SPL and he's had a day out at Hampden, but did he really think it all through? The club come from a town with no significant population, they have a stadium not even up to 1st division standards, and they were making losses every week. How did he think it was sustainable? Was it worth risking his long-term health for?

I know he'll be remembered as a loveable, eccentric old guy who had a dream, but i'm too cynical for all that bullsh!t. He's helped make Scottish football look like a joke again.

Who disagrees? :boxing:

 

[maradona10]

They got what was coming to them, this faily tale joke is nonsense, I seen it coming a mile away when posting on another forum about their SPL credentials.

Did Brooks think he was going to buy his way through the 3rd, 2nd & 1st division, tallying up SPL like wage structures, if not that much I would bet they are not far off, and then expect everything to be rosey once they secured SPL status?

Gretna has a population of 3,000, we cant begin to fathom how many of them actually follow football nevermind Gretna Football Club so do your own maths. Expenses which are pounding them into the ground are :

Ground Sharing
Wages
Travelling expenses
Excecutive Chairs at SPL grounds which are probably considerably higher than Div 1 and below
507 people turning up for an SPL match at Fir Park (their adopted home)

The only feasible way it could have worked to a level they could sustain themselves up here is if Mileston continued to pay standard run of the mill SFL wages and actually budgeted that once his beloved club gets to the SPL that away support may rise but home ones certainly wouldnt but that doesnt matter because a portion of the money they get from for example Celtic and Rangers visiting goes straight into the hands of Motherwell for the ground sharing agreement.

I truly hope his health improves but as a business, a football club and an apparent fairy tale, they deserve it and I have no sympathy for anyone except the players of Gretna.

 

[A.Johnson]

wonder what would happen if they did go out of business before the season finished, would all the points gained by oppsotion teams against them be deducted from them?

 

[Bolso4]

i heard that all the teams they beat would be rewarded with 3 points (or tied...of course).

Seems stupid, but only way to go.
Aberdeen is probably the only club who would contest that at the moment. Politically, it makes sense ...............I suppose :rollani:

 

[maradona10]

Either way someone will have a dispute over it.

The basic rules I've heard are all teams who have gained points against Gretna up until the day they declare bankruptcy will be deducted and all games from now until the end of the season wont exist anymore but at the same time I've heard all the future games until the split will be rewarded as 3-0 wins which contradicts revoking all points gained.

Either way as Angel said, its a complete disgrace to Scottish Football. For those who think no one will hear of this news from outside Scotland are wrong and it most probably will have an immediate impact on the potential signings any club including the Old Firm want to make.

 

[Angle_eyes]

Awarding 3-0 wins seems the logical thing to do if they do go to the wall. Taking points away from teams just gets messy. I'm struggling to get my head around the concept.

 

[GERS]

Either way someone will have a dispute over it.

The basic rules I've heard are all teams who have gained points against Gretna up until the day they declare bankruptcy will be deducted and all games from now until the end of the season wont exist anymore but at the same time I've heard all the future games until the split will be rewarded as 3-0 wins which contradicts revoking all points gained.

Either way as Angel said, its a complete disgrace to Scottish Football. For those who think no one will hear of this news from outside Scotland are wrong and it most probably will have an immediate impact on the potential signings any club including the Old Firm want to make.[/QUOTE

Think the SPL HAVE to help them finish the season! then when they go down we can just watch them disapear! As a part time QOS fan it disgusted me that they were aloud promoted. Were Falkirk not regected from promotion a few years back for not having the required stadia?

 

[maradona10]

I agree, I am not saying the SPL are responsible for this but surely top financial men there must have been able to preempt this happening. It isnt rocket science.

 

[The Exiled Heretic]

I feel sorry for Mileson. He had money, lived the dream. We can only guess but I'd expect after scraping so close with his own mortality his priorities have now changed. I wish him all the best in his health.

It's a shame that people are going to lose their job when they have mortgages, etc but to be honest that's life. We'll all go through that in life and these people are no different. As sorry as I am for them I am no more sorry than anyone else who loses their job and in the balance of things I think the ones with the financial headache are better off than the one with the ill health. Were it not for Milesone these people would be picking up peanuts in the bottom tier anyway.

I agree with what has been written on the other matters. The SPL is a joke. Why we need to have two bodies looking after 42 teams is beyond me and it's obvious they cannot work together. Why else would Hamilton with such a home advantage, check the home stats against away stats, be allowed to fight for promotion on an artificial surface to a league they are forbidden to use an artifical surface in?

It's all shite. The SPL (Self preservation league) won't restructure because it is not in their interest to do so. They would rather have stadium criteria that protect clubs from this kind of mess even after the debacles at SFL level involving Archibald at Airdrie and Anelka at Raith. Even now at Tynecastle there is potential for another Gretna to happen at any point.

I don't know how the licensing system works in Europe but from what I can gather the finances are checked pre-season and a license is only granted for the league if those are in order. Something like that needs to be put in place here with our own slant to ensure one man cannot have such a control over a club in the event that should they pull out the club will collapse. The SPL are not interested though as it does not effect them and if it does then on an inidividual level why would they want to highlight it?

We should be a 2 tier system run by an independant body. People outside of Scotland see the SPL as a mickey mouse league and with every season that conviction can only be solidified by the antics that go on. This season potential we have yet another season with no relegation, a bottom 6 fight for a relegation battle that cannot happen, a promotion for a team who cannot match the SPL criteria and all other sort of farcical things.

Gretna is just another chapter in the book of shame and while the monkeys are at the helm it will continue to be that way.