What snivelling wretches we have running football.
Michel Platini and his Eurocrat acolytes make our own dear Neil Doncaster look heroic.
When it's clear that the eyes of global football should be focused on El Broon Sauce Clásico at
Hampden, they attempt to divert football lovers the world over with a sideshow in Munich.
The end of a 116 year wait draws ever closer. Hearts, Hibs and the Scottish Cup final.
Excitement is growing, nerves are jangling.
I'm delighted to welcome Laurie Dunsire back to the blog to give a Hearts fan's view of why the
stakes are so high and why this is a game that will mean so much to families across Edinburgh and
beyond.
It's a strange one: sticking around at a stadium to greet like heroes a squad that has just escaped
from the struggle of their lives.
Pat Fenlon called last night's acclaim for his Hibs team "embarrassing," stressing that this was
more an opportunity to thank the fans rather than an occasion of unadulterated joy.
As Craig Beattie set off on his mad celebratory dash around the Hampden track on Sunday the
realisation dawned: not without controversy, perhaps, but Hearts were on their way to an unlikely
all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup final.
Unlikely because Hearts went into the semi-final against SPL champions Celtic as underdogs.
After a week of shrieking SPL outrage, the weekend positively bristles with anticipation and
longing.
All eyes are on Hampden.
All stout Scottish footballing hearts are surely longing for an outbreak of football amid the
stressful stramashes of the last couple of days.
I imagine there are but few people in Scotland who don't share the view that the ideal scenario for
this season's Scottish Cup is for Hibs to beat Aberdeen today before going on to beat Hearts in
May's final.
Little by little, inch by inch, Hibs are moving towards SPL safety.
Three points salvaged from a poor performance in Inverness were followed by a single point in an
encouraging display against Motherwell on Sunday.
These are not earth shattering displays. But they are enough to edge further from a poor
Dunfermline side who have not yet enjoyed the bounce they might have expected when unveiling Jim
Jefferies as a managerial Red Adair.
Update: By the season's end Hibs will have endured 16 different kick off times. Here's a fresher
look at the situation from 4th April - Hibs: That's Fife
Confirmation that Hibs and Aberdeen will contest the Scottish Cup semi final at 12.15 on Saturday
14th April brought forth a predictable reaction.
The walking personification of Hearts, he wasn't put on this earth for us to hold him dear.
And largely we don't like him.
But there's something about Jim.
Maybe it's because, in the constantly evolving modern game, the nostalgic sight of a Wallyford
curmudgeon prowling SPL technical areas will likely become ever rarer.
That time of year when each paper has a riff on the same theme: "Hibs fans don't need reminding
that it's been 110 years since their side won the Scottish Cup."
Well, no. We don't.
Yet everybody does remind us. Constantly.
The scraggy punchline of a 110 year joke. Mostly a joke that bludgeons you about the head with no
attempt at subtlety.
Motherwell may feel hard done by despite being thrashed 4-0 against Hibs last night and well they should be after this Steve Hammell header was disallowed despite Hibs keeper Ben Williams clearly scooping the ball back from behind the line. And there was a little matter of 3 penalties awarded to Hibs with two of them converted.
A Saturday Superstore tomorrow. With Neil Doncaster as Mike Read and a half time interview with Craig Brown filling in for a wacky live link with Cheggers.
A splendid SPL smorgasbord seeing out September. Alarming alliteration aside, we can sit back and enjoy six games in the top flight.
After they both enjoyed SPL wins last Saturday the week rather diverged for Celtic and Hibs.
Celtic progressed to the Champions League group stage, that promised land where the streets are
paved with gold and the couches upholstered with £50 notes.
24 hours earlier Hibs were dumped out of the League Cup by Queen of the South in a display that
seems to have flitted between pathetic and miserable.
Celtic defeated Inverness to go top of the table and Kilmarnock defeated Dundee United in the
Scottish Premier League on August 25, 2012.
Inverness 2-4 Celtic
Celtic remained unbeaten on the season with a very comfortable victory at the Caledonian
Stadium. Tony Watt led the way with a brace while Charlie Mulgrew and Victor Wanyama scored the
other goals.
Hibs this morning issued a statement regarding yesterday's news that plans were being put in
place to parachute Rangers into the First Division.
With fans getting somewhat annoyed at this latest proposal, Hibs - whose chairman Rod Petrie was
said to have met newco owner Charles Green - have moved with uncharacteristic speed to get a
message to the fans.
Celtic hosting Rangers and Hibs continuing their long, frustrating struggle to shake off relegation
rivals Dunfermline against St Mirren. Two games that might normally have the Betfair football
betting experts scratching their heads.
Today's match at Celtic Park is both essentially meaningless and yet crammed full of meaning.
A strange Tuesday for Hibs. With their city rivals toiling under the threat of financial calamity, it was Hibs who ended the day with a dismissed employee and something of a PR storm.
At half time in Sunday's game against Dundee United the tannoy at Easter Road blasted out a few lines of George Harrison's Taxman.
Playing a record by the most successful pop act of all time is rarely cause for dismissal for a DJ, but it has proven to be the undoing of the announcer at Hibernian's Easter Road stadium.
During half time of Sunday's 2-1 victory over Dundee, Hibs announcer Willie Docherty spun 'Taxman', the opening track from The Beatles' rather splendid Revolver album (listen to it after the jump).
Table-toppers Hibernian have sacked their stadium announcer after he played 'Taxman' by the Beatles as a jibe at local rivals Hearts during the half-time interval at Hibs' Scottish Premier League tie against Dundee United on Sunday.
A Hibs spokesman said: "The stadium announcer's contract has been terminated following a breach of conduct.
"When are games versus Scottish teams ever as easy as they should be?"
So asked one Liverpool fan after his team were drawn against Hearts in their Europa League play
off.
The answer, a bittersweet truth to be sure, is that too many clubs from too many countries have
found games against Scottish teams clubs to be all too easy in recent years.
A nice quiet Scottish football summer draws to an close. A pleasant couple of months they've been,
devoted to considered reflection, removed from the hurly-burly, the hysteria and the rancour of the
season.
And now it's over. Time for the (fun and) games to begin.
The new season dawns with a TV deal in place, a 12 team SPL, a 30 team SFL, mixed European results
and Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan continuing to career through the corridors of Hampden like the
Chuckle Brothers with ADHD.
Last Sunday's website statement from the Hibernian Supporters Club ("Hibs Club") and the Rangers
Supporters Trust response to it exposed a chasm in thinking on Scottish football's current
problems. Supporters appear split down the middle between those who see Rangers as persecuted
victims (Rangers fans) and those who see them as having taken Scottish football to the brink
through their own poor financial management over the last 20 years (everyone else).
Scottish Premier League side Hibernian FC has launched its 2012/13 PUMA third kit. Its release
follows that of the latest Hibs home and away kits in June. According to the Hibernian...
Scottish Premier League side Hibernian FC has launched its 2012/13 PUMA home kit. The club launched
its new away kit earlier in June. The club describes to new kits as...
Scottish Premier League side Hibernian FC has launched its 2012/13 PUMA away or change kit. The
club describes to new kits as "a radical departure for the Club playing kit...
Aston Villa: what if the problem is the club and not McLeish? - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
This Premier League season has been a memorable one, with the title race again going down to the
wire and potentially being settled by a Manchester derby, the new arrivals Norwich and Swansea
reminding everyone that the gap in class between the Premier League and the Championship actually
isn't all that great, and the relegation battle is probably one of the tightest battles there has
been in the Premier League since it's inception 20 years ago.
Have we moved on? Or are we descending further into farce?
Nodody seems to know exactly what's happening. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. But who
actually owns the asylum? And will another group of lunatics be happy to take over in the next few
weeks?
Week three already. Or week two for any club that feels unconstrained by the league starting when
booking their jollydays.
The marketing geniuses whose brains power the Hampden floodlights will be congratulating themselves
for starting the SPL season a fortnight before the English could be bothered kicking off.
