The Scottish Football thread

[ADG]

Preferably someone called Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain or similar.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Preferably Al-Feraj

[Lineker]

For the fourth time this season, Hearts' players have not been paid on time. Hearts have confirmed that the players will not be paid as scheduled today - but hit out at fringe squad members who "stagnate" and take the club's money "while offering very little or nothing in return".

Yeah.

[Lineker]

More on Hearts:

Hearts have confirmed a delay to this month's player salaries while accusing fringe players of taking their wages and choosing an easy life.

Delays on three consecutive months led players to complain to the Scottish Premier League in December.

Now the club lament their failure to persuade more to leave in January.

"They elected to stagnate, preferring to take the club's money while offering very little or nothing in return," said a statement on Hearts' website.

Board members have told the squad that UBIG, the Lithuanian bank owned by majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov, was still trying to secure the required funds for wages.

However, Hearts played down fears about the club's financial future.

"Hearts today rejected any funding doubts following confirmation that the playing squad would not receive their wages," they said.

"The club expects players to be paid before the end of March."

Hearts avoided threatened sanctions from the SPL following the players' December complaint.

Wages arrived late in January, but only by one day, and the league chose not to follow up with a charge of "failing to behave with the utmost good faith to the SPL".

The club have admitted they expected a more profitable transfer window, but the SPL's biggest spenders outside the Old Firm have stated their intention to reduce the wage bill in the summer.

"The marketplace has changed significantly in favour of clubs, as opposed to players and their agents, and we fully expect to reduce the playing staff salary bill towards recommended industry standard levels," Hearts' statement added.

"This is important as the club has been moderately successful in agreeing mutual early terminations with players, which assisted eight players to exit the club in January and allowed those players to develop their careers elsewhere.

"This is an issue that the club will resolve to a large extent at the end of the season and, at that point, we would expect that payment delays should be eradicated."

Striker Calum Elliot accepted a severance deal in January, while midfielder Ryan Stevenson joined Ipswich and defender Eggert Jonsson was sold to Wolves, which the club claimed helped to pay wages.

"The club's cost base will continue to reduce and further significant gains will be realised when the squad is reshaped at the end of the season," Hearts added.

"The club is very confident that we shall be able to not only maintain the quality of the squad but also improve it and do it more efficiently than previous years, aiming to remain as one of the top three spenders."

The former Rangers director Paul Murray has confirmed his Blue Knights consortium has made an indicative bid to buy the club.

Sale Sharks rugby union team owner Brian Kennedy also told BBC Scotland his bid had been submitted.

And a further offer is understood to have been received by an American consortium.

Administrators Duff and Phelps had said any interested parties would have to come forward by Friday.

They had required details of funding capabilities and how bidders would deal with the financial issues facing the club.

David Whitehouse of Duff and Phelps said there had been "worldwide interest" which could see more bids submitted even after Friday's deadline had passed.

But he said it was clear all of the prospective purchasers were "looking for clarity on certain issues" before submitting more detailed bids.

He added: "There are complex issues to be resolved and there is no doubt they are having a bearing on the bidding process. At this stage we have indicative and conditional bids only.

"Our next step is to review more thoroughly the bids we have received and to determine which could offer the best return for creditors. We will also consider the terms and conditions that any party has attached to their bid.

"This process will involve further discussions between ourselves and interested parties and will begin early next week with a view to clarifying the content of each offer."

Mr Whitehouse said the key element of the bidding process so far had been to give prospective bidders the opportunity to demonstrate their funding capability.

"We cannot, under our remit, exclude the possibility of a bid by any other party and interest was expressed by a party today suggesting a bid will be made over the weekend," he added.

Mr Murray's Blue Knights consortium includes the finance firm Ticketus, which provided £24.4m for Craig Whyte to mount his takeover of the club in May last year.

The consortium has been backed by fans' representatives including the Rangers Supporters Assembly, the Rangers Supporters Association and the Rangers Supporters Trust.

A statement released by Mr Murray said: "We firmly believe that our bid is in the best interests of the club and its fans.

"We're ready to go, we have the finances in place and we want to get the club stabilised as quickly as possible.

"Like every other Rangers fan, I'd love there to be some certainty about the future of our club before next weekend's Old Firm game. It would provide a massive boost to the team and its fans ahead of such an important game.

"To our mind there is no reason why that can't be achieved - we hope the administrators will agree."

Mr Murray later told BBC Radio Scotland's Sportsound programme he would be the "first to step aside" if a better offer for the club had been made.

Refusing to rule out the possibility of working alongside Mr Kennedy, who he described as a "serious and well-intentioned guy", Mr Murray said the most important thing was that Rangers' eventual owner had the best interests of the club at heart.

The Blue Knights have set out a range of proposals in their bid, including a fan ownership scheme which it said would enable Rangers supporters to buy their way into the club over time and have a more significant say in its future.

A consultation would also be carried out into how fans can have a closer relationship with the club.

The consortium said it would provide "substantial working capital facilities" to the Ibrox club to enable it to "operate effectively and continue to perform at the highest level of competition".

The Blue Knights also revealed Ticketus would have no ownership in the club but would provide long term financial support to it.

In exchange for the funding it gave to Mr Whyte, who insists he is still the club's owner and a secured creditor, Ticketus received the rights to future season ticket sales.

However, the administrators were at the Court of Session for a second day on Friday, looking for permission to go back on that deal.

Duff and Phelps want to tear up the agreement on the basis that the debt could discourage bidders who may want to takeover the club.

Lawyers for Ticketus claim the deal is legally binding.

Season ticket sales are one of the main sources of income for Rangers, generating about £12m a year.

The administrators claim that even the uncertainty over the rights of Ticketus to that future income was likely to deter potential investors making a realistic offer.

Elsewhere, Dunfermline have sacked manager Jim McIntyre, with their chairman admitting it was a bid to save the club from relegation.

[Lineker]

Dundee United's former Scotland international Scott Severin has announced that he has been forced to retire from football through injury. The versatile player, who featured in defence and midfield, suffered a leg break against St Mirren in August.

[Lineker]

Seeing as it's Edinburgh derby day, this one is just for Cadj:

Hearts: MacDonald, Hamill, Barr, Webster, Grainger, Taouil, Beattie, Black, Driver, Skacel, Elliott.

Subs: Ridgers, Santana, McGowan, Novikovas, Glen, Robinson, Holt.

Hibernian: Stack, Francomb, McPake, Hanlon, Kujabi, Wotherspoon, Claros, Soares, Stevenson, O'Donovan, Griffiths.

Subs: Brown, Doherty, Booth, O'Hanlon, O'Connor, Doyle, Towell.

Referee: Craig Thomson

Killie play Celtic in the League Cup final a little later on. Celtic will be looking to secure the first part of a domestic treble.

[Lineker]

1-0 Hearts; Craig Beattie.

[Cadj]

Oh Hibs.

Why do you even bother?

[Lineker]

Celtic: Forster, Matthews, Rogne, Kelvin Wilson, Mulgrew, Forrest, Brown, Wanyama, Ledley, Hooper, Stokes.

Subs: Zaluska, Samaras, Cha, Commons, Ki.

Kilmarnock: Bell, Fowler, Sissoko, Nelson, Gordon, Kelly, Buijs, Harkins, Hay, Shiels, Heffernan.

Subs: Letheren, Dayton, Kroca, Johnston, van Tornhout.

Referee: William Collum

Edited March 18, 2012 by Lineker

[Adam]

Still 0-0, really hoping Shiels and/or Heffs can score a dramatic winner for Killie.

[Kaney]

I'm really hoping they can't.

[Lineker]

Goal for Killie! van Tornhout!

[Matt]

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/141675.html#

Probably a load of bollocks but, thoughts? How are Celtic going to survive in the Football League without the European money, how are they deciding which League One side drops out? How are the likes of Tranmere going to cope with 10,000 Celtic fans turning up?

[Lineker]

Killie win!

Also, I have no doubt that that's a load of bollocks.

[Cadj]

Well done Killie!

[Adam]

It simply will never happen, what are we going to do, accept them in to our system and say "alright then, just climb in ahead of most of the teams". Nevermind what it'd be like to travel for the likes of Exeter, Yeovil and Colchester.

Suppose they could always take Portsmouth's place...

Also, get in Killie!

Edited March 18, 2012 by AdamDRFC

[Kaney]

Bah.

[Lineker]

Text from metalman:

"yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!! X"

[METALMAN]

omfg. amazing!

So I am on bus back home to kilmarnock now to celebrate. gonna get steams. whoop whoop!

[METALMAN]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/17423724?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=sportsound