Woodstock Jag

… scoring for the Academy U16s 😉

This Athletic article is well worth a read on exactly this question!

Originated, if I’m not mistaken, at Somerset in the May 2023 play-off 2nd leg.

Really confident and assured performance today. Two well worked and taken goals. Energy levels kept up reasonably well. Chalmers is really coming onto a game. Deserved shout outs as well to Jakubiak and Fitzy off the bench. Doing hard yards to prevent us from having to drop as deep as we have been prone to. Enjoy your weekends all! 🔴🟡🔴

As others have said, the harrying from Crawford to force the error for the first was really pleasing to see, but Chalmers still had a lot of work to do to get the shot away as well as he did. Really pleasing performance. You can see the confidence returning to some key figures in recent games.

Four Foundation match-worn signed shirts from the Women's team's victory against Dundee United are going up for auction on TJF's shop. They're not the mud-stained classics served-up by the men's team but that's the synthetic surface at Petershill for you! The funds raised from this will be over and above TJF's £5,000 pledge for the 2024-25 season. Members can place a bid here - the auctions go live at 8am today and close Sunday 23rd March at 11pm GMT: https://thejagsfoundation.co.uk/shop/auctions/

Boing Boing.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's because the bottom of the Championship is the cut-off at which it's feasible to sustain full-time football. Full-time teams, many of whom are only really potentially sustainable if they're competitive for promotion to the Premiership, aren't about to sign-off on a league format that risks leaking significant amounts of prize revenue (relative to Championship finances) to part-time clubs that have other advantages over them in their business models. For existing full-time Championship teams not to be materially disadvantaged by a bigger league (ignoring the likely negative impact on gates for the larger teams), you'd need to make sure that the prize-money for finishing 16th was roughly no worse than it currently is for 10th place, and that the drop-off in the event of relegation to League 1 was smaller. In practice, that means generating at least £1 million extra revenue for prize money for the non-Premier leagues, probably more (that's over 20% more than they get now). And because of the way that the SPFL splits prize-money (fixed percentages by league placing) you'd either need to generate another £4-5 million for the Premiership Clubs at the same time, or you'd have to get them to agree to a different split than currently exists. If you're generating £6 million more in TV money and sponsorship, it's probably being driven by the Premiership being a more marketable product, rather than the Championship becoming so, so top flight Clubs are then not likely to be generous in agreeing to a change in the pot split. This revenue distribution structure means that, in reality, any questions about reconstruction of the lower leagues has to be cost-neutral, or requires the Premiership to willingly reduce its claim on the pot. The latter is never going to happen. And the former has losers. Mainly those losers will be teams that are (just) maintaining full-time football at the moment.

Strong argument that this is the best half of football we’ve played all season.

TJF statement on the matter below: On Sunday 1st December a formal complaint was made to both the Club Board and TJF’s Board about an historic social media “retweet” from February 2024 made by Stuart Callison, relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The complaint demanded Stuart’s immediate removal from both boards, alleging racism and antisemitism. The retweet in question was made by Stuart in a purely personal capacity. It is not the role of TJF to censure or censor the free expression of individuals, even our directors, on matters of conscience or to adjudicate on the validity of competing political claims, particularly in the absence of evidence of discriminatory intent. As the Club Board has already indicated in its full statement to the JT, it took appropriate legal and professional advice on the matter, and conducted an internal investigation, which found no breach of directors duties. Separately, TJF investigated whether the retweet contravened its own Social Media Policy. No breach was found on the basis of representations made. TJF’s board unanimously stands by the conclusion of its investigation that there was no racist or discriminatory intent behind Stuart’s social media content and that no directors’ duties were breached. Had we concluded otherwise, we would have asked him to resign. We would note that, in email exchanges with Stuart asking for comment on the story, the journalist at the Jewish Telegraph himself stated that the content in question “is not antisemitic”. An offer to engage in independent mediation with the complainant was made by both the Club and TJF, but this was declined. We do recognise that social media is often a highly imperfect platform on which to debate these complex and emotionally charged political issues, especially for those assuming leadership roles at Partick Thistle. At TJF’s December 2024 board meeting, all were reminded of the need for circumspection if commenting publicly on sensitive political issues, so as to minimise the risk of misinterpretation or offence, or of misattribution of an individual’s views as being those held by either TJF or the Club. We want to ensure that Firhill is a place where all fans, regardless of background, feel welcome, and where everyone focuses on what we have in common as Jags fans, rather than on political disagreements. There will be no further comment from TJF on this matter.

I’ve had my fair share of run ins with JJ but I think the Ghost has probably crossed the line here. We’re all a bit wound up at the moment because things on and off the park aren’t going as we’d like them to. But worth just remembering we are all first and foremost Jags fans who want the club to prosper.

I would pay more attention to the actual projections presented to shareholders.

I would personally pay more attention to the detailed forecasts provided to the AGM by the finance director rather than a throwaway remark made by another of the directors. The finance report stated that the expected growth in revenues for season 2025-26 was in the region of £100k-£150k compared with the previous season. Which is a much more modest growth target and perfectly achievable given (for example) a significant uplift is anticipated to be secured on the marquee sponsorship opportunity (front of shirt sponsor) compared with the deal signed previously.

.... they aren't?

Headcount is a much more nuanced situation than some people have given it credit for. It's partly because the 2022-23 revenue figures were so bad. As indicated in TJF's accounts analysis, total revenue also isn't quite like-for-like as the women's team's accounts were amalgamated in. I suppose you get what you pay for. The Academy is a separate legal entity and so player trading income from the Academy will not appear in the Club accounts.