East Kent Jag II

At least its not Giovanni Di Stefano (he of Dundee fame)!

Like most on this forum I'm disappointed with the result. As for creating bad blood, it was already there where the likes of QOS, Morton, Raith ,Ross Co, St Mirren and the rest voted to end the lower leagues.So forget creating bad blood. Its there and will exist for a generation, at least. Us more mature fans will be gone by then. (Don't forget to leave a (financial) legacy for the Jags.) This action , for me, was worth it. The SPFL totally ignored Leagues 1 & 2 until we joined the action with Hearts. It was only then that they issued their edict to vote to restart, or risk demotion. Without the action it is my firm belief that League 1 would have been mothballed until season 21/22. That is the way it was looking. It still might be mothballed, but that will be another fight, as will be the wishes of the likes of Ross Co to have no relegation in 20/21 due to the reduced number of games. Not on. I don't believe MacLennan, Doncaster et al have escaped unhurt. Their wish to dictate season 20/21 was rightly rejected, and there are a core of clubs now firmly opposed to them. My hope is that this is a Phyrric victory for them.

Very clever LIB, but their band manager claimed that the name came (pardon the pun) to him in a dream, where he saw the name in the sign at the Hammersmith Odeon. But there again, as you infer, it could relate to the volume of a certain fluid!

When Caroline started the Gofundme page, David was an early donor, with a significant donation. He has done a lot for our club, and deserves our thanks. If we were to be awarded compensation by the Arbitration Panel, this is in reality only what we have lost due to SPFL incompetence. The club will still need to be funded by the fans probably until 2021, until fans (hopefully) return. Our fund raising efforts need to continue. The Centenary Fund, 50/50, tiles and BB's wonderful teeshirts need to be supported long term. BB, I'll be returning shortly for one of those keep football tidy teeshirts. Look great. But I've been thinking for a while on how other organisations get funds. Universities and charities seek legacies from alumni and supporters, and I wonder how to utilise this. I still get requests for a legacy from the OU, where I got my degree later in life, but still long ago, after blowing my first opportunity at higher education. Myself and my wife have prepared wills quite some time ago, with (for me) her and my son as principal beneficiaries. Even though this is the default position, it was worthwhile getting the will completed. I won't alter my will to include the Jags (too expensive), but have indicated that a donation to the club is what I want. If you have not prepared a will, consider Thistle when doing so, or consider a donation. I'm not too sure what the best way to do this will be. In due course, when fan ownership is up and running, that will be the vehicle I'll use. I'd like to be around when fan ownership becomes a reality (I don't expect to peg out soon). In the meantime, it will be a club donation. I hope you don't think this as too morbid. We need to fund our club every way we can, both short and long term, and this may trigger funding, although for obvious reasons, the later the better.

I thought at first it was WillieThornton, but the badge reads "Racing Club ?" Looks like he's checking someone's fingernails!! He is also a bit plump for Willie

"Here comes the judge, Here comes the judge, This court's in session"

So that's less than 5 days of handbags......Bliss!!

A week to go till the new strip is launched. With all the verbals going on, it can't come quickly enough!!

According to the Scottish Sun, counsel for DU/RR/CR (Borland) told the clubs that there is unlikely to be a result till Friday at the earliest. I wonder if he started to pass on this information last night, but has just finished.....

I see from the SPFL site that a Jags "blast from the past", Paul Cairney, signed for Albion Rovers.

According to an obituary I've just been reading in "The Telegraph" Maurice Roeves, the "hard man" actor who died last week aged 83, was a lifelong Jags fan. Although born in Sunderland, he was brought up in Partick, and went to Church St Primary School. The article went on to say that he was a lifelong Jags fan. Rest in peace, Maurice.

Also today the use of interferon beta in an inhaled form can reduce the severity of the symptoms. I remember a New Scientist article from the late 1970s, when interferons were seen as a magic bullet for cancer. (From memory, there are about a dozen different variations of interferon.) That didn't really take off, but the protein family have been used ever since. I do have to say that interferon is a cytokene, and a cytokene overload was what caused breathing problems in patients, so I wonder if it would be suitable for some, but not all patients. Good progress, though.

Falkirk have signed Anton Dowds from East Fife. They and Cove are likely to be big threats if we have to play in League 1.

And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain My friend, I'll say it clear I'll state my case, of which I'm certain Regrets I've had a few, but then again too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption I planned each chartered course Each careful step along the byeway And more, much more than this I did it my way. I faced it all, and I stood tall and did it my way. The (Daily) record shows I took the blows And did it my way.

"I don't think we choked this time. We didn't play well enough to choke" Craig Matthews. Before anybody says it, I know, it seems familiar!!

In the Vanarama National League, when games were stopped Ebbsfleet Utd were in 21 st position out of 24 Played 39 with 42 points. Maidenhed Utd were in 22nd place, played 38 with 41 points. Bottom 3 go down. On points per game, Ebbsfleet were removed from the league by 0.002 of a point. They do not intend to contest. What a cruel world.

No -not really. I don't accept that the club thought that their case was weak. David Thomson gave it 50 -50. That was also the opinion of Winnie. Although I accept that he said at best 50-50. 50-50 in legal cases means that there is a chance of success, and in my humble opinion is far from weak. I've seen cases with a lower chance of success succeed, and ones with a much higher chance of success fail. Lets remember the promoted clubs' petition to kick out the case failed miserably. No, my feeling came from smug gits like the Queen of the Farce chairman (There'll be winners and losers!" One could imagine being said with glee.) and Lost County's McGregor's now infamous "Take your medicine." Two clubs incidentally, in free fall,and both looking like candidates for their league's relegation spots. I seem to recollect that David Thomson also said that the clubs were not in breach of SFA regulations. If the SFA were to be heavy handed, should they win, in Mrs Budge's words "We have no choice." That will also be heading for the courts. Indeed imo Messrs Monyhan and Borland may have done us a favour by creating sensationalist headlines for that SPFL rag, the Daily Record. Tactical error dragging SFA rules into their case. Lets remember, the C of S case has only been paused, not closed.

As well as getting a panel not consisted of "Football people", we get a chance to have the hearing before the SPL starts, when any expectation of reinstatement will have gone. The 4th official blog yesterday tweeted a link to our go fund me page, now at £47,500 of the £50,000 target. Hopefully we'll get a little surge in donations. As others have said, even if we don't win, we tried. I'll never forget the feeling of emasculation I felt when the club said they couldn't afford the financial risk of going to the C of S. and the pride when we did. Nobody can take that from me. Regardless

You ask me if I doubt that the arbitration panel would have accepted the "commercially sensitive" submission, or whether or not any petition by the panel would have been rejected. The facts are that Thistle / Hearts did go down the C of S route, and were partially successful in getting disclosure. Do I believe that an arbitration panel would have had the same outcome? I (nor you) simply don't know that. There could have been a different outcome for all we know. We got access to the documents we wanted. There were other reasons for going to the C of S, although we did fail to have the case heard there. I'm afraid that I'll need to catch up tomorrow some time now. Off to watch the Chelsea Norwich match, on shortly.

Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 Section 8 lists the Mandatory Rules. Rule 45 deals with securing attendance of witnesses and disclosure of evidence. Where exactly in this rule does it state that all material requested must be disclosed? This comes down to a question of opinion and my opinion is that the SPFL would have refused to disclose this material. Clearly you have a different opinion. So be it.

On the basis that the SPFL claimed that the documents contained commercially sensitive information. This is an arbitration panel, not an English Crown Court or higher, where full disclosure is made, with statement and evidence bundles, along with an unused schedule. Even in England where full disclosure is required, for civil cases the parties only need to produce material relied on. In Scotland disclosure is much looser, in order to try to avoid the masses of material and extensive schedules used. You, I'm sure, will be aware of all of this. No fishing exercises in Scottish Courts. As we went to the C of S first, and got the material we requested, I don' really suppose we could ever have tested your supposition. But once again, the SPFL strenuously opposed disclosure of the material.

We also needed sight of the SPFL vote documents. Monyhan for the SPFL claimed at the C of S that there was sensitive commercial information in those documents. Lord Clark directed that they be disclosed in full. Without the C of S case, we would not have this material to work on for the arbitration panel. The SPFL would have refused to disclose them to us. I really hope that there is gold dust in dem dar papers!

I think the reference relates to Council Reg (EC) no 1/83 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Article 81 & 82 of the Treaty. (Is this the Lisbon Treaty?) I do recollect that Lord Clark commented on the validity of the SFA regulations, but didn't make any decision in his note. He did leave the impression that he was sceptical on their validity. BUT no judgement. David Hughes did claim that he felt that the SFA rules were ultra vires (outside the scope) of the EC regs.

I hope that he's not thinking of Nelly Doncaster? Or giving total power to the SPFL for next season? When's that vote due, is it this Friday?

Interesting that it looks as if the CEO of the Belgian Pro League intends to ignore the Court of Arbitration decision. This case does look as if it will run for some time. In Lord Clark's note of 03/07/20, on page 13, he sets out that all parties need to agree to the decision of the panel, before the appeal is heard. He mentions the "long - standing" position in the law of Scotland that parties to an agreement that their disputes should be referred to arbitration are bound and must respect the terms of that agreement. Imo the SPFL would be stark raving bonkers to follow the Belgian line, so the Belgian case will still be a runner long after our dispute is resolved. (Potentially.)