Celtic FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014/15 Mod Warning post #6011

Might as well add that Elmer Graham was the guy who claimed wildly that Chuckles Green had something huge up his sleeve a year ago,he did,it was his arm.:)

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Graham has nothing to do with it, the website he works for merely reported it.

This is part of a bigger investigation.

I'm sure he's flattered that you think his word managed to trigger a EC investigation though.

That's odd,he's been saying tonight...'Let's just see what transpires..'

He's being totally mocked on Twitter,folk have posted pics of him with a dick over his head,seriously,he needs to chill out.:D

Jelle1880 wrote: »

By Celtic fans, I doubt he's too bothered. :pac:

As for that pic, well if folk want to spend their time making that it says a bit more about them.

I know you'll dismiss this article but just look at it and tell me the guy is wrong,you can't,can you?
Is it really any wonder that us Hoops constantly laugh at clowns like Graham and McMurdo,its self inflicted damage and its never ending.:D
As for the post on FF by Omerta at 7.03. this evening,its got many a laugh all over Celtic websites.

From Ecobhoy tonight,the truth.....as it will soon to be found.



I see that the Bears have been presented with a massive New Year squirrel by the claim that Celtic has been illegally granted massive’State Aid’ allegedly in contravention of Euro Legislation.

I would have thought that any Rangers supporter in this financially dangerous time might be more interested in what is tearing their own club apart and finding out who actually owns it rather than worry about non-existant State Aid to Celtic given that Rangers has had a helluva lot of ‘State Aid’ through failure to pay taxes at local and national level.

However I am always hopeful when any blogger claims to have conducted a forensic analysis and exposed wrongdoing so I was interested by the statement from footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com that: ”The Scottish Government in 2006, allowed the transfer of a £30+ Million 19.53 hectare property near Glasgow, at Lennoxtown, for the heavily discounted (1/60th of the valuation) price of £497,000 to be transferred to Celtic FC for their training facility via the signature of one person, the CEO of Greater Glasgow Health Board.”

Sounds a shocker but there isn’t a shred of evidence and that the total fabrication can be demolished through publicly available sources.

I have no intention of even addressing the tawdry allegations made against the CEO who has been pilloried apparently because he shares the same surname as former celtic players and officials – Personally I have a simple line with allegations of criminality – You report it to the police. If not talk’s cheap and dangerous if done through a sectarian motive. So let’s look at this piece of muck-raking.

Lennox Castle Hospital was finally closed in 2002, after a long process whereby mental health care was transferred to ‘The Community’ from decaying large-scale institutions – such as Lennox Castle – which had ended-up as a unit of Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust – itself a division of Greater Glasgow NHS Board.

Footballtaxhavens claim that instead of paying £493k for their almost 20 hectares training Ground and Football Academy in the grounds of the former Lennox Castle Hospital that they should have paid £32.5 million based on the averaged cost, according to annually published Government figures, of the value of housebuilding land in Scotland in 2006.

With apologies to my friends in Lennoxtown who know me well let me observe that the lovely village with even lovelier people is no Bearsden or Mingavie in terms of residential property prices/values. However more importantly the annual Government valuation figures per hectare of residential housebuilding land is predicated on the land in question having: ‘A planning permission typical for the location, is ripe for development and has services to the edge of the site’.

The situation with the Celtic ground at Lennoxtown is quite simple. There is not, never has been and is never likely to be any residential housing development on it because of Greenbelt restrictions and planning constraints. Therefore the site cannot be valued on the basis that it is for housebuilding because if it was Celtic wouldn’t have been able to afford or want it for training facilities. Perhaps Rangers had different intentions when they bought Murray Park and we may learn more on this shortly but it is not The Celtic Way to needlessly throw money away.

But let’s go back a bit and deal with the spurious allegation that this land sale was basically engineered by one person who is accused of possibly being a Celtic supporter; possibly being a Parkhead ST holder; and possibly being a Celtic shareholder but who definitely has a ‘suspicious’ name.

In 1998 the Secretary of State for Scotland approved the closure of Lennox Castle and because of the economic impact on Lennoxtown a taskforce was created by East Dunbartonshire Council, Scottish Enterprise (Dunbartonshire) and Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust.

Because the Lennoxtown regeneration was seen as a long-term process the taskforce and local community members set-up the Lennoxtown Initiative whose running costs and objectives were to be met through receipts from land sales on Governmernt-owned land. Tbf this is State Aid to an economically disadvantaged area in operation and allowed under Euro Rules and legislation.

However because of planning constraints and subsequent lack of interest in the land involved things didn’t look hopeful until a joint planning initiative between housebuilder McTaggart & Mickel and Lennoxtown Initiative which saw the builder relinquish planning rights on its nearby land at Hole Farm. This gave East Dunbartonshire Council the wiggle-room to allow planning permission for houses on the Lennox Castle lower site in-line with the Draft Local Plan.

However before it could agree to anything Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust had to seek permission from Greater Glasgow NHS Board which was given on 22 October 2002 – the minutes of the meeting and the draft document outlining the issue in great detail is a matter of public record lon.g before Celtic became involved

The 2002 GG NHS Board meeting also noted wrt to Lennox Castle upper site – now the home of Celtic’s training facilities and Football Academy: ‘The Trust has worked with East Dunbartonshire Council and Lennoxtown Initiative to reach agreement on the disposal of the upper part of the site on the basis that this will be developed for Greenbelt Compatible Leisure use. This disposal is embraced by the Tripartite Agreement.’

The Board Meeting also noted: ‘Forecast receipts from the disposal of the upper site are minimal on the basis of the Greenbelt Compatible Leisure planning use designation for this part of the site. Any receipts generated from this use will accrue to Lennoxtown Initiative. In the unlikely event that the upper site is developed for a use other than Greenbelt Compatible Leisure use, then the receipts will be shared on the basis of a formula contained within the Agreement.

‘The Agreement provides for East Dunbartonshire Council to have a 17 year option on the upper site which it can only exercise on behalf of Lennoxtown Initiative.’

As well as the agreement of GG NHS Trust Board the Scottish Government Ministers also had to agree to the money raised from the land sales going to the Lennoxtown regeneration under the control of Lennoxtown Initiative. The guy with the ‘dodgy’ Celtic-associated name was the GG NHS Board CEO who was the authorised signatory for his employer and didn’t even have a vote in the decision to see the land sold. Still with a name like that he must be guilty of something – maybe it was doing his job impartially and professionally.
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Jelle1880 wrote: »

Someone who starts his 'article' (it's really a blog post though, isn't it ?) with the assumption that what happens is being done out of sectarian motives ?

Really ?

As for the rest of that post, no I don't know the complete ins and outs, which is why I'll let more experienced people (the EC, for starters) look into it.

Odd though that Celtic chose to mention the soft loans in their statement, something which is completely unrelated to this.

The EC have looked at it and realised who it was from and fainted,Jelle,let me say this,Celtic have got absolutely nothing to worry about.
Their lawyers went through the correct procedure from A to Z,its the most farcical non story I've seen since Jackson's 'Wealth off the radar' story.
Even funnier is the fact that Graham Spiders says it might be true,that RFC fans are hoping its true to,and I quote 'Even things up'.

Jelle1880 wrote: »

I'm not on the wind up, sorry to burst your bubble.

It's a pretty important issue, if you wanna avoid it that's fine by me (I hope you see the irony here).



Jesus wept.

Where do you get all your stuff ?

No Rangers fans is wishing this 'evens things up', there is nothing to 'even up'.

I don't give a crap what Spiers says, no Rangers fan does.

You seem awfully confident of your club, which is only normal I'd say. But I remember how the Rangers fans also believed everything that came from their club, and how media reports were 'false' and 'not to be believed' and the mocking this brought about from you and your pals.

If nothing comes of it, so be it.

No Rangers fan,seriously?
They'd be doing cartwheels all the way down Edmiston Drive,an absolute certainty.
Confident,I'm 1000% confident of it and there's not even a single Celtic fan out there who's in the least bit worried about it.

Celtic have offered Norwegian club Stromsgodset £2 million for the signature of Stefan Johansen,who was the player of the year in Norway in 2013.

blahfckingblah wrote: »

its beginning to look like Celtic are looking to develop the squad...

That's no bad thing,a few signings bedded in for summer then we're up n running.

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Not according to some of your fellow fans (Well, just one really) who still think Rangers get the better of the decisions, tons of penalties,...

May the New Rangers do, don't know haven't been watching them.

Oh ohhhh,looks like we have trouble on our hands.:)