Motherwell fans are allegedly planning a boycott of Ibrox.
TV viewing figures for week ending Sunday 26th August
Berwick Rangers v Rangers 96,000
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Celtic 67,000
Remember, last season, the lowest viewing figures Celtic had all season were 106,000 against Aberdeen.
Well, this season they've had 91,000 against Aberdeen the day they unfurled their flag.
It then dropped to 70,000 against Ross County - but that could be excused as it was on ESPN.
It has dropped even further - to 67,000 against Inverness Caledonian Thistle (but on Sky).
The following day there were 96,000 watching Berwick Rangers v Rangers on ESPN.
Jelavić7|EFC wrote:Got this from another forum ...
TV viewing figures for week ending Sunday 26th August
Berwick Rangers v Rangers 96,000
Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Celtic 67,000
Remember, last season, the lowest viewing figures Celtic had all season were 106,000 against Aberdeen.
Well, this season they've had 91,000 against Aberdeen the day they unfurled their flag.
It then dropped to 70,000 against Ross County - but that could be excused as it was on ESPN.
It has dropped even further - to 67,000 against Inverness Caledonian Thistle (but on Sky).
The following day there were 96,000 watching Berwick Rangers v Rangers on ESPN.
Says it all really.
Jelavić7|EFC wrote:
You can check them on barb.co.uk
and ended the statement by saying "our loyal readers."In an unprecedented act, The Sun has cancelled a book serialisation the day after blurbing it and running an interview that praised the bravery of its author.
The Scottish edition of the paper had planned to start running extracts today from a book entitled Downfall: how Rangers FC self-destructed by Phil Mac Giolla Bhain.
But within 24 hours of its lengthy puff announcing its serialisation the paper ran a leading article explaining that it had changed its mind.
The decision followed the jamming of its switchboard as hundreds of Rangers fans called to complain while others took to Twitter. Rangers itself lobbied the paper and threatened to ban Sun journalists from its ground. There were also physical threats made to The Sun reporter who wrote the interview with Mac Giolla Bhain.
Before I unravel this remarkable tale, I must declare an interest. I read a draft of the book and provided an approving quote that appears on the back cover.
The story stretches back four years. Mac Giolla Bhain was the first journalist, and, for much of the time, the only journalist, to chart the financial dramas that led to the demise of Rangers football club.
The fact that he worked outside the Scottish media establishment to tell the twists and turns of the tale in a blog is hugely relevant. Indeed, a crucial part of the story involves the initial failure of Scotland's journalists to investigate the internal shenanigans at Rangers.
For his trouble, Mac Giolla Bhain suffered from persistent verbal threats from people calling themselves Rangers fans. As his name suggests, he is Irish, though he was born and raised in Scotland. He moved to Donegal in the Irish republic 15 years ago.
Once Rangers went into liquidation in February this year, it was natural that Mac Giolla Bhain was selected by a publisher - Bob Smith of Frontline Noir - to write about the scandal. Ironically, it was a Sun staffer who originally recommended Mac Giolla Bhain to Smith as the possible author of a book about a different topic.
Mac Giolla Bhain was well known to The Sun, having previously freelanced for the its now-defunct stablemate, the News of the World, and having a high profile in Scotland due to his blog.
The Sun's Scottish editor, Andy Harries, admired Mac Giolla Bhain's work and, on hearing about his book, made a swift decision to buy the serialisation.
He planned to run two successive spreads and one of his staff, Simon Houston, was assigned to interview Mac Giolla Bhain. The result, as shown in this screen-grab before it was taken down from the paper's website, was hugely sympathetic to the blogger.
It stated that he had broken "one of the biggest stories in Scottish football history" and revealed that he had been the "target of sectarian hate from extremists" and had been subject to "sinister death threats" which had "left his family living in fear."
The article, announcing the book's serialisation, predicted that it would "shoot straight to the top of the Scottish bestsellers list, with pre-sale orders already through the roof."
It described Mac Giolla Bhain as "an internet phenomenon" who, in May 2010, handed the News of the World "the story which rocked Scottish football by revealing that the taxman sent Rangers a demand for a staggering £24m... one of a string of predictions Mac Giolla Bhain made about the Glasgow giants' perilous financial state which came to fruition."
Within hours of publication, Rangers fans - or people who call themselves fans - began calling the paper and tweeting. Evidently, some of them mentioned a controversial posting by Mac Giolla Bhain on his blog in April this year.
Headlined The Incubator, it was a satire on the bigotry of many Rangers' fans. In so doing, it employed obviously offensive images.
Harries and some of his senior staff were said to have been alarmed by the blog's implications. In a rapid about-turn, Harries decided to pull the serialisation despite the puff promising to run it.
Aware that he could be accused of giving in to pressure from Rangers supporters, he published a leading article to explain his about-turn.
We knew Mac Giiolla Bhain was "a controversial figure", it said, but "he had written that he had a story to tell" so that "you [the readers] had a chance to read the behind-the-scenes details about the downfall of Rangers."
But it went on to argue that Mac Giolla Bhain's single blog posting "undermines the entire industry" and that was the reason to cancel the serialisation of his book
It stressed that the decision was "NOT because of the social media backlash" and "NOT because of the internet bullies... but because the author — previously unbeknown to us — is tarred with a sickening sectarian brush."
The leader continued: "We believed Phil Mac Giolla Bhain to be a proper and sound journalist. Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson obviously agreed and wrote the foreword in the book. He was wrong and so were we."
I called Harries, who refused to comment further, simply saying: "I stand by what I wrote in my leader."
Given my belief in the credibility of the book and Mac Giolla Bhain, I took wide counsel on the affair from those who support him and those who do not, and from staff at the Scottish Sun.
The general consensus is that Harries made a bad call initially by agreeing to serialise a book that was bound to upset Rangers fans. (I understand that the cancellation has resulted in scores of calls and complaints from rival Celtic fans throughout the day).
But Harries, though English, has been in Glasgow for 25 years and is said to understand the sensibilities in a city divided by football and faith. I understand that he still believes in the book's authenticity.
One of his senior staff told me that he was "devastated" on reading Mac Giolla Bhain's "incubator" blog posting and felt he was in an impossible position.
But two experienced non-Sun journalists, both of whom did not favour serialisation, read the situation differently. They believe Harries was shocked by the hostility of Rangers fans and feared a possible sales boycott not unlike the one that the paper suffered after its infamous accusation against Liverpool fans following the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy.
He was therefore relieved to find an excuse - the blog posting - in order to effect a change of direction.
That view is strenuously denied by Harries's senior colleagues. They say he is genuinely heartbroken at the turn of events. He felt he couldn't "defend the indefensible" (Mac Giolla Bhain's blog) by facing down complaints from Rangers' fans.
"He found himself in an impossible position," said one. "He just felt he couldn't justify going ahead."
Naturally enough, Mac Giolla Bhain is furious too. He believes his April blog posting was so obviously satirical that Harries has used it to get himself off the hook. Several journalists agree with him.
He said: "I think this is a dark day for journalism in Scotland when a major title can be forced into self-censoring in this fashion.
"The most worrying aspect of this are the threats aimed at Simon Houston who interviewed me. An attack on a journalist is an attack on journalism and, ipso facto, an attack on democracy."
ConorCelticFC wrote:That only tells you the viewing figures for the SPL as a whole that week. And most of them are little over 100,000 last season. This means that, if we were raking in more than 106,000 each game, the rest of the SPL, including you, was getting next to nothing. And we were often playing two games a week anyway. So those figures really don't add up.
ConorCelticFC wrote:That only tells you the viewing figures for the SPL as a whole that week. And most of them are little over 100,000 last season. This means that, if we were raking in more than 106,000 each game, the rest of the SPL, including you, was getting next to nothing. And we were often playing two games a week anyway. So those figures really don't add up.
Sky Sports 2
w/e 5 Aug 2012
3 CELTIC V ABERDEEN-LIVE (SAT 1200) 91,00
The Maestro wrote:It doesn't make sense. Anyway, did you hear about The Sun on Phil Mac Giolla Bhain? They were meant to run a serialisation of his book, but after being bombarded by calls, emails from Rangers fans they decided not to and called him sectarian
The Sun statement:
- Spoiler:
Throughout the years, we have never shied away from tackling difficult subjects. We have never taken the soft option, the easy route, the quiet life.
Yesterday, we ran an interview with Phil Mac Giolla Bhain in which we described how he’d been given death threats for his role in uncovering the financial scandal that was to engulf Rangers.
We knew he was a controversial figure, but it was clear from the book he had written that he had a story to tell.
And we felt it was a story that needed to be told to you, so that you could make your own minds up. So that you had a chance to read the behind-the-scenes details about the downfall of Rangers.
So that you had a chance to see where the blame lay for the collapse of the club.
On Sunday, many Rangers fans contacted the paper.
Most were reasonable, and wanted to point out some of the other material that the author carries on his website.
Others, many of whom had clearly not read the interview, immediately engaged in the kind of disgusting abuse that sadly infects some of Scottish football’s blogs and forums.
Let’s make one thing absolutely clear. We will never be bullied into not publishing stories simply because they upset some people.
We pride ourselves on having the finest journalists in the country who are totally and unequivocally impartial.
But Phil Mac Giolla Bhain is not one of our journalists and his blog undermines the entire industry.
THAT is why we have decided not to carry the serialisation of the book.
NOT because of the social media backlash.
NOT because of the internet bullies.
But because the author — previously unbeknown to us — is tarred with a sickening sectarian brush.
We believed Phil Mac Giolla Bhain to be a proper and sound journalist. Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson obviously agreed and wrote the foreword in the book.
He was wrong and so were we.
The Rangers story has gripped the entire nation and it is one we will continue to tell.
We will tell it truthfully, honestly and without fear or favour.
That is a promise to every football fan and to every one of our army of loyal readers.
The Guardian:
In an unprecedented act, The Sun has cancelled a book serialisation the day after blurbing it and running an interview that praised the bravery of its author.
The Scottish edition of the paper had planned to start running extracts today from a book entitled Downfall: how Rangers FC self-destructed by Phil Mac Giolla Bhain.
But within 24 hours of its lengthy puff announcing its serialisation the paper ran a leading article explaining that it had changed its mind.
The decision followed the jamming of its switchboard as hundreds of Rangers fans called to complain while others took to Twitter. Rangers itself lobbied the paper and threatened to ban Sun journalists from its ground. There were also physical threats made to The Sun reporter who wrote the interview with Mac Giolla Bhain.
Before I unravel this remarkable tale, I must declare an interest. I read a draft of the book and provided an approving quote that appears on the back cover.
The story stretches back four years. Mac Giolla Bhain was the first journalist, and, for much of the time, the only journalist, to chart the financial dramas that led to the demise of Rangers football club.
The fact that he worked outside the Scottish media establishment to tell the twists and turns of the tale in a blog is hugely relevant. Indeed, a crucial part of the story involves the initial failure of Scotland's journalists to investigate the internal shenanigans at Rangers.
For his trouble, Mac Giolla Bhain suffered from persistent verbal threats from people calling themselves Rangers fans. As his name suggests, he is Irish, though he was born and raised in Scotland. He moved to Donegal in the Irish republic 15 years ago.
Once Rangers went into liquidation in February this year, it was natural that Mac Giolla Bhain was selected by a publisher - Bob Smith of Frontline Noir - to write about the scandal. Ironically, it was a Sun staffer who originally recommended Mac Giolla Bhain to Smith as the possible author of a book about a different topic.
Mac Giolla Bhain was well known to The Sun, having previously freelanced for the its now-defunct stablemate, the News of the World, and having a high profile in Scotland due to his blog.
The Sun's Scottish editor, Andy Harries, admired Mac Giolla Bhain's work and, on hearing about his book, made a swift decision to buy the serialisation.
He planned to run two successive spreads and one of his staff, Simon Houston, was assigned to interview Mac Giolla Bhain. The result, as shown in this screen-grab before it was taken down from the paper's website, was hugely sympathetic to the blogger.
It stated that he had broken "one of the biggest stories in Scottish football history" and revealed that he had been the "target of sectarian hate from extremists" and had been subject to "sinister death threats" which had "left his family living in fear."
The article, announcing the book's serialisation, predicted that it would "shoot straight to the top of the Scottish bestsellers list, with pre-sale orders already through the roof."
It described Mac Giolla Bhain as "an internet phenomenon" who, in May 2010, handed the News of the World "the story which rocked Scottish football by revealing that the taxman sent Rangers a demand for a staggering £24m... one of a string of predictions Mac Giolla Bhain made about the Glasgow giants' perilous financial state which came to fruition."
Within hours of publication, Rangers fans - or people who call themselves fans - began calling the paper and tweeting. Evidently, some of them mentioned a controversial posting by Mac Giolla Bhain on his blog in April this year.
Headlined The Incubator, it was a satire on the bigotry of many Rangers' fans. In so doing, it employed obviously offensive images.
Harries and some of his senior staff were said to have been alarmed by the blog's implications. In a rapid about-turn, Harries decided to pull the serialisation despite the puff promising to run it.
Aware that he could be accused of giving in to pressure from Rangers supporters, he published a leading article to explain his about-turn.
We knew Mac Giiolla Bhain was "a controversial figure", it said, but "he had written that he had a story to tell" so that "you [the readers] had a chance to read the behind-the-scenes details about the downfall of Rangers."
But it went on to argue that Mac Giolla Bhain's single blog posting "undermines the entire industry" and that was the reason to cancel the serialisation of his book
It stressed that the decision was "NOT because of the social media backlash" and "NOT because of the internet bullies... but because the author — previously unbeknown to us — is tarred with a sickening sectarian brush."
The leader continued: "We believed Phil Mac Giolla Bhain to be a proper and sound journalist. Channel 4 News chief correspondent Alex Thomson obviously agreed and wrote the foreword in the book. He was wrong and so were we."
I called Harries, who refused to comment further, simply saying: "I stand by what I wrote in my leader."
Given my belief in the credibility of the book and Mac Giolla Bhain, I took wide counsel on the affair from those who support him and those who do not, and from staff at the Scottish Sun.
The general consensus is that Harries made a bad call initially by agreeing to serialise a book that was bound to upset Rangers fans. (I understand that the cancellation has resulted in scores of calls and complaints from rival Celtic fans throughout the day).
But Harries, though English, has been in Glasgow for 25 years and is said to understand the sensibilities in a city divided by football and faith. I understand that he still believes in the book's authenticity.
One of his senior staff told me that he was "devastated" on reading Mac Giolla Bhain's "incubator" blog posting and felt he was in an impossible position.
But two experienced non-Sun journalists, both of whom did not favour serialisation, read the situation differently. They believe Harries was shocked by the hostility of Rangers fans and feared a possible sales boycott not unlike the one that the paper suffered after its infamous accusation against Liverpool fans following the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy.
He was therefore relieved to find an excuse - the blog posting - in order to effect a change of direction.
That view is strenuously denied by Harries's senior colleagues. They say he is genuinely heartbroken at the turn of events. He felt he couldn't "defend the indefensible" (Mac Giolla Bhain's blog) by facing down complaints from Rangers' fans.
"He found himself in an impossible position," said one. "He just felt he couldn't justify going ahead."
Naturally enough, Mac Giolla Bhain is furious too. He believes his April blog posting was so obviously satirical that Harries has used it to get himself off the hook. Several journalists agree with him.
He said: "I think this is a dark day for journalism in Scotland when a major title can be forced into self-censoring in this fashion.
"The most worrying aspect of this are the threats aimed at Simon Houston who interviewed me. An attack on a journalist is an attack on journalism and, ipso facto, an attack on democracy."
No one likes you, you don't care.
TheRangersFan wrote:ConorCelticFC wrote:That only tells you the viewing figures for the SPL as a whole that week. And most of them are little over 100,000 last season. This means that, if we were raking in more than 106,000 each game, the rest of the SPL, including you, was getting next to nothing. And we were often playing two games a week anyway. So those figures really don't add up.
Eh wat
ConorCelticFC wrote:TheRangersFan wrote:
Eh wat
It's quite obvious.
The matches from last season don't have a label for individual teams. The program just says CLYDESDALE BANK PREMIER LEAGUE. So prove what you said about our lowest figures being 106,000 last season.
Sky Sports 2
w/e 5 Aug 2012
3 CELTIC V ABERDEEN-LIVE (SAT 1200) 91,00
ConorCelticFC wrote:Wrong. Our attendance for the Aberdeen game is the highest of any domestic Scottish game this season.
ConorCelticFC wrote:TheRangersFan wrote:
Eh wat
It's quite obvious.
The matches from last season don't have a label for individual teams. The program just says CLYDESDALE BANK PREMIER LEAGUE. So prove what you said about our lowest figures being 106,000 last season.
TheRangersFan wrote:ConorCelticFC wrote:
It's quite obvious.
The matches from last season don't have a label for individual teams. The program just says CLYDESDALE BANK PREMIER LEAGUE. So prove what you said about our lowest figures being 106,000 last season.
It doesn't have a label but it should have a date and time so you can work it out from that. This only relates to the ESPN games as that is what they are called on the sky planner and what not. I didn't say that your lowest figure last season was 106k so I don't have to prove shit.
Jelavić7|EFC wrote:There wasn't 10,000 empty seats vs East Stirling at Ibrox either. We had to delay kick-off etc because of the large numbers paying at the gate.
That's what your club said vs Aberdeen and Rangers vs East Stirling though, so that's official.
ConorCelticFC wrote:Jelavić7|EFC wrote:There wasn't 10,000 empty seats vs East Stirling at Ibrox either. We had to delay kick-off etc because of the large numbers paying at the gate.
That's what your club said vs Aberdeen and Rangers vs East Stirling though, so that's official.
Wait, so officially you had 10,000 short of capacity against East Stirling? You just said you had 49,000?
Good on you and everything. But still you have to remember that fans have been saving up for the European matches and the two highest attendances in Scotland this year have been at Celtic Park. At, to be fair, much higher prices than any Rangers games.Kane Hemmings says there is no reason why Rangers can’t overcome Scottish Premier League opponents Motherwell in the third round of the Scottish Communities League Cup.
Plying their trade in the Third Division owing to the liquidation of their former holding company, Rangers will be underdogs for the visit of the current SPL leaders when they travel to Ibrox in late September.
Despite their league status, Rangers snapped up winger David Templeton from Hearts on deadline day, supplementing a strong squad which also includes key men such as Ian Black, Lee Wallace, Dean Shiels and Fran Sandaza.
"It's a decent draw," said Hemmings. "Motherwell are a good team and they are leaders of the SPL at the moment.
"But, if you look at our club, we still have some of the best players in Scotland so I think we have to be positive going into the game.
"I don't know if we will be favourites or not but we will still be positive.
"We know the strengths we've got in the squad so I don't see why we can't get a result."
