letters 113

trouble ahead?

Dear NTV,

After watching the displays versus Kaunas and the Pars, then seeing the Huns on the news, the last thing I wanted to read in the Observer was Desmondo's plan to scupper the Sky TV rights deal. A pal of Desmond's said, 'He's deadly serious about this. He is acting as a private investor in Celtic and United, not as a Celtic director.' Great way to win friends and influence people eh?

Frank Kane's piece in the business section headed 'Desmond has the balls to transform football', said: Desmond wants nothing less that the total restructuring of the game in Britain and Ireland, and on the continent if needs be. He wants to scrap the system of leagues selling media rights and allow clubs to sell their rights individually. This would mean the abolition of the Premier League in its present form, as well as the Football Association, the Football League and all the other 'blazers' who live parasitically off the game. He thinks he has Brussels on his side. The legal battle ahead will be enormous, but the Celtic boss has deep enough pockets for it, and the best of advice. In a couple of years we may well be talking about the 'Desmond Ruling' in the same way as we now accept Bosman as a transforming event in football. Game on.

Shakespeare was right when he had Dick the Butcher say, 'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.' (Henry VI part 2, Act 4, sc 2). The Daily Rectum won't care about Desmond 'acting as a private investor'. They will just seize on another stick to beat us with. UEFA and FIFA won't care either because all they will see is a club acting destructively and breaching regulations (unless they are party to some scheme to create a Trans-National Super League involving Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester United, Arsenal and... Celtic?)

The potential sanctions against Celtic could damage the club badly, not to mention whatever the SPL and the SFA think up. Until this European Super League happens and we are a part of it we need to be successful at home and then in Europe.

And will Desmond guarantee the kind of funds to build the sort of team required to be successful in such a league? What can we do to persuade Desmond and the Coolmore mafia that Celtic is not just another profit opportunity?

I hope Big D has a cunning plan to upgrade Barrowfield, increase the capacity to 72,000, keep the Blessed Martin in harness for a while and develop our youth policy while shipping out underachievers.

By the way, would those nice chaps who pirate the jersey kindly substitute something else instead of Carling? What about San Miguel? Or even El Dorado??

Yours in (numberless) hoops,
PROFESSOR JOCK TREATMENT,
Euphoric State University

oh my carling clementine

Dear NTV,

Celtic's new home shirt has, according to the club and press reports, proved to be one of the fastest selling football shirts and promises to be one of the largest sellers ever. To date - depending on which report you take - up to 70,000 shirts will have been sold. This will plough considerable revenue into the club - much of it on the back of the Seville experience. As we all know Celtic (and Rangers) have new shirt sponsors from next season in the shape of the English brewing firm, Carling. Carling is well known in England for they're various sponsorship deals involving football and other sports. They are keen to target the Scottish market and to take on other brewers up here and the Old Firm sponsorship deal is seen as a central plank in its marketing strategy.

All very well you might think. But in choosing Carling Celtic have jumped into bed with a company whose history and links would not only horrify all Celtic supporters but surely are in breach of the Club's repeatedly stated commitment to tackle bigotry and sectarianism. In particular the choice of Carling totally undermines Celtic's social mission statement that claims to be a Club welcoming of social diversity and embracing of different cultures, races, creeds etc.

What's wrong with Carling? It's more a question of what's right with Carling's owners - American brewing multinational Adolph Coors. Coors purchased Carling along with Caffrey's and Worthington beers in December 2001 for £1.2b. Announcing this purchase on December 27 2001, web-site Protz on Beer commented 'The unknown factor is how Coors will fare in Britain with its socially conservative views. It has run into constant trouble in the US as a result of the Coors family's attitude to race, the gay and lesbian movement, and trade union recognition. Such views will have to be kept under wraps in such a liberal society as modern Britain'.

Coors has a long history of links - some alleged and many others proven - with a nasty assortment of far right and neo-nazi organisations and campaigns in the United States. These stretch from links with organisations that are closely associated with the Ku Klux Klan and the far right and ultra racist John Birch society.

And there's more: Coors have in the past contributed to funding for the CIA sponsored Contras in Nicaragua during the 1980s while it has also supported organisations opposed to democratisation in South Africa prior to the collapse of Apartheid. If all this was not bad enough Coors and the Coors Family are well known for their opposition to campaigns that promote environmental protection and in the past Coors were infamous as one of the largest dumpers of hazardous waste in the state of Colorado, its home base.

The firm has broken environmental regulations on numerous occasions. Coors are a pillar of the corporate right in the United States. They are closely linked with a motley crew of ultra-right, neo-conservative and fundamentalist outfits. They fund - both directly and indirectly - a number of campaigns and organisations which would appal the average Celtic supporter.

In a nutshell, Coors have a long history as supporters of racist, homophobic, anti-trade union and anti-working class policies and organisations. From union busting through to support for a diverse range of racist, anti-black (and anti-Catholic) organisations, in my opinion Coors hardly makes for the kind of corporate sponsors that Celtic should deal with.

Anti-racists have long worked with trade unionists and other campaigners to organise boycotts of Coors products in the States and many of these are still operating today. Coors is a by-word for prejudice, hatred and bigotry for many in the United States. The Celtic board should immediately rethink its deal with Carling-Coors.

It is too late to propose a boycott of Club merchandise with the Carling label but not too late to remind fans of Carling/ Coors dubious links and perhaps call for a boycott of Carling lager. Perhaps even the Celtic board will be persuaded to write to Carling and Coors directors telling them of the Club's social mission statement.

GERRY MOONEY
by e-mail

back four backing

Dear NTV,

The start of a new season and as usual no one has a clue who Martin will parade as a new signing ( the media hate that). Martin has proved that he is usually very astute in the transfer market i.e.. no Flo, Nerlinger or Muscats although the jury is still out on a couple.

My concern for this term is who will play at the back? Martin likes his tried and trusted three big defenders which has on the whole worked domestically, but we have seen what the Huns can do to our three centre backs too often recently. OFM has to accept that tactics can win points. He only has to look back to the last Huns game at the Hunnery to see that a change can work. After the game the ginger freckle admitted that his team could not get to grips with Celtic's four at the back. The security that the fullbacks gave the wide players was noticable as they did not spend ninety minutes looking over their shoulders looking for the Hun breakaway.

Here's to another good season, the second round of the of the Champions League could be on the cards, even if we won't see the Scottish champions go all the way to a final.

JAMES GALLAGHER
Kirkcaldy

a prognosticator writes

Dear NTV,

Here are my predictions for the new season:
* When the fist crowd of under 40,000 (League Cup game?) turns up somebody will phone one of the hotlines and say, 'So much for the best fans in the world. Where are all the supporters who went to Seville?'
* When an away team sells around 200 tickets for Celtic Park they will all sit behind the one pillar and complain about paying so much for a restricted view seat even though there are about 3,000 empty seats around them.
* As Rangers plunge even further into debt we still won't see the cracked badge with the word 'crisis' on it.
* When the first English Premiership manager gets the sack MON will be asked every five minutes if he's going. Big Eck won't, even though the press tell us he's a genius.
* As soon as we put six past some team we will be told, 'I don't hear Chris Sutton complaining now.'
* Celtic Park will need new roofs when we raise them after the King of Kings plays his last game.

Here's to the new season.

S. INICAL
Dumbarton

small print

Dear NTV

Whilst reading which great player from the continent Rangers are signing next, an advert came on TV promoting Rangers' new strip. On the advert it also says that, 'all money invested in the strips will go to improving the team.'

Now I wonder where the small print is that says, '*well, em, money must go to appeasing the £60 million debt first before we sign Ronaldo'.

Yours in Laughter,
SUPER SEVILLIAN
by e-mail

same old rangers, shite in europe!

Dear NTV,

With the Celts 99.99% sure of entry to the Champions League proper, how wonderful (wonderful Copenhagen) it is to see the Huns struggle at the same stage of the competition.

It brings back memories when the knowledgeable and balanced Scottish media were convinced it was only a matter of time before Rangers won the Champions League. For those of us who want to forget such things it was the season John Lukic punched the ball into his own pokey when Leeds Utd were at Ibrox and the Muscovites in their league section had to play all their games away from home.

The Huns were shite in europe that season too - ask Marseille, they were the ones who toyed with them and won that group with ease.

Anyway what about the latest Hun team on European business? Even the BBC, Alastair Campbell and the late Dr. Kelly (whatever happened to our late Michael?) couldn't sex up that particular Scottish tabloid dossier if they all forgot their differences and joined up for a love-spin in.

Up The Celts
ALAN McBEATH
by e-mail