Yngwie

Part of their community ethos is having players who the fans can relate to.

Over the next 12 months how many times are we going to hear reporters and commentators come out with "North Korea are playing in their first World Cup since 1966.........and we know what happened that year!" I always like to see some different teams qualify, but by all accounts North Korea are not remotely entertaining. Their best players are actually born and bred Japanese.

When it comes to budgeting, I'd be pretty sure that the club have been working on the basis that they will have to shell out the money, which is the most likely outcome. But if they feel they have been the victims of a Romanian stitch up, then you can't blame them for holding firm, holding onto the money and letting a court decide.

I've never thought about this before, but what is the word for someone who is not disillusioned? Illusioned?

Whenever I see anything about New Zealand and football, I always think back to Scotland putting 5 past them in the 1982 World Cup, and then taking the lead against Brazil, but still failing to get out of the group on goal difference. :D

One of my all time favourite managers. B)

Brechin pencilled in on my calendar.

We've known for almost a year that Marius was pursuing ICT for transfer related fees, but I'm not sure if we've ever seen details of what exactly is being claimed. Sunday Times reports first of all that Inverness Sheriff Court will rule "imminently" regarding ?85,000, which is the part of his signing on fee that he claims ICT never paid him. Secondly, an action is with FIFA regarding ?148,800 he claims is his share of the transfer fee to Dinamo Bucaresti. The same article reports that he is up for sale, after his club finished 3rd and missed out on a Champions League place. As Stevico mentioned recently, Celtic are supposedly interested, but Liege and 3 Russian teams are perhaps more likely buyers. I seem to recall that we agreed a straight transfer fee rather than one with a sell-on clause, which is a shame when a 7 figure transfer is being talked about.

Offer him ?2,000 a week but with a 10% deduction for each mistake, out of position, fresh air swipe etc.

Not quite true. He says he was contacted, that's all. If he was offered contracts by them he would have said so.

Matt Elliot.

Yep, they have been saved. This Len Blavatnik is a megarich Russian American who profited from Russian oil markets opening up. He's also been the biggest shareholder in TopUp TV for years - another seriously struggling venture. Maybe there is money to be made from these investments in the long term, but maybe he also fancies himself as a media tycoon. It's reported that he's paying ?20m for 51% of Setanta. A year or two ago Setanta's shareholders were trying to sell the company, and there was plenty of interest but they priced themselves out of a deal, looking for ?1bn for it. Big mistake.

Have to? Are you a jockey or a horse?

The only thing funnier than England being terrible and getting knocked out of a tournament is England having a great team and still getting knocked out.

It's basically Aviemore.

The website says "they have agreed a deal in principle". He hasn't actually signed. The club would have to be pretty confident that he's joining for them to put it on the website.

The Africa one is not as ludicrous as most of your ideas. I'm sure there are plenty of players who would do well in Div 1, and higher. I guess the reasons clubs don't plunder the African leagues are : 1) Work permit problems 2) High risk of player not settling, due cultural issues, language and weather 3) Anyone decent usually goes to a French or Belgian club (same language, colonnial connections, friends and family there, easy to get a dual nationality passport and avoid work permit) 3) You have to make very dodgy payments to very dodgy people

:019: You've made my day!

Don't feel sorry for them, they have their eyes on winning the Champions League. From BBC article:

Would be useful to know what our turnover was back in Division 1 days, because that's pretty much what its going to drop to.

There is a cancellation notice period which you presumably didn't give, so strictly speaking they are fully entitled to claim from you. No doubt an awful lot of people will be doing the same as you though. For a small outstanding balance like yours, they normally don't go any further than the threatening letters. There is a chance that if they end up in receivership, the receiver could pursue debts more vigorously, because that is his job, and nobody cares at that stage if it is bad PR for Setanta. If it were me I'd sit tight for a while and see what happens.

That sounds about right to me. We were a team on the up back then too. Hard to see much over 2,000.

Here's what you get when you try to subscribe. Very succinct summary of their business. https://secure.setantasubscriptions.com/Err...h=/Landing.aspx

From BBC: Sounds to me like the company that provides the customer registration service on behalf of Setanta has got fed up not being paid and has pulled the plug.

If Scottish football's finances fall off a cliff with the demise of Setanta, then we'll be able to get better players for less money. And some of the teams who have been actively signing players will realise that they are paying more than they should have. Going on holiday and doing nothing may turn out to be the right thing to have done.