'Do fans commit their money hoping for first division football?'
In previous seasons we've been asked to commit our money without knowing who would be in our team, so this shouldn't be a major problem. No doubt it will give the club a good excuse not to sign players.

Gretna have left the SFL with no alternative but to irrevocably revoke their membership with immediate effect. How can Airdrie, Stranraer and whichever non-league club plan for next season without being handicapped further? If we go up, how can we compete with Dundee, Dunfermline, St. Johnstone, the cup finalists, Partick, Morton, Clyde, etc., if we're losing out on players NOW? Ross co. already have a head start on us. We'll end up left standing in the stalls and be relegation favourites immediately.

If some idiots somewhere buy Gretna they can apply for league membership along with the other non league clubs.

SFL must act NOW.

how does that work? no staff, no players, non-compliant ground, no owner (administrator excepted) but still a SFL member till when? how many deadlines does it take to realise there's no-one interested?

EDITED TO ADD LINK: local rag still believes



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:05:19:11:45:06 by glensburgh.

How can they continue as a fooball club! having made reduntant all their Playing Staff, and with League rules stating that any club in administration CANNOT sign and register any players.
I suspect the Administrators are hanging on for a someone to Buy the land and get their money through the sale of the land. whether thats Barrats, Wimpey or Travel Lodge..

and so it goes on, andon and on

Just wondering why anyone would want to come in and pay money for this club with £4 million worth of debts and their only assett being the stadium. To satisfy the debtors you are looking at having to stump up perhaps a £1 million. There is no way any investor would recoup this money. If someone had £1 million to spend on a football club there are far more attractive options, ourselves for instance so saving Gretna is a bizarre move.

Quote:

201820
Gretna have left the SFL with no alternative but to irrevocably revoke their membership with immediate effect. How can Airdrie, Stranraer and whichever non-league club plan for next season without being handicapped further? If we go up, how can we compete with Dundee, Dunfermline, St. Johnstone, the cup finalists, Partick, Morton, Clyde, etc., if we're losing out on players NOW? Ross co. already have a head start on us. We'll end up left standing in the stalls and be relegation favourites immediately.
If some idiots somewhere buy Gretna they can apply for league membership along with the other non league clubs.

SFL must act NOW.

Thats a spot on point!! KB needs to build a team for next season and its unfair if he doesnt even know what division he is going to be in. Its only six weeks before the players need to be back training. What can he be saying to new players he is approaching never mind the lads he wants to keep from last season. The SFL need to act now... surely they have a plan in place to make a statement after todays announcement. Who are Gretna kidding....they have had a deadline so off they pop!!

At the very least Gretna should be told NOW that they will be relegated to Division 3 IF a buyer is found. That will at least allow Stranrear and ourselves the knowledge of where we will be playiung next year.
JB is up there with th blazer brigade, he need needs to be influencing the SPL to come to a decision within the next few days

On the Sky Sports News site it quotes the following from the
adminstatrator.

Quote:

A statement from Elliot confirmed: "A prospective purchaser has contacted us
this morning and confirmed that he is still in negotiations with the SFL with a
view to obtaining entry into the First Division.

This being the case the SFL management committee (and I guess our chairman) should be well aware of the present situation at Gretna.

By prospective purchase I guess they mean Paul Davies.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:05:19:12:33:34 by Caro-Kann.

it's been settled for months...the football agent bloke trying to buy them is a bigger joke, if thats possible, than Fannibald.

I'd not be surprised if he tried to give a quickstatement from the cash machine as proof of his financial stability....Fannibald did not even have that....well maybe a note fae his maw saying he could use his super squirrel account to buy the club.

We are going up.

With the fourth average gate in the second the chairman knew long ago we were going up or there is no chance they would have confirmed going full time.

There might well be exciting times ahead as there will be bigger crowds in this division than there has been in a while.



"WATCH OUT PUNK...I'M DEVASTATING"

Sky Sports

Looks like the potential investor wants to make sure Gretna will be able to play in the 1st division next year before they make a bid.

The SFL must indeed act!! This situation cannot be allowed to continue indefinately. Gretna must make a statement that they will 100% fulfil the 2008/09 season by the end of this month AT THE VERY LATEST. If they fail to do this then the SFL should kick them out.

Why does anyone give creedence to these charlatan monkeys like this fotball agent and perma-dreamer wispy haired toolbags like Fannibald...they are full of @#$%&, @#$%& and more @#$%&.

Be thankful there is a guy running the club that can count beyond his fingers and toes.



"WATCH OUT PUNK...I'M DEVASTATING"

Isn't the agent related to a Gretna board member? The SFL nor admistrator should not allow a gun to be held at their heads re. league status. The agent has had enough time to submit a concrete offer, 40 folk have been made redundant today, Gretna are dead, sell their land, send them a wreath and let the rest of us who actually support football get on with it.

And never let a joke outfit like that anywhere near the leagues again.

PS., isn't the list of candidates looking to apply to join wholly uninspiring. Pyramid anyone?

stadium was bought in 1946 and they dont know who owns it,. so they have nothing .

i think the community actually owns the land

Absolute shambles, from the very top level of Scottish football, Gretna have nothing as we speak yet they are still a club in the Scottish league, get them booted out get us and Stranraer up get a team into the 3rd division and lets move on from this big embarrassing farce.

Even if a builder WERE to buy their ground, that does not in itself guarantee that they would be allowed to build houses on the site. Planning permission can take a while even for an adjustment to one's own property, let alone a major housing development which may attract objections "en masse" from people living nearby. Therefore, the land may be of no use whatsoever - in the short-term at any rate- to a builder.

would be the best thing for the creditors if it was sold as land for housing...they might get some of their dosh back....that bearded Francis Rossi look-a -like should be dragged through the streets of Gretna by a rabid llama on fire.

Why the press has not gone through the hippy smoking lucozade guzzling charlatan is beyond me....shitebags the lot of them.

Brain infection my @#$%&.....he simply never wanted to give Rowan "the lovechild" Alexander his job for life pay off.

I hope he gets trampled in a freak llama stampede caused by a fire from one of his discarded fag butts.



"WATCH OUT PUNK...I'M DEVASTATING"

Baseball,your PS is far too feasible.This is Scottish fitba' that we're discussing.If it doesnt involve brown envelopes,bawbags, utter inefficiency and dis-concern for the paying customer,then you're on the wrong line.

Brooks Mileson owes a shedload of money, so I think the idea that he will write off his debt is a non starter-
one firm Crest Identity was in administration, and some of his other companies were due to be struck off.

The only prospective buyer will only buy the club if it goes in to the 1st division, so now the SFL may have to be the bad guys who kill them off.

Even if Gretna are saved - the idea that they will be in the first division is a fantasy, at best. The SFL will not let them in unless they uprgrade the ground.

Even if they resolved the situation tommorow, the season kicks off in August and fixtures are decided next month (I think).

SFL will need to push them now for their own good as well as ours!

I may have missed something here, but if Gretna were to secure a safety certificate for Raydale, on what grounds would the not be permitted entry to the First Division? Is there a new rule in force since Gretna were last in Div 1? If so, I've not heard it.
Whilst I do want to get to the First, I know we're nowhere near ready. We were a country mile behind Ross County and outclassed by Clyde. If anyone thinks that we're going to change the last minute policy on signings, they're sadly deluding themselves. Pre-season friendlies at Stenny with a team full of trialist beckons again.
I'd also have thought that most people on here would have a little more insight into the workings of the administration process than has been demonstrated. We all know that the administrators will pay lip service to any Tom, Dick or Harry in order to hang on as long as possible, collecting fee's under the guise of doing the best for the creditors. The SFL will sit back and wait until such times as the fixtures are due to be announced. This one could rumble on for another couple of weeks.

I just heard Frank Sinatra is playing at the opening game of Gretna's triumphant charge back to the spl in august.

The chuckle brothers have a better chance of representing Namibia in syncronised swimming in Bejeing than this tube buying gretna.



"WATCH OUT PUNK...I'M DEVASTATING"

Quote:

Pesadilla
This one WILL rumble on for another couple of weeks.

there, that's better

This situation is an absolute farce. What was the point in Wilson Field setting a deadline for bids of noon on Saturday then accepting a bid and entering negotiations with the bidder 2 days later. Think they're laughing at us.

Administrators are generally a bunch of cnuts.
This David Elliot character is probably after his 15 minutes of "fame" a la Blair Carnegie Nimmo

He would be better savin his money and putting it into Airdrie , if only ,4 mil would get us some great players

I might get us some great players,but would we ALL be happy?

Quote:

Pesadilla
I may have missed something here, but if Gretna were to secure a safety certificate for Raydale, on what grounds would the not be permitted entry to the First Division? Is there a new rule in force since Gretna were last in Div 1? If so, I've not heard it.

Here ye go!

<> Thought read that the ground was ok - even if not the sfl will pull something together so they won't get knocked back. As for Paul Davies - this prospective investor joins the queue of yet another mug who has more money than sense.

He must be going for a cva ( creditors voluntary arrangement ) surely - so that those who are owed money agree to a repayment plan over a lengthy period of time. This way there might be a chance they will get more money back than if Gretna go bust. <>

Quote:

Stuart Craig
[
Here ye go!

Whilst I appreciate all that that article has to say, it still doesn't confirm that there is a hard and fast rule for Division 1 stadium requirements. It mereley says Gretna would have had to answer some "difficult questions".
I understand that it's highly unlikely that Gretna will be bought but I'm also led to believe that one of Davies' caveats on his bid is that he gets Division 1 football. As there appears to be no rule on stadia, I can't see how Gretna could be relegated to Division 2 without at least a lengthly court case/arbitration process. JB as chair of the SFL would obviously have conficting intrests.
Again, I know it's all a highly unlikely scenario, but I'm not counting my chickens just yet.

Does any one know if there is a time scale for there latest offer ?

The way things are going, Tizme, probably September weekend!

Don't know if there's any significance,but THE bands were out in EK on Saturday.

















Second thoughts,they're out EVERY saturday.......or they should be.

Quote:

Lord Roden
Don't know if there's any significance,but THE bands were out in EK on Saturday.
















Second thoughts,they're out EVERY saturday.......or they should be.

Excellent input.

as usual

"but THE bands were out in EK on Saturday."

I might have known you would be into the majorettes for fat bas&ards.

Miaoww.

LR you really want to start looking by the end of your nose mate, do you like making a t1t of yourself?

Still no word on when this farce will be settled?Have been on the Official site, but there's no news there.All this waiting's driving me nuts.

Is it not about time the SFL got involved and said if its not sorted by a certain date, they will revoke their membership?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:05:21:11:45:46 by Frank Grimes.

They aren't members of the SFL as they were in the SPL.

They are in limbo as re-admitance to the SFL may not be the formality it usually is.

If anything, that surely strengthens the hand of the SFL if they were to give them an ultimatum whereby if they aren't bought over and the relevant criteria met by a certain date, then they cannot be admitted to the SFL, be it 1st, 2nd or 3rd division.

I think it was settled a long time ago...no-one is buying Gretna....we are going up.



"WATCH OUT PUNK...I'M DEVASTATING"

Gretna are still members of the SPL until it is completed on Thursday. Then you'll get some news.

until there's another hitch, snag, whatever....

I can't think of anyone who'd want them in the SFL, get them to fck.