Morton Club Together Updates

[Toby]

A large chunk of what would otherwise be sponsorship and prize money is being diverted to pay for VAR, of course the lower league clubs should have a say in how that money is spent. As well as that, the SPFL exists because the short lived basket case which was the SPL couldn’t keep it’s house in order. I’m afraid if you fuck things up so much as to have to go back cap in hand to the clubs you discarded 15 years previous, there are consequences when you invite them back into the fold.

As for VAR itself, personally I’m not a big fan but am in favour of it’s introduction in Scotland. It’ll be an absolute shit show for the first couple of years I’d imagine, but it’s in football to stay now and every other major nation will implement it (and yes, relatively speaking we are a major nation). As well as for our players, refereeing standards in this country should be something that we should seek to maintain/improve (delete as appropriate) and not allowing them access to VAR will stunt their development on a global scale.

I get the point that it should be implemented across the board but that’s not the case in football anyway- there are non-league games I go to with club officials in tracksuits running the line, something that wouldn’t happen in the Championship. Everything has to start with a small step.

[TRVMP]

5 hours ago, Toby said:

A large chunk of what would otherwise be sponsorship and prize money is being diverted to pay for VAR, of course the lower league clubs should have a say in how that money is spent. As well as that, the SPFL exists because the short lived basket case which was the SPL couldn’t keep it’s house in order. I’m afraid if you fuck things up so much as to have to go back cap in hand to the clubs you discarded 15 years previous, there are consequences when you invite them back into the fold.

As for VAR itself, personally I’m not a big fan but am in favour of it’s introduction in Scotland. It’ll be an absolute shit show for the first couple of years I’d imagine, but it’s in football to stay now and every other major nation will implement it (and yes, relatively speaking we are a major nation). As well as for our players, refereeing standards in this country should be something that we should seek to maintain/improve (delete as appropriate) and not allowing them access to VAR will stunt their development on a global scale.

I get the point that it should be implemented across the board but that’s not the case in football anyway- there are non-league games I go to with club officials in tracksuits running the line, something that wouldn’t happen in the Championship. Everything has to start with a small step.

This is what it comes down to for me as well. Much as summer football is the mark of a diddy nation, in a few years so too will having a top flight without VAR.

As Dunning says, that really needs to come with screens, because Scotland has such a huge culture of match attendance (which other major footballing countries, comparatively, do not.)

[TaunTon]

Irrespective of personal feelings there seems to be an inevitability about the adoption of VAR for the top league and it's probably only a matter of time before UEFA mandates it. 

However to further impoverish lower leagues in order to subsidise it seems very unfair. The quality of refereeing in Scotland appears to be getting worse and I see nothing from the SFA about how they intend to improve it or even recognise it as an issue. Perhaps the top league should be contributing something to improving professionalism amongst the woeful referees and gutless assistants we see on a regular basis. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by TaunTon

[Jamie_M]

50 minutes ago, TaunTon said:

 However to further impoverish lower leagues in order to subsidise it seems very unfair.

Don't think this is actually the case though.

[vikingTON]

On 4/14/2022 at 11:30 PM, irnbru said:

It's a no from me. Firstly because I like the debates and controversial stuff that makes football good.

Erm yes, because the past two home games were really enhanced by having some dingbat arbitrarily applying the laws of the game and not awarding blatant penalties. 

If you think that VAR has removed debate about decisions then you must be living under a rock. It has only removed debate from egregious and obvious errors to about 99% effectiveness. 

There are valid arguments to make but 'och ah like controversy though' isn't one of them. 

[irnbru]

6 hours ago, vikingTON said:

Erm yes, because the past two home games were really enhanced by having some dingbat arbitrarily applying the laws of the game and not awarding blatant penalties. 

If you think that VAR has removed debate about decisions then you must be living under a rock. It has only removed debate from egregious and obvious errors to about 99% effectiveness. 

There are valid arguments to make but 'och ah like controversy though' isn't one of them. 

Well actually, it is. Having football all about human error and performance is one of the things that makes it exciting. 

That said, Willie Collum has changed my mind. 

[vikingTON]

4 minutes ago, irnbru said:

Well actually, it is. Having football all about human error and performance is one of the things that makes it exciting. 

That said, Willie Collum has changed my mind. 

The playing of football is not the same as officiating of football. One of those is subject to human error as part of the sport; the other isn't. 

 

[Madton]

41 out of 42 have voted in favour of VAR.

Notice Sky advised that only the Premiership clubs would be paying for it so presumably we and the rest of the diddy leagues don't take the hit.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Madton

[Jamie_M]

1 hour ago, Madton said:

41 out of 42 have voted in favour of VAR.

Notice Sky advised that only the Premiership clubs would be paying for it so presumably we and the rest of the diddy leagues don't take the hit.

Aye  it was announced last week that if voted through, it would be paid for by the Premiership teams based on league position.

League Position	Cost Contribution (%)
1st	16.29%
2nd	11.67%
3rd	10.03%
4th	8.81%
5th	8.21%
6th	7.61%
7th	6.97%
8th	6.69%
9th	6.38%
10th	6.08%
11th	5.63%
12th	5.63%

[bob_the_builder]

So it turns out it was us that were the only club that voted against VAR!!  Bit of a riddy seeing as it was clearly stated Premiership clubs would foot the bill.  

ETA if we actually had VAR at our disposal we'd potentially be a good few points better off!!  Can't help but think the club have made themselves look really daft on this one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61173475

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by bob_the_builder

[SpoonTon]

9 minutes ago, bob_the_builder said:

So it turns out it was us that were the only club that voted against VAR!!  Bit of a riddy seeing as it was clearly stated Premiership clubs would foot the bill.  

ETA if we actually had VAR at our disposal we'd potentially be a good few points better off!!  Can't help but think the club have made themselves look really daft on this one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61173475

 

On the other hand, if we had VAR on Saturday we'd all still be at Cappielow waiting for the match to finish after the amount of checks that would have been needed. 

I know it won't be at our level, but that was a top level ref. The level of refereeing better improve, or VAR will make things very messy. I'm generally in favour of VAR, but it has to be implemented really well or it makes the game worse (and general rules also need to be adjusted - the spirit of the offside rule, for example, has been lost in the showing off of technology).

It's probably something that needs to be done in Scottish football, but I don't have confidence that it will actually improve things. 

[bob_the_builder]

2 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

On the other hand, if we had VAR on Saturday we'd all still be at Cappielow waiting for the match to finish after the amount of checks that would have been needed. 

I know it won't be at our level, but that was a top level ref. The level of refereeing better improve, or VAR will make things very messy. I'm generally in favour of VAR, but it has to be implemented really well or it makes the game worse (and general rules also need to be adjusted - the spirit of the offside rule, for example, has been lost in the showing off of technology).

It's probably something that needs to be done in Scottish football, but I don't have confidence that it will actually improve things. 

True but then we may have also finished the game with that very valuable point or even all 3!

Total agreement with the rest of your post, it needs to be properly implemented which I'm not overly confident the SFA/SPFL will do!  I've not really managed to see much MOTD recently so not sure if it's still as contentious in the EPL but the set up seems to working quite well in the Champions League and Europa League and the WC qualifiers for Scotland.

Our referees do really need to improve but they also need all the help they can get, especially during the paranoia twins games for example.  As for Collum (and quite a few officials) imo the problem is his attitude.  He clearly thinks our games are beneath him and I doubt very much he applies the same effort to championship level games as he would to the televised PL games as he knows far less people give a toss.

 

 

[EanieMeany]

I’m glad Morton have rejected VAR as it stands as I have no faith at all that it’s going to result in an improvement to the game in any sense beyond a handful of decisions here and there, but the explanation offered is a wee bit bizarre and incoherent tbh.

Complaining about the price when it’s not going to affect us any time soon is particularly odd, and just makes the club look a bit silly. 

[TaunTon]

I'm not really surprised that a wider consultation did not take place given the ridiculous timescale of the decision being required. As for voting against it I couldn't really care much less.

[Jamie_M]

48 minutes ago, TaunTon said:

I'm not really surprised that a wider consultation did not take place given the ridiculous timescale of the decision being required. As for voting against it I couldn't really care much less.

Nah, plenty of clubs managed to knock together a quick fan survey.

[Madton]

16 hours ago, Jamie_M said:

Nah, plenty of clubs managed to knock together a quick fan survey.

I know Ayr did, who else?

[Jamie_M]

59 minutes ago, Madton said:

I know Ayr did, who else?

Livi and St Mirren definitely, can't be arsed looking further. It was possible, that's the point though.

[TONofmemories]

Latest MCT email has the begging bowl out. Not great reading and hints at piss poor budget next season. 

Dougie has one massive job to do on a nothing budget it would seem.

[TRVMP]

I'm fine with the occasional donation drive. Reminding people where the money's going and why is important, otherwise it's just another direct debit to go with streaming services etc., one that people will cut when money's tight or when they start looking at their monthly expenditure.

Pointing out that they're still actively getting new memberships and working on the commercial aspect shows that it's not *just* about milking money from existing members, too.

I agree the part about the budget is a bit concerning but overall MCT wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't trying to maximize their income from members and trying to get new members. If they own the club, and want the club to progress, then investment is going to be required, and we are the investors.

They do, however, need to make it easier to make a one-time donation and to have that tied to your account somehow (so you can see how much you've donated over time.) Right now it's just GoCardless for recurring payments. In the grand scheme of things this is a low priority but a user portal showing how much someone's donated over time, their membership status etc. would be a nice feature as well.

Edited May 2, 2022 by TRVMP

[vikingTON]

5 minutes ago, TRVMP said:

I'm fine with the occasional donation drive. Reminding people where the money's going and why is important, otherwise it's just another direct debit to go with streaming services etc., one that people will cut when money's tight or when they start looking at their monthly expenditure.

Pointing out that they're still actively getting new memberships and working on the commercial aspect shows that it's not *just* about milking money from existing members, too.

I agree the part about the budget is a bit concerning but overall MCT wouldn't be doing their job if they weren't trying to maximize their income from members and trying to get new members. If they own the club, and want the club to progress, then investment is going to be required, and we are the investors.

Investment can't be solely in the playing budget though. That's what season tickets, gate reciepts, sponsorship etc. are already for. 

You can get away with siphoning some of MCT subscriptions for the first team, but there has to be a serious pitch for what else they're going to do to make the club generate more revenue. That's the point of capital investment. 

Edited May 2, 2022 by vikingTON