The Contractual Obligation Update

It's not been an easy time for the groundsmen at Scottish football clubs.

Earlier we heard that St Johnstone have suspended their groundsman over the postponement of the Rangers game last Saturday, which, by the way, has nothing to do with the upcoming Old Firm fixture and is in no way meant to give Rangers a breather before they play what could arguably the title deciding fixture against Celtic this weekend. The pipes where frozen, and that's all there is to it.

Anyway, the good peeps over at Fir Park, Motherwell, must be getting a little nervous as the SFA are considering slapping yet another fine on the club after seeing the state of their pitch in recent fixtures. It's amazing to think that the club already spunked over £250,000 on the pitch and yet it still looks like a ploughed tattie-field [BBC]

Another country all too familiar with muddy fields is Belgium. The country that gave us, amongst other things, Jean Claude Van Damme, Tintin, decent beers, the humble chip and Marc Bosman have now managed to overtake Scotland in the UEFA Coefficient ranking table, meaning we've lost one of our Champions League places.

It'll mean nothing to you if you're not an Old Firm fan - for us, the already pointless SPL has just become even more pointless - but for supporters of Scotland's League Champions from season 2012 onwards, it'll mean even more reckless spending as you battle your way through the first of 1,056 qualifying rounds against teams such as a Vatican City Select XI, possibly.

Celtic's recent financial results only highlighted the dependency the top two have on Champions League football, so this news must come as quite a shock.

Just a thought, but if I was a Scottish footballer, I'd be sending my CV off to Belgian clubs. [Scottish Football Blog]

That Alan McGregor eh, what a tube. Just when it seems he was getting his act together again, he goes and gets assaulted at a taxi rank. Walter Smith, apparently, is not chuffed at his keeper’s latest attempt to get himself a transfer to another club (a Belgian one, if he's any sense). [Times]

In an unusually good article by Graham Spiers, "pitiful" Aberdeen are seen as the Nottingham Forest of Scotland, which is quite a compliment, if you ask me. [Times]

One thing that will make Celtic's financial guru's smile is the news that Bobo "Baldy" Balde has dropped his claims against Celtic for breach of contract and "unauthorised deductions" from his wage packet. The former centre-back spent most of his time under Gordon Strachan's reign sitting on the bench and generally refusing to feck off - despite some generous offers - preferring instead to sit on his arse making "deductions" of £30k a week from Celtic's wage bill. The tit. [BBC]