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sonny
GET A LIFE!!! |
     
Following article in today's Business AM-Euro 2008 bid suffers fresh blow as Kirton walks out
by Paul Rogerson
Published: 00:05, May 14, 2002
SCOTLAND'S joint Euro 2008 bid with Ireland suffered another blow to its tattered credibility yesterday when it emerged that Glen Kirton, football's top sponsorship guru, had quit.
Mr Kirton, who ran Euro '96 for the English Football Association, walked away from an agreement to find commercial backers for the bid after its organisers allowed a string of corporate chief executives to officially endorse the £1m (Ä1.6m) campaign for nothing.
With only a few weeks left to find sponsors, sources close to the bid said that Mr Kirton believed that the move, which secured the endorsement of the likes of Sir Angus Grossart and Peter Burt at no cost, had fatally undermined his chances of selling sponsorship rights.
But a row has broken out, with the bid's organisers hitting back. They allege that Mr Kirton was distracted by his role as a consultant to the election campaign of Issa Hayatou, who is challenging Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency, world football's governing body.
A spokeswoman for the bid said: "Glen Kirton is effectively a one-man band and is not spending much time in the country at the moment. We think the Hayatou campaign was the real reason for his decision. He does not have the resources to do both jobs."
But Mr Kirton rubbished the suggestion. He said: "It had nothing to do with Issa Hayatou at all."
The bid team's spokeswoman denied it had shot itself in the foot by losing Mr Kirton's services. She said the team was still talking to "four or five" companies interested in paying for endorsement rights, adding: "There is money out there and companies are interested."
However, none has yet agreed to pay up. This may reflect corporate Scotland's concern about being associated with a campaign dogged by political controversy and generally viewed as having only a slim chance of success. Sponsorship rights for the tournament are controlled by Uefa. If efforts to find backers fail, Scottish and Irish taxpayers will pick up more of the £1m bill for the campaign. The Scottish and Irish governments are funding most of its costs.
Mr Kirton, the head of football at the London sports marketeer Fast Track Sales, was head of football at ISL, Fifa's marketing agent, until it collapsed into bankruptcy last year. He was signed up in mid-April by Simon Lyons, the bid team's marketing director, with a brief to find commercial backers for the Scottish-Irish pitch before the 31 May deadline for submitting detailed bids to Uefa.
Mr Kirton said at the time that Fast Track hoped to attract a six-to-ten-strong "family of sponsors" for the bid, although he admitted that the organisers had left it late to start looking. Scotland's main rivals for the tournament, from Scandinavia and Austria-Switzerland, have had big sponsors on board for months.
Mr Kirton pulled out after Jack McConnell, the first minister, and the sports minister, Mike Watson, attended last month's Uefa congress in Stockholm. Mr Lyons told him that a string of corporate chief executives had been approached to sign bid literature that would lend the campaign more credibility at the congress.
The roll-call of supporters includes many luminaries in Scottish business, including Sir Angus Grossart, of Noble Grossart, HBOS's Peter Burt and Susan Rice of Lloyds TSB Scotland.
A source close to the campaign said: "Allowing them to sign up for nothing made it impossible for Fast Track to get money either from the companies run by those individuals or from any other firms that might have been interested."
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When up they gat, and shook their lugs, Rejoiced they were nae men but dogs; An' each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
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Total Posts: 2224 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 12:38 pm on May 14, 2002 | IP
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macpele
Fresh ideas |
Louis Figo talking positively about the Euro 2008 bid. That's good enough for me....
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Total Posts: 30 | Joined Dec. 2001 | Posted on: 6:40 pm on May 14, 2002 | IP
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sonny
GET A LIFE!!! |
Yeh, I saw that. Well that's it settled then....
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When up they gat, and shook their lugs, Rejoiced they were nae men but dogs; An' each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
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Total Posts: 2224 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 6:42 pm on May 14, 2002 | IP
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WillfaeSwindon
GET A LIFE!!! |
???? luis Figo???? wha??? did i miss something?
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Will
willfaeswindon@swindontartanarmy.com
http://www.swindontartanarmy.com
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Total Posts: 1864 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 11:36 pm on May 14, 2002 | IP
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Jam
GET A LIFE!!! |
Same here willfae. Sonny, Macpele - please explain the Figo stuff.
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Yer haverin pash!
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Total Posts: 495 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 11:25 am on May 15, 2002 | IP
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macpele
Fresh ideas |
Luis Figo when questioned was more than positive about coming here for Euro 2008....
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Total Posts: 30 | Joined Dec. 2001 | Posted on: 11:30 am on May 15, 2002 | IP
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sonny
GET A LIFE!!! |
He said an off the cuff remark that if things went well in the Champion's league final then Scotland would have a good chance of winning 2008. he felt qualified to speal on it since Portugal will host the next one.
Anyway, he plays fitbaw - wish he knew the first thing about union Jack boot and the Irish crew or anything about what happens in European corridors of power and then I would think his contribution was of any significanse.
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When up they gat, and shook their lugs, Rejoiced they were nae men but dogs; An' each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
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Total Posts: 2224 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 12:45 pm on May 15, 2002 | IP
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Jam
GET A LIFE!!! |
Aye well I dunno if hosting the champs league is worth anything or not. David Murray pit his support tae 2008 today in the Scotsman - their trying to minimise the damage fae Kirton's departure. So what - ye can say whit ye like Murray and co. S'aw pash at the end of the day.
Murray adds his support to Euro 2008 bid
HAMISH MACDONELL SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
ON the day the Champions League comes to Glasgow, David Murray, the Rangers chairman, will be named as the latest high-profile backer for the Scotland-Ireland Euro 2008 bid.
The announcement will be a much-needed boost to the bid team who were still reeling yesterday from the sudden resignation of their sponsorship expert, Glen Kirton.
Mr Kirton, who organised Englandís successful Euro í96 tournament, resigned after organisers allowed a string of corporate chief executives to officially endorse the bid for nothing.
However, organisers will hope that Mr Murrayís decision to publicly commit himself to the project on the day of the Champions League Final will cancel out the negative publicity generated by Mr Kirtonís abrupt and acrimonious departure.
Simon Lyons, the marketing director of the Scotland-Ireland bid, insisted that the loss of Mr Kirton at this stage was not a major blow.
But bid organisers are privately worried about the effect of Mr Kirtonís departure at a time when all the influential people in European football are in Glasgow for the climax to the European club season.
The bid team signed up a number of top business names, including Sir Angus Grossart, the chairman of Noble Grossart, Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden, the life president of Guinness UDV and Susan Rice, the chief executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland.
All these figures and others lent their support without paying any money in a deliberate attempt on behalf of the team to give their submission added credibility.
But Mr Kirton believed this undermined his efforts in securing a number of big business sponsors who would be expected to put up significant amounts of money to be associated with the bid.
Mr Lyons said yesterday: "Itís actually a testament to the strength of our bid that there are not any big issues to be resolved here, everyone is concentrating on small issues [Mr Kirtonís departure]."
This is the latest in a series of twists and turns which have hampered the bidís progress.
First, Scotland was supposed to be entering a solo bid. But that plan fell to pieces when Henry McLeish was forced to resign in an office expenses scandal.
His successor, Jack McConnell, was much more cautious about the enterprise and agreed to back it, but only if the Irish came on board.
The Irish did agree to join in but they were then plagued with problems of their own.
The Gaelic Athletic Association, which owns Irelandís biggest and most modern stadium, Croke Park, refused to release it for football matches and the Progressive Democrats, the junior party in the ruling coalition, refused to back plans for a new state-of-the-art stadium in Dublin.
At the moment, the Irish side of the bid rests on the result of this weekendís general election. If, as expected, Bertie Ahern is returned as Taoiseach with a clear mandate, the Stadium Ireland project will go ahead, the Scotland-Ireland bid will be on track and a major hurdle will have been negotiated.
If, however, Mr Ahern has to rely on other parties to form a government, questions will be raised over the future of the Stadium Ireland project - and the Scotland-Ireland bid.
A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said Mr Kirton was brought on board by the Euro 2008 team but they had found it easier to work directly with companies and not through a third party.
He insisted that, given the fact that it was now accepted that Scotland had a good chance of winning, companies were now going to the bid team offering endorsement rather than the bid team having to go to them. "We are in discussion with a number of major companies about going beyond endorsement and looking at other ways of supporting the bid," he said
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Yer haverin pash!
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Total Posts: 495 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 1:02 pm on May 15, 2002 | IP
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sonny
GET A LIFE!!! |
Good point J,
The same Mr. Murray who backed the Atlantic league and briefed that the OF were getting warm encouragement to enter the premiership? We are blessed with his track-record.
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When up they gat, and shook their lugs, Rejoiced they were nae men but dogs; An' each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
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Total Posts: 2224 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 1:37 pm on May 15, 2002 | IP
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Tam
GET A LIFE!!! |
I queried John Henderson on this and he is not too worried.
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Tam
This article,like many ,is out of proportion to the facts.They are that we asked Glen Kirton to seek sponsorship for the bid.He decided to withdraw from that task.We are in touch with a number of potential sponsers and will make an annoucement shortly.None of this effects the inherent strength of the bid and I am very surprised that Business am has given such prominence to such a minor matter.
John
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Note: All opinions expressed above are that of the author and in no way respresent any club, organisation or disorganisation
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Total Posts: 473 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 5:39 pm on May 16, 2002 | IP
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macpele
Fresh ideas |
What the hell are Tartan Army footsoilders doing on this board complaining about Scotland having an oppertunity to co-host the European championship finals. Can't think of any reason from a footballing, Tartan Army point of view for not having this football feast here, if it's for political reasons take it elsewhere.
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Total Posts: 30 | Joined Dec. 2001 | Posted on: 7:54 pm on May 16, 2002 | IP
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Tam
GET A LIFE!!! |
Well said MacPele
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Note: All opinions expressed above are that of the author and in no way respresent any club, organisation or disorganisation
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Total Posts: 473 | Joined Sep. 2001 | Posted on: 11:52 pm on May 16, 2002 | IP
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sonny
GET A LIFE!!! |
macpele,
This story was of some critical import despite some new labour spin to the contrary.
Some might say - "what are TA footsoldiers embarrasing the rest of us by backing a watered doon scheme which is a campaign of emotional fraud."
Nobody speaks for the TA, well almost not everybody.
(Edited by sonny at 12:29 pm on May 17, 2002)
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When up they gat, and shook their lugs, Rejoiced they were nae men but dogs; An' each took aff his several way, Resolved to meet some ither day.
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Total Posts: 2224 | Joined Jan. 2002 | Posted on: 12:26 pm on May 17, 2002 | IP
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Yet another blow
