Frontline Scotland Special

By
November 17 2004

By Gordon Thomson Date: 19/11/2001 Tonight (Tuesday 20/11/01) sees the long awaited Frontline Scotland show featuring Airdrie's plight at the hands of Bill Barr. The show should feature the financial crisis engulfing the First Division.

Tonight (Tuesday 20/11/01) sees the long awaited Frontline Scotland show featuring Airdrie's plight at the hands of Bill Barr. The show should feature the financial crisis engulfing the first division. Airdrie, Clydebank, Falkirk, Morton and Hamilton. Peat, Steedman, Fulston, Scott and Fulston again. Do I need to say anymore? The misfortunes of these clubs all look to stem from the same source. Add to the mix teams like Raith, Partick, Dumfermline and St. Mirren who have run into difficulties after building grounds and it's easy to see why we talk of a crisis. Airdrie's situation is unique though as we are in provisional liquidation and are currently still in a sort of purgatory with no sign of the Creditors Voluntary Agreement which would see the company come out or liquidation. Our main gripe is with the involvement of Bill Barr. The mainstream media would portray Barr as our saviour, but ask the majority of Airdrie fans and you'll get an entirely different opinion. Barr had been paid around £5,000,000 for the ground before the mysterious split in the then Airdrie board. After our only surviving director died, Barr suddenly slipped in a contentious debt of nearly half a million, aided and abetted by his auditors, and "coincidently" Airdrie's liquidators, KPMG. The crippling "debt" would prove an obstacle too high for many potential saviours of Airdrie and Barr of course is seen to be a saintly character by generously wiping out his "debt" in order to save our club. And of course transferring a £5,000,000 asset to his company. And the Barr Facilites Management contract to handle all the commercial management of our club. Not a bad return eh? Lets hope the programme covers the scandal appropriately. Well done to John, Veronica and all for their hard work and perseverence. To football matters. Good to see us return to winning ways and of course to the top of the league. Another cracking goal from Mark Roberts to seal the win and a top of the table clash on Saturday against Thistle. There was a fair amount of good and bad coming out of Saturdays game though. Only 4 subs? And one of them allegedly injured. Are we in such a state? I thought we had a financial cushion from the Rangers tie. And the Challenge Cup. Any bets we draw Celtic in the third round of the Scottish? Maybe Gemmill should have queried the paltry 34,000 attendance figure from Ibrox? With the extra cash from the missing 15000 fans we'd have afforded an extra sub. It was good to see Owen Coyle respond to the recent diving claims by staying on his feet for the entire game. Pity he has lost his way a bit lately, but remember that form is temporary and class is permanent. We'll be hosting a chat session after the Frontline programme. Speak to you all there.