Stewart Regan became chief executive of the Scottish Football Association in July 2010. The position had been vacant after the resignation of Gordon Smith, with then-president, George Peat, acting in the role.
Within months the SFA was plunged into turmoil after a whistle-blower revealed that referee Dougie McDonald lied to Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, and the SFA match observer. A further crisis was to engulf the SFA which would lead to the dismissal of the head of referee development and referees went on strike before the end of the year.
When Neil Lennon was able to argue two technical area bans were due to run concurrently, according to SFA rules, Regan accepted the rules he inherited were not fit for purpose and started an overview of rules and procedures. This resulted in the establishment of the Judicial Panel system which recently disciplined Rangers.
Regan was posted missing from the on-going Rangers scandal which was consuming Scottish football until he was prompted to get involved when Channel 4 reporter, Alex Thomson, tweeted that he had been accused of lying by a media person at the SFA. Perhaps sensing a serious error had been committed which would bring the association into disrepute, Regan immediately asked Thomson to get in touch directly and agreed to be interviewed on camera about the matter.
At the interview Regan told the reporter that SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie was “heavily conflicted” over the Rangers situation.
It is likely that Regan was put as off-balance as anyone inside Murray Park at the punishment handed out to Rangers by the judicial panel but he emerged with credit for establishing robust procedure, “without fear or favour”.
Prediction: Regan will be well prepared for tonight’s news and will issue a statement tomorrow. He will survive the episode intact and will turn the crisis into the most impressive part of his CV. Next move will be to a major PLC or government position as CEO.
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106 Comments- Pages:
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cfc
Where will it all end?
Glasgow’s Green and White
Pedestal?
merseycelt lmfao as the big house door slams shut on 23 May, 2012 at 12:39 said:
voguepunter on 23 May, 2012 at 12:32
Does reading that not cause a shiver down the spine?
The Celtic support is Celtic and what makes our club great!
———————————————————————————–
Agree mate.
top 10? Cant believe I’ve just done this. Must be some sort of acquired brain injury.
HH
One of the big giveaways about Craig Whyte was the fact he wasn’t worried about working capital. He didn’t care about it.
“He was much more concerned about the contracts.
“His modus operandi was, ‘How many of them can we get out of, how many of them can we deny paying until at least some of them will drop by the wayside.’”
CRAIGWHYTECSC
Johnston claims Sir David Murray allowed his ego to run riot at Rangers and made a “panicked” decision to sell the club as it teetered on the brink of ruin
Sir David Murray allowed his ego to run riot at Rangers, then made a “panicked” decision to sell the club as it teetered on the brink of ruin.
That’s the explosive verdict of former Ibrox chairman Alastair Johnston on Murray’s Ibrox “dictatorship” given in an exclusive interview with Business7.
In an unprecedented and extraordinarily detailed attack on Murray’s stewardship of the club, Johnston claims the tycoon was warned extensively about the dangers of selling to Craig Whyte.
He says Murray carried on with the deal because of “significant pressure” from the club’s bankers.
And he says a senior boss at the bank told him that Lloyds, who were owed £700million by the rest of Murray’s empire, had “incentivised” Murray to hand Rangers to Whyte.
Johnston, 63, once a close ally of Murray, now no longer speaks to him.
Johnston said: “Chairmen and chief executives are often the subject of fans’ ire for selling players, or allowing guys to leave because of unaffordable wage demands and so on. On the the other hand, you take Sir David Murray.
“He got too immersed in the fans’ perception of himself – as well as his own ego and invincibility, probably.
“In the last few years he lost his business discipline, then panicked when he saw Armageddon coming.”
Murray, who famously boasted in 2000 that Rangers would spend £10 for every £5 spent by Celtic, sold Rangers to Whyte a year ago for £1.
Our sister publication, the Daily Record has told how, before the sale, a private investigator’s report on Whyte’s business record was passed to the Ibrox board.
And Johnston, who was ousted by Whyte soon after his takeover, spoke at length about how closely Murray and his Murray Group of businesses were made aware of what the detective had discovered.
His allegations are highly significant, given Murray’s later insistence that he had been “duped” by Whyte.
The SFA disciplinary panel who slapped a transfer embargo on Rangers criticised Johnston, and other men on the Ibrox board, for not doing enough to stop the sale.
But Johnston said he and his colleagues expressed their concerns about Whyte “very vocally”. And he insisted there was only one man with the power to keep him out – Murray.
Johnston said of the detective’s report: “It was made available to us and I did see it, like I saw a lot of other information and data that was presented to us or leaked.
“But all that information was shared with the Murray Group, because there wasn’t much we could do about it other than jump up and down and scream and shout, which is what we did.
“In terms of something to do about it – that is, not consummate the transaction for these reasons – then David Murray really looks like the only person who could actually have done something.”
Johnston added: “There were a lot of inconsistencies in Whyte’s personal profile – where he lived, who he was registered with, anonymous addresses and so on.
“Liberty Capital, the ultimate guarantor of his so-called arrangement with Rangers, was formed out of a warehouse in industrial Miami where nobody had ever heard of him or the company.
“So we had a lot of due diligence and checked up on him, but that information was fed to the Murray group.”
Johnston, a Glasgow-born expert in sports accountancy, joined the Ibrox board in 2004 and became chairman in 2009.
By then, the credit crunch had hit and the fallout was still having a massive effect.
And he says Murray was under “significant pressure” from the bank, who wanted a more independent board, to get out of his day-to-day running of the club.
He said: “The bank, rightly or wrongly, thought David’s presence was so omnipotent. They thought there was really just one man, and the ruling by dictatorship had not worked.”
By this time, Rangers’ bankers were Lloyds, who took over the club’s previous bank, Bank of Scotland, at the height of the financial crisis.
Johnston said Murray had enjoyed a “very good relationship” with Bank of Scotland.
But he added that it was “probably too good”, and the bank had loaned miillions to Rangers “too easily” without proper checks and balances.
He went on: “When Lloyds came, I think they knew to some extent there was a lot of toxic debt. But I don’t think they quite realised the extent of it.
“They realised the governance and operations needed tidying up.”
When Johnston took over as chairman, he was “shocked” to find that all discussions involving the bank were dealt with personally by Murray and the Edinburgh team who helped run the rest of his empire.
He said: “Nobody at Rangers Football Club knew the bank. The bank didn’t deal with Rangers.
“It was totally incongruous in my experience that a bank that loaned a company £40million had no history in dealing with the chief executive or finance director of that company.”
In 2009, two new men were appointed to the Rangers board.
One was Murray’s right-hand man, Mike McGill. The other, financial strategist Donald Muir, was the eyes and ears of Lloyds.
Muir’s arrival was seen as a sign that Murray’s hold over the club was weakening.
Johnston said it was a condition of the bank’s renewal of the club’s credit facility.
He added: “Within two years of my chairmanship with an independent board, we reduced the debt from about £35million to £18million.
“The bank, believe it or not, at that time were very happy with us. Our arguments with them were more about reducing the debt by another £2 million to £16 million, in order for them to be totally satisfied it was a sustainable working debt.”
Then, early last year, the bank’s position appeared to change – for reasons yet to become clear.
Johnston said: “They originally didn’t believe in Craig Whyte. That’s the irony. They were as wary as we were about the fact he was one of the ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ types that didn’t have the money.
“The first time they were invited to meet with Whyte in London, he didn’t show up.
“It wasn’t until a couple of months before the transaction concluded that the bank actually started to believe the deal might be for real.
“David Murray and Craig Whyte got involved around October 2010. It wasn’t until around March 2011 when the bank turned on us very badly.
“They started talking much more seriously about Whyte. This was within four or five weeks of the transaction being concluded.
“They basically saw a chance to get all £18million back in one fell swoop.”
It was at this time, Johnston claims, that a senior bank executive told him Murray had been “incentivised” to seal the Whyte deal.
He said: “I pointed out to the banker that I felt David Murray may not want to sell.
“The reply, and this is a very key statement, was, ‘Alastair, David Murray is heavily incentivised to get rid of Rangers Football Club. Let me leave it at that.’
“I understood that to mean that certain things would then be triggered in his £700million relationship between Murray Group and the bank.”
Johnston said Murray first mentioned Whyte’s name to him in November 2010.
He recalled: “David Murray rang me on my mobile and said, ‘I think we’ve got someone and this is a really good one. Unlike any others before, he’s spent a lot up front.
“‘He’s hired some high-powered lawyers and spent some money on them, and he’s hired a high-powered PR team. He’s spent a lot of money on it so he must be serious.’”
But the sale turned out to be, as Murray now calls it, a “huge mistake”.
Johnston said: “One of the big giveaways about Craig Whyte was the fact he wasn’t worried about working capital. He didn’t care about it.
“He was much more concerned about the contracts.
“His modus operandi was, ‘How many of them can we get out of, how many of them can we deny paying until at least some of them will drop by the wayside.’”
In another withering criticism of Murray, Johnston added: “Whyte didn’t put a cent into the club, as we all know.
“That’s why I was jumping up and down and telling anyone who would listen. But there were only some people who would listen.”
Murray last night declined to respond to Johnston’s attacks. He said: “I will keep my counsel on this for a future date.”
Lloyds refused to explain why they were so keen to see Rangers sold, or to respond to the allegation that Murray was “incentivised” to do the deal.
They said: “The deal was a matter between Craig Whyte and Sir David Murray.
“The bank’s involvement was in relation to the debt owed by Rangers FC, which was repaid in full, in accordance with all required regulatory checks.”
At first I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking I should never have
taken this job .. man alive
But then I spent so many nights
thinking how you did me wrong
And I grew strong
And I learned how to get along
and now I´m back
from outer space
I just walked in to find you here
with that sad look upon your face
You should have changed that stupid lock
You should have paid the tax on the EBT
If you had known for just one second
that it will be screened on the BBC
Yas proudly on the podium with the anthem starting up and me chanting ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ in fine voice like the bhoys last night!
Don’t sell Mccourt…
HH
f1sh on 23 May, 2012 at 12:40 said
I’ve always like your posts, but never to the extent I’ve put you on a pedestal;-)
Well deserved podium though.
pedanticCSC
Keep them coming Paul67.
merseycelt
You tarty podium chaser you !!!! ;-)
Hail HAil
P67
Any more for any more??????
Enjoyable times to be a supporter of Glasgow’s Green & White not Glasgow’s C Green & Whyte
hhplc
Paul67 –
I think Regan has done alright since he took the post, considering all the obstacles he was up against – many of them under the radar.
Oh, it’s a gooooooood day. I wouldn’t be too concerned about Regan. But the likes of Ogilvie and Doncaster should not be allowed to resign. They should be dismissed forwith. In Ogilvie’s case, I trust the polis will be lifting his collar in the not so distant future.
Auldheid
sounds like you might be coming out of retirement soon !!!!
Hail Hail
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
I have no defence (a bit like the huns) of my actions (exactly like the huns)!
HH
Prediction: a fourth article? Say, just a short time after 9.00 pm tonight??
Paul
To quote Austin Powers, “Yeah Baby!”
HH
Paul67
Over the years that I’ve been a member of the CQN community I’ve run out of superlatives for the work you do on here.
All I can do is thank you for your work and I’m sure I speak for all Celtic fans who frequent this amazing cyber place.
One question: I’m certain the likes of Ogilvie etc will know as much about the content of tonight’s programme as the like of you and Phil MacGiollaBhainn and others clearly do. Do you agree?
SwanseaBhoy
merseycelt
You behaving like a hun ?? — get a grip MAN !!!!!!
It SOAL that´s the biggest tart on here. His skirt starts two inches up his back :-)
Hail HAil
On this day of all days they even have transfer speculation in that sorry Scottish Rag.
The Masonic penny is about to drop.
DeaththroesofabeachedwhaleCSC
Paul67
where´s Roy Castle and Norris Mc Whirter when you need them !!!!
You virtual tap dancer you !!
Hail HAil
Surely there must be a prediction coming about Doncaster…
PODIUM
See Awe Naw, you’ve started something.
Been away overseas on business for last two weeks, been totally off line. Can any CQN’r give a brief summary of what has happened our soon to be extinct neighbours?
Hail, Hail!
Whos next for the subject of an article?
Doncaster?
Broadfoot?
Traynor?
Young?
So, the full board of directors at Rangers were aware of the contents of a private detective’s report that cast doubt over Craig Whyte’s fitness and his properness as of May 2011.
That would explain their full and frank disclosure to the SFA on the matter then.
Can I propose George Galloway as next president….?
“We have got a bit of work to do with trimming the squad before we can possibly even think about bringing players in, but we have targets for three or four positions,” added Lennon.
We all know we need to get rid of a few but don’t tell me the policy is “sell before we can buy”.We have a chance of CL football after a few years,let’s give it a go ffs.
Hey, Paul67 – I’m not next on that list am I?
I don’t think Regan has been too bad.
Although found it strange when he used to block users on Twitter for only asking pertinent questions when all he had to do was say that he was unable to comment at present
He has still been head an shoulders above Farry and “I blame Catholic Schools” Smith, but still a lot to do with the Orcs debacle.
We can only hope Gordon “teflon” Smith is another having his last cigarette.
Paul67,
Just read your words on Johnstone of Kilmarnock. Oh that they were published by the MSM (and him a solicitor too!?!). Do you think he might be debarred for spouting what he knows are lies publicly?
hooped dreams:
Im guessing tht one will be the 5th
ASonOfDan:
Good post, just love the “armageddon was coming” line
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_No:
Keep the tunes coming old bhoy.
Hail Hail
Paul must be on holiday today or he has just spent last weekend writing all these articles. He is like a submachine gun today, very rapid fire articles.
I bet we have a 5 article Wednesday.
As Campbell Ogivlies successor I officially declare this threads podium winners to be
1) RalphWaldoEllison-is Neil Lennon Season 2011-12 on 23 May, 2012 at 12:53
2) merseycelt lmfao as the big house door slams shut on 23 May, 2012 at 12:42
3) traditionalist88 on 23 May, 2012 at 12:39
HAil HAil
Paul
Can’t wait to see what is said about the Orc’s b*** licker Doncaster
Sounds like some of jah people’ve had seen some a dem docudrama sneak peek tings bredren!
Paul you need to calm doon I’m oot this back chilling before i go golfing.
I can’t keep up today lol, but hey loving it.