We are three days away from Rangers creditors’ vote on the proposed CVA and my best sources remain strongly of the view that HMRC will vote against. As a result, on Thursday, the process to liquidate Rangers will commence and Charles Green’s company, Sevco 5088, will attempt to purchase the assets of the business.
One of the first acts of Sevco 5088 will be to apply for membership to the Scottish Premier League. They will offer the league an opportunity to retain considerable revenue streams which would be lost to the league following the liquidation of the former football club, Rangers.
Attitudes hardened towards a Newco proposition since Mr Green came onto the scene, specifically since Rangers raised an action against the Scottish FA at the Court of Session, but sentiment in football is fickle. We should ignore all public comments on the subject of Newco and concentrate our minds on the SPL vote, which will take place next week.
Two months ago the Gang of 10 clubs thought they were in an ‘Arab Spring’ moment when they met to discuss how they would use Rangers demise as an opportunity to re-engineer the league. Charles Green is aware of their feelings on this matter and is likely to use this knowledge to inform his offer to the league.
Expect Green to offer to support a change in voting rights if the SPL allow Servco a franchise in the SPL. This offer would allow the Gang of 10 to not only retain much of their existing income streams, they would actually be able to bring in additional income. Servco FC would benefit from being the first company to be able to buy a place in the top division of Scottish football. The only loser from this scenario would be Celtic.
The existing voting rights protect Celtic from several hazards. The most important two are the rights of home teams to retain match ticket revenue and a limit to the number of home games shown live on TV for any club.
You will hear lots of comment from the Gang of 10 that they are not interested in splitting home gate money but none of them have agreed to exclude this matter from the change in voting rights. More Celtic home games on TV would be welcomed by armchair fans that live abroad but would see season ticket holders suffer as kick off times are moved to accommodate TV scheduling. Neither of these matters will be addressed at this month’s SPL meeting but, if the voting rights change, you can expect to read about them soon.
If the application from Sevco is rejected, we enter a new world, where SPL voting rights will inevitably change and Scottish clubs will have to learn to cooperate with each other on a constructive basis. As Celtic fans, we will embrace that challenge, but you can be sure that a slice of your season ticket money is being offered right now by people who have nothing whatsoever to do with Celtic.
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Great article in The Herald about dignity fc.
THE endgame is approaching, at least for
some of the protagonists in this Rangers
story.
It is 17 weeks since the club went into
administration, and Thursday’s creditors’
meeting could represent the last significant
presence of Duff & Phelps in this saga. They
have, in many ways, been among the most
pivotal influences on events, not least
because they are now the subject of an
investigation by the Insolvency Practitioners
Association.
If Ticketus and Her Majesty’s Revenue and
Customs vote in favour of the Company
Voluntary Arrangement proposal on
Thursday, Rangers will exit administration
intact. If the proposal fails, the
administrators have signed a binding
agreement to sell the assets – Ibrox, Murray
Park and the Albion car park – to a newco
created by Charles Green’s Sevco
consortium, leaving the oldco to its
liquidation fate.
Craig Whyte’s plan appears to have been
simply to place the club into administration
and acquire the assets via a newco. Bill
Miller had the intention of acquiring certain
assets from the club by way of a newco, then
leaving oldco to go through a CVA process
before somehow reuniting oldco with
newco. Green will just move on, out of
necessity. He says that he wants the CVA
proposal to succeed, although the tactics he
and the administrators have adopted seem
aggressive and needlessly antagonistic. The
CVA offers more money to the creditors
than the asset sale, so they are forced into a
take it or leave it decision. The normal
practice would be to seek more of a
compromise that suits both sides.
At the weekend, Green spoke about a share
issue that will raise £30m, a list of 19
signing targets, and of bringing Rino Gattuso
back to Ibrox. He has also been urging fans
to renew their season tickets, even although
much of his rhetoric has been contradictory
and the supporters do not even know what
division their team will be playing in next
season. In the bluster, every comment was
about the money he would raise and what
his consortium would do with it, while
expecting the creditors to take a meagre
pence in the pound compromise on a
collective debt that stands at £55m, before
the Big Tax Case has been resolved.
For a CVA proposal to have more likelihood
of succeeding, it should contain future
dividends, which offer an incentive to
creditors, particularly HMRC, to vote for it.
This would include a share of future transfer
fees, or prize money, or broadcast revenue
over a three to five-year period, which relies
upon, and so encourages, the business
becoming robust and healthy again. Green’s
CVA proposal is not even maximised for
creditors, since running costs are coming
out of the creditors’ pot.
This is one of the inconsistencies of Duff &
Phelps. They demanded that all bidders
provide funds to meet running costs from
June 1, over and above their bid offer, which
they all did; except Green’s consortium,
which it is believed had funding issues. In
effect, creditors are paying for the club’s
running costs. As might supporters.
Clause 5.15 of the CVA proposal allows
Green’s consortium, with the consent of Duff
& Phelps, access to the secure account that
will hold all season ticket and transfer
revenue 28 days after a successful CVA vote.
This is in the event of a CVA Trading
Shortfall, which means a shortfall in running
costs. Meetings have been ongoing between
the accountants representing Green’s
consortium and HMRC, but at the weekend
Green kept referring specifically to HMRC
when talking about the CVA vote. At one
stage he urged Rangers fans to ask their
local MPs to exert political pressure. At
another he said that he hoped HMRC would
do the right thing for Scottish football. At no
stage did he mention Ticketus, since he will
already know that they will make a purely
commercial decision, which is to vote in
favour.
Duff & Phelps, and Green, are either
counting on HMRC not wishing to be the
ones who push Rangers into liquidation, or,
cynically, would prefer the newco option
since that is cheaper for Green. The Herald
understands that Green’s consortium may
again have run into funding difficulties, along
with lacking money to invest after the
purchase. As one insolvency expert pointed
out, choosing between the bidders who offer
the highest price and those most likely to
see the purchase through is one of the great
skills of insolvency practitioners.
Duff & Phelps have seemed overwhelmed at
times, although all of their decisions have
been proper. The conflict of interest with
Whyte put them on the back foot from the
moment they arrived at Ibrox, and they then
embarked on a public relations campaign.
Yet on occasion they were even briefing
against one of the groups bidding for the
club.
The wage cut deal with the players was
unusual, and had the effect of placing a time
constraint on the administrator’s work, and
the projections drawn up for potential
buyers were hopelessly optimistic. Miller
withdrew more because of the reality of the
financial situation than the reaction of
Rangers fans. Duff & Phelps also pledged
not to sell the club to “another Craig
Whyte”, yet by their own admission do not
even know who all the members of Green’s
consortium will turn out to be, and so
cannot judge their suitability.
As well as taking weeks to provide the
paperwork for the SPL’s investigation into
dual contract allegations, as of the end of
last week Duff & Phelps had still not
provided Strathclyde Police with all the
documents required for their investigation
into Whyte’s takeover. The combined
administration and legal fees are £5.5m,
more than is likely to be available to the
creditors.
If the CVA proposal is successful, it will be a
significant achievement. The route towards
it, though, has been unconventional.
TOM McLAUGHLIN
Fingers crossed for you,mate.
Personally,I’d settle for never having to compose a CV or attend an interview ever again.
Despite being two of the few things I have a talent for,haha!
In these days of club (regardless of size) keeps its own gate money, how many clubs won how many trophies?
This season – without the huns being able to overdose on the tick and buy another HP trophy.
Comment No. 34 from the article in today’s Hootsmon re Rapid Vienna putting the boot into the huns:
34Dodgy Dave
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 07:32 AM I had a dream last night and in this dream I dreamed it had all been a dream and wee Susan Boyle was in it singing for His Holiness. And I was floating along on gossamer wings bathed in soft moonbeams, and it was a wonderful reverie. I saw some old friends, the Marlboroughs, Winstons, Camels…. I was reflecting on my time and on time generally and who should pop up but Stephen Hawking. And he whispered softly “you’re in a dream Sir David, but its not a dream. You are well and truly f**ked. Time for you has circled round and gone right up your a$$. The only thing for you to do now is to put on a brave face when you are sentenced to hand back all twenty trophies you stole”. Hector nodded but didn’t say anything. Bluebear asked Hector what it meant.
LOL
Bang bang Maxwell’s silver hammer
came down upon their head
Bang bang Maxwell’s silver hammer
made sure they were dead
ba ba ba ba ba ba
Websites to be forced to identify trolls under new measures
Websites will soon to be forced to identify people who have posted defamatory messages online.
New government proposals say victims have a right to know who is behind malicious messages without the need for costly legal battles.
The powers will be balanced by measures to prevent false claims in order to get material removed.
Last week, a British woman won a court order forcing Facebook to identify users who had harassed her.
Nicola Brookes had been falsely branded a paedophile and drug dealer by users – known as trolls – on Facebook.
Facebook, which did not contest the order, will now reveal the IP addresses of people who had abused her so she can prosecute them.
The new powers, to be added to the Defamation Bill, will make this process far less time-consuming and costly, the government said.
Complying with requests would afford the website greater protection from being sued in the event of a defamation claim.
End to ‘scurrilous rumour’
Currently, in legal terms, every website “hit” – visit – on a defamatory article can be counted as a separate offence.
This means many websites remove articles as soon as a defamation claim is made – either rightly or wrongly.
“Website operators are in principle liable as publishers for everything that appears on their sites, even though the content is often determined by users,” said Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.
“But most operators are not in a position to know whether the material posted is defamatory or not and very often – faced with a complaint – they will immediately remove material.
“Our proposed approach will mean that website operators have a defence against libel as long as they identify the authors of allegedly defamatory material when requested to do so by a complainant.”
Mr Clarke said the measures would mean an end to “scurrilous rumour and allegation” being posted online without fear of adequate punishment.
“The government wants a libel regime for the internet that makes it possible for people to protect their reputations effectively but also ensures that information online can’t be easily censored by casual threats of litigation against website operators.
“It will be very important to ensure that these measures do not inadvertently expose genuine whistleblowers, and we are committed to getting the detail right to minimise this risk.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18404621
Morning all. Another dreich day hereabouts.
Laughed out loud at report on Radio Scotland that Gollum is now numbered among the top 24 refs in the world, along with Thompson. I know it isn’t really funny; in fact, my next reaction was to feel sick. Is this Dallas’ revenge???
ParkheadcumsalfordwhoisNeilLennonand PaulMcBrideandTrishGodman on 12 June, 2012 at 07:59 said:
Aye, heard that when driving in early to beat the Olympic Torch Relay, and almost crashed my car.
I can only assume this means the world level of refereeing standards has dropped considerably to his level, as I cannot see that he has risen at all, based on his performances in Scotland.
Let cheating dogs die
Ulryc
Is Sevco FC dream still alive,.
So Super Swally has had his phone hacked by The News of the World!
Hail hail
miki67 on 12 June, 2012 at 02:31 said:
From an RTC post:
“Given Brian Kennedy’s company Weatherseal is now the SPL’s new sponsor, I imagined a multitude of posts would have been forthcoming on this subject.
Neil Doncaster and the SPL are now financially inwoven with a company owned by a Blue Knight who is desperate to keep RFC in the top flight.
I would have thought this was worthy of a “Wow, just Wow” episode but, as I said, maybe I have missed it or others don’t deem it important.”
Good ole boyz SFA,keepin’ up their fine traditions….
share on F’book or Twitter
———————————————————————————————————
Does this rule out TBK from coming back in at any point, even after the CVA
failure.
HH
Zbyszek on 12 June, 2012 at 05:30 said:
Very quite night on CQN.
Good Morning to all.
Interesting day in Poland. We play against against Russia I’m Warsaw. Their supporters chief said to the Russian media: If we let them marching in the centre of the city with red flags, if we let them throw the flares on the pitch, if our stewards don’t touch their fans and don’t say them a word, if we let them get on the stadium drunk, if we let them get in with banned flags and banners… If we dissapear, they will be decent fans and will show it tonight.
—————————————————————————————————-
Mr Z,
This sounds familiar,like the Ragers defence of ‘They don’t like being told what to do’
Good morning to you.
Tom McLaughlin on 12 June, 2012 at 05:51 said:
I think the BTC is already included in the CVA proposal. All that is missing is the amount (TBC). If the CVA proposal is accepted and the CVA successfully concluded then the BTC will be settled at a few pennies (2 or 3) in the pound.
On the plus side, the CVA proposal won’t be accepted.
delia smith
For all your bluster you only seemed interested in colllating and replying to those who had, in your opinion, made ad hominem attacks.
There were quite a few who resisted this temptation and we were not acknowledged nor replied to.
P.S. I do not think you are a new CQN posting name; I think you used to post some time ago but I do not recall anything about your previous posting style.
Fair play to you. You think that an even distribution of finances will strengthen Scottish club competition and indirectly help Celtic. I share none of those assumptions and consider some of them to be close to perverse and delusional. Can you point to any hard evidence of a club or league improving by adopting this route? Of course, I mean evidence from modern tomes not from the glory days Pre-Bosman and pre- Big 5 European League domination.
Zbyszek
The atmosphere will be tense. The Russian fans have to accept the same policing (neither more liberal nor more harsh) as the other fans.
And then your team has to stuff them
Good Luck today!
If HMRC intend to vote against the CVA, therefore scupperring it, should they not move today/tomorrow to freeze the club’s assets before Charlie Green & The Mysterions get there hands on them for £5.5m when they liquidate on Thursday/Friday?
They could argue that the value of the assets to the creditors has been grossly undervalued by Duff & Duffer.
The Singing Detective Demands The Resignation Of Campbell Ogilvie on 12 June, 2012 at 07:07
Jelavic is named as a creditor in the CVA proposal with the amount to be confirmed.
Kayal33 on 12 June, 2012 at 08:35 said:
Rangers are protected from “freezing of assets” by being in Administration.
setting free the bears on 12 June, 2012 at 08:32 said:
+ Delia Smith
sorry for butting in but Soccernomics by Simon Kuper has a fantastic chapter that suggests “even distribution of resources” (e.g. MLS) removes a fundamental attraction for fans. Basically the “David v Goliath” matches cannot take place and so one of the key attractions of supporting a small club (beating a big one) is removed.
Worth a read.
lochgoilhead bhoy on 12 June, 2012 at 08:38 said:
thanks
Whither the cash-strapped scrofulous Hillbillies the day?
Kayal33 on 12 June, 2012 at 08:45 said:
…but your second point about undervalued assets is pertinent and may well be subject to reversal by a liquidator.
There is mention in the Herald article of there being a binding agreement between the Administrators and Green for him to buy the assets in the event of the CVA not being accepted. Can such an agreement be made, when the assets are so undervalued? Is this not attempted fraud of the creditors?
Morning all,
everyone in predictor comp,remember and make your picks for round 2,please.
Thank you.
I’m enjoying the Mccarra book but the chapter on Fergus McCann is absolutely suberb.
It’s long overdue that the huge North Stand was re-named the Fergus McCann stand.
DBBIA,
As a long time resident of that august part of Celtic Park, I second your recommendation.
The last time we shared the gate money Celtic won 9 in a row, Huns won a couple of trebles. The last time we had regular competition for the league from clubs other than Celtic or the Huns was in the 1980’s, gate money was not shared. This on its own blows the arguement for gate sharing making a level playing field out of the water. All the clubs playing by the rules, paying debts and taxes and not trying to gain an illegal advantage is what we need to allow competition to flourish.
It isn’t rocket science, clubs playing by the rules equals a level playing field, this in turn equals competition.
If a club cheats, kick them out.
Not been on the blog much but I think it’s only right to point out that Delia Smithh is a long time poster who has consistently advocated gate sharing on this blog as a means of improving competition over a number of years – a fair argument but maybe not one the majority on the blog would agree with.
I wont be trawling back through the posts so cant comment on the rights and wrongs of who said what and who ignored who – but no need for witch hunts.
DBBIA it’s a jungle out there…..
I agree though.
……….
SFTB delia has been around for quite a few years, approx the same time as Media House have been enjoying CQN, unrelated of course.
Hx2
Doc is Neil Lennon
Are you sure we shared gate money back in the sixties, I don’t remember that.
Top 20 Matchday Revenue Clubs
(M.L.R. Money League Ranking)
Rank Club Revenue M.L.R. % of Total Income
1 Real Madrid 129.1 1 30
2 Manchester United 122.4 3 35
3 Arsenal 114.7 5 42
4 F.C. Barcelona 97.8 2 25
5 Chelsea 82.1 6 32
6 Bayern Munich 66.7 4 21
7 Liverpool 52.4 8 23
8 Hamburger SV 49.3 13 34
9 Spurs 44.9 12 31
10 Celtic 43.4 n/a (circa 52ish)
11 Benfica 40.2 n/a
12 Inter Milan 38.6 9 17
14 Rangers 31.5 n/a
15 AC Milan 31.3 7 13
And if we were to scramble the money that Celtic Supporters put into Celtic to other SPL teams then Scotland would be unlikely to see a Scottish team reach another European final. (just my opinion)
Dontbrattbakkinanger on 12 June, 2012 at 08:46 said:
“Whither the cash-strapped scrofulous Hillbillies the day?”
They are currently celebrating 118 days of unsurpassed administration.
Did you end up watching th game last night? Down here in my we part of Foreign, rain stopped play (i.e. satellite dish).
I mean “the”…..and “wee”…. need to get myself sorted for e’s
Apologies the formating always screws up…
for example…
In the ‘throught the gate’ money league – Bayern Munich took 66.7 million Euro’s which puts them 6th, In the richest clubs they are 7th and 21% of their total income came from people paying through the turnstiles.
Setting Free The Bears
Thanks.
The atmosphere is tense. I probably coloured the interview given by Shprygin to the Russian press but you heard about riots Russian supporters caused before and after the game against Czech Republic. Russian hooligans beaten four stewards in Wroclaw. Shprigin’s comment on that was:
-They tried to arrest our innocent man. We could not let them get our compatriot , could we? Beaten stewards? They got what they deserved.
Warsaw governing body gave them green light for marching from the centre of the city to the stadium.
Police said that riots won’t happen here again.
Generally, very safe tournament. Only 70 people arrested from day 1 till now, mostly for not serious reasons.
Cadizzy – watched second half. Not allowed to see Sweden v Ukraine.
The ITV coverage is very poor; I never ,ever want to hear or see Ray Winstone ever, ever again, as long as I live.
Looking forward to seeing Poland beat the Russians.
My dad’s view of fighting alongside the Poles in WW2 – ‘They were incredibly brave…and really good Catholics’.
Kayal33 on 12 June, 2012 at 08:35 said:
They could argue that the value of the assets to the creditors has been grossly undervalued by Duff & Duffer.
Grossly undervalued. This must not be allowed to happen. £5.5M valuation is a joke and HMRC must appoint different liquidators to realise true asset value.
If I remember rightly the percentage of total income generated by Celtic supporters paying through the gate to see Celtic play is the highest percentage of any club in the world.