So much happened yesterday, I’ll be as brief as possible:
Newco Rangers sent their counsel to the Court of Session to protest Charles Green’s contract with the club, stating it should pay legal expenses, now crystallising ahead of his forthcoming criminal trial.
In opposing Green, James Wolffe QC raised various objections, but as is often the case when people speak on behalf of Newco, included an arbitrary insistence that Newco operated the same club as the now liquidated Rangers.
Green’s QC, Jonathan Brown, put his pit boots on before stating his client’s case, but tantalisingly, before lunch informed the court that he would return to the same club/new club debate later. And didn’t he. Brown explained that Sevco Scotland purchased the assets of Rangers, not the club itself, with poetic prose adding:
“The team are paid by Sevco, plat at a ground owned by Secvo, are trained by a manager who is employed by Sevco and fans buy tickets from Sevco. That is the business that is being carried on.”
Adding that Rangers were “a collection of assets”, “What if the players were sold to one person and Ibrox to antoher, where is the ‘club’ then?”
I had to look away from court reporter, James Dolman’s Twitter feed at this point. It was like watching an acquaintance being humiliated. Not something you want to see.
Lord Doherty will determine if Newco should pay Green’s costs in due course, but this will be soon, as Jonathan Brown noted, “the rainy day has arrived”.
This next bit is really important:
Soon after court ended, Dave King was out with a rambling statement on the Newco website. If it was designed to play to the galleries, it hit the spot. If it was designed to influence what happens to his club, or how others will regard his input, it was surely an horrendous mistake.
It was a hard day to be chairman of Rangers International FC PLC. The court hearing only happened because the club objected to its contract with Green, so the unedifying episode could easily have been avoided. Despite this, sometimes you have to shut your mouth.
Sure, some Newco fans love a bit of grandstanding, but you know what yesterday’s statement will achieve. If the objective of the statement was to convince other Scottish clubs not to consider disciplinary action against Sir David Murray, or oldco Rangers, for their actions, it was an almighty miscalculation.
Threats seldom work. This one is unlikely to curry favour: “If the history of our Club comes under attack we will deal with it in the strongest manner possible and will hold to account those persons who have acted against their fiduciary responsibilities to their own clubs and to Scottish football.”
In short:
Don’t threaten clubs you are trying to influence.
Don’t grandstand to your own fans if you are trying to influence other clubs.
Keep a poker face. Keep your mouth shut, even if it means taking grief from your fans for the lack of public reaction.
King’s statement also addressed the sporting advantage issue from what we now know was an unlawfully operated tax scheme. While the EBT scheme saved tens of millions of pounds, and King earlier intimated this did provide a sporting advantage, yesterday he insisted the advantage was financial, that the shareholders were “committed to providing funding to the club” and would have done so, if required.
Here’s the thing, in 2012 another King statement revealed, “I have made a claim of £20m on the basis of non-disclosure by the then chairman, David Murray, of Rangers true financial position as far back as 2000.”
That commitment to further shareholder funding seems predicated on some controversial information. According to King, of course. Controversial enough to launch a £20m claim, but not to inhibit investment.
For the war-chest hunters among you, if you read this article covering King’s 2012 statement, you’ll find a strong clue.
One other quick but important point:
Some media are attempting to portray questions of sporting advantage as Rangers being punished for spending money they could afford, a travesty, as so many other clubs have done likewise.
This must surely be a deliberate attempt to misunderstand the issue and manipulate the debate.
No one suggests Rangers should be punished for spending money they could not afford. The questions are straightforward:
Did Rangers break tax law, break SFA rules and break SPL rules, when contracting football players?
Did they disclose matters openly with authorities (in other words, inadvertently make mistakes), or did they conspire to subvert the rules by hiding incriminating information?
Spending like the Borgias? Time to move on. Conspiracy to subvert the rules? We have a problem.
Don’t be distracted by potential ramifications to these questions, they are irrelevant for now. We should consider no more than did they break all of the above rules, should any the rule breaking be interpreted as an oversight, or does evidence of conspiracy to subvert the rules exist?
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Roy
I love that last paragraph
Whoever wrote that will probably not even feel one morsel of remorse now
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.
Nye Bevans’ rebel soldier on 15th November 2015 6:01 pm –
Need to tell santa to bring you a new laptop :-))
HH
“As my quiet mum used to say. You can never trust a catholic”
Aye, yer Da – woke up in the morning, took a look at her and ran off in shame.
Ps
Suprised that Nicky Clarke wasn’t referred to as an O#d F#rm Star.
HH
Roy C
HH
I had thought it was the Hootsman.
Disgraceful
Mincey
False alarm – rumour of gunshots caused panic in the crowd
Minceyheidman on 15th November 2015 6:03 pm
Just turned on CNN and people running around in Paris but no info yet.
————-
False alarm.
Police tell public to stay indoors, people congregate in public place, panic sets in and everyone stampedes over everyone else, people are real bright.
TBJ says Wee Oscar Knox is in heaven with the angels
Just goes to show what panic there can be like.
Everybody there must be terrified but want to show their resistance by manning the streets.
Commendable but maybe not such a great idea right now until police can confirm all is safe.
God Bless them all.
Fireworks going off at celtic park right now – Any idea why
TBJ/Gearoid
that’s an indication of the lengths they will stoop to to protect SDM, I remember hearing Mr Adam’s daughter speak on radio about it, she certainly didn’t miss them.
Monaghan1900,
Some brilliant quotes from the deluded ones. Two favourites:
“Hatred at this level causes all reason and financial common sense to fly out the window I’m afraid.” – Makes sense if talking about his former club.
“Jealousy, nothing more nothing less. They hate us but deep down would love to be us” – If there’s ever been a statement made that’s further off the mark I’ve yet to hear it. I’ve never met a Celtic fan who is anything other than thankful that we are absolutely nothing like them in any way.
Nye Bevans
Got 3 out of 4 on a £1 lucky 15 the day Altoir, Sprinter Sacre & Unowhameanharry or whatever it was called, nothing like Burgas Hoops line but 15/8, 5/2 and 5/1….. Sprinter Sacre was a joy to watch as a lover of the nags
TBJ..,
Bryson arrested ? :)
Tbj
No pyro no party ;-)
Roy C
HhBig ghuy
Yep all you have to do is note the reverential tones that are used when referring to their murderer.
Ironic or what. He’ll slap it into them.
Keep the faith
Good evening friends.
Tonight, I will be mostly supporting Jo Hansen’s Norway.
fastshowCSC
Hell
Severe case of fat finger syndrome tonight (fingers finally catching up with the rest of me).
I clicked on a headline in News Now to read about Scotland Under 19s 2-0 win against Latvia – not realizing it was a Daily Record article. I would not normally click on that rag’s website.
Anyway it seems Aidan Nesbitt was the outstanding player. After praising him, the Record hack writes:
“But the fear is he’ll be stifled at Celtic because he’s got a ridiculous amount of players ahead of him in that position.
“But if Nesbitt isn’t given a chance to shine at club level it will tell you everything about why we’re toiling at international level”.
So there you have it: Celtic are to blame for Scottish football’s problems.
The article was written by a certain Scott McDermott. I predict a great futurre for him in Scottish sports “journalism”.
But on reflection he certainly did slap it into them
HH Tims everywhere
Gearoid1998
My 3-0 post was a reply to your good self, I have a feeling that (like 2012) when people said they wouldn’t be allowed to get liquidated the titles will go, they matter not a jot to me as I live for the here and now but love their pain about grasping at the title straws, as I have already posted if Dodgy Dave 2 the South African tax evader (fact) wants to keep titles why does he not appeal, simple reason being there is no avenue for this new club to fight the old clubs battles….
Remember these two words “IMPROPERLY REGISTERED”
see all these 0-3 do we have to do it for all games ??
I mean I would like to keep the 6-2 scoreline
: > )
Roy Croppie…
By the time of the slide into administration in February 2012 Sir David had sold the club – disastrously – to Craig Whyte. Mr Adam later gace a newspaper interview in which he accused Sir David of operating a dual contracts system in regard to employee benefit trust (EBT) payments to players and other employees. Mr Adam offered no proof over his accusations – his opening comment to his interviewers of “my memory’s not what it used to be” perhaps saying it all. “
————————————————————————————————————————————————————
I wonder who wrote that miserable piece of crap for The Herald – was there a byline “credit”?
O.G.Rafferty – I wonder if any journo could develop the “dual contract” story?
The obituary for the late Hugh Adam was done by dead club historian, Robert Mcelroy
It was a real hatchet job on a man not scared of Murray and not afraid to tell the truth
The herald printed an obituary by his daughter the following week.
the 3 -0 score score reversal only stands in games where the cheats have drawn or won against tax paying opposition.
Hail Hail.
The Alan Brazil article today. Which was shown to me in a bar
Is a work of complete fiction.
This lad is a raving lunatic.
That obviously didn’t attain o grade English.
Canamalar
The fireworks only lasted 10 minutes – if Bryson was arrested they would light the skies all night
Herbo
Ironic that pyros allowed when we ain’t playing
Been out all day so do not know if anyone replied to my question as to when we can expect a verdict on Sevco paying Chuckles` legal fees. Anyone any idea how long it will take? Thanks.
JJ
Maybe i should delete my comments at 6:29 else MSM
or Dickie Gough will be quoting
“jc2 says he is happy to et results stand “
Where should be were (past tense)
o grade avhieved
Hail Hail.
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked
No timescale indicate……..”immediate future”.
Tbj
Someone think of the children :-o
Nye@4.55
On the Hertz fans comments
And that was after they had successfully “negotiated ” their way past a “compliant” wink, wink SFA.
Evening Timland from a warmish hun free mountain valley.
So the dick is accusing Celtic of cheating, if I was on our board I would sue the bollix off him
BCW
Thank you. I think I can wait until the ` immediate future ` arrives 0:-). I am, of course , hoping for a verdict that puts Sevco out of business. I know I am in a minority as , apparently, all but the most bigoted of Celtic fans want Rangers ( sic) back (sic) in the top division.
JJ
BBC trust are running a consultation at the moment
Get them told
https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/bbc/nations/
Tet
Big dick would love to be strung up by the bollox ( allegedly :)
JC2 at 6.29pm
The 6-2 becomes 6-0, by the way EBT Stefan Klos had a great game that day and stopped Henrik numerous times, the fact our Henrik had the audacity to chip him for that “goal” makes it even better…… REGISTERED IMPROPERLY