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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Macjay- I’m no’ pregnant….that’s a beer belly! :-)
Nite al!l
KevinBhoy on 16th November 2015 1:37 am
You`re probably right.
However some of us feel passionately about some of these issues and are lucky to have a blog where we can express our views.
The rows are storms in a teacup.
I.M.H.O. of course.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037p6mq
“I will be King”
is the opening line….
“The shame was on the other side, oh we could beat them for ever and ever.”
Is the second line.
“We could be heroes.”
Mon the heroes…
Just shame the other side and be heroes.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 16TH NOVEMBER 2015 1:39 AM
MACJAY
How many people emigrated from Ireland to Australia during “The Troubles”?
=========================================
No idea,pal.
Which of the many ” Troubles ” ?
Hi MacJay,
Thanks for replying, I do to… feel passionately about it I mean, and hence jumping in. You make a good point re having this forum to discuss matters.
All the best to you and yours,
Hail Hail,
KevinBhoy.
ART OF WAR on 16TH NOVEMBER 2015 1:41 AM
Macjay- I’m no’ pregnant….that’s a beer belly! :-)
—————————————————————-
:-)
You`re too old anyway.
I assume.
Thanks to all who offered kindness to us after our bereavement last night.
I showed Mrs RWE a list of twenty names of strangers from this place, strangers who cared.
It made a difference.
NOWA
KevinBhoy on 16th November 2015 1:51 am
I must say,I was impressed by your list.
“Russia, America and the west, the UN, Turkey, the PKK, Syria, Assad, Syrian rebel factions, ISIL, Al Qaeda, Kurds, Peshmerga, Shiah militia, Sunis, Arab league and everybody else.”
Reminded me of how much I don`t know.
An incentive!!!
Cheers,my fellow Tim.
RWE
May I also add my condolensces and thoughts for friends and family.
God bless,
KevinBhoy.
MACJAY
No worries at all sir, the Syrian conflict is a very complicated situation that I am very interested in and care a lot about. My list there just scratches the surface regarding those involved. And that’s before we even consider how it relates to, and is affected by and has repercussions on other similar conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and involving other countries like Iran, Saudi, Gypt, Morocco, Libya and many others… that was my final list for tonight.
One further thing about CQN by the by (and back in the normal world too ;) ), in my experience you often find that the biggest arguments come about between those that are not so different in beliefs from each other. And at least it does show that we care.
Hail Hail,
KevinBhoy.
KevinBhoy on 16th November 2015 2:17 am
Yes.
Most of us tend to take a standpoint which reflects our existing political preferences.
In this case,the causes are far too many to enumerate but that doesn`t stop most of us having our say.
:-)
Agreed re. our basic beliefs.
How the desired result is achieved is what divides us.
Yes I agree, that’s a totally accurate assessment.
Did you know there are still an estimated 1.8 MILLION refugees in Turkey right now? And that many hundreds of thousands are still making their way to, and through, Europe?
KevinBhoy on 16th November 2015 3:09 am
I`m afraid I find that alarming.
kevinbhoy,
Maybe you could remind us all why there are so many Syrian, Iraqi and Libyan refugees wanting to get into Europe ?
It is far from complicated, it is in fact very very simple, these three countries were the most progressive secular and educated countries in the region, they did not dance to the tune of the NATO/Israeli/Saudi alliance so they were labelled a threat and destroyed creating the current situation, this is no rocket surgery.
I posted a Israeli strategy taken from an Israeli policy document/statement a few weeks ago, it identified that their strategy was/is to destabilise its neighbors, destroy the infrastructure and leave a power vacuum that would cause chaos within these countries for decades, this strategy suited the US and they signed up, I did think the Europeans signed up unwittingly but no longer believe this to be the case, they also expected the chaos to remain within the countries they helped destabilise, the Refugee crisis is a direct consequence of this strategy and the Europeans know exactly who is to blame but the MSM are well versed in finding scapegoats and are now pointing the finger at those who have suffered the most.
The shameful thing is that people who should know better are now supporting this because the MSM said so ffs.
Simply stop reading and watching the same MSM that are giving you the same club and no one wants titles stripped, do the basic in finding other sources of information there is plenty out there. ISIS like Al Qa’eda, are a construct of the US, Saudi, Israel, Britain and France the funds have been channeled through Saudi.
These govts don not give a monkeys about their own citizens they are the servants of multi-national corporations. Chances are the French ignored warnings but we wont find that out for a few years and by that time the old, move along nothing to see here will be the MSM message.
If you want to do something about it then refuse to accept every fcuking thing the MSM utter and challenge them. challenge everyone that spouts MSM bilge and challenge them to provide proof, never accept “it was on the telly”, “it was in the paper” as proof of anything, you should know better.
RWE sorry to hear about your sister in law’s passing. Look after your wife family and yourself. May she rest in peace.
Jo Ho Ho it’s magic ye know, gonnae be ten in a row!
Billy don’t be a hero , don’t be a fool with your clump…..
Coneybhoy is that the Dubs and All Ireland’s ?
Canamalar
I always suspect armies/freedom fighters/insurgents who appear from nowhere.
And talking of 1916…. ;-)
Crap shift. Weather sucks. Pubs aren’t open yet.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kobdb37Cwc
Andrew Kerins
Just listening to my favourite songs when I was 5 in a contrarian light
The first song hooked me to Celtic, the latter to sadness
Bmcwp
Do you have to meet an external company at 10am while pissed and being me talking to you?
I think not!
Had a great session on you tube, best one was New Rose live!!!!!!!!!
I hope everyone is expressing sympathy for Lebanon as well as Paris(not been on)
ISIS are a rare target as they have no border to retreat to. Mayhem I think
CONEYBHOY
Fortunately I’ll be at least four Guinnesses down by then!
Sounds like your day will be about as much fun as my night,bud.
Conybhoy,
They retreat to their separate home countries, or spiritual home, Saudi.
I think you might be getting freedom and religious crusades mixed up,
Freedom fighters only need the backing of the natives, anything else is a proxy invasion.
RWE.
Sorry to hear of the loss of your sister in law, may she rest in peace .
Stay strong bhud.
Good morning friends from a still gloomy, dark and drizzly East Kilbride.
31003
You misread my post from last night, I blamed government policy.
Have a good day all.
I wish I was off to Dublin.
Come. On. You. Boys in green. . .
Spent a couple of hours reading about Isis last night
Better to be informed just a little than to listen to our msn telling lies for her conglomerates
Back to work
Morning all.
Still dark, wet and windy. Cold too.
Any news to cheer?
Just read back.
My condolences to RWE and his family on their loss.
Here is probably one of the most intelligent articles I have read on how to counter the terrorism, you wont see ideas like this being promoted in the MSM.
Jeremy Corbyn Was Right About Jihadi John
If You Listened To His Victims’ Families, You’d Know That
On the surface, this seems like the perfect opportunity to attack pacifists as weak and anti-patriotic. But take a look at what the victims’ families said
By Liam Young
November 15, 2015 “Information Clearing House” – “The Independent” – I will not lose any sleep or shed any tears over the apparent death of ‘Jihadi John’, also known as Mohammed Emwazi. Graphic reports of the beheadings of two British aid workers, David Haines and Alan Henning, back in 2014 remain prominent symbols of the current struggle against Isis – and Jihadi John was central to the videos of the murders released by the terrorist group. So when Jeremy Corbyn said this afternoon that it would have been ‘far better’ for the militant to have been tried in court rather than killed, I was not surprised at the initial backlash.
On the surface, this looks like just another line for someone to use to attack pacifists as weak and anti-patriotic. But when you take the time to understand the complexity of the situation, it seems that we have only given Jihadi John the honourable killing – the sensational martyrdom – that he sought from the beginning.
David Haines’ widow said after her husband’s passing that the only way families could achieve some form of ‘moral satisfaction’ would be with the capture and imprisonment of the terrorist. The family of murdered American Steven Sotloff hoped that Jihadi John would be ‘caught by American intelligence officials, brought to trial in the United States, and convicted for the crime of beheading their son.’ Elsewhere, the executed James Foley’s mother said that the strike gave her no satisfaction, and that her son was a peacemaker who wouldn’t have supported such state-sponsored murder.
‘It saddens me that here in America we are celebrating the death of this deranged, pathetic young man,’ she said during an interview on ABC News, before answering the question, ‘It gives you no solace?’ with ‘No, not at all. Had circumstances been different, [my son] might have befriended him and tried to help him.’
Killing Emwazi is no great victory for the West; instead it is a quick-fix solution that allows leaders to pretend we are winning the war against Isis.
What we have done today is simply plaster over a major problem that Western governments continue to dodge. We talk about dropping thousands of bombs on Syria, and there is still no real strategy to stop the Isis threat, or its accompanying dangers of mass radicalisation.
We have no plan to curb the attraction of joining the terrorist organisation; we can’t even stop young British citizens from leaving the country to do so. The victims’ families are those who are most important today, and no real justice has been achieved for them: they have been crystal clear on that. Their loved ones, they have told us, would have felt no great triumph – even if the US media continues to pump out a militaristic ‘We got him!’ gung-ho approach, as though the entire enterprise is a high stakes game.
An unmanned aircraft dropped a bomb from the sky that blew a man to pieces. We didn’t even take the chance to levy charges against him, to demonstrate how dangerous his ideology can be, to show the public that we are serious about bringing an end to this warping of minds.
No attempt was made to force ‘Jihadi John’ to accept what he did, to punish him in a manner that would have forced him to live with the trauma that he created and even attempt to make things right. There was no sentence given that would have brought closure to those who have suffered at this man’s hands, directly or indirectly. Instead, we did what was easy, and we did what works for TV. We blew him up.
Don’t tell me that I’m a sympathiser or a weak, unpatriotic pacifist for thinking so. This should have been a case of justice, for the families who lost their loved ones, for the men and women that fell at the hands of this vile, barbaric man. Instead, it was an exercise in the failure of Western foreign policy.
If we are to get serious about defeating Isis, then we better realise soon that giving the terrorists what they want is not, and never will be, a viable solution. And it may be counterintuitive, but it’s true: they want death – especially at the hands of a perceived western enemy.
It is too easy to offer simplistic solutions to brutality. It is time to face up to the danger and confront it strategically, logically and without clouded nationalistic emotion. That is the least we owe to those murdered by the likes of Jihadi John.
As a rule, I want CQN to be about Celtic and matters related to Celtic ( even if very loosely so). Even so, Canamalar`s post @ 8:07 is a thoughtful article which really should be read by a wider audience. Whilst not being happy about the need to post it, I am grateful that it has been posted.
RWE
I, too. hope that you and your family are soon enough able to feel better about your sad news. I hope today`s messages continue to afford some solace to you and your wife.
JJ
Very quick visit, sincere condolences to RWE. My word but ye have had a very hard time. YNWA.
I agree that we need to be informed as to who and why we are fighting otherwise we just target the Moslem equivalent of the Birmingham 6 and Guildford 4.
It is a long article and quite messy and repetitive in parts but it does show that Saudi Arabia is the king pin, and it does show that a tiger has been ridden by the people who sponsored these groups. I strongly suspect that the perpetrators in France will not have been recent immigrants (yet) but radicalised French-born (or, at least, long resident in France) youth.
I leave a link because it is long- read it or don’t read it but while posters have every right to articulate their fears at this scary time, we need to target our responses better or we end up proposing something like bombing Auschwitz to teach the Nazi guards a lesson.
Origins of ISIS & others
Looks like somethings about to give?
Douglas Park rejoins Rangers board
Rangers have announced that businessman Douglas Park has joined the Ibrox board for a second time.
Mr Park was appointed to the Light Blues top table in the aftermath of the General Meeting in March that saw Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan oust the former regime.
In August, he stepped down from his position due to business commitments and was replaced in the boardroom by his son Graeme. (Herald)
Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/english/rumour-mill-mark-warburton-hits-back-stabaek-watch-ronny-deila-1-3949095#ixzz3rdtmUJoP
TONYDONNELLY67 on 15TH NOVEMBER 2015 9:17 AM
Simpson
McGrain Gemmell
Murdoch McNeil Clark
Johnstone McStay Larsson. Dalgliesh Lennox
Subs: Lubo,VVD, McBride, Auld, Burns.
~~~~~~~~~~*++*~~~~~~~~~~
MELBOURNEMICK posted earlier that 12 of those players are in their 14. And asked that you reduce your choices to 14 too.
There’s a good start to your Monday,bud!