Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has managed to register his image rights on the off-shore tax-efficient territory of Guernsey. Income received there for use of his rights everywhere else will not attract the kind of tax mere mortals pay in their daily lives.
Pellegrini, 60, developed a genial personality to combat profound ugliness, an affliction which has affected him for decades, so news that his image has commercial value is a wonderful boon for the multi-millionaire. Manchester City will also benefit as any monies they pay for use of their manager’s image will not attract tax or National Insurance contributions.
Uefa president, Michele Platini, who has never had to worry about ugliness, now has a different challenge. Whether or not to abandon his well-meaning Financial Fair Play aspirations, or get ugly on those who try to usurp his best intentions.
Sean Fallon biography available here:
[calameo code=00039017122aafd9859a6 lang=en page=126 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
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Just logged in and as usual I start at the last page.
Intriguing question of the night
What is the list? Who is on it?
Does it mean they get a chap at the door in the wee small hours?
I will try to read back before the Sandman welcomes me.
A small request.
An old friend of mine, an old friend of Celtic who looked after many players and club representatives when they were visiting the USA, had a stroke recently and is still hospitalised. He needs our prayers, good thoughts and positive vibrations to lift his spirits and give him the strength to battle back to health.
Just offer them up for George. The Big Man will know who they are meant for.
Thanks.
‘gg
THE LIST is the names of contributors to these pages which will be added to the latest CQN Annual.
WINNING CAPTAINS is compiling it,so you might wanna be on here around 8am your time later to be added to it.
WHITEDOGHUNCH is on it three times already-I reckon he merits a chapter to himself!
Oh,and thoughts for the health of George.
Milky under pressure at Cardiff.
Their owner apparently believes the team should be in the top four!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2451428/Cardiff-deny-rumours-Malky-Mackay-asked-resign-owner-Vincent-Tan.html
BMCUW
Thanks for your prayers for George.
Most of the club from the Stein era know him.
As for being included in the list I paraphrase Groucho
I don’t want to belong to a list that would have me as a member.
Seriously, I have been here from the beginning and recognition written on the new 100 dollar note will be very welcome.
Be not afraid.
Winning Captains-
Are there any considerations for late additions to the list for international posters?
Please add mine if so.
gg
You are already a member of the CQN predictor and on that list :-)
Prayers offered for your friend.
You can tell its heading through Autumn. Still dark outside. 10 more mins in bed me thinks:-)
HH
CRC
Btw that was not a weather report. Leave that important stuff to The experts.
HH
CRC
Tom English: Walter Smith not blameless at Rangers
If you were constructing a gallery of guilty men at Rangers then you’d want to make sure your walls are supported by reinforced steel, such is the weight of numbers you’d be hanging up there.
Walter Smith has pretty much stood alone as the good guy in all of this. ‘In Walter We Trust’ as some Rangers supporters might put it. It’s hard not to respect and like the former Ibrox manager given all that he has done in the game, but it’s possible to hold him in high esteem while at the same time pointing out the fallacy that he is blameless in the spectacular mess that his club has become.
In the deconstruction of the Rangers story you’d point the finger at plenty of guys before you’d have Smith in your sights, but the fact is that he has played his own part in the malaise. He possesses none of the spiv-ish nature of some of the chancers who have come and gone at Ibrox, but he still warrants criticism.
It didn’t come across in his interviews on Tuesday, but Smith is no innocent bystander in all of this. We go back to last summer and a tabloid headline that read ‘Walter’s Heartbreak’ above a story that told of Smith’s failed bid to take control of Rangers in June 2012. To talk of his heartbreak was a little kind given that the bid failed partly because, as Malcolm Murray subsequently pointed out, there was actually no formal bid – he called it empty posturing – and partly because even if there was a bid it was too little, too late. By the time Smith, Jim McColl and Douglas Park mounted their white steeds and galloped over the horizon in Govan, calling on Charles Green to “step aside” in the interests of Rangers, Green had already secured the business and assets for a song.
What took them so long? Where had they been? They made no secret of their concern about the motivation of Green and his group. They were spot-on there. So why wait until Green had done the deal before appearing on the scene? On these pages in the past I equated their action to somebody busting in on a funeral with a defibrillator.
Smith asked Green to step aside in the interests of Rangers. Appealing to his sense of fair play wasn’t going to change the course of events. The one thing that Green would have listened to was an offer. Money doesn’t talk to Green, it hollers like a banshee. Smith’s group had the financial clout to get the Yorkshireman off the scene and they didn’t deliver. They spoke openly of their serious reservations about Green’s mysterious group but didn’t do what needed to be done.
We could talk about Smith’s axis of excess with David Murray back in the day when Rangers thought they had money when in actual fact what they had was credit and iffy tax schemes, which eventually came back to trouble them and helped cause the spectacular implosion. More recent events show that the hubris of the 1990s and early 2000s hasn’t been fully purged.
Smith was right to be anxious about Green. For months, Green attempted to get him on board and was getting nowhere. Getting Ally McCoist’s imprimatur was incredibly valuable to Green and the chances are that his regime would not have got off the ground had McCoist stayed true to his own initial feelings about the Yorkshireman, but he didn’t.
The endorsement of McCoist helped shift season tickets and helped endear Green to the Ibrox faithful after an early and bitter stand-off with the supporters, featuring a death threat. Getting McCoist on side – publicly at any rate – was good, but getting Smith to join him was equally important given the IPO last December. In November, Walter jumped into bed with Green. They shook hands and smiled for the cameras. One big happy family again. Smith became a non-executive director.
The veneer of calmness was what Green was looking for and thanks to two Rangers icons, he got it. Both men would have been better advised to stick to their original positions on Green and his cohorts. By changing their minds, they played their own part in facilitating the embarrassment that followed. It can’t have been that much of a surprise, given how dubious they were about Green in the first place.
Smith became chairman last June, not because he wanted to but because he felt he had to in the wake of the in-fighting at Ibrox, the dysfunctionality of the board as he later described it. It was to his credit that he moved into a position that he had no experience of. He knew he lacked the tools but, equally, he vowed that he would be as hands-on as he could possibly be. “No-one should believe that I see my role as a passive one,” he said. “That hasn’t been my way in the past and it won’t be my way in the future.”
Encouraging words for the Rangers fans who craved authority and order at the top of the club, but it’s easy to see how Smith was virtually powerless in that bonkers regime of Green’s. You can’t blame him for walking away from the civil war. But some of the things he said on Tuesday jar a little all the same. His comments on the financial waste at Ibrox, under his watch in part, demanded explanation. “I knew they [Rangers] would make a loss [for the financial year ended 30 June] but I wasn’t sure exactly what it would be. It was quite a surprise when it came out to be such a large figure.”
Quite a surprise? Smith was chairman for the end of that period. Did he ask questions about the financial state of the club while he was there? Did he get answers? Were the answers truthful? If yes, why was he then surprised when the accounts revealed such a massive cash-burn? If no, then did he feel people inside the club had lied to him? Smith was chairman. He should have known, shouldn’t he? Having the business savvy to be able to do something about the obscene bonuses being dished out would have been a different matter entirely, but as chairman he should have known. Unless he was a passive chairman, which he said he wouldn’t be.
On the football side of it, it’s pretty clear that Smith had no issue with McCoist earning £825,000 a year. Also, he has said that giving a player a wage of £7,500 a week (Ian Black, for one) while in the Third Division was not such a big deal. Presumably he had no truck with other deals, like the one given to Fran Sandaza that would have seen the Spaniard’s salary rise to £10,000 a week in the final year of his contract.
The overall wage bill in the Third Division was £7.8 million. Smith said: “People come out and say ‘Ah, it’s not necessary for them to have those players in that division’. But it’s not just the division that matters at Rangers, it’s the fact that you have 45,000 people coming to watch something on a football pitch…They are still losing money. But when you make a decision to be involved at Rangers, there is no common sense to it. The financial bit of Rangers Football Club and common sense don’t often go together.”
That’s a remarkable statement when you think about it. What is wrong with Rangers attempting some common sense in their spending? Why be so accepting of a lack of common sense? It didn’t have to be that way. There is no law – apart from the law of hubris – that says Rangers have to lack common sense in their finances. This is the 2013 version of David Murray’s freakonomics. ‘We are Rangers and we’ll spend what we like’. Either through arrogance or stupidity – or both – that mindset hasn’t changed all that much despite the torment.
What would have been so wrong with offering Black £3,000 a week instead of £7,500? What would have been the problem had McCoist been put on £400,000 from the point of administration instead of continuing on £825,000? Why is the wage bill so eye-wateringly high for a club in the Third Division? Because there is no common sense at Rangers, says Smith. Instead of just accepting it, how about doing something about it? Incredibly, it wouldn’t appear that the penny has dropped yet.
The former manager deserves all the respect for what he achieved in the game, but in the on-going crisis at Ibrox, he is not blame-free. Rangers are still stuck in a financial time-warp. And many people have allowed it to happen.
Ok had 15. Must get up. Have a good day, Bhoys and Ghirls.
HH
CRC
The club who do dignity ……….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451353/Loaded-magazine-owner-Paul-Baxendale-Walker-court-battle-ex-model-ownership-300k-flat.html
#fearless wee oscar is on a celticrollercoaster
06:37 on 10 October, 2013
10 more minutes, lazy article been up since 05:00 and now on the fast Train to G1…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Good morning friends from a dry, clear and chilly (looking) East Kilbride.
The power of tabloids….. DR who had the MBB loved by the Sevco hordes, now pull the govanits fans strings to protest, DR need those Sevco fans to keep buying the rag
Rangers Fans Are United: We Demand Change – The Protests Won’t Stop (Daily Record)
Rangers fans are united. We demand change and the protests won’t stop until the board is finally Kicked out.
RANGERS fans’ chief Drew Roberton insists the Ibrox support is as unified as it’s ever been – and won’t stop protesting until the current board are overthrown.
Walter Smith admitted this week he’s never seen protests like the ones he witnessed at Somerset Park on Sunday when Gers fans made their feelings known live on TV about what they think of the hierarchy at their club.
In the past, they’ve been guilty of being fractious and split on most issues at Rangers. But now, Roberton is adamant all fans are unanimous in their views that major changes must take place at the agm on October 24.
There is a movement – initiated by billionaire Jim McColl and businessman Paul Murray – to oust chief executive Craig Mather, finance director Brian Stockbridge and board member Bryan Smart.
Judging by the banners unfurled during the 2-0 victory over Ayr at the weekend, the supporters have made their minds up as well.
Roberton, spokesman for the Rangers Supporters’ Association, believes it’s the first time in decades fans have been united in their stance. And he warned the boardroom’s current incumbents their mood isn’t about to change any time soon.
He told Record Sport: “The feeling among the fans is very clear. They want change and the protests won’t let up until they get it. The strength of feeling among the support and continued protests have actually surprised me.
“Over the years, Rangers fans have generally been angry today and over it tomorrow. But now the fans have the bit between their teeth. These protests will not go away between now and the agm, at the very least.
“They want certain people out. And the best way to do that is to make it known to shareholders they are unhappy with the board.
“In all my years watching Rangers I’ve never known as many fans to be united on one particular subject.
“They made their feelings clear at Ayr. No matter how they try to dress it up, the figures in the annual accounts – considering the money brought in – just don’t look good. I think that will continue until the likes of Mather and Stockbridge are out the door.”
With the agm looming, the general perception is Rangers’ future will lie in the hands of the institutional investors and the big “money men” associated with the club. But Roberton says that’s not the case and is certain ordinary fans have a crucial role to play.
He said: “It’s vitally important that the support sticks together because, of the total shareholding, ordinary punters have around 12 per cent of it.
“Come the agm that 12 per cent could sway the vote. People probably think fans on the street can’t influence it but they can. If certain votes are close, the fans’ 12 per cent could have a huge bearing.”
Roberton would welcome further investment – but only if the cash is used to benefit the club and current boss Ally McCoist.
So, after Mather and Stockbridge returned from a meeting with Dave King, Roberton urged fans to be careful what they wish for.
He said: “A lot of fans are sceptical now about people with that kind of money because they ask, ‘If you were that interested why didn’t you put your hand in your pocket when the club was available?’
“But I don’t think anyone has the right to expect people to spend their money on a club just because you think they should. Especially when you’re unsure where exactly that money will go.
“My view is King is thinking along similar lines to McColl, in that he doesn’t want to pay any money to see the likes of Mather and Stockbridge go.
“I’m assuming King wants change at boardroom level but, like McColl, he wants money he puts in to go towards the club, not the people running it. Whether it’s King or anyone else, our view is there’s a drastic need for change.
“But it’s difficult to nail colours to anyone’s mast because, after what we’ve been through already at Rangers, you could be made to look stupid in six months time.”
That’s why Roberton feels Walter Smith refused to condemn the likes of Mather but suggested money raised over the summer has been used to serve individuals, as opposed to the club itself.
He added: “Walter was clever with his comments this week. He’s alluding to certain things and allowing fans to make their own mind up.
“But he has already backed the requisitioners so, from that point of view, his stance is clear.
“When he resigned from the board he seemed to be behind Mather. But I’m not sure if he’s changed his mind on that now.”
DEFIANT Andy Kerr believes Rangers fans’ current campaign against the Ibrox board is unique and he’s adamant supporters are now singing from the same hymn sheet.
The spokesman for the Rangers Supporters Assembly says that if the October 24 agm doesn’t bring change to the club’s hierarchy it will only make protesters more determined to force it through.
Kerr says the vociferous efforts to get rid of Craig Mather and Brian Stockbridge are unlike anything he’s seen at Ibrox in years.
For once, he’s convinced almost all the support are behind the same cause, which was evident at Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Ayr at Somerset Park.
They made their feelings clear with banners and chants demanding a shake-up of the boardroom and Kerr insists they have now reached the point of no return.
He said: “I would agree that the vast majority of the fans are united now in what they want. They are now thinking the same way.
“There will always be a small group who think, ‘This is not Rangers’ but that’s not to say they disagree. They just feel uncomfortable protesting.
“But there is very much a unified stance now. That has been clear at recent games, like Ayr on Sunday.
“If you compare it to the ‘David Murray Out’ campaign a few years ago, this is very different. That was really fragmented and fizzled out quickly.
“This time, there seems to be more fervour and more co-ordination in people’s thinking. They are all of the same mind – they want change at boardroom level.
“I definitely expect the protests to continue until they get what they want. And if we go through the agm on October 24 and it’s still the status quo, will the fans say, ‘That’s fine.’
“I tend to think not. It’s gone too far for that now.”
http://www.scotzine.com/2013/10/is-walter-smith-only-a-tool-to-win-over-rangers-fans/
Is Walter Smith a tool ? Rhetorical question…………
Morning,
So Dave King about ride over the horizon with his saddle bags of Billions.
SFA Fit and Proper test is an absolute sham I take it seeing as he was a Director when rangers were liquidated.
lionroars67
06:51 on
10 October, 2013
Thanks for posting that.
Is there any possible reason why any informed Celtic supporter would be anything other than deliriously happy with the State of the Glasgow Celtic Nation?
Well,apparently yes.
Unfortunately,there are some who seem determined to generously share their dissatisfaction in an attempt to persuade us that our happiness is unfounded and inappropriate.
They`ll have to try much harder.
The ship is steady,on course and heading to …..calm and profitable waters.
Hail Hail the stewards of the good ship “Celtica.”
asonofdan
Rules , regulations and Laws only apply to everyone else not to Tribute Act FC .
Top of the morning to you all from Fife on this fine autumn morning.
I hope the weather stays fair for the bhoys and girls supporting the Axe the Act candidate in Govan. I can’t make it, but wish them all the best.
I was at the match when mounted police officers charge the fans leaving down Janefield Street. The Glasgow police took their cue from Maggie Thatcher who had unleashed mounted police on the striking miners at Orgreave.
Some police officers can’t get enough power and those at Janefield Street had it and misused it.
The Glasgow police are now taking their cue from Alex Salmond to drive a coach and horses through civil liberties and human rights in Scotland.
Some police officers can’t get enough power and those who are enforcing the Draconian OBFM laws, like their predecessors at Janefield Street have it and are misusing it to justify the Act.
Dawn raids for singing a sad song about hunger strikers. Sad to see this in the twenty-first century. George Orwell couldn’t have imagined things would be this bad.
First they came for the communists ,
and I didn’t speak out because I
wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I
wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade
unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I
wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for
me.
ASonOfDan,
With such eloquent lines, I think you could have spoke for yourself :-)
Morning, blue skies and seriously chillin in the Chilterns…
“Roberton would welcome further nvestment – but only if the cash is used to benefit the club and current boss Ally McCoist…”
What makes these bears believe these things cant be mutually exclusive.
Still there is a dim light at the end of a long tunnel…
“But it’s difficult to nail colours to anyone’s mast because, after what we’ve been through already at Rangers, you could be made to look stupid in six months time.”
Well, well, well…
Fool me once shame on you
Fool me twice shame on you
Fool me thrice shame on you
Fool me a fourth time….. wait a wee minute, there summit a bit odd going on here…
TOO little TOO late me thinks…
Looking forward to the Armaggedon General meeting.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/one-rangers-director-resigns-and-then-there-were-four/
Morning all. Clear skies and very cold down here.
Anyone taking bets at how long the latest incarnation fae Govan will bring ignominy on Scotland?
Did George Galloway’s motion reach the floor of Parliament? Haven’t seen or heard anything to that effect.
Talk in the media this morning that Dunfermline may be in real trouble because of an expensive lease to their training ground, owned by one G Masterson. Liquidation might be on the cards.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24467371
Jack Wilshere yesterday did his bit for English nationalism, the EPL is a league in which the English are a minority
hoopy-do
07:53 on
10 October, 2013
The irony is all those groups he wants to defend are under attack from the rotten system he wants to keep………….. whoosh
Morning all from gay Paree, where the sun is out and the sky is blue.
Another morning that heralds yet another day that Ally with shed circa 40 000 pounds.
Not Ally exactly, cos that’s pound sterling not pound fat, but the company/club/team of which he is the figureheed.
Gardez la Foi
Sixtae
So the suggestion is the Diamond Dave King will be coming back to RIFC as chairman. I’ll be paying quite close attention to any announcement to the Stock Exchange to see if warrants are involved. It’s an old Craig Whyte trick, which I’ll explain very briefly.
Let’s say he invests £8M or so to get approx. 20M shares (very roughly at current price). As part of the deal he also get’s warrants to buy 20M additional shares at a price of 10p.
So the time comes that Dave needs some cash for himself, and he decides he’ll use RIFC as his vehicle to get it. He can’t just take it out the bank account. What he does is he sells 5M shares for £2m. He then exercises his warrants for 5M shares, and this costs him £500k.
Net result Dave King still owns 20M shares (although his overall percentage drops, since new shares have been issued by him exercising his warrants) – but he’s now also got £1.5M in his pocket.
I could be way off the mark but it’s definitely something I’ll be looking out for.
When are they going to come for the Martin niemoller quoters?
weeminger
Wow!
I always suspected I should’ve done something other that an Engineering degree.
Ach, well !
From Corsica
@FrPaulStone We all know that Ian Hart worked for many years for David Murray’s property group, don’t we? (and not in a junior capacity)
First they came for the czar and his five children
Then they came for the rich peasants,the Kulaks
Then they came for anyone who Stalin happened to disagree with
Then they came for anyone who agreed with Stalin
Then they came for the grain to starve 6 million or so Georgians.
Then they came for a pact with Hitler.
Then they came for the cream of the Polish officer corps.
Then they came for the undertakers to bury the 30 million or so of Stalin`s Soviet victims.
Obscure fact of the day: the shortest war ever recorded was the Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896 – it lasted a whopping 38 minutes with 500 casualties for the locals and one British sailor injured.
Tom English has finally grown a pair.
!!Bada Bing!!
Is he on the Telly
macjay
That’s a pretty major rewriting of history. I always thought it was Nazi Germany that was responsible for the death of so many millions of Soviet citizens.