Blogging on the move right now but want to pass comment on one part of the statement by Aberdeen chairman, Stewart Milne. As he confirmed his club would place the fifth and decisive vote against Sevco being allowed access to the SPL next season he said:
“Reorganisation of the game is a priority and is something we have been actively involved in for a long time, but it is not something that should be rushed through just to deal specifically with one club.
“As we have indicated there are a number of other areas that we feel need to be addressed openly in the coming period if Scottish football fans are to feel that their views have been properly taken into account.”
Those well-paid executives who work for us and on Friday met to discuss a way to reorganise the league structure in the next couple of weeks should pay heed. As Mr Milne suggests, we are the game, not you.
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7. Implement Hector Avo’s ladder system.
kit,
I’m strugglin to keep my concentration reading JF and BRTH a they’re sometimes no bad, I get paid to interpret british standards and the like,bggered if I’m going to trawl through some report thats unlikely to ever be put in place. Then again I’ll probably go through it at some point.
I’m more interested in the rationalisation of the rules of association, the ambiguities are the root of all the problems in Scottish football. How many discussions have we had on here were the rule has been posted and interpreted about 4 or 5 different ways, so no bloody lawyers either. The language as to be simplem and if ambiguity is idetified during draft then clarification of whats not to happen is noted.
I got it wrong, pages 85 to 102 sort of tells the SFA they are Dinosaurs’ .
Jimphil70
These guys went in as supportrs/punters who loved football , were concerned abouts its future and using their experience of constructing governance and understanding the principles of good governance came up with recommedations that could be applied in Scotland with no further work but Scottish pride would not allow that.
Im as prejudiced against politcs and politicians as a breed as the next man but I would not stop that prejudice stop me using them.
For example the reason why rules are not applied is no accountability at the SFA. Address that by reforming how they govern themselves will produce what you seek. To make them reform themselves you need to apply pressure and the Working Party are doing that with it being goverment interference.
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire:
On those pages are recommendations that echo what you are calling for. The fact that Two years later the ‘blazers’ have done hee-haw about them is a sad indictment on their determination to hold onto office and pensions with traditional prejudice and incompetence.
kit,
I think I’ve seen those suggestions posted before, thats what I like about this place, I tend to find the most relevant issues are dragged out the documents and posted, which saves most of us the hassle of the trawl.
:o)
anyroadup
time for bawbaws
night night god bless n
hail hail
Hi Kit
I must hit the scracher now but quickly reading that McLeish report I wonder how it would have read had Rangers not existed when he wrote it?
Instead of R&D trying to use it to save Rangers perhaps they should ask McLeish to rewrite an alternative for the new reality of either no top flight Rangers for ever or a very weak Rangers for foreseeable future.
Auld Neil Lennon heid on 26 June, 2012 at 03:10 said:
Jimphil70
We as Celtic supporters love Celtic
That is us and many other ib our pesence or what ever
We love the game, play it , imagine it , project it , we love it and you cannot stop it we want it as Celtic fans we look forward to everything that comes next
Hi folks
Well l need to get up for work at 7 but just can’t get to sleep as today or l should say yesterday was just far too good. The elimination of Sevco from the SPL plus the start of a criminal investigation into the debacle at ibroke is a momentous day. While l felt these were the right things to happen l feared they wouldn’t, now l can only hope that the titles that should have gone to Tommy Burns and Phil O’Donnell are actually stripped from Rangers (deceased ).
l said to my son that he is lucky to have lived in this time to have seen the MON era and the King of Kings play. But l have seen these plus The Lions.
kit I know, but they’ve had more pressing issues, like saving their club:o)
There will be no movement on it until there has been a full judicial review and clear out of the corrupt incumbants, only then can we move on.
As I said t’other day, they are trying to disolve the judicial review pael for one reason only, its the only body that can challenge them, and its only after they seen the result against the hundead that the realised the power of the monster WE created. They are running scared, and must not be allowed to destroy the only decent thing about their stinking festering association.
How long has the corruption been covered up by the sfa, P67 tells us he has found out their main aim at the moment is to kill this panel, I suggest an EGM needs to be conviened to save and direct the judicial review panel to investigate why irregularities were allowed to continue over so many years, IMO this is what we should be concentrating 100% on.
Right bawbaws
I would walk 500 miles and l would walk 500 more just to be the man who the man who casts a no to newco vote at Ibrox door.
My friend is an Abedeen man, he tells me they are planing a minutes laughter before the first game this season.
Sounds good to me.
Born67.
Aberdeen
One time a cop pulled me over for running a stop sign. He said, “Didn’t you see the stop sign?” I said, “Yeah, but I don’t believe everything I read.”
Yesterday I saw a subliminal Celtic executive, but only for a second.
A good idea to raise money for charity would be an auction to see who gets to swing the1st wrecking ball to start the demolition of ibroke.
I sart at £1,000.
Celticbhoy on 26 June, 2012 at 03:59 said:
better idea. Celtic buy it. Sell tickets £1,000. a piece.
Dynamite it!
Dicaniowasadream
A minutes laughter is a great idea.
I was at Pitrodrie for a Aberdeen Rangers game at halftime as Rangers players came out of the tunnel they played over the tanoy Who let the dogs out?
Margaret McGill
tempting idea.
What about paying to be the person who turns the key in the padlock to closed them down.
The demolition guys would have to be careful with all that asbestos.
Night folks.
Celticbhoy on 26 June, 2012 at 04:10 said:
Asbestos eh? never thought about that!
..everything about them is objectionable!
Is it true that there are only two thing that don’t burn, Asbestos and ? . Well we won’t be able to burn it down either.
Born67
Auldheid:
For them to have instigated the McLeish Report in the first place, they had to have been concerned that the corporate paradigm in place would not pass an audit; consequentially the future of their pensions was not guaranteed. Had they embraced the recommendations immediately a lot of the angst and partisan gerrymandering that we are now experiencing would have been negated and the problem with Rangers would have been both addressed and resolved by enforceable rules as opposed the danger, and obscenity, of a public vote by the clubs.
The fact that they have not done this, whilst now indecently promoting the McLeish Report as a immediate and necessary template to save our game is – in the vernacular – ‘hun-speak’ and embarrassing.
McLeish recommends four leagues. I can count to four, surely the schools that they attended taught them how to do so too.
Or was the McLeish Report just a very expensive appeasement exercise and if so – for who and why?
The annihilation of the huns is a joy to behold.
However, Celtic were not involved except as the illustrious standard
that they cheated to try an excel and it cost them their existence.
I have no idea where the Celtic bored stand on any of this.
There are a few things for sure though.
Celtic did not lead the way on blocking Newco in the SPL. Other clubs did.
Celtic did not lead the way on blocking Newco in the SFL1. Falkirk did.
There may be no need for a vote now and it is obvious that the SFA and SPL are extreme hun apologists manouevering at the expense of Celtic.
Why the lethargy and silence from the Celtic Ouija Bored?
It’s Celtic’s future that’s at stake. As of today these SFA and SPL criminals are still in charge of Celtic’s future Mcleish report or not.
Margaret McGill on 26 June, 2012 at 04:48 said:
……………….
Morning all,
Agree MM, scotlands football authoritys have increased this by many factors due to their desire to minimise the punishments, they need to be ousted.
HH
Morning all from a very sunny Costa Blanca.
Just going to catch up on whats been happening overnight.
hope you all have another great day if you see what I mean ha ha.
Margaret McGill on 26 June, 2012 at 04:48 said:
……………
MM I think the Celtic board have played a blinder by their silence, they have not shown their hand and others are doing the work, no excuses for a Hun or Hun media backlash.
HH
It’s a glorious sunny morning along the NW coast of engerlund, the union jacks and engerlund flags are diminishing, balance restored :>)
HH
Morning all from a bright and dry Nw10.
So, is today the day ?
Repost from yesterday-well said,sir!
wonkyradar on 25 June, 2012 at 18:44 said:
Great to see an exclusive club member of our society’s highest level of Elite getting tough on those bloody benefit scroungers…why did we let the poor bring down the global economy?
Cameron has promised us he will make this indolent ragbag of obstinate dullards pay for all the hardship we’ve suffered…i’ve had to re-think having that fourth kid…we might have to get rid of that third car…we might even have to take two overseas holidays this year instead of four! It’s all the fault of the unemployed! O what deprivation! Lord are you hearing the despairing orisons of we, the middle classes, are you listening?
I mean they swan around tax free with their Lambert & Butler, their expensive Kappa shellsuits…living it up on crates of buckfast…gold sovereign rings on every finger…Nike trainers…8 or 9 babies…no bills to pay…What a wonderful life the poor must have in their massive council houses with the walls knocked through for extra rooms!
All funded by me with the tax my accountant couldn’t completely help me avoid. That’s a few less ski lessons for my little Chelsea on the holiday we won’t be having in Chamonix…I might even have to sell the second holiday home, our converted chautaux in Provence…I don’t fell guilty for flying…I do my part for the iceberg’s & rainforests: I use a tweed bag to do my shopping & drink fair trade coffee…it’s the poor that are to blame for Global Warming anyway! Exterminate them before it’s too late!
Morning All, picture August 2012: Padlocks on Ayebroke and no Bears in the SPL, Sportscene is a 5 minute show broadcast at 1.30am, BBC2, Monday mornings and presented in funereal tones. A “technical error” leads to the unfurling of the flag at Celtic Park being garbled. Nevertheless, it is impossible to miss the mile-wide grin on the faces of every fan at every match, as if a heavy weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
HH
Good morning friends from a dry, bright and pleasant looking EK. I wonder whay new joys today will bring. Whatever, we will rejoice and be glad in it..
G’Day from the pilbra in western Australia
Week with many ups and downs..range*s getting it from everywhere is great to see with the champions standing back and enjoying it all..
Fellow Derry man mcguinness to meet the queen has me head in spins all week.. Can see why it’s done but in the same week the ballymurphy families are refused inquest it’s tough to take.
Anyway Spain and Germany game .. How does everyone see it going ? In the outback so haven’t saw really anything of tournament but did win 2k on the England,Germany and Spain games so have put lump on the Germans and Spain to win.
Have another great day bhoys and ghirls
SIMPLY THE BEST close season ever.
Oh the cry was don’t demote us.
Demote us or you’ll die.
MWD
You have the Whyte to remain silent
By PAUL THORNTON and GORDON TAIT The Sun
COPS will investigate former Rangers owner Craig Whyte over his disastrous takeover.
The criminal probe will examine claims of financial mismanagement said to have brought down the Ibrox giants.
Meanwhile Gers’ SPL future was doomed as St Johnstone became the sixth club to say they’ll vote against a newco.
Last night Rangers fans welcomed the criminal probe into Whyte’s takeover and running of the doomed club.
The Crown Office ordered a police investigation into the purchase and financial management of the Glasgow giants which the tycoon bought from Sir David Murray for just £1 last May.
The move comes after administrators Duff & Phelps handed a dossier on the deal to Strathclyde Police earlier this year.
Rangers Supporters Trust spokesman Mark Dingwall said: “This is most welcome and not unexpected.
“Fans will be delighted that Craig Whyte’s behaviour will be exposed to the full rigours of the police investigation process.
“This police probe will have the ability to ask questions and possibly get people into a court.”
Prosecutor John Dunn will head up the investigation with police officers.
A Crown Office statement said: “We have instructed Strathclyde Police to conduct a criminal investigation into the acquisition of Rangers in May 2011 and the subsequent financial management of the club.
“The investigation into alleged criminality follows a preliminary police examination of information passed to them in February by the club administrators.”
It added: “The procurator fiscal will now work with Strathclyde Police to fully investigate the acquisition and financial management of Rangers and any related reports of alleged criminality during that process.”
Last night the new Rangers regime headed by businessman Charles Green also hailed the criminal inquiry.
Chairman Malcolm Murray said: “The rank and file Rangers fans are blameless.
“Rightly they want answers and for those responsible for the club’s fate to be held to account.”
Green’s consortium — which was reeling yesterday as Gers face being booted out of the SPL after it emerged SIX clubs will now vote against a newco — bought the club’s assets for £5.5million this month.
Whyte, 41, from Motherwell, was unavailable for comment but has always denied any criminal offences. He was fined £200,000 and banned from Scottish football for life by the SFA as the scale of the fiasco emerged.
He swept to power at Ibrox last May, buying Murray’s 85 per cent shareholding and clearing the club’s £18million bank debt.
But fans were outraged when it emer-ged Lloyds Banking Group was paid off using £24.4million from investment firm Ticketus on the back of future season ticket sales.
This deal is now the focus of a civil case at the High Court in London with a hearing set for October.
Following his acquisition of the club, Whyte boasted: “Securing the long-term future of the club is the most important thing.”
But on February 14 the 140-year-old institution was plunged into
administration.
Immediately after the app-ointment of administrators Duff & Phelps, the firm rev-ealed the club had failed to pay £9million in PAYE and VAT since Whyte took over.
Ibrox diehards hope the criminal investigation will unearth where the unpaid tax cash ended up.
Former fans chief Steven Smith said: “You have to ask where the PAYE contributions have gone. It is a criminal thing to take money and not put it where it should have gone.
“Whyte took Rangers from being league champions to scrambling about looking for a league to play in.”
Rangers’ debt to HMRC was also listed at around £21million in the failed company voluntary arrangement proposal to creditors.
Duff & Phelps vowed to co-operate with cops while sources close to Sir David, 60, said he helped inquiries“months ago”.
A spokesman for Ticketus said: “It would be inappropriate to comment.”
Criminal investigation into Whyte’s Rangers takeover
Martin Williams Senior News Reporter. The Herald
A CRIMINAL investigation has been launched into Craig Whyte’s takeover of Rangers.
The Crown Office called in Strathclyde Police to formally investigate alleged criminality after inspecting information handed to them by Duff & Phelps, the administrator.
The move came as Charles Green’s Rangers were effectively consigned to time outside the top rung of Scottish football for the first time since the inception of the Scottish Football League in 1890.
The Crown Office confirmed the investigation 13 days after joint liquidators from insolvency experts BDO were brought in by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to investigate the financial affairs of Rangers over the past two decades.
It admitted at the time criminal or civil proceedings could be brought against directors involved with the club over that period.
It is expected, as with the BDO investigation, that police will look into whether Whyte ran up debts while the club was effectively insolvent.
Whyte put the club into administration on February 14 over alleged non-payment of £9 million in PAYE and VAT taxes.
They are also expected to examine whether the deal that saw Sir David Murray sell the club to Whyte for £1 in May last year was legal.
Before he was confirmed as owner, Whyte set up a deal to complete the purchase of the club by selling off the rights to four years of Rangers season tickets to London-based agency Ticketus to raise £25m. Most of that was used to pay off the club’s debt with Lloyds Banking Group, a condition of the club sale.
Court papers show the administrators’ legal advisers told Court of Session judge Lord Hodge they believed the Ticketus deal was illegal on the grounds it was indirectly providing financial assistance for the acquisition of Rangers’s shares, contrary to the Companies Act 2006.
Insolvency experts have also said directors can be found guilty of misfeasance by giving ownership to someone who was not a fit and proper person.
Duff & Phelps, the administrators nominated by Whyte, have since negotiated a sale of the club’s assets to the Sevco consortium led by Charles Green for £5.5m after creditors rejected an agreement which would have seen Rangers pay pennies in the pound for estimated debts of about £134m.
Whyte, who has denied taking part in any criminality in his takeover and subsequent management of Rangers, confirmed last year he had previously been banned from holding a company directorship for seven years in 2000. He threatened to sue the BBC over a documentary in October that revealed the ban.
Whyte was also later hit with a lifetime ban from Scottish football by the Scottish Football Association and fined £200,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.
He claimed the punishment procedure carried out by the Scottish FA was a “farce” and that he would not pay the fine.
Rangers chairman Malcolm Murray said: “The board’s priority is to rebuild the club for the future and we are 100% focused on that task.
“We welcome any investigation that examines events at the club and will offer every assistance if required.
“The rank and file Rangers fans are blameless. Rightly, they want answers and for those responsible for the club’s fate in recent times to be held to account. Hopefully this investigation will assist in this regard.”
John McMillan, the general secretary of the Rangers Supporters’ Association said: “This will clear the air. The downside is that it will take some considerable time before we know the result of this, perhaps a year.”
Duff & Phelps’s David Whitehouse, the joint administrator, said: “We provided initial documentation to Strathclyde Police very shortly after our appointment … and have had a number of conversations with the police since then.
“We have fulfilled all our obligations in keeping relevant authorities informed of any developments pertinent to their jurisdictions.”
Defiant Green vows newco will rise from lower leagues
Michael Grant
Chief football writer.
Charles Green admitted defeat and began preparing for lower league football last night after the number of Scottish Premier League clubs saying they would vote against an application for his Rangers newco to be included in the top flight reached six.
Oldco Rangers never played outside the top division in 122 years of league football but that will be the newco’s immediate and embarrassing fate. Talks on league reconstruction will now determine whether the Ibrox club plays in the first division next term or is made to start in the third division. Either way an application must be made to join the Scottish Football League. The only certainly – unless clubs change their minds – is Rangers newco have no hope of gaining the 8-4 majority required to play in the top division next term.
Each of the SPL clubs, oldco Rangers apart, will meet at Hampden on Thursday but the vote cannot be brought forward and there is no suggestion it will be cancelled, even if the result seems a fait accompli. Cancellation would need the unanimous support of each of the 12 clubs but oldco Rangers – essentially administrators Duff & Phelps – will not be present. Green, chief executive of the newco, has not indicated the request will be withdrawn.
“We have to deal with the cards we’ve been dealt,” said Green. “It’s unfortunate that people have come out and made those comments when my understanding was that there was going to be a vote next Wednesday, but you know I can’t control other clubs. First thing, we’ve got to get membership of the SFA, then start speaking to the football league.
“I always want to play at the highest level and that’s why we made an application to join the SPL. Whether you’re a player, whether you’re a fan or whether you’re a director of a football club, you always want to see your club at the highest level. But cream always floats to the top and this club will come back and come back at the top, make no mistake.”
Green claimed his financial backers would not desert the newco in the Scottish League. “The consortium realise that if we went down the route where newco was the route, it was a risk. It doesn’t alter their resolve. Those guys invested knowing these obstacles that were outside our control and the resolve’s there to see this job finished.”
SPL clubs had been slow to go public with their voting intentions, and did so only after coming under enormous pressure from their own fans to vote “no to newco” or else face boycotts. Chairmen and owners agonised about weighing that against the probable reduction in income if the Ibrox club was excluded. But the demands of their own fans were overwhelming.
After Hearts and Dundee United came out against the newco’s inclusion last week, four more declared within 24 hours: Hibernian on Sunday evening and St Johnstone, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and Aberdeen in public statements yesterday. So far the oldco Rangers – still entitled to vote – is the only confirmed “yes” for the newco. Celtic have yet to declare, as have Motherwell, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Ross County.
One survey of Aberdeen supporters had shown 97% opposition to the newco’s inclusion, and club chairman Stewart Milne bowed to that yesterday. “Traditionally we have preferred not to make public our voting intentions, but in light of the interest and the fact other clubs have chosen to show their hand, I can confirm it is our intention to oppose readmission to the SPL for any Rangers newco,” said Milne.
Kenny Cameron, chairman of Inverness, said his club had responded to its fans’ views and had also been contacted by other supporters who claimed they would boycott games in the Highlands if the club voted ‘yes’. Steve Brown, the chairman of St Johnstone, issued a statement while in Switzerland for yesterday’s Europa League draw. “Notwithstanding the potentially damaging financial implications, the board believes sporting integrity should not be sacrificed in favour of economic expediency.”
Meanwhile PFA Scotland said it had a constructive meeting with Green yesterday on the implications for players of the formation of the newco, despite Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker exercising their right to leave the club claiming freedom of contract. Allan McGregor, Steven Davis, Kyle Lafferty and Carlos Bocanegra are weighing up a similar course of action.
Green and PFA Scotland hold conflicting interpretations of the players’ freedom to leave without transfer fees, but both parties said talks had been amicable yesterday. “We both acknowledged that, while we disagree upon the fundamental issues, we respect the other party’s position and allow the process to flow without acrimony,” said Fraser Wishart, the PFA Scotland chief executive, after meeting Green for the first time.
We will guard those Big Hooos walls.
MWD