I’m as interested in a good game of football as you, but when Atletico Madrid’s comeback was stopped in its tracks late in the first half of last night’s Champions League semi-final, I was happy for some old friends.
Despite a complete lack of empathy for them, it is impossible to dispute that Atletico are an incredibly well run football club which has achieved beyond all reason for several seasons now. They won La Liga in 2014 against two of the finest teams ever assembled. This was achieved despite an exhausting run to the Champions League final, which they lost in extra time, after allowing a lead to slip away in the final moments of the regulation 90 minutes.
A year later their Champions League adventure ended at the quarter final stage, but they were back in the final in 2016, this time losing on penalties.
For any team this period should be remembered throughout their history with enormous pride, but there’s a sting in the tale for Atletico: it was neighbours and rivals, Real Madrid who eliminated them from the Champions League on each of these occasions.
Atletico have great players, an incredible manager, have humbled many of Europe’s finest clubs, but city rivalries are zero sum games. In years to come fans will largely look back on this era with frustration and regret.
Were it not for their fiercest rivals strength, Atletico would be part of the European Champions club, instead of being multi-times losers.
What I’ve admired most of Real during these seasons is their appetite to get the job done against a formidable opponent.
With six-in-a-row under our belt, this is a trait we’ll need. I know you think that this is easy, but human nature doesn’t work like that. If you want to be ruthless when merely efficient will do, you need to work at it.
This season there is every chance we’ll inch ahead of the record-breaking points total we achieved when we destroyed all before us in season 2003-04. 12 months later an appetite for success was the last observation evident on a field in Lanarkshire. The end of every great season is the time to up your game.
I’ve incredible respect for those who left Celtic Park early this morning bound for Lisbon on their bikes this morning, and for the others who will join them along the way, led by our very own Mouldy67. Read about them here.
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For Reference from the Herald:
Martin Williams
Rangers trial: ‘Club acted illegally over chief executive’s contract’
RANGERS broke the law by awarding its then chief executive Martin Bain an enhanced contract with over three years notice without running it past shareholders at a time when the club was in financial crisis, a jury has heard.
The allegation was made in the High Court in Glasgow by former Rangers finance director Mike McGill. He said that he had been unaware that the club chairman Alistair Johnston had made significant changes to the contract of Mr Bain, the £633,000-a-year chief executive, in early 2011, several months before the club was sold to Craig Whyte.
Bain, now chief executive of English Premier League club Sunderland, had his contract rewritten to give him a notice period of 39 months – while other senior executives were on a “normal” 12 month period.
The contract move was described by Mr Whyte’s QC Donald Findlay as an example of “fiscal imprudence” on behalf of the board at Rangers, of which Mr McGill was a part.
Coming a few months before Craig Whyte bought the club from Sir David Murray, Mr McGill said he had not been made aware of Mr Johnston’s move until after it happened, and said he did not believe the board at the time was told.
Asked by Mr Findlay if it was a straightforward example of fiscal imprudence, Mr McGill told the High Court in Glasgow it actually breached the Companies Act as it would require the backing of shareholders.
Whyte, 46, denies the two charges against him, one of acquiring the club fraudulently in May 2011 and another under the Companies Act – which centres on a £18m payment between Mr Whyte’s Wavetower company and Rangers to clear its bank debt with Lloyds.
Part of the allegations against Whyte is that he pretended to Sir David Murray and others that “funds were available” to make all agreed-to payments.
These are said to include clearing the bank debt, £2.8m for the “small tax case” liability, a £1.7m health-and-safety liability and £5m for the playing squad.
The jury later heard the contents of a confidential email dated December 2010, from Mr Johnston to Mr McGill and other board members which talked about a £64 million investment including a player acquistion fund of £25m and working capital of £11.8.
Mr Findlay, cross examining Mr McGill asked: “It’s fantasy, isn’t it?”.
“Without anyone to fund it, yes,” said Mr McGill.
The jury also heard that the share purchase agreement between Mr Murray and Whyte included a “non-embarrassment” clause.
Mr McGill explained that Mr Murray did not want Whyte to be publicly “critical of his time at the club” and agreed it was “unusual”.
Mr Findlay raised the contract issue, while discussing the financial constraints Rangers were under before Whyte took over the club.
Whyte’s QC said: “Did you become aware of what might be described as some examples of fiscal imprudence on the part of the board at Rangers football club.
Mr McGill replied: “One I can remember, yes.”
Mr Findlay asked: “Does that relate to the chief executive’s contract?”
Mr McGill responded: “Yes.”
“And being the finance director…were you aware that significant changes were made to the chief executive’s contract?”asked Whyte’s QC.
“No,” said Mr McGill.
“Did you become aware that significant changes had been made to the chief executive’s contract?” added Mr Findlay.
“Yes,” Mr McGill replied, adding that it was in the early part of 2011.
Asked about what the changes were, the former Rangers director added: “The chief executive had been awarded a 39 month contract [termination].”
“And we heard from Sir David that in an organisation such as Murray’s, even for the most senior executive, 12 months was the normal termination period,” said Mr Findlay.
“Correct,” said the ex-Rangers board member saying that Mr Johnston had extended the notice period, and that he “did not believe” he had the power to do so.
Mr McGill added: “I don’t believe the board was told.”
Mr Findlay replied: “Well, that is quite straightforwardly, an example of fiscal imprudence, especially for a company that is trying to be fiscally prudent.”
“Yes, it would breach the Companies Act, [that] was the biggest issue, because any contract awarded to a director which is more than two years in term would require the approval of shareholders, and that had never been sought.”
The former Rangers director also admitted that no specialist investigator had been hired to carry out a financial background check on Mr Whyte before the deal with Mr Murray to buy the club was finalised.
Mr McGill said checks were carried out to discover if Mr Whyte was a banned director but admitted: “We were able to do very limited due diligence on Mr Whyte”.
He added: ” We also had his name in the public domain… and given the high profile nature of the club, there were very few members of the press that were not going to do investigative work [on him]. We were not relying on that. But we found nothing to suggest or indicate to us that Mr Whyte did not have the funds.”
The jury later heard that an Employment Benefit Trust tax avoidance scheme to pay staff and players that had potential to make Rangers insolvent with a possible £50 million bill from HM Revenue and Customs was dreamt up by Paul Baxendale Walker (below), described by Mr Findlay as a “struck off solicitor and porn star”.
Baxendale-Walker was struck off by the Law Society in 2007 and, following this, was convicted in the High Court of fraud. He had produced, directed and acted in a number of adult films.
Mr Murray earlier told how EBTs gave Rangers “the opportunity to get players we may otherwise not been able to afford”.
It led to the so-called “Big Tax Case”, which currently remains unresolved.
Mr McGill revealed that he had “reservations” about the scheme and admitted he had tried in vain to settle the case with the taxman by offering £10.5 million.
The week began with the revelation that Lloyds Banking Group was prepared to pressurise Murray to have club board members sacked and that two Murray Group employees, sitting on Rangers’ board, would be rewarded financially as soon as the club was sold.
In an email, Johnston claimed the club was being “throttled into submission” by the bank.
One email submitted in evidence said that if the deal went through and Whyte did not fulfill a pledge to put in £10million – which the bank were aware he had not guaranteed – then Whyte would take the wrath of the fans, not the bank or Mr Murray.
On Tuesday, the trial heard that Whyte did not guarantee to invest in the club in the lead-up to his takeover.
Ian Shanks, a relationship director with Lloyds Business Support Group, who worked with the club to manage its debt in the years leading up to the sale said he “intended” to put cash into the club.
An email was read to the court from March 2011 in which Ian Shanks told his boss in Lloyds Business Support Group that he did not want the issue to be a “stumbling block” to any agreement.
Other email discussions between Mr Shanks and colleagues were read which discussed the potential of removing banking facilities to Rangers and changing the board in the run-up to the May 2011 takeover.
Mr Findlay asked if this was intended to threaten and put pressure on the board to approve the deal.
Mr Shanks replied: “Leverage”, adding that it was “negotiation tactics”.
Mr Shanks also agreed that the club had hidden the use of funds from Ticketus in the transfer of striker Nikica Jelavic to Rangers from Rapid Vienna.
Prosecutors claim Whyte helped fund his 2011 takeover by getting a loan from Ticketus against three years of future season ticket sales.
On Wednesday, the court heard that if the sale of Rangers went through then Mr Murray would be able to keep his Murray Metals firm.
This side of his business empire was said to be important to him as that was where he started.
Mr Shanks agreed that if the Rangers deal was done and the club’s debt was settled then the Murray Metals business could be acquired for £1.
Mr Johnston, in another email claimed the club was being “throttled into submission” by the bank, months before Whyte took over and further argued the Rangers board were “masquerading as directors” effectively “stooges” for the “objective” of the bank.
The trial, before Lady Stacey, continues.
Yes The Tories…the same mob who would have you believe that they are the party of the Highest Morals, Christian Morality…. etc etc ?
I hate them as much as THEM .
HH
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 11TH MAY 2017 2:09 PM
Ernie Lynch
I totally agree. Auld anarchist that i am….id vote for that manifesto. Real socialism….that will do for me.
***
But still supporting that “World Power” nonsense that is Trident. Sad!
TIMGREEN
The political climate will have to change before trident goes….whoever governs.
A change in thinking is required there.
A change people are not ready for yet…but give it time.
HH
If the message is good and popular, but yet the public don’t vote for it; then the messengers are wrong.
However I buy the message and will vote for it.
HH.
For Reference from the Herald:
Rangers trial: Sir David Murray was aware of Craig Whyte ticket deal and was ‘comfortable’ with it
FORMER Rangers owner, Sir David Murray, was aware of the Craig Whyte’s ticket deal and was “comfortable” with it, a jury heard yesterday.
Prosecutors claim Whyte helped fund his takeover by getting a loan from Ticketus against three years of future season ticket sales.
The jury was shown a March 2011 letter from Liberty Capital to Ticketus signed by Whyte.
It referred to re-paying the debt to Lloyds in raising money by selling tickets to the firm and that the “current owner” was “comfortable” with it.
Whyte is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
The 46 year-old denies a charge of fraud and a second allegation under the Companies Act in connection with his May 2011 takeover.
A key adviser to Sir Murray, Michael McGill, said he was “appalled” when it emerged Craig Whyte apparently funded his Rangers takeover with money from future season ticket sales.
Mr McGill – a former director of Sir David’s Murray Group and then Rangers – was giving evidence for a second day.
He said he only learned about any deal with the firm Ticketus after Whyte bought Sir David’s majority stake at Ibrox.
A jury heard how a bid being financed in that manner would not have been “approved”
Prosecutor Alex Prentice asked Mr McGill if he had any “knowledge” of that.
Mr McGill: “No.”
Mr Prentice: “Would you have approved of that?”
Mr McGill: “No.”
The witness said he found out about any Ticketus deal in early 2012.
Mr McGill also yesterday denied the selling of Rangers had been a “firesale”.
The accountant had earlier told the trial that Whyte stated cash for the buyout was coming from his “personal resources”.
But, prosecutors claim Whyte helped fund his takeover by getting a loan from Ticketus against three years of future season ticket sales.
Before Whyte took the helm, Rangers had a sizeable debt to Lloyds Bank – including an £18m loan.
Whyte’s QC Donald Findlay later put to Mr McGill that the Rangers board before Whyte took over “pursued a spend to win model”.
This was despite the club being in debt.
Mr Findlay claimed Sir David had taken the club to his “heart”, but left it to directors who “manifestly did not know what they were doing”.
Mr McGill stated he could “not answer that” on behalf of Sir David.
The jury also later heard the tax scheme that could have landed Rangers with a huge bill from HMRC was “dreamt up by a porn star”.
One of the people behind Employment Benefit Trusts was said to be Paul Baxendale Walker – also described in court as “a struck off solicitor”.
Sir David earlier told how EBTs gave Rangers “the opportunity to get players we may otherwise not been able to afford.”
It led to the so-called Big Tax Case, which currently remains unresolved.
The QC said Baxendale Walker had been involved in EBTs and went on to call him a “porn star and a struck off solicitor”.
The trial, before Lady Stacey, continues.
Rangers: “A snake pit of rumour, innuendo, lies, intimidation, fraud, corruption… and these are the good points”
1 May 2017 / Martin Williams
RANGERS was a “snake pit of rumour, innuendo, lies, intimidation, fraud, corruption and these are just the good points”.
That was the brutal and private view of former club public relations guru Jack Irvine about the business side of the club, 19 days after Craig Whyte bought it from Sir David Murray on May 6, 2011.
The former newspaper editor’s apparent emailed pitch for the business of the Whyte-owned club was revealed at the High Court in Glasgow at the end of the first full week of one of the most talked-about Scottish trials ever.
Whyte subsequently did hire Irvine and his firm Media House to spearhead what they called at the time a “more aggressive response to Rangers’ critics within and outwith the political world”.
Whyte, 46, denies the two charges against him, one of acquiring the club fraudulently in May 2011, and another under the Companies Act – which centres on a £18m payment between Whyte’s Wavetower company and Rangers to clear the club’s bank debt with Lloyds.
Part of the allegations against Whyte is that he pretended to Murray and others that “funds were available” from him to make all agreed-to payments, whereas the bulk of the money actually came in a £24 million loan deal from the company Ticketus against three years of future season ticket sales.
The sale deal was said to include clearing the bank debt, £2.8m for a “small tax case” liability, a £1.7m health-and-safety liability, and £5m for the playing squad.
The “for your eyes only” email from Irvine, whose company acted for the club on public relations matters for several years, emerged as Murray, 65, who was at the helm of the club for 23 years before the sale to Whyte, completed two days of testimony.
The message dated May 25, 2011, which came after boardroom hostility to his takeover, and sent to Whyte’s solicitor Gary Withey said: “The events of the last couple of days will by now have convinced you that the business side of [the] Glasgow-based football club is a snake pit of rumour, innuendo, lies, intimidation, fraud, corruption and these are just the good points.”
Murray said he did not agree with the evaluation and remarked: “He’s an editor.” Irvine is the former editor of the Scottish Sun.
The email, which was read to the jury went on: “[If I] have learned one thing from all this football involvement, [it is] that the normal rules of business do not apply. Sir David Murray was one of the worst examples of this… he spoke to the press every day of his chairmanship, often 20 calls a day, he would brief behind his manager’s and chief executive’s back.
“When life was good in the first decade of his chairmanship, this was sustainable, but when money got tight and success on the pitch diminished, it all fell apart with a vengeance.”
Asked by Whyte’s QC Donald Findlay if there was any truth in that, Murray denied the accusations saying: “I had a good working relationship with all my managers. As for the chief executive, he was big enough to do his own PR, I wouldn’t do it for him.”
The week began with a revelation that Ally McCoist, appointed by Whyte as manager, had a gold-plated contract which would have cost Rangers an “enormous sum” if he was not appointed to the top job. Findlay put it to Walter Smith, the previous manager: “Somebody has put the club in a position that if they don’t follow the line of succession it is going to cost the club a small fortune.”
Smith said: “I had no idea that was the case.”
Findlay said: “Extraordinary isn’t it?”
Smith replied: “Mr McCoist obviously negotiates his own contracts, so he’s possibly a bit brighter than I am.”
The court was told that the sale to Whyte was precipitated by the club’s bank, Lloyds, threatening to pull the cash plug on Rangers if they blocked the takeover bid – which Murray had told his board was “the only game in town”.
At the time the club owed the bank £18 million and faced a tax bill of up to £80m if they lost a dispute with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs over the use of Employee Benefit Trusts to pay staff and players – which became known as ‘The Big Tax Case’.
The court was told that Whyte had struck a secret deal with Ticketus to bring in cash to help fund his takeover by selling off season tickets.
The club’s long serving finance director Donald McIntyre, 58, suggested the involvement with the firm while Mr McIntyre was at Rangers had been kept “hush hush”.
But, Mr McIntyre, who spent five months at the club after Mr Whyte took over replied: “There was no need to disclose it. We did not divulge to the supporters we used Ticketus…it was merely a cash flow smoothing exercise during that final year.”
On Tuesday Mr McIntyre agreed the possibility of Rangers going into administration was discussed by Ibrox directors several months before Whyte’s deal to buy the club was completed.
McIntyre said that it would have been “remiss” of the board not to have talks on the issue “given the potential tax burden” and put the date at about October 2010 – seven months before Whyte’s takeover.
Mr Findlay said The Big Tax Case was a “nuclear missile heading towards the club” – an “Exocet” – and that “nothing could be done to stop it”, a “potential terminal event” for the club. Rangers eventually went into administration in February 2012.
Mr Murray, on his first appearance before the jury on Wednesday, insisted that he would not have sold his shares to Whyte for £1 “with stipulations” had he known about the Ticketus deal. He insisted the first he was aware of any Ticketus agreement was more than a year after he sold to Whyte.
He also denied he ever had a relationship with Whyte despite 10 friendly text messages being exchanged between them and a lunch meeting in Monaco after the takeover where, it is claimed, despite him then knowing about the Ticketus deal, it was not mentioned.
On Friday it was revealed that one of Murray’s closest advisors, his lawyer David Horne, knew of the plan to buy Rangers with the loan some six months before the deal was done. A note in his handwriting – which Murray claimed never to have seen – referred to a discussion with “CW” over a possible £15m facility.
It also emerged that Dave King – then a director, now majority-owner and chairman of the club after buying a 15 per cent stake in 2015 – had shown an interest in buying Rangers, six months before Whyte took the helm.
Murray, in his evidence, said he was aware of a meeting in London where it was expected King would make an offer, but it “never materialised”. He said that King “had every opportunity to match, equal or buy shares in the club prior to Mr Whyte.”
Just weeks before the takeover, King wrote to the Takeover Panel expressing concerns about the source of Whyte’s funds “which may lead to a formal investigation by the police authority responsible for such matters”.
Then in October 2011, five months after the sale, King wrote to Whyte telling him he intended to claim £20m “damages” against the club, because his previous investment had been lost.
In the letter he said “it has become clear over the last year” that the “company officers” were “allowing” Rangers to be “managed in a manner that was against the interests of the company and me in particular”.
At times the relationship between Findlay and Murray in court was testy. Findlay was appointed vice-chairman of Rangers by Murray, but resigned in 1999 after a video emerged of him singing “anti-Celtic anthems” at a private function celebrating the club’s successful season.
At one point he reminded Murray of the rules of cross-examination. “I know this is very unfamiliar to you as it will be to many people, but I’m afraid the rules of this are that [when I put] my question to you, if it’s not objected to, you are are obliged to answer the question. Changing the subject in these courts is what we call not answering the question.”
Findlay told Murray: “You entrusted the club to a board that you believed were capable of following the plan that you had left in place but they bring in no investment, their playing squad ends up as a shambles and this is two months before the deal with Mr Whyte.
“You were being let down by people who didn’t have a clue what they were doing when running Rangers.”
Murray said he had “minimal” involvement at Rangers from 2009, when he stepped down as chairman. “I don’t agree about the squad being a shambles but the facts are there.” Rangers, when Whyte took over, had just won the league for the third consecutive year. After liquidation the reconstituted club was admitted into the bottom tier of Scottish football.
In a concluding question to Murray, Findlay said: “From you stepping down as chairman and Craig Whyte taking over, what had these men done to your football club, Sir David? What had they done to our club?”
Murray replied: “The football side was reasonable. They had not generated new funds and I don’t think there was an alternative plan to raise new money. I think the club was stalling.”
The case is being heard in the High Court in Glasgow in front of Lady Stacey, who twice complained to Findlay about the mountains of paperwork on her desk, saying that she understood they would be on computer. On the second occasion Findlay responded, “I don’t do electronics”.
Wee bit of political talk here.
I was WFH on Tuesday and as I’m not used to working in a quite environment I had the BEEB live news channel on for background.
There was a 10 min report from a town in Cornwall near Penzants. The reporter was speaking to 4 individuals with regards their voting intentions. There was a man in his late 40’s/early 50’s who was out of work. He wasn’t a very articulate chap. He explained that he had had to use the local foodbank to help feed himself and his family after being sanctioned for being 10 mins late for an appointment due to his bus turning up late.
This fella when asked who he’d be voting told the reporter that his intention was to vote Tory as he trusted Theresa May’s more than he ever trusted David Cameron’s government. I assume his sanction and use of Foodbanks occurred during the Cameron government.
There was no confirmation that the fellas name was Forrest Gump.
Now I have no confirmation of this but it is my opinion. But I believe this fella was an actor rather than just a citizen giving an opinion. I truly believe the BEEB is that corrupt now.
Otherwise the BEEB Saughton out the stupidest man to have the misfortune to breath oxygen.
MWD
Appetite of winners?
Well for an apertif how about “The Lions of Lisbon” a celebration of the supporters who went to see the first club (and only) in Scotland but also the first club in Britian and indeed Northern Europe to win the premier trophy in Eurpoean club football.
A play written by Willy Maley and Bertie Auld’s brother Iain it will be performed as a rehearsed reading on saturday night in Paisley Town Hall. It will have music and songs led by Wildcat theatre production legend Dave Anderson (the bank manager from City lights for those unfamiliar with theatre). It is performed by Feir Pley and includes some well kent faces from Scottish comedy and drama.
It promises to be a joyous night of laughs, songs and all things Celtic.
Tickets are still available (but not for much longer) from Paisley Arts Centre on 03003001210.
So if you want to celebrate rather than watch the Eurovision s*^t contest then get yourselves along to Paisley Town Hall.
Hail! Hail!
BRTH
I just wanted to let you know that I have been amazed by the work you have put in to organize the Lisbon trip. Sounds incredible, and I am sure that everyone involved with have an amazing time.
Given all the hard work you have done, I will make sure Torontony buys you a pint or two on my behalf … and not one of those cheap online cyber-pints, mind you … but a real one!
Copied from pieandbovril
Income from sale of Rangers by SDM to Whyte
From Mr C Whyte £1.00
Expenditure from sale of Rangers by SDM to Whyte
Bonus to Martin Bain £360,000
Bonus to David Horne £160,000
Loss to Rangers to sell Rangers to C Whyte £519,999
MOONBEAMSWD on 11TH MAY 2017 2:29 PM
Sounds like he’s bought into the ‘Stronger For Britain’ message the Tories are running with.
I don’t suppose it’s any dafter than the ‘Stronger For Scotland’ guff so many here have fallen for.
MWD
Id agree there…..media actors….BBC are pawns of the Tories….and Sky
The bias and agenda is blatant.
e.g. 4 or 5 outrageously clueless middle-class Sky presenters attempting the crucify Labour…..with Tory rhetoric.
Fake News indeed.
HH
MOONBEAMS,
Could be,but do you remember the female cretin who was filmed crying that she had lost her 30 quid a week through the Tory cuts.She said”Yes,I knew they said they were going to cut peoples money,but I thought they meant other peoples money,not mine.I would not have voted for them,if I had known”
Like Jury duty,I have always thought that there should be an intelligence test,before you could vote.I used to joke about this,but sadly,well,you know the rest.
ERNIE LYNCH on 11TH MAY 2017 2:37 PM
MOONBEAMSWD on 11TH MAY 2017 2:29 PM
Sounds like he’s bought into the ‘Stronger For Britain’ message the Tories are running with.
I don’t suppose it’s any dafter than the ‘Stronger For Scotland’ guff so many here have fallen for.
Oh,FFS,here goes Ernie Dugdale again.Just like Scottish Labour,cant be any political debate without “The Dug”mentioning “Indy2”,or the Nats.Have Scottish Labour got no Manifesto at all for Scotland?.Have they forgotten its the Tories who are in power?.Be better if they,like you,aimed a bit of vitriol at the Tories.Might help them with a lot of disillusioned Labour voters.As it is,they are going down the tubes in May.
Lisboa street party a-go-go!
Tremendous work by BRTH et al.
Party until 4am, flight home at 8am.
Note to self- breath mints for customs/boarding.
alex thomsonVerified account @alextomo 10m10 minutes ago
More
It seems the Scottish FA say Rangers will not be stripped of titles whatever Supreme Court’s Big Tax Case verdict might be.
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 11TH MAY 2017 8:56 AM
I’ve just been able to dip in and out of the blog these past few days but I want to quickly express my appreciation of all the kind thoughts expressed as we head towards the burial of my mother on Saturday
*I know it’s an old cliché “I know how you feel” but actually I do; 5 month after burying my mother I also buried my only sibling, he was too ill to go home for her funeral so it was left to me.
It’s now 16 years later and there’s not a day goes by when I don’t think of her and the sacrifices she made for me.
Some of us, myself included, like to talk eloquently about how our da gave us the Celts, but it’s our mothers who made us the men and women we are.
Good luck on Saturday
TURKEYBHOY on 11TH MAY 2017 2:52 PM
Apologies for daring to point out the pitfalls of a nationalist mindset.
I appreciate how upset you must get when people point these things out to you.
CELTIC40ME on 11TH MAY 2017 2:57 PM
alex thomsonVerified account @alextomo 10m10 minutes ago
More
It seems the Scottish FA say Rangers will not be stripped of titles whatever Supreme Court’s Big Tax Case verdict might be.
##
Who’d have thunk it?
The next big shock will be Celtic saying nothing.
Ernie Lynch
No surprises there.
The SFA can do what they like…..rules dont apply to the likes of them:)
HH
Who is surprised by the SFA stance.
Rangers is their club.
And the dafties who support stupid FC don’t have the intelligence to see it.
Ernie.
I’m really interested in their policies so rather than shout down your opposition please tell me what they have to offer, how they are going to pay for it and how they will improve life for the poorest in our society?
Without shouting down the SNP and nationalists.
I as yet am an undecided voter. Albeit I will never vote Tory. I like the cut of Jerremy’s jib but I still see a fractured party that does not like it’s leaders socialism.
The floor is yours to win me over Jim.
MWD
To the legal eagles. Would it be possible to sue the SFA as a group of supporters for being fraudulently released of our cash go support supporters football teams during the proven doping years, if the Supreme Court lands on the side of HMRC.
That sum across all supporters of a clubs must be massive.
MWD
While a constant stream of leaked documents and tapes questioning the true nature of the relationship between former owner Craig Whyte and his successor Charles Green keeps the close season busy, the full story of the series of frauds committed at the Glasgow club before and after Whyte’s takeover in 2011 may need to await either a criminal trial or the civil actions against his former lawyers, Collyer Bristow.
While nobody has yet been charged, the civil case is set for trial in October in the high court.
The claimants are not just the original Rangers club, via its liquidators, but also the taxman, the Jerome pension fund trustees (Jerome is owned by Worthington Group, in which Whyte was major shareholder) and a company linked to Whyte’s former partner, Merchant House Group. The club is seeking £25m from Collyer Bristow, HMRC at least £2.8m, the pension fund almost £3m and merchant Turnaround (where Whyte was a shareholder) £1m. To meet these claims, if it loses, Collyer Bristow has its professional indemnity insurance and a frozen £3.6m which survived the pillaging.
The “oldco” Rangers claim against Collyer Bristow reveals that the Jerome trustees parted with £2.9m, a third of the pension fund, in early April 2011 – a month before Whyte agreed to buy Rangers from Sir David Murray. The money remained in the lawyer’s client account until two weeks before Rangers collapsed into administration in February 2012. It was a supposed secure loan for which the pension fund received no security.
The Merchant Turnaround money and £24.3m paid to Collyer Bristow by Ticketus, in return for supposed season ticket income, was used by Whyte to repay LLoyds Bank £18m and take over the club. Ticketus has already won a judgement against Whyte for almost £18m.
The Rangers claim also shows that more than £800,000 of the money provided to Collyer Bristow was used to pay its bills (more than £200,00) and those of other lawyers (including Carter-Ruck, £19,000), accountants (Saffrey Champness £61,000) and advisers (Cairn, £63,000), as well as Whyte’s associates Aiden Early (£250,000) and Phillip Betts (£225,000). Many of these were, it is claimed, debts of Whyte or his companions, rather than Rangers.
Collyer Bristow’s defence is certain to be complicated by the position of lawyer Gary Withey, who was acting for Whyte but has now left the firm. He is accused of not only of misleading Murray and the club’s advisers but also of forging Whyte’s signature on a letter he witnessed as part of a conspiracy to damage the club.
This will be investigated in detail come October – unless the police raids of two months ago turn into charges and result in the civil proceedings being delayed.
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Private Eye 2013
So Celtic need to be more Real Madrid like???
What would jesus have said?
Margaret McGill
Jesus would have said…probably like me…..I hate Real:)
Good team….crap hun galactico persona
Couldnae lace wee Messi’s boots….any of them.
HH
MAGS…
What would Jesus say?
“WTF is going on?Why does a church of my name have such wealth,such gold,artworks,real estate?Why do they have a huge,ornate palace in Rome?Why are so many of it’s followers impoverished when it’s bishops and priests and cardinals live in relative opulence?What in the name of me is going on?”
I think he’d say something like that.
That and,”The huns are shite aren’t they?!” ;)
BRTH
Just read your latest update on Lisbon.Would it be possible somehow to have a commerative memento of the visit to the stadium and the festivities on Pink Street.A DVD at a later date, perhaps? HH.
Seems it is not only the roof that is leaking!
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha has vowed to crack down on leaks from inside the Ibrox dressing room.
The Portuguese has been unhappy with several stories about his first-team squad emerging in the media.
The latest concerned defenders Philippe Senderos and Clint Hill, who will not be offered new deals.
“We need to identify [who is leaking] and then seal it. We are a big club and a big club cannot have this sort of behaviour,” Caixinha said.
‘No leaks, no leaks’
“We are ruled and managed from inside out – but our way, not the other way around,” added the Rangers boss. “When I stay here, that is the way we are going to behave and work.
“No leaks, no leaks. That is a point we definitely need to understand.
“[The leaks] are not destabilising for myself. It’s something I don’t like but I keep doing my job.”
Corbyn In !!!!!!
WITS
If that manifesto doesnt attract people to vote Labour….nothing will.
HH
MOONBEAMSWD on 11TH MAY 2017 3:32 PM
If you support the policies then the only way you have any chance of seeing them being enacted is to vote Labour.
That’s it.
Moonbeams- I would be up for a claim against the SFA
Ernie Lynch
Forever Changes.?.A long way from All You Need is Love.Remember a Czech Refugee in London who told me that the first time she heard Forever Changes took her back to Prague in 68.-Lovely but Very dark and menacing.
Ernie
Is that it?
I’ll try again Jim.
Can you explain the policies, how they are to be funded, how the poorest will benefit?
MWD
SOT
Reminds me of Charles Manson vibe.
Flip side of flowers and beads.
Definitely ‘Something in the Air’
Most likely sugar cubed nirvana turned sour when reality kicks in.
HH
Corbyn…with Craigneuk voting Tory all the way up to Brexit.
What chance has he got?
Stairheedrammy
I’m unsure if it is possible to have a class action suit as they do in the states under Scots Law. Hence my question for the legal eagles on here.
I think this would be the only way to go to get justice and at the same time bankrupt the SFA to dismantle the old bold shaky knuckle squeezing bassa’s.
If it is possible?
MWD
WillieFernie
Yes we have made tentative approaches re filming at the stadium, Pink Street, The dinner and all that stuff.
If anyone gets any good photos we can use them as well.
Astonishing rain in Lisbon in the last half hour but now sun is beaming down.