Tuesday’s Telegraph suggested Mike Ashley is about to increase his shareholding in newco to 29.9% via a share issue, in contravention of his agreement with the SFA on multiple ownership. This morning the club informed the stock market the Ashely’s appointee, Derek Llambias, is now chief executive.
The key passage in the Telegraph article is:
“There is no certainty of anything like unanimous approval, but many in the higher reaches of the Scottish game acknowledge that a revived Rangers, capable of resuming the Old Firm rivalry and renewing the club’s presence in Europe would make Scotland more attractive to broadcasters and league sponsors, with general benefits.”
This has almost certainly come from the same kind of club source which in another lifetime were assuring journalists that HMRC would agree to a CVA; I know for sure the SFA are far from ready to rubber-stamp an Ashley land grab.
There are a few points which, despite blanket coverage of this issue, are not getting a proper hearing:
At current trading levels, Ashley is earning around £4m p.a. from newco as their retail ‘partner’. He is also their exclusive wholesaler, so the club is worth even more to him, let’s say £5m p.a. in total.
Anyone who tells you his financial pay-off is through having newco wear his branding on a European stage is either wholly compliant in an attempt to mislead newco fans, or is simply regurgitating information handed to them by PR agents, without the wherewithal to digest the information correctly.
He’s making £5m per year and he therefore has an interest in ensuring the club continues in its current condition.
The second issue is around the legality of multiple-ownership. It is not against Uefa rules (you can simply comply by one club not competing) but does breach rules in Scotland and England. I recommend not getting too hung-up on this point. In the event he was asked to disinvest from one of his clubs, Ashley could with pull a Blue Pitch Holdings/Margarita stroke.
For all you know about those two newco investors, I could own them. It’s a paper exercise for Ashley to move his ownership beyond the reaches of oversight, and there is nothing in the rules to prevent this.
The question for the SFA, and eventually the FA, is what level of Ashley’s influence, not ownership, they are comfortable with. There are no guidelines on this point.
A further consideration is that whoever briefed the Telegraph at the start of the week is likely to have painted a scenario that without Ashley’s next bung, newco is likely to go the way of oldco. This is far from certain.
If all newco need to survive another season is circa £8m it’s not a figure beyond the realms of possibility for some of the blowhards who have been trying to disrupt Ashley’s strategy in recent months.
My hunch is that the SFA and newco’s fans will be presented with a fait accomply – it’s Ashley or bust. What is certain is that the club will be vastly more inhibited by Ashley milking it dry than with a unifying figure. He has the makings of a memorable Ibrox owner, a true heir to Sir David Murray.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Magners ticket competition yesterday – and who donated to Mary’s Meals. The answer to the question, who do we play on 27 December, is Ross County, which proved to be trickier than I thought. Draw will be made this afternoon and winner informed thereafter.
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Choose To Kill the Child
and after the last song – of all songs – I’ve got to now go Christmas shopping.
I need a drink.
Good Luck to the PLC books 2014-15, how would we ever get through a day without them?
Can’t believe the crap on here tonight about ex players. I was born in Shettleston, 1950, little money in the family. All inspiration came from our heroes at Celtic……..I had nothing, but was inspired by the players for Celtic…..not a bad player myself, but early injuries ended my career. My motivation to succeed in other areas came from those players……Lisbon Lions….but also others like Cushley, Young, Divers etc.
Have done well for myself over the years and have met many of our legendary players. Great guys all. Also remember Joe Miller turning Terry Butcher inside out, again again…in the Cup Final.
The Celtic players inspire the young ‘uns for the future !
CQN Saturday Naps Competition
Lads, for those who are in the CQN Saturday Naps competition, please go back and post today’s selection at the end of the previous article :
“Midweek change for Celtic”
All the best, fleagle1888
Livibhoy,
Sorry for bringing up a post from a few days ago – I’ve copied it below.
Just want to say, I enjoy your posts, and it’s clear you love the football, and are a dedicated Celtic supporter.
But as I’m reading back and catching up, I feel it’s importat to address a point here.
I wasn’t making attacks on the Celtic Board for the sake of it.
Yes, every football club has some of these issues it seems, and yes, we have had out fair share of them. But I don’t recall such a disregard for the welfare of our supporters in my lifetime.
Fergus not only helped rescue the club, but he handed over the chance of control to the supporters, which we still have.
There are serious concerns at the moment regarding the Celtic Board and, sorry as I am to say it, your post, good as it is, is flippant on this serious issue.
When that is taken into consideration, it is then easier to understand why they would prefer to see vocal elements of the support removed.
At the end of the day, the men in charge are there to make money. Nothing else. That’s the market we are in.
So when and where do we draw the line and say, “Stop. Protect our supporters”?
If you take the above on board, it will explain why there is little done to protect our reputation (which it seems, is also another victim of the current policy).
The arguments put forward by yourself and others are that we should be grateful for what we have – that our young supporters are arrested on un-prosecutable charges, and that we have no money to spend on customer welfare, because, well, because of a number of excuses.
What are we paying them for? Why have we employed a former BT chairman for, a company with a clear and justifiable reputation as being the eptiomy of British politics, that uses its Tory-given monopoly to utterly abuse the whole of the UK. Was this a good man to employ if the Celtic Board were concerned about a reduction in “customers” as soon as the huns died?
Your clearly a clever, and good supporter – what we value – I ask that you think a bit more deeply about something you care about.
Apols LiviBhoy,
Your post below:
LiviBhoy
09:28 on 18 December, 2014
Excellent post by KevinBhoy earlier.
When did this obssession with the board begin?
Agree with alot of what he has posted. The board have always been self indulgent. It never bothered us all that much because the focus was on the pitch. The team were what mattered. I think the supporter deomographic has changed. Maybe that is having an impact? The majority of our support until the 90′s were probably tradesmen, manual workers and the likes. No a lot of our support work in finance and have a knowledge of the numbers. I work in finance myself and have done since I left school in 1995. The internet has had a huge impact. Information is more freely available. Over the years our support has used it to our advantage. Internet bampots have sprung out of every corner of the globe researching and delving into a lot of things and educating others on blogs and forums such as this one. Everyone can be a journslist, a financial expert and a football scout. Nobody can question your credentials. You post a link and some of your own text and there is very little anyone can do to question it. You have the facts or do you? It’s a matter of opinion. We have all done it.
I have lost count of the number of times I have watched Celtic fans debate, argue and even have punch ups at games, on CSC’s and in the pub. We are a passionate and diverse support. That is a good thing. You only have to look at the sheep who flock to other clubs and play follow the leader. Our fans in the main think for themselves and are happy to get their own view across and debate their point sometimes for months or even years.
Although there is nothing wrong with that there becomes a time when people need to agree to disagree and let it go. We all support the one club. The constant sniping at that club by our own fans sometimes leaves me perplexed. If you have an issue write to the club and arrange a meeting if it is a real sticking point. I do not see the point of continually making the same point over and over again on a forum or blog. It achieves nothing. In my days as president of my CSC I had 2 meetings with the club. I attended all the Supporters Association meetings and made sure that any member who wanted to attend came with me. Not everything can be sorted to please everyone that is the first thing to remember. The 2nd thing is that the club is our club not the boards. The board make the business decisions. The club is a huge business. Before Fergus came in it was akin to a badly run social club which was falling apart and in danger of being closed down. You can not have progress and change for the better without corporate input. With corporate input comes the suits. When the suits are in the boardroom they must fashion the club to suit the demographic to make more money. I’m afraid that is the route every large football club in the world is taking. You think Manchester United fans are happy? Not all of them are and even at the height of their success they started their own football club on their own values. They pay the living wage and should be applauded for it. Heart of Midlothian also pay the living wage. I had a quick squint at their accounts this week. They may pay the living wage but over the last 12 months they have paid off a lot of staff. They have lowered the wage bill so can therefore afford to pay the living wage without much impact to the bottom line for that cost. Dr Budge is smart. The Jambos are paying DD to keep that club going. Celtic are still looking at the living wage. Maybe it will happen and maybe it won’t. Personally I would like to see it being paid but in all honesty it is not my fight. If the employees of Celtic FC make a tand and say we want the living wage I will get behind them. Apologies if I have missed this at any time but I haven’t. Meanwhile the Celtic board get the flak. Our board are there to get the club revenues. Mr Lawwell is the CEO. The CEO who went to China and got a TV deal from China for £20m over ten years. This is a league with no sponsor and our CEO went to the far east and managed to get a deal that was thought not possible.
I think the board are doing OK. They could do better but couldn;t we all? I don;t bash the board about. I trust them to do what is best for Celtic. I leave it to other people to slate Celtic. We can all have frustrations and have the odd moan but I don;t continually slate Celtic. It’s not my way. My personal opinion and I will debate with others who do but agree to disagree once the debate runs it’s course.
As a supporter the team is our focus. If the team is winning usually we are happy. There is a distraction at the minute though. That distraction is Rangers/Sevco. We would do our best to ignore them in the main and laugh at them on occassions but not get overly excited about them. P67 used to lead with never interrupt your enemy whilst they are making mistakes or words to that effect. That still applies for me. Sevco are lurching from one disaster to another.
5 way agreement? Do I care a whole lot? Not really. Rangers were never going to be able to disappear in a puff of smoke. There are two huge clubs in Scotland and one would never be allowed to just wither and die. It was always on the cards. I haven;t wasted too much of my time on it. They are a mess and going nowhere fast. They are light years behind Celtic on and off the pitch. They have no credit line and are unlikely to get one. They are unable to get investors because their brand is toxic. Their fans will fall away quicker than snow off a dyke. They have no loyalty when they are not winning.
Celtic will be stronger if we all stick together. Celtic will always try and do the right thing. They may not always get it right but if you disagree with what they are proposing or doing give them a call, drop them an email or pop in and ask to speak to someone. You may be surprised by the reaction. I think a lot of time effort and ultimately some very good ideas and discussions take place on this blog and other forums but unless the club hear about it they will not be able to do anything about it. If I have a problem with what the club is doing then I go to them and ask them why that is the case. The fans on here have clubbed together and put a great advert for publishing in a Sunday newspaper. It would be an idea to put all the grievances together and send them off to the relevant people and get the responses. That we can get back to what matters on here and that is slating…………I mean backing the players (humour).
Everyone wants the best for the club and all of us remember the heady days of the past when it was just the fitba that mattered and who sat in the board room was not that important but in the most part a mystery. Do we know too much? Probably. If we want answers to the continued questions though it is better to approach the club and get them.
Apologies for the long post. Had a wee window at work and I must think Celtic all night in my sleep because I usually post at length first thing in the morning.
Have a good day fellow Tims.
LB
Still reading back,
Tom McLaughling,
I noticed you dismissed the night time posts on the early hours of 18th December as ego massaging.
Anyone reading back would know it’s nonsense, as are many of your posts which you try to pass as intelligent comment to those who don’t read back.
I would point out that you should never expect to see your own name in any ego massaging exercise – your ego doesn’t need it, does it?
As usual, you trivialize serious issues under discussion in favour of attention to your own name.
So, while you dismiss Neganon from your most recent pedestal of superiority, I’d suggest it’s actually your own posts that deserve a lack of attention, because they never fail to reek of hypocrisy. I don’t think you like it when the truth is pointed out to you – that once your point is disproven, you disappear more quickly than a hun in a tax enquiry.
Ouch…..
Once again Tom cannot keep his neb out… Sad compulsion.
FFM seems to have covered it….. But, I would add, Tom, since you ridiculed myself and others over the thoughts of 9/11survivors, specifically NYFD members and their associates, I have always considered you an attention seeking, egotistical ass, and you keep showing it over and over… I have ignored you as much as possible but… Here.
Your Tune
A wee song I sent you many years ago.
When you were originally stupidly offensive.
Know Thyself
Know Thyself!
Turkeybhoy
00:16 on
Morning,
Thanks for reply re. Dixie.I just found it strange,after all these years something like that appearing. Anyway, have a great time over the festive period, my friend.
lilys
The heart and soul of our magnificent football club:
http://m.independent.ie/regionals/droghedaindependent/news/celtic-greats-join-gary-kelly-for-a-night-to-remember-27112588.html
ProudToBeATimCSC.
HH.
Merr spivs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-30542821#
HH
Have any of you ghuys purchased extra tkts for the inter Milan game, ?
The reason I am asking is because I was going to buy one adult and two kids tkts for my brother in law and nephews, but the website says this deal is only for the one day which is the 7th of January,
That day is a no no for me, due to work commitments,
I was just going to buy the tickets for a wee Christmas surprise,
today would be the only day I could do this.
Thanks in advance.
Hail Hail
westies
04:11 on 20 December, 2014
Can’t believe the crap on here tonight about ex players. I was born in Shettleston, 1950, little money in the family. All inspiration came from our heroes at Celtic……..I had nothing, but was inspired by the players for Celtic…..not a bad player myself, but early injuries ended my career. My motivation to succeed in other areas came from those players……Lisbon Lions….but also others like Cushley, Young, Divers etc.
Have done well for myself over the years and have met many of our legendary players. Great guys all. Also remember Joe Miller turning Terry Butcher inside out, again again…in the Cup Final.
The Celtic players inspire the young ‘uns for the future !
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Great post …. Brought back memories…..HH
Should have said that I am a season ticket holder.
Hail Hail
Came across this, linked for the old Huns wiki page. Can’t believe I didn’t know about the McMaster thing – anyone know if it’s true?
The bitter rivalry with Aberdeen developed following an incident in the 1979 League Cup final when Rangers’ Derek Johnstone provoked the fury of the Dons support with what they believed was a blatant dive but which resulted in the dismissal of Aberdeen’s Doug Rougvie and a Rangers victory.[118] Then, the following season, Aberdeen’s John McMaster had to be given the kiss of life at Ibrox after a vicious stamp on his throat.
Happy birdie to you, happy birdie to you….
Happy birdie, Embrami-Ike, happy birdie toooo yoouuuu.!!!!
sunny calmachie
I think it is because they are trying to sell half price season tickets, they won’t release tickets to the general public until all season ticket holders have had the chance to purchase their own seat.
Also, didnt know the following info
“A benefit match to raise funds for the victims’ families took place after the disaster, a joint Rangers and Celtic team playing a Scotland XI at Hampden, watched by 81,405 fans”
Thant must have been some game to be at. Can’t imagine how the atmosphere would have been after such a tragedy. Anyone who as there able to recall anything about it?
Every day is a school day.
Stringer
Can`t help you there but your post has given me cause for thinking about what the occasion would have been like. Did both sets of fans go to their ` normal` ends? Did they cheer when Scotland scored? Like you said, after such a tragedy, the atmosphere is hard to assess . Unless, of course, one was at the game. Also, was there , for even a few months, a change in the hostilities between the two sets of supporters?
JJ
Good morning friends from a wet underfoot but clear skied East Kilbride
Stringer Bell
07:53 on
20 December, 2014
Came across this, linked for the old Huns wiki page. Can’t believe I didn’t know about the McMaster thing – anyone know if it’s true?
*think it was the wee ned willie johnston that did it.
Stringer Bell
07:55 on
20 December, 2014
Also, didnt know the following info
“A benefit match to raise funds for the victims’ families took place after the disaster, a joint Rangers and Celtic team playing a Scotland XI at Hampden, watched by 81,405 fans”
Thant must have been some game to be at. Can’t imagine how the atmosphere would have been after such a tragedy. Anyone who as there able to recall anything about it?
*I’ve mentioned this game before…..I wasn’t there but the MSM mentioned the scum chanting “Gemmell’s a bassa”….and not archie gemmell either….even in their sorrow they couldnae content themselves.
Stringer
From The Guardian in 2008:
“Johnston would eventually head back home, returning first to Rangers, then moving to Hearts. But the final years of his career were dogged by controversy. His most shameful act came during his stint at Ibrox, when he stamped on John McMaster’s head; the Aberdeen player needed the kiss of life as a result. “I’m not proud of that,” he says today. “It’s no excuse but I thought he was Willie Miller. Miller was a great player but he was a hard man and deserved some of his own treatment back. Unfortunately I got the wrong player.”
JJ
Good morning from Nordrhein Westfalen, just four more days until I am back in the Nothern Colony and a week until I go to Paradise to see my beloved Celtic. I thought I would start the day with some nostalgia:
Glasgow Garden Festival 1
Do you recognise yourself here, a young BSR perhaps?
The Glasgow Garden Festival 2
Cheerio. Golf beckons.
JJ
There are 2 opposing views on whether or not the Clubs authorised the SFA to implement the 5 way agreement …….can anyone ( like Canamalar / Auldheid ) point us to any evidence, one way or the other….
Incidentally, what an excellent post by Kevinbhoy above……..!!!!!!!!
Thanks Minx 1888,
Hail Hail
I tried for the extra tickets last week and was told that they are only selling tickets to ST holders just now who aren’t members of the home ticket scheme. Spare tickets will go on sale in January
How come when you fancy a long lie – you always wake up earlier than usual
westies,
Despite being a Celtic mhan all my life, I have never had the good fortune to have had much close contact with players or former players, that is until one night here in Perth in 1999, Billy McNeill, Jim Craig, Willie Wallace and Frank Haffey came to the Southern Hemisphere convention and we all had one to one access to these heroes. It was among the highlights of my life, chatting briefly with these guys who were the Champions of Europe, who I idolised as a youngster. What a few days of sheer magic, up there with my trip to Seville and my unexpected Saturday at Love Street in 1986, amongst many others.
These guys make Celtic what it is.
AR
I just read the Q & A in this mornings DR with the SLEEKIT one, ……..it was just as I predicted at the beginning of the week, falling over them selves to all hail the departing (walking away) super one, this is just one of the slap in the face tough journalist questions…..People can think you were a dud as a manager, so long as they realise you only ever gave Rangers your best?…….now cmon Ffs wuts that awe Aboot? Only in a glasgow newspaper ( and I use that term loosely) would you get this unadulterated pish, hahahaha, get me a barf bucket Ffs, how embarrassing is that?
Gary (Scoop) Ralston was the Pulitzer reporter.
Good morning Celtic friends.
V
ffm – i’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
04:54 on 20 December, 2014
Livibhoy,
………………….,
FFM/ Livibhoy, that’s a great post and one I agree with (thumbs up)
Hx2
jungle jim hot smoked
08:08 on 20 December, 2014
Stringer
From The Guardian in 2008:
“Johnston would eventually head back home, returning first to Rangers, then moving to Hearts. But the final years of his career were dogged by controversy. His most shameful act came during his stint at Ibrox, when he stamped on John McMaster’s head; the Aberdeen player needed the kiss of life as a result. “I’m not proud of that,” he says today. “It’s no excuse but I thought he was Willie Miller. Miller was a great player but he was a hard man and deserved some of his own treatment back. Unfortunately I got the wrong player.”
JJ
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What an absolute scumbag,……..typical bhun
jobo baldie
08:05 on 20 December, 2014
Good morning friends from a wet underfoot but clear skied East Kilbride
——————————-
no idea what part of ye olde EK you are in Jobo.
but no clear skies in my part
its been hosing it down all night and still is
;-)
tonydonnelly67
08:13 on 20 December, 2014
Hahahahahahaha….brill. ……….. But, what are you doing reading that rag, anyway
A big dod of pishing rain just passed through Castlemilk there heading for EK , you have been warned :(
67heaven … i am neil lennon ….the angels are with wee oscar in heaven.. ibrox belongs to the creditors
It’s Ma wee ma’s paper it all she reads, and likes the crosswords, she doesent ask for mutch so it’s her wee treat, I just have a wee swatch at it before I take it round, I know I shouldn’t ;)
foghorn leghorn – aye, but my post was at 12 minutes ago. It’s the EK micro climate remember! Now jusat starting to drizzle here in Southeast Murray ;-)