In order to give a fuller picture of what the next few days could hold there is one useful piece of information but first a recap. Back in October I predicted the Cunning Ruse to liquidate Rangers and phoenix as a Newco. Then, when Duff and Phelps first invited offers to purchase Rangers assets we predicted only Craig Whyte’s proxy would be in a position to complete a deal.
Given the situation the proxy will inherit, one final prediction – based on some solid information:
The proxy hopes to start from the Third Division.
If Newco inherits Rangers share in the SPL and competes there next season it is liable for fines and penalties due from the SFA and SPL, including what will be the most severe censure handed out in the history of British football after the Improper Registration of Contracts issue is concluded. They will be hamstrung for many years, perhaps decades. They will also need to pay domestic and international football debts.
However, if the start from the Third Division, they do so without any legacy baggage from the old Rangers FC. This would allow Newco a predictable three year penury and allow them time to engage with supporters of Rangers before returning to the SPL in 2015. Season 2015-16 would be business as usual.
This is not a decision Bill Proxy can take, however, what happens to Newco is in the hands of the SPL. Listen out for Proxy’s puppets suggesting the Third Division route.
For us, it’s popcorn time, the ice-cream is stocked and the sparkling stuff is in the fridge, but in all seriousness, past, current and now future owners have absolutely trashed that football club. To paraphrase Tarantino, they’ve got medieval on their… face.
Pop! And they’re gone!
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Season Ticket renewal through in EK.
An American sports investment company has claimed it is “not a party” in a tow-truck business owner’s attempt to buy crisis-hit Rangers.
Club 9 Sports had previously been involved in a consortium of US and UK business people that had expressed an interest in taking over Rangers previously.
Earlier this month it said it was stepping aside from the bidding process, before Bill Miller emerged with an £11.2m bid to fund a newco version of the Ibrox club, which is expected to be named preferred bidder for Rangers this week.
On Wednesday, Jon Pritchett, operating partner of Club 9, said the branch of Chicago merchant bank Prometheus Capital Partners does not have “any official relationship” with Mr Miller.
He told STV News: “Bill Miller was one of several members of a group of investors with whom we were working in our initial efforts for a US consortium to acquire Rangers. We were involved but were not leading this effort.
“Given the complexities of this transaction, the consortium agreed not to move forward. Bill decided he wanted to move forward on his own as an individual bidder for Rangers. The consortium was happy to step aside and allow Bill to go forward as the sole bidder.
“While we remain friends with Bill, Club 9 Sports does not have any official relationship with him and we are not a party to the Rangers transaction.”
Club 9 Sports had previously been involved in two fruitless takeover attempts of Sheffield Wednesday and Tranmere Rovers in recent years.
Mr Miller has pitched his proposal as involving an “incubator company” where the clubs assets would be sold to a newco for £11.2m before that money is used to achieve a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with Rangers Football Club plc, incorporated in 1899, and the firms are later merged.
He admitted that a CVA is more likely to be blocked by Ticketus, the London ticketing agency that struck a £25.3m deal with owner Craig Whyte for 100,000 season tickets until 2015, as he will not honour that deal meaning it would become a creditor owed around £27m, according to administrators Duff and Phelps. His offer would therefore involve liquidating the original Rangers after selling all of its assets to a newco.
The 65-year-old said in a statement released last month that his offer depended on the Ibrox club not being hit with further sanctions from the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football Association (SFA). A judicial panel appointed by the SFA recently hit the club with a £160,000 fine and a 12-month player registration embargo for several rule breaches including bringing the game into disrepute.
Mr Miller owns Miller Industries, which described itself as a “the world’s largest manufacturer of vehicle towing and recovery equipment”. Its UK arm is Boniface Engineering Limited and according to the latest accounts for Tennessee-based Miller Industries, it had a net income of $23m (around £14m) and the chairman of the board took home an annual base salary of $319,727 (around £197,399) with the company.
The American was previously appointed chief executive of Team Racing Auto Circuit, a stock car racing syndicate created in 2001, which Mr Miller hailed as “the most innovative concept ever introduced to motor sports.”
By 2004, the project aimed at rivalling Nascar had collapsed after failure to sell sponsorship for any of the participants, and Mr Miller, along with Mr Prutchett of Club 9 Sports who was also involved in the ill-fated venture, were targeted in a $50m lawsuit by former shareholders. The case was eventually settled out of court.
The other bidder vying to take over Rangers is the Blue Knights consortium, led by ex-Ibrox director Paul Murray and involving Sale Sharks Rugby Club owner Brian Kennedy. They were told by Duff and Phelps to up their initial bid over the weekend after putting forward around £5m in an attempt to fund a CVA for the club, which owes up to £134m.
Both bids also include, in addition to the funding put forward, the writing off of £7m owed in debentures to thousands of fans who bought bonds in the club to fund the construction of the club deck at Ibrox.
I hear Bill Miller has unveiled Newco FC’s new mascot…
…. Proxy Bear
Great article, Paul – that’s cheered me up a bit! Bill Proxy – like it! Or maybe Proxy Bear? :)))
The Battered Bunnet on 2 May, 2012 at 12:18 said:
Is that your re-written opus?:O)
SPL, Third Division, big fines, wee fines… none of that makes any odds to me. I just want them stripped of any titles they cheated to win.
Neil Doncaster cites Leeds, Plymouth, Crystal Palace as precedents… when he should be looking at the case of Dynamo Berlin, who cheated to win a ten-in-a-row now not recognised by FIFA.
Dynamo Govan has a fitting ring to it.
Granger-Banyard on 2 May, 2012 at 10:58 said:
. I also dont think it is possible that any newco Rangers have enough time to be up and running for the new season. We now enter the end game.
______________
I wouldn’t put it past them to delay the start of the season to give them more time…….
Or Dynamo Muscow……or Rangers musgo…
coat
WDH / poordeadking
The Loon fung is/was great altho’ I havent been in years.
NB – it has however been “temporarily” shut for about 2 years following flood damage from a fire above.
If it has opened up elsewhere I’d be delighted but their website has them as closed.
HH
Not surprised to see the Mullet apologising to the bares for getting a CL place for the team he manages.
He obviously does not think that much of his club or the Murderwell fans…
The Chinese Restaurant in New City Road is excellent to “Chinatown”.
Easy Parking and superbe food. por cierto
Paul 67
In relation to MBB selling to a PROXY.
It appears to me that the SFA as part of a sweeping reform of its own rules will introduce (very soon) stringent tests of football ownership. These rules will be written in such a way as to provide the SFA with discretion in their investigative powers to avoid significant extra costs to the association so the SFA can at their discretion thoroughly investigate specific transactions (eg. Dignity rather than East Fife getting the full treatment).
Therefore , these new rules will be drafted to ensure that the use of PROXIES will be banned and that if the association is not satisfied then it has the ultimate sanction of not providing a UEFA license or indeed a football license……..
I am sure a 2 or 3 day grilling from a top QC at Hampden to one of Whytes patsies with his photograph all over the internet may provide some discouragement.
Seriously though, the rules must be re-drafted to stop another Whitey scenario.
May14Liquidationcfc
Jim on 2 May, 2012 at 11:24 said:
I would accept:
• Oldco goes POP
• Newco goes into Div 3
• All tainted titles of Oldco are removed; expunged from history books
• All responsible parties involved in running of Oldco given a life time football ban.
I appreciate that this would do nothing for creditors, and give no recompense to Celtic for financial losses through footballing cheating, but for me would tick a lot of other boxes.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I would add an enquiry into the SFA to that list. However if the con men get their way what if the price of them staying in the SPL was:
1) Regardless of Oldco/Newco status no UEFA football for three years (Alex
Thomson’s point about UEFA now looking at taking a CVA as evidence of
instability and in effect giving a club three years to establish stability would support this and UEFA might stipulate it as an exception has to be given by UEFA to grant a club license)
2) The SPL direct a repayment of xP in the £ must be made to unsecured
creditors (as happened with Luton)
3) A points deduction penalty (not sure if this would matter if a UEFA ban
was in place, they could end up relegated and where would that put the SPL?) and in any case it would used Mark Hately style to try to devalue any titles Celtic win although other clubs might like it..
4) SPL Income withheld as in SPL FFP (hah) proposals
5) Oldco stripped of titles if players improperly registered..
6) Transfer embargo until outstanding debts to clubs are met.
7) And to get Celtic signed up – an enquiry into the SFA Licencing AND
Refereeing regimes to see what improvements can be made to remove distrust.
The first and last ones are my biggies because it was the lure of CL money to get out their hole that caused the problem with regard to Celtic and that
temptation must be removed.
Changes to the sysytems arising from enquiry recommendations would make it difficult to repeat the kind of influence Rangers have benefitted from at a cost to our game..
Would that give some assurances that a) they were not getting away with anything and b) they would not be able to act as before?
I favour your line but am looking at worst case happening.
I blame the Rangers fans and their ‘We are the Peepil’ mentality . Remember the ‘We deserve better’ campaign and the threats to Lloyds Banking group ? They were in safer hands back then. Don’t let them forget !
When Scottish football ends up in the mire don’t let them forget ! (because they will try to blame everyone else)
Document filed at Co House apparently.
So what happens now? Will there be a period of calm before Miller actually does anything or will the fun start straight away?
EKBhoy on 2 May, 2012 at 12:25 said:
Definitely and you can add the licensing and refereeing to what needs needs changing.
A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the “Chicken
Surprise”. The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot.
Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises
slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before
the lid slams back down.
“Good grief, did you see that?” she asks her husband.
He hasn’t, so she asks him to look in the pot. He reaches for it and again
the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking around before it slams
down.
Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation.
“Please sir,” says the waiter, “what you order?”
The husband replies, “Chicken Surprise.”
“Ah… I’m very sorry,” says the waiter, “I brought you Peeking Duck”.
Bidding now at £410.00.
Bidding closes on Monday 7th May.
Historic Celtic top signed by the slayers of Rangers (In Administration).
Fellow Celts, I need your help.
My parents recently had to go into full time care in Wellburn Care Home, Lochee, Dundee. Run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Welburn offers incredible residential support for those in need in the Dundee area. It is only a viable concern through the dedication of the sisters and volunteers and fundraising initiatives such as sales of work, coffee mornings etc.
The sisters need cash to maintain the home for the benefit of the residents, you cannot visit there and not be inspired by the work the sisters do.
All our favourite players have signed the top which is in mint condition and in a fantastic presentation box.
Forever more this top will be known as the 3-0 (going on 7) massacre top.
You can support the work of The Little Sisters Of The Poor by bidding for this Celtic top signed by the first team squad at this eBay auction.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Signed-Celtic-First-Team-2011-12-Champions-Top-Charity-Auction-Mint-Boxed-/320898089257?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4ab7044129
At a time like this I can’t help but think back to conversations with some fans from the dark side a number of years ago. They scoffed at the CQN notion of a “Generation of Domination” and how their accounts – and club – were ultimately heading in only one direction. Admittedly I hadn’t banked on Craig ‘Green and’ Whyte finishing RFC1872(IA) off in quite such a spectacular manner, but still.
“Schadenfreude” always was my favourite German word…
We all have to remember that this has nothing to do with football…..it’s about money,dodgy dealings & even dodgier personalities. Principle or morality play no part. It’s quasi-criminal,too,but hey,that’s bidness ( in this case ).
Rankers owe a lot of money to a lot of people. The main creditors couldn’t care less about history,institutions or fans. They want the money. And there is a lot of money to be realised. Ipox & Minty Park are chunks of real estate with financial potential. HMRC want to set an example,particularly to the big boys down south who have financed the EPL on an ocean of debt,dwarfing RFCIA’s ‘irregularities’. They have come unstuck; they have committed the cardinal Capitalist crime : they got caught.
Now,apart from HMRC ( god bless ’em), CW wants his money. So,because he is utterly discredited,he’ll pass his shares on,kinda like selling a debt on to a debt collector. Someone like Bill Miller will come in,strip the bones of Rankers,pass the proceeds to CW and take a chunk en passe as commission and the deal is sealed. They’re not called ‘vulture capitalists’ for nothing.
Then there’ll be all the court cases,all the legal lottery.
With all this hurtling towards them like an ICBM,the ‘ordinary’ hun stands no chance; they’re all in stunned denial right now,anyway.
They are finished. They can limp along in some Newco form,they could even retain their present name. It doesn’t matter. They are done,like the proverbial kipper.
In the end,it’s all about the money.
“Show me the money!”
ASonOfDan-McCall renews his free drinking badge in the hun cesspits.
How do you buy shares in a company when trading is suspended in them for not submitting audited accounts?
Cheers to all on the 90 days rule.
Obvioulsy I re-invented it as being relevant to a administration event not the FTT result.
Thanks
The Honest Mistake loves being first on 2 May, 2012 at 11:47 said:
Tonight’s commentary from ibrox:
There’s peepul on the pitch.
They think it’s all over……It is NOW!!!!!!
———————————–
Superb mate very funny.
Afternoon bhoys and ghirls, warm on the hun free mountain range.
What will be will be.
SORT THE REFEREES….SORT THE PROBLEM
Anything less will be same old, same old.
Mike Farrell @mikefstv
The MG02 document filed at Companies House by Rangers today is the satisfaction of a Bank of Scotland fixed charge dating back to 2004
Is it safe to assume that Ki is the star that is getting punted in the summer to generate cash.
Poordeadking
if it is closed take Por Cierto on 2 May, 2012 at 12:25 advice
Paul, am I detecting a change in tone? Are you feeling better/different about things this morning?
Swally’s favourite Chinese is PieKing F**ked
greenjedi
re clydes move…not so.
they have agreed in principal
to stay on at broadwood on different terms
phew…that staves off the smelly mob
for a wee while longer.
http://www.clydefc.co.uk/news/2012/05/01/4104/
The cost of the FTT lies with Rangers FC or MIH ?
Hail Hail
“The Knights’ offer is an initial cash payment and staged instalments totalling around 10 million pounds , but also involves removing the Rangers bond holders from the creditors’ pot (7.7m pounds ) and paying all the football debts (3m pounds).
“A Knights source told The Herald: “Our offer was equitable with Bill Miller’s bid. But you cannot complete a CVA without the shares – and the administrators are saying they can’t get them. Unless someone can get the shares from Whyte, how can you attempt a CVA process, even although the understanding is the cash offer would have been attractive to the creditors? It’s like being asked to bid for a house, but you’ll never get the title deeds” (The Herald)
Two questions:
Why would this be attractive to creditors?
How can you pay the footballing debts in preference to all other debts?
ASonOfDan on 2 May, 2012 at 12:35 said:
Is it safe to assume that Ki is the star that is getting punted in the summer to generate cash.
……….
That would be the obvious sale.
Joe, Vic, Beram & Scott to be the 3 from 4 in CM alongside mibbie another signing and the young bhoys.
Another day – another wad of dosh to D & P :-)
Auld Heid-We can but hope that UEFA are watching SFA,Doncaster’s moves very closely,both now and in the past.They should be afraid,they should be very afraid.
sannabhoy on 2 May, 2012 at 10:56 said:
oglach on 2 May, 2012 at 10:24 said:
hi , looking for a photo of the new Kano Foundation banner – i believe you managed to get a snap on Sunday.
—–
Sannabhoy you have mail.
ASonOfDan on 2 May, 2012 at 12:35 said:
Given our strength in numbers in central midfield then you would imagine that one of the five will go, with Ki the most likely.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Hooper or Stokes were also be sold and a new striker brought in. Hooper the more likely as he would fetch more money.