Someone forwarded me the statement from US based Bill Miller which I read and ignored, thinking it was a wind-up. Incredibly, it’s ““Real””.
Bill tells us he will invest £11.2m into the club and:
“There is no way that Ticketus would agree to accept a “pence on the pound.
“It is apparent that there will be several lawsuits that will emerge in relation to a potential CVA exit.
“In order to preserve the club’s history, records, championships and assets, I will put the “heart” of the club into an “incubator” company while Duff & Phelps works to make the “sick patient” healthy through a CVA process that effectively works to “radiate” the toxicity of past administrations’ sins out of the patient while the “healthy heart” is preserved and moves forward.”
The above is an actual quote. I’m not even sure the pubs are open in America at this time of day.
But Bill, the “sick patient” owns the stadium, and as you suggest, a CVA would be prolonged. Craig Whyte owns security over the stadium and your refusal to deal with him might make playing there…. awkward. Any creditor, like HMRC or Whyte, could and perhaps would challenge a disposal of assets like the one you suggest.
He goes on:
“Any suggestion that Rangers history is lost by such a process is preposterous.
“Using such logic, Rangers would not actually have a 140-year history as its current corporate structure was only created in 1899. To suggest that Rangers thus have only a 113-year-old history is absurd.”
We’ve explained this one before. Rangers were incorporated 113 years ago; “Real”. The same entity, owning the same assets, existed pre-incorporation as an unincorporated football club.
Buying and selling history is almost as entertaining as buying the Eiffel Tower in cash off a guy in a Bellshill pub. If it’s possible, I demand Celtic PLC get off their bums and buy the history of ancient Greece.
Bill adds:
“My offer is contingent upon the regulatory bodies agreeing that the club will begin play in the 2012/13 season in the SPL and that they will do so without any loss of points and with all historic titles intact.”
Ah, “contingent upon”. A condition; just what Duff and Phelps asked to be excluded. You’ve underplayed this one, Bill. If the SPL will agree to this they will surely agree to give you a 10 point bonus next season, just for being so nice.
“The time for talk is over. The club is in serious jeopardy of dying. “Real” [sic]liquidation is looming.”
I like this guy. He sounds like a “Real” level headed custodian for Rangers. Alas, I fear Duff and Phelps will be in sombre mood when next we hear from them.
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Re Feruz, we don’t need any poison festering in the dressing room.
Saw him at last years SC final, an unused sub, obviously in a strop as he wasn’t getting on, had to watch another sub Liam Gormley get the winner.
A few days later v Hearts at Lennoxtown, red carded for a shocking tackle, we lost our long unbeaten run 0-3.
I knew then this boy was not for us.
Craig Whyte is not an irrelevance Islam Feruz is.
I love the smell of Alpen in the morning.
Still waiting on someone explaining what all the hoo haa is about this feruz…i know who he is so if anyone wants to take the 10 seconds to post a link to what this is all about that would be great.
Do I understand this correctly? If the values of the bids are less than the values of the assets, then the administrator is legally bound to wind it up & sell off.
I’m no expert but surely the land values, players contracts, scrap value etc must surely be higher than the 12 million of the highest bid?
S
Hokey Cokey Bids – The Farce Continues
Rabiu Ibrahim – Celtic FC.
Brian Kennedy’s bid was rebuffed on both occasions because it did not include the word Bill, Billy or Blue in it. God knows what the German bid contained. Perhaps from a Herr Grün?
Islam Feruz. When the youth team beat rankers two years ago in the youth cup final at hampden he was a sub. Selective memory issy!! Very noticable he did not join in any of the celebrations. Good ridance.HH.
Re the hokey cokey
So when Duff and Duffer asked for the best and final bids the other week they really wanted any old boomerang bid from any old vulture.
James Edward McGrory 408 goals in 408 league games on 21 April, 2012 at 10:09 said:
TimJim on 21 April, 2012 at 09:04 said:
The kid has a short memory
GERRY COLLINS last night told Islam Feruz his foul-mouthed Twitter rant has desecrated the memory of Celtic legend Tommy Burns.
A young Chelsea playersaid something stupid? Looks like he is fitting right in.
“Yeah, I mean again I think that there’s been some unfortunate comment there and I think that there’s been a suggestion that I or someone from my team suggested that Craig Whyte was irrelevant, I don’t think that word was ever used what the word that I think I’ve used throughout is that I didn’t think Craig Whyte would be an impediment.”
Paul Clark
Rangers Administrator
BBC Scotland interview, 20 April 2012 (@10mins)
“We’ve seen no evidence of any investment by Craig Whyte into Rangers. We can’t see any monies he’s paid in.
“I don’t see him as the ongoing owner of RFC. We’re in control of the process. In terms of his influence on the outcome, he has little or no relevance. In terms of Rangers’ future medium to long-term, he is absolutely irrelevant.”
Paul Clark
Rangers Administrator
Press Conference, 10 March 2012
(The Herald, 11 March 2012)
I’d forget all about Feruz. He’s had on-going digs at Celtic since he left as some fans had a go at him. He even celebrated a Rangers goal against us in the ‘last’ derby match.
It really seems he is the Billy Big Boots we all thought. Anyway he’s gone and he’ll fit in well with where he is.
Onwards and upwards Celtic.
Islam probably was given a hard time by a small element of our support when he left for the bright lights of London. He is reacting in a not too clever way with his tweets.
Dont think he needs to become a “hate” figure though.
So, if miller buys the bhuns for £11m, who gets that money……Agent Whyte for the shares, or creditors ? ……. Get in there, LL
AT THE MOMENT OF LIQUIDATION, I AM ORDERING EVERY CELTIC FAN TO GET ONTO UTUBE AND LISTEN TO ROY ORBISON SINGING ‘IT’S OVER’ …………!!!!!!!!
Feruz,you get a pass on this because your only a young boy who’s had his head turned by the bright lights but remember this,when your older and wise enough to truly understand the importance,success and richness of history that Celtic has,the club never has never will need you son,good luck,you’ll need it.
I listened to ssb on podcast for the first time in weeks due to the write up from regulars on here and I’ve a bone to pick with a point Jim Duffy made.
Duffy said that the new hun with penalties would still be miles ahead of the rest which rendered the debate about them being relegated naturally,irrelevant,that was his view,with penalties they still won’t be relegated,he was trying to nullify the argument against a parachute for newco however,the question begs-
If the huns would be too strong after penalties to be relegated are those penalties then just a sham?
Where is the integrity in penalizing a club into a position where they are still significantly stronger than the large majority of clubs they cheated?
bamboo
I agree.
**** him.
Looking forward to hearing the desperate spin on Shortbread today. Lessons on how to defend the indefensible. It must be torture for them.
Not long now!
No right of free will for Islam Feruz ?
No right of self determination for Islam Feruz ?
Did Tommy Burns help Islam Feruz and his family solely on the basis that Celtic would get something back in return ?
Warm and sunny -way down south.
South of Tunis
NO!
See my earlier post.
shady on 21 April, 2012 at 10:10 said:
Do I understand this correctly? If the values of the bids are less than the values of the assets, then the administrator is legally bound to wind it up & sell off.
I’m no expert but surely the land values, players contracts, scrap value etc must surely be higher than the 12 million of the highest bid?
You only get the football club not iPox or Murray park as they are owned by our hero Craig whyte
Jam67
I was very upset and angry with Islam Feruz when he walked out on Celtic as I believed Tommy Burns had help save the boy and his family from a life threatening situation and had that been me I’d have stayed at the club as a form of repayment and tried hard to help that club be a success.
I’d have done that at 14 or at 44. That’s me and I know about loyalty and gratitude.
Sad as I am with those tweets, based on them and from what other people have said we are well rid of a character like that. The younger players do not need a prima donna like that.
Boys like James Forrest and Dylan McGeoch are Celtic’s future.
Islam Feruz – have your London pad, your EPL (if you ever get a game) and your Cup final. You won’t get on the park there either. So tweet to your heart’s content in abuse of the club who discovered you and gave you a chance.
You can have all the skill in the world son, most like you are born with it but you cannot be born with class. Tommy Burns was a great footballer but he was also a great human being. You should look to him if you want to aspire to the latter.
A sad ending to what could have been a beautiful relationship.
Anyway, what time’s the party on Monday?
Islam Feruz….who cares. We have plenty youngsters who are not only better they have a better attitude to go with it. Would he get a game now….NO.
Let’s enjoy who is at the club and hopefully we will get to see our promising youngsters in the next 5 games, & next season. HH
alex thomson @alextomo Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
There’ll be an #c4news blog up later pulling together some Bill Miller strands and other black comedy
Seems Bill is not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy..
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Good point made on RTC.
If Miller’s bid valuing the whole shambles at £11.5m may be acceptable to D&P what were the others offering. This is especially true of Kennedy who has had two bids knocked back immediately?
Probably means none of them has the backing of any ‘real’ money never mind £500k up front.
Bowie cover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHQmHvxRzqw
Kavanagh cover
Surprising amount of fuss being made over a kid who, despite his obvious talent, still faces a struggle against the odds to make a successful career in the game.
Would be great to see Ibrahim feature tomorrow. He looked like he was having a rare auld time on pitch after Killie game. Hopefully has whetted his appetite for making a big impact on first team.
Oh to be the DJ next week, what fun to be had:
‘We’ll meet again don’t know where don’t know when…’
The 90’s Celtic classic ‘Always look on the bright side of life’
The Only Fools and Horses theme
The polis would probably intervene as they’d be ‘offended’ again!
Kid is of course feruz, not ibrahim!
Good Morning,
Are you sitting comfortable? Then I will begin.
Amidst all the Brou ha ha surrounding the words from Bill Miller yesterday, the Walki NG away of the far east consortium, the temprary ( at least ) disappearance of the Blue Knights and so on, it is easy to overlook the fact that Mr Miller has now stated publicly that the price he places on the carcass and bare bones of Rangers Football Club comes to just £11.2 Million.
This is the sum he deems suitable to pay for all the assets and a structure that allows a football club called Rangers to continue on its journey with a clean bill of health and “ready” itself for the challenges ahead.
Whilst the fans and the press may be jumping up and down like proverbial yo-yo’s at Miller’s offer now being the only one on the table, there are others who will be very concerned this morning at not only the extent of Miller’s offer but at the absolute lack of astonishment and rejection of that offer from Duff & Phelps.
The Adminsitrators cannot rule out Miller’s offer as being the one they will accept– as it is the only one they have– and it follows that if this is the only one that they have that is capable of being accepted at all, then the other offers must have been in a form that makes for awful reading!
One might be tempted to think that things could hardly get anyone worse!
Alas, I’m afraid that they can.
It now seems to me ( as it has to many for months ) that the Liquidation of Rangers PLC is inevitable. Further, before too much longer, we wil all come face to face with the Big Tax Case judgement in all of its detail and with all of its consequences.
It is very easy to forget about the tax case sometimes. All the journos are very quick to cover their backs by reminding us that Rangers have “not been found guilty yet” when it comes to the EBT’s and so on. I get annoyed when I hear that phrase, because Rangers will never be found guilty— they will instead be found liable, and there are huge consequential differences between the two.
Guilt is something established in a criminal court— liability is something established in a civil forum. Guilt is punishable by a fine or imprisonment or community service etc. Liability is only satisfied by the payment of money, and ever increasingly it looks as if no one who has been connected with Rangers in the past or who seeks to be connected to Rangers in the future wants to meet that liability other then by way of payment of a nominal and derisory amount.
For weeks now, the press and others have speculated on a CVA or some kind of deal with the revenue despite the fact that there are many professionals out there who know that the revenue will not do any type of deal which does not involve the payment of all the money or a vast proportion of it– even over a number of years. However, with Liquidation, the fall out from the EBT’s will be felt ever wider — like someone throwing a massive stone into a calm pond, the water from which then soaks all who stand around the edges and capsizes the boats which until then bobbed peacefully on a calm surface.
Consider this wee piece of legislation: s121C Social Security Administration Act 1992. to be found here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/nimmanual/nim12206.htm
Also consider this:
Breach of duty (s.212 Insolvency Act 1986)
• If it appears that a director has misapplied, retained or become accountable for any money or other property of the company or is guilty of a breach of duty, the court may order the director to repay, restore or account for money or property with interest or contribute such sum to the company’s assets by way of compensation as the court thinks just.
4 FRAUDULENT TRADING (s.213 Insolvency Act 1986)
• If in the course of winding up of a company, it appears that any business of the company has been carried on with the intention to defraud creditors or for any fraudulent purpose, the liquidator can apply to the court to declare that any persons who were knowingly parties to the carrying on of the business in such a manner be liable to make a contribution to the company’s assets.
• Anyone who is knowingly a party to carrying on the business with intent to defraud may be liable for fraudulent trading, not just the directors.
• The court may make an order against persons guilty of fraudulent trading as it sees fit but may not include a punitive element in the amount of the contribution. Fraudulent trading is also a criminal offence.
The following legal case illustrates the impact on directors of fraudulent trading – with fraudulent trading defined by Section 213 of The Insolvency Act 1986
The High Court has ruled that directors who made representations that a company would meet its rental obligations on certain of its leases of property, when they had no intention of making payments after a certain date, were involved in fraudulent trading for the purposes of the Insolvency Act 1986. They were required to make a monetary contribution to the company’s assets in its liquidation, as were solicitors involved in the scheme that resulted in non-payment of the rent (see Morphites v Bernasconi [2001] 10 Current Law 312).
The legislature has always been concerned to minimise the extent to which the Salomon principle could be used as an instrument of fraud. As a result it introduced the offence of fraudulent trading now contained in s.213 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The requirement to prove ‘intent to defraud’ became too difficult in practice because of the possibility of a criminal offence arising and so the lesser offence of ‘wrongful trading’was introduced in order to provide a remedy where directors had behaved negligently rather than fraudulently. Thus if a director continued to trade in circumstances where a reasonable director would have stopped, the director concerned will be liable to contribute to the company’s debts under s.214.
Many of you will recall that it was widely reported that someone at Rangers had the sense to go and take advice from Pannell Kerr Forster on the consequences of wrongful or fraudulent trading. I wonder what they were told and what advice was given?
The fact is that if Rangers PLC is liquidated then the Liquidator can pursue former Directors AND OTHERS to make a contribution towards the outstanding debts and the Social Security Administration Act allows for the absolute recovery of misapplied Government funds.
I have seen the revenue fund a liquidator to pursue such actions in the past, and i think it is very very likely that Liquidation will result in the revenue targeting certain high profile individuals in the Rangers case for a variety of reasons.
HMRC will want to show the rest of the footballing world that they are not to be trifled with and that even where you have supposedly legallly administered EBT’s ( which the revenue hate and think are being abused ) you are taking a risk. The revenue will be able to chase Sir David Murray and all other directors of Rangers personally in terms of the insolvency act provisions, and I suspect that the findings of the big tax case will be sufficient to leave the former directors with no legal alternative but to cough up.
Further, what about the former players– especially those who had the famous second contracts or letters of indemnity from the clubs? Well you will note that the legislation covers ”
Anyone who is knowingly a party to carrying on the business with intent to defraud may be liable for fraudulent trading, not just the directors”. Well if you or your agent sought an indemnity– just what was that an indemnity against because it seems to me that the very existence of an indemnity suggests that you knew from the outset that you just might be liable for………. well……tax?
Of course an indemnity from a now Liquidated club is useless and it does not exclude you from liability does it?
If the revenue chase and claim back even a single penny from a couple of big name former players it will be seen as a huge step forward for HMRC as no player in the UK will sign up to an EBT ever again! Neither they nor their agents will risk the notion that ten years down the line the revenue could force them to sell their Villa or their Restaurant or whatever to claim back a couple of million quid in tax.Whatsmore any Lawyer will advise the players that there may be very good reason to pay something rather than face a claim in the court where they could end up meeting the whole claim and all the expenses!
And what about the management of the club? It is not a defence in law to say ” well I didn’t understand these things- that was just the way things were done”– especially if you too were paid by way of an EBT scheme or “knowingly” signed players who were paid that way! Remember- Rangers stopped making EBT payments in 2010 as far as I know.
No- Bill Miller’s assessment of the value of Ibrox and the fact that he is the only hat in the ring will be making some choke on their cornflakes this morning because it all but rules out any possibility of a CVA. As can be seen from the Morphites V Bernasconi case above– even the advisers ( solicitors, accountants, Bankers, or whoever ) can find themselves in the firing line with this stuff– if they “knew” it was going on– and if you process endless payments to an off shore trust and negotiate the terms of bank facilities then you must know something is going on.
Anyone who “knew” about, participated in or helped conduct Rangers business through the flawed EBT scheme could yet be sked to pay some of this debt personally— Directors, Advisers, players, managers or whoever and you have to presume that whoever chose to consult PKF knows that judgement day is coming.
It is said that it was Alexander Pope who gave rise to the saying ” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” although in truth that is a misquote. What Pope actually said was :
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.
which words came from an Essay on Criticism (1709).
If it turns out that Rangers and their former board are criticised for the wrongful use of EBT’s for over a decade then there will be a huge fall out from this– especially if it comes to light that they were so intoxicated with their own egos and desire to succeed that they ignored warnings about the scheme. If they received their own “Essay on Criticism” from those who they should have heeded and ignored the advice then there are some private individuals who are well and truly doomed in financial and liability terms.
Then again they may just have viewed any such criticsms or warnings with that age old chant that used to be heard down Ibrox way…………………… FTP!
I hope Feruz does well. He probably won’t but I’m sure he’s a great kid when you strip away the bravado and the need to self justify that lots of teenagers (and plenty of adults!) exhibit when they feel challenged or are invited to be responsible for their actions. He seems to have loads of taent but as we know e.g. Liam Miller, it’s never enough.
OK, admit it folks, who else bet on Walkon to win the Scottish Grand National based on the name alone? :-)
alex thomson @alextomo
Am told this is Bill Miller’s reg address: MILLER WILLIAM G106 NURMI DRIVEFORT LAUDERDALE FL 33301 – Florida reg add being classic tax dodge
The new comedy season begins.
knoxy
Thanks for that info on the differences of treatments. Was always wondering why wee oscar is getting treated here but others like Vanessa Riddle and Neve Curry have to go to USA but just did’t want to ask.
All the best to wee oscar, heart warming to see the wee photos you post of him on twitter. He’s a very brave wee boy.
Mort