Celtic’s run of 27 games unbeaten in domestic football came to an end yesterday as Kilmarnock surprised even their own fans, who bought fewer tickets for the final than they did for the semi-final, perhaps anticipating a reversal.
The bedrock of that magnificent run has been incredibly strong defensive performances; even when Aberdeen scored to take a point earlier this month, their goal benefited from an enormous deflection and the interaction of two debutant defenders.
Kilmarnock’s goal yesterday benefited from no such fortune. Ki didn’t match the forward run of Lee Johnson and Kelvin Wilson didn’t attack the cross. It was, however, a good goal, exploiting the expansive Hampden pitch with some fine passing and excellent movement.
Cammy Bell deservedly won Man of the Match but none of his many saves were spectacular. It could be argued that the stop from Gary Hooper five minutes in turned the match but it was a gift to Bell’s highlights DVD.
Celtic looked like a team who have run out of steam. Profligacy in front of goal and a momentary lapse in defence was all Kilmarnock needed to secure the cup.
I didn’t get a good view of the Anthony Stokes penalty incident at the game, it was Hampden after all, but on the radio going home I heard the evidence clearly confirmed it was not a penalty, which Neil Lennon would realise after he calmed down a bit, despite his initial reaction on seeing a replay.
Television evidence could not be clearer. Michael Nelson went to ground to tackle Stokes and didn’t come within 2 feet of the ball but clipped the Celtic player’s ankle while he was in the process of controlling a fast moving ball.
There was no dispute that Stokes ankle was clipped. No claims were made that Nelson played the ball, or even got close to playing the ball. The incident was an indisputable foul.
When you are running at speed the contact required to force you to lose to lose control of the ball is slight, more than enough contact was made on Stokes to hugely reduce his chances of scoring. Nelson made a rash and ill-timed challenge which should have resulted in an injury-time penalty.
Our sincerest condolences to the Liam Kelly, his family, Kenny Shiels and the Kilmarnock players on the death of Liam’s father Jack in the minutes after full time.
Check out ‘Celtic in the 1980s: The Lost Decade’, by CQN Magazine contributor, Sean Huddleston. Available on Kindle for a bargain £1.64.
Issue 7 of CQN Magazine is out now! Go to the dedicated magazine site here to read it properly (which you’ll not be able to do below).
We are now shipping hard copies of the magazine from the UK – and sold out last month. Order your copy by clicking on the link below.
Pay by card or Paypal.
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
955 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- »
Trad88
I heard that as well, but since parties involved have already disclosed the amounts involved (that total £49m) the “Tax Expert” was talking garbage!
RalphWaldo
Yes, – just the small immediate, overdue bill.
Nothing to do with the big bill which is technically ‘sub judice’ until HMRC announce it’s tribunal decision.
RWE
I suspect Duff & Phelps are playing to the gallery.
If they can get enough reporting on the likelihood that HMRC will do a deal, then the prospective bidders are going to be emboldened and they can earn more big bucks and present themselves as acting in Rangers long term interest as they prolong the sale process.
If the HMRC have merely told them ” we are not going to negotiate with Craig Whyte, a serial tax avoider and piss-taker”, that is a long way from saying “we will negotiate (a pence in the pound deal) with his replacement”.
If it comes to pass that HMRC want paid in full after all, then Duff & Phelps will be bleating “we were misled by them” as they head off into the sunset with their hefty fees paid over a prolonged period.
That, I feel, is the most likely scenario.
I see nothing wrong with HMRC doing a deal that involves giving the club 3 to 5 years to repay. I see little wrong if there is a 5-10% reduction in the penalties because 90% money back to the taxpayer is better than nothing back. But I see a lot wrong with a sub-50% payback of moneys owed and I cannot believe that HMRC would be so slack or generous.
Whyte still owns 85% of the Hun, I assume the so called buyers are the fallback after liquidation.
I can’t see HMRC accepting a CVA on tax used to run a business instead of working capital. I can see HMRC offering a deal over repayment period of the Whyte tax debt.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that David Murray is now out stating his case. Getting his retaliation in first as now that the story isn’t just a “wee Scottish” drama.
Could be interesting times for the SPL and SFA. Sweep the players registration issue under the carpet and hope for no questions or use the regulations correctly?
If they do what they would prefer there is a case for Celtic and other clubs to ask UEFA/FIFA to look into this. That could be the can of worms opened and the SFA might be brought down.
Regarding the admins trying to get the ticketus deal cancelled.
If they are allowed to do that can I get my mortgage cancelled as having to pay back a 6 figure sum on the sale of my house means its harder to sell it for over £200k than say £10k!
By DAVE FINLAY and JOHN ROBERTSON
Published on Tuesday 20 March 2012 00:08
ALL OF the bidders for crisis-hit Rangers have warned they will not pursue their interest in the Ibrox club if the Ticketus season-ticket deal remains in force, a court heard yesterday.
Agreements reached with Ticketus were used by Craig Whyte to finance his takeover from Sir David Murray at Ibrox last year before the crisis-hit club was placed into administration last month.
The administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, of Duff and Phelps, have now gone to the Court of Session in Edinburgh seeking guidance on a potential move to end the contract with Ticketus.
David Sellar QC, for Rangers’ administrators, told Lord Hodge yesterday: “Of the four bids only one of them has said that it will carry on if Ticketus were involved, by that I mean if the Ticketus contract were in force.
“Given the amounts of money involved that makes perfect sense. If Ticketus is indeed to be paid £20-odd million that does have an effect on a business, which as we know, was loss-making.”
He added: “What would be less than satisfactory is if matters proceeded, through nobody’s fault, but proceeded to such an extent that other bidders walked away leaving one bidder in the form of the Ticketus consortium that could then offer as little as possible.”
But counsel for Ticketus urged the judge not to make a ruling in the case that could lead to Rangers administrators going back on a season ticket deal.
Ronald Clancy QC, for Ticketus, told Lord Hodge: “As of today there are three, possibly four, investment proposals including one involving Ticketus. It is impossible to say that none of these could pave the way for the company coming out of administration as a going concern with the Ticketus agreement still in place.
“The real issue behind this application is the desire of the administrators to terminate the contract in such a way that if the company emerges from administration it would not have to be performed.”
But he maintained that such a breach would not have the effect being sought by the administrators’ lawyers “namely the opportunity for the company to come out of administration without having to honour the contracts”.
Clancy said: “If Parliament had intended administrators should have such a wide power to terminate contracts it would have granted those powers expressly.”
The Ticketus deals over season tickets provided an initial sum of more than £20 million plus VAT in May last year.
Ticketus have now linked up with the Blue Knights consortium, headed by former Rangers director Paul Murray, to take control at Rangers. The Blue Knights have confirmed that they lodged a bid before last Friday’s deadline for offers, and one of the other bids is from Sale Sharks owner Brian Kennedy. Another is believed to be from Club 9 Sports, a Chicago investment firm.
Rangers went into administration last month when facing a £9.3 million bill from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. The club also faces a further potential £49 million bill over an EBT scheme, known as the ‘big tax case’.
Mr Clancy told Lord Hodge: “I would suggest it is not appropriate to make any ruling in the present state of play.”
Meanwhile, the administration of Rangers was put on a sound legal footing yesterday, after a flaw in the appointment of Duff & Phelps last month was corrected.
Clark and Whitehouse have been operating as joint administrators, although they had been brought in without the required notification being given to the Financial Services Authority. The Ibrox club returned to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to rectify the situation. Sellar told the court: “The interests of the creditors would not be served by the confusion of potentially invalidating the steps that have already been taken.”
Lord Hodge agreed to make a new order and said it would apply retrospectively, from 14 February. He is expected to give a ruling on the Ticketus issue in due course but warned “this Sir David Murray business is really starting to get on my tits. I have never been surrounded by so many spivs and so called slick operators since I bought a carpet for my wife in an Egyptian open air market”
greenjedi
Yeah I did get the impression Mr Brazil wasn’t fully up to speed on the situation and the ‘tax expert’ may have been one of ‘them’!
HH
From Alex Thomson, ch4 twitter. Tonight 7pm. Former RFC director claims that there is no way that RFC told SPL & SFA about side payments to players.
Duff & Phelps can only agree a deal over 13/15M PAYE/NI/VAT debt built up by CW. They are not involved in BTC FTT or discussions.
Graham Speirs is a plonker at times.
MWD
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
Page bhoy?
Traditionalist, sounds like Alan Brazil is getting the big, small and middle tax cases mixed up.
The recent unpaid tax is due now and may be agreed as a penny in the pound deal. The big tax case may be found to be deliberate tax avoidance and this case like Portsmouths is ground breaking in the football World, I cant see any deal being struck, just my opinion
of course.
V
Naughty Graham Spiers. Trying to wind up the good guys.
By MARTIN HANNAN
Published on Tuesday 20 March 2012 01:01
HAVING played many times against Rangers, former Celtic player Alan Stubbs has savoured the intense rivalry between the Old Firm clubs at first hand.
Almost 11 years after leaving Scotland and now that he’s a coach with Everton, Stubbs is able to take a dispassionate view of the crisis at Ibrox, and he immediately discounts the notion that top English clubs are laughing at Rangers.
That’s not surprising – Portsmouth have gone into administration for a second time, Birmingham FC’s accounts are in disarray, and a number of English Premier League clubs who used the Employee Benefit Trust tax system face bills totalling possibly hundreds of millions should the current Rangers case go in favour of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
Stubbs said: “Rangers is going through a bit of a travesty at the moment, and it’s not just for the club but for Scottish football – it doesn’t look good.
“I don’t think anyone likes to see this type of situation, because I have got to say that there could be a few clubs in England that are close to this.
“Football as a whole has to have a real good look at itself at the moment, and try and not let this happen. There’s been too much blase thinking about ‘we’ll be able to do this with it, or we’ll push it under the carpet and we‘ll address that in a year’s time, or we might be able to get rid of this through this or that means’ – it’s got to be a lot more stringent.
“There’s no ducking the taxman, no pushing stuff to one side and trying to find a loophole in this or that. I think everyone’s books have got to become a lot cleaner.”
For Rangers and manager Ally McCoist, Stubbs feels it is a case of the sooner, the better, for there to be some sort of resolution of the club’s future.
He said: “The longer the situation doesn’t get addressed at Ibrox, it will make it more difficult for Rangers to bounce back from this. ’Coisty will be thinking ‘the sooner this is over the better so I can address everything and move on from it’.
“At this moment in time all their dirty linen is getting dragged out in public and that’s the last thing you want as a club, because rather than looking at the next result, you’re thinking about what the next headline in the papers will be about the club.”
Stubbs knows that this weekend’s Old Firm match will be historic for the fans of his old club, if they win the SPL title on Sunday.
“From a Celtic point of view it will be fantastic for them to win it at Rangers,” said Stubbs. “It just heightens the damning effect that is going on at Rangers at the moment. It just tops it all off. The Celtic fans know that they are going to win the league anyway, and first and foremost they would want it to be at Celtic Park, but second to that, winning at Ibrox would come very close.”
Stubbs said Celtic would have won the league in any case: “Whether Rangers went into administration or not, Celtic had momentum and would have won the league anyway. The situation at Rangers has made it a lot easier for them, but you shouldn’t take credit away from Celtic. Rangers haven’t given it to them, Celtic have won it, and I don’t think you can have any doubt about that.”
apologies if this has already bn touched on, but what was the upshot of duff n phelps v ticketus yesterday? did it get played to a finish or is it continuing today?
Just watch Jabba, wee chico and the rest of them build up the game on Sunday as being a war, very important game and all that. It isn’t. They will kick the sh*t out of Celtic and get away with it and they will say its because they are playing for pride and passion, the hun jersey.They will say it is not a game for the faint hearted, a game for real men when they really mean just kick they fu*%In tims. Play it on the deck, pass them to death and we will run them ragged and win.
Reading an article in FF. I know.
Who would they want as new owners?
No to Foreigners.
No to Kennedy. He is rugby man and ahemmmmm a Huns fan.
So Blue Knights it is.
Help! Lads, lasses, i’m really worried! It’s all futile.
Roddy Forsyth says it’s ‘inconceivable’ that Rangers will go out of business and David Murray has told us that we need them and he knows his onions that guy, and anyway the administrators say that HMRC are gonna let them off anyway!
Wow, it must be great being a hun right now.
Hibs fan
Vmhan
yeah, thought I’d missed something big when I heard that discussion yesterday, cheers for clearing that up
HH
Morning all from gay Paree, where the sun is out again.
I get the impression that all this optimistic talk about HMRC doing deals is part of “Operation Pacify” to keep the Orc masses as docile as possible until the match on the 25th.
After that, reality can bite in again when there is less chance that Scotland will be laid waste like Manchester was in 98.
Hector doesn’t do walking away, he just wades in…
Parkheadcumsalford 07-59
I spoke to Nicky Campbell in Seville. He was sitting in a bar with his wife and took the time to chat with me. I thought he was an Aberdeen fan and I asked him why he was here. He said, ‘firstly I’m a Hearts supporter and secondly I’m here to support the Scottish team’. He came across as a nice guy and wished us all the best.
hh
AWE NAW
Your posts at 0935 and 0944.
I pointed out on RTC that Barry Hughes had earlier been enjoying some hospitality at St Mirren v Celtic.
Allegedly,of course….
What is the legal argument for getting the Ticketus’ hold on future season tickets removed? As far as I can see all they are saying is that we don;t like the deal anymore. Yes we agreed with it at the time but it didn’t suit us now, so can we back out?
Murray (P) has said he would borrow another £5M from Ticketus – sounds like a loan rather than a sale of yet more season tickets – and also look to renegotiate payment of the £24M over a longer period.
Vmhan
Our tax-avoiding foes across the river, and their many supporters, seem to be forgetting there are THREE tax cases/penalties in place when they start spouting their garbage about behind the scenes deals being done. There is of course the Big Tax case (aka FTT) – no deal can have been made between The Duffers and HMRC as the tribunal has not reported yet. The Wee Tax case, the one discoverd by Our Hero last year and agreed with HMRC (though the late-payment penalties are/were holding up settlement of that tax bill) ‘might’ be subject to agreement between The Duffers and HMRC. Finally there is the New Tax case which Our Hero ran up in less than a year (£9M plus late payment penalties up towards a total of £15m) cannot be part of an agreement between The Duffers and HMRC because the present tax year has not finished yet – can you imagine businesses/companies across UK getting wind of one comapny being able to do a tax deal even before the tax year is finished?
Any time I find wee doubts filtering into my mindset because of the relentless work of our imaprtial media I always just have a quick visit to http://rangerstaxcase.com/ and all is right with my world again.
alex thomson @alextomo Reply RetweetedRetweet
Delete
FavoritedFavorite · Close Open Details First RFC vt #c4news 7pm. Former RFC director will say there’s no way the club told SPL/SFA abt side payments to players…
alex thomson @alextomo Reply RetweetedRetweet
Delete
FavoritedFavorite · Close Open Details Former RFC director laughs when I even asked the question abt telling SFA/SPL…
Stubbsie .. Travesty?
Do you think he means that?
DJBEE on 20 March, 2012 at 10:08 said:
Just watch Jabba, wee chico and the rest of them build up the game on Sunday as being a war, very important game and all that. It isn’t. They will kick the sh*t out of Celtic and get away with it and they will say its because they are playing for pride and passion, the hun jersey.They will say it is not a game for the faint hearted, a game for real men when they really mean just kick they fu*%In tims. Play it on the deck, pass them to death and we will run them ragged and win.
…………….
Have you seen us play like that recently?
Since we will win the league anyway I’d be more inclined to play our biggest and toughest players.
Forster
Lustig Rogne Wilson Blackman
Cha Brown Wanyama Mulgrew Sammi
Brozek
They will attempt to maim as many as possible, retaliate first.
Blue Knights may borrow £5m from Ticketus to help with Rangers takeover
By JOHN MCGARRY
The Blue Knights will look to borrow more than £5million from Ticketus to use as working capital if they win the battle for control of Rangers which will now remove any doubt about the Blue Knights group inabiliyt to fund a takeover
The Paul Murray-led consortium are one of the three formal bids administrators Duff & Phelps have on the table, although others are anticipated in the coming days.
There are not expected to be any further bids this year after Celtic play Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday. In a game that will see their bitter rivals all but clinch the SPL title but Rangers are favourites.
Ticketus’ involvement with the Blue Knights raised some eyebrows, given that the London-based firm previously paid Craig Whyte £24.4m for the next three years’ Ibrox season tickets to fund his buyout last year.
Duff & Phelps were in court yesterday trying to remove the claim Ticketus have on future tickets. That matter will be considered again on Tuesday. If Duff &
Phelps are unsuccessful, Ticketus will remain a major player.
Murray plans to ask them for £5m in order to get the club to a point where they can have a share flotation to generate more funds.
He then hopes to renegotiate the terms of the ticket deal Whyte secretly struck with Ticketus to help Rangers pay off Lloyds Bank to the tune of £18m. Murray’s consortium includes businessmen Douglas Park, Scott Murdoch and John Bennett, as well as supporters’ groups. But it appears Ticketus will bridge the short-term finance gap.
Last week, Murray spelled out his intention to increase the club’s borrowing if his takeover is successful. ‘When you are bringing together a consortium of 10 people to put up funding, it can take time,’ he said.
‘Ticketus will, in effect, underwrite stage one of our plan, which will be to back the cash purchase of the club and provide initial working capital.
‘The Blue Knights will be a body standing behind them. The individuals will give personal pledges to Ticketus against the money used.
‘We may not need all of the working capital, as we would hope to have season-ticket money coming in May. ‘Stage two would then be a share issue open to all. Again, the Blue Knights would invest in that, as well as the cash pledges being put up to complete the purchase.
‘Stage three would be to renegotiate the Ticketus terms to something which the club can afford to pay.’
Meanwhile, Kyle Lafferty, out injured since January, is one of five players Rangers hope to have back for Sunday’s Old Firm game. Carlos Bocanegra and Dorin Goian will return after suspension, while Steven Whittaker, another who has been on the injured list, could also be in the squad.
I think we all anticipate that Sunday will be ‘more than physical’. It made me think of the alleged ‘shame game’ (only one team was shameful) where TFOD resorted to disgraceful tactics. Here are the stats for that game (excludes what happened after the 90 mins):
Celtic Bookings:
Majstorovic
Wilson yellow
Brown
Rangers Bookings:
Foster
Bougherra two yellow / red
Davis
Whittaker two yellow / red
Fleck
Hutton
Diouf
CELTIC / RANGERS Possession
Possession Celtic 61% Rangers 39%
Attempts on target Celtic 4 Rangers 1
Attempts off target Celtic 11 Rangers 0
Corners Celtic 5 Rangers 0
Fouls Celtic 15 Rangers 23
The Ref needs to be strong – and honest.
Bhoys there is so much speculation over the Rangers case that I suspect much of it is done just to confuse.Whatever anyone says they are up a creek without a paddle one simple fact for me is that none of the so called current bidders put forward a bid when they could have bought the club for £1so why would they be seriously interested when Rangers current debt is over 15 Million and if found guilty on the EBT case a further 50 million could be added? what we areseeing in my opinion is the establishment trying hard to keep there cheating silent and the Masonic influence prepared to bad mouth anyone who says different. H.H.
THE SPIRIT OF ARTHUR LEE 1003
I think he was fighting off the wee boys at the scramble….
MY TEAM FOR SUNDAY
FORSTER
MATTHEWS ROGNE MULGREW IZZY
CHA WANYAMA BROWN KI LEDLEY SAMARAS
BROZEK
POWER + PACE
The Battered Bunnet on 20 March, 2012 at 09:13 said:
The more “dirt” that comes out in the mainstream the harder it becomes to diminish the roles of the main parties.
If all that is suspected comes to pass there will be a reckoning and one of the injured parties.has said nothing yet about the impact on them.
I hope our lawyers are crawling over this in preparation.
EmeraldBee\o/ on 20 March, 2012 at 10:17,
Thanks, I see now that the middle tax case, ie the 2011 – 2012 tax year non payment doesn’t end until 31st March.
V
Sheik 12 players
V
Sheik Yerbouti
I don’t think Izzy is ready for this game. Wonderful player but I don’t think he is mentally over his injury. This one will be physical and he’s not ready for that IMO.
Vmhan Supporting Lenny! on 20 March, 2012 at 10:29 said:
Sheik 12 players
V
————————–
Maybe the ref wont count them
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 20 March, 2012 at 10:23 said:
I read somewhere that a way of killing wolves was to smear sharp knives with beef/meat fat. The wolves come along and start licking it, get the taste of blood and keep on licking. Your post reminded me of that story.