Neil Doncaster has uttered the words “Prima Facie” more often than any other figure in public life since February when Celtic Quick News first asked if Rangers EBT payments were declared to the football authorities, almost always after the words “we don’t know if there is a”. While we are all assuming the SPL have now established Rangers have a case to answer for illegally registering footballers for over a decade, it’s important to hear the words.
Rangers refused to submit information to the SPL for three months and only did so under the duress of a deadline, but we don’t know what they have submitted. I have been concerned that Rangers would simply try to brass the entire episode out, submit the contracts the SFA and SPL already had, and deny having any record of side agreements.
Consider the clubs modus operandi in recent months and years. Sir David Murray provided cover in March, categorically denying side contracts existed, while the current men in charge have been too busy to spare much time researching the issue. A response of “We don’t have any information” would not have surprised me. Rangers submitting full information – including details on the side letters which exist but which the BBC do not have – would surprise me.
The SPL should have realised months ago they would get nothing from Rangers without a deadline but they are in awkward position if the answer from the club is not what is expected. It’s far from clear that they can take evidence from the BBC and may require information from the First Tier Tribunal verdict to substantiate what everyone knows. The verdict is unlikely to confirm any names.
Until Mr Doncaster says “Prima Facie evidence exists” we should not assume this episode is on track to be dealt with.
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The perfect storm !
Duff & Phelps – We didn’t kill Rangers, FIFA did !
FIFA – See what we do to clubs who defy us !
Petec,
Live the dream – we all wanted to be players and it’s even better when your son has the opportunity. The players that I played with that made it all had an incredible focus, an almost selfish attitude, and did nothing but play football. All the best.
As for the Gordon haters ffs!! I stood in the San Siro watching us almost get to the last 8 in the CL all because Gordon is an incredible tactician who gets the best out of his players. I love the wee mhan – and he IS one of us if you’ve ever spoken to him.
Hail! Hail!
DavieL
Morning all.
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tyrehoops on 2 June, 2012 at 07:09 said:
BlantyreTim
Is that you just leaving the Parkville?
————————————————-
Th
How dare you,you will be giving everyone the
wrong impression,that BT likes a good drink.
DavieL on 2 June, 2012 at 07:13 said:
Wee Gordon?
You said what I feel.
The stirrers love division….religious,ethnic,political,the colour of the bus.
I love Celtic. No qualifications.
All inclusive C.S.C.
Comedy gold from FF. On the subject of taking FIFA to court… I really hope this is a tim at the wind up.
dunston true blue
Trialist Join Date: 01-02-2010
Posts: 68
Re: Can a fans group take FIFA to court?
——————————————————————————–
why not , we can raise millions if its needed, lets not forget we are a MIGHTY club , know we have had our troubles but… in the end theres allways gonna be a rangers , we will survive and return to great things. let them have their moment of kicking us . but be shure when we return we WILL make the bast***s suffer,
Looking to celebrate something this weekend? ESPN Classic Ch429…. 8am Saturday. Worth a look. :-))
Good morning from a quiet, dry and grey Maxwell Park.Wonder what the weathers like on Arran? God bless wee Gordon.
Forgot to put the word `bench` after Park. Sorry
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 2 June, 2012 at 07:28 said:
macjay1,
There are Celtic Supporters and there are Celtic fans.
You are a Supporter!
Hail! Hail!
DavieL
PS Sanna – you and the Kano boys epitomise our Support. Humbled by your efforts.
DavieL on 2 June, 2012 at 07:53 said:
And always will be. Distance is no object to the global Celtic family.
:-)
Morning,
So rangers are going to the SFA and tell them what is a suitable punishment. All for the good of the Scottish game of course.
They just dont get it…
HH
ESPN classic has our greatest moment on right now
Just read that Canadian cannibal killer who is on the run, also uses the name Vladimir Romanov!
I dont even know were to start on that one…
Morning Bhoys from a dull and slightly breezy Hamilton which is close enough to Jobo’s EK.
David ….. 07.13
I could not agree with you more……WGS was great ……too many ‘listened’ to the “not Celtic – minded” media agenda ………if he had remained at Celtic, the bhuns would have been liquidated 2 / 3 years ago……..
The Daily Record Jun 2 2012 by Euan McLean
Dunfermline chief John Yorkston: Rangers can’t be given same punishment we got for admin error
Dunfermline were booted out the Scottish Cup for fielding Calum Woods in win over Stenhousemuir
DUNFERMLINE chief John Yorkston says the SFA have no choice but to boot Rangers out of the game because a Scottish Cup ban is too soft.
The Pars chairman saw his club kicked out of the cup in 2010 for clerical mistakes that saw them field the suspended Calum Woods as a sub in a 7-1 win over Stenhousemuir.
They are far from the only ones with Spartans, Brechin City and East Stirling all having been expelled from thecompetition for fielding ineligible players through honest mistakes.
So Yorkston insists it would beludicrous to deal Rangers the same punishment for dodging taxes and putting the nation’s football future in jeopardy by pursuing the SFA through civil courts.
While he doesn’t want to see Rangers die, Yorkston believes that in a stark choice between terminating the club’s SFA membership or letting them off with a cup ban, there really is no alternative for the game’s bosses.
Because the lesser punishment simply does not fit the crime.
Yorkston said: “Most of us feel that because they are who they are, Rangers would get away with the lesser sentence but a cup suspension is not enough. This is more than a small administrative error that saw us and other clubs expelled from the Scottish Cup.
“None of us want to see Rangers go out of business but given the choice between the options available to the SFA, there is only one decision.
“I always thought relegation was the appropriate measure but I don’t know if they can find a middle ground any more because they tried that already with the transfer embargo.
“That’s what makes Rangers’ decision to go to the courts so foolish. They were badly advised because everyone knows you don’t go to court. People will blame the administrators for that but there are still folk at Rangers who should have known you just don’t do that. You don’t go to court unless you know all the facts and not enough research was done to check what the consequences would be.”
If Rangers were to pay the ultimate sanction, the additional place in the SPL could see either Dunfermline spared relegation or Dundee promoted as last season’s Division One runners-up.
Either way would be less than ideal, Yorkston argues, as both sides have signed and released players based on the assumption they’ll be playing in the lower league.
A sudden rise into the top flight – with all the additional costs involved and uncertainty over the TV deal they would need to fund it – would pose a massive headache. Yorkston added: “There are so many ifs, buts and maybes that there’s no sense in speculating too much.
“But safe to say it’s not as straight-forward as just getting back into the SPL and everything will be rosy.
“Whether it was us or Dundee, it would throw plans into turmoil because both clubs have beenbudgeting for the First Division.
“All of our players’ contracts have wages agreed for when they play in the SPL and a lower wage for the FirstDivision, so those still with us have taken a cut and others have moved on.
“My fear is that the new season will probably have started by the time this comes to a conclusion, which will bring even more chaos to a situation that has already dragged on for too long.”
Rangers hopes of getting away with a Scottish Cup ban seem even more remote when you consider that one of the men due to sit in judgment was the last club chairman to suffer the same sanction.
Spartans’ chief Craig Graham was dismayed when the East of Scotland League side were thrown out for the crime of using a player whose new contract had only been dated once.
The SFA demand contracts are dated twice and therefore ruled that striker Keith McLeod had been ineligible to play in Spartans’ 2-0 win over Culter.
That cost the Edinburgh club alucrative third-round tie with Partick Thistle plus a £4000 fine – a heavy price for such a small administrative error.
Graham oversaw Gers’ original appeal against the 18-month transfer embargo along with Lord Carloway and former Partick Thistle chairman Allan Cowan.
Their decision to uphold the embargo meted out by the SFA’s judicial tribunal (comprising Gary Allan QC, Raith Rovers director Eric Drysdale and journalist Alastair Murning) led to Gers ill-advised approach to the Court of Session.
Now they’ll have the whole sorry mess dropped back in their laps again and are expected to sit within the next two weeks to assess what little options remain at their disposal.
If Yorkston represents the majority view in Scottish football then there is no decision to be made. And if Spartans chief Graham felt his club were harshly treated to be kicked out of the Scottish Cup for an honest administrative slip-up, there seems little chance of him approving the same sanction for blatant, pre-meditated deceit.
Rangers in crisis: Freddy Shepherd ready to plough cash into Ibrox club.. if tax debt is wiped out
Jun 2 2012 Exclusive by Keith Jackson
FORMER Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has told Charles Green he is still prepared to pump his millions into Rangers – but only if he receives a written guarantee his cash won’t be gobbled up by the taxman.
Shepherd was quickly unmasked as one of the 20 core investors Green claimed to have already signed up to bankroll his £8.5million takeover of the stricken Ibrox club when the Yorkshireman first emerged as a late frontrunner for control.
The 70-year-old admitted in an exclusive interview with Record Sport he had been approached by Green and asked if he would plough some of his cash into the salvage mission.
But since then Green’s group of willing financial backers has dwindled from 20 to around five or six with even Green’s closest business partner, Mike McDonald, heading for the hills with wallet in hand.
Scrap metal dealer McDonald – Green’s former chairman at Sheffield United – confirmed to this paper just last week he had walked away from the takeover because an SFA-imposed transfer ban had scuppered his money-spinning plan to help fund new signings for Ally McCoist’s squad and then claim “part ownership” on any player secured with his cash.
He may re-enter the fray now the transfer embargo has been lifted but what is more certain is Shepherd remains “seriously interested” in joining up with Green’s gang so long as the club’s long-running multi-million pound battle with HMRC is declared officially over.
Shepherd has told Green he will only be prepared to dip into his personal fortunes when he has received confirmation in written form the authorities over the ongoing Big Tax Case.
He wants clarification any potential penalties following the outcome of that tribunal, over the misuse of Employee Benefit Trusts, will be swallowed up in the CVA proposal which Green made public on Tuesday.
Administrators Duff and Phelps claim the sums involved could be as high as £75m while others close to the case expect Rangers to be hit with a fine of no more than to £10-12m.
Whatever the final amount, Green is hopeful HMRC will be prepared to write it off as part of his £8.5m pence-in-the-pound pot.
Green believes more money can be clawed back for the public purse that way than by forcing liquidation on the club and an asset sale of Ibrox and Murray Park worth just £5.5m – with almost all of that total already earmarked for paying the Duff and Phelps bill.
However, the Big Tax Case – which was meant to be resolved months ago – is still awaiting a final decision.
And Shepherd – who expects to be given a seat on Green’s new board of directors – will not pledge any of his money to the takeover until he is given cast-iron assurances the crisis-ravaged club won’t be floored again with another massive tax bill as soon as the keys to the front door have been exchanged.
A source close to the controversial Geordie told Record Sport last night said: “There has been a lot of speculation about Freddy’s position ever since he admitted in your paper he had been invited to invest by Charles Green.
“But just because things have gone quiet it does not mean that Freddy is no longer interested. On the contrary, he very much is.
“The problem is he is waiting for Green to come back to him with some crucial information regarding the situation with the tax case. Like everyone, Freddy has had experiences with the taxman before and let’s just say he will not hand over a penny until he knows, with absolute certainty, the authorities will not be back with their hands out again.
“Freddy is a shrewd guy – that’s why Green wants him on the board – so he’s not going to leave himself exposed to debts which have been built up by others over the years. He’ll only come in if the slate is wiped clean and it’s up to Green to prove to him that it has been.”
Good morning…..just been out for a run and I can confirm, in Jobo’s absence that it is a rather overcast but dry start to the day in EK. The good lady is off to Auld Reekie today for a hen night so on parental duties…….will be a wreck by the time she comes back tomorrow. Never mind, two days off at the start of the week……God Bless the Queen!
Again…
Celtic shareholders warned over takeover scam aimed at getting bank details
Jun 1 2012
SCAMMERS claiming to be behind a takeover of Celtic have targeted the club’s shareholders.
The bandits have called up several small investors posing as businessmen trying to get their bank details.
One said he was working for a person trying to buy out majority shareholder Dermot Desmond.
Yesterday, Celtic warned fans who hold shares not to fall for the bogus callers.
The boiler-room scam first came to light last year but the club issued a fresh warning after it emerged shareholders had again been contacted in recent weeks.
One supporter who was contaced by the scammers said: “I had a phone call from an international number asking about my Celtic shares and telling me about some takeover nonsense that is about to happen.
“I would have got rid of the guy quicker but he mentioned Celtic at the start so I listened for a bit before telling him to go forth.
“I doubt anyone would be taken in by it but you never know.”
The fraud bandits say they are working for a US consultancy firm who are trying to gain 51 per cent of the shares in the club for an investor.
Last year, an 85-year-old Celtic fan was targeted by the conmen trying to get bank details over the phone. He said: “The chap was very polite and seemed plausible.
“But when he started to talk about bank transfers, it made me wary.”
Celtic have urged shareholders to report anything suspicious to the Financial Services Authority or the club secretary.
A club spokesman said: “It has come to our attention that recently a number of smaller shareholders have again received unsolicited telephone calls concerning their investments in Celtic.
“Shareholders should be extremely wary of any unsolicited advice.
“If you receive any unsolicited investment advice make sure you get the correct name of the person and organisation and check that they are properly authorised by the FSA before getting involved.”
Celtic ask that anyone with questions about club shares contact company secretary Robert Howat.
Magnificentseven on 1 June, 2012 at 22:36 said:
KevinBhoy on 1 June, 2012 at 22:26 said
you should play Routenburn in Largs…
I have played there a few times, my uncle (God rest him) was a member there. Agree totally, beautiful views. I know because I saw a lot of the course when I played there if you see what I mean :)
Hail Hail,
KevinBhoy.
Just read that article from the DR – and I quote “Green believes more money can be clawed back for the public purse that way than by forcing liquidation on the club and an asset sale of Ibrox and Murray Park worth just £5.5m”…….Jesus I remember the days when Ibrox was value at over £100m……..
Copied from Wings over Scotland
Rangers and the Kaleidoscope Of Doom
Posted on May 30, 2012 by Rev. Stuart Campbell
There’s a famous scene in the first Indiana Jones film where our hero, faced with a swordsman performing an elaborate duelling ritual prior to an anticipated bout of formal combat, simply pulls out a gun and wearily shoots him. (Inspired, no doubt, by the legend of the Gordian Knot.) We’re feeling a bit like that this morning as we peer into the bewildering, constantly-shifting looking-glass that is the affairs of Rangers FC.
Either of yesterday’s events would have been enough to try to untangle by itself, but the two smashed head-on into each other and created a grisly heap of tortured, twisted, smoking metal that’d take half a Scottish fire brigade all day to separate into identifiable components, and with about the same chance of anyone walking away intact. But we’re so stupid we’re going to have a go by ourselves. Read on, if you dare.
Firstly, the CVA. More details slowly emerged throughout the course of the day, and as is now traditional in the kooky cartoon world of Duff & Phelps, they made things less, rather than more, clear. The Scotsman carries a transcript of a press conference with the administrators, and some of the answers in it are startling.
Q: Is the £8.5m from Charles Green’s Sevco consortium a loan rather than an investment?
A: At this moment in time, it could be interpreted that way.
We almost boggled our eyes clean out of their sockets at this one. The qualifiers are entirely unnecessary and misleading – the money proposed by Green’s consortium quite simply IS a loan, due to be paid back with interest by 2020. That much is unequivocally and unambiguously written down in the CVA proposal document, so D&P trying to muddy the waters is as pointless as it is inexplicable.
The next one is the one that really put us in a spin, though.
Q: If you have to go down the Newco route, is the £5.5m deal Charles Green has in that event exclusive, or can others enter the bidding at that point?
A: I think we’ve been through a sufficiently extensive bidding process and, because we were running out of funding, we didn’t feel we could have an option of going back out to the market. Green’s bid was better than all other offers on both CVA and Newco basis. So we’ve structured it so that the CVA is the preferred option. We hope that is concluded on 14 June but, if that doesn’t happen, Green has to force us – and we have to force him – to go the Newco route for £5.5 million. But it is envisaged that the CVA will be successful. If it’s not, there is no option for anyone else to come back in.
(Our emphasis.)
This is simply staggering. If the CVA fails, Green’s £5.5m newco bid will guarantee a zero return for the creditors, because every penny will be swallowed up by Duff & Phelps’ fees, which have been variously described in the media but seem by broad consensus to be around £5m so far, and still accumulating.
But the administrators’ prime legal duty, let’s remember, is to secure the best possible return for the creditors, not for Rangers. It’s their job to produce as much money from the wreckage as it can, not to prioritise the survival of Rangers as a football club. While there are many reasons why a fire-sale of Rangers’ assets wouldn’t deliver the sort of sums onlookers might expect[1], there’s unquestionably a significant possibility it could realise more than the measly sum Green is offering.
(Which is itself conditional on the club receiving a guarantee from the SFA and SPL that it will be allowed to continue playing in the top flight of Scottish football – an outcome that looks less and less likely, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.)
Technically, the administrators’ reply means that Rangers could end up being bought by nobody at all – if the CVA fails and the SFA guarantee doesn’t materialise, Green is out and D&P have just told us there’s “no option for anyone else to come back in”. That, of course, is plainly NOT the situation – in such an event there would HAVE to be a fire sale, Ibrox couldn’t just be left standing there empty – so it’s hard to conclude anything other than that Duff & Phelps are openly and obviously lying.
Some would suggest that it’s not for the first time. The press are optimistically reporting that the CVA proposal at present offers creditors a likely payment of 8p to 9p in the pound, based on the figures we laid out yesterday but supplemented by £2m in income from transfer fees owed to Rangers (largely, we think, from the sale of Nikica Jelavic to Everton). But there’s another spanner in the financial works, in the form of a whopping £3.6m “administration trading shortfall“, in other words the money the club has continued to lose while it’s been in Duff and Phelps’ hands since mid-February.
The administrators, so far as we can establish, appear to be trying to pull something of a fast one in regard to this hefty chunk of debt, by adding it to the unsecured-creditors list. But – and again, we have to point out that we’re not a lawyer – as far as we can establish companies simply aren’t allowed to be run at a loss in administration. (That being the point of entering administration in the first place.)
Any debts run up during such a period have to be paid in full when the company exits administration, not at a pence-in-the-pound rate from the creditors’ pot. Once again, such a situation would obliterate most if not all of the pot, leaving creditors with zero.
So to cut a long story at least a little bit shorter, it looks like the reality of the “CVA proposal” is that creditors are being asked to blindly accept a pig-in-a-poke deal in advance, based on a document full of unknown or misleading figures, which is almost certain to result in them waiting for months only to then receive nothing at all, or perhaps 1p in the £ at best.
Last night’s TV was full of “experts” asserting that they would do so anyway on the grounds that something is still better than nothing, but such a view is naive to the point of stupidity. The rules of administration are such that only two creditors ultimately matter with regard to the CVA – Ticketus and HMRC. Nobody has a clue what’s going through Ticketus’ mind, so we’ll leave them out for now and focus on HMRC.
HMRC has a much wider field of interest than any other creditor, because the others are concerned solely with the money owed to them by Rangers. HMRC, though, have an entire country full of football clubs and other businesses to consider. Many other clubs are facing similar actual or potential investigations to that of the Rangers “Big Tax Case”. If HMRC are seen to let Rangers off lightly, they’ll be opening the floodgates to every other football club in the land to spend money is doesn’t have, avoid tax, and then just collapse and re-emerge unscathed as a newco when the bills come home to roost.
The Rangers case, then, is absolutely vital to HMRC not as a source of revenue but as a warning to others. The money that would be lost by the Revenue if such an approach were to become widespread dwarfs that owed to it by Rangers.
(In HMRC’s world, the level of tax evasion by Rangers is in fact relatively small – most of the money stacked up in Rangers’ red column is in the form of fines, penalties and interest rather than actual unpaid tax and NI contributions.)
The idea, then, that the Revenue would accept a piddling likely return of as little as £1m-2m (roughly what one of its departments spends on biscuits in a year) on behalf of the taxpayer, rather than forcing Rangers into liquidation pour encourager les autres, and thereby ensuring scores of millions in future tax receipts from hundreds of other football clubs and companies, is – not to put too fine a point on it – sheer delusional fantasy of the most extreme (Orange) order.
The CVA will fail – as all sane commentators have always said it will, and as many people believe it is deliberately designed to. You can quote us on that. Then what?
That brings us neatly and reasonably swiftly to the second aspect of what appears to be the collective death wish of Rangers FC – the appeal to the Court of Session over the transfer embargo. Mindbogglingly, the club appears to be maintaining the position that it thinks it’ll emerge unscathed over the flagrant breaching of both SFA[2] and FIFA[3] rules by taking its case to a civil law court rather than the appropriate sporting authorities. The Herald today reports, for example, that:
“Rangers are optimistic that FIFA will not regard their dispute with the SFA as significantly serious because the club argued only that the sanction of a one-year signing ban was not available to the SFA Judicial Panel which imposed it, not that there should be no punishment.”
This is a spectacularly wishful misinterpretation of the facts. FIFA’s wrath is incurred when a club goes to a civil law court at all, not because of the specifics of individual cases. The organisation is unfailingly infuriated by any attempt to park the tanks of another lawmaking body on its lawn, and it has already stated that it expects the SFA to take “direct action“ against Rangers over the breach.
The SFA therefore has no option but to impose a second separate punishment on Rangers for involving the CoS, on top of a revised punishment for the original offence of bringing the game into disrepute which was the cause of the transfer embargo in the first place. As has already been exhaustively discussed in the media since yesterday, the revised punishment can only be some sort of suspension from SFA competitions, or complete expulsion – a fine has already been deemed inadequate for the seriousness of the offences, and Rangers don’t have any money anyway.
(Also, the SFA will be extremely annoyed that the original fine has just been effectively slashed by the court’s awarding of costs for yesterday’s hearing to Rangers.)
The same applies to the additional punishment that will be required to have a hope of placating FIFA. The absolute least the SFA can impose in either case is a one-season suspension from the Scottish Cup, but that has almost no chance of being seen as sufficient, since it could amount to as little as a one-match ban. (Given that any surviving Rangers will be a greatly weakened side which could easily be dumped out of the Cup at the first time of asking anyway.)
It simply isn’t plausible to see the SFA, however desperately it wants to keep Rangers alive, being able to do less than suspend the club’s membership for at least one full season – it could probably ride out the public fury in Scotland that would accompany a lesser sanction based solely on the Cup, but it’s highly unlikely it would be enough to satisfy FIFA, about whose opinion the SFA is obliged to care a great deal more.
Of course, any suspension completely scuppers both the CVA and Green’s formation of a Newco Rangers. (Remember, both are conditional on Rangers staying in the top division without interruption.) And with the latter having been seen as Green’s (covertly) desired route to making a profit on his investment, the challenge at the Court of Session makes even less sense.
Because the strangest thing of all about the CoS appeal is that the transfer embargo was essentially meaningless for Rangers. In their first post-CVA (or post-liquidation) season, they’d have had no money to pay transfer fees or salaries for star players, and no European football to attract them with. They’d have had to put out a team full of raw youngsters (and whichever journeymen from the current playing staff hadn’t been able to find alternative employment) no matter what, so the embargo in reality cost them nothing. It was the outcome of a very carefully-considered attempt by the SFA to look tough and decisive without actually damaging Rangers in any substantial way.
Going to the CoS all but guaranteed the club would be subject to far more serious sanctions, from either the SFA or FIFA or both. Why it did so anyway will be one of the lasting questions from the entire saga – was it sheer petulance over the original punishment, a deliberate attempt to bring the rest of Scottish football down with it, or some sort of cunning masterplan that nobody’s been clever enough to spot yet?
The only clues to be found in today’s media suggest the former. Andy Kerr of the Rangers Supporters Assembly, for example, reacted – as reported in the Herald – to the CoS judgement with the following words:
“The SFA might be feeling a bit sore, particularly as it has to pay the legal costs, but you would think the attitude of a governing body should be ‘How do we best help a member club to continue to play?’”
The sheer magnitude of the denial and arrogance contained in that sentence is hard to comprehend. Kerr, on behalf of Rangers fans, appears to be both demanding and expecting “help” from a governing body that has just had a coach and horses driven through its rules, with potentially dire consequences for the entire Association and all its members, by a club it was already bending over backwards to accommodate by imposing essentially harmless penalties for extremely grave offences.
On the other hand, the previous public utterances of senior spokesmen within the club seem to support the second conclusion – that Rangers are already resigned to inescapable oblivion, but want to take the rest of Scottish football with them. It doesn’t take a wild leap to imagine that Rangers fans, and some of the club’s officials, would glean considerable comfort in their own destruction if they also knew that by enraging FIFA along the way they were ensuring other teams (but mostly Celtic) would be deprived of the benefits of European competition for years.
As for option 3, only time will tell.
…
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FOOTNOTES
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[1] Many people have been wondering why Ibrox, which is notionally valued in Rangers’ books at over £100m, can’t simply be sold to pay off their debts. The problem there is that that valuation is basically an insurance one, representing the cost to Rangers FC of rebuilding Ibrox if it were to be destroyed in some sort of catastrophe. (To be honest, we’re a little surprised Craig Whyte didn’t torch it before now.)
But in a fire-sale the value of the assets is limited to whatever the new owner can realise from them. Unless they’re prepared to run a football club themselves, all they’ve got is a patch of grass surrounded by useless seating.
The main stand is a listed building and can’t be knocked down, but in theory the site could be redeveloped in much the same way Arsenal’s old stadium at Highbury has been. The issue with that, however, is that Ibrox is in a run-down and deprived area of Glasgow (take a wander round in Google Street View and see for yourself), not a highly desirable location in the middle of London, so the returns on such an investment might be somewhat uncertain, to put it kindly.
(Though it could be argued – cruelly, but not unreasonably – that the dissolution of Rangers would in and of itself make the area much more attractive.)
Also, as far as we understand it, Murray Park has planning permission for football-related use only, so you couldn’t bulldoze it and build houses or a Tesco, which clearly reduces its potential value drastically.
If the club is liquidated the players become free agents (though this, like a great many other things, is a matter of some dispute), so there are no quick bucks to be made there either. Basically, Rangers’ assets are worth a lot less if you want to do anything other than running a football club with them, so it’d be very much a buyer’s market.
[2] SFA Handbook, Article 65.5:
“The fact of membership of the Scottish FA shall constitute an agreement by a member that it, or any body or person interested through such member, shall submit all disputes to the jurisdiction of the Judicial Panel and shall not be permitted to take such differences or questions to a court of law.”
[3] FIFA Statutes, Article 64, part 3:
“The Associations shall insert a clause in their statutes or regulations, stipulating that it is prohibited to take disputes in the Association or disputes affecting Leagues, members of Leagues, clubs, members of clubs, Players, Officials and other Association Officials to ordinary courts of law, unless the FIFA regulations or binding legal provisions specifically provide for or stipulate recourse to ordinary courts of law.”
Mick1888
Cheers mate. Didnt know the Lisbon game was on. Caught second half. Usual tear in the eye. Saw it as a 12 yr old but its the most evocative of memories. Works every time although must have seen it 500 times. Funnily enough I always see something I cant recall seeing before. This time is was big Stein pulling the fans away from John Clark at time up as they tried to strip him! JUST MAGIC…..HH
Regan should refuse to meet with Green. It is grossly inappropriate for him to be discussing sanctions on RFC, when he has just said that the matter will be referred to the SFA;s independent panel.
It is up to the independent panel to come up with a suitable punishment for RFC.
RFC have cost the SFA tens of thousands of pounds in pursuing this matter to the civil courts, and now it dawns on the Brains Trust at Ibrox that this petulant, arrogant, and impulsive decision – a decision which could have cataclysmic outcomes for other Scottish clubs – might not have given them the result they wanted. Indeed, through their bombastic stupidity, they might well have made RFC’s situation worse.
What we are seeing is a club shooting itself repeatedly in the foot. It’s not up to any of us to take the gun off them.
Re managers
You will never have 100% agreement on a manager. I was too young to follow the Stein but i’m sure during his 13 trophy packed years he would have had detractors among fans and not just Desmond Whyte.
On Strachan is no different in this respect. Overall he was great for Celtic no question however it is wrong to state it was good all the time. During 2007/8 -when he achieved 3 in a row – our home record was rank and lead to many fans giving up their season tickets. Personally I never understood his refusal to play Bobo. Still overall he was a success and I’m glad he was our manager because after the debacle of Fir Park in 05 he worked his socks off to turn the club around and make us champions the following season.
Just checked the DR and the tweets from Gregory Ioannidis @LawTop20
about SFA doing a deal and if this is true then Stewart Regan should resign.
Rangers FC have cheated every club and creditor in this country and they think they can do deals.
Regan if this is true you need to go now.
Gregory Ioannidis @LawTop20
SFA cannot accept a 6 month deal as it would violate its Tribunal’s decision for 1-year ban plus the CoS’s ruling. No way out here
Gregory Ioannidis @LawTop20
To have a ban reduced, there must be an appeal or a re-examination of the case only on proportionality issues
The SFA don’t have any rules they make them up as they go along.
HENRIK 0901
If that is true-if he is even talking with Ragers-he should be subjected to a vote of confidence.
kitalba on 2 June, 2012 at 08:43 said:
Copied from Wings over Scotland
That article, mate, is how the MSM should be dispassionately reporting the death of their favourite scottish institution!
I dont understand how Green gets to ‘take-over’ on liquidation.
Can this not be challenged?
FinancialsimpletonCSC
HH
Spot the Freudian slip…..
Sickening rangers PR spin. You and I and all other SPL football teams pay tax on our income to provide a welfare state, fund schools, hospitals etc. Rangers of course don’t but if they did that money would just be “gobbled up by the taxman”. What a thoroughly amoral collection of creepy people, time to crawl back under their rocks. How anyone can buy the DR (especially in the close season) is beyond me.
ItaliaBhoy on 2 June, 2012 at 08:47:
“Regan should refuse to meet with Green. It is grossly inappropriate for him to be discussing sanctions on RFC, when he has just said that the matter will be referred to the SFA;s independent panel.”
Is this nonsense coming from the same sources that claimed Green was meeting Peter Lawwell?
How did that meeting go?
The fact is some Huns now realise they have made a total arse of this situation. But the decision will be taken by the independent panel with FIFA looking on closely at developments.
It has nothing to do with the SFA, and if Green wants to meet Regan it is a pointless exercise.
Don’t slag me here bhoys lol, i only buy the sun and DR on a Saturday for the magazines for the Missus.
kitalba on 2 June, 2012 at 08:43 said:
—————————————————————
FOOTNOTES
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”[1] Many people have been wondering why Ibrox, which is notionally valued in Rangers’ books at over £100m, can’t simply be sold to pay off their debts. The problem there is that that valuation is basically an insurance one, representing the cost to Rangers FC of rebuilding Ibrox if it were to be destroyed in some sort of catastrophe.”
I’m not sure that’s accurate. If it is, someone has lost sight of the whole reason for limited companies having to publish accounts namely to allow investors, potential investors, creditors and potential creditors to make an informed judgement as to whether they will get their money back should the company go bust. It’s a trade off for having limited liability.
Serious questions have to be asked of the auditors, Grant Thornton and the valuers DM Hall.
A company is deemed to be insolvent if its total liabilities exceed its total assets. The huns were only able to continue to trade because of the grossly exaggerated property valuations in the balance sheet. If those valuations had been accurate the huns would have gone bust years ago.
City funds Orange events
Published on 2 June 2012
Gerry Braiden
SCOTLAND’S largest council is funding Orange Order street parties to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, sparking demands the authority ensures the events are “inclusive” and claims that local communities have not been consulted.
A party centred on an Orange Hall in Pollokshields in Glasgow’s south side and organised by the local lodge has received £1500 in public cash. Another based at an Orange Hall in Springburn has been given £890 of city council cash.
I am ashamed to be from this country.
Kevtic on 2 June, 2012 at 09:01 said:
Re managers
You will never have 100% agreement on a manager. I was too young to follow the Stein but i’m sure during his 13 trophy packed years he would have had detractors among fans and not just Desmond Whyte.
Often forgotten.
Big Jock was a great success with Dunfermline and with Hibs prior to his return to Celtic.
In his heyday with the `Tic, I never heard any Celtic supporter having anything but praise for Jock.
Why would they?
He was a success from the moment he arrived.
Two years after he arrived,we had won the European Cup.
How long did it take Fergie?
Looking back at the blog, maybe its time to find an online breathalyser to allow posting on the nightshift for UK citizens …….
RobinBhoy
hen1rik on 2 June, 2012 at 09:11 said:
City funds Orange events
Published on 2 June 2012
SCOTLAND’S largest council is funding Orange Order street parties…..
I am ashamed to be from this country.
Akin to funding hoods for the K.K.K.
You see,they ARE the people.
Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free……….
( Lyrics penned by a Scottish lady )