Malcolm Murray, the newly appointed chairman of the Newco club Charles Green hopes to establish, yesterday entertained us with his comments on punishments served on a football team suspected of cheating you for over a decade. He said:
“We’ve had giant punishments already – a European ban, a 10-point deduction, the emotional trauma everyone has suffered. I think, for the good of Scottish football, it’s much better Rangers in the SPL.”
There has been no European ban. Newco will not be eligible for European competition because it is a Newco and Uefa requires three years accounts from participating clubs. They are simply not eligible, they have not and will not achieve the qualification criteria for European football for three years.
The 10-point penalty imposed on Rangers last season for seeking protection from creditors by going into administration is hardly a “giant” punishment. It changed nothing. Rangers were second in the league when it was imposed and remained so. They released no players and went on to defeat Motherwell twice, ensuring they finished the league in second place, earning £900k in additional prize money.
As a punishment, it is the equivalent of banning Ally McCoist from this year’s 100m Olympic competition. Pointless.
Which leaves us with “the emotional trauma everyone has suffered”. Compared to the emotional trauma suffered by Dundee, Motherwell, Gretna, Third Lanark fans, recent events have been nothing more than a focus for some robust rallying calls.
Don’t even start me on the emotional cost of losing the league in 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011, all to a team of cheats. How do you measure that? Think back to each day we lost those titles and tell me how you felt about them then and how you feel now, knowing you were cheated.
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Excellent stuff Paul.
A very welcome, proportionate article at a time when many Scottish football fans are starting to worry that the Orwellian elements will simply move past this and everything will go back to the way it was before.
It won’t.
Those who wish it were so, including elements of the SPL & SFA hierarchy, are seriously hamstrung.
ASonOfDan is right – a civil war has begun and it will run for a long time as various factions fight over the ill-gotten loot.
On a completely unrelated matter – has anyone seen a film called “Amistad”?
At least in that movie one of the factions was the good guys.
Hail Hail
This is how the Huns show humility.
From rangersmedia
‘Ultimately, we are better off as we have
our fresh start and the hard part is over.
If this is how it transpires, sit back
bears, light a cigar and pour yourself a
whisky. We know the hell that is in store
for these clubs as they fall into the
abyss like we did. Enjoy every second.’
Tom McLaughlin on 16 June, 2012 at 13:47 said:
Hi Tom
There are various points in the year where I mourn for lost values on memorable dates. The ending of the NUM strike is one of them.
HH
The bereaved followers of DEADCLUB fc not taking to Tommos blog to well.:))))))))))))))))))
¡ǝsoɥ ǝɥʇ ǝɯ ssɐd ‘sʞɔıʞ ʎןɟ ɥbnouǝ (o) /o\ z ʍoɹ:
And what I am saying is that OldCo does not possess ANY of the infrastructure which is required to hold either a license OR a share in the SPL, and that from the moment that was true the license ceased to be valid.
NewClub has the infrastructure of a football club. The corporate shell does not meet the licensing criteria for the license it holds. Thereby, this is no longer a transfer or share – said share being invalid.
This is now an “allocation of share.”
Sky Sports sources understand Celtic
have rejected a bid in excess of £6million
from Rubin Kazan for South Korea
international Ki Sung-yueng
Well said Paul!they are not banned,they are a new club.For all Uefa know this could be a “fly by night”outfit,who shouldn’t be allowed amongst honest football clubs.
James Forrest is Neil Lennon! We are ALL Neil Lennon! on 16 June, 2012 at 14:05:
Is it correct this new club has no players? Do the SFA hold the registrations for all the former Rangers players as that club was liquidated?
The 84 – 85 miner’s strike shaped my political outlook. I vividly recall as a 14 year old watching the news each morning and seeing guys fighting for the right to earn a living for their families and being batoned and charged by mounted police as a consequence.
I’ve never dug coal but retain nothing but respect for those men who did and who fought like lions to defend their communities.
SwanseaBhoy
A wee parable for you all. We’ll call it “Tough Times Ahead”.
Imagine you had your eye on a car, for years, but it was always totally out of your reach. Imagine pining for it, wanting it, but never being able to afford it.
One day you are walking by the showroom and you see a sign that you misread at first as saying 20% off. You go inside for a wee look, not because you can actually afford this, but because the dream is a wee bit nearer being real.
You go inside and you find the car is not being sold for 20% off, as you had originally read, but for 1/20th the value you had always thought the car was worth …..
You stand looking at it in awe. Dare you believe it? This car is now within your price range. Sort of. You would have to finance your family jewels for it, but it could, conceivably, be done … and Hell, 1/20th the price? God damn … if you could sell it for, say, even 10% of what it was worth … you’d double your dough.
So you talk to the salesman, who tells you he can see you’re taken with the vehicle. He gives you the keys, offers you a testdrive. You take it around the block. Boy, she runs like a dream.
You drive back in. “One question,” you say. “Why the Hell is this beauty so goddamned cheap?”
“Aaaah,” he says, and takes you over to the book keeping department, who pull out the ownership slips, and the financials. The guy who previously owned this car is in ridiculous hock, up to his neck in fact. The sale is a no brainer. You look through these files and you begin to understand … you are getting this car at liquidation prices!
One man’s misfortune and all that ….
You go home, you sweat it out, you obsess about how to get the money. You finally scrape it together, and you go and you slam it down just as the previous owner’s brother arrives on the scene, trying to do his own grubby deal ….
You take the car home. You look at it with wonderment. You remind yourself that, although expensive, you can sell it for a tidy profit if needs be, if you can’t keep up the payments.
Two days in, you are driving along the road and a door falls off. You are shocked, and dismayed, but you got the car cheap, and there is enough in the budget to fix a door ….
You get the door fixed, although it’s not as cheap as you had hoped it would be …. but there you have it. Your car is as good as new, and it still cost you much less than you might have been expected to pay for it …..
A week later, the other door falls off. You are horrified, but you get it fixed, scraping up the cash by selling something.
You have started to worry every time you get behind the wheel, though, and a month after you bought it, whilst you are idling along, the windows all fall into their fittings, shatter and the engine gives out ….
You furiously go back to the showroom, and demand a meeting with the smooth salesman who sold you the car. But he’s gone, promoted, having skinned a fair few folk during this “liquidation” business, and you realise you should have asked to see ALL the documents and not just the ones relating to the previous owner and his financial mishaps ….
So you ask for the log-book, the one you never got to see.
In the meantime, the guy who you are talking to now asks you a very simple, yet slightly shocking, question:
“If this guy needed the money so bad, to pay off his creditors, do you REALLY think he’d have sold this car for 1/20th its worth? It doesn’t WORK that way … this car was given the once over by professionals, and they determined the sales price …”
You shake your head and open the log book.
And what you find is …. devastating.
You find cracks in the engine. You find holes in the fuel system. You find rust which has been painted over. You find that the car you thought was one car is actually of the welded bits of three or four vehicles, and that the entire thing is falling apart ….
“But this can’t be right …” you say … “This is a con job ….”
“Not really,” says this honest man, who would have told you all this had he been the guy you dealt with, and not some fly by night chancer, put in place by the previous owner …. “This is actually a perfectly good car … it just needs some work … after all, what you’re REALLY buying is the name, right?”
“The name?” you say, glumly.
“The name.”
“And how much work are we talking?” you ask.
“You mean how much will it cost, right?” he says.
You nod, your tongue frozen to the top of your mouth, which has gone dryer than a Rangers fan’s boot after an Orange Walk.
“Let’s see …” he says, and goes through the figures.
Long before he reaches the end you realise two things; you’re still getting this vehicle cheaper than if you’d bought it brand new, that’s because it was a liquidation sale … but a long way before you hit the real price tag, and swallow what it’s going to cost you, you, and the car, will be a financial write off …. and you might have to start liquidation proceedings of your own ….
Now, if only there was a sap you could flog this piece of junk to
… And then you remember the brother ….
RRC
Please repost your last post on the tail of the last thread. Very pertinent point.
Can I suggest you also post it on Alex Thompsons blog
Paul67,
I believe this is a strand that should be publicised along with an argument that this agreement nullified any need for compensation.
It would also implicate David Taylor. Walter Smith was on the managerial scrapheap.
The SFA need to show bank statements that they recieved compensation from the huns.
If they cant guilty ….
Is this Why Dallas still has a job with UEFA?
HH
@SwanseaBhoy
I hear you. Remember going on demo’s with my uncle (when I was but a puppy) around those times and chanting Maggie Maggie Maggie, out out out. Had no idea what I was doing but it felt right and too shaped my political outlook.
James
That may be an INTERPRETATION of the rule book but it ain’t one that Dungcaster is going to put in front of his employers. You have to accept that the conditions to ALLOW A TRANSFER have been worked on for months in order to get to this point and ALLOW a transfer.
What is brilliant so far is that the fans of SPL clubs have moved the goalposts for all the ‘chairmen’ who were expected to roll over and take the big hun sausage at this point.
It’s now in the balance and it may even not happen. This is one element of the sting in progress. If this doesn’t come about then I think we may have resisted another strand of the sting.
On the other hand, if you think there is more complexity to the sting then getting a NO to SERCO from the SPL may actually be part of the plan.
The unmasking of uncle walt and the McColl Park loyal suggests that SERCO was never expected to be the recipient of a share.
It may even be that they know and want to take a year out. That may help with the re-planning and re-financing.
The real problem in all this is trying to identify the patsies, the players, the directors and the ‘marks’ being stung.
All we know is that der hun want to come back and will at some point. What is being debated is the how and why of all that.
HH
Paul67 et al
While primarily focussed on the SPL, I, for one am pretty confident that Murray and Rangers behaved in a similar fashion throughout the 1990s, the only decade since the end of the war that they actually dominated Scottish football. I thought it strange at the time that Murray did not demand action against Bernard Tapie’s Marseille, following the loss of their league titles due to match fixing, but maybe there were more than a few bags of cash buried closer to home, in a proverbial back garden. Marseille never lost their European Cup, and more important, Murray never won it. Couldn’t buy it.
Could and did buy plenty silver in Scotland, under the watchful, but not allseeing, eye of the SPL and the SFA. And now, despite all we know, and all we will know, they still expect to be allowed to continue in Scotland’s Premier League. They should not expect to be allowed to play football anywhere at any level in Scotland. That is my starting position, and I cannot see that changing anytime soon.
gallagher – tell him!
T4
Excellent, succint article Paul. Your influence is spreading. Tam Cowan (yes, him) expressed the same ideas on radio at lunchtime.
Kilbowie Kelt – brilliant limerick!
¡ǝsoɥ ǝɥʇ ǝɯ ssɐd ‘sʞɔıʞ ʎןɟ ɥbnouǝ (o) /o\ z ʍoɹ on 16 June, 2012 at 13:42 said:It may be my generation, but I’ll take the values of the 70′s over the values on the new millennium any day of the week.
What is your opinion of a union which prevents you from burying your dead?
Do you remember the rat infested streets of Glasgow in the `70s which resulted from striking council workers and caused a huge accumulation of garbage for months?
Do you remember the print unions strike which prevented the production of the Sunday Times for one year and resulted in it`s purchase by Rupert Murdoch?
Now ,wasn`t that a good result.Happy?
The good British electorate remembered and subsequently elected M.Thatcher on three successive occasions.
Thatcher was a product of Union stupidity.
Paul 67
Your last paragraph sums it all up.
The focus on EBTs,dual contracts,defrauding other clubs and plain cheating
just seems to be off the radar.Titles and trophies stripped from their clutches
with VOID replacing huns needs addressing.
Thanks again for all your efforts.
Well said Paul
Black Sunday was a horrible day that I’ve always tried to forget, and knowing that they cheated to ‘win’ the league that day just makes me angry.
Cheats
Shortbread now. Jim Spence has a right go at Walter…’ where have all these so called great Rangers men been up till now?’
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 16 June, 2012 at 14:21 said:
Yup
I remember them well.
What’s your point?
HH
Marrakesh Express-Jim Spence has found his voice in the last few months,and he hasn’t missed the huns.
Paul67,
Amongst all the great blogs you have posted over the years this one is as good as any. Clear, focused and to the point.
Most people think Rangers have been punished when, in fact, they have not been in any real sense.
It’s a pity the few huns that read it won’t understand it.
MJM
Jim Spence-The SFA are to merge the SPL and the SFL for the start of next season,surprise,surprise.Included amongst other things,sharing gate money.
The new Murray adheres to the partner abuse syndrome that most huns łap up.
My wife or Celtic ?
My wife and children every time.
HH
It may have been raised before but has anyone any knowledge of DM’s involvement in the BOS calling in Celtic’s loans which nearly put the club into administration?
No idea how to do the link. Kilmarnock Supporters Assoc have held meeting & say no to newco, conveyed in meeting to chairman(won’t make any difference).
Give this a try
http://t.co/05tj3dTz
SFA is pushing through SPL and SFL merger.
Before next season.
To Fix it….MMMmmmmmmm
Just had to log in to thank all the chinese lantern posters from last night.
Sat here this morning and read through the big launch. I can honestly say that I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard.
Cheers lads! Quality :-)))
The link works, statement on their pdf
Paul67 you have a way with words amigo, long may yir lum reek.
HH
Weegreenman @1303 , Private parking companies have no legal backup, ignore all letters they send , dont phone or write to appeal. Just do not contact. Private parking companies have to prove you were driving the car as the contract is with the driver of the car and the owner of the car park. They may be able to prove you are the registered keeper but that’s all see moneysavingexpert website forum about PPC’s.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2214803 . Got one at the forge retail park in october (HIBS game) and one at the Fort before christmas. Nothing more from Forge one although the Fort one is being more persistant just keep ignoring.
Hi Ghuys, Salve salve;- I do hope that preparations are being made to ensure that we win the peace. If as seems likely, 2012 rangers return in some form at some point then it has to be ensured that past transgression are not revisited on us. To this end, probably the best outcome for Celtic is to find itself in another league set up,failing that serveral things need to happen.
Firstly Celtic should announce they have no confidence in the refereeing system as it stands in this country and insist that all SPL games are refereed by officials from outwith this country as it would not be long before the Dallas cowboys ride again in a posse.
Secondly the resignations of messrs Reagan and Doncaster should be sought with immediate effect.
Thirdly
The abolition of the SPL should be sought .
Forthly A complete and fundamental reform of the SFA and all its laws and practices should be sought.
Finally the first Munster (You know Billy Bunter Salmond) should be called upon to establish an independent Judicial revew of the whole Scottish football system with the broadest terms of reference with progress reports issued to tightly defined time schedules and any recommendations fully implemented.
I commend this to the blogg.
Greenwells
Conditio sine qua non
Heard that the ‘tribute football club’ The Rangers is launching an new range of T shirts to raise working capital. The shirts are in a range of colours and carry the catchy slogan –
‘None in a Row’.
Will they catch on mmmmm….
ǝsoɥ ǝɥʇ ǝɯ ssɐd ‘sʞɔıʞ ʎןɟ ɥbnouǝ (o) /o\ z ʍoɹ on 16 June, 2012 at 14:29 said:
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 16 June, 2012 at 14:21 said:
Yup
I remember them well.
What’s your point?
HH
Okay,I`ll say it again. Just for you.
Thatcher was a product of Union stupidity.
Like Reagan was a product of Castro and the Ayatollah.
And Tony Blair was a product of Thatcher.
Rangers haven’t even begun to taste proper punishment. At least ten years of cheating cannot be atoned for by anything less than expulsion. I, like tens of thousands of other Scottish football supporters, paid to see what was advertised as a sporting competition but was in reality a fix. Over ten years of buying two season tickets, I personally have been defrauded to the tune of well over £12,000, as have countless others.
Taking Celtic alone (but also recognising that supporters of every other club were cheated, particularly the supporters of every SPL club which suffered the relegation which should, by rights, have been the fate of the club which lost every match 0-3) and looking only at the seasons in which Celtic were cheated into 2nd place instead of 1st — that gives us five seasons. Hugely simplifying the numbers to a low-end estimated average of ~40,000 tickets @ c.£500 each, we get a ball park figure of £20,000,000 worth of mis-sold tickets.
Twenty million pounds minimum.
Without counting extra prize money.
Without counting revenues from Europe.
Without counting enhanced reputation and consequent sponsorship potential.
Without counting potential for merchandising based on 12 In A Row and related achievements.
Twenty million pounds is the tip of the iceberg of the damage and disruption which RFC are responsible for. Not to mention that tens of millions of pounds more would have been paid into the national tax coffers if Celtic had been receiving the prize money which was due.
Proper punishment hasn’t even come into the frame yet.
Good debate on Shortbread now bhoys