So the day has come. Several of the alleged conspirators in the Great Football Swindle have arrived at the High Court in Edinburgh to face their charges.
It will be four years next week since I first asserted that Rangers would be liquidated, with all of the consequences that would entail. For the last two years I’ve tried to stay away from the subject and to concentrate on the matters which brought us together in the first place, but this issue deserves coverage.
In 2012 the illegal Discounted Options Scheme and Employee Benefit Trusts (only some of which are still subject to appeal) put HMRC in a position to demand payment, and subsequently reject administrators’ attempts to agree a CVA. Thank you, Sir David.
Charles Green must be a great poker player. He raised enough seed capital to buy the rights to pay £5.5 for Rangers assets in liquidation. From that moment, we thought one of two things would happen:
Green would pull Newco together and within a few years things would look like the old days.
Or, Green would be undermined by those he out-manoeuvred, leading to a likely insolvency for Newco.
There were suggestions early on that Green and Whyte were acting in concert, but, as someone with more experience than I have on matters like this pointed out to me, to be convicted for this type of crime you need to take a billboard advert out explaining your misdemeanours, it’s so difficult to prosecute. Or you need to be very stupid and fall out with your co-conspirators.
Stupidity is alive and well.
Green’s claim for legal fees against RIFC will have a profound impact on the club’s finances within weeks, but the bigger issue at hand is what happens at the outcome of the various criminal charges relating to the disposal and acquisition of the assets of Rangers Football Club, now in liquidation.
If it is proven that the assets were acquired criminally, the transaction is likely to be struck down, meaning the club currently trading as Rangers would lose ownership of whatever assets they have, including stadium and the name “Rangers”, irrespective of who actually controls those assets.
I’ve discussed this matter with many well-informed people and no one actually knows how it will play out, or what the consequences of guilty verdicts would be. The only thing that is known for sure is that outcomes are currently indeterminate, cannot be planned for, and contingencies cannot be made.
The club itself has to get on with business as best it can until whatever happens, happens, but no one should believe that a Duff and Phelps-type liquidation-bounce is normal, or remotely possible again. Assets could be hamstrung for years and left derelict.
Back in 2012 I said the only way forward with any certainty is to start with a clean sheet. Find a tiny club on the brink (there are enough of them), change their name, give them blue shirts, ask St Mirren or Partick Thistle to ground-share, and build your way up the leagues. Let the courts take their course and bid for the assets you want when the dust settles.
But that’s not going to happen. It would require more strategic thinking than is possible right now. My guess is they’re finished. Finished.
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SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM IS NOT A CRIME
Oops
Poor Nernst connection here :-)
Amazing what a wee bit green and white does to some fellow Scots around a pool even on holiday
Neganon is right, bigoted bastards it just shines through them
Just as well I couldnt give a monkeys about them
Hail Hail
butsybhoybutsybhoy
it’s always you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeeves and Wooster
Cowiebhoy
go to Worthing beach and speak to SPOCK.he got the same treatment 11 years ago.
Nernst was typed as Internet :-)
Still loving the reaction to green and white
Hail Hail
I would like to think your guess is right, finished, but so many skeletons, so many half shut doors, steeped in secrecy, brothers helping brothers, oh? And it is an Edinburgh jury too don’t forget?
My guess is they’re finished. Finished.
I see no ships old captain springs to mind.
HeHe
BUTSYBHOY on 16TH OCTOBER 2015 12:17 PM
Talking about tickets.
I have one adult and three children all in the same row in the north stand for the home game V Dundee Utd.
FOC to anyone who would like them.
going on holiday next Wednesday.
HH
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Might be the job for SANNABHOY,mate!
Air on a G- string
Favourite uncle, just having a wee look to see where it is
Doing Oistins tonight, and will be at Sandy Lane tomorrow, at sea mind, as doing catamaran cruise, which stops at sandy lane area ? Will need to catch the Celtic game at this complex, which will be good, annoy this low life even more :-)
Hail Hail, that’s the sun oot
looks like motherwell are selling celtic end tickets so there likely will be a few spaces in our end after all
maybe some people cant make it because they are ironing their Hearts ticket ;-)
How on Earth can they be finished?
they have the next England Managers buying barcelona wnderkids for gods sake!
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?
As its Scots Law, I predict a “not proven” verdict.
Geordie Munro
From the last thread.
Dynamo Zagreb did not play 6 CL qualifiers.
They only played 4.
Jozo played in the two matches against Molde .
He was injured for the next match against Skenderleu ( spl) and was still recovering for the other match against them ,so he only made the bench.
My concerns about his early fitness record are well justified in my book.
When you take into consideration Derk,Myokolou,etc.
Something previously is amiss.
It is my hope that this is not another mistake by our scouts and medical advisers.
In recent years we have also purchased Rogic,Lustig ,and Matthews who have had a lack of appearances due to being continually injured.
Improvement on this front wouldn’t be hard to make.
TT
Paul67, is Finished – finished, different from being Deid, cause they died in my world 2012,
Right sun time :-)
Hail Hail
For past 3 years or so we have heard, bankrupt, liquidated, in administration, zombies ?, skint, blah blah blah
But I somehow really like FiNISHED, that rings true.
Paul67
I would love to share your ‘best guess’ but i am firmly of the opinion that the Huns will be following some mongral breed or other of what used to be Rangers for ever more. Well at least until WWIII and armagedon which is possibly more likely than the protected huns disappearing.
MWD said AYE
“Not proven ” good shout, very good shout.Dubaibhoy.
Nice to see a bit of balance restoring some perspective in how our board and in particular Peter Lawell are doing, in the day and age of the modern game.
Still mired in the aftermath of competitors possible fraud and corruption Celtic have survived quite well, and I’m very firmly in the
Agree camp
ETIMS
TT
You wrote a book?
ETIMS
I also agree,
Well Paul 67 saying The Rangers are finished so yet another respected poster puts his neck on the block.Some CQN posters have been spouting this message for at least the last 3 years.I myself would love them to be right but I believe the reality of there situation is that the establishment once again will pull together to ensure there survival we have seen some amazing decision over the last few years and we will see even more.So dont put your mortgage on them going out of the game it is most unlikely to happen they will be with us in the SPL next season and the Celtic board in my opinion will be delighted to welcome them as they will see the pound signs in all the extra season tickets that will be sold. H.H.
Just you wait til Mr King puts up the £30,000,000.
Egg on face.
ahahahahahahahahahahaha
Finished I tell you Finished…
The End Times CSC
I doubt very much that if Sevco are with us or not next season, it will have nothing to do with Celtic, we have done ok without them the last three years, so who cares, don’t get me wrong in a business sense Celtic won’t knock back the extra dough that’s only common sense, but delighted ?
‘Egg on Face’
ole Kirk Numbnuts’ signature bake
“Finished?”
Strong words, Paul, even more powerful coming from a non-hysterical chap like yourself.
I confess to having no idea how all this will pan out. But one thing is clear: if you consistently spend more than you earn then you will require loans to keep the lights on.
Rangers/Sevco’s problem has been an inability to recognise this. With no bank credit, they exist at the whim of shareholders and rich fans. This way of doing business is simply not sustainable in the long term.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bup7NY-54DA
ITALIABHOY
‘This way of doing business is simply not sustainable in the long term.’
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Sssshhhhhhh….
Don’t tell them!
Aw ffs. Just had my first long post dissappear.
Gist of it….
Tiny Tim,
Simunovic played in 4 qualifiers and was on the bench for 2.
I heard we were well underway with talks and this was the reason he didn’t play. Might be bs though.
Simunovic has had a mare injury wise in the hoops but his record preceltic is nothing like that of derk or moyloko.
I agree in part and disagree in part with the Etims Article.
Financlially the narcisist has done a fine job off field with our club but in doing so we have witnessed the suceessfull teams of the past (for example NL’s) being dismantled and sold to keep the balance sheet happy with lesser players being brought in in hope that they will become the next player to keep the balance sheet happy.
At some point (in the not so distant future) there will not be a player in our team capable of attracting the fees we currently have pulled in from the Wanyama’s, VVD’s etc. This end of seasons asset potentially will be Bitton. Next seasons profit & loss asset???
it is time to weight the mans bonus on results weighted heavier on League Championship success, CL and/or Europa with little wieght on Domestic trophies. Re-ignite PL’s footballing success proton’s were his holy grail of a bonus is in CL qualification with a decent one for Domestic League.
So I agree and I disagree.
MWD said AYE
Dodo fc
Finished?? Can’t be!
Haven’t they just recruited the bestest scout in the wuruld.
The one who was ‘solely responsible for Sterling’….
Which I now see has been edited down to ‘persuaded Liverpool to buy him’.
Hey maybe that’s why he’s on-board…. he’s got a good eye for picking up sterling :)
HH
Geordie Munro
I am taking my info from the DZ official website.
It states that they only played 4 CL matches prior to qualifying.
It if is wrong then I am wrong on the number of ties.
It’s all academic.
He has been plagued with injury since signing for Celtic.
I hope this is a short term problem.
Our track record with other players is why I’m showing concern.
TT
‘Finished’ please make it be so.
The air is much cleaner without them. I have no expertise as far as they are concerned but they seem to have dodged the big decisions that needed to be taken to give them a solid base to build upon. The quick fix to the tunes of old battle hymns will not sustain them and the inability to hold an ‘Armed Forces day ‘ every fortnight means their income is extremely subdued.
The farce has now reached court, decisions can go either way there especially in Edinburgh but legal costs is the real playground for me here.
aCelticgameonthehorizonCSC