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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McInnes will still win manager of the month
Were we to rape a little English club and take it over, how could we possibility maintain that we support a football institution called Glasgow Celtic?
The idea is not only nuts, it is also arrogant.
If we invested well, scouted well and planned well, we could access the CL most times.
Great article Paul.
So the media were talking up aberdeen and us being potentially 7 points behind them tonight as we were a goal behind at Hamilton.
Win tomorrow and we will be ‘welcoming the chase’ as a bigoted old Freemason who managed a defunct institution once said……
I’ve always thought we released Marcus Fraser to early
Did he not come on & make his debut in the Centenary Barcelona game?
Posted my last comment at 8.52, took 4 mins to reach you all from Barbados :-)
Captain Beefheart. = King Canute
Cowiebhoy
Barbados is 5 hours behind no 4 minutes
Love
Captain Beefheart on 16th October 2015 8:57 pm
Were we to rape a little English club and take it over, how could we possibility maintain that we support a football institution called Glasgow Celtic?
The idea is not only nuts, it is also arrogant.
If we invested well, scouted well and planned well, we could access the CL most times.
—————–
The more money we made from the CL the worse Scottish football would be, the gap would make the league pointless. The worse the Scottish league the harder it would be for Celtic to sign any players close to quality, and round and round we go.
Bobby Russell I recall having a Michelob or ten in Dukes bar. The owner was some dodgy geezer fae the sou side. HH
Gerry, there have been some amount of non-handsome huns in the past fifty years or so.
Another who was of the non-handsome looks , Andy Penmam , who they signed in the late sixties or early seventies. He was of the how do you know he’s a hun, cause he looks like one mob.
The footage of the 1971 cup final replay shows Penman just before the game starts. He wasn’t a sight for sore eyes.
Cowiebhoy, Will be in touch with you, if that`s, ok re Barbados. Am going to New York next week for a couple of nights, then going on a cruise and ending up in Barbados for 4 nights when the cruise is over. Get some tips/recommendations from you. Staying at Hilton Needhams Point when i`m there, think it`s close to Bridgeto(w)n, hope there are no billy boys there!
SOAL
I did Love that one :-)
Hail Hail
For a wee minute there my natural sympathetic ,looking out for the victim,, caring for those less fortunate, giving to the needy and defending the weak had me feeling sorry for them
Then I realised they are none of the above just cheating tax avoiding blackmailing idiots
let them suffer for as long as possible
Separate note I loved Paul67 final comment today “they are finished, finished” very powerful
67ECW
MurdockAuldandHay
Marcus Fraser’s debut was when he came on v Rennes at half time in Europa League game at CP
Captain Beef
You seem to suffer from the same delusions and arrogance that our custodians do.
Swimming against a macro economic tide / tsunami won’t be a long term recipe for success.
The guys running our club have continued with their head on the sand doing the same and waiting fir a different outcome due to macro environment change.
It won’t succeed. Pissing more cash into the wind in our back yard just to get a couple of CL group places every 3 years is not enough.
Gordon, surely you were under age?
GARY67
Thanks for that something made me think Barca for some reason
Very assured performance by the Staggies, Jim Macintyre has really turned them round. H H Hebcelt
Bobby R
I have no idea about it, staying at Sandals St Lawrence Gap, only been here since Monday
Visited Bridgetown, doing Oistins Fish Friday tonight, and Catamaran day trip tomorrow, that’s it Bhud. I was given this for an island tour, guy is very highly regarded – Sanjay email barbadosfun@gmail, 6hr island tour hitting all the correct spots $150 for a couple.
I tried to book this for yesterday, but he was already booked out.
Hail Hail
Burnley,
Should we therefore take over a hapless English club and yet still maintain our heritage?
We aren’t needed or wanted anywhere else. We play in Scotland.
Do you believe that we will move soon? Where to?
Huddle, we have nowhere to go. Better to be the best we can here. That means CL.
Bobby Russell, my favourite night at Dukes was when Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon busked along with some associates. It was the night after Everton cuffed that mob from Vienna.
Joe and Paul played at the Fixx and the Art School also , over two days.
Dukes was a really good pub with a very good selection of beers.
Boyce should be on his second hat trick…
Jeez never seen Boyce miss so many “sitters”
Gordon64
Alan Fuller wis it no??
Had some cracking nights over the years in there:))
Liam Boyce is mare like Max Boyce
Lennybhoy…..
Up in this area of North Britain it will be “not proven”
BUT
I know, you know and they actually know…..they liquidated brown brogues no more
Same flies different excrement, there will be a demand for tickets when we play Craigy Whytes team (he is the co-founder with Charlie and the rest of the bhoys from the tax exile islands) but that should never be to the detriment of the good guys, you can only play the cards you are dealt
Bobby Russell aye right. I’m sure you broke several pub regulations serving me and your wee brother. Enjoy Barbados or wherever it is you are jet setting to you old playbhoy. HH
McInnes next for the sack?
TSOAL to be fair he is usually deadly but agree having bad one tonight
Bobby R…..
We stayed there a few years ago, spent a surreal Paddy’s Day there………….. first class location, beach impeccable, staff genuinely warm and friendly – so much so we hardly left the grounds of the Hilton. We did a few boat trips, did the Fish fry at Oistins – about 15 mins from Hilton and went into Bridgetown – I didn’t fancy Bridgetown – a few good restaurants but has an edge to it………You’ve made the right choice of hotel. Enjoy.
HH
hebcelt
I rate the boy
lOVE
On Wednesday night we had an amazing spectacle over here. A controversial play in the 5th and final game in an American League Divisional Series baseball game between Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Sevco took place.
The score was tied when the Jays catcher, as all catchers normally do, lobbed the ball back to his pitcher. It inadvertently struck the bat of the batter and ran along the ground toward 3rd base.
This happens once or twice a year but never in a playoff game. The sevco runner on seeing this ran home. No run waved the umpire as in his eyes the play was dead; he then called the league office for a review of the rules after conferring with his crew and both managers, things then got out of control as the run was awarded.
Some infuriated fans in the stands began throwing beer cans onto the field and there were reports that a baby had been hit (who the donald duck takes a wean tae a highly charged 50,000 crowd baseball game).
The Jays eventually triumphed but the next day the media was all over the ugliness of the crowd, not the players or officials.
While not condoning their behavior and mildly condemning it the feeling was that this was understandable. Incidentally the TO media are very parochial.
I thought back to 2 “Shame Games”. The first on May 2, 1999, where if the deid team win they will be the 1st of that ilk to clinch the league at CP in 100 years or so.
The zombies went ahead through the tail of the bank ebt holder early doors. About 20 minutes later the sleekit wee scheidt fouls our full back who receives a 2nd yellow for alleged dissent.
We all know the rest when the widnae salesman awards them a penalty and the big fatherland chapel goer scores followed up by the same wee sleekit face scores the 3rd. Tae finally rub the proverbial salt in the wounds mcsleekit along with a former Castlemilk Celtic supporter encourages the players tae dae a mock huddle.
That night there was mayhem in the West of Scotland, more than 300 fans clashed in Duke Street, and a stabbing took place on Shettleston Road.
However, what was lost in the aftermath was a statement from Eric Black “Celtic can never under any circumstances condone the actions of those who caused the chaos. But while the antics of this minority was unquestionably unacceptable, there was certainly a bit of provocation. But still, there is no excuse. There’s that word again “understandable”.
Big Stephane was suspended and we were fined 45,000. As for the instigator, after a title party and overnight stay in a local hotel, he would awake the next day to find his family home in Livingston vandalised and his big moment tarnished. “I felt a wee bit deflated because we had just won the league, achieved a massive bit of history, and most of the headlines were all about the shame game,” he said. “What we did that day was almost forgotten. I remember a wee tinge of sadness about it.”
He now has a licence tae continue his hatred of our club through the MSM.
The second”shame game” needs no detailed summary, we all know what happened. The 3 main perpetrators all skipped out of hampden with laughable sentences.
Mcsleekit successfully appealed against a two-match ban after being charged with misconduct for clashing with NFL – who was given a four-match suspension.
Buggeroff and spitfire escaped with fines and a warning about their future conduct after facing the SFA’s disciplinary committee to answer a case of “misconduct of a significantly serious nature”.
But they were not handed out any additional bans on top of their automatic one-match suspensions for the red cards they picked up in the game.
Paul McBride said: “Officially tonight we now know the SFA to be the laughing stock of world football.
“The decisions are incoherent; they are, on the face of it, thoroughly dishonest.
I never thought they were biased or prejudiced but now, hearing what they’ve done today, it’s very hard to escape that conclusion.
We have a position whereby the person who was provoked gets a four-match ban and the person who does the provoking is let off.
We have a zombie player manhandling a referee, not once but twice, and there is no ban.
We have spitfire who is abusing the Celtic manager and throwing his top into the crowd and refusing to leave the park and behaving badly – no ban.
What does any sensible person think of that?”
Laughing stock right enough.
Captain Beefheart on 16th October 2015 9:10 pm
Burnley,
Should we therefore take over a hapless English club and yet still maintain our heritage?
We aren’t needed or wanted anywhere else. We play in Scotland.
Do you believe that we will move soon? Where to?
Huddle, we have nowhere to go. Better to be the best we can here. That means CL.
——————–
I believe if we continue on our current path Scottish football will basically be a part time league within 10 years.
Starry, Alan Fulleger opened it as Dukes. Was sold on a couple of times, I bought it in 1988 (That was a very good year!) Had it until 99, although I changed it a couple of times, Barbooshka and then back to `Joox`
By 2020 there will be a 2 or 3 division European League with a knockout cup.
Each summer the winners of the national leagues will go into a playoff competition with the relegated teams to see who joins the European League.
GARY67 on 16TH OCTOBER 2015 8:25 PM
Don’t think McInnes needs to worry about snubbing Ladbrokes for the October manager of the month award
– ———–
Think he’ll still get Spiersy’s vote!
Bobby Russell
I must know you then:)) I’m sure I was in there in 88 fairly often, we did a loop of the Dolphin, Smiddy, Dukes, etcetc:)) then I left for London in 89:))
HH
Dallas
Marcus phoned me this morning to tell me that Celtic would be top of the league tomorrow night. The 10 Tims in the Ross County squad plus the Fenian fae the Rock manager would do their bit tonight.