Charles Green, owner of “The Rangers Football Club Limited“, formed in May this year, yesterday released a remarkable statement yesterday, ahead of the SPL Commission into How Rangers FC, formed in 1872, registered football players for over a decade.
“In short, what was decided by the SPL membership is that Rangers was finished as a member of the SPL. Despite this, the SPL now see the new owners of the company, and the new company itself, which owns all the assets of Rangers FC – including SPL championship titles – as fair game for punishment for matters that have nothing to do with us at all.”
We dealt with the purchasing of history on here some months ago. Once we realised it was possible, I snapped up ancient Egyptian history, the period from the pharaohs until Mark Antony. I AM responsible for the Pyramids of Giza but any slavery which may or may not have been used in their construction is NOTHING to do with me.
No one complained about the use of slaves at the time and I am sure each pyramid would have been constructed whether slaves were used of not. If slaves were so necessary for the construction I am sure “we” would have built many more.
Mr Green seems keen to protest against the SPL process, however, he, frankly, fails miserably. He doesn’t “question the impartiality of the individual panel members” but assets “whatever decision they reach is a decision of the SPL”.
So that will be independent members reaching a decision for the SPL! I think he doth protest too little.
There is also a threat: “”To make it crystal clear, the new owners purchased all the business and assets of Rangers, including titles and trophies. Any attempt to undermine or diminish the value of those assets will be met with the stiffest resistance, including legal recourse.”
Charles Green took steps to undermine his new company’s claim on Rangers titles in a BBC interview in June when he said that if his CVA proposal was to fail (which it did) and Rangers were to be liquidated (which they are), “the history, the tradition, everything that’s great about this club is swept aside”.
“Legal recourse”, which is prohibited by Fifa and which the SFA accommodated from Duff and Phelps, acting on behalf of Rangers, will provide Scottish football with a further drama. We mentioned at the time that the true cost of the SFA being so accommodating would be a repeat performance.
Mr Green asks why the “football authorities do nothing to address an issue that was public knowledge for at least two years, and was reported in the Club’s accounts for several years”? I think I can help here. Sir David Murray, who owned Rangers during the duration of its Employee Benefit Trust years, categorically denied that the club issued players with second contracts which were not submitted to the authorities. He reiterated this point most recently on a Sky News interview in March.
The football authorities have no issues whatsoever with Employee Benefit Trusts, it’s player contracts they insist are registered. Rangers insisted they had no case to answer until the SPL set a deadline on Duff and Phelps to fully disclose the nature of the alleged second contracts.
Charles claims during those lurid weeks when the SPL and SFA were negotiating with Green, that Neil Doncaster “repeatedly stated he was not interested in stripping titles from Rangers”. If he had evidence of this, ANY evidence, it would be fascinating.
If not, we should dismiss this claim.
A curious barb is made in other directions, “Rangers was not the only Club in Scotland to use EBTs yet nothing was done and little has been heard about it”.
One more time, for Mr Green’s benefit, EBTs are not against football regulations whatsoever. They are entirely legal and permitted by the SFA and SPL. The SPL Commission is not investigating whether Rangers used EBTs or not, it will investigate whether or not all player contracts were registered.
Mr Green goes on to make varied comments against “powerful representatives from Clubs within the SPL…. who appear hell bent on inflicting as much damage on Rangers as possible”, and that some “clubs were placed in an invidious position and we believe their interests were not best served by those in more powerful positions”.
Let’s have some context here. If we were to make a list of those who inflicted most damage on Rangers, representatives from other clubs would scarcely merit a mention. Those who allowed the club to spend more than it earned for so many years, who introduced the perilous tax avoidance system, those who failed to make accommodations for HMRC’s claim when it was first made, and those directors who personally benefited from the EBT scheme all carry primary responsibility.
Then would come the cheerleaders for the disastrous Craig Whyte regime – those who last year campaigned for the takeover, including putting pressure on Lloyds Banking Group to accept the terms.
Rangers opponents were spectators throughout this period. Any suggestion that our club were anything but opponents to Rangers, and alleged victims of trophies won by illegally registered players, when they should have been campaigning on behalf of their rivals, seriously misreads what was an established Glasgow rivalry. Of course it would be the same the other way – and rightly so.
Despite clearly feeling strongly about the Commission, Green didn’t address the key point….
There was no denial of the central charge that for a decade or more Rangers fielded improperly registered football players.
Yesterday some people suggested Green had offered the Lance Armstrong defence but Armstrong denied he was guilty while refusing to participate in the investigation into doping. This is a different matter altogether. Green has offered up something for every conceivable paranoid condition without actually claiming Rangers are wrongly accused.
The headlines today are all about titles being stripped but that is not the main topic in play. More importantly, after titles are stripped, what punishment will the SPL Commission levy on the Rangers membership, granted to Sevco in June?
The sheer scale of the charge makes this question incalculable. The toxicity attached to that membership is untenable and no bogeymen at other clubs, at the SPL or SFA are responsible for that.
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WooooooHooooooo
Postman just delivered my copy of Downfall by Phil Mac.
Till later Bhoys & Ghirls
HAIL HAIL
BRTH, ItaliaBhoy,
Thanks I’ll have a look at those too.
Cheers
Swiss
Weeminger…
Not an expert so my well be corrected
BUT
I think Mr Mitchell is correct R@ngers are in liquidation, it is a process that leads the Club/Company being dissolved.
I think the Ger in question is trying to pick holes in the Hearld article and is getting Liquidation mixed up with Dissolution.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
11:55 on
12 September, 2012
ERNIE LYNCH 1146
EVERYONE wants to have a connection to Kilwinning-it’s not known as “The Crossroads of Ayrshire” for nothing,you know!
—————————————————————————
Is that why the locals refer to you as Benny?
ernie lynch12:07 on12 September:
>>>>>>>>
Okay. What is the documentary that as caused the trouble? The one I saw is bad enough in its representation. I WAS confused when I saw that the one I watched had already been aired.
Thanks for setting me straight.
I say this in all seriousness and with no irony : when I get it wrong, I appreciate being told.
HH !
VOGUEPUNTER 1216
Most of them refer to me deferentially.
Or as “That bassa,how dis he git awa’ wi’ it?”
I tend to stay away from the former in order to really annoy the latter…….
Leftclicktic
Did you happen to see the Fifa13 forum?
BMCUW
Always suspected that the Holy Grail could be in Kilwinning.
Have a vague memory of the nuns at the auld school behaving strangely whenever the last supper was mentioned – and of them furtively entering a room that was always locked and out of bounds to everyone except themselves.
Hmmmm?!
HH!!
TALLYBHOY 1224
Was that the staff-room?
OOOOOO-er
Any truth in the rumour that the SFA is interested in buying the 2004 UEFA European Football Championship from Greece?
Also they could buy Ireland’s qualification for Euro 2012.
Campbell Ogilvie could buy the reputation of someone who isn’t tainted. (thumbsup)
Innocence of Muslims ————
It ain’t satire ——- appallingly directed / produced etc —–
It’s message is that Allah was an “illegitimate ” /gay / paedophile / hypocritical fraud…..
Garbage designed to provoke a reaction .
BRT+H 10:53
Phenomenal article. Copied and forwarded
I enjoyed the one from earlier as well
South Of Tunis – Not hard to provoke a reaction though, is it?
For example, someone in Denmark publishing a satirical cartoon is apparently justification for riots and murders. (thumbsup)
miki67
12:18 on 12 September, 2012
ernie lynch12:07 on12 September:
>>>>>>>>
”Okay. What is the documentary that as caused the trouble?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/sam-bacile-in-hiding_n_1876044.html
Could someone copy and paste Phil’s new blog entry please. The council have blocked the site.
Cheers
new article posted.
I think I might buy the reputation and achievements of the well known actor, the late John Holmes. He starred in many, er, arty films in the 70’s.
He usually played quite a ‘big’ part in those films.
starry plough
I agree that KevJungle is someone on here’s ‘hateful Declan’. Detest most of his posts.
I hope today is the start of justice for the 96.
Shameful how this has been covered up over the years.
Mr Cameron says newspapers reported false allegation about the behaviour of fans. He says the report finds flaws in the police operation and new evidence that the police carried out checks on those who had died in order to “impune their reputations”