After many years of speculation and debate, former Rangers owner, Craig Whyte, and founding father of newco Rangers, Charles Green, have been detained by police and are due to appear in court connected to the “alleged fraudulent acquisition” of Rangers assets, which were sold after the club failed to prevent a liquidator being appointed.
Joint administrators for Rangers, Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, then employed by Duff and Phelps, have also been detained in connection with the case.
Let’s get the rules clear from the off:
Anyone charged with a crime is entitled to a fair trial. They should not be subject to public comment which is likely to prejudice their ability to receive a fair trial. Don’t let anything of this nature appear on CQN.
You can discuss the issue, and you can discuss consequences of similar-sounding hypothetical cases, but unless you are cited to as a juror, don’t try to convict anyone.
The events surrounding Rangers liquidation and the subsequent asset purchase took place over three years ago. That this case has now found such momentum suggests the police are following a strong lien of enquiry, and have overcome whatever inertia which can sometimes affect white-collar crime.
We don’t know what is alleged fraudulently took place. The role of the administrators to carry out their duties on behalf of creditors is clearly established. That said, plenty of lateral is afforded to administrators (although increasing payroll by trying to sign Daniel Cousin raised eyebrows).
Exactly how Sevco Scotland Ltd (now The Rangers Football Club Ltd) were able to buy Rangers assets (for £5.5m) when the company who successfully bid for the assets was Sevco 5088 Ltd, has remained an open question since Craig Whyte claimed a controlling interest in Sevco 5088 Ltd.
Whatever the nature of the police charges, there is one overarching fact which Scottish football should be alert to.
Any company, football club or otherwise, which relies on assets that were criminally acquired to go about its business cannot continue to operate with those assets.
In this instance, the stadium, training ground, intellectual property, balls, nets and goalposts were all acquired by the company now known as The Rangers Football Club Ltd.
The consequences of this one are so massive several well-informed people suspected it would never get this far. But the day has come.
Even if all charges are dropped or allegations found to be false, there will still be immediate and real consequences. How would you, for example, go about raising money for a company with this hanging over it? Newco needs money, and they need to convince investors that the club did not start by criminally acquiring its football stadium.
Good luck with that.
I see in some places a fallacy persists that the SFA found Craig Whyte fit and proper to be a director of a football club. They did no such thing. The responsibility for ensuring Whyte’s fitness in 2011 lay with the Rangers board of directors, including Dave King and Paul Murray. The SFA have no powers to intercede or prevent a club from appointing any director it chooses.
Earlier this year Dave King took the unusual step of asking for prior-clearance that his appointment would not be found contrary to SFA rules (presumably due to his criminal convictions), before being appointed a director, but this was at King’s discretion. There is no SFA Fit and Proper test, the SFA do not clear or otherwise sanction any club director prior to appointment, this is the job of the club itself. Dave King, Paul Murray but most of all, Sir David Murray, take a bow.
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I hope Craigy Bhoys lawyer has got his tapes and 100000 pieces of paper in big strong fireproof boxes .
Gooooood morning CQN
Heading aff oooot, but afore I go
KevJ – you focus on getting back to full health, and pestering us all :-)
Lionsroar – done
Mountblow Tim – very best of luck to your wife, hope all goes well and she is home tomorrow
Right work
Hail Hail
Oh – good to see that Auld Melbourne Rebel back on :-)
I shouldn’t bite;
Cameron calls them a swarm. Says everything about him as a man. He’s a lizard along with half the south of england. I don’t recognise these people as humans. Maybe in a Darwinian survival of the fittest sense, but not in a normal compassionate sense.
>>>
And you twist this? Point score when someone is upset about children dying?
What sort of person are you?
coolmore mafia on 3rd September 2015 9:07 am
Bravo Ernie. Bravo.
Calling Cameron and some English voters a nasty name equates you in Ernies world to those who are committing atrocities in Syria ?
Go figure ?
Of all the angles one would consider from the dreadful humanitarian crisis in Syria, no surprise Ernie is supporting his NO campaign mates Cameron ?
lionroars67 petition signed.
My wife was brought to tears when she saw that image last night. I couldn’t sleep I was so disturbed by it. I had to go look at my boy who is probably about the same age as he slept peacefully.
It really is heart breaking stuff. We are extremely lucky in Europe but with our fortune comes great responsibility.
Plenty in the South of England feel the same way. Not Cameron though, the man is nothing more than a heartless pawn, an enabler for the rich and powerful. Describing refugees as a swarm was disgusting.
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on 3rd September 2015 9:07 am
MountblowTim
As previously offered should you need any info contact me at anytime
Good luck mate
Blantyretim
Thanks
Is it Ok for me to get your e-mail address from Paul 67
To contact you
HH
Mt
Cowiebhoy on 3rd September 2015 9:14 am
KJam on 3rd September 2015 9:19 am
Thanks guys, lets keep the focus of this tragedy where it belongs, THATS not YOU Ernie
Def aff oot
LIONROARS67 on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2015 9:17 AM
I’m the sort of person who is aware that saying that half the population of the south of England are not human is problematic.
Now the problem might just be stupidity or a lack of awareness rather than anything more sinister, but it is none the less problematic.
MT
blantyretim@aol.co.uk
SFTB
Thanks for the considered reply.
“For a £5m or £6m player that would have to be someone young coming from an unfancied league but was someone that our scouts/recruiters really wanted i.e. in their top list of targets. Unfortunately, that rules out your older player (above 30 for a forward or 35 for a defender) as there is no potential re-sale- anyway they would have been spotted and used to bigger wages so they are a bit of a mythical creature.”
There was no chance of us signing anyone for £6million but you can see why some may be confused by the mixed messages or double speak coming from the club.
However in regards to older more experienced players, I don’t agree they are ‘mystical creatures’. Malmo had one upfront who cost buttons & another example would be Esteban Cambiasso, who earlier in the window went to Greece on a free. There are many players like these within every league, it’s just obvious we don’t look for them.
“I favour squad harmony and continuity but accept that top players will be sought after and will be sold. I don’t believe the plan of a couple of superstars surrounded by modestly paid journeymen and youth is a better team model for development”
Every club favours squad harmony of course they do but even the biggest have their superstars on superstar wages. One example – United pay Rooney more than any other player at the club. Has this brought squad disharmony to Man United?
Not all players are paid the same money it’s a myth to think they are, likewise believing disharmony comes from a few picking up a bigger wage. IMO Celtic should strive to recruit one superstar player (at our level) each season. We’ve little chance of unearthing another Henke but who within our squad would complain if we had an experienced professional up front, in midfield or defence?
In general our overall strategy is fine but my argument is it shouldn’t remain so rigid. Monies should be spent earlier & not dripped out the door in the hope we can pick up some desperate souls late in the window.
VVD was always likely to be sold for £10-13 million, so why not speculate some of this future fee to strengthen for the qualifiers? Who knows, we may have kept hold of him if we had qualified. There would have been next no risk in front loading our summer budget, not doing so IMV was much more of a gamble and so it’s proved.
Of course there is more at fault here than not recruiting players at the right time but failing to qualify is a failure of strategy. Repeating the same nonsense year on year is madness, things need to change, we can do much better & we must if we are going to progress as a football club.
Lionsroar67 signed mate. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Coolmore mafia ignore that cretin.
Kevjungle stay strong mo chara.
Mountblow tim spoil your good lady when you get her home on Friday mate.
Tricoloured Ribbon I hope you are healing mo chara.
Philbhoy thoughts and prayers for Olivia.
Off oot work calls.
HH
KTF
UTLR
As one with only the slightest interest in International Football, I am already thinking of our next match. Aberdeen at Pittodrie .
Before the demise of Rangers, this fixture was usually seen as our second most difficult game. Now, the Dons are by a distance our biggest rivals and , as a result, this contest is our new, BIG game . It is also one I prefer to the games against THEM. Favouritism by the MIB in these games is less a factor and the Aberdeen support, although it has, like us, its share of nasty idiots, is based on football rivalry as well as a not too serious Anti-Glasgow aspect.
I would like to say more on this but I am off to Montrose to play in a Golf Match ( gusts of 40 + MPH predicted!).
My main point is that, in a better way, Aberdeen provide the necessary competition once the domain of THEM.
Cheerio for now,
JJ
Burgas Hoops on 3rd September 2015 9:08 am
Mountblow tim
Is there cuff links on the go as well ? If there are please put me down for 3 x sets
I take it your all arms and nae legs -)))
Burgas Hoops
Comes in handy some times -)))
Muscat Bhoy
Was thinking about your ‘Brand’ and idea and coupled with your story about you not being willing to pay £29 for the game against Dundee.
You’ve hit the nail on the head.
We pay too much and the pricing has alienated thousands. We saw an unnessesary £50 raise onto the season books and the insistence that £26 and £29 for non-season ticket holders is the price to pay for an ‘event’ (their words not mine) at Celtic Park.
Any sensible and knowledgeable pricing decision like the ones for the European games are forgotten when they charge more for SPFL games. I’ll pay £22 to watch Fenerbache and all their riches while a few weeks back I paid £26 to go to Rugby Park.
Celtic need to lead the way on this issue. This would be part of the new brand.
I fully believe that the club needs a complete revaluation. It needs to be honest with the support about where we are and where we are going. More engagement and a different narrative.
The club requires fans revenue more than ever. But they seem in a quandary how to get it.
The people fleeing persecution in Syria and other places are human beings men women and children Gods creation they did not ask to flee there own country but were forced.I think there but for the grace of God go I we must do our best to help these refugees I believe one day we all will be judged and we will be asked what did we do to help those who are worse off than ourselves. H.H.
ohits on 3rd September 2015 9:13 am
I hope Craigy Bhoys lawyer has got his tapes and 100000 pieces of paper in big strong fireproof boxes .
Funny and realistically scary at the same time, hope you are well bud HH
Right I had better get on with my housework
Till later
HH
Mt
Been a nightmare trying to get onto CQN this week but looks to be ok today .
Lionsroar67 , petition signed .
Any word on how TCR is doing ?
Philbhoy , hope things are well with you and the family .
HH
PS Not only have we `stolen` United`s best players; we have nicked their historical rivals as well !
An interesting stat for ya’s…..
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/wales-rise-above-england-fifa-9979248?
Photos of various football stadiums in Germany at the weekend with ” Welcome Refugees ” banners on show. Didnt in see this in the UK . Our government policies (Tory and Labour) are partly responsible for the war and destruction that have displaced so many. Lets have some compassion and take in our share .
BAMBOO. I agree Tony Blair has a lot to answer for in his war against weapons of mass destruction. However. that is a whole different debate.The refugees need help and the free World are the only people who can help them and I do agree that the Germans are trying to set an example Cameron appears not to be to interested in helping for me it shows the measure of the man. H.H.
It is quite interesting that many of us on CQN had forefathers who were in a similar position to the refugees of today when they and there families were forced out of Ireland at the time of the potato famine.Many came to Scotland and for years we have to fight against injustice.We of all people should feel for the refugees and do our best in any small way we can to help them. H.H.
HAMILTONTIM on 3RD SEPTEMBER 2015 6:29 AM
Macjay
Respect to you.
I`ll be there Oct. 3
Introducing my adult sprogs to the town I loved so well.
No offence intended:-)
Great tweet from Jim Spence “We can deal with those who started the Syrian problem and the human traffickers later. Right now let’s just save desperate lives.”
Any spares for croker on Saturday ?
I don’t think that “bringing peace to the middle east” is going to happen anytime soon. Especially when our idea of creating peace is with bombs.
We need to do our share. This country could always do with hard working people
As a ghuy who pines for a prolific goal scorer and adored Henrik, I still think it important to keep a sense of balance. In the years 2000/2001 & 2001/2002 when we won our 2 league Titles under Martin . Henrik averaged 32 League goals per season, the team averaged 92 League goals per season.
Over the last 3 years the team averaged 93 League goals per season.
I know the quote about Statistics but the point I’m making is apart from an exceptional season our average goal scoring stays fairly stable, when we lack a prolific striker the goals are just shared around more evenly.
If you are of the mind, I would also encourage you to sign this petition, official UK Government one and is very close to the 100K signatures needed for consideration for a parliament debate. Thanks
“Accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee migrants in the UK.”
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105991
Oh the joys https://audioboom.com/boos/3531048-celtic-underground-bonus-omnishambles-rfc/embed/v4?image_option=full&link_color=%2355ACEE&source=twitter_card&utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=card&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
Don’t know if anyone popped this question before but I do wonder how Lord Hodge feels, reading the newspapers in the last couple of days?
Andrew K@10.04
Just got sorted for 4 but have other irons in fire.
Should know Friday night for sure.
Get my email off P 67.
Will do my best.
HH
DOC
LIONSROAR67
KJAM
Petitions signed,lads. Well done on posting them.
Strange to think that the Tory Prime Minister previously said-“We hold that it is in the interest of the British people that the reputation of Britain for good faith and humanity should be preserved,”
Not Cameron,of course. Ted Heath.
Sicily – Yesterday .
1,658 human beings rescued in Sicilian water yesterday -912 men , 547 women , 199 minors ( under 18 )
Rescued from boats knee deep in pish , shit and vomit . . Many with heat stroke and dehydration . Conditions in the gangster holding camps in Libya mean that scabies, lice , viral pneumonia etc are common..
Reception centres across Sicily are struggling to cope – nationalities represented in said Reception centres-
Mali
Chad
Sudan
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Djibouti
Somalia
Nigeria
Senegal
Ghana
Guinea
Cote D’Ivoire
Iraq
Syria
Kurdistan
Morocco
Libya
Algeria
Tunisia
Pakistan
India
Sri Lanka
Bangladesh
India
Palestine
AULDHEID
“I hope you saw my apology earlier but I’m going to bite here.”
Yes I did see it & replied briefly on the first page of this thread – No worries at all your apology was noted & accepted.
“To cut down bringing in new guys for this years CL, Armstrong and GMS were bought. The former had a sensational first 30 mins at CP v Malmo but tailed off a bit. Did he not come off and was it an injury hampering him?”
Not sure if he was injured or not but yes both Armstrong & GMS were recruited in January. No problem here at all, only to ask – Are Dundee United’s front three (including Ciftci) likely to be good enough for CPL football?
I have no problem signing GMS or SA for the small amount we paid for them, but if these two were our great hope for qualification, then there’s more wrong than I thought.
Of course both may develop in future but surely our hopes didn’t rest on them for this year? That would have been unfair on the both of them.
“We had a strong CL pairing in Denayer and VVD that had it remained might have made all the difference v Malmo. We know Denayer is offski so we get Boyata in a 4 year contract in time to bed in over the earlier rounds. It would in my opinion been wrong to sell and replace VVD at the same time as we brought in Boyata. Two new CBS is what we started with last year so was avoiding that bad planning?”
I never suggested we sell VVD at the same time, only to speculate his ‘likely’ future transfer fee elsewhere within the squad. This would have given us the best possible chance of qualification.
“At CP at 3-1 up we lost Lustig to an injury. I don’t recall complaints about the back four that night until afterwards (and what a panning Izzy took and how did we miss him in the 2nd leg)
The point I’m making is the best laid plans etc etc.”
The back four was fine at home I have no issue with any of the players who played in defence that night (away in Malmo is a different story) However selling Matthews earlier in the window was madness. Fine, sell him later on but pre qualifying was only going to weaken our chances.
Many expressed this at the time including myself but obviously £2 million to offset the purchase of Ciftci was needed much much more?
With Lustig unfit for Sweden, we effectively played our third choice RB & compensated with Mulgrew at Left Back. This substantially weakened both positions in both attack & defence.
Not exactly great planning!
“My hope is now that we have two new CBs on long term contracts they will provide the rocks on which to build a defence (and that will take more than one match and its a pity its Aberdeen next who might capitalise but is that bad planning?)
I reckon Scots will stay longer than foreign imports of the standard of VVD and whilst some might not be quite of his quality if they can do a job is it not better to have them doing that job for three seasons rather than two?
PL does not recruit in a vacuum. He has scouts and a manager to advise. If RD thinks he has seen enough of Ciftci to address an issue of a lack of a physical presence up front but with some technical ability RD thinks he can develop, is PL to overrule RD.
I’m sure RD would love the finished article up front but he came into the job eyes wide open on the basis he could make players better so now its being put to the test.
Lets enjoy.”
We all hope the centre backs prove successful of course we do & as I said earlier in this post the defence we fielded v Malmo should have been more than adequate.
With regards to Ciftci, if he was indeed Ronny’s first choice? then I’m sorry the manager has no clue. No doubt he’ll score & assist a few in the SPFL but this guy is nowhere near good enough. Another waste of money & huge mistake that has now cost us millions.
I don’t want to get into a long debate on Ronny, just to say his judgement of a player is highly questionable. Examples – McGregor given a long term contract, Bitton benched, only injury gave him a chance, Johansen played as a defensive midfielder, anyone but Griffiths up front. etc. etc.
Auldheid I have great respect for you & all your effort in trying to bring the truth to light but on this we are not going to agree.
Good talking to you, I wholeheartedly accept your apology but it’s pointless us having the same conversation over and over.
The bottom line is we failed in our ultimate objective in qualifying for the champions league. The failures are wider than player recruitment but not giving ourselves the best possible opportunity, well to me at least is unacceptable.
Though believe it or not I do still enjoy :)
Onwards & Upwards, I hope HH!
Can anyone tell me where I can get the CQN app? Tried the Apple App Store without success.
Phil blog a couple of weeks ago stated that Sevco would run out of money round about November time.
With court proceedings about to start involving who really owns the assets and could take years to come to a conclusion, then any new share is out the window (would have been doubtful anyway!) and no one is going to give any further loans. MA might even start an action to get his £5m back, although that’s also out the window in my opinion.
So it looks like administration quickly followed by liquidation. The Sevco administrators have nothing to sell to keep the lights. No cash, no assets. Unless you include the players!
This XMAS could be fun.
Hoping nobody was walking by that window I keep referring to!
The full extent of media and political collusion to conceal the truth about dodgy doings at a once proud club has yet to be revealed. It may never be.
But there is scope here now to expose Rfc’s unpaid PR men who are still working in the tabloid press. It’s been done before. For example when Diana died Private Eye published pages of nasty stuff journos wrote about her before her death juxtaposed with their grovelling and grief the week after.