King, the other Big House, contingency planning

Proceedings against Dave King for Contempt of Court begin on Friday at the Court of Session.  In March, King was ordered to offer £11m for shares not already owned by his concert party, no later than 26 April.  Nearly three months later, that instruction has not been complied with.

Well in advance of the Court decision to force King to comply with the Takeover Panel instruction to offer to buy non-concert party shares, King would have been advised what requirements he would need to comply with, if he lost.  Prudent contingency planning would have averted this Contempt hearing.  But you know King.  He sat on the Rangers board which made no contingency plans to allow it to continue to trading through HMRC’s case against the club.  The consequences of that were so severe it went into liquidation BEFORE it lost the case!!

Indeed, before starting a takeover bid for Newco, King would have been well advised to have the money in place to underwrite the project.  Remember, he once suggested a £50m would be needed, this is ‘only’ £11m.  If he cannot lodge this £11m he has no chance of making good money to build the team.

During the takeover Panel’s case against King last year, King’s QC told the court “Any order wouldn’t secure compliance”.  Quite an insightful prediction.

If found guilty, these proceedings could see King reside for a while in Glasgow’s other ‘Big House’.  Even if that happens, it will be a mere blip on the ‘journey’, prepare to read that is is a ‘favourable settlement’.  The question to keep your eye on, is who will pay the bills after the season ticket money runs out?  Never mind, there will be orange strips, reduced ticket allocation to Celtic, angry statements about the SPFL and SFA, so they must be good guys.