The hours immediately after the First Tier Tribunal reports on Rangers use of Employee Benefits Trusts, which the BBC discovered is due this month, to loan money (!) to staff what happens at Hampden will be most interesting. SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, as a director, was legally responsible for Rangers when they started using EBTs and benefited from one himself but he has refused to resign and the SFA have declined to put him on gardening leave, pending a public investigation.
Instead, SFA chief executive, Stewart Regan, told press the Association had investigated Ogilvie’s contribution to the matter and found he had no case to answer, despite widespread scepticism that any investigation whatsoever was held into the president’s involvement in the issue.
If, despite protests from former Rangers directors that the club acted properly at all times, the FTT upholds the position of HMRC, that Rangers incorrectly failed to pay £94m tax, Ogilvie will surely walk (away), as the SFA will have to instigate disciplinary proceedings on the club which inherited Rangers membership, for deeds done while the president was in an executive position at Ibrox.
Even our new friend Charles Green would find it unpalatable that a man responsible for the subsequent penalty remains in charge of the body imposing the penalty. We’ve said “Ogilvie will surely walk” before, of course, only to witness ever-higher standards of brass neck, but if he pauses for an hour before resigning, let it be to give those of us on the outside of the game what is needed, a full and independent inquiry into the game, how it is administered and controlled. Before the year is out we are likely to learn that our game was violated for more than a decade by people at the very top. A charlatan was expelled from the game earlier this year while the owner of a new club, without financial track record, is trying to raise millions from fans.
In any other European country, even Italy, the inquiry would already be under way.
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Evening Times:
RANGERS are struggling in the Irn Bru Third Division – because Ally McCoist was given insufficient funds to strengthen his squad.
That was the claim made by Light Blues legend John Brown today as he looked over his former club’s disappointing start to the season.
Burghbhoy 10:37 on 17 October, 2012
They weren’t duped. Many Germans bought into Hitler’s ideology and were more than happy to play their part in persecuting useful scapegoats.
So, you are spot on regarding Subservient Sevconians.
I do hope wee Craigie is due on the scene today. I’ve set my phaser to “lol” just in case.
Burghbhoy
It has to be said with The Rangers that in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is King Billy as the hunic hordes go over the edge, again, like a bunch of lemmings while Charles Green flashes his orange knickers at them.
And they’ll complain that no one warned us …again!
HH
Bill McMurdo
The Propaganda War On Rangers FC
Does anyone know if there was a final figure released for their Fighting Fund?
Donegalpaul – I imagine our hero see’s an opportunity (with the FTT results very imminent, VERY imminent) to shift some of the blame he is getting on his shoulders over onto the actual culprits! He is trying to share the burden if you will.
I expect it is something we will read about of a Sunday morning…..
kitalba, 10:46
Of course… it all makes sense now, what with Thomson being in Rome this week, obviously seeing his handlers
O.G – Well done. You just gave Leggo tomorrow’s blog….
kitalba 10:43 on 17 October, 2012
I saw Ra Bombur at Glasgow Central last Friday. He was stoatin all over the place, mouth sneering on the side of his bright red coupon – at three o’clock in the afternoon.
Judging by the nick of him he’s probably just sobering up about now.
Kit
They are obsessed by the IRA,its pathetic,I wouldnt mind if it was still active in a conflict situation,utter desperation.
RogueLeader 10:51
I might write it for him after I finish off these horse tranquilisers with my pint of Jamesons
Love this tweet from last night!!
TheBlackestOfKnights @THE_TBK
Right, my investigations into #WhoIsJohnGow, have uncovered he has had 3 owners in the last day @markdaly2 , @rangerstaxcase and @Paulmcc12
Retweeted by Rangers Tax-Case
This book tells the story of the incremental implosion of Rangers Football Club and raises issues of greed, abuse of power, press complicity but also what campaigning using digital media can achieve.
Rangers FC Chairman Sir David Murray, motivated by both year-on-year league success and the lucrative potential of the later stages of the European Champions League, borrowed heavily from banks at a time when banks were only too happy to lend to a big brand name like Rangers. Heavy borrowing combined with the illegal use of a tax avoidance scheme to play player’s wages and bonuses eventually led to the club’s bankruptcy earlier this year.
The sports journalists who ought to have been shining a light on Rangers growing financial problems were kept compliant with regular Murray “exclusives” and junkets such as all-inclusive holidays.
It was left to bloggers like Phil Mac Giolla Bhain and the anonymous “Rangers Tax Case” to expose and report what was going on at Rangers Inc. (The honourable exception, as the author notes was Graham Speirs — sports journalist with The Herald — who was quickly “frozen out” of the Murray circle).
The book is set out in four main sections — Finance, Media, Fans and the Scottish Football Association — each following a straightforward chronological path through blog postings relevant to the topic. Each page, each section is annotated with footnotes leading you back to the internet links and postings on this story.
The book is based on prescient blogs that followed the unfolding events in a story that says much about the period from Thatcher to the present day.
Unlimited credit borrowed to build a club on sand, compliant and biased journalism, a tax avoidance scheme used to attract the best international players and line the pockets of the Rangers Board of Directors and the inevitable denouement as journalists with some integrity utilised the new digital media to pressurise the Inland Revenue and banks into investigating.
As Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News notes in his promotional foreword, this is not just a book for football fans.
Solidarity 261, 17 October 2012
Bill McMurdo……….. Does he and his followers really believe that?
Incredible stupidity, staggering!
Cannyquitebelievehowficktheyarecsc
“the real establishment club of Scotland of their fans flying a hate-filled banner depicting the shooting of Rangers fans by a terrorist sniper.”
How can a club founded by immigrants be considered as the establishment? Ha Ha Ha
Is this an admission that they consider themselves as Zombies? I’m not sure how he can identify a silhouette as a ‘terrorist’ though.
What a rocket…
Rangers: A Warning From History by Mark on twohundredpercent.net
The contrast between the current public profiles of the Rangers FC’s Chief Executive and Chairman could not be greater. While the former, Charles Green, has a love of his own voice only matched by his disregard for telling the truth with it, the latter, Malcolm Murray, has largely – and wisely, to judge by his few public utterances – kept his own counsel. With Green taking time out to re-charge his bullshit batteries before the media onslaught in support of the new club’s Alternative Investment Market flotation, Murray last week became the defender of the Rangers faith, deploying what you might describe as a far subtler form of Green’s modus operandi for dealing with criticisms of the Rangers – blame everything on the “enemy”; if, that is, you thought Murray intellectually capable of subtlety.
The latest attack on the Rangers family came in the ‘Sportsmoney’ section of America’s Forbes business magazine, from a source with far from impeccable footballing credibility, Jon Pritchett, CEO of “Chicago-based sports investment firm” Club 9 Sports (C9S), who had an intermittent involvement in the Rangers saga as an advisor to one-time preferred bidder, ‘trucking tycoon’ Bill Miller. C9S were some way advanced in Sheffield Wednesday takeover talks three years ago but their advances were acrimoniously rebuffed by Wednesday’s board. This was initially thought to be because of the board’s long-reviled desperation to cling to power at Hillsborough, despite overseeing a long-term decline in Wednesday’s fortunes. But it was soon clear that C9S’s psychobabble-heavy plans were of doubtful quality. C9S were also involved in takeover talks at Tranmere Rovers… but not for long. And their role in the Rangers drama was somewhat closer to their few minutes on Merseyside.
C9S were thought to be formulating a bid in the early months of Rangers’ administration. And after their interest waned, Pritchett was identified as an advisor to Miller, who was selected by Rangers’ joint administrators Paul Clark and David Whitehouse of Duff & Phelps as ‘preferred bidder’ prior to the first May Bank Holiday weekend. It was over this weekend that Miller decided his bargepole was best left at home, as he wouldn’t be touching Rangers with it. I Pritchett was the brief public face of this withdrawal, having his 15 minutes of fame on Newsnight Scotland, citing “contingent liabilities” and a “deeper” than expected “financial hole” as reasons for Miller’s withdrawal – themes upon which he revealingly expanded in the Forbes article, which also included considerable, psychobabble-heavy detail on flaws in Rangers’ business and footballing model which emerged during his and Miller’s due diligence in May.
Among thousands of words published in Forbes was: “If Charles Green is not willing to face the fans, explain the economics and risk the torrent of abuse that will follow in the short-term, then Rangers will find themselves shortly back in the same place.” And from that sentence, the UK press formulated the story of “Miller’s advisor” warning “that Rangers could go bust again.” Murray was quickly summoned to respond for the Rangers, calling Pritchett’s inferences “scandalous”, “ill-informed” and, perish the thought that anyone at Ibrox would contemplate such a thing, “written to attract headlines.” The chairman’s comments came in a club website statement under his name but “written by Rangers Football Club.” Murray referenced the share issue which has since been announced and punted the long-standing party line that “we have a clear plan to rebuild this great club,” reliant on investment already attracted and what Murray perhaps a little prematurely called “the successful IPO later this month.”
‘His’ statement, however, read more like a response to the media reporting of Pritchett’s article than to the article itself. Pritchett covered a far wider range of topics than Murray. And whilst Pritchett’s statement was a mixed bag of opinions, many of them deserved more than the cursory dismissal they received from Murray. Indeed, rather than being ill-informed, Pritchett came across as all-too-well-informed as to “how one of the 25 biggest football clubs in the world could come so close to cratering into the abyss.” Some of his warnings from (recent) history have been overtaken by events, as Murray rightly, if exaggeratedly, noted: “The last time Mr Pritchett had sight of any financial information about Rangers was many months ago.” Well, five months ago, since when things have gone swimmingly for all at Ibrox.
Murray contrasted “Mr Miller’s plans… based purely on cost-cutting” with the “significant investment in the club from the individuals and organisations who are part of our consortium.” Pritchett failed to reference this investment in his article and largely failed to take account of Green’s work since buying the business and assets of Rangers back in June. But he rightly pointed out that Rangers was not a “turnaround opportunity” unless “someone with great wealth and a love of football and/or Scotland” was prepared “to give away tens and tens of millions of pounds.”
This, effectively, is what Green has been battling to organise since May. Having supposedly attracted financial support from a number of people with “great wealth”, he has now turned his efforts towards getting £20m from supporters – presumably with “a love of football and/or Scotland” – via the latest Rangers share issue. “What is clear from his article is that he has completely underestimated the loyalty and commitment of the Rangers fans.” Murray continued, unwisely. “In addition to the 36,000 season ticket holders so far this season, the attendances at our home matches have surpassed many of the top clubs in England and the rest of Europe,” he added, correctly. But, impressive though this loyalty is in the circumstances, it rather proved one of Pritchett’s points. As well as warning of the impact of “TV revenues… becoming increasingly smaller,” Pritchett referenced “season-ticket sales which were declining every year (down to 37,500 from 44,000 five years ago).” That was an average annual decline of 1300.
By Murray’s own reckoning, that decline has continued almost exactly as Pritchett estimated, without even considering the impact on revenues of the necessary cut in season-ticket prices from SPL to SFL levels. Pritchett noted that “season-ticket revenue was projected to be down by 20%” It has surely dropped further than that. So, as Murray and Pritchett agree, “costs needed to be cut at the club.” But while Murray notes that this has happened, he doesn’t address the specific areas Pritchett identified, which were the most informative and pertinent parts of Pritchett’s article. In a quite remarkable passage, Pritchett lists what was revealed to him and Miller during their due diligence. “It’s time to cut the fat from every department and rebuild an organisation that values every pound and demands a return on any and all expenses,” Pritchett declares. So far, so good. Murray could have said just that… or at least had it written for him. But Pritchett had earlier referenced Rangers as “operating as a lifestyle for some, or as a place for passionate fans to find a good job.” And, whilst not specifying which “passionate fans” had landed sinecures, his list explained what he meant:
The club can’t afford to pay its manager more than £1m and then give every coach and executive premium healthcare, generous pensions, six weeks of vacation, exotic cars, free fuel, appearance fees and other perks.
Nor could it afford “to provide 45 employees with free cars… pay directors annual fees to simply attend matches, socialise and run up a large food and beverage tab…expensive past players who hold well-paid positions, are protected from down-sizing with overly generous notice periods and who do not bring professional skills to the table.”
“Every financial and playing assumption must be challenged,” Pritchett concluded. And after a list like that, it’s difficult to see what financial assumptions he missed. “What is clear from” this part of Pritchett’s article is that Murray hadn’t read it. Otherwise he, or his ghost/script writer, could have addressed each item and assured fans that such things were history. Pritchett’s warning is from history. It does at times read like an article that he started when Miller withdrew his bid and had only half-completed before all the close season activity which landed the Rangers in Division Three. The references to the failed CVA (“which should not have surprised anyone”) and subsequent events feel tacked on. And many of the problems he identifies were “solved” by the old company going pop, with solutions already enforced by the circumstance of starting the Rangers in Scottish football’s fourth tier. He even begins one paragraph: “Like any insolvent business, Rangers needs to cut costs.” Whatever the new Rangers business is, and whatever debts remain, it is not “insolvent.”
Pritchett clearly graduated with honours from the American school of business psychobabble and possesses a not-untypical ability to speak English as a foreign language. Rangers are criticised for failing to “construct any sort of internal metrics.” He doesn’t think their “math” works. Far too much has been “gotten.” There’s the usual vague “building the global brand” reference, here allied to the less vague “need to work the Old Firm brand hard” which still offends football sensibilities…and is temporarily impossible. And he compares the riches on offer for English Premier League winners with the relative pittance on offer “for winning the SPL regular season.” But for all the article’s faults, much more of it is more relevant to the new Rangers than Murray admits. It is important that the Rangers’ new-found riches from institutional investors and the £20m-strong fanbase are not, to use the technical term, spunked up the wall by the new regime.
Pritchett also says that the Rangers “must become hungry again” and “develop the attitude of a gritty challenger, compelled to prove something rather than resting on the foundation built by those who came before.” Surely no fan of the Rangers who went to Stirling could deny that. And most important of all, Pritchett lays the blame for Rangers’ downfall firmly where it belongs; on Rangers own past excesses. “Years and years of mortgaging the future by stealing tomorrow’s revenues to pay for today’s ambitions… spending most of its time looking backwards… clearly (Rangers) believed they were too big to fail (and) continued to pay more than they could afford to players, managers and executives…” and many, many more… it’s a long article.
None of that is, or should be, news. But instead of dismissing it as “ill-informed, misleading and scaremongering,” Murray would have been far better served detailing how the new Rangers will avoid, or is avoiding, the financial traps which ensnared the old and which Pritchett rightly highlighted. There seems little that Murray can do to control Green’s, ahem, combative strategy at the Rangers helm, even if he wants to. But when the focus is on him, he should certainly do better than resort to that same ‘us against the world’ codswallop. And if he can’t, maybe the Rangers need another chairman.
paulsatim is neil lennon
10:59 on
17 October, 2012
Love this tweet from last night!!
TheBlackestOfKnights @THE_TBK
Right, my investigations into #WhoIsJohnGow, have uncovered he has had 3 owners in the last day @markdaly2 , @rangerstaxcase and @Paulmcc12
Retweeted by Rangers Tax-Case
……….
In English please?
Also is that Bill McMurdo Snr or Jnr?
All kidding aside – the Legless Loon is actually one of the more intelligent Huns.
How scary is that?
Should have mentioned in my post of 11.00 am the book is…
Football in our times Author: Peter Burton
greenjedi:
The Propaganda War On Rangers FC
Also by Bill McMurdo
Hysterical, Attention-Seeking Nonsense
Posted on October 15, 2012
It’s safe to say that Tom English is not someone who would be an automatic pick as a defender of Rangers FC and its fans.
However, his terse dismissal of Alex Thomson’s blog on the intimidation shown to journalists by Rangers supporters as “hysyerical, attention-seeking nonsense” is a powerful vindication of the Ibrox faithful.
It is also a damning verdict on a man who has seen any reputation he had as a credible journalist ripped to pieces ever since he stuck his pompous snout into the affairs of Rangers Football Club.
Thomson has been eviscerated by other journos and humiliated in The Sun for his endorsement of Mad Phil’s book Downfall, the title of which aptly describes Thomo’s own career path recently.
The Sun had to dole out a hefty slice of humble pie to itself for choosing to serialise the book.
Thomson’s doorstepping of Kelvin MacKenzie also prompted complaints to Ofcom. He seems to be a man in desperate need of publicity, regardless of the extreme lengths he must go to in order to get it.
This latest outburst from Thomson in his blog about Rangers fans is a smear job of incredibly poor journalistic merit. Any credibility he had as a journalist is fast disappearing.
Never mind Downfall, Alex Thomson is a man in freefall, much like the guy in the news who made the highest ever skydive.
The difference is, Thomo doesn’t have a parachute.
According to my fellow blogger, David Leggat, Alex Thomson is now in the trigger sights of media heavyweight Richard Littlejohn.
The tall-tale-telling war correspondent will know what abuse looks and sounds like when Littlejohn is through with him, that’s for sure.
The ironic thing is that Rangers bloggers like Leggo and myself get much more abuse from within the Rangers support – particularly from the handwringing and contrarian elements – than poseur Thomo ever has!
At least it shows what Rangers fans have been saying all along…
It’s all about The Rangers…
Video clip to cheer you up.
Yesterday, between 9:00 pm and 9:45 pm Fans have been waiting for desicion on the game Poland : England.
Two of the guys invided the pitch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Vr9r5J40HAw#!
Bill McMurdo’s blog is written by McMurdo jnr, not Agent Orange.
Fair to say though that the orange doesn’t fall far from the tree.
SwanseaBhoy
greenjedi
11:03 on
17 October, 2012
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/rangers/id/1103?cc=5739#
This guy Gow (ex hun blogger on ESPN) torn a new one over above article, by RTC, Mark Daly(BBC) and others!
Should have point out in my post of 11.06 that the book is in fact Downfall.
paulsatim is neil lennon
10:59 on
17 October, 2012
Love this tweet from last night!!
I seen it last night and it did make me laugh.
Bill McMurdo, Mark Hately, John Brown …
How can they fail with advocates like that on their side?
Any news anywhere of wee Whytey re-entering the fray as per Phil MacGiollaBhain and Alex O’Henley tweets last night?
SwanseaBhoy
Gordon j backing Neil Lennon
Don’t forget Andy Goram, Sandy Jardine and Sally!
anyone give me a quick news update, regarding thing celtic, and zombies , just for a laugh –
very quick update would be appreciated.
ta
Out of interest, is anyone aware of any relatively sensible Sevconian Bloggers who, if not openly critical, at least look at their club with a degree of objectivity??
Must be someone, surely…….
paulsatim, 11:17
‘Memories of enjoying moments with your family and friends. Memories of hard-working and honest players or management, winning fair and square on the pitch. To remove those on the basis of an administrative error to a tax scheme, which was legal at the time and was never hidden, is something few fans would ever forget.’
Incredible.
SwanseaBhoy, 11:25
I hear Whyte is about to get the retaliation in first by talking to the BBC
SwanseaBhoy
11:25 on
17 October, 2012
KG @annagry2000
@alextomo Hearing Craig Whyte is going to break cover this week with allegations against Duff & Phelps. Any chance of contacting him?
alex thomson @alextomo
@Riddrie I’m hearing he’s spoken to the beeb apparently!
Hide conversation Reply Retweet Favorite
O.G.
Uncredible!! copyright commentator last night describing a great save ( cant recall which game, but probably scotland, well it is the standard we expect from scottish pundits!)
Burghbhoy,
More quality!
paulsatim, 11:36
And they’re at the top of their food chain…