“Crash and burn”. That was the outcome I expected to await Murray International Holding’s (MIH) debt-fuelled expansion in the early part of the last decade. This wasn’t entrepreneurship. Borrowing money to invest in a market which was on a long-term growth spurt, without consideration that your asset values could fall, was corporate vandalism. It was a safe enough bet as long as the commercial property market continued its incessant upwards trend, but the bubble had to burst eventually.
There were other voices out there saying the same thing. In the pre-blog era I remember printed copies of the Dogs Bollox passed around like the potentially-subversive underground insights they were. It was financial madness, writ large, all you needed to do was step back a little to see what was happening.
Celtic Quick News started because the underlying story of the biggest issue in Scottish football – the ability of the two largest clubs to pay their bills – was not being told. Without Murray’s debt splurge, this blog would never have happened.
I gave running commentaries of what to expect of Rangers and MIH accounts when they were released in 2005, the evidence will be there, I told you. I didn’t expect a convenient, and remarkable, property revaluation. It was smoke and mirrors, though Murray inspired such confidence, even among Celtic fans, I remember “Why can’t we just revalue Celtic Park and borrow more?”
Millions were taken in executive pay and bonuses each year, despite borrowings galloping away, while the Bank of Scotland continued to open the vault. MIH wasn’t the only bad bet Bank of Scotland made, but it was the worst.
Rangers were the ultimate vanity project. Tens of thousands of people literally fawned before Murray, he wallowed in decades of deference, controlling oceans of the media. The best parts of history are never written, and what happened at Rangers, and with the Bank of Scotland is no different. While Murray is alive you’re only going to read the parts of this story with documented evidence.
The illegal EBT scandal was typical of how the business operated. Through this, and the also-illegal Discounted Options Scheme, Murray drove a horse and cart through the SFA rulebook. Lord Nimmo Smith found as much. In Craig Whyte, Rangers appointed a person who was not fit and proper to run a football club. Whyte was sine died from the game and Rangers were disciplined, but it was Murray who sold the business to Whyte, despite his personal history. For all the rule breaking, and subsequent havoc he inflicted on his club, Murray has not been brought to account by the SFA, his allies still hold the balance of power, but not for ever.
The knighthood for services to Scottish business will sound hollow to those who invested in MIH pensions, and who were recently told their funds are in trouble. Yesterday’s news that Murray is putting a squad of his businesses into liquidation, or from BBC’s Douglas Fraser that Murray’s family are buying “fire-sale assets” from MIH, which, he explains, “received what’s called “an unsolicited approach from the Murray family”, tells you what you need to know about the man.
If only there was the political will to ask for an inquiry into hundreds of millions of pounds of public money lost to the exchequer, as publicly-owned Lloyds, now owners of the Bank of Scotland, slowly come to terms with how deep the Charlotte Square money pit is. Murray’s acolytes, those who partied hard with him during the good times, remain scattered through Scotland, from Holyrood, to Hampden. It will take years before they slowly lose grip on their own fiefdoms.
Strip him of his title, discipline him for the rule-breaking in Scottish football, and have an inquiry into how his coalescence with the financial, political and media sectors rendered him immune from responsibility.
More later on Gary Mackay-Steven.
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Paul67
Both barrels -superb.
Couple of cracking quotes from The Cardigan’s interview yesterday.
“The surprise would be that the club appears to be struggling for money at the moment”. What?
Then this cracker. “When I left as manager and Craig Whyte took over, the club was in a good situation overall”.
Now that’s what I call delusional. With talent like that no wonder that entity is in the state it is now.
Sadly the business world is full of chancers who start up then fail then start up over and over again. They leave a trail of misery and devastation in their wake but always seems to come out of it fine themselves as they’ve used other people’s money.
We are a capitalist society and so the law is usually on their side and they get away with it.
It’s also fair to say that there are many fine upstanding people who have provided a good livelihood for many and continue to do so.
It’s the chancers we need to weed out.
Good article Paul. Good to see Murray is still in your sights.
Saw this on twitter nail on head
roderick random @jim_
@HenryClarson What the whole “Rangers” pantomime has shown us all, above everything else, is the extent of financial corruption in society.
I know I’m going to get pelters for this, but I’ll say it anyway. Did Craig Whyte really try to do the dirty on rangers? How much do we really know about Craig Whyte? He built his business on taking on distressed companies and selling them on for a profit, so what is different about Rangers? Fergus McCann, a man I admire greatly, made a small profit out of Celtic. Nothing wrong with that necessarily. If you look online, you’ll see hardly any information on Craig Whyte. He treated workers at a plant hire firm in Motherwell abysmally, I know, he was banned from being a company director for a time I know. But was Craig Whyte even a Rangers fan? Did David Murray know something we didn’t? I’m not saying he’s going to be beatified any time soon, but, isn’t the bigger story David Murray?
Paul fantastic, as above, both barrels, boom!
Nothing will happen to Murray.
He would bring down too many people with him. It will be swept under the carpet.
LB
henry clarson
10:23 on 14 January, 2015
Who would you trust to head an inquiry into Murray?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me …..or an Edinburgh jury
Ard Macha
No probs!
What’s your Twitter name?
~SPF~
(ScotPatsFan@scotpatsfan)
FFin’ Stuart Waiton and free speech:
“in Scotland, force is used on a weekly basis to arrest people who do nothing more than offend other people: and yet this is called ‘tolerance’. The Offensive Behaviour Act makes being offensive at football matches a criminal offence. How does this square with the ‘steadfast defence’ of a ‘fundamental freedom’ to speak and to offend in Scotland?
Stuart Waiton
Take a Liberty Scotland”
——
“Hugh Dallas was Charlie … and he got hounded for it!”
——
“one of the great lows in the recent re-orientation of our society by celtic fc and the RC church in scotland”
——
“I’m afraid my greatest fears about Scotland…. have been realised… Freedom of speech has gone and we are becoming more like the Republic of Ireland by the day.”
——
“I still maintain the Famine song is not bigoted”
——
“Surely the famine song was all about the [Sevco] fans being satirical…. sometimes you would think that muslims have integrated better into our society than catholics.”
——
“Je suis billy boy.”
——
“Not only do we not have the right to be offensive we can’t even be offensive against… fenianism!”
——
“It was always going to come around to this….wrong that it had to take the Charlie atrocity to focus minds.
Nous somme Hugh Dallas.”
——
“We need a huge banner at the next game (after the boycott)
NOUS SOMMES LES BILLY BOYS”
South of Tunis
If I’m not mistaken Dybala is half Polish (Polish name) but I guess he prefers Italy as his team for the future. I can’t understand to this day why Celtic did not sign Kamil Glik Dybala’s teammate? The price was less 1 million euros and the player wanted to move to Glasgow before he left for Italian club.
Afternoon Timland from a cold hun free mountain valley.
GMS, yes from here, I would imagine the loans he will be replacing are to be returned, I would hope so anyways.
Wee James, for me is a better player when fit, but keeping him off the treatment table is just no working.
As for MIH and minty, I am surprised that the government have not gone after minty, albeit in a small token way, just shows how far the cabal tenticals reach.
HH
Muscatbhoy at 10.59
Murray is 100% the main story, but for reasons alluded to in Paul’s excellent piece today it’s a story that the mainstream media will continue to ignore.
As far as I can tell Whyte has no emotional attachment to Rangers. I think Craigy boy saw in front of him an opportunity so potentially huge in terms of cold, hard cash that he forgot to watch his back and became one of the biggest patsies in the whole story. Then he got rag-rolled by Charles Green.
But forget all that. All roads lead back to Murray.
Just a quickie re the bookstore…
Are are offering a free copy of the 2015 CQN Annual with any book ordered in the sale at http://www.cqnbookstore.com
You can also pre-order a copy of the Sunday Herald for 25th January edition here, which is attracting orders from all over the world. Don’t understand the controversy around this – it is…
SIMPY THE TRUTH
He might have improved us and ruined the faux competition strategy
jc2@ 10 42 .
Tennents Super Lager / Italy .
Yes – a big presence in Italian bars . That and an equally foul brew from Denmark called Ceres Old 9 which tastes like alcohol mixed with a cough medicine ..
I dont know why — Italians drink but very few do it to excess .Being drunk is seen as
super naff . Going for a beer often means having one beer . Many Italians see the UK as being a cool place and some British products are seen as being cool ..
In my wee part of the world many a young person ‘s night out consists of a bottle of Tennents Super in a bar and then a serious smoke of locally produced erba on a bench in a piazza.
Just seen the size of the Cruiser-Weight striker,Hearts have got in on loan…
#hunnymonster
Livibhoy 11:03
Spot on. Sadly…
!!Bada Bing!!
Hertz fans who were at their game last week says he looks a right good player. Capped at Dutch U21 level.
He could be a steal.
LB
From FF………………
“Nous sommes Les Billy Boys”
………….
:))))))))))))
Coffee snortin’….CSC
Thanks Monaghan
Muscat Bhoy I think you will find that Fergus made a rather large profit out of Celtic….on the back of fans money.
MSM getting excited at prospect of Celtic losing out in a tight title race
Andy Coyle @STV_Andy
Celtic face roughly a game every three days for two months. Interesting stuff from @ThomAlexWatt http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/celtic/306449-how-celtics-fixture-congestion-could-open-up-the-title-race/ …
The huns have gone all french .
David Murray showed what happens when nothing is regulated properly
and there is nobody to answer to.
Like a problem gambler racking up debts which are never called in.
What a life eh?
El Mad.
Bonjour bonjour, nous sommes les garcon Billie,
Paul67,
Powerful words. Doubt if anyone in a position to do so will take the necessary action. Probably too many have more than the odd skeleton in the cupboard, which Murray well knows about.
Corruption is rank in this country from top to bottom.
lionroars67
11:28 on 14 January, 2015
MSM getting excited at prospect of Celtic losing out in a tight title race
__________________________________________________________________________
Yip, dont they just love it?
HH
JC2 SoT
I can confirm that “Tennents Extra” @ 9.3%, was being sold for €2.21 per 33cl bottle in Porlezza last summer.
I tried a few for old times’ sake. Don’t know what happened after that.
Outrage predicted as next week’s cover of Charlie Hebdo features an image of the Unseen Fenian Hand.
Good morning TET.
Great to see you posting. A good sign.
lionroars67
We do seem to have put ourselves under unnecessary fixture pressure but with 3-4 new faces signed up we might yet prevail.
Wist… good try. Pity about the two mistakes.
Syd Negakev… Where it will simply become ‘The Fenian Hand.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30747142
Beats playing Candy Crush!
LB
Lionroars,
I thought that was quite an interesting article.
I hope the fixtures continue to come thick and fast, especially in all the cup competitions ;)
If I may:
++++++++
ScotPatsFan
11:06 on
14 January, 2015
Ard Macha
No probs!
What’s your Twitter name?
~SPF~
(ScotPatsFan@scotpatsfan)
++++++++
Árd Macha @Ard_Macha 1h1 hour ago
Saw a comment on @CQN saying David Murray was a ‘modern day Robert Maxwell’. It might be a slur on Robert Maxwell:-) #thievingbastard.
++++++++
Concerning Murray and ‘his’ businesses, hopefully with the bank as shareholders there will be some enquiry. I doubt it though.
The msm still fawn over him and point the blame towards the bank.
#crookedbusinssman