“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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If people fancy Mick Mac car thy after that performance, it can only be because he’s seen as the mythical Celtic minded, IMO. Ipswich didn’t play football as I hope try to. Big long hopeful punts all night. Rubbish, IMO.
Mea culpa
Correct but it is starting to catch up with them
Hailhailneillennon
They really provide all the evidence themselves that they’re not the same club.
But the football authorities and the SMSM conveniently ignore it.
Delaneys,
aye mucker its brutal out there,
you must be feeling it coming right off the Clyde
The Hamilton game on Saturday is going to be on surely….
All weather pitches n all that.
Sorry:: as I hope CEltic try to.
Delaney’s, ryan behaving like us at that age, getting home in the wee small hours and getting up , going for a curer then onto the game.
We did get a few hours more kip on a saturday long before all these lunchtime kick offs came about.
Canny anyone post the twitter pics of the leaking roofs and the deathstar ?
Around the time of Murray’s sectarian Epiphany, weren’t UEFA casting a withering eye on clubs who had Questionable Policies?
If memory serves, Linfield also had to make “compromises”, in order to qualify for a grant for their new stand.
Perhaps one of my Northern neighbours can verify or not, if that was the case.
Parkhead cum Salford
That was a fairly rubbish game tonight, but in fairness over the course of his managerial career micks teams have often played nice football
Dallas Dallas 21.43
Kenny Dalglish Scouted and signed Seb Rozenthal for Rangers .
It is very rarely mentioned that King Kenny worked for Rangers as their chief super scout.
This was at the time they were attempting to have a team for the SPL and a team to win the CL.
I have never liked Dalglish since.
TT
Murray is pretty unique in that he is despised by many on both sides of the Glasgow divide.
An old Sevco mate (only on Facebook now) who gives nothing away, disputes every fact or analysis I offer, typically deluded, but still came away with ‘they should have drowned him at birth’ when I asked for his views on Murray’s part in his beloved club’s downfall. I know, strong words and contradictory, but thats how traumatic it gets for them.
It’s obvious one of Murray’s main goals was to see our club out of existence. Fergus etc has been well documented but one story I can vouch for from that period was the time Murray banned our support from Ibrox, 95? for causing 10k in damaged seats in the previous Ibrox game
I spoke to a head steward at CP after news of the ban came out, and he told me that the 93 cup final at CP which deadclub won, still saw 30k worth of damage to the toilets. Fergus wouldn’t bring it up as it was before his time and anyway would not give Murray one thin dime.
Willie Haughey called Murray personally and offered to pay the damages the Deadco owner demanded, to allow our support into Ibrox.
‘No can do, I want the money from Fergus McCann’, was the reply.
Murray didn’t win that day anyway, lost to McCann eventually, before going on to lose the plot and the war he waged on Celtic FC.
Wonder how he sleeps at night?.
Football books. The Topical Times was a regular, can remember one with a feature on big Fachetti and wee Jinky. Colour pictures too.
BSR,,,, :))))
“its the way you link them”
Frankiecarsonvoice….cfc
braw
Disturbing programme on racism channel 4
BSR,
you have mail :))
HH
Gerry
bsr
Saw Jimmy in the KSC Coatbridge years ago. Never laffT as much in all my life!!!
The Raven
Go to this post by BSR
bournesouprecipe
21:47 on 14 January, 2015
Liquidation
Gordy
There were slates from the tenements falling onto Dumbarton Rd earlier.
Dangerous.
Neustadt
They’re up to their knees in pouring rain.
Marrakesh
“Wonder how he sleeps at night?”
I’ll bet he sleeps like a baby.
Thomthetim
I think you are right. He knew they had to take that step to continue to play in Europe.
I think minty took the view that the only chance he.had.of selling it to the peephole was if they could be convinced it was a giruy to celtic.
TinyTim
22:04 on
14 January, 2015
Dallas Dallas 21.43
Kenny Dalglish Scouted and signed Seb Rozenthal for Rangers .
What was his cut
They’re up to their knees inconvenient flood.
beatbhoy….
LOL…very funny!
Martybhoy
And the spotlight bigot is of Irish-Italian too.
Beat bhoy
Beautiful
thomthethim
22:03
Yes, Fr Sean McManus in the States was on their case with getting Coke to withdraw sponsorship
https://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/workers-want-boycott/
WITS
“I would have considered moyes, mackay, hughton”
dear oh dear
the raven
22:03 on 14 January, 2015
Canny anyone post the twitter pics of the leaking roofs and the deathstar ?
I’ve emailed them to a couple of guys, not sure if they can format for on here mate, the Gene Kelly one is good ;))
Dallas
As my ma says “It is magical seeing family history repeat itself.” :)
It annoys Ryan that his gran calls him my name all the time. :))
One very famous (!) journalist was given no time by SDM.
Said journalist told me 7 years ago that said Knight of the Realm was quite simply a bigot. No buts, no maybes.
He of course could not publically say that. At least that’s what he said.
HH
Tiny tim, i was aware that kenny worked for the carnegie group , one of minty’s subsiduary companies, but was unsure what his role with them was.
He didn’t do a good job as roosenthal was really disliked by some of the brethren i worked with at the time.
GerryBhoy
Incoming
HH
Ibroke leaking
http://t.co/pxPLXYOlJs
Delaney’s,does ryan have nae hair as well? Lol
beatbhoy
I’ll set them up.
dallas dallas where the heck is dallas
21:43 on 14 January, 2015,
When setanta showed Celtic tv & hun tv free I watched an interview that sourness and the pension thief murray were getting interviewed on….when asked if he bought judas for any other reason than football, his answer was “sure we knew they were down and we wanted to kick them where it hurt” with the pension thief nodding in the background.
You reap what you sow, ya hun feckers.