We have discussed the Craig Whyte narrative here in some detail since October last year when we first suggested he was preparing to liquidate Rangers and attempt a prepack recovery. I expect this to be put into motion today.
You can ignore any meetings Duff and Phelps hold with prospective buyers of the club, this is window dressing. Craig Whyte and his partner company, Ticketus, are the only people in position to make a viable offer for the business. They hold security on the stadium and Murray Park with Ticketus owning the first 26,000 season tickets (approx.) sold for the next three years. It would cost approximately £40m to release Ticketus security plus whatever is owned to Whyte. No one will offer to cover these costs.
Expect Duff and Phelps to conclude their meetings and report that they are in possession of a genuine offer from Whyte/Ticketus, or their proxy, to buy the assets of the company. The proxy may be required as pretty much everyone who has touched this club in recent years would not be considered a Fit and Proper person and would fail the requirement not to be involved with an insolvency within the last five years.
The offer for all assets will be for a nominal amount and will be conditional on all legal action against Whyte or his companies being dropped. Duff and Phelps will accept the offer.
Whyte cannot afford to allow large scale redundancies as he needs to be able to sell these players in the summer or play those he is unable to sell. With the players not agreeing to a short-term cut in pay, he has to make his move now, despite the enormous risks involved in going early.
Duff and Phelps could have made redundancies 24 days ago and ensured the club would be able to finish the season, or at least survive until the tax verdict, but retaining the football squad was an important part of Whyte’s forward plan – and Whyte’s notional offer will have been known to them from the beginning.
HM Revenue and Customs will take a bath for their £75m, Whyte will emerge with all property assets and the football club, although the club will carry the significant burden of selling tickets for Ticketus.
The SPL board will have to vote within the next week on whether or not to allow Rangers Newco to continue with the same league membership as Rangers FC. Whyte will have to take an enormous chance that his proxy will be presentable enough to allow them to turn a blind eye to the enormously inappropriate behaviour.
The vote could go either way but I expect Celtic will be the only club to object.
The issue is complicated by legacy issues. Neither the SPL nor the SFA have acted on the improper registration of players matter yet. If any of the current Rangers team had their current season contracts registered with the alleged improper procedures, games involving those players will have to be awarded a 3-0 defeat to Rangers.
The SPL will have to come up with a verdict on this matter within days or else revisit the matter in a few weeks, after deciding on what to do with Rangers Newco.
The SPL must also consider the issue of precedent, the consequences of enabling a club to disenfranchise a £75m creditor cannot be underestimated.
HMRC may also have an input here. They stand to lose most from this deal and may seek court intervention, arguing that liquidating the company prior to the FTT verdict is unnecessary and prejudicial to their interests.
Issue six of CQN Magazine, the Fit and Proper edition, is set to become a landmark collectors item. You can browse the magazine online here but you can buy your own hard copy by clicking on the link below. Read with 20-20 vision…..
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
899 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- ...
- 24
- »
Afternoon bhoys from a warm hun free mountain.
James Forrest is The Emperor of Ice Cream on 8 March, 2012 at 14:53
The problem is, we all know they are a blight on society, they are scum that needs eradicated.
But we are alone in this, the rest of scotland think we are the problem.
This is the problem we have.
Since the appointment of Duff & Phelps as Administrators on 14th February, Dave Whitehouse and Paul Clark have been taking part in a prolonged game of ‘Heedies & Kicks’ inside Ibrox, interrupted only by meal breaks, 8 hours for sleep each night, and the occasional awkward press conference.
The game had originally started out as a ten-twenty-one-r, but since nobody asked them to stop they have simply continued with the game. Clark currently leads Whitehouse by 5,219 to 4,971.
If no one asks them what they’re up to before the end of March they plan to put the ball away and take up a distance learning course in Cantonese via the Open University.
if my club embraced a newco it would be a deal breaker in our relationship
rangers have cheated every club in the league for 20 years and people think clemency , no chance, would you turn a blind eye in any other walk of life?
Lifted from Rangers(IA) Media :
=====================
I’m probably breaking a confidence but trying to justify to myself that I’m really just bending the line as far as I can. This has come from the insolvency guru that has explained much to me in recent days. This is what I was told – believe it or dismiss it as you wish.
Hopefully word will filter through to those that need told that there are no secrets, there are no discussions that will forever remain private if Rangers do collapse. The players did not take us to this point but the supporters have a right to know which players may be about to hit the first blow in the last nail.
An agreement had been reached in principle for the 75:50:25 wage cuts.
Then two of our highest paid players, both out injured just now, told the Administrators that their wage cut should only be 50% as they couldn’t earn win bonuses. This despite picking up their full wages to date while on the sick and not being able to kick a ball in achieving those wins. The Administrators were angered that they were backtracking on the agreement and were ready to make them redundant and implement the agreement among the other players.
Then a third, highly paid, player met with the Administrators and demanded that a £1m release clause be inserted in his contract in case “he didn’t like the new owners”. Clearly that was impossible for the Administrators to agree to – they would be writing £2m off an asset, all for the sake of saving about £300k in wages from that player between now and the summer.
A fourth player decided that he could only now afford a 50% cut as he had cars to finance and debts to pay.
It was following these discussions that the Administrators decided that an early sale may be preferable to what was beginning to look like the decimation in the value of the squad if four of our biggest assets were made redundant.
Compare and contrast the attitudes of those four players, three of whom are massive Rangers fans, with two other players. It has been well documented that one highly paid player offered to play for nothing. That is correct. What isn’t well known is that another senior player decided that he’s made enough money from football/Rangers and that he would be prepared to walk away with nothing and probably retire.
If in the next 24 hours there is no sign of a quick sale being possible, and there is no change of heart from these senior players, there will probably be massive redundancies.
If Rangers do not complete their matches this season, the hypocrisy of those players will never be forgotten. Indeed their intransigence may have already engendered the sale to a newco and liquidation of the current company.
I know deep down that I have broken a confidence and lost a source but I had no choice.
penang_bhoy
I seem to remember FC Timisoara getting relegated by UEFA against the Romanian FA wishes and that was due ONLY to licensing problems.
UEFA threaten the national FA´s with expulsion
I suggest you trawl through the UEFA guidelines it´s in there somewhere.
Hail Hail
Guess what ghuys and ghals
It’s Groundhog Day over at Murray Park
Pay cuts?
Redundancies?
Pay cuts?
Redundancies
Pay cuts?…………………
ad infinitum (hopefully)
Hail hail
Rangers administrator emerged from the High Court in London pleased that the judge had ordered a further hearing on the club’s claim on £3.6m.
David Whitehouse argued that the money, frozen in his firm’s lawyer’s account, belongs to Rangers and should be released to ease the club’s plight.
“Everything at Rangers is brilliant and this is just the cherry on top of an extremely tasty looking cake. Please come forward with offers to buy the club.” he said of the 30 March date.
Simon Mayo outed Leckie about a year or so ago.
Live on 5Live.
THE EXILED TIM on 8 March, 2012 at 15:00 said
most of scotland cant stand them, but the old media are worried about their jobs
not one journalist in this country is prepared to call them tax dodgers and suggest they pay for their crimes
Real Mallorca had been La Liga’s surprise team last season – positive surprise that is. The club’s incompetent management had already produced several negative surprises in previous seasons. Negative surprises that put the club in severe financial difficulty. The best players left the club, while presidents and owners said their hellos and goodbyes on a weekly basis. Mallorca were set for at least midtable anonymity – if not a candidate for relegation. Instead the club pushed hard for the Champions League spots. A complex phenomenon best explained as “That’s football”. Mallorca was denied its’ fairy tale ending in the 93rd minute of the final matchday though, and now UEFA look set to deny Mallorca its’ consolation prize as well.
It all has to do with the club’s debt pile (up to €85m) and the little fact, that the club filed for voluntary administration. UEFA’s Financial Fair Play initiative is still a couple of seasons away, but Mallorca seem to be unwelcome even under the current club licensing regulations.
On the basis of all expert reviews which have been undertaken, the Control and Disciplinary Body ruled that the club does not fulfil the necessary admission criteria (Article 2.07 of the Regulations of the UEFA Europa League), as the licence of the club was not granted in accordance with the UEFA Club Licensing Regulations, 2008 edition, and the club has not fulfilled its obligations as defined in these regulations.
In other words, the Spanish FA is responsible for adopting UEFA’s licensing criteria, but granted Mallorca a license nonetheless. Something that UEFA now object to. Mallorca have already announced that they will appeal the decision, with the club’s lawyer Luis Huertas targeting potential licensing inconsistencies.
“The first thing we ask is that we check the granting of all licenses granted by UEFA for Spanish football. On Friday July 23, RFEF (Spanish football Federation) erroneously granted the license after five months to process all the documentation, and we wonder if the RFEF is wrong not only with Mallorca, but also other clubs. We are reviewing our licence.”
I wonder whether anything will come from this, especially regarding the licenses of the other clubs. Although I doubt it, as this seems to all come down to Mallorca being in administration, while the other clubs are not. The fact that clubs in administration aren’t sanctioned by the Spanish league has always been a bit odd. Elsewhere licenses are revoked and clubs forced into lower leagues or at the very least there are severe points penalties.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens by 2012, when UEFA’s new Financial Fair Play rules first come into effect.
Oddly enough, Real Mallorca’s success last season wasn’t based on financial doping, but was achieved despite all the financial trouble.
Ghuys
Just out a 4 hour meeting, is the Big Hoose Closed yet?
JD
St Martin’s Bhoy on 8 March, 2012 at 14:45 said:
Had similar debate last night…EPL is the best league…
How do you define “best’?
Hardest to win,.surely that must bathe league with the hardest teams to beat in it?
Surely Barca.
Most competitive?
Normally two horse race.
Anyone can beat anyone? Not in fact the case winner usually only loses 6 games.
Best football.
Why no recent CL wins? None.in Europa Cup.
Mickey mouse cup. What with City and Utd in it?
It goes on and on…
stephbhoy
I disagree mi amigo.
Given a choice, them or us, I know how they would vote.
reilly1926,
Rangers players were worried about win bonuses? How many of them have they seen recently?
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo 15.02
This is what I was trying to get at with Paul67 earlier, UEFA must be seen to do something or a very scary precedent will be set.
I don’t see why he thinks they will do nothing.
Even having Sepp Blatter as honorary president couldn’t save Neuchatel Xamax from losing its license to continue playing in Switzerland’s Super League on Wednesday.
Still, the FIFA president’s longtime adviser Walter Gagg is leading an ownership group preparing to save the publicly humiliated club from an apparently inevitable demotion of at least two divisions, and possible bankruptcy under its current Chechen owners.
England Redknapp rules out Chelsea move
Spain Madrid wins tenth consecutive game
Italy Forlan saves Inter from home flop
France Sochaux sacks manager Bazdarevic
Germany Guerrero handed eight-match ban
United States Wallace out for up to nine months
Mexico Club America, Chivas both win
Argentina Boca too hot for San Lorenzo
Brazil Valcke apologizes to Brazil government
”It’s very sad. We have to accept this verdict and we expected it,” Gagg told The Associated Press, after Xamax was effectively kicked out of the top tier over its ailing finances and breaking league administration rules.
Xamax owner Bulat Chagaev has five days to appeal to the league and save the club he bought last year and plunged into turmoil.
His prospects look bleak after the league detailed Xamax’s failings, including unpaid players’ wages and submitting allegedly fake Bank of America documents which ”confirmed” Chagaev had access to $35 million.
However, Blatter won’t be involved in rescuing a club he served as a director before joining FIFA in 1975.
”He is sad in his heart,” said Gagg, who shares ties to Xamax with his FIFA boss. ”When I started to play football he was a committee member. But he always said that he can’t be involved now.”
Gagg’s consortium met on Saturday and formed contingency plans for an amateur team next season playing in the regional fourth tier if the club is declared bankrupt.
”We are working day by day to start in June or July with another team and new technical staff,” said Gagg by telephone from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where he is advising the Confederation of African Football on hosting the Cup of Nations.
Swiss Football League officials called a news conference on Wednesday in Zurich to explain why withdrawing Xamax’s license was the ”only credible sanction.”
Daniele Moro, president of the disciplinary panel, said the club failed to provide mandatory documents regarding Chagaev’s takeover.
The ”suspicion of fraud” regarding the American bank letters ”had a certain influence on the decision, that’s obvious,” Moro said.
Chagaev, who denies wrongdoing, is at the center of Swiss criminal investigations into suspected fraud.
League lawyer Claudius Schaefer said it never received proof that players had been paid from September to November.
Xamax would be demoted to the third tier if an expected appeal fails, and the fourth tier upon bankruptcy, he said.
Xamax is next scheduled to play on Feb. 4, at home to Lausanne Sport, when matches resume after the winter break. The two-time league winner is fourth in the 10-team division, though was likely to drop to ninth having appealed against points deductions imposed by the league as administrative breaches stacked up.
Heinrich Schifferle, the league’s president since November, said he didn’t speak to Chagaev while both attended the SFL assembly.
”He didn’t greet me, didn’t speak to me and left without saying goodbye,” Schifferle said. ”It’s an unpleasant situation that we wanted to avoid.
”But the Neuchatel Xamax directors are truly responsible for this fiasco.”
Schifferle acknowledged the case had damaged Swiss football’s reputation, already hit by FC Sion’s quixotic legal fights against FIFA, UEFA and Swiss football bodies.
Xamax’s troubles could yet save Sion from relegation after it was deducted 36 league points by the Swiss Football Association. Sion is appealing the punishment.
If Xamax is demoted, no Super League team will be relegated this season, Schaefer said.
Xamax did not immediately comment on Wednesday, and the team is in Dubai for a training camp and tournament also involving Zenit St. Petersburg, Shakhtar Donetsk and Iraq’s Olympic team.
This week, Xamax suggested on its website that the SFL and Gagg were plotting to take control of the club.
Xamax is also being sued by several former employees and is reported to have debts of more than seven million Swiss francs ($7.4 million).
cavansam \o/ on 8 March, 2012 at 15:08 said:
Did Paul67 really say that UEFA will do nothing ?
I dont believe he did nor that UEFA will do nothing.
Hail Hail
iki on 8 March, 2012 at 15:03 said:
Simon Mayo outed Leckie about a year or so ago.
Live on 5Live.
Always thought there was a touch of the lavender about Leclie :)
Heard the Simon Mayo outing of Bill Lackie. Lackie was not best pleased that Simon Mayo had divulged it on air from memory. Thats before all this shennanigans, so maybe he knew it was coming
reilly1926
That does not ring true, because of the part about administrators about to make the two redundant.
If they are high earners they are also high value so D&P would never make them redundant wiping out several millions off the value of rangers.
Good story right enough. :)
Exiled Tim:
No doubt there are a minority of closet bigots amongst many of the fan bases of other SPhell clubs but I think you are generally doing them a disfavour by saying this. The vast majority of other fans hate them far more than us…the other clubs fans are not stupid; they know what’s happening just as clearly as we do and are just as cynical concerning the establishment connection with the huns.
The idea somehow we are alone is totally false. Other fans all over Scotland are seething at the injustice of what is emerging. Yes we are resented because we are successful like all big clubs but in general the huns are hated with a rare passion.
I find it strange that many Tims think anywhere outside the east end is full of slavering hordes of hun…outside the traditional heartlands of Ayrshire, Lanarkshire & West Lothian ( even these are rapidly eroding) are dominated by an ever growing Celtic support…places like Stirling, Perth, Inverness, the Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, the Highlands and Islands and in particular Dundee there are massive Celtic fan bases in these areas…it is the same overseas with many ex pats identifying more with us…many people are embarrassed by Rankers…with the stink that has now finally stuck to them for good we will only see that embarrassment grow all the more…
Merseycelt
Thank you for your reply this morning, i will go to J21 and onto the M62, if you are near JLA i will drop in for a cup of tea (or some jelly and ice cream)
Hail Hail
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
Having read Paul’s hypothesis I posted:
cavansam \o/ on 8 March, 2012 at 10:22 said:
Paul67
And what of UEFA?
Will they ban Rangers Newco and Scottish teams from European Competition forever and take sactions against the Scottish National side?
Any Top level division which offers European football as a prize to be gained can’t be seen to be bent in favour of one club and one club only.
Paul’s reply was
Cavansam, I don’t expect Uefa to say a word.
reilly1926 on 8 March, 2012 at 15:02 said:
Lifted from Rangers(IA) Media :
=====================
it would appear to be the case that the players are being called out by the administrators, with their unreasonable demands hampering the clubs blablabla, if i was a player right now my communication with them would be done.
rangers want to pay players 75/ 50% less wages and expect players just to roll over, whats wrong with players say so you want to change my contract, fine, i’d like to change same parts of it to.
reaction: we’re being held to ransom from players, it a joke
SaintLubo said AT 14:55:
‘What is Regan talking about, “liquidation would be a disaster”?
Rangers are a disaster and they have spread the fallout throughout all the clubs in Scotland. They are the Fukushima football style … I sincerely hope they are all stuck in court, day after day for years…’
——————————————–
A BIT OF LIGHT DIGRESSION:
Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a fictional court case in Chancery in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
From the first chapter of Bleak House (a.k.a. in these parts as ‘The Big Hoose’):
‘Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least, but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; there are not three Jarndyces left upon the earth perhaps since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffee-house in Chancery Lane; but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless’
You couldn’t make it up … ;-)
FF
cavansam \o/ on 8 March, 2012 at 15:15 said:
I have to strongly disagree with what Paul67 says unless FIFA is stepping in instead.
Hail Hail
Celtic_First – correct, HMRC and the SPL/SFA have totally different measures in establishing whether oldco = newco, they’ll reach their independent conclusions. There is no legislation which suggests the SPL’s judgement ever matters in law.
jock stein’s celtic – The problem is viewing companies from the individual viewpoint instead of as an “entity”, there are also the principles of limited liability. I believe someone posted the limit of HMRC’s powers (re a payment bond against future _newco_ VAT liabilities) should they feel that the new company directorship is noticeably similar to that of the oldco.
However they’ll whistle for the 49m, which will go with rangers fc to the grave.
THE EXILED TIM on 8 March, 2012 at 15:07 said:
stephbhoy
but its not them or us
if a aberdeen, hibs, falkirk, hearts, dundee united fan wants to support rangers he/she could, but don’t, choosing to support their own team
by definition supporting one team means you dislike your competitors
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
Well I’m with you on this one.
The only way I see UEFA staying out of this is if Rangers are relegated to the SFL and handled correctly by the SPL and SFA (including title stripping).
Otherwise I believe they’ll force them to act correctly.
Leckie is a St Mirren fan, irrespective of what Mayo said and Leckie’s response (an ill-advised joke).
wonkyradar
I should have made myself clear.
I wasn’t talking about the fans of the other clubs, I meant the powers who run scotland, the government,the judiciary, the police, the media, they are our problem.
Throw in the sfa/spl we have a problem
stephbhoy
Ref my last post
off for a power nap
hail hail
agree with that 100%
maybe the rebel in me
cavansam \o/ on 8 March, 2012 at 15:22 said:
If UEFA let the SFA, SPL, Rangers set such a European precedent then the game is a bogey
Hail Hail
Guys, honestly …
Do not look for friends in high places. If the SFA does not act, UEFA will not either. They do not, they cannot, interfere in the business of national associations because to do so would collapse the whole national league system … that is built on autonomy.
As long as the SFA/SPL do not blatantly break their own rules – and those are just vague enough to let them away with this – UEFA will not budge.
Take my word for it. We either win this here, or it’s all over.
googybhoy ♥ Celtic and Integrity on 8 March, 2012 at 15:07 said:
Agree with you entirely. The fact that we consider other leagues however and have a knowledge of them means that we don’t fit into the EPL bubble.
Thank Heavens for that! :-)