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…..
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I love this site, but don’t like this reading. Sometimes
bad news, they get away with a huge crime, screwing the tax payers?
good news, no history, craig whyte back in the hot seat, ally stays, no five stars,
#43AndCounting
I
They’ve got us surrounded again, the poor b******s.”
-Creighton Abrams
(The Abrams tank is named after him)
Still finding it difficult to get my head around all the stuff that flying about but, would I be correct to conclude that….
the huns/establishment ARE the peepil and, WE are their bitches ? :o(
Please tell me I’m wrong – CSC
Thanks to Paul and Brogan/Rogan etc. for their excellent and detailed accounts this morning of our neighbour,s troubles. I have a point to raise and I apologise in advance if it has already beencovered. I have it on good legal authority that the Craig White/Tickebus deal is fraudulent if he used those funds to clear the club’s debt and that this fraudulent activity, as well as having serious legal consequences for Craig White, woul attract several compensation claims from interested parties.
I would be very.grateful for confirmation and clarification of these issues.
BRTH..another great post
Did anyone listen to CW on the spoof call?
He doesn’t sound like he’s capable of taking on HMRC etc.
He just sounds like a chancer who’s somehow managed to weasle enough through corporate shenanigans to become a thousandaire.
ernie
Are you going to Ibrox?
ernie lynch on 8 March, 2012 at 10:28 said:
hen1rik on 8 March, 2012 at 10:20 said:
‘Boys why should we walk away, let’s get the boycott out there it’s our only option.’
A boycott in perpetuity?
Talk sense.
share
Ok then ernie since your talking sense you enlighten the forum with your solution.
Paul, they want to talk to you on the future of Scottish football post-Huns
“Either you create your future or you become the victim of the future someone creates for you.”
– Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski
Speaking only for myself here, after years of reluctant acceptance of suffering thinly disguised cheating in the sporting arena SFA/SPL because Celtic FC have brought me and my family untold joy and memories, I find myself at a crossroads.
If the custodians of CFC allow a Newco (I beleive we are the only major force capable of stopping it) I don’t think I would be be able to play the victim anymore. I believe Celtic have played a blinder in their silence, I hope they don’t disappoint the family when they become vocal.
Whyte was always going to liquidate. At that point he had 2 options —- sell what he owned and walk or stay and pre pack . The ticketus / Octopus thing suggested that a pre pack was on the cards —–
We will find out soon ———
Decision time for Hector —– but maybe he has already accepted that he is going to have to pursue Minty et al.
Decision time for The SPL .
Decision time for The SFA.
Decision time for UEFA
Decision time for Celtic.
Decision time for the Celtic support.
Decision time for those who care about football in Scotland .
No to SPL parachute . No to Newco.
MWD
The SPL, the SFA and the clubs of Scotland would be moribund and without credibility. Celtic Football Club wouldn’t be, we need to keep this in mind.
Paul67 – what has changed since your: Rangers: where now and what’s coming next article where you suggested the prepack/ newco outcome was now less likely.
Must admit to being a little confused.
Surely there are going to be legal challenges still to Whytes ownership.
Surely the Tax man is going to be a little peeved and somewhat inclined to go after the administrators for what looks less like administration and more like stage management. Do they have legal recourse to do so?
And what happened to rumbings about other SPL clubs not being so keen on voting in prepacked newco anymore?
I am totally confused.
I have 100 % faith in our custodians.
Hail Hail
ernielynch,
But surely Ibrox and Murray park are worth £30/40 million in terms of land/property potential? Whyte will not stump up that much will he?
Shaun Gibson @ShaunGibson1888 Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
Craig White to take Rangers out of Administration before Friday – Breaking in Sky Sports News and other sites..#OMG
Retweeted by LivornoBhoy
Tweet tweet latest rumour…
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 8 March, 2012 at 10:36
Why?
So that we can plead for UEFA assistance?
HH
pauloantony on 8 March, 2012 at 10:32 said:
Never mind the premiership!
If the Orc get away with this scam the premiership clubs will want to come up here!!!
=========
LOL – comment of the day. Thumbsup!
PAUL67 – You are a naughty bhoy you really are! Think in other places its called ‘managing expectations’.
merseycelt
I dont think any pleading will be necessary.
HAil Hail
Jesus 4 people fighting over the £3.6 million the administrators say is owed ha han
Morning bhoys
The Hun will try every trick in the book to avoid paying.
It’s going to be the good guys vs bigot FC
Pre pack was always an option to stiff hmrc etc
If they lose their history, that will be a result plus 3yr ban from Europe .
They are trying to manipulate football and financial rules to keep
Going in some sort of zombie club.
They first have to shake off hmrc ,no easy task leading to long court cases
While doing that also persuade the sfa and spl to alter loads of rules as eufa look on with their FFP rules.
Havingapartywhenthehunsdiex csc
The Gerome pension group trying to grab the frozen funds now. A four way battle for the 3.6mil SSN.
South Of Tunis on 8 March, 2012 at 10:45 said:
Absolutely. 100% correct.
I have said all along.
Craig Whyte knows what he is doing.
His journey is still on course.
They will be in The SPL with very little penalty.
Sure the journey will at times take in a bumpy road,and have to reverse from the odd dead end,but he will complete his journey.
Our only hope of any form of retribution for there misdeeds is the improper registration of players.
For that to happen Celtic will have to have the full weight of UEFA on our side,because there is no one in Scottish football who will strip them of Titles unless they are forced to.
Scottish football is bereft of integrity.
Our board should be paving it’s way into the lower leagues of English football and from there we can earn our way into the EPL.
Scottish football is there to serve the Hun masses .Those that travel to Aybrokes and those that can’t afford the bus fare.
It will be a less competitive competition without Celtic or Rangers.
The product will deteriorate even further.
I pray our board have the cojones to leave this cesspit behind and take the gamble that Celtic can prosper in English football.
TT
‘
If a newco was allowed in there is IMO two options that Celtic/Supporters should think about.
1,Bhoycott all away games.
2Arrange friendly games at Celtic Park on same date charging £10/5
Irish teams would jump at this opportunity.
We have a large pool of players,so this would not be a problem.
oglach on 8 March, 2012 at 10:37 said:
‘Stay and fight – isn’t that the Irish way!’
#########
“To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to loose everything else” —Bernadette Devlin
if you want 10mins relief from huns meltdown
great full page story in todays daily mail from
celtic folklore about liz taylor and richard
burton in hungary with celtic fans
Maybe all four will agree to give it to charity.
Shieldmuir Celtic on 8 March, 2012 at 10:41 said:
I also have been told that using a company’s own assets to affect a takeover is illegal, Whyte also embezzled Dignity funds with the sale of the Arsenal shares going to his Pritchard brokering business……..
…… Maybe Lord Nimmo will have at least an outline of these actions in his report later today
Tipofheicebergcfc
I can’t see anything other that Whyte trying it on and the whole thing ending up in court.
Could it be that HMRC have deliberately kept th result of the Big Tax Case back to avoid a tipping point, knowing that Whyte would blink first? Or is that too Machiavellian?
The one thing that I have learned these last 37 years is that the hun has no shame and lives in complete denial. He will try every deceitful trick in the book what we are witnessing here is nothing new so why get excited.
HAil Hail
Yikes! I did not enjoy reading this article!
Maybe to cheer us up a bit, you could elaborate on these ´the enormous risks involved in going early´.
I will pay to watch Celtic play in any game (friendly or competitive) as long as it not part of a structure that involves NewCo.
If that means applying to join the SFL div1, 2 or 3 then that’s fine.
If it means playing friendlies every week against invited opposition then that’s fine.
If it means applying to join a mini-European league which includes San Marino and the Faroes then that’s fine.
If it means applying to join the FA in div 3 or the conference or any lower tier then fine.
What is not fine is playing in the SPL which has allowed newco to join. I’m not paying for that.
HT
Agreed.
But why throw good money, your hard earned money at a league that has now been proven to be fixed/rigged for the benefit of one club. Do you seriously believe its going to change?
I’m not asking you to stop throwing your money away. I’m telling you I no longer will.
MWD
The Scottish FA are expected to make a statement on Lord Nimmo Smith’s now complete investigation into Rangers today…
Tweet
TinyTim on 8 March, 2012 at 10:51 said:
If there’s a newco the crimes of the oldco are irrelevant. They will die with the oldco.
Don’t go pinning your hopes on that.
Stephen Black on 8 March, 2012 at 10:55 said:
‘The Scottish FA are expected to make a statement on Lord Nimmo Smith’s now complete investigation into Rangers today’
I’m surprised Tommy hasn’t phoned him to get the SP.
@STVRaman: Lord Nimmo’s investigation into Rangers FC is complete. SFA statement expected later.