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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Forget the Bhoys Of The Old Brigade…….
This will rely on the The Good Ole Boys of The Funny Handshake Brigade……
One Scotland, One Culture
Gordon_J
Exactly. Things are tight even as it is and that’s with them having decided against paying £9m tax in 9 months this year.
A newco is going to have it much much tougher. They could limp on for a while but long term viability doesn’t look good no matter what way you look at it.
Expenses for 2011
Staff Costs – £30m
Other operating costs – £15m
Extras – £3m
Extras included depreciation and amotisation charges, auditors remuneration etc. Other operating costs included heat, electric overheads etc. Not much they can do to cut those down without further outsourcing which again reduces income streams.
Even £8.5m for wages is on the optimistic side.
Aberdeen’s wage bill is between £5-6m
Hibs – approx £4.5m
Dundee United approx £4m
Hearts approb £9m
Mort
HECTOR – Moonbeams WD. Kano 1000 \o/ Supporting Neil Lennon 100%. Eating Jelly & Ice Cream.
Awe Naw… on 8 March, 2012 at 09:59 said: Roses! Smelling of.
As expected.
If this pans out then it’s ski-ing for me.
No more wasting money on a publically admitted rigged league structure.
I’d rather see Celtic resign and apply to Division 3 of the SFL while lobbying UEFA to recognise the SFL as the official league structure in Scotland affording Division 1 European competition.
No rolling over Celtic
MWD
I haven’t had time today to catch everything, but as MWD says Celtic have the power, use it, resign.
I’d rather see us being the Harlem Globe Trotters of football rather than allow cheats to prosper, they would be back and they would be worse, they would feel vindicated and empowered.
Away to catch up now.
ernie lynch on 8 March, 2012 at 11:14 said:
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 8 March, 2012 at 11:09 said:
‘We’d be crazy to do that without an agreed destination pre-arranged.’
What’s the alternative?
……………………………………………
Lobby for entry to a lower league in England or investigate possibility of a Scandinavian League with Celtic in it or continue in Scotland. I don’t think there will be much appetite amongst the Celtic rank and file for Celtic to go into oblivion because RFC were forgiven for cheating. We’ve always known that everybody and their grannie was against us in Scotland and yet we won 42 (43 soon) league titles numerous Cups and The Big One. If we give up they have well and truly won.
This decision later today from nimmo smith, is it about whyte or 2 contracts?
Why all this chat of quitting the league?
We have done nothing wrong, we have stood up to everything thrown at us by this country and came out stronger and prouder.
I pay my money to watch Celtic, I don’t pay it to wonder what another team is doing.
Celtic are not daft and any Newco will never be allowed to simply step back in.
HH
hen1rik on 8 March, 2012 at 12:49 said:
Nimmo’s enquiry is about the takeover I believe, SPL are looking into the two contracts..
Paul67
Thanks for the article. It seems an awful lot like the predictions prior to admin… prior to admin many, many people still thought Whyte was viable, and Rangers were too. Now that this has been shown not to be the case, it’s staggering that this rather insulting process could continue. And it is insulting to everyone involved. Only Celtic seem capable or willing to react to this insult.
BRTH,
Great post… you must tire of reading that.
The Smallest CSC
Also a great post. Effectively you are describing something like a Conference system, common in North America. As I watched the program that was my first thought when Doncaster made those claims – you can retain the 4 OF game (present circs notwithstanding), reduce the number of fixtures and increase competitiveness at the top end, reduce fear at the bottom. It’s not really very complicated – your suggestion being just one of many ways it could work.
The great shame is that no-one on the panel of Scotlands most prominent football figures has the wit to come up with such a scheme, or, worse, they appear to lack sufficient interest to actually research variations and the courage to present them.
We are barely any further forward than we were 20 years ago.
The only truth in the debate is that we desperately need facilities… there is a slight improvement, but this needs even more effort.
Hopefully you keep posting on this topic and the agenda finally moves back to issues that have less to do with the ugly mob. I have a few thoughts on facilities and league set up, and it would be good if that could be a CQN debate one day…
If Rod Petrie cares about sporting integrity he should vote against the Newco. It’s as simple as that.
ulysses mcghee,
So Ross County after their momentous, courageous, honest journey from the Highland League could be denied promotion for the first time in history?
(Assuming they win Div 1.)
The people of Ross and Cromarty, (Ross-shire), – including the towns of Dingwall, Tain, Invergordon, Alness – the areas and villages of Wester Ross, Easter Ross, the Black Isle – who are desperate to see top level Scottish football on their doorstep for the first time – should be shat on to save a club who have stolen millions off the country’s taxpayers – who have basically cheated and brought Scottish Football to its knees over the past 20 years.
I can hardly type with rage.
I appreciate you were being tongue in cheek….but that’s what’s being considered by the (alleged) criminals.
Knew it, they were bluffing, the administrators will get what they want with the players now ready to accept the 75 per cent cuts so that the big hoos can stay open,
So who benefits from them limping on to the end of the season with the existing playing squad still intact? Certainly not HMRC or the creditors, so just exactly who are these admin guys working for?
Paul I have to say your articles aren’t helping clarify anything, keep it simple please mate.
As I said yesterday if Rangers go into Liquidation before the season ends the newco can’t apply for a place in the SPL as there would be no vacancy )no relegation and 1st Division winners promoted = 12 teams). The only way they could get in would be by reconstruction, either a 14, 16 or 18 team league.
Guys – I think you have to consider the fact that if they can wriggle into a newco skin and relinquish most of their debts then you’ve potentially got heavy hitters like Douglas Park etc who could (free of Whyte or Murray) easily be of a mind to fund the newco enough to be ‘able to challenge’ the top team/s in the SPL.
More importantly there will be a ‘will’ to do so…
U
How can anyone predict what Mad Vlad will do with his vote?
What of Thompson at United?
Petrie at Hibs?
Yorkston has already said a Newco King Billy XI has to start in Div 3…
Then there is Aberdeen- do you really believe their fans would accept them voting Newco back into SPL…they hate them more than we do!
TomtheLeedstim…
Just don’t go there mate. This is not an excuse to start slagging our board. Take your obvious agenda and shove it mate.
We are Celtic SUPPORTERS.
HH
Can anyone give me absolute clarification on Ticketus’s position in all of this?
We know they paid MBB circa £24m, and have stated they ‘own the tickets’ for next 3 or 4 years. As I see it, they have security in the shape of Ibrox/ Murray Park (cannot think of any other asset which would possibly cover £24m+), OR they have insurance. So, if liquidation occurs I can not see how they can have claim over tickets for next 3 years of Newco – surely this would mean HMRC would have at least equal powers?
If Ticketus have insurance, surely the insurance company would be watching events unfold and take legal action to prevent being stiffed?
Awe Naw @ 12 32 .
Thanks for posting that link.
Big cheese lawyer resigns from his big cheese legal firm and disappears . Company Secretary of Whyte’s football business . Man who was responsible for carrying out the legal requirements re moving into Administration. Man the Administrators want /need to speak to —— he has disappeared.
No need to wait guys for the Nimmo Smith decision due later on, I can give it you now, “everything’s fine, nothing to see here, please move along”
Paul67
You said in your depressing leader today and I quote –
“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”
Are Duff and Phelps able to get all legal actions againts the huns dropped???!!!
Surely not!
If a newco was admitted this season it wouldn’t inherit oldco’s points, thus making it the relegataed side. That’s why dunfermilne and hibs won’t care, as they wont be relegated anyway. newhun then wins first division and is back in spl for 2013-14.
neveralone on 8 March, 2012 at 12:41 said:
If Celtic FC had done what Rangers FC seems to have done I would be…..
* Mortified and thourghly ashamed
* Embarrased by attempts to remain in SPL
* Resigned to starting in SFL3
* Queing up for my ST and looking forward to visiting Forfar etc.
* Very humbled
—– —— ——
Me too but then we both have consciences and integrity. These people don’t. That’s what makes them what they are.
They see no wrong, therefore there is no wrong.
If newco does get into the spl then surely it can’t be punished for rankers crimes, as it’s a new company. If the spl view newco as a continuation of thems and punish thems as such then surely Hmrc must also chase thems for the Big tax money?
The Moon Bhoys
You forgot to add at the end “Timmy”.
Rangers Newco to continue with the same league membership as Rangers FC????
Nooooooooooooo!
One fly that I can see in the ointment for a new co I cannot see HMRC standing watching the tax they are owed being wiped out.If some of the rogues gallery put forward an offer to start a new co they will have to get agreement from HMRC and that imo will mean agreeing to a repayment scheme for the outstanding tax that is due.So any new co would have a handicap for many years to come.H.H.
Even if what Paul seems to be suggesting is true…..
What I’ve heard stated by football authorities (and a “them” compliant media) this week-
1. Liquidated Club = ALL points wiped out = newco @ bottom of table = relegation to 1st div
2. Liquidated club = all player registrations revert to SFA (SPL?) ownership.
I “think” Paul is suggesting the newco buys the assets (i.e. players) before the oldco is liquidated, but Newco would not yet be a football club part of a league (until oldco makes way for them) surely? SO… CAN Newco buy them when they are not a registered FC?? Thereby stopping the registrations transferring back to the FA?
I know Paul is busy, so could ANYBODY with a bit of knowledge please tell me I’m not wrong about 1 & 2 above?
ASonOfDan – Read the article, is this a good or bad thing for rangers?
Bad.
Badder than Michael Jackson’s 1987 album.
Badder than Kenneth More in “Reach For The Sky”.
Badder than romancing Lady Gaga. On a bad day. In the badlands. While watching a copy of Bad Santa on the telly.
For Rangers FC, the club that was formed in 1872 by McNeil, Campbell, McBeath, and the Moses brothers, the club of Bill Struth and Jim Baxter and John Greig, will exist no longer.
It will cease to be. It will be no more. It will be an ex-club.
Rangers FC will have snuffed it.
Now, I fully expect, in their traditional brazen style, the grieving survivors to create a new entity that seeks to inhabit the corpse of Rangers FC. It will have a similar club crest, similar shirts, and play at Ibrox. It will call itself Rangers.
But it will not be Rangers FC, a club that has been famous throughout Scotland and beyond for over 100 years.
It will be to Rangers as the Bootleg Beatles are to the Beatles, as No Way Sis is to Oasis, as Craig Whyte is to a billionaire.
It will be a cheap, nasty, knock-off of Rangers FC. The kind of Rangers you’d buy down The Barras. The kind of Rangers that, if it were aftershave, would give you a horrible rash before being impounded by environmental health officials due to its alarming levels of radioactive waste.
When Rangers FC goes into liquidation, it will be the darkest of dark days for its follow followers. Many of them will transfer their allegiance to whatever bodysnatcher presents itself as the heir of that club, but in their heart of hearts even the most bullish of bears will know that the Rangers they knew and loved, the Rangers they grew up with, the Rangers their dads and granddads brought them up to support, will be gone… forever.
And all because some very pompous, egotistical men didn’t want to pay Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs their taxes in accordance with the law of the land. (thumbsup)
is
Hopefully someone can help.
With regards to a Rangers NewCo being granted SPL membership, Am I correct in thinking that its the SPL Board and NOT the member clubs reps that vote.
I’m sure if it ends in an equal vote then its the SPL Chairman, Ralph Topping who gets the deiciding vote.
SPL Board below –
The current SPL Board is made up of Ralph Topping (SPL Chairman), Neil Doncaster (SPL Chief Executive), Eric Riley (Celtic FC), Stephen Thompson (Dundee United FC), Derek Weir (Motherwell FC) and Steven Brown (St Johnstone FC).
Alasdair
Unfortunately, I wasn’t being tongue in cheek.
There’s been an ever increasing party line being whipped that Newco in the SPL is for the greater good and to countenance any other thought is insanity.
This is from the tub thumpers like Chic Young up to the percieved intellect of Graham Spiers.
I’m afraid the blazered cogniscenti behind closed doors would consider Ross County as collateral damage. And by dint they would be an acceptable casualty.
U
Has there ever been a precedent anywhere in the footballing world of a club being liquidated and directly replaced in the same division by another club during a season?
Neveralone
I would feel the same as you if it were Celtic,however..they as they keep telling us are “the people”.
No shame,just let us get back to where we belong attitude.
Totally sickening.
As in most cases,those with the best lawyers,best contacts and correct handshake always escape scot free…i sincerely hope i’m wrong!
bankiebhoy1 on 8 March, 2012 at 12:45 said:
Forget the Bhoys Of The Old Brigade…….
This will rely on the The Good Ole Boys of The Funny Handshake Brigade……
One Scotland, One Culture
////
I do wish that a lot more Celtic fans would see your light.
Hail! Hail!
is there a issue with Ross County’s Stadium?
Not sure if its holds the 6,000? seats at the moment.
Kraljski on 8 March, 2012 at 13:00 said:
The current SPL Board is made up of Ralph Topping (SPL Chairman), Neil Doncaster (SPL Chief Executive), Eric Riley (Celtic FC), Stephen Thompson (Dundee United FC), Derek Weir (Motherwell FC) and Steven Brown (St Johnstone FC).
That’ll be either 4-2 (Riley & Thompson) or 5-1 (Riley) in favour of Newco straight back in then.
Another thing I meant to say HMRC are useing this as a test case and cannot allow Rangers to get off lightly on the unpaid tax.If they did it will open the flood gates for other teams throughout the UK to clear there debt in the same way and the tax payer would lose out big time.So in my opinion the tax man is our ally in this case.H.H.
who is Ralph Topping ?
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon on 8 March, 2012 at 13:02 said:
Has there ever been a precedent anywhere in the footballing world of a club being liquidated and directly replaced in the same division by another club during a season?
+++++
Hold that question for a couple of weeks and I’ll get back to you. :-(