I caught an online synopsis of Rangers’ owner Craig Whyte’s recent meeting with a group of the club’s fans last night. The group report that Whyte hopes, “’Rangers Football Club Plc’ could survive any administration event but feels it would not be the end of the world if it didn’t.”
We can all agree, it sure wouldn’t be the end of the world if that particular entity didn’t survive, although I suspect Mr Whyte is alluding to the possibility of a new club emerging. Celtic Quick News first raised the liquidation scenario back in October and explained a prepack route for Rangers Newco FC. If a football company goes into liquidation a secured creditor, in Rangers case this would be Craig Whyte, can retain control of key assets, such as the stadium, but would not own a football club which was part of any league structure.
In Scotland any Newco FC would have to apply for membership of the Scottish Premier League or Scottish Football League. A simple majority of the SPL board (three votes required) would be enough to vote a club into the SPL. The board currently has representatives from Celtic, Dundee United, Motherwell and St Johnstone, as well as SPL chief exec, Neil Doncaster. It is chaired by Ralph Topping, who only votes in the event of a stalemate.
If Rangers lose their tribunal against Her Majesty’s tax authorities (think of her underequipped soldiers), Celtic will not be the only club who will consider the commercial and competitive disadvantage they suffered while paying their taxes for the last 12 years, but they may be one of the few clubs that would survive without the sponsorship and TV income dependent on a club with the Rangers brand participating in the league. Celtic would vote against allowing Rangers into the league but I can see zero chance of Dundee United, St Johnstone, Motherwell or Neil Doncaster doing the same. If the board voted Newco FC into the league, the liquidation of Rangers would not be the end of the world; a football club would die but another could quickly emerge at the same location, selling tickets to the same people.
Opening positions on what sporting cost Newco FC should face for league entry were taken months ago when it was reported that Rangers would fight “tooth and nail” against a 25 point penalty on a Newco. A 25 point penalty on the phoenix of a failed club after 12 seasons of financial benefit would be an insufferable insult. This amounts to little more than a the loss of a single league title. 12 seasons of benefit should result in a 12 seasons of penury at the insolvency-event rate of 10 points per season. Small cost for the enormous gift of a league place and a huge football franchise. The SPL must also strike from the record any financially doped titles won by clubs still in existence or not.
Can you imagine if Peter Lawwell said, “It wouldn’t be the end of the world if Celtic PLC didn’t survive”! There would be an impromptu media village outside Celtic Park that would rival the Obama inauguration in size. Huge story sitting on a plate just waiting to be written up. Or not.
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This was a triumph. I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. (thumbsup)
usual suspect!
Peter Reid fae Peterheid is deid – Volvo for sale!
TTTT
Almost a podium . . .damn.
Stewards Enquiry Stewards Enquiry
Hello Paul and Ah’ll
Someone earlier asked for the link to this, sorry can’t remember who
Grant Fae Perth
Comedy Gold
The evil that is philvis gets pod again!
Paul67
It was blatant cheating by rangers over a number of years. Strip them of Five Titles and put them in Division 3. Otherwise, how can anyone in the world take this League seriously again?
HH
Best article written in ages, well done Paul67.
You have nailed it.
By the way, I’d have won that podium, only I forgot to log in !!!!
Paul67 – you are being a tad harsh on the Laptop Loyal there. I have heard the Exchange server is down at Media House so ole Jack can’t get the email out so they can copy and paste it into their newspapers
Kittoch, that link didn’t appear.
ASonOfDan, totally agree.
MadraRua, thanks. I suspect there will be plenty of opportunity to visit this topic in the weeks to come.
Typical. Repost…….
If us and “loyalmyerseFC” both get through on Sunday, what price a cash spinning meeting of the 2 clubs in the next round? Would they ????
TTTT (or anyone with Greenock knowledge),
Where is Greenock Dockers club (all I was told is that it’s near homebase) ?
My wee boy plays for local team First Touch and there is a fundraiser that we are due to attend tonight .
That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes,
an aeroplane – Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak,, grunt, no, strength,
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing!
Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it’ll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right – right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
Six o’clock – TV hour. Don’t get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.
Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (It’s time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
(I feel fine)
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (It’s time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev. Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (It’s time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it (It’s time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (It’s time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it. (It’s time I had some time alone)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (It’s time I had some time alone) and I feel fine…
Paul67,
CQN has been behaving very badly all day ????
Hail Hail
“Her Majesty’s tax authorities (think of her underequipped soldiers)” – Paul, did you get Canamalar to write this article?! ;-)
Anyone who thinks that they will ever be stripped of ANY of their 50-odd titles is sadly deluded. The battle to win is the penalty of points deductions over a number of seasons, but I really don’t trust the other clubs enough to think that will happen.
We’re about to get another huge slap in the face from Scottish football….get out Celtic and soon!
TTTT
Sorry Paul, try again.
Grant Fae Perth
Comedy Gold
Forget stripping thems of titles,
philvis is at it, he should be stripped of all podiums…..give them all to blantyretim
paul
next time your writing a piece look over your shoulder methinks philvis is lurking somewhere in your hoose.
At the risk of repeating myself ….
People can talk all they want about a competitive league. But it’s all a load of old pony. If NewCo Rangers are allowed back into the SPL because of the need for “competitiveness” or TV revenue it will be a scandal without equal in the history of football in this country.
There are many ways to make a league “competitive.” You can impose limits on the number of foriegn players. You can impose salary caps. You can limit transfers to midnight on a Thursday once a year and institute a draft so that the best players are properly distributed between the teams.
You can skew TV money so that the richer clubs get least, and redistribute wealth. You can siphon off a percentage of each club’s season ticket money and invest in it in a youth development pool from which all the clubs can draw and, like the draft, allocates the best young talent to the lowest placed team.
Or how about this? You can award the team which is projected to finish last a 30 point head start, and award each team in the league a number of points on a sliding scale all the way up to the favourites, who get nada.
There are any number of ways you can make a league competitive. Many of them have been tried elsewhere, but all of them devalue the most basic fundamental principle of the sport, which is fairness.
What, to my knowledge, has not been tried is to allow a team which has won titles by fraud and tax evasion to get away with it because punishing them might spoil the equilibrium. You simply cannot have one rule for Rangers and another for Hearts or Motherwell or Hibs or Dunfermline, because to do so blatantly corrupts the league setup and makes the “level playing field” a mockery.
So what do you get when, in the name of “competitiveness” you allow corruption and cheating to prosper? You annihilate the entire ethos of the game, because you destroy the notion of playing by any set of rules.
There is an imperitive here for the SFA/SPL to act in the long term good of the game. If they allow NewCo Rangers instant access to the SPL they will have done incalculable damage to Scottish football in the medium-long term, because NewCo Rangers will beget NewCo Hearts will beget NewCo Motherwell will beget NewCo Dunfermline and on and on it will go.
Competitiveness itself will suffer, as the clubs most willing to exploit the rules will simply spend money they don’t have and overtake the ones who believe, naively, in a level playing field for all.
Besides, where is the “competitiveness” in allowing one club to determine the future of the entire national sport? How long before they are exploiting that position all over again? I’ll tell you how long. If we allow NewCo Rangers a place in the SPL one day, they will be signing players they cannot afford the following day, because there will be no-one, and nothing, to stop them doing so. In making such a scandalous decision, the SPL and the SFA will have carved in stone the notion that we are a two team country, although what in fact they will have done is elevated one of those teams far above the rest of the game.
The Scottish football paradigm is broken already, because it is, in effect, a two team system, with one of those teams wielding inordinate power. If that system is broken it allows a fresh start to everyone, ourselves included, and we can put together a business model of our own which is not so heavily dependant on the Celtic-Rangers axis, and that is something I would welcome.
No fresh start will be possible, in our lifetimes, should this stinking, hoaching, despicable stitch-up be ratified and accepted. There will be no level playing field. No competitiveness. Instead, one club will have taken a great big dump on the rest of the national game. The basis of that game will have been ruined forevermore. Fans will desert. Sponsors will run for the hills and the game will die.
But if the SPL and the SFA take a different road, and they make the punishment truly fit the crime, what will be the result?
Fairness will have won over narrow self interest. A clear signal will have been sent not just across Scotland but across football that cheating is not tolerated here, that the game is bigger than just one club, that we have a system in this country which respects all teams, not just two.
The fans of other clubs will applaud and be grateful for the courage shown. They will look at the demise of Rangers and realise the table is straight, that the wheel is not fixed, that they do have a chance after all … and without the Celtic-Rangers axis there will be a chance, a genuine one, for a challenge to emerge.
As Celtic cuts its cloth to suit the absence of our greatest rival, our own youth players will more and more come to represent our hope for the future, and by the time Rangers themselves claw their way back from the bottom, some measure of balance will have returned to our game. In the process, they will have enriched every club in the lower league structure, from the Third Division to the First, and that will have knock on effects and benefits for the national sport the likes of which no McLeish Report ever could or ever would.
On the one hand is the total destruction of our national sport in every meaningful way. Oh yes, it will linger for some years yet, but the end will have begun, and it will be painful and awful and it is uncertain whether even our own club will survive it when the effects hit home.
On the other is a demonstration of fairness and justice, a courageous choice which will reinvigorate the lower leagues, transform Rangers into something less arrogant, destroy the two team SPL system and give us a new page on which to write the future history of the game.
The choice, to me, seems a simple one. God Help the “leaders” of our game here if they, for whatever reason, take the wrong path.
Excellent article Paul67.
Can someone point me to the online synopsis of Whyte’s meeting with the huns.
Árd Macha
Hi Paul and all CQNers
A belated Happy New Year to you and yours.
Re Celtic standing alone in any vote, though I believe Neil Lennon has previously stated he would be against any Bhoycott, would Celtic playing the “we won’t take any tickets for any games” stance not be a significant bargaining tool/threat to the snaller clubs?
Hail! Hail!
Gourockbhoy – I don’t think it’s near Homebase, it’s next to a bar/restuarant that used to be called Rico’s on Tobago Street, near the back of the library.
TTTT
Paul67
Of the clubs you mention above regards voting in favour of Rangers remaining in the SPL, they will simply be robbing Peter to pay Paul, as i can’t imagine a single Celtic supporter who would visit their grounds for the forseeable future meaning a considerable loss of gate revenue
Should this not be the type of case where there are UEFA rules/guidelines to ensure a consistent approach across all of their member organisations? It would fit in with their objective to ensure clubs are run as financially viable businesses. I think Celtic’s best shot at a fair outcome is to present a case to Platini and ask for the UEFA stance on it. The SFA/SPL will impose the lightest possibe penaly if left to their own devices – we all know that.
The media will ensure that only one position is argued for – a slap on the wrist and business as usual for next season.
Over to you, Mr Lawell.
Paul67
Interesting article but surely the board voting on a Newco who did not participate or win the Div. 1 would require a rule change and would have to be put to all the clubs including the 1 club that would be demoted from the SPL to allow Newco RFC entry.
If that is the case what are the mechanics of that voting structure as RFC no longer exist, Hearts may not exist and we wouls have the support of the club being relegated possibly Hibs or Dunfermline.
Is this why their is talk of us loaning a number of players to Hibs are we trying to develop support for our position within existing SPL members.
Che, hoopeddreams – Heavy is the burden of being me. (thumbsup)
Jabba’s recent article mentioned the possibility of liquidation rather than administration and now Whyte has done the same.
Looks like an expectation management exercise is underway.
Softening up the hun hordes for the fate that awaits them.
Would it be unduly cynical to attribute the equanimity with which Whyte appears to view such a prospect to his certainty that a newco huns will be allowed straight into the SPL?
He makes a killing and, to all intents and purposes, the huns carry on debt free.
Time will tell.
Paul67:
Over the next few seasons we will begin to get a picture of how the league should have panned out for the past 10 years.
We will see how much we have been robbed. We will be too happy to feel sickened.
Paul, great article, but I just have this sneaky feeling that Lawwell and Celtic Fc would not stand up and demand Rangers are not allowed back into SPL. I hope I am wrong but I just have this nasty feeling, whether we admit it or not, that Celtic need a Rangers for Celtic to prosper.
It would be interesting if someone could quantify exactly how much income does Rangers generate for Celtic.
No huns in league – no need to buy anymore players for next 3 years as we can beat the rest with what we have (which could be a good thing for youth development)
‘Rico’s on Tobago St’ – oh monsieur, you will be spoiling us! ;/)
Paul
The SPL Board would decide if the Newco was allowed membership of the SPL – I thought it was a vote of all members?
And what to the argument that a Newco should be penalised for the sins of its predecessor? If it is a new company with no history then what is the legal basis for a penalty?
For me there is no sporting argument for a Newco to do anything other than apply for a place in the league structure on the same basis as any other club would do – and that’s to the bottom tier.
If the argument prevails that commercial interests are more important than sporting ones then the ball is well and truly burst.
ST. JOHN DOYLE 1228 from previous
I posted this earlier on RTC,and I do not for one moment think it’s only you and I thinking along those lines!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
majoc says:
06/01/2012 at 8:55 am
Bryce Curdy 0648
I doubt I’m alone in my long-held belief that the fact of Rangers cheating to gain CL money at the expense of their main rival,with a gain to one of around 40m to one and an equivalent loss to the other-a turnround of £80m-is FRAUD.
Fraud on such a scale perpetrated by one listed company on another should be investigated by the financial authorities,and by the City of London Police.
It most dertainly would be investigated in this way in any other business!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having said that,it was the City of London Police who instigated this,during other investigations.
Involving Harry Redknapp,IIRC.
Cheers,Harry. You may have brought down a bigger barrow-boy than yourself!
gourockbhoy 6 January, 2012 at 12:43:
TTTT is indeed correct. Remember to bring your dominoes.
Árd Macha says:
6 January, 2012 at 12:47
‘Assembly meeting with Chairman Craig Whyte –
No scope for negotiating a settlement with HMRC due to the criticism they have had from MPs and the Media about some high-profile “deals”. That means the case could take even more time to resolve as any outcome is likely to be appealed by either party.
– If the decision is adverse and the Club appeal, HMRC can still seek to enforce the decision – not clear if they would but they can start to pursue payment of the tax liability.
– He hopes “Rangers Football Club Plc” could survive any administration event but feels it would not be the end of the world if it didn’t – I think he said that at our last meeting.
– There are no concerns about current cash flow and the day to day running of the Club although he acknowledges that the running costs must be reduced – again that was said at our last meeting.
– There will be comings and goings in the January transfer window – however, players need to go to ensure any new arrivals don’t increase the number of players and the salary costs and it is unlikely that all income will be used to buy new players. He emphasised we need creative players and strikers. There is a list of targets but no names were mentioned.
– He is really pleased with the backing from the fans and will continue to robustly defend the fans when necessary.
The AGM will probably take place in March 2012 – the accounts are as yet unaudited – the delay is due to awaiting legal opinion on the tax case! He hopes by then to be able to give shareholders more information and be better placed to answer the questions that will inevitably be asked.
He will remain accessible to us and he offered an “open-door” to raise any key issues’
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=212245192197518&id=200509926704378
Paul67 and RTC
“Take a bow, son!”
philvis is Dr Who – some fecker was messing with the server about half an hour ago, as the times against the posts were 30 minutes ahead.
Feck off back tae yer Tardis, ya Timelord Hun!! :-)
T4
James Forrest
as usual very informative,
theres a guy on my facebook same monicker as you, obviosly different people as the other ones nuts…….
anyways IF newco did in fact come into play….just supposing like, deep breaths now before you start leathering the keyboard…
what would the media call the relationship (which we detest with a passion) between Celtic and thems?
Old Firm has gone
New Firm is taken
Mmm theres one to tax (sorry) the oul grey matter