Police Scotland officers visited Sports Direct’s Derbyshire offices “investigating takeovers at Rangers”. The pluralisation is quite important.
Last year Police Scotland opened an investigation into Craig Whyte’s purchase of Rangers from the Duped One, fair enough. No one previously reported that more than one ‘takeover’ was being investigated.
Sports Direct had no involvement with oldco Rangers, whose merchandising relationship was with JJB, so clearly this police action is not connected to Mr Whyte. Sports Direct’s only relationship at Ibrox has been newco Rangers. If newco, who were formed when the assets of oldco were bought in liquidation, is subject to police investigation the potential consequences are far reaching.
Sports Direct were not involved with the asset purchase and were only introduced when the club sought investment and commercial partners, so they played no part in the second takeover (of assets). Their likely interest to police will be limited to being recipients of correspondence.
An asset purchase which was secured by criminal activity, if discovered, is legally invalid. This is different from a purchase which breaks civil law. A civil offence leaves the guilty party open to financial claim. An asset disposal subject to a criminal offence would see the liquidator seize assets on behalf of the creditors. Padlocks would be involved, so would lengthy legal processes.
The bar to securing a criminal conviction for such a matter is high and no evidence of such wrongdoing regarding the disposal of Rangers assets has been verified in three years, so don’t expect Padlock Day anytime soon.
I wouldn’t like to be trying to raise money in this climate, though. Good job the SFA are so thoroughly opposed to letting those with a track record of criminal inclinations controlling football clubs.
Yesterday, Fans Against Criminalisation (FAC) continued their campaign against the truly dreadful law instigated by former First Minister Alex Salmond. Despite a litany of failed convictions and representation from within football and the wider community, the Scottish Government have refused all requests to repeal the three-year-old law.
You can register your voice against this law by petitioning the Scottish Government to Repeal the Offensive Behaviour’ Act by signing this online petition. It is a outrageous, politically motivated, law, designed to “equalise” the law-abiding (that’s you) with actual criminals.
Don’t get me started!
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Paul, this blog is a pressure release valve for me.I remember the old days when Celtic were beaten.I’d storm around the house, kids grabbing hold of anything valuable which could be smashed, wife trying to appease me with smiles and bottles of beer.I was completely insufferable.Now I just come on and rant at you guys.
What a sorry state Labour are in. The sectarian card and fear. That’s what they offer. I am no fan of the Nats but I look forward to Labour getting a doing. The sectarian victim hood angle is excruciating.
” If the opinion polls are accurate then the UK is about to re elect a government that the majority of the electorate positively dislikes..Why ? The opposition is a fragmented mess .Very Italian.”
Antonio Caprarica RAI London Correspondent
Ernie
Are you Jim Murphy?
I only ask because your tone, your message and your vocabulary are strikingly similar.
Jim being an avid Celtic supporter too.
FGF
Surely Celtic can go back on incompetence of the refs. 6 officials and not one saw it, surely a flaw in the way we ref our games. More efficient method would be to bring in a video technology. Very difficult to prove cheating. Easier to rule out honest mistakes with technology.
Disappointed but not surprised if Celtic have made the decision not to follow up. Would like Celtic to come out and confirm position, given they made the original points in a statement. Was this just to appease the fans?
HH
CRC
PS happy Birthday Paul67
FourGreenFields
I’m glad that you did ‘pester’ the club about what response they got.
The answer they got from the SFA (that the officials just didn’t see the handball) is only part of the answer I think. The officials – or at least one of them – saw the incident, because the Judicial Panel said so in its decision to allow the appeal from Meekings. Ultimately this boils down to at least two issues.
1. The confusion between responses from the SFA that was only formalized by the Judicial Panel’s decision. SFA are a cluster.
2. The competency of officials. (That includes anything else that influences their decision making during games)
Celtic should have communicated this SFA response directly with the fans in the same way that the club statement revealed that they had written to the SFA in the first place. Celtic are poor at follow up communication with fans. It’s almost as if we have a short memory span and have moved on to other things.
As for what Celtic should do now, it’s really all about picking your battles and using your resources in a smart way. This, “the referee’s decision is final and we can’t change what he decided on the day” business is carte blanche for some to shrug with a blank look on their face when you raise the issue of fairness. Other than marking some cards I do not think that there is much that Celtic can do over this ONE incident. They could use what evidence they have accumulated over the season to question referees competence, their training and supervision, and the processes for resolving these kinds of issues.
Thanks again for persisting with the club.
HH
Sky news
“The DUP,the four largest party in the last parliament is preparing itself for holding the balance of power on Friday morning.”
TBB Ernie Jim Murphy? you do him a disservice Ernie is far more devious than Jim. He’d make a better fist of running their campaign. H H Hebcelt
Happy Birthday Paul.
Thanks
HH
FGF/Twists … disappointed but not surprised by the lack of public response, and the I wont call it a capitulation in the response to you, as capitulation suggests that they were on the right side to start and then caved …. in hindsight, it seems like the letter to the SFA was simply a sop to the fans … as I said, disappointed but not surprised.
Minx … I signed the petition …I’m in Canada, so not sure if they will care if a canuck is unhappy, but I figure that at least they know…
Wikidpedia, get outing :)
In December 2012 he wrote his final article for the Daily Record.[3] Following rumours about a role at Rangers,[4] he took up the position of Director of Communications on 8 December 2012 and resigned on 1st November 2013.[5][6][7][8]Traynor was the original succulent lamb muncher whose sycophantic fawnings a helped perpetuate the myth that the disgraced David Murray, then owner of Rangers Football Club, was an honourable man with the clubs best interest at heart. Traynor lied about and obfuscated the state of finances and governance of the club to the extent that the support were completely taken by surprise when the club failed. After publishing his opinion that Rangers history was gone after the liquidation event, he had to back track to fabricate a remarkable concoction of logic that claimed the liquidated club were not indeed a club but a company, ignoring his own previous reporting and company law.
Good touch by St Mirren as 6 year old in their youth academy fighting cancer is ned as their POTY.
Goodness can be infectious.
HH jamesgang
Paul & Phil Mac have shown the SMSM up for how ridiculous they are.
The Police visit to Sports Direct would have been a scheduled, arranged in advance by about two cops to speak to some people and to see if there were any documents relative to those interviews that they might want.
In whose interest would it be to dramatically portray this chat as a raid and link it to the skullduggery at AyeBrokes? Bearing in mind that the “new” bears are well intentioned, have nothing to hide and are in the process of being endorsed by the SFA as “fit and proper” might not they benefit from any muck that their media pals can fling at their nemesis, Big Mike?
Not chip wrappings, not bog paper, just Scotland’s newspapers.
HH
ah the Labour,unionist and Hunlike memory party.not getting my vote
Why?
1.The war murderer Blair,the man who put a whole new meaning to the term international socialism,his was delivered via trident missile!! After the executions in Bali this blog talked of state sanctioned murder.i would say an incalculable number of fellow humans suffered as a result of his governments decision to open the pandora’s box will resonate for generations to come..As new or old Labour leader i dont care which in my opinion he should be in the Hague.
2. Labour are Dyscalcic,thats they cant count to you and me.Money,and the need to watch it was blown out the water by Gordon and his fellow dyscalcics.The basic fundament of every working class home was left behind whilst a labour govt ‘ticked’ over £1trillion on a credit splurge that definitely did not end boom and bust -it lead to a cheap treasury note
laughing at the country about leaving no money.
3.Labour are impotent in the face of the ‘city’ as a socialist party(no laughing now) they are the ideological opposite of those city types(well they are not really as Gordon will tell you)
they overseen an exponential growth in the offshore banking sector,fine if you live in Monaco,or bank in Jersey,alas no account exists for you in Pollok your local credit union will suffice.
4.Labour assume they know what is best for the poor?The surge in SNP support means we can slip under the covers with the tories again and jointly attack a party that most in scotland wish to vote for.it means we cant ask Labour bout their NHS ‘marketisation as no party wants to say how the poor will be hurt.
5.Labour to me are the party of betrayal,the only time i can recall any party supporting another was when Scorrrrish minister Douglas Alexander,slip under the blankets to assure the real Tories that £billions will be retained on Trident.It barely became a topic,the socialists i know would be boaking in their graves at the swiftness of hand,The Labour party no money for the disabled but we can still play the bigman at the UN and it will cost us Schools,hospitals and stuff that could be used to make society more progressive for all…alas Labour betrayed
6.I live in a EU designated social exclusion area,pollok,i do giggle at people saying nowt has been done by the SNP the last 7 years,the area was built post war when capital markets where used by govt to build our society,schoools,hospitals.Access to capital has stopped for house building,The 2 Ed already align themselves with Tory(labour caused) austerity,what i am trying to say is to those who had power you had 50 odd years and not much has changed in the polloks,easterhouse.drumchapels,the have been subject to the boombust-stopstart guff that leaves communites devoid of community and rife for drugs.
use your vote wisely,it is your vote to use and it will mean you are voting that party that you believe in,
I dont believe in Labour
i dont think Labour believe in themselves.
if only they could use a democratic mandate like blairs in 97.
Still be a Celtic fan come 10pm
Until the referees are accountable nothing will change.
An honest ratings system by a fair minded panel with promotion and demotion.
Unfortunately a panel of Scots would have given McLean a five star rating for his hampden cheating such is the mindset of Scotland.
We will always be cheated by the sniggering huns that populate this country.
theres a smell of desperation descended over the blog
paaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrppppppppppp
there, that should freshen it up a bit.
Errol Brown RIP
Bada bing
Hot Chocolate Errol?
BB sorry to hear that loved that band and his vocals. H H Hebcelt
owen
15:12 on
6 May, 2015
A distasteful as it is to accept I can see nothing else the club can do but let this go. We all know the ref and his assistant saw the handball, but at the review of the charge against Meekings they claimed to have seen the ball strike his head not his hand. Total nonsense of course but how do Celtic prove they are lying? Now I mean 100% incontrovertible proof not just the TV replays, the ref can always fall back on “in my opinion”. Sad but we cannot win this one.
——————————————————————————————————————
Just as well the bunnet didn’t take that attitude over Farrygate.
Who says we can’t win this? We are being lied to and it can be proved. We have been told by the SFA that none of the officials saw the handball offence. On the other hand, Josh Meekins’ solicitor has been told by the SFA that the officials did see the incident but decided it wasn’t a penalty and his appeal is upheld. What is to be?
If the club accepts there is nothing more we can do in the face of such a blatant lie then we have moved from the back of the bus to the luggage area between the front and back wheels. The game is Scotland is rigged and we seem happy to go along with it.
As they say in the Dragons Den, I’m oot! To borrow a wee Fergus phrase, not “one thin dime” will leave my wallet in the direction of the club or any other aspect of the professional game in Scotland.
m6bhoy can’t say I disagree with your post H H Hebcelt
theglasgowcelticway
15:20 on 6 May, 2015
No chance,that would need the tories to get close to 320 seats,won’t happen.
Also a very bad excuse to vote labour.
hebcelt
Your Jim Murphy por cierto :)
Wow
Traynors wiki was very very quickly altered, I wonder if it is watched full time and re-edited after changes are made.
Wonder if it would be fun if lots and lots of tims kept them very very busy making changes :)
Have good night Celts :-)
whoever gets in
THEY HUNS CHEATED
hh :-)
Now its vote labour to keep DUP out,desperate measures indeed.
AT-Yes
A very happy birthday Paul, from an enthusiastic and appreciative follower of the blog, since even the early days.
As one of the expat diaspora, the value of following Celtic minded news, while avoiding the gutter SMSM is incalculable.
Also, as someone of (ahem) not quite the grey brigade yet, the knowledge I have had the opportunity to absorb from my elders from these pages has been of great personal value.
Captain Beefheart
Thought you might like to see this.
‘Leaders of Glasgow anti-Labour demo suspended by SNP’
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/glasgow-demo-leader-suspended-by-snp.1430835856
m6bhoy …. the problem is that there hasn’t been a comprehensive response to the ‘problem.
There are ways to smoke out liars/cheats … if, like the Bunnet, you are prepared to do some work/make some enemies.
Assuming for a moment that intentional cheating is not the issue, we still need to know what happened, so that the same ‘mistake’ is not made again.
did the ref/assistant see the incident, but think it (i) hit his head, or (ii) did they think it hit his hand, but was not a penatly (ball to hand, perhaps). As far as I know, this has not been explained fully and publicly Until it is explained, there is a question over the competency, if not the integrity, of the officials.
If they cheated, they should not be refereeing big games, or any games involving Celtic. If they are just grossly incompetent, then they should similarly not be handling these games.
What has Celtic done to ensure that this sort of ‘honest mistake’ stops happening?
If Celtic doesn’t question these sorts of things/take some action, one has to question why not.
Errol Brown.
May he rest in peace but for the record – he was a big supporter of Maggie Thatcher / John Major and Call Me Dave..The delights of the 87 Tory Party Conference included Errol singing a bastardised for the occasion -Imagine.
Uh Gawd..please make all this Election stuff a bad dream…oh wait…no it can’t be…
StillTwoDaysToGo CSC
Actually three days until we can breathe again :o(
por cierto bit early for the wacky baccy!!! H H Hebcelt
I just discovered the designer of the Titanic had a lisp………….unthinkable.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
south of tunis
As we discussed, I went to see the Nina Simone film the other night. Another film at the festival was Attacking the Devil … about Harold Evans’ investigation into Thatcher’s secret/unholy deal with Rupert Murdoch in 1981 which allowed him to purchase the Times and others…
I haven’t seen it yet, but am told that it is pretty damning stuff. His investigation was published in the Guardian recently, but rather incredibly seems to have been largely ignored …. .
Ernie – sorry for the delay in replying, trying to work and keep abreast of lots of social media.
Here’s what Ed Miliband said (lifted from The Hootsman).
He said: “Let me be plain – we are not going to do a deal with the SNP. We’re not going to have a deal. If it meant that we weren’t going to be in government, not doing a coalition, not doing a deal, then so be it.
“I’m not going to sacrifice the future of our country, the unity of our country, I’m not going to give in to SNP demands around Trident, around the deficit or anything like that.
“I’m not going to have Labour government if it means deals or coalitions with the SNP.
“And I want to say this to voters in Scotland: there is no easy route here to vote SNP and get a Labour government.
“If you want a Labour government you need to vote Labour.”
He added: “I’ve been asked about lots of different kinds of deals – coalition, what they call confidence and supply where you have an arrangement – I’m not doing that.
“If the price of having a Labour government was having a deal or a coalition with the SNP – it’s not going to happen.”
That’s Ed Miliband saying if being in Govt requires a deal with the SNP he’s not doing it. No mention of them having to compromise, or them having to support him. He’s not doing it. He’d rather not be in Govt.
timmy7
Some polls suggest the Tories will get around 306 seats.If that is the case throw in UKIP and the DUP and you might be fairly close.
Got to hand it to Dave Cameron for sheer guts in the face of adversity.
Despite an attempt to ‘egg’ him at the hustings yesterday, he elected to carry on with his electioneering itinerary, regardless of the threat to his personal safety.