I thoroughly enjoyed Chris McLaughlin’s interview with Our Hero yesterday; there is so much to digest. It’s tempting to explore the information that in October last year Craig Whyte informed SPL chief executive and chairman, Neil Doncaster and Ralph Topping, that Rangers were very likely to go into administration and that a CVA was likely to fail.
Was this assertion shared with other SPL board members or did Doncaster and Topping keep it to themselves as they pretended all was well while preparing to change the rules to allow a Newco access to top flight football? There is a whole ocean of duplicity here as fans were kept in the dark while being asked to accept revolutionary changes.
Unsatisfied creditors who extended credit after this date, from HMRC down, will all be fascinated by this admission. As will liquidators BDO.
Tempting thought this question is, I’ll leaving it hanging for now. There is a more intriguing topic.
When asked how much profit he made on his Rangers venture Whyte said, “Any arrangements I made with the purchaser [Green] are confidential.”
The BBC headlines from yesterday, proclaiming that Whyte “brought Green in to buy Rangers” points to the most important matter. While Duff and Phelps were busy using creditors money to try to sell the business, Craig Whyte realised he was the Only Game in Town, and operated a parallel sales process. He had security over the stadium and it therefore didn’t matter who else entered the bidding for Rangers.
No matter what deal they put in front of Duff and Phelps. The Blue Knights, Bill Miller and Bill Ng would never in a position to pull a deal together as Whyte agreed a deal with Charles Green.
It doesn’t really matter if Green had any prior relationship with Whyte or if they were brought together by Whyte’s contacts in London (which both seem to agree on). Whyte had a price to hand over his shares (likely to be £1) and his security over the stadium (this is the interesting bit) and Green met it.
The Blue Knights thought they had a deal, so did Bill Miller, but neither had the stadium. Having secured agreement with Whyte, only Green could deliver a deal; no matter how little was on the table for creditors. Duff and Phelps subsequently accepted £5.5m for the assets of the club, the highest deliverable bid received. The only bid from the population of one who had secured use of the stadium.
Which brings us back to the heading at the top of the page, “Any arrangements I made with the purchaser are confidential.” Agree, Craig, this is not something you want to discuss openly.
This statement came in response to Chris McLaughlin asking how much of a profit Whyte made at Rangers. A more reserved interviewee would have dismissed the question by saying something like “No one but Duff and Phelps made money out of this one”, but our Craig was in full flow by this stage of the interview.
With a glint in his eye he confirmed a deal was done. Forget all the adjectives you’ve heard about the man over the last year, “stupid”, “dumb”, “clown”, this clown gave Ticketus a personal guarantee for circa £24m, put the man who agreed to his terms in place, and then made a profit out of the deal.
I’ve no idea who owns the stadium (could be Green, Whyte or Whyte senior) or what consideration passed for it when Green and Whyte put pen to paper, but this is the crux of the entire deal. Did Craig Whyte secure his profit by signing over the Ibrox security for free, did he sell it to Green at an undisclosed price or does he retain an earn-out interest in the property – and, therefore, ultimately the Newco.
It remains to be seen what liquidators BDO make of the confidential deal between Green and Whyte. Will they see the stadium asset exchange as being in the best interest of creditors or as a deal against creditors’ interests? I hear Charles Green yesterday claimed the company’s property assets were worth in the region of £80m. I’m sure HMRC were taking notes.
Is there anyone left who believes that all Craig Whyte received in exchange for passing the keys of Ibrox to Green was £1? Maybe Mr Green will be keen to explain ahead of his share issue, just to clear up where working capital is going.
There is a great Tribute Night for Pat McCluskey coming up at the Supporters’ Club on London Road next Friday, 26th October. Frank McAvennie and top comedian, Pat Rolink, are both speaking after a three course meal. Cost for the event is £40 per person. The Club holds around 200 people and I hear there are only a small number of tickets available from Pat Rolink on 07905 174275.
Fancy writing an article for the ever-popular CQN Magazine or maybe advertising therein? If so get in touch, celticquicknews@gmail.com.
Click here to read the fabulous CQN Magazine for free, or strain your eyes squinting below. You can also buy a hard copy of the magazine here from Magcloud.
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The Battered Bunnet
12:57
Super Duper Gary Hooper?
He done a fair amount of damage to the zombies before the apocalypse killed them.
HH
!!Bada Bing!!
Had the sender no credit last week? 0:-)
Frantic 07 Great news…..and your life now will reflect your CQN name. All the very best to mother and son,
JJ
Jungle Jam
There has been a lot of speculation about the timing of that announcement.
I had certainly
expected D& P to have ended their involvement by now.
One other thing occurs to me about Lord Hodge. I cannot be sure about this but I seem to have read recently that he said he would not like the administration to end without knowing the outcome of the COI report. If his lordship used these words, they do not convey to me that there was an element of compulsion in seeking such a report. It could also be avoided if there was some other pressing need of which I am presently unaware. I got the impression when the various reports were made in the media that the call for the report was made with a degree of force. However, unless it was backed up by being mentioned in the court’s interlocutor (decision) for that calling, i would not be at all surprised if this issue vanishes into thin air.
Frantic 07
Many congratulations to Good Ship Celtica, his Mrs and to you all.
God bless wee Fergus. Long life and good health.
tim malone
Or Craig knows the huns hate him and can see he’s trying to throw a stage managed spanner in which will motivate huns to buy the shares and get Craig his money back because he really owns the mad hoose?
Ma heids spinnin,ah preferred the ole days ,when the only credyt you could get wis a provvy
cheque.
Daniel Fergus, congratulations on your new posting.
Greatest right back on the planet in your day and an invaluable servant to CFC.
Great to see your loyalty and service rewarded!
Enough is enough – it’s time for BDO and HMRC to completely obliterate these cheating, squirming hun pigs once and for all
Lennybhoy, yes, lots of questions remain.
Son of Gabriel, could be.
CultsBhoy, yes. John Brown is not as daft as he looks (!).
Frantic07, excellent news. Congratulations to you, The good ship Celtica, Mrs The good ship Celtica and all the family.
Jungle Jim-Was it news last week mate? I must have missed it.HH
Good news about Daniel Fergus. He of course coached the reserves when NFL was managing them, so it should be a well established working relationship.
Congratulations Frantic 07 and welcome to the Celtic family wee Fergus
Hi Paul,
You oft repeated around the R@ngers offer period that the Whyte Knight twas the the key to the deal, how right you were.
Thing is what was the deal? Why does it have to remain secret? Surely the creditors of R@ngers have a right to know what this deal encompssed, surely D&P have a duty to ensure the creditors know all the details.
If Craig bargained any RFC asset over and above his shareholding the RFCia asset sale must be questionable.
From BBC site:
“•Queens Park have the most expensive pie (£2.20) and tea (£2.20), while Rangers’ cost £2 each.”
Cheaper pies. Ally? Hmmm….
ernie-I am among plenty of bhoys who has crossed swords with you,but I think your assumption that Salmond in an independent Scotland, would have resolved the huns situation to their satisfaction, is true.
Vogue
Cheers,I dont feel like the only one!;)
Congrats Frantic07, time to ‘wet’ the babies head, I dont know you, but its as good a reason as ive had today ;-). A Tim is born!
I think Phil Mac was alluding to meltdown at Ipox, in the October Whyte told Doncaster they were bust.
!!BadaBing!!
Funnily enough, I thought it was you who posted the news! Maybe it wasn`t official but I remember a post about Sir Daniel sitting in the First Team dug-out and the “news” that he had been promoted. In fact, it has just come into my mind that the News was in the Evening Times. I remember that article as I posted congratulations to Danny after it.
JJ
Takes a brave (or foolhardy?) man to cross swords with ernie. He is incredibly well informed.
TBB
There may be enthusiasm NOW amongst the Rangers support to support a share issue, although how many and for how much is open to conjecture.
Fast forward a little while and some or all of the following may have happened to dilute that enthusiasm
FTT reports and demonstrates that their club were guilty of industrial scale deception and tax fraud
Nimmo Smith finds them guilty and imposes the ultimate sanction (cancellation of license , ifd thats in his remit) as well as stripping of titles
Life bans are handed out to ALL of the main conspirators , principally Murray and his board, by the SFA
FIFA insist on significant financial penalties and impose an extended European ban
McCoist continues to manage like Stevie Wonder in the Hampton Court maze and promotion looks decidedly risky
Trips to Elgin , Peterhead and Annan aren’t as much of a lark in a Scottish winter, especially to see your team humiliated
Mark Daly decides 2 programmes aren’t enough and sets his sights on Murray Souness Smith and Ogilvie
With all of that and more on the horizon, can you really blame Green for going for the RFC fanbase wallets before they wake up and before reality hits ? This time next year , it may all be way to late to ask for a bail out
Cultsbhoy,
With regards to John Brown I honestly don’t understand why Celtic fans laugh at and dismiss him. I watched the video of his speech last night again and the points he rasied still haven’t been addressed.
Who’s name is on the title deeds?
Who are Green’s unnamed backers?
I know he comes across as a an inarticulate rabble rouser but he is at least on the right tracks!
It’s amazing that Traynor and co have managed to sweep these hug issues under the carpet on the orders of Green’s PR people.
You’ve got to laugh at the Daily Record’s front page today. Craig Whyte with a Pinnocio nose, repeated references to the “discredited ex owner”.
So Craigy Bhoy is descredited but the Daily Record which described him as a billionaire with “off the radar wealth” is still an entirely credible, truthful source?
It’s hilarious watching the Record frantically scramble to keep the bears onside so Green and McCoist can rip them off. It’s quite fascinating to see how favourable news coverage can simply be bought by outbidding the last guy. I hope Green can keep up his Media House payments!
How they can sleep at night I’ll never know.
Jungle Jim-Was news to me re Danny,sometimes you have to eat cake :}
Paul67:
Indeed, lots of questions and I am confident that they will be answered in the days, months and years ahead. God Bless our hero, just when we thought he had rode into the sunset, he returns just like Clint Eastwood did in High Plains Drifter.
sevcodome being the town, painted red, metaphorically speaking. Whilst they may not have any debt (ha), they certainly are in the red as they have no reached their magical figure and wont.
Loving it, how apt the Average White Band’s song is at this time…”Let’s go round again”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGI8YNa5f-M
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Craig Whyte is the Ticketus investors firewall and that has always been his designated role in all of this.
When Sally never delivered. It made sense to use the taxmans money rather than their own and there was probably some hope that the crown would go over easy on them with the FTT and that still might happen.
So a solvent event took place.
Therefore Craig Whyte had to go and certaintly could no longer be the face of last Octobers contingency plan 1 which was the creation of Sevco
Charles Green enters the fray to do that job instead.
Why there is a rush for money by Green is to satisfy the football creditors.
This keeps UEFA and the ECA OUT of the picture citing its a national issue.
Leaving Green with only the poodles to contend with.
League reconstruction can then take place and Sevco playing at the top level within 4 years.
Sevco will be fine and looked after.
Who is behind the Craig Whyte firewall will be of no interest to the football authorities.
HH
Afternoon all, I’m quite late to this, having just watched the CW interview this lunchtime, but I have to say it’s quite pleasant to sit back and watch self-interest lead to the self-destruction of a loathsome football club.
The deal to sell ibrox stadium will not be unwound.
The most likely scenario is for the purchaser to be presented with the bill for a more realistic valuation and ‘invited’ to pay the difference.
cv
Tis a tangled web they weave to deceive…..
HH
Tweeted 6 mins ago…..
“Alex O’Henley @OHenleyAlex
Looks like Whyte was only show in town when it came to selling Rangers.Q is how much did Green pay for stadium and how was/is he being paid?”
No credit to CQN where it was obviously lifted from. Scandalous.
SwanseaBhoy
Great news that Danny McGrain has been promoted to first team coach. He obviously brings a wealth of experience, common sense and he is a Celtic legend. I like the mix now in the first team dug-out.
Well done Danny.
OT here – techie help required please:)
Can anyone recommend an alternative to Spotify?
Has to store and play ripped CDs, must have a random play function.
Thanks & HH
Until we meet again…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
I’m very much a one-game-at-a-time sort of person, but want to say something to Celtic fans travelling to Barcelona for Tuesday night’s wee fixture.
Please, please, please pass the word around and save some good Tims from being fined and hassled while visiting the city.
A ban on drinking alcohol in public places is still in force. People who are found drinking on the street or in parks can be fined a sum of between €30 and, I’m not making this up, €1500.
Now, far be it from me to suggest for a single second that the local authorities would see Celtic fans as a bit of an easy touch in this regard, but I am struck by two things.
1. Efforts to remind Celtic fans of this, and raise awareness among the travelling support have been extremely limited. The Foreign Office has published a helpful page specific to Celtic’s visit to Barcelona, but on this point just says bans are in place “in some parts of Spain”. I have checked, and the ban is definitely still in place in Barcelona.
2. Cash is very tight for every local authority in Spain at the moment, as people are aware, and a flurry of €30 euro fines would, I’m sure, cheer up some civic bean counters.
Please spread the word, bhoys and ghirls. Our people haven’t got unlimited cash to throw around either and we have a fantastic reputation in Barcelona that we all want to maintain.
I have a long document that explains what you have to do to run the risk of the bigger fines, but it’s in Catalán so I’m not going to put the link up and I don’t have time to translate it all. If people have meet-ups and other events organised, I will tell them what I know. Otherwise, it’s a straightforward message of play with the heid.
Danny..Danny..Danny McGrain, Dannnnnny …Danny McGrain
Afternoon bhoys, hot and hun free on the mountain.
Paul.
I posed the same question last night re Doncaster and Topping keeping the info to themselfs.
I very much doubt they did, hence the SPL board knew what was happening.
This worries me.
…………………………………
Awe Naw
You are right, sevco will be protedted at any cost.
This also worries me.
Looks like I will be giving up on the game in scotland sooner rather than later.
It’s sad that I and others feel this way, all I want is a fair competition, not too much to ask for is it….it seems so in scotland.
Name that tune?
don’t post often, two young kids and a dog that needs to $#1% every half hour or so it seems. but a constant reader that grates my very patient wife at 2 or 3 in the morning, live in the states so the time change throws me for articles, anyhoo, went on to the daily ragers web pages of denial this morning and read Mr. Hut’s pash again blaming all on a guy who ran the club for less than nine months, never understood why an airdrie fan would be so upset about another team’s demise, especially one that helped finish old airdrie beggars belief. then Sandy(i’ll break your leg) Jardine, wanting young whitey sent to the Bar-L for destroying rangers whilst not mentioning minty and his crimes against the crown,
i know it’s all been said before on here, but when are the south side swamp dwellers, and there must be one or two of them that have half a brain wake up and see that it is all over.
or do they have faith in the SFA luge and media to keep them going until some queer fella on a white horse rides to their rescue.
sorry for the long winded post but of sick with pneumonia.
bada bing
ernie
after independence there is no guarantee salmond will
be in power as there will be elections for completely
new parties