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.
[calameo code=000390171a36dad35d58c lang=en page=76 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
638 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- ...
- 17
- »
Hat doffed to Mark on SSB summed up the Sevco situation brilliantly in plain english. Poor we Dwall was silenced Hail Hail Hebcelt
Awe_Naw
A river runs through what?
TBB
Thanks
HH
H.R.R. (his right royalness) cleans gee
we=wee doh!!! Hail Hail Hebcelt
bsr
gotta be a remake there – A Hun Runs Through it !
Opening scene : ibrokes
Starring …….
Awe_Naw – please accept this criticism as it’s intended – constructively.
There are way too many questions there – for it to be taken seriously it needs to be distilled down to a Top Ten.
Awe_naw
BDO should be posted, snail mail and signed for, that list of questions?
From Private Eye – Relegated from the PL last season, down at the bottom of the Championship. Their chairman and major shareholder facing money laundering charges in Hong Kong next month, it’s perhaps not surprising that the club is looking for new owners.
Just what the true financial picture is at BC is open to question. June 2011 accounts were heavily qualified with auditor BDO all but calling the Directors liars. ……Last week BDO had quit as auditor of the football club.
“A number of factors have made us sceptical as to whether we have received all relevant information and explanations necessary for the audit from the directors.” These related to ” significant payments” …….(paraphrased as I am on daft phone)
BDO will not go easy on Thems. Methinks.
ASonOfDan, 18:40
Great to see Danny McGrain promoted to first team duties.
I couldn’t agree more
A sad day…..Emmanuelle is gone!
T4
It’s criminal . They are criminals. The delays are criminal. The lies are criminal.
And?
And nothing. Exactly.
What a load of old shi…..
gene’s a bhoys name
17:21 on 18 October, 2012
Don’t think BDO are in cahoots with anyone……
T4
bring back a few memories?
I’m too young to remember, well to young to have watched
Thindimebhoy
Correct
That’s why he sold up for a quid ….
Couldnae get out fast enough
blantyretim
I was young at the time as well but i still had a wee peek :)
RIP Sylvia Kristel
o.g.rafferty
19:56 on
18 October, 2012
Fully agree ….. A GREAT man, in a GREAT Club ……… !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well done Danny …true CFC legend
Danny hero..
how can you take anything in though?
FFS
Miss Prestonpans(the younger) never understood why I was a punk in the 70’s.
Well I sat her down to Top of the Pops 1977, “I can see where you are coming from dad”. My quest is now complete!
Rubicon
14:41 on 18 October, 2012
There’s some speculation that Craigy’s masterplan was scuppered by losing to Malmo, thereby exiting Europe, and the delay in the FTT decision; speculation I believe to be sound.
I recall a conversation with a friend of mine who is a director of a SPL club. He spotted Craigy in the boardroom at a SPL game following the Malmo game. As he hadn’t met the bold boy, he wandered over to introduce himself. Almost at once, a clearly agitated Craigy, unprompted, launched into a tirade against “that stupid c*** Whittaker”.
You’ll recall Whittaker was sent off against Malmo for throwing the ball at an opponent and earning a second yellow card.
So, perhaps our theories are close to the truth
——————————–
Dependency on UEFA money in general and CL money in particular goes way back to 2007/08 when SDM brought Walter Smith back and those in the know in the game i.e the SFA knew it and encouraged it.
In 2006 Rangers published debt was £6M and EBT contributions had peaked at £9.19M. Within a year there was a dramatic reversal with debt rising to £16.5M and EBT contributions almost halving to £4,998,000. Its as if the EBT bill had either arrived or was known to be on its way. In 2008 debt was up to £21.6M and EBTs down again to £2.29M and in 2009 debt peaked at £31M with EBTs flattening at £2.3M.
What pushed the debt up was the transfers in totalling £29M in 2007/08 plus wages of course, offset to a degree by £19M from 3 player sales for good money. The players brought in at huge expense then won three titles on the trot which brought in CL money and allowed the debt to come down to the £17/£18M that Lloyds then recovered when CW stepped in.
The point is that without CL money the debt would have continued to rise and Lloyds would have insisted that players be sold, so the whole survival business model was predicated on access to CL money from 2007. Given the lengths the SFA went to save them after administration I am more convinced than ever that Rangers should not have been granted a UEFA licence to play in the 2011 competition because of unpaid tax (the known wee tax bill) but the Gods of football finally got tired and interevened, in the shape of Malmo and Maribor.
Had Rangers qualified CW could have gone back to the Ticketus well for advances on the CL money to keep the club afloat as it was paying wages it did not have the money in the bank to pay. As it was they lost and as CW said himself last night, with no money coming in, the only way he could keep them going was to hold on to the tax and NI due and use that to pay wages of players that should never have been recruited in 2007/08 in the first place.
Had Smith’s transfer spend of £29m gone to servicing the then small £6m debt and the core tax bill of £24M at that time, Rangers would never have gone to the wall.
I am convinced BDO will tell this tale eventually and it will be part of the historic facts of their Downfall story rather than rumour or conjecture.
The men guilty of crimes against Rangers AND Scottish football are SDM and Walter Smith along with every Rangers supporter who gloried in their financial stupidity.
prestonpans
you are older than oldtim and Kilbowie Celt…
auldheid
still empty in G72..
Was just thinking …… (not something I do very often…) ……..know what sickens me most about what went on for the past 10+ years….
EVERY TEAM THE ZOMBIES PLAYED WERE CHEATED
EVERY FAN OF EVERY TEAM THE ZOMBIES PLAYED WERE CHEATED
……..and despite all THAT, the Scottish Football Authorities tried every trick in the book to SAVE them ……..and the bhuns think they have been treated badly …..!!!
CELTIC BOARD, GET US OUT OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL ASAP
blantyretim
20:09 on 18 October, 2012
auldheid
still empty in G72..
————
I’m on it.
67
is that not PL job?
what is he doing?
Prestonpans
I was a big fan of The Smiths …tried to educate the kids …..no success they still think they are pants
blantyretim
20:08 on
18 October, 2012
Steady, the same age as Lennybhoy I’ll have you know……….
prestonpans
happy 50th plus10 p)
nearly in holiday mood… champing at the bit.com…
South Of Tunis
17:28 on 18 October, 2012
Have you saw this?
http://www.urbone.eu/obchod/i-leoni-di-lisbona-quando-il-celtic-vinse-la-coppa-dei-campioni_1
PF
smiths?
never liked them, your family have taste..
BT
You going away anywhere ?
pretentious….
if I could spell smartholes I would
PF
moi?
Barca, Si…
Auldheid at 20:07
Thanks for that post. Reading that it’s not too hard to see through their shenanigans.
And we talk about the administrators of Scottish football as being a group of people supposedly determined to deliver what is good for Scottish football as a whole but in fact are actually only in place to protect one corrupt entity.
But why Regan and Doncaster?
Their appointmants need looked at.
GTF
BT.
that’s for you
oldtim has been called in to look after BT during the Barca trip..
flying out Sunday from Glasgow to London..
any poor souls likely to meet up ?