At a media conference a few minutes ago Rangers administrators Duff and Phelps today told the world they have accepted the only unconditional bid got the club, from American Bill (Proxy) Miller. Mr Miller plans to start a new company to operate his ‘Rangers’ franchise. Duff and Phelps had the affront to suggest that the old club, established in 1872 and incorporated in 1899, would somehow manage to convince HMRC to accept a CVA, despite there being zero money available to them.
This will not and cannot happen. The last chance to save Rangers Football Club has gone.
Unfortunately for the UK taxpayer, they are about to take a bath for around £75m worth of medicines, school books, Help for Heroes and care services as Rangers spent all their tax money chasing football trophies.
Celtic Quick News told you this day was coming in our article on 3 October 2008. We didn’t know about the EBT case, ‘the bank running Rangers’, Craig Whyte or Bill Miller, but the available financial information made it clear that the club had debt obligations it would be unable to meet or renew.
Anyone from the boardroom of that club who claims surprise at these events is a complete fool. We should thank their media cheerleaders for refusing to analyse this issue while there was still time to do something about it.
More later, I have three months’ work to catch up on.
568 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- »
lucky cody on 3 May, 2012 at 15:06 said:
Thanks for that, any links, clue as to the best sources of info ?
HH
greenjedi on 3 May, 2012 at 15:07 said:
Doncaster et al will simply say that the CURRENT rules / processes are being followed. There will be nothing illegal in this just a totally lack of morality and being seen to bo doing the right thing.
This will amount to a knuckle wrap for RFC (IA), Doncaster et al will be saying ‘ dont dae that again, we nearly had to ban you ‘
I seriously hope that the people who voted on the SplSurvey actaully follow thorugh and boycott all SPL games.
Spend the ST money on a Sky sub to watch EPl, la Liga and Serie A next year.
Sir Paul
If Dusty.. is thur chosen Wan..
Then , let me say this…
Ma Contacts in the U.S. Financial Jungle.. tell me..
That.. Dusty..is a HUSTLER.
Need Ah say any Mair?
Ah Dae?
Well.. Dusty, his bin in Several Financial Dust-Ups..
The Last wan.. when him and his Sleazy Partner.. were sued fur..Causing Fifty Million Dollahs o’ Investors Funds, tae disappear .aff the face of the Earth.. owing tae the collapse o’ a Cockamamie Scheme,by Dusty and his Cohorts tae Start up a Car Stock Car Racing League.
His Partner,Pritchett, who is noo the C.E.O.of Club9 Sports.. took the fall.. Dusty, wriggled oot .
Nevertheless, in the Past.. Dusty, has bin sued by his own Investors of his Present.. Tow-Trucking Corp.
for. Lying aboot his Quarterly Finanacials.. and Inflating His Company’s Worth,in the Process.. Causing is Co Shares tae be
Artificially Enhanced..
In that case. Dusty ,also, managed tae Wriggle oota the Accusation of Inflation of Company Assets..
In Ma Opinion, fae whit Ah hiv hoid aboot him fae Ithers..
“Dusty,is not a Trustworthy Fellow.”
Smart, but.. No NIce.
Yep.. Dusty.. is Soitenly No the Type of Guys, whom ye wud like tae winch yer Sister.
Kojo
Noo. Laughing.
Even.
Mair.
“There must be some way out of here” said the joker to the thief
“There’s too much confusion”, I can’t get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.
“No reason to get excited”, the thief he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”.
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
Alex Thomson
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/fans-buy-millers-bid-rangers/1376
We will have to wait and see how the bones fall but if Newco is in SPL then the game is a bogey in Scotland.
Celtic fans and fans of other clubs will not stand for this.
SPL change the rules re entry for liquidated clubs after Rangers slip through. How convenient.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Craig Whyte is in cahoots with the Newco scheme but would imagine that HMRC and Ticketus would have something to say in court about the incubator set-up.
But most importantly the Celtic and other club’s fans have the power.
Alex Thomson.
Either Rangers’ administrators Duff & Phelps have extraordinary chutzpah or they are men in the final stages of desperation.
Announcing the US trucking magnate Bill Miller as the bloke-most-likely to buy Rangers FC, they refused to take questions at what was absurdly described as a press conference.
Nor did they mention at any stage in this, the three really key things which have to be mentioned in connection with owning this club.
Not one mention of assured creditor Craig Whyte who, he tells me, wants, £30m. No mention either for the ticket company Ticketus who may require around £27m.
And the small matter of HMRC the taxman, who could end up due around £75m if the club loses a major tax hearing due any day now.
So Rangers fans – rightly – will need a lot of convincing on all of this.
Other fans will be outraged. Because what they’re attempting to pull off here is a huge tax avoidance and debt avoidance plan from the club already notorious for both.
It boils to this. D&P say: “Mr Miller’s proposal involves the use of a specially created newco (new company) in addition to the retention of the Rangers Football Club plc. The business and assets he proposes to purchase will be sheltered in a newco and returned to the plc once the plc has been ‘cleaned up’.”
Yeah – well they may use inverted comas for ‘cleaned up’. What does it mean? Who by? When? Who pays all these vast debts the plc could owe? What will Whyte, Ticketus and HMRC (taxman) say?
(Click on the picture above for more on the crisis at Rangers)
None of it answered.
Would you buy into any of this?
Non Rangers fans sense a massive sell out in which the plc will ends up liquidated, the taxpayer shafted, RFC in the Premier League with few big punishments and any kind of sporting morality out the window.
Unlike other clubs who paid their tax, balanced their books – and got relegated.
That said, even Rangers look like being banned from Europe for a long time – several seasons. Many players will thus soon leave. They are banned (pending appeal) from buying new players for a season. Penalties for sure, but if they do manage to pull this off, nothing like the penalties many feel should be imposed.
Any more news an this collective cancellation of sky sports and Espm by the Celtic Family .
Ernie
I didn’t say ‘after’ newco are parachuted back in though, did I?!
Hitting Celtic in the pocket is only going to be counter productive. Do you want us to be the real losers out of all of this? I don’t know about you but I support Celtic Football Club, not Celtic PLC.
But If only we had the chance to look Lawwell in the eye and ask some hard hitting questions…
HH
jackglasgow
If that is the case Celtic should simply resign from the SFA and SPL. What would be the point of carrying on when you will never ever be allowed to win? Apply to join the EFL, the Irish League, in fact any league.
In my dreams, there is a beautifully crafted strategy to let them get on with it before a triumvirate comprising HMRC, Ticketus and Celtic hit them from every direction and blast them to kingdom come.
Timing is everything. Now is the time.
But then our old friend Deja Vu appears . . . move along, nothing to see.
Even Alex Thomson with the greatest respect misses the point of Celtic fans boycotting away fixtures and SFA competitions and causing more harm –and hopefully Uefa intervention–than Newco in Division 3 for a year or two.
quick question, probably nonsense but…
having already bought the seats at ibrox for another 3 years, could it be that irrespective of who owns/rents the seats, ticketus still get to claim their pound of buttock?
would it not work like, say a boxing match… where you buy a ticket to watch A v B, then both boxers pull out due toinjury and the promoter puts on C v D? your ticket would be valid for the spectacle, not the participants. did ticketus notbuy 100,000 tickets for the spectacle? especially if craig whyte still owns it/it’s holding company?
just a thought.
Given the size of their debt [ and the absence of a loony prepared to spend @ £ 200 million to buy a Scottish football club ] I always believed they would go into Liquidation .
I have always doubted that their cheating would be appropriately dealt with. I am not holding my breath..
No to a SPL parachute . No to any Newco that doesn’t have to beg to be allowed to begin again by starting at the very bottom. No to that vile thing called The Old Firm.
CALM DOWN LADS, THEY WILL NEVER GET AWAY WITH IT……
sorry for shouting
tommy burns once described celtic as ‘a club with a fairytail ending’. what kind of ending would you describe what the huns are having. a club with a shamefull ending
Not renewing one`s season ticket is being viewed on here as a protest. In my case, at least, it is nothing of the sort. If I discovered my wife was having an affair, my finishing with her would not be a protest!
JJ
Very disappointed with Gordon Strachans comments
Hail Hail
jockcfc – a club with a rear ending I would say
The way I see it this;
If I decide not to renew my season ticket due to the huns/SFA/SPL carve up then without actually wanting to damage Celtic I recognise that my actions will do so.
Similarly, if I were to renew my season ticket in order to supprt Celtic, unwittingly I am also supporting the very organisations that are behind the cheating and dishonesty.
You can’t take out one alone and you can’t just support one alone. They’re all interlinked.
Still undecided but hoping for the best.
question for posters is there anyone on here who seriously thinks celtic plc
peter lawell in particular does not know whats going on at the spl and the sfa
regarding these issues? imo if you do you are just as gullible as those over ibrox
way were with craig whyte,
.
Looking Forward to a Very Young Line up Tonight..
Come on Lenny Do this Forget the Sham that is Millers Monguls..
Summa OnHisWayToBBsCSC
The time for leadership from inside our club has come.
I was talking today about people’s intentions being known. And in this case, we have a clear declaration of intent. There is historical precedent for a bunch of people sitting around after a calamity and asking “How did we get here?” when there was ample evidence of people’s intentions beforehand … and I don’t mean Craig Whyte.
Where we are right now has been telegraphed, so far in advance, the only analogy I can think of is Mein Kampf and the general bafflement in every Western nation – and then in Russia shortly thereafter – when the writer of that book went on to do every damned thing he had said he would do when he wrote it.
For months these people have been briefing the press on their plans. The SPL line has already been trumpeted by Doncaster. Reagan has said the SFA wants – and needs – to maintain a healthy Rangers. None of what has come to pass – or will come to pass in the next few weeks – is a surprise, far less a shock, and yet many on this site will profess to be shocked at every turn.
There is NO SECRET about what this guy wants to do. There is NO SECRET about what the SPL’s intentions are. The only secret appears to be this;
What will Celtic do about it ?
Season ticket renewal forms are out. The club is asking, once again, for the fans money. Before a penny of that money is paid, we have a right to know if we’re buying into a crooked deal, a corrupt game, a bankrupt league.
Silence will no longer avail. Our opposition cannot be silent. It has to be public, vocal, loud and clear. Otherwise it is useless.
If this deal goes through it will be because we did not stop it. I have maintained from the first that total, outright and public opposition from Celtic will stop this dead in its tracks. The time for that has come.
Nothing less will suffice.
Alex Thomson
Either Rangers’ administrators Duff & Phelps
have extraordinary chutzpah or they are men
in the final stages of desperation.
Announcing the US trucking magnate Bill
Miller as the bloke-most-likely to buy
Rangers FC , they refused to take questions
at what was absurdly described as a press
conference.
Nor did they mention at any stage in this,
the three really key things which have to be
mentioned in connection with owning this
club.
Not one mention of assured creditor Craig
Whyte who, he tells me, wants, £30m. No
mention either for the ticket company
Ticketus who may require around £27m.
And the small matter of HMRC the taxman,
who could end up due around £75m if the
club loses a major tax hearing due any day
now.
So Rangers fans – rightly – will need a lot of
convincing on all of this.
Other fans will be outraged. Because what
they’re attempting to pull off here is a huge
tax avoidance and debt avoidance plan from
the club already notorious for both.
It boils to this. D&P say: “Mr Miller’s
proposal involves the use of a specially
created newco (new company) in addition to
the retention of the Rangers Football Club
plc. The business and assets he proposes to
purchase will be sheltered in a newco and
returned to the plc once the plc has been
‘cleaned up’.”
Yeah – well they may use inverted comas for
‘cleaned up’. What does it mean? Who by?
When? Who pays all these vast debts the
plc could owe? What will Whyte, Ticketus
and HMRC (taxman) say?
None of it answered.
Would you buy into any of this?
Non Rangers fans sense a massive sell out
in which the plc will ends up liquidated, the
taxpayer shafted, RFC in the Premier League
with few big punishments and any kind of
sporting morality out the window.
Unlike other clubs who paid their tax,
balanced their books – and got relegated.
That said, even Rangers look like being
banned from Europe for a long time –
several seasons. Many players will thus soon
leave. They are banned (pending appeal)
from buying new players for a season.
Penalties for sure, but if they do manage to
pull this off, nothing like the penalties many
feel should be imposed.
Auld Neil Lennon heid on 3 May, 2012 at 14:58 said:
…………
You’re the bhoy that preached patience re these shenanigans, have you lost the faith?
I think this will play out for a long while yet, CFC et al will have a say, UEFA…FFP, the double contracts, deliberate tax evasion for 15yrs or more……
My friend in Celtic they are finito as we know them now….. Have I mentioned my preferred bidder, the asset stripper…..
One Love CSC
KTF
Awaiting the announcement from Hampden that the SFA and SPL have merged to create a “Super League”
This league will consist of Nooky Rangers and other clubs yet to be chosen by Rangers fans.
This league will assume its proper place at the top of the Scottish Football Pyramid.
God save us all.
Another Bill arrives at Ibrox
Bill Miller has been trying to get clarity on the penalties Rangers could face
So Rangers looks set for ownership by a tow-truck tycoon from Tennessee.
The announcement about Bill Miller being named as preferred bidder came only four hours after Sir Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England no less, was lured into commenting on radio about the financial problems at the Ibrox club.
He said: “I think any football fan has seen clubs get into financial difficulties so many times over the years, and they’re rescued by some white knight who comes along, only for that white knight in turn to become the person who’s disillusioned and walks away.”
If you look at the proposal he published last month, Mr Miller sounds more of a cardiac surgeon than a white knight.
It talked of taking the healthy organs from Rangers and putting them in an incubator company, while the toxic parts of the company are radiated.
Once safe enough, the contents of the incubator are grafted back onto the original company.
It’s colourful imagery to explain the creation of a new company, or new-co, into which the healthy bits of Rangers will be placed. It can then get on with the bits that football clubs are supposed to do when they’re not paralysed by financial difficulties, such as playing football.
Meanwhile, Rangers Football Club plc continues to trade, but mainly to sort out its mountainous debt problems.
The administrators would continue to try to broker a deal with creditors, through a CVA or creditors voluntary agreement.
Once that’s completed (if it’s completed?), Rangers Football Club plc would be handed over to Bill Miller and the new-co “for a nominal sum”.
Big tax bill
Bill Miller’s statement last month said he was offering £11.2m.
It seems (though confirmed details are hard to find on this) that would be applied to paying off a share of debts. However, those debts are proving to be a moving target.
The administrators say liquidation has been much misunderstood
We still don’t know if Rangers will be required to pay the “big tax bill” which remains stuck in tax tribunal limbo. That makes a big difference to the pay-out other creditors can get, and gives HM Revenue and Customs a pivotal role in any CVA.
Ticketus is the other big player, owed something north of £24m. It had advanced that sum to Rangers’ majority shareholder Craig Whyte, much of it to fund his takeover of the Bank of Scotland’s bank debt.
We can assume he found the £1 for Sir David Murray’s 85% shareholding stake from his own resources.
If Rangers Football Club plc were to continue trading as it is, while seeking that CVA, Duff & Phelps administrators now say that “would take too long to effect”.
And that suggests that the Blue Knights’ bid – the last remaining rival to Bill Miller, led by former director Paul Murray and Sale Sharks owner Brian Kennedy – was running out of time for a conventional recovery.
It was also clear from the administrators’ statement announcing their preferred bidder that the Blue Knights’ bid remained a conditional one.
Liquid assets
A vital part of the Bill Miller plan is that it “avoids liquidation”.
The administrators say that liquidation has been much misunderstood.
That route would involve selling the assets of a company – from its buildings to its brands to the contents of the stationery cupboard – and winding up everything to raise cash.
“There’s no liquidation involved in this (Bill Miller’s) strategy and we can’t stress that strongly enough,” say Duff & Phelps.
In any normal business, say in the manufacture of widgets, that liquidation route might have been a sensible route to getting out from under debt and getting the assets and workforce functioning again.
But this is not a normal business.
Rangers operates within the rules of football, and those rules punish clubs heavily for being liquidated and re-born.
Just as the rules of football are there to ensure fair play, there are financial rules intended to ensure fair play in funding the team that takes to the field, and those financial rules are getting tougher.
European regulations rule out a liquidated new-co club for three years, while the SPL, or Scottish Premier League, is yet to decide just how harsh to be – trying to strike a balance between making that financial option very unattractive to others, but not going so far as to harm the interests of the league as a whole.
‘Compelling strategy’
Bill Miller’s announcement of his bid last month sought to put pressure on the footballing authorities to waive any penalties, which struck an arrogant tone that sits uncomfortably with Rangers’ position.
We’re now told he has been trying to get clarity on the penalties Rangers could face, and that “significant progress has been made”.
In any case, his bid has become unconditional, so that potential impasse seems to have been quietly resolved.
But the punishment potentially awaiting Rangers from football authorities is only one of the questions that still hangs over Bill Miller’s bid for Rangers.
Some others worth keeping in mind:
How is Craig Whyte’s 85% shareholding stake in Rangers Football Club plc to be prised out of his hands? There could be legal methods for the administrators to force his hand, or he could be made an offer he can’t refuse – in connection with at least some of the £27.5m in personal and corporate guarantees he gave Ticketus for its money, for instance. As we learned yesterday from the administrators for Pritchard’s stockbrokers in Bournemouth – another of the companies in which Mr Whyte was closely involved and where his role is getting very close attention from the authorities – he doesn’t have his problems to seek, and may not be well-placed to hang tough on Rangers.
Next, will HM Revenue and Customs see a share of £11m as a better outcome than liquidation and sale of assets to a new company? You could argue that the club brand and the loyalty of its fans, plus Ibrox stadium, at least some remaining players and the training ground, could raise more than £11m in an unencumbered auction.
Then, how much does Bill Miller have available to invest in the club, beyond his initial bid? The club isn’t allowed to sign new players for the next season, so he doesn’t have to get his American Express card out just yet. But the club will need some capital to get back on its feet, and to look to build up the squad a year from now.
And that brings to mind one of the other puzzling aspects of Bill Miller’s bid.
Why? What’s in this for him?
I haven’t heard any suggestion that he’s committed to Scotland or to Rangers or to football.
And, to be frank, it’s only because of such a commitment that anyone would wish to park their money in the hugely complex problems at Ibrox.
There’s evidence that the businessman has shown an interest in other sports or clubs, but without any significant track record.
So Rangers fans are right to question Miller’s motivation for this, and that doesn’t seem to have been one of the administrators’ concerns.
The announcement of a preferred bidder is a big step forward in a process that’s nearing the three-month mark.
The administrators sound confident it brings “an entirely workable strategy” and that it’s “a compelling strategy”.
But Rangers is a long way from being out of the woods yet.
Article written by Douglas Fraser
Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, Scotland
ernie lynch
This must be an oportunity, that you can’t turn down to have a talk with PL, ask him face to face what is happening.
What do you have to lose ???
Brucecassavetes @ 14:01,
Quite – Sounds very ominous but very apt.
TheGreenManalishi @ 14:21,
”…..from the mid nineties to 2009 (I think) Your numbers are slightly flawed in that they don’t all relate to trading. MIH recently wrote off £60m investment in RFC(ia) which I think (according to Douglas Fraser’s blog) took MIH cumulative looses to in excess of £100m. The key here is to look at the amount of cash poured into RFC(ia) which generated a resulting loss of £155m. The scale of corporate incompetence/deception is staggering.”
Yes I agree – I just thought it was interesting to look at the period highlighted by the RTC poster and emphasize how large these losses were and how they were funded (not out of SDM’s pocket). It is of course not the full story by any means.
The years before that period they re-built the squad and re-built the Stadium despite the suggestion that SDM paid for most of this, the cash came from BoS and to a much smaller extent the debenture holders.
Regarding the Stadium re-build and construction of the Club deck, how much steel went into the build? Who profited from the work?
In your previous post you stated quite rightly that there were other forms of funding. I took the view the merchandising, catering, season tickets etc. would be part of the turnover P&L.
Yet questions need to be asked about these monies also – how much went on Footballing activities within that T/O? Who were paid out for other contracts and services?
Then we have the infamous EBTs, a whole plethora of questions that should be asked
Hail! Hail!
I can easily see Rangers 2012 being banned from European football for several seasons (per Alex Thomsons Blog) but surely UEFA will also ban all Scottish clubs so as to scare anyone else from trying the same scam?
This is being done with the consent of the SPL and SFA so with no goverance being properly applied then why should UEFA allow any Scottish clubs play in Europe?
Rangers under this current plan have no obligation to ever pay any bill ever again. Why would they when thay can just use the “We’re too big to relegate” excuse and thumb their noses at clubs, taxman, face painters, charities whatever.
The SPL and SFA are effectively saying that one club can act outside the rules, or make up their own rules, or whatever they like as long as they continue to exist the the top flight.
(Actually come to think of it who will ever do business with Rangers again without cash up front, and that includes player transfers. Anyone?).
It looks like the ‘newco/oldco’ scam is not as cut an dried as was protrayed at the press conference. PC one of the D&P guys to BBC ….
Key points from PC interview: can’t guarrantee no liquidation, Whyte won’t get penny and looks like deal done to play in #SPL next season.”
So press statement was usual bulls***.
Statement came across as No liquidation and deal done to play in SPL next season. Amazing what four words can do to a statement put ‘can’t guarantee’ and ‘looks like’ in it and it sounds a lot less positive. No wonder they did not want any questions in front of the media!
Another Baldrick ‘cunning plan’. It ain’t going to happen folks.
Ernie pointed out yesterday AND QUITE RIGHTLY that we are not the masons
If Peter Lawwell has anything to say he can say it to all of us
I find this haranguing of Ernie very poor indeed.
Hail Hail
Awe Naw
Gordon Strachan showing yet again that he has no concept of what Celtic is about. Wish he would just shut up about things he does not understand.
Am goin away tae boil ma heid!!!!!
Hail! Hail!
There needs to be an SPL statement clarifying Miller’s claims.
Are the SPL agreeing to no further points deductions and penalties if they come out of a CVA? (Other than the SFA embargo and the fine and the SPL ten points deduction)
Or are the SPL agreeing to no further deductions and penalties if they transfer shares to a newco and enter SPL regardless of outcome of dual contracts? (absurd)
.
Glasgow’s Miller & Whyte..
Glasgow’s Miller & Whyte..
Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo..
Liquid…. Miller & Whyte..
Summa
cardiffbhoy
Yeah talk about plummeting
I am now reassured that he is no longer in the job.
Hail Hail
Things that are still unknown:
The Big Tax Case tribunal outcome
The “two contracts” or more properly illegal payments investigation
Ticketus’ views
Craig Whyte’s views
UEFA’s views
There is a lot to happen before Bill Miller’s “unconditional” bid can actually become a really unconditional bid.