Perspective is difficult to find in these times, when information floods in from all angles on a daily basis. With this in mind, The Battered Bunnet put a day aside to give you a detailed summary (below) of how we go to where we are today. He pays particular attention to some of those who plan to be part of the game’s future, with a nod to those currently in control of the game.
It’s a fascinating read:
Scottish Football is in crisis, a crisis that has been 15 years in the making by the Directors of Rangers Football Club plc, compounded by a chronic lack of Governance and Oversight by the cronyistic SFA through the years.
Let’s revisit the cause of the crisis for a moment:
When David Murray bought Rangers in 1988, the club had won but 4 league titles in 20 years, and prior to the arrival of Graeme Souness, had been a Scottish League also ran for a decade. Souness, with David Holmes as Chairman, started the reversal of fortune and effectively restored Rangers as a player in British football.
Murray, giving credit where it’s due, transformed Rangers both as a football club and a business. Between 1988 and 1996, Rangers’ turnover increased by a factor of 5, double double and then some in only 8 years. During this time, the club became dominant in Scotland and competitive in Europe, while considerable sums were invested in the stadium and infrastructure, providing Rangers with a (comparatively) vast commercial resource to fund its football operations. While the club carried £9M of debt at this point, it was profitable, posting £2M surplus in 1996, and breaking even over the period of Murray’s tenure to that point.
By 1996 Murray had a valuable football business on his hands, and perhaps the smart play would have been to sell it. Football was in an expansionary phase, and there would have been a queue of interested and well bankrolled investors at the door. Instead, Murray chose to redouble his efforts, and taking Rangers ‘to the next level’ became the mantra adopted by the man and his increasingly fawning press.
Highlighting that Murray was not alone in thinking that Rangers could indeed become one of Europe’s top clubs, the following year Joe Lewis invested £40M in return for a 20% share. One wonders what Murray might have walked away with had he sold the lot to Lewis at that time, but he kept his hand in the game, and went all in over the following 6 years.
Between 1997 and 2003 Rangers lost an eye watering £152.6 Million. Joe Lewis’ £40M was gobbled up in jig time, followed by £20M of Dave King’s tax efficient stash, plus a £32M investment by Murray’s business, £6M from smaller shareholders, and a further £15M of NTL’s investment in the hopeless Rangers Media venture. At its nadir in 2004, Rangers net debt was a staggering £83 Million, a monument to the ego of David Murray and his ‘dream’ for Rangers.
Unfortunately, burning shareholders’ and creditors’ cash at such a breath-taking rate was not sufficient to fund Murray’s project, and the club embarked upon a series of schemes to pay players and reduce costs. A Discount Option Scheme saved over £2M between 1999 and 2003, while an Employee Benefit Trust framework saved £45M of payroll tax and gross wages between 2000 and 2010. It is worthwhile noting that the cost savings alone from these schemes gave Rangers a financial advantage equivalent to the total payroll of every other SPL team excluding Celtic.
We know now, thanks to the admissions of former director Hugh Adam, that ‘off the books’ payments to Rangers players had started as early as the mid-1990s, and the DOS and EBT schemes were simply formalising a by then established practice.
By 2005, with Rangers reduced to little more than a financial basket case, Bank of Scotland insisted that the club be brought back into balance, and following a failed public share issue, Murray’s holding company swapped £50M of Rangers’ debt for increased equity. The following year JJB paid £15M cash as a future royalty for a 10 year solus agreement on Rangers merchandise. Murray might very well have sold the jersey, but Rangers at long last had gotten rid of all but £6M of debt, and a new ‘sustainable’ plan was implemented, a plan that endured no longer than Paul Le Guen’s 26 games in charge.
When Walter Smith replaced Le Guen, the new plan was binned and Rangers once again embarked upon a ‘front loaded’ business model, with debt increasing on the back of player purchases and wages that the club could not sustain. By 2009 Rangers had £33M of bank debt and Murray’s companies, so long the guarantor of the funding, had utterly collapsed in the property and construction crash of 2008. It is worthwhile remembering that some £70 Million of Rangers’ losses through the years remains on the Murray International Holdings Ltd balance sheet, unpaid to the part-nationalised Bank of Scotland/Lloyds Banking Group.
Early in 2010, following an unusually long Tax Enquiry, Rangers received a Tax Assessment from HMRC for their use of EBTs in the preceding 10 years. The Bill for £24M, had a further £12M of accrued interest attached, and the promise of penalties to come.
Alastair Johnston, who had replaced Murray as Chairman of Rangers following the crash of Murray’s business empire, had a decision to make. In the summer of 2010, £36M tax demand in hand, and an appeal against which scheduled for October, Johnston was planning the coming season’s business. He could have chosen to sell the top footballers which would have brought in around £20M of proceeds. He could have chosen to run the club on a reduced cost model, one that was profitable on domestic football alone, thereby banking a further £20M from their participation in the Champions League. Had he done so, and ring fenced the cash, Rangers would have been in a position to withstand losing the Tax Case Appeal without bankrupting the club.
Alastair Johnston and his Board chose not to. He chose instead to spend money increasing the size of the squad, with £4M spent on Jelavic alone. Whatever else you hear about Rangers’ sorry plight, remember that in the summer of 2010 Alastair Johnston and his Board decided to prioritise football results ahead of the very existence of the club. That was the last time that Rangers’ fate was in the hands of the Club. From the moment the decision was taken not to act, Rangers’ fate was sealed.
Craig Whyte’s bizarre 9 month tenure of course is attracting all of the headlines, and Murray’s reckless disregard for shareholders and laws have precipitated the crisis, but Alastair Johnston, along with Paul Murray, Martin Bain, John McClelland and the rest doomed the club by their inaction in the summer of 2010.
We are now aware that Rangers’ use of unlawful tax strategies had a consequent impact on the proper Registration of their players. I won’t pour over the relevant rules here, suffice to say that in making payments to players via undisclosed agreements that were not provided for in the football contracts lodged with the authorities, many of Rangers top players have been ineligible to play in official matches for a decade or more.
As if it couldn’t get any more damning, the very Directors of Rangers who conceived, implemented and administered these contractual arrangements, were simultaneously Directors of the SFA and the SPL, the bodies responsible for Governance and Oversight. Step forward John McClelland, Martin Bain and Campbell Ogilvie. That Ogilivie is currently President of the SFA simply beggars belief. It appears as though Football in Scotland has been bent for 2 decades, and the people responsible were running the game.
There is a current SPL Inquiry into this issue, and perhaps that will reveal the true extent of the breaches of rules, but from the information now available in the public domain, there is a prima facie case for voiding the results of hundreds of matches in which Rangers have participated over the years, and stripping the club of any titles won during the period. The expulsion of the club from the game is talked of. In terms of athletes and duration, it represents a bigger sporting fraud than the Balco case, and is on that basis, the biggest scandal in the History of Sport.
Did I say a ‘moment’? Forgive me, but it has taken a little while to describe 15 years of malfeasance and deception.
In summary, in the 15 years from 1996 to 2011, Rangers have spent a staggering £168 Million more than they have earned. They have saved a further £47 Million of payroll costs via the use of questionable tax strategies. They have corrupted the rules of the game from the inside. And now they are bankrupt, with the very real prospect of £100 Million of creditors being turned over in one of the biggest corporate failures in Scottish business history.
Against this backdrop, Scottish Football has to divine the way ahead. We have to figure a way out of this mess and build a new future. Everything must be on the table, everything that is except narrow self-interest.
Following a Liquidation, if a group of supporters of a dissolved Rangers get together and start a new football club, one that looks like and sounds like Rangers, playing in blue shirts at Ibrox or elsewhere, I say good luck to them. Of such like-minded people are Football clubs are born. There is clearly a business opportunity given the size of the support for the old club. The pathway is straight forward: Put a Business Plan together; Invest the necessary Capital; and Apply for membership of the Scottish Football League. If the club prospers on the park they will be rewarded with promotions and will emerge into the top flight in their own merits, self-respecting and respectful. Such qualities does Meritocracy provide.
That is a decision though for Rangers supporters. The rest of us need to figure out a new plan. Without Rangers there will inevitably be less money in the top league, fewer fans perhaps, less TV and sponsorship money. We need to accept that reality and respond to it.
I suggest we look towards Cooperation, Collective Interest, Inter-Dependence.
The hardest hit will be those clubs most reliant on the money lost. Redistribution of TV income should be considered. No question.
Youth Development should be looked at again, not least because for most clubs it will define their future. Closer cooperation amongst the clubs can yield benefits for both clubs and players. A modified Draft system might be appropriate, whereby players graduating from Under 19/20 are available to be signed by other clubs in a predetermined sequence, perhaps with the developing club having a first option on 2 players, the remainder co-opted into the draft.
Considering Celtic’s worldwide scouting network, is there potential to share information on overseas prospects with the other clubs? An easy thing to implement.
Looking at income, the huge imbalance created by the participation fees paid to clubs qualifying for the Champions League distorts domestic competition. Can we consider a distribution to all clubs of Marketing fees and likes from UEFA for our clubs’ participation in UEFA competitions?
Finally, what other means do we have, given the collective talent and resources of the top clubs in Scottish Football, to generate new opportunities, new market share, new income? If necessity is indeed the Mother of Invention, we are not short of need. Let’s get innovative.
Of course, all of this is based upon a consensual approach to the crisis we face. It is widely reported that the other 10 clubs in the SPL are meeting next week to consider an appropriate response to the problems we all face. Celtic have not been invited to attend. This in itself is a concern, as it draws something of a line in the sand between the interests of the 10, and the interests of Celtic. One SPL chairman told BBC Scotland: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change things.” Such change, hatched by the 10 other clubs and forced upon Celtic is not a cooperative approach.
Moreover, Celtic are by a distance the biggest box office in the league. This season attendance at Celtic Park equates to 72% of the total attendances at all other grounds excluding Ibrox. A series of decisions on restructuring the SPL and redistributing the proceeds from the competition that excluded the stakes of almost half of the fans in the league is surely invalid.
Quite what will these clubs do with their self-acknowledged ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change things’?
Perhaps the 10 SPL Clubs will come up with some truly radical and forward looking ideas that are at face value, innovative, imaginative and laudable.
Perhaps though they won’t. Perhaps their ideas will be a little more self-interested. That is certainly the form book in Scottish Football.
Redistribution of SPL TV and Sponsorship income that excludes the Champion team from the divvy? Why not eh. The 10 Clubs will have the SPL voting majority to do so.
What would the implications be should the 10 Clubs decide that gate sharing was the way ahead for the SPL? Certainly, in the absence of Rangers, they would carry the voting rights to approve such a decision, irrespective of any objections from the fans whose money would be redirected.
And indeed, the admission of a New Rangers directly into the SPL, bypassing all meritocratic and long established practices in the game worldwide.
Establishing a new business is a challenging activity. Doing so in the midst of the financial chaos enveloping Rangers is utterly fraught. Those considering such a move need to have confidence in revenue projections and market. In the case of a New Rangers, the arbiter of revenue is the League they will participate in. It is reasonable to assume that informal soundings have been taken by those considering a New Rangers project from those with the power to determine which market they will operate in.
I have no problem with Stephen Thomson of Dundee Utd picking up the phone and chatting to Stewart Milne of Aberdeen. Indeed, I would expect it in the ordinary course, never mind the crisis we all face. However, given the likelihood that those behind a New Rangers are right now making their initial pitch to each of the 10 clubs, it is somewhat distressing that those same 10 clubs should in short course arrange a meeting to discuss and plan the way ahead, excluding Celtic and the interests of half the remaining fans of the SPL.
Paul Murray, Martin Bain, John McClelland, Alastair Johnston, Dave King: The men who brought this disaster down upon the game in this country, who corrupted the game from the inside for a decade or more, who burned £100 Million of creditors money, who are responsible for ripping off the Tax Payer and the Football Fan alike, who failed to act on Rangers’ crisis when action was most needed, these men and their likes are currently negotiating with the 10 Clubs the conditions for the entry of New Rangers directly back into the SPL.
The very essence of Sport, the history of Football, and the future of the Game in this country is to be decided in the coming weeks by the chairmen of just 10 Clubs. In the hands of these men is the legacy of the game accidentally entrusted, and its future precariously placed.
At our moment of crisis, when wisdom and consensus are most needed, what direction will they take? Where will Scottish Football go from here?
To a new, mature, responsible and progressive place? Or to Hell in a Handcart.
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kevjungle previous post no mate nothing as severe Scotland has come a long way since the 70′s but still in the stone age when it comes to bigotry so all I was saying is expect the fight for hearts and minds to go on a long time after rangers fc is gone and shamed, still a long way before our communities accept us as one. I won’t be surprised with anything. Goodnight all. Enjoy the next stage of the trebel. Hail Hail
Morning taxpayers
Mon the hoops
imnotfittocleanlennisundersolescsc
ASonOfDan on 11 March, 2012 at 07:50 said:
Good Morning,
Looking forward to a huge game for us today.
Laughing at all the headlines about CraigWhyteCSC.
So the administrator is saying it wasn’t his own £1 that was used? At the end of the day that is what was paid for rangers.
I am no legal genius but if I bought a run down shop for the same price and then borrowed money to do it up, someone can come along and say it is not mine?
I dont think so…
==========
A good analogy. I have a feeling this is going to run through the courts for many months to come unless someone gives MBB what he wants. (Monso and lots of it)
Either way it’s bad news for RFC(IA).
Thoughts and prayers with the family and yourself mwd
Never, ever though I could get bored of the Huns going bust, but whadda ya know? Administration fatigue has well and truly set in.
Another week begins.
My favourite part of last week was the ibrox season ticket holder who phoned Clyde to ask whit has happened tae the “tickle us” money. Marvellous!
3-1 to us today with, a hooper tap in after a samaras run and cut back for the first goal.
MWD my thoughts and prayers go out to you and your friends family. May she rest in peace God Bless
Published on Sunday 11 March 2012 00:00
They celebrate St Patrick’s Day with unrivalled pride and passion in Coatbridge, but some locals still recall when it was wiser to keep their heritage to themselves
PADDY Banks is sitting at the bar of the Columba Club in Coatbridge, eyes gently watering, nursing a whisky, while decorative shamrocks glint above the gantry. “I used to give up the drink for Lent,” he says, “but for Paddy’s Day I’d always make an exception.”
For all the Coatbridge bhoys….
Scotland On Sunday–Big In Little Ireland by Peter Ross
St Patrick’s Day, 17 March, is – thanks to the Irish diaspora – a global celebration. There are parties and parades from Brooklyn to Benidorm, Kilburn to Christchurch, and, of course, in Ireland itself. There is, however, one corner of North Lanarkshire where the saint is celebrated with particular intensity. Coatbridge is, according to the map, just a little to the east of Glasgow, but spiritually and emotionally the town is located somewhere across the North Channel.
It has been named “the least Scottish town in Scotland” on account of the huge numbers of residents with names of Irish origin, but according to local genealogists that particular survey actually underplays the heritage. The Irish started arriving in Coatbridge in the 19th century, especially during the years of the great famine, looking for work in the mines and the iron industry. The town was black with soot in those days, and it was said you could read at night by the furnace light. The clusters of streets where the Irish settled had nicknames which still express something of the fervent, febrile Klondyke spirit of those times – Paddy’s Land, O’Neill’s Land, and especially The Slap-Up, a square-mile slum which at the turn of the century had a higher population density than New York.
The 1851 census shows that while the Irish-born population of Scotland as a whole was 7.2 per cent, in Coatbridge it was 35.8 per cent. Now, several generations down the line, it is reckoned that around 70 per cent of the population have Irish roots. Many residents find their family history extremely meaningful. According to a survey by the Coatbridge Irish Genealogy Project, some 93 per cent of those sampled were actually able to identify the county from which their forebears came. A chat with locals in the street confirms this. Derry, Kerry, Dublin, Down – these names and others are proclaimed with pleasure and passion. One man, 87-year-old Tommy Sharpe, is telling me that his grandparents came from Donegal when a passer-by, happening to overhear, can’t resist adding, “The pride of them all.”
Little wonder, then, that Coatbridge has come to be known as “the heart of Ireland in Scotland” – the phrase of Mary McAleese, the then Irish president, during a visit to the town’s St Patrick’s Day Festival. This year is the 10th anniversary of the festival, a two-week celebration comprising music, theatre, sport and other events, culminating in a street party this coming Saturday, which draws around 20,000 people, many of them tricked out in tricolours. It is, locals are keen to assert, an expression of cultural pride rather than nationalist politics. “If anyone comes here believing this is some sort of free-for-all with rebel songs then they are very wrong,” says Martin Brennan, a 47-year-old electrician. “This is a celebration of being Irish.”
Ten years ago there were no St Patrick’s Day festivals in Scotland, the thinking being that such prominent declarations of ethnicity – and, by extension, Catholicism – would invite trouble from bigots. “As children our only expression of Irishness was going out to mass on St Patrick’s Day with a bunch of shamrock on,” says Janice Sullivan, 55, a Coatbridge native whose father and maternal grandfather were Irish. “Other than that, the culture was ‘Keep your head down, don’t mention it, and you’ll be fine.’
“I have a brother who is 50 and was born on St Patrick’s Day, and my mother refused to call him Patrick because he would never get a job. You were very proud of your heritage, but it was kept within the community. I was astonished when the festival started. I remember two old men in the street that day saying, ‘I can’t believe we are getting this.’ So, yes, we do have something special here.”
I am talking to Sullivan in the festival shop in the Quadrant shopping centre. It is a fiesta of green, white and gold. Already, at half-ten in the morning, there is a steady flow of folk buying programmes, tickets for shows, and no end of Irish merchandise. A wee boy leaves clutching a green “Padraic” teddy bear. A youngish woman enquires after a Celtic badge which she plans to add to a funeral wreath in the shape of a Hoops top. You can buy shamrock sunglasses and deely-boppers; tricolour feather boas and leis. There are novelty ties with “Kiss me, I’m Irish” written upon them, and – the Irish equivalent of the “See-you-Jimmy” bunnet – a “Who’s-your-Paddy?” top hat in the shape of a pint of stout. A sign outside the shop points in the direction of Coatbridge, Dublin and Belfast. Inside, a CD player blasts out a techno version of The Wild Rover.
This is all a bit of fun for the festival. There are, however, more authentic expressions of culture ongoing in the town. Coatbridge has Gaelic football teams and runs an extensive youth development programme with 15 participating schools. The town has a branch of Comhaltas, an international organisation promoting traditional Irish music and language. There are also no fewer than five Irish dance schools, although admittedly the diamanté-heavy costumes these days are rather glitzier than the traditional celtic designs which were once the norm. “They’ve blinged up the Book of Kells,” laughs Arlene McLaughlin, a teacher at the McLaughlin Cannon Academy.
Gordon Canavan, a retired publican of Irish descent, who once kept a pub called The Blarney Stone, is working in the festival shop when I visit. “No matter where you go in the world, if you say you are from Coatbridge, people will say ‘Oh, Little Ireland!’” he notes with pride. “My great-grandfather Peter Hannaway used to tell me wonderful stories about how they came over on the boat with nothing and worked hard to make something of their lives.”
The Scots-Irish of Coatbridge have a definite sense of themselves as the descendants of grafters, important in an area of high unemployment. Whatever the psychological reasons, there is no doubt that people feel their Irishness strongly here. Michael Reilly, 52, who runs the Genealogy Project, is planning to apply for an Irish passport. “It’s a wee bit of me claiming myself to be Irish,” he says. “It’s something I feel and I can’t explain.”
Alisha Crilly, 67, talking in the tearoom behind St Patrick’s church after morning mass, says, “I am Scottish. My allegiances are to Scotland. But my inner being is Irish. The way I think, the way I feel, the way I behave. We are much more open here. The best thing about this parish is the way we all relate to each other.”
Coatbridge, with a population of around 40,000 souls, has a majority Catholic population and ten churches belonging to that faith. Even those with no religion would surely agree that these buildings confer a beauty on the town that it would otherwise lack. In the shadow of a tower block, a white marble statue of the Virgin Mary stands pristine and serene. At times, walking round, Coatbridge can feel like an urban brutalist version of South Uist. In certain corner shops you can buy St Patrick’s Day cards and bottles of Buckfast.
Church attendance is not in decline in Coatbridge, in the Catholic churches at least, unlike elsewhere in Scotland, and faith seems to permeate everyday discourse. A sign outside a card shop on the Main Street declares “orders now being taken for Communion balloons”. Pat Gaffney, who has run the bar in the Columba Club these past 22 years, and who visits Ireland each October to tend the graves of his great-uncles in Navan, says, “I don’t drink in any of the pubs round here. They’re full of eejits. The last time I was in the pub was in Lourdes.”
The people here definitely regard themselves as being very different from their neighbours – Motherwell, Baillieston and especially Airdrie. “We’re an oasis in the wilderness,” is how one man puts it. It is an expressive, emotional culture – “carnivalesque and gallus,” according to the Coatbridge writer Des Dillon, with a love of storytelling and ritual. “My brother died last year and the wake was a four-day event,” Dillon recalls. “There were about 20 of us round his bed singing The Fields Of Athenry as he died.”
The difference is also linguistic. There is a Coatbridge accent, rooted in Irish pronunciation, and distinct from the west of Scotland dialect. People in Coatbridge, for example, tend not to say “toon” for town or “doon” for “down”; they speak fast, and there is a tendency to use the so-called “reaffirmative” in sentence construction; for example this, overheard in the Columba Club, from a man watching the racing on telly: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph! I should have backed that bloody horse, so I should!”
Before leaving Coatbridge, I call in at a family céilí being held at St Patrick’s church hall. The musicians are all teenagers from Comhaltas, and as they perform a mixture of jigs and reels – The Walls Of Limerick, The Siege Of Ennis – and as the dancefloor throngs with children and adults birling beneath the disco lights, it strikes me that these same dance tunes would have been played and enjoyed in this town back in the 1840s; the rhythms and melodies, the joy of it all, spirals through the local DNA. Coatbridge may indeed be the least Scottish town in Scotland, but it has a spirit than many would envy.
SPF
That despicable character Dingwall appears to be as equally unpopular on some hun sites. He appears to have similar traits to Craigy boy.
http://theweeproclaimer.wordpress.com/
Top of the morning to you all from a bright and breezy Fife.
Lots of bad things being said about that nice man Craig Whyte.
The thing is that you can’t always say what you want to.
I would think that the things they are saying about him might be accurate, but are certainly damaging and probably actionable so if he still has a line of credit with good defamation lawyers he is on to a winner.
I think we have a tough task at Tannadice today but fancy we will at least get a draw and win the replay.
MWD
Good,real , friends are hard to come by
I feel your pain..let the memories live on
Your heart will and become stronger through good memories and great , real , friendships
You and your friend and their family are in my thoughts
YNWA
Ramie
MWD 0130
Acquaintances come and go,friends are forever.
I remember trying to explain that to the lads about 10 years ago when one of our friends sadly killed himself.
They were a bit younger than me-still are!-but they understood eventually.
I’m glad she is not in pain anymore,and I’m sure she will always be alive in your memory.
Stringer Bell on 11 March, 2012 at 08:02:
Do you frequent the Big Tree, if not where?
ScotPatsFan on 11 March, 2012 at 08:05:
Proud to say I live in little Ireland
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Cloudy, but mild and brightening here in North Ayrshire this morning.
Come on the Bhoys!
MWD:
I never knew Christine Brown but now have a wee insight as to the kind of person she was thanks to you, one of her great friends.
My thoughts and Prayers with you, her family and friends, may God Bless her Soul.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Reading back, I found that, in my beery condition, I gave credit for the excellent leading article not to The Battered Bunnet, but to Paul.
Sorry about that, Battered. A superb piece of journalism.
Condolences MWD, may she rest in peace. I lost a good friend, almost a couple of years ago now, who is always in my thoughts. We had some good times together and I have a wee chuckle when I think about them. Those who depart are always with us.
Great article about Coatbridge. Truly, it shames Scotland that for decades people of Irish descent have been discouraged from celebrating St Patrick’s Day.
Must have something to do with the “fabric of the nation”, eh Alex?
Another weakly interview given by Doncaster on R5 Sportsweek.
Acting as cheerleader for Newco.
Meant to say ‘weasily’.
Damn iPhone !
astroturfing.
MWD, sorry for your loss pal. Thoughts and prayers for your friend Christine. Chin up, shoulders back and a smile on your face when out walking in solitude. Keep thinking of her and you will be stronger for it.
MWD
I am very sorry to hear about your friend dying.
I have been surrounded by death over the past 12 months ,death mostly through Cancer.
My own sister passed away. (not cancer related)
One of my good friends mother died last year,on the morning of her funeral ,her husbands father died.
I had partners in one of my businesses who were a husband and wife.
Jim and Jenny Morman from Cowdenbeath.I have posted on here previously that Jim was diagnosed with cancer 5 years ago.He was Rangers daft.
Last April Jenny was diagnosed with cancer.She died before Jim ,last September.Jim passed away in December.Both aged 60,gone within 3 months of each other.
Whilst visiting Jim in hospital i crossed paths with another very close friend.I was his best man and am godfather to his son.Life long pals ,his mum now in her 70’s a diamond of a woman.A real auld Scots mither.Diagnosed with Cancer in December.
Isabel passed away in January.She absolutely loved the Celtic,but nothing could compare to her love for her Bhoy,possibly only her love for her grandson Danny.
At present all who live in the TT household live under Damocles sword.
My wifes brother Tony (aged 47) is terminally ill with Cancer.We can only imagine having to break that news to a 14 year old daughter,as he did.
The tragedy of watching someone you love waste away is almost barbaric for all concerned.
Never before have i been more aware of the simple gift of tomorrow.
When i’m in Tannadice i will give a wee thought to you and your friend ,as the team do the Huddle.
TT
On top of all that my own sister passed away.( not cancer related)
MWD, condolences to you at this sad time.
A fantastic piece of writing. It would be in the best interests of every person, fan or otherwise, associated with an SPL club to read and digest.
Prediction time for today’s big game.
Should be a cracker although a win is by no means a certainty.
Hope Brooney’s back, we have missed his drive.
If the MIBs behave themselves, I think we will get the win, otherwise a draw could be on the cards.
Enjoy it, lhads and lhassies, it’s the only show in town and the Glasgow Celtic will be there!!!
Don’t know what happened there.
My sister didn’t die twice.(;-)
TT
Just wanted to say what an excellent article this is. What Rangers have been getting away with is nothing short of scandalous. Tax evasion, dodgy contracts and bad debt all in an effort to chase Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan.
They cheated 2 titles from Martin, one just days after we’d experienced heartache in Seville and one, more sickeningly, while Martin was contemplating leaving to care for his seriously ill wife. The title they cheated from Gordon ultimately cost him his job. All this against a background of illegitimate Champions League money and a UEFA Cup run that would have never got off the ground if they paid their dues.
Yes, we should have won some, if not all, of those titles anyway but that would completely miss the point. We WOULD have won those titles comfortably if they hadn’t spent taxpayers money to buy or retain players they couldn’t afford.
Now, finally faced with the consequences of their cheating, there seem to be discussions about how we can keep their punishment to a minimum. Like every true Celtic fan I am thoroughly disgusted by this and would seriously question the Celtic board if we did not meet this challenge head on with all guns blazing.
We need to consider every legal avenue open to us whether it is suing the SFA, SPL or Rangers. We need to apply every pressure we can to the other SPL clubs whether that is through increased co-operation on voting rights or by refusing all away ticket allocations.
Anything less than removal from the league, re-entry to SFL3, the stripping of Advocaat, McLeish and Smith’s trophies and the banning of all previous directors from involvement in Scottish football is far too lenient in my eyes.
Us Celtic fans can make all of this worse for them by keeping our own club strong. Buy season tickets like never before, buy merchandise through the club and give Lennon as much of a fighting fund as possible to win the next 10 titles.
Craiginho
I’d love it if they were extinct CSC
MWD, just saw your sad news. My thoughts are with you and your family at this sad time.
Craiginho
Having read the English article there is nothing in it that hadn’t already been discussed on here. I think both English and the administrators are being somewhat naïve if the think Ticketus do walking away. There is an saying that possession is 9/10ths of the law and they might find that CW has in his possession a legally binding document that says he owns huns FC ( in admin). I would like to correct them when they say that CW put nothing into the huns, I believe he put in a £1.00 all shiny and bright and Minty’s eyes opened wide with delight.
If nothing else our hero has a neck that is made 100% of brass, which was displayed when not one but two of his companies came in to contest the £3.6M lying in the solicitors’ account, last week. As highlighted on here Ticketus would prefer to take the non litigious route, as it is the cost free option but they will go to court if necessary. If you were to believe the administrators/MSM then Whytey, Ticketus, HMRC’S and anybody else who is owed money will ride away into the sunset leaving the huns
(12:15) “Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” Jesus first called them hypocrites, and then asked one of them to produce a Roman coin that would be suitable for paying Caesar’s tax. One of them showed him a Roman coin , and he asked them whose name and inscription were on it. They answered, “Caesar’s,” and he responded”Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s”
Mathew 16:26 “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Graham Spiers “For all concerned – excepting crowing Celtic fans – it is best if Rangers emerge intact from administration. “
debt free! Fecking IPad.
MWD,
Never meet either you and your dear friend but she was special to you. You are in my thoughts. May she rest in peace.
You or Christine will YNWA!!
ALDERSYDE AVENUE
I think “weakly” worked as well…..
The Battered Bunnet, just read you’re article on the Huns financial misdealings, it’s an excellent piece of work and thanks for taking the time to write it.
HH to ye!
Sincere condolences to you MWD, my friend- such a painful heartache to lose one so close.
The increasingly belligerent tone of Paul Clark towards Whyte and Ticketus is bizarre. It is almost as if he is goading them. The rationale to sideline Whyte appears to be that he hasn’t put any money into the club.
So?
He purchased Lloyds’ floating charge when he paid off the debt. Whether he did this with a lottery win, his own money, a loan, or anything else is surely neither here nor there? The Glazers bought ManU and immediately loaded the debt they accumulated to buy the club, onto the club itself. No-one disputes their ownership.
And isn’t the tone used here a bit bizarre. It’s almost Murray-esque. Either Paul Clark is letting power go to his head or he is a compete moron.
In other news, I see Clark has told Dundee Utd he has no intention of paying them their 100k.
Even their administrators are a disgrace…
Today’s team prediction:
==================Forster====================
======Matthews===Rogne===Wilson===Mulgrew====
======Forrest ====Brown===Wanyama====Ledley===
=============Hooper=======Samaras==========
Possibly Stokes in ahead of Sammi.
As I said yesterday need to take care of MacKay-Steven and Russell.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
CRAGINHO 0901
“we need to explore every legal avenue”
Indeed.
The FSA should be investigating,infact they should be concluding such,a wilful fraud perpetrated by one public company against another.
For every penny they have gained as a result of this in CL money alone,which in their last “successful” season-i.e. made it to the group stages-made them over £18m,we have lost that amount.
That one season,and one tournament,is a £36m THEFT.
Remind me,how much was The Great Train Robbery worth?
Or Northern Bank? Brinks-Mat?
Nary a word either…..
It was fraud,and it was theft.
It was planned,it was colluded. And yet no investigation?