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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Come on the Hoops. Here’s to a great performance and a great Celtic win in a good cup tie.
I hope our team have had their eyes on the ball this week, while we supporters have been (too?) focused on the bankrupt lot. We have a very hard game today. Here’s hoping we get a level playing field, courtesy of the MIB and his coterie.
A quiz question for a Sunday morning – what do the following have in common – the unicorn, Pandora’s Box, Brigadoon, the SFA “fit and proper” test, Theseus and the Minotaur?
What do Hannibal Lecter, and Dukla Pumpherston have to do with football governance in Scotland?
This and much more answered in :- The SFA’s “Fit and Proper” Test – Self-Certification for Football Clubs – A Farce? Part 1 – Craig Whyte
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/the-sfas-fit-and-proper-test-self-certification-for-football-clubs-a-farce-part-1-craig-whyte/
Enjoy!
And part 2 to follow later today!
And I should also say – well done to the Battered Bunnet for a marvellous analysis!
ScotPatsFan on 11 March, 2012 at 08:05
Thanks for posting that
HH
***********************************
My team for today
…………………………….Forster
Matthews……….Rogne……….Wilson……….Mulgrew
……………………………….Ki
.Brown……Wanyama………..Ledley…………Samaras
…………………………….Stokes
MWD
Just scrolling back and saw your terribly sad news.
The days, weeks and months ahead will bring a rollercoaster of emotions and often you will ask why. Why do those we love so deeply have to go? Why are we left with devastating emptiness?
It will pass, my friend trust me, I know. Yes there will be times when your loss will feel like a physical ache that is all consuming and you feel that it will never leave you.
It will. And over time you will be left with lovely memories and a joy in your heart that you were so fortunate to have had Christine in your life.
My prayers are with you, your family and your friend.
It will take a very good performance to get a win today.
TT
Condolences MWD. What paddy gallagher said a couple if pages back was perfect and I couldn’t better it.
Over-promoted ‘Bowling Club’ types with funny hand shakes………operating behind closed doors.
They’re the ones to look out for now………
Another day, another brain-teaser.
If the Blue knights really is just a joke bid, which is what the administrators seem to be saying, and only serves to distract while the real players are working away behind the scenes…………..then why have Ticketus got onside with Murray&Co?
Good morning from Irish Manchester.
Great article about Coatbridge.
This week is part of a two week programme of celebration of Irish culture and music here in Manchester. It will include a St.Patricks Day Parade involving tens of thousands.
A city where catholic schools are sought after for their values and excellence.
Well done Coatbridge but in the country of only one such celebration. In the country of over 200 Orange Walks, shame on Salmonds Scotland.
Moonbeams at 1:05am,
Sorry to hear of you’re friends passing, she was lucky to have a great friend like you.
It hasn’t escaped me either that the Celtic family almost lost you exactly 51 weeks ago.
Take care pal.
Vinny
.
Is Scott Brown fit for Today..?
Sammi Must start Away from Home in Probably our Game of the Season Today..
Been thinking of Tommy Burns Thursday today for Some Unknown reason..
Are Sammi and Skoosh the Only Survivor from that Night..? Wilson..? is he Gone..
Hail Hail KTF..
Summa
Ah, another sunday and more ‘it ain’t so bad’ spin in the rangers media.
Interest from the States in Rangers (Alan Johnstone lives in the states doesn’t he?)
Interest from the Far East – ooh, a mad wealthy billionaire from Asia who’ll pump at least £100 Million (just to pay off the debts) in to rangers before reaping the well known fiscal benefits of owning a club worth a fraction of that and the huge cash to be made playing in the SPL. Or mebbes there are hunners of Rangers loving squillionaires in the ‘East’ who just want to save one of the world’s ‘biggest clubs’ (book value circa £14 Million)
And the Blue Knights or the Blue Nuns, whatever you call them.
And Ticketus won’t want to chase money that they pre paid for tickets……….
Is there a school of journalism in Scotland called ‘The Hans Christian Anderson Institute’??? It feels like there is.
Where were all these ‘buyers’ when poor old dodgy Dave had absolutely no way of finding out if Whyte was really as wealthy as others claimed he was and sold the club to him? (And by the way Dave, if you are reading, you just have to take someones word that they have no skeletons in the closet? But what about the committee you set up to vet potential buyers? Did you deny them access to Google? You should have asked us Dave, we’d have told you he wasn’t fit and proper – but then you didn’t really need to ask did you? You shameless teller of obfuscations and half truths)
‘I only made one mistake at rangers’ – David Murray. Hiring Craig Whyte. His only mistake. Running up massive debt, using tax dodges known to be at best questionable in legality – not mistakes? With hindsight? No?
I write this not in anger or annoyance at the complicity of the scottish press in spinning the death of rangers in to some kind of positive but in amusement that they can continue to do so. Refusal to acknowledge their problems in the past cost rangers their future. It will do so again. Let’s leave them too it.
“It’s complex,” said Clark. “It’s something we need further talks with the SFA about. We also owe for other matches as well, we owe security people, we owe for some catering, we owe, we owe lots of people.
“If we could just pay everybody we owe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
(d&p)
These boys are good!
Right, fresh orange and bacon roll then off to the game, c’mon the hoops :)
Duff and Phelps.
A double act………………
MAD – genuine sympathies mate. We probably all know someone taken early by that terrible disease.
Scotspatsfan – thanks for posting that mate. Really enjoyed reading it.
A couple of paragraphs from Vanguard Bears most recent State of the Nation Address. The shameless and presumptuous dictatorial ravings of the megalomaniac.
” The written press and other media outlets have relished their work of recent weeks, of that there is no doubt. There has been a concerted campaign, led by certain individuals, to “do down” the club at every turn”
————-
“Lastly, Mr Whyte, who has maintained the same rhetoric and statements from the beginning, may yet emerge from this as the most hated man in Rangers history (should all the accusations be proved correct) or the most loved (should he be proved an astute businessman who saved the Club from a mountain of debt that it could not pay, by using whatever means were available to him – no matter how close to the wind he sailed and no matter how many rules he bent). VanguardBears will say we were angered by the sale of the shares in Arsenal FC. Certain items are beyond monetary value.”
In his own mealy-mouthed way, the grand vizier bestows favour on the prospect of Whyte cheating his way out of the mess created by Murray’s cheating. That is, indeed, the Rangers’ way.
Googybhoy morning amigo, that was indeed a great article about County Coatbridge, however there are more than a few events in Glasgow for St Patricks week culminating on the 17th….. Although this may overlap to Sunday at Hampden.
Hail Gloria St PatrickCSC
V
MWD
Condolences, Bud
Thoughts and prayers with everyone touched by this sad loss
Monaghan1900
I think that was written with a crayon on a high security ward.
ScotPatsFan on 11 March, 2012 at 08:05 said:
………
Apologies, I forgot to say thanks for posting that article, I have family through marriage in the county, it’s a great place.
V
GREED,AMORALITY TALE
Misprint intentional,for once!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9135374/NatWest-Three-I-should-have-walked-away.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lords of the universe,eh?
Mwd
“Loved her with all my heart. Friends in life come and never leave but they are few and far between.” beautiful words and so true, good friends like Christine are like the fingers on our hands we don’t get that many. Cherish your memories bud HH
roy croppie on 11 March, 2012 at 09:55 said:
Monaghan1900
I think that was written with a crayon on a high security ward.
I know my bit was, Roy. Do you think he’s in here too?
roy croppie on 11 March, 2012 at 09:48 said:
“If we could just pay everybody we owe we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
(d&p)
———-
Coffee on the keyboard.
Another question – and I know it’s been answered before but so much has been said these past 4 weeks that I can no longer remember what where or when.
What would be UEFA’s reaction to a deal done with the tax man? Would it count as the state giving an advantage to one team? Would they take action?
“Amidst all this, it is enough for Regan and the SFA to hurriedly point out that, purely on the basis of having been a board member of the last Ibrox regime which led to the club towards insolvency, King would not be allowed to become a Rangers director.”
Speirs today.
I know this has probably been covered here before and I’ve missed it, but where does Paul Murray stand with his past involvement?
Come on the hoops today if we can win this difficult tie today then the treble looks a real possibility, I think broony will defo be back and I also have a feeling Sammi will get the nod before stokes for his height
MWD obviously,apologies.
For English’s article in the SoS:
“Dave King, would be disqualified from taking a boardroom position. King breached the SFA’s fit and proper person criteria by being a member of the board that took the club into an insolvency event (under Whyte). King had little to do with it, but he’s damned by it all the same.”
OK, Dave King is out, that’s hardly surprising.
But wouldn’t Paul Murray be out by the same token (being a member of the board that took the club into an insolvency event). Or did he get the BigE just before that?
Atlantic League back on radar
Richard Wilson
Sports writer.
While the 10 non-Old Firm clubs in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League prepare to hold a meeting about how the top flight might in future be run, a possible exit route has re-emerged for Rangers and Celtic.
.
More than a decade after it was first discussed, tentative talks are again being held about an Atlantic League.
The original proposal involved clubs from Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Scotland and Belgium. The concept was considered unworkable because Uefa were against the idea, but the Sunday Herald understands that Michel Platini, the Uefa president, is in favour of such a competition, as a means to reduce the dominance of the five leading European football nations: Spain, Italy, Germany, England and France.
“I am aware of [Platini’s support], but then again we don’t know how it will be played,” said Frank Rutten, managing director of the Eredivisie, Holland’s top flight. “It’s certainly helpful if Uefa would be supportive. But then again we still have to find out what the concept is in order to determine if it is feasible for any clubs to participate.”
The plan was originally devised by the Danish Superliga, and a company with links to that comp-etition still owns the Atlantic League trademark. Claus Thomsen, the Superliga chief executive, is responsible for raising again the possibility of trying to make the Atlantic League work, since it would generate television revenue for the clubs involved, and a more competitive environment.
So far, though, there is no indic-ation of which countries would be invited into any discussions, which teams would be asked to play in the competition, and how prom-otion and relegation might work. Uefa also still currently reject the concept of clubs playing in cross-border leagues, even if Platini is in broad favour of this proposal.
“The only thing I can say is that the idea has come up again and that we are looking at whether there are possibilities,” says Rutten. “It’s a very, very, very early stage, so nothing has been discussed yet in terms of how, when, where. It’s just that it has been talked about in the past and there has been some discussion about would it be worth starting to look at it again. My first response was yes, it could be – but we should know what we are talking about. We first have to figure that out.”
sparkleghirl
UEFA will be monitoring this; talk of deals with HMRC seems to be wishful thinking from the desperados in the Scottish media. As Paul said yesterday they already knocked back an offer of £10m in January.
Celt55 at 0959
I assumed he was absolving Paul Murray of blame purely on the basis that he had left by the time they went into administration.
In other words, tax scams and illegal contracts doesn’t make you unfit, just the act of going into admiistration. it’s certainly ot how I see it but i assumed it was what Speirs was thinking.
Googybhoy et al,
The week long Irish festival in Glasgow:
http://www.glasgowstpatricksfestival.co.uk/listings.html
V
CELT55
He’s effed an’ a’
The whole scenario is a smokescreen,as I explained to my mate fae Cummerna’ yesterday.
Ruined his night,I think.
I mentioned it on RTC,his head is now out of the sand again.
Monaghan1900
haha
I’ve just waved over to him with a friendly two fingered gesture. He seems to be getting sedated now.
Jackanory tell me a story…
Once upon a time we had Minty Moonbeams who owned a football club.
He tried and tried for Four years to sell it but no-one wanted it with debts of £21 Million.
It then became known that he owed Hector £50 Million. He eventually sold it to CRAIGWHYTECSC for £1.
Craig was very naughty and he had to rush in Administrators to stop Hector taking the club away.
The administrator then told ‘the people’ that Craig would never bother them again.
The ‘people’ being stupid because of their rubbish schools forgot Craig had brought the administrators in the first place.
They then told ‘the people’ that they had wealthy suitors from around the world who would buy the club when they now owe;
Ticketus £24 Million
Hector £15 Million(£50 Million)
Half a dozen football clubs and everyone from the pie makers to the polis.
They would also lose all their players at the end of the season for little or no money.
The ‘people never once questioned why these wealthy suitors did not want the club when the debt was only £21 Million.
How the story ends is a tale for another day…