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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TBB
.Absolutely stunning sir,you might be an internet bampot but I defy anybody in the country to write such a surgical and sobering summary of events.This is a piece which has the power to prick consciences in its accuracy and will no doubt be held by many as a historical reference.
Nutshell,brilliant.
too bore you to death….in order to make programming simple on systems….. its always the last full weekend of March. So we don’t have it when we present the league against St Johnston but it will happen against the Orc’s !!
Then they wonder why the stadium is half full :)
Excellent article TBB
Keep on saying it as it really is!
The huns are simply the worst set of cheats that professional sport has ever seen
They do not pay tax of any sort
They do not pay their creditors
They do not abide by the rules
They demand special treatment
They threaten disruption when found out
If Scottish football fails to punish these people then it will deserve to be binned by the rest of world football
CFC must make every effort to encourage Scottish football to do the right thing – so that if our appeals fall on deaf ears at home we can appeal to higher authority in UEFA or FIFA
Remember our support have won Fair Play awards from both organisations
HH
TBB
Can I Awe Naw your article ? ;-)
HH
TBB
Every one of the plaudits you have received in previous comments in this article are very, very well deserved.
You have been shared on Twitter to my, erm, legions of followers.
CQN at it’s very best.
SwanseaBhoy
Jeez, just about to go back and read Paul’s editorial, which I reckon must be really important.
Watched a bit of the Everton game and was delighted to see Jelavic scoring.
He’s a friend of Izziguire and, by all acounts a nice bloke.
And he’s not playing for them.
Pity we coulldn’t have signed him.
Paul/TBB
Is there a way to get a print copy of TBB article?
I’d like to photocopy it and leave it around in public places e.g. my golf club, my work, at the barbers, in the pub, ASDA, in the taxi, on the bus/train.
EC67
TBbI
Respect
FTH
TBB
Thank you for that article , your intelligence , research and ability to put into words a summary of what has happened regarding rangers in Scottish football over the period is a credit to you.
You and others like you speak for so many of us.
I agree we need to get that article out there and mainstreamed and it is down to us.
Can it be sent to the letters page of all the daily titles.
Perhaps phil could use one of his contacts to get it printed .
Can it be emailed to each of the ten and their supporters clubs
Thanks for the clarity bhoys, it goes forward for me tonight. Can anybody answer this question:
Paul67: I must say this is by far one of your best articles, but after giving this current situation that RFC has now put Scottish football in some thought and with the possibility of them being stripped of previous SPL titles, I have a question for you or any CQNers, should biggot dome be stripped of previous leagues,
What happens to the winners medals that the previous winners received, do the players that received them need them returned to the SPL office.
If so and as we saw in the BBC story about life without Rangers: as in 100 M race where Canadian Ben Johnson took steroids was stripped and his medal given to American (Second Placed) Carl Lewis, would this indeed happen with these medals.
I have two thoughts/feelings on this
1). Great to see the second place team and their players receive medals for a league title they were cheated of….
2). What about the young Scottish players that worked hard at Ibrox to make a future for themselves, only for their owner to bring in illegal forgien players that not only took their positions in the team, but were playing illegally, and now 10-12 yrs on these no longer young Scottish players now need to say to their offspring, yes that medal on the mantelpiece, daddy needs to send back, cause no matter all the hard work and training daddy done all those seasons ago, the SPL wants their medals back cause Daddy cheated….Thats quite a story out of all this….
Maybe some will deserve it, but I am sure not all…
Finnharp
Without us they are nothing.
Without us they have nothing left to hate.
Without us their league would be on a par with Icelands.
Without us their would be no sponsorship or TV money.
And now they want us to finance their psychotic wet dreams and clean up thier dribble.
Time to put them out of their misery even those that are prepared to sit at that table.
HH
Paul 67
We always knew the game was rigged.
What we didn’t know is that even with every advantage going
for them they would try and cheat even more.
Our problem has always been it’s the only game in town.
This is an excellent summation by the Bunnet and it makes a few things plain.
Look at the facts that stare you in the face ta the very start of this articles.
Prior to the extraordinary overspending began Rangers had won just 4 titles in twenty years, and were “also rans” in the league for a Decade.
I wonder where the “we need a strong Rangers” brigade were at that time? Celtic weren’t winning every season at that time, so where was the rest of Scotland in screaming at Rangers to get better and stronger for the good of all?
During the 8 year period when the Murray model was an unbounded success- 1988-1996-, the rest of football had to come to terms with the cost and effect of the Taylor Report which finally published its details in January 1990.
There was a great cost to clubs to comply with that report and what finance was spent in implementing the Taylor recommendations had a direct baring on how much teams had to spend on Players– except that Ibrox was a noteable exception.
So that success period was achieved at a time when every other club was disadvantaged or crippled by having to deal with Taylor.
Thereafter, the success enjoyed by Rangers has only been enjoyed when the club have had massive financial imput and bank support. They ran up huge losses in paying players top dollar,never mind the tax bill,and it was only when they had that financial support at a time when others were weakened that they achieve sustained success on the field.
In short footballing success has equalled financial failure– financial propriety or fair play in the main has equalled footballing failure.
Let’s not also forget that Celtic in particular are a completely different business and financaial beast when compared to 1988, and have the real potential to advance the financial draw and performance of the club again in my opinion.
I also believe that the rest of the clubs in the league have a far clearer idea of a proper business model when compared to the 80’s or early 90’s.
Life in 2012 is very very different than when David Murray came to power at Ibrox, and let’s not forget that he put in less fresh cash than Craig Whyte who at least had a pound. Murray originally guaranteed the overdraft ran up by Lawrence Marlborough.
However, what concerns me most- whether I view things as a Celtic fan or imagine things as a Rangers fan- is the fact that during the Murray era there grew up a culture whereby many Rangers fans simply came to “expect” success without ever really having to pay for it.
A caller on Radio Scotland tonight talked of the arrogance of the Rangers players at that time as well as the fans– and that arrogance stemmed from the very top– David Murray.
There are those who want to be involved in Rangers going forward who grew up in that era and who, I believe, still have that mentality. I am not sure that they have ever studied the cold financial and footballing facts as set out by TBB above.
There needs to be a realisation that whatever happens here, Scottish football will never be the same again. If Rangers play fair, pay their taxes and live within their means it will be the first time in the better part of 25 years. It is they, and not everyone else who has to come to terms with football and finance in the modern era. Duff & Phelps have shown just how savage the cuts and the change in mindset has to be just to stay afloat for the next 3 months!
Are we to expect that the current Rangers stars will stay around next term and accept 25% of their current wage– with no Europe and no other stage than Scotland? And do we honestly think that the HMRC officers who refused x pence in the pound are now going to accept a CVA that sees them get less than that?
Rangers Football club is in a mess– a mess which even wiping all the debts and getting them to just pay and play along acceptable lines spells a huige difference in their ability to compete.
The idea that they will just reform, remake and remodel and be back to the Rangers we have seen over the last ten years or so is rediculous.
If you don’t believe me than remember that just a few short weeks ago Craig Whyte revealed that Administration was a possibility and that it would not be the end of the world if Rangers PLC itself disappeared because there would always
be a Rangers!
Shortly afterwards, Roddy Forsyth wrote with authority in the telegraph that it was likely that Rangers would go into Administration for a short period of time, the debts would be wiped and that after that short hiatus “normal service” would be resumed!
Does any scrutiny of the facts support such a contention? At that time we did not know about the Ticketus deal, the sale of the Arsenal shares, the lack of European competition, the necessity of the huge cut in wages, the spiraling HMRC debt and oh so much more.
Roddy got it horribly wrong… and I would not expect any of the other journalists to get it right any time soon. Simply because they do not know all the salient facts as yet.
The Big Tax case judgement will change opinions yet again on all of this, so don’t expect any clarity of vision when you open the papers tomorrow.
AS for the SPL– or should I say the 10 clubs who are meeting next week– to be honest they should be postponing that meeting until they see the detail of the BTC judgement as I think even they will be surprised at the content.
TBB
OK, a more thoughtful response from me. Your point about Rangers being an also-ran prior to Souness belies the fact that, up until the arrival at Celtic of Jock Stein, they were not only the establishment club, but by far and away the dominant side since the early twenties. Stein is the man responible for the slump in their fortunes, and the rise of Celtic, accomplished because he was one of the most forward thinking managers of any era. Souness, in contrast, spent Rangers’ way back to the top – an ignoble achievement.
Further, why give Murray ‘credit where it’s due’, when you later go on to mention Adam’s revelation of alleged illegal payments? In that case, it is not credit due, but contempt.
Murray and his ego have been discussed often, but what of the fans themselves, the institution that is Rangers, along with the bloated sense of entitlement on which it thrives? Such thumping fervour would be hard for any man at the top to resist, let alone an impressario figure like Murray. The club is in this mess, not because of the actions of one man, but because of their deep-rooted superiority complex – it is the kernel whence all else sprang.
Finally, Alastair Johnton’s financial profligacy will only be looked at as a mistake if and when Rangers are liquidated and allowed to return at the bottom tier of the Scottish game. If they re-enter the SPL without skipping a beat, we may brag about their loss of history, but it will be water of a duck’s back to the Herrenvolk, who will insist they are the same club of Struth, Gregg and Souness. Sporadic mockery from Celtic fans won’t alter this conviction one tiny jot. Under such circumstances, Johnston will be regarded as a man who had the foresight to recognise that, whatever happens, there will always be a Rangers, and what’s more, they will be looked after.
I’ll have to cut this short, but I must mention one more thing. The idea that Rangers as an entity will ever embrace the concept of justice and sporting fairness is ludicrous, and I’m almost tempted to say you put it in there as a provocation. One of the central tenets of their existence was idolatry of empire and overt discrimination against a racial and religious group. They embody the idea of strength through purity, of winning at all costs, and a few knowing handshakes, money under the table, diatribes in the press, and the public castigation of our manager to the danger of his own life, are part and parcel of such a philosophy. Notions of fairness do not concern them (unless used to gain temporary advantage, of course).
Where will Scottish football go from here? Already there are moves afoot to see that they will saunter back to the top table, backed by piper in chief, Neil Doncaster, and receiving pats on the back by the would-be beneficiaries. The matter is being taken out of our hands. What most Celtic fans are waiting for is our club’s response. It must be decisive, or Rangers’ crisis will become ours.
If the SPL 10 do collude to enable Zombie Rangers back in to the league and try to dip our pockets in the process, do you think there`d be any mileage in campaigning in UEFA`s face?
I`m thinking that if any Celtic fans have any tickets for the UEFA Champions League Final or any Euro 2012 games this summer then strategically placed to-the-point banners would broadcast our point to the continent`s TV audiences.
And would any Swiss based Celts be in a position to organise protests for example outside UEFA HQ in Nyon before the 2012/13 Champions League Group draw?
I`m just thinking of ways in which we could draw a line in the sand and get UEFA to honour their BS rhetoric of fair play and fiscal responsibility.
Paul 67,
More power to your elbow.
Thank God for people like you.
I’m hanging on your coat tails.
God bless you.
The glorious balance sheet
it is unfair to say that Uefa has only BS and rhetoric for FFP
They denied 132 clubs a european license last year.
FC Sion
Neuchatel
FC Timosara
Mallorca
Trabsonspor (sp)
And a few others have felt the recent wrath of FFP
HH
The integrity of professional football is now at stake.
TBB,
each and every Celtic supporter is in your debt. Brilliant stuff. When this is all over, whatever happens, the likes of yourself, Paul67, Auldheid and so many other gifted Tims can take enormous credit for making us ordinary supporters aware of what really has been going on over the years.
Oh, that we could see them pay for their crimes.
By the way, as far as I am aware, there is nothing in any form of Christianity which says we should not stand against evil and seek to destroy it. There is a rightness in that struggle. Let us see justice done, especially for the generations that have gone before us.
Ton English ‘significant’ news in paper tomorrow
Tom English @TomEnglishSport
Won’t be more specific but all the old favourites are in there – Whyte, Ticketus, HMRC, Blue Knights.
Actually I wonder if significant ‘news’ might be more appropriate.
Awe Naw,
Thanks for that comment. 132 European licences denied is astonishing and begs the question – what exactly are national associations and leagues doing let such financial basketcases arise on their watch? How can it be that clubs are deemed fit to compete in the national competitions but not in Europe?
If clubs are denied a European licence as far as I`m concerned they should be stripped of a domestic licence too.
We will do what we have always done.
Try and win every game game we play in the correct way.
That brings us our joy.
Forget the rest.
up over goal
That was well worth reading too.
TBB – superb.
Heard from someone who I trust implicitly that the Barron Knights ‘conditional’ bid is based on the ‘condition’ that ragers win the BTC.
Aye Really!
Oft oot – hope you all have a great Saturday knight.
HH
sparkleghirl,
their article will be more of the same, rehashed blg news written to make the offences look relatively trivial, like the bbc on friday night in england, big bad hector is picking on a great scottish institution who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Evening bhoys
Hope we are all well
HH
TBB fantastic thank you!
Listening to a few of “them” today they really are deluded they believe they are a going concern!!! Sometimes I despair today I just laughed! Gets them every time!
from SFA AGM of 7th June 2011, here are a good few of the questionable persons involved in the overall management of Scottish football…includin yer man Campbell Ogilvie
(feast of St John Ogilvie today, btw !)
http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff421/TopCorner1/SFA%20AGM%20-%20070611/
Great article Mr Bunnet, real eye opener.
C’mon the Hoops
very enjoyable to have in the background
http://www.spreaker.com/page#!/user/overandover/oao_radio_show_live_10_3_2012?autoplay=true
TBB
terrific article, thankyou
re this…
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
i was looking for some verification that it is infact the taxpayer who has the major holding in these banks nowadays…..i.e. the 70mill has been paid (for rfc) by the taxpayer ! is that the case ?
Ah Tom English promising significant news!
I wonder where he got it from?
CW – after all he has had several “sit downs” with the MBB
The Blue Knights of the KKK?
Paul Murray ? -perhaps TE might have asked him about all those second contracts that he knew about?
HMRC?
Media House?
Whatever this “news” is no doubt it will have been handed to our intrepid reporter
HH
Fantastic article TBB
Probably already been asked, but..
Would forcing Celtic to hand over a large percentage of their income be legal.
Im sure the shareholders would be wondering why the club is having to give millions of OUR money to our rivals.
Its abit like ASDA or Tesco giving the corner shop a large chunk of cash to help make a profit.
Maybe im missing something but i dont think if this law was past by the SPL that it would stand up in court.
Or am i wrong.
TBB
Hope you don’t have any aspirations in journalism in Scotland – ye’ve nae chance!
Lucid, succinct, balanced, well-researched and straight to the point – bet you went to the wrong school as well. Honesty is not any kind of policy in the MSM – more power to your elbow.
A purely personal opinion :
Most of the responses are currently based on conjecture, innuendo and suspicion. Perfectly understandable if you believe history (which do), PR (which I don’t) and you recognise the forces against us (which we all do).
Whatever the 10 minnows have in mind shall fail because they are going to lose their ace-card!
Rangers are imploding all on their own.
Tax cases – no chance of winning.
Breaches of regulations (any attempt by SFA to smooth over won’t get past UEFA)
Buyers – sellers? It’s Happy Hour for lawyers, none of whom are best served by a quick solution. Months? Years? During my lifetime?
A CVA (which wouldn’t matter anyway after a very few months)? About as much chance as NL and Sally swapping jobs.
Redistribution of wealth? Fair enough as long as the 10 minnows realise we are the only wealth/game in town.
Let them have their 15 minutes of fame (as they see it), don’t engage publicly and wait for them to stand there with their trousers down. They are doing a mini-Rangers – delusions of grandeur and power,
Then we negotiate – obviously with an olive branch, we are the good ghuys, after all.
Cheers
Alex
Remember volks…..
it’s ‘guid news weekend’ for the ranjurs…….
If you know of anyone having a party, then this is for them.
This group were just so ahead of their time!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40K2S0-5Xo0
How much is the Burns fight on box nation tonight folks??
The Battered Bunnet
Exceptional account of the disgraceful course that Rangers Football Club embarked on during the last 20 years and the possible consequences for Scottish Football. You have also offered suggestions for the future – a bright new vision, albeit with less financial resources around but one based on principles of fairness.
Outstanding work and a great read. Thank you.