It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Craig Whyte would not have expected Champions League football when he worked on the deal to buy Rangers last spring, but, by his own admission, income from the Europa League group stage was in the budget.
Winning the league came as a surprise late in the process and may have fuelled some summer transfer bids but income was about to fall well below expectations. Ally McCoist won only one game in four cup competitions, against Arbroath, season ticket sales didn’t bounce and with no serious income streams open, Rangers were set for a seriously low income season.
In addition, the injury to Steven Naismith robbed Rangers of what I understand would have been a £5m sale in January.
People have tried to assert that Whyte’s plan for Rangers was to liquidate the company all along, this is clearly not the case. Rangers were moribund while the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) was yet to report but Whyte planned to run the company, without reverting to administration until and perhaps beyond then.
As well as having to deal with the income shocks resulting from multiple on-field failures, Rangers were hit with an expenditure shock. The FTT was delayed from November to January. If it had proceeded as planned in November it would have reported in January. The delay was crucial, Rangers were going to spend a lot more money before the verdict was announced.
If the verdict arrived as expected in January, and Rangers won, it was game on. They would have been in a position to borrow like any other club and could have raised fresh share capital. There would have been no administration. This was the preferred outcome, Whyte would have emerged with his reputation intact and with a valuable football franchise for the outlay of exactly £1.
If they lost, Whyte could have presented a fait-accompli to the world.
He could have explained to the Rangers support that the total tax liability was “likely to be around £75m” and that there was no point putting fresh investment into a black hole, which was inevitably going to lead to liquidation – all for misdemeanours that occurred before his time. The support would have been distressed at the death of their history, but, crucially, they would not have blamed Whyte, whose reputation would still be intact.
He would immediately have applied for the 10 day grace period to consider appointing an administrator and used that time to tell the SPL and SFA that he could re-emerge with Newco FC within days and allow the league programme to complete as normal. He had security over the stadium, would be in a position to re-employ the players and would be able to honour financial commitments to other clubs, while securing the television and sponsorship contracts.
Public sympathy would have been behind him, Sir David Murray would have carried the blame (perhaps correctly) and I believe only Celtic would have voted against him. Newco would have been back in the SPL and, if the Daily Record’s reporting of Whyte’s thoughts on penalties are anything to go by, he expected to be docked a comfortable 25 points.
HMRC forcing Rangers into administration this month created enormous problems. Administrators Duff and Phelps are now in control and opened the club’s finances up to scrutiny.
As soon as it became evident that he securitised season ticket money from future years, three days after buying the club, placing the money into his own bank account, not that of the football club, Craig Whyte’s methods were subject to derision and outright disgust from many angles, most importantly from the Rangers support.
As things stand, Whyte cannot slip away. He has to stand with Ticketus, who will hold a security on Ibrox through one of Whyte’s companies, and he stands to gain an enormous amount of money for a year’s hard work. Ticketus are also in for the long haul, they have coughed up over £20m and will need a sizeable commercial return.
Many observers have noted that this has not progressed as a normal administration. It’s not a normal administration. The secured creditors (Craig Whyte and Ticketus) need to sell a lot of tickets beyond administration, either as Rangers, if they are successful in the FTT, or as Newco, if they lose the FTT. Selling a lot of tickets is a really tough challenge right now and will be made considerably more difficult if there are swingeing cuts made to the club staff and infrastructure now. Their interests are considerably best served by keeping Rangers as buoyant as possible.
Even if they manage to feed enough cash to the administrators to keep Rangers playing football until the verdict is delivered, the opportunity to present the league with a fait-accompli has gone. Everyone expects Rangers to fold and will have been busy working on a contingency plan.
Any goodwill that Whyte hoped to harvest has also gone, he is seen as a pariah, without friends within the game, in the political world, the media or the Rangers support. When he looks to build a consensus, there will be no advocates for his position. Quite the opposite, people want rid of him.
The on-going police enquiry and his interesting relationships with the Insolvency Service and HMRC will only cloud matters further. For all the bluster on these subjects, no one has been able to explain to me any illegal activities, in fact, most of the illegal activity he has been accused of are either perfectly legal or simply did not take place as described, but there is enough potential in this mix for many years of civil legal challenge, if not more serious issues.
Whyte and Ticketus now have decisions to make on how much extra skin to invest. Ticketus are in the game for a lot of money already and will be keen to protect their cash. It remains to be seen how much cash Whyte has in the client account at Collyer Bristow, but it’s clear that between them, Ticketus and Whyte were prepared to guarantee the administrators full wages and costs for the club for February.
The fact that the tap has been turned on 100% for the last two weeks suggests they have enough cash to run at a lower percentage for a while yet. Duff and Phelps will know how much money is available and will have an expected date for the verdict. It would be enormously bad judgement if they exhausted cash reserves before the verdict arrived.
As long as Ticketus investors hold their nerve, and the police don’t spike the process, Rangers will survive until the verdict. If they lose the verdict, and all expectations are that they will, what are we looking at?
As I said above, Whyte’s chance of presenting a fait-accompli has gone. He would need to go for a prepack liquidation but there are likely to be legal challenges to him making off with the assets of Rangers. At best, this would delay him for anything between weeks and years. Any police involvement would make matters even more difficult. If a negative verdict is delivered anytime soon, Rangers will cease.
Even if this happens, Whyte will still owe Ticketus a lot of money and will try to phoenix as a Newco. He will have the stadium and will be in pole position to apply for membership to the SPL or Scottish Football League.
A route back into the SPL in these circumstances would be difficult to achieve. The SPL board have the authority to accept a club into the league but I hear it is likely that, due to the importance of the matter, they would refer the decision to a vote of the entire league. Back in October I thought the fait-accompli was certain to be voted into the SPL, now I can’t see a Newco being voted in.
You would expect an application into the Scottish Football League to be accepted but there may be a rival bid. The ‘Blue Knights’ bid would not include Ibrox but have a number of options. They could ask to rent Hampden or Firhill, or could adopt a struggling lower league club, like Clyde. These notions are likely to be progressed but establishing a new club, without players or a stadium, would be an enormous challenge.
All of this would play out against a great deal of uncertainty. Whyte’s ability to sell tickets to Rangers fans must be in doubt. If a rival club wanted back into Ibrox in the future they would need to give the ultimate floating charge holder – Ticketus – the same kind of return Whyte has committed to. There is also the possibility of a lot more to come out about the old regime at Rangers, some of whom are behind the Blue Knights bid.
Even if someone gets a phoenix off the ground at Ibrox, keeping it alive will be difficult. The cost of running football games there every second week is considerable. Doing so, while repaying Ticketus, and competing against lower league (or SPL) opposition, will cut any football budget to levels not known in 30 years.
For now, everyone connected with Rangers needs to make confident noises but even if they die, their ghost is already in enormous peril.
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jude2005
in fairness.. the wee woman in the pie stall did look a lot like Craig Whyte,,, :-)
I’d take aluko too…
As long as he pays his own wages
jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ on 2 March, 2012 at 00:04 said:
huns bitter and twisted kit man!
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. the Singing Detective.
Hiya, pally?
Nice Nod ye gave me..
Appreciate it.. and Awe that Guid Stuff..
Talking aboot. . An Alpha Dug.. well.. those Two Woids.. Alpha and Dug.. remind me .. of something.
and they Mak a Nice Segue..Tae the Story Ah am aboot tae Relate,tae ye…or.. should that be a nice Non Sequitur?
Tae,hell wi’ it!.. It’ll Be Wan or the Ither.. anywey.. That’s Fur sure!
Dae ye Remember.. Alf Alfa?
Ye know he wiz the Wee Lad.. Wi the Froggy sounding Voice..
He wiz a Member o the Wee Rascals..
or.. mebbe, ye hiv nevah hoid o the Guy…
Anyway.. Pressing oan , regardless..
His Real Name wiz Carl Switzer.. and he lived in the Apt. next tae Mine.. when Ah wiz doing the Roons in Hollywood.. a Guid few Years ago..
Me and Carl used tae Pal up.. and Share oor Money.. in order tae.. well.. Survive..
As ye know.. or.. mebbe Ye dinna..
Carl had Long ago.. used up awe his Childhood Movie Earnings ,which he hiv made.. as a … well…. Child Actor.. when he wiz a Prominent Member o the Little Rascals..
When Ah met him.. he wiz Awe washed Up.. as they say…that is….. as far, as making any money as an Actor, he wiz.
And Me??.. at that time..Aj Wiz a Young eager Tyro. at the Game.. and didnae hae any money,eethur.. so we made quite a pair.
The Little Rascals wiz a Name Adopted in the Fifties.. It wiz aboot the adventures of a Group of Kids.. aged aroon aboot.. Seven or Eight years old.. It has previously bin known , when that Particular Franchise started… as The “Our Gang” in the Twenties. but, by the Fifties..it became known as .. The Little Rascals… wi… Spanky, and Alf Alfa.. and Jackie Cooper, who played the Tough Kid.. and Darla Hood.. who played the only Girl in the cast..and Robert Blake.. Buckwheat.. et al.
Enuff , Backgrun..
Anywey , Ah knew Carl , when he wiz awe grown up..and everything.. He musta bin aroon aboot in his Late Twenties..
Noo.. as ye may know or no know..
Carl, wiz .. Shot tae Death..
some say he wiz Murdered…however..me? ,who knew him pretty weel.. Ah say…
He wiz Simply.. Shot tae Death..
Tthe Guy,who did it. wiz a real.. Tough Cookie..though..
Ah met him a coupla times.. He wiz some sort o’ Bodyguard.. tae “Crash” Corrigan..the auld Cowboy star..
Look, Ah dinna want tae go into awe the Ins and Oots o’ this Story..as It is a Long. but, interesting one. so, Ah wull get tae Me point.. aboot.. The Dug.
Anyway.. tae cut a Long story short.. Wan day.. Carl said tae me.
Say, kid.. hiv ye ever bin oan a Bear Hunt..?
Me? A Bear Hunt wiz aboot the Least o Ma Thoughts.. but, Carl.. who wiz a bit Scrambled in the Heid.. because of Years or Drugs and whitnot.. Used tae always come up wi. Crazy ideas..
So Ah jist took this unexpected Question ,in ma Stride..
and replied.. “No, I hiv nevah bin oan a Bear Hunt.
Acting like a Cool Young Dude.. which.. Ah guess Ah wiz ,at that time.. or.. at least .. Ah thought Ah wiz!
Ah suppose,,that wiz Why Ah liked tae Pal, aroon wi him…
He is Big Character.. as the Say in the biz.. he wiz .. a Real. “HOOT”.
Anyway.. tae hurry up ,and reach the point o ma tale..
Carl and Me and Rosey.. and Pearl, all decided tae go. Bear Huntin’
However,there wiz a Fly in the Ointment..
Fur we wur told that Ye jist canny go oot intae the Wids..and
start looking aboot.. fur a Bear. tae shoot..
Na..we wir told that we Needed .. a Dug.. and No jist any Dug kinda Dug.. but, we Hid tae hiv a HOUND.. A Tracker..wiz the term that wiz used..
Anyway..Carl, wiz friendly wi’ “Crash”, jist like Ah said.. and “Crash”
Happened tae Hiv a .. Hound.. A Tracker.. So…
Carl Borrowed the Hound.. and Aff we went intae the Forrest o Northern Calif…
Armed fur Bear.. as they say..
When we goat intae the Forrest.. we set the Hound free…
It stood aroon fur a few minutes.. sniffiin.. here and There..
suddenly,WE Spotted a Huge .. Well.It Looked tae me Like a Grizzly.. but, they say that it musta bin a Broon Bear..
And it hidcome Loping Nonchalantly… oot fae a Bunch o’ Bushes..
Nevertheless..it Stoapped dead in it’s Tracts..
It took wan look at us.. and we took wan look at it.. and the Dug, also took wan look at the Bear.. and The Three Parties.. The Dug, The Bear..and Us..
Carl, Rosy, Pearl, and Me.. well..
Scattered.. like a bunch o Kids.. Picking up the Pennies that hid bin .. well. Scattered by at a Wedding Party.leaving the Church.
We awe Ran.. in Three Different directions..
It awe Happened in a Flash!
When we stoapped running.. There wus Nae sign o’ the Bear.. or.. The Hound.. We found that we wur awe alone in the Forrest…
Nae Bear,, Nae Hound.. Just us.
Well.. Carl said.. Whether we liked it or no.. we hid tae go noo.. Not oan a Bear Hunt..
and tae tell ye the Truth.. we hid sorta loast oor appetite fur Bear Hunting.. seeing, a Big Hulking Furry Brute. awe Fangs and Claws.. comeamblin towards ye.. wull dae that . every time, tae ye..
No. Carl said..
Noo, we gotta go oan a Hound Hunt..as The Hound belonged tae
“Crash”.
who hid goat it as a gift fae.. Roy Rogers.. and it wiz Considered tae be a Prized and very Valuable.. Bear Hunter
well.. that reputation.. didnae quite Gee. with the way that That Hound Took aff. when it wiz confronted by it’s Quarry..
Nonetheless.. aff we went…seaching high and Low.. shouting things.. like.. “Here Doggie.. .Where ur ye Dug?
and so forth..
Of course..as ye might expect..
It turned oot tae be a waste of time..
Fur that Prized Dug.. hid done a Real.. Elky.. it wiz Gone, Gone..
and Mair Gone!
and funnily , enuff.. so wiz the Bear.
We couldnae track eethur o they Two..
So we gave up.. and went back tae oor Tent.
Tae be continued….
Sorry aboot that,pally… but something came up..
If ye wanta here the Rest of the Story..
Let me know.. the next time ye ur oan here.
Kojo
yer pal..who thinks ye are a Real fine Gent.
Gotta Rush..
Good Night Scotland
Good Night Ireland
Good Night Wales
Good Night England
Good Night Canada
Good Night New Zealand
Good Night Australia
and
Good Night.. Patrick Gilmartin Jnr. wherevr you are
Kojo
Art of War on 1 March, 2012 at 23:42 said:
AN ODE TO CQN
.
Apparently St Stivs has had too much cake.
HH
AoW
ps. no one was injured in writing that p*sh!
—————-
very good ,
too much cake
jelly
ice cream
and my jaw and ribs are sore from real belly laffs.
keep it lit. well done
THE EXILED TIM on 1 March, 2012 at 20:12 said:
http://soundcloud.com/celticresearch/traynor-lawwell-liar/s-GBIcv
Jabba calling PL a liar
====================
Thanks for that, ET, just catching up.
Is Traynor a mescaline abuser?
Quite idiotic and nonsensical guff spilling from his limpet-lips, obviously seeking another glib lamb-masticator to homo-eroticise but feeling the full force of Lawwell’s distaste for his rotundish charmless charms like some vengeful rebuked teen.
Gibbering clown.
Oh that Jimmy bell????
Kojo. Ok if I read that on Saturday? JeeZUZZZZZ man!!
Kojo on 2 March, 2012 at 00:08 said:
=================
Goddamn! Continue, Kojo. Great story.
Well,if Whytie has sold the copyright of the R*nkers brand,they’ll be needing a new badge..
The new one should incorporate a green smiley octopus,with tentacles reaching down to entwine and embrace the new crest….
And a new motto….Nisi Hector Frustra.
…Without Hector,We Are Nothing..
Jimmy Bell? Someone mentioned Jimmy Bell? Oh, THAT Jimmy Bell…
http://i42.tinypic.com/1y0f4j.jpg
Night All
God Bless Glasgow Celtic!!!!
Jimmy Bell is a kit man
Straight to Hell for that shit man
pigalle
Kojo…anither unfinished story…
We haven’t heard the conclusion of the one where you and Lou were scouting Boise,Idaho,for a chapel,on yer first trip to those pairts…
Sounded suspiciously like the plot from one of the episodes of The Rockford Files(Series 3 ?)….
Am I right,or am I right….?
Goodnight Antifa,no reading under the bed-sheets on a school night….
Hi all.
Where is SSM’s open letter on the Record Website? When I search for it on the site I find the link but am directed to a pmirror page telling me that the page has been moved or deleted.
Am I doing something wrng or have the Record decided to go toe to toe?
Hail Hail.
thebhoywithmcgraininhisside on 2 March, 2012 at 00:32 said:
If you listen to the link posted earlier, Traynor accusing Lawwell of lying over verbal agreement.
There’s no other major stories happening in Scottish football just now so Traynor has to run with this one…CGAF what he thinks or writes.
someone highlighted to play rangers bingo but not sure of the rules.assuming like Ibrox it will not be a full house and therefore a single line of either 8 or 11 and we shout The Big hoose rather than House.
James Forrest
No lessons have been learned.
For the club to be saved – for the club to be worth saving – this is what has to change.
I see no sign of that happening.
True.
So very true.
Do Rangers fans have any equivalent to CQN ?
No.
They are not even close.
This tells us something big, proves something big about their “difference”.
And this is why they’ll go down the toilet.
The simple fact is that they don’t know what to do.
Will they ever know what to do ?
pigalle
mic1888 on 2 March, 2012 at 00:40 said:
Cheers mic1888, I listened to the clip earlier, he’sso much of an ass that even chico time has a laugh.
But my understanding was that Lawell’s letter was to be published on the dr website and the paper. I can’t find it on the website, but the link says it was posted 8 hrs ago. It’s just not there now. See below
http://tiny.cc/nef4s
Does this mean that the dr want to take Lawell on? Either way today should be an interesting day.
Hail Hail.
I’ve just reduced the screen to 75%. Looks much better and much less Janet and John. 50 year olds will know what I mean.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2109018/Rangers-accused-misleading-SFA-secret-deals.html?ITO=1490
T.S.D.
Sine,not nisi.
Ferulas for you,boy.
On yersel Shuggy!
RasperrySauce
yossarian67 on 2 March, 2012 at 00:57
What a can of worms…this whole thing is the gift that keeps giving.
Like the nod to “Pirate Radio” (radio stations on ships)…a great soundtrack…
Hail Hail!
Mid-ninties?
15 in a row?
Campbell Ogilvie should be stepping down from his SFA position in the time-honoured fashion of scandal-hit public figures, “to allow due process, to clear his name, to allow the SFA to continue to function etc.”
The Hugh Adam stuff in the Mail is very damning, and serves to confirm what Auldheid and others have been saying for ages now.
Mr Ogilvie has a case to answer.
if what Hugh Adam says is indeed true (and I think we all know it is), Rangers should go down as the biggest cheats in football history.
Stripping them of titles won’t just be something that should be done, it becomes something that MUST be done for the integrity of the game.
ajaxbhoy on 2 March, 2012 at 01:08 said:
the end is nigh , you reap what you sow :)
A new twist in Rangers controversy: Club accused of misleading SFA on secret deals
By John Mcgarry The Mail
Rangers stand accused of failing to properly register players after a former director revealed secretive payments had been consistently excluded from contracts lodged with the SFA.
The embattled Ibrox club are awaiting the outcome of the First Tier Tax Tribunal which will determine the legality or otherwise of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs).
Regardless of whether Rangers are hit with an additional bill of £49million from the so-called ‘big tax case’, it appears such payments were kept ‘off the books’ – in direct contravention of SFA registration rules.
Former Ibrox director Hugh Adam, who had a 30-year association with the club until 2002, has told Sportsmail that the club’s directors were aware of the arrangement – one he believes could have started as early as the mid-1990s.
‘They weren’t included in the contracts. They definitely weren’t. That was the whole point of them,’ he said. ‘If they’d been included in the contracts, they would have had to have paid tax on them.
‘I don’t think a lot of the other directors knew an awful lot about it. David Murray kept everything to himself.
‘The directors just wanted to sit in the directors’ box. That’s all. When I was on the board, I knew all about them.
‘I just didn’t know the details of them. They became accepted. ‘The revenue were seriously challenging them at that point when I was a director.
‘People never really asked serious questions about them. “It’s perfectly legal” was what they thought.
‘It wasn’t happening in Britain, so had nothing to do with Britain. All the directors heard about them but didn’t take them seriously because they didn’t appear in the books.’
Adam’s revelation suggests a clear breach of the SFA rulebook – and is a potential embarrassment to current SFA president Campbell Ogilvie, who had a 27-year association with Rangers, many of them spent as secretary.
The SFA rule on registration states: ‘All payments made to a player relating to his playing activities must be clearly recorded upon the relevant contract and/or agreement.
‘No payment for his playing activities may be made to the player through a third party.’
Adam, the man who funded the redevelopment of Ibrox through Rangers pools, believes payments into discretionary trusts may have gone on well before the turn of the millennium.
It’s understood the ‘big tax case’ relates to EBT payments from 2000 until 2009 but, when questioned if he heard of similar payments in the mid- 1990s, Adam confirmed: ‘Without having any specialist knowledge, I’m pretty sure.
‘People didn’t want to know about them. There was a lot of that (EBTs) going on at the time (I was there).
‘You knew it was cheating but some of them not only hoped but believed it was above board. ‘It’s this thing that when something happens it has to have a beginning and an end, but that wasn’t the case with the overseas things.
‘It was just something that crept up. It was considered important but not crucial. The fans didn’t give a damn one way or another. You could argue that they knew about it but didn’t think it was important.
‘Maybe they never thought it was as much as it really was. And maybe it wasn’t. I don’t know if you remember radio stations from ships.
‘I don’t think they were making a fortune but they weren’t costing a lot of money, so no one bothered.
‘When I was asked for my opinion on the way the club had been run, I said it was quite obvious how it had got into trouble.’They were doing things they shouldn’t have been doing.
‘They (EBTs) were always regarded in my time as a bit of a joke. They were getting away with it but nobody really thought they’d get away wi th i t forever. ‘
It would be an offshore trust – almost like a boat. You could dodge your taxes that way. It wasn’t something that you picked up the paper and read about. It was one at a time then grew on a gradual basis.
‘The players were very naive. Few of them were the Brain of Britain, of course. If they get the money, they don’t give a damn where it’s coming from.’
The Hugh Adam stuff is devastating for der hun and he knows where the bodies are buried.This guy has a serious axe to grind with more to come.My wish when the fan was hit, was to get the huns 9iar wiped out.I can feel another jelly and ice cream moment coming up.
I just received this from the WH, and thought CW could try this:
Friend —
You probably don’t know Janet from Accokeek, Maryland.
But you two could be having dinner with President Obama together sometime soon.
Janet was the first guest selected for the next Dinner with Barack. And we’re counting down the hours until we draw the next name.
The second seat could be yours — you’ll be automatically entered when you donate $3 or whatever you can today.
Janet told us that when she donated $25 last week she was just trying to show her support for the President.
No one ever thinks they’ll be picked until they are.
Take the chance. Chip in $3 or more today to be automatically entered:
https://donate.barackobama.com/The-Second-Guest
Thanks,
Julianna
Julianna Smoot
Deputy Campaign Manager
Obama for America
Finnharp
Hail Hail
With the Hugh Adam article, the gloating we’ve all been reveling in is really becoming outright anger for me: to think we’ve been watching a crooked competition for who knows, 10, 15, 20 years!!?? and we STILL managed to win 6 titles from 2000-2010 despite Rangers cheating.
If it goes back to the 9IAR years, then it just sickens me to think that even when they were at their most arrogant and we at our lowest that they might have been cheating; all that young hearbreak seeing us come closer and closer to stopping the 9 only to fail; this truly has the potential to be a national sporting scandal.
And we’re supposed to want this club to stay alive!!??
obonfanti1888 on 2 March, 2012 at 01:37 said
BUSTED big time
Game over. ….the cheats have lost
Hugh Adam (a honest man among crooks) the guy who told them years ago their club was heading for ruination has dropped a nuclear bomb a bomb that was waiting to fall from the sky and cause Gersmageddon
Now someone tell that thick eejit Hateley thats what you call tainted
Dominoes anyone?
I’m chappin
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2109018/Rangers-accused-misleading-SFA-secret-deals.html?ITO=1490
HH
yossarian67,
YEEEEEHAAA, cheers for that, the lid is well and truely off the can of worms, this is what we have been waiting for, watch them turn on each other.
Plod next, if serious criminal investigation must be the next step, they are admitting to organised crime here, fraud at corporate level.
£Millions stolen.
Oh you’ve made my night I will sleep happy tonight, thank you
hail hail
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on 2 March, 2012 at 01:49 said:
the civil war has started , jelly anyone……………
To think that this could have happened when Tommy Burns was managing, not to mention subsequent years; it is absolutely maddening! I loved watching Tommy’s team play and always thought he was really unlucky. We can now see it’s not that he was unlucky at all!!