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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The word Rangers will become synonymous to cheating. They’re finished and the SFA are teetering on the brink.
Stupid, dead Huns. Hehehe.
In fact I cant sleep, I want to dance a jig
obonfanti1888
I have had a season ticket for 28 years. During their 9iar i think i missed 3 away games, it was brutal for all of us.Retribution is what we want.Every last point.
Englishghirl1888 on 2 March, 2012 at 01:51
Exactly what I was saying; was there not a year under TB when we only lost 1 league game? Hell even Dr Jo only lost the league by 7 points (i think?)
You’ve got to wonder how many potentially illegally registered players Rangers have played throughout the years
I’ve always said I would be happy if they came back as a Newco as long as they began life in the 3rd division and if found to be cheating stripped of any trophy’s won.
Now…..Let them die!!
HiiiiHooooo
news like this makes me want to work in Scotland for a few days :OD))
stoopid huns
Fair play to the Mail getting the story out. We have known about this for a while through the posters on here Phil and RTC. The story was always there yet none of the Scottish press and by that I mean the homers wanted to touch it because they damn well knew the implications for Rangers and themselves
The genie is well and truly out of the bottle now and demands an investigation
We welcome the chase for the truth
Hail Hail
Ant to think Alex Samond changed the law to protect these people, his peepl bone of his bone, fly wi the craws, die wi the craws.
stupid huns ha ha ha ha hah
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on 2 March, 2012 at 01:59 said:
HiiiiHooooo
news like this makes me want to work in Scotland for a few days :OD))
stoopid huns
its days like this that makes me annoyed that i’m off work for a couple of days , but ill get the huns when i’m back in :)
Oban
Yes , I believe you are right. Sorry I meant to say I was responding to your anger to.
Tainted titles indeed, they are shameless! I hope their trophies and medals go up for auction and a rich Celtic supporter smelts them all.
I am sounding rather bitter now :-/
Thindimebhoy,
to be fairer, they did print it, they made it global in the world press, this will be hitting every news outlet in the world, a much bigger audience than timternet could ever hope for.
This is megga news in world sport, a big big light is now on the whole of Scottish society and how it deals with this and how it could let it happen.
stupid huns
night night and hail hail
stupid huns
TREASURY Secretary Danny Alexander will today warn stricken SPL giants Rangers not to expect an easy ride from taxman
“People who dodge taxes are on the same moral plane as benefits cheats,” he will tell his party’s conference in Inverness.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/rangers_administration_rangers_must_pay_the_tax_they_owe_1_2149417
Stick that in yer fabric of Scottish society pipe Alex and smoke it the big boys are talking now
Hail Hail
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
Aye when it gets to the quality papers you know the story will travel and yes its a huge huge story .Big enough to blast the cheats right out off the water for good and more importantly anyone on the outside who had any degree of sympathy for their plight will leave the ship like rats
Yep its their end game now thats for sure
Hail Hail
Night bhoys,tick tock hun lurkers,be afraid be very afraid
hughadamcsc
If I have said it once,I have said it one thousand times before – That Title belongs to Tommy Burns…Tommy Burns won it,fair and square.
They were at it,same as they always were…up to every trick in the books…cheats and criminals…liars & spivs.And all over what? A game of football,a game that they had to “win”,by all and by any means necessary.Just so they could get one over on the inferior “Fenians”.
Any sympathy that I had for them is gone.See that’s my problem,I am not Tommy Burns…Grace?…Humility? That’s TB.Think back,put yourselves in Tommy’s place,how he carried himself,how graceful he was.Tommy gave credit,and he gave credit to Goram(of all people).They broke Tommy’s heart,but they never broke his spirit.
And deep down,Tommy knew they cheated and lied…but he stayed righteous,in spite of them…and the bold Tommy Burns forgave them.
I wish that I could be more like Tommy Burns was.
I will be kind to Walter Smith.
Walter Smith was pragmatic,the ends always justified the means…win at all costs,and I dare say that Smith was ruthless.
That’s Tommy Burns speaking,not me.
Walter Smith was a cheat.Walter Smith was complicit,any privy to it all.Walter Smith knew the score.
Sixteenroads…
Correctomondo my friend I wish we could all be more like Tommy.
Revenge is negative and destructive, we need to keep some dignity here or else the charge of,”They are both as bad as each other” becomes valid.
HH
Not saying that Jelly and ice cream wae wafers and hunners aw sprinkles is wrong either mind ye…
…once the house of cards begins to topple, everything comes out…
Figure I’ll post this again for the lads who will be waking up in a few hours.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2109018/Rangers-accused-misleading-SFA-secret-deals.html?ITO=1490
smith, eck, mcoist have all known about these contracts, you cannot be manager or player for that long and not have known, its inconcievable that they did not know, i have detested rangers as far as i can remember and you know what
i am 100% right and vindicated in doing so they are a disgusting club that has been sectarian for most of its life,and now they have been openly shown to be nothing but a shower of cheats aided and abetted by a perverse bunch of lamb fed poodles
that have the audacity to describe themselves as journalists who even now with all
thats coming out still defend them, worse still are actually trying to do all they can to save them from recieving the justice that is due them for cheating the public of their due taxes, and for completely disgracing the integrity of the national sport,
churnalists are nothing but the political wing of rangers [in administration] fc.
…I just hope that once everything has been revealed, those who have accurately reported on these things over the last months and years receive due praise…this will obviously exclude the laptop loyal…
Sensational stuff, a coup, youse Daily Mail guys.
One of their own, Hugh Adam, a man who helped build Rangers, speaks out again.
And this is a prophet who warned them against Murray’s excess.
“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.’ ”
Wow and superwow, a gamechanger.
Just when ye thought it was all going quiet for a bit.
Unignorable for the MSM I would imagine.
Wonderful.
pigalle
Sixteen roads to Golgotha on 2 March, 2012 at 02:29.
Well said.
Your heart is in the right place.
…next to “the Big Hoose” and “Explaining Debt to a Hun”…this is a favourite…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=NRVaLs4cBlg&NR=1
I think Walter Smith Knew
Nice to see this go out on what is officially the most frequently accessed newspaper website on the planet.
Well done, Daily Mail online.
… and well done John McGarry, whoever you are.
Going where cowards like Traynor & his ilk would not dare or care to tread.
You always wondered through their 9,how can they afford this?
Murray must be funding this,the numbers just never added up.
Well now its as plain as the hair missing from my head.
They were cheating,plain and simple.
Hope that this goes to the absolute top of football governance,these people have been blatantly disregarding the rules that each and every other club in european football has adhered to.
The scary thing is if you can get a Hun to discuss this with you,they honestly think they did no wrong.
Let them die.
Yep Baldybhoy, they not only think they did no wrong but that everyone else is in the wrong to question or comment on their cheating & chicanery.
Huns genuinely seem to believe that the rules are for others ‘cos they are “ra peepul” and therefore if any rule or normal decent standard is getting in their way it must naturally be circumvented or ignored, while of course being rigidly imposed on those others who are no “ra peepul.”
James Forrest summarised the mindset pretty well in his post a bit earlier on this thread. (page 11, at 20.47)
Herald
as if Aberdeen’s injury list weren’t damaging enough to their prospects of ending Celtic’s 17-match winning run in the league, Craig Brown believes the Parkhead side possess one of the most intelligent and tactically astute managers in Scottish football, a man who has shown strength in the face of adversity
Yesterday,Levein flatters wee Forrest.
Today Brown.
Where were you ,Craig,when Lenny could have done with a bit of solidarity?
Crawlers and hypocrites.
The new ,and old,face of Jockbaw.
…while the big hoose comes tumbling down…and more and more revelations come out of Ibrox…here’s a wee change of pace…talk about wanting to bury your head…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw9eS-jUqo8
I have to be honest and admit that every time I heard Celtic people demanding that, if found guilty of misusing EBTs, Rangers should be stripped of titles, I felt it was a step too far and that it was just a case of trying to rewrite history for the sake of it.
However, after reading of the latest revelations from Hugh Adam, I have changed my mind. They knew what they were doing and they did it with breathtaking arrogance and were laughing at us and the rest of Scottish Football in the process.
Strip them of every Cup and Championship since 2000 at least.
.
Larky Celt on 2 March, 2012 at 03:39 said:
I think Walter Smith Kn*w
.
Sorry Mate..I Don’t think THAT Term should be Anywhere Near a Celtic Site..
Hail Hail
Summa
The big hoose doors are wide open
And that is the bottom line.
Hard to pick 11 players that it would be good to see out the door there. Would be happy to see Naibalance hobble out the door first.
The biggest Story in the History of the Scottish game………..
and there’s nobody in to talk about it :-)
…the snowball started rolling down the hill…now it’s getting bigger and moving faster…this scandal has moved beyond simply living above your means to tax evasion and now out and out cheating…not only are the rats abandoning ship but some are turning on the master…sensational stuff…long overdue…a slow and painful death so it is…
Hail Hail!