I know we have all been keen for Uefa to take an active interest in Scottish football but you have to wonder if those in charge of the European game are aware that their foot soldiers are busy using informal media channels to influence opinion here, specifically about the Celtic manager. Hugh Dallas, one of Uefa’s most senior Referee Observers who was given the recent Barcelona- AC Milan match, one of the most prestigious games of the season, this week accused Neil Lennon is bullying referee Euan Norris.
The SFA are now compromised. They may want to act against Neil Lennon for his protests at Hampden on Sunday but find themselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to give Neil a fair hearing as a Uefa official has very publically prejudged him.
The SFA must protest to Uefa in the strongest possible terms about this inappropriate interference in our domestic game, as should you. I am sure we will soon hear a protest from Stewart Regan to this effect. We need to be able to operate our disciplinary procedures without processes being compromised in this way.
Bids for the original canvass painting of Neil Lennon by US based artist, Joseph Gormley, have hit an incredible £500. Keep an eye on the auction, which ends on Thursday, here.
Buy a hard copy of CQN Magazine, issue 7, by clicking on the button below. You can read online here.
205 Comments- Pages:
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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7355556521411143107
Hail Hail
You mean Blaking Bled? Sulery?
Neil Lennon, not the first and not the last
Having actually read through the thread, I see this (license application) has been discussed.
A very worthy addendum to this discussion, in my opinion, is the not insignificant matter of Uefa Solidarity payments, which amongst other criteria, attaches itself to correct application of licensing and financial governance.
Uefa clicky
scroll to page 11, section solidarity payments financed by national team football, part two, bullet point 2, indents 2 & 5.
DBBIA
DB’s warm up for Jim Davidson’s Sinderella show. 45 mins of theramin and jokes… Or is it theramin jokes? Or there might not be any jokes…
U
Paul67 – Dallas just couldn’t help himself, could he?
I am sure we will soon hear a protest from Stewart Regan to this effect.
I LOLed.
I’m sure Regan is far too busy on Twitter to get involved in this sort of thing. (thumbsup)
uly – the way ole Dick’s career is goin’ Jim will soon be warmin’ up for him.
Oh yes.
Dick’s decision to ditch his hippy dippy peace and love persona and get in touch with his inner Bernard Manning is goin’ to pay off big stylee.
Might have found a new league for Newco…
The bad news is that there will be no Lingerie Football League in the U.S. this year: spokesman Jim Wallin said today that the league will resume playing in April 2013 on a spring-summer playing schedule. According to the Associated Press, the hiatus will allow the league to expand the sport abroad and refocus as a warm-weather game.
Um, don’t they play indoors, in panties? It’s not like they’re playing at Soldier Field in the snow.
Anyway, there’s still some good news. LFL Canada is ready to go, and will begin playing games this fall. Plus, U.S. players will participate in a promotional “All Fantasy Tour”, which will start in Mexico City next month, followed by dates in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, and possibly cities in Asia later in the year. The LFL has announced that it will try and start an Australian league in 2013.
This isn’t totally unexpected, as the U.S. LFL moved back its 2011 season to the fall to try and take advantage of the NFL work stoppage. Starting it up again just a few months later was probably a little more than the structure of the league could bear.
LFL Canada will have four teams, each which will play an eight-game schedule. The BC Angels, based in Vancouver, will be joined by the Toronto Triumph, which moves over from the U.S. LFL. Two expansion franchises, in Saskatoon and Regina, Saskatchewan, round out the league.
No, sadly, there is no LFL team in Canada named the Beavers
Keevins says older generations won’t want a Celtic manager behaving like Lennon. He’s right, I’d rather like McNeil he punched a journalist
@CU
were is the worldwide fans of the huns.
Gordon_J – Does Ng translate as Whyte by any chance??
Bill Ng’s wealth is off the radar. Literally.
I hear he was inspired to buy Rangers by the 2001 Hong Kong action/comedy “Shaolin Soccer”.
He didn’t watch it all the way to the end, or he’d know that Team Evil eventually gets its comeuppance. (thumbsup)
The Singaporean consortium led by Bill Ng that is bidding for Rangers has denied that an agreement has been struck with Ticketus.
On Monday, Paul Murray’s Blue Knights said it was “stepping back” from the process because its bid could not match the deal Ticketus and Ng had struck.
“We have not agreed on any terms with Ticketus at the moment,” Ng told BBC Scotland.
A rival bid from American Bill Miller is being considered by administrators.
Ng added: “I do not want to speculate on the reasons of Blue Knights’ withdrawal but the apparent withdrawal from the bidding process by the Blue Knights means only that the chances of taking over increases for the two remaining bidders left in the process.”
He would not comment on reports suggesting his consortium has offered £14m and more immediate repayment terms to Ticketus, the firm who supplied Craig Whyte with funds to buy Rangers last May.
DBBIA
Well as this site is testament to – we all like a bit of blue humour now and again…
Which reminds me
There once was a chap called NG
Now, if only I could get the rest to scan…
U
Why not ask Davie Hay?
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on 17 April, 2012 at 11:14
Its guys like you I would want in the trenches with me
Shoulder To Shoulder We Stand
HH
bournesouprecipe on 17 April, 2012 at 13:16 said:
Keevins says older generations won’t want a Celtic manager behaving like Lennon. He’s right, I’d rather like McNeil he punched a journalist
@CU
+++++
Which reminds me: whatever happened to John Barnes (he of ‘I told you not to ask me that question **thump** at Tannadice Street’ fame)?
Tribute to the Blue Knights (Who Say “Nae Money”)
Brave Paul Murray ran away.
Bravely ran away away.
When Bill Ng reared his ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Paul Murray turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet,
He beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the braaaave, Paul Murray!
(thumbsup)
No matter what someone has to pay Ticketus at least £27 Million.
A spokesman for Ticketus said: “Discussions with both bids are ongoing and ultimately we are prepared to work with whichever bid the administrators think is best for the club.”
dirtymac
BBC
old news worth a repost
“Cheat’s Charter” controversy ended
Posted on April 13, 2012 by RevStu
From the Scottish Football Association rules on Club Licensing (specifically Part 3, Section 03 – The Club as Licence Applicant and the UEFA Licence). Emphasis ours.
“3.1.1 The Licence Applicant may only be a football club, that is the legal entity fully responsible for the football team participating in national and international competitions and which is the legal entity member of the Scottish Football Association (Full or Associate Member). The licence applicant is responsible for the fulfillment of the club licensing criteria. This membership must have been in place at the start of the licence season for a minimum period of three consecutive years.
[…]
3.3.1 UEFA Licence Awards for Scottish Premier League Clubs (SPL)
A Licence cannot be transferred from one legal entity to another.”
NB: “UEFA Licence” does not denote a licence to compete in UEFA competitions, which are governed by an entirely different set of criteria. As the SFA website explains:
“National Club Licensing applies to Scottish FA member clubs and UEFA Club Licensing applies to Scottish Premier League clubs.”
In other words, to play in the SPL you must have a UEFA Club Licence, regardless of whether you actually compete in UEFA competitions or not. (SFL clubs, who in normal circumstances wouldn’t be expected to qualify for European tournaments, are dealt with separately via an “extraordinary procedure” in the event that they do.)
So, should Rangers FC be subject to liquidation and then reborn as a “newco”, the new company would NOT be eligible for the licence required to play in the SPL, for at least three years. Furthermore, it is plainly and explicitly forbidden under SFA rules for such a licence to be transferred from one legal entity (Rangers FC) to another (New Rangers FC 2012). Well, that’s that all sorted out, then. As you were.
…
[Edited for clarity and latest versions of documentation, 13-4-2012]
[EDIT 17-4-2012: We rang the SFA yesterday, and they confirmed our interpretation of the rules above. Half an hour later they rang us back, sounding very nervous, and changed their line, stating that the UEFA Club Licence DID only apply to UEFA competitions, and only a National Club Licence was required to play in the SPL. Later that evening it was revealed that the Association is considering disbanding the SPL and SFL entirely and replacing them with a new National Football League. The SFA did not comment on the possible position of a newco Rangers in such a league.]
http://wingsland.podgamer.com/cheats-charter-controversy-ended/
Heh heh, stupid Dallas.
Just couldn’;t let it lie.
Just as well for him there’s no way that he can be incriminated by the mounting evidence against the Rankers Corruption Network.
The only charge this time can be that he has incompetently abused his position within UEFA to attack a manager, in an incompetent attempt to defend the incompetence of a referee who displays the same incompetence as he did himself. Incompetent is a word I’d associate with the MIB “legend” – amongst other things.
TTTT @ 13:04
Apologies – it was meant to be sectarian.
It doesn’t seem to matter who or what you are- as in the case of bigot Debbie ( you would think he was shamed enough not to be pointing fingers, like an octopus on the waltzers, at other people) they are thrown into the bigot fire like an accelerant…with no function other than raising the height of the flames.
Lenny is now a pantomime villian for the weak minded & hard of thinking. The sort of execration channeled at him is normally reserved for child murderers, war criminals, granny stompers…the worst kind of hell hounds & wretched rogues of pure degeneracy…you would think Lenny bled the lizard on the refs shoes…he showed honest emotion: aaahhh! He is the devil in a jumpsuit! A threat to law & order! The hardcore bigots act like old ladys in a gentile tearoom when someone drops a gas bomb & the weak sisters swoon in horror…get some perspective: it a passionate game full of whitehot emotion! If yae canni take the heat get oot the greenhouse rather than throw stones…
Fortunes Favour Mibbes on 17 April, 2012 at 13:28 said:
“Heh heh, stupid Dallas.”
Hehehe – gets me every time.
Fortunes Favour Mibbes on 17 April, 2012 at 13:28 said:
+++++
Legned is the word you’re looking for. Legned.
Paul 67
Re the criticism of NL by a senior UEFA official , if said official were simply to press the delete button, then surely that would erase the history of any criticism implied or otherwise -:)
We are the Knights who say ‘Ng’.
Or ask Billy McNeil
It was more Lacist.
BSR,
keep that list coming…..
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Fortunes Favour Mibbes – Just couldn’;t let it lie.
Yup.
Neil Lennon is like a thorn in the collective side of the Evil League of Evil.
They can’t help themselves from picking at it.
Most people who had been sacked from a high profile job after disgracing themselves in a high profile fashion, but who had somehow managed to keep a job in their industry, would be inclined to keep their heads down and mouth shut.
Dallas commenting on Neil Lennon is like Ron Atkinson popping up to lecture people on race relations.
Atkinson has more class and grace than Dallas – at least he apologised. (thumbsup)
Dontbrattbakkinanger – We are the Knights who say ‘Ng’.
That’s brilliant.
Damn you. ;) (thumbsup)
DEEKBHOY 1219 and 1221
I nipped out for two hours,and come back to find you’ve been using my hunnish laptop while I wis oot.
Bang out of order,bud.
I don’t mind you using the laptop,but you might have tidied up while you were round………….
dunno if anyone posted this
i will
brilliant reading
great work again
BRTH
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:
16/04/2012 at 2:37 pm
260 2 Rate This
Test
Good Morning,
RTC’s principal article highlights some very salient points. Similarly, Mr Graham Spiers’ article in yesterday’s Herald provides, at long last, a serious national article that points the gun at the wrongdoers in our game– both those who have played an active part in bringing about this unsavory mess, and those who have been, and who seek to be, passive perpetrators of manifest injustice and immorality.
A few days ago, Roddy Forsyth sat in a BBC Scotland studio, and spouted forth that what he deeply regretted was that throughout the last number of years, there has been an absence of business journalists who have seriously questioned the business activities of David Murray and his MIH group of companies. It was this gap in the journalistic world, claimed Roddy, that represented the real failure on the part of the 5th estate when it came to reflecting on the Rangers disaster. Yet still there is a great deal of focus on Craig Whyte and what should have been discovered about him at the very outset, and less about the readily available info on the demise of MIH. Only last week, the press pages rolled with the great news that MIH had made a profit– only for the likes of Douglas Fraser of the BBC to come back from holiday and go public with the real facts– basically that Sir David was talking utter rubbish, that no such profit had been made in real terms, and providing a clear marker that certain sections of the press at least are no longer prepared to tolerate the Murray myths.
I just wonder how many e-mails Roddy received from business journalists falling his claim that they have failed the Scottish Public over the years?
However, I believe that there is an ever greater bogey man who is yet to be revealed in this sorry affair. A Bogey man and a Baddy who may well yet make every single constituent member of Scottish Football sit up and take a long good look at themselves and everyone else in the game. Yip– a real Rank Badjin, who roamed through the land with Murray and others in their posse– but who were never around to face the Sheriff, the cowboys and even the guys from the ACME and Pickering Newspapers.
Let me introduce you to the concept of the jam in the sandwich. You know, the filler in between the two ends of the loaf, the bit in the middle trapped between the two ends!
Let’s start with certain, seemingly unrelated, facts.
David Murray “bought” Rangers in 1988 by effectively providing a guarantee to the Bank of Scotland in respect of the overdraft that had been run up by the previous regime under Lawrence Marloborough. Whatever way you want to look at it, Marlborough and the Lawrence family had spent money bringing in Souness and so on but were not prepared to go any further in terms of money. Nor would it appear were Bank of Scotland. Marlborough wanted out of town, but needed someone to take over the ranch– and at that time David Murray comes a wandering into town.
To get a hold of Rangers in the first place, it is said that Murray approached Gavin Masterton. Masterton at the time was a senior figure at Bank of Scotland with his specific sphere of influence being corporate lending. He later went on to become both Managing Director and Treasurer of BOS as a whole. The story goes that Masterton tossed a coin, and told David Murray that if the coin came up heads, then he would accept Murray’s guarantee and he could therefore take over Rangers. Until then BOS had a security over Rangers in return for £6M– now they had that and a Murray guarantee. No need to even part with the nominal £1!
David Murray replaces Marlborough, and starts on his spending spree that sees Rangers climb to new heights- literally. There was the redevelopment of Ibrox and the creation of the club deck with of course a massive use of steel which came from…. Murray International Metals! That company of course had to be paid for its product services and expertise– and so Bank of Scotland allowed Rangers to borrow and spend.. and borrow and spend… and borrow and spend………. and on it went.
Now, consider this, that at that point Murrays core business was open cast mining and metals- mostly steel. He sold the metals business in 2005 for the price of £112M after profits rose from £5.5Million to £21.9Million in the course of the immediately preceding fiscal year. The company was bought by an American consortium called Jeffries Capital Partners. At the same time, Murray closed two open cast mines in Lanarkshire making dozens of people redundant. The metals business and the mines represented about a third or more of his then business empire…. according to Sir David at the time. We will come to that phenominal rise in profits later. Yet by that time MIH had increased their borrowings to over £500Million pounds!
You do the maths!!!
In other words, Murray put no money into Rangers to buy it, the borrowing pre Murray (1988) was at a £6m level and was not getting higher and so something somewhere must have changed to justify the kind of borrowing that was definitely off the table for both Rangers and Murray pre 1988.
Before or After the date of acquisition of Rangers, Bank of Scotland came to fund every other club in the SPL as far as I know— including Celtic.
Murray, would come borrow phenominal sums from HBOS— borrowing of an extent and style which were just not to the taste of Lloyds when they came to take over the HBOS reins! I am told by someone in the know that when Lloyds took over HBOS,
Not long after the banks “merged”, I understand that Sir David Murray was told that Lloyds were taking immediate control of MIH, that no one in the Lloyds team could in any way fathom HOW Murray had ever been allowed to borrow what he had from HBOS, how certain facilities had been granted and finally that given other things that were going on in the bank, Sir David Murray could expect to hear from the Police as part of another matter!
We now know that David Murray has indeed heard from the Police!
Now, less than six years after Murray took control of Rangers,with a debt of £6m, and started to markedly increase their borrowing to improve a decrepit and non compliant stadium, The very bank that funded Murray, sought to liquidate Celtic with a debt of £5m and a stadium that was also in need of renovation and improvement. By this time, the justification for increased Rangers borrowing was the improvement of the stadium, the commercial use of adjacent office facilities, the extra income that brought, and the resulting ability to seemingly “afford” an ever better football team on the park! Yet, this supposedly successful business model was not to be encouraged when it came to Celtic by the very same bank! Now that is curious!
As was later proven by Fergus McCann, the improvement of that stadium did lead to an increase in revenue and safety in financial terms– as was supposedly proven by Murray to the same bank a few years before. Of course the first thing that Fergus did was to ditch HBOS.
Until 1990, Aberdeen Football Club worked without an overdraft with great success, and after Souness’ arrival at Ibrox Aberdeen were the nearest challengers to Rangers.
However, in 1990, Aberdeen had to go to the bank to upgrade Pittodrie to comply with the Taylor report. They went to HBOS who provided the funds to upgrade Pittodrie. Similarly with Dundee United as I understand it and many other clubs. The Bank of Scotland then really got its teeth into Scottish Football and would go on to have a huge influence in everything that happened within the game– that grip still exists to a certain extent to this day– although whether it is exercised in exactly the same way as it has in the past is yet to be seen.
In October 1990, Gavin Masterton is appointed Director of Dunfermiline Football Club– he is the longest serving Director of that football club, and he has remained a Director of that club long after he retired from Bank of Scotland in 2001. When he did retire from the Bank, Peter Burt, the main man at HBOS, paid tribute to him in the annual accounts of the bank as follows:
Finally, I must thank Gavin Masterton for his remarkable
contribution to the Bank over the past 44 years. In my opinion,
Gavin is the most CREATIVE and effective banker in the UK, a
view shared by many of those who have dealt with him. I have
learned much from Gavin and I am grateful for that knowledge
and his help and friendship since we started working closely
together more than twenty years ago.
Note the word “Creative”—- within 7 years the bank which described itself as the “efficient” goes bust!!
The Banks accounts for 2001 are here: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=bank%20of%20scotland%20accounts2001&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lloydsbankinggroup.com%2Fmedia%2Fpdfs%2Finvestors%2F2001%2F2001_BOS_R%26A.pdf&ei=Qj93T-VIiq_yA8DCvLwN&usg=AFQjCNH_3oOwv7injtZU4srEeO-ZYen3ig
When Masterton retires, he continues to be involved in both the bank and football, not only through Dunfermiline but also through Stadia, the company he formed with HBOS finance, to help clubs redevelop their tired stadia into moderm grounds complete with offices and ancilliary business opportunities—— all a la the Murray proven model– although of course by this time the idea has been underlined and proven to be a great success by wee Fergus.
However, by then, we get other clubs in crisis– possibly because by then, the very same Bank are putting the squeeze on the facilities that they have provided to these clubs in the past. The Thompsons have to take over Dundee Utd, Romanov comes to Hearts in 2005 after that club had sought a buyer for years ( remember much of the ground round Tynecastle has been bought up by Murray and the son of Wallace Mercer ) amidst never ending rumours that they will be forced to sell Tynecastle.
I invite others– the more Accountancy types among us- to look at the Corporate history of every other club in Scotland between 1990 and 2008– and compare the dates when they they all individually seemed to struggle for money– and how and what steps were taken to alleviate that financial pressure!
By 2001 Masterton,has started up the Stadia Business and is effectively repeating the exercise that Murray was allowed to complete at IIbrox re the rejuvenation of the stadia– he builds them for the clubs etc– and I just wonder where he gets the steel?????
Remember Murray sells the metals business in 2005 already owing HBOS over £500Million on the back of profits somehow jumping from £5m to almost £22m at the very time Stadia is at its pomp.
Wonder how that happened?
So look at this article from 2004, after Stadia, under control of the Bank “Guru” fails miserably and is threatened with winding up by HMRC for not paying its taxes? You will see some familiar names in there who just happen to be prominent once again today.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/masterton-continues-to-provide-cause-for-concern-1-1298971
Then consider this article from Ian Fraser- who is the leading journalist anywhere covering bank corruption whether that be HBOS or The Royal Bank.
Again there are some familiar names here but most importantly look at the date where the bank’s attitude hardens– June 2003.
http://www.ianfraser.org/keane%E2%80%99s-last-stand/
Celtic have just come back from Seville and of course lost the league on the last day when Rangers beat a Dunfermiline team who dropped their bags at the airport before heading on to Ibrox. Of course, a Director of the visiting team— Gavin Masterton.
RTC raises the spectre of events re the Rangers team that took to the field in 2005 against Hibs. Of course Celtic lost the league that day by not putting Motherwell to the sword– and it is the fault of the Celtic team on the day that they were not crowned Champions, but the point is that RTC is making it plain that the “figures” for that Rangers squad were gerrymandered in so far as contracts and taxes were concerned.
For years now, Ian Fraser has been reporting that certain figures surrounding businesses which were banked by Bank of Scotland, were also Gerrymnandered and are open to scrutiny and criticism. At the bottom of this post I link numerous articles on what has now come to be described as the policy of “Handshake” banking that was prevalent within the Bank of Scotland at the time. Just look at the major names in Scottish business who are mentioned in there — many of whom have now been contacted by the Police who are conducting a massive investigation into the activities of the Corporate Lending Sector of HBOS. This is the very section that was headed up by Gavin Masterton and later Peter Cummings, who was taught all he knows by Masterton, and who retired from the bank in his early 50′s with a lifetime pension of circa £9,000/week based on his “performance” as the Banker to Scotland’s business “names” such as David Murray.
The police investigation has recently been widened and benefits from increased manpower. The FSA are monitoring the position– badly in the eyes of sum.
However, most importantly, it is said that those within the bank used what would otherwise have been confidential financial information provided by their own customers, for their own benefit and to ensure that certain businesses remained either profitable for the bank, or that the business some businesses were deemed insolvent with the result that the favoured clients and executives within the banks made a profit out of the sale of assets belonging to HBOS customers whose businesses were pressured by the same bank!
The bank stand accused of such underhand dealing in court– where there is a class action by numerous Bank customers against the policies of the bank and its officials– which policy and practices are effectively the subject of criminal investigation.
Against this background, I pose the question when did the wheels come off the Bank of Scotland Bogie? When did the Corporate Lending section of the Bank of Scotland morph into an institution where the bank executives played fast and loose with moral and ethical business practices in order to maintian a bonus system based on their ability to be “CREATIVE” and gather an ever bigger lending book and relationship with the big businesses and players in the UK?
To what lengths– ( allegedly criminal and fraudulent lengths ) did the bank and its officials go to ensure that success was achieved, and as far as football was concerned, did they ever get to a position where they had lent out so much money to one particular club or its owner, that it became in the banks interests that they did everything they could to ensure the success of their chief borrower?
Remember Murray sells ( or is forced to sell ? ) MIM for £112MILLION – supposedly one third of his empire and yet his borrowing is a massive £500M at that point (2005)- but somehow within the next 3 years that borrowing is allowed to grow to over £750Million — something I repeat that Lloyds would have had no taste for!
Dunfermiline as you can see have had massive questions asked about how they support and sustain their overdraft- which hardly maches Rangers borrowing– but at the same time their borrowing is greater than Livingstone’s who have been forced to go to the wall as a result of…well… it would appear Masterton’s mismanagement of Stadia.
How does that work for one club, but not for another? By the way, today, Dunfermiline is effectively owned by a parent company and is financed by way of “soft” loans from The Directors and said parent company. Go on– you will never guess who owns the parent company……Did I hear you say Gavin Masterton?
Where is the rest of Scottish Football?
Celtic are Independent, but the rest are all, or have been, in hawk to the Bank of Scotland/Lloyds in varying, and possibly ever decreasing, levels.
In short, the Bank of Scotland have been all over Scottish Football– every aspect of it— for two decades or more and Where you get HBOS over that period you get– Masterton or Cummings– and where you get Masterton or Cummings you get Murray.
Ian Fraser has already highlighted the fact that the Corporate lending section of the Bank of Scotland is the subject of Britain’s biggest corporate fraud investigation. See his blog for repeated references to Operation Hornet and to his questioning the practices and integrity of the bank and its officials.
Where am I going with all this?
Well there comes a time when it is in the Bank of Scotland’s interest for Rangers to win and be successful. European Football is essential, as we know that not being top of the pile means lack of money and a shortfall and a reduction in the ability of Rangers/MIH/Murray to repay debt.
We also know ( without rushing to judgement ) that there are those within HBOS at this time who gained from squeezing HBOS clients, recovering assets, selling them to themselves or their favoured customers, and then sharing the uplift on resale with HBOS trusted partners. It is alleged that the benefactors of such practices included David Murray/Tom Hunter/Sir Philip Green/Rocco Forte and others. They have all been spoken to by the Police as part of Hornet apparently.
So, at some stage, did the Bank of Scotland squeeze the other clubs in Scottish Football– partly to recover monies but also to ensure one of their biggest clients with a football team had the greatest possible chance in the sporting arena and so maximise the money and the corporate solvency?
Did Rangers have the money to buy players from other clubs in Scotland and pay rediculous wages– Novo, Gow, Dodds ,Goram,Boyd,Webster,McCann, Whittaker, Naismith, Duncan Ferguson, Iain Ferguson,Kenny Miller whoever– strengthening the own squad– but at the same time weakening the league opposition? Didn’t matter if they ever played or not.
At some point, did Murray’s borrowing get so mental that it reached the stage that from the HBOS perspective it was essential that Rangers must win?
I recall being at a business meeting with some of those linked to certain recent goings on at Ibrox. Rangers were really in the ascendancy, right in the middle of 9 in a row, Celtic were poor also rans. But there was hope with Di canio, Cadete and van Hooydonk. A comment was made which I ignored at the time– which was that the corporate guys at Rangers were desperate for Celtic to win — something– even the league– but preferably the cup– because Rangers were so far ahead that the bears had stop coming, stopped spending and stopped throwing money at Ibrox. The borrowing was up and the income- despite on field success– was reducing– because there was no edge to the matches with Celtic because they were no real challenge.
But the bankers wanted money– and for there to be money there has to be rivalry between the big two. Whereas before HBOS wanted to put Celtic out of business, it was now the case that a challenge from Celtic at least was seen as essential to getting the Ibrox revenue up, and so help reduce or service bank debt.
We have always taken the view that there has been something not quite right about Scottish Football– many things in fact.
Now we know about Bain, EBT’s, double contracts, and oh so many other things. We also know that there are those who speak with some authority and who allege that the bank was rotten to the core.
In light of all this, what role has the Bank of Scotland played in Scottish Football over the period and are its hands clean?
Review of the various clubs accounts may well reveal certain bank debt patterns. Ian Fraser may well have a whistleblower somewhere- he has in the past— but if you sit back and think about it the advance of Rangers with bank debt and the decline of other previously successful teams with the same bank must have some correlation and connection.
See the articles linked below! Maybe these journalists are just nutters with access to a keyboard and the net like the rest of us on here. Or maybe, like the rest of us, Roddy Forsyth just doesn’t read the papers. But questions have been asked about the Murray model and its veracity etc, yet the football guys ahve just not picked it up!
The other clubs might just want to look at their own accounts over the years and their relationship with the bank at certain key moments in time.. and maybe give that a wee bit of a review. They might just descern a pattern of behaviour.
Then again– maybe I am just a paranoid tim?
http://www.ianfraser.org/a-little-bit-of-plains-speaking-from-lloyds-banking-group-would-be-in-order/
http://www.ianfraser.org/revealed-the-extent-of-peter-cummings-recklessness/
http://www.ianfraser.org/a-brief-history-of-halifax-bank-of-scotland/
http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/analysis/the-football-money-league-murray-group-s-decade-of-bank-borrowing-1.929567
http://www.ianfraser.org/keane-hits-out-at-bos-cover-up-former-treasurer-accused-in-livingston-collapse/
http://www.ianfraser.org/peter-cummings-aladdins-cave/
http://www.ianfraser.org/the-cosy-political-stitch-up-that-spelled-the-end-for-hbos/
http://www.ianfraser.org/as-horta-osorio-strives-to-reinvent-lloyds-will-he-remember-hboss-many-casualties/
http://www.ianfraser.org/i%e2%80%99m-still-in-the-game-says-murray/
http://www.ianfraser.org/i%e2%80%99m-still-in-the-game-says-murray/
http://www.ianfraser.org/lloyds-struggles-to-rationalise-cummingss-toxic-legacy/
http://www.ianfraser.org/key-murray-lieutenant-makes-exit-from-debt-laden-empire/
TTT
Ask Walter?
James Forrest is Neil Lennon! We are ALL Neil Lennon! on 17 April, 2012 at 12:27 said
Glad you caught that. I was always aware of UEFA FFP License was needed to play in Europe – unpaid wee tax case and all that – and I knew the principles applied to National Club Licensing where there is provsion to withold or refuse a license but not specifically stop it being transferred, but finding that UEFA Licensing applies for Scottish Competition means the much clearer and more extensive conditions and criteria can be applied to playing in the SPL. That made it impossible for the SFA to ignore the rules without UEFA approval. As I said I wonder if the UEFA License application Rangers made was just to test UEFA’s attitude?.
I still think that if they stopped faffing around and good Rangers supporters took the lead and had clean funding, they could set up Newco now and be placed in SPL2 if that structure could be quickly agreed.
It reminds me of the bank collapse when HBOS and Lloyds merged in emergency conditions. This is a football emergency and it is time the SFA stepped in and said here is what we are going to do.
SPL1 and 2,
Newco Start in SPL2, ( a must to meet sporting integrity, especially as it possibly reduces time out by a year and what a boost to SPL 2)
No UEFA money for three years. (If Ticketus are taking a bite so much the better for us)
Oldco stripped of at least 2003 and 2005 titles for financial advantage gained by EBTs and other titles if mis registration happened.
SFA also tell Newco that if TFS or TBBS is so much hummed at Ibrox (if that is where they play) they will face incremental penalties starting with fines which will hurt given they will be skint. Let hem know in advance the full conditions of entry and consequences of not adhering to them.
Oh and SFA will appoint Newco auditors who will have a duty to report to SFA independently.
They are always going to be around and will not be put down but we can set conditions to muzzle them and improve the game at the same time.
Dontbrattbakkinanger
Just spat my lunch out when I read that! Feckin hilarious. :)
Hi All,
I guess if you’re going to go off topic, you might as well go completely off piste. Scroll down to read the first customer review by Andrew.
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