Walter Smith was not named by BBC’s Mark Daly as a recipient of an Employee Benefit Trust in the recent documentary, however, before this matter is put to bed I expect more names to emerge. As soon as Smith makes himself available to a proper journalist he will be asked:
Did he receive EBT loan payments from Rangers?
If so:
Did he repay those loans or hold his cash while the club ran out of money and died?
Was he in receipt of a letter from Rangers confirming he was not required to repay?
Did his then employers, the Scottish FA, know he was perhaps receiving money from a member club while employed by them?
Are SFA employees contractually inhibited from taking payments from a member club or required to inform the SFA board of any payments received by a member club?
Did his earlier employers, Everton FC, know if he was receiving money from another club while employed by them?
Was Smith contractually inhibited from taking payments from another club or required to inform Everton of any payments received from another club?
As manager of Rangers, was he involved in negotiations with players who had EBTs or was he another one who concentrated on administrative and legislative duties?
Was he one of the men SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, suggested failed to reveal side contracts to the Rangers board?
Rangers’ liquidators, BDO, will forensically pour over most of these questions, so Smith’s answers will be verifiable.
No one who played an active part in Rangers EBT scandal will come out of this clean. The ramifications multiply if Rangers were discretely paying any senior employee of another club.
I simply cannot imagine the justification for a member club discretely paying a senior employee of the SFA. Frankly, it would be beyond every Celtic fan’s most paranoid fantasies. I am sure Mr Smith will quickly and easily be able to reassure everyone.
An interesting twist in Smith’s bid for the assets of Rangers is that if he is to inherit Green’s application for a SFA licence and take a controlling interest in the club, Green is obliged to do due diligence on Smith to determine if he is a Fit and Proper person. Perhaps Mr Green can use the above as his due diligence questionnaire.
One final thought. In the unlikely event that it is established that one senior SFA employee was receiving discrete payments from Rangers, we need an immediate and independent inquiry to establish how many others received such payments and what they were for.
As a matter of some urgency I would recommend Stewart Regan brings himself up to speed on this one. I am sure his president is banging the table as you read this insisting the chief executive gets to the bottom of this. It’s not as though he is heavily conflicted and the SFA is in dire need of an independent president to steady the ship.
My friends in Celtic, this just got interesting.
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I see Tremayne Ducker is an exec at Zeus Capital. With a name like that surely he should have been in the running for one of the top posts at Sevco Football Club…
aipple congratulations on your double celebration.
HH
He obviously did not love rangers enough to play in Division 3
ITALIAN veteran Gennaro Gattuso has signed for Swiss club FC Sion after 13 seasons with AC Milan.
Sion presented 34-year-old Gattuso at a news conference Friday and says he signed a two-year contract.
Doncaster’s brill-cream is being held hostage until Huns are back in SPL and he won’t be seen in public without it. That’s why we’ve not seen him. He’s got a price on his head (hair)!
Good luck to Mr and Mrs Aipple on their forthcoming nuptials.
Gattuso obviously chose the lesser of 2 dodgy teams…
You are a krap manager but we know if you leave the players will too. Am I reading this correctly?
New Rangers chairman Malcolm Murray insists that every effort will be made to keep manager Ally McCoist.
With Walter Smith fronting a consortium hoping to buy the club from Charles Green’s group, doubts surfaced about McCoist’s loyalty to the new regime.
Murray repeated Green’s plea for Smith and his backers to combine resources.
“We want Ally to commit, then move forward. It’s our stated policy that he’s an integral part of the club and he’s been told that,” he said.
“I believe he will be the manager of Rangers next season and we have to make the effort to make that happen. It’s what every fan wants.
“We need to get Ally on board as soon as possible to talk to the players, who are away on holiday just now.”
Vmhan on 15 June, 2012 at 15:19 said:
re the Green Lantern event……. the weathers against us methinks.
I was gonnae go down the promenade tonight but its looking like heavy rain this evening…….. can we light up the sky when it gets dry?
St Stivs that question was for you :¬)
—————————–
light them up whenever you can.
anytime over the weekend
i like the thought of some huns looking into the sky and knowing , being reminded, ahahahha
you can allways go for the fireworks option.
hoopeddreams,
I was reading the new SPL Articles this morning. There are a couple of amendments that make the situation more confusing if anything!
The first one is the change that was discussed in the press meaning that the clubs and not the board would decide on a transfer application. This now requires a 66% vote in favour (article 11).
But the old rule that states a 90% vote is required for a transfer where a member ceases to be entitled to hold a share still exists (article 14).
I’ve e-mailed the SPL seeking clarification but I don’t expect a reply!
The other amendment is to Article 13, which talks about people (in the corporate sense) not entitled to hold an SPL share.
The old 13 (i) excludes:
“a person who is not the owner and operator of a Club;”
The new 13 (i) reads:
“a person who the Board is not satisfied is or, at the time that the transferee will be entered in the Company’s Register of Members as the holder of the Share, will be the owner and operator of a Club;”
So you now can obtain a share in the SPL if you can persuade the Board that you will operate a football club sometime soon!
Now all of this wasn’t required in the past as promotion was the only way into the SPL – and to be promoted you obviously need to have a football club. But now you can get the share and then get the club later.
@ASonOfDan
@mightytim
Cheers guys, banjo strings at the ready. Clear skies forecast here, iPod at the ready with some good tunes.
St Stivs, add south East Kilbride G75 for the lantern gig.
Topkat, try any of the pound shops
gerry on 15 June, 2012 at 15:16 said:
This is their next move, a compliant media, SPL and SFA are allowing them to get away with the name, stadium,debt avoidance. Now they see it as a formality to get any investigation into 20 years of cheating swept under the rug.
They will say “that`s nothing to do with the new Rangers , every body needs to move on, It`s for the good of Scottish football ” and all that bollocks. As ever SFA ,SPL & RFC , three sides of a toxic triangle.
@Dontbrattbakkinanger
Cheers my good man in Celic. Really wanted yesterday to happen today if you follow me, not possible to smile anymore than I have been though.
@Aipple – congrats on your nuptials. Greetings from super sunny Florence, KY where it’s going to hit 90 degrees today.
The picture that goes with the article. Is that just no Green in a funny wig?
Murray/Green
The latest thing about the dual contracts is because Green is refusing to accept sanctions for old co. There is no point in the SPL throwing out sanctions to Rangers PLC because it is never going to field a team in this or any other league ever again.
As yet, THE RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB LTD is as much a part of Scottish Football as a company formed last week in the back room of a house in Dumbarton for the sole purpose of marketing multi coloured toilet seats which play Rod Stewart singing drift away when you pull the handle!
Remember that as of yesterday……. there is no Rangers to punish.
Today is the new yesterday!
voguepunter on 15 June, 2012 at 15:07 said:
Will someone please tell ragers historian Robert McIlroy that no one wears
white socks with black shoes since Michael Jackson passed away.
VP –
Maybe he is a fan of Elwood Blues?
Urlcy
@Tennessee Tim
I hear you, 77 and climbing. We should def get together in new season. Or, wait 4 years and get together for the first THEE Rankers game.
@Aipple – Our Cincy CSC will be fully up and running in the new season so you should come up and join us some time.
the idyllwild @kdsidyllwild
The SPL have chucked themselves on top of the coffin like a devastated widow who can’t take it in. #awkward
Retweeted by Phil MacGiollaBhain
Expand
Work done for the day!
Enjoy tonight folks!!!!!
Saint Stivs – will check in before 10 to see the list if you’re still updating.
Add Dun Laghoire – bro just confirmed that he got some.
HH
Stirling Albion Operations Director Stuart Brown says his club will deal with the prospect of a new Rangers side joining the Third Division “if and when it happens…”
With new Chief Executive Charles Green setting up a newco, Rangers face a vote over whether they will be allowed to remain in the SPL.
If not they could be facing the prospect of applying for entry to the SFL.
Mort. Thanks for the reply. Is the trading name the same name as the newclub then or can they be different?
News of the death of ‘the Prince of Pop’ will come as a blow to Charles Green, who has his name on his Big List of Billionaire Backers.
lantern will be launched at 10pm from BT66
@Tennessee Tim
Will do for sure, always happy to do a wee road trip up there. My good lady is finally beginning to understand the Celtic thing. Mostly on account of being woken up at 7am every other Sat / Sun.
The players are away on holiday just now then eh Malcolm?! Could be a feckin long holiday for the half decent ones, can’t wait to see their tans.
HH
Dontbrattbakkinanger
lol!
There you go bhoys, SPL/SFA make up the rules as they go along.
Excuses after excuses from this joke of a governing body which ain’t fit for purpose.
Let me ask this ? to everyone.
Let’s just play devils advocate here. Newco back in the SPL with Smith and co as new owners with no sanctions and debt free how will everyone feel ?
Scottish Football is totally corrupt and if they ain’t demoted and they walk in with no sanctions them I’m done with Scottish Football.
St Stivs
Add EH32 to the list from sunny East Lothian :(
Mort @ 15:24,
Mr Green’s composium has got an exceptional deal and it seems an unfortunate result for creditors. Companies can be in Administration for months/years yet D&P sold off the assets and business for a song while still having substantial funds in the Bank.
Their unorthodox course to RFCia’s Administration seems to have resulted in a bad deal for all concerned, employees, fans, shareholders, creditors etc. Etc. Etc… (I’m not including Mr Green in this as when Administration hit he wasn’t a player to the best of my knowledge).
Now I maybe niave and you could put me right but what would have been wrong with a more conventional approach, surely this would have realised a better dividend for all stakeholders….
Release all non-essential personnel, cut costs to the bone
Release players who are out of contract in the summer
Look to all first team players check Sell-on/salary analysis to ensure there is real value in keeping the player, i.e. Lee McCulloch is on a decent salary with little re-sale value)
End of May – Issue season Ticket renewals
June, payments in for Player Transfers, SPL payments etc
Beginning of July, sell high price tag players, but retain a squad to play in the SPL.
Surely this would have got them to the next season, albeit still in administration, but the downsizing and a club still using Ibrox, Murray Park would have maintained better value in the Business and would have ensured a better CVA outcome.
The fans keep their History, all contentious footbailing, administration and business matters could have been resolved and the Club goes forward.
Just wondering like, not saying Death doesn’t become her…
Will someone please tell ragers historian Robert McIlroy that no one wears
white socks with black shoes since Michael Jackson passed away.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I do
Does anybody know how these lanterns fair in windy conditions…..as it’s blowing a hooligan up here
The SPL investigation into the past (EBTs and payments not in contracts lodged with the football authorities) must continue. Many of the people involved both in their administration and who actually received the payments are still involved in football – even if the club itself will never be again.
Green is still trying to square the circle. He wants Sevco to be Rangers and yet not accept anything to do with its past. You can’t have it both ways, Charlie.
But what happens if he says, “You need us in the SPL. Everyone knows it. We come in with no sanctions or not at all.” Who would call that bluff?
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Kano 1000 on 15 June, 2012 at 15:32 said:
Thanks , my swingometer is heading back towards positivity again, still worried about the silence from Doncaster and Regan. Have D&P not told them what to say yet?
Paul Larkin @paullarkin74 on twitter
Postponing the dual contracts investigation is the clearest sign yet the SPL as a league is finished.
brimmer
Scottish Football fans are getting treated like mugs and it’s because of 1 team.
Pay yer creditors and taxes you tax dodging scumbags.