Contrary to our earlier understanding, Rangers did not win a ruling from the Court of Session on who was to be appointed administrator, HMRC and Rangers came to agreement on the appointment of Duff and Phelps, who acted for Whyte during his takeover of the club.
The admission by Duff and Phelps that today’s court action by HM Revenue and Customs was in connection to circa £9m unpaid tax accrued since the takeover in May last year will come as a surprise no one in the Celtic Quick News community. This is why Rangers are now in administration, it’s nothing to do with the big tax case, or indeed, the wee tax case.
Key question is, what will HMRC do now? They’re not going away/. Rangers continued to sign football players despite being delinquent with taxes, and briefed journalists that they rejected a £9m offer for a player on 31 August 2011.
The fact that the business is in administration due to activity carried out under Craig Whyte’s tenure may also interest the Insolvency Service, who are already investigating Whyte’s takeover of the club following information passed by former chairman, Alastair Johnston.
One final push (this week) for the Vanessa Riddle Appeal. We have a Celtic top signed by the first team squad available to auction on eBay. You can bid on the auction and help send Vanessa for the treatment she needs by clicking here. Thanks to Penfold for the donation and to Taggsybhoy for organising (yet again).
If you would like to read CQN Magazine online (for free), click here. You can download a pdf of the magazine using the button at the top of the page, second from the right. Click on the link below to order a hard copy of the magazine.
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
1,073 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- »
Apart from the hope of liquidation upon listening to all these figures being bandied around of unpaid tax, PAYE, VAT and creditors amounting to 75 million arent we talking jail time for these crooks?
‘Clean’ Rangers will attract big interest from buyers
Hugh MacDonald The Herald
SEVENTEEN years ago, David Low sat on a milk urn and successfully negotiated the transfer of Celtic shares from a South Fermanagh farmer into the hands of Fergus McCann.
It was yet another small step on the journey that was to take Celtic from imminent financial collapse to an ownership that revitalised the team, built a modern stadium and placed the club on strong foundations.
Yesterday, he sipped coffee in a Glasgow bar and reflected on the financial pressures that threaten to reduce Rangers, a once-proud bastion, to rubble. Low believes strongly that not only will Rangers survive but that the club may represent value to a buyer once the debt is cleared.
Taking the share capitalisation of Celtic as a benchmark, the financial analyst believes Rangers could be worth about £48m but may be available for half that sum after a period of considerable financial turbulence.
The key to any bid for the club is, of course, the clearing of a debt that has forced Rangers into administration. Craig Whyte, the owner, is a preferred creditor owed £18m, season ticket sales have been mortgaged to a company, fans holding debentures are owed £8m, and the tax authorities are pushing for a sum that ranges from £50m to £80m, depending on the source. It is now up to administrators to find a way out of this financial maze but Low believes this is possible and there will be real interest in a ”clean” Rangers, that is a club stripped of debt.
”Rangers could reasonably be valued at £48m using Celtic as a yardstick. The total market capitalisation of Celtic is £41m, plus it has a debt of about £7m, thus giving it an enterprise value of £48m,” he said. ”If a price of £25m was placed on Rangers, there would be a lot of interest.”
First, Rangers must undergo the painful process of administration and Low is blunt about its effect.
”This will all take some time,” he said. ”I do not believe this will be a quick fix. I believe this could rumble on for a year. It will be deeply painful with everyone from the tea lady, through coaches and on to players being affected.”
He added: ”It is possible to save Rangers. It is possible because the club is so big, it has so many fans, so many stakeholders. There are so many people who want it to survive. But for Rangers to survive it requires the agreement of people who are owed money.”
He admits the co-operation of HMRC is the “£50m question” in this area but points out that the precedent is that clubs come out of administration.
Of Rangers owner, Low said: ”Whyte knew what he was buying. It is a matter of speculation as to why he would buy it. What is his game-plan? The biggest Rangers fan would not go into a situation like this for love of the club. He expected to make money out of this.”
He said Whyte would be in a prime position when a company voluntary agreement was settled as he was the preferred creditor. One theory has it that the descent into administration would be beneficial to Whyte as he would see the return of his £18m with him in the box seat to buy a club free of debt.
”That may have been the plan. Who knows? There are no guarantees for Craig Whyte now. His reputation has been shot to bits, justified or not, and that means it is very unlikely that he will emerge as the owner of Rangers when this whole process concludes.”
Low said that the scale of the problem made comparisons with Celtic in 1994 difficult. ”The major difference between this and Celtic is the numbers. If my memory serve me correctly, Celtic were getting a rough time from the Bank of Scotland over a debt of £5m to £6m. Celtic also had a queue of people wanting to get involved in owning it. I am not sure that is going to be the case with Rangers.”
He was scathing about the finger-pointing between directors past and present at Rangers. ”All this slagging between former directors and current directors is pathetic,” he said. ”All the previous directors, to different degrees and over different lengths of time, are responsible for creating this problem.”
The way forward, he said, was to create a debt-free club, whatever the pain that entailed, and then to run it in a correct manner. ”The finger of blame has to be pointed, first and foremost at the former board,” he said. ”They have presided over and created this problem. There is a substantial amount of money that has been and gone. There is the £8m of debenture money from fans, there is the £40m from ENIC, a rights issue of £50m and so on. That is a horrendous amount of money to go through. That is not Craig Whyte’s fault.”
It may have to be whispered in certain company but Rangers, he said, would do well to adopt the Celtic model.
”Celtic have been run largely in a conservative manner,” said Low of the McCann era and his successors. ”Celtic have had a robust board. They have had strong financial disciplines and stuck to their strategy with just the one aberration when Martin O’Neill was given £20m. But Celtic generally have ploughed a conservative furrow and that is the correct thing. Rangers now have to follow a similar procedure. It is the directors who are responsible. They could say no in the same way the Celtic directors said no to requests for money. The glory days are over for good. All of Scottish football, including Rangers, have to live within their means.”
Craig Whyte/White Singalong
G’Night Y’All
kitalba says:
15 February, 2012 at 04:39
He added: ”It is possible to save Rangers. It is possible because the club is so big, it has so many fans, so many stakeholders. There are so many people who want it to survive. But for Rangers to survive it requires the agreement of people who are owed money.”
I sincerely hope that a significant sum is owed to some Celtic people who are prepared to take a financial hit.
Longer-term points deduction a possibility for ‘new’ Rangers
Published on Wednesday 15 February 2012 04:06 The Scotsman
THE ten-point deduction swiftly imposed on Rangers by the Scottish Premier League is merely the start of the sanctions and consequences facing the Ibrox club for entering administration.
In a short-term sporting sense, the immediate punishment is painful enough for Rangers players and supporters. It effectively kills off the club’s bid for a fourth successive SPL title, leaving them 14 points behind leaders Celtic with just 12 games of the campaign remaining. Rangers are now only nine points ahead of third-placed Motherwell who have a game in hand. Protecting that second-place finish will be the priority for manager Ally McCoist and his players now, earning as it does entry into the qualifying rounds of the Champions League next season.
But participation in European competition, so crucial to the ongoing finances of Rangers, is under threat regardless of their league position. In order to obtain the required Uefa club licence from the SFA for next season, the Ibrox club will have to produce audited accounts and come out of administration by 31 March.
If the process of administration is not as quick and effective as owner Craig Whyte has expressed his desire to expedite, then the prospect of liquidation could loom large for Rangers and present Scottish football with an even wider crisis. In the event of the current Rangers Football Club being dissolved and Whyte reforming them under an amended name in order to wipe out all of their liabilities, the SPL would have a major decision to make.
The six-man SPL board of chief executive Neil Doncaster, chairman Ralph Topping, Celtic director Eric Riley, St Johnstone chairman Steven Brown, Motherwell vice-chairman Derek Weir and Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson would have the task of ruling on whether the original Rangers’ share in the 12-club organisation would be automatically transferred to the ‘new’ Rangers. There are major concerns over the morality of such an event, especially in light of Gretna’s enforced demotion to the Third Division of the Scottish Football League following administration and shortly prior to their liquidation in 2008.
But any desire to ensure Rangers are suitably punished for their financial mismanagement will be tempered by an appreciation of the damage their absence from the SPL would have on the organisation’s overall prosperity.
Doncaster confirmed earlier this season that the new £80 million television contract agreed with Sky Sports is dependent on the broadcaster having four Old Firm fixtures to screen every season.
Other commercial deals held by the SPL are similarly reliant on the presence of both Celtic and Rangers. The value of the league, which is currently seeking a new title sponsor to replace outgoing backers Clydesdale Bank for next season, would be diminished commercially without the Ibrox club.
Imposing a longer-term points deduction over the course of more than one season is one possible condition the SPL could impose on a new Rangers as part of transferring the share in the league.
Macjay:
Whatever, I sincerely hope that the spotlight of shame is keep lit in proportion to the fraud & cheating age.
I’d say about twenty years give or take a season or two; a subsequent admission of guilt and a transparent and honest reconciliation would just about cover it.
Has anybody at Ibrox yet admitted any wrong-doing?
Oh! and they pay back every single thin dime they owe too.
Or best they begone because if they don’t redress their wrongs then football in Scotland will be tainted indelibly for all time.
A very early Good Morning from a dry and mild East Kilbride.
Couldn’t sleep with all the excitement! Actually, that’s rubbish, I’m up early for a commute to and from Manchester today.
First thought that came into my head when I woke? Jelly and ice cream!
Enjoy your day Bhoys and Ghirls.
Jobo
Cheers TopCorner, What a time to be a Celt!
(hope my liver holds out)
H.H
I think the reason that the football authorities did not pick up on the sheer scale of ranglers finacial shenanigans
was that Murray had got ranglers men embedded through-out the SFA.
As the cracks started appearing in his empire a concerted effort was made .
We had Smith W and big Eck as scotland managers .Peat and G Smith backed by Dallas and company supported by faceless h– clones.
The whole set-up was corrupted by sdm for sdm.
.
(Courtesy The Guardian) Updated..
Rangers’ demise might not be such a bad thing
The club’s slide into administration could help rid Scottish football of ritualised bigotry and intergenerational hatred
Rangers are a quintessentially British institution. This is the Queen’s XI. Their fans sing Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen – but they are in deep trouble, and may well fold completely before it’s time to launch the Jubilee barge. Football writer and Rangers fan Graham Spiers has called this the club’s “bitter harvest”, and railed against the club’s inability to cope with its own sectarian songsheet, which has been the source of grief and resentment for years.
But this is a story about financial stupidity more than cultural insolvency. The emerging collapse of Rangers football club is an allegory for a different game that’s not so beautiful anymore, where we can’t run failed institutions just because it’s what we’ve always done. Rangers may go bust owing the tax man almost £50m.
How did this happen? After the loyalty she has been shown over the years, how can Her Majesty allow her Revenue & Customs to behave in this manner? The reality dawning on the Scottish sports press and supporters of Rangers FC (two groups that are not always entirely distinct) is that the Scottish champions are perilously close to administration and, potentially, liquidation.
Rangers chairman Craig Whyte (himself currently under investigation by the government’s intelligence and enforcement directorate for his acquisition of the Ibrox club) said there is no “realistic or practical” alternative to getting ready for administration. The problem relates to a claim by HMRC for unpaid taxes over a period of several years dating back to 2001, which could result in massive liabilities.
The collapse of such a footballing giant after decades of mismanagement tells us a story not just about football as a bloated dysfunctional cultural spectacle, but of feral businessmen, media collusion, and a society witnessing key institutions collapse and teeter while desperately denying that such a thing is happening.
As bitter reality dawns, other certain truths are clung to amid the wreckage. Two of these stand out. One is that Craig Whyte is a shrewd guardian with a secret plan. Rumours swirl that Graeme Souness waits in the wings like a moustachioed Sauron. A Blue Knight to replace Craig Whyte. The second is that Rangers will emerge from the ordeal stronger, and, er, leaner.
Establishment voices mutter confidently of the club’s fanbase and that the “”club will never die”. Such macho posturing is a default setting from the club’s supporters (who numbered 17,822 at the recent home defeat to Dundee United), but the full extent of the club’s debts are unknown. Closely tied to this belief that RFC will re-emerge is the notion (repeated like a mantra on all broadcast frequencies) that “the Scottish Premiere League without Rangers is unthinkable”, and “Scottish football couldn’t survive without the Old Firm”. But this idea was quashed by Celtic’s chief executive Peter Lawwell only this week, when he stated plainly that his club “don’t need Rangers” to flourish financially. Lawwell said the eventuality of their Old Firm rivals going bust “would have no material effect on Celtic”.
The idea that the two clubs are mutually dependent persists only because the idea of Rangers and Celtic is so deeply embedded not just in Scottish culture, but also in Scottish press circulation. The Old Firm flog papers. But, in reality, the idea that splitting the Old Firm would be a travesty for Scottish football is upheld only by people who have vested interests in our (already) hopelessly failing game. Scotland’s Sky TV deal is already pitiful, and BBC Scotland’s coverage is reduced to a poorly produced highlights package.
Michael Grant of the Herald wrote: “Celtic and Scottish football could live without Rangers but, boy, it would be as dull as dishwater.” For the absent-minded and unobservant, Scottish football has been in dire terminal decline for some time now. The idea that it would be worse in a league that would immediately present more opportunities for success is patently absurd. It’s the sort of logic that could only be expressed by members of a closed group.
Life After Rangers Football (Larf) would mean for every other club a chance that the thousands who migrate towards Ibrox from towns across Scotland every other Saturday might show an interest in their local team. They would have realistic hope of winning trophies. But the positive reality of a Scottish game without Rangers is not primarily about a sport rid of a substantial element of ritualised bigotry and sustained intergenerational hatred, but the prospect of top-quality football being played by young Scotsmen in an atmosphere of optimism. That’s something worth aspiring to.
The mainstream press have been fatally blindsided on the impending crisis at Ibrox despite excellent blog coverage. But let’s not blame the clubbable journos. The real culprits are the management and board of the club who piled profligacy upon spending spree, from Dick Advocaat’s dubious £12m Tore Andre Flo to David Murray’s gigantic vanity project. But who’d blame them? Our culture lauds these dodgy geezers. Murray, the club’s previous owner, was quoted as saying: “For every £5 Celtic spends I’ll spend £10.” That doesn’t seem so clever now.
Summa
Dedicated to the Scottish media and their quest to preserve the Govan CHEATS
The Self Preservation Society
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0CglfNuqKQ&feature=youtube_
If Cousin was not registered before the club went into administration, I thought it was automatic that he can not play for Rangers even though he signed before administration. Am I wrong? Why does the SFA have to speak to the administrators over this matter? Could some one with more knowledge on administration sanctions please update me on this issue. Jelly and Ice cream great treat soon.
post 888.
How lucky is that?
Morning Celts,
Contests to the previous post, no 888.
V
Congrats to previous poster…
kitalba says:
15 February, 2012 at 05:11
How good is this?
Days of celebration and quiet reflection for ourselves and those before us
who were cheated by the peepil.
Having watched the hun game on Sat. night,and heard the reports of
refereeing incompetence at Celtic Park,the same corrupt mob will decide our fate.
Nevertheless,if this is as good as it gets,that`s good enough for me.
The hun can never live down this humiliation.
Never.
@ James Forrest – you make some very good posts mate, but I fear your messages are being lost in the chaff. You need to make a website similar to this or RTC, and quickly. Too much good work will go to waste otherwise…
Some great posts on here this morning GG and JF in particular.
Heard on my way to work that Saturdays game will go ahead.
Anyone know what price I can get on killie? (can’t do that in work)
ampersandal
7/1 with William Hill but 500/1 with Paddy Power to win 4-0! Off out now. Hope you win some money.
JJ
Been racking my brains trying to think how any of the huns creditors other than Whyte will be paid. Just can’t see where any money will come from.
Summa of Sammi @ 05.29
I was impressed enough by the post that I sought out the author, his name is Mike Small and for anyone else interested he has produced a number other insightful pieces that can be accessed through the Guardian web site.
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
I would like to ask the MSM to spare me the CWs been a total disaster for Ragers pretence .
IMO CW has been the best thing ragers could have hoped for .
I mean how lucky was SDM to find CW at that precise moment in the clubs situation .
He is a knight of the realm ,could you imagine SDM (if stories are true ) syphoning off 71m in 8 short months just before the long running tax time bomb goes off and walking away ,telling HMRC to whistle for their 50m
and that is just for starters
Feel free to add to the list of things a knight of the realm could not have done whilst in charge of ragers in the last 8 months that CW has supposedly done .
1. take 9m in PAYE/NIC/VAT and say whistle for it
2……
No for me I think ragers have been extremely lucky this year ,hell they are that lucky they would probably have the the whole of Scotlands hieracy fighting for them to stay in the SPL .No ,no one’s that lucky ….are they ?
hail hail
If Rangers lose the HMRC Tax Case since the tax year 2000 / 2001 they will have won Cups and titles using revenues that were illegally obtained.
Justice must be done, Titles and Cup wins removed and runners-up awarded the trophy.
This would result in 5 titles, 2 League Cups, and 1 Scottish Cup for Celtic.
Scottish Cup wins for Dundee, Queen of the South, and Falkirk.
League cup wins for Ayr United, Motherwell, Dundee United, and St Mirren.
A wee job lot for the engraver?
Don’t let them tell you otherwise
The title come back – before they went bust
It’s nice to think that the clown at the SFA/SPL are a bit anxious.
They are anxious because in a few days once the dust has settled a bit they will be asked some serious questions.
They will be asked how Whyte was deemed fit and proper. Still no reply to their investigation.
They will be asked about the Huns contracts in relation to the tax situation.
They will be asked why they were considering registering Cousin with a club who they knew were in trouble.
They will be asked why they did nothing when they heard the rumours about the Hun finances and let them carry on without question.
The next week will keep giving and I think there will be casualties.
A very good and HOOPY morning to the Celtic family
It looks like it will be a nice day here in Ireland, a bit cloudy but nice
and to make it even better i have just read back through a number of posts in particular james forrest
bravo man bravo
Just how professional are the SPL?
Judge for yourselves
‘SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE
PRESS RELEASE
We are currently experiencing an increase in traffic to http://www.scotprem.com and as a result the website is currently unavailable. Please see below our recent press statement related to Rangers FC in administration’
http://www.scotprem.com/content/press.html
Margaret Curran’s intervention is a surprise. After every Celtic v Ranjurz games in the recent past, the LL have led with front page stories about the ‘spike’ in domestic violence incidents. If there are no more derby matches then surely the logic is that there would be a reduction in these incidents.
Listening to Nicky Campbell, he’s speaking through the tears!
Hail Hail!!
Good morning CQN from my 2nd fast train this morning.
Another beautiful day.
When you’re out and about, at work or whatever today, have a real look at the faces you see, you will (I guarantee) recognise your celle bhoys and ghirls, you elk also quite quite quickly recognise thems :-)
Have a great day :-)
hh
bjmac
Glasgow Rangers in Administration Celtic WIN League
Well it looks like the the poster on RTC was right regards the game plan for ragers when CW took over .
I hope HMRC are pulling out all the stops to find out where all the money that has passed through Ibrokes in the last 8 months has went and I mean EVERY PENNY .
It makes you sick
hail hail
Some say he represented HMRC at the Court of Session
and he played keepie uppie all the way through the hearing
All we know is he’s Victor Wanyama QC
(with very many apologies to Kittoch…)
Celle = fellow
Elk = will
This must be one of the poorest edited articles I have read but it is a further revelation on how pathetically shady Whyte truly is. After reading this there are so many questions for the SFA/SPL/Murray brigade as to allowing him to buy Rangers.
Jailed embezzler explains how he helped Whyte beat the taxman
kitalba says:
15 February, 2012 at 05:03
‘Longer-term points deduction a possibility for ‘new’ Rangers
Published on Wednesday 15 February 2012 04:06 The Scotsman…………..
The six-man SPL board of chief executive Neil Doncaster, chairman Ralph Topping, Celtic director Eric Riley, St Johnstone chairman Steven Brown, Motherwell vice-chairman Derek Weir and Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson would have the task of ruling on whether the original Rangers’ share in the 12-club organisation would be automatically transferred to the ‘new’ Rangers. There are major concerns over the morality of such an event, especially in light of Gretna’s enforced demotion to the Third Division of the Scottish Football League following administration and shortly prior to their liquidation in 2008.’
Could someone please explain to me why its the board and not the members of the SPL who decide what happens to the huns share certificate if they are wound up?
I would put the question directly to the SPL themselves but their website is down.
Big Lorraine(orc) is nearly greeting when reading the news on synde…. o))
.
Wing Commander..
A Crowd of Us on St Kilda Beach with Champers and Green Wigs..
Most Aussies Ken why we are Celebrating..
32C and Sticky But Happy..;0))
001Bhoy
jf from earlier
James Forrest is The Emperor of Ice Cream says:
15 February, 2012 at 00:52
Let me tell you all how I feel right now.
I actually thought I would feel overjoyed, delighted, thrilled that this had come to pass. But as the full extent of what has happened here becomes known, becomes clear, I am finding it impossible to retain even the smallest enthusiasm for the process past this point.
What I feel instead is sick, heart sick, and deep disgust that things got to this point.
Let me tell you, people will lose their jobs. Other clubs may go to the wall. Football in this country might very well die a death as slow and painful as any national sport has ever had visited on it, and you know what? Not one bit of it bothers me in the slightest.
What has happened already is an incalculable fraud on an epic scale. This is not simply the debts we know about, but the untraceable £50 million which vanished into the larger debt of MIH, the ENIC money, Dave King, all of it. It runs into the HUNDREDS of millions, sums so enormous it is impossible to contemplate it.
When you think about it, it helps to do it in the full context of what we’re talking about.
A bank which owned part of the club, as part of a dodgy bent deal with David Murray, allowed them to run up enormous debts. That assured they would never foreclose, no matter what. When the global financial crisis hit, and things began to spiral downward, £50 million of the club’s debt vanished into the black hole that was MIH. This is all fact, and it’s a known fact.
I mention Dave King very specifically. A man who has been found guilty of multiple tax fraud offences and will stand trial for racketeering and corruption in South Africa, a man who went to that country with an accounting degree and, who during global economic sanctions, made a fortune during apartheid. I’ve always argued that should have been looked at … but even now, with him GUILTY on many of the worst charges levelled against him, he is still deemed a “fit and proper person” by the SFA and SPL.
It makes me wonder just what it will take for someone NOT to be declared fit and proper.
David Murray set up a tax evasion scheme which, according to the RTC guy, everyone in the Ibrox boardroom was aware was not only potentially questionable but ILLEGAL … and we also suspect there were two contracts for the players which, presumably, either were never declared to the SFA or the SFA then decided to pass despite no proper scrutiny or alternative legal opinion.
We know – for a FACT – that the scheme was highly dubvious and alternative legal opinion would have indicated this. We know this because a Celtic director, Brian Quinn, who had just become chairman, instantly declared our own brief flirtation with it at an end. How hard did the SFA look for that kind of advice?
Then there is the media. Don’t even get me started on their role up to this point. Disgraceful.
All of this brings us to Craig Whyte, and the present set of circumstances. I won’t rehash them here, but only because I want to revisit them in my own way later.
Today’s news that the club has been trading whilst insolvent brings into disrepute every institution involved in the running of the Scottish game. They have not been asleep at the wheel as much as they have been lying behind it pissed, one foot on the accelarator and a bottle of whiskey between their legs.
Is the smug git Stewart Regan STILL sure Rangers should have been granted a license to play in Europe? Will that question arise over the next few days? It should. Many questions should be asked.
Yesterday they paraded a new signing. The SPL is debating whether to register him! That is SCANDALOUS when things stand as they are. He should be on the next plane home, and that should only be the START of the sanctions. For LYING to the league authorities relegation should be AUTOMATIC.
The scale of this is enormous. The Scottish and British tax payers stand ready to be defrauded out of tens of millions, perhaps more, if Craig Whyte gets his way. If this was any other BUSINESS in the country the media would be crucifying him, the world would be condemning it. In Scotland we have Members of Parliament, and Margaret Curran is the latest, a woman I respect enormously, but not today … SHAME ON YOU FOR WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER ….. actually suggesting Scottish football, and society, needs this organisation.
NO WE DO NOT. NOT NOW. NOT EVER.
They are a disgrace. Their conduct is a disgrace. And every person who wants them cut slack – ANY SLACK – is now making excuses for sheer, blatant criminality.
Shame. Shame on all of them. I consider them accomplises after the fact now.
share