When clubs go bad

775

Keep an eye on what’s happening at Leeds United.  The club is under offer from ‘colourful’ Italian, Massimo Cellino, who will become owner if the Football League decide that his conviction for defrauding Italian tax authorities is not sufficient to make him an inappropriate person to control a football club.

If Cellino is declared unsuitable by authorities in England I am told to expect a coordinated media campaign to have people with similar backgrounds hounded out of the game here.  The is a dirty war underway for control of one of Scotland’s newer clubs.

Leeds have historically been a club which it’s difficult to feel sympathy for but I genuinely feel for their fans, who suffered for the lack of a director to say ‘No more money’ amid the clamour to reach ‘the next level’, whatever that was at the time.

Now they are a massive club but lose circa £15m per year, making it impossible for them to compete with clubs far smaller than them.  Being subject to the attention of convicts is a direct consequence.

On a completely unrelated matter, I read Phil Mac Giolla Bhain today use the word “Wonga” in relation to Newco Rangers’ recent attempts to finance.  That was exactly the word used to me to describe a potential financer who is set to meet the club tomorrow. The campaign to oust the club’s current owners is significantly undermining their ability to do their jobs.

Well done to Big Yogi and the Highlanders for their unconventional route to the League Cup Final.  It must have been an absolute sickener for Hearts fans to lose to nine men.  Absolute.  Utter. Sickener.  Oh well.

I read Barcelona lost on Saturday for only the fifth time when Messi had scored.  Can anyone name another occasion?

Sean’s Trust, the charity founded by the family of St John Doyle (George Ryan) in memory of Sean, who was stillborn in 2000, is holding a dinner with live entertainment on Friday, 4 July, at the Fullarton Suites, Tollcross Road.

Sean’s Trust aims to raise funds to provide holiday homes to provide respite for families bereaved through stillbirth.  The Trust will also raise awareness and tackle misinformation surrounding the issue.  To book at ticket (£35, discount for tables of eight), email Linda at lindacroker@googlemail.com
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  1. LiviBhoy - God bless wee Oscar on

    googybhoy ♥ we are all Neil Lennon

     

     

    I don;t listen to Talksport during the day. Used to really enjoy it but it’s went a bit down hill for me. Brazil is a pally pally guy. he is mates with everyone. Clever guy when it comes to sport but he seems to just keep it all sweet with everyone. He did play the Willy maley song when we won that league at Tannadice though.

     

    As much as I didn’t like old Porky I respected the fact he chucked it when Keys and Gray were given a job on there.

     

     

    LB

  2. quantum

     

     

    10:26 on 4 February, 2014

     

     

    Are the players not assets…?

     

     

    Ayrshire is Green and White

     

     

    HH

  3. BIG-CUP-WINNERS

     

    20:22 on

     

    3 February, 2014

     

    quonno

     

    20:13Ain’t with you, care to decipher ?

     

     

     

     

    Sorry to be so late catching up.

     

     

    Made a right erchie of post.

     

    It should have been directed at Matt E for his remarks posted post below.

     

     

     

     

    MattE

     

    20:08 on

     

    3 February, 2014

     

    ………………….Nevermind we’ll get the tribute act in the next round and all the stayaways can pack the place for the fixture they love and miss

  4. Please get a grip .

     

     

    There will be No Liquidation of Sevco.

     

     

    The circumstances are entirely different from when The Glasgow Rangers liquidated and died.

     

     

    The Newco will probably go into administration,dump the debt ,and start afresh ,without being encumbered by debt.

     

    Just like the Hearts are currently doing.

     

     

    I wish some could understand the huge legal benefit that administration offers the Newco and the Jambo.

     

     

    TT

  5. Probably the best argument for voting Yes was the array of Westminster Scottish worthies, Tory and Labour alike, who were trotted out to speak against it last week in the House of Lords.

     

     

    Lang, Forsyth, Liddell McConnell and no doubt others like Reid etc. would have been lurking around in the background.

  6. Joe Philips

     

     

    You may be correct in that there was a big plan. However I believe the Scottish football supporter put a big feckin blockade in the plans of the Hun’s having as easy a ride as they thought they would have by forcing the club and league bosses to make the replica huns start at the lowest level of the professional game in the country. They expected to rid themselves of the debt, stay in the top league and continue challenging for the mega bucks that the CL has to offer. In fact I bet they had guarantees in place from League and SFA that this would be the case. Darn those dasterdly football supporteers!

     

     

    They will be back. Even if an admin hits the New Zombified club, they – the Orcs of hunnish behaviour – will be back following whatever replica of their the bigotted sectarian rat infested white supremicist club exists.

     

     

    MWD

  7. Joe Filippis Haircut

     

    10:50 on

     

    4 February, 2014

     

     

    I agree with TT above but I’ve also come to the conclusion that even if they had properly died and some other team let’s call them Glasgow United would have risen in their place, and after a while as natural rivals to Celtic a lot of the erstwhile Rangers fans would have been drawn to them and we’d more or less be back to where we were.

     

     

    The main thing to take away from all this is that regardless of what happens a properly run resident of Ibrox will never be able to match us consistently again. There may be the odd title here and there but that’s it. They’re just not as big as us.

  8. TinyTim

     

    10:59 on

     

    4 February, 2014

     

     

    Yep. Slope the pack man again and again the SFA will do precisely SFA.

  9. traditionalist88 on

    Joe Filippis Haircut

     

     

    Listened to Paul Larkin on Beyond the Waves podcast earlier and he seems to believe that it will go full circle and David Murray will be back. Do they have the brass neck for that?!

     

     

    TinyTim, not sure newco have huge debt. They’re running out of cash and have no credit facility, whilst an administration could help them shed expenses where does the money come from to go forward?

     

     

    HH

  10. weeminger

     

     

    11:05 onThe main thing to take away from all this is that regardless of what happens a properly run resident of Ibrox will never be able to match us consistently again. There may be the odd title here and there but that’s it. They’re just not as big as us.

     

    4 February, 2014

     

     

    That is an assumption of the arrogant kind which has led THEM to where THEY now find THEMSELVES.

  11. Joe Filippis Haircut on

    Moonbeams WD. I agree they will be back and debt free I am sure it was a set back to the plan that they found themselves in the lower divisions.However,in my opinion they will be in the SPL the season after next. H.H.

  12. Philbhoy - Free the Dam 5! on

    Tiny Tim

     

     

    If the huns do go into admin it is surely not a case of just carrying on as before.

     

     

    They have no money and no line of credit.

     

     

    How would they be able to pay wages and other bills?

     

     

    Surely the next D & P would need to lay off players,management etc.

     

     

    Or am I missing something?

  13. Ahhhhhh, yes I was wondering where I had heard that music, yer bang on it’s was from that old Celtic movie ” last of the mochans” ;))

     

     

    Ps, I liked the background music as well…the cliff scene from the last of the Mohicans if memory serves me.

  14. Tiny Tim

     

     

    If Sevco goes into administration, there are, as you know well, only two possible ways out. You dismiss one of them, liquidation. So that only leaves one: restructuring and CVA.

     

     

    What is different this time compared to when the teddy bears turned into the deady bears is who will call the shots on a proposed CVA. Last time, Hector wouldn’t play ball. This time, it’s all about the spivs. And this time, they have a vested interest in pushing through the CVA.

     

     

    For this reason, you are probably correct that a CVA is more likely than last time.

     

     

    However, there will be no “dumping the debt and starting afresh” because the spivs will do what is in their own best interests, as they have done all along. That means they will be willing to push through a CVA and hand over to real Rangers men, provided the real Rangers men sign up to a nice little earner on leasing back the Big Hoose for a substantial proportion of annual income, nicely hamstringing whatever passes for a football club there for the foreseeable future.

     

     

    This is not dumping debt: this is signing up to perpetual debt and a degree of cloth-cutting that will be very hard for their support to understand and bear.

  15. Why will administration allow them to once again dump debt. Surely debt cannot be the issue as they must be paying their major creditors i.e. Inland Revenue /scottish power.

     

    Would have thought that the major benefit of administration would be that it would allow them to renegotiate player contracts.

     

    They are burning net £700k net a month because they can’t delay paying creditors like the inland revenue.

     

    Not sure if I would classify players as an asset!

  16. quonno

     

    11:08 on

     

    4 February, 2014

     

     

    Not really. I’m not suggesting that we rest on our laurels and it’ll all come easy but the fact is that they cannot generate the same income as us, and it will hamper them as a long-term year on year threat.

  17. LiviBhoy - God bless wee Oscar on

    traditionalist88

     

     

    I think the penny has dropped that they should have stayed in admin a lot longer before liquidating. Hearts look like coming out of it and so did the Pars. Their fans have been stupid then, stupid now, stupid forever.

     

    Total mugs to use one of their many catchphrases!

     

     

    LB

  18. It’s as I said earlier RIFC WILL GO INTO ADMIN DEBT FREE, and TRFC will take over, get the fans involved, and leas the stadium to buy for the next say wut? 10-15 years. Or vice versa TRFC will take the fall, and RIFC will take over it’s a stick on.

  19. TootingTim supports Wee Oscar on

    Morning Paul67 et al,

     

     

    apologies if this has been covered here already – no time to read back but it has just dawned on me that anyone anticipating a jelly and ice cream moment with Sevco are liable to be hugely disappointed.

     

     

    Surely the defining feature of the Bampot Summer was the wilful ignorance and unpreparedness of the blazerati, they had spent far too long up to their necks in the Big Egyptian River (denial) to be doing anything other than trying to keep up to speed with developments as Turbull Hutton and the chorus took centre stage.

     

     

    This time around there has been plenty of time to plan, prepare, practice the choreography.

     

     

    I am preparing myself for some cynical, sickening manoeuvres.

  20. LiviBhoy - God bless wee Oscar on

    Celtic_First

     

     

    Surely if Hector wins the big tax case he will go for the assets? The stadium and the training ground must be at risk?

     

    They can;t just say that is gone now and there is nothing. Hector won’t be swindled like that. This is the tax man and the UK government we are talking about here and quite possibly millions in unpaid tax. They can try and blame Whyte but he didn’t instigate the non payment of taxes. I still don;t see how hector will just walk away and say oh well the stadium has been transferred to a Newco.

     

    HMRC may well take ownership of the stadum until the monies have been paid back in some shape or form but I can’t see how they can get off with that one. never made any sense to me.

     

     

    LB

  21. Zombieslayer

     

     

    I totally agree with you most Scottish folk are decent people and that’s the reason why why we don’t vote for selfish parties like Ukip or the Tories.

     

    Also like every nation on earth we have our share of nutters,and bigoted ones at that. However I find that I have to leave this site often as I begin to get infected with the paranoia which is prevalent at times.

     

    But in saying all this it is a cracking site and it adds much education and humour for me.

  22. Livibhoy

     

     

    I’m not sure but I’m think hector is more interested on getting a tick in the win Collum than the money, they will play the old club card on that, and hector knows it, he’s after bigger fish playing the same game IMO .

  23. Steinreignedsupreme on

    LiviBhoy – God bless wee Oscar 11:18 on 4 February, 2014

     

     

    “I think the penny has dropped that they should have stayed in admin a lot longer before liquidating. Hearts look like coming out of it and so did the Pars. Their fans have been stupid then, stupid now, stupid forever.”

     

     

    They didn’t exactly have any choice in the matter.

     

     

    HMRC were calling the shots. The Huns had no control over the situation and could not dictate how long they would be in administration.

     

     

    That is why they don’t exist any more and all we have is a Tribute Act to laugh at.

  24. If they go into admin this time, it will be because they can’t pay their wages. They’ll tear up contracts and save themselves a few bob. But they will still be losing money. They won’t turn this around until they play in the top league. Even then, it will take a while.

  25. Last of The Mochans , Tony?

     

     

    Who played Smiler?

     

     

    On a more serious note, I’m just about to go into a wee rant about something that really annoys me.

     

     

    What is it with being ‘offended’? Why if you are offended by something should it be banned? I find Simon Cowell, The Daily Record, several posters on this blog, women who think it’s smart to swear like dockers, men who encourage the last activity, Brussel Sprouts and Gideon Osborne offensive but I dont actually want them banned, eliminated or put in jail for the sin of offending sensitive souls such as myself. Celtic fans displaying the letter H at a match at Celtic Park may well offend many in attendance, hell soldiers singing loyalist party songs at Ibrox might have offended a handful inside that rotting artifice. But neither they nor Cowell nor Sprouts are a serious threat to any kind of public order nor can anybody think it corrupts the morals or innocence of children present.

     

     

    I am not really going anywhere with this but I am just fed up with folk thinking being offended is some sort of justification for wanting fines and jail sentences all round like some rabid Daily Mail editorial, editor or reader

     

     

    Sorry but if my train wasn’t pulling into Anderston I’d let fly at those who go on about agendas. Them I would ban.

     

     

     

    Jimbo67 supporting Oscar Knox

  26. Billy Bhoy 05

     

     

    .. most Scottish folk are decent people and that’s the reason why why we don’t vote for selfish parties like Ukip or the Tories

     

     

    Wouldn’t it be nearer the truth to say that the Scots equate the Tories with England (in particular the South of England) and that this hinders right wing parties from grabbing a share of the vote similar to other European countries?

  27. The Battered Bunnet on

    TinyTim

     

     

    There is very little external debt, that is true, and on face value there is little point in an Administration other than an expedient to cull footballer contracts. It is curious that there was no movement on this aspect during January.

     

     

    I’ve held the view for some time now, and have posted to the same effect that given the circumstances, separating football operations from asset ownership is sensible. Indeed, from the investment perspective it is the obvious play: The plc owns the properties, and the football operation is the secure tenant.

     

     

    As of end June, the football operation (TRFC Ltd) owes the plc £16.163M. That is debt, internal to the group though it may be, it still represents a shed load of formal liability on the part of the football operation to the plc that owns it.

     

     

    To effect the ‘obvious play’, the property assets are hived up to the plc in return for the football operation debt being forgiven, the football operation becoming long term tenant on appropriate terms in the process.

     

     

    The plc thereafter is essentially a property investment vehicle like so many others, while the football operation can be sold to the next mug, a fans co-op or any combination.

     

     

    It doesn’t require an Administration to effect, but it does require to be justifiable and palatable. It’s getting close to justifiable in financial terms. It now requires palatability. How would you best manipulate public opinion if this was your project?

     

     

    TBB

  28. TootingTim supports Wee Oscar on

    However, and apols for thinking out loud, but as the deid leaderene was fond of saying “the Chinese language uses the same word to represent the concepts of ‘problem’ and ‘opportunity'”.

     

     

    My sincere hope is that the chaps with the blazers over-reach themselves, miss the mood, try to re-assert their selves, and once more the Chorus and the Bampots take charge and write the script.

     

     

    Maybe this time Operation Bampot Storm might actually go all the way to the 6th Floor and cut the laces off their brogues and the sleeves off their blazers, once and for all:)