Today is one of the most significant days for the future of Rangers as Duff and Phelps legal challenge to Ticketus ownership of around £40m of tickets over the next three seasons plays out. Should Ticketus retain ownership of the tickets it considerably inhibits the phoenix scenarios Duff and Phelps are able to profile as they look to sell the club.
BBC Scotland’s business and economy editor, Douglas Fraser, Tweeted this afternoon that Duff and Phelps asked the court for permission to breach the agreement with Ticketus as it acts as an inhibitor to attracting potential bids for the club. Fraser also notes that there is little precedent for such a breach and that the Blue Knights consortium have been able to construct a deal recognising Ticketus’ rights.
I heard earlier today that Craig Whyte is particularly distressed at some of the derogatory comments fired his way this week, a few of which he feels are unjustified. The media are already speculating on what could happen to Mr Whyte in the event that police inquiries lead to a report being made to the crown office.
I understand supporters of Mr Whyte, who has maintained a dignified silence on many aspects of the deal, are curious as to why the person who led him to Ticketus has not revealed his involvement. I hear that early last year when Whyte privately revealed he was unable to pull enough funds together to complete the takeover, he was told:
“Why don’t you speak to a company called Ticketus? They are very helpful for this kind of thing.”
Having never worked in the football business, Whyte had never heard of Ticketus. When I heard who this was I laughed and laughed and laughed. I’m still laughing. This is the story that just keeps on giving. My source is not for going on the record, so discretion is the better part of valour on this one, but if Mr Whyte ever gets to the witness box, get yourself a front row seat.
The Daily Record today suggested Mr Whyte could end up in jail over this business. I wonder if he’ll be the only one.
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Divers @ 8-1 another aptly named nag
This just does make any sense.
———————————————————-
Rangers: Brian Kennedy says his bid will be a ‘fallback’ option for the club.
A rugby club owner says he expects to “lose out” in his bid to take over crisis-hit Rangers.
Edinburgh-born Brian Kennedy, who owns Sale Sharks rugby side, confirmed that he plans to lodge an indicative bid for the Ibrox club on Friday.
A spokesman for Mr Kennedy said the businessman “fully expects to lose out” to the Blue Knights consortium led by ex-Rangers director Paul Murray.
In a statement released on Thursday, a spokesman for Mr Kennedy said the Sale Sharks owner “has no interest or intention to run or own a football club”.
Mr Kennedy added: “I think there is a big job to be done at Rangers.
“It will be like starting from scratch and if I was to get involved then I would utilise the expertise and experience of people who know football and Rangers in particular far better than I do.”
The businessman, who financially backed the Kate and Gerry McCann in their quest to find their missing daughter, also revealed he had spoken to former Rangers player/manager Graeme Souness about the situation at the club.
Mr Kennedy said: “Graeme Souness is a personal friend, so I have talked to him about Rangers. But I have not taken it any further than that, because we need to see how the next 24 hours develops.
“I also met Ally McCoist last week and that was just a getting-to-know-him exercise. He is such a lovely lad and very capable.
“I hope to get something in by Friday purely as a fallback for the administrators, should the other bids fall over or not be acceptable. If I am going to be in a position where they ask me to press on with it, then I want to know more about it. The administrators will be looking to get the best possible deal, that is their duty.”
The spokesman said Mr Kennedy, who was linked with a takeover bid for Hibernian FC in 1998, had only contacted the administrators to express an interest in Rangers “out of a sense of duty”.
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Why put in a bid if in his own words he “has no interest or intention to run or own a football club”.
PR Stunt I think
Paul67 – poor Kraig White must rue the day he signed that gagging order as good old Sir Minty can say whatever he likes with impunity and our hero just has to take it on the chin
Now the visit to the lawyers becomes clear, Paul.
I wish I had a 100M quid that I could potentially pour down the drain for a “sense of duty”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq67KVbNk80&feature=related
Prior to the takeover our hero would have been talking to the press!
It couldn’t have been a lamb consumer could it ?- that would be hilarious
VertWolf
As Paul laughed so much, I assumed he was referring to Gordon Smith. !!!!
Minty Choc Chip anyone?
Paul
Don’t quote me on this but I thought ,CW named SDM as the one who suggested ticketus to him ,when the story broke that he had in fact used the ST money to fund his buyout .
Can’t even remember what rag it was in but as I don’t buy them ,I assume I read it in a post either here or on the RTC site
hail hail
I hate Status Quo but I can’t get
‘down down deeper and down’ out of my head for some reason…
Maybe it was BFDJ as he seemed to know all about Ticket Bus when they were first mentioned
Was it Professor Plum? Reverend Green ( now that would send the huns apoplectic)?
Was it the fireplace poker?
Murray and White
Ones a genius ones an idiot… Not sure which is which…
Maybe they are both idiots.. Or genius?
Dumb and Dumber
“Duff and Phelps asked the court for permission to breach the agreement with Ticketus as it acts as an inhibitor to attracting potential bids for the club.”
Is that a legal argument? We can’t sell the club because we sold this lot so many season tickets, so can we just forget the deal?
What next? Cancel the tax bills as they too are inhibiting a sale?
Paul – didn’t you know? Apparently blogging bams like your good self aren’t bound by the same rules that govern serious, conscientious journalists with integrity like Keevins and Traynor, so you can reveal who it was after all.
Gordon J and others…..
I doubt there is any chance of gate sharing. The ten aren’t even trying their arm on that one.
There ARE ways that the ten can improve their lot. They just have to do some work, rather than scrapping for the crumbs of our efforts.
First, they can improve their home gates by in siting on fan-friendly times for kick offs. Their home gates against us would improve if games at Aberdeen and Inverness were held at reasonable times.
Second, they should sign a pledge to ensure they take all reasonable steps to leave no ticket unsold. That means moving their own supporters to make room for visiting fans, where there is demand. Teams like Motherwell and Kilmarnock have turned their noses up at hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Once they have taken care of that, we can talk about sharing tv money.
Hector well beaten!
Seven Fishes Four Steaks
100,000 season tickets were sold to ticketus for £24.4m. When they sell them at an average of £400 per season ticket, they will get £40m.
That’s why its a great investment (provided the club stay in business long enough to pay up).
Mort
BANG!!
Paul67 hits another one out the ball park!
Loving all this…
Paul. Aulheid. why do we still hope that the sfa will do the right thing and hammer them .We have as much chance of that happening as we have of evidence to their wrong doing being discovered and used against them . This false hope that they will get their just rewards is just another build up for us to land back to earth with a bump , when they again get off lightly after another unforseen delay . Cut it down into laymans terms . What Do you think. Are they going down .
jimtim
‘ When I heard who this was I laughed and laughed and laughed’
Tickle Us right enough!
Seven Fishes Four Steaks on 15 March, 2012 at 15:52 said:
Paul, £40m worth of tickets? Is or not £24?
SffS
+++++
They bought £40m worth of tickets for £24m.
Well I dont think it was SDM who performed the introductions.
Suggest it may be closer to home, SSM, DD or from leftfield even SAF.
You never can tell,
Hope the real Hector does a better job than that nag!
JamsieBhoy @ 15:06
Re. your assertion that Kennedy’s statement doesn’t make sense … if I may?
If you were a publicity hungry business man it makes perfect sense.
The whole article can be summed up in 10 words
“Would really love to help …. but …..
PS … I love Rangers”
Why hasnt DD made a bid for the huns? will that man ever spend any money!!
“Thou doth protest too much.”
Keevins may be the main player in all of this.
He insists that he knows nothing about finance and nothing about the internet. He insists that all and sundry have malicious motives.
Wee Shug is the puppet master in this whole show.
I know Paul67 cannot confirm this for legal reasons.
“Ticketus first entered a ticket purchase agreement with Rangers Football Club in 2009 when the club was owned by Sir David Murray. The agreement was for Ticketus to purchase some of the Club’s future season tickets in advance at a discounted price, which the Club would then resell at the intended sale price”, Ticketus say on their website.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15032012/58/spl-rangers-launch-bid-escape-ticketus-deal.html
Paul
I’m sure that Mr Colour stated in one of the early press articles when things were turning sour that a certain Mr Buttery Mint Sweetie had pointed him in the direction of WeAreTheTicketPeepul…
Public domain…
U
pmarsh
How would any of those guys know Whyte never had enough money to buy the club?
Paul67,
I understand your need to act appropriately but is it not common currency that SDM allegedly put Craig Whyte in contact with Ticketus?
Psssst! sniff sniff…wanna buy my club? here’s how you do it…now don’t say I told ya.
Never heed Whyte.
Minty, the most knowledgeable personage ever to enter a Scottish football club boardroom apparently knew nothing of Ticketus, or it would seem much else. As I remarked previously. For right or wrong, at least the thick Micks, as it proved futilely, showed some initiative by putting a private detective on Fergus.
The one question that Minty cannot or will not answer is. How with all his millions and supposedly due diligence, he could not suss out a chancer like Whyte, yet a BBC Scotland hack could?
As someone posted recently.
Honest! It wiznae me mammy! It wiz a big boy up the next close and ran away.
Craig Whyte statement on 21 Feb 2012:
“My corporate advisors came to me with the proposition that it was entirely possible, as well as highly beneficial, to negotiate a deal with Ticketus that would allow us to complete the takeover and maximise working capital for the club’s day-to-day business.”
Doesn’t mention any names here.
Mort
I emerge from work enforced lurking to bring you this gem.
And I am NOT making this up. From Huffington Post ie not made up guff. Well it could be guff but anyway… Enjoy.
Financially-stricken Rangers could be set for a match made in heaven… or hell.
Premier married dating website, AshleyMadison.com, has apparently emerged as an unlikely saviour, offering the club much-needed money in exchange for the stadium naming rights of Ibrox.
The website claims it is in talks with the club’s administrators about renaming the Gers’ stadium the AshleyMadison.com Stadium for a five-year period, worth £4.4m.
As well as pinning their name to the venue of one of Britain’s most famous football grounds, they would also become club’s shirt sponsor once the current deal with Carling ends.
Noel Biderman, AshleyMadison.com’s founder and CEO, also revealed he has included an immediate reimbursement of players’ recent salary cut as an incentive.
Biderman, a former sports agent and lawyer said: “Sport runs through my veins. Rangers Football Club is a globally-recognised team of world-class talent with an impressive heritage. I’d like to provide for its equally glittering future.”
I have been thinking about the silence of Craig Whyte. I can’t even begin to imagine he has simply gone away forever. I’ve penned below a lighthearted prediction for Monday. Scroll by if you are tight for time.
Court of Session, Edinburgh, Monday 19th March, 2012.
Mr Whyte, you appear here today to object to the ratification of Duff and Phelps as Administrators.
That’s right.
Mr Whyte, are we to take you seriously? You have been deemed not a fit and proper person to be involved in a football club.
That’s right, it was deemed that my previous directorship suspension disbarred me under SFA rules. I contend that the actual decision to suspend me was well outwith the 5 years, the SFA deem that the end of the period must be greater than 5 years, a technical point. Generically I am not barred from being a company director.
Mr Whyte, a number of allegations have been made regarding your tenure at Rangers.
Yes, there has. And I have been subject to a smear campaign by past and current directors and a scapegoat for the malaise of the previous regime.
Mr Whyte, come on, let me ask you about the buy-out. You used the companies own money to fund the buy out?
Well let me address that. Funds were realised from future income streams of the club and the bank debt due to Lloyds was paid off, yes. But I did not and could not profit from that. I paid off a debt that the previous regime refused to pay down, instead paying salaries and transfer fees that it could not afford. I have applied the club’s income in a responsible way.
But Mr Whyte, you base your argument to have the administrators removed on their denial of you having a security over the assets for a debt to Lloyds that no longer exists.
Not quite right, I have a security over the assets as I am personally liable for the funds due to Ticketus. I have ensured that a debt that the previous regime had run up and could not sustain has been paid off. I did it with income streams, not more, or toxic, debt. I have assumed personal liability for this. I will relinquish the security entirely when Ticketus have received their return, a return from an income stream that can be reasonably guaranteed.
Mr Whyte, you sold off Arsenal shares in the club.
I did indeed, a company should liquidise non earning assets to fund its operation and pay down debt in times of austerity. Something the previous regime were not prepared to do. I am not implicated in any way over the goings on at the stockbrokers who hold the funds.
Mr Whyte, you promised investment in the stadium.
Correct, and indeed we upgraded all the kitchens in a deal that will see Azure provide top class catering for years to come.
Now Mr Whyte, that was not your money.
I own more than 80% of the Club, I have invested all the proceeds of the deal back into the company and not profited a penny. Can I ask you perhaps to consider the security, stewarding and previous catering arrangements and to check who profited from them? I’m sure a Mr Murray’s name may well crop up.
Mr Whyte, we are here to address your case, not Mr Murray’s, you are selling off assets of the Club.
Well I’m afraid we do again have to look at the previous regime for a comparison. Media rights were sold for a 10 year period and no debt was paid down. Merchandising was sold for a 10 year period and no debt was paid down. Ticketus were used, and introduced to me by the previous regime. Ticketus are the funders of the only semi serious bid to buy the club from the administrators, and over a longer period and for a larger amount. Catering was sold too, but I inherited a stadium with serious dilapidations. I, however, used the future income streams mortgaged against catering to upgrade the stadium and to pay down debt, not chase a moonbeam. The costs of asbestos removal alone have had a serious impact on funds. The place is a wreck.
Now, now, Mr Whyte, let’s keep to the point. You promised investment and working capital in the playing squad.
I did indeed and was prepared to invest. We made offers for David Goodwillie, Neil Danns, Carlos Cuellar, Craig Conway, among others. We offered transfer fees and wages that were affordable. Something the previous regime failed to do and ran up unmanageable debt. Everyone screamed ‘spend’, as that is all they know. We signed players that were more in line with what the club can afford from Australia and Scottish prospects like Lee Wallace. We released high earning diddies like James Beattie.
Mr Whyte, you have not paid PAYE or VAT since you took over.
Not true, we have paid VAT on the Ticketus deal.
You have paid the VAT on the Ticketus deal?
Yes, HMRC had seized funds because of the malaise of the previous regime and what is known as the ‘wee tax case’. These were applied to VAT on the Ticketus deal. The HMRC debt outstanding of around £14m includes £4m of the wee tax case, a debt run up by the previous regime in its dodgy EBT dealings, something I was not and am not party to, and ultimately the real story of debt.
OK Mr Whyte, but that means you have not paid £10m in PAYE and VAT.
I’m afraid that’s right, I inherited a payroll that was simply unsustainable. The budget I inherited was based around Champions League Qualification and not paying PAYE by using EBTs.
Surely it was folly, Mr Whyte, to budget on Champions League participation.
It was feckin’ Malmo.
Mr Whyte, I concur. Malmo. FFS. But we digress, surely budget should have been trimmed?
Well, yes, but we did anticipate at least a Europa League group and a run in the league cup.
I can stop you there, Mr Whyte. Maribor and Falkirk, yes, I know. I admit I laughed. But this is serious business, you should not have allowed these debts to spiral.
Well we did plan on realising cash in the winter transfer window for Lafferty, Naismith and Whittaker, all top earners but they were all injured. We did sell top earner Jelavic, and when that was not enough I called administrators in, that is responsible corporate governance, and to date I have not taken any money and am personally liable for millions of pounds for which Duff and Phelps are trying to stiff Ticketus!
OK Mr Whyte, but Duff and Duffer (copyright acknowledged) have been trying to maintain the value in the business with a view to a sell on.
Yes indeed, and in so doing have utterly destroyed the value for me by writing in release clauses to amended contracts for players should the club emerge from administration with me in charge. This is the crux of my complaint. The previous regime did not lower the wage structure, the administrators did not lower structural wage levels, only a temporary moratorium, the only person stiffed so far is me!
But Mr Whyte by your own admission you have run up £10m in debt in just 9 months even if we accept that the wee tax case element of the current HMRC debt was not of your doing.
Yes, and I paid down £18m! Ticketus is not a debt, they do not do loans, the net debt position is less than when I took over! Bloody hell, just because I have been prepared to make tough and innovative decisions to realise cash when no bank would touch us with a defecated-upon stick and address decades of overspend I get crucified!
Mr Whyte, what do you say about the Big Tax case, why would you take on such an undertaking with this looming.
Well, it is in my agreement that an insolvency event within 90 days of a judgement on the big tax case renders Rangers liable for the £18m, not me.
But Mr Whyte the judgement has not been passed.
No, but I imagine it will be within 90 days of the insolvency event.
Mr Whyte, surely the agreement is for the Big Case causing the insolvency event?
And who says it hasn’t, we can perhaps defer that argument on semantics of before or after the event, and agree for now the financial malaise is not of my doing at all, is it, M’Lord?
So Mr Whyte, if you are to win that argument then in fact the £18m debt reverts back to Rangers and you would still be liable to Ticketus personally were Duff and Phelps to, as you put it, stiff them?
Now we’re getting the idea M’Lord. Perhaps you and I will have another conversation when I come looking for the £18m debt that reverts back to Rangers that I have in fact paid down at Lloyds and assumed personal liability for with Ticketus.
Mr Whyte, this has been an extraordinary mythical conversation.
Indeed it has. Indeed it has. Emm urr, in in indeed it has.