Good Afternoon.
Announcing outstanding financial successes for Rangers PLC the then Chairman of the club opened his Chairman’s report in the annual financial statements with the following words:
“Last summer I explained that the Club, after many years of significant investment in our playing squad
and more recently in our state of the art facility at Murray Park, had embarked on a three year business
plan to stabilise and improve the Club’s finances. The plan also recognised the need to react to the
challenging economic conditions facing football clubs around the world.
Following a trend over a number of years of increasing year on year losses, I am pleased to report that
in the first year of this plan we have made important progress by reversing this trend. Our trading loss
for last year of £11.2m reflects a £7.9m improvement versus the £19.1m loss for the previous year and
although it will take more time to completely reach our goals, this is a key milestone. We also intend to
make significant further progress by the end of the current financial year. This improvement is the
consequence of having a solid strategy and the commitment and energy to implement the changes it requires”
Later on in the same statement the chairman would add:
“Another key part of our plan is associated with the Rangers brand and our Retail Division goes from strength to strength. Our financial results this year have been significantly enhanced by an outstanding performance in merchandising Rangers products, in particular replica kit, which makes our Retail Division one of the most successful in Europe.”
In the same set of financial reports, the CEO would report:
“To further strengthen Rangers hospitality portfolio, a new dedicated sponsor’s lounge was unveiled this season. The Carling Lounge is a first for the Club and was developed in conjunction with our new sponsor, Carling. ”
and
“Our innovative events programme continues to grow and this year saw a record number of official events including the highly successful annual Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony, Player of the Year and 50 Championships Gala Dinner, all of which catered for up to 1000 guests.
At Rangers, we continually develop our portfolio of products and as a key area of income for the Club, we evaluate the market for new revenue opportunities on an ongoing basis in order to exceed our existing and potential customer expectations and needs.
Demand for season tickets reached an all time high last season with a record 42,508 season ticket holders in comparison with the previous season`s figure of 40,320. Over 36,000 of these season ticket holders renewed for this season – a record number.
For the new season, we are delighted to welcome brewing giant, Carling on board as our Official Club sponsor. Carling is one of the UK’s leading consumer brands with a proven track record in football sponsorship.
The Club also continues to work with a number of multinational blue chip brands such as National Car Rental, Sony Playstation 2, Bank of Scotland and Coca-Cola. This year, we will also experience the evolution of the Honda deal via Hyndland Honda and welcome the mobile communications giant T-Mobile to our ranks.”.
The year was 2003 and in the previous 24 months Rangers Football Club, owned and operated as a private fiefdom by Sir David Murray, had made operational losses of some £30 million.
Yes – 30 MILLION POUNDS.
Of course the chairman’s report for 2003 was written by John F Mclelland CBE and the CEO was one Martin Bain Esq.
As Mr Mclelland clearly stated, by 2003 the club already had a trend of increasing year on year losses covering a number of years and was losing annual sums which stretched into millions, if not tens of millions, of pounds.
However, the acquisition of Rangers Football Club was absolutely vital to David Murray’s personal business growth, and his complete control of the club as his own private business key was more important than any other business decision he had made before buying Rangers or since.
When he persuaded Gavin Masterton to finance 100% of the purchase price of the club, Murray had his finest business moment.
By getting control of Rangers, Murray was able to offer entertainment, hospitality, seeming privilege and bestow favour on others in a way that was hitherto undreamed of, and he bestowed that largesse on any number of “existing and potential clients” and contacts – be they the clients and contacts related to Rangers Football Club or the existing and potential clients of David Murray, his businesses, his banks, or anyone in any field that he chose to court for the purposes of potential business.
His business.
It wasn’t only journalists who benefited from the succulent lamb treatment.
Accountants,lawyers, surveyors, broadcasters, football officials, people in industry and construction, utilities, financiers and other areas of business were all invited inside the sacred House of Murray and given access to the great man of business “and owner of Rangers” while attending the “record number of official (hospitality) events”.
Twelve months on from when John McLelland made those statements in the 2003 accounts, David Murray was back in the chair at Ibrox and he presented the 2004 financials.
In the intervening 12 months Rangers had gained an additional £10 million from Champions League income and had received £8.6 million in transfer fees from the sale of Messrs Ferguson, Amoruso and McCann. Not only that, the Rangers board had managed to reduce the club’s wage bill by £5 million. Taking all three figures together comes to some £23.6 million in extra income or savings.
Yet, the accounts for 2004 showed that the club made an operational loss of almost £6 million and overall debt had risen by an additional £7 million to £97.4 million.
However, the 2004 accounts were also interesting for another reason.
Rangers PLC had introduced payments “to employees trusts” into their accounts for the first time in 2001 and in that year they had paid £1million into those trusts. Just three years later, the trust payments recorded in the accounts had risen to £7.3 million per annum — or to put it another way to 25% of the annual wage bill though no one in Scottish Football asked any questions about that!
By the following year, the chairman announced that the 2004 operational loss had in fact been £10.4million but that the good news was that the 2005 operational loss was only £7.8 million. However Rangers were able to post a profit before taxation if they included the money obtained from transfers (£8.4 million) and the inclusion of an extraordinary profit of £14,999,999 made on buying back the shares of a subsidiary company for £1 which they had previously sold for £15 million.
All of which added up to a whopping great profit of ……… £12.4 million!
I will leave you to do the maths on 2005.
Oh and of course these accounts included the detail that 3000 Rangers fans had joined David Murray in participating in the November ’94 share issue where the club managed to raise £51,430,995 in fresh capital most of which was provided by Mr Murray… sorry I mean MIH ….. sorry that should read Bank of Scotland …… or their shareholders……. or should that be the public purse?
The notable items in the 2006 accounts included the announcement of a ten year deal with JJB Sports to take over the merchandising operation of the club and increased revenue from an extended run in the Champion’s League. However, the profit before tax was declared at only£0.1 million in comparison to the £12.4 million of the year before but then again that £12.4 million had included player sales of £8.4 million and the £15 million sweety bonus from the repurchase of ones own former subsidiary shares for £1.
Jumping to 2008 Rangers saw a record year in terms of turnover which had risen to £64.5 million which enabled the company to record a profit on ordinary activities before taxation of £6.57 million although it should be pointed out that wages and bonuses were up at 77% of turnover and that a big factor in the Rangers income stream was corporate hospitality and the top line of income was shown as “gate receipts and hospitality”.
However, 2009 saw a calamitous set of figures. Whilst Alastair Johnston tried to put a brave chairman’s face on it, the year saw an operating loss of £17.325 million which was softened only by player disposals leading to a loss before taxation of a mere £14.085 million.
Fortunately Sir David did not have to report these figures as he chose to stand down as chairman in August and so Johnston stepped in and announced that he was deeply honoured to do so.
In 2010, the income stream jumped from £39.7 million to over £56 million with the result that the club showed a profit before taxation of £4.209 million.
However, by that time the corporate hospitality ticket that was Rangers Football Club was done for as a result of matters that had nothing to do with events on the football field in the main.
First, the emergence of the Fergus McCann run Celtic had brought a real business and sporting challenge. This was something that Murray had not previously faced in the football business.
Second,the Bank of Scotland had gone bust and Lloyds could not and would not allow Murray to continually borrow vast sums of money on the basis of revalued assets and outrageous hospitality.
Third, the UEFA fair play rules came into being and demanded that clubs at least act on a semblance of proper corporate governance and fiscal propriety.
Lastly,Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs tightened up the law on the use of EBT’s which meant that Rangers could no longer afford to buy in the players that brought almost guaranteed success against domestic opposition.
On average, since 2002 Rangers PLC had lost between £7 million – £8 million per year – or roughly £650,000 per month if you like – yet for the better part of a decade David Murray had been able to persuade the Bank of Scotland that this was a business that was worthy of ever greater financial support or that he himself and his MIH business was of such value that the Banks should support him in supporting the Ibrox club whilst operating in this fashion.
Of course, had Murray’s Rangers paid tax on all player remunerations then the losses would have been far larger.
Meanwhile, all the other clubs in Scottish football who banked with the Bank of Scotland faced funding cuts and demands for repayment with the bank publicly proclaiming that it was overexposed to the football market in Scotland.
But no one asked any questions about why the bank should act one way with Murray’s club but another way with all others. No one in football, no one in the media and no one from the world of business.
Looking back,it is hard to imagine a business which has been run on such a consistent loss making basis being allowed to continue by either its owners or by its bankers. However, a successful and funded Rangers was so important to the Murray group that David Murray was clearly willing to lose millions year after year to keep the Gala dinners and corporate hospitality going.
Rangers were Murray’s big PR vehicle and the club was essentially used by him to open the doors which would allow him to make more money elsewhere on a personal basis and if it meant Rangers cutting every corner and accumulating massive losses, unsustainable losses, then so be it.
Today, the new regime at Ibrox run the current business in a way which clocks up the same colossal annual losses whilst the club competes outwith Scotland’s top division. Each day we hear that the wage bill is unsustainable, that the playing staff are overpaid, that the stadium needs massive investment and that the fans are opposed to the stadium itself being mortgaged and the club being in hawk to lenders.
Yet, in the Murray era the Stadium was revalued time and time again and its revaluation was used as the justification for ever greater borrowing on the Rangers accounts. The playing staff were massively overpaid and financially assisted by the EBT’s and most years the Chairman’s annual statement announced huge losses despite regular claims of record season ticket sales, record hospitality income, European income, shirt sponsorship and the outsourcing of all merchandising to JJB sports instead of Sports Direct.
The comparison between the old business and the current one is clear for all to see.
It should be noted, that since the days of Murray, no major banking institution has agreed to provide the Ibrox business with any banking facilities. Not under Whyte, not under Green, not under anyone.
Yet few ask why that should be.
The destruction of the old Rangers business led those in charge of Scottish football to announce that Armageddon was on the horizon if it had not actually arrived, yet today virtually all Scottish clubs are in a better financial and business state than back in the bad old days of the Bank of Scotland financed SPL. Some have succumbed to insolvency, and others have simply cut their cloth, changed their structure, sought, and in some cases attracted, new owners and moved on in terms of business.
In general, Scottish Football has cleaned house at club level.
Now, David Murray has “cleaned house” in that MIH has bitten the dust and walked down insolvency road.
What is interesting is that the Murray brand still has that capacity to get out a good PR message when it needs to. Despite the MIH pension fund being short of money for some inexplicable reason, last week it was announced that the family controlled Murray Estates had approached those in charge of MIH and had agreed to buy some key MIH assets for something in the region of £13.9 million.
The assets concerned are land banks which at some point will be zoned for planning and which will undoubtedly bring the Murray family considerable profit in the future, with some of those assets already looking as if they will produce a return sooner rather than later.
However, what is not commented upon in the mainstream press is the fact that Murray Estates had the ability to pay £13.9 Million for anything at all and that having that amount of money to spend the Murray camp has chosen not to buy any football club down Govan way.
Perhaps, it has been realised that a football club which loses millions of pounds each year is not such a shrewd investment and that the Murray family money would be better spent elsewhere?
Perhaps, it has been realised that the culture of wining, dining, partying and entertaining to the most lavish and extravagant extent will not result in the banks opening their vaults any more?
Perhaps, it has been realised that the Rangers brand has been so badly damaged over the years that it is no longer the key to the golden door in terms of business, finance and banking and that running a football club in 2015 involves a discipline and a set of skills that David Murray and his team do not have experience of?
What is clear, is that the Murray years at Ibrox were not good for the average Rangers fan in the long term and that when you have a football club – any football club – being run for the private benefit of one rich individual, or group of individuals, then the feelings and passions of the ordinary fan will as often as not be forgotten when that individual or his group choose to move on once they have decided that they no longer wish to play with their toy football club.
David Murray did not make money directly out of Rangers Football Club. He used it as a key to open other doors for him and to get him a seat at other tables and into a different type of “club” altogether. He did not run the club in a day to day fashion that was designed to bring stability and prolonged financial, or playing, success to the club. its investors and its fans. He did not preside over Ibrox during a period of sustained financial gain.
Mike Ashley will not subsidise 2015 version of Rangers to anything like the same extent that the Bank of Scotland did in the 90’s and naughties.
However, Ashley, like Murray, will use his control of the Rangers brand to open doors for him elsewhere in the sports retail market, and he will use the Rangers contract with Sports Direct to make a handsome profit. He will also control all the advertising revenue just as he does at Newcastle. In short, Mr Ashley is only interested in The Rangers with a view to using it as a stepping stone to achieve other things elsewhere.
However, don’t take my word for any of this, take the opinion of someone who knows.
Mr Dave King is quoted today as saying the following about the current board of Directors who are in charge of the current Ibrox holding company.
“History will judge this board as one of the worst the club has ever had. There is not one individual who puts the club above personal interest.”
That is an interesting observation from a man who became a non executive director of the old Rangers holding company in 2000 and who had a front row pew for every set of accounts and all the financial statements referred to above.
Whether or not Mr King is a glib and shameless liar is a matter of South African judicial opinion. Whether or not he can spot someone who puts their own self interest ahead of the interests of Rangers Football Club and the supporters of the club is a matter that should be discussed over some fine wine, some succulent lamb and whatever postprandial entertainment you care to imagine.
I wonder if he has ever read the accounts of Rangers PLC and compared them to the corresponding accounts of MIH for the same period?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-board-slap-ban-daily-5135276
pro King media banned
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/fans-fury-qpr-charge-38-5126788
andygraham.66 says:
February 9, 2015 at 9:42 pm
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-board-slap-ban-daily-5135276
pro King media banned
=======================
“…The move comes after our top team – headed by chief football writer Keith Jackson – delivered a series of exclusives and hard-hitting columns…
Despite today’s ban, we will continue to write the truth…
We will continue to report the ongoing crisis on and off the park without fear or favour…”
=====================
Reassuring to see that the DR is still good for a laugh. 🙄
MaBaw says: February 9, 2015 at 8:59 pm
————————————-
Here is an image of Jason Talbot’s previous against Dumbarton (for which he was rightly shown a red card)
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/07/cfd09e4c7004e9737dd8667e053b62a8.jpg
Anyone fancy the newly laid park at Hampden not being ready in time………………………………. wonder where the back up venue would be????
TSFM says:
February 9, 2015 at 11:12 am
Genuinely wondered if this was tongue in electronic cheek? I cannot think of any positive reason why that outlet would suggest this other than that they have simply run dry of potential advertisers.
I struggle to see what would be gained what messages could be placed or how it could even be agreed upon.
Perhaps there’s a strong enough feeling that readers of that website can be rescued/shown the light/develop a basic understanding of the world around them but that’s quite an ask.
Even going for the logo, link and title with no message (thus saving about 10 years of debate), it’s not clear what the reasons for this would be or how you would determine value for money. IMO.
the still picture looks bad, i would be surprised if he was trying to injure anyone, but he will need to learn fast that he cannot go in with a boot that high.
andygraham.66 says:
February 9, 2015 at 9:42 pm
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-board-slap-ban-daily-5135276
pro King media banned
____________________________________________________
Too absurd for words. Although to borrow a few from my late Uncle Jimmy,
“ah don’t know whether to laugh, sh*te or greet!”
MaBaw says:
February 9, 2015 at 8:59 pm
Both feet of the ground at point of contact, studs up, foot head high, he may have been going for the ball, it was still a very dangerous and reckless tackle and should have been a red card, going for the ball doesn’t give a player carte blanche to do anything he wants. What if the hearts player had lost an eye? would you still think the same.
On the high boot tackle, I think that there are accidents caused by a freak series of events. There are also accidents caused by the recklessness of one of the parties involved where sooner or later, something bad is gonna happen. I think it’s the recklessness of the tackle which is the problem.
Given Lee McCulloch’s recent behaviour, I would put that in the same category. Somebody will get badly hurt if players continue to be reckless. This isn’t a trend on going over the ball to break legs or ankles. These are potentially serious head injuries. Perhaps the players would say they didn’t intend to hurt the opponent, but how safe is a football field with that kind of stuff going on?
You only have to look at the John Thomson tragedy, and other genuine, freakish on-field accidents to see what can happen by in ordinary circumstances. There is no need to increase the odds of that kind of thing occurring.
Banning the Daily Record, a classic move that Kasparov himself would be proud of !
On the face of it, it achieves nothing and just appears to be the spiteful actions of an under pressure board. Who cares what The Record thinks, after all ? It’s just a press release vehicle staffed by reporters, not journalists.
Not a bit of it.
It’s another poke in the ribs to the bears, ramp up the fury another notch.
Psychological warfare.
So now the record will only print non board stories….No change there then. The King is dead…long live the King.
This may be of some interest to our resident tax experts…
http://goo.gl/wqTvKd
There is a link to the the ICIJ database described in the story. If one does a search for UK entities the name Collyer Bristow appears in the “Officers and Master Clients” field
https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/search
Significant or do I just have too much time on my hands tonight? It might also be worth searching for other persons of interest 😈
**EDIT** Rafat Rivzi is also on there 🙂
The board have adopted the fans’ slogan:
‘Nobody likes us and we don’t care!’
I am now convinced that Ashley will destroy the clumpany rather than cede an inch to King.
The 3 bears are caught in a vicious bind here. Back King, Ashley collapses the whole show and they lose their “investment”. Back Ashley, the only hope of any future imho, and they face the wrath of permaragers.
Rangers mark 2 cannot survive a King takeover of the board. Ashley will call in the loans, and the onerous contracts will be such that King et al cannot run the club without feeding it at least a million a month in perpetuity.
Why any bear backs thIs charlatan is beyond me.
Ashley is all they have in the short term. He will crush them in an instant if they keep up their present behaviour.
They have been seduced by the RRM, and the heroes of the past. They loathe the truth: they cannot escape the past. They have very few survival options left, and they appear determined to reject any sustainable or realistic plan for the future. They will die, either through King’s hubris, or Ashley’s strangulatory asset stripping. But die they most assuredly will.
They are a business bleeding 10 million a year, with no borrowing facilities, and no means in the medium term of ever generating sufficient resources to cover the shortfall. Only severe austerity and increasing revenue can save them. Bears need to pony up in 40,000 + numbers for season tickets, at full price, for a team at half the present budget to survive, and all of this under the yoke of Ashley, regardless of who owns the shares.
Ain’t gonna happen.
So the official TV channel and top fanzine are both banned from Ibrox.
Shortbread was banned how far back (sepia tinted newsreel era?) and they still feed our license fee into the Ibrox money pit. Will the banning of Keef’s tender meatballs stop the flow of propaganda? When I see a positive Ronny Deila article or even an acknowledgement that Wednesday night sees a top flight Glasgow derby (the nouveau firm?) I may be convinced, although someone will have to let me know as I won’t be reading it myself.
The new “event location” phenomenon is crazy to us outsiders, but I have little doubt that the board are pushing the democracy envelope a bit.
Reminds me of that infamous toad Frank Chapple whose Electrician’s Union (EETPU) used to have their delegate conferences in exotic European locations. The EEPTU didn’t pay delegate expenses, so only those who could afford to attend got a vote 🙂
If the EGM goes ahead, the board could take a leaf out of the book of Chapple’s pal Kate Losinska, who once brought an end to a CPSA conference debate because she thought it wasn’t going her way 🙂
God! I had forgot how much I hated, really hated, those two cretins – may they rest in torment 👿
With all the rules changes in Scotland does anyone know how many points are deducted for administration? Are even more points deducted for a second administration? If so will the same club merchants still make this claim and miss any chance of the playoffs.
The Cat NR1 says:
February 9, 2015 at 11:51 pm
___________________________________
I assumed that the Beeb ban was lifted. Kenny McDowall spoke to them before and after last week’s LCSF, and again on Sunday post-match.
I think the ban was an Ally thing.
Are there any airside hotels at Heathrow?
If so, they could have the EGM there and DK could hyper-jet in and he wouldn’t even need to suffer the delay at passport control that convicted criminals face. He would also avoid the embarrassment of facing the press after MA has totally humiliated him after routing his pathetic attempt at a coup, and he could then super-mega-jet back to SA afterwards.
Found the answer to my own question.
42
E
Club Financial Arrangements
Insolvency
E1
Subject to Rule E5
, where
a Club suffers or is subject to an Insolvency Event that
Club shall be deducted 15 points
in the League.E2
Where an Insolvency Event occurs during a Season, the
15
points deductio
n shall be
applied immediately to take effect in the current Season.
E3
Where an
Insolvency Event occurs during the Close Season the 15
points deduction
shall apply in respect of the immediately following Season, such that the
relevant
Club starts that immediately following Season in the relevant Division on minus 15
points.
E4 Where an Insolvency Event or, in the event that such Insolvency Event is part of an Insolvency Process, such Insolvency Process, continues and/or is subsisting during a
second or later Season then, for each such second or later Season, during the
whole or part of which such Insolvency Event or Insolvency Process is continuing
and/or subsisting, the Club concerned shall be deducted 15 points and shall start each such second or later Season in the relevant Division on minus 15 points.
E5 Where a Club, whether owned and o
perated by the same or a different Member,
suffers or is subject to an Insolvency Event
which results in a deduction of points in
terms of these Rules
and within 5 years of the date of such Insolvency Event suffers or is subject to a further Insolvency Event which is not part of the same Insolvency
Process as the Insolvency Event then suffered, the points deduction applicable in terms of Rules E1
in respect of that second or further Insolvency Event, shall be 25
points with the 15 points in Rules E2 and E3 being 25 Points.
This means if they are the same club they would drop to 16 points and currently in 8th position.
Big Pink says:
February 10, 2015 at 12:25 am
The Cat NR1 says:
February 9, 2015 at 11:51 pm
___________________________________
I assumed that the Beeb ban was lifted. Kenny McDowall spoke to them before and after last week’s LCSF, and again on Sunday post-match.
I think the ban was an Ally thing.
======================================
That could be the case BP. I hadn’t seen anything announced, although it would be a bit embarrassing for both parties to publicise it given the way BBC Scotland has acted as an unpaid cheerleader during their ban.
I’d hate to think what they’d have been like if they were still in the full lamb munching coterie.
I expect that the DR ban will have no effect on their output, with the press releases just being forwarded by email and everything else being made up as per usual.
iceman63 says:
February 9, 2015 at 11:28 pm
I am now convinced that Ashley will destroy the clumpany rather than cede an inch to King.
The 3 bears are caught in a vicious bind here. Back King, Ashley collapses the whole show and they lose their “investment”. Back Ashley, the only hope of any future imho, and they face the wrath of permaragers.
Rangers mark 2 cannot survive a King takeover of the board. Ashley will call in the loans, and the onerous contracts will be such that King et al cannot run the club without feeding it at least a million a month in perpetuity.
Why any bear backs thIs charlatan is beyond me.
Ashley is all they have in the short term. He will crush them in an instant if they keep up their present behaviour.
They have been seduced by the RRM, and the heroes of the past. They loathe the truth: they cannot escape the past. They have very few survival options left, and they appear determined to reject any sustainable or realistic plan for the future. They will die, either through King’s hubris, or Ashley’s strangulatory asset stripping. But die they most assuredly will.
They are a business bleeding 10 million a year, with no borrowing facilities, and no means in the medium term of ever generating sufficient resources to cover the shortfall. Only severe austerity and increasing revenue can save them. Bears need to pony up in 40,000 + numbers for season tickets, at full price, for a team at half the present budget to survive, and all of this under the yoke of Ashley, regardless of who owns the shares.
Ain’t gonna happen.
====================================================================
That seems to be spot on.
However, the moonbeams mentality dictates that a billionaire sugar daddy will materialise and put everything back in place. By the time there is a realisation that there is no chance of that happening, it will be Third Rangers time. It seems like it already is, to be honest.
There seems to be a growing belief that a cut and run new build Third Rangers is the way to go, rather than waiting for the Sevco version to fold and be reincarnated. Something along the lines of MUFC/FCUoM and MKD/AFCW could lead to TRFC/NewGers of Glasgow both in existence. If TRFC and RFC were both members at the same time, why not TRFC and NewGers?
All Ashley really has to sell is a blue shirt with a badge. If NewGers have their own blue shirt with their own badge, why bother buying MA’s tat?
There must be thousands (millions?) like Ryan out there that would get behind a fan based club, and there may even be a Les Hutchison or Ann Budge out there to facilitate it. Forget DK or any of the other busted flushes though, that just ends up turning on the moonbeams again.
Whatever happens at the RIFC PLC EGM, the one thing guaranteed is that the fans will be no better off.
iceman63 says:
February 9, 2015 at 11:28 pm
I am now convinced that Ashley will destroy the clumpany rather than cede an inch to King.
The 3 bears are caught in a vicious bind here. Back King, Ashley collapses the whole show and they lose their “investment”. Back Ashley, the only hope of any future imho, and they face the wrath of permaragers.
Rangers mark 2 cannot survive a King takeover of the board. Ashley will call in the loans, and the onerous contracts will be such that King et al cannot run the club without feeding it at least a million a month in perpetuity.
Why any bear backs thIs charlatan is beyond me.
Ashley is all they have in the short term. He will crush them in an instant if they keep up their present behaviour.
They have been seduced by the RRM, and the heroes of the past. They loathe the truth: they cannot escape the past. They have very few survival options left, and they appear determined to reject any sustainable or realistic plan for the future. They will die, either through King’s hubris, or Ashley’s strangulatory asset stripping. But die they most assuredly will.
They are a business bleeding 10 million a year, with no borrowing facilities, and no means in the medium term of ever generating sufficient resources to cover the shortfall. Only severe austerity and increasing revenue can save them. Bears need to pony up in 40,000 + numbers for season tickets, at full price, for a team at half the present budget to survive, and all of this under the yoke of Ashley, regardless of who owns the shares.
Ain’t gonna happen.
____________________________________________________
I still reckon Mash will jump intio bed with the 3B and pull the duvet off of King.
Maybe because this fudge is the best hope the bears have, and probably more than they deserve given recent history, if I am honest?
Their interests do not completely misalign.
And mash is a business man.
Whereas King was probably one of the ones feeding :slamb: to the elect all along. Ever wondered why he has had Traynor (who was Press sec under the Charles Green’s board – don’t forget – he took his slice of the £70m along with Ally and Walter!) and Jackson eating out his hand from the get go???
I wouldn’t want any of these characters anywhere near my club, tbh.
we have no psychological profile on Ashley.we know only that he is heedless of what the world and his wife think of him, and that few in world of finance and commerce can stand up to him. If he has an Achilles heel, no one has yet found it.
King, on the other hand, has the same knd of profile as Scrooge: a miser, a cheat, a publicly acknowledged temporiser with the truth, and by turns a bully and a wimpish cheapskate.
Like you,resin, mymoney is on Ashley seeing King and any other challenger off,
Ashley will dictate events to suit his purposes. He will do so clinically, and with no emotion, just with regard to the most satisfactory bottom line for himself.
If it suits his purposes,he will keep TRFC alive.If not,he will coldly kill it, as easily and readily as SDM killed RFC (IL).
No question.
John Clark says:
February 10, 2015 at 4:16 am
we have no psychological profile on Ashley.we know only that he is heedless of what the world and his wife think of him, and that few in world of finance and commerce can stand up to him. If he has an Achilles heel, no one has yet found it.
———————————
It’s only a few weeks since the media line was that Ashley was coming in with anything between £30-40M to bankroll an assault on the Champions League. If the SFA and the rest of the clubs didn’t like that then big Mike would see them in court, because he doesn’t ever lose. Now they have gone rather quiet on that stance because he is up against a man they are utterly desperate to see in power at Ibrox. A man who provides the last clinging hope to a return of the heady days under David Murray, where everyone knew their place, with Rangers being right at the top. Yet big Mike doesn’t lose does he?
The view expressed by others on here that the Three Bears would be better ditching King and getting in bed with Ashley might be the only way of saving face. However, convincing a support who grew up on success funded by other peoples money may not be so easy.
The rest of us can be glad our clubs stuck with boring tradition and lived within their means. No blue chip investors for us to brag about. We should be truly thankful!
Alastair Johnston (the Record 7th Jan 2015):
‘Screw Rangers at your peril’
MASH: ‘Sounds like a challenge to me!’
And I’m sure someone will have suggested this before, so apologies if that’s the case, but isn’t the obvious place to hold the EGM somewhere like the Bahamas? That would involve the least travelling for the critical shareholders, and make it well nigh impossible for the peripheral shareholders who actually support the club to attend
Another, less flippant thought – if it is possible these days to include people in an AGM / EGM by proxy, by advance voting and via remote communications, is there a legal requirement that they are held in a physical location? Would it be possible to hold one ‘virtually’ in cyberspace entirely accessed via streamed webcam / phone / skype, save for perhaps the board members in front of a camera?
The Cat NR1 1.33 am
I don’t think a ‘cut and run new build Third Rangers’ is an option anymore. The Sevco fans have made far too big an emotional investment in the same club myth to accept the truth now.
The irony is that had they gone down this route from the start the distinction between emotionally the same club and legally the same club would have quite quickly been significantly diluted, to the point where it wasn’t very important in the grand scale of things. But it is exactly because they have demanded through threats and intimidation at every juncture to be recognised as the same official entity with their trophy record (including all the EBT & DOS assisted tainted successes) intact that the fans of the other clubs care as much as we do about this.
Another odd announcement to AIM this morning. A clarification of last week’s clarification about MASH’S board appointments that doesn’t really clarify anything.
While holding the EGM in London may look a bit sneaky (but then why not it is The Rangers INTERNATIONAL Football Club) it appears factions have yet again stopped a legitimate business, this time a hotel, going about it day to day business. Is it not time the SFA and SPFL admitted this is a wholly disfunctional club that requires to be taken to task.
The time has to come where there is a threat of suspension of membership. The way things are at present draws me to the conclusion T’Rangers are nothing but a stink hanging around the rest of Scottish Football and frankly the rest of us could do without it.
Big Pink Feb 10, at 12.:19am
……………
Spot on BP. Chapple and Losinska. Yuck.
John Clark says:
February 10, 2015 at 4:16 am
we have no psychological profile on Ashley.we know only that he is heedless of what the world and his wife think of him, and that few in world of finance and commerce can stand up to him. If he has an Achilles heel, no one has yet found it.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Except for the loonies who attach themselves to the TRFC culture
These nutters have been around for decades and present a threat that has never been overcome by the decent Bears or the Police
Ashley will find it very difficult to maintain control in any sort of overt way
It is no coincidence that Ibrox based Directors get out after a couple of years max
Ashley is much more likely to fund his Sarver surrogate and rule from overseas
My money is still on an RIFC liquidation with Sarver popping up to buy the assets from a Prepack Liquidator
Wottpi says,
February 10. 2015 @8.37 am
Sorry, Wottpi, but don’t you know that the SFA are too busy to attend to such mundane matters ? The Hampden hermits are conducting a poll of the Tartan Army about the continued use of “Flower of Scotland” as their anthem !!
Fiddling while Rome burns !
iceman63 says:
February 9, 2015 at 11:28 pm
When you look at King’s repeated approach, it has been to deride and antagonise the successive boards rather than to join with them, despite some of his initial rhetoric. He doesn’t appear to countenance the idea of ‘saving’ his club without gaining total power for himself.
While previous boards may well have been full of spivs, Mike Ashley is a man you’d expect could work with a Dave King, provided King was prepared to work on his terms. I could imagine Ashley would welcome a non-agressive King onto the board (or his representative) to look after the football side and raise what finance he can to enhance the brand, provided Ashley was left to milk his retail side, and, perhaps, the property.
Not an ideal situation for the bears, pretty hamstrung with no real prospect of multi-million investments in the squad, but much better than the moonbeams King is offering.
Instead of this more measured approach, King seeks confrontation at every turn, going first to his pet churnalists to announce ‘he is the man’ – again! All the time creating an enemy in Ashley.
Whatever the result of the EGM, if it does take place, Ashley will win, for he’s not playing the big man in the press, he’s much too busy (or at least his men are) tightening his grip on all things TRFC/RIFC!
In Ashley’s world, he won’t want to be seen to leave whoever ends up at Ibrox with more than he takes away!
Allyjambo says,
February 10 2015 @ 9.26 am.
I think you are right. Mr Ashley does not strike me as a man who likes second prizes. I feel he will play hard ball until he is satisfied he has achieved whatever he set out to do. Only then will he leave th field.
I honestly don’t understand Dave King’s motivation, in spite of trying quite hard to.
He was part of the demise of Rangers, but seems to have managed to burn through other people’s money rather than his own in doing so. Fingers burned, but still intact.
He must wake up every day and think that no matter what the Easedales and Mike Ashley have to throw at him, at least he’s not in the jail. An expensive and lengthy ordeal, but it’s behind him. Fingers very badly and expensively burned, but still intact.
And here he is going straight for the matches and the paraffin again.
Whish is better for the 3B/Ash consortia?
A King derived stadium packed full of season ticket holders who will have probably also bought into yet another share issue (raising maybe 3m ish?).
Or some sort of austerity 11 playing the medium term game with a realistic expectation of mid table top division in two seasons time.
Which boat would be easiest to keep control of? And which offers the best overall return (bearing in mind who the holders of the onerous contracts actually are).
MA’s MO
There were two games on at the weekend on SKY TV, Newcastle stadium bedecked in Sports Direct livery.
Ibrox stadium similarly liveried.
The advertising was more stark in the Ibrox scenario as there was no crowd or football to distract from the message.
One of our posters is involved in a worthwhile initiative.
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1skisfs
Today the DR provides their readers with this:-
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/10/7b27d72e1cdf75e5a6dc786dcbcbcf52.jpg
within a short time of reading it, an ordinary football supporter provides this:-
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/02/10/7e18068ceddc0a91390b3a32e064471b.jpg
Taking sides or just incompetence? The power of the press, doesn’t it just amaze you!
Must the board stick to the original date of the EGM or does the cancellation of the venue allow them to extend the date?
GoosyGoosy says:
February 10, 2015 at 8:39 am
It is no coincidence that Ibrox based Directors get out after a couple of years max
————————————————————–
I think that issue is one of the major destabling factors at Ibrox. Fans are generally wedded to a club for life but the Rangers’ directors constantly come and go.
I think Ibrox really is a tough gig for Neds who are used to collecting their £50k a year from a clutch of companies to augment their gold-plated pension already earned.
Once they arrive at Ibrox they realise this truly is ‘a company like no other’ and it isn’t just about ‘attending’ the odd board meeting by video conference calls.
No they actually end-up in a stadium every couple of weeks being booed and abused by the customers of the company they are in charge of. Some will suffer much worse with personalised abuse in the street and even at their home or any other company they have an association with and one minor personal indiscretion will see them reviled all over the internet and in the SMSM.
Is it any wonder they get out of Dodge as quickly as possible consistent with not leaving a question mark on their director for hire CV.
They simply start to understand what a large percentage of the support is all about and realise that their expectations can’t be met and the constant clamour simply wears them down.
Then we have the executive directors who are subject to all of the foregoing of course. But the execs aren’t Neddy pawns they are the real deal as major pieces on the Board – way above even the prawn sandwich brigade.
The execs usually are paid much more and have handsome bonuses with mouth-watering cheerio payments. And I truly believe they are worth every penny of what is akin to ‘danger money’.
And I’m not referring to the mouth-music threats from louts but from a much more sinister level of the bedrock club support. RRM know exactly what I talk about and so do the vast majority of the decent fans who wisely remain silent.
That is the real deep-seated problem at Ibrox and tbh I fully understand why when the Execs come to understand it they decide to walk because no amount of money is worth the risk entailed.
The real secret of Scotland’s shame isn’t actually a secret – many people are well aware of it inluding our politicians and they are the only ones who have the power to act and deal with the cess-pit.
But they won’t – either because they are personally conflicted in some cases or more universally because they are too scared about losing votes and being removed from the gravy train and possibly having to do a real job for the first time in their life for many.
As I say those who temporarily occupy the Ibrox hot seats come to realise the ‘Clear and Present Danger’ that pervades the club if they cross certain lines. Even the SFA know the score and I don’t use that as an excuse for their ‘conflicted’ position but more as a way of understanding it.
Perhaps Mike Ashley will be the one to stand-up to the old order at Ibrox but there might be a time when he is unable to find the trusted lieutenants to man the ramparts on the front line of the war of attrition.
Bawsman says:
February 10, 2015 at 9:59 am
What struck me was that the fixed ads on the (presumably) original boards on front of the stands were not always visible due to the camera angles.
Have the scrolling lcd boards been there a while? From what I saw these only showed Red32 and SD banners. I’m not a subscriber to the concept that this sort of advertising results in anything but I can’t imagine the companies that now have their ads obscured can be happy about this.
Is this the norm elsewhere?
Should the Scottish NUJ not expel its Daily Record chapter on the following 3 grounds.
1. They are not journalists nor even stenographers
2. They are disseminators of propaganda who choose to subvert the truth
3. They don’t work for a newspaper.
Anyone else noticed that King is often seen wearing a cardigan?….subliminal message I suppose!
Anent the Scotsman’s use of the reformed word, I guess that they are using it in the sense that the Reverend Spiers of the BBC might use it meaning not that there has been death and resurrection but that it has been altered within the apostolic succession while maintaining true rangersness as it should be and reverting more closely to the tenets of that faith, the evidence of this might be found for example in the prayers proclaimed at large services including the revival at Berwick and the most recent major event at Hampden where the proclamations were especially virile because of the presence of papish infidels.
Alternatively of course this use of reformed might be further manifestation of the recent green shoots of truth telling.
Four years of turmoil at Rangers Football Club told through our front and back pages 09:02, 10 February 2015 By Record Sport Online
RANGERS last night banned the Daily Record for nothing more than telling the truth throughout the four year decline at Ibrox. Take a look at our gallery of front and back pages which have stung the club during that time.
THE Daily Record’s team of sports journalists have covered the decline of Rangers Football Club with honesty and integrity ever since the moment Craig Whyte first came into contact with Sir David Murray.
That was more than four years ago but the slide of a club, who not so long ago were still contesting European finals, has been constant since then.
The latest twists and turns which have seen Mike Ashley step up his power grab at Ibrox and the current board launch a withering verbal attack on Dave King’s bid to oust them are just the latest chapter in a seemingly never ending saga.
Rangers have now reacted by banning the Daily Record from Ibrox and Murray Park .
In a letter to Daily Record editor Murray Foote, chief executive Derek Llambias wrote: “Following recent reporting from your journalists in the Daily Record, I am writing to inform you that with immediate effect the Daily Record newspaper will be banned from attending all Rangers press conferences and games at Ibrox Stadium and Murray Park.”
Read Keith Jackson’s thoughts on the ban here
The ban is a throwback to summer 2011 when former Rangers owner Craig Whyte imposed a similar “punishment” on the Record’s chief football writer Keith Jackson after he revealed Whyte was mortgaging off future season tickets to finance his takeover.
And it has echoes of the recent press bans dished out at Mike Ashley’s Newcastle to the Daily Telegraph and our sister paper the Newcastle Chronicle.
Llambias and his fellow directors – chairman David Somers, James Easdale and Barry Leach – are on the brink of being booted out of the Ibrox boardroom at an egm in London next month, in a shareholders revolt being spearheaded by exiled Rangers fan Dave King.
As suggested in yesterday’s Record, Rangers last night announced they will NOT be holding their egm at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London.
The club claimed media coverage of the egm had been “irresponsible” but didn’t name the news organisations it was referring to.
Their statement read: “The egm cannot be managed without significant disruption to guests and neighbours.
“The hotel felt it necessary to take this position after receiving numerous complaints and false information from individuals purporting to be shareholders. The board are concerned the situation was exacerbated by irresponsible and inaccurate media coverage.”
We chronicle the rapid decline of the club in our gallery of front and back pages above where our top team led by Keith Jackson and Gary Ralston have delivered exclusive after exclusive
Jungle Jim says:
February 10, 2015 at 10:24 am
Must the board stick to the original date of the EGM or does the cancellation of the venue allow them to extend the date?
The extract below from the RIFC Articles of Association would suggest that you’re on to something.
Bryce Curdy says:
February 10, 2015 at 7:32 am
The Cat NR1 1.33 am
I don’t think a ‘cut and run new build Third Rangers’ is an option anymore. The Sevco fans have made far too big an emotional investment in the same club myth to accept the truth now.
————————————————————
I think you may be correct that the window of opportunity has all but closed.
If DK wins the egm there will be a temporary resurgence of WATP triumphalism although the inevability of the financial realities won’t take long to kick-in.
If Ashley wins the egm – and even if he doesn’t – the Bears will have a team wearing blue shirts and franchised-out club crest playing at Ibrox. It will however be under a tight financial reign with no guarantee of winning much from year to year.
That will inevitably have a result on crowd numbers for various reasons. How long this lasts is hard to predict because no one is privvy to the MA Masterplan.
Obviously there are major issues and questions as to how MA might impact on football governance, both in Scotland and the rest of the UK. The first signs are obviously dual-ownership and player loans and these issues must be thrashed-out relatively quickly by the football authorities.
I believe there are 10/12 of the current Rangers squad out of contract in the summer. Are we going to see another 10/12 loans from Ashley related clubs? Can these clubs even provide that many or will they buy-up promising players and ‘park’ them at clubs like Rangers. This is already happening and could make a mockery of the FFP Regs. Decisions have to be taken urgently with watertight rules chanages if necessary.
Speaking to relatives and Rangers mates since the weekend I think a lot of them are just too tired of it all to care any longer and have either given-up the ghost or are a whisker away from it.
Hard core supporters will remain – as is the way with all football clubs – and then the rest whose primary interest has never been in the quality of football played on the park. Their concern was always more about ‘guaranteed’ results and the superiority flowing therefrom.
However, football fans can be very resilient and who knows how this is all going to play-out. But I doubt if it can continue for much longer before some sort of conclusion.
Just thinking, if Mike Ashley wanted to, he could make the DR dance to his tune, rather than give them the coup of being banned from Ibrox. Not just one of the country’s richest men, his countrywide brands must be a much sought after advertising dream for any publication.
So, why not exert pressure at the top of the DR tree? Could it just be that the stories the paper is printing suit Ashley’s agenda better than he could possibly create for himself?
The previous incumbents at Ibrox have manipulated the media by inviting them in for succulent lamb and scraps from their table. Could Mike be using them in a much subtler way, and even more effectively because he is not seen as their friend?
Cheers for that jimlarkin.
James Fowler being circumspect and diplomatic there but at least he questions the loans.
Can’t help but feel he really wanted to say: “They’re a ******* bunch of chancers and they’re at it.”
I hadn’t realised that Rangers had announced the egm won’t be going ahead at the hotel.
As soon as the hotel venue was announced I posted – long before the Daily Record – that there was no way the hotel would allow it to go ahead because of the potential inconvenience to other guests/customers and the potential risks/upset to staff.
I also said that the choice of venue was basically irresponsible IMO and could inevitably produce a flash-point. Once even a well-intentioned demonstration gathers then there is always the possibility that mob rule will prevail and things could turn nasty.
The banning of the Daily Record from Ibrox and Murray Park obviously has some implications for free speech and displays a continuity with how NUFC treats the media.
More importantly IMO it shows that the Rangers Board has lost the PR Campaign. I have a number of reservations about Traynor and Irvine but they know the buttons to press and what’s what at Ibrox. It would appear their replacements don’t have the required touch.
It’s also a situation where the DR will quite possibly gather street-cred with the anti-Board faction simply on the reasoning that if the Board has banned them then the Daily Rebel must be telling the truth.
I’m struggling a bit here. I though that this Daily Record:
“THE Daily Record’s team of sports journalists have covered the decline of Rangers Football Club with honesty and integrity ever since the moment Craig Whyte first came into contact with Sir David Murray.”
was the same as this one (18 November 2010):
“FINANCIAL whizzkid Craig Whyte stands on the brink of pulling off the biggest deal of his life – and finally bringing the curtain down on one of the longest-running sagas in Scottish football.
Craig Whyte started playing the stock market at the age of 15. By the time he left school he had more than £20,000 in his bank account.
Today, aged just 39, this financial whizzkid from Motherwell stands on the brink of pulling off the biggest deal of his life – and finally bringing the curtain down on one of the longest-running sagas in Scottish football.
Record Sport understands self-made billionaire Whyte has entered into the final stages of negotiations to buy control of the club he loves from Sir David Murray.
And he’s still one year younger than captain Davie Weir.”
You have to laugh really. Credibility? Who cares.
Ironic that such reporting helped pave the way for the ongoing saga rather than bringing the curtain down on it as they had hoped.
llyjambo says:
February 10, 2015 at 11:33 am
Just thinking, if Mike Ashley wanted to, he could make the DR dance to his tune, rather than give them the coup of being banned from Ibrox. Not just one of the country’s richest men, his countrywide brands must be a much sought after advertising dream for any publication.
So, why not exert pressure at the top of the DR tree? Could it just be that the stories the paper is printing suit Ashley’s agenda better than he could possibly create for himself?
——————————————————————
I would assume that the SportsDirect advertising account will be a National Account dealt with by the Mirror’s advertising department in London.
Even in these tight times financially, actually banning a paper’s journos or threatening to do so isn’t something the ad department could use to win an argument which touches on the newspaper’s right to freedom of speech.
Ashley and his SportsDirect ad people also know their job and they need the likes of the DR as its readership profile is well suited to the gear sold by the Ashley Emporium Empire.
If Ashley was actually being serious then he would ban advertising in all Mirror Group publications. But he won’t let a little local difficulty at Ibrox get in the way of his main aim which is making more and more money.
Nothing wrong with that but if he was doing the same at Parkhead then I think I might be back in the carpark protesting. It’s one of the ironies of the Sevco Pantomime that they used to laugh and decry our carpark protests as undignified and not the Rangers Way 😆
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/feb/10/daily-record-banned-from-rangers-due-to-recent-reporting?CMP=share_btn_tw
From the Guardian-
Ecobhoy, MASH has shown at Newcastle that he doesn’t much care about negative coverage in either local or national papers. Rangers fans and Level 5 along with the DR stirring up things to scare off other potential venues for the EGM will only serve to put the EGM date back – whose interests will that serve? When will the second SD loan be needed and what will the terms be?
The Path to Enlightenment
I’m getting very confused by all the outrage about King’s determination to be King.
Surely anyone who holds The Rangers and Rangers and all their works in contempt should be supporting King as the new messiah with all their being – he can only drag them further from the path of righteousness, dignity and financial salvation.
It will also allow the SFA the opportunity to declare him F&PP to prove beyond any vestige of doubt that they are devoted to the The Rangers ethos to the detriment of every other aspect of Scottish football.
Then everyone can stop pretending that Scottish football is regulated as a sport, in any accepted sense, and turn to dog fighting in search of a model of fairness and sporting integrity.
Some people simply will not absorb what is apparently obvious to others – they have to be allowed to make their own mistakes – again – and again – and again – and again.
Bryce Curdy says:
February 10, 2015 at 7:32 am
The Cat NR1 1.33 am
I don’t think a ‘cut and run new build Third Rangers’ is an option anymore. The Sevco fans have made far too big an emotional investment in the same club myth to accept the truth now.
The irony is that had they gone down this route from the start the distinction between emotionally the same club and legally the same club would have quite quickly been significantly diluted, to the point where it wasn’t very important in the grand scale of things. But it is exactly because they have demanded through threats and intimidation at every juncture to be recognised as the same official entity with their trophy record (including all the EBT & DOS assisted tainted successes) intact that the fans of the other clubs care as much as we do about this.
=========================================
That is the acid test really.
If they now accept that RFC died and that TRFC is a new club, then suddenly TRFC has no more legitimacy than NewGers would, and there would be a proper challenge to the Doncaster Interpretation (I think that statement was designed to warn that the higher points deduction would apply in an insolvency event). That is what gives MA and gave CG before him, the power to carry on with the fleecing operation.
DK seems too ingrained in the old ways to be the Moses figure, but the 3Bs could test the water. Now that the DR is out of favour at Ibrox, potentially they would have a compliant mouthpiece. It only requires a rolling snowball to start things and gather weight and momentum, and it is waiting for a couple of heavy hitters with bear kudos to start it.
We could finally be on the cusp of moving from stage 4 to stage 5 in the Kübler-Ross model, although the depression phase appears to be reverting back to stage 2 anger rather than moving to acceptance. If someone could push them to stage 5 and prevent a return to stage 2, it could ease their battle fatigue and end the vicious circle of self-harming.
Just an idea, but as you say very unlikely to happen in the real world.
I regret to say that my knowledge of the managementt and Board of the team that’s mentioned in the Bible is not terribly extensive.
But I think it may be fair to assume that James Fowler speaks with theconsent of his Board when he raises questions about Ashley’s loan players.
If this is so, the question arises as to whether Queen of the South are themselves speaking for other Championship clubs in offering a test-the-water support for SFA endorsement of King and rejection of Ashley?
Fowler does make a very valid free-standing point in its own right, of course.But to make it now, publicly,is maybe unwittingly to appear to take sides in the internal affairs of a club. (jimlarkin’s post @11.29 refers)
“THE Daily Record’s team of sports journalists have covered the decline of Rangers Football Club with honesty and integrity ever since the moment Craig Whyte first came into contact with Sir David Murray.”
Is this an admission that it was not covered with honesty and integrity before that point ??
neutralaxis says:
February 8, 2015 at 11:04 am
“Some” of Dave King’s words almost make sense in that excerpt above.
If only he hadn’t spoiled it all by
1) Mentioning ‘demotion’ which didn’t actually happen.
2) Having no awareness that’s he is actually more culpable in initiating a chain of events which has led the celestial entity to where it finds itself today, than the current board.
______________________________________________________________
Appointing Dave King to TRFC board is like Celtic re-appointing Michael Kelly after Fergus McCann’s departure in 1999.
blu says:
February 10, 2015 at 12:04 pm
Ecobhoy, MASH has shown at Newcastle that he doesn’t much care about negative coverage in either local or national papers. Rangers fans and Level 5 along with the DR stirring up things to scare off other potential venues for the EGM will only serve to put the EGM date back – whose interests will that serve? When will the second SD loan be needed and what will the terms be?
————————————————————-
Rangers have a stadium where the egm can be held and seens to be the obvious choice. I have said previously that the move to London probably sounded like a jolly jape when it was suggested.
Yea great for a laugh but what an error of judgement IMO. When you are trying to damp-down a fire you don’t throw petrol on it.
The last agm at Ibrox was noisy and the Board got well-baracked and deservedly so IMO. But I didn’t see one single person attempt to storm the canvas citadel erected on the park.
All the people predicting death and destruction to be visited on the Board at the egm seem to miss that salient point. Obviously since the agm things have deteriorated in the relationship between the Rangers’ Board and a large and vocal section of the fanbase.
For the purposes of a general meeting the reasons for that are immaterial. I reckon the maximum fan turnout at Ibrox for the meeting would be 2,500-3,000.
Now let’s consider thing with a bit of objectivity. If that amount of Rangers’ supporters can’t be effectively stewarded inside Ibrox in the opinion of the Board then the ground’s safety certificate should be pulled.
If they gain promotion and play Celtic next year with a capacity crowd how on earth can that be stewarded – it’s all farcical. It’s not just the DK Camp that’s playing the PR card – so too are the Board although badly.
On the basis of what happened outside the recent Hearts game we are contantly told the lives and safety of Board members are at risk. What utter tommy-rot.
This all started with the call from Allan of Larkhall. Who is he? Does he exist? What team does he support? And if it’s Rangers what camp does he support? Is he a PR spinner? Is he simply just a fantasist?
On the basis of his call it would appear directors can’t attend home games on personal safety grounds and apparently the general meeting has to be switched to a tiny venue in London.
I hope Allan is traced by Police Scotland and we might end-up getting some interesting answers.
At the end of the day it doesn’t take Einstein to work-out that the announcement of the venue switch would provoke fury and it may well be that was intended all along.
There may be a move underway to have the club suspended from AIM or delay the general meeting date indefinitely – btw I intentionally chose the term ‘club’. There will be an awfy lot happening behind the scenes which which we might never be privvy to.
I think the phoney war is over and real battle has been joined and sometimes the side with the tanks versus natives with sandals and a bike don’t win.
I commend the story of Fray Bentos the tank at Passchendaele in WWI as an interesing take on the subject rather than the more easily recognisable American Vietnam experience and also that of the Russians in Afghanistan and our own to an extent.
As to the second loan – well that’s a big question. Will there even be a second loan? As to terms I would think it has to be Ibrox Stadium as security – but what would that trigger?
Time for Mystic Meg – ah can’t use her she’s from the Record 😆
The Truth is out There
What a load of pompous faux “freedom of speech” bollox outrage has been gushing over the DR’s banning from Ibrox.
In case you are confused, freedom of speech is not the same as freedom to a free lunch.
There is no single fact or opinion that the DR could have printed yesterday that they cannot print today or tomorrow – nothing has changed, no censor has been appointed, no government oversight has been applied, no newspaper office has been torched, no journalist have been threatened or brutalized.
The entirety of the story is that DR hacks can no longer mingle with approved Ibrox mouth pieces over finger food and drinks before asking them banal questions on banal topics.
I would challenge anyone to furnish readers here with even half a dozen incisive questions that the collective DR hackery has asked at Ibrox pressers over the past ten years that have shed any light whatsoever on the ongoing shambles.
Anyone confused by this should consider that the truth is out there – it is not in there (Ibrox).
I wonder if there’s an onerous contract re the use of Ibrox for non football purposes, like EGM’s?
They seem to have everything else covered!
DK apparently cleared by SARS as ‘fit and proper’
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/dave-king-tax-man-has-cleared-way-for-rangers-bid-1-3685552
Shall I tell you what my favourite bit of that Record article is?
Keith being banned from Ibrox for telling the truth about the season tickets.
Oddly, I seen no mention that the said article was VERY quickly taken down from their website (although not before several posters got their hands on it and kept reposting it in the comments section of other articles!), and Jingle-Jangle forced to issue a grovelling apology. Still, I’m sure they’ll correct that oversight for later editions.
RE ‘contesting European finals’
Actually, contesting one European final in the last decade (like Fulham or Middlesbrough) and operating at a level of UCL group stage makeweights.
That Daily Record, they’re such scamps.
I would hate to be the SUN editor in Glasgow today when his Boss from London phones demanding to know why Rangers haven’t banned the SUN 🙄
Sadly I have to give credit to someone else on jamboskickback for this quote,
‘There has to be a certain irony around Sevco fans objecting to decisions affecting the future of (a football club in) Scotland being taken in London.
Is that not what they all voted for last September?’
mcfc says:
February 10, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Its a hard one. having thought about it, if King can get back in, within the rules, and regulations as they currently stand, both in terms of footballing and business law, then good luck to him.
However, it would demonstrate, not that this point needs much demonstrating, that the Business Laws and Footballing laws are not fit for purpose, but, TBF, that’s not King’s problem.
John Clark says:
February 10, 2015 at 12:19 pm
You may be right JC but on this occasion I doubt it and certainly hope not.
I suspect James Fowler is reflecting his Board’s view but I don’t think he’s remotely interested in the faux power struggle at the Govan club.
Instead I’m sure he’s just being professional in reacting to the developments around him.
He’s trying to get Queens into a position where they have a chance of being promoted via the play-offs. Falkirk are breathing down his neck but no matter for it looks like one of the teams above is imploding more spectacularly than any dark star and could be caught. That club, surviving on emergency financial loans to pay existing staff, suddenly acquires half an outfield team from the loan-givers other club.
He’s absolutely right to say ‘Hang on! Wtf is going on?’ Or words to that effect.
Ps. No response from the top 6 Championship club boards to my email yet other than a standard reply from Hibs to say ‘answers to football related enquiries, if required, will normally come via written statement from Board’.
ecobhoy says:
February 10, 2015 at 12:41 pm
ecobhoy, all very logical and sensible and a proper football person would pay respect to the customers who ultimately pay for everything. However, Ashley and his acolytes most probably aren’t behaving in this way for a laugh – as noted by others, he plays to win (and probably isn’t averse to the odd Jason Talbot style tackle). There’s a simple reason for making life difficult for shareholders, it gains advantage for Ashley. He may eventually find NUFC or Rangers to be his Afghanistan but there’s no evidence so far that either set of fans can be bloody minded and attritional enough over a very long period to deliver a disorderly and embarrassed retreat by the forces of MASH.
Allyjambo says:
February 10, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Sadly I have to give credit to someone else on jamboskickback for this quote,
‘There has to be a certain irony around Sevco fans objecting to decisions affecting the future of (a football club in) Scotland being taken in London.
Is that not what they all voted for last September?’
———————————————————
Must have been a poster that doesn’t realise that the SFA have full control of football governance in Scotland so we are 100% responsible for the mess we have created and accept and therefore can’t blame it on anyone else.