A Blog by James Forrest for TSFM
I am a socialist, and as a socialist I believe in the fundamental goodness of people. Some people find that hard to believe when they read the stuff I write.
I published my first novel recently, on politics and the corrupting nature of it, and it is a deeply cynical book, a book where no-one has clean hands come the end. What has surprised some of those who’ve read it is that I didn’t focus on the lies and smears of the right, but the hypocrisy and deceit of those who claim to be of the left.
Corruption, you see, doesn’t respect political boundaries or points of view. It’s like rainwater. It finds every crack, and gets in there.
My political beliefs revolve around two apparently paradoxical elements; the belief in the inherent decency of people and the need for a strong, and powerful, state. I believe the second underpins the first, and this brings me into conflict with a lot of people, some on the left and some on the right. Too many people see the state as inherently evil, as something that interferes too much in the lives of ordinary people. As something suffocating.
Yet the state exists to protect us. It exists to provide a safety net. It exists to regulate and to oversee. If the state is made up of bad people, if the gears of society are captured by those with malicious or selfish intent, the results are obvious; war, corruption, chaos.
The vast majority of our problems in the modern age can be neatly summed up in two lines from Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming”, which I used to open my novel. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
We live in a time when those who are protecting their own interests have assumed such power that they’ve cowed the rest of us. They have become a law unto themselves. They have changed the nature of the game, because they have sapped our will to the extent some barely put up a fight anymore. The weak get weaker, and the strong use their strength to crush the rest even more. It is a vicious struggle, a downward spiral.
Society is held together not only by the endeavour and common interests of its citizens but by a collection of laws. We elect the people who make those laws. They do so in our name, and we can remove that right every four years. That is a powerful thing, and we do not appreciate it enough. The present corruption exists because we allow it to exist.
The people around me continue to puzzle over my uncommon interest in the affairs of a football club on the west of Glasgow. My own club plays in the east end. I tell those who ask that my primary interest in the goings-on at the club calling itself Rangers is no longer about football; how could it be, after all? With promotion this year they are still a full two divisions below us, emasculated, skint, weak and unstable. If we were fortunate enough to draw them in cup competition the match would be over, as a tie, by the halfway point … in the first half.
In footballing terms they are an utter irrelevance.
Rangers is more than a football club to me. They are a symbol. Their unfolding calamity is an on-going outrage. What is happening there, what is being allowed to happen, is an offense to decency. It is a stain on the face of our country.
In short, it is a scandal. It is a scandal without parallel in sport.
Yet it’s not just a sports story either. If it was, I might not be so focussed on it. What is happening at Rangers is a colossal failure of governance. It is a damning indictment against the very people who are supposed to oversee our game. It is a disgraceful abrogation of responsibility from those at the top, those who claim to be “running things.”
If this is not a failure of governance it is a result of corruption at the heart of our national sport. It says they are bought and paid for, and I will say no such thing here.
So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. We’ll say instead that what they are is weak, indecisive, inept and disconnected from reality.
It reminds me of our political class, which has become insular and ignorant about what the public wants, and what it needs. It’s not a wonder parties like UKIP can achieve national vote shares of 25% at local elections. Nigel Farage strikes me as a dog-whistle politician, the kind who knows how to appeal to a select group of voters. He is little different to Charles Green, the man who beguiled Rangers fans into handing over large amounts of money, because he was “standing up for the club.” It is easy to do what he did, easy to do what Farage is doing.
Real leadership requires toughness. Say what you like about the Tories, but they have that in spades. Yeats was right about the worst being full of passionate intensity. Green was. Farage is. Cameron and Osborne personify it in their political outlook.
It is easy to be cowed by blunt force politics, and by “tough talking Yorkshire men” and venomous speeches about “strivers and skivers.” The politics of divide and conquer is the oldest form of politics there is, and it’s no surprise to see it practiced by some of the vested interests in the game here in Scotland. Yet, lest we forget … something significant happened last year. The maligned and the ignored, the weak and the voiceless found something they never realised they had. They discovered that, in a very real sense, the power was in their hands.
Last year, the fans rose up when the governing bodies and the media went all-out to save Rangers from the self-inflicted wounds caused by a decade of cheating, malpractice and ineptitude. I have no problem calling that what it was.
What happened at Rangers seemed incredible, but it was all too predictable, and some of us had been talking about it for years before it hit. The Association seemed caught in the headlights but it would amaze me if they really were as insular and ignorant as they appeared. They must have known how bad the outlook was for Rangers. They just chose to ignore it.
They were aided and abetted by a thoroughly disreputable media, a collection of cowards and compromisers, charlatans and frauds, masquerading as journalists, but who long ago laid aside any claim to be bold investigators and settled for commenting on events as they unfolded. More often than not, with their ill-informed opinions, sometimes due to weaknesses in intellect and others wilfully ignorant, they failed even in that.
Entire newspapers became PR machines for crooks and swindlers. They aided in the scam because they didn’t do their jobs, some because they were lazy, some because they were incompetent and others because they wanted a seat at the table and were willing to sacrifice whatever integrity they once had in exchange for one.
That all of this was embraced by the Rangers fans is amazing to me. They trusted when they should have been asking questions. They closed their eyes, covered their ears and sang their battle tunes at the top of their voices so they wouldn’t have to hear anything they didn’t like. As incredible as I found it then, and still find it now – and now, even more so, when they have already seen the results of it once – I find it pathetic too, and I do feel pity for some of them.
A lot of these people are genuine football fans, and nothing more. They have no interest in the phony narrow nationalism, or the over-blown religion, or the notion of supremacy which manifested itself in a ludicrous statement from McCoist when interviewed recently on Sky.
Some of the Rangers fans look at their team of duds, kids and journeymen, they look at a boardroom of cowards and crooks, they look at a failing manager in his first (and last) job in the game and at a dark future and are not in the least bit impressed by, or interested in, the chest-out arrogance espoused in those ridiculous words “we are the people.” They know full well that their present crisis was made by men like McCoist, and they understand that pretentious posturing is not an act born of strength, but a scrambling around in the gutter, and a symptom of weakness.
They understand their position, and they hate it. And because they care about Rangers, because they value the club, because they cherish those things that made it a great Scottish institution, they want that back. They understand that before the Union Jack waving, Sash singing, poppy wearing, Nazi saluting, Orange element became the public face of their support Rangers meant something else, and that, above all things, is what pains them the most.
People do not hate Rangers. When the country appeared to turn its back last year, they were turning the back on favouritism and the bending of rules. Yet it would be a lie to say that there is not an element of dislike in the gleeful mockery of many rival fans.
But they don’t hate Rangers either. They hate the version of it around which a certain section of the support continues to dance. They hate the version which hates, and so too do many, many, many Rangers supporters, and they definitely deserve better.
David Murray chose not to openly challenge that version. Indeed, he encouraged certain strands of it to flourish and grow, with his “Britishness Days” and his effort to turn the club into the “team that supports the troops.” Other clubs have done as much, if not more, for the British Army than the one that plays out of Ibrox. Other clubs have given more money. Other clubs have lent their support to those on the front lines. They just chose to do it with respect, and with class, and with dignity. They chose to do it in private, understanding that there eventually comes a tipping point between looking after the ends of the soldiers and using them to promote your own.
The army has not battened on to Rangers. Rangers has battened on to them, and although it is unclear when an altruistic motive became darker, what started out as a gesture of solidarity is now used to entrench division and promote a notion of superiority.
Craig Whyte took over from Murray and immediately understood the lure of the “dog whistle.” He knew too that the media would accept whatever he told them, without question, and as he spoke up for “Rangers traditions” he made sure the lunatic fringe was well onside. He met face to face with the hard-core extremists in the support first and made them his praetorian guard. They spoke up for him until the day the club entered administration.
So, whereas Murray pandered to them and Whyte used them to further his own ends, it was only a matter of time before someone suggested to Charles Green that he could use the same tactics to win over the support. He went even further and blatantly promoted and encouraged this mind-set, and stoked the hate and nonsense to frightening new heights. The same people who cheered Whyte to the rafters jumped on board the Big Blue Bus and the results are clear.
Through all of it, the ordinary Rangers fan has seen his club buffered against the rocks, battered, broken, smashed to smithereens and sunk. Now there’s a big hole in the side of the lifeboat, and they are terrified that further tragedies await.
They are right to be concerned. Much of the media is still not telling them what they need to know. The people in charge of their club – the owners who have lied, the former hack who covered up the truth about Whyte and now acts as a mouthpiece for Green, the “club legends” who are content to sup with the devil and take his greasy coin when they should be standing toe-to-toe with the fans – are trying to silence those members of the press who do have facts to present.
How many times now have media outlets been banned from Ibrox for daring to report the truth? The manager who demanded the names of a committee last year defends those inside the walls who are desperate to keep secret the things that are going on. He is either an unprincipled coward, or he is, himself, bought and paid for. The fans suffer for it.
The “inconvenient truth” is still being kept from them, and this denies them any chance to play an active role in their club. Indeed, it is all too possible that they’ve passed a point of no return, and that their club is heading for a new liquidation event and it can no longer be stopped.
In either case, their power has been eroded to the point at which they must feel they have nothing left to do but stand back and watch what happens next.
They are wrong. I am a socialist. I believe in the inherent good of people. I think the ordinary decent Rangers fans are the only people left who can save their club … and the means by which they will do it is as simple as it could be.
They must stand up for “big government.” They must embrace the need for a “strong state.” They must lobby the SFA, and they must trust the SFA and they must get the SFA to follow its own rules and thereby save them from any further harm.
There is a tendency amongst some Celtic fans to see our governing bodies as pro-Rangers. If it is true then those running our game are ruining Scottish football without benefiting the thing they love more. The incalculable harm that has been done to Rangers in the last 20 some months is a direct result of the subservient media and the willingness of the football authorities to be “deaf, dumb and blind.” Those who believe this has actually helped the Ibrox club have not been paying attention in class. It has irrevocably scarred them, and it may yet have played a hand in destroying them once and for all, as a force if not as a club entirely.
For years, the SFA sat and did nothing as a club in their association operated a sectarian signing policy. They did nothing whilst the fans sang sectarian songs. In their failure to act they strengthened those elements of the Rangers support, instead of isolating, alienating and eventually helping to eliminate those who saw that club as a totem pole of division and hate. Their failure over EBT’s, and their lack of scrutiny, led to one of the greatest scandals in the history of sport, and I say that with no equivocation at all. The testimony of their registrations officer in the Lord Nimmo Smith investigation was a disgrace and in years to come it will rank as one of the most disreputable and damaging moments in the association’s history.
The most egregious failures of all were the failures in the so-called “fit and proper person” tests, which allowed first Whyte and then Charles Green to assume controlling positions at Ibrox. They will pass the buck and say the responsibility lies with the club itself, in much the same way as they are content to let the club investigate itself at the present time, but any neutral who looks at this stance knows it is unprincipled and spineless. It’s like letting the defence set the terms at a trial. It is foxes investigating the chicken coop.
It is a blueprint for corruption, and a recipe for disaster.
It is now too late for the SFA to declare Green “unfit”, as it was too late when they finally slapped that title on Craig Whyte. He and his allies own Rangers, and they control its destiny. They can push the club to the wall if they choose, in the final extremity, if that gets them what they want. The time for changing that is past. The damage has already been done. The barbarians are not at the gates. They are inside the walls, and sacking the city.
The SFA will be forced to punish Rangers for the sins of the owners, for the second time in as many years, and whilst it is right that the club face up to that, all the better to send a message to other clubs and other owners, the SFA cannot be allowed to slither off the hook here as though this was none of their doing. Green will skip off into the sunset. Craig Whyte has yet to pay his fine. These people never cared about Scottish football and they don’t care now.
The SFA are supposed to. Our governing body is supposed to govern, for the good of the whole game, and not as a support system for a single club. What they have allowed to happen on their watch is absolutely shameful and if the people responsible were men at all, with any sense of accountability, they would resign en masse.
They can pretend ignorance, but only the truly ignorant would accept that. Craig Whyte was not inside Ibrox a week before RTC and other sites were dismantling his entire business history, with some of the people here doing the work the SFA would not. Whyte himself claims to have made the governing bodies aware of the scale of what was facing the club, and they did nothing at all. Heads should have rolled a year ago.
In October of last year, on this very site, I posted an article in which I wrote:
“Which isn’t to say the due diligence matter isn’t worrying, because, of course, it is. Again, no-one is going to convince me that the SFA has conducted proper due diligence on Charles Green and his backers. No-one will convince me they are satisfied that this club is in safe hands, and that the game in this country will not be rocked by a further implosion at Ibrox. They failed to properly investigate Craig Whyte, because of lax regulations requiring disclosure from the club itself, regulations which are just a joke, but they can be forgiven for that as the press was talking sheer nonsense about him having billions at his disposal, and a lot of people (but not everyone!) were either convinced or wanted to be convinced by him.
To have witnessed what Whyte did, to have witnessed the Duff & Phelps “process” of finding a buyer, and having Green essentially emerge from nowhere, with a hundred unanswered questions as to his background and financing, for the SFA to have given this guy the go ahead, only for it to blow up in their faces later, would annihilate the credibility of the governing body and necessitate resignations at every level. There would be no hiding place.”
There are times when it is fun to be right, but this is not one of them. It is dispiriting and disquieting to have been so on the nose. It scares the Hell out of me, as someone who loves football in this country, to have seen this matter clearly when the people running our game apparently either did not or chose to ignore very real, very obvious, concerns. The Internet Bampots had no special insight or access to information that was denied those at the SFA. We just weren’t prepared to ignore it and pretend that it wasn’t there. There was too much at stake.
I have become convinced that things will never change until the Rangers supporters join us in demanding the full and unabridged truth here. They need to come out from under the bed, and confront their fears. They need to be willing to take the consequences, so that their club can emerge clean from this, and start again, with all this behind them.
And it can all happen with one simple thing. The application of the rules.
The existence of laws comes down to a simple principle; they protect society from those elements within it who are interested only in their own selfish ends. We may cry out at those rules and regulations we see as “restrictive”, but the law was not made to restrict our freedoms but to protect them. Had the SFA years ago acted against Rangers sectarian signing policy, and the songs from the stands, the club would not have mutated to the point where there was no help on hand when they needed it the most. Let’s not kid ourselves about this; Whyte and Green were only able to grab control because the club itself has a dreadful image which put off respectable and responsible buyers. The SFA could have helped change that perception years ago and did nothing.
The SFA could have conducted its own investigation into who Craig Whyte was. They could have asked David Murray for full disclosure when he was running up £80 million of debt, a sum of money that is beyond belief for a single club in a small provincial backwater league. Had they had the guts to do that the club would never have spent itself into oblivion and forced the hand of Lloyds, which led indirectly to their ignominious end.
The SFA could have fully investigated Charles Green and the means by which he took control, instead of rushing through a license. His emergence at the last minute was transparently suspicious and designed to force them into a quick decision, but they did not have to bow to that pressure by making one, without being in possession of the facts, as it is now 100% clear they were not.
Had they asked for every document, had they insisted on legal affidavits and personal securities from investors (and this would have been perfectly legitimate and is common place in other licensing areas) none of this would have come to pass. After Craig Whyte they had a moral responsibility to the rest of the game to get this one right and their failure is without parallel in the history of Scottish football.
As the club hurtles towards a new abyss, names are cropping up which should send a shudder down the spines of every honest, genuine supporter of not only Rangers but every team in the land. The SFA claims that a strong Rangers is essential for the sake of Scottish football, but they have been extraordinarily lax in protecting that club, and therefore the game, from destructive elements. Craig Whyte and Charles Green had dubious personal histories, and the acquisition of the club itself was mired in controversy and scandal. Yet it was allowed.
Neither Green nor Whyte were known to have operated outside the law, yet neither was worthy of trust or stood up to scrutiny. Neither man should ever have been granted the status as fit and proper persons to assume a role in our national sport, and if it is true of them what can we say about the three men who are, presently, being touted as the Great White Hopes for a bright, new Rangers future; Dave King and the Easdale brothers?
King recently cut a deal with the South African government over an on-going dispute over taxes. In other words, he pled guilty and accepted the central plank of their argument; that for years he was engaged in wilfully with-holding vast revenues from their Treasury. The media does not like to put it like that, and the SFA seems willing to ignore it utterly, and this would be scandalous enough. But it does not stop there. HRMC rules – as well as the SFA’s own governance documents – actually bar him from serving on the board of the new club.
Last but not least, aside from being an admitted tax cheat, King is also awaiting trial in South Africa, having been indicted for corruption, forgery and fraud – 300 charges in total. Yet as recently as last week, we were told that the Association was willing to look at him and consider representations from his lawyers. This is almost beyond belief.
If Dave King’s position is untenable, and he is yet to be convicted of a crime, what can we say about the position of the Easdale’s? One of the two brothers, Sandy, has already served jail time. He is a convicted criminal, a fraudster nonetheless, who’s “victim” was the same Treasury who are appealing one case involving the old club and liquidated it entirely over another. This is precisely the kind of “businessman” the fit and proper person test was supposed to weed out, and if the SFA holds its nose here the reek will stink out the halls at Hampden for decades. If King or the Easdale’s are judged fit and proper, then who exactly is the test for? What exactly do you have to do to fail it? How do we explain the existence of laws, when these are not applied?
Pascal says “Law without force is impotent.” The SFA’s weakness has allowed one version of Rangers to destroy itself, and has allowed an existential risk to another. If the next power at Rangers resides in South Africa or Greenock I can say with some certainty that the Association is engaged in an even more dangerous roll of the dice, because the surfacing of fresh scandal will be an ever present risk, and will be of the sort no-one will survive.
The damage to Scottish football will take years to heal. The Scottish game has been through enough trauma. It does not need more. It barely survived the last calamity to hit Rangers. The rest of us should not be forced to pay the price of the next one.
The greater damage will be done to Rangers itself. If the Green crisis ends in another collapse – as it well might; another administration event is a certainty, and another liquidation is a much more likely prospect than it was before 14 February 2012 – the club will once again have to start from the bottom, and this time the reputational damage will be impossible to repair. The club faces internal strife, sporting sanctions, and criminal investigations. The last takeover might be declared a fraud. the Whyte takeover will almost certainly be. The share issue might be invalid, as well as criminal, and the people involved may well end up in jail. Lawsuits could follow from investors, there could be as yet unknown consequences from the Upper Tier Tax Tribunal (thank you Brogan Rogan for pointing out what those might be) and a host of other issues.
Rangers fans must be the loudest voices here. How do you want the world to view your club in years to come? Do you want one to be proud of, or one forever associated with the shame and disgrace of these days gone by? The one which bailed out on its tax obligations. The one with supporters who disgrace your very name. The one which allowed Whyte and Green to take you to the cleaners and send you to the wall. The one which handed over control to one convicted criminal and another awaiting trial. Do you want to be reborn clean, or mired in the muck?
David Murray destroyed your financial stability. He made it so no bank would issue you a line of credit and no investor of note wanted to buy. Craig Whyte liquidated you. Charles Green has cast the future of the Newco into doubt and acted in a manner which has annihilated your credibility with the financial markets for decades to come.
Between these three men, they have taken everything from you, and the press and the people who run the game here, as well as some of your own blindly ignorant fans, have allowed them to do all this and more. Now they conspire to hand the keys to Ibrox to other men of questionable character, who will wreck further havoc on the reputation of the club.
The Scottish Football Association has damaged the game it was supposed to protect, but above all else their greatest failure of governance was a failure to protect one of its biggest clubs from its own excesses and those of its owners.
Rangers fans, the SFA have betrayed your trust, more than the trust of any other club. What you must insist on now is full disclosure and transparency from the powers that be in Hampden. The SFA has to end the charade of allowing your club to handle this in-house. They must hand everything over to an outside agency – whether a legal one, or a footballing body like UEFA – and they must demand co-operation and answers, and threaten to withhold the license if they don’t get them.
You must not be afraid of that. You must embrace it. The men with their hands on the gears at Ibrox are motivated by money, and nothing more. If the license is withdrawn their “investments” are worthless. They cannot risk that.
You must demand that the rules on fit and proper persons are applied, and where necessary even made stronger, to prevent your club falling into unclean hands. You must demand that they protect your reputation from further damage, by getting this all out there and acting accordingly, even if that means your club does not play football for at least a year.
You must be willing to suck it all up, knowing that what will emerge is a Rangers which has been cleansed and moves forward with honour, and dignity, led by custodians who treasure it rather than those who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
The Rangers Standard has recently emerged as a genuine voice for those in your support who are sick and tired of what Rangers has become, and want it restored to something that is worthy of the love and respect in which you hold it. On that website, there are discussions about the kind of club you seek to be and about whether the institution of Rangers is about more than just football.
If that’s how you feel about it then you know it is about more than how many titles the club can claim, about more than just results on the park, about more than just the game. Rangers, like Celtic, is an idea. It has to be something you are proud of.
I am a socialist, but one with a fevered imagination and a tendency to write very dark things. This piece won’t have been good reading for some of you (perhaps all of you haha!) but I think there’s more hope in here than in other things I’ve written.
In spite of everything that’s come to pass, I still believe. I believe in Scottish football. I believe in our system of football governance, even if those who are working in it are failing on some level.
In society, as much as we strain against them, laws exist for our protection. To fail to enforce them is to leave us at the mercy of those elements who would do us harm. The rules of football ensure the protection of all clubs, not just a few.
The failure to enforce the rules has never had graver consequences than here in Scotland. The irony is that bending and breaking them has hurt the one club those violations were designed to help. It cannot be allowed to happen again.
The rules must be applied without fear or favour.
The best must find their conviction, and their passionate intensity once more.
James is a co-editor of the On Fields of Green Blog http://www.onfieldsofgreen.com/
You would need to be a loo-natic to predict which way the Rangers circus will play out. Anyway here goes.
The new Rangers will be liquidated around September / October 2013 , just as the lawyers get round to agreeing that there was complete skulduggery all round. Rangers then apply to the SFA for a special license to continue playing (due to exceptional circumstances – which the lawyers have just proven).
A new new Rangers company will be formed with a special license with the new new Rangers playing out of another ground, possibly St. Mirren Park.
The liquidators will unwind the original sale and eventually the new new Rangers will move back to a crumbling old old Ibrox, when some moderately wealthy supporters pass the bowler hat around.
This will satisfy the SFA in that the Rangers brand is maintained, as the only way that the Southside supremacists will ever cut costs is if the option is oblivion. Rangers will still exist and the machine that warms up the balls for the cup draw will be subject to regular planned maintenance.
nostarsandbarred says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 21:28
Malcolm Murray organised the investigation into Green and Ahmad. In order to establish the truth.
Ahmad and Green have sacked Malcolm Murray, in all but name, and he has accepted that. In fact he thought it had already been announced.
I can’t wait to hear the findings of this thorough and independent investigation.
You could not, as they say, make it up.
ekbhoy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:38
Aw naw!!
Chipmonk
I can’t wait to hear the findings of this thorough and independent investigation
========================
You won’t it wont report.
Its fini, over.
No ones co -operating or maybe not paying their bills.
Even more chaos.
achillesacronym
Possibly, but I wouldn´t bet an awful lot of money on it.
Even if it were the same material (that AT couldn´t get legaled successfully) it might not have been his to pass-on, unless with permission from who he got it from.
AT does have links with some of the same Celtic people I mentioned in above post.
eg. He wrote the forward of PMGB´s book / the same talks about leaks Charlotte has ready and waiting.
Long Time Lurker says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 21:34
Hector the Inspector on KDS – interesting theory re Phil’s latest tweet:
Phil MacGiollaBhain @Pmacgiollabhain 11m
A fine chap at Pinsent Masons thinks that their urgent work for Sevco has apparently been “put on hold”. I can’t think why…
Could Sevco be struggling to pay their bills? Are Pinset Masons refusing to offer a credit line and looking for an up front cash payment?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That would be very worrying for TRFC. Pinsents will know the financial picture in some detail by now and given that the job they are supposed to be doing is to shed light on recent events so that TRFC can move forward you would have thought that they will know what the percentages are on the various outcomes. If they are good, they know they will get paid and as solicitors do they will run the meter hard. Only if they are really bad – either right now (just washers in’tbank) or pending the outcome (nobody will touch TRFC with a barge pole) would they look for cash up-front. I think.
I think it is more likely that CF and probably the recent assault on Mr Malcolm Murray have changed the landscape, maybe even to the extent that their work to date has been abortive and they are now awaiting instruction on revised terms of reference and where to go with it.
StevieBC says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:07
There is more chance of a leak from the North Korean high command, the SFA is the official administrative wing of the new Rangers and will remain so in perpetuity.
Test
Just checking as a post seems to have got lost en route.
ianagain says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:46
Is that a feeling, or is it reliable information.
chipm0nk says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:52
Quantcast
ianagain says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:46
Is that a feeling, or is it reliable information.
==============================
As reliable as CF and Phil McB have been so far
Charlotte Fakeovers@CharlotteFakes
1:05 PM – 18 May 2013
Pinsent Mason deadline expired yesterday without a formal response from Whyte and others. Full and explosive QC’d LBC in 5-10 days instead.
Phil MacGiollaBhain@Pmacgiollabhain
5:37 PM – 20 May 2013
A fine chap at Pinsent Masons thinks that their urgent work for Sevco has apparently been “put on hold”. I can’t think why…
It occurs to me that CtH may be indicating that the investigation while having had no direct response from CW, instead has had representation from ML and that they would wish to present the QC’d LBC.
This, if it is the case might cause further turmoil allegedly within the Blue Room ….
It might explain the sudden appearance of further audio and video as the infighting escalates ….
Of course the Blue Room left the goal …. wide open …. !
Allowing the possibility for CW to use to his advantage …..
But the point that needs to be highlighted is that seemingly CtH has knowledge of the fact that LM are to present the QC’d LBC ……. Am I exprapolating too far …. ?
If this is the case it would present clear evidence (!) that this is orchastrated …… !
Phils tweet would appear to add weight to this …… !
The fact that the investigation does indeed appear to have overrun (may)
But of course the Blue Room would be expected to take time to consider the report and further present to the SFA and prepare legal responses …. AIM …. MSM … so I guess as each day progresses without such a publication adds further weight to this hypothesis ….
Thoughts ….
Chip
No ones talking to Pinsents as in the Rangers board. What’s to report?
Thanks Newtz
greenockjack
I do agree that AT has spent enough time getting to know the story and those with information that he could be part of this…..as I was typing I thought again about the possibility that CF is many more than one- someone mentioned this already? Pure speculation but it could be all of them?
In the scenario that it might be AT on his own its a big risk after having tweeted about having the story, then not having the green light to publish. Too convenient/ too risky given the scrutiny CF is getting here and elsewhere.
ianagain says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 19:17
Did they forget to take something with them like remote server monitoring?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ianagain
Heres another slant
What if a former employee of RFC has been keyed into the Ibrox network for years?
Someone who left last year?
What if he quietly installed remote access years ago to keep up with events at Ibrox while he got on with his day job 3000 mls away?
And “forgot” to close it down?
What if he had been reading all significant emails and bookkeeping ledgers at Ibrox with close interest since he was forced out last year ?
What if he now thinks matters must be brought to a head before the heavy mob move in?
What if he now believes the end justifies the means?
What if he thinks RIFC can be forced into liquidation by alerting AIM through the media ?
Thus forcing the sale of TRFC to genuine Bears?
Like him?
ianagain says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:59
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Chip
No ones talking to Pinsents as in the Rangers board. What’s to report?
——————————————-
So Green is refusing to speak to the people running his own club’s investigation. As is Whyte and presumably everyone else.
Then that is what they report. They look at any material supplied to them, or that they can get for themselves. They report based on that and note that x,y and z refused to co-operate with their investigation.
Rangers then remove anyone who refuses to co-operate from their board, and provide a copy of the report to the SFA as promised.
goosygoosy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:05
ianagain says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 19:17
Did they forget to take something with them like remote server monitoring?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ianagain
Heres another slant
What if a former employee of RFC has been keyed into the Ibrox network for years?
=============================================================
Goosy yes another possibility I don’t see Chuck or anyone at Pretendygers particularily being willing to spend 30 to 40 k cleansing their IT domain as they were only hanging in for a few months.
Don’t know Goosy I really don’t but their IT security is obviously not good.
achillesacronym
I don´t think CF is AT.
I do think it could be the same type of people who were active around the RTC blog/subject.
greenockjack
This seems most likely, apologies if I went on a bit, but your post above was pointing in kind of pointy sort of way in that direction.
goosygoosy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:05
GG – what if the ex employee didn’t have to install illegal means, what if he had all the info available before he left, and gained recent info from someone still there who doesn’t like CW/CG/IA etc and wanted to help a fellow rangers minded man, what if the incumbent rangers minded man had access to the CW tapes etc by being sent them by CW as part of his “threats” what if the Ex employee hired someone in his timezone to selectively leak things to social media using a fake account, what if that timezone included florida, what if there was more than one individual with the same surname involved! (as has been confirmed on the IA/MM tape) and as for the drip drip of CF -well there are some things you should never hurry.
upthehoops says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:35
I have heard GS and AW on that one.
Whilst nobody has seen the 5 way agreement I’m now wondering how it can be called an agreement if the removal of titles was part of that agreement and never happened. I can’t recall how that played out again. My other thought is if the removal of titles was part of the 5WA and EBT were also connected with this then why when investigations took place did Bryson not produce the evidence to ensure what was agreed to happened. I may of course be getting my self in a muddle here
It would be good to have a timeline of the important parts of the saga over the past year or so on the blog
briggsbhoy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:23
Re the 5 way – the reason I believe it has never been released is it never happened, the draft doc floating around was an attempt but the parties involved could not agree and it died, everything since then has been a hodge-podge of spur of the moment improvising and inaction.
bayviewgold says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:26
To avoid confusion and TDs – I should add that that last post does not absolve the parties of malicious or unethical rule bending but purely that it has been decided off the cuff as events unfolded.
bayviewgold says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:23
What if someone who set up the emails system for new employees ensured that any he got a copy of any emails received or sent. This of course can be done without the knowledge (unless they have a bit of computer savy) of the individual involved.
Bayview
Your last two posts
6 x What if´s
5 way
What´s next
4 ?
ekbhoy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 22:38
‘….The liquidators will unwind the original sale ……’
——
Enjoyed that, ekbhoy.
But seriously, and I have asked this before, does anyone know what would have to happen if the Administrators were convicted ( not that they have been charged-yet) of conspiring to pervert the course of administration by doing a deal, at the expense of the creditors, with bad men to sell the assets for a bargain basement price?
Would/ could the Court annul the sale to CG, cancel the ‘liquidation’, return the assets to a new lot of administrators to start all over again?
Would RIFC be declared not to legally exist, and the money the shareholders paid in the IPO be deemed lost to the investors ( whose only redress would be to sue CG and accomplices)?
And would every business transaction made by or with the Sevco’s, The Rangers, and RIFC be nullified, cancelled, abrogated…?
Just what a mess that would be!
Could it happen?
goosygoosy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:05
ianagain says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 19:17
Did they forget to take something with them like remote server monitoring?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ianagain
…
What if he quietly installed remote access years ago to keep up with events at Ibrox while he got on with his day job 3000 mls away?
And “forgot” to close it down?…
==========================
As mentioned, perhaps an organisation like TRFC might not be proficient re: IT security.
However, IMO, ‘someone living in the US’ would have too much personal risk at stake to be caught illegally accessing TRFC data. [Could that even border on industrial espionage ?]
However, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if one of the ‘departed’ spivs from this year/last year had thought about maintaining inside access, allegedly… 😉
bayviewgold says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:23
goosygoosy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:05
GG – what if the ex employee didn’t have to install illegal means, what if he had all the info available before he left, and gained recent info from someone still there who doesn’t like CW/CG/IA etc and wanted to help a fellow rangers minded man, what if the incumbent rangers minded man had access to the CW tapes etc by being sent them by CW as part of his “threats” what if the Ex employee hired someone in his timezone to selectively leak things to social media using a fake account, what if that timezone included florida, what if there was more than one individual with the same surname involved! (as has been confirmed on the IA/MM tape) and as for the drip drip of CF -well there are some things you should never hurry
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I don’t think it is this either. CF has said that they have thousands of pages (maybe) and that they are sorting through it for bits of interest – so, whilst they may have known the story I don’t believe they are familiar with the detail on a page by page basis. Maybe it is more likely to be someone along the lines of greenockjack’s suggestion. Maybe someone like RTC, Phil or similar who happened to know someone in a firm of solicitors or similar who may have ( or may not have) recently arrived on the scene and have taken a very early opportunity to get their hands on everything they could and are now raking through it with eyes on stalks.
borussiabeefburg says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 20:46
“You’d have to have a Dropbox account to get the file as I previously posted it”.
——————
Borrusia, I’ve got a dropbox account but still can’t open that file. The file address looks different to the files I posted.
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Sleekit%20guests%20at%20Bow%20Wine%20Cellars.mp3?w=AAADxDTshvSExvrOJBvSkxOCBg5kX2pqERRkIFTSXQgkCQ
Here’s one of the files I posted.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/08t2s9ulmjpcwtf/xbB_lGaLOq
Can someone who doesn’t have a dropbox account please advise if they are able tio view my file, borrussia’s file, both or none.
Of course, I should have mentioned that all of that would be highly illegal and not at all the right thing to have done….
Ok for me …. but then I have Dropbox …
Mullach – yours is good, the other one not.
mullach says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:34
‘…Can someone who doesn’t have a dropbox account please advise if they are able tio view my fil.’
—–
Yes, downloaded as .zip, and opened up your Aker piece. Didn’t try borussia’s.
I´m a firstimer guys and all I want to do is post a question about a scenario.
What in your opinions will happen, socially in Scotland, if Rangers go tits up, licence not renewed and finished as a club.
Sometimes I wonder if the football authorities are being pressurised by the government to keep Rangers in football at all costs to prevent social mayhem.
Or am I way off the mark?
achillesacronym says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:33
AA – I’m not sure that your reasoning disproves my suspicion that AJ is involved somehow, after all if he received a hard drive or laptop copy or similar he (or someone instructed by him) would have a pile of data to sift through – but remember he was not directly involved in CW/CG et al but did have the nous to realise that there is something wrong even if he does not know the details as your post suggests. But I don’t really know anything for sure – just trying to look at who may be behind this and for what reason. But I do believe it is not our south african friend. 4 buts GJ 🙂
briggsbhoy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:30
It could be done of course – I just have a hunch it wasn’t.
maybe I should expand on why I don’t think it was done through espionage – CF claimed he was fighting legal issues on the material (from CW I think) – if it was simple hacking, monitoring etc – that is illegal, there are no grey areas. However he implies (or the way I read it) that he has the info through a non-illegal route, where the the question of illegality is did he or the deliverer to him have permission to place it in the public domain? The scenario is – if I hacked your email account and published the emails, that is always illegal, but if you send or copy me an email privately and I forward it or publish it – then that is not necessarily illegal. IMHO.
my apologies to jim herriott, john blackley, john brownlie, eric schaedler , jim black(?), and of courese the incomparable, irrepresive alex edwards…
jumpers for goalposts?
count me in!
M8Dreamer
12 months on from the RFC fiasco, the SPL have again chosen to ignore their own rules and allow HMFC to remain in the SPL for next season.
When the full extent of this money laundering charade is know, the SPL will be left with no option but to remove HMFC’s licence to play in the SPL.
The lunatics are still running the SPL and until they are removed Scottish Football will not be able to move forward.
irrepressible maybe…
and i know it was a harringtOn….
bayviewgold says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:26
‘..Re the 5 way – the reason I believe it has never been released is it never happened,..’
——
Do you think there was no 5-way agreement??
”The SFL, SFA and Scottish Premier League statement read: “We are pleased to confirm that agreement has been reached on all outstanding points relating to the transfer of the Scottish FA membership between Rangers FC (In Administration), and Sevco Scotland Ltd, who will be the new owners of The Rangers Football Club. ..”
That makes 5 signatories to the agreement, innit? ( For the first time, I realise that ‘innit’ is simply the French ‘n’est-ce pas?’ so I no longer grue at it!)
Re the nostalgia for the hibs of the early 70’s, some great fife players then too 🙂
http://progs.fairlyoriginal.com/wp-content/gallery/HEF19710911/Image4.jpg
john clarke says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 00:01
Ah – you’ve got me there, but as a formal “5 way agreement” document, i’m not so sure, but be happy to see it if it does exist.
mullach says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:34
I managed to view your timeline, how long have you been piecing that together?
Bayview. The small company I work for now when I was given my email and laptop I was always very careful about what I emailed others within the company and outwith, I keep personal stuff out my company emails. I never pass on jokes as a rule that people send me (lesson for Mr Dallas there) I’m very careful about that. Anyway the point I was going to make is that when I was going on holiday and I wanted to send copies of my emails to a colleague, to my horror I discovered when I was playing about with my outlook that my bosses name was in there and he was getting copies of my emails. I soon discovered that any emails I sent to sales office he got as well. I of course removed him and he never queried it for obvious reason, sneaky bastard that he is.
Bayview are we saying the 5WA at the end of the day may never have existed, which I suppose is quite feasible
So it was Stockbridge who recorded the video of Murray
https://twitter.com/JohnMcLean_HS67/status/336619664073445376/photo/1
m8dreamer says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:59
‘…12 months on from the RFC fiasco, the SPL have again chosen to ignore their own rules and allow HMFC to remain in the SPL for next season…’
———–
I tend to disagree with you, I’m afraid.
It seems to be an actual fact that UBIG are not yet in administration, let alone in liquidation.
It is , perhaps, likely that that they WILL be put into administration (or Lithuanian equivalent), with consequent effect on HMFC ( who owe them millions).
But the SFA would have had to consider the not entirely impossible scenario that, if UBIG does go, HMFC would go into administration and that a PROPER job of administration could be done,i.e. new owners found,debt to UBIG ( and other creditors)cleared, and so on.
I think they called it right.
If they haven’t, and the plug is pulled on HMFC before ( or worse, after the start of the new season) they will have yet another problem to face.
@mullach
@all
would be good for anyone to post significant dates to add to @mullach timeline along with link to source (important)
As a start ….. Jan 22nd 2012
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/ellis_hughes_fit_and_proper/
One important point here is Pauls note on Corsica (RIP) post on RTC …..
This week the Directors of “Group” changed the accounting reference date for the company to bring it forward to 30th April. This has the effect of requiring them to prepare the first accounts for the business, formed for the purposes of taking over Rangers, as discussed above, earlier than first needed. But there is an additional consequence of the move, which seems, from commercial confidentiality purposes, to be a very good one.
This was brought to my attention by “Corsica”, a poster on RTC. The effect, perhaps deliberate, and perhaps not, of the change is that the first mention of the takeover in “Groups” published accounts will be for the year ended 30th April 2012. These accounts need not be lodged with Companies House until 31st January 2013!
[End]
I need to go ove CtH Ellis stuff again ….. but thats for a later date
Don’t dismiss the Hughes link here ….
Remember also Ellis was in share dispute …… but that breeds the strangest relationships …. as we have seen … Ellis also connects to Wavetower …
Don’t forget to red flag June 14th ….. link to LBC and audio of CW AE CG
If it is an ex Rfc employee/director then which one ?
Sir David Murray must be reasonably pleased that all the attention has been diverted from him
and he still has his loyal accolytes within the walls (Walter and Ally)
John Brown stated to Tom English that everything would come out and he was the most vocal
with his warnings that Green /Whyte were up to no good
Steven Naismith also stated that all would be revealed in due course, not that I suspect him
but he seemed to know that revelations would occur.
Bringing the walls tumbling down would benefit anyone outside the current incumbents who wanted to “pick up the pieces”.
who is conducting the average Whyte band
http://youtu.be/MfAJLGFWxYo
smartie1947 says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 21:35
17 0 Rate This
i obviously remember the celtic players well but alan gordon, jim o’rourke, arthur duncan, alex cropley, pat stanton etc….
And not forgetting the most underrated footballer in Scotland in the 60′s and early 70′s.
One, Alex Edwards (Dunfermline and Hibs)
_________________
Have to agree with you, but Brownlie, Blackley and Schaedler have to get a mention too. On their game, the Hibees most devastating attacks invariably seemed to start from the back. Have great memory of the cup semi-final replay where “Turnbull’s Tornadoes” played the Gers off the park only to be (sadly) thrashed by Celts in the final. But then, revenge in the Drybrough Cup Cup, as I remember! Matches between both clubs have provided great entertainment over the years and I hope the Hibees make a game of the final this year.
Just pondering on why the stuff has dried up from CtheH ? is he/she doing a deal with someone, been caught. Any suspicious deaths over the weekend in the papers or new folk on the missing list 🙂
@briggs …..
or did someone get too close ….. !
oops ….. LOL
briggsbhoy says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:23
“Whilst nobody has seen the 5 way agreement I’m now wondering how it can be called an agreement if the removal of titles was part of that agreement and never happened… I may of course be getting my self in a muddle here”
—————-
briggsboy, I don’t think you are any more muddled than the rest of us. Its good to ask questions even if sometimes you may feel it makes you look ill informed. For me thats what intelligence is.
Title stripping was indeed part of the five way agreement I believe but so was automatic entry to SFL Division 1 I understand. Since SFL 1 was not achieved (due to ahem, unforseen circumstances) then this suggests the five way agreement became void. If a major term of the agreement could not be delivered then I think that would be grounds for the intended recipient of that benefit to renege on the deal.
The potential for stripping of titles was dealt with by the LNS enquiry (how did that go by the way?).
So the five way agreement we have seen in draft form (in truth I haven’t read it in detail so far so perhaps others can correct me) is in part a record of the fact that Rangers themselves were willing to accept title stripping in return for SFL 1 football.
CG ranted later that they were trying to strip titles and he wasn’t having that. However it appears the club were quite willing to negotiate on those terms. This then suggests that Rangers themselves felt culpable in regards to the misregistration of players. Only a perverse interpretation of (I’m not sure what to write here, the English language may not contain sufficient vocabulary), well, the rules in the absence of an accurate description, prevented these titles being removed.
So yes a very good question. If stripping of titles had already been agreed in principle and the LNS enquiry found that dual contracts were indeed in place then there is only one conclusion I can arrive at why this did not happen.
Obviously Rangers had been punished enough.
Well no. Obviously Rangers had incurred so many sanctions for their infringement of commercial and sporting ethics that it was felt to enforce further legitimate sanctions would be seen as unfair.
No thats not quite right either is it. Well words escape me.
Very good question indeed briggsboy. If only now someone could provide you with a complimentary very good answer you might have your mind put at rest.
This explains your self doubt. You need not doubt yourself. As someone who appears to be in touch with his morality, you appreciate that the situation is doubtful. However your feelings are quite logical. What you are experiencing is the absence of ethics in others. It is very noble of you to carry their guilt but in truth it is for others to justify their own conscience. You my friend are deserving of being able to sleep at night.
M8Dreamer
Panorama tonight showed how the Government, Law, Police, etc colluded to fabricate non truths
about the 96 Liverpool supporters who died at Hillsborough in 1989.
It has taken 24 years for the Hillsborough families to try and get “Justice for the 96”, but until a further “Independent” Public Enquiry takes place and finds all those who were responsible for this disaster and the subsequent Police cover up, the surviving families will not get closure on this tragedy.
john clarke says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:32
“But seriously, and I have asked this before, does anyone know what would have to happen if the Administrators were convicted…Would RIFC be declared not to legally exist, and the money the shareholders paid in the IPO be deemed lost to the investors ( whose only redress would be to sue CG and accomplices)”?
—————-
So many good questions tonight. I am not a font of knowledge but it is interesting to exercise the arguments.
Although we all believe in law and justice and right and wrong, the world doen’t work that way. Witness the Hillsborough enquiry. We now have a much better idea of what happened that day and who was culpable whether through negligence or misdemeanor.
The lesson is, 20 years on, authorities have to protect themselves, even when they make mistakes. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be seen as authoritative. If someone in authority acts in an unjust manner, often the first reaction of his or her colleagues is to protect them. To protect each other. Its back to tribalism. The unity of the tribe must be maintained even if that means accepting the negligence or misdemeanor of one of its members. This is called ‘cover up’.
Humans make mistakes or worse so it is not unreasonable for the tribe to absolve a member of such actions to some extent since any individual member might fall victim to the very same behaviour. So to prevent their authority being brought into disrepute, they cover it up.
The law doesn’t operate in a void. It is subject to the influences that surround it. Like a football referee. So the big teams with a big support may well get the ‘benefit’ of the doubt on some occasions. If you look down through history, the legal profession and their decisions will regularly reflect the prevailing mood. Justice is a relative concept, not absolute. The law exists largely to keep order. It is not like physics where you can objectively measure the consequences of an action.
So the reaction of authorities to the debacle will to some extent be determined by the prevailing mood of the populace at the time. If enough people are aware of the facts of the case it will be difficult for the authorities to make decisions that to a large number of people will seem unjust.
To unwind the sale and turn the clock back may be impractical. There may be an inertia to cover up the facts since otherwise the complexity of the unwind will be tortuous. However if enough people are aware of the circumstances it might be difficult to justify such a course of action.
This might sound strange and contentous but ……
I do believe that Rangers are salvagable …..
Does that make me ….. ‘a glib and shameless liar’ ……….. Phil ?
briggsbhoy says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 00:27
Or did someone post unflattering phone and video of the person helping leak current info to another rangers minded man who is feeding CF? “cease and desist – or there’s more?” I think AJ/MM/PM are knee deep in this and possibly DM may be in there in the sidelines, after all you can never have enough murrays when it comes to TRFC, away to adjust my tinfoil hat 🙂
john clarke says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 00:01
bayviewgold says:
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 23:26
‘..Re the 5 way – the reason I believe it has never been released is it never happened,..’
——
Do you think there was no 5-way agreement??
”The SFL, SFA and Scottish Premier League statement read: “We are pleased to confirm that agreement has been reached on all outstanding points relating to the transfer of the Scottish FA membership between Rangers FC (In Administration), and Sevco Scotland Ltd, who will be the new owners of The Rangers Football Club. ..”
That makes 5 signatories to the agreement, innit? ( For the first time, I realise that ‘innit’ is simply the French ‘n’est-ce pas?’ so I no longer grue at it!)
———————————————-
Mr McCoist went on record saying that the five-way agreement was not signed. If it was then why has noone from the MSM challeged him on this? If you remember, Sally (as a mere employee of Sevco) was personally involved in negotiating the terms of the five-way agrement. He visited Hampden on several occasions to represent Sevco in hammering out the conditions of the five-way agreement. I know Sally has a reputation for speaking out of the back of his trousers, but why would he insist that that negotiations with the SFA came to an impass if it wasn’t the case?
I rather suspect that the FPLG was correct. The SFA were in a blind panicand wanted the agreement signed before the start of the season regardless, but Sevco played hard ball. In the end Ogilie and Reagan acquiessed and allowed Sevco to proceed without a signed agreement. You can imagine the panic at Hampden if this is now made known to the Joe Public. I am convinced there is no (legal) 5-way agreement, merely a disputed draft of what the SFA wanted. Sevco now have them over a barrel for allowing the club to proceed.
I have no doubt that Celtic are aware of the damage that the secrecy of the so-called 5-way agrement is having on Scottish football. If Celtic was not party to it then why haven’t the club demanded a copy of what was proposed or signed? I will be totally disgusted with Lawwell and Co if I discover he knows the content of the 5-way agreement and has given it his tacid approval to its creation.
OT but bear with me : ok entered the twitterverse @BayviewGold I’m following a few of the posters here that I could find, but some of the weel kent names are missing so I would be happy for you to follow me so I can return the favour (don’t post here as I don’t want to clog up the blog) sorry TSFM for this post, we now return to normal service. 🙂
newtz says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 01:58
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Newtz… (& with respect)
Do you mean
(a) Rangers… the football club currently in liquidation
(b) The Rangers … Sevco Scotland, assets disputed by Sevco 5088/ CW & Worthington
(c) A Rangers. A generic term for any Ibrox club playing in blue in Edmiston drive. (or relocated to another location)
w.r.t. (a) that bird has flown. The ship has left. The Norwegian blue has fallen of its perch. It is a geoemtrical 2 dimensional construct. A pollygon. A dead parrot.
w.r.t. (b) possible. If a DK style figure or shady bus conductor steps up with million to launder… sorry I mean invest, while the crooked authorities look the other way (squirrel hunt!) I could see this flying. Probably the worst thing that could happen.
w.r.t.. (c). Quite possible, And there is a sizeable decent support that deserve this. Guys I would happikly share a pint with. And a discredited and loathesome vociferous element that do not deserve this. People who are simply a disgrace. If the first element get control, this gets my blessing. Otherwise, good riddance to bad rubbish.
mullach says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 01:11
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_________________________________
Top post. Well expressed.
I am awake at this hour exercised by that Hillsborough documentary, and our apparent powerlessness in the face of such wilfull complicity and conspiracy in wrongdoing.
I am going to go back to bed happier for reading your erudite & thoughtful words.
But if the powers that be at the SFA can watch that documentary and look at the current situation in scottish football and still decide to let venal expediency and corruption shortchange all the honest fans (included the bears) in the scottish game to suit the interests of liars and spivs, then truly they are the zombies, and they deserve to lurch brainlessly evermore, with their relevence decreasing as their atrophy increases, until one day, the corruption is cut open and laid bare for all to see, with hatred tempered by pity as their only meaingful legacy. A hard truth is alot easier than an easy lie.
nowoldandgrumpy says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 00:17
7 0 Rate This
So it was Stockbridge who recorded the video of Murray …
———–
Is this all a sideshow to divert the eye? Two camps leaking on each other, while someone else takes the p***?
Or is this Mr Stockbridge’s exit plan?
And who is going to buy STs in this climate?
We spent quite some time last year deploring Sally for wanting to know the names of 3 panel members,the abuse that followed,the threats to people and property, and here we are trying our damndest to put someone else in the firing line.
Personally I don’t care who Hurricane Charlotte is,until the information is proven to be true or not.
We have to remember who we are dealing with here,people who threaten Anybody for bad-mouthing their club.
Remember last year when a man was sending a text while stuck in traffic ? his plate number was taken and his details were printed,including what school he went to.All because he was thought to be RTC. What do you think would happen this time ?
newtz says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 01:58
This might sound strange and contentous but ……
I do believe that Rangers are salvagable …..
Does that make me ….. ‘a glib and shameless liar’ ……….. Phil ?
…………………………………….
Only if you know it not to be true…and are trying to tell people it is..
Mullach @ 01:11
To unwind the sale and turn the clock back may be impractical. There may be an inertia to cover up the facts since otherwise the complexity of the unwind will be tortuous. However if enough people are aware of the circumstances it might be difficult to justify such a course of action.
————————————————–
Is this CF´s motive ?
The Record quoting MM claiming that he was, in fact, set up:
“Last night, Murray insisted he had been deliberately stitched up in a bid to force him out of the club.
Murray said: “This is a clear stitch-up.
“I was kept waiting for dinner for more than two hours and plied with lots of drink.
“I can’t do that nowadays because of a medical condition.
“I was in a car accident when I was a young man. It took half my head off and half my brother’s head off.
“As a legacy of that accident, I can’t drink nowadays without getting wobbly.
“I have a balance problem and that’s a medical fact. It’s why I restrict myself to drinks over a meal.
“It seems obvious to me that the people behind this don’t want me at the club.
“It’s a stitch-up and everyone knows it.””
greenockjack says:
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 08:21
Re: Mullach’s point at 01:01 and to help you answer your question, maybe take a look at the excellent reference provided by twopanda (Monday, May 20, 2013 at 19:40): http://www.dcdave.com/article3/991228.html. I refer Mullach to point no. 10 – in fact there are many items on that list for Mullach to mull over to help him/her shape the blog’s thoughts. Timing and all that.
I have just read the most heartwarming (and heart-rending) article in the Guardian on Mr Jurgen Klopp, coach of the Borussia Dortmund side who face Bayern Munich at Wembley on Saturday.
I cannot post the link but commend it to all blog readers!
There are many quotable lines but my favourite is “…we are a workers’ team…”
And to think that Mr McCoist earns a huge salary in relation to this guy, let alone his third rate assistants.
I will be wearing a black and yellow scarf this coming Saturday…whilst trying hard to forget that it is 46 years (where did my youth go?) since we all know what happened
FAO Mullach: trying again (I like a challenge).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3hserfo3e5esfdu/Sleekit%20guests%20at%20Bow%20Wine%20Cellars.mp3
No edit facilities mean I can’t check if it’ll be ok til it’s posted.
Stewart Regan prevaricating again, I see
Regan said: “We wrote to the club and expressed our concerns on a number of points related to the revelations in the press about the links between Craig Whyte and Charles Green.
“The matter was then handed over to Pinsent Masons under the stewardship of Roy Martin QC and we have agreed that we will wait until that report is concluded.
“The report is being done very much on an independent basis. The club have agreed to share the findings of that report with us so that we can get transparency on the questions that we asked.”
Mr Regan, ‘the club’ has been honest and upfront with you every step of the way, right enough.
The most sickening thing about that Daily Record cover is the CCTV image in the top right corner. Abject shameless sc*m.
verselijkfc
The possible motive that Mullach mentioned @ 01:11 and I highlight @ 08:21 would help back-up my theory. That CF was being run by someone or group very similar in several areas to RTC and friends.
It would help explain:-
– Info that well connected Celtic supporters have re.CF.
– Dripping of leaks in a reactionary way to events.
– Deeper lying motive.
– Tweet aimed at Rangers supporters spokesman.
– Collective coming together of several high-profilers to give a positive reference to CF & info.
If the case, you would have to ask the following.
Are they interested in the truth or to maximise damage on Rangers ?
Rangers’ director Brian Stockbridge accused of dirty tricks as video of drunken chairman Malcolm Murray leaked on internet
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rangers-director-brian-stockbridge-accused-1901882
A total stitch-up of Murray IMO.
Is it just me or does this MM video not reek of Stasi tactics to ensure this man was kept on a leash – the East Germans were great at compromising folks to then get them onboard.
For the TRFC spokesperson to say that Stockbridge took the video due to concern – well none of the comments I heard were showing any concern – if fact his attempts at a chat up to the woman were pathetic “well I have all use of my faculties….yes…stammer stammer…..”.
I believe MM when he says he is not a drinker and was plied with drink while waiting for them for dinner (probably deliberately) as he looks like he is a bit bewildered in the video – a regular drunk with a habit would not, in my opinion and experience, look to be so befuddled.
If as Stockbridge is suggesting, MM had a history of this, then why bring a woman guest and why even go yourself if it was so despicable – I would not meet people outside work if I don’t have some friendship with them. But then to then not help him, but stand there commentating and filming – I am sorry – that makes Stockbridge a bigger disgrace.
For IA to then use this in his phone call (on tape aka Nixon!) – we have you on video – shows these public schoolboy bullies for what they are. That and the language from CG on his descriptions of people really show these folks up for what they are.
The fact that Ally and Lord Cardigan bought into supporting this mob shows the level of “love” for the club they have in reality.
The fact that SPL/SFA folks also bought into this shows the cretins in charge of our game
Now the Peepil realize that once again despite the warnings, they have been duped – some out of money they could ill afford to lose.
No one wins out of this nonsense in reality. It just shows how low mankind will go in pursuit of the almighty dollar.