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/
fara1968 – Someone on one of TRFC’s fan forums claimed to have had a renewal letter last week, but there doesn’t appear to be any evidence of ST sales at the moment. Which seems odd. They must not need the money, unlike every other football club.
From comments I read on FF season ticket renewal forms were arriving last week
with a “to be completed by” June 7th
The majority on there do not seem to want Green or Imran back
The Walter / Dave King dream team would seem to be their option of choice
newtz says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 11:26
“Mapping – Charlotte the purpose is to help myself and others keep track of the associations and aids further research, digging etc …. so the mapping continues”
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Keep up the good work newtz. If the clandestine operations are subject to scrutiny the actors may fluff their lines somewhere along the wat.
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scapaflow14 says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 11:12
“…peculiar to Scotland, but they are symptomatic of a deeper and virulently malignant malaise which infects UKPLC”
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I agree Scapa (Phil). The lack of professionalsim has led to a collapse of economies. These guys new where their next buck was coming from during the boom years (our credit payments) but now they will be casting about wildly to maintain their lifestyles.
Sport and the broadcast rights may be an easy target. If we can repel boarders then we might make the Scottish football brand prestige in a desert of complicity. In time, this differentiation might pay big dividends.
Thx for replies. Yes timtim I would hope this guy is not in the majority. James Forrests piece actually described him perfectly, right down to the constant poppy that adorns his dashboard.
timtim says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 13:05
A tax fraudster, glib and shameless liar, who sat on the board when Murray was destroying the business. And a man who tried to buy the club and failed. Then described what Green had as a New Club.
Yup, sounds like a dream team to me.
A bit on Sykes before CtH off-loads ….
Kevin Sykes,served an eight-year jail term for a £3million pension fund fraud
Sykes would set up companies for Whyte to offload liabilities into.
These companies were used to take on liabilities to the taxman and other creditors before going bust, in deals he refers to as…………. “the old switcheroo”.
Aiden Earley’s brother, Brendan, was Whyte’s right-hand man when the Rangers owner was given a seven-year ban from being a director in 2000.
Sykes -: “When I first met Craig, he was in Glasgow. We proposed the structure to him and he liked the idea of it and we set it up. We set it up through Brendan, the accountant.
“The liabilities would then be taken off balance sheets in special purpose companies in order that they wouldn’t bring his main trading operation down if there was any problem.
“I’m told a lot of money went to different places and didn’t necessarily end up where it should have done.”
sort of what CtH was saying …..
Vital UK led to Whyte’s seven-year ban from being a director
When Vital UK were going bust, all of their assets were sold to a company called Pelcroft. They were immediately sold to another company, which then sold them to another firm …… out of reach of creditors.
In 2008, Sykes and Simon Maya were ordered to pay back £1.5million from a £2.9million theft from a Birmingham company’s pension fund.
The SFA looks after its own. Regan in line for £33,000 pay rise. Value for money?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sfa-boss-stewart-regan-awarded-1910088
The last word on Nicky Law etc etc and my view also from Steelmenonline:
View PostEl Grew, on 24 May 2013 – 07:28 PM, said:
We’ve lost much better players than Law in the past so folk should stop moaning about him leaving to go to The Rangers. FFS you’d think we were losing Pele and not a journeyman.
Journeyman my *rse. I accepted a while ago that he wouldn’t be here next season, and im as disappointed as anyone that he’s chosen his current destination, but he’s 25 years old and has only made more than 10 appearances for two clubs that he’s been employed by in his whole career, so let’s not confuse the issue by talking complete shite eh? He’s hardly Jim Hamilton so let’s not have bullshit clouding our vision.
Oh and just to add, if anyone thinks any club in the Championship will be paying the slightest bit of attention to the Scottish 2nd division, Rangers or not…then you’re mental. Kyle, Black, Templeton, Sandaza, Shiels……anyone who has taken the route Nicky Law has chosen….i’m sure not one single one of them will be required to change their voicemail message over the summer.
“Hi you’ve reached Kevin Kyle/Ian Black/David Templeton/Fransisco Sandaza/Dean Shiels….i’m not available right now but if you’d like to leave you’re name and number after the tone, i’ll get right back to you.”
Hey, this is Dave from Vodafone and as a user, we have some great offers for you…..”
It certainly won’t be f*cking QPR on the blower.
And this riposte – touché
A journeyman is someone who has completed an apprenticeship and is fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman has to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master.
I’m sure he will become some sort of a “master” at Ibrox……….. grand perhaps !!!.:laugh:
Ps He wont be needing Dave at Vodaphone either……….he’s now with Orange !!!!:doh:
resin-lab-dogs
“Julian Dicks is popping up everywhere today. It’s like West Ham have got 11 Dicks on the field today.” — (Radio Commentary on West Ham match.)
If Only.. Nobody would have been Brave enough to beat a team of 11 Julian Dicks lol. 😀
Gregory Ioannidis @LawTop20 4m
I am surprised the SFA’s member-clubs have agreed to the omission of a regulation allowing for appeals to CAS. No checks in this way.
Gregory Ioannidis Gregory Ioannidis @LawTop20 6m
After careful study, at least 4 Articles in the SFA’s regulations need redrafting.
newtz says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 12:00
Dermot Desmond’s contribution to the GFC
http://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/dermot-desmonds-contribution-to-the-gfc/
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I have read it but also have read the footballtaxhasvens blog: http://footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/hmrcs-oppression-of-rangers-fc/
and when I see Leggat quoted as a source on macro economics I tend to feel just a touch of disbelief coming on.
Still I might also have read the various list of recent posts concerning Celtic Directors if the ‘Oppression of Rangers’ story had provided a scintilla of balance.
But then I read: ‘By delaying justice the HMRC destroyed for Rangers any chance of getting a decent trustable acquirer from David Murray, of retaining players, getting a bank to fund working capital or that suppliers would supply services required to run a club of Rangers size as well as contaminating the ‘brand’.
‘The SFA & SPL are using the same delaying tactics to keep the ‘dual’ contracts issue going. They knew about the EBTs because Rangers accounts were tabled long ago & had forewarning about Craig Whyte yet both parties did nothing’.
I’m afraid I just switched-off at the deflection, cloaked in a pseudo-academic presentation, as the blog IMO is devoid of balance and thus devalued. It’s a great pity because there is a need for a blog researching global financial aspects and their affect on national economies and ultimately the citizens of the countries involved.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2330554/Michel-Platini-talks-Martin-Samuel-Qatar-World-Cup-Financial-Fair-Play-goal-line-technology.html#ixzz2UIBKhcs6
I think Platini may well have stirred a hornet’s nest with his comment: ‘Financial fair play is to protect the club, it is to protect the club from the bankrupt,’ he says, ‘from the problems that they will see in the future. It’s not a matter to be more competitive. Financial fair play is to put regulation. If you want to buy a Ferrari, if you have the money, you buy a Ferrari; if you don’t have the money, you can’t buy the Ferrari. In football if you do not have the money, you can buy the Ferrari, the player and you pay him and everything, and you win – cheating.
‘That is not correct. My job is to regulate this situation. It’s not to have a better competition, it’s to protect the club. Glasgow Rangers, Portsmouth and many others, they are in big bankrupt and they will disappear’.
And: ‘He explains that, having accepted his idea to have extra officials behind the goal, FIFA won’t allow these additional assistants to move their arms.
‘The referee communicates, but FIFA cancels that,’ says Platini. ‘The officials are forbidden by FIFA to sign that it is a corner. He stands like this. [Puts arms straight down by his side] He can move his feet only. He can’t do nothing because he is forbidden by FIFA.
‘Fans say “look at these people, they are not moving, they are doing nothing, why are they here? They can’t do this, they can’t do that, they can’t do nothing”. ‘But they cannot communicate because they have not got the permit of FIFA to say something.’
The journo doing the interview observes: ‘Where I have misjudged the man is in believing he has such great power. I thought he could do stuff. He can’t do stuff. He is buffeted from all sides by the wealthy clubs, the national associations, even his friends at FIFA. He spends too much time trying to stay in with everybody.
‘He has a lot of ideas, but the only ones that come to fruition are those that chime with the wealthy vested interests – like financial fair play.’
‘I can’t do things that I want,’ he says, during a discussion about technology and referees. ‘If you think I can, it isn’t true.’
Considering the current situation with the ‘suits’ in Scotland I truly wonder where the real balance of power lies and it’s easy to shoot the messenger but perhaps we should be looking more deeply at the power which can be wielded by clubs if they so choose and when they don’t what their motives are. This isn’t a whitewash for those in charge at the SFA, SPL and SFL but maybe some firepower should be reserved for our own individual clubs and the mini alliances they form.
newtz says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 13:56
“I’m told a lot of money went to different places and didn’t necessarily end up where it should have done.”
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Interesting phrase in light of Charlotte’s purported correspondence between Whyte and Ahmad concerning ‘Simply Stockbroking’ and the possible misappropriation of funds due to Sevco 5088 by Sevco Scotland (if this is indeed what happened).
I wonder if these characters are finding their scope for wider shenanigans is being limited by having their names touted around the blogosphere. I done a quick google on the names on your map and in each case the results brought up dertrimental information on the first page of the search. It wouldn’t take five minutes for any concerned investor to become alerted to the possibility of a high risk scenario as a result.
If nothing else, TSFM has tagged these characters for the rest of the world to see.
Danish Pastry says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 14:08
“The SFA looks after its own. Regan in line for £33,000 pay rise. Value for money”?
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I’d have to say yes Danish. As a result of the mauling given to him by TSFM he might never obtain such high paid work again. His web presence is just short of toxic. So £33k for an allegedly capable man to trash his own career, scant reward I think he may find in due course.
Danish Pastry says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 14:08
“The SFA looks after its own. Regan in line for £33,000 pay rise. Value for money”?
PRP Danish – he has (more than) met the primary objectives set for him. CO is well chuffed.
mullach says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 15:15
I wonder if these characters are finding their scope for wider shenanigans is being limited by having their names touted around the blogosphere. I done a quick google on the names on your map and in each case the results brought up detrimental information on the first page of the search. It wouldn’t take five minutes for any concerned investor to become alerted to the possibility of a high risk scenario as a result.
=================================================================
Might sound a bit stupid but I don’t think I ever truly appreciated the value of just having them ‘tagged’ forever on search engines – better than a curfew anklet! Before, they could operate under the cloak of the old-boy spiv network, but now they’ve got the glare of publicity restricting their activities.
ecobhoy says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 14:39
As you say, the pieces could be a lot better. There is an interesting story to be told, closest I have seen is Ian Fraser’s blog. Still, it is worth remembering that while the Celtic operation is well run, other parts of the “empire” may not be so whiter than Whyte….
@ ecobhoy and mullach TSFM – Spiv busters lol. The mods will be getting their own reality tv slot on daytime tv in between the dodgy plumbers and the antique shows….
scapaflow14 says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 16:53
” The mods will be getting their own reality tv slot on daytime tv in between the dodgy plumbers and the antique shows”.
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Scamwatch?
test
http://www.scotzine.com/2013/05/rangers-fans-tell-platini-to-ferme-la-bouche-after-bankruptcy-claim/?
At last Bayern Munich earn the right to membership of the exclusive “5 stars on the shirt” club. They are in illustrious company.
jimlarkin says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 20:49
3 0 Rate This
http://www.scotzine.com/2013/05/rangers-fans-tell-platini-to-ferme-la-bouche-after-bankruptcy-claim/?
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“They have everything but they are pshht …”
Anyone got a translation for “pshht”? 😀
Danish
“le seul poisson”
bailemeanach says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 21:54
At last Bayern Munich earn the right to membership of the exclusive “5 stars on the shirt” club. They are in illustrious company
Actually. Please. Its 5 wins – that’s half a star. Actually. They’ve got quite a way to go to be a world record making word wide institution. Actually.
Danish Pastry says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 22:00
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jimlarkin says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 20:49
3 0 Rate This
http://www.scotzine.com/2013/05/rangers-fans-tell-platini-to-
ferme-la-bouche-after-bankruptcy-claim/?
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“They have everything but they are pshht …”
Anyone got a translation for “pshht”?
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It’s the ‘they are victims of the Lawwell/Platini/and-anyone-else-who’s-agin-them’ triumvirate 😀
Not entirely OT for TSFM…
It was a pleasure to watch a quality game today – and played in an honest manner.
Negligible acting / diving / harassing officials – even if Bayern could have had 2 players sent off the park.
A good advert for football in general – and German football in particular.
achilles
yes, they haven’t had anywhere near enough Herr Murray’s through the door yet to put themselves in the same league as the Ibrox oufit
bailemeanach says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 21:54
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At last Bayern Munich earn the right to membership of the
exclusive “5 stars on the shirt” club. They are in illustrious
company.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh come on! Everyone knows that European stars pale into insignificance when compared with the heady heights of Scotland’s premier league titles!
jimlarkin says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 20:49
http://www.scotzine.com/2013/05/rangers-fans-tell-platini-to-ferme-la-bouche-after-bankruptcy-claim/?
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Those extracts from genuine ‘fans’ are astonishing. Why can they not see their image in the mirror ever? Why don’t they ever stop to think before they expunge? Today is about football – as is tomorrow, but today is about great football clubs at the pinnacle – do they really think they are one of those? I am a Celtic fan, I feel involved today, tenuously, but part of it. Where is there link? Honestly, reading that filth makes you wish someone could just flush them away. Yuck.
Danish Pastry says:Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 22:00
Anyone got a translation for “pshht”?
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Pshht – generic onomatopeiac word meaning colloquially ‘yer baw’s burst’
bailemeanach says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 22:30
achilles
yes, they haven’t had anywhere near enough Herr Murray’s through the door yet to put themselves in the same league as the Ibrox oufit
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Or Weiss & Grun!
Going OT with this, why did TRFC adopt the entirely European (and metric) meter of 1 star per ten titles. Why, for instance did they not adopt a more Imperial based measurement? Like 12 or 14 in 1: this would have given a 4 or 3 star bedazzled crest. Its just that if you’re going to make up an entirely fictional measurement of something, why go for the mundane?
achillesacronym says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 22:32
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jimlarkin says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 20:49
http://www.scotzine.com/2013/05/rangers-fans-tell-platini-to-ferme-la-bouche-after-bankruptcy-claim/?
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Those extracts from genuine ‘fans’ are astonishing.
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Those comments are not representative of all RFC fans I’m sure. I am friends with some RFC fans and while (intelligent men) at times seem to want someone else to blame, there is a sober, reluctant, willingness to accept that’s not really the case. We all watched the CL final together tonight and had a great night. Like we do every Saturday! We can also agree to disagree as well!
TSFM says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 09:16
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TSFM – I have loved posting on this forum, having only been involved for 2-3 months. That’s all and best wishes to everyone really.
As a leading PR consultancy says:
http://www.mediahouse.co.uk/whatwedo.htm#02
A couple of days ago I posted on the change in the SFA Articles (what was Article 16) that gave their board the authority to transfer a liquidated club’s membership to a new entity.
This change was made around 2009 and demonstrates (I believe) that contingencies had been put in place for Rangers demise long before Craig Whyte came on the scene.
Having made my point wrt the SFA, let me turn my attention to the SPL and the part I believe they have played.
When Lord Nimmo Smith gave his Statement of Reasons last September, it was the first time, the argument that a “Club” can sit separately from a company had been given proper form.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/143094729/SPL-Commission-Reasons-for-Decision-of-12-September-2012
Essentially, LNS and his Commission, decided that a Club was an “undertaking” of the company that operated an association football club. This “undertaking” had no legal personality and could be passed from one owner to another. Their reasoning relied entirely on a somewhat dubious interpretation of the word “undertaking”.
What is strange – and I mean really odd – is that the Commission made such a basic omission when listing the relevant definitions from the SPL’s Articles.
So, just to be helpful, let me point to what really matters:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/143090374/Spl-Handbook-2008-09-10-Feb-09-Current
The original Companies Act 1985 is here:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/6/pdfs/ukpga_19850006_en.pdf?timeline=true
On 18th July 1996, the following amendment was enacted:
To strip it down to its simplist form.
The question must then be asked; “Why did the Commission get it so wrong?”
And the answer is…
…it didn’t!
The Commission was set up to be adversarial in nature. One side would put forward the “charges”, the other side would “defend” its position.
The SPL’s case was set out in such a way that it declared that the Club had no legal personality – it was in the Commission’s remit to accept this proposition. The Commission accepted the remit it was given and neither Rangers nor Sevco sought to argue against it.
The real question is why the SPL board would want to manufacture this false division between Club and company in the first place?
It seems to me that the SPL’s position is part of the same crisis management strategy that had the SFA change its Articles in 2009.
Sunday Mail front page: Souness and the Missing Millions
http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/774650609.jpg?1369523105
One of the great things about following the RTC and TSFM sites is that I don’t instantly overreact to a headline or an article I read, I take the time to check for quotes and try to understand the motivation of both reporter and supporting cast.
Take the Stewart Fisher attempt in The Herald this morning:
————————————————–
Ex-Celtic star Cadete on the attack
CELTIC striking legend Jorge Cadete feels the club’s current collection of attackers are failing to measure up to their Parkhead predecessors.
The Portuguese international scored 33 goals in 41 games for the club during his brief spell in Glasgow in season 1996-97 and feels a tally of 20 a season for Celtic’s forwards should be regarded as a minimum.
This is bad news for all of Neil Lennon’s squad apart perhaps for Gary Hooper, who has 29 goals in all competitions during a season in which Motherwell’s Michael Higdon was top league marksman with 26.
“The top scorer is normally a Rangers or Celtic player so that is very unusual,” said Cadete. “Celtic have had many top scorers when you think about [Henrik] Larsson, me, Pierre [Van Hooydonk], [John] Hartson.
“Sometimes you get many opportunities so 20 goals in the Scottish league, for a good striker, is a minimum,” he added.
Forget the headline, a clever use of the words to distort the message.
Well, were to start on the article?
Maybe by spelling a player’s name correctly would be a good starting base. I think Pierre Van Hooydonk should actually be “Hooijdonk”.
But let’s not be petty, anyone can make a spelling mistake. Are you any better with numbers Stewart?
According to Cadete and Fisher, top scorers in Scotland should score a minimum of 20 so that is bad news for “all” of Neil Lennon’s squad, and this comment was supplemented by adding “apart perhaps” for Gary Hooper who only scored 29 which although seems half decent, it cannot possibly be when Michael Higdon scored 26 in the SPL alone!
So what about these great strikers? (Every one of them I loved, I have to add) If you are not a great striker by scoring 29 goals then John Hartson was pretty average in 4 out of 5 seasons at Celtic, PVH for 2 out of 3.
So thank you RTC and TSFM, thanks to you I can now dismiss this report as an attempt to introduce some negatively on a day when Celtic and Hibernian are due to play in the Scottish Cup Final, and of course I can bin that letter to Neil Lennon demanding the immediate sale of Gary Hooper so we can buy a decent striker!
On another note: Good luck to Hibs today, I hope to see them playing at their best. In saying that, I hope to see one of their ex-players lifting the trophy instead. So here’s to a cracking game of football and may the best team win.
upthehoops says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 00:45
7 3 Rate This
TSFM says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 09:16
=================
TSFM – I have loved posting on this forum, having only been involved for 2-3 months. That’s all and best wishes to everyone really.
_____________________
I’m clearly missing something here- even apart from the time travel issue. I hope this doesn’t mean that you’re leaving us, UTH, you’ve been a great contributor. If you are leaving us, I don’t understand why, but probably none of my business.
neepheid says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 07:36
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No, I’m not leaving at all. It was just an (drink fueled) observation that I really like this forum, although I can see in the cold light of day that I worded it in a way that looked like I was leaving. The level of debate on here is way above what you get on other fans forums and the fact it is not restricted to one club is enjoyable. There is a common love of Scottish football on here, as well as a desire to see justice when clubs don’t play by the rules. Here’s to us!
It seems its true what they say…You can take the boy out of Ibrox etc etc…
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-bust-tycoon-graham-gillespie-1912885
Not a football story, but the ‘Souness and the Missing Millions’ headline grabs the attention, especially as the piece is about squirreling away (oops, there’s that word again) a fortune – out of the reach of creditors. Makes you wonder …
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-bust-tycoon-graham-gillespie-1912885
internetbampots says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 08:24
1 0 Rate This
Oops, snap! And with that I’ll be off for some breakfast 😉
There is a common belief that Sevco are not in a healthy financial position, yet they continue to sign players on not insignificant wages. Do they do so in the full knowledge that there is no pressing need for them to balance the books? Just a thought.
Well, it looks like the Sunday Mail has found the new owners of TRFC, the two Grahams, Gillespie and Souness. They certainly have all the qualities to ensure what has become the Ibrox tradition of dignity and honesty continues for years to come; and they know just where to put their hands on enough readies to fund the clubs assault on the Champions League.
Wealthy trash, the lot of them!
upthehoops says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 08:44
” ….. There is a common belief that Sevco are not in a healthy financial position, yet they continue to sign players on not insignificant wages. Do they do so in the full knowledge that there is no pressing need for them to balance the books? Just a thought. …..”
The phrase that comes to mind is “Speculate to accumulate”. Spend a few thou’ up front to excite the bears, then rake in a few mil’ in season book revenues.
upthehoops says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 08:44
” ….. There is a common belief that Sevco are not in a healthy financial position, yet they continue to sign players on not insignificant wages. Do they do so in the full knowledge that there is no pressing need for them to balance the books? Just a thought. ….”
The phrase that comes to mind is “Speculate to accumulate”. Spend a few thou’ up front to excite the bears, then rake in a few mil’ in season book revenues.
…….. And I should have added, that leads to the phrase, “There’s a sucker born every minute”
HirsutePursuit says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 03:42
“The real question is why the SPL board would want to manufacture this false division between Club and company in the first place”?
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Thanks for your usual well considered and insightful contribution HirsuitPursuite. One of the pieces of the jigsaw that has never really fitted properly was the apparent complicity of the SPL in accommodating what you recognise as a crisis management strategy. This may be a difficult topic to debate because it involves examining the motives of all the clubs in the top division and not just one ex-member. Armageddon did not happen but banks and legal entities don’t like uncertainity and the warm comfort of Rangers back in the top division is still being clung to like an old teddy.
I think your previous post concerning amendment of the SFA articles and its timing and likely motivation did not provoke the debate that you or myself would have anticipated. Perhaps your analysis is so thorough that it gets less impact because other posters have not had the ‘buy in’ of being part of the revelation themselves. However this in no way diminishes the quality of the information and I for one will return to this topic in due course. When rather than if, this exchange takes place I hope you will be available to guide the discussion.
There has been a lot going on recently and there is possibly a bit of information overload currently. Given a little time for digestion I think we will have consumed sufficient nourishment to continue the informed debate for some time to come. There is always the likelihood that events much nearer to hand will draw our fire and that is only natural as it is the clear and present danger. However I suspect that the blog’s corporate memory will not allow the wee (or big) gems to be lost in the mire. Certainly that has been my experience thus far.
internetbampots says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 08:24
Danish Pastry says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 08:28
“…a fortune – out of the reach of creditors”.
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Maybe the guy broke the cosa nostra code. Maybe Souness has done something naughty also.
As madbhoy says above, I no longer look on MSM as straightforward output but nearly always as twisted agenda. Once you allow for the distortion there is often some useful information in there but it almost certainly won’t be the story that is being portrayed. The reasoning for the story being portrayed in that manner generally reveals the agenda. That is where the real information is for me.
I would love to know where and to whom the J A Boumsong transfer money went too .
Think I may ask Santa this Xmas
upthehoops says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 08:44
There is a common belief that Sevco are not in a healthy financial position, yet they continue to sign players on not insignificant wages. Do they do so in the full knowledge that there is no pressing need for them to balance the books? Just a thought.
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If they were in need of cash, they would have had their new signings pictured in the new kit to give it and their sponsors some free promotion instead of wearing or holding up last season’s top. Either way it’s a PR plunder, unless the deals haven’t kicked in yet. Maybe the remaining Umbro ones need to be shifted if they were paid for up front. Maybe the Puma ones are having the SFL logos removed.
Couple of wee obserbations from me. The suggestion by Barca, way back when, of “nuclear” revelations has in my opinion been fulfilled time and time again. The fact that revelations that would in normal circumstances and with a normal media have indeed been nuclear. Whether it is compliant sports editors or simply the volume and pace if the sh-er, shtuff, pouring out of ibrox, its hard to say. For me, an ex-manager, one who was involved in a number of multi-million pound transfer deals to have still had monetary ties to Rangers should have been a big story. Nothing…. Now I am not saying said manager was guilty of anything, but surely this is a caesar’s wife scenario…
And regarding this claim of an independant enquiry, I dont think thats quite correct. It was an enquiry by an independent company, where parameters and indeed payments were set by an “interested party”. Having been involved in research projects over the years, you by and large avoid questions to which you dont know the amswers or you know the answer will be negative.
Good luck to both teams today. If Hibs win they will have deserved it.
Btw “obserbation” was a typo not a new word for vicarious pleasure at watching a third party getting f****d. Though maybe I should copyright that too… 😉
from http://danieloconnel18.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/do-sfas-rules-on-player-registration.html?m=1
Do the SFA’s rules on player registration apply to The Rangers?
The Rangers FC accepted a one year registration embargo as a condition of SFA membership in August last year.
The intention was that the new club would be unable to register players until January 2014 (albeit after giving them the summer 2012 window to build up their squad for the assault on Division 3).
We have since been treated to the unedifying sight of The Rangers gloating about an alleged loophole in the rules that allows them to register free agents on September 1st, and they have this week unveiled Cammy Bell and Jon Daly, whom they intend to register on September 1st. There has even been speculation that they can play as trialists from the start of the new season.
The basis for this belief is that clubs can register “free agents” from September 1st, and that as Bell and Daly’s contracts with their previous clubs expire on June 30th, they will be free agents.
But let’s look at what the SFA’s registration procedures actually say.
The key point is article 1.2,
“A professional player who has failed to find employment during a registration period may sign and be registered for a club outwith the registration periods.”
The rule applies not to “free agents,” but to players who have failed to find employment in the registration period.
We must assume that any player signed by The Rangers before 1st September has found employment in the registration period therefore should not be able to be registered outside of the registration period.
Over to you, SFA.
Although it should not be beyond Sandy Bryson to come up with a labyrinthine explanation as to why Daly and Bell can play from September 1st…
=========
I wonder what the SFA SFL will do come 1/9 and will any of the other teams complain if sevco are allowed to register these players
dreddybhoy says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 10:45
I wonder what the SFA SFL will do come 1/9 and will any of the other teams complain if sevco are allowed to register these players
=============================
SFA – Nothing to see here, move along.
SFL – Nothing to see here, move along.
Not one single team is likely to complain, or if they do at it won’t be in the public eye and as LNS proved, as it happened in the past no retroactive action can be taken!
From the DR :
“Commenting on the shares transfer, Souness said yesterday: “I think it was said in the court case that that was on the advice of our accountants and our lawyers.
“That’s all I can say – it was done on the advice of very expensive lawyers and very expensive accountants.””
——————————————————————————————————————
So Mr Souness apparently has no say in what is done on his behalf and has ceded all control to “very expensive lawyers and very expensive accountants”? Is this actually the case? If so I am extremely concerned for his welfare if such a situation has arisen. Has someone been granted power of attorney on his behalf? An old and trusted friend like David Murray, perhaps?
Alternatively, are The Sunday Times investigative team to mount a probe into this mysterious arrangement? They do have some access to Mr Souness I believe….
They might also ask him about his EBT arrangements with Rangers at the same time. A great opportunity to clarify everything at once and allow any misapprehensions to be laid to rest.
Scottish football needs a strong Arbroath.
You would have thought that since the new signings cannot be registered until after the new season has kicked off that there would not be a problem holding up a new sponsor shirt they will [maybe] be playing in,or maybe the head of PR is not up to speed on these things,either way,somethings not right.
dreddybhoy says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 10:45
We must assume that any player signed by The Rangers before 1st September has found employment in the registration period therefore should not be able to be registered outside of the registration period.
Over to you, SFA.
Although it should not be beyond Sandy Bryson to come up with a labyrinthine explanation as to why Daly and Bell can play from September 1st…
=========
I wonder what the SFA SFL will do come 1/9 and will any of the other teams complain if sevco are allowed to register these players
—————————————————–
The best thing would be for the SFA to come out promptly and clarify the situation now, to avoid the consequences of any misunderstandings. That’s what they should do at least. (I’m trying hard not to be cynical here, come on SFA).
“Commenting on the shares transfer, Souness said yesterday: “I think it was said in the court case that that was on the advice of our accountants and our lawyers.”
No matter how expensive lawyers and accountants are, they only advise their clients on the basis of instructions from those clients. So if I was a journalist, my obvious follow up question to Mr Souness would be “and what instructions did you give your lawyers and accountants, which formed the basis of their advice?”.
Strangely enough our intrepid Scottish journalists don’t seem to know what a follow up question is, at least where anyone linked to Ibrox is concerned.
redlichtie says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 11:00
“They might also ask him about his EBT arrangements with Rangers at the same time. A great opportunity to clarify everything at once and allow any misapprehensions to be laid to rest”
————-
Another poster (sorry for not always being able to credit others for their intuition and insight), had postulated the possibility that the EBT scheme run by Murray International Holdings had the potential for liquid assets to be placed out of the reach of prying eyes. I have no idea if this suggestion has any merit but questions concerning Mr. Souness apparently being in receipt of a payment from this EBT, even though he was no longer employed within the group, have persisted. Since much of these transactions are far from transparent it is not surprising that they should attract speculation.
I understand that the MIH group suffered significant indebtedness. Whilst I have no reason to suspect that anything untoward has been transacted, the presence of this current article and the court action it reports, might lead some to wonder if this mechanism was in wider spread use.
dreddybhoy says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 10:45
This point about players ‘unable to find employment’ is really important. On the face of it, it DOES look like RFC* shouldn’t be allowed to register these signings on 1 September and the expected date of Jan 2014 should apply. I am getting fed up with emailing and writing the SFA/SPL without enjoying a response. Is there a better way of forcing them to answer the question as to when they will allow these ‘newly employed’ individuals to register and play? We shouldn’t just accept the media view on the answer.
upthehoops says:
Saturday, May 25, 2013 at 23:44
Those comments are not representative of all RFC fans I’m sure. I am friends with some RFC fans and while (intelligent men) at times seem to want someone else to blame, there is a sober, reluctant, willingness to accept that’s not really the case. We all watched the CL final together tonight and had a great night. Like we do every Saturday! We can also agree to disagree as well!
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I do agree with you upthehoops. I have a lot of TRFC fans for friends, I just wish we could hear from them.
nawlite says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 13:53
“Is there a better way of forcing them to answer the question as to when they will allow these ‘newly employed’ individuals to register and play”?
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Sounds as if you’ve done your best to assist the games governance to interpret their own rules accurately nawlite. Maybe you should just let them get on with undermining their own credibility as that appears to be what they are intent upon doing.
Like an addict, there has to be a self recognition of the problem before there is any opportunity for salvation.
mullach says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 14:24
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nawlite says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 13:53
“Is there a better way of forcing them to answer the question as to when they will allow these ‘newly employed’ individuals to register and play”?
————
Sounds as if you’ve done your best to assist the games governance to interpret their own rules accurately nawlite. Maybe you should just let them get on with undermining their own credibility as that appears to be what they are intent upon doing.
Like an addict, there has to be a self recognition of the problem before there is any opportunity for salvation.
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Maybe it’s the clubs in Div 2 that should be targeted.they’re the ones that will be playing against these players with disputed registrations,almost certainly watching their promotion chances disappear.
The SFL/SFA will just say no sporting advantage was gained.just carry on as before.
Best of luck to both teams today and here’s hoping for a craking game and may the best team win
Souness joined Rangers in 1986, and left in 1991 as far as I am aware.
Rangers started using EBTs in 2000. Again as far as I am aware.
He received his EBT payment in 2001. Ten years after he had left the club.
No-one has ever explained, or even asked particularly loudly as far as I am aware, what his payment through an EBT was for. Particularly as the E stands for Employee.
chipm0nk says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 14:50
Souness joined Rangers in 1986, and left in 1991 as far as I am aware.
Rangers started using EBTs in 2000. Again as far as I am aware.
He received his EBT payment in 2001. Ten years after he had left the club.
No-one has ever explained, or even asked particularly loudly as far as I am aware, what his payment through an EBT was for. Particularly as the E stands for Employee.
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When Mark Daly,I think, opined that someone should ask Souness why he received an EBT payment 10 years after leaving RFC,did RTC not say the someone should ask him about “multiple” payments received?.
Maybe Mr Souness is the RFC version of Arrys Dug!
Funny how Gillespie,Whyte,Murray(David) all seem to have been involved with mining and steel in Lanarkshire but claim to have never met.
torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958) says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 14:47
“Maybe it’s the clubs in Div 2 that should be targeted.they’re the ones that will be playing against these players with disputed registrations…”.
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In a world with morality that would be the obvious course of events. However we have seen apparent evidence that the governance of Scottish football is heavily conflicted, even before corroboration was provided by Charlotte. No-one will likely say anything if Rangers do infringe the rules. You would only make such an appeal if there was the opportunity to achieve justice. If Rangers wish to rahabilitate themselves then they have the ability to do so. If not then the tarnish will embed itself so deeply in their facade that it may take more than one generation to erase.
Well done to my club for a thoroughly professional job well done in the Cup Final. Hibs were not bad at all and if their early chance goes in then who knows. I guess Celtic must get full credit for winning this tournament because the club from Ibrox were in it!
Was that Ogilvie handing out the medals today?
StevieBC says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 17:41
Yep!! Couldnt mark his neck with a blowtorch.
AlexThomson tweets
alex thomson @alextomo 15m
Craig Whyte’s lawyers have written to Pinsents saying they’ve key evidence about Rangers which Pinsents must see…
alex thomson @alextomo 14m
That Pinsents cannot possibly conclude their probe without it…
alex thomson @alextomo 10m
Craig Whyte’s Letter Before action will go to Rangers mid-week with evidenced that “goes to the crux” of current investigation of RFC
alex thomson @alextomo 8m
With evidence that will “assist greatly” and that they should consider “postponing the conclusion” of the probe til they see new evidence
alex thomson @alextomo 5m
For bkgrd: Letter Before Action is a last-ditch evidence presentation prior to court action and I understand new evidence is in the LBA
So, standby for RFC/BBC joint reply from Chris 😉
Retweet from last night from Corsica1968.Apologies if posted before:
alzipratu
Dinna, dinna, dinna, dinna…Vatman!
So you’re organising a fundraising event that you hope will raise £75,000 for charity. You’re selling tickets for the event and anticipate income of about £400,000. Do you:
(a) charge VAT on tickets which you’ll just hand over to the Vatman?
(b) charge VAT on tickets but it’s ok because you can claim this back from the Vatman when you do your quarterly VAT return?
(c) don’t charge VAT because you’re a charity and its a fundraising event?
(d) take proper legal and financial advice from independent experts right at the start?
(e) structure it so that people attending can make a donation with the potential to add a further 25% Gift Aid instead of buying a ticket?
The answer, of course, is c, d and e as this would generate (approximately) a further £120,000 for your charity. Now if I was a charity trustee and I’d gone with a or b, I’d be getting worried that I could find myself personally surcharged to make up any financial losses incurred by the charity because of my somewhat lackadaisical approach to its affiars.
So…anyone know any charities out there which might need some advice?
torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958) says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 20:43
If I remember correctly the original price of tickets for the charity match was £10.
However once it was decided that the money would go to Rangers, with a “donation” going to the relevant charities the price was raised to £12.
Basically when it was a charity match there was no VAT. Once it became a normal friendly football match VAT was added and the price increased by 20%.
They basically told everyone that they would be keeping the money at that stage.
Forres Dee (@ForresDee) says:
Sunday, May 26, 2013 at 20:34
alex thomson @alextomo
For bkgrd: Letter Before Action is a last-ditch evidence presentation prior to court action and I understand new evidence is in the LBA
—————————————————–
some possibilities ….
AT has recieved own version of LBA / LBC from verified source …. ok with legals … ?
AT trying to get ahead of story before MSM get go ahead from legals … ?
AT going native …. ????
New evidence ….. MSM preparing to finally go with story …. ? (so not new to followers of CtH)
New evidence ……FFW have coughed up the goods (I call them the Patrick Docs) …. ?
A wind up for BBC/CMcL
An attempt to prompt a reaction from BBC/CMcL
Too much wine tonight …. !