The Existence of Laws

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/

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Tom Byrne

About Trisidium

Trisidium is a Dunblane businessman with a keen interest in Scottish Football. He is a Celtic fan, although the demands of modern-day parenting have seen him less at games and more as a taxi service for his kids.

5,802 thoughts on “The Existence of Laws


  1. tomtomaswell says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:11
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    I’m not for a minute suggesting this is his plan but what if after a few months at Ibrox John Daly has suffered a high, or in fact any, level of sectarian abuse. Despite their pleas the club is unable to prevent this abuse. He walks out on the club. Could he claim constructive dismissal and get his contract paid up in full?

    ==========================================================
    tomtom, Let’s not get ahead of ourselves (and you are of course suggesting that the player will be on the receiving end of sectarian abuse by the supporters of the club he looks like signing for). Daly’s a grown man, knows the history and knows how much his new 2/3 year contract will be worth. Chances are he’ll do well at that level because of his physicality and game awareness.


  2. wottpi says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:44

    My guess is that it just going to be a long drawn out saga for the closed season with not a lot happening
    ==========================================================================

    I think that’s probably right. All I see of possible interest is after the 20 June when any 6 month lock-in or agreement with shares held by the Institutional Investors comes off. What will happen to share prices especially if there really is any possible club purchaser lurking in the shadows.

    In a sense connected to this is the agm – I seem to remember it will be August – or if Malcolm Murray refuses to go will an egm be called to remove him.

    And will any member of the MSM tell us what info the SFA passed to Craig Mather & Rangers about their chairman Malcolm Murray and who passed it to them. There is also a multitude of other unanswered questions connected with this incident. I can only assume that for the SFA to become involved the allegations must have been very serious.

    It would also be helpful to know whether this ‘leak’ was authorised by the SFA as an organisation or did it come from a senior official acting on his/her own initiative/agenda.


  3. BRHT

    Watched it twice now, still brilliant. When you do a good rip off of somebody it doesn’t matter what lines you come out with, in fact the bigger the nonsense and off the wall the funnier it is. I have a personal funny story about Connolly that would take to long to tell but basically I wound him up all but briefly on the set of the TV show Billy at Warner Brothers in LA. That was a pilot series he did that followed on from another TV sitcom he did called Head of The class. They only did 6 trial episodes and I was there at the filming of the 6th, it never made it beyond six and I can understand why, it was shite.


  4. blu says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:22

    tomtomaswell says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:11

    I’m not for a minute suggesting this is his plan but what if after a few months at Ibrox John Daly has suffered a high, or in fact any, level of sectarian abuse. Despite their pleas the club is unable to prevent this abuse. He walks out on the club. Could he claim constructive dismissal and get his contract paid up in full?
    ==========================================================
    tomtom, Let’s not get ahead of ourselves (and you are of course suggesting that the player will be on the receiving end of sectarian abuse by the supporters of the club he looks like signing for). Daly’s a grown man, knows the history and knows how much his new 2/3 year contract will be worth. Chances are he’ll do well at that level because of his physicality and game awareness.
    ===================================================================

    Daly I’m sure isn’t daft and will have weighed-up the possibility of sectarian abuse being directed at him. He will obviously be well aware that there will be no support for him from the SFA should that happen. If he didn’t think he could handle it then he wouldn’t be there.

    I don’t know if he regularly blesses himself coming on but if he does that truly will be a litmus test of the support although some will see it as a provocation unless done out of sight in the tunnel. However let’s not look at the negatives unless they actually happen. It’s more important to be hopeful about the development.

    Tbh it’s also an opportunity for decent Rangers supporters to actually prove that their club is no longer in the Dark Ages by shouting down any sectarian abuse and supporting Daly. I actually hope there will be no abuse or, at most, very limited outbreaks and that this in future years will be seen as a step-forward by the Ibrox management and support.

    I think Daly will make things easier if he performs well on the field and he has things to offer in that department I’m sure.


  5. ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:22
    And will any member of the MSM tell us what info the SFA passed to Craig Mather & Rangers about their chairman Malcolm Murray and who passed it to them. There is also a multitude of other unanswered questions connected with this incident. I can only assume that for the SFA to become involved the allegations must have been very serious.

    ==============================================================
    Ecobhoy, I suspect that that element of the latest Leak War at Ibrox is simply made up. However, if I was the President or Chief Executive of a revered and august body such as the Scottish Footballl Association I’d adopt a Millbank aggressive rebuttal approach at just a hint of such impropriety by any official or member of staff invovled in such actions.


  6. I think the Sevco Franchise should be applauded for signing Jon Daly.

    Finally, an Irishman good enough for them…..my only surprise is that it’s Jon Daly, who is at best a journeyman pro….doing well at DUFC, but nothing more or less.

    Anyway, for a new club, with uncertain finances, looking to steal the historic support base of Rangers FC, making proclamations about WATP, Orange strips, the shambles that was remembrance day, talk of enemies of the club, the SPL stealing money, marching on the SFA etc. It seems a BIG risk to sign a ROI player for the 1st time in the “continuous” history of that support base.

    Season ticket renewals around the corner, this decision – along with the other chaos surrounding the club – could see a few of them “walking away” or at least paying on a game by game basis.

    It is a big risk to alienate a portion (and it’s a feckin large portion!) in this way – so, well done Sevco

    Now, if you could stop your Manager blurting out WATP, stop future CEO’s promising orange strips and reiging in the protestant supremancy I’d be much appreciative.

    I also look forward to your Green, Whyte and Gold day to celebrate the Irish contingent at your club….just like you had an Orange day for Advocaat


  7. blu says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:22
    0 0 Rate This
    tomtomaswell says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:11
    0 0 i
    Rate This

    I’m not for a minute suggesting this is his plan but what if after a few months at Ibrox John Daly has suffered a high, or in fact any, level of sectarian abuse. Despite their pleas the club is unable to prevent this abuse. He walks out on the club. Could he claim constructive dismissal and get his contract paid up in full?

    ==========================================================
    tomtom, Let’s not get ahead of ourselves (and you are of course suggesting that the player will be on the receiving end of sectarian abuse by the supporters of the club he looks like signing for). Daly’s a grown man, knows the history and knows how much his new 2/3 year contract will be worth. Chances are he’ll do well at that level because of his physicality and game awareness.
    —————————————

    I’m not saying that he wouldn’t do well. I think he’ll do a job for Rangers. It was just a general thought I had about what would happen if that scenario unfolded. Just curious to what would be the ramifications of any such action by the player, that’s all. Given that some of the posts being made on FF etc are not exactly friendly it would not be unreasonable to assume that he will face some form of “abuse” no matter how good he was. After all there were a good few people last year who were proudly proclaiming that they had taken out ST’s after a 24 year absence.

    As I said I don’t think for a minute this would enter his thinking.


  8. Why would John Daly sign for T’Rangers?

    He is a decent 30 year old journeyman out of contract and they are probably offering the best package he could ever hope for.

    He maybe fancies a few easy years in the lower divisions before he retires.

    He maybe fancies the challenge of helping rebuilding the club.

    He maybe sees the act of signing their first ROI player as being the club’s first step into the 21st century and is willing to be part of that.

    If he scores a barrel load and puts in a good shift then like other players at Rangers who may have been brought up in the catholic tradition, his nationality, religion, colour etc will not be relevent to the vast majority of fans come the day they lift the Div 2 trophy.

    If some nutters burn their season books because he signs then they will be of no loss to the club or to football in general.

    If T’Rangers are going to be with us for the foreseeable future then I’d rather it be a club that is breaking down these types of barriers, so Daly going there poses me no problems whatsoever other than it may help them stroll Div 2.

    PS

    Over on Rangers Media there appears to be a good number of posters trying to shout down the minority mentioning Earl Haig type issues and the likes. They are to be applauded.

    Some Bears, of course, just don’t fancy him as being any good and at his age not where the club should be going in relation to building for the future and they fear McCoist will be sticking with the long ball game next season.


  9. ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:10

    Well he’ll be in good company along with 99% of fellow footballers and the rest of the UK population
    ++++++++
    Exactly. oddly enough a friend of mine just posted on FB the following comments attributed to John Lennon.

    “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

    +++++++++++++

    paulsatim says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:15

    We shall look forward to the pictures of Mr Daly wrapped in his tri colour when The Rangers pick up trophy 🙂 should go down well.

    Going back to his motivation it reminds me of the line my cousin in Ireland always comes away with

    ” he took the soup”

    Those with some knowledge of Irish History will get that one 🙂


  10. wottpi says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:41

    I think he would have been a good addition to any SPL team and it exposes the financial state of Scottish football when no SPL club can offer him an attractive package.


  11. achillesacronym says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:43

    I don’t find this paragraph unusual at all and have seen differing versions of it before. But, in the context I describe it raises the question of what the realtionship between FFW & CSplc was with those that received the letter.
    ====================================================================

    I thought, possibly wrongly, that FFW and Cenkos were both involved in the AIM Flotation of Rangers International. There is also a further FFW connection as I believe they were the legal company that handled the the request for the striking-off of Sevco 5088 sent to Companies House approx 27 December 2012. The application form was signed by Charles Green and identified him as the sole director of Sevco 5088 at the time he signed.

    We know what followed of course regarding CW and his sidekick in connection with Sevco 5088 and which has yet to be resolved.


  12. briggsbhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:43
    ================================
    The souper – is that how you’ll see Daly if he signs?


  13. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:40

    A slight correction for you. A Green White and Orange day which are the colours of the flag of the ROI.

    In relation to our post if his singing does alienate the Tango mob then it’s a step forward for The Rangers


  14. blu says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:50
    briggsbhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:43
    ================================
    The souper – is that how you’ll see Daly if he signs

    No not all, it’s his life, his choice, his livelihood and he has to do what is right for him and his family.

    I can see the headline now, Super John Daly ! did you see what I did there 🙂


  15. briggsbhoy says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:30
    ……………………………….

    My only experience of meeting Mr. Connolly was in Glasgow..West Nile Street back in the early 80’s from memory…crossing the street in the pi**ing rain….the traffic was at a stand still and I passed in front of a stationary Range Rover…noticed Billy behind the drivers wheel…riased my hand and said ‘how u doin’….and was presented with a 2 finger salute back and told to ‘get oot the f*kin wi’…as the traffic had started to roll again….

    Does that qualify him as furtive?


  16. Briggsbhoy

    I can see the headline now, Super John Daly ! did you see what I did there ?
    ================================
    Had the same thought myself. Sorry, I thought you might be straying into dangerous waters, glad you cleared it up.


  17. paulmac2 says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:57

    Naw it makes him a knob.

    BTW are The Rangers offering their employees Share benefits in their package, that’s got to be a clincher surely 🙂


  18. briggsbhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:51
    0 0 Rate This

    Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:40

    A slight correction for you. A Green White and Orange day which are the colours of the flag of the ROI.

    In relation to our post if his singing does alienate the Tango mob then it’s a step forward for The Rangers
    ——

    Isn’t it just on the heels of the, ‘ST prices frozen, please give us your dosh!’ patter? The obligatory promise of new signings? Since Charles isn’t moothing aff every day you could easily forget that there’s still a football club down Ibrox way.


  19. ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:22

    wottpi says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:44

    My guess is that it just going to be a long drawn out saga for the closed season with not a lot happening
    ==========================================================================

    I think that’s probably right. All I see of possible interest is after the 20 June when any 6 month lock-in or agreement with shares held by the Institutional Investors comes off. What will happen to share prices especially if there really is any possible club purchaser lurking in the shadows.

    In a sense connected to this is the agm – I seem to remember it will be August – or if Malcolm Murray refuses to go will an egm be called to remove him.

    And will any member of the MSM tell us what info the SFA passed to Craig Mather & Rangers about their chairman Malcolm Murray and who passed it to them. There is also a multitude of other unanswered questions connected with this incident. I can only assume that for the SFA to become involved the allegations must have been very serious.

    It would also be helpful to know whether this ‘leak’ was authorised by the SFA as an organisation or did it come from a senior official acting on his/her own initiative/agenda.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    As Blu notes above – we don’t know for sure that either Mather was reported accurately or whether he is actually telling the truth (remembering of course that truth is at an absolute premium in this situation). Charlotte F, who we believe to be Ibrox Boardroom linked, was scathing of Kenny McAlpines report and basically said it was made up rubbish.

    Personally ,I think it was made up to put more pressure on Murray to resign. I think they would go to any lengths to discredit a businessman, who on the evidence available ,is as straight as you might expect a businessman to be. Someone with integrity is an obstacle to a Spivster.


  20. briggsbhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:51
    0 0 Rate This
    Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:40

    A slight correction for you. A Green White and Orange day which are the colours of the flag of the ROI.

    In relation to our post if his singing does alienate the Tango mob then it’s a step forward for The Rangers

    =========================================

    True – i was trying to make a (very weak) connection to Lex GOLD in his role at SPL – another the Sevconians have down as a Rangers Hater.

    It should be noted that Sevco already have a young ROI player – a goalkeeper. Previously a GAA palyer.

    Unlikely the boy will see 1st team action EVER under Ally and his penchant for giving youngsters a game – wanting to sign Cammy Bell, keep Alexander and put current 2nd choice keeper out on loan to a club in a league above them to get EXPERIENCE…..!!

    But Daly would be the 1st “high profile” ROI player and would also be a 1st team pick

    If he signs, then great. It’s a leap forward. Either the support will disgrace itself or it will take a step forward in the process of cleansing itself of historic baggage that has no place in todays society/game

    If the support disgrace itself, the club will be forced to act against them – otherwise they will soon feel the wrath of Vincent Lunney who (SURELY) would be unable to ignore the weekly abuse the player received.

    I am pretty sure that Sevco signing an ROI player will not only upset a section of their own support, but will take the wind out of the sails of some celtic fans too – and maybe that is no bad thing if it helps to remove sectarian baggage from the game in the longer term.


  21. paulsatim says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 12:15

    We shall look forward to the pictures of Mr Daly wrapped in his tri colour when The Rangers pick up trophy 🙂 should go down well.

    ” he took the soup” Those with some knowledge of Irish History will get that one 🙂
    ==================================================================

    I would assume Mr Daly is unlikely to wrap himself in a tricolour and tbh I would view that as a childish act. But it won’t happen.

    As to ‘taking the soup’ which I haven’t heard for around 60 years I have to say I had a laugh at the whole new meaning it gives to ‘Super Ally’. I can’t wait till the weekend and try it out on my Rangers drinking buddies. Timing is all and I’ll wait for mid-swallow.

    However there are often alternative ways of looking at great tragedies despite the enormous personal cost that Irish Catholics and Protestants suffered through the various potato blights.

    For many, just as in the Highland Clearances, it offered – albeit forced – a new life in another land which, from a historical perspective, many of the descendants of those 19th century Irish and Scottish Diasporas are happy with.

    I doubt if there is a religion anywhere in the world which hasn’t looked for converts through providing food and other necessities to sustain life. I remember well my Sundays at the Tent Hall just beside Glasgow Green but was clued-up enough, as were my Catholic mates, not to breathe a word to my Ma or at school. Still the sticky buns were nice 🙂

    But to be serious there is a helluva difference between starvation, especially when your children are dying from humger, and being a relatively highly-paid footballer attempting to maximise his income almost 200 years later. But thanks for the trip down memory lane to my Donegal granny whose parents were part of that Irish diaspora which brought so much to Scotland and indeed many other countries in the world as did the Highland Gaels.


  22. @TSFM – Please rename this forum TSNF – The Scottish Nostalgia Fest


  23. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:49
    I only wanted the first couple of minutes where Dan McPhail repeats the word “Furtive” a number of times–
    _________________

    Worth watching the whole way through, all the same. There’s a familiar and not irrelevant ring to the story: PC Plod sits blissfully on the evidence incompetently ignoring the crime committed right under his nose and the perpetrators getting off scot-free.


  24. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:01

    Good post – and if Dougie was here, he’d tell ye himself (sorry!)

    BTW The furore over Charlotte Fakeovers – Does it really matter? They’ve already said they will post the info elsewhere, therefore it will see the light of day regardless. If it doesn’t then you’ll need to ask why, but taking them at face value, it will be out there.

    TSFM have done exactly the right thing – the reason that this blog is disliked by others in football is because it carries some currency. It’s not one prone to flights of outrageous fancy – or if it is, then instead of being egged on, those posters are reined in pretty quickly. It’s all about credibility, that’s been the watchword from day one. The use of derogatory terms, nicknames etc. being verboten is prime evidence of this. How many other sites on the Internet do you know of that take such care? All it would take would be a duping on the scale of the one suffered by SDM(!) and it would lose a lot of that credibility. If the mods have doubts, then we should back them on this. No one has banned Charlotte from posting, we’ve merely been asked to treat their posts with caution for the time being and not invest too much in them.

    Secondly, using the phrase of the day, get over yourselves! Are we really so precious on here that we can’t stand any other site getting an ‘exclusive’? If Charlotte’s information is significant, valid and if it’s being aired elsewhere (if!), then great – it’s out there, and that’s what’s important. Just because it wasn’t broken on here shouldn’t matter one jot.


  25. bogsdollox says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 13:11

    As Blu notes above – we don’t know for sure that either Mather was reported accurately or whether he is actually telling the truth (remembering of course that truth is at an absolute premium in this situation). Charlotte F, who we believe to be Ibrox Boardroom linked, was scathing of Kenny McAlpines report and basically said it was made up rubbish.
    =================================================================

    I obviously have considered whether the report re Mather and the SFA was accurate but the silence which has followed seems to confirm the accuracy IMO. If it was wrong then surely the SFA and Rangers would have issued a press release to that effect.

    Then there’s the question that McAlpine said he had seen the Board Minutes which stated the connection between the SFA and Mather. If that isn’t minuted then Rangers could discredit the story by stating that no such minute existed and had never existed. Again there is silence.

    But it has to be conceded that perhaps McAlpine was shown a forged minute which, for reasons as yet unknown, Rangers has decided not to expose. Could it be that they have reported the forgery to the police and that’s why they are maintaining radio slilence?

    Or is it quite simply that by and large the McAlpine piece is accurate. Again so many questions and as usual no answers.


  26. Apologies if this has been discussed already but if the news is true (!) how can daly sign for sevco if the embargo is still in place?? If he has, I personally think it’s professional suicide but each to their own.


  27. Brenda,
    I had the same thoughts when the precontract with Cammy Bell happened. I believe an embargo to prevent signings isnt really an embargo if a player signs but isnt allowed to or cant actually play for a variety of reasons…end of season, injury, whatever. A player has signed a contract during an signing embargo, not a playing embargo.
    Others responded to my post from the players side, citing it as a restriction on the player’s right to sign as out of contract, but my argument is that any embargo would affect any player signing a contract, so its either an embargo, or it isnt, or maybe its an sfa embargo on TRFC..which is a different thing to other embargos!
    Sorry to rant AGAIN on this subject.


  28. regards the signing embargo of The Sevco Franchise….

    will they simply not offer players a JOB as a cleaner/coach/tea boy/kit boy/groundsman until August 31st, then on 1st September, they’ll offer them a new job as a player and then register the player?

    Would this prevent them playing any of their “staff” as trialists?

    Sandy Bryson is sure he can make it work! (how is that man still in a job?)


  29. There should be no issue with John Daly signing for SEVCO…in fact the more the better….SEVCO do not have a signing embargo….the club that was liquidated was issued with a signing embargo…not SEVCO!

    Another example of the SFA adding to the mess we see being played in front of our eyes with no shame nor explanation to how the situation is arrived at?

    I hope it works out for John…I also hope he has been paying attention to the unfolding events involving this new club!


  30. Bocanegra and Goian

    both these players are due to “return” to Sevco shortly…..will they be returning and the club pick up their wages or will they somehow move to a new club with/without any fee going to Sevco?

    Thumbs up for them playing SFL2 next year
    Thumbs down for them moving on ASAP.


  31. ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 00:46
    _______
    I’m sorry if I caused offense, it wasn’t my intention. I think I poorly expressed myself to start with and then misunderstood your response and jumped to a wrong conclusion.
    My problem with JF’s piece is that I find it inappropriate that his analysis of what is happening in Scottish football needed to be anchored in his political (socialist) outlook. While he took steps to point out that he wasn’t advocating his political outlook, he still found time to have a pop at the Tories. Whether or not most people agree with this, I don’t think a football blog is an appropriate platform for that kind of thing.


  32. Brenda says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 13:55

    Apologies if this has been discussed already but if the news is true (!) how can daly sign for sevco if the embargo is still in place?? If he has, I personally think it’s professional suicide but each to their own.
    ……………………………..

    As previously mentioned Brenda…SEVCO never entered administration…Rangers FC did….therefore SEVCO cannot be subject to a transfer embargo…SEVCO never had any outstanding football debts…but in order for the SFA to maintain the falsehood that SEVCO are the same club they needed to establish a link….that link was maybe part of the 5 way agreement in that SEVCO needed to accept the old Clubs football debts and in doing so would inherit the transfer embargo…and in return be allowed to play….an embargo I’m sure they were grateful to accept as it supported their lack of expenditure on players and promoted the same club sham?

    The fact they can sign a player should not surprise anyone….legally they’ve always been able to sign players….


  33. Wonder how they`ll leak the [first draft] `independent` report?
    Anyway – you`ll all be pleased to know white bricks is an avid reader of TSFM ! – Blimey 😉


  34. ptd1978 says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 14:35
    2 4 Rate This
    ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 00:46
    _______
    I’m sorry if I caused offense, it wasn’t my intention. I think I poorly expressed myself to start with and then misunderstood your response and jumped to a wrong conclusion.
    My problem with JF’s piece is that I find it inappropriate that his analysis of what is happening in Scottish football needed to be anchored in his political (socialist) outlook. While he took steps to point out that he wasn’t advocating his political outlook, he still found time to have a pop at the Tories. Whether or not most people agree with this, I don’t think a football blog is an appropriate platform for that kind of thing.

    _________________________________________________________

    down with that sort of thing!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-F2HKLzB6c


  35. WRT the players signing for TRFC,I don’t see a problem here.there is no signing embargo but a registration ban.TRFC can sign who they like,they can also pay them a salary.What they can’t do,is register the players and play them before 1st September.
    I’m sure,also,with all the names supposedly signing and Bocanegra & Goian possibly returning,that Ally is aware of the rule that allows him only 22 players aged 21 or over on 1st January this year.
    Ally could of course sign as many as he wishes,and play them.As long as no one points out this “mistake” then Mr Bryson at the SFA must,by his own precedent,accept that no rules were broken!.


  36. Direct from the baht cave…Book sales must be slow/ non existant.

    Pretty tame stuff from Le’ gout regarding TGEF…

    Worse than a lying, cheating,lowlife thieving conman.
    Lower than a snake and a huckster.
    A slug!
    A lowdown guttersnipe.
    A piece of dog excrement whose very existence is an offence to the human race.

    C’mon who refers to anyone as bein a huckster..FFS !!
    A blinkin bad man..A flippin bloody nasty person..worse than a big box of nasty hings.!

    This guy gives idiots a bad name…


  37. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 14:21

    regards the signing embargo of The Sevco Franchise….

    will they simply not offer players a JOB as a cleaner/coach/tea boy/kit boy/groundsman until August 31st, then on 1st September, they’ll offer them a new job as a player and then register the player?

    Would this prevent them playing any of their “staff” as trialists?

    Sandy Bryson is sure he can make it work! (how is that man still in a job?)

    =============================================================

    That loop hole was closed after the SFA/SPL showed Livi how to use it, in order to sign Kashloul and relegate the Dee back in 2005!

    The cheating from with our controlling bodies is not a new thing!


  38. ptd1978 says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 14:35
    =============================================

    ptd I can understand a reluctance to get involved in a political discussion on a site supposed to be about football.

    However, I think you’ve been following discussion on the site for some time and you must see that football cannot/does not exist in a bubble that only involves 22 people kicking a ball about a field. Things happen for a reason and it makes sense to try to understand how things work.

    For example, the influence in the 1970’s and 80’s of economists like Milton Friedman on politicians in the US (Reagan) and UK (Joseph, Thatcher) created a culture in business that was exemplified by the Gordon Gecko character in the film Wall Street who coined the phrase, “Greed is good.” This attitude pervaded amongst spivs operating in the financial services sector, and ultimately impacted on football. You’ve read copious amounts about Bank of Scotland and its crazy lending policies to Scottish football clubs and one business in particular – MIH International. You’ve read about EBTs – these were legal (for a while) and created by the same spivs who ripped off taxpayers whilst taking obscene amounts of money without creating any sustainable products. Politicians facilitated this.

    The people who govern Scottish football facilitated the nonsense that allowed a club to improperly register players (this is confirmed in both the FTT findings and the LNS inquiry findings) but punished a semi-pro club with ejection from the Scottish Cup for dating a form only once, rather than twice when registering a contract extension. Why did this happen? Because people of influence were minded to allow it. Sorry, you can’t avoid politics in football or life.


  39. Forres Dee (@ForresDee) says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 15:19
    0 0 Rate This
    Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 14:21

    regards the signing embargo of The Sevco Franchise….

    will they simply not offer players a JOB as a cleaner/coach/tea boy/kit boy/groundsman until August 31st, then on 1st September, they’ll offer them a new job as a player and then register the player?

    Would this prevent them playing any of their “staff” as trialists?

    Sandy Bryson is sure he can make it work! (how is that man still in a job?)

    =============================================================

    That loop hole was closed after the SFA/SPL showed Livi how to use it, in order to sign Kashloul and relegate the Dee back in 2005!

    —————————————————–

    was it actually closed? or did they just fine Livi and move on?

    I’ve seen very little movement by SFA/SPL/SFL to tidy up the rule book after the wreckage of the RFC liquidation showed the existing rules up as having more loopholes than an old knitted jersey!


  40. On an aside on the Daly singing I just took a look on the net to see if there was any update on his former team mate Mr Sandaza but there was nothing fresh in terms of news. What I did find what brought a chuckle was the undernoted comment from Mr Hateley in the DR at the time.

    “When you sign for Rangers it can’t all be about the financial rewards. If it is then you are in the wrong place. There also has to be an appreciation of what it means to pull on that shirt and of the expectations you have agreed to carry. That doesn’t change, no matter if you’re on £50 a week or fifty grand. If you don’t appreciate the club and the fans then you don’t deserve to wear the badge.”

    So there we have it, it shouldn’t be about money 🙂


  41. BTW that should be signing, he may sing but it’s aboot his signing 🙂


  42. NTHM,

    “I’ve seen very little movement by SFA/SPL/SFL to tidy up the rule book after the wreckage of the RFC liquidation showed the existing rules up as having more loopholes than an old knitted jersey!”

    Making up the rulebook – yes.
    Tidying up the rulebook – no.

    🙂


  43. James’ polemic may not be to everyone’s taste, but, it does root this story, firmly where it belongs as a business story. football provides the set dressing, and more than a bit of tragi-comedy, but, the Rangers story is really a poster child for what’s with UKPLC. Dodgy tax dealings, board room chicanery, non-existent internal corporate governance. I would even suggest that the behaviour of the footballing authorities is entirely in keeping with that of their big brothers in the like of the FSA.

    It is impossible to sensibly analyse why UK PLC is in such a shocking state, without considering the legacy of Mrs Thatcher and her Neo-liberal acolytes!


  44. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 15:30

    was it actually closed? or did they just fine Livi and move on?

    I’ve seen very little movement by SFA/SPL/SFL to tidy up the rule book after the wreckage of the RFC liquidation showed the existing rules up as having more loopholes than an old knitted jersey!

    ———————————————————-

    Not then, but a lot of the rules regarding trialists / amateurs etc were cleaned up after DFC used everyone of them to maintain the Deefiant season (25 pt penalty) and escape relegation.

    There used to be a Downfall parody about the escape but I can’t find it anywhere


  45. ptd1978 says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 14:35

    ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 00:46
    _______
    I’m sorry if I caused offense, it wasn’t my intention. I think I poorly expressed myself to start with and then misunderstood your response and jumped to a wrong conclusion.
    My problem with JF’s piece is that I find it inappropriate that his analysis of what is happening in Scottish football needed to be anchored in his political (socialist) outlook. While he took steps to point out that he wasn’t advocating his political outlook, he still found time to have a pop at the Tories. Whether or not most people agree with this, I don’t think a football blog is an appropriate platform for that kind of thing.
    ====================================================================

    No offence taken. I was just a bit surprised at the line taken with me as I had tried to be clear that I was talking about Scottish Football in general and not a particular club nor political party.

    JF is well able to answer for himself if he wishes and I leave the Mods to decide what is appropriate or not for the Blog but obviously you are entitled to your viewpoint and to express it Mod Willing 🙂


  46. briggsbhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 15:32

    So there we have it, it shouldn’t be about money 🙂
    ============================================

    Aye right 🙂


  47. scapaflow14 says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 16:10
    ……

    It is impossible to sensibly analyse why UK PLC is in such a shocking state, without considering the legacy of Mrs Thatcher and her Neo-liberal acolytes!
    ________________________________________________________________________

    Absolutely ………. although one should also bear in mind that 23 years, 5 general elections and 4 Prime Ministers have passed since Mrs Thatch was in power and other people bear a great deal of responsibility as well!


  48. youtawknaboot says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 15:16

    Direct from the baht cave…Book sales must be slow/ non existant. Pretty tame stuff from Le’ gout regarding TGEF…
    ==============================================================

    Leggo is a busted flush with the Bears even on a site like RM. His latest Blog post there has attracted 3 replies and 92 views whereas the John Daly thread has attracted 683 replies and 25,698 views and a 2nd Daly thread has opened with 34 replies and 740 views. Haven’t read any of them as I’ve just done a bit of gardening and am relaxing with a glass of wine winding down or up to a nice night of football – but which one to watch and which one to tape?


  49. zerotolerance1903 says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 16:29

    scapaflow14 says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 16:10
    ……

    It is impossible to sensibly analyse why UK PLC is in such a shocking state, without considering the legacy of Mrs Thatcher and her Neo-liberal acolytes!
    ________________________________________________________________________

    Absolutely ………. although one should also bear in mind that 23 years, 5 general elections and 4 Prime Ministers have passed since Mrs Thatch was in power and other people bear a great deal of responsibility as well!
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I would suggest that the 4 Prime Ministers are included within Scapa’s description as “Neo-liberal acolytes”. Oops – was that too political ?


  50. zerotolerance1903 says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 16:29

    Indeed, but I’m afraid that when it comes to the city and to company law, Messers Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron and Clegg have not deviated from Mrs Thatcher’s neo-liberal legacy, by as much as the thickness of a cigarette paper!


  51. ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 16:20

    Aye Right 🙂

    It’s all about the jersey and the badge is it no! Mr Hateley must surely have played for £50 a week such was his love of the Old Rangers. What he didn’t mention of course was that this £50 a week would have been supplemented by a loan, to help out with the domestic bills you understand, a sort of tax free loan! Of course his love of Rankers would have been so great that once he started earning money out in the real World after football he would have paid it back, a bit like a student loan 🙂


  52. ecobhoy says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 16:32
    youtawknaboot says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 15:16

    Direct from the baht cave…Book sales must be slow/ non existant. Pretty tame stuff from Le’ gout regarding TGEF…
    ==============================================================

    Leggo is a busted flush with the Bears even on a site like RM. His latest Blog post there has attracted 3 replies and 92 views whereas the John Daly thread has attracted 683 replies and 25,698 views and a 2nd Daly thread has opened with 34 replies and 740 views. Haven’t read any of them as I’ve just done a bit of gardening and am relaxing with a glass of wine winding down or up to a nice night of football – but which one to watch and which one to tape?

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Or it is just an excellent example of the Rangers fans “head in the sand” attitude to this whole affair. Which ignores what is going on at the club and concentrates on new signings, squirrels and Land Rovers being towed away.

    A few friends of my friend are weel scunnered with the style & standard of football being played at Ibrox you can hardly blame them for being so concerned about new big money signings.


  53. eco..
    tape..tape.. yeh say..!! my kids give me the DOH !! when i use that term….
    ..daaaaad it’s sky+ it 🙂 am an old fogey not up wi the tech terms.
    …you gotta laugh tho,,& I often wonder if him & Britney have been seen in the same room at the same time,cos the Le’gout suit (in his mugshot)..looks suspiciously familiar.

    I sometimes flick around the various footy related blogs & get the insight into the bears RM stuff,(not been on in a while)…the hound wi the shifty eyes, sniffin out the potential earl o haigs when anyone posts a remotely individual thought/suggestion/opinion that is outwith the
    WeAreTheProblem mantra.

    Just put ££ @ 25’s on M.Laudrup bein named as Mancini’s replacement..

    watch the football…tape the wine 🙂


  54. A little bit of an update from Alex Tomo re the [new] Rangers story:

    czm‏@czm36m
    @alextomo Alex, is it possible to say how you are getting on? Are the hurdles relatively easy to

    alex thomson‏@alextomo1m
    @czm3 no and no

    Reading between the lines, I am guessing that he is still working to clear the hurdles (whatever they may be) and the story is not yet dead.

    If the story was dead from his point of view, I guess that his answer to the first question would have been yes i.e. Yes I can, I am not getting anywhere…


  55. 15 May 2013, 04:19 PM
    From The Sevco Website

    Wednesday, 15 May 2013 12:49
    Founders Set For Festival
    Written by Andrew Dickson

    THE Founders Trail will have a stall at this year’s West End Festival, allowing fans to find out more about the tours which retrace the steps of Rangers’ Founding Fathers.

    Organisers of the hugely-popular annual gathering centred around Byres Road and Kelvingrove Park have been running their event since 1996.

    It has gone from strength to strength in the time since and over 100,000 people now visit it each year.

    At the weekend they made contact with Founders Trail officials to ask if they would be present at this year’s version after they attended in 2011.

    They have happily accepted the offer and will be amongst the very many attractions on show at the parade on Sunday, June 9.

    The Founders Trail began as a walking trip in August 2009 and has proved to be a huge hit with thousands of Light Blues supporters.

    Now taking the form of a bus tour, it is a journey of discovery which takes people back to Gers’ roots at some of the most significant sites from the club’s formative years.

    Iain McColl of the Founders Trail said: “We had contact from someone at the West End Festival a few days ago and they’re very keen for us to be involved again this year.

    “They said they would love us to take a stall and we are more than delighted to do that after we did the same thing a couple of years ago.

    “Rangers’ Founders all settled in the West End upon arriving in Glasgow in 1871 and the organisers felt our presence would enhance their event and add something a bit different.

    “Of course, the four young boys came together in West End Park which is now Kelvingrove Park to form the club so it is very fitting we will be there once again.

    “We’ve always seen the Founders Trail as an education project and it tells a remarkable story of four teenage lads who just wanted to play football.

    “They came to Glasgow from rural Scotland and although they didn’t know it at the time, they came together to form one of the world’s greatest sporting institutions.

    “While we’re at the West End Festival, people will be able to find out a bit more about what we do and two charities will benefit too.

    “We will be raising money for the hospitals at Yorkhill and Erskine, two very worthy causes, and hopefully we’ll see as many Rangers fans at our stall on the day.

    “We’ve already had a lot of good feedback to the fact we’ll be at the West End Festival and a lot of people are now planning to attend when they might not have before.”

    Places on forthcoming Founders Trails, run in association with the club and the Rangers Development Fund, are still available.

    Trips this Sunday and on Saturday, June 22 are already sold out but you can buy tickets for the tour on Saturday, July 13 now.

    To secure your place, either call 07902 855536 or email thegallantpioneers@googlemail.comThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

    Group discounts are available on request and further dates for later in 2013 will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.

    You can visit the Founders Trail’s organisers’ website at http://www.thegallantpioneers.co.uk and follow them on Twitter @FoundersTrail.

    Find out more about the West End Festival online at http://www.westendfestival.co.uk and on Twitter @westendfest.


  56. Quote:
    PLANET FOOTBALL
    Rangers
    The affairs of Worthington Group appear ever more entangled with Craig Whyte and his twice bankrupt partner Aidan Earley. The story so
    far…
    Worthington has almost £3m from a group pension fund locked up in the Rangers collapse as a result of a loan that was made before any security as provided by the then Whyte-controlled club. Whyte and Earley’s brother had major share stakes in Worthington ahead of the loan. The pension fund is now fighting with the taxman and Rangers’ liquidators for the return of its money in a civil ction against Whyte’s former lawyers, Collyer Bristow. Worthington has provided £250,000 to help finance to a new Whyte venture, Law Financial, which claims it owns a stake in the new Rangers and threatens litigation.
    Now read on… Last November, Worthington used £600,000 through a share and convertible loan stock issue. In January, a debenture was issued to secure the £475,000 loan stock. That charge was issued to a new company, Renatus Capital. The only listed director and shareholder of Renatus is Sherri Ellison. She was formerly a director or company secretary of a series of Whyte or Earley companies.
    The holders of the loan stock could on conversion become the largest Worthington Shareholder; they also have a first charge on the Worthington assets. Presumably that £475,000 provided to Worthington by Renatus or associates helped fund the £250.000 Worthington has invested in Law Financial.


  57. liveinhop says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 17:29

    15 May 2013, 04:19 PM
    From The Sevco Website

    Wednesday, 15 May 2013 12:49
    Founders Set For Festival
    Written by Andrew Dickson

    THE Founders Trail will have a stall at this year’s West End Festival, allowing fans to find out more about the tours which retrace the steps of Rangers’ Founding Fathers.
    =================================================================

    There was an enormous stushie maybe a month ago when the Gibson Street Festival knocked back a stall which they had originally said the organisation could have. I think there had been a stall in Gibson Street last year as apparently one of the founders had lived there for a time.

    However seems there was complaints put into the committee that the Founders Trail charity presence could encourage sectarianism. This led to a Facebook email blitz on the Gibson Street Festival page and all the local businesses which had sponsored the festival by Bears. I think this was organised by RM and I don’t think the Founders Trail people were involved.

    As far as I know there was absolutely no trouble last year in Gibson Street so I wonder about the complaints although the Gibson Street Festival people said they didn’t think the Founders stall fitted in with their arts concept. I might have been more convinced of that line if they had knocked back the stall the previous year.

    However, only in Glasgow and some other parts of Scotland could this happen – I never know whether to laugh or cry over it.


  58. I don’t know if Alex Tomo is hinting or otherwise that the Rangers story is subject to an injunction. Guesswork on my part.

    alex thomson‏@alextomo12m
    @JJMNJ @RickyBobby1872 well your house is not a major football club – unless I’ve missed something. As a fish is not a bicycle.

    JohnM‏@JJMNJ11m
    @alextomo @RickyBobby1872 All the same. If I don’t want someone in it, I don’t sue them to keep them away.

    alex thomson‏@alextomo10m
    @JJMNJ @RickyBobby1872 no – an injunction’s easier.


  59. Charlotte Fakeovers has had a tweet on Twitter retweeted by Rangers Tax-Case.


  60. Long Time Lurker says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 17:11
    Reading between the lines, I am guessing that he is still working to clear the hurdles (whatever they may be) and the story is not yet dead.

    If the story was dead from his point of view, I guess that his answer to the first question would have been yes i.e. Yes I can, I am not getting anywhere…
    ___________________________________________________________________

    I think you correct. AT won’t give up on his story.


  61. Re CF.

    I am now fairly confident that the material CF has offered is legitimate – a lot more confident than I was yesterday. I think it is understandable that she is coy about how she came to have the info, but so too she must understand why we are wary of strange women bearing gifts.

    Caution on our part is still necessary though, but perhaps when she sees this she will visit again…


  62. previouslyknownassnowdog says: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 18:06

    Retweeted bt RTC

    Charlotte Fakeovers ‏@CharlotteFakes 22m
    Coming up shortly, the Letter Before Claim allegedly issued to Imran Ahmad and Charles Green on 12/12/12 and reissued 13/12/12


  63. TSFM says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 17:11

    Reading between the lines, I am guessing that he is still working to clear the hurdles (whatever they may be) and the story is not yet dead.

    If the story was dead from his point of view, I guess that his answer to the first question would have been yes i.e. Yes I can, I am not getting anywhere…
    ___________________________________________________________________

    I think you correct. AT won’t give up on his story.

    ___________________________________________________________________

    I hope so! While I appreciate the efforts of RTC and all internetbampots – its good to have journalistic input from AT, Phil, SC and others.


  64. Charlotte is almost medialike, giving it a drum roll.


  65. EJ
    Not a bad ploy from CF. Maybe raw disclosure is best. Narrative can be added by others, here and elsewhere.


  66. greenockjack says:

    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 18:21

    Charlotte is almost medialike, giving it a drum roll.
    __________________________________________________

    It’s the cymbal-crash we want to hear though 🙂


  67. TSFM says: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 18:23

    EJ
    Not a bad ploy from CF. Maybe raw disclosure is best. Narrative can be added by others, here and elsewhere
    —————————————————
    I agree, but I suspect that CF might have wanted to join the debate on here rather than on other more blinkered forums.


  68. TSFM
    It’s the cymbal-crash we want to hear though
    —————————————————————–

    Whether it be a crash or a whisper, we need the truth.


  69. Chick Young just reminded us Cammy Bell will be joining Rangers. It is also reported that John Daly and Nicky Law will do likewise. Can a club already shedding large amounts of money really afford to sign these guys? It reminds me of the early days of Craig Whyte when McGregor and Whittaker were given new contracts on £20K+ a week, only weeks before their club stopped paying tax and N.I contributions.


  70. Wow just Wow!

    If genuine, this will put Pinsent and Masons in a difficult position if they attempt to say “nothing to see here”


  71. If charlottes letter is genuine what are the implications of the AIM share issue?

    I really hope Charlotte isn’t faking it


  72. Long Time Lurker says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 17:11

    7

    0

    Rate This

    A little bit of an update from Alex Tomo re the [new] Rangers story:

    czm‏@czm36m
    @alextomo Alex, is it possible to say how you are getting on? Are the hurdles relatively easy to

    alex thomson‏@alextomo1m
    @czm3 no and no

    __________________________________________________________

    TSFM says:
    Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 17:11

    Reading between the lines, I am guessing that he is still working to clear the hurdles (whatever they may be) and the story is not yet dead.

    If the story was dead from his point of view, I guess that his answer to the first question would have been yes i.e. Yes I can, I am not getting anywhere…

    ____________________________________________________________

    I hope you are right, but a darker theory needs to be considered: The answer could also mean that he is subject to a legal injunction or advice that means he cannot investigate or report further. The first no might mean ‘I have been compelled to silence’ e.g. subject to a contempt charge. The only way to circumvent a superinjunction e.g. is with parliamentary privelege.

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