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. chipm0nk says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 18:51
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Craig stole nothing. He made a decision to withhold PAYE, NIC and VAT to finance things until the end of the season because the man “who is not a manager” closed off revenue streams by getting PUMPED in the cups early doors.

    The tax money Rangers did not pay was used to pay player wages which in my honest opinion gave them a sporting advantage. But then the SFA/SPL knew this in October 2011 and allowed them to continue until Feb 2012 when the money ran out and Dunfermline & DUFC were geting stiffed.


  2. HMRC wanted `regime change ` and required liquidators of their choosing to investigate past behaviour. HMRC on policy did not wish to extinguish what should be a viable business if properly run.

    What HMRC stated post the CVA Vote.

    Statement on Rangers Football Club

    “A liquidation provides the best opportunity to protect taxpayers, by allowing the potential investigation and pursuit of possible claims against those responsible for the company’s financial affairs in recent years. A CVA would restrict the scope of such action. Moreover the liquidation route does not prejudice the proposed sale of the club. This sale can take place either through a CVA or a liquidation.

    So the sale is not being undermined, it simply takes a different route. Liquidation will enable a sale of the football assets to be made to a new company, thereby ensuring that football will continue at Ibrox. It also means that the new company will be free from claims or litigation in a way which would not be achievable with a CVA. Rangers can make a fresh start.”
    .
    .

    D+P kept the admin going because of sale terms and conditions requiring completion to Late July 2012. Those conditions included the SFA `terms` [5-way stitch-up]

    D+P kept the admin going for `reasons` not clear to me till eventually 31 October because HMRC forced D+P to apply to the CoS. The causative powers to end administration lay with the Creditors Committee led by HMRC but only after a sale of a `going concern` was `demonstrated` could they have instigated the liquidation procedure to be formally ratified by LH if all in order. LH did not want to delay the liquidation but did not release the joint admins until CoI matters had been investigated.


  3. bogsdollox says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 19:17

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

    Craig stole nothing. He made a decision to withhold PAYE, NIC and VAT to finance things until the end of the season because the man “who is not a manager” closed off revenue streams by getting PUMPED in the cups early doors.

    ===============================
    In a way you are right, Craig Whyte didn’t steal it, Rangers stole it.

    Rangers collected payments on behalf of HMRC. We are not talking about tax due on profits, we are talking about money they collected which was not theirs. It should just have been handed over and never included in any budgets. It was money they took from their staff and from their customers.

    It was money they were due to remit, not pay. They simply did not do that. Instead they spent it.

    There is no option to “withhold” money you have collected on behalf of another party. Certainly not when it is tax you have collected.

    Rangers stole the money, it’s that simple.

    That is why there was never any prospect whatsoever of a CVA. HMRC will not agree to one when a business has just stolen money it collected on their behalf. I said that long before the CVA was rejected and anyone who understands these things knew it all along.


  4. twopanda says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 19:18

    HMRC wanted `regime change ` and required liquidators of their choosing to investigate past behaviour. HMRC on policy did not wish to extinguish what should be a viable business if properly run.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I’m going to disagree with this bit. In the eyes of the HMRC they had a non compliant aggressive tax payer – wee tax case, EBT’s, MIH group also non compliant – anything else ?- they were a major sales ground for tax avoidance planners in the early 2000’s. Any car avoidance stuff?

    Craig takes over and stops paying on all taxes. HMRC were right to close them down. They were a risk to other taxpayers.


  5. chipm0nk says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 19:46
    ===============================
    In a way you are right, Craig Whyte didn’t steal it, Rangers stole it.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Err – I’m 100% right and you were 100% wrong but that’s as it is.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Rangers collected payments on behalf of HMRC. We are not talking about tax due on profits, we are talking about money they collected which was not theirs. It should just have been handed over and never included in any budgets. It was money they took from their staff and from their customers.

    It was money they were due to remit, not pay. They simply did not do that. Instead they spent it.

    There is no option to “withhold” money you have collected on behalf of another party. Certainly not when it is tax you have collected.

    Rangers stole the money, it’s that simple.

    That is why there was never any prospect whatsoever of a CVA. HMRC will not agree to one when a business has just stolen money it collected on their behalf. I said that long before the CVA was rejected and anyone who understands these things knew it all along.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    On this bit I agree – what upsets the VAT bit of the HMRC is not paying over the VAT collected. They don’t like that a lot.


  6. Flurry of AIM announcements but not yet the one that matters.

    AIM rules require new members to submit financials for the six months following the date of the reference information contained in their offer document. In the case of RIFC, reference date was 31 August last year. So half year figures are to the end of February. Deadline for submitting financials is three months post this – end May.

    So RIFC is in default of its AIM obligations.

    I’m sure Stockbridge and Cenkos are on top of this – maybe they are in the post.


  7. bd – that’s HMRCs public view.
    The real test for this [moving forward!] – And HMRC creds – is if BDO can meaningfully deliver!


  8. bogsdollox says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 19:53

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

    I said

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

    HMRC rejected the CVA, that led directly to liquidation.

    Sir David Murray ploughed the club into the ground by spending money they didn’t have and cheating on tax. He overspent by millions of pounds, in addition to the tax they cheated.

    Craig Whyte simply stole millions of pounds which belonged to other people. No ifs no buts no sytems, simply stole it.

    Both of these things are true, and they are what led to HMRC killing Rangers off.

    Bottom line though, it was Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs which decided that Rangers would be no more.

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

    That was not 100% wrong.

    I have accepted that it was Rangers who stole the money, rather than it being Craig Whyte, though for the purposes of the discussion and given his position and shareholding they were analogous.

    However, other than that, how is the rest wrong.


  9. twopanda says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 20:05
    bd – that’s HMRCs public view.
    The real test for this [moving forward!] – And HMRC creds – is if BDO can meaningfully deliver!

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

    What is it you expect BDO to deliver?


  10. Tired of listening to people who owe their living to football talking rubbish.
    The half time panel haven’t dropped any clangers, yet.


  11. Exactly bd! – notice `potential`!!!

    “..by allowing the potential investigation and pursuit of possible claims against those responsible for the company’s financial affairs in recent years”


  12. ianagain says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 20:16

    Stevie
    Its chust fine so far tks
    ===================

    I know, spoke too soon…


  13. I remember when HMRC petitioned the court to have RFC placed into administration someone at the time pointed out their reason was that those in charge were not fit to run the club, a fact not disputed in court by RFC.

    Now D&P were they talking to TGEF with his floating charge holder largest creditor hat?


  14. When you ask people who work in any industry in trouble, in distress, being out manoeuvred, producing poor products, they call for jobs not dole. They plead for their business or industry to be kept afloat. They want government bailouts, subsidies or assistance. Why do we think the ‘workers’ in football would be any different. Rarely do people give much thought to where their wages come from as long as they get them. Such is the workers lot.
    The consumers on the other hand are left with the sub standard products or search for an alternative source or until such time as someone comes along with an idea and the golden words in their head, that the customer is always right(or given enough leeway and choice to think they are) and cleans up in a market place.


  15. Question for the legal minded:
    If RIFC liquidates before the CW case comes to court, the liability dies with the holding company right?

    So is there anything to stop RIFC selling the club and heritable properties to another separate company, making a divident payment to shareholders on the profit of the sale, and then going into voluntary liquidation, leaving Craig Whyte’s chums to sue fresh air?

    Those who got their shares for 0p or 1p … lets call them spivs for short…. will make a tidy profit off the back of this. Those who paid 70p, 76p .. lets call them ‘milky bears’ will take something of a bath! Purely a hypothetical scenario obviously, but how soon after you have got the ST money in would be best to do it? August when everyone is on holiday or once the new season is underway?

    Could/should Worthington group seek a ‘Martin Bain’ (protective award) against RIFC sooner rather than later to try and cut this off at the pass, citing the rumoured losses and lack of audited accounts as justification for likely insolvency? Could this actually hasten an insolvency, or force accounts to be produced earlier than spivs anticipated?


  16. Direct quote from yahoo sport.
    “The 41-goal striker left Queen of the South to sign a three-year deal with the Ibrox club at the end of last month. But a year-long transfer embargo placed on Rangers last summer, as one of the conditions that allowed them to re-emerge as a newco following their descent into liquidation, means he cannot be officially registered until September 1.”

    At least someone can admit the truth. Pity that its yahoo and not our National Press.


  17. The D+P recording part 6 from 7 minutes is especially interesting.
    – Full day of meeting between Bill Miller & SPL/SFA.
    – Bill Miller says its not enough. Threatens to walk away.
    – SPL/SFA ‘shat themselves and dropped alot of the requirements’.

    How does “Shitting yourself” and ‘dropping requirements’ square with applying rules without ‘fear or favour’… becuase its sounds alot to me like quiet alot of fear, and a fair chunk of favour was involved, but not so many rules being applied!

    Of course, its only his opinion “-)


  18. An excellent if somewhat surprising performance from Scotland, and a bloody good result.


  19. And more than a quarter of the team from the mighty Canaries 🙂


  20. Hi. I’ve been away and am catching up.
    First – are the Easdale’s now on the board/ at the trough? An absolute low, unimaginable 18 months ago. Why is there not more being said about this. Where is greenockjack?

    CF tapes/SFA/SFL/CO/LNS//HBS/RBS/SDM/SNP/the finest police force(?)/justiciary/D&D/ etc etc. – the Establishment. Read my earlier posts. This was the only way for it to be. Wind your necks in – get them bang to rights or look forward to the new season and broad smiles on broad faces, and a totally discredited game.

    Not even the wife will be fooled anymore, its all a sham, like Dicky Davis and ITV ‘wrestling’.


  21. john clarke says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:15

    An excellent if somewhat surprising performance from Scotland, and a bloody good result.

    y4rmy says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:19

    And more than a quarter of the team from the mighty Canaries

    Andy says:

    typical scotland get a great result when its too late

    ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

    Thanks a bunch guys. Pity I’d recorded it to watch “as live” later.

    If any of you remember the episode of “The Likely Lads” in which the title characters try to avoid finding out the score of an England international then you’re maybe too old to be embracing the new-fangled concept of recording TV programmes, in which case I have to forgive you.

    If you don’t recall the aforementioned programme then you’re all plonkers who have ruined my enjoyment of watching a rare Scotland victory and a decent performance. Apparently!!! (insert ‘frustrated’ emoticon here).


  22. Jack Jarvis says:

    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:58

    Yeh, know the feeling well, which is why I avoid football forums after kick off time if I’ve recorded a match 😉


  23. Jack Jarvis says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:58

    0

    0

    Rate This
    _________________________________________________

    Didin’t you hear Jack?
    Match was cancelled due to waterlogged pitch.
    (Still best result in ages, by unanimous opinion!)
    😛


  24. allyjambo says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 22:02

    Yeah AJ. I learn something new almost every day on here.


  25. resin_lab_dog says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 22:06

    And you can #### right off.


  26. resin_lab_dog says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:03
    10 3 Rate This

    The D+P recording part 6 from 7 minutes is especially interesting.
    – Full day of meeting between Bill Miller & SPL/SFA.
    – Bill Miller says its not enough. Threatens to walk away.
    – SPL/SFA ‘shat themselves and dropped alot of the requirements’.

    How does “Shitting yourself” and ‘dropping requirements’ square with applying rules without ‘fear or favour’… becuase its sounds alot to me like quiet alot of fear, and a fair chunk of favour was involved, but not so many rules being applied!

    Of course, its only his opinion “-)
    ——–

    That was an amusing and revealing exchange. And I thought the use of the past tense (shat) was a welcome change from the courser, all-pervading American use of the present tense (shit) whether discussing past, present or future.


  27. More Armageddon avoided then. A Scotland win away to the world 4th ranked team. Murder ain’t it. Them next.


  28. Jack Jarvis says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:58

    ‘….Thanks a bunch guys. Pity I’d recorded it to watch “as live” later.

    Jack J, I’m awful sorry. I should have known better, particularly because I had already warned the wife not to mention the game when our son skypes from Oz ilater tonight.

    And I do remember that episode.

    Maybe it’s a consolation that, unlike me, you can watch the game full of freedom from fear of an absolute embarrassment of a hammering.


  29. StevieBC says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 19:42

    …is everyone watching the game then…why ? You know it’s going to be painful ! 🙂
    ===================================================================

    Really? I thought it was brill 🙂

    But even if we had been beat I would still have watched because I support Scotland through the good and bad times and that’s what fans do.


  30. How noble of Mr Charles to draw The Rangers fans into buying shares at 70p – 76p when he knew the true value would probably bottom out at around 40p.

    When will these mugs ever learn.


  31. timtim says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 22:53
    1 0 Rate This

    Charlottes back
    https://twitter.com/CharlotteFakes
    Charlies on tape
    ———–

    Why does she wait untIl midnight CET? Oh well, I can sleep when I retire i suppose …

    PS God bless Wee Gordon Strachan who conjured up a famous win with an enterprising style of play 🙂


  32. Re government influence/ help;
    Didn’t the government siuddenly pop up with sponsorship of a cup?


  33. resin_lab_dog says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 21:03
    ‘..How does “Shitting yourself” and ‘dropping requirements’ square with applying rules without ‘fear or favour’…’
    —-
    A very good question, which just about encapsulates the raison d’etre of this blog.

    If those tapes are genuine, we have all the proof needed to nail our Football Authorities as being worthy only of contempt.

    I hope that various knights, and American haulage contractors, and Singaporean entrepreneurs whose love for a now dead club knows no bounds, have had the opportunity of hearing the tapes.

    It would be nice to believe that they might feel somewhat aggrieved at being played for dummies, and wish to take some kind of retaliatory action.

    It would be even nicer if our own authorities -such as, for example,the procurator Fiscal- would get a finger out and get tore into fact-finding and evidence gathering to nail any conspiracy and prosecute the conspirators, nullifying all the illegal actions that they may have perpetrated.

    I hope Charlotte ( and, oh, how wonderful it would be if indeed it was a real life Charlotte Gray, planted in the bosom of the enemy and gathering intelligence at great personal risk! Somebody write the book and screenplay, please!) may already have provided the police and the liquidators with ‘evidence’, or at least intends to do so.

    And that she will likewise produce enough evidence to convince a sufficient number of club chairmen/SFA members that they must remove the present Board of the SFA.


  34. i think it is time to move and remove those PRESIDING over this farcical “whoops missus” comedy….it’s no longer fkn funny


  35. I really don’t think Alex Salmond or the Scottish Government per say are batting for the Bears on this. The SNP are a party of the new middle class and have no real interest in the Govan team. Alex Salmond has spent his entire political career painstakingly preparing for the next year, it was and is a matter of supreme inconvenience that this has kicked off at this time. The SNP have coveted their holy grail…the City of Glasgow for decades, who controls Glasgow controls Scotland. Glasgow is the quintessential tribal city, the political landscape has always been peculiar, but the SNP have historically, never quite convinced either tribe….therein is their problem. I’m pretty sure the Nats would love dearly love to boot this into the long grass, and pursue their agenda of ‘independence’ (whatever that means?). The last thing they wanted was the much mooted ‘social unrest’, such a fire cracker kicking off would be a disaster and a major distraction. The tax thing is small potatoes in the bigger picture, compared to the bank bail outs or avoidance of ‘the creative industries’ the stats from Ibrox are a gnats nibble.

    IMO this is not about a mere business minimising its tax out lay, this is an institution who draw support from some of the poorest parliamentary constituencies in Western Europe, to take their cash (and everyone else’s) and hand it to millionaires is despicable.

    The lastest revelations are what many on here have suspected all along….there are loads of people in on it, and the behaviour of many in positions of power and influence, whatever their agenda should be exposed if Scotland is serious about moving forward.

    Where are the journalists?


  36. We are actually in the middle of a ‘real scam operation’ Like the sort of thing you read about occasionally but it’s usually played out in the likes of Zimbabwe, Georgia and wherever else desports and open corruption are the order of the day. Such open corruption – within established orgs – is just a red rag for the press in the likes of the France, Italy, Spain and England of course, as we all know only too well – those English red-top hacks know no bounds in their pursuit of such sensation…especially the sports hacks, Scotland? Scottish hacks??

    Well…this is where it all gets really weird because Instead of behaving like actual ‘hacks’ our sports hacks seem to much rather deflect such sensation and even go as far as telling complete lies based on farcical ‘legalities’ such as an inability to even ask questions to named (but not quite shamed..) characters about matters of quite an extrodinary nature. i.e. Open and very blatant corruption within the nations sports authorities. It’s all there! LOOK!!!

    Of course they know it’s all there…they are just ignoring this story and warping reality because old traditions and loyalties still go very far in our country, which is evident with the MsM, the SFA including it’s shining beacon of corruption, Mr Campbell Ogilvie. The Glasgow sports press are simply the stuff of ridicule – what can you really say about these morons? Hey all you Scottish MsM hacks; When the circulation plummets enough, you will be sacked. It may be ok for Mr Spiers, Graham – with that nice Kelvinside accent – can do the rugby stuff and maybe Tom English could report Scottish cricket or something but theres going to be a helluva lot of you out on your arses and you know what? It could all have been very different if only you only did what your English sister papers do every day. Personally, I wish they all lose their jobs as their all just a bunch of lickspittle journalistic incompetents. Being an RFC** fan doesnt justify a complete derelction of rationality, which will cost you your repuation and possibly even your job, which will be soon enough hopefully.

    Will any of our hacks descend upon Hampden, tape recorders in hand demanding answers from Campbell Ogilvie? Pigs will fly before that occurence we all know. What about the SFA? Will they explain themselves?? See the things about flying pigs…

    So what to do? I think the ONLY things that will cause panic within these places, in particular the SFA, will be of Scotland plays to an empty Hampden – and continues right up until the org collapses around it’s ears. On a night when the national side somehow managed an away win against Croatia, such a suggestion may be poorly timed – but let’s be honest about it here, the win was in vain in any case – cap well and truly doffed in any case – however a genuine boycott of the home fixtures is the only way I can think of that would cause enough genuine worries from that shower, their necks glow brightly because they have the MsM and others within the establishment covering their arses but there is absolutely nothing the judiciary, the SFA nor the MsM could do about a Hampden boycott.

    Clubs fans could also petition against domestic ties being played there too.

    Yes we all know how corrupt they are, they know it too but can get away with it because of the establishment. Thats been proven. We accept that’s how it is but we are in a peculiar situation and we need to fight an even more peculiar battle if we want a change. Boycott Hampden until their all gone. It’s the only way.


  37. Alex Salmond

    Bill Kenright

    Graham Souness

    Freddie Sheppard

    Englebert Humperdinck

    Bill Murray

    Murray Walker

    Alfred Lord Tennyson

    Brigitte Bardot

    Vogue, vogue

    Oooh, you’ve got to
    Let your body move to the music
    Oooh, you’ve got to just
    Let your body go with the flow
    Oooh, you’ve got to
    Vogue


  38. Listening to Green 1/8 1m34 onwards –> CG Souness links? SFA ‘sanctions’ laid bare.
    Oooooofffftt!


  39. arabest1 says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 00:16
    “..The lastest revelations are what many on here have suspected all along….there are loads of people in on it, and the behaviour of many in positions of power and influence, whatever their agenda should be exposed if Scotland is serious about moving forward…….Where are the journalists?”
    ——–
    Eating the swill from the same trough, perhaps?


  40. Thinking about all this gets me pretty angry sometimes. Then once in a while I read something that provides perspective.

    A piece appeared on Wikileaks about the Bradley Manning trial earlier this week. Whether you believe his reasons for doing what he did are valid or not, one thing is certain. Manning will be found guilty. The US president has publicly stated that he broke the law, his main defense of acting in the public interest (whistleblowing) has been ruled has inadmissible, certain evidence is not to be shown to his defense team so it can’t be responded to (in direct contravention if his rights) and the judge has ruled that the prosecution don’t have to prove their case of “aiding the enemy”, rather it’s sufficient for the government to claim it and Manning has to somehow disprove that negative.

    When what is supposedly the leading country of the free world has the brass neck to blatantly disregard its own laws – indeed its own philosophy of freedom – in order to lock up (or execute) one of its own citizens for what amounts to little more than embarrassing his government, we can probably consider ourselves lucky that the authorities here are currently only exercising their brass neck by only openly breaking the comparatively trivial laws of football.


  41. on recording 3 dated 9th may Green says the cva wont go ahead
    ________________

    Wednesday 13 June 2012
    CHARLES Green blamed Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for plunging Rangers into liquidation yesterday and claimed that he was never told HMRC had a policy against accepting Company Voluntary Arrangement proposals at football clubs who had systematically avoided paying taxes.Green spoke to Herald Sport after a meeting with manager Ally McCoist and other staff at Ibrox yesterday.

    What is your reaction to HMRC blocking the CVA?

    “It is very disappointing. To read in [joint administrator] Paul Clark’s statement today that HMRC are saying this is a policy decision: is it a policy from HMRC that came out this morning? If this has always been their policy why didn’t they tell us this in February and March and save a lot of money and a lot of time? There are a lot of Rangers fans who have had their hopes built up for nothing. If this was a policy I would have expected HMRC to say to Deloitte [Green’s own financial advisors] ‘you are wasting your time, we have a policy against CVAs, we’re not going to do it’.”

    Some insolvency experts have been predicting this for months. Are you saying you didn’t see this coming?

    “Not at all. If we had known this then my group – and forget about the effect that it’s had on Duff & Phelps and their time and people – if we had known in March that this was HMRC’s policy then the minute Bill Miller withdrew and we became the preferred bidder we would have just gone down the newco route. I spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on fees for professionals for a deal that could never have happened.”


  42. ptd1978 says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 01:02
    ‘..The US president has publicly stated that he broke the law, …’
    —–
    Pardon me for being a little OT, but the US president is, by definition, not anything more than a shysterish, carpet-bagger, con-man of an amoral politician.

    Happily, we have none of those in this great little country of ours.


  43. john clarke says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 23:06

    20

    1

    Rate This

    ____________________________________________________

    The scariest thing of all JC is that they probably genuinely thought they were ‘acting in the best interests of the sport’. That is a the most corrupting influence of all. When the referee feels the need to tilt the pitch because otherwise… what… the game will change? The most basic failure of a fiduciary duty. Regulatory capture in other words. Corruption so ingrained it is seen as not only normal, but essential.

    Well shine a light Charlotte! And watch as the cockroaches scuttle for the tunnel in the glare of the floodlights.


  44. mullach says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 00:48

    Vogue, vogue

    Oooh, you’ve got to
    Let your body move to the music
    Oooh, you’ve got to just
    Let your body go with the flow
    Oooh, you’ve got to
    Vogue

    Ah Madge fan then eh! looking at her coupon the other night she’ll be on Match pretty soon if not already, keep yir eyes peeled Mullach, keep them peeled. BTW I can see you do those dance moves as you sing Vogue!

    Back fae the pub and can I just say well done to Scotland. I missed the match entirely but I know the result which is important.


  45. I assume the Masons (Pincent & Masons) didn’t have access to this evidence.

    But of course they could only work with what they were given of course…..

    Might the bears be concerned about the shafting of Malcolm Murray who appears to be a man with nothing more than a love for his club, who could smell the stench of spivery and wanted to expose it to everyone including the tribute fans, BUT…. they dont want to know because Walter’s the pretendy chief is “in charge”.

    I would think that P&M will be pretty pissed off as someone has made a right arse of them.


  46. john clarke says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 00:58

    8

    0

    Rate This

    .Where are the journalists?”
    ____________________________________

    The lamb munchers are where they always were, doing what they always did. But if its journalists your after?… Get a train to Newcastle and start sweeping South to West, that’s your best bet!


  47. briggsbhoy says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 02:10

    “Back fae the pub and can I just say well done to Scotland”.
    ———

    I’m sure Madge looks fabulous through those lager tinted spectacles.

    Just watched the game. A few decent moves on show there.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgB5MY0hDpA


  48. tonto8on8his8high8horse says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 02:14
    ‘..I would think that P&M will be pretty pissed off as someone has made a right arse of them.’

    No, don’t worry about it. They will have been paid, and will not be worried any more than LNS

    They played the hands they were dealt, and can walk away with their nice little fee, absolutely innocent of any legal or ethical wrong-doing..

    Our D&P friends, however, might just possibly be thinking of a smart stay- out -of- jail flit to Monaco.

    They might even be given free accommodation by the TGEF.


  49. Recording 6 of 8 at 6.47 in really is quite astonishing. Green outlining how he had a conversation that morning with someone (can’t quite catch the name) who has direct influence with the main decision maker at UEFA and who assured Green he would have sanctions lifted within a week…might have to “give someone a drink” but it would be done. Invited over to Athens or Switzerland to continue the conversation. Corrupt to the core.
    https://soundcloud.com/charlotteandthefakes/charlesgreen09may2012part06


  50. @CharlieAndTheFookovers

    Only been through it all once. Good to hear the earlier clips in context too. If it’s authentic, Number 6 seems quite devastatng. But the oddest part was the mention of Calum Jones and the stolen painting of the Madonna. One of the people involved is known as the Silver Fox at a firm called ‘Stolen Stuff Reunited’. Can’t think of any hilarious parallels off hand 😀

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/8558024.stm

    A few twitter hashtags suggest themselves from the conversations:

    #CharliesFookovers

    #theSFArf******w******

    #D&Prcnuts

    #calumjonesandtheknockwurstsausage

    #Iamafookinmagnet

    #eesgotadodgy

    So, are Green and Whyte still working this whole story? Who’s to day the mock animosity that they obviously put on, still isn’t, well, fake?


  51. Charlotte Fakeovers ‏@CharlotteFakes 7h

    The next set of audio, when uploaded, will feature 90 mins of Brian Stockbridge, Imran Ahmad and Craig Whyte. It’s the interview 🙂


  52. ecobhoy says:

    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 22:50

    22

    2

    Rate This

    Quantcast
    StevieBC says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 19:42

    …is everyone watching the game then…why ? You know it’s going to be painful ! 🙂
    ===================================================================

    Really? I thought it was brill 🙂

    But even if we had been beat I would still have watched because I support Scotland through the good and bad times and that’s what fans do
    ___________________________________________________________________

    I have absolutely no interest in watching Scotland now and therefore did not. Glad to see they won though!


  53. I don’t know if it’s already been done ,but can one of the bloggers on TSFM create a wikipedia page for all the Charlotte stuff,it might get the corruption out to a new audience.

    It looks like Media House have laid down the journalistic law to all the journalists in Scotland,with promises of Sevco exclusives in the future.

    We need someone not unlike AT to take a look at the farce that is Scottish football.


  54. ecobhoy says:
    Friday, June 7, 2013 at 22:50
    22 3 Rate This

    … But even if we had been beat I would still have watched because I support Scotland through the good and bad times and that’s what fans do.
    ———–

    Indeed ecobhoy. I was expecting a severe duffing up, but I’ve always been a Scotland fan first, and probably second and third too. It’s the opposite of being a glory hunter 🙂 I know some folks mock the Tartan Army, but I don’t know of any more loyal fans. They went out there probably expecting to see their team humiliated (again) but hoping that WGS was building something new. Proper football fans.

    I’d say that was a light in the surrounding gloom of SFA deadbeats, corruption, a press gone AWOL, dodgy dealings, selfish chairmen, Vanguard Bears, and other assorted nutters.


  55. chancer67 says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 07:59

    I don’t know if it’s already been done ,but can one of the bloggers on TSFM create a wikipedia page for all the Charlotte stuff,it might get the corruption out to a new audience.

    It looks like Media House have laid down the journalistic law to all the journalists in Scotland,with promises of Sevco exclusives in the future.

    We need someone not unlike AT to take a look at the farce that is Scottish football.
    =========================================

    Good shout – at the last count @CharlotteFakes had 11,043 followers. The more people in the know the better.


  56. CF tapes

    No5 5:45

    CW refers to ‘Duff & Duffer’.

    I thought people on here/RTC had copyright on that.
    Does he have claim to the copyright or he has been watching us from day one 🙂


  57. wottpi on Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 08:45
    0 0 Rate This
    CF tapes

    No5 5:45
    ///////////////./////////////
    You beat me to it 😉


  58. Gregory Ioannidis ‏@LawTop20 57s

    UEFA personnel are re-examining the licences granted [by the HFF] to PAS Giannina FC and Panathinaikos FC.

    Gregory Ioannidis Gregory Ioannidis ‏@LawTop20 3m

    Such is the mess in the HFF that UEFA personnel are still examining the licences and asked the HFF employees to vacate the offices!
    —————————————————
    Do you think there’s any chance of getting them to examine a licence or two here?.


  59. Gregory Ioannidis ‏@LawTop20 1m

    Under UEFA’s regulatory framework, UEFA can by-pass national federations and withdraw licences that were granted contrary to the criteria.


  60. Soueeee, Soueeee, Is that the call for the pigs to come to the trough?


  61. The only way anything will change is for the fans to lobby for their club to boycott playing sevco scotland


  62. Tic 6709 says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 09:19

    Soueeee, Soueeee, Is that the call for the pigs to come to the trough?
    ============================

    Maybe in future we should attach that call to any reports of succulent lamb churnalism?


  63. monsieurbunny says:

    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 09:44
    Tic 6709 says:
    Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 09:19

    Soueeee, Soueeee, Is that the call for the pigs to come to the trough?
    ============================

    Maybe in future we should attach that call to any reports of succulent lamb churnalism

    ==================================
    Great Idea Monsieur,I think we’ll be hearing it quite often.


  64. A Robert Greive exclusive in The Sun..

    ALLY McCOIST wants Marius Zaliukas as his defensive rock for next season.

    SunSport can reveal the ex-Hearts skipper tops the list of targets drawn up by the Rangers boss.

    Zaliukas, 29, is available for free after quitting the Jambos at the end of the season.
    And McCoist plans to hold talks with the Lithuanian international next week in the hope of luring him to Ibrox.

    Finding a dominant centre-half is McCoist’s top priority as he prepares for the Second Division.
    The Gers gaffer has weighed up various options and has now decided Zaliukas is the man he wants to stiffen his side which leaked too many goals last term. Zaliukas had seven years at Tynecastle after joining from FBK Kaunas in 2006 and became a Jambos legend as skipper for their historic 5-1 Scottish Cup Final victory over Hibs last year.

    It is unclear whether he would be interested in signing for the Ibrox side, but McCoist hopes he can sell him on the move.
    ——————————————————————————–
    29 years old.
    Ally better hope that reconstruction goes through or he’s gonna be left with more over 21 players than he’s allowed.
    Another wage added to the already stretched(and that’s putting it mildly) budget.


  65. Could be good sport watching the fall out once CF releases the recording of conversations that gave us the 5 way agreement !

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