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. Danish Pastry says:
    June 12, 2013 at 9:50 am

    D-Day for the Scottish Football League as clubs rage over ‘betrayal’

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sfl-sides-claim-been-betrayed-1947225
    ==============================================================
    Looks as though the rebel SFL clubs are being shafted courtesy of the SFA and SPL to make sure they don’t stick any more thorns in the flesh of the establishment like last year. Indeed this could all be part of the punishment for not ignoring their fans.

    And they are also meant to be satisfied with a non-independent due diligence of SPL finances conducted by the SFA after the SFL were refused a request for the diligence to be carried out by independent auditors.

    In some ways what is going on here typifies the corruption that lies at the heart of our football administration. It’s not just the fans they ignore but their member clubs who feel their league could be heading into extinction as it gets dismembered to ensure the financial survival of the SPL.

    To be fair thinking Bears have been banging on for quite a while that the SPL is financially bust and I haven’t given it the attention I should. Reading this article the smaller clubs are going to pay the financial cost of keeping the SPL afloat.

    Looks to me that all sorts of major decisions have already been taken in the background about how many full-time clubs are going to survive – I think that will be the real eventual aim of reconstruction and not this preparatory tidying-up which is currently underway to lay the foundation for the big changes.

    To be honest when I try to take a step back from the newco/oldco squabble and look at that bigger picture it seems the suits are happy to leave the fans mired in old battles like some kind of military history wargaming society while the real war has moved onto new battlefields and objectives in not too far distant lands but which are beyond our sight and ken.


  2. Danish Pastry says:
    June 12, 2013 at 9:50 am

    “D-Day for the Scottish Football League as clubs rage over ‘betrayal’”.
    —————-

    The problem with reading the SMSM is that you know the story will have been spun to suit a certain agenda. Rather than try to figure out that agenda (which would be a customary tactic), I’d be inclined just to ignore it and look at the facts we already knew.

    The McLelland (Annan Athletic) story was posted on here a day or two ago. The problem is that with the current meltdown in the governance of the game there could easily be an uncontrolled power grab. Ye will reap what ye sow. The photograph from the article was the most informative part but again the media are selective in their portrayals so I can’t even draw on that for illumination.

    The SPL seem to be making a dash for freedom in the absence of the Rangers shackles. Its an understandable sentiment and this may be a once in a century opportunity so the instinct to do so would be overwhelming. I do feel that the wee clubs are going to be left behind and have to suffer ritual beatings as HMS Big Club lords it like a big fish in a wee tank. Politics has always been messy. I just hope that at some point, when the game does find its feet again, that the wee clubs who DID stand up for sporting integrity against ALL the odds, will get their just rewards.

    As we have seen from the debacle, justice moves in mysterious ways.


  3. surely one good idea would be to set up this new lowland league under the existing SFL company structure

    this would ensure the SFL continues to exist and if the SPL goes “breasts north” then it could be re-instated – with the long history of the SFL intact


  4. Oh dear, I believe the SFA and the redoubtable Mr Bryson might need to get their thinking caps on again as both Ross County and St Johnstone plan to register the same player…..(given that there doesnt appear to be any mechanism to review or amend a registration we might see some interesting results, maybe the player plays one half for each team when they next meet?)
    Ah but, neither of these teams are RFC or TRFC so Im sure there will be some rules to be folllowed. Im a stupid Capt Haddock.


  5. I’m in the “We are all complicit” camp.
    But it is not and has never been something we have actively chosen to be.
    And it is not going to be easy to sweep away.

    Bear with me – I do have a suggestion ……

    Complicity has crept up on us over the years for a variety of reasons and is deep seated and difficult to eradicate and change.
    Being supporters of many different teams we are by nature competing. We have many interests, mostly opposing.
    We are schooled not to like each other and have never really had to work together before and did not even know we could till last year.

    That has made it easy for the establishment to grab the power and to keep the power.
    From that position they have been able to divide and conquer (when needed) for the benefit of Scottish Football and their particular team.

    That’s what has happened and is happening here.
    That is why Ogilvie was re-elected with no alternative candidates even discussed.

    The establishment’s implicit favouring of one particular club and way of thinking did not happen overnight.
    It probably started unintentionally with West of Scotland demographics but has been deliberately sustained by a clever but simple policy of engineering a stream of “like minded” people into the key posts – aided and abetted by some green tokenism and the lack of any coordinated, unified or large enough opposition.
    The demographic divide that the Park Gardens power enclave taps was more than a football divide historically – it reflects some deep seated West of Scotland issues where if you are not one side then you must be the other.

    As an aside I sadly recall a discussion in the ‘90s in a premier league boardroom in Edinburgh, yes Edinburgh, after a game and a few glasses.
    The discussion somehow saw two non-Glasgow club’s chairmen and some directors affirming which Glasgow club they preferred, i.e. whom they supported when it came to silverware after their own club had been eliminated!
    And apart from one they all professed that if pushed (some not very hard) that they had Blue leanings. Something like 6 out of 7 or 8 on that occasion- not so much as Closet Blues with Blue underwear but certainly more favourable to the Blue cause in any given situation.
    It surprised me at the time and showed to me the deep-seated tribalism in our game from the Glasgow power bases even tainting other clubs.
    As an aside they also saw the lower leagues as “country cousins” with little to offer them or the sport.
    They failed to see that size of crowd has nothing to do with ability or integrity of the people at a club.

    We know different.
    So we are now marooned at Complicitville.
    To move forward we have to know why and address the reasons.

    1 We were mostly ignorant of what was going on.
    2 Most of us probably preferred the Blue team and therefore had an implicit affinity with the Blue Park-Gardens leanings.
    3 We had no rallying point or cause.

    So having asked you to bear with me above….
    Here is a plan to think about and start a debate .It has to address these three issues throughout our game and our communites.

    Ignorance.
    Affinity.
    Rallying point.

    We are Internet Bampots and all we need to do is organise what we do better.
    If everyone knew what we know the world would be different – right.
    So lets organise and tell them.

    The Scottish Football Monitor should “publish’ a monthly update and send it like a publisher to a targeted database.
    It would contain the kind of summary and analytical content we’d like to see in the MSM
    Factual
    Listing the unanswered questions
    Links to source material.
    Etc

    It is pro-actively sent to
    All senior football clubs (Boards, to fan groups)
    The SFA SFL and SPL and their affiliates
    All politicians
    All MSM contacts

    It is for the fans, by the fans, for the fans – using transparency to fight our endemic complicity.

    No more ignorance/No fear or favour/TSFM the rallying point.


  6. iamacant says:
    June 12, 2013 at 10:45 am

    “Meanwhile, the Hampden hierachy have ruled out an SFA probe into alleged links between Charles Green and Craig Whyte”

    Anyone see the last line in this report. Anyone verify it?

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/new-scottish-football-association-bigotry-1947235
    ——————————————————————————————

    You only need to be able to verify statements or info from CF 🙂

    However – was there an actual vote on rejecting the sectarian/racist proposals and if so which clubs voted which way?

    I think if I was Celtic and maybe some other clubs I would be very circumspect about giving the SFA any more power even though I most definitely support such moves in a non-corrupt football society.

    We have all seen how rules are bent, ignored and made-up and can have a ‘Bryson’ interpretation to be able to trust the SFA not to employ the Nelson telescope dodge when spotting offensive banners never mind the transient attacks on stone-deafness that seems to strike in places like Berwick and even Hampden.

    That’s the really sad thing about what’s going one – the clubs know the score and know the bias applied and they don’t trust the SFA to be even-handed with any new powers.


  7. andy graham (@andygraham66) says:
    June 12, 2013 at 10:14 am

    A Kyle Bartley groin strain from 20011 is the 4th most read story in the Daily Record website this morning 🙂
    ==============================================================

    I’m beginning to wonder if CF is actually a very good tabloid journalist as she seems to know exactly what her public want to hear. It’s nothing to do with unearthing the inner recesses of the conspiracy which is the province of the anoraks.

    No the mass market readership is interested in medical matters – perhaps us anoraks have something to learn from this unless andy is pulling our collective groin strain.


  8. Scottish Football League clubs have voted in favour of league reconstruction, paving the way for the creation of a new Scottish Professional Football League.

    The decision to approve reconstructions plans follows the decision of the Scottish Premier League clubs to give the proposals the go-ahead, meaning the two league bodies will merge to form a new competition, the SPFL, this summer.

    At a meeting at Hampden on Wednesday, 23 SFL clubs voted to approve the change, with 6 voting against. 22 of the 29 clubs entitled to vote were required to vote in favour for plans to be given the green light.

    The decision to back the plans comes just weeks after an indicative vote from SFL clubs failed to get 22 votes, prompting the threat of a breakaway by First Division clubs, who said they would apply to join the SPL.

    Talks since then persuaded a change of heart from some clubs, with many chairman stating that a 42-club solution was important to improve the fortunes of the national game.

    The new SPFL set-up will retain the four-division 12-10-10-10 structure but will have a new merged governance model.

    Play-offs will be introduced between the 11th placed team in the top flight and the second, third and fourth places in the second tier, creating a potential second promotion place in addition to the one-up, one-down automatic promotion.

    In 2014/15, a further play-off between the bottom club in the Third Division and the winner of a Highland League v Lowland League play-off.

    Reconstruction will also bring a new financial distribution plan that will benefit current First Division clubs in particular.

    A meeting of all 42 senior clubs will now be held to formalise the creation of the new SPFL in time for next season
    STV Sport‏@STVSport1m
    SFL clubs have voted 23-6 in favour of league reconstruction. More: http://bit.ly/11U2UL1


  9. Jim Spence ‏@bbcjimspence 2m

    New SPFL voted through in time for next season and a new pyramid system on the way. Who’d a thunk it. The times they are a changin.


  10. Does this now mean that whilst the U21 rule for SFL clubs is gone…..Sevco Currents can not play their new signings as trialists (in league and league cup games) and will have to wait until Sept 1st to register them


  11. I see CF has returned to Jack Irvine.

    It certainly makes one wonder when Professionals cease being professional in approach – where is that line in the sand when you have to actually give it to your client straight rather than feed his needs whatever they happen to be.

    One can only wonder if a Big Donald tribute act lead the musical cabaret at the ‘boozy dinner’ given the email comments and I wonder if Jack still signs off as ‘Yours Aye’ in any communication with CW.

    I am quite surprised at the tone in the emails and particularly some of CW’s comments as I had never ever seen any previous negative asides from him on sectarian-related issues.


  12. NTHM,
    You would think so, but don’t forget about Mr Bryson’s recently discovered sub section on registrations with regards to pre-registration anomolous approvals ( outwith windows but within embargos dictonomous provisions) clause.

    “You can’t fool me there ain’t no sanity clause”


  13. ecobhoy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 11:56 am

    I am quite surprised at the tone in the emails and particularly some of CW’s comments as I had never ever seen any previous negative asides from him on sectarian-related issues.
    ====================================================
    Ecobhoy, my reading of the email exhange is that JI and CW are mocking the afflicted (Bears in JI reference)for their sectarianism. Others who know the two individuals may know better.


  14. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    June 12, 2013 at 11:47 am

    Does this now mean that whilst the U21 rule for SFL clubs is gone…..Sevco Currents can not play their new signings as trialists (in league and league cup games) and will have to wait until Sept 1st to register them.
    ================================================================

    I suppose it depends on when the new combined body rule book comes into operation and what it states. In the meantime I’m sure a ‘Bryson’ Ruling will effect whatever is required to make sure that McCoist’s brilliant foresight isn’t penalised. Perhaps he should be running Scottish Football rather than a football team and at this rate might even do so.


  15. blu says:
    June 12, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    ecobhoy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 11:56 am

    I am quite surprised at the tone in the emails and particularly some of CW’s comments as I had never ever seen any previous negative asides from him on sectarian-related issues.
    ====================================================
    Ecobhoy, my reading of the email exhange is that JI and CW are mocking the afflicted (Bears in JI reference)for their sectarianism. Others who know the two individuals may know better.
    =============================================================

    Not my take but I do agree that if I was a Bear then it would be hard not to recognise how lowly was my place in the grand scheme of things as viewed by my betters. However I doubt if any Bears would have been at the ‘Boozy Dinner’ and I wonder if CF has a tape of that evening?


  16. THT ‏@TheHumanTorpedo 3m

    Latest Private Eye piece on Rangers 1/2 pic.twitter.com/rhwhngw0Jq


  17. THT ‏@TheHumanTorpedo 2m

    Latest Private Eye piece on Rangers 2/2 pic.twitter.com/LzrquVY5yj


  18. iamacant says:
    June 12, 2013 at 10:45 am
    3 0 Rate This

    “Meanwhile, the Hampden hierachy have ruled out an SFA probe into alleged links between Charles Green and Craig Whyte”

    /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    I heard Regan talking on the radio last night about this. He says the SFA have received from sevco a copy of the PM report. He went on to say they would meet later in the week to discuss and then again at the end of the month to see what action if any they would take.
    How the shugster translates this to ruling out is obviously pash but knowing the SFA I’d be surprised if he ended up being wrong.


  19. From KDS:

    Sent an email to Alex Thomson asking why no publicity on CF exposures – his response

    “Yes – it’s all hacked I believe. V serious criminal offence. Post Leveson it’s beyond toxic – radioactive.

    Thanks anyway – hope all’s good.”

    So looks like none of the media will touch it!


  20. I see in today’ picture of Regan, Doncaster and Longmuir that someone has photoshopped out their Rangers ties.

    (I think maybe ridicule is the only weapon we have or ever had).


  21. Meanwhile back in La-La Land over at Tynecastle, Ukio Bankas’ appeal against liquidation has been rejected.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130612-902347.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

    What does that mean for Hearts? Nothing directly for the moment. Ukio are Hearts bankers, albeit they have a security and floating charge over Tynecastle and the club’s other assets.

    Hearts debt is judged to be a “bad debt”, otherwise it would have been transferred along with the good debts and assets to Siauliu Bankas when Ukio first went into administration.

    Ukio may also hold up to 29.9% of Hearts shares if they have taken up the pledge of shares from UBIG (Hearts parent company) made to Ukio in respect of UBIG’s debts to the bank.

    Now is the time for Foundation of Hearts or any other prospective buyer to start negotiating with the Ukio Liquidator. The hope will be that the liquidator will accept a low offer of a few pence in the £ for the debt, the security and if applicable, any shares they hold. They may have to talk down the value of Tynecastle to do so, citing upgrade costs for a new stand, demolition costs for any developer, planning permission difficulties due to COMAH regulations on ethanol storage adjacent to the stadium etc.

    On the down side for Hearts, a decision on the likely administration of UBIG is likely in the next few days. Will the SPL/SPFL board judge that Hearts should be penalised for an insolvency event as part of a Group Undertaking? (there are also good arguments against a penalty) If they did it would mean a 15 point penalty going into next season and a very real threat of relegation.

    All we can be certain of is that today’s news on Ukio Bankas moves the story on a chapter. I’m not sure how many chapters left though, but it won’t be a lot. 🙂


  22. Not The Huddle Malcontent says:
    June 12, 2013 at 11:47 am

    Does this now mean that whilst the U21 rule for SFL clubs is gone…..Sevco Currents can not play their new signings as trialists (in league and league cup games) and will have to wait until Sept 1st to register them
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I phoned Sandy Bryson for clarification and he says it will be fine to play a trialist as technically they are not registered in the first place and if that argument doesn’t work Article 16.90 of the new rules says that:

    “The Board reserves the right at all times to protect and promote the interests above all others of The Rangers (however they may be constituted at the time). Rangers are the best and boo to the rest. GIRUY’s”


  23. Bangordub says:
    June 12, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    Private Eye are cracking the Dam of silence I see:

    https://twitter.com/TheHumanTorpedo/status/344773274665889792/photo/1
    https://twitter.com/TheHumanTorpedo/status/344773027059343361/photo/1
    ==========================================================

    Interesting – Thinking back to the tapes last night of Duff & Duffer and CW – I wonder if that’s why it kept being raised about access to Group documentation I think was the term used.

    Given the Eye readership I suspect CF is about to get many more people looking at her tweets.


  24. Any of the “legals” here venture an opinion as to whether a news organisation “referring to” as opposed to “reproducing” the CF info would be at risk of litigation or prosecution?


  25. torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958) says:
    June 12, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    From KDS:

    Sent an email to Alex Thomson asking why no publicity on CF exposures – his response

    “Yes – it’s all hacked I believe. V serious criminal offence. Post Leveson it’s beyond toxic – radioactive.

    Thanks anyway – hope all’s good.”

    So looks like none of the media will touch it!
    ============================================================

    And yet others seem to think that the way in which CF got it is more to do with farce. I find it hard to believe that if this information has been obtained through criminal means that CF has not been traced and charged and the only explanation for that must be that either she or the servers are in an overseas location and beyond the law or extradition. Or is it just taking a long time to find her because there are more pressing issues for the authorities.

    And for the conspiracy-minded among us – could it be that the authorities are happy to let her continue to study her output rather than risk losing access if they act?


  26. I still believe that the trustees of the Jerome Group Pension fund are most likely of the protagonists in this whole saga to end up in jail.

    The Serious Fraud Office successfully prosecuted trustees from GP Noble last year for similar cases of misappropration of funds belonging to various pension schemes.

    I would also be intrigued to know who provided the ‘independent’ financial advice to the trustees. Disinvesting an entire bondholding (safe investment) to reinvest in the riskiest of all investments (basket case football club) will be hard to justify.

    The financial adviser in the GP Noble case also received a prison sentence.

    I have a nagging feeling that this advice will have come from one of Whyte’s other companies and this may yet get him into trouble.


  27. I still believe that the trustees of the Jerome Group Pension fund are most likely of the protagonists in this whole saga to end up in jail.

    The Serious Fraud Office successfully prosecuted trustees from GP Noble last year for similar cases of misappropration of funds belonging to various pension schemes.

    I would also be intrigued to know who provided the ‘independent’ financial advice to the trustees. Disinvesting an entire bondholding (safe investment) to reinvest in the riskiest of all investments (basket case football club) will be hard to justify.

    The financial adviser in the GP Noble case also received a prison sentence.

    I have a nagging feeling that this advice will have come from one of Whyte’s other companies and this may yet get him into trouble.

    http://sfo.gov.uk/press-room/latest-press-releases/press-releases-2012/gp-noble-trustees-pension-fraud-trials.aspx


  28. Unfortunately for Hearts their current problem is the threat of another winding up order from HMRC.

    They have been able to pay their tax bills at the last minute when there were previous winding up orders. However where is that money going to come from this time.

    Alternatively do they actually have the money to pay it and this is really just brinkmanship, to assist cash flow.

    It must be very worrying times.


  29. Bangordub says:
    June 12, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    Any of the “legals” here venture an opinion as to whether a news organisation “referring to” as opposed to “reproducing” the CF info would be at risk of litigation or prosecution?
    ==============================================================

    I have been thinking about anything in Scottish terms that is similar to the CF situation and it’s back a bit so my memory is vague although I’m sure a quich internet search will provide details.

    It centres round the break-in at Lothian & Borders Police HQ at Fettes in Edinburgh when I think it was Special Branch files were nicked. The story ran and I think info from the stolen files appeared in the media.

    I also have an even vaguer memory that the break-in and the files were linked to the Edinburgh rent-boy ring scandal which was alleged to have involved members of the Scottish Justiciary. I have no doubt that all sorts of pressure would have been applied to downplay the story.

    But there wasn’t a complete black-out as there has been with CF and the thing that really puzzles me is that no one even seems to know what, if anything, actually makes the CF material untouchable.

    And as I keep obeserving – the CF documents don’t need to actually be used as it’s enough to know what they contain and then ask the relevant questions of the bodies involved, who have their own legit files, to comment on the issues raised. We aren’t talking about decades ago – we are talking up to a max of around 2-3 years ago. This is recent history and if files have been shredded then that tells its own story as well.

    I am sure that there are limits for keeping files – don’t they have to be kept for 6 years on tax related issues and I’m sure lawyers and accountants would require fairly long retention periods.


  30. Bangordub says:
    June 12, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    Private Eye don’t seem to have an issue with it, and I would venture their lawyers are used to this sort of thing.

    “Whilst a constant stream of leaked tapes and documents questioning the true nature of the relationship between former owner Craig Whyte and his successor Charles Green keeps the close season busy, the full story of the series of frauds committed at the Glasgow club before and after Whyte’s takeover in 2011 may need to await either a criminal trial or a civil action …”


  31. ecobhoy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:01 pm
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I know the media are being a bit careful after the Levinson “mauling” but most of the wrong doing there was down to the newspapers bribing officials for info and directly instructing hackers. CF is different as the media were not complicit in the hacking. Surely, as in the cases you quote above, they have a public responsibility to report on alleged fraud?

    In short I can’t see why there are valid legal reasons for not publication of the information or at the very least reporting of it. Clearly editorial decisions have been made not to.


  32. ecobhoy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:01 pm

    Fettes-gate – Magic Circle and our old friend Nimmo-Smith


  33. If Charlotte’s stuff has been hacked then it can only have come from one of two places. Either it’s from CW’s private collection or Strathclyde Police (or whatever they’re known as now).

    I can’t think of any other person or organisation that would have such a diverse range of material.

    If the police were actually doing an investigation into the buyout then it’s possible they would have uncovered these files/recordings etc. They might not want it to be public knowledge that their records have been hacked hence the quite word to editors et al to leave well alone.

    Just thoughts, nothing concrete.


  34. Ukio Bankas administrator has no wish to ‘harm’ Hearts

    The administrator of Hearts’ main creditor, which is to be liquidated, plans to keep the Scottish Premier League club running as a going concern.
    A court in Lithuania has upheld a decision to liquidate Ukio Bankas, who Hearts owe £15m.
    Insolvency practitioner Gintaras Adomonis, of accountancy firm UAB Valnetas, hopes to sell the Tynecastle outfit.
    And he insists he has “no reason or desire to harm Hearts”.
    “Ukio Bankas has now to deal with lots of debts and return the funds to its creditors,” he explained.
    “In the ongoing processes we must at all times consider the best interest of the creditors of Ukio Bankas.
    “Heart of Midlothian Plc is one of the companies indebted to the bank. There are several possible alternatives to dealing with this case but our initial assessment indicates that most likely the most extensive return for Ukio Bankas creditors may be achieved by keeping the club operating.
    “For now we have no reason or desire to harm Hearts so our primary initiative, having solved the regulatory and other issues, is contemplated to be the sale of Hearts.”
    Ukio Bankas, formerly controlled by Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov, holds 29.9% of Hearts shares while UBIG, the investment group in which Romanov still has a controlling interest, own 50%.
    Hearts also owe £10m to UBIG, who are claiming insolvency.
    Earlier this week, BBC Scotland learned Hearts had paid the majority of the £100,000 they owed HM Revenue and Customs.


  35. tomtomaswell says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    Or someone has obtained an interdict.

    Presumably the press can’t even discuss the fact that there is an interdict in place.


  36. Gaz says:
    June 12, 2013 at 2:02 pm
    0 0 Rate This

    tomtomaswell says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    Or someone has obtained an interdict.

    Presumably the press can’t even discuss the fact that there is an interdict in place.

    ——————————

    then why hasnt’ twitter account been closed?


  37. tomtomaswell says:

    June 12, 2013 at 1:25 pm
    ————————–

    If the material came from CW’s personal collection then it could have been either supplied legally (by CW or his wife as both had access to his computer and phone at home) or obtained illegally (Hacking or…. a recent female visitor to his place).

    If however it came from Strathclyde Police then it could only have been obtained illegally (Strathclyde Police have not so far requested or confiscated the hardware required).

    BDO falls into the same category as Strathclyde police.


  38. Charlotte Fakeovers ‏@CharlotteFakes 23m
    Nobody has contacted Craig Whyte recently to establish authenticity over published material. I can arrange. Does any Journo want the gig?

    Stampede not likely


  39. An invitation:

    Charlotte Fakeovers ‏@CharlotteFakes 26m

    Nobody has contacted Craig Whyte recently to establish authenticity over published material. I can arrange. Does any Journo want the gig?


  40. The Private Eye report is not really new info apart from a bit more detail of the suggested fraudulent monetary breakdowns.

    The last paragraph maybees indicates the next show in town;

    “This will all be investigated in October – unless the police raids of two months ago turn into charges and resulted in the civil proceedings being delayed”.


  41. tomtomaswell says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:25 pm

    Or someone has obtained an interdict.

    Presumably the press can’t even discuss the fact that there is an interdict in place.

    ————————————————————————————————-

    That no one has posted a blog here, or on scotslawthoughts on any aspect of Cf leads me to believe this to be the case.


  42. ulyanova says:
    June 12, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    That no one has posted a blog here, or on scotslawthoughts on any aspect of Cf leads me to believe this to be the case.

    —————————————————————————————————-

    Sam says:
    June 12, 2013 at 7:24 am

    Part 8 – 6.30 mins

    Duffer 1: Under the terms of the deal, this is….there’s a lot of conflicting documentation, erm, but the overriding spirit of the documentation is that Wavetower acquired, erm, the Lloyd’s debt, if, if it had repaid the Lloyd’s debt, so if Ticketus had advanced the money to repay the Lloyd’s debt, ie not to assign the Lloyd’s debt, ie the assignment, there is no argument it wasn’t financial assistance

    Client: Right

    Duffer 1:But they didn’t repay the Lloyd’s debt, they, there was an assignment document, there was an assignation of the Lloyd’s debt

    Client: Right

    Duffer 1:So if we could show they were aware of the assignation
    Duffer 2:(inaudible) reasonable

    Duffer 1:Yep, then you’re home and dry

    Client:Yep, yep, are you gonna strike out their claim next week or you gonna let them vote next week

    Duffer 1:We, how we do it next week, is, because we can’t, don’t have access to Group files, we got to admit their claim but mark it, but called it marked, objected to

    Client:Right

    Duffer 1:So you demonstrate its disputed

    Client:Right

    Duffer 1:And the CVA agreement provides that it will be subjected to (inaudible) legal review

    Client:Right, ok

    Duffer 1:Which is what they are asking about (inaudible) shouldn’t say that
    Duffer 2:Why does it say that
    Duffer 1:In, maybe (inaudible) their a bit dim witted

    Client:Is there, they must surely be the right, the easy target for them surely should be, is to do with Lloyd’s

    Duffer 1:Unless their lawyer wrote to them to say it’s dodgy and they bought it.

    Client:Pretty funny stupid if the did

    Duffer 1:Yeah


  43. ecobhoy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 9:47 am

    Finloch says:
    June 12, 2013 at 10:58 am

    Both great posts and even though they are somewhat opposed – I agree with both, and this was at the heart of my post as well in that there is an overwhelming feeling at times that just one more revelation or action will work – when as you both say, this is a long haul we need to organise and stay together, in the spirit of ecobhoy’s post maybe one idea would be to use TSFMs upcoming podcast ability to have a supporters club round table or selected interviews with supporters clubs reps on their opinion of the SFA/SPL/SFL? so TSFM can help catalyse the existing organisations.


  44. Charlotte Fakeovers ‏@CharlotteFakes 10m

    Traynor-The Enforcer. Several weeks later, both Green and Ahmad walked away whilst Whyte assembled his legal team.


  45. is it just me or is the TSFM site looking at the world through rose tinted browser today?


  46. iamacant says:
    June 12, 2013 at 10:45 am
    11 0 Rate This

    “Meanwhile, the Hampden hierachy have ruled out an SFA probe into alleged links between Charles Green and Craig Whyte”

    Anyone see the last line in this report. Anyone verify it?

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/new-scottish-football-association-bigotry-1947235

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

    who’s gonna investigate the conspiracy between “rangers” and the SFA, to cover up the
    uefa license issue, as from what i read recently, the SFA were desperate to cover up the issue batting it awy, because the wee tax case to HMRC had not “crystalised” even after 8 to 10 years ????


  47. torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958) says:
    June 12, 2013 at 4:17 pm
    1 0 Rate This

    Charlotte Fakeovers ‏@CharlotteFakes 10m

    Traynor-The Enforcer. Several weeks later, both Green and Ahmad walked away whilst Whyte assembled his legal team.
    ———————————————————————————————–

    According to JT CW nearly destroyed his club. It has been destroyed so who was is the culprit?
    Or does the term liquidation have a parallel meaning in another Govan Universe.


  48. I’m going to apologise up front for putting a year’s worth of lurking here into one post.

    I’m consistently astonished at the lack of basic reporting in Scottish football. Nothing new, I know, but…
    Scottish football is awash with events whose implications extend well beyond whatever platitudes players and managers are willing to dispense on a Friday afternoon post-training, but trying to follow the latest Hearts-Ukio Bankos news, Dunfermline progress, SFA elections, real-world implications of league reconstruction etc. is a hopeless task.

    Instead of reporting simple facts and producing reasoned analysis, it seems even our broadsheet journalists prefer to dress stories up in soundbites, frequently obscuring difficult truths by building a story around the egotistical quotes of a single club official. This week it’s Turnbull Hutton, last month it was Charles Green.

    I honestly don’t think that the press is biased towards any one (or two) club so much as it is part of a machine heavily geared towards one thing – the preservation of the status quo.

    The list of press complicity is a long one:
    Telling us Rangers into the SPL/SFL1 was the only option,
    Vilifying clubs who voted against this,
    Vilifying clubs who voted against league reconstruction,
    Refusing to criticise SFA and SPL mis-steps
    Ignoring the Charlotte Fakover leaks
    Perpetuating the myth that speaking out against Rangers’ corporate governance is harming the club when in fact it can only help its fans

    But if we look at this pattern, we can trace it back not to Media House or Jim Traynor, but to the doors of Hampden behind whose doors we find a cosy little world of 6-figure salaries, fat pensions, jobs for the boys and nice sandpit to stick your head in. When a disruptive issue like Rangers or league reconstruction rears its head, the full machinations of the system are brought to bear in pushing everyone down the path of least resistance. Get Rangers back in there ASAP, get a couple more clubs into the SPL. Kick the can down the road.
    On this, the media cheerfully reports the accepted party line, the only challenge we ever hear is “what a tough job Regan and Doncaster have.”

    But it’s the seemingly smaller issues that I really despair about. Dunfermline, SFA and SPL elections, league wage inflation, attendance trends – all cheerfully ignored. Even Hearts’ troubles are shied away from, because if we can avoid confronting the reality that another of Scotland’s big clubs is in financial turmoil, maybe it will go away.

    The motivation for this is clear – journalists really only have one thing the rest of us don’t and that’s access to the powerbrokers. Lose that access and you lose your relevance.

    Or do you? While the Washington Post worried about upsetting the NSA, the Guardian had no such qualms…

    Of course blogs have offered an increasingly powerful counterpoint to the MSM in Scotland over the past 10 years, but the reality is that these disparate voices are very often preaching to the choir. The average joe is still picking up a red top for the headlines and following those online sources that best reflect his club’s partisan view.

    Where do I go for factual news reporting on the events in Scottish Football? Where do I go for fair, honest, balanced opinion and analysis of these events? (seriously, I’d like some suggestions)

    I worry that the driving force behind the most successful blogs of the last 18 months has been the Rangers crisis, and that this has simply polarised the audience. You’re either for Rangers or against it. The absence of Rangers voices on here would suggest that TSFM falls into the latter camp, and although I believe the intentions of this site were bigger than that, bringing Rangers fans into a conversation about what’s best for Scottish football and for their club is the biggest barrier to achieving those goals.

    There used to be a guy on CQN – Edward Ursus – who as far as I could tell was a committed Rangers fan with a genuine interest in how the other side saw his club. And I think his presence was very healthy for the Celtic community on that site. But as the liquidation saga unfolded, I stopped seeing his posts, and I think the debate lost something.

    Empathise with your enemy. Lesson #1 from the life of Robert S. McNamara.


  49. torrejohnbhoy(@johnbhoy1958) says:
    June 12, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    Bit of revisionism there Mr Traynor.

    You yourself, in the press made it quite clear that he had destroyed the club.

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/james-traynor-spl-will-not-be-able-1129166

    “Rangers FC as we know them are dead. It’s all over. They are about to shut down for ever but not a single person among the game’s hierarchy was open for comment.”

    “They’ll slip into liquidation within the next couple of weeks with a new company emerging but 140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended.”

    “No matter how Charles Green attempts to dress it up, a newco equals a new club. When the CVA was thrown out Rangers as we know them died.”


  50. valentinesclown says:
    June 12, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    According to JT CW nearly destroyed his club. It has been destroyed so who was is the culprit?
    Or does the term liquidation have a parallel meaning in another Govan Universe.

    ——————————————————————
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/147377537/Traynor-The-Enforcer

    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/james-traynor-spl-will-not-be-able-1129166

    Mr Traynor, remember this? Now STFU and crawl back under your Govan rock


  51. ‘Let’s be clear on what is happening here. This drivel is coming from a man who is completely
    discredited and now under police investigation”

    Guess the author of that observation?

    You got it in one: the most discredited and contemtible propagandist since Lord Haw-Haw,


  52. ecobhoy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    “And for the conspiracy-minded among us – could it be that the authorities are happy to let her continue to study her output rather than risk losing access if they act?”
    ————-

    I think that is my cue.

    I suspect the law is still catching up with social media and there could be an issue with applying established tenets to an emerging technology. If the information is out there and people are possibly downloading it (not that I am suggesting anyone should do this), then the lawyers will be having a nightmare trying to figure out how to quell the furore. It might just buy enough time for the dastardly deed (justifiable whistleblowing) to be completed.

    I noticed the latest tweet involved an e:mail from Traynor to McAlpine with no CW ‘CC’. This suggests that anyone involved in the farago may have been targetted. These warm summer evenings make it hard to sleep sometimes.

    The stuff may be media off limits but anybody that matters will have been made aware of its content. It might not appear in the comics but the truth is out there and can’t be put back in its box. What’s the point of having an injunction if you can’t enforce it. Like the Prince Harry photo’s, once they’re published abroad it will be difficult to argue that UK citizens alone should have their eyes shielded from this affrontery. In a few years time it will be spoken about as if its common knowledge and journalists will rewrite history to show how diligently they pursued the facts.

    If nothing else, it strongly suggests the content is not forged. Why would the media be shy of reporting the existence of a whole bunch of forged communications. They would just say it. They can’t however because they’re genuine and referring to them would cause them trouble. The media silence is the vindication I felt was never really needed.

    From now on anyone arriving at a mock decision will be trashing their own credibility. Not that it will not happen, they are superman and they see no kryptonite. They need a better telesciope if thats the case or a microscope because its right under their noses.


  53. yashin19 says:
    June 12, 2013 at 4:38 pm

    I worry that the driving force behind the most successful blogs of the last 18 months has been the Rangers crisis, and that this has simply polarised the audience. You’re either for Rangers or against it. The absence of Rangers voices on here would suggest that TSFM falls into the latter camp, and although I believe the intentions of this site were bigger than that, bringing Rangers fans into a conversation about what’s best for Scottish football and for their club is the biggest barrier to achieving those goals.

    There used to be a guy on CQN – Edward Ursus – who as far as I could tell was a committed Rangers fan with a genuine interest in how the other side saw his club. And I think his presence was very healthy for the Celtic community on that site. But as the liquidation saga unfolded, I stopped seeing his posts, and I think the debate lost something.

    ————————————————————

    One of the biggest problems is that, by and large, Rangers fans don’t want to enter into any form of debate on what has been happening. In their eyes it’s all someone else fault or a timmy conspiracy. Anyone who dares to veer from the WATP stance is shouted down. Empathy is a two way street.


  54. The thrust of those texts (that CF judt posted images of) seemed to suggest that Traynor was fishing for a job at Ibrox under Craig Whyte in January 2012. But maybe it was an open secret that he wanted away from The Record?


  55. fara1968 says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:03 pm

    “Where is Spew Heevins getting his info from”
    ——————

    I suspect they are pashing into the wind.

    Internet bampots and others may be able to expose links in legitimate documents using the inside knowledge they have gained.

    Various future court actions may also reveal incriminating documentation but over a longer timescale. MSM will be hoping that a delay in documentary authentication or a general unwillingness to do the spade work will get them over the line. As I said, its hard sleeping these warm summer nights.


  56. ForresDee says:
    June 12, 2013 at 3:09 pm

    I’ve stayed out of commenting on CF’s leaks thus far, but I’ve had enough.

    Right on cue, Charlotte arrives with another confirmation of something mundane we already knew, was printed in every newspaper, was on every website and we all knew it came from Traynor.

    Thousands of documents? Ok, why pick this latest piece if unimportant tosh?

    I believe CF to be nothing more than 1) an exercise in trying to “restore” whatever credibility CW had (a pointless exercise in my book as whatever is revealed from now on, he is damaged goods) and 2) putting additional pressure on Sevco to cough up some hush money.

    If CW has a strong case that he was swindled and it is backed by QC advice then lodge the court papers.

    The real story, as many of you have already mentioned, is how much cash do Sevco have and how much are they losing per month. Got anything on that Charlotte?

    Charlotte, put up or shut up.


  57. verselijkfc says:
    June 12, 2013 at 1:20 pm

    “Fettes-gate – Magic Circle and our old friend Nimmo-Smith”
    ——————-
    bayviewgold says:
    June 12, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    “is it just me or is the TSFM site looking at the world through rose tinted browser today?”
    =============

    Both these comments are intriguing but not self explanatory. Care to elaborate guys.


  58. The SFA.

    The following is quote from James Madison one of the Founding Fathers of America,

    I found this quote in yesterday’s Guardian,Daniel Ellsberg column.

    “The accumulation of all powers,legislative,executive,and judiciary,
    in the same hands,whether of one,a few,or many,
    and whether hereditary,self appointed,or elective,
    may justly be pronounced the very definition
    of tyranny.”

    For me that sums up what has been happening to All football fans .
    We have been subjected to Blazer and Brogues tyranny.
    The SFA and SPL should be ashamed that Ogilvie has been re-elected,
    the SPL for voting for him,
    the SFA for allowing him to stand.

    S F A……….. We know what it REALLY stands for.


  59. bayviewgold says:
    June 12, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    is it just me or is the TSFM site looking at the world through rose tinted browser today?
    ====================

    Could be a clever ploy by TSFM so use a soothing colour to calm us all down following Ogilvie’s re-election ? 🙄


  60. Sugar Daddy says:
    June 12, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    Can you tell me where you saw Rangers’ draft accounts before, or the correspondence between various parties, including lawyers and insolvency practitioners, or how you heard the audio of several private meetings.

    I certainly hadn’t seen or heard those things.


  61. john clarke says:
    June 12, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    ‘Let’s be clear on what is happening here. This drivel is coming from a man who is completely discredited and now under police investigation”

    Guess the author of that observation? You got it in one: the most discredited and contemtible propagandist since Lord Haw-Haw,

    **************************************************************************
    JT = Lord Hee-Haw?

    Scottish football needs a strong Arbroath.


  62. Castofthousands says:
    June 12, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    Site background has gone all pink, was blue before. Either trying to soothe (@StevieBC) or the temp is heating up at TSFM 🙂


  63. So has the SPL2 set up been voted through and if so are Sevco in a bit of a pickle with their new signings (trialists )
    time to break out the Bryson’s over to you scunner


  64. bayviewgold says:

    June 12, 2013 at 5:52 pm (Edit)

    Site background has gone all pink, was blue before. Either trying to soothe (@StevieBC) or the temp is heating up at TSFM 🙂
    ________________________________________________________

    I’m all for soothing Stevie, and it’s been hot over here with all the abuse I’m getting about the new site 🙂
    However, the previous site was also pink, in honour of the Earl of Rosebery, whose stadium of the same name, in a street of the same name in Oatlands hosted many a schools cup final, and whose colours of primrose and pink were worn around the turn of the last century (and more recently) by the Scottish national team.


  65. Sugar Daddy says:

    June 12, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    I’ve stayed out of commenting on CF’s leaks thus far, but I’ve had enough
    ————————-

    I am sure I speak for many when I say, shame that you reached that point where you had to speak up. Especially when making statements like “printed in every newspaper” when referring to CF’s tweets or documents.

    You may be bang on the money about the intentions of CW but you ruined your point by starting with the same line we would normally expect from a phone-in host or American Policeman…..

    “Move along please, nothing to see here”


  66. john clarke says:

    June 11, 2013 at 10:51 pm

    Auldheid says:
    June 11, 2013 at 10:30 pm
    “..Unless the SFA can provide hard evidence of a written agreement between HMRC and Rangers that was not subsequently breached (if it existed in writing in the first place) then they have a case, along with the CF releases indicating how the SFA and Rangers sold UEFA the idea that the outstanding tax bill was not a payment overdue, that Celtic will
    have all the leverage they require to get the changes they want…”
    ———-
    With the necessary reminder that the fight is not Celtic’s alone,I agree. And as said elsewhere,the CF stuff would have to be authenticated.
    =================
    The CF stuff needs handled with care but having seen what is mentioned there in relation to the UEFA license and knowing my way around the process as I do I have no doubt that in that area at least the CF stuff is kosher.

    I’ve written up a couple of pages and in doing so have concluded:

    1. Between 1st April and around 10th May the wee tax bill was an overdue payable in UEFA terms and so a reason to refuse a license. This in spite of media efforts to try and place it in 2011 to stop it being classed as an overdue payable from 2010 by delaying publishing of previous years accounts until 1st April 2011. Remember all those “crystalise” smoke screens?

    2. It ceased to be an overdue payable and so no reason to refuse a license from around 10th May when Rangers paid over £500k to HMRC and presumably entered a written agreement to pay the rest. If no written agreement it was still an overdue payable and so reason to refuse license.and it was around this time UEFA get all the info from national associations to approve a UEFA license (by 31st May or thereabouts.)

    3. Since UEFA granted a license we have to assume

    a) there was a written agreement with HMRC or
    b) that SFA were misled by Rangers and did not check for one OR
    c) that the SFA misled UEFA.

    4. The wee tax bill arguably became an overdue payable again early June because although a down payment had been made, Sherriff Officers were alerted early June and called at Ibrox on 10th August. It is not clear if UEFA were notified of this event soon after it happened or not.

    4. At this point it gets murky because CF material raises questions about just what UEFA were told in a SFA submission about the license that paved the way for events after the end of May and June to be ignored and to allow a less restrictive UEFA Article 67) to apply in terms of the proof demanded to retain the license, which in turn makes it easier to justify not withdrawing it.

    The key but missing info is the submission to UEFA that gave the wee tax bill free pass NOT to become an overdue payable even when it remained unpaid.

    There is more that all suggests SFA and Rangers plotted a way around the rules as soon as CW arrived, with possibility CW may have shafted the SFA and I’m not sure UEFA are squeaky clean either. It might even be discerned that the SFA’s help was used against them to keep a lid on it, but because some of it is Charlotte related I’ll hold back on the detail but it will get out one way or another.

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