The SPFL— the case for revolution, evolution and a case of the Hamilton Whackies !

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Good Evening.

As we ponder the historic vote to create a new Governing body to oversee Scottish League football, I cannot help but wonder what brilliant minds will be employed in the drawing up of its constitution, rules, memorandum and articles of association?

Clearly, Messrs Doncaster, Longmuir and even Mr Regan as the CEO of the SFA will be spending many hours with those dreaded folk known simply as “ The Lawyers” in an attempt to get the whole thing up and running and written down in the course of a few short weeks.

In truth, that scares me.

It scares me because legal documentation written up in a hurry or in a rush is seldom perfect and often needs amendment—especially when the errors start to show! The old adage of beware of the busy fool sadly applies.

It also scares me because the existing rules under which the game is governed are not, in my humble opinion, particularly well written and seem to differ in certain material respects from those of UEFA. Even then, adopting the wording and the approach of other bodies is not necessarily the way to go.

I am all in favour of some original thought– and that most precious and unusual of commodities known as common sense and plain English.

Further, the various licensing and compliance rules are clearly in need of an overhaul as they have of late produced what can only be best described as a lack of clarity when studied for the purposes of interpretation. Either that or those doing the studying and interpreting are afflicted with what might be described as tortuous or even tortured legal and administrative minds.

If it is not by now clear that the notion of self-certification on financial and other essential disclosure criteria necessary to obtain a footballing licence (whether European or domestic) is a total non-starter — then those in charge of the game are truly bonkers.

Whilst no governing body can wholly control the actions of a member club, or those who run a club, surely provisions can be inserted into any constitution or set of rules that allows and brings about greater vigilance and scrutiny than we have at present—all of course designed to do nothing other than alert the authorities as early as possible if matters are not being conducted properly or fairly.

However, the main change that would make a difference to most of the folk involved in the Scottish game – namely the fans— would be to have the new rules incorporate a measure which allowed football fans themselves to be represented on any executive or committee.

Clearly, this would be a somewhat revolutionary step and would be fought against tooth and nail by some for no reason other than that it has simply not been done before—especially as the league body is there to regulate the affairs of a number of limited companies all of whom have shareholders to account to and the clubs themselves would presumably be the shareholders in the new SPFL Ltd.

Then again to my knowledge Neil Doncaster is not a shareholder in The SPL ltd– is he?

I can hear the argument that a fan representative on a league body might not be impartial, might be unprofessional, might be biased, might lack knowledge or experience, and have their own agenda and so on—just like many chairmen and chief executive officers who already sit on the committees of the existing league bodies.

Remember too that the SFA until relatively recently had disciplinary committees made up almost exclusively of referees. I don’t think anyone would argue that the widening of the make up of that committee has been a backward step.

However, we already have fan representation at clubs like St Mirren and Motherwell, and of course there has been an established Tartan Army body for some time now. Clubs other than the two mentioned above have mechanisms whereby they communicate and consult with fans, although they stop short of full fan participation– very often for supposedly insurmountable legal reasons.

As often as not, the fans want a say in the running of their club, but also want to be able to make representations to the governing bodies via their club.

So why not include the fans directly in the new set up for governing the league?

Any fan representative could  be someone proposed by a properly registered fan body such as through official supporters clubs, or could be seconded by the clubs acting in concert with their supporters clubs.

Perhaps a committee of fan representatives could be created, with such a committee having a representative on the various committees of the new league body.

In this way, there would be a fan who could report back to the fan committee and who could represent the interests of the ordinary fan in the street in any of the committees. Equally such a committee of fans could ensure that any behind the scenes discussions on any issue were properly reported, openly discussed, and made public with no fear of hidden agendas, secret meetings, and secret collusive agreements and so forth.

Is any of that unreasonable? Surely many companies consider the views of their biggest customer? This idea is no different.

Surely such a situation would go some way towards establishing some badly needed trust between the governing bodies and the fans themselves?

If necessary, I would not even object to the fan representatives being excluded from having a right to vote on certain matters—as long as they had a full right of audience and a full right of access to all discussions and relative papers which affect the running of the game.

In this way at least there would be openness and transparency.

In short, it would be a move towards what is quaintly referred to as Democracy.

Perhaps, those who run the game at present should consider the life and times of the late great Alexander Hamilton- one of the founding fathers of the United States of America and who played a significant role in helping write the constitution of that country.

Hamilton was a decent and brilliant man in many ways—but he was dead set against Democracy and the liberation of rights for the masses. In fact, he stated that the best that can be hoped for the mass populace is that they be properly armed with a gun and so able to protect themselves against injustice!

Sadly, Hamilton became embroiled in a bitter dispute with the then Vice President of the nation Aaron Burr in July 1804. Hamilton had used his influence and ensured that Burr lost the election to become Governor of New York and had made some withering attacks on the Vice President’s character.

When he refused to apologise, the Vice President took a whacky notion and challenged him to a duel! Even more whacky is the fact that Hamilton accepted the challenge and so the contest took place at Weehawken New Jersey on the morning of 11th July 1804.

The night before, Hamilton wrote a letter which heavily suggested that he would contrive to miss Burr with his shot, and indeed when the pistols fired Hamilton’s bullet struck a branch immediately above Burr’s head.

However, he did not follow the proper procedure for duelling which required a warning from the duellist that they are going to throw their shot away. Hamilton gave no such indication despite the terms of his letter and despite his shot clearly missing his opponent.

Burr however fired and hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen with the result that the former secretary to the treasury and founding father of the constitution died at 2pm on the twelfth of July.

The incident ruined Burr’s career (whilst duelling was still technically legal in New jersey, it had already been outlawed in various other states).

In any event, in Hamilton’s time full and open democracy in the United States of America would have met with many cries of outrage and bitter opposition. Yet, today, the descendants of slaves and everyone from all social standings, all ethnic minorities and every social background has the constitutional right to vote and seek entry to corridors of power.

In that light, is it really asking too much to allow football fans to have a say and a presence in the running of a game they pay so much to support?

 

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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.

4,181 thoughts on “The SPFL— the case for revolution, evolution and a case of the Hamilton Whackies !”


  1. Castofthousands says:
    June 14, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/142089135/Duff-and-Phelps-Advice
    ——————
    bogsdollox says:
    June 15, 2013 at 12:57 am

    “there is no way he would take on that debt just to preserve Oldco and do the honourable thing”
    ——————

    I agree. He didn’t intend doing the honourable thing. He was underwruitten. Duff & Phelps advice indicates they were hoping to negotiate with HMRC on the big tax case. The following indicates a partial source of the funds, from ‘Oak’. Section 7, Escrow.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/143265813/Memorandum-of-Understanding-26-Nov-2010

    Advance Entertainment LLC (Head of Terms (HoT) document) didn’t register when I searched at the time. Maybe they were another shell of pension fund or make believe money.


  3. iamacant says:
    June 14, 2013 at 10:24 pm
    scapaflow14 says:
    June 14, 2013 at 10:18 pm
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/147878572/MP-Intervention
    ——————————————————————————————————————————————–
    Brian H Donohoe
    My election fighting fund has received registrable donations from Media House, Glasgow. (Registered 24 February 2005)
    # Name of donor: Cayman Islands Government
    # Address of donor: Government Administration Building, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
    # Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): travel, accommodation and other costs; £8,600
    # Destination of visit: Grand Cayman
    # Date of visit: 30 March-6 April 2012

    http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10173

    Donohoe is also on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Cayman Islands
    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/register/cayman-islands.htm

    Irvine’s Media House have the pr account for Cayman Finance.


  4. Offshore Leaks app puts secret users of tax havens in the public eye

    Interactive database forming part of a cache of 2.5m leaked files has been launched by Washington-based ICIJ
    Ben Quinn
    The Guardian, Saturday 15 June 2013

    The database contains ownership information about companies created in 10 offshore jurisdictions including the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore. It covers nearly 30 years until 2010.

    http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/search


  5. Castofthousands says:
    June 14, 2013 at 11:30 pm
    3 0 Rate This

    sumproduct says:
    June 14, 2013 at 10:52 pm

    “Whyte assuming the Big Tax Case liability always puzzled me.”
    ———————-

    A £40M contingency was put in place concerning the big tax case. I can’t locate the document immediately but will hunt futher. In the meantime the following shows that all the possibilities were under active consideration.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/142089135/Duff-and-Phelps-Advice
    —————–

    Didn’t get anywhere in with the cryptic puzzle lads, and got too sleepy to watch the US Open. So you’ve still got Mortonhall to yourselves.

    @castofthousands, that 22-page doc above, I don’t remember seeing that. It’s very detailed. Grier, D&P, and Uncle Tom Cobley discussing multi-options, including Ticketus funding, already in April 2011? Funny that the Charlotte mentioned in the doc (not Fakes) is a ‘company’ and a ‘transaction’. Could this Charlotte (not Fakes) also a major player? If chess, a knight, perhaps?

    ‘Technically you could phoenix the club and honour Ticketus contracts – is that a possibility?’ (Page 4) They certainly were panning ahead for any eventuality. Mr Craig was hardly in the door and folks were discussing phoenixing! How many people actually need to be involved before you have a conspiracy?


  6. If they were making contingency plans for the possible £49m bill from Hector
    Is their a document showing the contingency plan for the £80m owed to the other poor creditors .
    Also drawing on future ST sales to the tune of possibly £49m must leave everyone (including the thickest hacks ) that the old clubs baw was well and truly burst long before CW their favourite scape goat appeared on the scene
    So it looks like the balls in your court Minty ,who would have thought it


  7. If Baldrick(Tony Robinson)of “I have a cunning plan”fame can get a knighthood,what I wonder can our great administrators achieve.
    No disrespect to Tony Robinson btw.


  9. martybhoy says:

    June 14, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Mentioned this before on RTC and received a mixed reaction.

    In my opinion, Craig Whyte shows classic symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome.
    ————————————————————
    Not sure where you got the link from Aspergers to Sociopathy but to link Craig White with this would be both “off-topic” and in my expereinced opinion, totally wrong.

    I think it may have been enough to say that CW shows all the signs of a sociopath so I am at a loss as to why you feel the need to link it to a specific condition like AS. Maybe due to the personal impact it has on my daily life then I am over sensitive but if we are going to use this forum to question everything that others state as fact, then I feel I have to raise this point.


  10. The Scotsman article today really condenses Mr Priors past and leaves out the ‘Distasteful’ bits.

    ‘Prior, who has cerebral palsy and has been disabled since birth, is originally from Salford but now based in London’.


  11. As Kieran seems to be one of (if not the brainiest guy on the whole planet ) maybe now we can all dispense with the same club pash Kieran as someone with your IQ will see through that tosh in no time
    One warning though Rangeritis may be contagious so I would wear a mask when your looking under the hood at Ibrokes just to protect those little grey cells


  15. After wading through a lot of CF stuff last night you can see how a cleverly planned admin-liquidation-rebirth works compared to the haphazard nature of the real world in the Hearts story. No Operation Charlotte, Blue, William, or any other cryptic code-named plan to save Hearts – at least, none that we know of, so far. Perhaps Vlad was just mad after all?

    http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spl/hearts-situation-made-clearer-by-administration-1-2967714


  16. I would be greatfull if some of our [not so thick hacks,copyright acknowledged] would ask Mr Prior if he has spoken with ,directly or indirectly ,A Mr Charles Green or a Mr C,Whyte in the past lets say 2 years or for that matter any associates of these 2 gentlemen,there is something not sitting right here


  17. @ martybhoy
    I suggest you read up on Aspergers. As should anyone else who TU your diagnosis.
    Sociopaths have a callous disregard for society norms. This is not in anyway the same as the social difficulties that face AS lives.


  18. Madbhoy24941 says:
    June 15, 2013 at 8:02 am

    martybhoy says:
    June 14, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Mentioned this before on RTC and received a mixed reaction.

    In my opinion, Craig Whyte shows classic symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome.
    ————————————————————
    Not sure where you got the link from Aspergers to Sociopathy but to link Craig White with this would be both “off-topic” and in my expereinced opinion, totally wrong.

    I think it may have been enough to say that CW shows all the signs of a sociopath so I am at a loss as to why you feel the need to link it to a specific condition like AS. Maybe due to the personal impact it has on my daily life then I am over sensitive but if we are going to use this forum to question everything that others state as fact, then I feel I have to raise this point.
    ===================================================================
    I think that even if someone was medically qualified, in the appropriate discipline, it would demean the standing of this blog to be handing out a medical diagnosis on a complex condition that a poster thinks a total stranger is thought to exhibit signs of. And if they are appropriate medically qualified it is actually unprofessional IMO.

    It should be remembered that the individual concerned has probably been playing an act from Day 1 in this whole affair and it is therefore rather naive to ascribe a mental condition to him on anything he states or writes as it is all designed to achieve a specific end which all us super-mortals with perfect brains have so far been unable to work out.

    I think we have enough to work-on and attempt to puzzle-out with regards to the nuts and bolts of the whole affair without wasting time and credibility on forays into amateur psychology on what is still a very poorly understood disorder.

    However, I have often wondered at how well Aspergers – characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests – could actually be used to describe a lot of internet bloggers and posters.


  20. Kieran Prior and the Easedales.

    With their combined brainpower, there’ll be no stopping the new ‘Gers now.


  21. I will now do TSFM version of a ‘commentators nightmare’ in the hope that something may develop that is actually nuclear. Either that or as has been said many times before we will all just have to wait on T’Rangers imploding financially due to them having genes that makes them unable to cut costs in line with a reduce income. Either that or they will struggle on through with nearly everyone in the game either supporting their cause or being indifferent to it.

    Despite all our rumblings and CF’s recent contributions (what ever happened to Orlit BTW) nobody is looking into what is happeneing at T’Rangers to provide comfort that they are not going to go down the pan again.

    CO has been re-lected and both Regan and Doncaster got pay rises.
    Of the latter two Regan doesn’t look like moving on anytime soon. Doncaster could go in the merger and the rise helps his ‘redundancy package’ if that were the case. Otherwise he is staying out with the approval of the member clubs.

    The MSM are quiet as usual and seem to be backing off the CF material for legal reasons.
    Charles has rode off into the sun-set and the Bears are in denial that they were duped and, once again, just hope to move on because at least the club is still in existence.
    Mather still does seem to have been carpeted by the ruling bodies for the corporate equivelant of implying that opponents of T’Rangers are Fannies.

    The only thing I’m not sure about is if Orange Strips will be on sale in time for the Glesga Fair

    So it is the same old same old.

    Keep fighting the good fight and let’s look forward to those first year accounts.
    One thing that I did find of interest on the earlier CF tapes was Charles saying that the bank he went to needed six senior execs to sign off on opening accounts related to football clubs. Thats might be over egging it a bit but given the propblems with other clubs T’Rangers must surely have trouble getting a line of credit, so its is still a tightrope financially for them. Given the share price then any re-issue ain’t gonna pull in a vast sum, so its hard to see how the books are going to balance especially as the squad and management team look like becoming bloated once again.


  22. Having read the initial synopsis on TRFC and the plans and changes that he believes need to be made to make the current entity at Ibrox a realistic business proposition, it is hard to believe that Keiron Prior holds less than 2% of the shares. He is talking as if he now owns the whole shooting match.

    Warning to Mr Prior. You do not need to convince the people outside Ibrox that the ship is sinking due to outrageous salaries for execs amd players as per your initial thoughts. It is the people inside the tent that need convinced. Good luck in overturning a spending culture that goes back for more years than you have been on this planet.


  24. Ok, its me and my trialists rant again.

    I understand the notion of helping clubs outwith the top league through using trialists, but how can people who have signed pre contract agreements be definded as “trialists” in any sense of the word?

    I suppose though there has been precedent for this! Just blatant favouritism to help out T’Rangers again. Have the SFA asked them is there’s any other rules that should be changed? The number of over 21s anyone? Club / compnay definitions? Eligibility rules for presidents or CEOs? Required number of sending offs and penalities per season? Their pick of referees? None of this now seems so far fetched.

    Just shocking, again.


  25. YOURHAVINGALAUGH says:
    June 15, 2013 at 8:57 am

    I would be greatful if some of our [not so thick hacks,copyright acknowledged] would ask Mr Prior if he has spoken with ,directly or indirectly ,A Mr Charles Green or a Mr C,Whyte in the past lets say 2 years or for that matter any associates of these 2 gentlemen,there is something not sitting right here.
    —————————————————————————————————————————-

    I posted something yesterday which you might not have noticed and have undernoted. I am a little surprised at the ‘client’ portfolio on the PriArc website and note that it was first registered on 15 February 2012 by Kevin Prior’s business partner Steven Cracknell. For those who look at the importance of dates and timing – well who knows?

    PRI ARC LLP was incorporated on 02/05/2012 and PRIARC CARS LIMITED on 27/11/2012.

    UNDERNOTE:

    In view of the interest in the new Rangers investor Kieran Prior I thought I would check-out the Pri Arc website portfolio which I presume lists their clients:

    Liked the look of the name yoohzoo.com and I find the company’s webservers are based in South Africa and their address is on a South African business park at Kyalami with the phone number 0114660962.
    That address and phone number is also the address and number of Media Republic whose website is: http://www.mediarepublic.co.za

    Another name on thePri Arc portfolio is Pixshare.co.uk whose head office is based at the same South African address as yoohzoo.com

    Pixshare does show a Europe/UK address at 6 Wardrobe Place, Carter Lane, London, EC4V 5AF, which is the same address as Pri Arc. However as well as pixshare.co.uk there is pixshare.co.za but I can’t seem to get the ‘whois’ info for that site which appear to be identical to the pixshare.co.uk site which although live still comes up as an available website name for purchase. Perhaps the documentation hasn’t caught-up.

    PriArx Executive services has the same directors as Pri Arc so not surprising it appears on the client portfolio.

    Zenti I have been unable to trace as the link just takes you back to the Pri Arc site. I note there has been a zenti twitter feed and also a zenti.com but neither appear to be active. I have also been unable to get any ‘whois’ info on Zenti.com

    Didn’t there use to be another South African connection with Rangers or am I just getting confused with Don Kitchenbrand 🙂


  26. Martybhoy,

    Your inputs to this blog are beginning to verge on trolling.

    Capt Haddock,

    The rule on over 21’s has been changed, there will be no limit!


  27. martybhoy says:
    June 15, 2013 at 9:48 am

    Ecobhoy you are correct it was off topic…..still doesn’t change my opinion though!!

    Maybe I will post about this on an appropriate medical forum if it annoys you so much for me to express an opinion about someone as off topic as Craig Whyte.
    =========================================================
    Let me make it clear that I am not in the least annoyed at you expressing an opinion as that’s what this blog is all about. Obviously Craig Whyte is not ‘off-topic’ and it is really up to TSFM to decide what is on or off topic.

    I would also recommend that you actually re-read my post as I did not state that anything was off-topic – I think at least one other poster made that observation but I did not.

    My post was on the wisdom of giving a specific medical diagnosis on a total stranger on a complex and little-understood condition and that holds whether you, or any other poster, is medically qualified or not. I think as I said earlier that it demeans the blog and questions the hard work a lot of posters are putting in to try and get well researched answers and explanations on a wide range of subjects.

    However, I think your idea about posting on an ‘appropriate medical forum’ is an excellent one and may actually help your understanding of Aspergers. I would advise however that it would be regarded as ‘bad form’ to publicly identify the individual concerned and the test I always use is would I be happy in identifying any of my children or family, and their possible as yet medically undiagnosed medical condition, in such a way as to pursue some kind of point in which I was interested but that they had no interest in. I generally just don’t believe people should be ‘used’ to further my agenda and especially not if there is any suggestion of a medical condition over which they have no control.

    But we all have our own decisions to make and mine are not necessarily the ones you would decide on. Personally, I don’t think it would make any difference to the wider discussion as to whether a player in it suffered from Apergers or not.


  28. Mather now listed Director of TRFC on CH as of 14/6 – reason? – was that announced? – or in MSM?


  29. wottpi says:
    June 15, 2013 at 9:35 am
    2 0 Rate This.

    ” … but given the propblems with other clubs T’Rangers must surely have trouble getting a line of credit, so its is still a tightrope financially for them. Given the share price then any re-issue ain’t gonna pull in a vast sum, so its hard to see how the books are going to balance especially as the squad and management team look like becoming bloated once again.”
    ———–

    Certainly the shares are trading in larger volumes @wottpi. After the 790,000 sale the other day there were more than 200,000 yesterday. Be interesting to know who is buying and selling (apart from Mr Prior). Can future investors perhaps buy shares on a ‘trialist’ basis? 🙂 Buy now, from those locked in, but actually receive their shares after the lock-in date expires? Just a thought … I’ll get my coat.


  30. Captain Haddock says:
    June 15, 2013 at 9:50 am

    Ok, its me and my trialists rant again. I understand the notion of helping clubs outwith the top league through using trialists, but how can people who have signed pre contract agreements be definded as “trialists” in any sense of the word?
    ===========================================================

    I seem to remember reading in the last couple of days that a number of clubs had requested the change in the rule. If that is correct then it might be difficult to argue against the change. But then we get back to transparency and why should it be a secret as to what clubs requested this and the dates. Also who was actually deciding on the new rule book? What was the process and how was it approved?

    On anyone trying to claim that a pre-contract agreement case can still be regarded as a trialist – well that’s just a nonsense and the rule should have been tightened after the precedent was first established and it wasn’t. In some ways I can’t blame Rangers for taking advantage of it. But what now seems clear is that there was prior knowledge at Ibrox in terms of +21 signings rule change. It’s this kind of drip drip that is eroding confidence in the governance of the game for all fans and it has to stop or be stopped.


  31. Danish Pastry says:
    June 15, 2013 at 7:12 am

    “that 22-page doc above, I don’t remember seeing that.”
    —————-
    Charlotte tweeted it on 17th May. She has released so much information its hard to see the wood for the trees. I think there is another document somewhere that indicates the big tax case underwrite was indeed US sourced but finding that specific sapling in a whole forest isn’t straightforward.

    Charlotte is referred to as a person. There cannot be many people who would suit that role. One stands out head and shoulders. Your chess strategy leads to the same obvious conclusion.

    Some posters are becoming fatigued by Charlotte’s revelations but I think they are slowly but surely building a distinct picture. Someone could experience a Eureka moment at any time. The drip of information does allow its consequences to pe poured over and digested. There is something of the repetitive incantation of a church service about it.

    So much information that it is difficult not to consider certain conclusions blindingly obvious. An investigative journalist would have a field day and probably is.


  32. Lord Wobbly says:
    June 15, 2013 at 7:51 am

    “Kieran Prior yesterday purchased 785,000 shares in the club at a cost of almost £400,000.”
    ———————-
    “I’m no knight in shining armour but now I can look inside the club and ask questions to which the fans deserve answers to.”
    Said young Mr. Prior to the Scotsman. There’s a eureka moment if ever I saw one. He’s probably got enough brain cells to accommodate all the pieces of the jigsaw in the air simultaneously.


  33. Ok Martybhoy,

    An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

    I was going to post a sample of your previous posts most of which attack your own club, but I won’t as it’ll take too long, but they do cover the inflammatory part of invoking an emotional response as above

    I will re-post these though;

    “Scapa….played Mortonhall when I last lived in Scotland ( early 90′s).” –
    If you were following the flow of the posts then that reference would not have passed you by and you would not have been so quick to comment on the golf course, which gives us the irrelevant or off-topic part.

    “Mentioned this before on RTC and received a mixed reaction.” – In reference to your AS comments, it’s obvious you didn’t learn anything about your mixed reaction previously, that’ll be the controversial bit.

    As for the current manager of DFC, the sooner that side mouthed squealing, liar and thug leaves my club, the better; He can take that lying, spoofing CEO with him just for good measure.

    I’ve met many football fans in my world wide travels, however, I’ve only met one group that resort to shouting and anger and intimidation as the default behaviour, a bit like your post.


  34. Danish Pastry says:
    June 15, 2013 at 10:34 am

    wottpi says:
    June 15, 2013 at 9:35 am

    ” … but given the propblems with other clubs T’Rangers must surely have trouble getting a line of credit, so its is still a tightrope financially for them. Given the share price then any re-issue ain’t gonna pull in a vast sum, so its hard to see how the books are going to balance especially as the squad and management team look like becoming bloated once again.”
    ———–
    Certainly the shares are trading in larger volumes @wottpi. After the 790,000 sale the other day there were more than 200,000 yesterday. Be interesting to know who is buying and selling (apart from Mr Prior). Can future investors perhaps buy shares on a ‘trialist’ basis? 🙂 Buy now, from those locked in, but actually receive their shares after the lock-in date expires? Just a thought … I’ll get my coat.
    ===========================================================
    I have no doubt that private deals could be done before the lock-in ends. Don’t forget Green did it before Rangers was actually floated and before he had any shares. And they won’t actually be switched until 7 December this year I think. Also not a penny of any share sales goes to the club which has already had the money.

    I would guess that the Institutional Investors will want out especially if there is interest in their shares from people wanting to gain control at Ibrox and this might be the best time for them to get out. But it should never be forgotten that we don’t know who the actual clients of these Institutional Investors are so the shares they hold, in a management sense, might belong to un-named individuals or groupings currently involved in the boardroom power struggle or who wish to be involved in it.

    There appears to be nothing that can be taken for granted in all of this. It will eventually become clearer but the gap between income and expenditure remains critical. I see that the new Glasgow airport and Belfast city centre shops are about to open and I truly wonder if they will actually make a profit or should add to expenditure. They were one of Green’s crowd pleasers but do they make any financial sense? I think by the time Green had gone that leases had been signed and it was too late to stop.

    I think we keep ending back at how the shortfall is dealt with – A very rich individual or mini-consortium with money to burn or a fresh flotation seem to be the two obvious avenues. I think that the former is highly unlikely but then I look at the PR lavished on Prior and think well we’ve heard all that before. But why does Prior need to put in a million to get a look under the fiancial bonnet and he is also now saying he would accept the offer of a seat on the Board. How big is this Board going to be – they might need to expand the Ibrox Directors’ Box.

    As to a flotation well there is the dilution aspect of that in terms of numbers for ‘control’ terms and also share price. And what would be raised?


  35. The trialist route surely can be a can of worms opened at both ends,if the club plays the trialist and then thinks after a few trial games to send the donkey back to Blackpool beach as it does not fit into the forward planning of a big club,no pre contact ,no pay off, nada, I think they would be entitiled to do this,also at the other end of the can ,if the trialist plays and finds out he is not comfortable with the set up for whetever reasons ,surely he can also say ,sorry but I have had an offer to ply my trade on Brighton beach,cheerio,some people might just not like what they find when the are allocated their spade and bucket as they will be told that they cant play in certain areas of sand as these are allocated to certain people to bury their heads in at certain times,it will certainly be an eye opener for any new donkeys not familiar with the Govan way of life ,annd to add to this ,I dont see much sun shinning down that way in the near ,or distant ,future.


  36. A tactic used by convoys in the Atlantic during WW 2 was to surround valuable cargo with old, dispensible ships which were slower and less able to avoid torpedo attack. The twofold objective was: protect the real cargo and expose the location of the submarines in order to attack them with lighter, faster ships.
    The only important thing for TRFC right now is the season book money, everything else is smoke and mirrors. Prior has already been described as a wealthy investor, a mr fixit.

    Geese the money!!!!!


  37. twopanda says:
    June 15, 2013 at 10:29 am

    Mather now listed Director of TRFC on CH as of 14/6 – reason? – was that announced? – or in MSM?
    =============================================================

    As TRFCL isn’t a listed company it would be announced on AIM. Basically he will be plugging the gap left by departures. There will be lots of interesting material involving TRFCL which sadly I doubt that CF has any access to. It is a crucial piece in the jigsaw and to be fair to Prior probably a ‘hood’ well worth looking under.


  39. Captain Haddock says:
    June 15, 2013 at 9:50 am

    “…how can people who have signed pre contract agreements be definded as “trialists” in any sense of the word?..I suppose though there has been precedent for this!”
    —————
    I understand Dundee may have taken advantage of this in the past though the excact circumstances elude me. Forress Dee could elaborate if he’s in the building.

    I agree with your gist however. I’d like to think that recent events and their detailed scrutiny will help re-educate the governance authorities in their duties if not their ethics.


  40. Castofthousands says:
    June 15, 2013 at 10:51 am

    Danish Pastry says:
    June 15, 2013 at 7:12 am

    “that 22-page doc above, I don’t remember seeing that.”
    —————-
    Charlotte tweeted it on 17th May. She has released so much information its hard to see the wood for the trees. I think there is another document somewhere that indicates the big tax case underwrite was indeed US sourced but finding that specific sapling in a whole forest isn’t straightforward.

    Charlotte is referred to as a person. There cannot be many people who would suit that role. One stands out head and shoulders. Your chess strategy leads to the same obvious conclusion.

    Some posters are becoming fatigued by Charlotte’s revelations but I think they are slowly but surely building a distinct picture. Someone could experience a Eureka moment at any time. The drip of information does allow its consequences to pe poured over and digested. There is something of the repetitive incantation of a church service about it.

    So much information that it is difficult not to consider certain conclusions blindingly obvious. An investigative journalist would have a field day and probably is.
    ==========================================================================
    I don’t think it’s so much a question of becoming fatigued at the amount of output but I keep having the feeling that the ‘killer’ punch is being held back and that takes me back as to what role CF is actually playing and who for.

    I can understand if, for argument’s sake, this is all a charade to pressurise various parties to ensure Ticketus doesn’t lose out on the deal. Obviously you can have a bit of fun along the way poking people like JI in the eye and others you think might be worth a poke in the ribs and it helps disguise the real aim of the whole exercise.

    I also find it difficult to believe that CF is actually one person because of the volume of docs involved.

    But I just don’t know and am caught-up in whatever it is and will continue to try and work out what is actually going on. But I believe key pieces are being deliberately kept back because by now at least one of them would have emerged. On the surface the stuff looks great but actual culpability IMO hasn’t actually been revealed and that’s what we need.

    On one hand it’s easy to attack the press over its silence but this has become so complex that it’s probably at the stage of becoming an almost impossible story to write. It needs a ‘killer’ storyline as well. Something nice and simple with clear evidence exposing an individual or few individuals of criminal acts. I see little sign of that happening but I live in hope.


  41. OT, but could someone who knows about these things help me out, please? Every time I try to sign out of yahoo mail, a screen comes up inviting me to’ add to my profile’. I can’t get rid of the screen -there doesn’t seem to be a ‘close’ button- except by coming right out of firefox.
    It’s doing my head in.


  42. Here’s hoping that the brainiac Mr Prior fully imbibed the ethos of the “great vampire squid” of GS.


  43. I notice Richard Wilson in today’s Herald is again promoting fan ownership as the way ahead. What is wrong with all clubs simply putting in place an honest board of directors whose principal aim is to run the club within its means and ensure all wages and taxes are paid on time. Celtic are an excellent example of how a big club can do it, while Ross County are an excellent example of how a small club can do it. Apologies in advance for missing any other prime examples. The thing is the superb businessmen who run these well managed clubs tend to be fans as well. I just don’t get the fan ownership thing at all. It’s simply not needed in my opinion.


  45. Kieran Prior ‏@KieranPrior 17 Oct

    did you cheat? who cares. you did amazing things with your inspirational achievements and saved many lives #lancearmstrong

    Seems he’s the right man for the job!


  47. Just Tupe’d over from the old site and this is my first attempt at posting. Was looking back at one of the posts about some shareholders who were commenting on one of the stock market sites. He mentioned a few things that were kicking off down Govan way and that the new T’Rangers shop in the airport was opening shortly.
    Did anyone see that post or confirm that the shop is indeed opening?


  48. Palacio67 says:
    June 15, 2013 at 12:17 pm

    Just Tupe’d over from the old site and this is my first attempt at posting. Was looking back at one of the posts about some shareholders who were commenting on one of the stock market sites. He mentioned a few things that were kicking off down Govan way and that the new T’Rangers shop in the airport was opening shortly.
    Did anyone see that post or confirm that the shop is indeed opening?
    ====================================================================
    I’ve mentioned it in a post just above. My understanding is that Belfast has probably just opened and Glasgow Airport I think next week. Probably on RFC official site.


  49. On the trialists issues;

    I initially reeled at the decision to allow trialists, but thinking it through, lower league clubs need this to avoid making expensive signing mistakes.

    castsofthousands asked whether dundee used these rules, answer; No, we abused them.

    We played juniors, TV presenters, got a player signed to a junior team so we could play them etc. Some of these loop holes have been closed since then. But for any dee, this was justifiable, it was a fight for survival, the 25pt penalty was designed to relegate and kill us, nothing else. It was almost league winning form that saved us.

    Now should rfc* suffer another insolvency event will they receive the same penalty or will they be a different ‘entity’?

    I’ll post a video next but I’m invoking Godwin’s Law on myself 🙂


  51. We have added a PM facility under the “Contacts” menu at the top of the page.

    This has been put together to increase functionality for registered users of the site. Hopefully it will keep some disagreements off the main blog and settle disputes earlier than otherwise. It will also help the mods to explain themselves when they remove or edit post, or just have a quiet word from time to time.

    The facility is experimental at the moment, and we will review it in a couple of weeks – or sooner if it causes any problems.


  52. whisperer18 says:
    June 15, 2013 at 12:14 pm
    http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ibrox-investor-kieran-prior-claims-1954019
    Seems wee kieren is rattling cages from the word go!
    ===================================================================
    Seems to be talking a lot of sense. Slightly worried about his quote: ‘There is an opportunity to go straight back where we belong – at the top, nowhere else’. However, for the moment I will give him the benefit of the doubt as I know how the MSM can spin and take out of context. I do hope though that he hasn’t come with a pre-pack of supremacy as that won’t do Rangers, or anyone else, any good in the longer term.

    Seems he will be shaking things up and I think he is giving heavy hints that any trace of the Green influence will be removed from the Rangers Board one way or another.

    So in financial terms he’s taking sense and he’s saying things especially about fan representation that will go down well although that in itself could spark a faction fight among supporters to see who gets to wear a blazer.

    I wonder what he thinks of McCoist’s £700k salary and will Walter remain an icon when he sees the comments from Whyte that he used to be on £1.7 million as manager. I find that figure really hard to believe and if true it just epitomises how out-of-control the finances were at Ibrox.

    I hope the accounts are in good shape before Mr Prior gets his hands on them and then asks to be physically shown where the remaining flotation money is so he can count it and check what the rest was spent on. I actually am beginning to wonder if Rangers and CENKOS have been told by AIM that this guy has to be brought on board to actually make sure that the company is fit to remain listed.

    There can be few AIM companies which have attracted as much infighting, adverse publicity and investigations and Board changes and it hasn’t even gone 6 months from Flotation yet.


  53. TSFM says:
    June 15, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    Of topic, but relevant to the blog.

    If you don’t mind me asking, who are “the mods”.

    {I await “name names” jokes}


  55. We had the billionaire with wealth off the radar.

    We had the plain speaking, call a spade a spade, man of the people.

    We now have the corporate genius with the IQ which can’t be measured. (Who runs his business out of a flat in London).

    For my money he’s just another chancer.


  56. I just had a look at Rangers Retail Ltd the joint venture company with SportsDirect and note that Charles Green is still a director as is Stockbridge. I’m a bit surprised that such an important issue hasn’t been tidied up with Green removed and another Rangers director added.


  57. Ecobhoy
    Sorry I missed your earlier post. So is this the first of Charles Verde’s promises coming to fruition?
    Can we expect to see the renaming of Ibrox, the Adverts on the roof of Murray Park (Renaming of Murray park), the Dallas Cowboys and Australian tie ups, Orange Strips, glamour friendlies one Red one Blue.. and so on, and so on.
    To be Honest imo getting a unit inside Glasgow Airport would be harder to achieve than some of his other ‘promises’. I wonder who surrendered their lease to allow this, as units are few and precious.


  58. To enable the PM functionality, you have to be registered on the site. To do that, click on the “login” button, then when the login box appears, click “register”.

    You can then either enter your email and preferred username (a password will be sent to you) or you can use one of social network logins.


  59. ForresDee says:
    June 15, 2013 at 1:07 pm

    “Couldn’t resist!”
    ——————–
    Your adrenalin levels seem to be a bit excessive currently Forres. I take it you were pointing out the pointlessness and desrtruciveness of resorting to violence. The clip illustrates that in a crowd, apparently rational people do irrational things. It is a life lesson. The thugs end up controlling the agenda and others find themselves caught up in the hysteria.


  61. Gaz says:
    June 15, 2013 at 1:08 pm

    We had the billionaire with wealth off the radar.
    We had the plain speaking, call a spade a spade, man of the people.
    We now have the corporate genius with the IQ which can’t be measured. (Who runs his business out of a flat in London).
    ——————————————
    The papers confused wealth ‘off the radar’ with ‘under the counter’.

    Then again, once you put aside the poisonous damage to the Scottish game, threats of thuggery and general intimidation, maladministration, enough tax avoidance to keep the NHS going for a while, etc, etc – looking on the bright side, the cast list of the Rangers story in recent times has been varied and colourful, a constant source of interest and amusement to all. New cast members are to be welcomed, just to see how the plot develops next. And who knows, maybe Charlie and Imran might come back at Christmas to do a panto? The more things develop, the more I’m starting to think that Whyte is seriously pinning his hopes of paying off Ticketus on those film rights. He might be on to something.


  62. Another interesting piece on Prior at: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-investor-kieran-prior-explains-1954038

    One of the Q’s asked: ‘As a former City of London trader, what do you think of investors such as Blue Pitch and Zeus?’

    A) ‘I don’t know enough about them. The response to every question I’ve asked has been opaque at best. I can’t seem to get to the constitution of who owns their shareholding. It doesn’t make sense and it concerns me’.
    ——————–
    Firstly, I don’t quite understand his phrase: ‘ I can’t seem to get to the constitution of who owns their shareholding’. And then, though I can accept that a shareholder and fan might be concerned about such an issue I again can’t understand his comment: ‘It doesn’t make sense’.

    I’ve only got a bog standard IQ and have never been a Master of the Universe in the City of London but I fully understand why investors can have a number of very good personal and financial reasons as to why they don’t want their shareholdings to be made public and which are entirely legal.

    This is particularly the case in the initial phase when the investment was being put together to purchase the assets from D&P. So all I can say is it doesn’t make a blind bit of sense to me that it doesn’t make sense to Kieran who should have a full understanding about such issues. Very strange indeed IMO.


  63. My first thoughts are Mr Prior is indeed an intelligent chap with balls as well as brains …. Interesting
    Also had a wee nosey over at RM and he certainly has got their hearts racing
    Whit a story this is … I keep buying myself books i love (muso bios) … but just can’t drag myself away from here to even start one !!!


  64. ForresDee says:
    June 15, 2013 at 11:01 am
    17 3 Rate This

    Ok Martybhoy,

    An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion…
    …I’ve met many football fans in my world wide travels, however, I’ve only met one group that resort to shouting and anger and intimidation as the default behaviour, a bit like your post.
    ———————————————————————————————————————————————-
    Absolutely spot on and it seems that there are quite a number of newer posters on here who believe that simply calling themselves “xxxbhoy” will lead us to assume that they have some kind of automatic credibility in criticising Celtic’s actions.


  65. TSFM …. How does one log out from a mobile ? …. Checked FAQ but can’t find an answer


  66. Re The Daily Record wee Kierien interview;

    There a few gems such as;
    “Although Mr Stockbridge is finance director he is a chartered accountant by academic standards.”

    Ouch!

    Taxi……….


  68. Callumsson @2:05pm

    Totally agree. These people who give themselves nom-de-plumes which suggest their love for all things Celtic has been apparent for quite a while on this site. No point in mentioning names. Suffice to say their comments give away the show.


  69. Off topic, but thought I would talk about a great moment in football.

    I listened to the excellent Brogan Rogan Trevino Hogan being interviewed about the Willie Wallace book (which I will be getting a copy of) and realised I had not watched the 1967 European Cup Final in a very long time. I could only find it on Youtube in black and white (I seem to remember watching it in colour?). Anyway, there were many things that struck me that were different about the game compared to our game today, and some things remain the same.

    A funny one, the first time the commentator called “obstruction, indirect free kick” I realised I hadn’t heard that in a very long time. I was transported back to my childhood when it was a common cry. The pass back rule didn’t exist then, or course, and it was odd to see the goalkeeper pick up the ball from a pass back. There was no extra time either, and I don’t remember any substitutions.

    I thought Celtic were excellent. Down the wings they were brilliant. McNeill hardly got a mention, but maybe that was because the Italians hardly attacked. Some of the one-touch interplay was Barcelona-esque and the free-flowing cavalier attacking was a joy to watch. Man of the match? Johnstone for me, I have no idea who was given the honour. It could easily have been half a dozen of them and I wouldn’t have argued.

    Generally, the game was played at a slower pace back then and what made the Celtic side of the time so effective was the ability to play at a pace close to modern football. The Italians looked run ragged at the end. One dodgy penalty, answered by two great goals – you couldn’t have scripted it better.

    Some of the very good things about the game was the referee. He wasn’t great, but there were very few bookings (in spite of some niggly tackles on both sides) and the game was allowed to flow. A modern referee would be putting cards out like confetti and I doubt the game would have finished with a full compliment of players. It wasn’t a really dirty game though, barring the odd little nip here and there, and a sending off would have spoiled the spectacle. Modern referees have their hands tied (to a certain extent) so I’m not sure how much they could learn from this.

    The Italians – moaning, diving, time-wasting when they were ahead – some things never change. On the positive side, I though their defending was excellent and the timing or tackles was top notch. You can see why they would have been a very hard side to break down.

    Some of the nice bonus elements:

    – Archie MacPherson doing his best to not sound Scottish.
    – Archie MacPherson doing his best to not call the Inter player who dived a cheat.
    – No ex-players spouting cliches or generally talking rubbish in commentary.
    – No endless replays for 10 different angles (with accompanying cliches and rubbish)
    – Square goal posts … remember them?
    – The magic sponge, then back on your feet (I think this was ruined when a modern player was told the sponge wasn’t magic so they had to invent the magic spray to replace it).
    – No-one mentioned Facebook or Twitter.

    If you haven’t watched it for a while, I suggest you do so. I’m sure I remember seeing a colour copy that was better than the one I got from Youtube, but no matter, grainy black and white will do. Even if you are not a Celtic fan, it is a great moment in European history. At a time when Catenaccio was threatening to strangle the game, a swash-buckling Celtic took it apart.

    I grew up with the great Celtic players of the late 70’s/80’s and Danny McGrain was my hero. The best Celtic side in my lifetime was Martin O’Neill’s, inspired by the mighty Henrik. Were the 1967 Celtic side the best ever? Probably. I know you cannot compare sports people from different generations. All you can say for sure is how they compared to their peers, and they were peerless.

    On thing that remains the same, the cries of “Ceeeeeltic, Ceeeeeltic” through out the match in 1967. Celtic fans are – then, now and forever – the best. It makes you proud that our small country can be represented, in different decades, in great number and in the very best spirit. It really does make me proud.

    Apologies for being off topic, you can get back to your conspiracies …


  70. Castofthousands says:
    June 15, 2013 at 10:51 am
    15 1 Rate This

    Danish Pastry says:
    June 15, 2013 at 7:12 am

    “that 22-page doc above, I don’t remember seeing that.”
    —————-
    Charlotte tweeted it on 17th May … Charlotte is referred to as a person. There cannot be many people who would suit that role. One stands out head and shoulders. Your chess strategy leads to the same obvious conclusion.
    ———

    Thanks @castofthousands. Ah, 17th of May, I was very preoccupied with other events around that particular time. But I still probably don’t really understand that much anyway. I have screen shots of the now removed Roosevelt thing. I am wondering what year it’s from – logic says 2011, I suppose, but if 2010, then it could lead to that chess piece causing a checkmate, of sorts, since it was definitely still in play at that time.


  73. Anthony Burton says:

    June 15, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    Your comment is awaiting moderation.
    If you verify your address your comment will be reviewed by the moderator as soon as possible. Instructions have been sent to you by e-mail.

    Rate This
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    —————–

    Hmmmm?

    Interesting. Who is Anthony Burton? And why is he using or accessing my WordPress.com account?


  74. jimlarkin says:
    June 15, 2013 at 2:55 pm
    will send them this link….it is astounding that so many refuse to believe that Liquidation means just that Liquidation.

    schottie59 says:
    June 15, 2013 at 2:32 pm
    3 0 Rate This

    A good read ….

    http://www.itsanewclub.blogspot.co.uk/

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