A Blog for Scottish Football Monitor by Stuart Cosgrove
At the height of summer of discontent I was asked to contribute to a BBC radio show with Jim Traynor and Jim Spence. ‘Armageddon’ had just been pronounced and if the media were to be believed Scotland was about to freeze over in a new ice-age: only a cold darkness lay ahead.
To get the radio-show off to a healthy and pretentious start I began by saying that Scottish football was experiencing an “epistemological break”. It was an in-joke with Jim Spence, who I have known since we were both teenage ‘suedeheads.’ I was a mouthy young St Johnstone fan and Jim was an Arabian sand-dancer. But even in those distant days, we shared a mutual distrust of the ‘old firm’ and in our separate ways wanted a better future for our clubs. We both grew up to become products of the fanzine era, Jim as a writer for Dundee United’s ‘The Final Hurdle’ and me as a staff writer for the NME. Without ever having to say it, we had both engaged in a guerrilla-war against what Aberdeen’s Willie Miller once characterised as “West Coast Bias”.
The term ‘epistemological break’ was shamelessly borrowed from French Marxist philosophy. It means a fundamental change in the way we construct and receive knowledge and although I used it on air as a wind-up to test Spencey’s significantly less-reliable Dundee schooling, deep down I meant it.
Social Media has proved to be one of the greatest disruptions in the history of the football supporter – greater than the brake clubs of the 19th century, the football specials on the 1970s; or the fanzine movement of the post-punk era. The pace of change in the way we send, receive and interrogate information has been so dynamic that it has wrong-footed administrators, asset strippers and sports journalists, alike. No matter who you support we are living through media history.
2012 had just witnessed an unprecedented summer of sport. The Olympics provided a snapshot of how sudden and pervasive the shift to social media has become. Over 40% of UK adults claim to have posted comments on websites, blogs or social networking about the Olympics and in younger age-groups that figure tips conclusively to a majority – 61% of 16-24’s posted Olympic comments. Think about that figure for a moment. Well over half of the young people in the UK are now participants in social media and pass comment on sport. The genie is out of the bottle and it will never be forced back. That is the main reason that Armageddon never happened: we no longer live in an age where the media can guarantee our compliance.
On the first day of the 2012-13-season, Rangers were in the deep throes of administration and facing certain liquidation. With no accounts to meet the criteria for SPL membership, one among a body of rules which the old Rangers had themselves been an architect of, the new Rangers could not be granted entry without a wholesale abandonment of the rules. It was not to be.
St Johnstone launched their new season at Tynecastle so I travelled with misplaced hope. We were soundly beaten 2-0 and both Hearts goals were entirely merited. On the day, I did a quick if unscientific survey of two supporters’ buses – the Barossa Saints Club, a more traditional lads-bus and the ‘208 Ladies’ a predominantly female and family-friendly bus. On both buses, over 75% of fans had mobile phones with 3G internet access and the majority of them posted updates or pictures before, during or after the match. They mostly posted via micro-blogging sites such as Facebook or Twitter, many commenting on the game, their day-out and the surroundings. Most were speaking to friends or rival fans. Some were publishing pictures and updating forums or blogs. And when he second a decisive goal went in some were undoubtedly taking stick from Gort, Webby DFC and DeeForLife, the pseudonyms of prominent Dundee fans, who as the newly promoted ‘Club 12’ were suddenly and very temporarily above St Johnstone in the SPL.
By my rough calculations, well over half the St Johnstone support was web-connected. I have no reason to think the Hearts supporters were any different. This small experiment reflects an unprecedented shift in the balance of communication in Scottish football and in the truest sense it is an ‘epistemological break’ with past forms of spectatorship. Social media has been widely misrepresented by old-style radio ‘phone-ins’ and by journalism’s ancien regime. The presumption is that people who are connected to the web are at home, in dingy rooms where they foam at the mouth frustrated by loneliness and mental illness. The term ‘internet bampots’ (coined by Hugh Keevins) and ‘keyboard warriors’ (Gordon Strachan) speaks to a world that is fearful of the web, irked by alternative opinions, and the threat that the new media poses to the traditional exchange of knowledge.
It further assumes that opinion from social networks is naïve, ill-informed, or unreasonable. Whilst some of this may be true, mostly it is not. No one would dispute that there are small enclaves of truly despicable people using social networks and comment sites, but they are overwhelmingly outnumbered by the multitude of fans who simply want to talk about their team and share their dreams and memories.
Social media is porous. By that I mean it has cracks, lacunae and fissures. This inevitably means that information leaks out. It can be shared, released and in some cases becomes so energetic it becomes a virus. It is no longer possible to ‘keep secrets’, to withhold information and to allow indiscretions to pass unnoticed. Newspapers have been caught in a whirlwind of change where views can be instantly challenged, authority quickly questioned and pronouncements easily disproved. Many papers – almost all in decline – have been forced to close down their comments forums. Undoubtedly some of that is due to breaches of the rules, the cost of moderation, and the rise in awareness of hate crimes. But another significant factor is that ordinary fans were consistently challenging the opinions and ‘facts’ that newspapers published.
Talking down to fans no longer works and we now have evidence – Armageddon did not happen. The beast that was supposed to devour us all was a toothless fantasy. In the more abrasive language of the terraces – Armageddon shat-it and didn’t turn up.
In one respect the myth of Armageddon was an entirely predictable one. Tabloid newspapers make money from scaring people – health scares, prisoners on the run, fear of terrorism, anxiety about young people, and most recently ‘fear’ of Scottish independence is their stock in trade. Almost every major subject is raised as a spectre to be fearful of. Most newspapers were desperate to ‘save Rangers’ since they themselves feared the consequences of losing even more readership. It was easier to argue that a hideous financial catastrophe would befall Scottish football unless Rangers were fast-tracked back into the SPL. Newspapers found common cause with frightened administrators who could not imagine a world without Rangers, either.
So we were invited to endorse one of the greatest circumlocutions of all time – unless you save a club that has crashed leaving millions of pounds of debt, the game is financially doomed. You would struggle to encounter this bizarre logic in any other walk of life. Unless Rick Astley brings out a new album music will die. That is what they once argued and many still do. That is how desperately illogical the leadership in Scottish football had become.
Armageddon was a tissue of inaccuracies from the outset. It tried to script a disaster-movie of chaotic failure and financial disaster and at the very moment when senior administrators should have been fighting for the livelihood of the league, they were briefing against their own business.
Armageddon was a big inarticulate beast but it faced a mightier opponent – facts. One by one the clubs published their annual accounts. Although this was against the backdrop of a double-dip recession and fiercely difficult economic circumstances it was not all doom and gloom. The arrival of Club 12 (Dundee) meant higher crowds and the potential for increased income at Aberdeen, Dundee United and St Johnstone. To this day, this simple fact remains unfathomable to many people in the Glasgow-dominated media. The arrival of Ross County meant an exciting new top-tier local derby for Inverness Caley Thistle and a breath of fresh air for the SPL. St Johnstone insisted on the first ever SPL meeting outside Glasgow to reflect the new northern and eastern geo-politics of the Scottish game.
European football meant new income streams for Motherwell. Of course times were tight, football is never free from the ravages of the economy and some clubs predictably showed trading losses. But the underlying reasons were always idiosyncratic and inconsistent never consistent across the board. Inverness had an unprecedented spate of injuries and over-shot their budgets for healthcare and so published a loss £378,000.
Meanwhile Dundee United published healthy accounts having sold David Goodwillie to Blackburn. Celtic reached the Champion’s League group stages with all the new wealth it will bequeath. St Johnstone – led by the ultra-cautious Brown family – had already cut the cost of their squad, bidding farewell to the most expensive players Francisco Sandaza and Lee Croft. The club also benefited from compensation for their departed manager, Derek McInnes and player-coach, Jody Morris. Paradoxically, Bristol City had proven to be more important to the club’s income than Rangers. Again this was not part of the script and proved unfathomable (or more accurately irrelevant) to most in the Glasgow media.
Hearts failed to pay players on time due to serious restraints on squad costs and internal debt. They were duly punished for their repeated misdemeanours. Motherwell and St Mirren despite the economic challenges were navigating different concepts of fan ownership. By November most clubs – with the exception of Celtic – were showing increased SPL attendance on the previous season. Far from the scorched earth failure that we were told was inevitable what has emerged is a more complex eco-system of financial management, in which local dynamics and a more mature cost-efficient reality was being put in place.
It may well be that Armageddon was the last desperate caricature of a form of media that was already in terminal decline. Flash back to 1967 when Scottish football had a so-called ‘golden age’. There was European success, we tamed England at Wembley and names like Law and Baxter brightened dark nights. Back then access to knowledge was a very narrow funnel. Only a small cadre of privileged journalists had access to the managers and players, and so fans waited dutifully for the Daily Record to arrive at their door to tell them what was happening. That system of ‘elite access to knowledge’ was in its last decadent throes nearly thirty years later, when David Murray would dispense wisdom to his favoured journalists. We now know they drank fine wine and ate succulent lamb in Jersey and the most loyal attended Murray’s 50th birthday party at Gleneagles. One journalist was so proud of his invite he danced round the editorial office mocking those who had not been invited. This was the early height of the Rangers EBT era but it is now clear that difficult questions went unasked by either journalists or by football administrators.
Although it may not suit the narrative of this particular blog my first realisation that David Murray’s empire was living on leveraged debt was from a small cadre of Rangers fans. It was around the early years of the Rangers Supporter’s Trust (RST) and they were determined to shake more democracy from the Ibrox boardroom. Whilst real fans of the club argued from the outside, the press took Murray at his loquacious word. He was in many respects their benefactor, their visionary – their moonbeam.
By the 1990s onwards, football journalism had ritualised and festered around the inner sanctums at Ibrox. This was an era where relevance meant being invited to a ‘presser’ at Murray Park, having Ally’s mobile or playing golf with ‘Juke Box,’ ‘Durranty’ or ‘Smudger’. Many journalists, showing a compliant lack of self-awareness, would use these nicknames as if conveyed closeness, familiarity or friendship. It is desperately sad that careers have been built on such paltry notions of access and such demeaning obsequiousness.
Around this period I had become a freelance radio-presenter and was presenting Off the Ball with my friend Tam Cowan, a Motherwell fan. We both wanted to fashion a show which saw football not trough its familiar narratives, but through the lens of the ‘diddy’ teams, a term so demeaning that we tried to reclaim it. Refusing to peddle the inevitability of ‘old firm’ power we sensed that journalistic compliance at Ibrox was now so ingrained that it was ripe for satirising. This was the main reason that Off the Ball branded itself as ‘petty and ill-informed.’ It was a self-mocking antidote to those journalists that could ‘exclusively reveal’ breaking stories from ‘impeccable sources,’ which usually meant they had heard it on the golf-course, from Walter, a man who needed no surname.
Many fans are astonished when I tell them how the journalism of this era actually functioned. On Champions League nights, journalists from opposing papers gathered together to agree what to write. Circulation was in decline, money was tight, agency copy was on the increase and foreign trips were under-scrutiny. No one dared miss the ‘big story’. So sports journalists who commonly boasted about their toughness and who ‘feared no one’ were often so fearful of returning home having missed an angle, that they agreed by consensus to run with variations of the same story. Celtic fans may wish to recoil at the image – but journalists would go into a ‘huddle’ at the end of a press-conference to agree the favoured line.
So the summer of 2012 witnessed an ‘epistemological break’ in how knowledge and information was exchanged. But let me go further and taunt Jim Spence one more time. It was the summer we also witnessed an ‘amygdala-crisis’ exposing the way the media works in Scotland. Amygdala is the nuclei in the brain that manages our tolerance for risk and is the key that often unlocks creative thinking. Many people in relatively high places in the media – a creative industry – demonstrated that they could not conceive of change, nor could they imagine what football would look like if Rangers were not playing in the SPL. They not only resisted change but lacked the imagination to think beyond it. A common language began to emerge that tried to ward off risk and an almost a childlike fear of the dark. ‘Scottish football needs a strong Rangers,’ ‘But there will no competition’; ‘other clubs will suffer’; ‘Draw a line in the sand’; ‘It was one man – Craig Whyte’, ‘They’ve been punished enough’ and of course, the daddy of them all – ‘Armageddon.’
The biggest single barrier to change was the lingering and outmoded notion that Rangers subsidised Scottish football. As a supporter of a club that had spent seven economically stable years in a league that Rangers have never played in made me deeply suspicious and I was in the words of the we-forums ‘seething’ that St Johnstone were portrayed as somehow ‘dependent’ on a club that was already fatefully insolvent. Because so little is known about the experience of the fans of smaller clubs, they are often misrepresented. For seven years my friends and I, travelled home and away in the First Division, often narrowly missing out on promotion as rival clubs like Gretna, Dundee and Livingston all used money they did not have to ‘buy’ success. It remains an incontrovertible fact that St Johnstone FC has been among the most consistent victims of fiscal misdemeanour in Scottish football. That is the irreducible issue. Several clubs have very real reasons to loathe financial mismanagement, rogue-trading and those that gain unfair advantage on the back of unserviceable debt.
Social media has allowed these smaller incremental versions of history to be told when the established media had no interest in telling them. Blogs can dig deeper than the back pages ever can and fans are now more likely to meet on Facebook than on a supporter’s bus. Many players now bypass the press completely and tweet directly with fans. Rio Ferdinand’s recent attack on racism in English football has been conducted entirely via social media, over the heads of the press. In the Rangers Tax Case context, restricted documents are regularly shared online, where they can be analysed and torn apart. Those with specialist skills such as insolvency, tax expertise or accountancy can lend their skills to a web forum and can therefore dispute official versions of events.
Not all social media is good. Open-access has meant a disproportionate rise in victim culture. The ‘easily-offended’ prowl every corner of the web desperate to find a morsel that will upset them but that is a small price to pay for greater transparency and even the most ardent bore is no excuse for limiting the free exchange of information.
We have witnessed a summer of seismic change. A discredited era that largely relied on ‘elite access to knowledge’ has all but passed away and information, however complex or seemingly unpalatable, can no longer be withheld from fans. The days of being ‘dooped’ are over.
It has been a privilege to participate in the summer of discontent and I yearn for even greater change to come. Bring it on.
Stuart Cosgrove
Stuart Cosgrove is a St Johnstone fan. He was previously Media Editor of the NME and is now Director of Creative Diversity at Channel 4, where he recently managed coverage of the Paralympics, London 2012. At the weekend he presents the BBC Scotland football show ‘Off the Ball’ with Tam Cowan. He writes here in a personal capacity.
Correction para 4 end
Should read: ‘I don’t see that it would’ should read: ‘I don’t see that it would matter’.
Celtic Underground@celticrumours
Guy reminds NL he said he’d say what Mccoist said if we won league – “He wished me luck v Barca” #ticagm
mlmsolutions @mlmsolutionsuk
#Rangers FC Big Tax case & #HMRC procedures for collecting #tax-by MLM Guest blogger Aidan McLaughlin @rangerstaxcase
http://www.mlmsolutions.co.uk/Blog/insolvency/rangers-big-tax-case-hmrc-procedures-by-guest-blogger-aidan-mclaughlin.html …
JUST RELEASED !! – THE RANGERS NEW CLUB CREST
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/30kpqoj.jpg[/IMG]
Well it is a quiet day . . .
Denny
They seem to have taken this down. Including cached version. Censorship again.
Apologies – I will get there, but it may take a little help from my friends
Paul McConville explains the happenings of the other day and by doing so gives further confirmation that the Powerpoint was indeed genuine.
http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/the-answer-to-the-mystery-of-the-missing-blog-posts/comment-page-1/#comment-27860
wottpi
Funny that the sevconians refer to certain guys as ragers haters and their lies and malicous stories .Did Phil Mac not tell the peepil in 2010 that ragers would go into Administration/Liquidation ,I must have dreamt that in 2012 ragers went into admin and are now going throw the liquidiser .
Makes you wonder what lies from the sevco haters just now will become truth in 2 years time doesn’t it.
It’s a wonder the sevco don’t just take up beach football when you consider the amount of the followers with their heads in the sand
C.mon the Arabs
So CG decided to inaugurate his IPO Roadshow by marching it into that epicentre of World Finance – the N.I Orange Order community. This demonstration of stupidity and ill-judgement only confirms his now total indulgence towards that fervid minority that simply wants to perpetuate the myth that the Bad’gers are the last bastion of true Britishness and sporting tradition. From his first days at Ibrox, to the present, there’s been a distinct and visceral change to Chico’s language, demeanour and authority. It didn’t take him very long to realise the power and patronage he had from fans and the local MSM. This instant empowerment has given him the moral backbone of a bully. With total impunity; he’s now ridiculed and humiliated Scottish football’s hierarchy, given a few ‘who’s in charge’ slaps to every other team – apart from Celtic (‘cause they’re too big) and lied big time, in his campaign to reanimate a dead football club. But more shamefully – he has wilfully reignited old and unwanted prejudices, with his immoral behaviour and support of the baser viewpoints of some Bears.
jonnyod @14.57
As you state, so many TRFC followers appear happier when their heads are buried in the sand, much like the fabled ostrich.
As that bird has found out, often to it’s cost, it doesn’t half leave the rest of you open to attack.
Is CG really over in N.I to kick start his shares pitch ,he must be more desperate than even I thought .I take it Larkhall is putting the bunting up as we speak it’s a real hotbed for pension fund investors don’t ye know
Green’s “roadshow” was supposedly aimed at institutional investors. So he starts in Northern Ireland? What institutions turned up, I wonder? I would just love to see the attendance list.
This just tells me that the whole IPO idea is a fantasy. Green knows full well that no institution will touch his shares, so instead of heading to Edinburgh or London, he goes somewhere where he might actually find some takers (that’s mugs to you and me).
Also interesting that Green calls in the lawyers when someone posts a dissection of his carefully crafted Powerpoint effort. What that dissection really highlighted was the fact that the Powerpoint presentation could not possibly have been aimed at any audience with even a basic degree of financial acumen. That presentation is firmly aimed at the bear family. When he goes for a private sale, and it is pointed out that there is no prospectus, he will just point to his Powerpoint, and say that all you need to know is in there. So he can’t have any know-alls pulling it all apart in advance.
But he really needs to get a move on, before daddy bear actually buys that expensive train set for baby bear’s Christmas. Those letters of invitation to the “Rangers Family” need to be posted soon.
smartie 1947
I interpreted the Sevco fans rant as saying ,
We don’t want to hear if CG is telling any lies ,especially from you Timmy rats .
The mind boggles
jonnyod says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 15:14
Is CG really over in N.I to kick start his shares pitch ,he must be more desperate than even I thought .
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Don’t know anything about him being in NI but perhaps some enterprising Bears from there might dig into his earlier business dealings in NI – they will find much to interest them 🙂
ecobhoy
you are a tease .
ecobhoy
But arn’t you over estimating the average sevconians attention span ,first awkward question and Chuckles will whip of the jacket to flash the orange top and there will be a massive sing along and much back slapping
Neephied
My thoughts exactly with his first port of call being N.I the fans are the ones who will be expected to cough up and it always was going to be ,The thing the fans have to ask is why was he not just up front about it ,they would stump up as much as they could anyway .
I expect a statement along the lines of a concerted Internet campaign from the clubs enemies undermined the AIM issue and therefore it had to be put on hold but the share issue will go ahead and the club hopes the fans will not allow the clubs enemies to win .
This mixed with the help from the SPL regards the timing of the dual contracts decision and old Chuckie will be beating them off with a big stick .
Edinburgh Napier Uni@EdinburghNapier
This coming Monday’s #mediamonday will be postponed for 2013- sadly speakers @alextomo & @markdaly2 are unavailable http://www.screenacademyscotland.ac.uk/content-32
I guess that AT may have other things on his plate at the moment, like Syria or Gaza.
…….and a typical response from Follow Follow, who I’m sure would prefer that DM & AT didn’t air their experiences of RFC in public.
Follow Follow@Follow_Follow_
I see next week’s Alex Tommo/Mark Daly RFC event @EdinburghNapier has been cancelled. A shame.
wottpi says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 14:36
Paul McConville explains the happenings of the other day and by doing so gives further confirmation that the Powerpoint was indeed genuine.
——————————————————————————
The fact that TRFC lawyers were quickly in contact with Paul immediately after he blogged on the share issue shows that some one (Uncle Jack?) is closely monitoring Paul’s blog – and, no doubt, this one as well.
Why is Sevco so concerned at what is being put into the public domain by these internet bampots? Paul has been meticulous in avoiding all rumour and speculation in his writings. He repeatedly includes caveats to keep himself absolutely kosher. Were that not so then Sevco’s lawyers may have thrust an interdict in his hand on Wednesday instead of a friendly chat.
I suspect that Paul has acted in a gentlemanly way with these lawyers, knowing that in a very short space of time he will be able to fully debate Green’s share issue when the long awaited prospectus drops through our letterboxes. Perhaps the best time to explain the prospectus to our Govan brethern is just before they are tempted to to arrange their Wonga loan.
neepheid says: Friday, November 16, 2012 at 15:42
“But he (Green) really needs to get a move on, before daddy bear actually buys that expensive train set for baby bear’s Christmas. Those letters of invitation to the “Rangers Family” need to be posted soon.”
======================
I wonder if he’s pitching at Mammy to buy for the man of the house.
When is a expanation not a explanation? When Hearts attempt “transparency”, of course.
Yesterday evening they advised that they would no longer be able to accept debit or credit cards sales of shares with the following comment:
“The decision has been taken following discussions with out merchant service provider”
Today on the website:
“Hearts moved today to explain to fans the credit/debit card changes which will affect the current Share Offer”
“At the insistence of our merchant services provider, such facilities will be withdrawn at 5pm today”
So there you have it folks, that is the explanation of why fans cannot use cards. Hearts obviously don’t understand the meaning of the word “Why?”
i would like to know what the lawyers said to Paul
why was he asked to take it down – is it a fake (obviously not if they want it removed) and on what grounds did they want it removed – after all, this is a genuine document that will provide the basis of asking the PUBLIC to part with cash to float a company.
There are guidelines about floating new companies and i’m pretty sure one of them is not DON’T TELL THEM ANYTHING
what is even stranger though is that the document was ABSOLUTELY PISH!
there essentially was no data, no information, nothing around which an investor would be swayed one way or another.
If anything, the document made lots of nonsense comparisons to clubs in other countries with different income streams and could not form any basis for comparison
Surely the authorities should be stepping in here as that document is clearly designed to mislead investors in the upcomig IPO
Why did you relent Paul? STV published…..and they published more damning info that you had. Why could STV publish and not you?
Interesting read on the ramifications of the FTTT result on earlier link.
mlmsolutions @mlmsolutionsuk
#Rangers FC Big Tax case & #HMRC procedures for collecting #tax-by MLM Guest blogger Aidan McLaughlin @rangerstaxcase
http://www.mlmsolutions.co.uk/Blog/insolvency/rangers-big-tax-case-hmrc-procedures-by-guest-blogger-aidan-mclaughlin.html
___________________________________________________
The section 81 and personal liability options – dare I suggest – given the wilful nature of the avoidance of tax – may be the reasons both for the delay and need to redact information.
If individuals are being pursued and have been found to be liable for further payments for wilful misconduct then it may explain the langth of time taken for the judgement to be brought to public view and perhaps pending further action the need to redact the names of individuals.
Say for example SDM is found to have wilfully pursued this scheme in a reckless manner and they intend to pursue him for the cash not paid then until that secondary tribunal is heard he has a right to have his name redacted. Similarly with the individuals who may be charged for the moneys not collected under section 81.
As I understand it, section 81 allows the pursuit of those who benefitted from the scheme regardless of knowledge or culpability if they have been found to have been in receipt of moneys tax free upon which tax was due and they can afford to pay it. ( That would I suggest be most of the players and as the minimum amount worth pursuing was 2,000 then they are well worth pursuing)
The personal liability may be issued to those who chose wilfully to administer a scheme fraudulently and incorrectly with the purposed intention of avoiding payment of tax. I presume such individuals are liable but the burden of proof would be less under those circumstances than a full blown criminal trial for evasion.
How to win friends and influence people…
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15877/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4KDiALOg
How very dare they!?!
I passed comment on the Powerpoint disaster shortly after it appeared on here, yet not so much as a ‘gonnaenodaethat’ from TRFC or their lawyers.
slimshady61 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:32
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How to win friends and influence people…
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15877/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4KDiALOg
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The full article:
Recovering Rangers eyes move to English league
ROB HARRIS
Published: 29 minutes ago
LONDON (AP) – Scotland’s most successful football club is trying to attract potential investors with an eye on someday playing in the English Premier League.
Rangers, a 54-time Scottish champion, feels less loyalty to its homeland after being forced to start again this season in the fourth tier as punishment for a financial meltdown. And now the Glasgow club’s new ownership believes an exit route from the Scottish leagues is becoming possible as UEFA explores changing cross-border rules.
“The SPL told us face-to-face, ‘We don’t want you, you aren’t welcome,'” Rangers chief executive Charles Green said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the club’s planned flotation on a London Stock Exchange market.
And a planned revamp of the Scottish Premier League and three professional divisions below could be Rangers’ chance to escape. The overhaul was announced during the offseason just as Rangers was going into liquidation with tax debts exceeding $30 million.
“What we understand is that any restructuring will also revisit the taboo,” Green said. “A bit like, ‘Don’t talk about the war to the Germans.’ ‘Don’t mention Rangers and Celtic leaving Scotland.’ It was always ‘Shhh don’t mention that.’
“I think the taboo of that is going to be lifted … Scottish football without Rangers and Celtic might actually become more competitive within the remaining clubs rather than having these two monsters sat above them.”
Rangers is due to float on London’s AIM market by the end of the year, and Green has been trying to persuade financial institutions this week that the club has a realistic chance of playing in the English Premier League.
“As a football club, if Rangers were in the Premier League only Manchester United would be bigger,” Green said. “Because Arsenal haven’t got more fans than Rangers … the fan base is so big.”
But the barriers to joining the world’s richest football league are also vast, with the English Premier League already resisting previous overtures from both Rangers and Glasgow rival Celtic.
“I don’t believe the Premier League are hostile towards it because I think it’s a generalization,” Green said. “Speak to Manchester United. They are not hostile to Rangers joining.”
But United disputed Green’s claims.
“We are not in favor of it at all. We are against it,” United spokesman Phil Townsend said. “Our view is it’s the English Premier League and should remain that way.”
Green, though, pointed to the financial advantages of United being able to play at the 50,000-capacity Ibrox.
“Why would Man United want to play Southampton? Why, when they could play Rangers? Sixty percent of the Premier League don’t want Rangers. Of course they don’t want Rangers,” Green said. “Why would Southampton, Swansea, Wigan, Aston Villa? Why would any of them want Rangers or Celtic in their league. Why would they? It threatens their existence … but if you asked the big clubs, ‘Would you like Rangers?”
They would, according to Green. Even in Spain.
“Ask Barcelona and Real Madrid if they would like Rangers and Celtic in their league,” Green said. “They definitely would. Why wouldn’t Barcelona want to play Rangers home and away as opposed to playing Getafe. They would sell (those) games out.”
In the presentation to potential investors, Green features a quote from Barcelona President Sandro Rosell highlighting the virtue of playing European rivals on weekends.
“What will change football over 5-to-10 years is this insatiable demand for the big clubs to play each other,” Green said. “And this is not the insatiable demand from the west Midlands or from north London. This is the demand from the Middle East, Asia, the Far East.”
Green is putting his faith in a UEFA experiment that could remove a key barrier to Rangers leaving the Scottish league. European football’s governing body has allowed 16 women’s teams in Belgium and the Netherlands to form a cross-border league in a three-year trial.
“The difficulty is that historically I don’t think Celtic and Rangers would have been allowed to consider leaving Scotland,” Green said. “What is now going to change things … is now we’ve got this cross-border league for women.”
Rangers’ demotion means that Scotland’s only internationally attractive fixture is off the calendar – the Old Firm derby against Celtic.
And at Celtic’s annual general meeting on Friday, chief executive Peter Lawwell said he believed expanding leagues beyond borders could become a reality.
“We are committed to the SPL but nothing stays the same,” Lawwell said. “There are initiatives in Europe. UEFA have opened their mind up to some form of regional leagues.
“I think they recognize the polarization between the top leagues and the smaller leagues in terms of media values. There are very early proposals that may look at regional leagues.”
Green bought Rangers’ assets for 5.5 million pounds ($8.7 million), and four months later he is already hopeful of raising about 30 million pounds ($48 million) from a flotation on London’s AIM exchange. Fans are expected to invest 21 million pounds (about $33 million) in shares.
Tommy says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:02
wottpi says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 14:36
Paul McConville explains the happenings of the other day and by doing so gives further confirmation that the Powerpoint was indeed genuine.
——————————————————————————
The fact that TRFC lawyers were quickly in contact with Paul immediately after he blogged on the share issue shows that some one (Uncle Jack?) is closely monitoring Paul’s blog – and, no doubt, this one as well…
==============
As we all like conspiracy theories (?), I can’t help thinking that the PP presentation was ‘leaked’ and was deliberately ‘crap’ to be used as bait. Paul’s analyses was the opportunity for Jack and his lackeys to react with a ‘shot across the bow’ to all us Internet Bampots.
The man with the wee white bricks simultaneously ranted about The Rangers ‘fighting back now’ against Rangers haters, [i.e. anyone who criticises anything to do with CG et al].
We have tended to see a lot of co-ordinated/coincidental activity before bad news comes out down Govan way.
So the singling out of Paul to make a point can only mean one thing, IMO.
Double popcorn order this weekend !
[And thanks Jack for adding to our entertainment…and we don’t even pay you for it ! 😉 ]
Guys i know its not the news we wanted but alloa have been paid.approx 110 grand.
Tommy says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:02
Sun Tzu:The Art of War
“It is said that (1) if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; (2) if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; (3)if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”
(1) Internet bampots
-We know ourselves and are always open to knowing more about the enemy. We are well up on games played so far.
(2) T’Rangers FC and the current Investors
-They know themselves and are now realising they need to get to know us if they are to scramble a draw.
(3) Sevco Fans
-Olcco v New Co & plc v club means they don’t know who they are and they don’t know who the real enemy is. Given SDM and MBB they are down 0-2 to date and could be facing getting knocked out once again.
Queens Park Rangers don’t want Rangers in the EPL and they’ve even got Rangers in their name. FFS! Green take the hint
‘I see next week’s Alex Tommo/Mark Daly RFC event @EdinburghNapier has been cancelled. A shame’
__________________________________________
If the above is true, there’s a good fifty fifty chance intimidation and threats (particularly to the hotel) were employed. This would be par for the course.
sidplay says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:39
3 0 Rate This
Guys i know its not the news we wanted but alloa have been paid.approx 110 grand.
———————————————————
actually, i’m delighted to hear this! A club should be paying it’s debts
that amount means average ticket price was just under £11 for the 25k that attended
slimshady61 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:32
How to win friends and influence people…
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15877/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4KDiALOg
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
…Mmmm..interesting,but as usual another extremely naive false,ill informed & completely unresearched take on the current Sevco situation..Do you think that maybe(just maybe) some erudite contributors on here, who regularly operate within the twitterattosphere, may point Rolf Harris in the direction of RTC-CQN-KDS-Paul & Phil Mac..etc where there may just be another “angle” to the sh*te he has just posted on behalf of the king slug..Jack !
Senior says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:56
Tommo’s a bit tied up in the Middle East at the moment.
As hilarious as Chuckles latest insane ramblings are, I really wish someone from Celtic would, in the politest possible way of course, tell him to shut it and stop bringing us into his wacky schemes.
Rangers manager Ally McCoist says that Walter Smith, who has returned to the club to take a seat on the board, assured him he will not meddle in first-team affairs at Ibrox. (Sun) ===============================================================
i thought rangers are in liquidation…so how can he make a – RETURN to rangers?
is it not a newco that he has been appointed a non-executive director of?
After CG latest comments ,if the peepil that are asked to part with their £500 do not start looking closely at this upcoming share issue then they deserve all they get .
Enough is enough in my book with all the evidence out there already they are willing to blindly hand their money over then that’s too bad .
Where are the credible investors from the old regime ,if CG reckons he can get over £10m from the fans then why is there no more credible businessmen doing something behind the scenes .
Then again if I were a sceptic I would say that ,they also need the phesants to cough up to get CG or his bosses out the picture .
IMO this share issue has to be successful for ALL parties involved even those waiting in the wings .
Pity the Sevconions are not deemed bright enough to be informed of the plan ,then again after hearing some of their views, maybe it’s for the best
Good luck to them all ,they deserve each other
I suspect what`s happened here is that CG and co had not expected any share business to come under the spotlight. Remember, this was supposed to be SPL LN Inquiry week starting Tuesday probably continuing through to next week. You can imagine the kind of MSM noise planned round that – and reactions – backed up by orchestrated daily weekday deflections from Sir Cardigan news, League reconstruction, SPL/SFA/SFL turf wars and such and so forth but with only enough traction for each to have 24 hours interest. All of those combined would have kept everyone`s attention. Instead, the shares stuff uncovered came under the microscope. I gave up on the 5th or 6th slide I think as this was at best a part of whatever they were offering and too early to form a view and it looked very amateurish frankly. It could have been a draft or incomplete or put out before checking or final clearance or other reasons. So, if lawyers wanted the comments taken down it is – possible – they had reasonable grounds – and the prospectus will come out eventually for any who are interested.
What is of note is that white bricks and others developed this `injunction` to their own agenda. Noting that white bricks and others – have now firmly positioned themselves – for the record – in favour of censorship.
Even more damming, is that any shares prospectus, of any company, in the order of 20m, would come under the inspection of financial analysts more hard-nosed than anything on a blog with respect.
What`s next – march on the square mile to denounce them if they have the cheek to raise an eyebrow?
I don’t think talk of Celtic or a fit and healthy Rangers leaving Scottish football is taboo.
Both clubs have talked about it in the past and I am sure both will be interested in the same in the future.
Most fans recognise that these days having two large teams has repercussions for how competitive a league can be. The EPL is larger but instead of 2 you can say 4 or 5. Fans like to see their teams in with a chance of winning something so if the time came when the largest clubs in terms of support and finance went elsewhere then so be it.
The point is that neither Celtic or Rangers are going anywhere near the EPL anytime soon. That door is well and truly shut.
The only option is for some new league set up on a pan European basis.
And hear this Charley Boy, it ain’t gonna happen any time soon.
So the reality is that it is Div 3 this year. If you manage to get to the end of the season then it will Div 2 next year. If you are lucky a league reconstruction may get you iot the second flight. If not then its Div 1 the year after and then the top league.
Oh and remember it is going to take that long for any Uefa sanctioned league to allow you to compete given you are still working on providing those three years of audited accounts.
A healthy Rangers with 51k packed into Ibrox is no doubt and attractive proposition if you were going to set up a new league system.
However just now it is nothing more than red white and blue sky thinking.
wottpi says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 17:27
I don’t think talk of Celtic or a fit and healthy Rangers leaving Scottish football is taboo.
Both clubs have talked about it in the past and I am sure both will be interested in the same in the future.
Most fans recognise that these days having two large teams has repercussions for how competitive a league can be. The EPL is larger but instead of 2 you can say 4 or 5. Fans like to see their teams in with a chance of winning something so if the time came when the largest clubs in terms of support and finance went elsewhere then so be it.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why would a Euro League or whatever be any different from what you have described?
We have in our hands a solution to Scottish Football’s malaise. A more even distribution of voting rights (dare I say democracy?) and income. A less WoS centric approach to the game. It’s not like the fans are deserting the game which is remarkable given the rottenness at the core of the SPL/SFA/SFL.
As for the EPL that is a bubble that will burst but in the meantime the current members and potential members are not going to open the door to enable the OF to feast at the table of riches they currently have at their disposal.
slimshady61 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:32
7 0 Rate This
How to win friends and influence people…
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15877/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4KDiALOg
Slim, That is very lazy journalism by Mr Harris.
“After being forced to start again this season in the fourth tier as punishment for a financial meltdown.”
Silly me, there was me thinking they were a new club who had all the rules bent to get them into the bottom tier after the original club was in the process of being wound up.
I must try and keep up….
Interesting that Green should be so keen to suggest that FC Ticketus might be welcomed into the English league in the near future. And he’s also keen to have them mentioned in the same breath as Celtic as European giants – even though one of the two beat Barcelona recently while the other faces East Stirlingshire tomorrow in front of less than 4,000 fans.
Might Green’s desperation to play up a purported, but never-gonna-happen, switch be a tacit admission that the immediate future of FC Ticketus, as it attempts to rise from the depths of the Scottish league pyramid, will be a dismal loss-making one?
And if potential investors deduce, with 99.9% certainty, that the EPL is never going to invite Green’s “monsters” to join their ranks, there ain’t much else to tempt them to give that shite-talking shyster a bent farthing.
All the talk the last few days on the Sevco share issue has been about mummy bears and baby bears Christmas presents.
Carrying on the Goldilocks theme, what I would wish for myself is that some of the really important daddy bears get for Christmas is porridge (Ronnie Barker style.)
Mr Lawell talks of the ‘chasm’ between the big nation’s clubs and the small nation’s clubs, which is bad for competition! Celtic feel vulnerable to ‘wolves at the door’ poaching his players………… Irony, irony all around me!
“Ask Barcelona if they would like Rangers and Celtic in their league,” Green said. “They definitely would. Why wouldn’t Barcelona want to play Rangers home and away
Well Charles heres what El Mundo Deportivo from the Spanish press had to say in 2007
Dear Rangers supporters, don’t come back to Barcelona. And not because you’re team are a bunch of cloggers, which they are. It’s not that: the Camp Nou often has weak, boring teams that only defend, run and foul, teams that have no place in the top tier competitions. But Rangers defend, run and foul badly. Their defenders are butchers, the midfielders have three feet and the forwards are wardrobes.
But most of all, it would be preferable that Rangers never come to Barcelona again because every time they do they wreck it. You destroyed the Camp Nou seats 35 years ago and this time we’ve had 48 hours of thuggery, provocation, fighting and low-life drunkards all over the city, which you’ve made a mess of at your whim.
Stay and vomit in your own home, urinate in the corner of your own sitting room, fight with your own neighbours Celtic (who deserve a medal for putting up with you) and foul the streets of Glasgow. Don’t come back to Barcelona, you’re an embarrassment. And while we’re at it, don’t play in the Champions League. You’re not up to scratch, either on a sporting or human level.
But best of all would be never being drawn against Rangers ever again.
——-
“I speak for everyone when I describe the behaviour of the Celtic supporters as immaculate, with all the bother concerning racial insults and hooligan behaviour, these fans were a breath of fresh air”
Barcelona Police
————-
If I was a Celtic fan I wouldnt be happy for Charles to continue associating his band of ragamuffins with my club
This alone is just laughable. Arsenal/Liverpool/Chelsea have a global appeal that TRFC can only dream about. Arsenal have many more season ticket holders at much, much higher prices. These clubs can all reasonably claim to have tens of millions of supporters worldwide.
What financial benefit do Man Utd get by travelling to Ibrox? They make no money from it as the away team. In fact, down south here the convention is often to charge teams for the full away allocation they’ve asked for whether they sell all the tickets or not, so many clubs lose a little cash on away games.
The fact that Man United immediately refuted his claim that they were wanted in the EPL was predictable, but he blusters on regardless. The difference is that the press down here will laugh him out of the building (as will any potential “investors”).
timtim says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 18:30
Brilliant!
Taboo!!
Has there ever been a less taboo topic in Scottish Football? This has been spoken about for years.
obonfanti88 (@obonfanti88) says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 17:13
15 0 Rate This
As hilarious as Chuckles latest insane ramblings are, I really wish someone from Celtic would, in the politest possible way of course, tell him to shut it and stop bringing us into his wacky schemes.
—————————————————————————————
The ramblings are indeed hilarious and insane. Be patient, obonfanti88. There is more hilarity (and insanity) coming up. Think of a possible exclusive from Leggo or CG, maybe even the DR: ‘Chuckles foray in Scottish football was sponsored by PL with endorsement from Paul McC. and RTC.” .
Ridiculous, I know, but ….. what the hell, enjoy the ride.
sidplay says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:39
Guys i know its not the news we wanted but alloa have been paid.approx 110 grand.
==================================
It’s the news I wanted. A football club has had it’s future secured for a wee while I would have thought. That’s excellent.
Alloa must be loving this Armageddon.
sidplay says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:39
21 5 Rate This
Guys i know its not the news we wanted but alloa have been
paid.approx 110 grand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why would we not want Alloa to get the money they are due?
Per the world exclusive by Jingle Jangle Jackson, ‘bestest’ Scottish Sports News Reporter 2012;
“….Regan answers the questions fans are dying to know the answers to….”
============================================================
Eh…think he forgot to ask Regan the most important question…
“Why is Ogilvie still President of The SFA ?”
I’ll say this though, Jackson is consistent…consistently underwhelming ! 😉
============================================================
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sfa-chief-stewart-regan-held-1438719
LW: I think some were taking it as a signal that things were about to go Pete Tong imminently chez Sevco, if Alloa didn’t get paid. There was a rumour on that Twiiter that Chaz Green had asked for 6 weeks to pay up. Much as I want to believe that the reanimated Gers haven’t got a pot to pish in, I don’t want it to be at the expense of yet another club.
timtim says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 18:30
An old friend of mine and ex Headmaster told me a tale of his family camping holiday to northern Spain in the summer months post Rangers Cup success in Barcelona. Enquiring at reception if a pitch was available in a campsite outside Barcelona the owner of the site on hearing his voice interupted his conversation with the clerk. He asked if he was from Scotland followed by are you a Rangers supporter ? My friend said he was not a Rangers fan but in fact a Celtic fan at which point the owner replied you may stay. It turns out that Rangers fans had wrecked his campsite earlier that year and if he had been a Rangers fan he wasn’t getting in.
Was Charlie Chuckle ever hit with an SFA charge for saying on national radio that the SFA has “stolen money” from Rangers? Or was it just another case of that outspoken little rogue Chuckles being a wee bit cheeky?
When is the sweep going to start with regards to how much Chuckles is going to scam, sorry raise, from the share issue?
I personally don’t believe that any fund, pension or ISA, would even remotely consider investing in a company 12 weeks old. Now I know that claim may sound contentious to some but for the purposes of fact this is exactly what The Rangers are. They are a new company continuing the same business from the same premises and to claim otherwise in this share issue is corporate lunacy.
If I thought for a minute that my pension fund was considering investing in this scheme then I would be asking serious questions.
There are approximately three teams, sorry companies, currently making a profit in the top tiers of football while the rest are struggling to break even or indeed losing money. But here we have Chas Green despite being in the backwater of Scottish football for approximately six months he has found the Midas touch that will transform a toxic brand into gold regardless of the fact that they are in the lowest financial wrung of our game while paying an SPL coaching staff and five SPL players.
While income may increase over the coming years cost are all at SPL level; Policing, security, rates, and power don’t discount depending what league you play in. So costs may begin to reduce the yearly debt as the years go by but the simple fact is that the debt will continue to climb. Now on top of that if you factor in the possible fine from the SPL investigation which at least, if found guilty, will be the prize money just like Lance Armstrong. However if found guilty there could, and most would expect, a fine somewhere in the millions as an actual sentence otherwise it is like finding the guy who burgled your house and only get your goods back while the criminal goes on his merry way.
I suppose when the share prospectus document comes out we might actually get an insight into the ‘five way agreement’ as the possible sanctions and conditions of membership will have to be mentioned . If they aren’t then every fan in the country will know that our sport has been sacrificed on the altar of spineless expediency.
Anyway back to my original question; I don’t think institutions will touch this share issue unless they want a tax write off so I think the fans will chip in somewhere in the region of £2.6M.
Will that be enough to see them through to the season ticket money comes in next year?
I’m not so sure.
Green said, “Speak to Manchester United. They are not hostile to Rangers joining.”
But United disputed Green’s claims.
“We are not in favor of it at all. We are against it,” United spokesman Phil Townsend said. “Our view is it’s the English Premier League and should remain that way.”
——
I genuinely laughed out loud when I read that. 🙂 Whatever lazy journalism is included elsewhere in that piece, hats off to the boy for calling Man U and getting an immediate confirmation of Mr Charles speaking nonsense from them.
Love it.
Love the Barcelona piece from the Spanish press quoted above too. Mr Charles is getting very reckless with his tripe, choosing to talk nonsense that can be easily be shown up as such with minimal effort.
Best go back to the forked tongue, Charles. The blatant lies aren’t working. 🙂
Palacio67 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 18:10
14 1 Rate This
slimshady61 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 16:32
7 0 Rate This
How to win friends and influence people…
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15877/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=4KDiALOg
————–
That was actually so absurd it was funny. Ironic that Green is hanging on to the coattails of Celtic. Is it desperation? Has he got some serious money on the line? Or does he actually believe his own hype? In one sense he comes across as a bit of a supremacist.
angus1983 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 21:24Rate This
Green said, “Speak to Manchester United. They are not hostile to Rangers joining.”
But United disputed Green’s claims.
“We are not in favor of it at all. We are against it,” United spokesman Phil Townsend said. “Our view is it’s the English Premier League and should remain that way.”
——
I genuinely laughed out loud when I read that. 🙂 Whatever lazy journalism is included elsewhere in that piece, hats off to the boy for calling Man U and getting an immediate confirmation of Mr Charles speaking nonsense from them.
Love it.
Love the Barcelona piece from the Spanish press quoted above too. Mr Charles is getting very reckless with his tripe, choosing to talk nonsense that can be easily be shown up as such with minimal effort.
Best go back to the forked tongue, Charles. The blatant lies aren’t working
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
If it wasn’t for this blog keeping tabs on him his LIES would go unnoticed.
The rest of the business world must dread something like the “Scottish Business Monitor” being launched.
I’m starting to question the contributions on here.
I like some diversity.
readcelt @ 21:50
Why question the conributions
We are all bampots after all 🙂
readcelt says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 21:50
I’m starting to question the contributions on here. I like some diversity.
——————————————————————————————————
I look forward to your contribution on diversity as I’m sure it will not only be worth reading but provide lots of good debate.
While waiting for your post I suggest viewing: ‘Tunes of Glory’ which I think captures Green’s descent into what appears to be a severe dislocation from reality.
readcelt says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 21:50
I’m starting to question the contributions on here.
I like some diversity.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
Aye riiight….Ashley Banjo 🙂
This may be kinda OT, but it keeps ringing bells in mah heid…. bear (no pun intended) with me. 🙂
Trained up to and back from Scotland in the past week, and had some ‘dead’ time up there.
Read a lot – mainly a plump, wonderful, pacy, new thriller from Gerald Seymour: A Deniable Death.
For me the Central character was a decent man, not educated but skilled in a way that meant he was sought after and needed to complete a task that few people could.
Play is made of his ‘ignorance’.
For instance, he fails to understand that the process in which he becomes involved will result in the INTERDICTION of another character.
He thinks INTERDICTION (in the world of espionage) implies that the person to be interdicted will be approached and chatted to about …perhaps… switching sides, changing, becoming a good guy…
Not till too late does he realise that INTERDICTION means deid, blootered, gone, in deep repose, annulled, killed.
It reminded me of a type of Scottish football fans’ attitude towards their club in their lack of understanding of the realité of the world, in which a version of it now operates.
BTW, the above Seymour character is named, Badger…
bogsdollox says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 21:50
angus1983 says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 21:24Rate This
If it wasn’t for this blog keeping tabs on him his LIES would go unnoticed.
The rest of the business world must dread something like the “Scottish Business Monitor” being launched.
——————-
I agree bogsdollox. But, apart from TRFC being in Div 3, it’s as though nothing else has happened as far as TRFC supporters and MSM are concerned. We are expending a lot of time and energy debating and alerting the potential share purchasers to the risks/dangers of getting involved in the TRFC share issue.
Why don’t we stop the share issue warnings now and let them spend their money on the shares.
Looking forward to discussing FTT(T) decision.
From RM
ESPN Espana doing a documentary on Rangers fans.
“They travelled over and think they were with the fans the last few games at Ibrox.
it is going out to US/Far East etc in March/April.
And French journalists will be travelling with Bridgeton Loyal supporters club for tomorrows game.
Who was it again that we were dead?
It’s not going to be like your usual Scottish media sh*te either. It’s a good thing, only in Scotland would they try and do a hatchet job.”
Am I the only one to think that this may not go the way ra peepul expect 🙂 ?
The MSM seem to think that Mr Charles’ lies are of the comical kind. I happened to over hear an old guy in the pub tonight. He’s apparently already got his £500 in an envelope ready to hand it over to the cause.
God help them.
Think this is Charlie’s strategy for the end game
It assumes the Ticketus ST Contract is alive and well and has been sold with the assets to Sevco 5088. It is now either a current asset of Sevco5088 or it is an asset of another Sevco co. It may have a rescheduled timetable perhaps even deferred until Sevco return to the SPL. Either way Sevco Scotland is lumbered with £40m of debt to be repaid to someone.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Immediately following the Asset Purchase Agreement Charlie wanted to reveal that Sevco Scotland were still lumbered with £40m of Ticketus debt. However the Bears were not receptive to that sort of news. Even worse there was serious suspicion about Greens intentions. So he made a fateful decision to conceal the Ticketus ST Contract. Instead he thought up a strategy designed to get him out of Glasgow without plastic surgery.
The Strategy
Green decided he would embark on a charm offensive. It was (and still is) aimed at persuading Sevco fans that he is a “True Son of William”.
The purpose of the charm offensive is to prepare the ground for gullible fans to be presented with a gullible choice
Either
Dig deep and find £20m to take Sevco forward and recreate the superior culture that the deid club had enjoyed for 140yrs
Or
Don`t dig deep and find £20m
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
i.e.
The request for funds will deliberately be presented as a casual “this is a good thing for the club “sort of appeal backed by fudged answers to any questions.
The likely outcome of such a strategy is predictable.
The share issue will flop. After fees and expenses it may raise no more than £2m to £3m. For sure it will not raise anything close to £20m
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Then comes the killer punch
Green admits with deep sorrow that Sevco really needed £20m not £2m or £3m. He warns that a 3rd Div Administration is now a real possibility. At this point he reveals the Ticketus ST contract is still in place
,,,,,,,,,,
Charlie blames this on a hardnosed D&P. He hints D&P could well have been acting on behalf of the wicked Craig Whyte. Although he has no proof another Glasgow Club might also be involved.
Close to tears, Green announces he may have to depart Ibrox as without £20m he is unable to give fans what they deserve.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The professional investigative journalism that characterises Scottish Football immediately swings into action.
Green is located crying copious tears in the Lowden. After seconds of aggressive interrogation by Chic Young, Charlie concedes it might not all be his fault. Maybe some teeny weeny blame is down to fans who rightly put their children’s Xmas before Sevco Scotland. If only The Cardigan had been in charge and not a poor Yorkie. All he can do now is apologise and live forever in shame
The interview terminates in a mutual flood of tears with both Chics blubbering their undying love for mutual friends in the Sons of William
,,,,,,,,,,,,
The End Game
The Administrator announces that the Ticketus ST Contract will survive liquidation of Sevco.
So a CVA is the only answer
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Enter The Cardigan from stage left proclaiming he will invest everything he has to save Sevco (he calls them “Rangers” because he doesn’t want to confuse the gullible)
“There is only one solution” says The Cardigan
“We must dig deep and pay off the wicked Ticketus for daring to ask for their money back and a profit to boot”
“We need another fundraising to raise £50m” and sort out this mess”
,,,,,,,,,,
The result is predictable
,,,,,,,,,,,
The fund raising flops
,,,,,,,,,,
Sevco die and go to the bad fire where they meet RFC
“Daddy” cries Sevco
“Guess what happened after your funeral?”
“Don`t call me Daddy says RFC”
“I`m died and had no weans so **** off”
Green said. “They definitely would. Why wouldn’t Barcelona want to play Rangers home and away
==========================
I think the good people of Barcelona have made it quite clear that they would really rather not have their city trashed again. As have the good people of several other cities.
After spending my entire week redacting sensitive information from the email replies and fending off top QC’s of the toppest of the top variety trying to silence my relentless bampotic behaviour, i can exclusively reveal in a white bricked, half cut kinda way, that Hibs board sent a courteous reply that addressed none of the content………
And that was it.
Maybe Man Utd are putting the pressure on in their prolonged campaign to have the mighty The Rangers fans back in Manchester for a Saturday 3pm kickoff.
Before the actual football kicks off on the Sunday at 4pm.
Live on crimewatch.
Again.
Celtic Underground, Twitter…..@HarryBradyCU: Anyone know what time first editions of tomorrows papers come out? Wife is at shops and i’d ask here to pick one up for TV guide
@celticrumours: @HarryBradyCU he he he
?
Slim
get yer erse doon the shoaps.
With the deepest of respect.
M8Dreamer
As a Scottish Football Supporter, I would be ecstatic if Rangers Tribute Act would leave Scottish Football and join the Irish League, Dutch League, English Premiership or any other league that would want them, to enable ourselves to be rid of this abhorent “football institution” for ever.
I have just read the latest bo£?ocks from charlie the chief tube…OMG!…Why is this clown allowed to vomit this sh@te unchallenged?…Celtic are now becoming a constant in his rambling garbage….mans a prize phud!
Rab says:
Slim
get yer erse doon the shoaps.
————————————-
I hope there are a couple of typos in there.