If the last twelve years have told us anything, it is that the football authorities are far less interested in the actual sport, the processes of playing the game and maintaining fair competition, and totally devoted to the acquisition of the spare cash lying around in fans’ pockets.
The lies and contortions which went into attempting to save the dying Rangers Football Club, and the subsequent ridiculous proposition that the dead club had come to life again as the One True Rangers (despite two of them having actually participated in the same vote at the same time), and in fact had never died at all; we were only kidding etc etc. These were all targeted at the fantasist notion that the blue pound was a prerequisite for the success of the game.
But it was never about the turnover of Scottish Football as whole, rather the ringfencing of cash by those in charge of our top half-dozen clubs, whose boardrooms could easily serve secondary purposes as Tory Party committee rooms, populated by those who insist on conflating aspiration with acquisition.
Of course, it is not just Scotland that the malaise has visited. The inequitable distribution of wealth in society, grotesquely in favour of those at the top and in charge of the means of distributing information is mirrored in football all over Europe, where cash-rich clubs routinely pick up titles giving them access to even greater riches in European competition. Apart from England, where there may realistically be four or five challengers for their championship, there is hardly a top league in Europe where you can’t predict who will be on top of the pile come the end of the season. In short, European football is the land of the one, or two-horse race
It is curious therefore that national leagues remain the most important competitions to fans and TV companies, despite UEFA competitions being far and away more competitive.
One odd anomaly is that despite Scotland’s football leagues being the best attended in the world in terms of percentage of population, the TV and streaming cash available to our game is multiples less than the cash available in similar sized countries, for example in Scandinavian, Dutch and Belgian football. One would think that this stat alone would result in P45s being issued at Hampden, but ho-hum …
Leaving the last paragraph aside, the point I am arriving at (slowly, but hopefully steadily) is that the logical progression to the inequitable distribution of the game’s riches is a move away from national leagues to elite European and world competition. This is a move which takes participants in the game away from the roots of the sport itself, and distances the owners, the managements and the players even further from the fans. The relationship between fans and clubs, players in particular, is based on the belief that there is a common cause, a shared goal between them. Further evolution into the kind of sport I see in ten years time will I believe finally break that bond, and the beautiful game we grew up with, the wonderful shared joy (and pain) will be no more.
If they all buggered off and started new clubs with different names, like Glasgow Gorrillas, Edinburgh Hadyertees, Dundee Donkeys, that would be fine, but what they have all taken from us is our clubs’ histories and identities.
They knew that when Rangers died. Having that brand was not enough. They needed the history because they thought that was the effective way to monetise it. My own feeling is that it wasn’t necessary to pretend. The old club was gone anyway. Rangers fans would not have deserted the new Rangers playing in blue at Ibrox.
However the rest of our clubs are still here after a century and a half of serving their communities. Taking those histories, those traditions, and using them just to enrich the few is to mind appalling.
A sizeable section (though absolutely not all) of Rangers fans believe in the continuity myth, but like our government knows, having a compliant media allows the lie to peddled ad nauseam. Football has that compliant media to help grow it into something it was never intended to be.
My own view is that a more equitable formula for sharing gate, sponsorship and media monies is the only way forward if we are to get the game back to what it was intended to be. Not a view popular amongst fans of clubs based in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen – and yet ironically, the real glory days of those clubs all took place when there was a more equitable distribution of cash in the game and where real competition was allowed to grow.
Like our country, now in the grip of neo-fascists who want to stifle freedoms and rights at their whim, football is in the grip of like-minded greed. In both cases, it’s probably too late to do anything positive.
Think there is movement behind the scenes to get rid of Bennets regime .
Was the GASL not pushing for American involvement not too long ago .
IIRC he blocked certain shareholders from voting funnily I thought some of them were guys he was recently looking to get into bed with to force Bennets hand
A plugin has broken the site for logged in users – unfortunately whilst I was on holiday. Now fixed and ready to resume the banter 🙂
Interesting season ahead. Looks like Celtic slipping back a bit, Hearts & Rangers about the same, Hibs in freefall, Aberdeen looking solid.
St Mirren and Killie also with a great start.
As I say, interesting …
I’m afraid the “edit comments” plugin was one of the rogue plugins causing the site to fall over, so that facility is gone for the time being.
I will be updating the site before Christmas. Give it a leaner, but more colourful look. At that time I will try to add some user-friendly functions.
Also considering a trial of allowing comments by non-registered members. Worn that t-shirt before of course but who knows 🙂
Had a reply from AIM Regulation, but haven’t been able to post it.
very quiet place these days. Is everything ok?
goodmorning
My apologies folks. Over my extended break I thought I had fixed one problem but neglected another.
My focus over the next few weeks will be to change the look and functionality of the site. Meanwhile, be kind about the new blog 🙂
New travel stuff appears to have united everyone – so far 🙂
I said in my post of 21 August at 00.28 that I would post any reply that I received to my email to AIM Regulation ‘complaining’ about what I believe was the Nominated Adviser’s failure to notice that the ‘Prospectus’ issued by RIFC plc in 2012 was in my opinion misleading and ought to have corrected to show the truth.
This is the first opportunity I have had to post that reply. (I had said that I would post both the reply and the full text of my letter. On second thoughts, though, my email to AIM Regulation is a bit on the long side, and the general run of readers of the SFM know already know my view point so I won’t post it here.)
“AIM Regulation aimregulation@lseg.com
To:
(me)@yahoo.co.uk
Cc:
AIM Regulation
Fri, 25 Aug at 14:58
CORPORATE
Thank you for your further email…regarding Rangers International Football Club plc (the “Company”) outlining your concerns regarding: (i) information in the Company’s Prospectus dated 7 December 2012, prior to admission of the Company’s securities to AIM; and (ii) information in the Investor Information pages on the Company’s website.
AIM Regulation considers all enquiries relating to matters within our remit, which is compliance with the AIM Rules for Companies and AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers and takes action where appropriate. In this regard, please note that our remit does not extend to any current information on the Company’s website, noting that admission of the Company’s securities to AIM was cancelled in 2015.
As indicated, we can assure you that we consider all enquiries and investigate alleged breaches of our rules. However, you will appreciate that confidentiality is essential in maintaining the integrity of our work and, accordingly, please note we are unable to comment on individual enquiries.
Kind regards
AIM REGULATION ”
I can accept that “AIM Regulation” has no brief to look at an application by a Company to have its securities admitted to “AIM” because, of course, until it is admitted it is not a member company of “AIM”.
And I understand that a member company kicked out of “AIM” ceases to be a member.
But this leads to the absurd situation in which a Company could issue a misleading Prospectus, capitalising on the good name and market history of an entirely different company for a couple of years, and when it ceases (for reasons unconnected with its Prospectus) to be a member company of “AIM”, “AIM Regulation” can do nothing in respect of investigating whether their Prospectus was misleading!
I will make that point in my reply to “AIM Regulation” indicating that I will copy my original email and their reply to it, to the FCA, asking how it can be right that the in-house regulatory body can be so limited in its powers of regulation that it cannot investigate a complaint about a Prospectus!
After listening to pundits’ comments on football at the weekend (and before) , it seems that a foul is only committed if the players “claim” for one . When did that become a rule ?
Paddy malarkey
If that is the case I would point any of those uttering such to the penalty sevco 2012 got in the cup game v morton .
Picking up on your post BP. Couldn’t agree more especially the points about the value of competitive domestic leagues translating into European success and the weakening of the link between clubs and fans.
There was a fairly wide ranging article with Arsene Wenger in The Independent in his role as (from what I could figure out) global head of football development at FIFA. He talked a lot about transfer fees, rich v poor countries, developing players and tactical developments. But unless I missed it he didn’t once mention the fans.
Personally I would have a more equitable sharing of revenues (especially European incomes) on basis that European spots are awarded to the country. We could go out on a limb and do this as Scotland on basis that we believe it will strengthen the domestic league, improve all teams and lead to improved European results – this would be my preference.
wokingcelt
7th September 2023 at 21:56
‘…Personally I would have a more equitable sharing of revenues…’
+++++++++++++
Worth a wee read
https://scottishfootballmatters.org/2021/03/25/why-did-the-other-scottish-football-clubs-take-the-daft-decision-in-1980-that-the-old-firm-could-keep-all-their-home-gate-receipts/
We’re not to be demonised after all
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66753478
paddy malarkey
8th September 2023 at 18:27
‘…We’re not to be demonised after all’
+++++++++
Well, I am no fan of Douglas Ross as being a politician whose politics are very, very different from mine [ note: I do not accept the creeping American bastardisation of our language, where even BBC England now uses ‘different to’, as do some asreholes on BBC Radio Scotland.} Things ‘differ from’ or are ‘similar to’ other things, ffs!]
But I agree with him on this issue!
I speak lightheartedly tonight, cheered by our victory in Cyprus.
Woking Celt
Auldheid is also a champion of equitable distribution of Euro cash. I think we need to be far more radical. The “culture” Scottish football favours the two big Glasgow clubs to such an extent that genuine competition was already difficult to achieve before gate-sharing was abandoned.
The retention of gate money makes that imbalance even more entrenched imo.
Of course it’s never gonna happen, but my view (which perhaps betrays my politics) is that money men have taken over our top clubs. They have zero interest in competition, and there is very little in terms of motivation that would incentivise them to look at improving the sport vs their bottom line.
Ultimately they will destroy the sport: nothing last forever after all, but I really feel that our gaze should be inward, and not jealously eye-ing the riches in European football.
Rather than touring the Ranger’s museum ( should that be Ranger’s 1 and Sevco Ranger’s 2 versions), would Mr. Beale not be better off taking a peek at the England training session on their training ground. According to most reports he may need some asisstance in gaining knowledge in tatics, etc. Showing the past glories of Rangers 1 and Rangers 2 is highly unlikley to spark an uptick in their fortunes on the field.
Well, all I can say is that we were absolutely utter rubbish tonight!
Well and truly gubbed.
Gubbed from kick-off.
Big punts up the field instead of clever close-work passing , always on the back foot in the first half: a small improvement after the substitutions not sustained ..
Honest to God, Scottish Football must have done something very bad, to be thus punished .
I wonder what that bad thing might have been?
Naw, we all know that Scottish Football is living a lie at its very heart
And hell mend it!
vernallen 09/09 22.49
Further to your comment regarding Englands use of the facilities at the RTC, i’m sure you will agree that it was a great gesture by Gareth Southgate to put on another session at Hampden and invite 49,000 Scottish fans to attend.
Bravo Gareth, Bravo.
vernallen
11th September 2023 at 22:49
Rather than touring the Ranger’s museum………
////////////////////////////////////////////////////
For some reason, I keep reading that as Rangers’ mausoleum. Can’t think why.
Far removed from football matters and by way of light relief can I say that I have just been viewing the live transmission of the impeachment trial v the Attorney General of Texas, Paxton.
Interesting to see the less deferential attitude of the proceedings and note that the judge consulted his own legal team, sitting behind him, switching off his microphone as he did so!
Give me the Court of Session anytime.
Except, perhaps, when it comes to its body-swerving on the death of a football club!
And its careful brotherly readiness not to question the ridiculous notion that TRFC of 2012 foundation is RFC of 1872!
Honest to God.
Sometimes JC you have to tip your hat to the better team – the talent England have in their attack minded midfielders and forwards is several levels above us. And in Bellingham they have a World Player. Not comparing us to them, but we do not appear to be producing those types of players in Scotland at this time. Personally I would like to see Shankland given a chance and if Harvey Barnes can be convinced to join us that would be a boost. And I note that Spain had their youngest ever international player capped this last week – if Ben Doak is good enough then age shouldn’t be a barrier…
wokingcelt
15th September 2023 at 22:19
‘….Sometimes JC you have to tip your hat to the better team .’
+++++++
You’re right of course, wokingcelt. And I readily acknowledge the brilliant skills of Bellingham and one or two of the other England players.
But why where we so out of it in the first half? There seemed to be no self-belief, and a definite dysfunctionality as a team.
I’m not knowledgeable enough to even think of criticising Clarke, but there has to be a connection between the substitutions he made and the better functioning of the team thereafter. Why did he not see that a substitution might (ought to have?) been made earlier?
But being beaten by England in a meaningless sporting event (as opposed to a money-making opportunity for the Associations!) is neither here nor there, except in so far as it serves as a lesson in avoiding ‘hubris’!
But here’s to us, and wha’s like us!
Incidentally and by the way (and I imagine that not every reader of SFM is particularly interested) can I say that I have tonight sent an email to the Financial Conduct Authority forwarding the e-mail chain of my correspondence with AIM Regulation.
‘AIM Regulation’ (the in-house disciplinary body) told me that since the would-be plc (RIFC) was not a member company of AIM at the time, their remit gives them no power of investigation.
And that since RIFC ceased to be a member company of AIM a few years ago (because they had no replacement for the ‘nominated adviser’ who had resigned) they were unable to act!
My email to the FCA asks, basically, who the **** looks at the Prospectus issued by would-be PLCs to check the truth of what is said or implied?
Of course, me being me, my email is written in the most polite and civilised manner.
But it is a mucky, mucky world out there, the world of business. The FCA is not a government department. It is funded by the world of business!
It ultimately has to watch its step vis-a-vis the ‘world of business’.
And, as we know, the world of business doesn’t give a tuppenny damn about truth and morality!
As exampled by our own SFA and SPFL, in my opinion.
Honest to God!
What were they, what are they, like!
From Friday’s Rolls of Court :
LORD BRAID – R Hamilton, Clerk
Court 6 – Parliament House
Tuesday 19th September
Debate (2 days)
COS/CA6-23 Livingston Football Club Ltd v Neil Hogarth Blackwater Law Limited Shoosmiths LLP Traditional
COS/CA40-23 Neil Rankine v Livingston Football Club Ltd
Drummond Miller LLP Blackwater Law Limited
I don’t think I’ve even heard or read of this matter!
Can anyone carefully shed some light?
There will be jubilation in the stands at Ibrox , methinks .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland
Apologies if I’ve caused offence .
paddy malarkey above
One of the attractions of this site (unlike many other ‘partisan’ ones), is that folk like yourself are prepared to come on and admit when they feel they may have caused (even unintentionally) offence, and I think you’ve gracefully done that.
However, I have no doubt that there will be some glee amongst the more ‘rabid’ supporters (you get them everywhere to be fair) down Govan way – so don’t be too hard on yourself.
As a Celtic supporter I think the club has (belatedly) taken the right step with regard to the historic abuse cases. One can argue about strict legal liability but my take is one of perception and association. I have no idea how one begins to calculate compensation for such abuse and then allocate on the basis of what I believe the lawyers call “proportional liability”, but on completion of that process I would like my club to make a donation to a reputable charity that helps young people who have suffered abuse regardless of where the abuse took place. No doubt such abuse was more widespread and the damage caused less understood in the past – let’s support those who work to improve lives.
wokingcelt
21st September 2023 at 22:28
‘.One can argue about strict legal liability but my take is one of perception and association..’
++++++
I think I agree with you.
Any chancer claiming to set up a Celtic boys’ club would have been given short shrift (in my opinion) if the Celtic board had not been happy to allow him to do so,
It was a good idea at the time.
been supported and allowed to use that title by Celtic unless they were supportive of
my post 22.28 refers
made a pig’s ear of it accidentally pressing ‘send’ before I had finished and edited!
It seems to me that Celtic were happy enough to have someone run ‘boys’ club, using their name as if it was an actual part of Celtic plc (or the previous Celtic Football and Athletic Club).
They have, as seems to me, at least a vicarious liability, perhaps, in that while they may have benefited from having the ‘product’ of that boys’ club they appeared not to have checked it out in any way.
( Voice from the ether: you! shut your mouth about Res 12 and integrity)
John Clark
18th September 2023 at 22:36
From Friday’s Rolls of Court :
COS/CA6-23 Livingston Football Club Ltd v Neil Hogarth Blackwater Law Limited Shoosmiths LLP Traditional
COS/CA40-23 Neil Rankine v Livingston Football Club Ltd
Drummond Miller LLP Blackwater Law Limited
I don’t think I’ve even heard or read of this matter!
Can anyone carefully shed some light?
Possibly tied into : https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/former-livingston-fc-director-neil-26452277
Best regards
fitbawfan
22nd September 2023 at 19:14
‘….Possibly tied into : https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/former-livingston-fc-director-neil-26452277‘
+++++++
That’s extremely helpful, fitbawfan, and thank you.
I wish I had followed my first impulse which was to attend the hearing in person, but I was sure that I read that the business would be live-streamed. But when I read the info page on the website there was no ‘case code'(you need to quote the case code when you phone to get linked in)
That was for the Tuesday, and if there was a case-code for the Wednesday I wouldn’t in the event have been able to attend.
I’ll now try to find other earlier articles satisfy my curiosity!
Thanks again.
Hadn’t seen this posted but sorry if it’s a duplicate .
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/rangers-tycoon-david-grier-5m-31008144
paddy malarkey
23rd September 2023 at 12:27
‘..Hadn’t seen this posted but sorry if it’s a duplicate..’
+++++++++
I hadn’t seen that report, pm, not being a reader of such a Pinocchio of a ‘newspaper’ as the DR which can write garbage such as
“Detectives and prosecutors believed the law had been broken during the time the club was sold to now-disgraced wheeler dealer Craig Whyte”!
Honest to God! What are they liek, who cannot admit the plain, objective truth:
that it was Rangers Football Club of 1872 (and not some ‘holding company’) that was required to surrender its share in the SPL and ceased thereby to be a football club entitled to membership of the SFA
and that Charles Green did not buy Rangers Football Club of 1872: his band of footballers did not become a shareholder in the SPL but had to beg for a place in the SFL before it could even apply for membership of the SFA.
The good thing about Grier’s knock-back by the UK Supreme Court is that it saves us taxpayers having to shell out some more millions on account of the feckin balls-up made by our polis and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service!
We will never hear the full story of course-and I imagine that the SMSM has no interest in anything other than perpetuating the fiction that RFC of 1872 is simultaneously both alive and kicking in the SPFL and lying in Liquidation awaiting dissolution as soon as the Liquidators have signed off.
Not for the SMSM to seek truth that might be inconvenient and cost them loss of revenue!
I don’t think there is a journalist working in the SMSM who is a member of the ICIJ?
Re my post at 22.31 tonight, it’s my turn to apologise!
Of course Craig Whyte bought Rangers of 1872.
I am so determined on getting the SMSM to recognise that CG did NOT buy RFC 1872 that I got carried away!
[Mrs C and I were in Pitlochry yesterday to celebrate our 53rd wedding anniversary and take in a play at the Festival Theatre featuring Taggart actor John Michie. I bought ‘The Scotsman’ but never had time to read it, so I don’t know if they reported the Grier result. Came back down the road this evening, without the paper]
On the Boys’ Club thing, I think that Celtic are being a little disingenuous with regard to liability.
There is no question that the CBC was not officially part of the club, but neither is it reasonably in doubt that CBC was sanctioned and encouraged by the club.
If there are mitigating circumstances they would be the same for all institutions and individuals in the context of the times.
These were not matters that were discussed freely as they are now. It is understandable that folk swept it under the carpet in the hope that it would “go away”. I know of people who simply stopped their kids going back to play football at the CBC rather than make an issue out of it.
I was never involved in any of that kind of stuff back in the day, although there was always chat, which the 15 year-old me chose to classify as just gossip, and that leads me back to how the culture at that time made it difficult to speak out.
Having never been abused as a child, I can’t imagine what my reaction would have been, but I often think to myself how on earth I could have gone to either of my parents to tell them that a priest, or some other trusted pillar of society had made sexual advances. I think it would have been out of the question for me to do so.
We don’t live in those times any more, and instead of getting out from under the whole thing by admitting shortcomings, organisations (like the Catholic Church in particular) have compounded the felony by continuing to bury the truth, and in Celtic’s case to offer a flimsy “nothing to do wiv us guv!” proffer.
The difficulties faced by individuals which resulted in failing to acknowledge what went on in the 60s/70s are one thing, but they no longer apply. As a Celtic fan, I would much rather the club took responsibility for its part in the mess. They do have an historical sins of omission case to answer, but they most definitely have failed to properly face that fact.
The real problem for Celtic as an institution is not the financial liabilities they face as a consequence of court action, but the reputational damage that will surely follow if they fail to step up.
The FCA asked me to give them the name of the ‘nominated adviser’ who acted for RIFC plc in relation to the Prospectus issued by that company in 2012.
I replied giving the name of the firm [Cenkos Securities].
This is their reply:
“FCA – Individuals Inbox consumer.queries@fca.org.uk
To:
(me) @yahoo.co.uk Fri, 22 Sept at 12:16
Our ref: As before
Dear Mr ….,
Thanks for your further email and for providing the information requested. This additional information has been shared with my colleagues in the team that supervises the conduct of the NOMAD for their consideration.
Please be aware that as much of our work is covered by legal and policy restrictions, I won’t be able to provide feedback about how the information is used.
I hope this is helpful and thanks again for taking the time to send me this information.
Yours sincerely.
Nicci Grady
Supervisor / Supervision Hub
Supervision – Retail and Authorisations / Tel: 0207 066 1000
Financial Conduct Authority
12 Endeavour Square
London
E20 1JN
Tel: +44 (0)20 7066 1000
http://www.fca.org.uk.
+++++
I shall be writing again to the FCA to insist that I be told that there will at least be an investigation, even if ‘confidentiality’ rules out the possibility of me being told the outcome of such. [Interestingly enough, the FCA’s Annual Report 2022/23 itself does name a small number of the companies which they hit with penalties for breaches of one rule or another]
In my in-box today is an email from the ICIJ [ International Consortium of Investigative Journalists]
from which I give you this:
” Dozens of charges against Pinto — who is also the source behind ICIJ’s Luanda Leaks — were dropped due to a recent amnesty. He faces 377 charges in a separate case tied to the exposé that revealed the dark underbelly of the global football industry.
By Matei Rosca
September 11, 2023
Rui Pinto, the Portuguese whistleblower behind an unprecedented leak that rocked European football, was given a four-year suspended sentence by a Lisbon court after being convicted of nine crimes, including attempted extortion and unauthorized entry into computer systems.
The 34-year-old, who rose to global prominence after being revealed as the creator of the Football Leaks website, faced 90 charges but benefited from Portugal’s recent amnesty for some young offenders.
In addition to operating the Football Leaks website, Pinto also shared millions of confidential documents with journalists from Der Spiegel, European Investigative Collaborations and other outlets between 2015 and 2018. The files revealed how the world’s top football clubs, players and executives used extensive offshore networks to dodge taxes and avoid scrutiny of their business dealings.
The court decided Rui Pinto will be handed a single four-year sentence … but there is no need to serve the sentence in prison,” Judge Margarida Alves of the Lisbon Central Criminal Court said.
“The court hopes that the regret [Pinto has shown in court] is serious and that from now on he refrains from performing acts as described here.”
I love that phrase ‘the dark underbelly of the global football industry.’
‘global’ makes one think of FIFA, and of UEFA.
But of course, any constituent part of UEFA or FIFA might have a ‘dark underbelly’!
I suppose the ICIJ would not be interested in the smaller ‘dark underbelly’ of a small country’s national football association.
But maybe I’ll write to them on the point. Just to make a point!
I enjoyed reading this morning about the case mentioned at this link: [the case has nothing at all to do with football or IPO Prospectuses, but it is heartening to see that the FCA does take disciplinary action and can make the details public]
fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-takes-action-against-darren-reynolds-and-andrew-deeney-active-wealth-dishonest-pension-transfer
Hope this helps JC.
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-takes-action-against-darren-reynolds-and-andrew-deeney-active-wealth-dishonest-pension-transfer
In my post on 27th September 2023 at 14.32 I said that I shall be writing again to the FCA to insist that I be told that there will at least be an investigation.’
I wrote today, and this is the text of my email
me@yahoo.co.uk>
To:
consumer.queries@fca.org.uk Fri, 29 Sept at 12:20
FAO: Nicci Grady
Dear Nicci Grady,
My apologies for breaking the email chain!
Many thanks for your letting me know that you have ‘shared the information’ with relevant colleagues.
While I perfectly understand the ‘confidentiality’ requirement as to the outcome of FCA investigations I expect that I may be told that there will be an investigation into my assertion that the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc in 2012 contained misleading information and that your colleagues do not simply bin the information provided without serious consideration.
Best regards,
JC’
I received an automatic acknowledgement of that email.
Will I get a human being’s response?
Will I write to my MP if I don’t?
Would he/she bother his/her ar.e if I did? At a time of political party conferences?
Me? Cynical?
Our print SMSM chaps and the cowardly folk at Pacific Quay have made me so.
I haven’t posted on TSFM for ages.
This article pretty much sums up my attempts to explain Scottish football to folk in Norwich.
I hope to be able to resume posting regularly soon and I’ve just added my latest contribution to ensure that the site can continue.
The Cat NR1
The Cat NR1
Good to her from you again my friend. Contribution also gratefully accepted 🙂
Been keeping the appeal low-key since we sent out the email, but it’s live on the site now👍
J
The Cat NR1
30th September 2023 at 00:0
‘..I haven’t posted on TSFM for ages…’
+++++++
Welcome back at an interesting time, with Beale of Rangers just havin been sacked ten minutes ago or so!
From wiki :
“Following the club’s liquidation in 2012, Davis exercised his rights under TUPE regulations to rescind his contract and become a free agent, returning to the Premier League with Southampton. During his later years with Southampton, he captained the side before returning to Rangers under manager Steven Gerrard in 2019.”
Aye, he deserted the sunken vessel and was legally free to do so because liquidation ended the very life and existence of RFC of 1872 as a football club belonging to a recognised football league and was therefore not entitled to continue in membership of the SFA.
So much so was that the case that the SFA insisted that SevcoScotland had to find some recognised league to give it a place, before it could even apply as a new club for membership of the SFA
Longmuir saw to it that the SFL provided a berth.
And then the SFA and the SPL/SFL decided to lie and pretend that Charie’s new club was RFC of 1872.
And the SMSM and BBC bought into that absurd piece of sporting nonsense..
Davis’ welcome back Ibrox is but another manifestation of the Board’s desperate need to keep propagating the lie that RFC of 1872 did not cease to exist.
From Jane Lewis BBC Scotland at 21.43 tonight:
“The new management team will take charge for the first time in their Europa League match against Aris Limassol on Thursday and with that in mind, we understand the club are happy that between the interim coaching staff they have the correct Uefa licence for managing/coaching in Europe”
Will the BBC check independently with UEFA any more than they checked anything else that RIFC plc/TRFC told them about the Res 12 matter?
The SMSM and BBC Scotland simply do not do any independent checking, but merely act as PR people broadcasting what they are told.
I suspect that there is not journalist among them that would not be spat upon by those journalists furth of Scotland who have been killed for seeking truth rather than parroting nonsense.
In the present instance RIFC plc my well be telling the truth. But surely the BBC should make a wee quiet enquiry of its own, given the buggering about that Hearts had to suffer!
From Jane Lewis BBC Scotland at 21.43 tonight:
“The new management team will take charge for the first time in their Europa League match against Aris Limassol on Thursday and with that in mind, we understand the club are happy that between the interim coaching staff they have the correct Uefa licence for managing/coaching in Europe”
Will the BBC check independently with UEFA any more than they checked anything else that RIFC plc/TRFC told them about the Res 12 matter?
The SMSM and BBC Scotland simply do not do any independent checking, but merely act as PR people broadcasting what they are told.
I suspect that there is not journalist among them that would not be spat upon by those journalists furth of Scotland who have been killed for seeking truth rather than parroting nonsense.
In the present instance RIFC plc my well be telling the truth. But surely the BBC should make a wee quiet enquiry of its own, given the buggering about that Hearts had to suffer!
Apologies if my post of 22.16 appeared twice! Usually the system tells one that one is repeating oneself, and stops one from doing so.
““The search process for the new manager is already underway”, says the RIFC plc/TRFC utterly amateurish ‘statement’ {who writes that rubbishy sh.te for them?].”
Will whoever had the final decision in making Beale the successful candidate for the job be soundly kicked in the ar.e for making an a.se of it?
And removed from any involvement in selecting the new manager?
Oh, for a recording of the Board’s discussions as they try to do what they so failed to do in their appointment of Beale!
Beale has my ordinary human sympathies, of course, and no harm to him from my point of view.
[ except maybe that he was no Walter Smith or Jock Stein in post-match press interviews but rabbited on in Southgate PR talk that made me focus on the mole on his cheek]
John C:
I’m not so sure that there’s a great deal of blame to be attached to the whoever recruited Beale. Contemporary – if anecdotal – evidence throughout the Gerrard regime and beyond suggested that Beale was the tactical and coaching muscle of that team. Probably wasn’t a huge leap to get him onside – especially after his successful start to the job at Loftus Road.
Of course there was a complete absence of dignity and decency in the way he undermined GVB, but I suppose football is a ruthless sport. I know of one former Celtic player who became a successful manager and was ‘tapped up’ by the Celtic board. He sent them away with a flea in their ear because he wouldn’t talk to them unless the man in post knew about it – and he knew the man in post didn’t know a thing.
Of course it’s a jungle out there and the wheels would grind to a halt if continuity planning was disallowed, but the public manner in which Beale did for GVB was poor.
Who knows though, why the successful coach has failed as a manager?
My own feeling is that it is a lottery. Trouble is, reducing the odds is expensive. With a Rogers type, you know exactly what you are getting – but that costs. In the world that most Scottish clubs inhabit, those types are unaffordable.
Our old friend David Low has been banging a drum for years on his strategy at any football club. “Get the best manager you can afford and budget on the playing staff”, he has told me so many times I can finish the sentence for him; “a good manager can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but a poor manager will make a sow’s ear out a silk purse”.
Maybe he’s is correct, but that’s not what football fans want to see or hear from their clubs. Time will tell whether The New Rangers have given themselves enough financial headroom to go with the Low formula. Given the fact that their playing staff salary bill is greater than that of Celtic, I suspect not. But we seldom really know the full financial picture. Too many people have been predicting financial meltdown for the Ibrox club for far too long. But they always seem to be able to find cash when it is needed.
Not quite agreeing with you here BP. As a manager Beale was pretty much untested (his record at QPR was fast start then downhill). Demanding clubs tend not to be a good place to serve your apprenticeship.
I would agree go for the best manager you can afford as this will give a better return than splurging on a superstar player.
What lessons will be learned by the board of TRFC I have no idea and I agree, where they are financially who knows. The big question as always for me is whether we are are realistic with Scottish football’s place in the world (typed as I watch a terrific match between Napoli and Real Madrid)
Looks like David Grier is a persistent fellow:
From today’s Rolls of Court of Session:
” INNER HOUSE ROLLS
FIRST DIVISION
Friday 13th October
Single Bill
CA86/19 Reclaiming Motion (Lord Tyre) David Grier v The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland.
+++
As far as I understand these things, this is Grier’s appeal against Lord Tyre’s decision of 11th January 2022 that he was not ‘maliciously prosecuted’ by Police Scotland.
I wonder whether, if he loses this appeal, he will appeal to the UK Supreme Court [as he did when he lost his appeal to the Court of Session against Lord Tyre’s decision in relation to his claim that the Lord Advocate’s prosecution was ‘malicious’]
As a matter of idle curiosity, does anyone know whether the police officers who were criticised by Lord Tyre are still in the police service? Or for that matter, was anyone in the COPFS called to account for what seemed to me to have been an absolutely farcical balls-up of a ‘prosecution’ even if it was not ‘malicious’?
I sympathised with Lord Bannatyne in his frequent frustrated expostulations :”Mr Deputy-Advocate… I was promised a copy of…’ and ‘which copy of the indictment is the current one?’
[The ‘indictment’ of the ‘accused’ went through several amendments and I sat there wondering at the sheer incompetence of the COPFS, back in the day!]
I daresay someone one day will write a best-seller follow-up to PmcG’s ” Downfall”.
A follow-up in which the saga subsequent to the death of RFC of 1872, including the law-enforcement action and the legal stuff and the actions of the football authorities and the propaganda of untruth by the BBC and the print SMSM is fully exposed.
May I live to see the day!
And would to God I myself was able to write such a best-seller!
(Where is Denise Mina when you want her?)
My latest correspondence with the FCA:
FCA – Individuals Inbox consumer.queries@fca.org.uk
To:
(me)
Mon, 2 Oct at 15:59
Our ref: As before
Dear Mr Clark,
Thanks for your further email. You’ve stated you expect you will be advised whether or not an investigation will take place on the basis of the information you provided.
In my previous emails, I explained we would not be able to provide feedback about how information is used . This includes confirming whether or not we will be carrying out any investigation. As such, we will be unable to provide the information you’re looking for.
I hope this is helpful and has clarified our position.
Yours sincerely,
Nicci Grady
Supervisor / Supervision Hub
Supervision – Retail and Authorisations / Tel: 0207 066 1000
Financial Conduct Authority
12 Endeavour Square
London
E20 1JN
Tel: +44 (0)20 7066 1000
http://www.fca.org.uk
To:
FCA – Individuals Inbox
Mon, 2 Oct at 22:38
Dear Nicci Grady,
Thank you for your clarification.
I appreciate that the FCA is a creature of the London Stock Exchange and perhaps operates much more flexibly than statutory regulatory bodies can in applying its own rules.
Nevertheless, I would have thought a complainant might reasonably expect to be told in terms whether his complaint has even been read!
When the current political party ‘conference season’ is over I think I may have a discussion with my Member of Parliament.
Thank you for your courtesy, and I do apologise to you personally for not knowing whether ‘Nicci’ is ‘Nicola’ or ‘Nicholas’- my next-door neighbour’s wife is ‘Nikki’, and I have a pal called Nicky!
Best regards,
JC
I haven’t been here for a long, long time, but it is welcomely reassuring to see all the familiar names that are still posting.
I hope to resume commenting if or when I think of something mildly interesting to say or comment on.
ThomTheThim
6th October 2023 at 15:05
‘…it is welcomely reassuring to see all the familiar names that are still posting.’
+++++
And it’s lovely to see some of the ‘old’ (as in ‘former’) posters’ pen names again!
Whatever else about Mike Ashley I think his action against the SFA’s readiness to accept Dave King as a ‘fit and proper’ person made it clear that it was TRFC that was the member of the SFA, and not its holding company, RIFC plc.
That ‘finding’ destroyed any notion that it was some ‘holding company’ that was Liquidated while RFC of 1872 somehow remained a member of the SFA! It was RFC of 1872 that was the member of the SFA, and not any other entity owned by CW, and it was RFC of 1872 that died the death of Liquidation.
I was doing some clearing up in the attic today and was reminded of this:
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/judgment?id=a77617a7-8980-69d2-b500-ff0000d74aa7
I think the SFA must have dreaded and hated having to make that point- they took long enough to do it.
I’d like to think that Ashley knew fine and well that being a director of RIFC plc did not mean that that King was a director of ‘Rangers’ and made the petition just to get the SFA to acknowledge in Court that TRFC was not, is not, and cannot possibly be, RFC of 1872.
[ Not of any immediate relevance, we hear today that the FCA is under pretty severe criticism in other areas of ‘finance regulation’ where its inability to act in time is costing lots of individuals thousands of pounds}
Interestingly I see from ‘X’ (the name-change of Twittter made by what I consider to be an a.sehole) that the gombeen man has his critics in the world of Rugby reporting: a plaintive cry- why have an Irish rugby enthusiast reporting for BBC Scotland on the Ireland/Scotland rugby match?
Why have any nationality of reporter in Scotland not reporting the truth about the Liquidation of RFC of 1872 would be my question?
from the Rolls of Court today:
INNER HOUSE ROLLS
FIRST DIVISION
Friday 13th October
Single Bill
“CA86/19 Reclaiming Motion (Lord Tyre) David Grier v The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland”
Got to chuckle at tonight’s news that the SFA have written to UEFA asking that they explain/clarify the disallowed goal in Seville. When was the last time a VAR decision was explained/clarified in the domestic game???
wokingcelt
13th October 2023 at 19:04
‘..Got to chuckle at tonight’s news that the SFA have written to UEFA asking that they explain/clarify the disallowed goal in Seville.’
++++++++
Mmmm, wokingcelt!, that may give BBC Scotland ‘Sportsound’ a wee problem!
Richard Gordon gave an accurate explanation of what the Rules say constitutes ‘off-side’: one of which is that the player must, as well as being ‘physically’ off-side, be interfering with play.
It’s a matter of common sense that an opposing player in a physically off-side position at a time when his hand is very near (perhaps actually touching the goalie’s chest!) must be considered to be ‘interfering’ with play!
BBC Scotland, in my opinion, abandoned the BBC’s foundational principle of reporting Truth when it came to reporting the death of Rangers of 1872 and propagating the myth that TRFC is ‘continuity’ Rangers of 1872.
They bowed, it seems clear enough to me, to the commands of the 6th Floor at Hampden and to the fraternal requests of the frequently changing folk at the top of the marble staircase.
Unlike the guys and gals in BBC London who report in as unbiased a way as possible what is happening in the Gaza strip- and are being hounded for so doing!
BBC Scotland may well bow to the SFA and ‘discipline’ Richard for telling the truth.
I think they have a track record in respect of disciplining those who do not subscribe to propagating untruth from Pacific Quay.
I had a smile to myself when I heard Kenny McIntyre today say this on ‘Sportsound’ today, referring to Mike Mulraney (present Chairman of the SFA board) who was his guest today:
“I always think he speaks very, very well.”
He may indeed speak very, very well and to McIntyre’s personal satisfaction.
Unfortunately, Mulraney has done no speaking about, let alone taken any action to end, the nonsense of the myth sedulously propagated by the SFA and BBC Radio Scotland-the myth that TRFC is RFC of 1872!
What’s the old quotation? ” “All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Why, I frequently ask myself, do football clubs-like Hearts, for example- bust a gut to avoid Liquidation if it doesn’t mean death as a historic football club?
Answer: because liquidation and the loss of membership of a recognised league cancels a club’s membership of the SFA and ends its existence as a football club.
The world and his wife know that.
But an exception, wholly unjustified, was made on highly questionable grounds in the case of RFC of 1872.
I personally believe that the SFA is as bent as a corkscrew in its very fundamentals in relation to the Liquidation of RFC of 1872 and will remain so for as long as they propagate the myth and in so doing continue the destruction of the very concept of sporting integrity.
Far worse, of course, is the kowtowing by BBC Scotland to the RIFC plc/TRFC boards.
The guys and gals at Pacific Quay? Trotting out the party line at license payers’ expense?
Shame on them in their betrayal of their colleagues who risk life and limb to report truth.
In which circle of Hell would Dante put them??
John Clark
14th October 2023 at 23:44
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I noticed also on Sportsound today that yet another ex-Rangers player (Colin Hendry) is now working as a pundit. It’s not as if BBC needed another one to add some balance! BBC previously told me it doesn’t matter who someone played for, they just want people who can add value. Surely if that was true then the massive imbalance we see in ex-Rangers players as pundits would not be the case? It seems quite clear there is a deliberate policy within BBC Scotland to employ them. Kenny Macintyre himself has never hidden his love for Rangers, although I’m not sure how much influence a presenter would have. All in all though licence fee payers are being cheated, given one club is massively represented over all others.
upthehoops
15th October 2023 at 00:20
‘…yet another ex-Rangers player (Colin Hendry) is now working as a pundit.’
+++++]
And as I have remarked before, the ‘pundits’ are paid a bloody good hourly rate!
Its interesting that Barry Ferguson and others lament the cutback in ticket allocation for away fans. Does Barry not recall that it was his former team that started this trend. Also has anyone done a comparison on attendance prior to the cutbacks and attendance after the cutbacks. I seem to recall that most clubs had difficulty in selling tickets prior to the cutbacks and surely if they couldn’t fill their stadiums then, how will they do it now.
Been some weird stuff going on with the database folks, but I think it is now sorted. Paradise Bhoy, I apologise for having to delete your comment along with a dozen other that appear to have been corrupted.
Let me know by email if there are any hitches ….
John
I see that Danilo wore a face mask at Ibrox today to protect a recent injury .
Similar to the one worn by Calum McGregor last season .
I wish Danilo no harm but I wonder if Kris Boyd will be encouraging opposition players “ to leave something on him “ ?
John Clark
16th October 2023 at 22:32
upthehoops
15th October 2023 at 00:20
‘…yet another ex-Rangers player (Colin Hendry) is now working as a pundit.’
+++++]
And as I have remarked before, the ‘pundits’ are paid a bloody good hourly rate!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
For the Rangers v Hibs game today on Sportsound, from the Studio Presenter, to the match commentator, to the pundits, I believe every single one of them to be a Rangers fan. I do not know any other Scottish team who the BBC so wholeheartedly gets behind.
My team (Celtic) will play at Tynecastle tomorrow at the time of writing, and it is unthinkable that BBC would supply the same level of support. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think they should as the BBC are publicly financed. Quite simply BBC Sportsound today could easily have been mistaken for Rangers TV. It’s really bad, and given that many Hibs fans will pay the licence fee, their team had zero representation on the programme. The programme could easily have been recorded in a pub favoured by Rangers fans, with a supporters club attached. It really was incredible, and don’t start me on the ‘St Mirren supporter’ Chick Young!
UTH – maybe some of these pundit a who are ex-RFC players have large tax bills to settle and undercutting the competition to get the gigs…
wokingcelt
22nd October 2023 at 22:34
‘…maybe some of these pundit a who are ex-RFC players have large tax bills to settle and undercutting the competition to get the gigs…’
++++++++
Ha,ha, wokingcelt!
If the individual pundit whose action in the Court of Session earlier this year is anything to go by is undercutting, the going rate must be more than the very handsome sum offered to him/her for ‘expertise’ and a few hours of their time!
And talking of ‘expertise’, I think Leeanne Crichton (if that’s how her name is spelled) knocks the McIntyres and Englishes and Bonners into a cocked hat! She makes them sound like that spectator in Billy Connolly’s hilarious piece shouting from row Z ‘play it wide!’
In my opinion, she is superb: but sadly, she buys into the TRFC myth and therefore is, I believe, as skewed as the BBC and the print SMSM.
Truth is indivisible.
TRFC are not, and cannot possibly be, Rangers of 1872. The passage of time does not and cannot alter that fact.
Is it just me?
When Rodgers offered his open hand to Diego Simeone at the end of tonight’s match Simeone was already on his way out with no thought of approaching the Celtic manager!
And his bare touch of fingers on a half-turn could be seen [at least by me] as being tantamount to a contemptuous spit in the eye.
Simeone was famously/infamously ‘kicked’ by Beckham.
I metaphorically would administer a harder Beckham kick to Simeone’s arse for his lack of ordinary post-match civility!
But that’s just me.
As a long time reader and small time supporter of the site I have to say that I can’t see a future for it going forward. There are no new long posts and the contributors are now very few. Were it not for JC there would be little to read on site. I can’t offer any suggestions how to remedy this if the posters from the past are unwilling, for their own reasons, to return. I for one would miss the site but I am sad to say I think it will fold. Some days there are no post at all and people like me are readers and can’t write well enough to post anything of interest. Please, please can anyone show me I’m over pessimistic.
Ballyargus
I hope you are wrong, but there’s always the possibility. All good things do come to an end, but the notion that the site is now past it’s usefulness is a a false one I believe.
As an example we have only recently been attacked by hackers – yet again. At least our enemies still think there’s something worth attacking, and I take that as a sign that the message is still getting through.
Absolutely no doubt that we have lost many respected posters – mostly imo down to battle-weariness – but as long as there’s life and entertainment in these pages I am determined that it will go on.
Think of it as a virtual pub or coffee shop. Comments don’t need to be up there with Hemmingway. It’s a chat room and accords and disagreements will come and go. The platform will continue to be provided until the last poster bids farewell – and I think that’s a way off.
Ballyargus,
As long as football is controlled by the “men in suits” then in my view a site like this serves a purpose. I’m guessing we don’t have the resources to fund lots of investigative stuff but I think there is scope to put forward a view. Some random thoughts from me:
1. Financial fair play – it’s referenced every now and again but personally I have no idea where Scotland’s sit in relation to the limits. What’s the realistic envelope for our clubs to operate within? Are some clubs too prudent? Others too bold?
2. Refereeing – how do our governance and accountability stand up compared to others?
3. TV and sponsorship – what about the fans? I am listening this evening to fan groups in England being up in arms over matches being scheduled on Christmas Eve whilst reading of Scotland’s clubs meek acceptance of Sky’s commands.
4. The politics in football – who decides?
Sometimes I think we are all too much in agreement on the issues of the day – maybe we need more divergent views being expressed (my experience of this site is that we are all grown up enough to agree to disagree respectfully).
This week’s email from the Scottish Football Supporters’ Association reminded me that those whose greedy hopes of forming a European Super League were rejected by the European Football clubs and supporters generally had the gall to challenge the legality of that rejection in an action in the Court of Justice of the European Union. The decision on the case will be announced on 21 December.
The hope has to be that UEFA’s stance will be upheld.
Greedy as UEFA itself has been, it has had the sense to see that a Super League would benefit only the members of that Super League, with no meaningful beneficial effect on any country’s non-Super clubs.
Here’s a wee bit of the legal stuff on the ‘Super league’ case
https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=268624&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=3861695
WokingCelt
Couldn’t have said it any better. Of course SFM may not be as big a thorn in the side of the establishment as it once was, but its persistence and insistence of reminding folk of what happened in 2012, and that any new developments in the game introduced by the same corrupt system need to be viewed through that prism is still important.
John Clark
23rd October 2023 at 23:49
And talking of ‘expertise’, I think Leeanne Crichton (if that’s how her name is spelled) knocks the McIntyres and Englishes and Bonners into a cocked hat! She makes them sound like that spectator in Billy Connolly’s hilarious piece shouting from row Z ‘play it wide!’
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Permission to disagree John! Two particular incidents stick in my mind re Ms Crichton which in my opinion should have led to her being spoken to by her bosses, and greatly diluted her value as a pundit.
Incident one was when Darvel famously dumped Aberdeen from the Scottish Cup. Aberdeen had a perfectly good goal chalked off for offside, but there was no VAR. At the end of the game she said she was ‘glad’ VAR was not present to ‘ruin’ the game, when specifically talking about the goal. Very poor comment IMO.
Incident two was at the Celtic Women v Rangers Women Scottish Cup Final last season. Rangers scored a goal which VAR disallowed because it showed without doubt it was offside. She was pretty apoplectic about it saying it was ‘just’ offside. Offside is offside, whether by six inches or six feet, and it’s what VAR is for.
She seems beyond reproach though. I’ll leave it at that.
upthehoops
28th October 2023 at 21:53
‘…She seems beyond reproach though…’
++++++++++
Ha,ha, uth!
There is little doubt in my mind that the lady is a Rangers supporter and will perhaps have her at least unconscious prejudices and may [like most of us, myself included] be tempted to see her own team through partisan spectacles. [ VAR causes most of us problems (as much when it is NOT used as when it is!]
What I was getting at, really, is that Crichton’s technical analysis of a game and her fluent articulacy in giving that analysis is very, very good.
She is light years ahead of most of the ex-player-pundits (mind you, Neil McCann is close behind her), and I fully expect that she will be groomed by Pacific Quay to take over from McIntyre in the fullness of time.
If BBC ‘Sportsound’ [ itself a myth propagator] must employ upholders of the myth, then it should at least try to employ the most articulate and professionally knowledgeable among them.
Just my opinion, of course.
Big Pink
28th October 2023 at 10:37
‘.. but its persistence and insistence of reminding folk of what happened in 2012, ‘
+++++++++
I’m struck by the fact that while UEFA’s clubs and supporters were/are enraged at the gall of those who proposed a European Super League (a proposal which was not in itself illegal!) our wee Scotland football governance bodies were ready, in my opinion, to create the myth that a club created by them very selves in 2012 is somehow the very identical big-time cheating tax-dodging club of 1872 foundation that is in Liquidation!
Sporting Integrity in Scottish professional football?
No way, for as long as the Big Lie is propagated.
Spent some time this afternoon watching the live proceedings of the Covid Inquiry.
How I would love there to be a formal independent Inquiry into every decision taken by the SFA/SPL/SFL in relation to the Rangers that is in Liquidation and the new club which CG founded and which those bodies allowed and continue to allow to claim to be the Rangers that is in Liquidation!
The records of phone calls and urgent meetings would make interesting reading, and I’m pretty sure there are some folk who do not share my interest in the biggest piece of nonsense in the history of Scottish Football!
I’ve just read about the death of James Doleman, with whom I struck-up a court-room acquaintanceship quite early on in various of the ‘Rangers’ court cases, when he generously provided me from time to time with bits of information which helped my understanding of proceedings and processes.
He certainly knew his way about Parliament House
https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/james-doleman-dies-tributes/
Requiescat in pace.
John C
It was shameful of me to have failed to note James Doleman’s passing. I had a long association with Frank over the years. He was instrumental in getting Jim Craig signed up at Byline Times in 2014, and he was not a little overwhelmed to meet with one his big heroes. 🙂
We had more than a few laughs over coffee in Cafe Nero in Sauchiehall Street around that time. As shocked and appalled as he was at both versions of Rangers’ transgressions, he was always looking at both sides of the argument, never falling into into any particular narrative.
He did a podcast or two with us a while back. Reminds me how fastidious and professional he was
http://podcast.sfm.scot/e/twm-episode-14/
RIP Francis D.
Should also add that throughout his long illness, I never once heard him sound like a victim or feel sorry for himself. He faced it all in a matter of fact fashion, often joking, not in a gallows humour kind of way, but in a lightly self-mocking manner.
His “My first day as (insert job title here) went well” tweets, and his hospital cuisine commentaries were hilarious.
How disappointing!
I watched this morning’s Covid Inquiry proceedings and was enjoying the brilliant low-key performance of Helen McNamara, contrasting it with that Cummings. In an idle moment I looked up McNamara biography to find out a little more about her .
Couldn’t believe it when I saw that her husband was on the BBC Trust at the time when they made BBC Scotland accept the stupid untruth that it was the company that died, not the football club!
Put me right aff her!!
John
None of us can be held responsible for the behaviour or opinions of our significant other – as I’m sure Mrs C frequently reminds you!
Aurellio Zen
2nd November 2023 at 17:27
‘…None of us can be held responsible for the behaviour or opinions of our significant other – as I’m sure Mrs C frequently reminds you!’
++++++
Aurelio Zen,
Mrs C would skelp me good and hard if she knew what I really thought of Helen McNamara!
She was superb in the way she gave her evidence.
As having myself been a lowly civil servant on the fringes of what superior officers were about I have
some little idea of the difficulties that she and her Civil Service colleagues faced working under the likes of Boris and Hancock and the other jackanape Cabinet Ministers.
And her husband was not, I think, immediately involved in the stupid order to BBC Scotland to propagate the lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872.
Still!
I feel the media has drawn on feel good stories from a year in regards to the new Sevco/Rangers manager. The basics of the stories seem to be the same only the names have changed. Beale was this genius, was going to dethrone Celtic, lead Rangers to who have garnerd new heights. New manager, new name same essential theme to the stories. Clement has had three league games against teams who have claimed 42% of points available (Hearts), 33% (Hibs) and 30% (Dundee) and have surrendered a total of 44 games in those games. Does anyone have any record of magical Beales first three league games.
Talking up Rangers* is good for business Vernallen. Appeasing right wing forces is good for careers in the media also.
Which brings me to the peculiar notion that Rangers and Rangers* both appear to have a monoply of ultra-right leaning fans. In its own way that leads to an easier passage in the press.
An opinion I have held for decades, but one that I may not have voiced in public for fear of a torrent of tinfoil hats been sent in the post.
Nowadays though ….
big pink
6 November 2023
‘…Talking up Rangers* is good for business Vernallen. Appeasing right wing forces is good for careers in the media also.’
++++++
I am worldly enough, BP, to realise that the print media proprietors and commercial TV are in the business of making money.
Their publications/broadcasts will not be allowed to risk damaging loss of sales revenue by telling the truth if telling the truth upsets their revenues from print sales advertising and online subscriptions/advertising revenue.
Even the ‘Guardian'(ffs!) did not tell the truth about the death of RFC of 1872.
And Alex Thomson declined, referring to costs, to get involved in the question of the truth of the RIFC plc ‘Prospectus’ of 2012.
Now, I do not NEED to buy the DR or ‘The Scotsman’ or any other print publication and in so doing support their partisan and/or fearful approach to ‘journalism’.
[And the words of Neil McIntosh, editor of ‘the Scotsman’ in today’s edition make the claim that ” For more than two centuries, The Scotsman has continued to embody the spirit of Scottish Enlightenment: our award-winning journalists delve into the heart of the Scottish news to inform, inspire, and educate our readers, without fear or favour”
I creased myself, reading that ridiculous claim]
But I do need to pay for a TV licence!
And the BBC in Scotland was told to sell its soul and, despite knowing and originally broadcasting the truth, meekly complied and appeared ready to discipline staff who insisted on telling the truth, the truth that TRFC is not RFC of 1872!
The SFA’s readiness to create, [in a secret compact the parties to which included both the club that they themselves had chucked out of Scottish Football AND the club that they themselves admitted into Scottish Football in 2012] a huge distortion of sporting truth and sporting integrity, signaled the fundamental contempt for the very concept of sporting integrity lying[!] at the heart of Scottish Football governance.
The mere passage of time does not make an untruth go away.
No one knows that better than those who were/are party to Untruth whether for filthy lucre’s sake or from brotherly love.
And, I may add, no newspaper’s finance/business journalist has even tried to explain how RIFC got/gets away with the claim to be RFC of 1872 and to be entitled to its historic sporting achievements”
Why not? The stupid nonsense that it was the ‘company’ that died while the ‘club’ lived was shown to be just that- absolute nonsense in terms of law.
What then do the business affairs journalists have to offer as a reason for buying into the SFA lie?
Had some problems of late logging in, but now, hopefully, sorted by Admin!
Just back from a break, and noticed that BR was not happy that Celtic are ‘on the festive road’ (against Dundee) for the 7th (?) successive season. If that fact is wrong, my apologies to all.
Anyway, how about this Brendan …
I find it astonishing that, after 11 league games (over a quarter of the season!), the liquidated outfit (55 tiles my a***), had not visited Pittodrie, Tynecastle, Easter Road, Fir Park, Celtic Park or Livingston (generally accepted as the most difficult away grounds to visit – although Rugby Park is now ‘entering the frame’?). Celtic have visited all of the above. By the law of averages methinks, Sevco should have played at least one game at these grounds by now.
There is clearly no truth in the paranoid rumour that the above was intended to give Sevco an early season advantage (??!!), but …some coincidence, eh?
The situation will admittedly balance out come May, and meantime, in light of the above, I’m delighted that Celtic are ahead at this juncture in the title race.
Appeal is now ended folks. Sadly we ended up significantly short of the target, but in the financial situation everyone finds themselves at the moment, it is neither surprising nor understandable. I will of course continue to try to keep things afloat meantime. With economy in mind, I am making some changes to the hosting of the site which I hope doesn’t cause any glitches.
Let me know right away if there are any problems.
John
Watching CL this evening and very much of view that VAR and the authorities making football almost a non-contact sport is killing the game that we love. If Maeda deserved a red card then we should be watching 7v8 most weeks.
Coming up to the best time: Christmas!
Ha ha!
Didn’t take long for a more ridiculous red card to come along with Rashford’s sending off this evening, coupled with the softest of soft penalties.
Very much reached the conclusion that VAR should be used for offside and ball in/out of play only, these being binary decisions. Appreciate they could afford better tech at the World Cup but it worked well there. Leave everything else to the man in the middle and use videos of matches as tools for performance improvement of the individual refs.
Also seems that we are moving to a non-contact sport – I don’t recall the fans being asked about this!
vernallen
3 November 2023 at 21:49
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What I have found particularly irritating, if not surprising, is the new popular phrase among the written and spoken media that Philippe Clement is a ‘proper’ football manager. It’s not a phrase they use towards any other manager in the league, and frankly I think it’s embarrassing. He was successful in Belgium, but a failure in France, and I’m not sure such reverence towards him is as yet deserved. However, many of those saying it raved about Beale being the brains behind Gerard, and going back a few seasons some of them also tipped Mark Warburton to win the top league when Rangers* entered it. Clement may well prove to be the absolute real deal, but the SMSM really need to reign it in a bit.
Just watching the TNT coverage of the Rangers v Sparta Prague game . One of the touchline pundits is Derek McInnes the “current” manager of one of Ranger’s league rivals Kilmarnock. I don’t know if this is a common occurrence- it just feels very strange .
Rangers are set to report a profit for the second successive year .
Last year the figure was £5.9 million “operating “ profit. I’m not an accountant but seemingly this is the before tax position. What the actual profit was , if any, I don’t know .
Probably not eroded too much by tax. Carried over losses are taken into account when tax liabilities are calculated I believe.
Where’s EJ when you need him😊
According to James Forrest in The Celtic Blog – The Rangers achieved a Loss last year of “just under one million” . I don’t know what they will claim this year but if they use the term “operating profit” again , questions should be asked .
It’s a bit like trying to budget your wages using the Gross amount ( remember that BP ? )
I should perhaps explain that my post of 6 Nov at 23.34 went into moderation and my posts of 7 Nov at 23.44 and at 23.46 were made as test posts.
My post of 9 Nov at 11.04 was written in the belief that the earlier posts would never appear when the glitch was sorted!
Had a very enjoyable few hours in Glasgow on Wednesday in the company of Auldheid, EasyJambo and John Clark.
The world was put to rights once more over drinks and a bite.
Always great to meet up with the guys. Look forward to doing it once more in the capital, early in the New Year.
Hope you asked EasyJambo to come back – he is greatly missed .
One of the economies I’ve had to put in place is a less sophisticated security for login. Consequently in the last few days we have been inundated with spam registrations.
Consequently, I’ve had to turn up the blunt force security stuff in place. I think it’s probably ok. but if anyone is being denied access, email me at bp@sfm.scot so I can sort it quickly….
With regard to the profit/loss at TRFC, to paraphrase Bill Clinton it depends on how you define profit. In 2022 TRFC reported an operating profit of £5.9m and a loss of £0.9m. To get from one number to the next there were three items:
1. £6.1m of non-recurring costs, which from the accounts were described as total anticipated costs from ongoing legal disputes.
2. £2m of finance charges – interest on various debts to you and me.
3. £1.3m tax credit – being tax losses to be carried forward and used to offset tax on future profits (no sniggering at the back). This is a credit so offsets the costs in 1 and 2.
So it’s not wrong to say that TRFC made a profit and a loss based on accounting convention.
My own view would be that you should really take into account finance charges when reviewing any company’s performance as this is usually a planned cost of them doing business. With regard to non-recurring costs these are more subjective and I would consider the track record of non-recurring items appearing when assessing underlying profitability…
I can understand non-recurring costs not being conventionally included when assessing operating profit, but finance charges are a cost of doing business are they not?
Not doubting your wisdom WC – just thinking how counter-intuitive much of what passes for good practice is.
BP – I’ve always understood the reason for charging finance costs after operating costs is because most businesses funded by a mixture of debt and equity (shares) so showing interest separately allows this cost of finance to be given similar prominence as dividends (being the cost of equity). That’s probably enough accountancy for a football blog…
wokingcelt
11 November 2023 at 17.46
‘…That’s probably enough accountancy for a football blog…’
+++++++++
Except perhaps to add, wokingcelt, that the accounts should always tell the SFA the truth about a club’s playing-staff wages costs, and that the SFA finance people should include people capable of questioning apparent absurdities such as a suspiciously low wages bill in respect of a number of players bought players each bought for very, very large transfer fees!
A very famous football club died the death of Liquidation on account of the SFA either not SPOTTING such an absurdity or having spotted it, CHOOSING not to challenge it.
Either way, the SFA board demonstrated then that it was either incompetent or something worse.
Successive boards have done nothing to correct the record so, in effect, the current SFA board are presiding over a sports body which harbours and propagates a huge untruth!
They remind me of Macbeth’s perverted logic ” I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more returning were as tedious as go o’er”. But at least Macbeth acknowledged his guilt to himself!
[And as a wee aside, Cosgrove yesterday on ‘Off the Ball’ caused me to splutter into my coffee when he asked McIntyre [jokingly?] ” Kenny, do you believe Rangers is a new Club?” ]
“15 year-year-old Andy would have loved this machine” says Andy Smith in his latest SFSA personal blog in his email to members of the SFSA.
He’s not the only one!
When I think back to my college days and what passed for ‘football training’ for the first team I could weep!
We had no idea, beyond notions that it would be helpful if we didn’t smoke and did a few trots occasionally around the pitch and played the occasional 5-a-side ‘training’ game!
What I would have given for access to a ‘Footbonaut’
Years ago, I attended an ‘old boy’s’ re-union and was astonished when one of the guys whom I hadn’t seen for about fifty years said he remembered me as having been a terrific footballer!
What might I have become if only I had had access to a ‘Footbonaut’!
Seriously, though, I had never heard of the ‘Footbonaut’, but it’s been around for more than ten years or so!!
Re. VAR, my main thought is that it should be used as intended, for clear and obvious errors. More specifically, VAR officials should have 3 options with offside, the third being “too close to call”, in which case the game goes on and the referee’s decision stands. Where the two lines are very close, the time between them crossing from on to off or vice versa is a tiny fraction of a second. No one can judge that confidently, when precisely the ball was kicked, particularly when the ball was moving. It does not do what it purports to do. Also, never make a decision on a still image, which is what the referee was invited to do in the Maeda case.
If they can’t make a decision in seconds, the game goes on.
In Cricket the VAR (or in this case DRS) uses “Umpire’s Call” (i.e. original decision stands) if any of the 3 elements of an lbw decision (pitched, impact with batsman, projected trajectory to wicket) has a 50/50 split (too close to call). Not surprisinly it is the latter of the 3 that comes into play most especiaily as it can only ever be projected trajectory
Tykebhoy
I think there are three principles that are universal in any sport that makes use of these machines.
1. Best of breed technology
2. Competence of officials using it.
3. Unimpeachable integrity
My guess is that ScotVar passes only one of those
I don’t even think it is best of breed tech. The image shown to give Maeda offside in the lead up to the chalked off Oh goal in Dingwall was laughable. The EPL tech would have spun the image so that the lines were perpendicular to the view. But had they been able to do that it might have called into question your 2 and/or 3.
LORD BRAID – N Marchant, Clerk
Parliament House
Wednesday 15th November
Continued Preliminary Hearing
between 9.00am and 9.30am
“CA74/22 Elite Sports Group Ltd v The Rangers Football Club Ltd”
++++++++++
Elite still pursuing their £9.5 million
From the Rolls of Court today:
LORD BRAID – N Marchant, Clerk
Parliament House
Wednesday 15th November
Continued Preliminary Hearing
between 9.00am and 9.30am
“CA74/22 Elite Sports Group Ltd v The Rangers Football Club Ltd”
++++++++++
Elite still pursuing their £9.5 million!
Incidentally, I knew that John Combothekras Halsted had previously declared himself to be the beneficial owner of the Perron shares in RIFC plc
see https://www.rangers.co.uk/investor-information/3xiJwTahGEhZWGZAUcKMy1
But I see from Companies House that the (apparently) same Halsted was made a director of RIFC plc on 22 August this year (classified as being a ‘person with significant control’, i.e. having more than 25% of the issued shares.)
Did I miss a share offering? Or has Halsted hoovered up shares privately from existing shareholders?
Halsted is an American/Briton and appears to be managing Partner of Pamplona Capital Management LLP among other things.
John Combothekras Halsted also has connections with the American company Iconic Sports Acquisition Corp.
TRFC setting world records again by posting losses in their accounts for 11 years in a row. In reality enough is enough ( or in their case no enough). Still we can all sit back and just wait.
Yeah, RTC is busy Tweeting away about the accounts. No doubt there will be a rugby fan poring over them soon also😊
We have had our share of contributors with accounting expertise in the past. Be nice if one or two made a return to keep us in the loop👍
PMGB’s Rugger friend has “retired” from analysing accounts for Phil’s Blog
TRFC post an “operating” profit of £252 K – so another loss then .
I don’t know if this is allowed BP ? Direct Quotes from RTC
“ For the avoidance of doubt, RIFC/Sevco spent £11.9m more last season than they took in.
That is the only financial statement you need to know.
Then, after 01-July, they spent a further £13.1m on new players and getting rid of Beale.
£25m gone.”
More from the same source RTC
“ It’s remarkable that Sevco and their press lackeys are going to so much effort to paint their losses as profits.
Do they really have potential investors who can’t read financial statements? It’s all there in black and white.
They’re just adding insult to injury now.“
When consider that for TRFC their accounts include Bassey transfer and CL participation, the low level of financial performance should be a worry. They should have “hit the jackpot” with the circumstances but didn’t. Things can change quickly but I think for TRFC deep pockets and patience two key requisites.
On a separate matter, VAR in general seems to be doing its utmost to be disgraced. I see IFAB looking at reviewing how it’s used, whilst in Scotland I see that even Richard Foster and his show “The VARdict” appears to have been given the elbow (probably not spotted by the cameras) for even trying to continue to defend the indefensible.
whiteseatbhoy
14 November 2023 at 08:18
‘…John Combothekras Halsted also has connections with the American company Iconic Sports Acquisition Corp.
++++++++
yes, whiteseatbhoy.
And one of the sponsor companies of the ISA Corp is
“TIFOSY SPONSORCO
Tifosy SponsorCo LLC is an affiliate of Tifosy Capital and Advisory. Tifosy is a leading boutique sports advisory firm. The firm has an extensive track record of sourcing and executing transactions in sports and providing strategic financial advisory services to clients across the sports sector.
Tifosy was founded by Fausto Zanetton and Gianluca Vialli. Mr. Zanetton is a sought-after and trusted advisor in the sports industry with over 20 years of experience advising global media, sports and technology companies including as an experienced investment banker at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Vialli is one of the most iconic and successful European professional footballers of the modern era, having played at Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea.
The firm employs an experienced team comprised of leading individuals from the worlds of finance and sports as well as other talented and focused individuals from across top-tier investment banking, legal and sports marketing institutions.
Tifosy represents a powerful complement to the Iconic Sports investor group given its deep sports sector relationships, industry expertise and global platform with integrated investment and advisory capabilities. Tifosy has served as an advisor to numerous leading private equity funds, high net worth individuals and professional football clubs on various mandates focusing on some of the biggest names in world football: Inter Milan, Inter Miami CF, Chelsea, Melbourne Victory, Parma Calcio 1913, Sampdoria, Glasgow Rangers, Queens Park Rangers, Pisa Sporting Club, Norwich City and Venezia.”
And, please do not smile: Tifoso Sponsor Co is registerd in ……the Cayman Islands.
https://www.iconicsportsacq.com/#sponsors
I believe the London-based Tifoso, of which Tifoso Consor CO is an affiliate, appears to facilitate the low-level private dealing in RIFC plc shares between existing shareholders.
And possibly facilitates pretty high level buying and selling between larger shareholders?
Not for the first time in my life do I wish I had even a big-handed street barra-boy’s cunningly exploitative understanding of the business and finance world!
Paradisebhoy
14 November 2023 at 18:40
‘…Do they really have potential investors who can’t read financial statements? It’s all there in black and white.’
+++++++++
Well, Paradisebhoy , we’ve got to remember that the very FCA read( or ought to have read) the black and white of the RIFC plc Prospectus issued in 2012 and failed to spot that it plainly suggested that RIFC plc would be the holding company of the famous/notorious Rangers of 1872.
A simple look at the current Rangers FC website shows that they (RIFC plc) KNOW that they are the holding company only of ‘The Rangers Football Club of 2012 creation, and not of RFC of 1872.
The folk who marched on Hampden knew what Liquidation meant. James Taylor of the DR and the whole of the Scottish print media knew what Liquidation meant; and BBC Scotland absolutely knew what Liquidation meant (and, to their credit, initially reported the truth of what it meant, before being leaned on by the BBC Trust and disappointingly caved in)
The legal advisers at any given time to RIFC plc also knew/know what Liquidation means- and that a company cannot be the holding company of a Liquidated entity as if that entity was not in Liquidation, and they made/make sure that the RIFC plc did not/does not claim legally to be the holding company RFC of 1872 (i.e. of Rangers 2012 plc in Liquidation)
But, altogether away from football entirely, is that not shocking news about the Stephen Lawrence murder case? and the allegations of corruption made against a senior police officer?
Who would believe such level of corruption?
Dear me!
JC, that will of course be Gianluca Vialli (deceased).
Paradisebhoy
14 November 2023 at 18:35
‘…getting rid of Beale..’
+++++++
For one and a half million quid, reportedly!
Nice work if you can get it! Roughly 37 grand a year for 30 years if he never works again in his life!
Happy man he should be!
[Arithmetic was never my strong point, and I might be wrong in my calculation. But still!]
John Clark
15 November 2023 at 00:16
I may be wrong but I think the figure given in the accounts is the monies paid to QPR for his services . His sacking happened after their year end for financials .
Another link to the old club gone . I hope he can recover and gets to where he wants to be .
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/steven-davis-exits-rangers-coaching-31444527
Looking at ‘Court of Sessions’ judgments page this evening I saw a reference to Sportsdirect.com retail ltd.
Anything to do with Sportsdirect is of interest, so I clicked on
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/cos-general-docs/pdf-docs-for-opinions/2023csoh79.pdf?sfvrsn=c80ecd4b_1
An entertaining read, with references to non-payment of VAT as a contributary factor in the falling into Administration of ‘Goals Soccer Centres plc’
Sportsdirect.com Retail (as a significant shareholder) had asked for a change in the Administrators because they weren’t happy with the proposals made by the Administrators. [ No reflection on the integrity of the Administrators just a different point of view]
The administrators declared that they were neutral and were not objecting to being replaced.
I enjoyed reading the judge’s assessment.
[I confess that I had not heard or read that Goals Soccer etc was in Administration!]
postscipt to my post of 23.56 tonight
came across this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49510373
The leader in this morning’s “The Scotsman”, in reference to a particular issue relating to truth- telling in the sphere of politics, has this to say:
” They, like us, must be hoping the inevitable happens sooner rather than later: that he [ a particular member of the Scottish government] recognises the principles at stake, and steps down”
What breathtaking hypocrisy from a newspaper that propagates the lie manufactured by Scottish Football governance: the lie that Rangers Football Club of 1872 is still in existence, and that a new club created in 2012 by them themselves is entitled to the sporting honours and trophies earned by the140-year old club that they themselves destroyed by withdrawing its membership of the SFA when it entered Liquidation!
Truth is indivisible.
A newspaper that itself supports untruth in the matter of Sport(!) is in no position of moral authority to preach to others who may be liars in other areas of human activity.
I wondered JC, have you written to the editor to ask him/her (I refuse to write them or some such nonsense) about the double standards you have pointed out.
From today’s Rolls of Court of Session:
“OUTER HOUSE ROLLS
Adjustment in the undernoted cases commenced on Wednesday 15th November 2023 and in the absence of any court order to the contrary the records therein will, without further publication in the rolls, close on Wednesday 10th January 2024.
1 ………
2 A249/23 Edgar Lavarello &c v Douglas Ireland Park
3….. ……
____________________
I ‘researched’ and found that Edgar Lavarello is one of the joint Administrators of the ‘Elite Insurance Company (In Administration)’ which is domiciled in Gibraltar. It offered many kinds of insurance cover, including motor cover, before entering Administration in December 2019.
Now, I imagine that the ‘Douglas Ireland Park’ mentioned could be none other than the DP of Park’s of Hamilton, and director of several other motor/bus operator businesses.
Didn’t I read some time ago-possibly more than a year or so ago- that Park had been exploring the possibility of acquiring the rights to run a public bus service in Gibraltar? Possibly even before Brexit, but eventually decided not to??
Anybody got any memory of that?
One wonders why the Administrators of an insurance company have raised an action against Douglas Ireland Park.
I hope to satisfy my curiosity by a visit to Parliament House if and when the matter comes to a hearing.
Earlier today I signed in to wikipedia with a view to being able to edit any entry, providing such evidence as I may have to support my editorial changes to the existing text.
My intention, as you might expect, is to correct the ludicrous crap that wikipedia currently provides in relation to ‘Rangers FC’.
They have swallowed what they have been given, and parrot the nonsense of ‘continuity’ Rangers, without seeing the underlying untruth of what whoever wrote the current piece imagined to be the situation. (look up ‘Rangers FC’, and have a laugh)
But it’s great fun trying to expose the lie that lies (ha!) at the heart of Scottish Football in any way I can.
Just afore I go to bed to satisfy Mrs C’s requirements I had a wee smile to myself when I read in ‘Andy’s Sting in the tail’ tonight:
“We have been told via the media that the SFA/SPFL will hold their ‘secret summit’”
By gum, don’t those guy love secrecy! Secret 5-way agreements and what not!
Honest to God, how do those liars live with themselves?
Scottish Football has been ill-served by a succession of SFA boards who lie.
Simples!
(and each and every one in Scottish Football clubs and in the SMSM knows the lie.)
From Oliver Holt in today’ Mail..
“That is the only logical and fair conclusion to draw from the league’s swingeing punishment of Everton. It would not be unreasonable now to speculate that English football might witness a scenario similar to when Rangers were relegated to the fourth tier of Scottish football in 2012.”
Blinkin’ flip.
Seriously
Is site ok? Are we just in a quiet spell?
I assume so b67. Been some connectivity issues recently for some folk. Other may find that they have to have a comment approved to continue as we moved hosts and the counters were all reset.
In light of the Everton situation, like FoF above, I’d have expected some conclusions to be drawn.
Similarly, Rangers’* accounts appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
fan of football
19 November 2023 at 07:55
‘ It would not be unreasonable now to speculate that English football might witness a scenario similar to when Rangers were relegated to the fourth tier of Scottish football in 2012.’
+++++
There are ill-motivated people in the world, fan of football.
There are also some astoundingly ignorant or partisan journalists.
Not personally knowing Oliver Holt I don’t know into which category he falls.
Whichever, he is no bloody use as any kind of fact/truth finding journalist, ignorant as he seems to be of the fact that Rangers of 1872 was not ‘relegated’, but died the death of Liquidation, lost its share in the then SFL, and in consequence had its membership of the SFA withdrawn.
Any journalist who cannot see the monstrous deceit perpetrated by a relatively high-profile Sports Governance body such as the SFA has to be seriously questioned as to his intelligence/motives.
Such an one would earn no respect from me as a communicator of journalistic truth!
For pity’s sake!
And I am still quietly pursuing efforts to find the truth about the lie (as I perceive it) in the RIFC plc Prospectus that RIFC plc would become the holding company of dear old Rangers of the four young lads of my granddads’ era!
What fun, knowing that the RIFC plc board know the truth.
[ as does every board of every SFA club, may their guilty acceptance of a lie be to their cost in terms of conscience and personal integrity!]
The Truth always eventually emerges. Always.
And lies are lies.
Is it possible that Kris Boyd got the details wrong when he alleged Aberdeen lay down to Celtic and not try hard enough. Is it possible that Rangers ( or whatever name they are using) don’t apply themselves against Aberdeen and fully expect that by showing up they get the win. Also is it not interesting how in the space of a few days and a draw in Aberdeen how poor many of their players are. This is a prime examply of jumping on and off the bandwagon, especially with Celtic dropping points on Saturday. Ranger fans immediately say this as a major chance to close the gap and somehow jump ahead in the league. Don’t count your points until they are on the board.
I see from the Daily Mail that IFAB has authorised experiments in using ‘sin-bins’ penalties for players who crowd the referee!
‘Sin-bins for tactical fouls and dissent could trialled in the FA Cup and Women’s Super League after the International FA Board [IFAB] approved experiments in the professional game at a meeting in London.’
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/fa-cup-and-womens-super-league-lined-up-for-sin-bin-trials/ar-AA1kGNXi
Where the hell are we going with this Americanisation of our sport?
Dam’ Yanks!
They have not, in my opinion, ever understood the concept of ‘sport’.
Come to think of it, neither has the SFA, which allows a ten and bit year old club to claim to be a hunnert and forty something years old!
In the end, of course, cheats never win.
They make themselves liars and KNOW beyond a peradventure that they lie!
And they know that such supporters as they may have in journalism or broadcasting are fellow liars.
And they have to hang together in their lying or hang separately, in old Benjamin’s phrase!
Oh, what fun!
You can beat Barcelona one day and three days later, if you don’t have the right mentality, you can lose to Ross County.
Philippe Clement’s statement,according to BBC Scotland . When did this ever happen and why drag Ross County into it ?
paddy malarkey
29 November 2023 at 21:01
‘…Philippe Clement’s statement,…’
+++++++++
Well pm the 135-year-old Celtic Football and Athletic club and the now 13-year-old TRFC, and 120-year-old Aberdeen FC, all showed at their different levels this week that Scottish football is just not up there!
In the case of TRFC the Board have no money; in the case of Celtic the Board are unwilling to spend.
Many TRFC fans now have doubts about Clement’s match-managerial skills, while Rodgers’ second go shows no greater result than previously.
From the Joint Liquidators (BDO) of Rangers Football Club plc (cunningly renamed ‘RFC 2012 plc’ before it went into Liquidation in 2012)) on 22 November 2023:
“We have attended to all statutory requirements throughout the course of the liquidation to date.
The Joint Liquidators have paid the final dividend just after the period end, and subsequently will be
in a position to close the case on consignment of any unclaimed dividends. Therefore, the next report to the creditors in this matter will be the final report.”
https://www.bdo.co.uk/getmedia/51b7a312-c715-45f7-af59-13ba2a32f822/RFC-2012-Plc-annual-progress-report-to-30-October-2023.pdf
After that final report, Dissolution is the next step, and it will be “Goodnight, Rangers of 1872.”
You were ill-served by a vain-glorious wretch who killed you with debt- without he himself losing a penny. as far as I can tell. And died in ignominy and shame.
The childish pretence by the SFA/SPFL that CG’s little creation of 2012 is ‘continuity Rangers of the four young men’ does not, and cannot, change the hard facts. Frightened men lied to themselves and the rest of us at the behest of other chancers whose conduct vis-a-vis their regard for business truth leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion ( shared by many!)
Ps: have a look at the staggering remuneration etc of the Liquidators (no disrespect to them) and the settlement with HMRC.
Where did the money come from, given that Green had bought most of the assets?
Let’s hope some finance journalist in the SMSM can give us some understanding?
As if!! Propagators of football untruth as they are!
In an idle moment I have sent this email to an ICIJ journalist
“To:
salecci@icij.org
Sat, 2 Dec at 23:41
Dear Scilla,
There is no journalist in Scotland who is a member of the ICIJ.
There is no journalist in Scotland who tells the truth about the piddling little matter of the death of a football club!
If the ICIJ is all about truth, let it be about truth as it affects the ordinary everyday person as well as about high finance and global financial crime.
The Scottish mainstream media-including the BBC- propagate the fiction that Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation somehow did not go into Liquidation in 2012, and that a new club admitted into Scottish Football in 2012 is one and the same as the liquidated football club.
Do the needful- get in there to show that journalists who propagate untruth even in a matter of ‘Sport’ in a wee country like Scotland can be held to account by the ICIJ.
I’ll be happy to give you more details.”
—
I am by and large a cynic. Dog does not eat dog. We can no more trust a ‘journalist’ than we can trust the SFA/SPFL guys.
But we can hope that the dirty wee lie that TRFC is the Rangers of 1872 will one day be exposed as the lie that it is in law and known to be a lie by the BBC and every ‘journalist’ in the print media.
Truth and BBC Scotland?
Forget the possibility in matters to do with any version of ‘Rangers’!
In my email box this evening, from Companies House:
The following information is available from the (RIFC plc) company’s filing history.
Date Form Description
4 Dec 2023 TM02 Termination of appointment of James Blair as a secretary on 1 December 2023
and Company Results (links open in a new window)
Date(document was filed at Companies House) Description(of the document filed at Companies House) View / Download(PDF file, link opens in new window)
04 Dec 2023 Appointment of Mr James Taylor as a secretary on 1 December 2023
______
Well, I never!
That’s what we’ve got to deal with, in Scottish Football journalism!
Chick, do us all a favour and kick the arse of JT as being (in my opinion) the very antithesis of what the word ‘journalist’ means.
Honest to God, the spirits of those journalists who have died in the cause of trying to establish and report Truth will be looking at JT askance.
Me masel personally, like, might possibly use un-Parliamentary language to express my contempt for the new ‘secretary’.
That such a wretch of a human being (in my opinion) should profit from his turn-coating is maybe a sign of how rotten our Sport and the ethos of Sporting journalism has become.
On the back of the tax dodging EBT regime of the Murray era of the liquidated RFC plc! and the craven, lying dereliction of duty of the Football governance bodies.
Strewth!
John,
I wonder if you’re thinking about James Traynor. Forgive if you’re not. Rangers appointed a new Chief Finance Officer in August this year called James Taylor. I wonder if this the same guy moved to company secretary.
https://www.rangers.co.uk/Article/rangers-appoint-james-taylor-as-chief-finance-officer/3BcmlGFIMGAg19K8tLaP2p
Yes, Mordecai, I ran away with myself: the mere mention of the name ‘Jame’s’ in connection with RIFC plc conjures up the ‘journalist’! My apologies to James Taylor (whoever he may be).
I suppose we can all make mistakes.
In relation to James Blair, I remember noting in para 24 of sitting Judge Lionel Persey’s judgment in the case [2012]EWHC 1929(Comm):
“On 11 May 2018 RPC wrote to Mr Blair and advised him that SDIR considered it should have been notified of the Hummel offer and have been given the opportunity to match it pursuant to the Agreement. RPC asked for a copy of the Hummel agreement. Mr Blair responded on 14 May 2018, and asserted that Hummel had simply contracted in respect of rights previously granted to Puma. Further correspondence followed in which RPC pressed for production of the Hummel agreement and asked Rangers to confirm that Hummel had not been granted rights of distribution, marketing, advertising, promoting, offering for sale and/or selling the Official or Replica kit. On 18 May Mr Blair gave that confirmation, stating that “Hummel has not been granted any of the rights set out in your email”. This was untrue. He later acknowledged in his Seventh Witness Statement that ” …Of course, Hummel did have rights to distribute, market, advertise, promote, offer for sale and/or sell the Official Kit and/or Replica Kit …”
I seem to remember that a judge in another RIFC plc case was less than complimentary about the quality of Blair’s evidence.
Wonder whatever happened to old Jabba. Been quiet of late
BP, this is not a ‘reply’ to your post wondering about Jabba!
But I can’t see how I can post separately from the ‘reply’ word on your post!
Bu.ger Jabba, as far as I am concerned!
What I want to post is this:
“Not to bore the pants off anyone, can I just say that I was re-reading some material yesterday and again today, and what I read has given rise to this observation:
The propagation by the Scottish Football authorities, the BBC and the print MSM of the myth that TRFC was/is ‘continuity Rangers’ of 1872 foundation was powerful and unremitting.
So powerful and constant in fact , that at line 5 paragraph 18 of the judgment delivered on 28 February 2018 by the Inner House of the Court of Session( [2018]CSIH 30 P341/17) in the case of the Appeal by Dave King against a decision of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers the following appears:
“ The reclaimer (ed: i.e. Dave King) had held shares in the old Rangers club before it went into Administration in 2012, and was in touch with Mr Letham from the summer of 2014 onwards about possible acquisition of further shares.”
It seems odd, surely, for the Judges to be thinking in terms of King buying shares in a company that already in 2014 was in its second year of Liquidation, Rangers of 1872 having gone into Liquidation in 2012: after all, the world and his wife and, one would assume, their Lordships of the Inner House, know that after a company has gone through the Liquidation process its shares are essentially worthless and that the company ceases to exist as a legal entity operating in the market-place!
There was therefore in 2018 no possibility of King (or any other person who had been a shareholder in the Liquidated club) being able in 2014 to add to his now worthless, meaningless holding of RFC of 1872 shares-there were none to buy!
It seems to me that the learned judges must subconsciously have absorbed into their minds the ‘continuity Rangers’ idea propagated perversely by the Football authorities and the SMSM; and that that perhaps had led them to think that Charles Green’s new company, SevcoScotland Ltd, had become the majority shareholder in RFC of 1872 as if it had purchased RFC of 1872 as a going concern!
That of course was not the case.
RFC-of-1872- the- football-club, the shareholder of the share in the then SPL in virtue of which they enjoyed membership of the SFA,was liquidated; and most ( but not all) of its assets were purchased by the aforementioned SevcoScotland, a new company ( company number 425159 )
incorporated on 29 May 2012 ,with Charles Green the sole shareholder of the two £1.00 shares.
SevcoScotland Ltd did not buy RFC of 1872, and therefore could not have had ,and did not have, any Rangers-of-1872 shares to sell -to King or anyone else!
Consequently RIFC plc could not be and is not the holding company of RFC of 1872 (In Liquidation).
In sporting truth and fact and in law it is the holding company of SevcoScotland Ltd ( renamed The Rangers Football Club on 31 July 2012) company number 425159 ,which was admitted -for the first time-into Scottish professional Football as a new football club in that year.
——-
Something is very rotten in the State of Scottish Football for as long as the authorities allow a company to claim to be what it is not and derive marketing advantage from claiming to be what it is not, in my opinion.
And ‘Sport’ is demeaned if a football club is allowed to claim sporting honours won decades before it even existed!
I’ve tried to find out what happened back in February in the matter of the action brought against RIFC plc by the nominee shareholders whom RIFC plc blocked from voting in AGMs.
There appears to be no report at all of the outcome of the hearing which had been scheduled on the Rolls of Court of Session for 21 February of this year.
I assume that the case is still alive? Still to go to proof?
Anyone?
My own hope is that RIFC plc (and every plc!) will win the legal right to know the identities of all their shareholders, big or small.
Joe McLaughlin
18 November 2023 at 17:23
‘…I wondered JC, have you written to the editor to ask him/her (I refuse to write them or some such nonsense) about the double standards you have pointed out.’
+++++++++
Mega-apologies, Joe, for not remembering to answer your question.
I don’t recall ever writing directly to the SMSM (relying on the assumption that sites such as SFM and other football blogs will be regularly read by the sports hacks some of whose work I comment on (with due attribution, of course)
Simple reason? Letters do not get published unless you give your real name/address to the editor.
Asseverations that your name/address will not be published are all very well.
But, sad to say, it is my view that in a situation where newspapers propagate a blatant sporting untruth to satisfy their editors/newspaper owners one would be an absolute idiot to trust them at all in any matter.
That is the damage that has been done by the 5-way Agreement.
God grant that those reporting to us on much more serious matters than football are not thirled to the lie that TRFC is continuity RFC of 1872.
After today’s latest ‘penalty’, has anyone yet put together a video comparing the type of penalty given apparently as standard to ‘Rangers’ when other very similar incidents are not awarded to other teams? There must be an opportunity to really show up/shame referees and the SFA generally if someone were to make a video with side by side comparisons. This site is about corruption in football so I believe this is a valid question for this site.
Hard to complain right now considering celtic have had most penalties in the league this season
If only all the penalties given to the new club were not similar to the ones not given to their opponents. There lies the argument, you cannot go over almost 70 odd games without conceding domestically, yet have conceded penalties to opponents in Europe for similiar ones not given domestically.
The fix is in as the new club seem to be in a bit of panic to remain financially sound and look like any new shares offered is just taking the piss out of the shareholders whose shares are virtually worth nothing in momentary terms but worth investing in a cheap poundland frame to hang on the wall. You can only dillute so much orange squash until it becomes something else.
nawlite
9 December 2023 at 20:14
‘..There must be an opportunity to really show up/shame referees and the SFA ‘
+++++++++
Ach, yer havin’ a laugh, surely, nawlite?
The SFA, with the support of the SMSM, long ago made self-contradictory a shameless liar of itself when, in spite of insisting, quite properly, that CG’s bunch of football players known as SevcoScotland/ Club 12? (honest to God!) had to apply for membership of, and be accepted into, a recognised football league before it could be granted membership of the SFA, and then proceeded to allow the brand-new club to claim to be the liquidated RFC of 1872 and enjoy the benefit of using the RFC of 1872 name in its marketing of itself!
Shamelessness isn’t in it!
The SMSM and the BBC bought into the most absurd nonsense that it was another entity that was Liquidated while the football club (the ‘what it’s all aboutness’ that that bloody eejit of a QC rabbited on about some years ago in the Court of Session) carried on as RFC of 1872!
Truth is not to be found in Scottish Football governance when untruths are not challenged by those who fear financial loss if the truth were to be sought.
Perhaps even morally worse than those who signed the 5-way Agreement are our own clubs’ owners/directors for not seeing the lie at the heart and resisting it with all their strength.
Never mind referees, when the very governance body is suspect!
The odd bent referee is as nothing compared with a cheating, lying ‘governance’ body!
It will take someone furth of Scotland, of England even, to dig into and expose the truth.
Shame on the SMSM, when in much more serious matter than sport journalists are being killed for trying to establish truth.
I spit in their eye!
Kilmarnock denied a blatant penalty during win over celtic today.
Luckily it didn’t cost them vital points in the top 6 race.
welcome for the first time, RossM. Good to have fans of all clubs on SFM. Just don’t let your bias show too much though, yeah?
nawlite
10 December 2023 at 21:18
‘..Good to have fans of all clubs on SFM…’
++++++++
nawlite, I mentioned in my post of 9 December 2023 at 00:34 my view that the SFM blog will be being read assiduously by the frightened PR people at Ibrox who know the truth about the false claim that TRFC is Rangers of 1872 and not some grubby creation of CG’s creation endorsed by a lying governance body!
A genuine Kilmarnock supporter will of course rejoice (and quite rightly so!) that Kilmarnock is the first domestic team to beat Celtic this season.
An utterly irrelevant observation about nothing to do with Kilmarnock FC suggests that RossM is more interested in another team altogether!
And perhaps eager to divert attention from the truth that RFC of 1872 ceased to exist as a football club entitled to participate in Scottish professional football when it went into Liquidation in 2012, and that there may be hard questions to ask about the implicit deceit in marketing of RIFC plc as being the holding company of RFC of 1872 in the Prospectus of 2012!
And, like a former PR officer for RIFC plc, is unable to hide the fact.
My sincere apologies to RossM if he/she is not working in the cause of RIFC plc, rather than celebrating a famous win by Kilmarnock!
From the Notes to the RIFC plc Accounts for 2023 report:
“33. CONTINGENT LIABILITIES During the year under review, a claim was raised by Elite Sports Group Limited (“Elite”) against the club in respect of previous contracts. On 24th November 2022, Elite went into administration, and appointed administrators. The administrators are now pursuing the claim and defences have been lodged by the club. Having taken independent legal and expert advice, the board is satisfied that no provision is required in the financial statements.”
and from yesterday’s Rolls of Court:
“LORD BRAID – R Hamilton, Clerk
Court 6 – Parliament House
Thursday 21st December
Procedural Hearing
between 9.30am and 10.00am
“CA74/22 Elite Sports Group Ltd (in administration) v The Rangers”
———
What is the sum the Administrators of Elite Sports are claiming in damages…£9.5 million is it?
Ha-ha: there might be no need to show that there is provision to meet such an amount if the Administrators win the case: but, my goodness, RIFC plc/TRFC Ltd will have to have the readies ready in that event.
Is there a clone of CG anywhere around when you need it?
Well, there are things that you remember from your schooldays that still make you cringe in your 80’s.
Let me mention one such thing in my own life.
Back in about 1956, in 3rd year, while reading aloud in class from one of the set books, I for the first time came across a word which I pronounced as ‘condiggin’.
A voice roared at me “Spell that word, boy!”
I duly did.
As you will have worked out, the word was ‘condign,’ and the following word was ‘punishment’.
Where am I going with this?
Well, tonight I’m in a position to use those two words in relation to that result at Celtic Park this evening!
That result can be seen as “condign punishment” for the Board of Celtic plc for having gone along with the nonsense that TRFC are RFC of 1872, instead of insisting on Truth sports governance.
The Celtic plc board are in there with the SFA and SPFL (in my opinion) as supporting the moral filth of dishonest sport.
The Turkish Football Federation have shown by their actions recently that our SFA/SPFL AND Celtic acted as cowardly compromisers of Truth for the sake of filthy lucre.
There’s a stain on the Celtic escutcheon (a bigger one on SFA/SPFL) that will NEVER be cleaned off: And a stain on such consciences as they may have of all who sold their souls for money!
[ I didn’t see tonight’s game, but from the radio commentary Naismith outsmarted Rodgers}
What a wonderful week for Scottish football in Europe.
I found it refreshing that John Hartson and Neil Lennon both agreed that shirt pulling was a blatant penalty.
Celtic getting a penalty wasn’t surprising though as our domestic game confirms.
RossM
Are you ‘reasonablechap’ or Albertz 11 of recent times perchance? Just wondering!
Congratulations to the team in blue that captured the League Cup today. I believe this is their second cup win since their inception in 2012 and has them tied with St. Johnstone at that total and still trailing Celtic in the years since 2012. One other thought, can someone define when shirt pulling, shirt holding etc is a penalty. Cantwell’s grip on an Aberdeen shirt ( still photos) certainly would have qualified as a penalty in recent weeks. How would that scenario been viewed if the gripper had been in red and the grippee in blue.
goforpar
17 December 2023 at 22:48
“…I believe this is their second cup win since their inception in 2012 …”
++++++++
And you believe correctly, goforpar, without a shadow of a doubt!
It is appalling that our sport is governed by men so collectively unprincipled, gutless and/or venal as to allow TRFC of 2012 creation to claim ownership of all the sporting trophies and honours won by the Liquated RFC of 1872.
As mentioned several times in the past, the fan-base of the old Rangers FC of 1872 knew damned fine what ‘Liquidation’ meant and took to the streets to ‘force’ the frightened governance bodies to abandon all sense of duty and right.
I say ‘force’ but in truth they were/are men so lacking in moral fibre that they capitulated without a fight and endorsed the stupidest fiction imaginable in sport.
May they be held in contempt and scorn for generations to come.
And the running-dog lackeys in the SMSM with them.
John Clark
18 December 2023 at 13:37
I seem to recall that historical trophy wins were assigned to the new club by the powers that be, with no indication that they’d won them on the pitch .
I feel I may have missed an opportunity to pass along further congratulations to the team in blue yesterday. They have now a treble to their credit, albeit it took some 10 years to collect, and, three different managers at the helm. Other teams seem to collect them more frequently and in the same year. But, nothing gets in the way of good but belated good news down Ibrox way,
paddy malarkey
18 December 2023 at 17:07
“I seem to recall that historical trophy wins were assigned to the new club by the powers that be, with no indication that they’d won them on the pitch ”
++++++++++
Well, pm, this is from the SPFL website yesterday:
“Rangers beat Aberdeen 1-0 in the Viaplay Cup final to claim the trophy for a record 28th time and get their hands on the silverware for the first time since 2010/11”
They lie, of course-knowingly!
Just to remind them of how I perceive them, I have sent the following email to the Board of the SPFL: it might be Christmas an’ all, but I hold no Christmassy feelings for sports cheats:
“Dear Board members of SPFL,
This appears on the official website of the SPFL yesterday.
“Rangers beat Aberdeen 1-0 in the Viaplay Cup final to claim the trophy for a record 28th time and get their hands on the silverware for the first time since 2010/11″
You know with crystal clarity that in 2012 the then SPL required the surrender of the share held by ‘Rangers Football Club of 1872, and that the SFA in consequence withdrew ‘Rangers’ membership of that Association, and that TRFC was required to find a place in a ‘recognised league’ before you yourselves were permitted under your own Articles of Association to admit it for the first time into Scottish football.
Why then do you persist in identifying TRFC [company number SC 425159} with RFC 2012 plc [company number SC 004276, a football club currently in Liquidation?]
In so doing you are demonstrating a cynical disregard for truth and a readiness to suborn the very concept of sporting merit.
You should be utterly, utterly ashamed of yourselves.
Yours in contempt,
(me).”
_____
According to Neil Doncaster and Rod McKenzie, a decision to confer the titles won by Rangers Football Club on Charles Green’s Newco wasn’t made by the SFA or the SP(F)L, but following a board meeting of the SFL, a board which included known Ibrox sympathisers David Longmuir and Jim Ballantyne.
“When the issue of potential title stripping was discussed, it was revealed that the decision to recognise Newco’s claim to RFC’s titles, was taken by the SFL board including David Longmuir and Jim Ballantyne, when they decided to invite Newco into the SFL 3rd Division.”
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/celtic-fans-meeting-with-neil-doncaster-and-rod-mckenzie/
Anybody considering reading the entire article should be warned that many of the responses provided by messrs Doncaster and McKenzie could prove injurious to your health.
from ‘The Scotsman’
‘Lowland League votes to retain B teams as former SPFL club expresses dismay
Story by Matthew Elder •
51m ago ”
‘Celtic and Hearts can continue to field B teams in pyramid structure for next two seasons’…
‘A narrow 8-7 majority of clubs voted in favour of retaining B teams for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 campaigns, with one club understood to have abstained from casting a vote’
Anyone identify the ‘abstaining club’?
Highlander 18 December at 22.06
“When the issue of potential title stripping was discussed, it was revealed that the decision to recognise Newco’s claim to RFC’s titles, was taken by the SFL board including David Longmuir and Jim Ballantyne, when they decided to invite Newco into the SFL 3rd Division.”
++++++++
Yes, Highlander, and thank you for reminding me of the part those creatures had in the whole disgusting business.
Their ridiculous nonsense was endorsed by the gutless clubs of the SFL and then later given the nod by the new SPFL and the SFA.
Worse than that, in the wider field, was the endorsement of the Big Lie by the likes of “The Scotsman” and other parts of the SMSM.
And incidentally, ‘The Scotsman’ today makes a right hypocritical liar of itself.! Its first leader is headed :”Truth and civil service impartiality matter” attacks what it alleges is the lack of impartiality of the civil servants working to the Scottish government.
The second leader is a veritable paean to ‘Rangers’- as providing a lesson on ‘leadership’ to the SNP and Conservatives.
The ‘Scotsman’ truth-seeking and impartial?
I think not!
“Craig Levein: Celtic and Rangers should move to England and pay back £50m per season to Scottish football” (from By Gavin McCafferty of ‘The Scotsman’
Published 19th Dec 2023, 18:45 GMT
Updated 19th Dec 2023, 18:46 GMT)
———
Is there any SFM reader out there who can explain to us the practical realities for either club if it chose to detach itself entirely from membership of the SPFL and, consequently, of the SFA? For example, what might be involved in relation to their ‘B’ teams and ‘academies’?
Levein is, I think, speaking tongue in cheek!
It would, I think, make more sense if the boards of every club in the SPFL re-asserted the fact that any football match requires two teams to provide the sport that people pay to see, and pushed for a return to gate-sharing on a 50-50 basis, bugger the relative disparities in match-attending fanbase!
Somebody keep me right, please!
From the Rolls of Court Tuesday 19th December
LORD BRAID – R Hamilton, Clerk
Court 6 – Parliament House
Thursday 21st December
Procedural Hearing
between 9.00am and 9.30am
CA74/22 Elite Sports Group Ltd (in administration) v The Rangers
_______
I think this is confirmation of an already notified hearing?
Good luck to Elite Sports, and I may be permitted to hope that their Administrators are a damn sight better at their job than the wretched Whitehouse and Clark of Duff and Phelps!
God help the poor millionaire souls!
Honest to God!
Really, there has to be a film made about the whole story of the Liquidation of RFC of 1872, a universal theme of something or other.
Don’t we just love it, comedy gold!
“…and within five minutes St Johnstone were down to 10 men. Having initially booked the striker for his challenge, it wasn’t long before referee Alan Muir was called to the monitors for a closer look and he upgraded the booking to an ordering-off.”
Honest to God.
—
Poetry:
Talking about poetry I can say that among my favourite poets is Dante Alighieri. I often wonder- in the abstract- into what circle of Hell he, if alive today, would put, say, sports cheats and cheating sports governance bodies.?
—-
Back to football, I heard on BBC Scotland 11 pm news this ‘…and Tavernier made sure … with a late penalty..’
Surprise, surprise! What a total surprise! one up, ten-man opposition, but just to be sure….
Comedy gold?
Nothing even remotely funny about it, in my opinion.
—
So, that’s one in the goolies for UEFA and FIFA, from the European Court of Justice!
And the road is clear for a European super league, American style?
Squeaky-bum time for the SFA/SPFL wretches.
So, that’s one in the goolies for UEFA and FIFA, from the European Court of Justice!
And the road is clear for a European super league, American style?
Squeaky-bum time for the SFA/SPFL wretches??
More on the above .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67787981
The Court of Session seems to be eager to encourage the public to view live cases on-line:
read about it on this link
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/the-courts/supreme-courts/about-the-court-of-session/guidance-note-for-livestreaming-in-the-inner-house-of-the-court-of-session
The first case scheduled to be live-streamed is case number XA27-23, an Appeal case [ before 3 judges] scheduled to be heard on16t and 17th of January 2024.
see this link
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/the-courts/supreme-courts/about-the-court-of-session/livestream-hearings/case-xa27-23
I mention this only because my eye fell on the name of the ‘second respondent’-Park’s (Ayr) Ltd.
I think Douglas Ireland Park of this parish is connected to this business, and the case is about whether the appellant (a dissatisfied car purchaser) acted in breach of a ‘contract’ or not and blah blah blah.
Douglas Park, of course, is connected to football club that claims to be a hunnert an’ fifty-wan in spite of having been created and admitted into Scottish football only in 2012!!
My sympathies are with the purchaser. I hope he wins his Appeal (I don’t know him or anything about him, of course, but I am always on the side of anyone who is in dispute with a car dealership.
”
RossM
17 December 2023 at 01:37
What a wonderful week for Scottish football in Europe.
I found it refreshing that John Hartson and Neil Lennon both agreed that shirt pulling was a blatant penalty.
Celtic getting a penalty wasn’t surprising though as our domestic game confirms.”
Glad you concur with the two former Celts who agreed shirt pulling in the box is a pen. In the LC Final Cantwell was seen clearly shirt pulling by all who viewed the game, and video posted on social media, yet, somehow, even replays by viaplay, were not enough to merit the incidents been picked up by VAR and a PK award to the Dons, you cannot have one VAR for one club.
What would be point in other clubs paying towards it when all it does is robs them of future finance by either costing them in a final, which some clubs can feed off all season and reap financial rewards commercially, further, perhaps leading them towards relegation as points is what is at stake in the survival game.
Glad you are in agreement that all shirt tugging is either a foul or PK. The game played in the VAR room has to be called out and the usual officials repremanded.
My comment of 22.24 tonight is ‘awaiting moderation’
Must be some technical thing!?
No sweary words or such like- I merely draw attention to the Court Rolls page that tells us that the Court of Session is increasingly adopting a live-streaming approach and has posted the dates of the next live streaming cases in January, one of which involves a company with which a big shareholder in RIFC plc has connections.
From a lengthy piece in ‘The Independent’
“Why it’s vital that Uefa and Fifa win the fight for football’s future
Story by Miguel Delaney’
“It is now clear, after years, that the European Union is beginning to take an interest in a legal definition of sport. Even the Super League verdict touched on that, in recognising the importance of sporting merit.”
_____
UEFA, I believe, has shown that it has no more regard for ‘sporting integrity’ than does the SPFL or SFA by not sanctioning those ‘governance’ bodies’ for allowing the farce to continue of a 13- year-old-club claiming the sporting honours and titles won by the now defunct (in Liquidation, awaiting dissolution) RFC of 1872.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/why-it-s-vital-that-uefa-and-fifa-win-the-fight-for-football-s-future/ar-AA1lTpJx?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=62ac20366b1a4aecb045c94f4ff44452&ei=23
My post today at 18.14 refers.
I copied that post to ‘The Independent’s’ online comments page. Why? Because of the reference to ‘sporting integrity’. The more people can be pointed in the direction of EXAMINING the integrity of those who propagate the nonsense that a liquidated football club is still playing in Scottish professional football the better, I think.
Where is there a journalist worthy of that appellation to be found in Scotland’s media? You are absolutely right -nowhere!
[At school we learned of Cato, in the Roman senate. He at every opportunity insisted that Rome should recognise the danger that Carthage presented and kept harping on about it. He was right: the Carthaginians were at it, tooling up for war.]
I am no Cato, but I will continue to insist that the Big Lie has to be recognised as such if ‘sporting integrity’ means anything at all.
Let the money-men and a dodgy SMSM squirm as liars and cheats do when confronted with Truth.
That’s all I want for Christmas.
Some good news for Scottish football .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67813683
Sadly, AI has put a post of mine about Scottish Parliamentary business into ‘moderation’
Must have used some trigger words that AI is programmed to react to! [incidentally, does anyone else read “AI” as “AL”, as in short for Alan or Albert? My brain does it every time!]
I’ve just got round to reading the Scottish Football Supporters’ Association’s ‘ Andy’s sting in the tale’ see link https://scottishfsa.org/chairmans-blog-21-12-23/
It gives the record of the discussion in Parliamentary Committee of the suggestion that Scottish Football should have an independent ‘regulator’.
This is the link to that discussion:
https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/HSCS-19-12-2023?meeting=15626&iob=133322
I have lifted this little gem from it:
” Sandesh Gulhane [ed: MSP, committee member]
“…A massive 96.2 per cent of people felt that independent regulation would be a positive step for Scottish football. There are other figures on that that are up in the 90s. That view is overwhelming on the part of supporters because you are right that everyone concentrates on their club. Therefore, from your point of view, why should we not look at implementing independent regulation?
Ian Maxwell [ed: CEO of the SFA]: “The idea of an independent regulator down south has had a high profile. That was born out of four different incidents. One was the potential breakaway for the European super league and the fact that English Premier League clubs were being courted for that; another one was the financial failings of clubs down south that had gone into administration, with Bury, Derby County, Macclesfield Town and a number of other clubs facing issues; one was the impact of Covid on football clubs and their ability to withstand that financial pressure, given the extreme financial pressure that football was under generally; and one was the changes that club owners had made, with, for example, Hull City and Cardiff City changing club badges and colours and making decisions that they had not engaged with their supporters on. None of those elements is relevant for Scotland.”
———
So much for Maxwell. I now ask:
–Whit’s that, Mr. Maxwell? NONE of those elements is relevant for Scotland?
I believe you are quite wrong there, Mr Maxwell!
I rather imagine that the matter of Scottish Football clubs going into Administration and clubs going into Liquidation is very relevant for Scotland.
Especially when Scottish Football ‘governance’ forswears itself and continues to allow a now 13-year-old club, to claim the sporting honours and titles won over a period of 140 years year by a club that went into Liquidation in 2012 and is awaiting dissolution in a few months’ time when the Liquidators finish their job.
An Independent Regulator would, I imagine, have an interest in how the SPFL/SFA operated under the laws of the land and would have regard to how clubs related to tax laws and insolvency legislation and
I removed one word from the post that was in moderation, thinking that that word might have been the reason for the post going into moderation.
Seems not, because the amended post went into moderation as well!
Anyway (see my post of 23.47) I think I will copy it to the Scottish Parliamentary Committee looking at whether Scottish Football should have an independent Regulator!
John Clark
24 December 2023 at 00:03
Anyway (see my post of 23.47) I think I will copy it to the Scottish Parliamentary Committee looking at whether Scottish Football should have an independent Regulator!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
I always laugh at the notion of the Scottish Government appointing an ‘independent’ Regulator for football. This will be the same Government who like to take a significant amount of income tax from us, yet in 2012 were pleading with HMRC to ignore tens of millions of tax which was illegally withheld by the old Rangers.
I have zero faith they would be able to appoint a person, or persons, to regulate the game who would be truly independent. More recently their differing treatment regarding covid breaches depending on the clubs involved only reinforces my view.
Anyway John, a very merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous 2024 to you, and all the members of this forum.
upthehoops
24 December 2023 at 17:05
‘…yet in 2012 were pleading with HMRC to ignore tens of millions of tax which was illegally withheld by the old Rangers.’
++++++++
I take your point, uth, and am mindful of the fact that it was the UK Supreme Court, not any Scottish court, that ruled in favour of HMRC.!
And it is clearly the case that significant political players and perhaps members of the BBC Trust did their damnedest to protect ‘Rangers’, aided and abetted by a ‘governance’ body supported by the SMSM, and not seriously challenged by any other club…
Or by the Court of Session which never made a distinction between TRFC and RFC of 1872, but blithely spoke of ‘Rangers’ in any case involving RIFC plc/TRFC.
Not that I am ‘murmuring the judges’… which used to be a crime!
You may be right in thinking that whoever might be appointed as ‘Regulator’ of Scottish Football might be as personally biased as the SMSM sports hacks or the kind of folk on sports governance bodies who sign secret 5-way agreements!
But at least there would be more legal accountability?
Anyway, happy Christmas to all on the SFM blog, whether they support truth or not.
To be fair John, the Court of Session at the third tribunal (if that’s what it was called) did rule in favour of HMRC, which was then appealed to the Supreme Court.
If I’m correct, its over 12 years since Rangers got a penalty at Celtic Park
Some might describe that as a pattern of assistance.
3 tickets going spare for game after seeing the officials.
RossM
Ah, so you are erstwhile poster Albertz11 or reasonablechap – or one of like minded triplets with the
same delusional WATP rhetoric.
Anyway. following your own logic and claim (purely for the purposes of accuracy ye ken), your post should at least be corrected to reflect the fact that Sevco/TRFC have NEVER had a penalty at Paradise (Rangers -born 1872. Died 2012). Otherwise, I’m confused.
Also, I’m having some fun trying to identify who the holders of the cryptically and mysteriously (at least for me) mentioned 3 spare tickets might be. If your referring to the officials, should that read 6 (Nick Walsh, Graeme Stewart, Calum Spence, Willie Collum Daniel Mc Farlane, and |kevin Clancy – the various designated officials). the festive laff on a horrible, stormy day!
RossM
27 December 2023 at 08:26
Regardless of who is officiating, at Parkhead on Saturday , why would 3 Celtic fans give up their tickets for the game ? TRFC fans are excluded , bar maybe , the aforementioned match officials .
upthehoops
25 December 2023 at 23:26
‘…To be fair John, the Court of Session at the third tribunal (if that’s what it was called) did rule in favour of HMRC,’
+++++
They did indeed, uth, and I apologise for my poorly written post!
I think my mind was recalling the various court actions brought in England and Scotland by or against RIFC/TRFC (not RFC of 1872!) SUBSEQUENT to the Liquidation; cases in which RIFC/TRFC are described by the Judge as being ‘the well-known Glasgow football team ‘Rangers…’
The Courts, whether in Scotland or England, seemed either simply to have accepted RIFC plc’s untruthful version of who and what they were/are, or decided to ignore the fact that RIFC plc/TRFC could not POSSIBLY be the well-known Rangers football club that was in Liquidation at the time, and had been in Liquidation since 2012!
And I’m reminded of the wonderful Dr Heidi Poon who ripped apart in her dissenting opinion the outrageous nonsense of the First Tier Tax Tribunal and I raise my cocoa cup in her honour!
John Clark
27 December 2023 at 23:41
And I’m reminded of the wonderful Dr Heidi Poon who ripped apart in her dissenting opinion the outrageous nonsense of the First Tier Tax Tribunal and I raise my cocoa cup in her honour!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The 2-1 verdict at the FTTT bought them time, and allowed some outrageous media spin and headlines. Then the second tribunal, presided over by a Judge the Media exposed as a Celtic fan before it was held, gave them even more opportunity to gloat and spin. How strange that it was only when we got to the real deal of the Court of Session followed by the Supreme Court, that the whole thing was exposed for what it was. A lot of crucial time had been bought in the intervening years though.
And another thing….
The link to the article posted earlier by Highlander from when Celtic fans met with the SPFL, reminded me of one of the most outrageous aspects of this entire matter. That the SPFL and SFA deem that a football club is simply an emotional attachment that can never cease to exist. They better hope THAT view is never tested in the Court of Session or the Supreme Court!
upthehoops
28 December 2023 at 15:39
‘…That the SPFL and SFA deem that a football club is simply an emotional attachment that can never cease to exist.’
++++++++++
I think, uth, they might have got that idea from an idiot of a QC who wittered on about ‘the whatness of a club… the ethereal essence… the what-it’s-all-about-ness..’
I haven’t the relevant notebook to hand in which I think I made a note to the effect that that was the essence of the point the QC was making [to some hilarity all round]- and perhaps not his ‘ipsissima Verba’.]
I must try to dig out from my attic the notebook I used at that particular hearing. For all I know that QC might now be a Judge!!
“That the SPFL and SFA deem that a football club is simply an emotional attachment that can never cease to exist”
Tell that to Third Lanark, Airdrie and Gretna fans who lost their clubs and titles.
The Sevco scenario reminds of Trump and the MAGA movement, they know they lost an election and that their man is not the President, but it does not stop the right wing media perpetuate the propaganda that Trump is the President and MAGA is the republican party, it is not but when people are afraid to speak out it becomes an obscured norm.
bigboab1916
29 December 2023 at 16:19
‘…Tell that to Third Lanark, Airdrie and Gretna fans who lost their clubs and titles.’
++++++++++
Exactly.
The supporters of those clubs did not think even for a minute of arguing that it was the owner(s) of a ‘company’ that had gone bust while the club remained alive and kicking!
No. It was the clubs that were the entities that held membership of the SFA.
And it was the clubs that lost the entitlement to such membership and ceased to participate in Scottish Football!
We are in trouble in this wee country of ours when we have a Press and BBC prepared to propagate the lie that TRFC is somehow RFC of 1872 presently in Liquidation as RFC 2012 plc!
Honest to God,
Who could trust anything they report!? On any matter, if they can’t report truth in a mere matter of Sport?
Be out of commission tomorrow due to it being my birthday ‘n’that, so let me wish you all a very happy New Year, and a 2024 imbued with sporting integrity and a more level playing field.
Best wishes to all your teams too – except when they’re playing Celtic of course 🙂
Big Pink
31 December 2023 at 16:17
Many happy returns of the day ,and best wishes to you and yours in 2024 .
Cheers Paddy😀
Big Pink
31 December 2023 at 16:17
‘…Be out of commission tomorrow due to it being my birthday ‘.’
+++++++++
Well, BP, let me join pm in wishing you a very happy birthday: how nice to have been born at the start of a new year! May the new year bring you and yours happiness and good health, and maybe some wealth as well!
PC.s Tantrums …
This is becoming quite farcical – whit a bunch of entitled whingers WATP are! If that’s how much of a rant Clement goes on after his first defeat, what would he be like when suffering a few.
When complaining about the penalty his team were ‘denied’ (what an irony that is!), there was no gracious acknowledgement that any such penalty awarded would have been overturned as Sima was offside in the first place (thank you Bobby Madden – now formerly one of their own).
Next, he wanted Bernardo to receive a second yellow card for a brutal (whit?) foul on Goldson when, in fact, said Goldson had gone over the ball catching his opponent on the knee (lucky to escape serious injury there). Booking, at least for Goldson?
When O’Riley, in considerable discomfort, was receiving treatment, Clement was gesticulating that he should be taken off.
You’ll remember also that Turnbull was (wrongly!!) called offside before being fouled in the box by Tavernier. Penalty – naw!!!
…and what about the incident when Oh, while on the ground, was hauled away (by Goldson?) which should have resulted in another red card.
Not much mention of most of the above today in our partisan press/media whilst the Sevco fan sites go bananas.
Such childish, undignified and paranoid behaviour from a self-entitled 11-year-old club!
(be careful what you ask for wrt transparency!).
So with my own rant at an end (for now!), all the best for ’24 – and Happy Birthday to BP
You would think, if you were new to Scottish Football, this was the first time in the history of the SPFL that any team had been denied what they thought was a penalty. Whereas it happens nearly every week with just a passing moan from those affected and is forgotten 2 days later. Not with our friends from Ibrox, every time a decision goes against them they complain to the SFA and the media keep it up for days. It’s time the other teams started complaining when they are denied a penalty against The Rangers.
On the theme of the MSM did anyone notice that not one reported on Balogun spitting at fans as he walked off following his red card?
A Happy New Year to all who read SFM whatever team you follow.
Not quite sure where to go with the fallout from the Glasgow Derby. I don’t know whether the lack of understanding being demonstrated of how VAR is used is genuine or confected but the blood and thunder being generated is surely bringing the game into disrepute. For the safety of our referees the mid season break could not have come at a better time.
I’m no fan of Willie Collum – always found him a bit too fussy – but the board at TRFC need to take a look at themselves (and what happened recently in Turkey) and move on.
I think Rangers are well aware of the protocols and shortcomings of var. They also know that the correct decision was reached no matter what other nuances they wish to attribute it all to. The posturing is just a dog whistle is all.
At some point though, it might be good if the refs association woke up to the fact that their lack of professionalism and various competence deficits are things that need to be addressed.
A celtic fan worrying about the safety of match officials I always find fascinating.
The reason why these games kick off at midday is due to celtic fans in May 99.
Harassing and intimidating officials is also a celtic thing.
The club hired a private detective to follow Hugh Dallas.
A referee strike in 2010 was due to celtic fans harassment of match officials.
I think you should check the facts on the origin of the 2010 SFA Referees’ strike.
RossM
Of the three claims you make, I’m pretty sure the early kick-offs preceded 1999, but I am absolutely certain that Celtic did not hire a private detective to follow any referee.
The referee strike I think evolved out of DougieGate, so I suppose the “harassment” claim is a matter of your own perspective.
RossM/Albertz11/reasonablechap (whoever!)
Thanks for sparking some cheering ‘entertainemt’ on here for me (especially good at this time of year).
Under the ‘umbrella’ of ‘people in glass houses’, it’s not to difficult to point out the ludicrous nature of your claims e.g. check the YouTube highlights for Scottish Cup replay in 2011(?) – and many more examples of haranguing/threatening refs by Oldco abound (maybe you want to start a competition of claim and counter claim – that would be fun).
Also, I think I’ve uncovered the thinking behind the Ibrox animus towards Willie Collum via his record in games v Celtic – from today’s Daily Record.
“The whistler has been in charge of ten Old Firm matches and Rangers have only won one of them – the first one he took charge of in 2010 where Rangers won 3-1. Since then, Celtic have won eight of the eight Old Firm games Collum has been the man in the middle and drawn once…” It should be noted that these stats cover both version of the Govan ‘mob’. Nuff said – in their eyes, he doesn’t seem to ‘bend to their will’!
bect67
4 January 2024 at 15:54
Is this the same Willie Collum who gave Rangers a penalty when Whittaker dived with zero contact ,and he didn’t even see it ? Mibbes he isn’t hitting performance expectations now .
Ross M 04/01 00.28
Celtic hired a behaviour psychologist to examine the actions of Hugh Dallas after the 99 title winning game.
It was the Celtic Supporters Association who had a referee (Jim McCluskey) followed by a PI.
paddy 04/01 17.14
Broadfoot not Whittaker.
bect67
I am not Ross M, reasonablechap, Lawman etc.
Allan MacDonald asked a (US based)Behavioural Psychologist to have a look at the referee in that Old Firm match. The storm over the asking very effectively masked the BP’s verdict on the failed Celtic CEO candidate, which did not show him in a good light. Forgot about the CSA PI thing🤣
Correct about the blind penalty villain tho’👍😊
Or maybe a victim of selective SEVCO amnesia Paddy.
The incessant whinging reminds me of the old Willie Nelson song:-
“Blue eyes cryin in the rain” Get over it sez me!
Hopefully, the SFA response (Sky Sports) re the meeting yesterday should put the matter to rest for all fair-minded supporters!
This entitlement narrative, and the Collum Derangement Syndrome, diz get a bit much sometimes
The statement today from the SFA stands at odds with the narrative being pushed by certain folks. Reads like a “cease and desist” from the SFA. Let’s see what happens next – my money is on nothing.
Joe McQuaid
4 January 2024 at 21:10
‘…Reads like a “cease and desist” from the SFA…]
++++++++
Joe McQuaid (welcome-haven’t read you before!), we know that the Board of RIFC plc know that the SFA is but putty in its hands, the SFA having kowtowed to them by allowing RIFC plc to pass itself off for marketing purposes to be the holding company of the now dead RFC of 1872.
The SFA was exposed in 2012/13 as a basically corrupt body, ready to sell its soul for ‘filthy lucre’s’ sake-or worse!
And the Board of RIFC plc know in its very guts that the SFA will now simply huff and puff -and do nothing!
I would suggest that it is now about time that the SFA faced up to truth, sporting truth, and brought the upstart, ungrateful (for the favours they enjoy at the hands of the forsworn SFA) RIFC plc to heel.
For the sake of Scottish Football as a ‘Sport’ the SFA should kick the 5-Way Agreement into touch in so far as it recognised ‘continuity’ Rangers of 1872 and ignored the fact that RFC of 1872 lost its membership of the SFA in 2012.
Testing
Kenny MacDonald
4 January 2024 at 18:18
Cheers, I had a picture of Broadfoot in my head but came up with the wrong name-may be time to stop relying on memory !
RIFC plc accounts to June 2023 now available on this link
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC437060/filing-history
My notification did not say the accounts were being processed and will be available in 10 days!
A wee cat among the pigeons .
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/glasgow-msp-james-dornan-submits-motion-for-sfa-transparency-amid-rangers-row
…
Paddy malarkey above …
“A wee cat amongst the pigeons”
Check Wiki etc – this seems more like a ‘rap sheet to me – for a not very nice person!
bect67
5 January 2024 at 22:35
‘…Check Wiki etc – this seems more like a ‘rap sheet to me – for a not very nice person!
+++++++
I know not the man, I have to say!
But I agree with that bit in his question where he asks our Parliament to recognise ‘the longstanding culture of secrecy that exists within the ruling hierarchy of Scottish football.’
Secrecy?
The 5-way agreement which two different ‘Rangers’ clubs signed? One dead, one newly created?
The nonsense that TRFC inherited the share in the SPL that RFC in Liquidation had to surrender?
‘Non-disclosure agreements’ of the dirty business of allowing a new club to claim to be continuity ‘Rangers’ of 1872?
I think I echo Dornan’s call for ‘transparency!’
And not just in relation to a single penalty decision but in relation to the corruption at the very heart of a sports governance body -in receipt of occasional public monies- that created/bought into the lie that a football club newly admitted by it in 2012 into the sport which they govern is one and the same as the football club which went into Liquidation in 2012!
The sheer bloody effrontery of the SFA is almost unbelievable! And, indeed, cannot possibly be sustained.
The Truth will out, and the liars will be recognised as the liars they are, whether they may be still alive or mouldering in their graves when that happens.
By way of light relief, can I say that the answer to a clue in the crossword in Thursday’s ‘Scotsman’ was ‘cran’
That rang bells in my memory. Where had I heard that word before?
Ah, eventually it came to me this evening ( Friday) as I served up dinner for Mrs C: it was the surname of a witness in the case of ‘SDI Retail Services L td’ v ‘David King, Paul Murray..blah blah’ in 2018 see [2018] EWHC 1697(Comm) para 41.
I love these little what do you call them? coincidences?
Especially when they remind me of court cases lost by folk connected with the Big Lie!
Regarding James Dornan and his calls for transparency.
Like many football fans I would welcome reform in the SFA, part of which would be them becoming a more open, transparent organisation. However, it sticks in the craw when the call comes from a man whose former boss demanded that HMRC shouldn’t be chasing the old Rangers for the tax they owed, which had brought them much success. Another of his previous bosses stood grandstanding at press briefings regarding covid breaches within football, quite brazenly latching onto public opinion regarding which clubs they preferred to see getting a kicking, and which club was bizarrely praised for how they handled players committing breaches.
So James Dornan and anyone else within Holyrood needs to look inwardly and ask if they (the Scottish Government) would be in any way whatsoever capable of appointing a truly independent Football Regulator. On previous evidence they most certainly wouldn’t. Playing to the gallery regarding football shouldn’t be part of anything, but all previous evidence suggests it’s what they thrive on.
Who would this Regulator actually be anyway? Holyrood is already full of people earning vast sums for roles they are not even remotely qualified for. Outwith Holyrood they would struggle to hold down even a junior management position.
All the above in my opinion of course.
upthehoops
6 January 2024 at 12:12
‘…Who would this Regulator actually be anyway? Holyrood is already full of people earning vast sums for roles they are not even remotely qualified for. ‘
+++++++++
England is a different country, of course, but it’s worthwhile having a read at what is proposed there in the matter of Regulation. Have a read at this
ttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-sustainable-future-reforming-club-football-governance/a-sustainable-future-reforming-club-football-governance#part-2-the-independent-football-regulator
from which I have lifted this:
“The government is not convinced that an industry regulator would be genuinely independent from the influence of clubs, or could be sufficiently held accountable for its actions and performance. As such, we do not believe a football body is an appropriate home for the Regulator at this stage. This need not prevent the industry from taking action to reform in the interim.
The institutional location of the Regulator will be determined based on several guiding principles, including ensuring independence and proper accountability.
The government believes regulated clubs should bear the cost of regulation, which would ultimately benefit the industry. Therefore, the Regulator would be funded by a levy on clubs proportionate to their revenue”
I take from that that the intention is to try to have ‘Regulation’ well out of interference by people actually in the industry.
But I would say that the reluctance of the FCA and the Insolvency Service and the now defunct BBC Trust to thoroughly investigate the RIFC plc Prospectus and the bogus claims by RIFC plc to be the holding company of RFC of 1872 has made me cynical to a great degree!
John Clark
6 January 2024 at 19:41
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks for that update John.
I just don’t want to see any more gravy trains for under qualified people who add zero value except to their own pockets. There is enough of that in the country right now. I also think that even with the best of intentions, getting a truly independent football regulator in Scotland is well nigh impossible. Maybe I’m wrong of course, but nothing happening in society right now convinces me there is any chance of it happening. Division, ideology, and vested interest seems to come before anything. In my opinion of course.
One from this afternoon from a TRFC fan -we need foreign referees to remove actual or perceived bias from our most important game, but they can’t come from Latin countries because of their dominant domestic religious sect (to paraphrase). I’m glad I’m godless !
Trouble is Paddy, godless or not, some are hell-bent on imposing theirs on all of us.
paddy above
Help ma boab!
So, following the logic here, that would be those from the Emerald Isle (especially Irish Catholics?) ‘goosed’ then?
Honestly, you can twist anything with a bigoted narrative
… and there wiz me thinkin’I that paranoia was the domain of CFC supporters!
paddy malarkey
6 January 2024 at 20:19
‘…One from this afternoon from a TRFC fan -we need foreign referees to remove actual or perceived bias from our most important game, but they can’t come from Latin countries because of their dominant domestic religious sect (to paraphrase).’
+++++++++
I had a good laugh at that , pm, as being a spoof comment by a comedian of a TRFC fan.. eh, it was a spoof? Surely?? Or was it an observation made by any ‘intellectual’ pundit on BBC radio Scotland?
John Clark
Alas,no . Straight from the donkey’s mouth . The Pope casts a wide and heavy shadow on some .
“The Scotsman” onine, about an hour ago:
“Joanna Cherry: ‘Perception of conflict of interest’ with Lord Advocate over Alex Salmond investigation, Rangers FC and SNP finances scandal
Story by Joseph Anderson
Ms Cherry said the investigation into former first minister Alex Salmond, the malicious prosecutions at Rangers Football Club and the live police investigation of the SNP’s finances have “brought to the fore” concerns over the Lord Advocate’s dual role as both head of Scotland’s prosecution service, and the Scottish Government’s chief legal adviser.”
++++
Interesting?
@PM with regard to acceptable foreign refs for our domestic game, I was thinking we were reduced to North Korea but then wondered whether that would be deemed sufficiently neutral from (or perhaps too antagonistic towards) South Korea for some of the more paranoid amongst us… Maybe we need to go to the Indian Super League for our refs – Owen Coyle might be able to help, darn that’s probably put India offside…
From Chairman Bennet’s ‘Business Review’ in the RIFC plc Annual Report 2023 another indication of the desperate need to foster the pretence that TRFC of 2012 creation is the Rangers FC of the 4 young men of my grandfathers’ era!
” Myself, James Bisgrove, members of the Board, investors and former players were involved in the process [i.e recruitment of Beale’s successor] We were delighted to reach the unanimous decision to appoint Philippe Clement as the club’s 19th permanent manager.”
What a load of deceitful codswallop.
And the nodding heads in the SMSM let them get away with the fiction!
How many journalists have died in pursuit of Truth in Gaza/Palestine or other such places of armed conflict?
God grant that the despicable football journalists in our own wee country will be shamed into discovering the courage to report honestly and cease propagating a fantasy!
Of course John, Scottish fitba’ is a far less existential problem for the human race than Gaza, but your point remains valid. Folk there are fearlessly telling their truth despite the real threat to their lives. And here in the Scottish MSM, they cower in fear of the opprobrium of those who peddle the delusional mythology surrounding the need to keep alive a failed institutional business model.
And that is what they are. Cowards.
I was earlier today up in the loft/attic intending to do a bit of sorting out of stuff that should be ditched from stuff that I would want to keep for sentimental reasons (e.g. my Scots Guards dad’s war medals) or as some kind of record of my early life and of the milestones in the shared life of Mrs C and me since 1970.
Got waylaid when I came across the notebook I used when making notes during a hearing of the criminal proceedings of some of those charged in connection with the purchase by Craig Whyte of heavily tax-indebted Rangers of my grandfathers’ days (now in Liquidation)
I was caught by the polis trying to write some notes and told to desist and was allowed back into the Court room after I had shown my notebook, which was found to have no note whatever of what had transpired.
None of the accused were found guilty.
And the note I had made (on a wee separate bit of paper) was not about the verdict or the accused, but about the judge’s exasperation at the incompetence of the Prosecution’s ‘indictment’, and frequent changes in the terms of the indictment(s).
The judge was almost apoplectic when he addressed the Advocate-Depute about the number of changes to the Indictment. I hear him still: ‘Advocate-depute! how many changes??’
I should say that as far as I can ascertain the records of criminal trials where the accused is found ‘not guilty’ are not made public. So, I cannot refer to the transcript of Lord Bannatyne’s observations.
I can say that it was a fun experience, listening to him having a go at the perceived dithering and incompetence of the Advocate-depute.
[I need hardly add that I was appalled at the ineffectiveness and, as seemed to me, the couldn’t-care-less half-heartedness of the prosecution.
But that’s just me, maybe!
It was with a mixture of bemusement and dismay that I noted the tweet below on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) yesterday from the Guardian Journalist Ewan Murray
Ewan Murray
@mrewanmurray
·
Jan 10
Dundee United accounts. Turnover: £8.1m. Loans to Mark Ogren: £10.1m.
.
A serious governing body would have been asking WTF before now….
.
Mr Murray has been a journalist of some standing for a while. So I have to wonder where he has been since 2012 regarding over £100m+ of cumulative losses at ‘Rangers’, and the fact that only Director’s loans kept them afloat at times. Never can I recall him asking what the governing bodies were playing at in not asking questions. All he has done is show us once again what a problem there still is regarding the ability of the Scottish Media to comment on matters involving ‘Rangers’ without fear or favour.
Back in February 2021 I wrote and posted a letter to the Head of the Insolvency Service.
The letter was acknowledged, of course.
Covid was rampant at the time, and it was suggested that as ordinary physical mail could not be attended to at the time, I should email.
I did so, emailing the full text of the physical letter.
Receipt of that email was duly acknowledged.
But no reply was forthcoming.
Today, I sent the following email:
“From: me
To: Insolvency. EnquiryLine Fri, 12 Jan at 12:33
Dear Jonathan,
Compliments of the season, 3 years on!
Can I come back to where we left off, please, in relation to my query laid out in the email chain?
Quick summary:
Rangers International Football Club plc (‘RIFC plc’) company number SC437060 is the holding company of The Rangers Football Club Ltd, company number SC425159.
However, the official website of RIFC plc seems to suggest absurdly and untruthfully that it is the holding company of the famous Rangers FC plc founded in 1872 (company number SC004276) which went into Liquidation in 2012 under the name RFC 2012 plc.
Surely this cannot possibly be allowed, and RIFC plc should be instructed to desist from trying to market itself as being something that it is not and indicate on its website that TRFC Ltd came into existence as a football club only in 2012 and that RFC 2012 plc is in Liquidation, the next report by the Liquidators expected to be the final one?
Cheers,
(me) ”
__
I can be remarkably patient, sometimes!
From my own experience as a minor cog in the sphere of the Civil Service I know that letters from the public cannot be ignored: at some point a reply has to be made, and some kind of answer has to be provided.
And the answer has to stay this side of Truth!
Even Prime Ministers and Cabinet ministers in recent years have learned that telling actual porkies is a no-no.
And any lower or middle-range Civil Servant these days would be aff his/her chump to try to ignore correspondence. or to reply with what might easily be proven to be an untruth.
[Remember the wonderful Sir Humphrey in ‘Yes, Minister’ and his wonderful skill in drafting soothing but misleading replies without actually telling a lie?]
Basically, the Insolvency Service must sooner or later say whether or not RIFC plc is the holding company of RFC of 1872 company number SC004276 and entitled to market itself as such. or the holding company of TRFC (company number SC 425159) and therefore not entitled to attempt to mislead investors by even suggesting that it is the holding company RFC 2012 plc (IL) !
Simples!
With a nod to ‘BP 10 January 2024 at 23:59’, I agree that a deceitful football governance body is not an existential challenge and the petty lies and deceit do not have the same calamitous effects as the horrendous wars in Ukraine and Gaza!
I would say only that finding the Truth in respect of the wars is perhaps much more complicated than finding the Truth that RFC of 1872 is no more, and that the Scottish Football governance body allows a monstrous myth to be passed off as Truth in dereliction of its legal and moral duty to defend the concept of sporting integrity.
A relatively wee lie is a lie, nevertheless.
I’ve just been reading the super-duper’ “Andy’s sting-in-the-tale” that came into my email box at a very early hour this morning! see it at this link:
https://scottishfsa.org/chairmans-blog-12-01-24/
From which I cite this:
“Looking back, too many of Scotland’s teams have shown financial recklessness in the quest for soon forgotten whatevers.
I lost count in my head of just how many teams have been caught out by reckless gambling.
I was therefore sad to see Edinburgh City, who I first played against when they were ‘Postal United’ back in 1978, in the dreaded ‘Edinburgh Gazette’ on 22nd of December.
‘Financial issues’ led to a winding up petition presented at Livingston Sherriff court on the 22nd on behalf of the taxmen (HMRC).”
—
I note that there appears not to be any ‘big hands’ chap ready to buy the assets of Edinburgh City FC for buttons and be allowed by the SFA to field a team as being the selfsame ‘Edinburgh City’ (IL)!
Honest to God!
The dirty shenanigans of our lying football governance bodies and of the weak, selfish, unprincipled boards of our 2012 SPL/SFL clubs came about only in relation to RFC of 1872.
Edinburgh City FC is dead
In exactly the same way as RFC of 1872 is dead. Liquidated. History.
And history only!
Just been having a look at some of the changes to the powers of Companies House that are coming into effect in March
https://changestoukcompanylaw.campaign.gov.uk/changes-at-a-glance/
I suspect that there will be a whole lot of phony companies being set up before the effective date before the need to prove identity comes into effect!
However, it seems that Companies House will still not be obliged to check the truth of what Companies file about their accounts!
Note 32 to the financial statements in the RIFC plc Annual Report has this:
” 32. Contingent Liabilities
During the year under review a claim was raised by Elite Sports Group Limited (“Elite”) against the club in respect of previous contracts. On 24th November 2022 Elite went into Administration and appointed Administrators. The Administrators are now pursuing the claim and defences have been lodged by the club. Having taken independent legal and expert advice the Board is satisfied that no provision is required in the financial statements.”
There was to have been a ‘procedural hearing’ relating to the case on 21st December 2023.
I’ve no idea whether that hearing took place. Perhaps it did, and perhaps the Administrators intimated that they were dropping the claim?
If the claim has not been dropped, it is a remarkably hubristic decision by the Board not to make some kind of financial provision in case they lose, given that Elite’s claim was for upwards of £9 million!
I’m watching Atalanta v Frosinone ,and has wee marks every 10 metres down the sidelines, like what I suggested a while back . Or was it adopted sometime ? 3-0 for Atacama after 29 minutes.
paddy malarkey
15 January 2024 at 20:14
‘..watching Atalanta v Frosinone, and has wee marks every 10 metres down the sidelines,..’
+++++++++
For the first time in my life, I find myself asking: are continental clubs’ pitch markings actually measured in full metres or in metric equivalent of yards (10 yrds = 9.144 metres?) Bit of a bugger for a grounds-man using a metric tape-measure! Never thought about that before!
But what is this??
https://www.trademarkelite.com/uk/trademark/trademark-detail/UK00002264673/OLD-FIRM
“OLD FIRM United Kingdom Trademark Information
By Celtic F.C.Limited
The OLD FIRM trademark was assigned an Application Number #UK00002264673 by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO). Trademark Application Number is a Unique ID to identify the OLD FIRM mark in UKIPO.
The OLD FIRM mark is filed in the category of Class 039 Transport; packaging and storage of goods; travel arrangement. . The legal correspondent for OLD FIRM trademark is Shepherd and Wedderburn LLP , Edinburgh EH3 8UL, UNITED KINGDOM . The current status of the OLD FIRM filing is Registered.
Based on Celtic F.C.Limited, the OLD FIRM trademark is used in the following business: Transportation services; travel agency services; arranging of tours; booking agency services for travel; arranging of travel, travel courier and guide services; consultancy, information and advisory services relating to all of the aforesaid services. .”
I have absolutely no understanding of what that means.
It surely cannot mean that Celtic accept for marketing purposes that there is still an ‘old firm’ of which one party is the dead RFC of 1872?
God rot the soul of any Celtic Board that buys into the lie that the Rangers of the ‘old firm’ is still in existence! [ and credit to the sports journalists of the era who coined the description of the wee deal made by faithless, greedy, greedy men]
Somebody please tell me that my view of the 2012/present Celtic Board must be mistaken.
Allowing the ‘media’ to hype up football games as being between the Old Firm is to be lying and buying into the biggest sporting untruth in the history of Scottish football.
There is no ‘old firm’.
My post at 23.19 today refers.
My AI non-human bit of computer pretence of being human says this:
‘The term “Old Firm” is a trademark that is filed in the category of Class 039 Transport; packaging and storage of goods; travel arrangement1. The two clubs, Celtic and Rangers, jointly registered the ‘Old Firm’ term at the Intellectual Property Office at the turn of the 21st century, and it was confirmed that it was still being renewed as a trademark in 2021′
Barstewards!
Honest to God! The Rangers football club died the death of Liquidation in 2012.
That it should come to this! that for filthy lucre’s sake Celtic should support the lie that TRFC is Rangers of 1872!
paddy malarkey
15 January 2024 at 20:14
3-0 for Atacama after 29 minutes.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Just deserts, Paddy.
##################################
John Clark
15 January 2024 at 23:51
that for filthy lucre’s sake Celtic should support the lie that TRFC is Rangers of 1872!
///////////////////////////////////////////////////
Celtic aren’t alone. Through their silence, every senior club in Scotland was complicit and culpable, having approved the script concocted by the football authorities that Rangers somehow survived liquidation.
That self-serving acquiescence was due to the manufactured fear that all clubs would face financial armageddon in the absence of Rangers’ renowned financial prowess. How ironic that they should be asked to endorse a fiction that the sole route to a rosy economic future lay in throwing their support behind a club that had died a self-inflicted death owing mega-millions of pounds.
I will never for the life of me understand why the powers-that-be couldn’t just have told the cold harsh truth about the demise of Rangers. There would still be a form of Rangers for the fans to follow (ie a brand new club with no trophy haul, but with historical links to its defunct predecessor, just as we all know to be the reality at present anyway) and those fans had already begun to face the reality of losing their club before the suits came up with their secretive five way agreement stitch up, paving the way for the big lie.
Highlander
17 January 2024 at 11:56
Can’t take the credit-all my phone’s work ! It looks a “thing” though , with a ladder-like thing chalked the length of the sidelines . I’ll have a look at Serie A over the weekend and ready an invoice .
Highlander
17 January 2024 at 11:56
‘…I will never for the life of me understand why the powers-that-be couldn’t just have told the cold harsh truth about the demise of Rangers.’
+++++++++
Simple answer, Highlander: they were either too partisan to do their objective duty or too cowardly/mercenary to do so.
The propaganda machine went into overdrive with such effect that people were persuaded that Rangers of 1872 did not surrender its share in the SPL and therefore did not lose its entitlement to membership of the SFA, and its right to participate in Scottish professional football.
The facts of course are:
-There was NO ‘holding company’ that owned RFC of 1872.It was the very football club itself that was the shareholder in the SPL Ltd, and it was the very football club that- on Liquidation- had to surrender that share; and, no longer being a member of a recognised League, lost its entitlement to membership of the SFA and ceased to be entitled to participate in Scottish Professional football
-the SPL on 4th July 2012 not only refused to ‘transfer’ the liquidated RFC’s share to CG’s new club, but it also refused to grant any kind of share!!
-CG had to beg for membership in the then SFL for his new football club, and on the basis of being for the first time a member of a recognised league, that new football club was permitted to apply for membership of the SFA. Which was very readily granted (without I think, any regard for other applicants!)
-As for the extraordinary cheating nonsense of ‘club 12’ and ‘associate membership’ let me use colourful old-speak: Satan himself, the father of lies, would not try to pass off TRFC as being the very same club as RFC of 1872. He has left it to his minions to try that.
REASON and LAW applied to the facts make it clear that their attempt to do so is an affront to both Truth and Law- and to the intelligence of ordinary football supporters.
—
And I am disappointed that Celtic did not absolutely insist on Truth as being of far greater importance than profit. [Geez, in my lifetime a former Celtic board was ready to close Celtic down over an issue of principle that was not even immediately related to football!!]
As you remark, common sense tells us that there was no way the ‘5 million supporters worldwide’ of the defunct RFC of 1872 would have refused to follow and support the new club, TRFC! where else would they have gone for their football? What other club’s merchandise would they have bought?
—
A bad show overall by Scottish football governance and clubs. Particularly unacceptable to me is that Celtic are in there in the mire with all the rest of them.
I suspect that if Fergus McCann were still in the chair, he would have done a Bob Kelly and called the bluff and forced the SFA/SPFL clubs to follow the path of truth and integrity.
paddy malarkey
15 January 2024 at 20:14
‘..watching Atalanta v Frosinone, and has wee marks every 10 metres down the sidelines,..’
+++++++++
For the first time in my life, I find myself asking: are continental clubs’ pitch markings actually measured in full metres or in metric equivalent of yards (10 yrds = 9.144 metres?) Bit of a bugger for a grounds-man using a metric tape-measure! Never thought about that before!
====================================================
It does seem that Football (Soccer) pitches are measured in yards worldwide. Perhaps special tapes are available or groundsmen or groundspeople just get a British tape. The link below gives some explanation.
https://www.spized.com/en/magazin/football-field
Ballyargus
17 January 2024 at 23:36
‘…Perhaps special tapes are available or groundsmen or groundspeople just get a British tape. The link below…’
+++++++
Ballyargus,I enjoyed reading that link to Spized GmbH, in Coln,Germany.
I liked the wee ‘fun fact’: that it was only in 1896 that the German football authorities ruled that football pitches should be free of trees!
It will probably be of little consolation to David Grier to learn that in a current case involving a tea-planter company operating in Kenya but having its registered office in Aberdeen, the case he lost in the Court of Session is cited in support of a particular view regarding the admission of fresh evidence :
“… Alternatively, they would have to invoke the ‘res noviter veniens ad notitiam’ (newly discovered information) procedure set out in Grier v Lord Advocate 2023 SC 116 (LP (Carloway),”
(Nothing to do with football, but with a claim by over 1000 tea-plantation workers in Kenya to have their claims for compensation for injury/ sickness related to their work heard in Scotland rather than in Kenya, the Scottish Courts having jurisdiction because the registered office of the Company is located here in Scotland.)
Grier is in the law reference books for all time to come.
Another great ‘Andy’s Sting-in-the-tail’ in my inbox. This is the link
https://scottishfsa.org/chairmans-blog-19-01-24/
Within, there is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant open letter to Ian Maxwell from Stuart Murphy, CEO of the Scottish Football Supporters Association (with Andy’s observations that put the letter in context)
It might open directly on this link
OPEN LETTER TO IAN MAXWELL OF THE SFA – Scottish Football Supporters Association – SFSA (scottishfsa.org)
I should maybe add that although I myself have perhaps(?) tended on SFM to focus on the failings of ‘Scottish Football governance’ in relation only to one particularly glaring instance of disregard for sporting integrity I am well aware of the many other areas of our national sport which our governance bodies have failed to address.
I look forward to reading the terms of a ‘ members’ motion at the Scottish Parliament shortly.’
The case for an Independent Regulator of Scottish Professional Football is very strong.
No winter break next season –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68058989
If media reports are to be believed where is the $4.5 million coming from to complete the transfer of the player from Denmark. If that amount is correct how will it be paid and for how long. Also if that amount is spent how does that affect the “plans” to sign Shankland. I’m awaiting the Barry Ferguson interview on the potential latest signing based on you tube viewings. Who could/would be sold to fund this signing.
The transfer fee will be paid in installments like every other transfer throughout football.
How are celtic paying for their January signing?
Be great to hear John Hartson insight into this financial agreement.
goforpar
23 January 2024 at 22:54
‘…where is the $4.5 million coming from…’
+++++++
From Andrew Smith in today’s ‘The Scotsman’
” The Rangers manager would not entertain providing any intelligence on reports the club are preparing to part with the not inconsiderable sum of £4.5m to acquire Ivorean mid-fielder Mohamed Diomande….
…The Ibrox club remain a loss-making operation and have yet to post a profit since their 2012 liquidation.”
What are we to make of that absurdity, that a liquidated football club could still be in business at all, let alone make either profit or loss?
The sheer self-contradictory nonsense of that observation shines a light on the Big Lie and the support by the SMS of that Big Lie.
Andrew! Grow some cojones as a journalist and tell the truth: TRFC is not and cannot possibly be, RFC of 1872-for your own sake as any kind of journalist: and tell your editor to get to hell if he/she refuses your request to be allowed to tell the truth!
God Almighty!
Well, there was this to me on 12th January:
“Thank you for contacting the Insolvency Service Enquiry Line.
We have received your email and where a reply is required, we will respond within 5 working days.”
Well, well, and surprise, surprise!
No response, no reply to date!
I love this: “where a response is required we will respond within 5 working days”.
I bloody well required a response!
It is now 26th January, two feckin weeks since they received my email!
Bang goes their ‘target’ of aiming to respond within 5 working days!
I’m a wee auld man, very ignorant of the ways of the world of finance. But I know a lie when I see/hear one!
If the IPO Prospectus of RIFC plc is truthful, and if RFC of 1872 is not in Liquidation and if the Prospectus for RIFC plc’s launch on the market is not all smoke and mirrors, why doesn’t the FCA, or the Insolvency Service, the SFA/SPFL and the BBC /print media explain why it is not?
Well, because they cannot!
Why not? well, let them tell me why not!
Let those public authorities explain to me, to us, how it is that a liquidated RFC of 1872 is somehow TRFC of 2012 creation.
We all know (who said ‘covis’ or Boris?) that there is a dirty world out there, in respect of lying politicians.
There is the smaller even dirtier but more disgusting world of football governance.
B.stard politicos are one thing: cheating lying sports governance bodies are worse.
And a connection between the two?
Who knows?
Honest to God.
Here I am tonight.
Had a great afternoon with older son (home on holiday from Texas) watching a rubbishy football match.
And I am just getting round to reading today’s ‘The Scotsman’, and the Celtic plc’s Brian Wilson non-exec director’s piece therein.
In that piece he is on about the Covid inquiry and the SNP Government blah blah..
While he himself sits as a non-exec director on the board of a football club that buys into the lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872!
Really, you couldnae be up to those kinds of guys!
Fly the flag of Truth, Celtic, ffs!
With all these on loan signings with an option to purchase, if these deals fall through, will Rangers will entitled to a share of any future transaction involving these players. If memory serves correct did they not have a “similar” agreement in place on a loan player that allegedly netted them $1 million. Where is the main strea media when you really need them.
Sitting here with Mrs C in Seville in a very nice apartment courtesy of my son, I give you this from the ICIJ weekly newsletter in my inbox that I’ve only just got round to reading tonight:
‘It is still dangerous to be a journalist’: Daphne Caruana Galizia’s son reflects on her life and legacy.”
“Paul Caruana Galizia had just sat down for an after-lunch coffee with a friend in 2017 when his brother called with the news that their mother, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, had been killed by a car bomb.
The bomb was detonated remotely in a planned assassination that took place minutes after Daphne left the family’s home in Northern Malta.
A prolific investigative journalist and blogger, Daphne was already a household name, known in the small island nation and beyond for her cutting columns and exposés on organized crime and rampant corruption at the highest levels of government.
But her murder, at a time when she was investigating a kickback scheme involving then-prime minister Joseph Muscat and two of his closest aides, led to protests in the streets and caused an international outcry over threats to freedom of the press. That reporting built on Daphne’s findings as part of ICIJ’s groundbreaking Panama Papers investigation and linked the three men to offshore companies connected to the sale of Maltese passports and payments from the government of Azerbaijan”
And I wonder how our wee ‘journalists’ in the SMSM feel about themselves, cowardly men/women happy to buy into a stupid lie, for whatever murky reasons- in a matter of Sport!
What were they, what are they, so afraid of? Car bombing? Death threats?
Ach, gie’s a break!
There can scarcely have been a more disgusting episode of cowardice in the field of ‘journalism’ since the days of Adolph Hitler.
And the thing is- they KNOW the truth and that they have put themselves on the side of Untruth.
How they live with themselves I do not know.
I sent this reminder to The Insolvency Service
From:
(me)@yahoo.co.uk
To: insolvency.enquiryline@insolvency.gov.uk
Mon, 29 Jan at 00:20
Come, come, chaps/chap-esses,
More than two weeks since I wrote, and no reply yet.
It surely cannot be so difficult to provide an honest answer to a taxpayer who thinks there may be something rotten being hidden by Civil Servants under instruction from their political masters.
Just tell me in black and white how it comes about that RIFC plc is allowed to describe itself on its website as being the holding company of a club founded in 1872 which went into Liquidation in 2012 when in point of law and fact it is the holding company of a club created in 2012.
Yours in the interests of truth,
(me)’
Here is the reply I received today:
“LiveCaseTargeting
From: intelligence.services@insolvency.gov.uk
To:
(me)@yahoo.co.uk Fri, 2 Feb at 2:11 pm
Dear…[me]
Thank you for providing additional information in your below email; we have filed this with your original complaint about the company. This new information has not altered our decision to not investigate the company at this time.
Yours Sincerely
M H
Case Officer | Compliance and Targeting Team | The Insolvency Service – ”
—
Nor at any other bloody time either I should imagine.
Bit disappointing that MH couldn’t find dream up some kind of ‘explanation’ for refusing to look into the matter: he’d never have got a job under Sir Humphrey!
https://www.assetmatch.com/app/OurCompanies/CompanyProfile?companyId=2555
John Clark et al. check out the link above. It is a share trading platform which is facilitating trades in RIFC plc and in the blurb it claims the company is a scottish professional football club formed in 1872. time to sharpen your pencils
Buteo Buteo
Lots to take away from that .
*Warning! No Formal Relationship
Rangers International Football Club plc has been admitted to trading on Asset Match at the request of a number of its shareholders. Asset Match has no formal relationship with Rangers. Investors should understand the risks fully before investing.
*Auction Details
Rangers International Football Club plc was admitted to trading on Asset Match on 20 March 2023 at a price of 25 pence per share (being the equivalent to the last funding round via Tifosy).
*In the auction that closed on 31st January, 2,500 shares traded at 10 pence per share.
Buteo Buteo
4 February 2024 at 11:58
‘…John Clark et al. check out the link…’
++++++
Just back from Seville late last night, BB.
Good spot, and I’ll certainly be making sure that Asset Match knows my views.
can’t wait to read it. more power to your pen JC
Last trade at 10p per share?! That’s well down on what has been claimed in the past, is it not? Probably about right for the basket of assets, of course.
Buteo Buteo
5 February 2024 at 20:39
‘…can’t wait to read it. more power to your pen JC.’
++++++++++
Buteo Buteo,
After dinner tonight I sat down and wrote the following but waited until 5 minutes ago before posting it on Asset Match’s website ‘contact us’ page.
“Dear Asset Match,
I lifted this from your website earlier today:
“Rangers International Football Club plc is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, Scotland. Formed in 1872, it is the fourth-oldest football club in Scotland and plays in the Scottish Premiership. Ranger is the most successful club in Scottish football history with a record of 55 league titles”
_
What?? Where did you get such a story?
Rangers International Football Club is NOT a football club.
It came into existence as Rangers Football plc, incorporated with company number SC437060 on 16 November 2012
It changed its name to Rangers International Football Club plc on 27November 2012, retaining the company number SC 437060.
Under this name and company number it was launched on the market in December 2012 as being the holding company of an entity called SevcoScotland Ltd which had been incorporated on 29 May 2012, with company number SC425159.
This entity had changed its name to ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd (‘TRFC’) on 31 July 2012, retaining the company number SC425159.
In order to participate in Scottish Professional Football a club has to satisfy the governing body (the Scottish Football Association (‘SFA’)) that it is a member of a ‘recognised’ League.
TRFC tried to buy a share in the then Scottish Premier League (‘SPL’). It failed in that attempt.
It subsequently acquired membership in the then Scottish Football League (‘SFL’) which was, of course, a ‘recognised football league’ in the eyes of the SFA and TRFC was admitted as a new football club into membership of Scottish Professional Football.
In no way is Rangers International Football Club plc the holding company of the historic Rangers of 1872 foundation.
That famous club went into Liquidation in 2012 and (under a smartly changed name!) is awaiting dissolution as RFC 2012 plc, company number SC004276.
The company of which RIFC plc is the holding company is company number SC425159, the football club TRFC which has no history of participating in Scottish football prior to 2012!
I am very surprised that you appear not to know the facts about a plc you appear to be acting for and appear to be ready merely to repeat what I presume you have been told, albeit you distance your
self from your client.
I confess that your approach to business seems to me to be a wee bit casual!
I will be sharing my thoughts with others.
Yours in all truth,
JC”
—-
excellent JC. I wonder if they will respond. probably not but at least they have the true story
Well, I had a look at Asset Match on Companies House.
There was a Medwenna Vivien Rees-Mogg who ceased to be a director in September 2023.
There is a Medwenna Vivien Rees-Mogg whose brother-in-law is a Jacob Rees-Mogg.
As you were, ladies and gentlemen!!
Oh, what fun!
JC I salute you. It is important that truth prevails.
Absolutely unconnected with SDM and CW and the death of RFC of 1872, some of you might enjoy a wee read of the judgment of the Court of Session that you will find if you search
CA4/22[CA99/22]
That is the reference number of a judgment of the Court of Session [ published on 2nd February] in a fraud case.
It is an easy read, thanks to Lord Braid’s skill in keeping things as simple as possible.
A laughable case involving what seem to be semi-literate chancers in a scam where lots of money was involved. Words like ‘duped’ are used.
And whatsapp and telegram messages of congratulation to each other as the target bit the bait.
Reading them kind of reminded me of the school that my sister attended that used to be in Charlotte Street in Glasgow, down from the barras.
Do have a read at the judgment- and wonder at the brass-necked b.stards involved in the world of finance.
And, perhaps, wonder also at the effectiveness of our Regulatory bodies in dealing with rogues in that world.
“reminded me of the school that my sister attended that used to be in Charlotte Street in Glasgow, down from the barras.”
Our Lady and Saint Francis was that school, that brought back memories, the school my wife went to and the Barras ( Calton) area I was born in.
bigboab1916
8 February 2024 at 11:40
‘..Charlotte Street in Glasgow, down from the barras.”
++++++
Aye. Good school, nothing fake about its papers!
Ma (well edumaceted) mammy went tae Charlotte Street School so she did!
Anyway, with regard to the LIQUIDATION 2012 theme, I wonder if any deniers (cult followeres, MSM, UEFA, certain politicians etc ) can recognise the following delusional thinking in themselves…
“Biden claims he spoke in 2021 with the German leader Helmut Kohl who died in 2017. The gaffe is similar to the one Biden made when he claimed he spoke with a French President (Francois Mitterand), who died in 1996, at the same meeting”. (Adapted from Fox News).
If they can, I suppose there’s hope for them yet i.e. to recognise, and accept, that the club’s ‘deid’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68006183
One of the topics
All-time Scottish top-flight table
All-time standings provided by worldfootball.net
Fans of Celtic and Aberdeen can use this one to their advantage, given both clubs have never suffered relegation, as can supporters of Motherwell, who haven’t dropped out of the top flight since 1985.
In that time, perceived bigger clubs, such as Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United and Dundee, have all suffered multiple relegations, while Rangers have also spent time in the lower leagues following all that business in 2012.
Motherwell’s current 39-year Premiership status is largely responsible for them amassing the sixth-most points in Scottish top-flight history.
That’s according to worldfootball.net, who have Celtic top, with Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen and Hibs in the following four spots.
But fingers will be pointed at the 1999-00 and 2002-03 seasons as far as Aberdeen and Motherwell are concerned.
The Dons finished bottom of the league in 2000, as did the Fir Park club three years later, but they were spared the prospect of relegation as Falkirk’s Brockville Stadium failed to meet the SPL’s criteria on both occasions.
PM, at least “all that business in 2012” is the BBC choosing not to claim they were relegated, I guess. Better than they might have written in the past, but still sh*tebags nonetheless.
nawlite
8 February 2024 at 21:28
‘.. Better than they might have written in the past..’
++++++++
Yes, nawlite, it is evidence that some BBC staff do not buy into the lie that the damnable BBC Trust ordered them to propagate: the lie that it was some mythical company that was liquidated and not the entity that held the share in the SPL.
The great pity is that the BBC bosses were too cowardly to insist on the truth, even to the point of making it a resignation matter. What else would they be prepared to lie about at our licence-fee payers’ expense if prepared to lie about a matter of sport?
I do not post on ‘X’ but I do occasionally have a quick swatch.
I did so yesterday and was pleased to read a post from RTC, noting the guilty verdicts against ‘Joe Lewis’.
Since I got interested in ‘Rangers’ only when it went into Administration etc I had only the haziest knowledge of their financial history.
I had to turn to the pages of Companies House to see the connection between Lewis and the now dead Rangers FC plc (alias RFC 2012 plc).
I lift the following from Murray’s statement in the Accounts published on 3rd December 1997:
” …I did indicate that I would consider favourably a single investment from an entrepreneurial partner. I am pleased to say that on 22nd January 1997 an agreement was signed……..ratified by shareholders at an EGM in February approving an investment of £40 million in the Club [ note no effin mention of a mythical holding company that could go bust while the Club lived on!!] by Albany Inc on behalf of English National Investment Company, now renamed ENIC plc.
…The injection of new capital was effected by a subscription by Albany for 11,581,522 new shares in the club, representing 25.1% of the enlarged issued share capital. The consideration, in cash, was £40 million.”
___
Joe Lewis provided the £40 million.
Refresh my memory, please: when did the boastful Murray begin to buy expensive players only part of whose wages were truthfully reported to the SFA and HMRC while the bulk of their earnings was disguised as deriving from EBTs?
Lewis’ convictions are not, of course, connected with the now dead Rangers.
But I hope he goes to jail.
[I hope Lewis get a jail sentence following his conviction for unconnected crimes]
Stenhousemuir Club Statement.
@StenhousemuirFC
The board of Stenhousemuir Football Club welcomes and supports the statement issued yesterday from six Premiership clubs citing serious concerns regarding the handling of the recent Independent Governance Report.
This report was initially deemed necessary following the SPFL’s apparent botched handling and subsequent dispute between the SPFL and one of our member clubs regarding the league’s main sponsorship partner.
Our Chairman, Iain McMenemy, raised this at the SPFL general meeting in July 2023 and received verbal assurances that this review and report would get to the bottom of what happened, how much it cost clubs financially, and, that this would all be handled independently and reported back to all clubs.
It appears that these assurances have not been met.
Iain McMenemy commented, “After being assured for almost two years that the SPFL were in the right in continuing this dispute with Rangers, we were surprised to receive, without warning, a copy of a news release that seemed to be an embarrassing climbdown. The SPFL had to apologise to Rangers, pay compensation and legal costs, and admit that they got this wrong.
“Quite rightly, we wanted to know why we had gone down this now discredited route, how much this had cost the league, and in turn how much less would be paid out to clubs because of this? Knowing this was essential to ensure that we don’t make these mistakes again in the future. This was the basis and catalyst for the Independence Governance Report.
“Far from drawing a line under this issue, the entire handling of this review and report raises fresh questions and concerns regarding the judgement of those running our game.
“It’s time for complete transparency with all member clubs who are the shareholders of the SPFL. We welcome this intervention from six of our largest clubs and will support them in any endeavour to achieve transparency, clarity, and accountability as a matter of urgency.”
………………………………………………………………………………….
Only the SPFL could commision a Independent review of the overall governence of the league that subsequently raises even more question regarding their governence.
I was in Spain last Wednesday and could not watch the debate on Ben Macpherson’s ‘Football Regulator’ motion.
I watched it a little earlier on this afternoon, and I was quite pleased that the Minister for Sport, Maree Todd, indicated that she would be happy to have initial round table discussions with all interested parties to explore ideas and options and costs. The Governmment recognises the huge place the football industry has in Scottish culture etc etc.
No outright knockback.
On this link
https://www.scottishparliament.tv/meeting/members-business-s6m-11073-ben-macpherson-enhancing-scottish-football-january-31-2024
Alexander Ceferin says ( in relation to his decision not to run for Presidency of UEFA in 2027)
“Factually, it’s my decision if I want to run after 2027. Honestly speaking, I am tired of Covid, tired of two wars, nonsense projects of so-called super leagues and self-proclaimed moral authorities who are only moral until it comes to their personal interest.”
He’s very condemnatory of people who are ‘only moral until it comes to their personal interest.’
I shall be equally condemnatory of him, who as President of UEFA allowed and allows a national football association to propagate a sporting lie, namely, that a football club founded in 2012 is entitled to claim the sporting titles and honours of a club that went into Liquidation in that very year!
I emailed to Ceferin (c/o his legal firm’s email address in Slovenia) in December 2019, and getting no acknowledgment of any kind, sent a further email in March 2021. No reply.
I detest bad manners.
So, I think I will copy this post to whatever email address I can find for some minion at UEFA! (there was no contact point for Ceferin or his secretariat on the UEFA website, which is why I sent it to his (or his dad’s) law firm asking for it to be passed on to Ceferin himself)
Whatever, I’m glad he’s not going to run for office again!
Personally, I wouldn’t count on Ceferin not standing again, JC. 2027 is a long way off and it’s easy enough for him to say now that he probably won’t stand if that appeases any people who are against the proposal, perhaps for personal reasons. I believe the current limited term is a good thing – you just have to look at the Blatter situation to see what can happen in personal fiefdoms. For a Celtic supporter, the current board is another example of how stale things can become with no fresh blood/views. Because of that, I wonder why Ceferin is proposing extending the allowed term of office if he has no personal intention to continue.
On a more football matter, I was wondering what everyone thought of the possible introduction of sin bins. Without pondering too much, my first thought is that it’s a good thing, my main reason being that it allows an immediate advantage to the team which has been ‘fouled’ against. Currently the system of totting up yellow cards gives no advantage to the immediately disadvantaged team, but offers another random team the benefit of not facing that player down the line after X yellow cards. It’s similar to the retrospective red card process which again means the team ‘fouled against’ passes the benefit of the red card to another team.
I say all that despite the comments from Postecoglou/Klopp etc that there is no need to change. I am surprised that no one is commenting on the immediate benefit to the aggrieved team. Surprised, too, at Postecoglou saying that all it would do is encourage teams to sit in/waste time etc – as far as I can see in Rugby, the sin bin hands a real advantage to the aggrieved team with the sin binned team sh*tting themselves for the 10 minute duration. Perhaps Ange has quickly forgotten that teams in Scotland already sit in and waste time for 90 minutes, let alone 10!!
Just wondered if anyone had any views?
nawlite
10 February 2024 at 12:13
‘..Without pondering too much, my first thought is that it’s a good thing, ‘
+++++++
I think it was the guest presenter (Ali Defoy) on ‘Off the Ball’ a little earlier today who raised the situation that would arise where the goalie was sin-binned for the last ten mins of a match and all 3 subs had already been used so that it wasn’t possible to pull off an outfield player and put on the sub goalie!
Clever girl!
Someone mentioned that to me, JC. I honestly don’t see a problem with that. Bear in mind, the sin bin is only for either a cynical foul or for abuse of the ref. GKs are unlikely to commit a cynical foul that wouldn’t already lead to a Red card (i.e. last man tackle outside the box or deliberate handball to prevent a goal scoring opportunity) so if he’s daft enough to abuse the ref, why shouldn’t he be sin binned? If an outfield player has to go in goal for the 10 minutes, why not? As I’ve already said, in my mind the aggrieved team deserve the benefit there and then rather than another team benefitting down the line. Do you agree with that principle?
When they lie they tell biggest porkies ever. How they can face their family when they go home.
“RANGERS kept alive their hopes of completing a world-record equalling eighth domestic treble this season when they beat the Ayr United team managed by former Celtic captain Scott Brown in the Scottish Cup at Ibrox tonight.”
https://www.thenational.scot/sport/24111803.rangers-2-ayr-united-0-instant-reaction-burning-issues/
nawlite
10 February 2024 at 15:32
Someone would have to define the meaning of ‘cynical’ so that it wasn’t subjective, and also the areas of the pitch where the new card can be used. To my mind, deliberately obstructing a player so that the ball goes out of play is as cynical as it gets.
RossM
12 February 2024 at 00:00
My mate reckons it’s Zionists that aren’t appreciated. Nice stirring , though !
paddy malarkey
12 February 2024 at 02:24
‘…. Nice stirring , though !’
+++++
pm, when it comes to ‘stirring’, RossM has nothing on that pernicious ar.ehole of a ‘journalist’ based in New York, who has a piece online relating to Abada in that ars.-wipe of a ‘newspaper’ which is propagandist-in-chief of the biggest sporting lie in Scottish football’s history.
We’ll see if the BBC ‘Sportsound’ propagandists pick it up!
nawlite
10 February 2024 at 15:32
‘…If an outfield player has to go in goal for the 10 minutes, why not?’
++++++
I think ,nawlite, the point that was being made by Ali Defoy was that if at a point in the match all the permitted substitutions had been made and then the goalie was sin-binned his team would have to play an outfield player in a ‘specialist’ position for ten minutes. Playing with ten men, one of whom is not a specialist goalie but has to go in goal, is a kind of double punishment, in that it surely gives the opposing team an additional advantage for those ten minutes?
I myself would have no truck with the Americanisation of our game.The way it’s going there’ll soon be specialist kickers coming on whole teams of substitutes at a time!
I’ve just been reading a CAS judgment in the case of an athlete found to have a prohibited substance in her system.
https://www.tas-cas.org/en/jurisprudence/recent-decisions.html
The athlete gained sporting advantage in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
.
“…On these Grounds the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules that:
1…
2…
3…
4..
5…Ms Kamila Valieva is found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation…
6…A period of four (4) years ineligibility is imposed on Ms Valieva…….
7…All competitive results of Ms Valieva from 25 December 2021 are disqualified, with all the resulting consequences (including forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, profits, prizes, and appearance money)
CLOSING REMARKS
421.It is important to understand what the Panel has and has not decided.
422. The Panel has decided that the Athlete did not discharge the burden of proving, pursuant to Clause 12.2.1 of the Russian ADR, that her ADRV was not intentional on the balance of probabilities. It is, as the Panel has said, difficult to prove a negative and so it has been the case here. It does not follow, and the Panel most certainly has not concluded, that Ms Valieva is a cheat or that she cheated when she won gold at the Beijing Olympics.”
___
She may not have cheated but loses her Gold.
RFC of 1872 in EBT times?
TRFC claiming continuity?
Oh, that the SFA had been faithful to its duty when the facts became clear that sporting advantage on a massive scale had been obtained deceitfully.
Back to my post of 9 February 2024 at 22:24 in which I say:
“So, I think I will copy this post to whatever email address I can find for some minion at UEFA!”
—
Can I say that instead of buggering about with further emails I will actually write a letter, post it snailmail to Ceferin at UEFA in Switzerland, tracked by the good old Royal Mail, enclosing printouts of the emails I sent to his and/or his dad’s law firm requesting that my emails to him be forwarded to him.
I will ask whether his [ family legal firm] staff decided not to let him know of my emails, or, if they did forward them, why he did not have the decency to at least acknowledge receipt.
There’s always a wee question to ask when folk in any kind of office seem to want to ignore questions!
I will write my letter [ maybe actually write with pen and paper? oh, what fun!!] tomorrow.
And will post it on the blog.
Since they will be discussing the governance of Scottish football , you would hope that one club at least would bring up the subject of the 5-way Agreement and it’s impact on openess and transparency .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68291255
Couldn’t correct my spelling mistake !
paddy malarkey
14 February 2024 at 16:27
‘…you would hope that one club at least would bring up the subject of the 5-way Agreement and its impact on openess and transparency.’
++++++++
Thanks for posting the link to that BBC report, pm.
One would hope in vain, I fear, since with one honourable exception they ALL sold their souls to a lie and kept their complicit mouths shut at the brazen, blatant disregard for Sporting Integrity and Truth shown by the SFA, the SPL and the SFL in dreaming up the myth of ‘continuity Rangers’ that lay behind the ‘5-Way Agreement’
So The Rangers and the rebels will be meeting with the Scottish Football to discuss the administrations shortcomings. I think before the rebels get swept up in another Rangers dispute it would be worthwhile looking at their own in house administration, and, based on the numbers below it can’t all be the fault of the SPFL. The numbers are based on the percentage of points achieved based on points available and secondly goal difference.
St. Mirren 46.6% —- 0 (almost passable)
Aberdeen 36.2% —- -10
Livingstone 17.3% —- -27
Motherwell 34.7% —- -4
St. Johnstone 32% —– -15
I’ve no sympathy for the SPFL and the number of blunders associated with them going back to 2012 but
teams have to accept their share of blame when it is due and not use the crutch of Rangers having another go at the SPFL and shouldn’t be dragging other clubs into their disputes.
goforpar
15 February 2024 at 17:16
++++++++++++++++++
I listened to a podcast the other night run by Graham Spiers, with mainstream journalists Andrew Smith and John McGarry. They were all firmly of the view that Neil Donacaster had done everything in his power in 2012 to shoe-horn the newco into the top league, and failing that the Championship. Ergo they wondered by Rangers are so much against him. Only fan threats to not buy season tickets scuppered his plan.
upthehoops
15 February 2024 at 19:27
‘..podcast the other night run by Graham Spiers, with mainstream journalists Andrew Smith and John McGarry. They were all firmly of the view that Neil Donacaster had done everything in his power in 2012 to shoe-horn the newco into the top league,..’
+++++++++++++++
uth, thank you for that.
Two observations:
First, Doncaster was a servant of the SPL, not its master.
His job was to provide the Board with information about what the Articles of Association of the SPL and of the SFA had to say about, respectively, surrender of a share in the SPL and about termination of membership of the SFA.
He clearly did his duty well and truthfully enough (maybe to his chagrin and regret?) because the SPL membership decided that they could not allow SevcoScotland/TRFC to purchase the share that RFC of 1872 had been required to surrender- that share went to the newly promoted Dundee.
and the SFA required Big Hands’ new creation to apply as a new club for membership of the SFA.
Second, and in contrast, the trio of self-styled journalists came, in my opinion, nowhere near to doing their duty as journalists.
They absolutely swallowed and continue to propagate the lie, the blatantly untruthful claim that RIFC plc is the holding company of a Liquidated football club!
I keep remembering the wonderful Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia, a real journalist murdered in her pursuit of truth.
And our guys are feart of a 12-and-a-half-year-old football club, when a single para would show that club to be telling porkies!!
Please provide evidence for your statement.
Albertz11
16 February 2024 at 12:08
‘…An application was made to the SPL for the approval of the registration of the transfer of the one share in The SPL Limited previously belonging to The Rangers Football Club Plc to SevcoScotland Limited, the new owner and operator of the business which included the Club commonly called ‘Rangers Football Club’, but that application was refused by a vote at a General Meeting of the members of The SPL Limited on 4 July 2012
+++++
Thank you, Albert11, for that post, confirming that the SPL rejected the application by SevcoScotland to register the ‘transfer’ of the liquidated Rangers Football Club plc to Charles Green’s team (which was called ‘Team 12’).
The refusal was on the basis of the Articles of Association of the SPL in force at the time, banning the transfer of a share to ‘…a person who is not the owner and operator of club.’
And, of course, Charles Green was NOT the owner and operator of a football club at the time.
Whatever the weasel words of a couple of subsequently gravely criticised Administrators, Charles Green did NOT buy a football club!! He bought a bundle of assets- cheap. Or he would have had to pay the full debts to bring the club out of Administration.
And because he and his assets were not a football club belonging to a ‘recognised football league’ the SFA under its own Articles could not grant them membership of the SFA.
So, Charlie, knocked back by the SPL, had to go begging to the SFL. There he found more willing/frightened minds and hearts, and that league accepted his application and let him in, albeit very grudgingly indeed.
On the basis of being a member of the SFL, his ‘team’ was admitted to membership of the SFA.
Up to that point, the SPL and SFL boards, and the SFA board had acted more or less properly [leaving aside the Nimmo nonsense and the ridiculous First Tier Tax Tribunal ‘judgment'[ bless Dr Poon!])
But the STUPID and insulting refusal to acknowledge the death of RFC of 1872 and allow a 12-and-half- year-old PLC to pass itself off and market itself [falsely] as being the holding company of the 140-years-old RFC plc (now RFC 2012 plc in Liquidation)which died in 2012 is a betrayal of any kind of truth and fidelity to office in governance (whatever it might also say about the FCA and the Insolvency Service and UEFA)
Those in office in football governance in Scotland know in their hearts that a dirty deed was done that has corrupted them themselves, Scottish Football, and the SMSM and BBC Scotland. They do not sleep easily in their beds.
—
I watched the Raith Rovers v Dundee Utd game this evening, remembering with respect, admiration and fondness the late Turnbull Hutton, man of integrity!
Ballyargus
16 February 2024 at 22:36
++++
RossM has gone beyond acceptable limits, in my view.
And you are right to call on him to justify his sweeping remarks.
And afore I say goodnight let me urge you to read this link https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/scottish-news/24093916.senior-judges-rule-sheriff-wrong-say-hun-protestant-slur/
Which I was pointed to a few minutes ago!
It was no surprise to see Albertz11 back on for the first time in a while because he felt he had to disprove John Clark’s comment that the new club were not using old-Rangers’ SPL share. After laughing, I almost commented immediately on his post because the Press Release/Minute he used as ‘evidence’ merely confirmed JC’s view!! I knew JC’s reply would be better, so waited for it instead.
The new club may indeed have bought the Share (along with some other assets – but never the club, of course), but it proved to be worthless as its registration was required for it to be usable. When the SPL clubs refused this, the Share was effectively null and void until the SPL members decided to register it by issuing it to Dundee who were promoted to the SPL to replace the now defunct old club. As JC says, the new club were then eventually issued a share in the SFL so they could start up in the bottom tier.
How sad that A11’s delusion has impinged on his memory so badly that he now reads history with such heavy blinkers on that allow him to misinterpret simple English in a way that makes it fit in with his worldview even when it doesn’t!!
Well done, A11 – that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.
Ross M – your comment was not a funny thing in the slightest, but being a typical Rangers/TRFC fan who sees no problem in weaponising the suffering of child abuse victims, I guess you’d have no qualms at using the suffering of Israelis/Palestinians and one young Israeli in particular. That was a horrible comment and BP should kick you off for it imo.
This may not go down well in some quarters .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68325218
Paddy Malarkey 17/02 12.14
I take it the “risk” supporters are the same group that Celtic FC themselves chose to ban toward the end of last year for a number of offences, including the rushing of turnstiles and forcing opening fire exits, illegaly gaining access to Celtic Park prior to the CL game v Lazio, violent and intimidating behaviour at Easter Road. Should be nowhere near any football game let alone a womens game attended by families, young children etc.
Albertz11
17 February 2024 at 13:35
Show us your working,wee man, or is it all in your imagination ?
But A11, your post of 16 February 2024 at 12:08 was aimed SOLELY at responding to JC’s contention that the SPL share owned by the old club could not be used by the new club (even though they may indeed have bought it). Your attempt served only to reinforce that fact by confirming the refusal of the registration prior to approval of the share passing to Dundee. You really should have remembered that the SPL and the SFL were separate at that time, which was why the SPL could tell them to get tae, as could Turnbull Hutton & the rest of the SFL1, before the SFL3 (Ballantyne & all) took them in.
All your usual tactics of broadening that lost argument to the familiar old club/new club debate and posting lengthy irrelevant articles are unnecessary. Stick to the issue raised which you tried to debunk and you’ll have to admit you made an a*se of it!! Now you’re just making it funnier, lol.
Paddy Malarkey 13.39.
Wouldn’t have to be Hercule Poirot to work it out tbf.
From a Celtic blog.
“they wanted Celtic to cancel the block of tickets bought by the Green Brigade”.
So basically they were not trusted to behave at Celtic games but are now given the green light to attend a womens game at Ibrox attended by children & families.
Albertz11
17 February 2024 at 13:10
‘…I would question your expertise in the subject matter in comparison to those named above JC.?’
+++++++++
Ach, Albertz11!
Their honourable Ladyships and Lordships refer to the ‘Club’ as being among the bundle of assets purchased by Charles Green. So what? It was a club that was NOT a member of a football League ‘recognised’ by the SFA , and had therefore ceased to exist as a professional football club entitled to membership of the SFA.
How many times must it be repeated- SevcoScotland/TRFC HAD to apply for membership of the SFA as a NEW football club, not as continuity Rangers of 1872!
And it could apply only after finding acceptance in a recognised league!
Bluster and shout as much as they like, the RIFC plc Board DARE not put in print their claim that RIFC plc is the holding company of Company number SC004276.
That claim in print would bring them some trouble indeed!!
RIFC plc is the holding company of the football club ‘The Rangers Football Club’ [company number SC425159] which came into being as SevcoScotland and was admitted into membership of the SFA only in 2012.
Not even the learned Judges of the Court of Session could say otherwise, without causing havoc in the application of the Companies Act and the Insolvency Acts!
(and I am still pursuing efforts to convince the FCA that the RFC website needs looking at as possibly , in my opinion, a piece sharp work)
One lad had a dream,to fleece a football team
not even a strip or even a ball
https://thecelticstar.com/cancelled-kelty-hearts-testimonial-destroys-continuity-myth/
Albertz11
17 February 2024 at 15:17
The Green Brigade that are displaying a banner at Parkhead today ? Not trusted to behave themselves ? I heard it was a cost thing , as the home club got a fright when they found out how much policing would cost as it hadn’t been budgeted for .
Albertz11
17 February 2024 at 16:50
‘…As we all know, the vote was NOT passed and that meant we no longer were a member of the SPL and had to find our new home in the SPFL.’
+++++++
‘No longer a member of the SPL’ equals ‘no longer entitled to membership of the SFA’ because no longer belonging to a ‘recognised league’.
Rangers Football Club plc ceased to exist.
SevcoScotland could not begin to exist as a football club unless and until it joined a recognised league, and that meant having to apply for such membership in the SFL, and on the basis of that membership, become a football club permitted to participate in Scottish professional football.
All the verbiage in the world cannot change those facts.
It’s late of an evening and one finds one’s mind going on little excursions.
For example, are non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that bind signatories to silence about some ‘arrangement’ that might be illegal, be in themselves illegal?
Say, for example, that Al Capone signs a non-disclosure agreement [NDA]with a trucking [trucking, I wrote!!] company to ship booze from A to B. Would that agreement be legally enforceable?
No way!
One then wonders whether a NDA which allows a new sports club to claim to be something that it legally is not is not worth the paper that it is written on?
Parties to such a dodgy Agreement must surely be free to disclose the truth behind the ‘secrecy’ if the secret is rooted in a lie?
And be supported by the Courts if they did so?
Oh, the possibility that any kind of Sports governance body should be in the business of using NDAs to hide the truth is a dreadful prospect!
it surely couldn’t happen?
Could it?
Decided to take the foot off the moderation pedal for a bit, but sadly it didn’t take long before the comical mixture of untruths, half truths and zoom-eyed zeal returned. Safety catch back on – for all our sanity.
Albertz11 – Got to laugh at you delusional people coming on here and elsewhere spouting your “same club” DRIVEL who are obviously clueless as to the LAWS and REGULATIONS of the Financial and Companies Regulators re BANKRUPTCY and trying to pass yourself off as being a company that has failed to pay off its debts. There was absolutely NO distinction between The Rangers Football Club PLC and company – NEVER was – and it is even telling you this in the last Liquidators Report here :
https://www.bdo.co.uk/getmedia/51b7a312-c715-45f7-af59-13ba2a32f822/RFC-2012-Plc-annual-progress-report-to-30-October-2023.pdf
Maybe you can enlighten us all why none of the other football clubs that went BANKRUPT before – and since – the original Rangers went BUST tried to come out with the separate club/company wheeze to save their club, or any other company for that matter? I can answer that and that is because it is totally against every law going because it would be FRAUD on part of the owners/shareholders being committed to try and get out of their debt and carry on as the same club/company. If it was so easy and legal then everyone would be doing this and the FACT is no one else has.
By claiming to be the same original Rangers on their website, that Asset Match site and in their accounts the crooks behind this club are committing FRAUD and DECEPTION against potential investors of their club and can be sued for any loss or damages arising from that FRAUD – same goes for the SPFL/SFA re their investors etc as well being conned by their FRAUD with regard to this matter and yes JC NDAs based on FRAUD and DECEPTION are themselves ILLEGAL.
Albertz11 – A perfect analogy of the original Rangers situation was MG Rover when they went BANKRUPT. The administrators could not find a buyer to take them over and pay off their debts so they were BANKRUPTED and then the administrators sold off the assets – the Longbridge factory and machinery, design centre etc to a Chinese company who set up a NEW company in China with a SIMILAR name because you are not allowed to use the same old name – and they have been building cars since then under that name, although they have shut down and sold off all of the assets here in the UK, and no one in this country is foolish enough to believe that this Chinese company is the same old British company that went BANKRUPT – EXACT same scenario as what happened with the original Rangers and only the gullible believers think any differently as the old original Rangers has been gone since 2012 and will NEVER return and as that annual report linked to is saying the old original Rangers will finally be put to bed and BANKRUPTED in the next and FINAL Report.
Some musings sitting here on a dreary winter’s afternoon. Rangers fans like to trumpet the fact that Celtic had an open goal for a number of trophies they won while Rangers were on the journey back. So if we take the trophies out for the years of the journey, how do the totals stack up from 2016 to 2023, and, could we show the trophies won by other clubs during that time period. Does the media not have any other adjectives to describe former or current players as either hero, or, star. Surely not every player is entitled to have that description applied to them. Will the knives be out for former Ranger manager, Michael Beale, who has been axed again, especially as he was once touted as the brains behind Steven Gerrard. Or will this be another record claimed by Rangers a former manager sacked within four months of being sacked by Rangers.
Issue 103 ( today’s issue) of the Rolls of Court has this:
“LORD BRAID – N Marchant, Clerk
Court 6 – Parliament House
Thursday 22nd February
JUDGMENT
(No appearance of counsel necessary)
P1105/23 Pet: James Easdale &c for Breach of Interdict”
+++
This is only of peripheral interest since neither James nor Sandy Easdale is on the Board of RIFC plc and the case (as far as I know) has nothing directly to do with football.
James Mulholland covered an earlier hearing in his report in the Evening Times on 7th February, in which he referred to an earlier judgment which ordered a guy to pay the Easdale’s £400,000 because he allegedly had defamed them.
Thursday’s judgment may be related to a suggestion that the other party was in contempt of Court for, allegedly, ignoring an interdict and repeating his defamatory statements.
I assume that His Lordship Judge Braid will formally come into a court 6 to pronounce judgment publicly.
I know from listening in Court to the case brought against ‘Dave frae Castlemulk’ that the Courts seem to have a helluva job trying to decide ‘contempt of court’ cases where the’ charge’ is brought by others, as opposed to when the Court itself is affronted live by some stroppy party in the dock blinding and effing the judge to his face!
In this case, the party alleged to have been in contempt seems to argue that he had no idea that what he said in England might be seen as ‘contempt of Court’ in a Scottish court.
I’m looking forward to reading the judgment and then re-reading the judgment in the King case!
All very interesting.
New Rangers mantra, one day at a time, somewhat misleading as I believe that was used extensively in the two years Ange was at Celtic. However I guess something borrowed, something blue is not out of step at Ibrox. And how desperate is the scottish media, the DR in particular, dredging at a story on Rangers being the last team to win at PSV, can this this be another world record for the 12 year old club. How have they kept Dave King away from the media, surely with them clinging to a two point lead, the media would love to have his input.
goforpar
20 February 2024 at 22:43
‘…How have they kept Dave King away from the media, surely with them clinging to a two -point lead, the media would love to have his input’
++++++
For all my contempt for yer man King, he at least knew and admitted that only by the payment of all its debts could RFC 2012 plc be brought out of Liquidation and restored to life as ‘continuity Rangers of 1872’.
Dave looks after Dave, first, last and all the time.
He is not, I think, generally regarded as anything but a self-seeking chancer with an ego who was bested by the bigger ego of SDM!
Our Dave will be quietly working the oracle, gauging the wind, hoping to get back the (£25 million was it?) that he seems to believe he was done out of during the blasted knight’s reign.
The ‘media’ don’t know which way to turn to be f.cked by the Board of the holding company of company no SC 425159!
Prostitutes all, ready to be shafted at the bidding of Untruth.
Honest to God.
How glad I am not to be the son of such ‘journalists’.
bigboab1916
20 February 2024 at 00:28
‘…One lad had a dream, to fleece a football team not even a strip or even a ball..’
https://thecelticstar.com/cancelled-kelty-hearts-testimonial-destroys-continuity-myth/
+++++++
bigboab1916, thanks for that link!
It confirms my belief that initially the Football authorities to their credit took the action that their respective Articles of Association required them to take as did the SMSM and BBC.
And then the fear and trembling and partisanship influence set in!
Not so much the influence of the crude “pitchfork and fire-brand wielding” marchers on Hampden, but of the white-collar brothers in commerce and business and journalism and radio broadcasting.
That influence, in my opinion, subverted the football authorities. Worse, it subverted the print media.
Even worse, it subverted the BBC!
Honest reporting by some at Pacific Quay was banned on the command of the BBC Trust on the most stupid basis that there had been a holding company that had gone bust while the football club remained in existence.
Such a flagrant distortion of truth by the BBC has destroyed my belief in the truth of anything the BBC in Scotland has to say about any issue of importance.
ps. Was the Kelty Hearts player given any kind of compensation for losing out on a testimonial game proceeds?
And what did the Le Havre team get in compensation?
Any bloody Scottish ‘journalist’ able and willing to ask?
[ And I am still impressed by the guys, decent guys, who paid the face-painter]
My post of 20 February at 22.13 refers.
Lord Braid has fixed a Hearing for Thursday 29 February to discuss the sentencing options open to him:
he rules out an Admonishment as not being appropriate given a contempt of such severity, and lists the three other options:
1) to obtain a criminal justice social work report from… with a view to a possible subsequent imposition of a term of imprisonment
2) to impose a financial penalty, or
3) to defer sentence for good behaviour….”
The full judgment issued today can be found at
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/cos-general-docs/pdf-docs-for-opinions/2024csoh17.pdf?sfvrsn=ea0ace17_1
Well done BigBoab, that old post is worth reposting, reposting and reposting again and again. Remember, this site succeeded/incarnated from the Rangers Tax Case site and was aimed at continuing to tackle corruption or incompetence within the Scottish football authorities – this article is Evidence Item #1. As JC says, it provides evidence that those authorities DID initially do the right thing in treating the liquidated club as gone and the new club not yet a club. This should be driven at the SFA/SPFL/the SMSM and all those deluded TRFC fans who cannot face the truth.
I was glad that BP banned Albertz11 again, but it would have been interesting to see his arguments against this one! I’ve been here since TSFM’s inception having TUPE’d over from RTC, but can’t remember how he and others of his ilk responded to this prime piece of evidence of the truth. Does anyone else remember?
Governance in accordance with agreed rules is what sports governance bodies are supposed to be about.
In my inbox today is a CAS decision, which I summarise as follows:
The International Olympic Committee Executive Board (IOC EB) suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) from the International Olympic Committee on 12 October 2023 due to its decision to include as its members some regional sports organisations which are under the authority of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine…
ROC appealed.
The CAS Panel that heard the Appeal dismissed the Appeal, finding that the IOC EB did not breach the principles of legality, equality, predictability or proportionality.
The CAS decision is final and binding except for parties’ right to file an appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days on limited grounds.
you can find this at
https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_10093__Decision_.pdf
—
If our Scottish Football governance folk in 2012 (and perhaps even for years before) had looked properly at RFC of 1872’s financial reporting and the subtle wee casual mention of a way of paying into trusts for
players then they would have discovered the EBT arrangement and would then have had to ask further questions (if they dared!)
And the Nimmo Smith inquiry would not have been able to arrive at the ludicrous view that no advantage had accrued to the liquidated club by using EBTs.
And there would have been no stupid statements from HMRC that suggested that Rangers would continue to play at Ibrox.
(As a former Civil Servant myself, I thought that guy/gal ought to have been sacked! Stupid sod even to think of passing any such comment!)
And the Res 12 matter might have been properly dealt with by Celtic and other clubs and by UEFA.
Alas, Scottish Football is badly ‘governed’, is in thrall to a lie, and not worth a tinker’s curse!
My post of 23 February at 23.21 refers
An email today tells me this:
“Lausanne, 26 February 2024 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered the following
appeals further to the announcement made by the International Skating Union (ISU) on 30 January 2024 by which the final standings for the Team Event in figure skating at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 were adjusted following the disqualification of the skater Kamila Valieva, a member of the Russian team’
The report adds that ” Given the early stage of the proceedings, no indication can be given as to when a hearing may take place, IF ANY” (my capitals)
Oh, how I wish that in 2012 there had been a statutory Regulator of Scottish Football. He/she might have prevented the nonsense of ‘Non-disclosure Agreement’ being used by parties as a mechanism to keep schtum about a monstrous sporting untruth being forced upon Scottish Football by greedy and unprincipled sports bodies.
It is utterly unconscionable, in my view, that a football club newly created in 2012 was allowed, and is still allowed, to pass itself off as being Rangers of 1872 by the very Sports governance body that took away from the Liquidated club its entitlement to membership of the SFA when it lost its membership of a ‘recognised league’ under the Articles of Association of the then SPL.
Mind you, given that even the BBC lost its integrity perhaps such a Regulator might just as easily have forsworn himself/herself, but there would have to have been very public explanation of his/her decision, with no oaths of secrecy!
Has the football team that was missing at Ibrox on Saturday surfaced yet as I believe they have a game this week. Their manager has been quoted as they are going to challenge Celtic and Sevco (Rangers), but will have to do better 1 draw and 4 losses this season while surrendering 9 goals and getting 3. Flashing back to last week for a minute and an article involving Gary MacAllister who was pictured in his Sevco (Rangers top) with the infamous 5 stars emblazed on it. Two days later there is a picture of Phil Clemente with his top and no stars. Is this a tacit comment on the oldco/newco twist and the admission that they really are a newco.l
goforpar
26 February 2024 at 22:51′
‘.. Their manager has been quoted as they are going to challenge Celtic and Sevco (Rangers)..’
++++++++
goforpar, if [as I think you may be] you are referring to Naismith of Hearts may I say that I will not hear a bad word about him!!
“Why not?” I hear you cry.
Well, he had the sense to realise that RFC of 1872 no longer existed as a football club with an entitlement to membership of the SFA, having entered Liquidation and having had to surrender its share in the SPL and therefore no longer being a member of a ‘recognised football League’
He understood that his contract with RFC of 1872 was therefore cancelled and he was free to walk away.
And sensibly did choose to walk away from CG’s proposed new creation that CG hoped to be allowed to carry on as ‘continuity Rangers’
Naismith knew the truth: and feared that any ‘continuity Rangers’ would not in fact and law be the Rangers of 1872, no matter what the forsworn SFA might say:
and that his value as a player might be diminished if he signed a new contract with CG’s SevcoScotland/ team 12/ TRFC.
He showed a clear understanding of his legal position as an employee.
Praise and credit to him for seeing the truth of what Liquidation means.
John Clark
27 February 2024 at 00:01
I am pretty sure he recanted , JC, and is now a liquidation denier , saying he was wrongly/badly advised at the time, although that doesn’t appear to be the case from this interview .
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/jun/24/rangers-steven-naismith-steven-whittaker
From the Rolls of Court today:
LORD BRAID – N Marchant, Clerk
Court 6 – Parliament House
Thursday 29th February
By Order
between 9.30am and 10.00am
COS/P1105-23 Pet: James Easdale &c for Breach of Interdict
++
We will learn which sentencing of the 3 sentencing options Lord Braid will settle on after hearing what the contemnor has to say for himself.
paddy malarkey
27 February 2024 at 15:03
‘..I am pretty sure he recanted , JC, and is now a liquidation denier.,.’
+++++++
Only he, pm, will know whether he was lying then or whether, if indeed he now says something different, he’s lying now!
The legal advice he received was spot on.
His lawyers’ view that his contract with the Liquidated club was rendered null and void by the fact of that club’s Liquidation was not challenged by an Appeal, because no Court in Scotland could possibly have ruled in favour of CG’s claim that he had bought RFC of 1872!
CVA was rejected and a new co was formed with new company name with new CH number
Players contracts were now void and players could and can apply TUPE
Charles Green bought a bag of assets ( car parks etc) not the original club which was previously incorporated and liquidated
https://www.steedman.co.uk/hmrc-reject-rangers-cva-proposal/
” HMRC stated today they would vote against the Glasgow Club’s Company Voluntary Arrangement.
Creditors of Rangers are due to meet on Thursday morning to vote on whether to accept an offer from the club to pay off part of their debts.
As HMRC is a major creditor, their decision is enough to all but rule out the possibility that the CVA will be accepted; meaning a liquidation of the football club is now likely.
Prospective club owner Charles Green said: “I am hugely disappointed by the decision of HMRC not to support the CVA proposal and that disappointment will be felt acutely by Rangers fans across the world.”
HMRC are currently owed more than £21 million in unpaid taxes from Rangers.
A statement from the tax office read: “liquidation provides the best opportunity to protect taxpayers, by allowing the potential investigation and pursuit of possible claims against those responsible for the company’s financial affairs in recent years.”
Liquidation will force the club into forming a new Company, which would then have to be voted back into the Scottish Premier League by the other member clubs. A no vote could force a new Rangers entity into the lowest division of the Scottish League.”
If these Rangers fans lived in the USA they would be election deniers.
bigboab1916
28 February 2024 at 12:46
‘…If these Rangers fans lived in the USA they would be election deniers.’
+++++
The link you give, bigboab1916,
https://www.steedman.co.uk/hmrc-reject-rangers-cva-proposal/
is to an accountancy firm.
Not one that I would ever contemplate using if the para beginning ‘.Liquidation will force the club into forming a new Company’ is not part of the HMRC statement but Steedman’s opinion!
As it appears to be.
One would wonder at an accountancy firm coming out with such nonsense as that a liquidated entity can create a new company to be its owner!
And to have had that nonsense accepted and propagated by the BBC and the SMSM is utterly unacceptable.
Earlier this evening I was listening to a journalist in Gaza who was right in there in Gaza trying to report truth.
And I measure her against the sycophantic/partisan/ scared stiff /frightened sports ‘journalists’ of BBC Scotland and the print SMSM-who refuse to report truthfully in a mere matter of Sport!
Honest to God, I find in my very soul nothing but contempt for churls who do not report truth and churls who propagate untruth.
And they know who they are!
Imran quids in .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-68436872
The BBC report on the judgment issued today by the Court of Session in the damages claim by Imran Ahmad for wrongful arrest has this para:
“A judge-led inquiry into the failings of the fraud probe over the sale of Rangers is to be held once all related legal proceedings have concluded”
that report is at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-68436872
The full Court judgment can be found on this link:
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/cos-general-docs/pdf-docs-for-opinions/2024csoh23.pdf?sfvrsn=2385c04d_1
Scroll to para 122 to see details of how the amount of damages was worked out.
I very much look forward to learning how such a monumental and expensive cock-up arose that cost us taxpayers so many millions of pounds.
Has there ever, I wonder, been such a farce of a public prosecution in all of the history of prosecutions in Scotland?
Lord Braid has deferred sentence until August 29th on the guy who defamed the Easdales, warning him that as it stands he could expect a significant fine, and if he breached the order again could face imprisonment.
my post of 15.59 refers
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/greenock-telegraph/20240301/281638195153484
is a link to a press report
Blue card idea to be scrapped .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68450854
How to deal with pyros ?
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/irish-league/linfield-hit-with-stadium-ban-following-fireworks-display-at-coleraine-showgrounds/a71884843.html
paddy malarkey
1 March 2024 at 18:10
‘…Blue card idea to be scrapped.’
++++++
Thanks for that link, pm.
I hope the IFAB make it clear that they will not allow the ‘blue’ card’ idea into professional football at all, anywhere.
My opposition to the idea is rooted in the belief that the individual members of a team should understand that they owe it to their team NOT to act so unsportingly/recklessly/ cheatingly [ as in ‘professional foul’] as to merit being sent off for the remainder of the game.
The present system has worked well enough as mechanism to keep the worst behaviour under control by reason of fear of letting the team -mates down.
There will be many a hot-headed or cynical sod of a player who has been made to feel uncomfortable by his team-mates for getting himself sent off.
Well, it was good to hear Infantini so definitely dismiss the notion of ‘blue card’, by (as the BBC chap put to him) ‘showing the blue card the red card’!
It was interesting also (if I understood him correctly) that a player coming off because of fears of possible concussion from a head knock will be able to be substituted even if the normal quota of substitutes has already been used up.
I’m happy with that realisation that players’ health must take priority over ordinary rules of sport.
[ as a wee aside, I am reminded of the fact that for there to be ‘sport’ there has to be some kind of parity in the abilities of sports participants. Some sports, such as horse racing and golf, recognise that fact and deal with it by the idea of ‘handicapping’ which accepts that something has to be done to try to ‘equalise’ competitors if ‘sport’ means anything at all]
Could the idea of handicapping be introduced in football in relation to the capacities of very rich clubs as against cash-strapped clubs?
In former times, shared gate money in league matches gave ‘weaker’ clubs some possibility of competing against the stronger clubs.
And, at bottom, there can be no game unless there is another team playing, whether in a ‘home’ or ‘away’ match!
I had some difficulty in following the logic of a story in the DR regarding the team that plays at Ibrox and the loss today. The writer claims that this is the first real setback Clement has suffered since taking on the manager’s job. If this was a setback what was the loss to Celtic.
paddy malarkey
1 March 2024 at 18:41
How to deal with pyros ?
———-
Smoke detectors and massive industrial sprinkler systems installed in the roofs of stands.
What is the tie breaker in Scottish football should two teams tie for first place and have the same goal difference, and, to add another layer in their head to head meetings both won two and lost two with no difference in goals for and against. Something to keep in mind as the end of the campaign draws closer.
I saw this a wee while ago and was reminded of it today:
From Dominic Booth in ‘The Guardian Tue 20 Feb 2024 18.11 GMT
“Rochdale have launched a desperate plea for investment as the club tries to avoid possible liquidation by the end of March.
The National League club’s chairman, Simon Gauge, has said Rochdale require a cash injection of £2m. Dale have run up losses of more than £1m over the past year, during which they have been relegated from the Football League and their financial situation has deteriorated.
Gauge has called an emergency meeting of shareholders at the club’s Spotland stadium on 7 March in an effort to find investors. He said he was “looking for an investor to inject £2m to gain 90% of the club”.
—
I’m not at all well up on English football.
But surely Simon Waugh must be kind of wet behind the ears if he hasn’t learned that Liquidation doesn’t mean the death of a football club? (as has been the case, apparently, in Scotland since 2012)
Even I know that what you do is go into Administration, appoint Administrators who may fail to find an outright buyer ready to pay all your debts, but will sell to a named bidder who will buy cheaply such assets as he legally can but not all the assets, if the creditors refuse to sign up to a Creditors Voluntary Arrangement.
In the knowledge that the football authorities …….
Need I go on?
Or maybe the football authorities in England understand that Liquidation = death and that a club once dead cannot be resurrected?
[No harm to Rochdale, a fan-owned club, and I do hope they find a buyer to keep them in truthful, honest existence, history intact]
goforpar
4 March 2024 at 22:41
‘…What is the tie breaker in Scottish football should two teams tie for first place and have the same goal difference,..’
+++
I asked AI [ i.e, artificial intelligence, but the capital ‘I’ looks to me like an ‘el’ so my eye reads it as Al as in Allister]
‘If the head-to-head record is the same, the next tie breaker is goal difference. The team with the better goal difference will finish higher in the league. If the goal difference is also the same, the team with the most goals scored will finish higher. If teams are still tied, fair play points may be used as a final tie breaker’
But, of course, with the SFA /SPFL who knows? Break one rule, break them all, if convenient to do so!
It is already a criminal offence to take or try to take a pyrotechnic into football matches.
it is a fact that our big clubs are unwilling to pay for Police Scotland officers to be present at turnstiles and instead rely on their own stewards.
Let them pay for proper policing both at turnstiles and in the ground during the game as in days of yore, when polismen walked round the track round the pitch during the game and would get right in there in the crowd to tackle obstreperous fans!
Always an entertaining sight when some turd of a supporter was hustled away!
Stewards have no powers to get in there and arrest troublemakers: and pyro-fecking eejits are far more of a danger than the stupid drunk out of his mind!
Nothing will happen, of course, until a huge damages claim is brought by a spectator blinded or burnt by a pyro set off near him.
Honest to God!
macfurgly
4 March 2024 at 11:08
Collective punishment ? It isn’t the supporters’ responsibility, so why should the majority be punished because because of the inaction of those whose job it is ?
As this site exists to challenge poor performance and potential corruption within the operation of Scottish football, I hope VAR performance is allowed to be discussed even if the incident I’m about to discuss disadvantaged only Celtic. L know any club could raise similar issues of their own. I haven’t yet seen the outcome of Celtic’s appeal against Yang’s red card. I imagine the SFA will protect their own and uphold the ‘eventual’ decision else they will be seen as not supporting their own and also raising questions over John Beaton’s competence or impartiality. I hope Celtic has raised the (imo) right question within the appeal. For me, the question should not be whether the high boot was a yellow or red card. While watching, my genuine feeling was that I thought it was worthy of a yellow card (due to lack of intent and lack of any real impetus in the kick/flick). At the same time, I immediately thought “I can see that being treated as a red card offence too, due to the high boot being close to, or making contact with, Cochrane’s face). I hope I’m not being too presumptious then to suggest that most reasonable people seeing the incident would have thought similarly i.e. ‘Ooh, that could be a yellow or a red’ and which side of that decision you come down on depends to an extent what blinkers you wear day to day. Obviously, the blinkers of Celtic, Hearts (and Rangers) fans will skew their view as will your own views on player safety etc. Nonetheless, if I am indeed right that most people feel it could have been a yellow or a red, then why does John Beaton as VAR decide to become involved? I accept that his role is to review possible red card offences, so have no problem with him doing so as a matter of course, but if I am right that a reasonable person would see it as yellow or red, then Beaton would have to accept that the referee may be right to deem it a yellow card and that it is therefore NOT a clear and obvious error which would demand his intervention. The question would then have to be asked why he thought it WAS a clear and obvious error which the referee should review. Does that make him an unreasonable person and, if so, what drives him to be unreasonable in this particular case? The question of what drove him to become involved is what needs answered, NOT should the card be yellow or red. I’d be glad to hear others’ thoughts.
JC — 4 march 2024 —
Thanks for claryifying the tie breaking rules in Scotland. Due to the fluidity in applying rules maybe a copy should be sent to SFA/SFPL.
An interesting look at the squads for Benefica and Rangers as posted today. Benefica listing 8 academy graduates in their lineup versus 3 for Rangers, a rather telling story for the deelopment of Scottish footballers.
Has there been any follow up on the teams that were writing to Scottish football adminstrators listing their concerns about the administration of the game. Strange how the media were all over it at the time, but, nothing since the first flurry of stories.
How can a league continue with VAR when almost every manager in the top flight has taken exception to it in one form or another thus far. When does it become apparent that there’s something wrong and perhaps the SFA/SFPL take another look at the issue and not just gloss over it. Maybe the media could take a look at other professional sports to see what level of issues they have with VAR. I think they would be surprised.
goforpar
5 March 2024 at 22:54
‘…Has there been any follow up on the teams that were writing to Scottish football adminstrators listing their concerns about the administration of the game.’
++++++++
I think the last I saw was from
SPFL board to arrange all-club meeting over independent report
By Brian McLauchlin
BBC Scotland
Last updated on17 February 2024
see last para at this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68326139
“They called for league bosses to attend a meeting on 27 February. But the SPFL has now scheduled a gathering of all clubs on 19 March”.
I am not aware of any change to that.
paddy malarkey
5 March 2024 at 12:56
macfurgly
4 March 2024 at 11:08
Collective punishment ? It isn’t the supporters’ responsibility, so why should the majority be punished because because of the inaction of those whose job it is ?
—
Hang on a second while I get my tongue out of my cheek.
As an ex Trade Union Rep., and a teacher, I’m well aware of the iniquities of collective punishment. I expected folk on here to realise that it was an attempt at humour, but hey ho, there is always one.
goforpar
5 March 2024 at 22:54
‘…How can a league continue with VAR when almost every manager in the top flight has taken exception to it in one form or another thus far. When does it become apparent that there’s something wrong and perhaps the SFA/SFPL take another look at the issue and not just gloss over it.’
++++++++
As a consequence of the ‘ 5-Way Agreement’ our Football ‘Authorities’ lost any moral authority.
Until those ‘Authorities’ undo the damage done to the integrity of Scottish Football governance by the creation and propagation of the lie that RIFC plc is the holding company of RFC of 1872 no one will be too ready to believe that anything like the Truth can be expected from them in response to any challenge presented by the facts of a matter in contention.
[ Geez, 65 years or so on from struggling with ‘Macbeth’ at school and I find myself remembering this:
“I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er”
For nearly 13 years our Football governance bodies have been ‘stepped in deceit’ pretty far.
But they can fix that quite simply by recognising the death of RFC of 1872 and stating the simple truth that TRFC, newly created by them in 2012, is not entitled to any football honours or titles won by the club that was founded in 1872 and which entered Liquidation in consequence of losing its membership of a recognised league, thereby ceasing to be entitled to membership of the SFA.
Would that they had the moral courage to do so!
They might then be able to speak with an authority that would be respected as deriving from honest pr exercise of judgment based on facts and truth.
Nawlite – I’m with you on the clear and obvious error point. Robertson didn’t miss the incident and it is one that we see no, yellow or red cards being given for. I would add a further question to yours which is what did Robertson see at the monitor that caused him to change his mind? In effect Robertson has very publicly told us all that his judgment in making his original decision was at fault. It’s often said that without the referee there is no game. Well without the fans there is no professional football and for too long we have been treated like third class citizens by the authorities. We need these authorities to be fully transparent and accountable to the life blood of the game.
nawlite
5 March 2024 at 19:57
———
Agreed on all points. In that match, the high boot was, as you describe, probably yellow, possibly red. The penalty against Iwata was a nonsense, not one Hearts player complained, and players today will claim for anything. Clear and obvious error? I don’t think so. For me , that was bias and Rodgers was right to call out Beaton.
At the same time, my main problem is with the reliability of VAR, and hence the opportunity for misuse, with the Shankland offside being a case in point, for balance if you will. There is no way that VAR can decide that he was offside when there was a fraction of a second between his arm being at his side and onside or forward and offside, as Scales moved in the opposite direction and the ball was 20 m away, partly obscured by Iwata I think sliding back.
I have lived a long life being “paranoid”, Aye right, but it seems more sinister now that these decisions are being taken by a Kafkaesque, non accountable, non identifiable, person elsewhere. I suppose it should not come as a surprise that VAR should be adopted by those with the power to use it to their advantage, but Lennon is wrong Rodgers is right, it’s time to speak openly.
….. and as I type, Rodgers has a two match ban for those remarks.
macfurgly
6 March 2024 at 22:18
‘… I expected folk on here to realise that it was an attempt at humour, but hey ho, there is always one.’
++++++++
Actually, macfurgly, I had to read it twice with furrowed eyebrows for a second or two before I twigged!
But I think pm’s post makes an important point: crime is crime and criminals should be caught and punished.
Whose job is that?
No one expects that some mad bast.rd with a weapon in a supermarket or cinema or at a rock concert should be tackled by staff, stewards or even a ‘security’ person. That’s a job for the polis. Only they have powers to touch you/apprehend you.
And pyro-carrying fans at a football match are criminals. That’s a job for polis.
And if a football club or other public entertainment business has to pay for the polis needed, so be it!
( the cost will be passed on to the punters, believe you me!)
macfurgly
6 March 2024 at 22:41
‘…. and as I type, Rodgers has a two match ban for those remarks.’
++++++
A ban by an ‘authority ‘ that propagates the biggest lie in Football? -rubberstamped in 2012 and subsequently by Rodger’s employer?
No point in Celtic trying to be huffy-puffy about things like that.
They bloody well bought into the Big Lie.
macfurgly
6 March 2024 at 22:18
Sorry, I thought it you were half kidding,hale earnest , and I was being Mr Grumpy .
paddy malarkey
7 March 2024 at 08:36
————
No worries. Humour is sometimes difficult in print where there is no tone of voice.
A couple of weeks ago there was a VAR call from a camera in line with the six yard box looking back toward the half way line at about 40 degrees to the pitch, probably because that was the only view that had both the ball being kicked and the potentially offside player. The lines were touching. I do not believe that call is possible, VAR is claiming to do something it can’t do. This is wrong,and matches are being decided by it. I find it hard to believe I’m writing this after 50 years of watching referees from Davidson and Wharton onwards, but there should be 3 VAR calls; onside, offside or too close to call, with a max. of 30 seconds to decide. If it’s too close to call, go with the onfield decision. It takes us back to where we were, but at least there is transparency. VAR was intended for “clear and obvious errors”, that’s what it can do and what it should be used for.
Imran’s no done yet!
From the Rolls of Court today:
“LORD HARROWER – G Hamilton/A McNeill, Clerk
Court 11 – Parliament House
Friday 15th March
By Order
between 9.30am and 10.00am
CA144/21 Imran Ahmad v Lord Advocate “
This evening, I idly speculate: Can there be a more unpleasant sound than that of K Mac pissing himself in his excitement at TRFC’s draw against Benfica?
It was all handshakes all round, I imagine, at Pacific Quay!
But then it was ever thus since way back when that (in my opinion) bad article Peter Thomson was doing his bit for Rangers when he was a Senior Producer at the BBC (ask Archie MacPherson!)
And BBC Scotland, by propagating the lie that TRFC is RFC of 1872, made a whore of itself in 2012 and continues today to enjoy being shafted by the board of RIFC plc!
In my opinion.
I give you this:
‘Non-league Rochdale close to being saved from serious threat of liquidation by US investor’
and this
‘Rochdale AFC can announce that all five resolutions proposed at Thursday’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) have been passed by shareholders.
Following an initial count, we can confirm that the threshold for all resolutions to be passed has been reached. Final figures will be shared on Friday.’
So, like Hearts they found the resources to avoid the death of Liquidation. Somebody bought the club and ALL its assets outright!
Unlike Rangers of 1872, Rochdale AFC will NOT be Liquidated and will be the same football club that was founded in 1907!
A long time ago in primary school in Auchenshuggle I and the rest of the class were exposed to the delights of one of Wullie Wordsworth’s poems the opening line of which was ” My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky..’
That line popped into my mind not half an hour syne, as I read Section 70 of the ‘Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023’ which received Royal assent on 26 October 2023.
Section 70 reads as follows:
‘ 70. (1) The Companies Act 2006 is amended as follows.
(2) After Section 1002 insert-
1002A power to strike off company registered on false basis
(1) The registrar may strike a company’s name off the register if the registrar has reasonable cause to believe that-
(a) any information contained in the application for the registration of the company….is misleading, or
(2) any statement made to the registrar in connection with such an application is misleading, false or deceptive in a material particular…”
I’m not any kind of lawyer, of course, but I idly, on a Friday night, wonder whether, say, a prospectus which I may have written to launch my new holding company as being the holding company of a long established, very successful company with a company number that belongs to a very newly created company might possibly pose a problem for me?
Was my prospectus misleading, suggesting that potential investors would be investing in the holding company of company ‘x’ rather than the holding company of a brand-new company ‘y’?
I dare not put on my company website that my company is the holding company of company ‘x’, but that same website clearly implies that it is!
Oh, dear!
(It is good to see that Parliament is ready to try to have a go at those in business who try to cheat us. Bad b.stards all, whether green or white or mint sweetie coloured or frae the ‘mulk or whatever)
Ps. I know that, generally, new legislation is not retrospective.
But it would be a nonsense if a plc that had passed itself off as something it was not, could not be viewed suspiciously?
John Clark
8 March 2024 at 23:25
A long time ago in primary school in Auchenshuggle I and the rest of the class were exposed to the delights of one of Wullie Wordsworth’s poems the opening line of which was ” My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky..’
That line popped into my mind not half an hour syne, as I read Section 70 of the ‘Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023’ which received Royal assent on 26 October 2023.
—–
Never mind the context, that kind of association is genius.
To pick back up on the VAR discussion, I think there are four fundamental issues with VAR as it is being deployed (some of these issues are not exclusive to Scotland).
1. Use of still images when refs called to the monitor. These are quite literally distorting the picture as they strip away any consideration of context and ignore the fact that football is a dynamic game. Refs should be allowed to view different angles of an incident, slowed down if they wish but not super slow motion.
2. Culture of mutual appreciation. Everyone on the pitch makes mistakes, but the VAR ref has no real excuse for getting it wrong. Senior referees in Scotland have their own association (union) and are a fairly small group. If the ref is called to the monitor what is the likely outcome when faced with accepting the VAR call or calling out a fellow union member for getting it wrong despite all the tech support?
3. VAR technology. This is well tested elsewhere and across different sports and should be uncontroversial – I have never seen a tennis player argue with Hawkeye which predicts where the ball landed. But the technology deployed in Scotland and how it is presented when showing offsides is second rate and is undermining the whole initiative. We need to improve what we have deployed and present better.
4. Lack of communication – rugby had its own TMO issue in the Scotland-France match, but I was taken by the clarity and professionalism of the referee and his assistants in Italy yesterday, not least with the decision on the Italian knock on late in the game. Real time, onfield decisions shared with the crowd and TV audience. Tell me why we can’t do similar in football which has significantly more funding?
And a final point for the SFA and Scottish Referees Association – where is the diversity in the referee population in Scotland? First Asian referee in the English Premier League yesterday and female assistant referees increasingly common. In Scotland? Middle aged white males from Glasgow and north Lanarkshire…
With all the discussion about what’s a handball and what’s not, I believe there is another rule/law that should be looked at. A team is awarded a penalty and the keeper makes the save but leaves a rebound that is picked up by the attacking team who then scores. Is this not being penalized twice, once for the original penalty and then having the rebound poked into your net. Pro hockey has penalty shots and if the keeper stops that’s the end of the play, no rebounds. Also Clement with a coded or decoded message on fitness of Rangers players with an alleged swipe at Beale. Was their not glowing reports over how Clement had increased fitness levels at the team since taking over. The amount of injuries suffered by clubs in Scotland is truly shocking and bears a long hard look at how training on field and off is handled, and, how the players are maintaining their own fitness.
goforpar
10 March 2024 at 21:52
‘..A team is awarded a penalty and the keeper makes the save but leaves a rebound that is picked up by the attacking team who then scores. Is this not being penalized twice,..’
+++++++++
That’s a very interesting proposition, goforpar. It certainly has its attractions!
But given that a penalty is just a free kick, the ball is in play as soon as the kick is taken, and the first man from either team to any rebound from keeper or post/crossbar can take possession and play on.
There might be a case for IFAB to revise that ‘Law’ and give a ‘penalty kick’ a different status from any other free kick??
Mind you, a quick breakaway by the defending team from a rebound can offer an advantage!
Tonight, Lundstram’s speed of reaction and his timing, I have to admit, couldn’t be faulted.
I didn’t record the match, so I don’t know how the Hibs players were positioned? Could any one of them have got to the rebound before Lundstram in time to boot the ball out of the danger area?
Wokingcelt
10 March 2024 at 12:13
‘…Real time, on field decisions shared with the crowd and TV audience.’
+++++++
That’s the ideal, Wokingcelt!
But international matches are refereed by ‘neutrals’ and (I suppose) the TMO guy/gal would also be a ‘neutral’.
I don’t know what the position is with the use of TMO in domestic rugby? Is it used at all?
Or is it simply implicitly accepted that while a referee may get things wrong, he will not get them wrong by reason of partisanship or bribery or any such horrible thing?
The climate of suspicion in Scottish football is such that nothing but complete visual and audio evidence of what was said by the on-pitch ref and the ref in Baillieston will do. (And maybe, a wee background check on the techies who film and record particular matches- or is that a bit too much? In a media world where a sporting lie of some magnitude is insistently propagated, and TV recordings of matches have in the past been known to have ‘gone missing’? One wonders.)
I think that VAR is causing more problems than it resolves in Scottish football, and the blame lies squarely with CFC,TRFC and their supporters (including in the dugouts and the match officials .) It will always be subject to whitabootery,even though incidents are rarely identical ,and their thoughts and viewpoints will be thrust down the throats of the rest of us by a compliant media The absence of professional referees(and in some cases,professionalism) doesn’t help . Wouldn’t it be nice if Rangers hadn’t died and they’d both departed to pastures new , and left the rest to organise an honest game . They don’t want to be here other than to hoover up trophies . Their greed ensured the end of gate sharing , and the 11-1 voting set up meant they could stymie any attemps to upset their applecart .
I’ve just been listening on BBC Radio 4 to Kevin Hollinrake, MP, a UK minister of state for business, discussing the new powers given to the Registrar for Companies to strike off companies that file bogus and/or misleading info about themselves, etc etc.
One commentator said that he expected that thousands of bogus companies will be struck off in due course.
It may, of course, take longer for apparently long-established companies who may have made unjustified claims about themselves when they first registered to be identified and dealt with.
Quite encouraging, though.
Its rather ironic the way the Scottish Cup semi finals came through the draw. Both Glasgow clubs drawn against teams that both sets of fans (Celtic and Rangers) accuse the opposition of laying down against the Glasgow teams. It will be interesting to see the stories attached to these semi finals over the next few weeks and of course the referee and VAR officials will only add to the hysteria surrounding the events. It could be a major boost for the Scottish game if the perceived underdogs prevailed and shut the alleged big two out of the cup final. One can only imagine the weeping and gnashing of teeth in that scenario.
goforpar
12 March 2024 at 00:43
‘…One can only imagine the weeping and gnashing of teeth in that scenario.’
+++++++++++++
As a matter of interest, does anyone know how much less revenue comes to the SFA from the sale of the broadcasting rights of a Scottish Cup Final between, say, Aberdeen v Hearts than from a Celtic v Rangers final?
The readiness of the Boards and members of the SFA/SPFL to create/rubber stamp out of fear of loss of revenue, the nonsensical untruth that RFC of 1872 did not die in spite of entering Liquidation would suggest to me that there is nothing they would stop at to maximise revenue receipts at whatever cost to the concept of ‘Sport’
John Clark
12 March 2024 00:43
It would be difficult to comprehend any sports organization having a two tiered payment system for what is described as their premium event. Again this is the SFA and one should not be surprised by any action taken by them. Have they issued any comment on the stands in regards to Martin Boyle. They probably missed that as they make plans for taking in the next couple of friendlies for Scotland and work on their travel arrangements for Germany. Never let an expense paid vacation get in the way of doing your job.
Lord Harrower in his judgment of 29 February 2024 in the matter of Imran Ahmad’s action against the Lord Advocate seems to think that ‘Rangers Football Club plc’ was bought out of administration by SevcoScotland as if Charles Green had paid all its debts, and as if SevcoScotland/The Rangers Football Club Limited was the very identical club as RFC plc in Liquidation.
(That’s my reading of his readiness to use the word ‘Rangers’ in relation to CG’s TRFC Ltd)
There appears to be no recognition that the insolvent football club had ceased to be a member of a recognised football league and had therefore- by that very fact- ceased to be a member of the SFA!
and that in fact the Rangers of the 4 young men on Glasgow Green had ceased to exist as a football club.[ and I appreciate that the case was to do with Ahmad’s claim for damages, and not about whether TRFC is Rangers of 1872/1899]
Or that TRFC Ltd had had to apply, beg for, any kind of membership of a recognised league before it could get membership of the SFA, as a new club!
Old big hands was clever enough. Other folk since have been cleverer. But they have all done pretty well out of their cleverness.
And as for the temporisers with Truth in our media?
They have just been contemptuous assholes masquerading as ‘journalists.’
They have all bought into the lie that TRFC is the Rangers of the 4 young men!
Honest to God!
What are they like in the depth of their resistance to speak truth?
Not like the truth reporting journalists who risk death in reporting truth!
And thank God for such heroic journalists!
From today’s Rolls of Court of Session,
“LORD HARROWER – G Hamilton/A McNeill, Clerk
Court 11 – Parliament House
Friday 15th March
By Order
between 9.30am and 10.00am
CA144/21 Imran Ahmad v The Lord Advocate”
——
This, I think, is ‘to discuss the terms of the interlocutor that would be appropriate to give effect to the award that I have indicated…’ [in the judgment issued by Lord Harrower on 29 February in the Ahmad v Lord Advocate damages claim]
My post of 11 March 2024 at 12:35 refers.
I idly wonder whether I might send Kevin Hollinrake copies of my email correspondence with the FCA, the Insolvency Service etc., etc.?
After all, my contention is that the Prospectus issued by a particular company in its bid to become a plc was misleading in its claim to be something that it was not!
And maybe I could ask Hollinrake to live up very practically to his expressions of hope that the new powers will tackle the problem of cheating companies by having a look at what I say in relation to the Prospectus issued by the particular company I have in mind?
I shall consider!
But given the fact that BBC Scotland was ordered not to report truth… and obeyed that order?
What hope that Hollinrake will be any more a man of principle?
I think I will ask him!
Not tonight, though!
See where some members have fallen for the fallacy that team hosting Benefica this evening has won 55 league titles and this should be a concern for the Benefica team. Perhaps someone could set them straight on the actual number of league titles that the current version of Rangers has won. Also, I see on one of their websites they have glossed up their European record since 2017 with no mention of previous games in earlier years and no mention of CL games. The love affair with the EL continues.
Well, I have to say that watching the game this evening I agreed with Ally McCoist in his consternation, frequently voiced from quite early in the match, that TRFC left their left flank exposed repeatedly to counter-attacks.
M.Clement seemed not to see that.
The ironic thing is that the Benfica goal came on TRFC’s right flank, where no TRFC player was in a position to do anything but vainly chase the Benfica goal-scorer!
I would even at this stage be ready to suggest that M. Clement’s jaiket is already on a shoogly peg: because that’s a lot of money now not available to RIFC plc for the summer transfer market.
And they are still kind of dependent on directors’ loans to be able to declare that they can continue as a ‘going concern’.
Just for fun, I have been asking my Artificial Intelligence ‘co-pilot’ a few questions, such as ‘Was the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc in 2012 ‘misleading’ in suggesting that it would be the holding company of the Rangers Football club which was founded in 1872 later incorporated with company number 004276′
This is the response from the machine:
“The Prospectus issued by Rangers International Football Club PLC (RIFC) in 2012 did indeed suggest that RIFC would be the holding company of the Rangers Football Club, which was founded in 1872 and had the company number SC004276. However, this representation turned out to be misleading.
In reality, RIFC became the holding company for the newly formed Rangers Football Club after the original club faced financial difficulties and entered liquidation. The new club, known as The Rangers Football Club Limited, was established in 2012. The shares in Sevco Scotland Ltd were transmuted into shares in this new entity, which then became the football club operating under the name Rangers.
The situation was complex due to the club’s history and the need for restructuring. While the prospectus implied continuity with the historic Rangers Football Club, the legal reality was different. The new club, under RIFC, continued to play at Ibrox Stadium and carry on the legacy, but it was a distinct legal entity from the original club that had entered liquidation.”
—-
I may follow this up with the Registrar for Companies for him/her to have a wee look at with reference to the powers available under Section 1002A?
If you are having us on, then you got me.
If not, that is startling to say the least. Who programmed the thing? RTC?
After years of carry-on with lawyers, the BBC, the print media, Companies House, the FCA, Uncle Tom Cobley and all, some peculiar electronic gadget chirps the right answer!
Jings, I have been observing AI warily in the hope I may one day understand what it is; perhaps being overwhelmed by robots may not be entirely bad.
macfurgly
15 March 2024 at 15:40
‘…If you are having us on, then you got me.’
+++++
Not having anyone on, macfurgly!
I could hardly believe my eyes, but what I posted was exactly what AI came up with in answer to my question.
There is no legal way that TRFC could be the Rangers of 1872 and entitled to be given status as and sporting entitlements of Rangers of 1872.
The SFA and the SPFL simply must realise that, and go public to confess their ‘mistake’/’misgovernance’ and sort things out honestly.
To John Clark, Bang on. Your question pumped in and reply that came up.
According to http://www.iAsk.ai Ask Ai Questions Search Engine:
Answer:
Yes, the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc in 2012 was deemed misleading in suggesting that it would be the holding company of the Rangers Football Club which was founded in 1872 and later incorporated with company number 004276.
The controversy surrounding the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc in 2012 revolves around the misrepresentation of the company’s role as the holding company of Rangers Football Club. The prospectus implied that RIFC plc would be the parent company of the football club, which was founded in 1872 and incorporated with company number 004276. However, this assertion was found to be misleading and inaccurate.
The issue stemmed from the fact that RIFC plc was established as a new entity following the liquidation of The Rangers Football Club plc in 2012. While RIFC plc did acquire certain assets and business operations of the original Rangers Football Club, it was not a direct continuation or legal successor to the historic club founded in 1872.
Investors and stakeholders raised concerns about the misleading nature of the prospectus, as it created confusion regarding the true relationship between RIFC plc and Rangers Football Club. The prospectus failed to adequately disclose the complex corporate structure and legal distinctions between the old club and the newly formed company.
Subsequently, regulatory authorities and legal experts scrutinized the prospectus to assess whether it breached any disclosure or transparency requirements. The misleading information provided in the document raised questions about corporate governance practices and investor protection standards.
In conclusion, the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc in 2012 was indeed misleading in suggesting that it would be the holding company of Rangers Football Club, which was founded in 1872 and later incorporated with company number 004276. This misrepresentation contributed to confusion among investors and highlighted the importance of accurate and transparent disclosure in corporate documents.
bigboab1916
15 March 2024 at 18:06
‘…To John Clark, Bang on. Your question pumped in and reply that came up…’
+++++++++++
Yes, and a much more detailed reply! Well done!
“…Subsequently, regulatory authorities and legal experts scrutinized the prospectus to assess whether it breached any disclosure or transparency requirements. The misleading information provided in the document raised questions about corporate governance practices and investor protection standards”
When, I wonder, did the ‘regulatory authorities and legal experts’ carry out their scrutiny, and what did they do when they found that the Prospectus was misleading?
Just let it go? Make a public announcement and ask RIFC plc to make a public apology and reimburse any investor who bought shares on the basis of false information?
Obviously not: that would have been news that not even the BBC or print SMSM could keep back!!
I think I may now ask the Registrar of Companies to re-investigate with a view to using the NEW powers that Section 1002A of the Companies Act 2006 has recently given her to strike RIFC plc off the Register. Or explain why she won’t…!
It’s maybe time I got my Westminster MP involved, I think-even if just to give him a problem in election year…
—
[ I understand that much of the reasoning behind the enhancement of the powers of the Registrar of Companies is related to the need to hammer down on international ‘money laundering’ and the use of companies whether bogus altogether or genuine but bent to shift dodgy money around the world.
The international business scene of ‘Sport’, with directors/major shareholders of UK sports companies also being directors/shareholders in overseas companies, might well provide opportunities for ‘money laundering’.
Not that I for one minute would suggest that RIFC plc could ever be involved in that kind of wickedness.
Nevertheless, the facts appear to be that it was prepared to issue a misleading Prospectus claiming to be what we know it was not. And it needs its a.se kicked good and hard_ ‘pour encourager les autres’!
As would any supposed ‘governance body’ which knowingly allowed it to claim to be what it was not!
I shall ponder deeply over the next few days.
Sadly, I am too poor to think of engaging the services of a good (England-based) lawyer. No offence to Scottish lawyers, of course, but they have their businesses to consider!
And I should add that I am aware that Artificial Intelligence is not yet to be regarded as infallible! But I do believe that it can find and source recorded facts, such as, for example, that the regulatory authorities did look at the Prospectus and found it misleading.
As ever, I’m always happy to be corrected in matters of fact]
Well spotted bigboab 1916
‘Yes, the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc in 2012 was deemed misleading in suggesting that it would be the holding company of the Rangers Football Club which was founded in 1872 and later incorporated with company number 004276 etc etc.
I’m happy wi’ that finding – however no’ sae much wi this…!
‘How Rangers’ innovative use of artificial intelligence reduced injuries by 50 percent en-route to 55’
(Rangers Review)18th November 2021
Somedy needs tae educimicate that AI oan the ‘Big Lie’ methinks!
bect67
16 March 2024 at 11:18
‘…Somedy needs tae educimicate that AI oan the ‘Big Lie’ methinks!’
+++++
Ha,ha!
The guy who wrote that misleading headline will not be so happy now about AI as any collaborator in propagating a sporting untruth!
I have been drafting a letter to my Westminster MP. (Well, it’s the kind of thing to do on a Sunday night, n’est-ce pas, Hercule?)
I want to ask ‘them’ [canny say him/her these days!] to have a look at the RIFC plc ‘Prospectus’ and tell me how any potential investor would think he/she would NOT be investing in a hunnert and 40-year-old, titles-and-honours-laden football club, instead of in a new football club that had been admitted into membership of a ‘recognised league’ and of the SFA only in 2012!
I might also suggest to them that the legal advice given to the SFA, the SPL/SFL, the Administrators and CG is questionable in that it, apparently, accepted an untruth, namely that CG had bought Rangers of 1872 out of administration and was simply the new owner of RFC of 1872.
All signed up in a non -disclosure agreement!
[What is that I hear? -faint echoes in Parliament Square of ‘what it’s all about’, ‘the essence of a football club’ …]
Honest to God!
What ARE they like, those who say that RFC of 1872 did not die the death (or, rather, was murdered by an egotistic majority shareholder of a knight!)
The good thing JC is that you will notice no one, outside their little group on their board, wants to invest in this Rangers* football club/company because the people who buy shares do their due diligence before investing in any company etc and they will not be fooled by the separate club/company DRIVEL and will actually see for themselves that the original Rangers Football Club is at present being wound up in bankruptcy – they will see what you and everyone else can see on companies house and in the financial sector records re the history of their bankruptcy to date journey – soon to be finalised.
The fact that they are not on any major investing sites will waken up investors to the bad smell around this club/company as well. They might be able to con their mug supporters to their continuation LIE but they are not able to con the investors into their LIE as is being shown by their lack of success in trying to get them to invest. Their mug supporters should be asking if they are still the same “successful” club then why is no investors outside their little group of directors willing to invest in this “successful” club.
I note that Para 7 of BDO’s report to creditors issued on 22 November 2023 reads as follows:
7. Conclusions
We have attended to all statutory requirements throughout the course of the liquidation to date.
The Joint Liquidators have paid the final dividend just after the period end, and subsequently will be in a position to close the case on consignment of any unclaimed dividends. Therefore, the next report to the creditors in this matter will be the final report.”
I presume that that final 6th-monthlyreport will be due very soon( period from November to April?)
Out of interest I had a look at this
“Companies House
Guidance
Liquidation and insolvency:
7.4 The duties of the interim liquidator
Within 28 days of the appointment, the interim liquidator investigates the company’s affairs and will call meetings of creditors and contributories. Contributaries are people that are liable to contribute to the assets of a company in the event of it being wound up.
The meetings appoint the official liquidator who must notify AIB within 7 days. If no liquidator is appointed at the meetings, the court appoints a liquidator.
The liquidator must send to AIB (the Accountant in Bankruptcy), a statement of receipts and payments for the first 12 months of liquidation and thereafter every 6 months until the winding up is complete.
7.5 When the winding-up is complete
When we, together with the AIB receive notice from the liquidator of the final meeting that winding-up is complete, we will register it and publish its receipt in the Edinburgh Gazette.
Unless the Court directs otherwise, the company will be dissolved 3 months after the notice was registered with us.”
The absolute end of Rangers of the 4 young men is only weeks away, whatever the emotional shock, and whatever any lying football governance bodies may have tried to do. RFC of 1872 will simply be a footnote in the history of Scottish Football.
The wee spat this afternoon on BBC Scotland’s ‘Sportsound’ between Michael Stewart and Rory Loy (?) relating to the calling off of the Dundee v TRFC match because of the state of the pitch was full of heat but shone no light!
Stewart argued that if the two teams were happy to go ahead then they should have been allowed to.
Loy argued that the decision on what was safe for players could not be left to players OR clubs, because (if I followed him rightly) the clubs would have a natural desire to get the game played and would perhaps unconsciously influence their employees [i.e the players,]in the choice those players might make.
That left me wondering: if the authoritative final voice is that of the match referee, what would be the position of the SFA if the referee allowed a match to go ahead at the request/insistence of the clubs and a player was badly injured in an accident caused by the state of the pitch?
Could the injured player sue the SFA and/or his employing club?
Or are referees [as agents of the SFA?] told to take no chances, and play safe?
Anyone?
John Clark
I imagine that if clubs insisted, against the match officials’ advice, that a match should be played, then at worst, the SFA would require a waiver from both clubs and players (approaching 40 of those) indemnifying the SFA against any further action. I think that may be impractical since it would effectively give any one player the right of veto.
Some folk have short memories.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18238240.rangers-v-livingston-called-off-due-waterlogged-pitch-ibrox/
paddy malarkey
17 March 2024 at 22:27
‘…Some folk have short memories..’
+++++++
That made me smile.
I hope, though, that the match referee will always say “it’s not a committee decision: it’s my exclusive function to exercise my judgment, so butt out and don’t annoy me, the pair o’ you.”
John Clark
17 March 2024 at 23:22
The thing that gets me about the fiasco is that some of match officials pictured at the venue don’t generally hide their allegiance,but none of them saw fit to inform M Clement that there might be a problem . You would almost think the furore was orchestrated .
From the Scotsman website and on Radio Scotland it is reported that the Scottish Professional Football League says it will investigate the circumstances surrounding Sunday’s postponed Premiership match between Dundee and Rangers….Match referee Don Robertson took the decision to call the game off less than two hours before the scheduled noon kick-off after the Dens Park surface was deemed unplayable due to waterlogging.”
The SPFL Rules say this:
G77. Match Officials shall use all reasonable endeavours to be present at the appropriate
stadium at least one and a half hours prior to the advertised time of kick-off. The
Referee shall decide as to the fitness of the ground in all matches and each Club must
take every reasonable precaution to keep its ground in a playing condition and,
where necessary, shall re-mark the ground during the half-time interval. The home Club may, where weather or other conditions make it appropriate, require the Referee to visit the ground two hours or more before the scheduled time of kick-off of any League Match.
G78. The Board may require the Referee to complete a report on the condition of the
playing surface in a form specified by the Board and approved in writing by the
Scottish FA from time to time”
What’s to investigate? Robertson’s motives?
Is the referee supposed to look for a consensus view and explain why he did not?
So, the Bill to introduce an Independent Regulator of English Football has been presented in the English parliament.
How long before a similar bill is introduced into the Scottish parliament?
The most recent update on the matter was the SFSA’s statement of 17 March which indicated that “a round table discussion with representatives of parliament, SFA, SPFL and of course us, the SFSA.” would take place.”
I haven’t seen anything further about the possible/likely date of such a discussion.
[I have had fun reading the introductory paras to the English Bill, wondering whether any similar para in a Scottish Bill will have anything like this:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-sustainable-future-reforming-club-football-governance/a-sustainable-future-reforming-club-football-governance‘
Background
“.1.2. However, despite the phenomenal success of football at home and abroad since then, we have seen all too many examples of the catastrophic impact the failure of a beloved club can have on its fans and a local community. There have been over 60 instances of clubs going into administration since 1992, and we have lost historic clubs like Bury and Macclesfield Town. We have seen fans fighting back against their owners at Blackpool and Charlton Athletic and events at Derby County leaving it on the brink of liquidation in 2022.”
Would RFC of 1872 be mentioned as a ‘historic club ‘ lost to Liquidation??
How could anyone be ready to accept the functions of an independent Regulator if he/she was happy to turn a blind eye to the nonsense of the denial of the liquidation of RFC of 1872 and the perverted decision by the Scottish football governance bodies to allow the sporting nonsense of ‘continuity Rangers?”
How could he/she accept the existing fundamental dishonesty and expect to have any serious moral authority?
There simply must be recognition that TRFC is not and cannot legally be the same football club as RFC 2012 (In Liquidation) – and probably long dissolved by the time any Independent Regulator is appointed!!
Crawford Allan resigns and the big story in the smsm is a waterlogged pitch, really?
valentinesclown
19 March 2024 at 19:42
‘Crawford Allan resigns and the big story in the smsm is a waterlogged pitch, really?’
++++++++
I was really glad that Allan’s resignation is not related directly to the call-off of the Dundee v TRFC match.
It was stupid of the SFA to announce it when they did. My first thought was: is there a connection?
I immediately laughed at the idea, because it would be laughable if a referee’s decision to call off a match needed ‘probing’ and ‘investigation’ by the SPFL and occasioned the resignation of the Head of Referee operations!
The Kate Middleton conspiracy theories were more than enough to be going on with!
Maybe Crawford does not fancy the idea of Celtic and BR been lawyer-ed up for the upcoming VAR case.
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/
bigboab1916
19 March 2024 at 23:04
‘…Maybe Crawford does not fancy the idea of Celtic and BR been lawyer-ed up for the upcoming VAR case
++++
Well, of course, facts are ‘chiels that winna ding’ as our aproned poet declaimed!
Which club suffered more disadvantage because of the ref’s decision?
Oh!
My goodness, none other than TRFC!
Who might have wished for a different decision?
I read this morning that Stuart Murphy -CEO of the Scottish Football Supporters’ Association- has given a date for the promised formal follow-up talks to the Holyrood cross-party discussions that took place earlier.
That date is May 8.
Murphy adds “…the days of football in Scotland marking its own homework are over. The debate is now about HOW -not whether-such independent scrutiny should happen.”
I would add that it is imperative that Scottish Football should first roll back from the lie that TRFC is the Rangers of 1872 and from allowing RIFC plc to market itself world-wide as the holding company of a 152-year football club laden with titles and honours that it was never in existence even to compete for!
The TRUTH is that Rangers of 1872 lost its place in a recognised football league and lost thereby its membership and did not even apply for membership of a league: it was a completely different legal entity -CG’s SevcoScotland -that the SFL admitted into membership and that the SFA admitted into Scottish Football membership as a new club.
Our football governance bodies need to accept that truth or any hope of an honest sport where ethic of sporting integrity and honour are safe-guarded – by a truly Independent Regulator is, frankly, pie-in-the-sky.
‘Alexandro Bernabei couldn’t WAIT to leave Celtic as he targets Brazilian revival to show Rodgers what he’s missing’ trumpets the Sevco propangandist Daily Record (the caps for WAIT is a dead giveaway)
The ‘Ha’penny Liar’ (as my father desrcibed this rag) strikes again – brazenly displaying it’s affiliation.
(please see reputable news outlets for accurate reporting)
They’ll likely hiv a ‘hairy canary’ if the Govan mob don’t win the league!
The pernicious Big Lie seems to have been accepted as truth in the minds of English football!
Have a read at
https://www.football365.com/news/man-city-relegated-premier-league-expulsion-rangers
Manchester City has its financial troubles. In relation to which, according to one Jason Soutar who writes for ‘Football 365’, quoting from ‘Football Insider”, reports:
” ex-Everton CEO Wyness has likened the situation to Rangers, who were demoted to the Scottish fourth tier after tax issues.”
It seems to me that neither Jason Soutar nor Wyness (whoever they are) could be described as diligent enquirers after truth!
Maybe somewhat like the scribes of the SMSM who, like Pilate, cynically ask: What is truth? -and fail to seek it and report it?
My post of 22 March 2024 at 23:39.
A little bit of research shows that the Wyness who talked about Rangers having been ‘demoted’ is the same Wyness who suggested that Aberdeen should share a ground with Rangers back in 2007?
Bampot then!
And worse bampot now, in his ignorance of the truth that RFC of 1872 ceased to exist as a football club when it lost its membership of the SPL and in consequence of that, lost its entitlement to membership of Scottish professional football.
John Clark
22 March 2024 at 23:39
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There is even a court ruling in Scotland that ‘Rangers’ were not relegated. Despite that, the media (and some others) insist they were. Would Case Law be allowed to be ignored in any other ruling? I very much doubt it.
upthehoops
23 March 2024 at 21:29
‘…There is even a court ruling in Scotland that ‘Rangers’ were not relegated.’
++++
Yes, uth, and thank you for reminding me of that fact. Here it is the reference:
OUTER HOUSE, COURT OF SESSION
[2017] CSOH 43
CA90/16
OPINION OF LORD BANNATYNE
Lord Bannatyne judgment
And here is the really relevant part:
“[180] However, as submitted by Mr Sandison that is not what happened to Rangers. It was either unchallenged evidence or a matter of admission, that what happened to Rangers at the material time was this: the Rangers Football Club Plc sold inter alia the one share in the SPL to Sevco Scotland Limited.
That sale required the approval of at least 8 of the members of the SPL. That application was refused.
It was thus no longer eligible to play in the SPL.
It thereafter applied to the SFL and was permitted to join the lowest league of the SFL (the five part agreement).
The foregoing process cannot be described as being moved by anyone to a lower division, or being moved down or demoted. The dictionary definitions are not apt to cover what happened to Rangers.
I am satisfied that what did not happen was that the SPL moved or demoted Rangers to a lower division.’
So far,so accurate and true.
With all due respect to his Lordship, though, his next sentence is factually incorrect.
That sentence is:
” Rangers ended up in a lower division by the entry into a contract which allowed them to join the SFL in the third division”
God bless the man, he appears not to have been informed- by either Counsel in the case- that it was NOT RFC of 1872 that entered into a contract which allowed them to join the SFL in the third division, but the brand- new CG’s SevcoScotland/TRFC because CG had not bought RFC of 1872, but only some of the assets of a liquidated entity! and dirt cheap!
I think his honour Lord Bannatyne made an unnecessary mistake in adding that last sentence trying to be helpful.
Worse, in my opinion he was possibly misled into believing that “the Rangers Football Club Plc sold inter alia the one share in the SPL to Sevco Scotland Limited”.
The truth is that RFC of 1872 had to SURRENDER its share to the SPL which alone could decide what to do with it.
And what the SPL (to their credit) did NOT do with it was to give it to CG’s SevcoScotland!
ps Mr Sandison took up post as Lord Sandison on 1st March 2021
Hearts not happy,and they weren’t even playing .
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13101307/hearts-demand-answers-from-rangers-after-badge-defaced-in-sky-sports-cup-final
paddy malarkey
24 March 2024 at 22:52
‘….Hearts not happy, and they weren’t even playing ‘
++++++
Mmmmm!
I think I can understand Hearts’ annoyance at the cavalier disregard by ‘guests’ on their premises of the ordinary courtesy requirements on ‘guests’ at any kind of a place!
You don’t do that kind of thing at somebody else’s place, unless you’re the kind of person that nobody would want as a guest.
And, I suppose, this was something that could only have been done by those with access to the changing-room or whatever.
Poor show, when we thought women’s football was maybe rooted in the concept of ‘sport’ without baggage.
I was in conversation with a chap this morning who referenced the ‘Horizon’ post office scandal, sort of relating it to the kind of suspicions some folks have that the lie that TRFC is the RFC of 1872 is somewhat similar.
Are there parallels? In terms of lying executives?
In that a sports governance body has told and propagated an untruth in the same way that the Post office has propagated an untruth?
One wonders.
And the baddies know that they are baddies!
“When you go to Hampden, you get your own branding in each of the dressing rooms, whether it’s a semi-final or a final,” said Lennon. “Obviously the girls, or Rangers, thought it was the same thing to do at Tynecastle. For me it’s nothing, just pick it up, say ‘thanks Hearts for the venue, we’ve won the cup.’ It’s so pedantic”
So says Neil Lennon!
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/neil-lennon-weighs-in-on-rangers-hearts-badge-row-as-ex-celtic-and-hibs-boss-calls-reaction-pedantic/ar-BB1kvS3p
What a stupid remark to have made!
Hampden Park, whatever it may have been to the old ‘amateur’ Queens Park, is now a neutral venue, the property of ‘Scottish Football’ as a whole.
Tynecastle is the private property of Hearts.
The Hearts’ statement makes it clear “that their wishes against branding in the dressing-room had been disregarded..”
It’s a pretty safe bet that Lennon/Celtic FC would have had something to say if a guest club using Celtic Park as the venue for a final with another club behaved as disrespectfully as TRFC women’s team/manager/coaches did.
The Hearts’ board was not being ‘pedantic’ in pointing out that guests behaved badly in spite of being asked not to.
[ as an aside, Mrs C wonders at Lennon’s use of ‘girls’]
Please, BBC Sportsound, gonny get Richard Gordon back, full-time??
Or get Leeanne Crichton signed up (if she intends to return to work)!
McIntyre has no real understanding of his function as presenter and co-ordinator of the programme, which is to stand back from airing his own views and CALMLY ask the ‘pundits’ intelligent and relevant questions about their assessment of performance to try to find agreement about the possible/probable causes of poor performance, and possible remedies.
In my post of 25 March 2024 at 00:37 I referred to the Post Office ‘Horizon’ scandal.
How wonderful to see tonight Alex Thomson of Channel 4 coming up with recordings that prove that the folk at the top of the Post Office organisation knew the truth and deliberately ignored the truth.
I just wish that he had seen it worth his time and Channel 4 money to get right into the ‘5-Way Agreement’:
and explore how and why a brand-new football club was (and still is!) allowed to claim in the marketplace to be what it manifestly cannot be either in law or under the Articles of Association of the SFA and the then SPL in 2012.
The readiness of a football governance body to sign up to the untruth (in my opinion) that TRFC is RFC of 1872 must surely deserve full investigation, in the same way as decisions of, for example, certain FIFA officials in the past?
I think I will drop him a note.
No, I will Definitely drop him a note incidentally reminding him that he said that he had been treated with hostility by at least one SMSM journalist for asking questions about ‘Rangers’.
And I forgot to add this into my post of 23.14
https://www.channel4.com/news/by/alex-thomson/blogs/rangers-endorsed-downfall-book
It helps to give context.
Just feel like stirring the pot today. DR and Rangers fans all agog over Jack Butland being briefly as being in contention for England at the Euros. If Joe Hart hadn’t announced his retirement would he have got some notice, 75 appearances and 43 clean sheets versus the 9 appearances for Butland and his apparent inability to stop penalties. Trusted hands versus unsure hands at the intrnational level.
goforpar
28 March 2024 at 13:58
‘…Just feel like stirring the pot today.’
++++++
I’ve just been listening to the latest BBC report on the Horizon story of deceit by high heid yins (and perhaps their lawyers) who failed to disclose in Court the De Loitte’s report.
I wonder what would happen if a plc and its NOMAD allowed that plc’s IPO ‘Prospectus’ to be issued if it contained misleading information?
I wonder what would happen to a sports governance body if it were to allow a football club newly admitted to membership of the sport to claim to be another, much older, entity laden with football honours that the new club could not conceivably have won on the field?
In reference to my post at 17.29 today, have a read at this, to be found on this link
https://3vb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Prospectus_Litigation_lessons_learned_from_-1.pdf
“For claimants who have suffered a loss after acquiring securities offered by a prospectus, s 90 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) provides an invaluable mechanism for seeking redress.
Under s 90 an issuer will be liable to any investor who has suffered loss as a result of:
an untrue or misleading statement in the prospectus; or
the omission of any “necessary information”.
Importantly, under s 90 the investor need not show reliance on any particular statement (or omission), nor even that they read the prospectus: once the conditions of s 90 are satisfied then, subject to defences, liability is made out.”
Could have fun and games with that, if you found out that the new plc you invested in was not in fact or in law the holding company of Company ‘A’ as its Prospectus clearly implies it will be, but of company ‘B’ which is a company in Liquidation!!
I chuckle quietly to myself at such a scenario.
Just a quicky afore I go to bed.
what a brilliant piece of work by ‘ascom’ on the statistics of penalty awards!
The SFSA’s ‘Andy’s Sting in the tail’ reference to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM1c1KGpw-0
will get you there.
As our gun-running ‘brother’ of a poet and UK civil servant (who kept his job in spite of his gun-running attempt to French ‘revolutionaries’) said: ‘facts are chiels that winna ding’
Let’s see how the SFA views the ‘ascom’ analysis.
I would suggest ‘ with fear and trepidation.’
Or maybe not.
Liars as they are about TRFC of 2012 foundation being Rangers of 1872 they are thirled to untruth!
What miserable wretches they are!
Honest to God.
Why does the SFA need to come out with praise for John Beaton and his VAR abilities. With so much complaining about VAR, and, not just about Beaton why shine a light on a very sensitive subject. I believe this maybe the first time an official has been praised by the SFA. If they are to offer praise can they not offer criticism when warranted. Hugh Keevins may have sunk lower in the popularity polls with Aberdeen and Heart fans when he hinted in his column that Celtic and Rangers would be competing in the Scottish Cup final. Cup games can be very interesting and I don’t believe any of the final four teams have a lock on a berth in the final. With all the hoopla surrounding Tavenier’s 131 goal giving him the lead as the best scoring defender in British football. Has anyone taken the time to compare the penalty scoring records of some of the player he has surpassed. A quick look indicates he has scored 65 penalties (all competitions) since joing Rangers and has missed 17. That works out to an average of 9 penalties a year, truly an amazing record. Is any of the players he has surpassed anywhere close to that number.
I enjoyed ‘The Scotsman’s’ April Fool piece this morning. It is football related, so I have no qualms about mentioning just the first paragraph of it here (The whole piece is about 380/400, with a nice photo];
“by Flora Poil’ (a give-away!)
“Ministers have drawn up secret plans to use the long-delayed ferry Glen Sannox to ferry the Scottish football team home from Germany after the Euro.”
My post at 21.15 refers
the ‘380/400’ refers to my (very rough) estimate of the number of words in the piece!
From the horse’s a mouth:
“Speaking to talkSPORT, McCoist said: “We’ve got a hate bill by the way, a hate bill has been passed in the country. And I can guarantee you, next Sunday at Ibrox, I, along with 48,000 will be committing a breach of that hate bill in the particular Rangers vs Celtic game we are all going to. It is madness.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/worried-ally-mccoist-erupts-over-hate-crime-law-and-claims-rangers-diehards-are-sitting-ducks-vs-celtic/ar-BB1kVcsx?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=294fd833fe72431dde95b3dfb85326b4&ei=17
That’s the International Boxing Association lost its recognition by the International Olympic Committee:
“Lausanne, 2 April 2024 – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by
the International Boxing Association (IBA) against the decision taken by the IOC Session on 22 June
2023 withdrawing the IOC’s recognition of the IBA as the IF for the sport of boxing.
In its final award, the CAS Panel noted that, as at the date of the Appealed Decision, the IBA had not
complied with the conditions set down by the IOC for recognition, namely:
a. The IBA had not increased its financial transparency and sustainability including through diversification of revenues.
b. The IBA had not changed its process relating to referees and judges to ensure its integrity,
including a monitoring period for IBA’s own competitions ahead of the Olympic Games Paris
2024.
c. The IBA had not ensured the full and effective implementation of all the measures proposed by the “Governance Reform Group” established by the IOC, including a change of culture.
As a consequence, the Panel determined that these three elements justified the IOC Session’s decision
to withdraw recognition of the IBA ..”
Not at all relevant to Scottish Football’s ‘poor governance’, of course.
But it does remind us that sports governance bodies can be dealt with if there is any hanky-panky or deep-rooted mendacity.
The CAS is a court of law, after all!
See my post of today at 22.36
Hanky-panky?
Oh, when one thinks about it, might that term include something like allowing a football club first admitted into Scottish Football in 2012 to claim entitlement to the sporting awards and honours of a club that was founded in 1872 but which entered Liquidation in 2012?
Earlier this evening I got AI into difficulties- it gave the company number of RIFC plc as SC 425159, and not SC437060!
The contradictory information it has picked up is too much for it to handle. It has partly bought into the lie propagated by the liars but seems to be smart enough to see the inconsistencies and can’t make sense of them.
Companies House records show that RFC plc of 1872 was not a holding company of any other entity.
it was RFC plc that held the share in the SPL.
Company and football club were one and the same!
Craig Whyte bought Rangers football club of 1872 foundation.
Killed it.
The death was recognised by the SMSM, big time!
It was recognised by the SPL, bigger time!
And recognised by the SFA, biggest time!
And then, magically, some/many lying sods in Scottish Football governance, protecting themselves under an NDA, decide that a new football club should be continuity Rangers FC of 1872, the very club from which they had withdrawn entitlement to membership of the SFA!
Honest to God!
How those barstewards can live with themselves!
And how much damage they have done to Scottish Football by abjectly kow-towing to a lie that sets aside the very concept of sporting competition!
I metaphorically spit in their eye. Lying (bar)-stewards of Scottish Football integrity as they are.
Far do’s: The National World reports as follows:
“Ally McCoist has decided not to attend the Old Firm derby this Sunday following his comments on Scotland’s new hate crime law on talkSport”
JC @ 17.33
“Ally McCoist has decided not to attend the Old Firm derby this Sunday following his comments on Scotland’s new hate crime law on talkSport”
The wee fat gardener stirred it up – and ran away.
Earlier today I had a bit of free time.
I used that time to dig out D&P’s ‘Progress report to Creditors’,which was dated 24 August 2012.
Seeing again the sheer self-contradictory nonsense on which,in my opinion, TRFC was allowed to get away with claiming to be RFC of 1872 confirms me in my belief that Scotttish Football is deeply flawed in its governance.
Briefly:
Para 4.4 : here the Administrators tell us that they “must perform their functions with the purpose of achieving one of the following objectives:
Rescuing the company [That is Rangers Football Club plc /RFC 2012 plc] as a going concern
Achieving a better result for the Company’s creditors as a whole than would be likely if the Company were wound up(without first being in Administration) or
Realising property in order to make a distribution to one or more secured or preferential creditors
Para 4.5 : here they say “ The Joint Administrators initially [my italics]pursued the objective of a rescue of the Company as a going concern through the proposal of a CVA”
As we know, that did not happen because HMRC voted against a CVA.
There was therefore no possibility of CG’s SevcoScotland buying RFC of 1872/RFC 2012 plc as a ‘going concern’ under any kind of ‘voluntary liquidation’ with creditors happy to sustain losses in the hopes of better things to come.
It is to be noted that nowhere do the Administrators dare claim in so many words that RFC plc of 1872/RFC 2012 plc(company number SC 004276) was bought /brought out out of Administration!
All they can say is that SevcoScotland was, by prior agreement, obliged to ‘purchase the business, history and certain assets’ of RFC plc if there were to be no CVA.
(The clear implication, it seems to me, is that the Administrators wished to suggest that there were two entities: a ‘company’ and ‘a football club’ that they ran as their business and that while the company went bust the separate football club was bought whole and entire by a brand new company
There were NOT,of course, two entities: there was only Rangers Football Club/RFC 2012 plc , registered at Companies House as Company Number SC 4276 in 1899.There was no ‘holding company’ running a football club which lived on after Liquidation!
So, in my view para 5.2 is just a load of guff: “Following the sale of the business and assets of the Company [ i.e RFCof 1872/RFC2012 plc] the responsibility for maintaining all trading operations passed to Newco[i.e. SevcoScotland ] which continues to operate Rangers Football Club”
The footall club had ceased to be. Even D&P had to recognise that fact! In para 6.2 there is this:
“The sale of the business and certain assets included the sale of the Company’s right, title and interest in its SPL share and SFA membership”
Oh,no it did not,whatever CG might have been expecting.
As that para continues, “ Following the sale of these assets (and) the sale of Ibrox and Murray Park and the transfer of the Playing Staff [ !except some of those who realised their contracts were ‘ nullified and rendered void by the Liquidation!] to Newco, the Company (i.e. RFC of 1872/RFC2012 plc) was no longer in a position to meet the criteria for membership of any of the Football Authoritiesnd therefore no longer operates as a football club”[my italics]
There it is,plain as a pikestaff: RFC of 1872 was NOT bought out of Administration as any kind of going concern or ‘continuity Rangers of 1872.’
SevcoScotland/ TRFC to the eternalshame and disgrace of the Football Authorities needed the secret services of a 5-Way Agreement before it could become a football club.
And I believe that most SMSM editors and journalist know that to be the case but continue nevertheless to ignore the truth.
I am reminded at this juncture of the words of the customs officer/poet :
“Ah,Tam! Ah,Tam! thou’ll get thy fairin, in hell they’ll roast ye like a herrin!”
Who knows, I might be there to turn the spit!
Just furthering my education this evening, I discovered that the Government had called for discussion on the suggestion that there should be an Independent Regulator of Insolvency Practitioners, instead of there being 4 different bloody organisations, each of which regulates only individual ‘Insolvency Practitioners’ but not the firms who engage them.
Honest to God!
The latest info is that the Government has chickened out of that suggestion and is prepared to leave things as they are, with some changes, saying that
” The introduction of a single regulator has not been ruled out. Instead, the government proposes creating a power to implement a single regulator approach “should that prove necessary”.
Eh, what? I can think of one company that employed Insolvency Practitioners who might well have been investigated by an independent Regulator.
Just to let you know: I’ve just posted the text of an email I sent a few minutes ago to James Cook , news editor of BBCRadio Scotland.
My post is in moderation.
But it is just asking him to tell me the name of the company that owned Rangers of 1872, the company that went into Liquidation while the football club survived!
and referring to the response I had from Companies House and to the Register of Insolvencies maintained by the Accountant in Bankruptcy.
No sweary words!
My post of 23.59.
I used the word ‘bug..red’ Maybe the machine counts that as a ‘bad word’!?
My post of 00.03
Here is my post without the word ‘b.g..ered
This is what I wrote in my email:
From:
me@yahoo.co.uk
To:
goodmorningscotland@bbc.co.uk
Mon, 8 Apr at 23:34
Apologies- this email is addressed to Mr Cook via you, because I can’t find any email address for him!
Please pass it on or let me know whether you choose not to!
Thank you.
FAO; Mr James Cook, News Editor
Dear Mr Cook,
I refer to BBC Radio Scotland’s on-line report (on 6 October 2021) of Lord Tyre’s judgment against the Administrators of RFC 2012 PLC (formerly The Rangers Football Club plc), company number SC004276, which you will find at this link
Rangers administrators ordered to pay £3.4m over ‘duty breach’ – BBC News
The report (the writer is not bylined) has this:
“Advocate Kenny McBrearty, QC, said the pair could have made staff redundant and stopped the company that owned Rangers [my italics] from being liquidated by making it more attractive to potential buyers.”
Some wee while ago the response I got from Companies House to my question ” What was the holding company of Rangers Football Club plc, company number SC004276?”
was
“RFC plc company number SC004276”
And the register of insolvencies kept by the Accountant in Bankruptcy shows that it was ‘RFC 2012 PLC formerly ‘The Rangers Football Club plc ‘ company number SC 004276 that is in Liquidation.
I am puzzled.
Can you tell me, please, the company number of the ‘company that owned Rangers’ that went bust?
Yours in the search for Truth and researched truthful reporting.
JC
Off to bed now, somewhat puzzled at being twice ‘in moderation’
There’s an interesting photo in the DR today. It appears to show a Rangers player with his hand on the official ( John Beaton). Is there not a rule in Scottish football about laying hands on an official even if there is no intent or malice. If there is such a rule would there not be a suspension in order. I know that laying hands on an official in North America normally calls for an ejection with the potential of further action. Does anyone have any further information in regards to such a rule.
An email from the ICIJ has this (among a lot of other things about the effects of the ICIJ’s work)
“Here’s some bonus content about journalism industry happenings we thought would interest you.
Dermot Desmond’s defamation case against The Irish Times, stemming from coverage of the Panama Papers, is set to advance to trial. The Irish High Court sided with Desmond in dismissing the newspapers’ proposal to call expert witness Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist who contends the reporting on Desmond was in the public interest”
This is in reference to this article in the “Irish Times” on March 11
‘Mary Carolan
Mon Mar 11 2024 – 15:33
The way has been cleared for a trial date to be fixed for businessman Dermot Desmond’s High Court action against The Irish Times over alleged defamation.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens was told on Monday, following his recent determination of the only outstanding pretrial matter in the proceedings, it was ready for trial.
The proceedings may now be listed in the next High Court list to fix trial dates for such actions.”
The ICIJ mentions it because the case arises from the ‘Irish Times’ coverage in 2016 of the so-called Panama Papers, based on details within 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that contained financial information about offshore tax entities.
If only an ICIJ journalist had queried the order given to BBC Scotland that they should not report that ‘Rangers the football club’ had been Liquidated but just some (unspecified!) company that owned and operated that football club!
I don’t think there is any journalist based in Scotland who is a member of the ICIJ.
Perhaps there isn’t a Scotland-based journalist who would keep his job if he so much as applied for membership?
Or perhaps the concept of ‘investigative journalism’ implies that being a journalist entails something more than issuing PR hand-outs and might involve some hard work and an interest in Truth?
———
I only vaguely remember seeing some mention of Desmond’s legal action against the ‘Irish Times.’
I’ve never met the man.
But I suspect that he would have been influential in persuading the Celtic Board to keep schtum about the fix that allowed TRFC to claim falsely, in my opinion, to be ‘continuity Rangers of 1872’.
I declare that were I not a man of the highest cultural refinement and ‘politesse’ I think I might be tempted to kick his fundament if I got within range!
goforpar
9 April 2024 at 15:40
‘…Is there not a rule in Scottish football about laying hands on an official even if there is no intent or malice.’
+++++++++
goforpar, my Artificially Intelligent friend tells me that:
“The Scottish Football Association (SFA) has rules in place to ensure the respect and safety of referees during matches.
These rules prohibit players from physically contacting referees, which is considered a serious offense. The SFA’s Football Governance Handbook and the Laws of the Game provide detailed information on the conduct expected from players, including the consequences of violating these rules. It’s part of the broader effort to maintain sportsmanship and discipline in football.
If you’re looking for specific sections or rules, I can help summarize the key points from the SFA’s official documents”
It adds that :
“While the specific consequences can vary depending on the context and severity of the incident, they typically include suspensions and fines.”
Any kind of aggressive laying on of hands would be utterly inadmissible.
I think, though, that any kind of pally slap on the shoulder or other ‘familiarity’ should be penalised to some extent, in that the ‘Referee’ is no one’s ‘friend’ on the field of play!
“(The) Rangers reclaimed pole position at Dens Park last night when they won their game in hand to open a two point lead with just six games remaining”. (Clairvoyant and true blue Keech Jackson of the Ha’penny Liar).
Naw they didnae son! Whit a riddy!
From the Daily Record on-line
“Dundee vs Rangers call-off sees Hibs fire in SPFL complaint over ‘sporting integrity’ with top six up for grabs
The Easter Road men join Motherwell and the Dark Blues in a three-way battle for a spot in the top six.
Bookmark
SPORT
By Alan Galindo
18:36, 10 APR 2024 UPDATED20:21, 10 APR 2024
“Hibs have held ‘robust discussions’ with the SPFL over ‘sporting integrity’ fears after Dundee’s postponed clash with Rangers.”
Well!
I ask you, who the hell today believes that there can or has been ANY ‘sporting integrity” in the SPFL/SFA since the wholesale adoption of the untruth that Rangers of 1872 was not Liquidated?
Galindo (who he??) needs to wise up!
bect67
10 April 2024 at 18:10
‘… (Clairvoyant and true blue Keech Jackson of the Ha’penny Liar).
++++++
Did that actually appear in print or on-line, bect67?
If it did then he and/or his editor deserve to lose their Press cards!
Originally on DR website I think JC.
The article, which was likely intended for Thursday morning’s publication, went live on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of Rangers’ scheduled match.
Jackson’s piece seemed to anticipate a Rangers victory, stating, “Rangers reclaimed pole position at Dens Park last night when they won their game in hand to open a two-point lead with just six games remaining.” This assertion was made before the game occurred and was postponed due to pitch conditions.
With all the jabbering about the cancellation of the Dundee/Rangers game with the weather forecast for the last two weeks anything but promising, has anyone asked why the game couldn’t be played on March 27th. Oh, I forgot Rangers were scheduled for a game on the following Sunday., surely that didn’t enter into any conversations regarding an earlier date when, if I recall, the weather was a lot better. And why must a team overnight for a game in a town that’s only an hour away . Shades of the onset of the journey back, staying at luxury hotels, fine meals, etc.
bect67
10 April 2024 at 22:18
‘…Originally on DR website I think JC.
The article, which was likely intended for Thursday morning’s publication, went live on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of Rangers’ scheduled match’
++++
Thanks for that, bect67.
Talk about counting your chickens fore they’re hatched. What a feckin eejit is yer man!
goforpar
10 April 2024 at 22:51
‘…Shades of the onset of the journey back, staying at luxury hotels, fine meals, etc.’
++++
Oh, could there be some tax advantage, perhaps? Necessary company expenses of business and that kind of thing?
Or a desperate need to pretend to be what they are not, given their dependence on directors’ loans and what not!
The very word ‘rangers’ seems somehow to chime with the word ‘tax’!
I lie abed at night wondering why that should be so?
As if!
Whether we think VAR works well or not; whether John Beaton is biased or not; whether the SFA and SFPL is incompetent/corrupt or not, the end decisions from the weekend’s TRFC-Celtic game must surely raise some questions over John Beaton’s actual ability as a referee, if nothing else.
I’m not necessarily sure that they did, but if we accept that the three main VAR interventions in the match ultimately reached the correct decision – Goldson’s elbow; Silva’s penalty and the Lawrence foul on Iwata that led to TRFC’s equaliser being disallowed – then surely the SFA/SPFL must be asking questions of Beaton’s competence. After all, he initially gave exactly the opposite decision in each case despite being well positioned to see each incident. One error is understandable to an extent, but to get three important decisions so wrong must surely bring up questions re his status as ‘one of our top referees’. I realise that VAR was introduced to correct mistakes made by referees and it could therefore be argued that VAR worked well in this match, but should a referee who got three big decisions wrong in such a vital match still be offered another big match this coming weekend, as I am sure Beaton will. Does the SFA/SPFL do anything re quality control and remedial training for referees, or does it just back them against complaints no matter what? I think I’ll email both authorities and see what they say.
Is there a reason that Tannadice can’t be used in place of Dens Park for Dundee’s game against TRFC ? Have TRFC fans adopted the hatred of Dundee United from the old club ,and refuse to go there ?
It may seem like the simple solution – but Rangers’ clash with Dundee cannot be moved just down the road to Tannadice due to SPFL rules over VAR.
PM, I heard that they can’t use Tannadice because, being a Championship ground it’s not set up for VAR. I know, don’t laugh!!
nawlite
11 April 2024 at 18:53
I would imagine that the hardware required would be brought to the ground ,and all that would be required is a communications link to the remote VAR team . Lack of big screens ?
Hello Chaps,
Haven’t been on for a bit, but I used to work on the railways, particularly B.R., and not the shoddy thing they have replaced it with.
However, and remarkably, I have to mention that London North Eastern Railway, the current operator of services on the East Coast Main Line, is claiming the history of the London and North Eastern Railway, the company which ran trains on that same line between 1923 and 1947, after which nationalisation came along.
What does that remind you of?
It was quite a remarkable railway company. It built probably the most famous steam loco in the world, ‘Fly Scotsman’, and another of its locos, ‘Mallard’, still holds the World record for the maximum speed attained by a steam locomotive: 126 mph.
However, the current operator, LNER, is an construct of the Operator of Last Resort, a Government agency installed to cover up the fact that no private operating train company can at least make ends meet on the East Coast Main Line.
There is absolutely no connection between the current LNER and the former L&NER, but tell Sevco that!
Nobody in the MSM has questioned this stance.
With all the controversy surrounding VAR and numerous questions regarding the competence of referees in Scotland, has anyone taken the time to see what referee has had the most calls overturned by VAR and what impact those calls have had on the outcome of games. Surely the SFA and SFPL must be in deep discussion over the implementation of VAR and the operation of that tool. I believe every team in the league has had lodged complaints either through the media or direct to the governing bodies. When does the light come on and realize that they have messed up in a large manner. Somebody should rain on their parade of just sitting and letting things spiral into a dark hole.
Haywire
11 April 2024 at 22:00
‘…However, the current operator, LNER, is a construct of the Operator of Last Resort, a Government agency installed to cover up the fact that no private operating train company can at least make ends meet on the East Coast Main Line…..
What does that remind you of?
++++++++
Great post, Haywire!
LNER have a bloody cheek claiming any connection with the “Flying Scotsman” of 1923.
“Retired from British Railways in 1963 after covering 2.08 million miles, Flying Scotsman earned considerable fame in preservation under the ownership of, successively, Alan Pegler, William McAlpine, Tony Marchington, and, since 2004, the National Railway Museum.’
The current LNER company number 04659712, started life as Strutton Rail Ltd on 7 February 2003, becoming GW Railway Ltd on 18 June 2013, then DFT OLR 1 Ltd on 16 July 2016, and London North Eastern Railway Ltd.”
There is, in my opinion, more than a hint of deception when a company claims to be what it is not for marketing/advertising/image reasons.
A letter-writer to ‘The Scotsman’ today observes, in connection with the ‘Dundee pitch’ matter, that “The decision to allow Dundee a third opportunity to play its match at home against ‘Rangers'(my quotation marks) is mind-blowing and a betrayal by SFA/SPFL directors of Scottish fans and all concerned with the image of Scottish football.”
I agree with that letter-writer, of course.
But those ‘governance’ bodies have already been guilty of the far more serious betrayal of Scottish Football in jettisoning the very concept of ‘sporting integrity’ by allowing TRFC to claim sporting titles and honours that they could not possibly have earned!
Scottish Football governance is in my opinion rotten at its very heart.
And needs to change by publicly recognising the truth that TRFC is not, and cannot possibly be, RFC of 1872.
Folks
Just moved the blog to a bigger, faster server. Should improve speed of delivery and response, but if anyone notices any odd behaviour – beyond what is expected of course 🙂 – please get me at sfm@sfm.scot
Other folks see the merits .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68797201
paddy malarkey
12 April 2024 at 19:08
‘…Other folks see the merits.’
++++++
I wonder whether the Turkish football experience includes the kind of nonsense we here in Scottish Football were/are presented with?
that a football club newly admitted into Scottish professional football in 2012 by the SFA (the very body that stripped RFC of 1872 of its membership of the SFA!) should be regarded as being one and the same
as the club RFC of the four young men?
My post at 23.56 finds itself in moderation.
It was making the observation that Turkish football did not have to deal with 12/13 year old football clubs being allowed to claim as their own the honours of a dead club!
There was a further discussion of the problems with VAR this afternoon on Sportsound.
At one point, reference was made to fans not being told the contents of the discussion between the VAR ref in Baillieston and the pitch referee.
I was on the mid-landing ’emulsioning’ the ceiling at the time and my radio was plugged-in down in the hall with a turn in the stairs kind of blocking the sound a bit, so I may have lost bits of the conversation.
I think I heard ex-ref Madden express some inclination to have that situation changed.
Both Kenny McIntyre and Tom English seemed to be ready to insist that the Press at least be told the reason why an on-pitch referee changes his decision i.e. told what the VAR ref tells the pitch ref what he saw on replay that the on-pitch ref seemed to have missed live.
(The Rugby system is brilliant in that respect: we all saw the pictures for ourselves and heard the detailed discussion between the VAR man and the on-pitch ref in the Scotland/Engerland match)
Anybody else who listened to the prog get that impression?
There was definitely no reference to the Turkey situation! (Actually, I wonder that UEFA/FIFA seem to have allowed that! It’s a dreadful statement on the governance of Turkish professional football as failing to ensure that there was faith and trust in the home-grown referees)
Ach, what am I saying here in my wee corner of Scotland: a football nation so badly governed by the SFA as to allow TRFC to claim to be dear old Rangers of my grandfathers’ days!
The possibility that there could be dodgy/partisan/incompetent referees is a mere trifle when one considers that the whole ‘governance’ of Scottish football was diverted down a path of objective untruth by frightened/venal governance bodies.
It is simply not true that TRFC is Rangers of 1872.
Rangers Football Club of 1872 is in Liquidation: not Craig Whyte, not Wavetower, not any other entity which ‘operated a football club’.
Rangers Football Club of 1872 was NOT brought out of Administration by a CVA, or because it had paid all its horrendous debts.
CG did NOT buy Rangers of 1872.
The Administrators did not keep ‘the company’ in existence as a ‘going concern’ under the same owners and directors.
No, RFC of 1872, the football club, went as bust as any other company that fails and is recorded in the Insolvency Register held by the Accountant in Banking.
That is not a ‘matter of opinion’ but of legal fact.
And the BBC and (I love an opportunity to use the Chinese expression) the ‘running-dog lackeys’ of the SMSM are to be seriously questioned about their readiness to support perhaps the biggest ‘sports’ lie ever to have been told in Scotland!
Some early thoughts on the five SPFL top six Post-Split Fixtures for Celtic and TRFC
Based largely on TRFC having only visited Tynecastle once in the league this season (Celtic have played there twice), together with the fact that Kilmarnock have been to Govan once), here’s what I think the above will shape up as:-
Celtic (3h, 2A)- TRFC, Hearts, and St Mirren/Dundee (Home)
Kilmarnock, St Mirren/Dundee (Away)
TRFC (2h, 3A)- Kilmarnock, St Mirren/Dundee (Home)
Celtic, Hearts, St Mirren/Dundee (Away)
Dear me!
BBC Scotland’s ‘Sportsound’ tonight made me think that the King (not the ‘glib and shameless liar’ of that ilk, frae Castlemulk!) must have died, so funereal a tone was struck!
But that’s by-the-by
In this post I refer to my post of 9 April at 22.00.
In that post I used the phrase ” …that being a journalist entails something more than issuing PR handouts and might involve some hard work and an interest in Truth”
What a joy it was to listen to Dorothy Byrne saying on BBC Radio 4 that ” the job of a journalist is to seek out the facts and tell the truth”.
I say at the outset that I had never heard of Dorothy Byrne.
[‘Google’ her, and her former job as head of Channel 4 news etc etc.]
She is famous for saying out loud that Boris is a ‘known liar’ when delivering the McTaggart Lecture.
I wonder whether I should write to her and ask whether she might be interested in a mere matter of ‘sporting truth’?
I wonder whether Alex Thomson was told by her that the expense of researching the truth about RIFC plc’s claim to be the holding company of the Rangers Football club of 1872 could not be justified?
And ask her why not?
What fun!
I find it very much to be a distateful piece of journalism when the DR publishes an article where a former Rangers players boasts about driving his car at speeds in the range of 200 km. This does not set a proper precedent for young people and then to brag about not getting a ticket because he gave the cop a pair of tickets to a game is even more shameful. It would be interesting if someone could go back and find out who the policeman was that negated the ticket and essentially took a bribe. By the tone of the article it appeared his partner was not impressed. Then again this appears to be the standard of reporting in the DR. Lets not forget the association of being tied into a member of the Glasgow underworld. That alone should raise alarms bells in the SFA/SFPL. One other point the Ranger player who hasn’t played due to a broken thumb. He could take lessons from a couple of professional hockey players. One played through the Stanley Cup playoffs last year with a broken or cracked sternum. Remember this is a contact sport played at a high rate of speed. Second example from last year another player took a cut in his face that required 65 stitches,. The only time he missed was while receiving stitches and returned to play in the same game. A broken thumb would not hld these guys back while competing for a championship.
goforpar
18 April 2024 at 01:50
‘…A broken thumb would not hld these guys back while competing for a championship.’
++++++++
I enjoyed that post, goforpar!
It somehow brought to my mind the occasion I was at Hampden for the St Mungo Cup final in 1951, with my mammy and my Auntie Sarah and their friend my honourary ‘auntie Meg’.
I was 9 years old.
This was the game where Celtic’s goalie George Hunter hit his head on the post trying to keep the ball out.
No subs in them days! Bobby Evans had to go into goal.
Hunter was off the pitch for about ten minutes or so.
Head injuries? Naw, get back on the pitch pronto!
In them days!
So this is how clubs/authorities should treat fans and clubs when items are thrown at players, officials and club officials then. Lifetime bans for individuals and a complete ban on fans, albeit temporary. Whereas here, a club doesn’t comment on any of their incidents, takes no apparent action to apprehend anyone, our authorities do nothing, our law enforcement apparently do nothing and our media sit silent. Shameful.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68851819
I note this from a piece in today’s ‘The Scotsman’ written by Deputy Editor Alan Young:
” The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday have secured a host of nominations for the annual Scottish Press Awards….Aidan Smith in sports columnist, Alan Patullo as sports feature writer….”
I refer to my post of 17 April 2024 at 23:55 in which I write “…Dorothy Byrne saying on BBC Radio 4 that “the job of a journalist is to seek out the facts and tell the truth”.
I will be corrected, of course, if I am wrong in believing that neither of those gentlemen of ‘the Press’ have acknowledged the fact that TRFC is not, and cannot possibly be, RFC of 1872.
Or even tried to explain why they accept the propagation of a myth, a myth according to which some unidentified, unspecified ‘holding company’ that owned and ‘operated’ a football club went bust while the football club that it ‘operated’ continued in being!
In my humble opinion, ‘accepting myth’ is a far cry from ‘seeking out the facts and truth.’
And I would suggest that perhaps not Pattullo not Aidan Smith nor ‘The Scotsman’ have anything to crow about in the matter of ‘Sports reporting.’
Honest to God!
As an aside, and almost entirely unconnected with football, can I be allowed to say that Mrs C and I drove down Galashiels this afternoon to see the ‘Great Tapestry of Scotland.
The connection with football was, of course, a section of the superb needlework of a panel showing an aspect of Scottish life in modern times: Scottish football.
Needless to say we had gone there because of Mrs C’s interest in sewing.
But I found myself almost overcome by the depictions in needlework of the history of Scotland.
Can anyone explain why Hearts bother to show up for games versus Rangers. A quick look at results for the 2023/2924 seson to date indicate that they have taken 1 point from Ranger,surrendered 15 goals, and have scored 3. Its almost like the manager doesn’t want to upset his former team and ensure maximum points. It will be interesting to see what performance they provide in their game during the split.
goforpar
21 April 2024 at 22:34
Can anyone explain why Hearts bother to show up for games versus Rangers.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
As a Hearts fan, I’m slightly reluctant to answer your question, which seems more appropriate to a Kerrydale Street type Celtic forum than a forum about the (lack of) governance in Scottish football, but the best I can come up with is:
Can anyone explain why Celtic bother to show up for games versus European teams?
John Clark
19 April 2024 at 00:34
Head injuries? Naw, get back on the pitch pronto!
In them days!
…………………..
Reminds me of the well known but worth repeating anecdote re. John Lambie:
The Partick Thistle trainer brings the centre forward to the touchline with a head knock and says, “Boss, he’s got concussion. Says he doesn’t know who he is”.
Lambie: “Tell him he’s Pele and get him effing back on”.
Highlander
Yir obviously no’ that reluctant tae answer Goforpar …
‘Can anyone explain why Celtic bother to show up for games versus European teams?’
… because, in so doin’, methinks ye hiv reduced the credibility of yir ain comment tae the same fatuous level!
macfurgly
22 April 2024 at 11:34
‘…Tell him he’s Pele and get him effing back on”.
+++++++
Aye, that’s a great story, right enough. Was it correctly attributed to Lambie, do you know, or just taken to be the kind of response he might have made?
John C
Was another ex-Thistle manager, Bertie Auld, who first told me that story. Therefore I conclude it’s on the category of ‘stories you wish were true’ 🤣🤣🤣
On the subject of football governance, and following the media confusion over the stramash in the Celtic penalty box, can anyone explain why VAR decisions are not properly explained post match with reference to the rules of the game? Surely the transparency and fan education this would provide would all be for the good? It might even help some of our more challenged pundits to better understand the rules…
So, everything is hunky-dory in Scottish Football!?
(Here, please imagine that I am speaking in tones of awe) “An ‘Old Firm’ Scottish Cup final!”
Oh, joy! oh, what ‘sport’! Oh, the TV money…’
Eh, whit?
A now nearly 12-year-old club that claims falsely to be Rangers of 1872 foundation gets to play a chicken-hearted partner-in-deception!
Oh, ma auntie Sarah!
Shame and disgrace
-on Scottish football governance
-on RIFC plc
-and on the Celtic Board in office in 2012 which was unprincipled enough to buy into an untruth.
And as for the SMSM!?
Well, which of Dante’s levels of Hell’s punishment would be punishment enough for them?
What did Dorothy Byrne say, about calling out Boris as being ‘a known liar’?
Nothing more spectacular than that ‘the role of the journalist is to seek out the facts and tell the truth.’
Our guys and gals in the SMSM did not do so or were not allowed to do so.
And still don’t do so!!
Simple reminder: the whole thrust of RIFC plc’s ” Prospectus” was that RIFC plc would be the holding company of a tremendously successful 140-year-old football club.
RIFC plc is in fact and law the holding company of a football club created in 2012!
Craig Whyte bought Rangers Football Club plc whole and entire from a man whom I would cross the street to avoid meeting.
CG on the other hand bought a bundle of assets from a liquidation sale and most assuredly did not buy a ‘going concern.’ He did not bring Rangers Football Club plc out of Administration. If he had, there would have been no Liquidation!!
And that reminds me: the final report from the Liquidators will be due shortly.
And then, sadly. dissolution.
(TRFC is no more RFC of 1872 than today’s ‘Flying Scotsman’ is the real, original ‘Flying Scotsman’)
bect67
22 April 2024 at 19:32
Highlander
Yir obviously no’ that reluctant tae answer Goforpar …
‘Can anyone explain why Celtic bother to show up for games versus European teams?’
… because, in so doin’, methinks ye hiv reduced the credibility of yir ain comment tae the same fatuous level!
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The inference that a manager could persuade an entire team plus subs to throw matches in favour of the team that the manager’s allegiance truly belongs to is abject nonsense on a scale that even the most rabid and conspiratorial Celtic fan would baulk at endorsing.
Moreover, Hearts have had a plethora of different managers over the decades who’ve failed miserably against both Ibrox clubs. I would suggest that Hearts recent league wins against Celtic should prompt questions about Brendan Rodgers’ capabilities, rather than focussing on Steven Naismith’s.
I’m sure ‘goforpar’ posted his comments with a degree of tongue in cheek, and in his/her defence, this site can be eerily quiet for lengthy spells at times, so I will apologise if I came across as unnecessarily critical. At least I didn’t go as far as to call goforpar’s post fatuous, as bect 67 did.
Well well…a politician willing to tell the truth about what happened in 2012.
https://twitter.com/celticrumours/status/1782794388751405351?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1782794388751405351%7Ctwgr%5E22160bc5395598720ac2fb9d42c1868bb1051ba4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs9e.github.io%2Fiframe%2Ftwitter.min.html1782794388751405351
I posted a few hours ago – apparently in moderation. Any update?
upthehoops
23 April 2024 at 17:15
‘…a politician willing to tell the truth about what happened in 2012.’
+++++++++
uth, brilliant spot and brilliant post!
I’ve just had a swatch at the Hansard record on -line:
I have lifted this:
Mr Perkins:
“….Surely football club owners should be able to spend the money they have to take such a risk. However, if they are spending money from the future, as Derby County and Glasgow Rangers did, and the risk fails in the current year, they will inevitably go bust. Glasgow Rangers disappeared altogether, and Derby County almost disappeared. Football fans do not want clubs to take that risk, and surely the regulator should be preventing that.”
I shall be communicating with Mr Perkins to congratulate him for recognising the disappearance of Glasgow Rangers.
I will add that I believe that Scottish Football governance desperately needs independent scrutiny by a statutory Regulator because the very truth that he himself articulated today is denied by the SFA, the BBC, and the mainstream print Press.
I will suggest that he might find it interesting to read the ‘Summary’ pages of the ‘Prospectus’ issued by Rangers International Football Club plc in 2012 and check with Companies House the company number of the football club of which Rangers International Football Club declares itself to be the ‘holding company’: and notice that it is not the company number of the Rangers Football Club of 1872, and cannot be, because Rangers Football Club went into Liquidation in 2012.
John Clark
23 April 2024 at 22:31
I will add that I believe that Scottish Football governance desperately needs independent scrutiny by a statutory Regulator because the very truth that he himself articulated today is denied by the SFA, the BBC, and the mainstream print Press.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
However, if any future Regulator is appointed by the Scottish Government, I don’t hold any hope of the truth being outed. They are as much a part of the big lie as the SFA, the BBC, and the mainstream print press.
I also won’t be at all surprised if the MP in question ‘corrects’ himself at some point in the future. Like many others, he probably thinks telling the truth is not worth the hassle he will inevitably receive.
Has UEFA sent a “coded” message to the SFA ans SPFL in regards to no Scottish referees invited to this summer’s tournament. Have UEFA recognized the fact that these referees might not be up to the task, or, do they want to avoid potential embarrassment with a wrong call at a crucial time. Is this the first time no Scottish referees will no be involved in such a tournament. Are questions being asked of the suits at Hampden.
Trying again to submit my ‘moderated’ post!
Highlander
‘I’m sure ‘goforpar’ posted his comments with a degree of tongue in cheek, and in his/her defence, this site can be eerily quiet for lengthy spells at times, so I will apologise if I came across as unnecessarily critical. At least I didn’t go as far as to call goforpar’s post fatuous, as bect 67 did’.
A bit late to come in and ‘defend’ goforpar wi’ that dontcha think?
You have a ‘dig’ at goforpar (and Celtic), then my response tae you (ferr anuff), followed by ‘being sure’ about what he/she may have been thinking. That’s rich! I’m not sure what you’re ‘doubling down’ on or ‘walking back’.
Just out of curiosity, for my continuing education ye ken, what single word would YOU use to describe goforpar’s post.
May I give this first draft of the letter that I will be sending to Mr Toby Perkins, MP:
“Dear Mr Perkins,
I watched part of the debate on 23 April in the House of Commons on the [English!]Football Governance Bill.
As a member of the Scottish Football Supporters Association (“SFSA”) but not at all writing as being either an officeholder in, or authorised spokesman for, that organisation, I listened with great interest.
I did so because I support the principle of there being a statutory independent Regulator of Scottish Football. I therefore look forward to the English bill being passed and enacted as a spur and some help to equivalent Scottish legislation being enacted by the Parliament of Scotland.
I may say at once that I was immensely cheered to hear you speak Truth about the demise of Glasgow Rangers of 1872, in the phrase you used in reference to their Liquidation:’ Glasgow Rangers disappeared altogether’.
I think you are the first ‘public’ person to tell the truth that Rangers Football Club plc, company number SC 004276 ceased to exist as a football club when it entered Liquidation in 2012.
Did you know that BBC Radio Scotland was ordered by the now defunct BBC Trust to distinguish between ‘company’ and ‘club’ in such way as to suggest that while the ‘company’ was liquidated, the ‘football club’ still existed?……as if there had been a ‘holding company ‘ which went bust while the football club that it owned somehow continued in existence!
Companies House will confirm that RFC plc, company number SC 004276, was not a company held by any ‘holding company’ other than RFC plc.!
The legal and factual truth is that it was RFC plc of 1872 that (under its new name ‘RFC 2012 plc’) that went bust and ‘disappeared altogether.”
In my view, the BBC Scotland bought into a lie.
And the SMSM sedulously fostered and propagated and continue to foster and propagate that lie.
Essentially the lie is that Charles Green bought Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation out of Administration.
He did not.
But the SFA were happy to buy into that lie and allow the very new club that they themselves had to admit as a new club to claim to be the Rangers of 1872, from which they themselves had withdrawn membership of the SFA because of its Liquidation!
But perhaps of wider, non-football significance is the question about the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc when it made its IPO in 2012.
I think that Prospectus was misleading.
It seems to me to suggest that investors in RIFC plc would be investing in a 140-year-old very successful football club, that is Rangers FC of 1872 foundation.
When in fact they would be investing in a brand-new football club newly admitted into Scottish professional football by the very sports governance body that had stripped RFC of 1872 of its membership in Scottish football!
May I suggest that you might have a wee look at that?
Questionable governance in a sport is one thing: failings in the world of the Financial Conduct Authority are quite another and much more important matter.’
I’ll look at again tomorrow before I send it, of course.
From the Rolls of Court today:
Court 6
Starred Motions
Wednesday 1st May
between 10.00am and 11.30am
“CA74/22 Elite Sports Group Ltd v The Rangers Football Club Ltd ”
___
The glossary of Scottish law terms says:
‘Starred motion
In Scots law, a motion in the Court of Session which will call before the court for determination. It requires appearance by or for a party to the proceedings.
Motions which do not require appearance are referred to as unstarred motions.’
I have revised my draft letter to Toby Perkins, MP.
Here is the revised version.
“Dear Mr Perkins,
I watched a large part of the debate on 23 April in the House of Commons on the ‘Football Governance Bill.’
As a member of the Scottish Football Supporters Association (“SFSA”) but not at all writing as being either an officeholder in, or authorised spokesman for, that organisation, I watched and listened with great interest.
I did so because I support the principle of there being a statutory independent Regulator of Scottish Football and I look forward to the English bill being passed and enacted so that it may serve as an encouraging support to the cross-party group of members of the Scottish Parliament and to the SFSA in their co-operative campaign for the creation of an Independent statutory Regulator of Scottish football.
I may say at once that I was immensely cheered to hear you speak Truth about the demise of Glasgow Rangers of 1872, in the phrase you used in reference to their Liquidation ’Glasgow Rangers disappeared altogether’.
I think you are the first ‘public’ person to tell the truth that Rangers Football Club plc, founded in 1872 and incorporated in 1899 ( with company number 4276) ceased to exist as a football club when it entered Liquidation in 2012.
Did you know that BBC Scotland was ordered by the now defunct BBC Trust to distinguish between ‘company’ and ‘club’ in such way as to suggest that while the ‘company’ was liquidated, the ‘football club’ still existed?……as if there had been a ‘holding company ‘which went bust while the football club that it owned somehow continued in existence?
Companies House will confirm that RFC plc, company number 4276, was not a company held by any ‘holding company’ other than RFC plc! That is, it was the football club that was the shareholder in the then Scottish Premier League. It was the football club, not some ‘holding company’ that was required to surrender its share in that League, and it was the Rangers Football Club that, no longer being a member of a ‘recognised league’ ceased to be a member of the Scottish Football Association(“SFA”)
The legal and factual truth is that it was RFC plc of 1872 (under its new name ‘RFC 2012 plc’) that went bust and ‘disappeared altogether.’
In my view, BBC Scotland bought into a lie ‘forced’ on it by the BBC Trust.
And the Scottish mainstream media(“SMSM”) after day one headlines such as ‘the end of 140 years history’ suddenly also began (and continue to) sedulously foster and propagate the lie that Charles Green’s SevcoScotland Ltd bought Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation out of Administration.
He most certainly did not!
But the SFA were happy to buy into that lie and allow the very new club that they themselves had admitted into membership as a new club to claim to be the Rangers of 1872, the club from which they themselves had withdrawn membership of the SFA because of its Liquidation!
But perhaps of wider significance, unrelated to the mere sport of football, is the question to be asked about the Prospectus issued by RIFC plc when it made its Initial Public Offer in 2012.
That question is: was that Prospectus misleading in suggesting as I believe it does that investors in Rangers International Football Club plc would be investing in the holding company of the one- hundred- and -forty-year- old Rangers of 1872 foundation, one of the most successful and football honours-winning clubs in the world?
When in fact they would be investing in a brand-new football club newly admitted into Scottish professional football by the very sports governance body that had stripped RFC of 1872 of its membership in Scottish football!
May I suggest that you might have a wee look at the possibility that the Prospectus was misleading and that the ‘NOMAD’ (the nominated adviser for RIFC plc in its launch on the ‘market’) and the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and the Insolvency Service fell down in their duties in not questioning the truth and accuracy of the information provided to potential investors?
Questionable governance in a sport is one thing: failings in the regulation and governance of the world of finance and commerce would be quite another much, much more important matter.
Let me finish by thanking you for your courage in stating the truth that Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation was liquidated.
No journalist in Scotland has been prepared to/or allowed to state that factual truth, whether out of partisanship or fear of losing their job or out of simple physical fear.
Yours sincerely,
(me)
—–
I’ll look again at my effort tomorrow before sending anything off, whether by email or snail mail.
This is what I will send to Toby Perkins, MP either by email or perhaps by Royal Mail.
“Mr Toby Perkins, MP
House of Commons,
London, SW1A OAA
Dear Mr Perkins,
I watched the recording of the debate on 23 April in the House of Commons on the ‘Football Governance Bill.’
As a member of the Scottish Football Supporters Association (“SFSA”) but not at all writing as being either an officeholder in, or authorised spokesman for, that organisation, I watched and listened with great interest.
I did so because I support the principle of there being a statutory independent Regulator of Scottish Football and I look forward to the English bill being passed and enacted so that it may serve as an encouraging support to the cross-party group of members of the Scottish Parliament and to the SFSA in their cooperative campaign for the creation of an Independent statutory Regulator of Scottish football.
I may say at once that I was immensely cheered to hear you speak Truth about the demise of Glasgow Rangers of 1872, in the phrase you used in reference to their Liquidation, ’Glasgow Rangers disappeared altogether’.
I think you are the first ‘public’ person to tell the truth that Rangers Football Club plc, founded in 1872 and incorporated in 1899 (with company number SC004276) ceased to exist as a football club when it entered Liquidation in 2012.
Did you know that BBC Scotland was ordered by the now defunct BBC Trust to distinguish between ‘company’ and ‘club’ when reporting on the Rangers liquidation saga in such a way as to suggest that while the ‘company’ was liquidated, the ‘football club’ still existed?……as if there had been a ‘holding company ‘ which went bust while the football club that it owned somehow continued in existence?
Companies House will confirm that RFC plc, company number SC004276, was not a company held by any separate ‘holding company’. It was the football club that was the shareholder in the then Scottish Premier League. It was the football club, not some ‘holding company’, that was required to surrender its share in that League, and it was the Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation that, no longer being a member of a ‘recognised league’ had its membership of the Scottish Football Association (“SFA”) withdrawn by that body, thereby ceasing to have any place as a football club participating in Scottish Football.
The legal and factual truth is that it was the football club RFC plc of 1872, company number SC 004276 (under its new name ‘RFC 2012 plc’) that went bust and ‘disappeared altogether.’
And it is a fact that the football club of which today’s RIFC plc is the ‘holding company’, namely ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd’ bears company number SC425159 and not company number SC 004276!!
In my view, BBC Scotland bought into the lie ‘forced’ on it by the BBC Trust.
And the Scottish mainstream media(“SMSM”) after day one headlines such as ‘the end of 140 years history’ suddenly also began to foster and propagate the view that Charles Green’s SevcoScotland Ltd bought and brought Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation out of Administration and had become the new owner of the historic football club founded when my grandfather was 21 years old!
He most certainly did not!
[ Instead, he bought a bundle of property assets and the services of some football players and other employees whose contracts with the liquidated club were voided by the Liquidation. He then was forced to apply for membership of a ‘recognised’ football league. On being accepted into the then Scottish Football League he had to apply as a new club for membership of the SFA.
The SFA, sadly, were happy to buy into that lie (in the secret, subject to a ‘Non-disclosure Agreement’ ‘5-way Agreement’.)
They allowed ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd’- a club that they themselves had newly admitted into membership as a new club to claim to be the Rangers of 1872, the club from which they themselves had withdrawn membership of the SFA because of its death by Liquidation!]
But perhaps of wider significance and importance unrelated to the sport of football, is the question that has to be asked about the ‘Prospectus’ issued by RIFC plc when it made its ‘Initial Public Offer in 2012’.
That question is: was that ‘Prospectus’ misleading in suggesting as I believe it strongly does that investors in Rangers International Football Club plc would be investing in the holding company of the 140-year-old Rangers of 1872 foundation, one of the most successful and football honours-winning clubs in the world?-when in fact they would be investing in a brand-new football club newly admitted into Scottish professional football by the very sports governance body that had stripped RFC of 1872 of its membership in Scottish football!
May I suggest that you might want to have a wee look at the possibility that the ‘Prospectus’ was indeed misleading and that the ‘NOMAD’ (the ‘nominated adviser’ for RIFC plc in its launch on the ‘market’) and the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) may have fallen down in their duties in not questioning the truth and accuracy of the information provided to potential investors and the general UK taxpayer.
It is a fact that RIFC plc is not and never was the ‘holding company’ of Rangers of 1872 (company number SC 004276) but was from its launch in 2012 the holding company of ‘The Rangers Football Club Ltd’ of 2012 foundation (company number SC425159)
Now, questionable governance of a sport is one thing.
I would suggest that possible serious failings by the FCA and/or a Nomad in the matter of the regulation and governance of the world of finance and commerce would be quite another and of much, much more importance!
Let me finish by thanking you for your courage in stating the truth that Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation was liquidated and ‘disappeared’ as a football club entitled to membership of the SFA.
Regrettably, no journalist in Scotland has been prepared to/or been allowed to state that factual truth, whether out of partisanship or fear of losing their job or from simple physical fear.
(Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News reported in his ‘Foreword’ to “Downfall: How Rangers FC Self-Destructed” by Phil Mac Giolla Bhain (published by Frontline Noir, 2012) remarks : “Astonishingly, the author-like myself- received overt physical threats from a former Glasgow-based sports journalist for having the temerity to investigate the mess at Ibrox.”
Thank you for reading thus far a letter from someone who is not in your constituency.
But, sad to say, it would be an absolute waste of time for me to write to my own MP and/or MSP.
Neither has ever publicly questioned the absurd assertion that TRFC is Rangers of 1872.
Yours sincerely,