Recently, the saga of Rangers Football Club (the original and up to now very much best version) ended when the old club finally were liquidated.
In the twelve years since administrated ended and the liquidation process was started, the initial and truthful howls of anguish from the mainstream media bemoaning the death of 140 years of history, quickly morphed into a denial that any such thing ever took place accompanied by a mantra involving the ’55’ and ‘relegation’ idioms, supported staunchly by a pathological need to accompany every mention of the new club with the addenda ‘140 years of history’ and the utterly ridiculous ‘most successful club in the world’.
Adding to that is the tiresome necessity to remind us all time after time after time that the new club is actually the old club. A unique and overwhelmingly wearying situation attached to no other club anywhere in the world.
There were of course those in the MSM who refused to recite the Santa myth. Both Jim Spence and Graham Spiers paid a career price for that, being marginalised and de-platformed by their employers.
Most though were less honest. The very writers who had proclaimed the death of Rangers reversed into denial not only that a death had taken place, but that they had ever uttered such blasphemies. Trumpian truths saw their first outing in the Scottish MSM in 2012. They were of course aided and abetted by the football authorities and the clubs themselves.
Announcers, presenters and writers at various clubs found themselves out of a job for daring to utter truths that we all know were exactly that.
And by all, I mean EVERYONE. Every single one of those who lied to keep their jobs or to enhance their balance sheets or to fend off the one-upmanship of rivals. They all knew that Rangers had died, and that the current version of Rangers playing at Ibrox is quite plainly and simply NOT the same club that fell off the precipice in 2012. Yet they persisted.
The lie however is an exhausting beast. It drains, it persistently tricks itself with inconsistencies, and it remoulds itself to morph with changing conditions. In a short time it has become complicated, in the long term confoundingly unnavigable labyrinth. In short it is unsustainable.
In fact in recent weeks, the liquidation word has been uttered on BBC and on Radio Clyde routinely. Exhaustion has overcome that lie.
As we mark the passing of the Original Rangers Football Club, the lesson we have perhaps learned is that the truth, whilst often obscured by malicious forces in the media is always easier to maintain than the lie. That is why it almost invariably wins in the end.
The real problem is what happens in the in between. People lie to gain some advantage over others. Whether the motive is financial, or cultural or political, it is inherently bad. It is theft, whether of the money in our wallets or of our ideas or morality.
The truth has won in the end, but the price we have had to pay is the theft of the integrity of our sport, the almost total corruption of our media (although many will point to the wider media corruption in 2024 as being way more problematic), and the damage to careers and reputations.
Of course for Rangers fans it was a tragedy that Rangers went under. Whoever was to blame for their demise, it wasn’t the fans. However giving then the emperor’s new clothes to wear was not a dignified way to help them deal with that tragedy, and it was a massive insult to the rest of us.
The SFA have learned some lessons though. They have new rules which have changed their definition of a ‘club’. This essentially gives a franchising power to the authorities to decide who will assume the mantle of a club which is liquidated. At least if and when it happens again, it won’t be necessary for fans, like those of Hearts for example, to move mountains and raise £millions to save their club.
And the authorities and MSM won’t have to embark on a twelve year assault on our intelligence by insisting that a white square is actually a black circle.
Mordecai
14 November 2024 at 05:42
‘… I went back out to my car to find I now had two hubcaps missing!!’
+++++++
Just sat down at my pc, Mordecai, and that made me laugh out loud: thank you for that!
Mind you, an impromtu bit of Del-boy trickery and deceit is as nothing when compared with the deceit practised upon Scottish Football -deliberately and after days of secret panicked talks- by the suits on the very Governance bodies of the ‘Sport’!
Your scrappie guy cheated you on a one-to-one basis.
In my opinion, the boards of the SFA and SPL/SFL/SPFL in propagating/accepting a sporting untruth failed in their statutory duties as a governance body and have corrupted/accepted the corruption of the sport of Scottish Football.
Much more wicked than any Del-boy scrappie!
No two ways about it!
Is there only one Imran Ahmad, I wonder?
—
From the Rolls of Court of Session
Lord Harrower – D Allen, Clerk
Court 10 – Parliament House
Tuesday 19 November
Starred Motion between 9.30 and 10.00
Case Reference CA144/21
[ A ‘starred motion’ requires appearance by or for a party to the proceedings]
Imran Ahmad v The Lord Advocate
I sit here quietly enjoying a snifter of a whisky that is most assuredly not Glenallachie, having just read that Billy is maybe just a mere millionaire and not a billionaire!
Oh, what fun, looking at the desperate situation of a football club that in my opinion our football governance bodies sold their souls to save by lying!
Honest to God.
The whole world of ‘business’ knows that TRFC is not and could not possibly be the Rangers of my grandfathers!
What a sorry state of affairs it is that the BBC in particular should have bought into the lie that it is that very Rangers of 1872!
As for the SMSM?
‘nul points’ for journalistic integrity!
And we just accept the lie?
On the subject of whisky John I am currently enjoying a few Black Bottle’s this Saturday night.
On the subject of the BBC and the SMSM buying into the big lie…nothing, absolutely nothing, can delete from history that they once accepted, printed, and spoke the truth that Rangers were liquidated and the history ended at that point. That they so obviously capitulated to instructions from the SFA to say otherwise is their problem, and makes it forever laughable when they claim it’s the media’s job to expose the truth that others don’t want us to know.
To my disappointment it is only now, this very evening, that I’ve read James Mulholland’s piece in the Scottish ‘Sun’ edition of 20 August 2024!
This related to Elite Sports Group Ltd’s litigation against ‘the Gers’ looking for £9.5 million for breach of contract with Hummel, to do with TRFC signing a deal with Castore.
Mulholland’s report ends with “Two weeks ago lawyers told Lord Braid that a deal had been agreed in “Fergie Time”.
Lord Braid described it as being made ‘in the last minute of stoppage time’
No sum was disclosed.”
Presumably, TRFC had to pay something to Elite. Maybe well short of £9.5 million, but perhaps a good few bob to strain the coffers of the club?
[ and a sort of further indication of the lack of Board savvy in the management of finances?]
That football club, in my opinion, is going to go bust.
It simply cannot cover its costs as things stand, and I think it will have difficulty in borrowing enough to avoid having to make staff redundant and generally cut back on expenditure.
But maybe that’s just me?
[Naw, it’s not. It’s the black and white of the balance sheet and financial reality]
And, I note, even the SMSM are maybe beginning to ask questions.
I love this wee bit from Charles Green back in the day:
“What we stated at the meeting was that newco wants to continue where oldco was. We have this slight anomaly where, for a period, newco were not members of the SFA from 14 June until being granted membership on 3 August. It was those technical issues which caused some consternation but I was very encouraged with the meeting. It is still my position that these players breached their contracts and we are going to pursue them.”
For all his artful cleverness, he made the mistake of publicly recognising that his ‘club 12’/SevcoScotland/The Rangers Football Club Ltd was not a member of a recognised league and could not therefore claim to be RFC of 1872.
Basically, he did not buy RFC of 1872 as a going concern. That club ceased to exist. And his new creation had to apply, beg, even, for membership of the SFL before it could apply for membership of the SFA as a new club!!
May he and his ilk never be successful in their enterprises.
And may the members of the governance body of Scottish Football live to rue the day they sold their souls on behalf of untruth.
And as for the BBC and the print media-what can one say? Except maybe to remind one of Pravda?
It gars me greet, as our gun-running customs officer might have said!
I’ve only just read BP’s new blog” Truth wins at last”.
A splendid piece.
I just hope that any new rules about filling the League-place of a club that has been Liquidated do NOT allow a newly created club to claim a false history and market itself as something that it is not.
[ I have not given up hope that the FCA will sooner or later order RIFC plc/The Rangers Football Club Ltd to remove any suggestion in their marketing and selling of themselves to the investing public and the football world generally that it is Rangers Football Club of 1872 foundation.]
I think there may be a sea change in TRFC’s fans’ perspective once their “world records” disappear .
From the DR’s Gavin Berry online earlier today:
“Nils Koppen has been announced as Rangers’ new technical director.
The Belgian was appointed as director of football recruitment at the Light Blues a year ago. He joined after after previous sporting director Ross Wilson left for Premier League Nottingham Forest. And now Koppen has been promoted into a more senior position.”
Another indication of how hard-up for cash RIFC plc must be? Not able to afford a head-hunting exercise, so promote in-house?
There seems to be no department of RIFC plc that has been run anywhere near efficiently- including the PR ‘department’
The upcoming AGM will be very interesting, indeed.
On the subject of AGMs. The upcoming Celtic meeting has a resolution (9) requesting support for disapplication of pre-emption rights.I remember this being a thorny subject for TRFC in the past as it has the potential to dilute existing shareholder position. Generally I believe it is a way of raising new investment which begs the question why a company currently rolling in clover need new cash?
Apologies if my post raised any fires…nothing to see here, having looked back at previous AGM it seems the same resolution is passed annually ,almost as an ‘if we need to’ permission slip.
gunnerb
19 November 2024 at 19:38
‘…The upcoming Celtic meeting has a resolution (9) requesting support for disapplication of pre-emption rights’
++++++
I think it’s a fairly routine thing for a resolution calling for dis-application of pre-emption rights’ [ on a temporary basis] is proposed by the Celtic board at AGM’s. It has been on the agenda of several recent AGMs.
I suppose it gives power to the Board to allot shares to potential (significant ) shareholders that they might think it worthwhile having as a shareholder at a below-current evaluation?
I don’t think there is any cash-flow problem at Parkhead.
gunnerb
19 November 2024 at 21:25
‘…Apologies if my post raised any fires…’
++++++++
My apologies, gunnerb, I didn’t see you post until after I had posted.
Mark Pirie in today’s DR online has ‘reported’ this:
‘Defiant Michael Beale has issued a firm defence of his managerial record as he put the blame on his flops on unseen “snakes” behind the scenes.
And speaking to ‘Inside the Academy’, the Londoner has claimed that his decision-making was impacted by unseen forces behind the scenes at some of his clubs: “Around a couple of the moves I’ve had as a manager, I saw loads of snakes and people come out of the woodwork. And I didn’t like it. It made me uncomfortable, and perhaps I would’ve made better decisions if those people weren’t around, but that’s for another time.”
I would suggest that making whingeing observations like that will do him no good. If the ‘snakes’ were players or coaching staff he should have shown them the door, and if not allowed to do that by the Board (of whichever club) he should have walked as a matter of principle.
In my view, working with ‘snakes’ is a no-no (unless you’re a zoologist!)
John Clark
18 November 2024 at 00:13
“What we stated at the meeting was that newco wants to continue where oldco was. We have this slight anomaly where, for a period, newco were not members of the SFA from 14 June until being granted membership on 3 August. It was those technical issues which caused some consternation but I was very encouraged with the meeting. It is still my position that these players breached their contracts and we are going to pursue them.”
TUPE or not TUPE
bigboab1916
20 November 2024 at 21:22
‘…TUPE or not TUPE’
++++++++
Well spotted , bigboab. ( I forgot to cite the source of the quotation!)
Naismith and the other few new that their contracts were null and void and that CG could go raffle his doughnuts.
And their union rep knew that as well.
TUPE had no scope because there was no transfer of ownership of RFC of 1872 as a going concern to a new owner!
There was only the sale of the non-human assets of failed football club. Contracts of employment were automatically ended by Liquidation, and all of the players and other employees under contract were absolutely free to walk away if they had chosen so to do.
The incompetent Administrators could not save the club by securing a CVA.
CG bought a bundle of assets from a club in Administration and the club dropped into Liquidation and, when the Liquidation process ended, the club was dissolved and struck from the register of Companies.