robg58
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Posts posted by robg58
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Sir Richard Gough tells it like it is.
The Celtic manager has come out and said that my old club should lose their championships.
But he knows himself that you can NEVER take away the feeling of winning the SPL — or even walking up the steps of Hampden to lift a cup.
People seem to want to take yet another kick at the club and I agree with Ally McCoist that enough is enough.
Everything has been agreed to get Rangers their SFA membership but there is still talk of taking the titles away if an investigation goes against them.
It would be a symbolic move but what’s the point? What does it achieve? NOTHING.
When you win a title or lift a Scottish Cup it’s all about the memories and that’s something that can never be erased.
You can’t turn back the clock and tell people they didn’t win something even though they got their hands on the trophy.
You can get the Tipp-ex out and change the record books but what you can’t do is take away from the supporters the way they celebrated on those occasions.
And the players who won those titles won’t suddenly feel like losers because a bit of paper has been changed to say they haven’t won it after all.
For me those titles were won fair and square.
I saw someone compare it to drugs cheats in the Tour de France but that’s rubbish.
What Rangers are accused of is trying to dodge the taxman, not cheat the opposition on the park. It would be a different story if it was match fixing like we saw in Italy — but this was nothing to do with the team, it was accountants and lawyers.
Having a tax scheme in place didn’t make the players run any faster or shoot any straighter, they still had to go out and beat the opposition.
The titles issue seems to be the thing that held up Rangers’ SFA membership and I would expect Ally to continue fighting the SPL if they persist in wanting to take anything off the club. Ally wasn’t happy on Friday night and he has made his feelings known.
I completely agree with where he’s coming from.
It’s time the SPL stopped taking cheap shots and for everyone’s sake get back to focusing on football again.
Because of financial problems the club has been sent to Division Three, has lost a lot of the top players, has a transfer embargo coming up, has been fined and have been denied their prize money from the SPL last season.
Is that not enough?
The Rangers fans have been suffering and what did they do wrong? Nothing.
The supporters have turned up in big numbers every week, supporting the team at home and away — which also swells the coffers of the other clubs.
They have not been to blame for what’s happened at Ibrox but they are the ones seeing their club given a doing when its down.
And even after all the punishments handed down to Rangers the SPL still want to feed off the TV money they’re going to bring in.
Rangers are a massive club and will always attract huge interest.
The SPL know this and although they said they don’t want the club in their league they still want to live off the back of them. It’s hypocritical.
The level of interest will be shown at Brechin today where news crews from all over Europe will be present to see the club start this new chapter.
It’s going to be strange to see a club the size of Rangers playing at that level but that’s the way it is and that’s what most of the Gers fans wanted.
It’s time to get on with it and start playing football again. I’m sure that’s what Ally and the players are desperate for.
Turning up at Glebe Park today and putting that blue jersey on will be a huge release for everyone at the club and for 90 minutes at least they will be able to forget about everything that’s been going on.
The players will be determined to show the fans — and everyone else — that Rangers are ready to fight their way back.
It doesn’t matter what the company is called — Ally is the manager, the club is playing at Ibrox and the fans are the same. It’s still the same Rangers.
The supporters are wary, and rightly so.
I think the right thing for them to do is to back Ally and the players by going to the games — but pay at the gate.
But until the fans are sure about the direction the club is being taken in then they’re definitely right to hang fire on buying season tickets.
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RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB CLEARED FOR SPORT BUT QUESTION MARKS STILL HANG OVER THE ADMINISTRATION OF RFC PLC
By OnlinePubCo | Posted 2 minutes ago | UK
Late on Friday 27th July 2012 the SFA made the announcement that Sevco Scotland Ltd would be granted a temporary license enabling them to compete against Brechin City on the 29th July in the Scottish Challenge Cup.
Giovanni Di Stefano known as the Devil’s Advokat and a shareholder in Rangers Football Club PLC fired a last minute letter to SFA Chief Executive Stewart Regan warning him that in the event RFC were stripped of any previous League Title there would be an “immediate recourse to Court for an injunction.”
The SFA were due to announce the grant of a conditional license to Sevco Scotland Ltd at midday but by 10.57am on Friday after receipt of the letter it cancelled the announcement until later that evening.
“Sevco Scotland Ltd has accepted certain sanctions but there will be no question of stripping sanctions although the SPL reserves its position to investigate a number of matters,” said Di Stefano.
The shareholder has caused considerable turmoil to the SFA/SPL/SFL all of whom had intended erasing the history of RFC PLC a company that was a founder of the Scottish Football Association.
Di Stefano has made public a number of allegations against Craig Whyte, the SFA/SFL/SPL and what he calls “others in high high very high places “that agreed to the annihilation of RFC PLC in order that “their own negligent roles would not be subject to scrutiny,” stated Di Stefano.
The contention according to Di Stefano is that “Rangers Football Club PLC was never insolvent, had the money to pay its day to day liabilities, had money in the bank, and was it not for the money stolen from the company and a delinquent bank reneging on an agreement albeit with a miscreant Director, there was no question of insolvency.”
Whilst the Administrators and the SFA in replies to Di Stefano “note” his serious allegations no one has yet either refuted them or taken legal action.
Yesterday on Twitter Di Stefano went further and contended that “even during Administration RFC PLC proved it was not insolvent.
From Duff & Phelps the Administrators own files and communication dated 10th July 2012 but only received this week despite the “postal company receiving £40,000 for posting letters” Di Stefano made a number of observations.
“Media House PR £124,000 jeez even Cameron did not pay Coulson that and this is payment for THREE months work.”
“Ansarada data providers £20,000.”
“Letters sent out to shareholders billed as £40,000 EXACTLY!!!!”
“Taylor Wessing Sols been paid £1,283,102 plus £116,700 Counsel Fees from 14 Feb to 15 June COULD THAT MONEY not have gone to small creditors.”
“PAYE/NIC £1,752,972 from Feb to June were paid...RFC PLC had plenty money in bank and plenty income...this has been daylight robbery.”
“and they paid their way quite OK it is obviously clear here that RFC PLC have been deliberately defrauded of money and position in league.”
“From FEB to JUNE INCOME of £4,432,986...DURING FRIGGING ADMIN...as I said RFC PLC was NEVER insolvent before and on DP OWN figures not during Admin.”
“Solicitors Taylor Wessing Client Account held £5,300,000 of RFC PLC money.”
“RFC PLC seems not even insolvent DURING admin according to the figures let alone BEFORE.”
“This is what RFC PLC had £10,482,451 from Feb to June assets and cash..this is what they paid out £4,182,164 balance £6,300,287 PLUS.”
“Joint Administrators may draw remuneration £42,760 and £2,930,644 for periods up to 14 February 2012 and 14 February 2012 to 29 June 2012…yet they told me they received nothing.”
“plus another £489,910.50 of time costs, £114,401.00 of time costs,£122,782.75 of time costs,£100,453.75 derive from the more detailed analysis.”
"There are £679,215 of time costs incurred in the period which relate to the Trading Operations of the Club."... another wack in fees.”
"Time costs of £884,165 have been incurred under the heading Strategy Management and Control"...another million quid in fees.”
"The Joint Administrators‟ time costs period 14 February 2012 to 29 June 2012 totals £2,930,644... separately recorded as £2,826,035.50"..
"Joint Administrators‟ pre-appointment time costs of £42,760 is attached at Appendix 4 for the period between 6 and 14 February 2012."
"the Joint Liquidators will review the conduct of the Joint Administrators"..BDO...no way will I allow the pot to call the kettle black.”
Di Stefano had written to Duff & Phelps pointing out the “association between Alessandro Celano a 23% shareholder in Sevco Scotland Ltd and BDO Stoy Hayward the appointed liquidators.”
There is now valuable time gained since The Court of Sessions will not ‘rubber stamp’ the liquidation of RFC PLC without a proper review especially on the obvious inevitable question of conflict.
Over 100 million shares in the public domain and according to the Register 27,776 individual holders all of whom Di Stefano contends “have been openly defrauded.”
The Monaco, Costa Rica, French, United States and Strathclyde Police are all investigating the generic circumstances of how Craig Whyte came to acquire one of the oldest football clubs in the world. Whyte was being investigated since 2006 after his return from Costa Rica to Monaco on allegations of money laundering, insider share dealing and other fraud offences together with a number of other individuals including bankers, accountants, stockbrokers and the usual wheeler dealers that Whyte had surrounded himself.
The Intelligence file on Whyte evidenced that Whyte intended to emulate ex-Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi owner of AC Milan and enter into the political forum. Tentative approaches had been made to the SNP and the Labour Party with offers of donations in order to retain political support. Craig Whyte saw himself very much in the Scottish Parliament where he thought he would be immune from scrutiny and if his Rangers Football Club continued its success he would survive any criminal investigation.
But unlike Berlusconi who heads a €5 billion media empire Craig Whyte was destined for failure since his audacious bid of Rangers Football Club PLC was based entirely on borrowed money and a bank that simply lied its way into recouping a debt incurred by Sir David Murray who pressurised the SFA into approving the acquisition.
The SFA/SPL preferred to admit Dundee FC to the Premier League rather than Rangers much to the dismay and potential legal challenge from Dunfermline who expected preference.
At a meeting between the SFA and the SPL although the majority of the SPL clubs preferred Dunfermline the decision taken at the last minute was to admit Dundee.
Di Stefano explains “To obtain the SPL share it has to be transferred by RFC PLC and this is now a condition of Sevco Scotland Ltd obtaining the full SFA licence on 3rd August. Since the SPL/SFA had received notifications from me as a shareholder of RFC PLC that I would seek the intervention of the Courts, and the advice they received from their lawyers was that I had a chance of obtaining such, what the SFA/SPL did was to test my own loyalty to the team that I once was part owner namely Dundee FC and which they know I openly support. Dundee got it for that reason.”
Investigators looking at Twitter accounts show some ‘new twitter’ accounts opened shortly after it was announced that Dundee FC would be the club invited to join the SPL and immediately afterwards ‘tweets to Di Stefano’ asking if ‘his loyalty to Dundee was above RFC.’
“There has been some truly dirty dealing in this because those that have openly stolen money and been recipients of stolen money have lots to lose so there are no holds barred. Of course my loyalty as a supporter is to Dundee FC but as a shareholder of RFC PLC never the two feelings shall meet.”
For now the talk is of football again but soon the arena will once again be shifted to the law courts and on-going police enquires in what can only be detrimental to Scottish football.
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nail. head.
nail(baldy) head
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What's Billy Fury got to do with this......................
He recorded halfway to paradise
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If its in the Courier thats it done and dusted
That's what I thought when I read it.
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In today's Dundee Courier the Brechin chairman says although there has been no official word yet they have been told the game will definitely go ahead, claims he was told on Wednesday night that an agreement was imminent and people were being lined up to sign a deal.
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By Graham Clark and Scott Burns
Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(1)
RANGERS will discover their football fate today, with the signs last night pointing to a compromise deal having been secured with the SPL.
And that will:
* Bring official recognition from the SFA;
* Give the go-ahead for Sunday’s Ramsdens Cup tie against Brechin City;
* Allow manager Ally McCoist to set about rebuilding his squad.
If, as seems likely, a resolution has been found it almost certainly means a deal has been struck over television rights and the dual contracts issue, although the latter may have been set aside meantime to allow investigations elsewhere to be completed.
It’s understood former Hearts midfielder Ian Black has agreed a four-year deal to join the Light Blues, with his former Tynecastle team-mate Craig Beattie still training at Murray Park and also ready to commit himself to the newco Gers.
ì
I am excited to be here. Besiktas is a big club and I can’t wait to get started
î
Allan McGregor
Striker Andy Little, who was out of contract, has agreed a new deal and Rangers remain in talks with ex-Kilmarnock playmaker Dean Shiels.
McCoist last night opened talks with Neil Alexander over a new deal as Allan McGregor completed his move to Besiktas on a two-year contract.
Alexander will now go into the new season as the Ibrox No 1 after McGregor refused to switch his contract to the Ibrox newco.
Alexander, 34, still has one year left on his current contract but has been offered another three years – if he agrees to take a cut on his current five-figure weekly wage packet.
SEARCH FOOTBALL for:
The keeper, who has three Scotland caps, has played in several high-profile games in his four years at Ibrox and
McCoist has no concerns over going with him to get the club back up through the leagues.
Rangers chief executive Charles Green will continue to fight for compensation for McGregor and the other first team players he claims have breached their contracts in refusing to transfer to the newco.
Scotland keeper McGregor was reluctant to move to Turkey but was left with few options.
Besiktas, who have also signed French international defender Julien Escude, are banned from Europe for a season, but McGregor said: “I am excited to be here. Besiktas is a big club and I can’t wait to get started.”
McGregor will get an increase on the £20,000-a-week he was on at Ibrox but he is aware of the problems his former
Rangers team-mates Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller encountered in Turkey.
Ibrox youngster Rhys McCabe has agreed a move to Championship new boys Sheffield Wednesday, who may have to pay compensation because of the player’s age.
Wednesday are keen to get an agreement sorted and are even prepared to offer former Scotland Under-21 defender Mark Reynolds in exchange.
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Gone you`rself Gio SFA Knew, Lloyds knew, Scottish Government knew.......... go for the injunction
AND HAD HE STILL BEEN WITH US BIG JOCK KNEW TOO
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I posted this a few days ago :
http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=232390&hl=%20celtic%20%20case&st=0
Which led to more searches which turned up this thread from May :
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The letter :
page 2 :
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Has he called him John Paul again??
I was told that was a mistake when he called him that a few weeks ago, his name is meant to be Paul John Clark???
He probably thinks he is a pape
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Or he has inside info that Sky have struck a deal to our advantage!
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I think I read a statement early on in this debacle saying he was removing himself from any decisions to do with it ,unfortunately the rest of the hierachy have followed his example.
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Full article here :
Below is a verbatim note of the conversation with Whyte.
He said “When I was negotiating to buy the damn club the deal was basically that I had to pay the bank dent to Lloyds Bank of nearly £20m but that the bank had promised, and I have emails to prove, that as soon as the bank dent was repaid then the bank would grant an overdraft facility of the amount equal to what had been repaid. I knew that the cash flow was good and a player was sold so the company had a lot of cash not all of it in the company bank account some of it in side companies but there was a good few millions so although Rangers owed money it also had money. Anyway MCR the wide boys I used to help me get Rangers and other stuff put me on to one of their friends clients that would loan me like £30 million short term and that once I paid the bank then the bank would give us the same amount back by overdraft. The crafty bastards of course would charge a hellova lot more in interest for OD than for a loan but as Rangers had lots of money coming in it was OK I thought I could do it. MC ha they even did deals in MC (get it Monaco) fixed it all up and got the first tranch and I think we paid Lloyds something like £19m or £20m and then another £10m which I was a bit pissed off over because half of that I was going to give to the tax people although we only owed them few millions but had couple of legal cases that my lawyers said would be OK. The problem came when Lloyds the wankers not bankers suddenly backed out and I ended up in a screaming match because I was relying on them giving us the OD without that would be trouble. But the bank said that Head Office had refused to sanction or some stuff like that because the bank itself was having problems and could not be seen giving Scottish club money and they had refused couple of English clubs. So this ticket company were pushing for money and we had wages to pay and I managed to pay them a few million if they then gave it back as another loan but the greedy bastards asked for high interest and security which I had no choice but to give. Lloyds screwed me over they got their money back but if I had known they would back out of their deal, I mean I had it in emails, I would have found another bank to do that. You don’t know how this is all going to end because when I took the company over it was already well in the shit and had so much pressure and everyone looking at me and what I had done and yeah you know I had some companies that went down but nothing serious. MC then got took over but basically it was the same guys except that this time they kept harping on about being broke being broke and they know that way back I had a problem and at the end I just couldn’t take paying out any more money I did not have. You know the Russian here (XXXXXXXXX name withheld) who married to the English woman that now has kids but is out of favour in Russia I paid him what I owed and he helped out. I mean he got like three times what I owed so helping me out when he himself is in shite is great help. But I can’t do much so I will stay it out but the bank screwed me over and had I known I didn’t need to do the Rangers deal I was doing OK
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In today's papers Jim Jeffries is demanding that the SFA extend the transfer window by one month to allow him to strengthen his squad as his plans have been left in disarray by the late decision to place them where they belong in SPL1.
He should be reported for disciplinary action for demanding same as Ally was.
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Ochone. Angoose
ac/dc fan?
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But we should be digging up and collating all the shit on them as they are doing to us-do something instead of moaning about what they are doing to us.Start fighting back insttead of just sitting taking everything they throw at us.Don't give two shits about Celtic.
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Celtic Employees & Tax Avoidance
Posted on June 4, 2012
Rangers use of EBTs from 2001 to 2010 not only placed the club in great danger, but has allowed enemies of the club to moralise to all who will listen over “tax avoidance”
Despite the EBT scheme being a perfectly legal one used widely in England, the interpretations of it in Scotland by tax sponging student bloggers, and lazy biased journalists have been uniformly inaccurate.
Let’s be absolutely clear, the use of EBTs was legal, and could have been used by any other club in Scotland, and was in fact used by Celtic for one season.
When former Bank Of England Chief Brian Quinn took over the reins as Chairman, he stopped the Celtic using the facility directly.
That, however, does not ensure that both Celtic as a club and an employer can be completely excluded from questions on how payments are made to players and staff.
Bear in mind that the amnesty period for the SPL’s request for full information on player remuneration, since the SPL began has passed.
The questions over the remuneration for some players who have played for Celtic have largely not been asked, and those that have asked have met a wall of silence
Among them is Robbie Keane. The deal for Celtic to take him on loan was widely reported as being fully funded not by Celtic, but by majority shareholder Dermot Desmond
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/feb/01/robbie-keane-celtic-loan-tottenham
http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/2855014/This-is-galling.html?print=yes
It is also widely speculated that Juninho received an EBT while at the club. Was it declared to the SFA and SPL?
Other high earning stars such as Thomas Graveson Craig Bellamy and Roy Keane earned sums far higher than most of their team mates.
Did they have dual contracts? Why are the media not asking these questions?
Of course, these questions relate directly to the day to day business and management of Celtic the club, but what of employees of Celtic?
While Rangers have been in the depths of despair, the lack of sympathy from Celtic has been unsurprising, with some comment from Neil Lennon being uncalled for, but the depth of hatred and vindictiveness from their support has been on a scale even streetwise bears are taken aback by.
With blogs set up purely to highlight Rangers finances, and other Celtic blogs spending most of their time on the subject of Rangers, the common theme is that tax avoidance is wrong, and that perpetrators should be punished in the strongest terms.
Of course, as a tax payer myself I concur, except that I believe that all should be treated equally.
Equally, it should be noted that self-employed website owners, fanzine business owners, T shirt salesmen, and non UK Citizens are probably not the best people to lecture on tax avoidance, unless it’s from their experience of how to get away with it, or how they were made bankrupt.
So, while the agenda to punish Rangers has been apparently about morals, and about “doing the right thing”, those same hypocrites have completely ignored the direct questions to Celtic as a football club, and ignored the emerging news of Celtic Players and Directors participating in tax avoidance schemes.
What, you ask? Celtic players and staff avoiding tax?
Well it’s true.
Last week the Daily Mail reported on one such tax scheme, with one of the few names mentioned being the Celtic Manager Neil Lennon, who invested in the scheme while a player at Celtic
“Innovator One designed the plans so that if investors put in £20,000, they could get back £40,000 in tax relief immediately as a result of the partnerships they joined paying large sums for technology using loans from the bank.
But the taxman decided that since the loan money went round in a circle, being put on deposit with the bank that had originally made the loan, investors were eligible only for relief on the sums they had actually contributed.”
Following recent moves by HMRC to tighten up loopholes on Tax avoidance schemes the Independent reported that one such scheme called Eclipse 35 was now illegal.
There are numerous other similar investment vehicles that do the same thing, with such schemes including “Inside Track 3 LLP”, and “Ingenious Film Partners 2 LLP”
A number of Celtic players and employees were named on another Daily Mail article on tax avoidance in relation to these schemes
Director Searches on Lennon, Mjallby, Bellamy, Petta, Hartson and Sylla are interesting
Other members of Inside Track 3 include Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell and Celtic Financial Director Eric Riley
http://www.cdrex.com/peter-thomas-lawwell/598617.html
http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/900009258
The full board for this scheme is below.
http://www.cdrex.com/inside-track-3-llp/board-2388241.html
So, at the time of joining, none of the people involved appear to have done anything illegal.
Now, though, after the Eclipse 35 ruling, they will have to withdraw from these schemes.
Now, given that the moral argument that the Celtic support has been made redundant, will the moral judges of Scottish Football apply some balance and pursue Celtic for answers on EBTs, and possible dual contracts?
Will they then condemn the practices of senior Celtic staff and players for participating in tax avoidance schemes?
If not, are they just hypocrites?
What of the SFA and SPL boards, standing in judgement on Rangers, while board members Lawwell and Riley themselves utilise tax avoidance schemes
Will said Directors resign from the respective boards in shame?
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From George Square:
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The Scottish summer transfer window closes on 31st August. If the window is extended they will extend our embargo too
2 illegals don't make a legal.
Caption competition
in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom
Posted
Look slitty eyes I will chop that McCoist and Green just like this if it's the last thing I do
