WillWard

If Bomber Brown is our best hope then we are in much, much more trouble than I thought. Charles Green has been honest about his intentions, provided some information about his backers, and demonstrated he has the cash to back up his chat. Can Brown claim anything similar? Simply being a genuine fan is not a good enough qualification. We cannot afford any more wasted opportunities and any consortium that thinks Brown is an effective figurehead is not one I'll be supporting.

That is a huge relief. Obviously our squad is significantly reduced from last season but those players that remain should have the required quality to get us out the third division at the first time of asking. Time for fans to match the players' commitment and buy season tickets.

There was a tiny part of me hoping against all the odds that we would get voted back into the SPL and that the other teams would see sense. Now that hope has been utterly extinguished I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders and a new page has been turned. We now have the opportunity to rebuild our great club starting with a core of loyal supporters and under the leadership and direction of a club legend. The next four or five years are going to be tough on us all but by god, we'll emerge a stronger, more unified club. If we can all pull together and focus on the job in hand we could be back in the top division in just three years with no debts and loyal supporters that will have stood shoulder to shoulder with each other through the hard times and feel all the more solidarity as a result. WATP.

According to that wanker Jim Spence we require the approval of 75% of the SFL member clubs before we can be granted entry to Division 3. And we will be competing with the like of Spartans or anyone else from outwith the SFL structure who happens to apply. We really need to get our ducks in a row on this quickly.

That's it then. The sooner we get our application into the SFL the better.

Regan is under enough pressure at the moment from the Taigs without arbitrarily chopping the disciplinary process agreed by all the member clubs only last year. File under optimistic pish. Edit: What difference would this make to us now anyway? Any punishment the tribunal decides upon would be for the old company to serve. Since SFA membership is non-transferable we need to apply for a new membership anyway.

There is no mechanism that allows us to enter the SFL at the first division without major league reconstruction and we all know what the chances are of that happening between now and mid-August. We should be applying for entry at Division 3 now.

There is no case. TUPE is very clear and Green is deliberately misrepresenting the options open to the employees in an attempt to railroad some of the waverers over to the new company. I can understand why he is doing this but it would a complete waste of the RFFF to take this to court.

I think Green knew perfectly well that none of the players or other employees were obliged to transfer over to the new company but he hoped to scare a few of the waverers into it with his chat about taking legal action against those that refused. Any legal advice he received concerning TUPE would have made it quite clear to him that every employee had a choice but he deliberately tried to confuse the situation in the hope that it would work to his advantage. It's what I would have done.

Not sure I really understood all that If the SFA were aware of how we were paying our players why did they say nothing at the time? On the other hand, if we have proof that we registered any side letters or other written comittments to pay players from EBTs with the SFA at the time, why have we not produced this when the inquiry asked us for information? I'd love it if the SFA are in some way complicit in all this and that they turned a blind eye or otherwise facilitated things, but until there is even a shred of evidence to support it, it remains a conspiracy theory.

Isn't it about time for some honesty? Whatever HMRC thinks about the way we paid our players, if we didn't comply with the rules concerning player registrations then we are liable for the consequences. If we had any kind of side letter or other written guarantee for players concerning payments from an EBT and we didn't register those with the SFA then we collectively have to hold our hands up. It wasn't us that authorised these arrangements and we aren't responsible for registering our players with the SFA, but we can't claim the club is likewise not responsible. We have the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start again but first we have to ensure that our past misdemeanors are acknowledged before we can put them behind us.

I think starting again in Division 3 and working our way back to the top is probably the only real option we have open to us and I think it gives us the opportunity to rebuild and concentrate on home-grown talent without the pressures of the SPL for a few seasons. It will also galvanise what supporters remain and knit us together much more tightly than we are now. In fact, I think it would be worth it from that perspective alone, given the disharmony amongst our support at the moment. My worry would be that both Ibrox and Murray Park require a certain level of investment just from running costs, never mind any improvements that are required, and our income in the lower divisions might not be enough to cover it. Is Green prepared to finance a loss for the next year at least?

Would they all have to transfer over first?

I wondered how long it would take

Don't be ridiculous. All the other clubs are voting no under threat of fan boycots but you reckon the one club whose fans would walk away completely as a result of a yes vote are going to do exactly that? Where exactly is this very very strong info coming from because if it's even possibly true I have a few folk I'd like to wind up.

That would be my worry. If they don't voluntarily transfer over to Green their registrations revert to the SFA and any potential fees would go straight into the player's pocket rather than our coffers. My heart suggests a fair number of our players will transfer over but my head suggests any of our better players will stand to make a fortune in signing fees and increased wages as a result of free transfers and would therefore be mad to do otherwise. Since we will be unable to sustain SPL wages in the lower leagues in any event this wouldn't necessarily be a problem, if it weren't for the much needed cash we will miss out on as a result of the players becoming free agents.

First time poster here, so please be gentle. Has anyone heard anything concrete about whether any of our current players has already transferred over the Green's company?