Whilst one or two of us have criticised the Green Brigade for going perhaps a little too far with their banners , they are still part of our family, and like the errant child who spends his time playing with a box of matches and a packet of firelighters at the back of the supermarket, when he oversteps the mark, its our issue.
Not anyone elses.
Over on social media site “Twitter “, a group called disband The Green Brigade started to appeal for support, and managed to get a few names on their list. All of which were suspiciously from the other side of the city.
The Evening Times picked up on this and ran with the story-since removed-and along with rumours that Brendan Rodgers , one would be forgiven for thinking that some rather chubby fingers were pulling the strings on this one.
Anyone would think that there was a big game this week. Especially as they ignored another pressure group, with several thousand followers, called “Strip The Titles ”
A game where the prize money would not only widen the chasm between Celtic and new pretenders “rangers “, but actually send Celtic so far ahead that they’d have to wait at the service station with the engine off for several years for their city rivals to catch up.
Of course, the media wouldn’t play any game that sought to unsettle the Celtic squad ahead of such a prestigious and important game, not only for the Scottish champions, but for the Scottish game as a whole…would they ?
Lets see, they’ve slaughtered the fans, dropped a chinese whisper about the manager…thank the lord they’ve not tried to get at our star man..
Oh, wait.
Marseille open talks with Celtic over Moussa Dembele – reports
As predictable as the rising sun in the morning, there they go .
Is there anything in it ?
Well, Marseille were in Glasgow for a friendly with another entity who have covered themselves in shame due to their relaxed interpretation of footballs financial rules, and its entirely feasible that they may have “spoken ” to someone, which could constitute “talks “, but you know why I doubt it ?
Because its in the mainstream Scottish sports media, who lost any ounce of credibility they had around five years ago with their piss poor coverage of the liquidation of Rangers.
And, of course, there’s a big game this week.
Can they not see how tiresome they are becoming ?
Can they not see how predictable it all is ?
Even if they are telling the truth..
who is going to believe them ?
And on that basis, why are people still buying them ?
Mind you, maybe the fuss surrounding “bannergate ” serves as an adequate distraction from the latest episode in the long running Ibrox pantomime.
Todays Evening Times tells us… ( you don;t have to buy it-if there’s anything interesting in it, you’ll find it on the web )
Rangers saga in new twist as ‘oldcos’ stalk the club
IN another astonishing turn in the Rangers financial saga both the old company which owned the club and the new one in control are likely to face multi-million pound claims on their assets.
A London firm which buys litigation claims to pursue them through the courts has resurrected the company through which Craig Whyte bought Rangers, and also saved from being struck-off the one which Charles Green used to acquire the club after Whyte’s short and disastrous ownership. Both companies, Wavetower and Sevco 5088, believe they have legitimate claims on both liquidated funds and against the present club, reports our sister publication The Sunday Herald.
Henderson & Jones describe themselves as expert litigators and insolvency professionals who purchase legal claims and endeavour to get money back to creditors by pursuing their legal claims. The two principals are Philip Henderson and Gwilym Jones.
On June 20 Henderson & Jones were appointed directors of Wavetower (now renamed The Rangers FC Group). Eight days earlier they had joined the board of Sevco 5088. Wavetower had been struck off by the Registrar of Companies and Sevco was about to be. Less than a fortnight later they had completed the processes to secure both the companies on the register again.
They also joined the board of the associated company which was still trading, Law Financial, which Whyte founded. It holds a security over Sevco. Law, Sevco and Wavetower are ultimately owned by the Worthington Group which is now in liquidation.
Philip Henderson told the Sunday Herald that they were working with Worthington liquidators, Begbies Traynor, to “deal with and evaluate any claims the Worthington subsidiaries might have, or might be made against them. As part of that role we became a director of each of the Worthington subsidiaries”.
He added that the company wanted to work with Rangers “oldco” liquidators, the accountancy firm BDO, “to help them get to a position where they can make a distribution to the unsecured creditors”.
Whyte bought Rangers for £1 in May 2011 from Sir David Murray. The vehicle he used was Wavetower. A little over a year later, and after Whyte ran out of cash, the Rangers collapse left thousands of unsecured creditors out of pocket, including 6,000 fans who bought £7.7m worth of debenture seats at Ibrox.
Wavetower’s claim is that it is a preferential creditor and should be head of the queue for cash, in front of the tax authorities, in the liquidation. Wavetower, Whyte’s then company, inherited a security over assets including Ibrox and Murray Park from Lloyds Banking Group after paying off Rangers £18m debt using future season ticket sales. The security was originally set up in 1999 because of Rangers ballooning debt.
BDO have resisted the claim and in court documents argued that it was based on a fraudulent scheme. However Whyte’s acquittal on all charges would appear to bolster Wavetower’s entitlement claim.
Last year a judgment by Lord Doherty put off any decision on the rights and wrongs of the claim until the conclusion of Whyte’s fraud trial. Unless agreement can be reached this is likely to be tested in yet another Rangers court case.
BDO holds substantial liquidation funds, believed to be in excess of £30m, including £24m from the lawyers Collyer Bristow who acted for Whyte.
BDO will now also pursue more than 80 former players and staff, like Murray and former club captain Barry Ferguson, who benefited from an elaborate tax avoidance scheme – Employee Benefit Trusts, which the Supreme Court ruled were disguised salary payments. The recipients will be forced to pay back millions of pounds to the HMRC through BDO or face bankruptcy. It is believed that the Revenue has recovered more than £1bn from other of those schemes.
Following Whyte’s calamitous ownership, in June 2012 Charles Green completed the purchase of Rangers’ assets for £5.5m through Sevco 5088. The new Sevco claim will centre on the ownership of Rangers and the transfer of assets, such as the Ibrox ground and the Auchenhowie training complex, by Green to another of his companies, Sevco Scotland, and the substantial upward revaluation of these assets.
Green was later ousted and subsequently replaced by South African businessman Dave King. The company is now called Rangers International Football Club PLC.
In filings at Companies House last month by Sevco 5088, the company claims it has investments of £15,700,000, with just £1 in the bank. In a note to the accounts, the directors state: “The company believes it has been the victim of fraud, and as such, the directors are not satisfied that they have all the accounting records of the company and these financial statements are therefore prepared on the basis of the accounting information that the directors do have.”
One of the signatories is director Aidan Earley. Earley is a discharged bankrupt. In 2014 he was banned for five years from holding a directorship but in an rare move was allowed to remain as a director of Sevco. It is believed that this was connected to his battle over the ownership of Rangers.
The Sunday Herald contacted the liquidator BDO for comment about the Wavetower claim, without response.
Oh dear, looks like now that Whyte has been acquitted, he wants his quid back.
Yet all of this is old news…
Ecojohns piece from years ago outlines exactly what the issue is, and is more than worth a read if you want to understand what seems to be about to happen…
Caixinha the fall guy who forced Administration ?
Well, stranger things have happened…
But, as i said, there’s a big game this week.
Brendan rodgers may well use the press nonsense to keep attention away from his players while they plan the downfall of Rosenberg.
The Norwegians are not a side to take lightly, although there was good news when Etims Norwegian spy -remember him ?-told us that over the two legs, Celtic should be able to triumph.
Thats good enough for me, but don’t tell the players. We’re not at home to complacency.
Over the last week or so, you may have noticed different opinions between the guys who write on this site. which is what keeps us unique. After all, if we all agreed, there’d be nothing to discuss.
One thing we do agree on, however, is the Public Relations Office at Celtic leaves something to be desired. Like a Public Relations Office, for instance.
They’ve not come out of the last week or so with any distinction, and have failed to control some of the wilder stories circulating in the media, as outlined at the top of the page.
That may be why the manager has taken control of this aspect of the club.
If I were a reporter, I’d be looking to interview Liam Henderson about the tie with rosenberg. He was on loan there recently, and would have a fair to middling chance of enlightening the coaching staff on anything they needed to know.
So far, at least, the midfielder hasn’t been asked for his views. Everyone else has, including Ronny Deila, who has a record of helping Celtics opponents in these ties, from his days as manager.
Sorry, I can’t forgive him for playing that Berget fellow. Men who tie their hair up in a bun cannot be allowed any sort of responsibility, as they have proved they have absolutely no capacity for rational thinking.
So why not Henderson, why wouldn’t they ask the one man who might actually have something constructive to say ?
Easy really.
Brendan has put a block on it. Or at least it seems that way. The manager himself is too thorough to have not noticed the connection between the player and Rosenberg, so therefore he’s keepin it in house, which in turn suggests he is in total control.
Maybe thats what is upsetting the media, and maybe thats why they have used their own version of the Schlieffen Plan ( look it up-I had to ) to get at the club.
You may have noticed that apart from the compulsory press conference, the manager goes very quiet in the run up to these games.
Which is a welcome change.
You’ll notice if I’m right when the manager decides what the questions will be come the pre match presser, as they say in the trade.
Thats if the club don’t suddenly hire a PR man to make sure it doesn’t happen…
Oh, by the way…that Russell/Broadfoot thing. wait till the end of the week. I might have something for you…
And keep an eye out for a wee piece due from Keiron Prior-remember him ? The financial genius who didn;t invest in Ibrox..
In the meantime, don’t buy their papers, and don’t spend money on any of these..
Away from all that, Peo Gurdiola at Manchester city has said that the youngsters won’t be getting much game time at the Etihad..
If anyone knows Patrick, or can get hold of Keiran , make sure he sees that.
Yesterdays caption…
Polis publish picture of suspected genetically modified Professor Chicken demonstrating cruel Mackay-Steven smoking experiment
today…please explain why Peter is so tickled ?