Rangers lose their appeal at the SFA tribunal

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Glasgow Rangers lost their appeal at the Scottish Football Association’s appeals tribunal when their claim that they were being unduly punished for Craig Whyte’s financial misdemeanours was rejected. Whyte withheld £13 million of tax and VAT which should have gone to the taxman. The club was also fined £160,000 for gross misconduct and bringing the game into disrepute.

The tribunal, which was headed by Lord Carloway, said in their summing up that it was right for the original disciplinary tribunal to ban the registration of new players over the age of 18 for 12 months. They also said that it was right that offence was attributable to the club as a member of the Scottish Football Association and that the tribunal was right to raise the maximum fine of £100,000 to £160,000 in this case as it was so serious.

It actually could have been much worse for Rangers. They could have been expelled from the Scottish game or had their membership of the SFA suspended either of which would have had dire consequences for the club. Rangers complained about the effects of the restriction on transfers but the tribunal ruled that this was correct as the club had brought the game into disrepute. The club can still extend contracts for existing players.

The ruling will throw doubts on the future of the consortium who are trying to get a creditors’ agreement next month allowing the club to come out of administration, hopefully in time for the start of next season. The consortium is headed by Charles Green, the former chief executive of Sheffield United and apparently consists of a further 20 investors who remain unidentified.

Rangers owner fighting to keep club afloat

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Craig Whyte is the owner of Rangers football club and he came into power after muscling his way to the top through an investment from a company called Ticketus. He managed to secure funding to purchase the club through a promise of the sale of 100,000 season tickets in the future.

His method of funding the purchase was kept a secret and many people thought that he had funded it with his own money, but once the story was broken by Record Sport he became a disgrace in the eyes of the fans.

Now the football club is in a financial crisis and it seems that they could be about to enter administration. Paul Murray has been working hard at finding a way to save the club and improve its financial situation but it has recently emerged that he has been working with an investment firm that the fans are not going to like.

It has emerged that Mr Murray has approached the parent company of Ticketus for funding that would enable the football club to stay out of administration. This has left many fans rather bewildered and they are unsure about why Mr Murray has made this decision. He has recently made the argument about why Octopus, the parent company, should be involved with the club and help it to stay in business.

It is expected that Mr Murray is going to meet with executives from Ticketus in the near future to discuss a rescue package for the club. The deal is also expected to involve the removal of Mr Whyte from ownership of the club.

The investment company is going to help the club deal with a significant amount of debt, which totals nearly £25 million. They are also going to provide some funding in order to keep the club running during the next few months. Once a financial recovery has occurred, there are going to be shares issued in the club which will allow the investment fund to get a return on their money.

It is going to be very hard for the fans to understand how their club is going to be saved by the very company that brought them to near financial ruin in the first place. There are sure to be significant trust issues about this company and the deal by Mr Murray is being doubted by many.

Mr Murray commented, “It is important that people remember that it is Mr Whyte who was responsible for many of the club’s financial problems, not Ticketus. They have offered us an agreement in good faith and I want fans to remember that they have helped us in the past.

They helped us get out of the debt we had to Lloyds bank and they also have significant experience in the industry. My primary concern is bringing the club out of its administration proceedings and I will take whatever steps necessary to make this happen.”

If the deal does go ahead, the football club is going to have a significant debt to repay. The club has struggled with debt payments in the past and last year they failed to repay around £10 million to a lender.

Mr Murray continued, “The club does not need to be involved in any sort of legal complication right now. We need to move forward with this financial planning, so that the best interests of the football club can be preserved. We are currently looking at our projections of future cash flow and we are ironing out the main details of the deal.

“I have come forward about how I am getting this funding because I believe secrecy has got the club into trouble in the past. Mr Whyte taught us that secrecy is suspicious and I don’t want to run the club in this way. If I find a better option, I’ll take it, but this is the only choice we have right now.”

‘Old Firm’ warned about possible arrests

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'Old Firm' warned about possible arrests Following problems at the last ‘Old Firm’ football game between Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic, culminating in an altercation between Rangers Assistant Manager Ally McCoist and Celtic Manager Neil Lennon, both clubs have been warned that they could be arrested in future, if conduct does not improve.

Strathckyde Police Chief Constable Stephen House said that, in future, police officers would visit the grounds and speak to both players and managers to warn them of possible offences, together with any action that might be taken. There was also a recent high-profile incident featuring AC Milan player Gennaro Gattuso and Tottenham Hotspur Assistant Manager Joe Jordan. Mr House said that an arrest on the pitch would only be made in extreme circumstances, such as those involving potential assaults of use of obscenities, however, action would be considered after the game.

A four hour summit, convened by Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond, was held after the game, leading to an eight point action plan, including the prospects of holding games mid-week, banning the sale of alcohol near the grounds, the banning of fans convicted of domestic violence, and a new Football Intelligence Unit. There was also an increase in reported violent crime after the game, although the Chairmen of both clubs felt that there was a general over-reaction to the game.

Mr Salmond considered that the meeting had been a success, that the priority had to be to reduce violence connected to such games and that players, managers and officials should be left in no doubt as to the possible consequences.