Seven years ago the whole of Planet Fitba was rocked by the death of Rangers.
What had been unthinkable turned out to be prosaically inevitable.
After the CVA was rejected even the mainstream media were stunned into telling the truth.
Of course, regular readers here were eagerly anticipating the insolvency event in season 2011-2012.
This site is fully searchable and my reportage is unequivocal throughout that period.
Once Craig Whyte was in charge and Super Salary skillfully negotiated Rangers out of Europe insolvency was inevitable.
At the time newspaper, editors were soothed by Sir David Murray’s PR chap that my journalism was fantasy and should be discounted.
The editors were duly reassured.
Ah well…
Yesterday I learned of a conversation that a couple of close friends of mine had with a very senior Scottish sports journalist recently.
I know the reporter personally but will not reveal his identity for the usual klan reasons.
This hugely respected member of the Fitba Fourth estate has never been in the ranks of the Stenography Corps.
He told my two buddies over dinner that everyday editors of Scottish newspapers awake and they are “terrified”.
He explained that the basis of their terror was that they feared that things might “go pop again at Ibrox”.
It is not a matter for debate they were asleep at the wheel in 2010-2012.
This site had predicted that a storm was coming at Rangers.
The editors checked in with their Ibrox PR chap at the time and were told that everything was peachy with the new billionaire owner.
Now I’m told that the idea that they’re STILL being spoon fed shite from Ibrox gives them the fear every morning.
However, they’re caught in a Faustian pact with the basket of assets.
Quite simply, they have to believe what they are told.
Whatever that is, it isn’t journalism.
Today Sevco are in court over a dispute with Memorial Walls for £1.1m.
This could be interesting if the plaintiff states that the other side might have a problem in paying out should damages be awarded.
Developing story…
Although Ibrox was the epicentre of the quake that rocked Scottish Football in 2012 the tremors also damaged the ancient and dignified structures of the SFA.
After all, it could be argued that it was down to a general lack of oversight from Hampden that allowed Sir David Murray and then Craig Whyte to create the tsunami of excrement that finally gushed down Edmiston Drive.
The new guy in the big office on the 6th floor at Hampden is Mr Rod Petrie.
He has so far avoided speaking to the press since his recent coronation.
I really don’t think that he has anything to worry about though.
Only in a parallel universe would he face anything resembling a difficult question from the sports desk chaps.
For example, I do not think that any of the assembled stenographers would have asked him about his role in awarding a UEFA licence to old Rangers for their last season on this earth.
My information is that Mr Petrie was the chair of the Licensing Committee in 2011.
Without the prospect of any European income for season 2011-2012 then Rangers would have been in administration much sooner.
Yet they were awarded a UEFA licence while owing to a taxing authority via the tax scheme that ex-SFA President Campbell Ogilvie was involved in creating.
You starting to see a problem here dear reader?
Of course, this is the stuff of journalism:
Conflicts of interest.
Cover-ups.
The case that has become known as “Resolution 12” hasn’t gone away you know.
It is a powerful vignette that points to a general lack of oversight apropos matters Ibrox at the SFA.
Since the Requisitioners put this to the Celtic AGM in November 2013 it has been the Fitba Fifth Estate that has been across the detail and the significance of this story.
In 2012 Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News showed the local media in Glasgow how this journalism lark was done.
The then SFA President Campbell Ogilvie was wonderfully described by Stewart Regan as “heavily conflicted” on the Rangers issue.
Priceless…
The man who was in the room in 1999 at Ibrox when the first…err…tax efficiency scheme was concocted to pay Craig Moore.
“Heavily conflicted”?
Absolutely priceless!
There are many reasons for the editors of Scottish newspapers to be afraid of the current situation at Ibrox.
Anyone of them would only have to speak to the folks on their business desk to realise that the narrative on here regarding the Sevco finances is evidence-based.
Moreover, the proposed debt for equity swap which will almost certainly be rubber-stamped today will not solve the cash flow at KingCo.
Of course, you will not read of that fact in the mainstream media and that gives me a problem dear reader.
Across this kitchen table in Donegal is a plastic crate with a manuscript in it.
My next novel is not writing itself at this rate!
Now, my gripe with the universe is that I shouldn’t need to do this stuff for you.
There are staff journalists in Glasgow who should be all over this.
Moreover, there’s a rich vein of stories to be mined at Ibrox in June 2019 just as it was in 2011.
If those editors and blazers want to rest easy on the pillow at night then I suggest that they start to fulfil the requirements of their respective job descriptions.
All that has to be done is that the club at Ibrox is treated like every other in Scotland.
They could try that.
For a change…
Even when Ogilvie’s short term memory loss was exposed there was no one in Scottish football more conflicted than good old Campbell.
Tried to remove himself from all knowledge of EBT’s, lied to Chick Young about how much his own EBT handout was worth, not knowing that all the recipients and the sums involved would be exposed by RTC.
When confronted with his shareholdings in Rangers and Hearts, could he be more conflicted?, he transferred them to his wife.
What a cad!
Just one of the many who feasted on the Ibrox nosebag, an absolute horrible man who was dishonest, had no honour and was in it for all he could get his mitts on.
Conflicted doesn’t even get near to describing his contribution to this scandal.
Who, if anyone, has their mitts on the Ibrox purse strings?
Players continue to flow through the door, albeit it frees or Bosman’s, but the wages still have to be paid.
A full season of the contracts for Defoe and Davis will take a big chunk out of the ST monies on their own.
Sports Direct and the company contracted to provide a memorial to the Ibrox disaster dead are both in litigation with the Ibrox club with possible serious consequences.
Yet there appears to be little or no movement the other way.
Grezda won’t be on the plane for the pre season jaunt and will be difficult to remove from the wage bill, joining a number of others still contracted who can’t be shifted.
If there is no significant transfer fees coming in then a run to the Group stages of the Europa won’t be a nice to have but a must have.
No doubt King will be claiming the club to be the envy of the football world, with no external debt and much of the soft loans swapped for shares which are ever decreasing in value.
Of course there is a good reason why there is no external debt, apart from the latest Close Bros loan which too will have to be repaid from ST monies.
Is it the case that offers have come in for Morelos and Tavernier which are miles away from the Ibrox club’s valuation and the numbers that we see in the media?
To learn who rules over you , simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize…Voltaire
Hi Phil,
Anything going on with regards to King and the shares dilution at the cheats in govan?
I cannot believe what this man gets away with
Peter lawwell will say nothing because he’s in this up to his neck its time the CELTIC fans started boycotting all cup games and away games plus hampden before its to late and they corrupt bastards at the sfa and officials stop us from doing 9 maybe 10inarow wake up our board are a shower of cowards and involved aswell..
Seven years up the line, and we are pointing our collective fingers at the Celtic board. I know that they have been far from vociferous in matters Ibrox-related, but have any of us stopped to consider that there is some sort of “long game” in play? While we currently see the proverbial “still waters”, has anybody stopped to consider that there is some sort of gameplay going on behind the scenes?
I’d like to think that, if they are not willing to publicly back Res12, that they are “drip-feeding” certain info to interested parties, as some sort of subterfuge.
By doing so, Celtic come out “clean in the wash”, but that the entire 5-way agreement, et all, fall apart- so much so that the forensic evidence leads us to an entire “sea-change” of Scottish football as a whole… or, do we want to be as corrupt as Italian football was not so long ago?
Thanks Phil for this latest update,
Yes,the truth and Scottish sports journos are strangers,more like,two asteroids endlessly wandering the Universe,never likely to meet.For if they ever did and the truth came into light,well,what we saw seven years ago will turn out to be but a drop in the ocean.Now,there are all sfa types running for cover,not just iboaks men,as they know their necks are on the chopping block too.
Corrupt isn’t sufficient a word to describe this shower.Complete corruption may be nearer the mark.
This preferential treatment has to be stopped,otherwise,it simply isn’t sport.
The way I see it is this.
Clubs,Jounalists and Editors in Scotland have long taken Football fans for mugs.
For the most part we can be mugged as our loyalty to “Clubs” is the Achilles for most if not all of us.
Our devotion to all things (insert “Club” name) is our weakness and it is a weakness that those who control these entities (for they are as much Clubs now as Ally McCoisht was a Manager then) manipulate to their advantage whenever and wherever they can.
Telling the truth in Football or being totally transparent might just scare some of that potential income away you see.
So as a result what we get is smoke and mirrors and ultimately a charade being played out before us.
He only realism involved is the actual game and those who sit round it pumping their hard earned into it.
Occasionally we get guys like you Phil and guys like Alex Thomson who break cover and tell it like it is.
I feel ind it interesting that both you and him are readily ridiculed by those who would rather believe for want of a better word shite that is processed and fed to them via the Media outlets and yet neither of you has ever been dragged to court for the stuff you have put forward.
That in itself tells it own story.
For those who look in from their wee offices and are part of the ongoing problem I say to you grow a set and do your job.
Carry on the very good work Phil for as you are acutely aware we aren’t quite as gullible as some within Football.
Keep shiny that light into the dark recesses of Scoddish Fitba
HH
Every club in Scottish professional football, with the exception of International f.c. Should resign from the S.F.A. And the SPFL asap because every single one of them has cheated by all three organisations. Some smaller clubs I.e. Queen of the South, St Mirren and Gretna were all beaten in various cup finals by a team that had illegally registered players according to the “Articles of Association “ of the SFA. The 5 way agreement alone should have been enough for everyone of them running for the hills. I am sure there are more than enough Chairmen to organise a fairer and more transparent organisation which could be called the Association of Scottish Football. I know there will be arguments around tails wagging dogs etc, I’m sure that could be circumnavigated. The present set up totally infuriates me and I’m sure many others.
Phil, while i agree with your comments, I have to say I also agree wholeheartedly with Paul Lee. Celtics role in all this has to be questioned too. They could have started a judicial review by now. They could call a presser and publicly say they demand answers from the new SFA chairman. They choose not to. Why is this? Could it be it suits Celtic to have Sevco alive? I fear the guys from resolution 12 have been led up a rather long garden path. These guys have my highest admiration, some of the guys in the boardroom of Celtic do not. Please keep doing what you do Phil it is greatly appreciated.
Whilst I agree with everything in this Post I refer back to my previous comments in the last Post mentioning Res 12. I think CFC fans deserve an explanation of CFC’s roles in: The 5 Way Agreement; why they didn’t object to the granting of UEFA Lic; why they haven’t sought damages and, for me the most disturbing issue…..WHY did CFC not kick up a storm when Doncaster declared “same club’….& awarded all trophies won by ‘old’ club? I’m sorry to say that the whole thing smells….and there is def an odour about CFC.
Celtic’s role in the 5WA is the same as any other club that the SPL signed on their behalf.
Object to the UEFA licence … it was done and dusted before the facts were knowm
Damages? For what and from whom? The company (the Club) has been liquidated … ultimately they are responsible..
Sorry, DhenBhoy but I can’t agree with your views. 1. Now the facts are known [& I doubt that’s even the case if you’re meaning the FULL & UNABIGUOUS facts] why aren’t CFC and all other clubs conned financially out of income & revenue re-visiting the goings-on at SFA/SPFL and seeking the truth? 2.Damages? For what? As I say….loss of revenue. From whom?…Simple….The football authorities as they are the ones who colluded into misleading UEFA into granting RFC a licence; as they knew Sheriff Officers had been to Ibrox re unpaid taxes, and thereby denied a number of clubs, not just CFC, income & revenue.
Good stuff again Phil.
I’m wondering if,we as your readers, started a wee email campaign to start asking the sports desk editors some questions about their reportage of business at Ibrokes while CC the main editors into any communication would be a good idea?
We could start to pressure them into something maybe?
Just an idea
Thoughts?