The citizens of Planet Fitba found out something very important in the summer of 2012.
That was that normal rules did not apply to the Ibrox brand.
The world-class chaps on the 6th flor at Hampden did their utmost to have a Rangers, ANY Rangers, in the top flight for season 2012-2013.
Indeed, Mr Neil Doncaster stated on the record that “there is no mechanism for what we are trying to achieve”.
In the end, Sevco Scotland Limited had to start at the bottom the same as any new club.
There was a rebellion in Planet Fitba that took the Hampden chaps by surprise.
Even Plan “B”, dropping Sevco into the second tier was scuppered by a true great of Scottish football.
Of course, the very fact that this parachute operation was attempted was because of Hector.
HMRC didn’t think that Rangers were any different from any other tax dodger.
Hector refused the CVA and Rangers were sent to death row.
Consequently, we should not expect Sevco Scotland Limited to receive special treatment from Hector during this pandemic induced financial crisis.
So, here is a little helpful tip to any of the Stenography Corps who fancy having a stab at journalism.
Firstly, it is the public realm that Celtic have availed of the government scheme and put some of their staff on furlough.
Now, it would be helpful if a sports desk chap would ask Sevco if they had done the same.
A supplementary question to the HMRC Press Office could be something like the following:
Do companies who wish to apply for the government furlough scheme have to have their tax affairs up to date?
The intrepid stenographer could then also Sevco about the whereabouts of those pesky interim accounts.
Do they exist?
Have they been submitted to the SFA for the UEFA licence application paperwork?
Now, those are questions that folks at Sevco might well baulk at answering.
Dear reader, those are the only questions that are worth asking.
I’m told that an Ibrox stalwart, an ex-player who also served in an off-field capacity there, was going around his dignified friends yesterday.
Apparently, he was the bringer of grim news about their beloved basket of assets.
For the avoidance of doubt, I know the identity of said ex-player.
I’ve met him on several occasions and I do not think that he does duplicity easily.
In other words, he’s a straight arrow, calls it as he sees it.
Consequently, if he is telling his Ibrox buddies that “hard times are coming” then I would tend to listen to him.
Just like in 2011 and 2012 it should not be the task of an NUJ member in another country to be breaking this news.
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It seems like only yesterday when £40m was being bandied about for whoever won the battle to sign Morelos.
I see one of their sites today has reduced their hopes and anything north of £5m will do the job.
Goals have dried up, his girth has increased, he’s been making headlines for the wrong reasons, his face is constantly tripping him and his disciplinary record is there for all to see.
Fortunately with Juventus interested in Kamara and Inter Milan ready to swoop for Barisic that should make up the shortfall and everything will be just tickety boo.
With no chance of the final league games anywhere being played by the end of May whats going to happen with players contracts if the leagues are extended to June/July?
Surely then the transfer window will have to remain closed otherwise it will be chaos upon chaos?
The inability of clubs desperate to bring in transfer income will further put pressure on many of them to stay afloat.
Gerrard apparently made personal enquiries about a Zamalek player in the January transfer window. The player was estimated to be worth £3 million which, we know sevco dont have, because instead, Gerrard opted to bring in Florian Kamberi – as a loan signing.
Now, according to the Daily Rectum, Gerrard is renewing his interest in him! Do the rules allow for managers to use their own money to buy players?.. because that’s the only way a deal for any player is gonna happen!!
I sense copious amounts of effluent coming down the sewage pipe very soon, and when it sees the light of day, it is gonna create one helluva stink!
Ah wee Coco at ibrox noise back out with his circus act again promoting Morelos . Now only the other week he wanted him out the door and for the club to accept 2 million quid for him . Now he is back to being flavour of the month again with wee Coco he really needs to stop sniffing that glue . So he now has is it on record Ath Madrid want Morelos and that they can take him if Riquelme comes to sevco . Oh dear it must be some serious locktite suoerglue 3 he is sniffing . As if Riquelme is going to go anywhere near a club heading towards administration . But the Klan and wee Coco and friends have nothing to worry about the second saviour has arrived in Dougla (CASHLESS ) Parks .
Have you not noticed Scud that Freddo is a much better player when Sevco aren’t playing? Can’t think how he manages it but he seems to have magical qualities. HH
You can smell trouble on it’s way when stories surface of Morelos to here there and everywhere, ditto Hagi, Man City indeed!
Hagi was frequently on the bench at Genk for a reason.
Some bright spark has suggested Rangers fund the £4 million or so then punt him immediately to a 3rd party and double their dosh.
If life was only so easy!
The slow uptake for ST’s at both Ibrox and Celtic Park will have both boards shitting themselves particularly if you have no credit facility at the bank, are relying on hand to mouth directors loans to meet payroll, have a significant outlay due on part of the fees for players brought in over the last two seasons, are indebted to a loan company who have security on everything at Ibrox which is moveable, have a further secured loan from King who has now removed himself from the firing line at a critical time and has passed the baton to Park Senior whose own business interests will need a steady hand on the tiller in the coming months.
The next transfer window is 2 months away as things stand. When it reopens it will be unrecognisable when compared with the squillions that were changing hands throughout Europe in the recent past.
It will be very much a buyers market with clubs desperate to raise revenue.
Those clubs who are still cash rich if and when normality returns to the land will be able to pick and choose as they see fit, whereas those who are not will just have to take it on the chin.
You forgot the pending court judgement(s)…..
Hi, I was trying not to overplay the extent of the bad news.
Anyway it’s not scaremongering as the media is still talking up Gerrard’s potential purchases in the next window as if money was growing on trees down Edmiston Drive.
There is not a single soul on the blue side internet posts who appears to be aware that there may be trouble ahead.
Of course it’s much easier to ignore impending bad news when no one in the Scottish media dares to raise their head above the parapet and tell it like it is as providing that sort of insight can be career threatening and you find yourself consigned to the ‘ haters’ corner.
It could be an unseasonably cold summer down Govan direction. And a bitterly cold winter!!
I don’t actually know how administration effects European participation. Feel free to enlighten me. ANYONE.
I am however, fairly sure that any club with ambitions of playing in Europe, MUST have a set of interim accounts filed with their domestic association before the end of March.
Can Sevco have done this without making the interims public?
I know it’s normal practice but is there a legal requirement to publish interim accounts?
If there is indeed such a legal requirement any delay of this magnitude should have alarm bells ringing loudly and clearly. Everywhere!!
If the numbers are so bad that they are still trying to work out how to put a positive spin on them then Sevco ARE well and truly fecked.
In every year of its existence the end of year accounts have borne no resemblance to the interims. The interims have always been massaged to look good. If they can’t even do that now, the final audited accounts will be truly awful.
To, chickens, home, are, roost, the coming.
Re-arrange the above words to make a well known phrase.
Last year’s interims were a joke. If I remember correctly showing a £6m or so profit for the first 6 months which by the end of the financial year had turned into a £12m loss in the annual audited accounts.
No one provided a reason for this apparent stunning downturn in results, no one in the media asked apparently.
I believe the SFA has first dabs at the interims before signing off on them, then passing on to UEFA.
Did anyone at Hampden ask the obvious question, as in ‘ what the feck?’
It’s clear that the interims are worthless and your granny could come up with a set of numbers that no one would question.
With the purchase of Kent and other additions to the payroll plus improved contracts right left and centre, with income likely to remain around the same as the previous year then the full year’s loss could be north of last year’s £12m dunt.
King has left the building, Park’s own business will be facing challenges never seen before as no one will be buying cars in the current climate or for however long the pandemic has a grip on the economy.
It’s times like this that having a billionaire on the board is handy, even better if that billionaire doesn’t come from Motherwell, eh Keech?
My, considerable gut, feeling is that this years final figures could be double last years’ losses.
There was a rumour doing the rounds some weeks ago that if European tournaments were halted, the prize money for the remainder of each tournament would be combined and split evenly between the teams left in. Whilst this would result in a mini windfall for Sevco, it would be offset against the loss of five home gates. In any case it would not be a game changing figure and might even be dependant on TV money.
Everything that’s happening in the world in general right now, and in football in particular, is combining with the incompetence of the Sevco hierarchy to create a perfect shit-storm.
I can’t see ANY way out of this for them.
The ORCS will see it otherwise, but I would imagine that Park and the rest of the board regard 9 in a row as the least of their worries right now.
Surely that fine, staunch, upstanding football club would try to ignore Hector once again, would they? HH
The Sun and the daily ranger now running with the Hudgie transfer story that a Romanian agent was contacted by Mourinho and someone else from Man City . Funny that nobody’s seen anyone from any football club for a number of weeks now . All of a sudden Mourinho in contact about getting a wee Hudgie .
Then take six years in litigation all the way to the Supreme Court to defend an impossible position. And Lose.
RFC in Liquidation in Litigation!