If you are planning a PR campaign, then timing is everything.
Failure to get that right is the sign of an amateur.
As I wrote yesterday, I did not detect the subtle touch of top-class communication professionals in the anti-Rangers SNP stuff this week.
Firstly, there was Murdo Fraser in the Scotsman.
This was picked up by the Gammon channel GB News.
They had Famine Song defender David Edgar on to explain why his club was “quintessentially British” and “strongly identified with Unionism”.
Sadly there were technical difficulties, and he froze on-screen before sharing all of his erudite analysis on Gammonvision.
For some background, here is a piece I wrote about Mr Edgar a decade ago.
I was not surprised to see James Dornan MSP replying to his fellow MSP today.
Here is his piece in the Times.
Today the perfect riposte to the bold Murdo is that the Scottish government had given £3.2m of a loan to Sevco to counteract the financial hit from the Covid lockdown.
Paid back over 20 years and interest-free pretty much amounts to free money in the here and now.
This is an extraordinary form of “naked hostility” towards the Ibrox entity.
So, even in the digital news cycle, this PR push has fallen flat very quickly indeed.
Fraser was rightly called out for this gaslighting effort aimed at the Ibrox klanbase.
I was not surprised to learn late last night that the author of this amateurish effort was none other than Sevco’s in-house superhero.
Perhaps the caped drum banger of Ibrox would be better working on presenting the year-end accounts to the Stenography Corps a few months from now.
It would be an impossible sell to bona fide journalists.
Fortunately, he has some help in that regard.
Of course, every superhero needs a dumb sidekick, and DUPman has an entire pressroom full of them!
I’m told that the early synopsis has calculated the losses to be, best-case scenario, £27.5m with £31.m at the other end and monies owed at £34m.
Those figures do not, I am told, include anything about the ongoing Ashley retail case.
My source stated that these early figures point to the inescapable conclusion that Sevco is spending £2.5m per month more than they are bringing in.
I suppose it is just as well that Financial Fair Play(FFP) isn’t a thing in the domestic game in Fair Caledonia.
Indeed, if the SNP really DID hate the Ibrox entity; they would enact legislation to ensure that the UEFA guidelines were enforced in Scotland.
If that did happen, then it would impact on one club and one club only.
Clue:
They were created in 2012.
Dear reader, I do wonder what the Cathcart MSP thinks about that idea?
The Sevco High Command should be grateful indeed to have such a Lady Bountiful watching over them at Holyrood.
The loan from the Scottish government means that clubs in receipt of this generosity will have to submit quarterly financial updates.
So this was probably a less than optimum time for Sevco to pick a fight with Ms Sturgeon’s administration.
Oops!
Whatever happened to “winning friends on the journey”?
Asking for a Fenian.
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I’m not a journalist, and not au fait with the finer details of the Freedom of Information Act, but surely a few judiciously worded FOI requests to the right department, done at regular intervals, could bring to light some interesting information about the state or Rangers’ finances.
Some commenters need to learn the basics of finance. Long term losses are perfectly sustainable if board members continue to back from their own pocket. CL money or player sales mean they are vastly more likely to be long term sustainable without the need for Board members to have deep pockets. Wake up…. No way are Rangers* going to financially implode with this board who have frankly done a terrific job.
In the absence of Financial Fair Play in the domestic game, then this deficit financing model can continue as long as someone wishes to cover the overspend.
That is how the old Rangers were financed until the 2008 banking crash, and David Murray couldn’t sustain the year on year losses.
Correct it’s all about can they get other sources of big money from CL or player sales and continue to have a Board with deep pockets. If so it will continue. Most Rangers shareholders care more about a winning team and stopping ten than value of shares.
Tell that to the shareholders who are being diluted on a monthly basis.
Think we’ve heard the old no way we will go bust story before.
Tell that to the creditors who’ll be left with nothing when they do implode. They’re over £100 million in debt since they were formed in 2012 if you think that’s sustainable you’re an idiot. As for the board doing a “terrific job” you’re even more deluded, you’re obviously a supporter of the Ipox club so you’re trying to put a positive spin on things.
If it was me I’d be a very worried man if my club was built on a sand base. It doesn’t augur well for your club that the Sports Direct court case has still to be factored in to any financial black hole that TRIFC is currently running at. Anyone with common sense can see that if you’re spending £2.5 million more per month than you’re bringing in isn’t sustainable.
You’re entitled to your opinion but these soft loans have also to be paid back too at some point and Dave King is circling his wagons for his money before the Sports Direct decision. You can stick to your opinion but I’ll stick to the facts and the numbers don’t lie, your club is going to the wall, your support didn’t save the first entity of the Ipox club and it’s not going to save the club formed in 2012 either.
Lundstram said two Sevco players got Covid & they weren’t a settled team out v Brighton & Real Madrid? Did they name them no did anyone have to self isolate ? The only organisation apart from the Tory government not to abide by the rules , unbelievable where’s the SFA/SPFL about this situation . Keep the faith 👍🍀🍻
Phil,allow me to apologize,when I referenced such prophecies I wasn’r specifically aiming at yourself,moreca kind of generalization,no harm intended.
It would be an absolute travesty for Scoddish Fitba if Swedish giant killers Malmö were to once again send a financial basket case masquerading as “Ra mosht shucshesful Club in ra Wurruld ” into Administration would it not?
They wouldn’t,they couldn’t could they 🤷🏻♂️
Få det jävla dem Malmö
What happened to ‘no-one likes us, we don’t care’?
Sevco have the mindset to attack and the other side won’t fight back, that works with the SFA and SPFL.
I don’t think it will work with the SNP.
About time SNP put regulation in place like Spain has with la liga.
Sevcos debt to revenue ratio seams to be far greater than Barcelona’s
Why has not one journalist had the balls to ask or write about their finances,your good self excluded phil
Scottish MSM lackies(who still kowtow even though Sevco are charging £25k to enter Ibrokes)are shit scared as their bosses have been warned not to entertain any “anti-Sevco” material by Sevco commanders & said “journalists” are probably feart they get a memorial bench through their windae.
I can’t ignore the vision in my head of the bean counters in the blue room scurrying around looking for some crayons and jotters before fudging the accounts that need to be perused by Scottish Government finance department. HH
As much as I would like to see these prophecies of doom come to pass,it just seems that,despite all the evidence of wrongdoing,from both old,and “ new” rangers,they continue to do business and are lauded as the most successful club in the world by a compliant media.We know the truth but,doesn’t seem to make any difference tbh,having said all that,I would never have imagined I would live to see them collapse in 2012 so,perhaps it can happen again,especially if they fall foul of HMRC,that’s what killed the original club.
I am not making any predictions, I’m merely reporting what I know.
FYI the demise of the original Ibrox club WAS predicted here many times in 2011.
I am making no such predictions now apropos Sevco and you are wrong to characterise my reporting as such.
I think you might need to tweak the ayebrokes press idiot’s nickname there Phil, as he is now a FORMER DUP man…
I’d say “F-DUP Man” sounds about right…
He is a former Belfast City Councillor.
I have no information that he is no longer a party member.
I thought the media said he had left when he went to Sevco. I believe the new name is still apt, however.
Putin said ” there is no such thing as a former KGB man ”
I suppose that’s open to interpretation….
Would this mean that Sevco are subject to openness and transparency…oh how very dear.
This club goes from disaster to disaster they should rename themselves Titanic FC, having said that the Titanic only crashed once.
It would appear that Rangers are all in on CL Group Stage qualification with the £30/40m up for grabs absolutely critical.
Is a chunk of that already earmarked to repay director loans? Plus of course there are the running costs which will soon eat into the Season Ticket monies?
Failure to get past Malmo next week may well see some outward movement of players before the transfer window closes.
Looks like Dermot Desmond also has an eye on that £30-40m as this window will surely prove.
They slip up AGAIN v Malmö history could be in the process of repeating itself when it comes to Champions League Qualification and financial ruin at Ayebrokes
9 years as a business and still haven’t made a single penny in profit.
Unsustainable in any financial climate let alone the current one where Govt Loans are keeping the showers warm and the light on.
Correct Joe.