True_Ger_1872

Was this £250,000 legal bill hidden behind the make believe investigation into the links between Whyte and Green?

Quite possibly. I cant really understand why green would make the deal then turn around and spend so much cash on trying to overturn it? Unless he was pals with the lawyers and they needed easy work.

Guess we will need to look into the St James Park renaming charade and get clued up on how that developed. Ashley is the sort of guy who just wants to make money - i wonder if he has a price, and if so - how much?

Its a good thing the international break is on. If there was a game on saturday there would be some rather angry supporters!

And another thing - easdale is an utter joke! Implying its the fans fault there is a cash flow problems, referring to George Letham as 'that guy' etc.

And who was he speaking as exactly? Sandy Easdale Shareholder...or Sandy Easdale Director??

I also notice the hints about board room split and he doesnt seem to be 'on board' with Wallace either. Shambles!!

So in essence - the renaming of ibrox has cost us £249,999?! Utterly shambolic!

I feel physically sick....

The Easdale interview...

The big interview: Keith Jackson speaks to Sandy Easdale about the desperate financial position at Rangers

SANDY EASDALE admits the cash position inside Rangers is becoming desperate.

But, here in the second part of an exclusive Q&A with Chief Sports Writer Keith Jackson, the chairman of the football board insists fans who blame him for the gathering crisis should be thanking him instead.

Easdale spoke out after it was revealed that chief executive Graham Wallace won’t be investing in this month’s emergency £4m share issue.

KJ: For a company trying to raise £4m isn’t it damaging that your own chief executive is unwilling to invest?

SE: It looks worse than it is. He never had any shares so he’s not entitled to invest in this issue. I don’t know the reason why he hasn’t bought any. You’d need to ask him.

KJ: Isn’t he meant to be driving this bus?

SE: Is that a pun? Look, I’ve never really thought about it. I do what I’m doing. Whatever Graham’s intentions are they are up to him.

KJ: So what are your intentions?

SE: I will hold my own corner and, if there are enough shares left, hopefully

oversubscribe in this issue.

KJ : Aren’t you simply throwing money into a black hole?

SE: We inherited a black hole the day we took over. A lot of it has been on the cards. The final straw has been the amount of fans and hospitality not turning up. We can’t make the numbers work. So we brought the share issue forward. We wanted to do a share issue in the new year, going into the Premiership – touch wood.

KJ: So the fans should have done more? Is that what you are saying?

SE: It’s disappointing that we’ve not got their support. I feel we deserve a bit of support because of what we inherited. Considering that baggage, we’re going forward at a good rate with a good business plan. Obviously that plan has been interrupted by the lack of people coming to the games.

KJ: But you can’t be shocked that Rangers supporters don’t trust this regime – or even yourself?

SE: I’m shocked because of my level of input. People talk about George Letham’s £1m loan but I have put in £500,000 interest free. I have never once asked for it back and I’ll leave it as long as the club needs the cashflow.

The guy Letham, fair enough, he brought the interest rate down but he’s still getting an amount of interest while I’m doing it for free. He’ll also get his money back sooner than myself. I’m willing to leave it in if I have to. But I don’t get any recognition for that at all. Me and my brother don’t take a salary. I have bought shares and plan to buy more. I have loaned the club money for free. I’m working for free. I don’t know what more I can do.

KJ: But you understand Charles Green is toxic and you were his guy?

SE: Well, you could say that but what about investors like Artemis and Laxey? They came in under Charles Green. Are they his boys also?

KJ: But they are not sat at the top of the boardroom table...

SE: Yeah, and that’s the hardest job at the moment. I can see where people come from but all I can say is I’m my own man and I don’t have anyone telling me what to do. If you thought I had all this support behind me then why are they not doing something about the situation we are in then?

KJ: But you hold the proxy for Blue Pitch and Margarita and they are as toxic as Green...

SE: Yes, which is unfair as they have never done anything apart from put money into the club. So that’s harsh.

KJ: But Blue Pitch and Margarita got their money back. The accusation is that Rangers is a gravy train and these people have clambered on board to fill their pockets.

SE: That might be the perception but Blue Pitch and Margarita haven’t received any money form the club, directly or indirectly. The only people who have had money are those on salaries and obviously bonuses which were in people’s contracts.

That was all before I came along. I don’t receive any money. That’s all I can say.

KJ: Graham Wallace promised to end this bonus culture. And yet he’s entitled to a £300,000 bonus?

SE: I could say ‘that’s a PLC

decision’ so it’s above the board I am on. But in fairness to Graham and CEO’s of his level, this is something in the format of their pay. We may not like it but when you go for guys of Graham’s calibre most will have a bonus attached to their wages.

KJ: But you need £4m to keep the doors open and yet the CEO of a company performing so horribly is on the verge of £300,000 bonus?

SE: You’re right. It’s hard to explain. It’s not something I want to comment on because he is the CEO and reports to the PLC board more than myself. For me to express an opinion would be wrong and there is little autonomy I have over Graham’s contract as I am on a different board.

KJ: OK, so what would you say to those – myself included – who believe the PLC board is pretty powerless? And that YOUR ‘football board’ controls the club?

SE: That’s inaccurate. The PLC board has autonomy over the football club. Any decisions that the football board makes, the PLC board can overturn.

KJ: But Walter Smith famously said he lost more votes in the

boardroom than he did games on the park. He said he was chairman of a board which was powerless...

SE: I can’t comment on what Walter experienced because I wasn’t there at the time. I don’t know who was on the football board at the time. I can’t speak for Walter but I imagine it was a strange experience for him and, being the gentleman that he is, I don’t think he wanted to be there when it wasn’t working.

KJ: You must be able to feel the level of anxiety growing. How dire is the Rangers situation?

SE: Yes, I do feel it. As you say, it’s realistic because the club must raise funds to go forward. If we don’t then we’ll have to look at cutting the expenditure even more.

I would say, everybody has to support the club. We keep on hearing about fans who aren’t coming because of the board or the football but the reality is there’s a lot of diverse reasons. But if everybody is so passionate about the survival of the club then they have to come back, no matter their reasons.

I’m doing my best, supporting it with my money and time for free.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing for me to ask the supporters to come back and support the club even if they like the board or not. At the end of the day, it’s about the survival of the club not the survival of the board.

KJ: Do you regret getting involved?

SE: Everybody asks me that

question. Some days I give different answers. But listen, I’ve done it now, I’m a big boy and you take it on the chin and move on.

What I don’t enjoy is the massive amount of criticism from people

who don’t give me any credit for the good things I have done – not taking a wage, ploughing my own money in, buying more shares...

KJ: So what the hell are you doing it for?

SE: There is a sense of duty there. We’ve started something we have to carry on with.

If you’re halfway across the English Channel do you keep on going until you get to France or do you

turn back?

From the DR....

MIKE ASHLEY has bought the rights to rename Ibrox Stadium for just £1.

We can reveal the astonishing agreement was struck TWO YEARS AGO with the club’s former chief executive Charles Green – and that the Newcastle United owner retains the right to rebrand Rangers’ home “at the drop of a hat” with the name of his retail firm Sports Direct.

The bombshell news of the existence of Ashley’s deal was broken yesterday by Rangers director Sandy Easdale in a Q&A with Record Sport.

But while Easdale refused to say how much Ashley paid for the rights we understand Green gave them away for a quid – and later blew £250,000 in legal fees trying to get the contract ripped up.

Easdale is championing Ashley as the club’s potential saviour and has invited him to underwrite a £4m share issue needed to stave off financial collapse.

Sources close to Easdale insist he has urged Ashley not to press the button on renaming Ibrox but admits the contract is watertight.

The news will disgust Rangers fans, especially as the BT Murrayfield Stadium deal in May this year earned Scottish rugby £20m.

In today’s interview Easdale also confirms Ashley has been blocked from buying new shares as SFA rules prohibit him from owning more than 10 per cent of any Scottish club.

Easdale says he’ll plough his own money into the latest round of fundraising but admits if the cash target is not hit the club may be forced to consider raising money against assets such as Murray Park.

While Easdale ruled out selling Ibrox he would not make a similar commitment on Murray Park. And he then went on to reveal Ashley already has a deal in place to rename the stadium.

He said: “Let’s clear this up, the Sports Direct Arena. Charles Green had already done a deal with Mike on that. Sports Direct haven’t taken it up as yet. Mike Ashley could call it the Sport Direct Arena tomorrow.”

When asked to put a cash figure on the value of Ashley’s deal Easdale said: “No, that would be confidential.”

Apparently the Green story is true and the rights were sold 18 months ago before he was ousted. Not sure the reason behind the delay in announcing this - possibly so his deal didn't kick in until Rangers were in a better league i guess.

Cannot fathom what sort of response we will get about this. I can only imagine / hope that this is a scare tactic in that if he is required to underwrite the share issue, that this will kick in. Which will make fans more likely to contribute to the current regime and bail them out for another while.

This is a nightmare - if its true then the board are disgraceful. If what i imagine / hope is true - equally as disgraceful as its blatant emotional blackmail with the support.

Either way - these guys need to be removed asap. First and foremost!!

DR publishing interview with Sandy Easdale tomorrow.....and also running a headline that the naming rights of Ibrox being sold for £1!!

Rumours are that the naming rights are given for £1 plus underwriting the share issue. Not 100% sure though.

Looks like more grim news on the way bears....buckle up!!

Rules are rules. Shame it was only a minor administrative issue which has caused this to fall through....

It is positively frightening when you think about our return to the top flight (if that happens) considering the money issues we have just now. We have no credit line it seems and cannot even make it to the month of November (3 months into the season) without running out of cash.

How much more expensive will ST's be next season? How many fans will renew if this charade continues? What might bounty of cash will we be able to tap into in the top flight, bearing in mind Peter Lawell's statement last week?

I no longer buy into some board members being 'worthwhile appointments but are limited by the make-up of the board' like Graham Wallace was described a good while back now. I question their sanity, intelligence, agenda and foresight based on their performance at rangers for the past year.

No news on the apparent bonuses? No investment from the investment committee? No repayment of the loans? No transfer policy? No scouting? No visibility of the accounts for potential investor Dave King when asked to underwrite share issue?

It beggars belief! Everyone from the Manager upwards should be seriously taken to task over where we currently stand. Cant believe i am going to say this but - Rangers deserve to go into Admin again!

Regarding the argument of 'all players can improve' -whilst i agree with that, there needs to be a strong improvement mentality within the staff and at the club for this to flourish. Rangers do not have this for a few reasons i imagine. Its all about Win Win Win for us.

IMO - i haven't seen much individual player improvement at Ibrox for a long time.

And i assume we haven't heard of Celtic's sanction for waving Palestinian flags as UEFA are just finalizing their larger sanction, taking into account their many previous sanctions for similar actions....

I recall about a year ago Mather had approx 1.8M in shares......one wonders....

He makes out as if there is a long line of potential sponsors, of which i very much doubt!

Of course he cant confirm if the sponsorship will be in place for next season as we haven't guaranteed our promotion yet. I know that sounds pompous - but i think its correct!

I particularly like the hoops being represented in that narrative! If they draw Celtic, then there will be mayhem!

ICT have had a decent start to the season, but they've also been held to a scoreless draw at home in Inverness by Dundee.

 

There's absolutely no reason we should fear playing them with the quality of squad we have.

 

Yes, it's a potential banana skin because it's likely to be a very tough cup tie, but I won't be going into it thinking we'll lose.

I agree but i am very much concerned about our defense of late. We are struggling a bit here with Mohsni showing his bombscare attributes once again. Will Cammy Bell be back in time for this tie? Hope so as i am never assured about Simonsen in goals.

How can they then go back and try to get monies back from others? Was the scheme not judged to be legal at the time (or shall we say, not illegal) and as such - they cant really backdate penalties based on changes to law??

The issue of the Letham/Easdale loans is an interesting one.

 

We've supposed to have sold circa 23,000 season tickets so why weren't the loans paid from that? There has to have been some sort of negotiation made between the club and these guys but we may not find out what until the next share issue is finally detailed.

Was there not an option for these loans to be repaid in shares? If so, would we have known by now if this option was taken up via an LSE announcement? Or would such an issue of shares to pay for these loans require shareholder approval?

Fair play!!

From the BBC...

Meanwhile, the Dons are set to escape punishment for handing out 5,000 vuvuzelas before the game. The South African-style horns were banned by Uefa after the World Cup in 2010, but match delegate Ron Zimmermann is unlikely to mention it in his report. (Sun)

First the Ambrose Red Card and now this being 'omitted' from an Official's Match report. This is fundamentally not right and there isn't even the excuse of 'it was a pre-season friendly' to fall back on. This was a Europa League Qualifier FFS!

£10M loan at 5% interest with Auchenhowie as security - when we are struggling to pay back Easdale and Letham given the smaller value of loan and Edminston House and Albion already secured?? No thanks Chuck. I would rather we never 'robbed Peter to pay Paul'!

Farcical idea that - end of!

I cant understand how they can take a view in that when the club didn't include him in the squad for the St Patrick's game, then they don't count towards the 3 match ban. The reason he would have been included in the squad for the Celtic tie would have been that he was eligible for the return leg.

Just don't get it...

can the poles have an appeal

They have 5 days to lodge appeal and i heard they will appeal the decision and ask for reasoning.