Thinker

Have HMRC disputed D&P's claim that no CVA would have been acceptable? Their reason for rejecting Green's offer would hold true for any other CVA as far as I can see. Or have I missed something.

Regardless of our individual opinions on his motives, the fans had no say who Murray sold to. We have had no say in who D&P sold to. If Green turns out to be a shyster then we can protest about it in the time-honoured, traditional way fans do when they want rid of the board. And that's all we could have done about Whyte. Would it have affected the outcome if we had? Thinking a prospective owner has malign intentions and proving it are two different things. Proving a prospective owner has malign intentions and preventing him from carrying them out are two different things.

That would certainly require the least upheaval. Dundee get promoted, we drop down for a season, everyone else as-you-were...

Cutbacks would be easier to handle (and stomach) if we take the drop. Probably from a business point of view staying in the SPL would be preferable, but I'd rather watch us storming our way back through the lower divisions than see us ham-strung and struggling against Motherwell and Dundee United. I've got tickets for Tenacious D tonight and was contemplating not going cos I'm too down. But then I remembered the new album is called "Rize of the Fenix" - it's all about making a comeback after a disastrous second album. Got to think positive.

May well be the better of the two options anyway - It would allow us to rebuild properly. By the time we regain the top flight (whatever form that might be in in 3 years time - I believe the SPL will fold) we'll be good enough to challenge for the title.

Has that gone through? What proportion of Portsmouth's debt was owed to HMRC? If they've okayed their CVA and blocked our's then something smells very rotten...

I want my club to sign the best players they possibly can regardless of race or religion. Political correctness doesn't come into the argument purely because politics have no place in sport. (Are your beliefs more correct if the team wins, less correct if they lose?) The extent of my political thought is that I'm proud to be Scottish and proud to be a citizen of the United Kingdom. I love Rangers because I love football.

King doesn't seem to have anything concrete to base his criticism on and I wouldn't be surprised if he had ulterior motives for wanting the CVA to fail. But, as usual, the whole affair is a big swirling cloud of question marks. The thought I'm clinging to is that Green managed to allay most of the RFFF guys' fears in his meeting. At this stage we've just got to hope he's on the level...

10 minutes before the court case result I was being bombarded with "Rangers have lost messages". Wishful thinking on the part of the anti-Rangers who (with the informtation available to them) had a 50:50 chance of guessing right. The same is true of the BTC - just drawn out over a longer period.

D&P must be confident there's nothing untoward in these documents, otherwise yesterday's court case was a waste of time. If they believe there's any evidence of wrong-doing, sanctions from the SPL would be inevitable - so why would they have bothered to contest the SFA's punishment? You've got to conclude that they must feel everything's above board.... Or is my logic flawed by optimism?

It's poorly charted territory, but the UK is a special case for FIFA. We are one nation after all. The League of Wales only started up in 1992, and there was a drawn-out argument with Welsh teams playing English non-league football. It was ultimately decided that the League of Wales couldn't stop them from playing English league matches in Wales : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Premier_League And Gretna moved into an English FA non-league division without question in 1946. A lot may have changed within the FIFA / UEFA regulations since then though. I think it's possible to sneak in, provided we do it at a low enough level. The SFA would clearly do everything in their power to stop even that though....

If this was to be dealt with sensibly and reasonably, then it certainly should go the way you suggest. But are the SFA a sensible, reasonable organization?

Can't believe that one got passed - it's one of the most poorly conceived ideas I've ever heard. It'll lead to administration-threatened clubs deliberately throwing games to lessen an impending penalty.

Forced to shut us down!? This could be resolved by the SFA acknowledging that applying the maximum fine allowable under their rules to a club which is already desperately close to running out of cash, and who have lost out on European competition is a suitably harsh punishment. "Oh, but the gravity of the situation!" The situation caused by a man who would never have been able to do such damage if the SFA had put effective measures in place to ensure he was a fit and proper person.

A suspension would screw the Sky deal, hurt SPL attendance figures, cause loss of sponsors, etc. which in turn would sink and seriously damage some SPL member clubs. I don't think they have any other option but to admit they shouldn't be making rules up on-the-fly and take their bloody nose.

I'm in the office with a couple of Tims now, and to be honest they were fair enough about it. That's just one zoomer on twitter. There's a lot about CFC that I oppose, but I've never had a beef with the straight-up football fans on their side. Don't tar them all with the same brush - I don't like it when that way of thinking is applied the other way round.

Agreed. Just to have it formally noted that the SFA are up to it is worthwhile. Let's see if they got the sporting integrity to abide by the letter of their own laws.

To be fair, if any fan had uncovered what Whyte was truly up to before it happened (or even, early on in the situation) it would have had a huge influence on things. I'm not saying CG is the same, but it's obviously a perilous time for the club - being sold by people with no love of the club (D&P) to whoever can talk a good case. It's worth cross-examining the situation. If you have the know-how to do it. Which I don't.

That's the way I see it. There's no point in worrying about these sideshow events - just a distracting blather to fill pages. The thing that's bothering me is Green's lack of visible dosh. That's what I need reassurance over.

Regardless of how morally justified this is, it can only lead to more pain. Neither UEFA or FIFA tolerate clubs taking associations, officials, whatever to civil courts (for obvious reasons - it'd be chaos). The correct course of action for a club that feels their association is biased against them, is to request UEFA intervention.

Coming out with terrifying stories like this without any evidence IS scaremongering! You don't have to be wrong to be a scaremonger. If Leggo has genuine proof about "the Green Gang" having ulterior motives he should present it in a way that doesn't sound like The National Enquirer. Always been the case with him, I know, but one of these days he'll uncover something of genuine importance and no-one will believe him.

I always found the fact that Whyte specifically chose D&P a bit alarming. On the other hand, D&P's response that they knew Whyte was getting money from ticketus but assumed it was for working capital rather than to fund the takeover is completely plausible. What D&P believed: Whyte pays bank debt with own money, gets working capital from ticketus (prefectly fine, especially if they didn't know the amount). What actually happened: Whyte pays bank debt with ticketus money, gets working capital by withholding tax. Would we be any better off if HMRC had appointed an adomistrator? I doubt it but, as usual with this sorry saga, it's such a tangle there's no way of finding the thread of truth.

Well, on the bright-side, if a newco takes the historical penalties with it, then no-one can reasonably argue that the rest of the history wouldn't also be transferred. Hopefully a CVA will make this irrelevant anyway.

Yeah, the domestic cups mean money, which we need. - nothing to stop an away boycott though. Winning any of the trophies would annoy the "authorities", and an even more perfect "screw you" than winning the league would be to win the treble. Maybe I'm dreaming, but you've got to be in 'em to win 'em.