Blue Moon

We are in a game of brinksmanship. Let's hope we stay firm. We cannot give in to these bullying demands.

Yes but Rangers said they han't signed anything and threw doubt on it.

I was not advocating a year out, but to take a hard line with them. I am hoping that we are fighting like mad to get the best deal we can and given how long this is taken, I am heartened that we are doing that.

I, for one, to not believe we would get a fair hearing. Secondly, they are asking us to accept any consequences coming from the oldco which would leave us as sitting ducks. They have already proved themselves to be dishonourable.

Was this not the reason they had to submit information to the courts?

It is up now FS. Can you copy? I am having inernet connection problems.

I think we should be asking why he has accompanied Doncaster to arrange the SKY deal. Talk about taking advantage of our weakness, taking the piss more like.

Why do you make that connection? I would love it to be true.

Strange isolated tweet from GDS. GIOVANNI DI STEFANO‏@DEVILSADVOKAT yes but I'm on train I am sorry but this may not be till tomorrow but rest assured it is big time in favour of RFC PLC big time

Says it is for insider dealing and money laundering and the USA is involved.

Deja vue :surprised:

I am not justifying HMRC but our case was different. We didn't pay tax and were using taxes as working capital.

In relation to D&P he seemed to accept their response and admit he was barking up the wrong tree.

it was clear from the outset that HMRC were going to take a stand with us as a warning to all football clubs to get their house in order. I think we are entitled to ask "why us?". It also comes at a time when tax evasion is a political hot potato and those who are doing it are viewed as parasites. I would like answers to why it has taken so long to come to a decision on the BTC and why if there was a change in HMRC policy on CVA's they did not tell us that months before. They have legitimate questions to answer. I believe that this will become a focus in the days and weeks ahead. I have been following Alex Thomson on Twitter recently (no thine enemy) and he has been asking questions of HMRC recently, with no reply, and he won't let go.

C W story now up. GIOVANNI DI STEFANO‏@DEVILSADVOKAT THE CRAIG WHYTE SHORT STORY AND A CONVERSATION IN MONACO By Giovanni Di Stefano and Tiina Paivarinta http://eturnkeysec3340002378c9.users.site2you.com/content/sitenewsreadmore/infobox/news/template/default/active_id/1027

Great reply, Calscot.

Does anyone think that Jim McColl will come back in? I have wondered if he did a deal with Green to buy them out when everything was settled. I did not understand why they just melted away, claiming they didn't like Green's business model. It didn't sit right with me.

Don't know what say we will have in anything, but I do not believe for a minute we will be back in the SPL this season. Right now I do not want to be within a mile of any of the dishonourable SPL clubs

Thanks, I have already changed it.

Ordinarily I like getting updates on players but I am still annoyed with the people who left and I think they could have transferred then left if that was what they wanted. They had ample time left in the window to do that.

Sorry, should read aricle from FF, can't edit the title.

A Line In The Sand By LITTLE BOY BLUE Updated Sunday, 22nd July 2012 Rangers RSS Feed They Just Can't Get Enough How refreshing it was to hear Ally McCoist speak out about the endless desire to stick the boot into Rangers. Less than a week before the start of the new season, our club is being blackmailed into accepting unreasonable and unlawful sanctions, otherwise the SFA will continue to withhold our membership, effectively putting the most successful club in the country out of the game. And with the Daylate Retard having an 'exclusive' look at the SPL's and SFA's plans to strip Rangers of league titles and cups, it is disappointing that Super Ally is the lone voice in opposition. Where are Alex McLeish and Walter Smith, former Scotland managers who are now being told their successes at Ibrox were achieved by cheating by the self-same association they served so well? There appears to be no end in sight to this bloodlust to do damage to Rangers. A ten point penalty, exclusion from Europe, a fine, an unlawful signing embargo, kicked out of the SPL, relegated all the way to Division Three, the departure of our top players, the threat of being stripped of titles and now they are coming after our ability to earn some money via TV rights of our SFL games. Throughout the past few months, 'sporting integrity' has been the buzz phrase but where is the integrity in the SPL trying to muscle in on the SFL's TV rights? The top flight's corrupt cabal is in grave danger of falling apart, hard cash is in short supply, four or five clubs are staring administration in the face, the SPL can't meet their contractual obligations to the SFL, and TV cash - or the lack of it! - is at the root of the problem. Of course, they were warned time after time about the likelihood of financial meltdown but they just couldn't stop themselves. Led by the lowest common denominator among their fans, the internet guerillas (or should that be gorillas?) wanted Rangers booted out of the league, they hated our club more than they loved their own, and now their bitterness and hatred is coming back to bite their arses big-time. The SFL has acted honourably throughout this entire sorry saga and I'll be very disappointed if David Longmuir does not tell the SPL where to go with their demand for a slice of the TV dosh. That Regan and the SFA appear to be going along with Doncaster's despicible attempt at blackmail serves to underline the corruption this pair of jokers are inflicting upon Scottish football. Both the SPL and the SFL are essentially independent bodies working under the jurisdiction of the SFA. That one should conspire against the other with the full connivance of the governing body is well out of order. But of course sound business practice and fairness have long since been kicked into touch by bogus drivel called 'sporting integrity'. It has been said over and over again on this board and by any number of contributors that our enemies won't stop until they have driven our club out of existence. That is where they are going and, each time we back off and concede ground, we move one step closer to oblivion. While we keep running, they'll keep chasing and, when they see Malcolm Murray and Charles Green going cap in hand to Hampden to plead with the SFA to grant our membership, it gives them further encouragement. If the SFA continue to hold a gun to our head, there has to be a case for taking the decision out of their hands, their behaviour throughout the past few months compromises any notion of fairness, the Court of Arbitration for Sport or UEFA really should step in to protect the good name of the game. Both Regan and Doncaster have been guilty of bringing the game into disrepute but unfortunately, with nobody speaking up for Rangers for so long, things have dragged on and on and we now have less than a week to find a solution. With no games to focus the fans' attention, our club was always going to be at its most vulnerable during the close- season. In that respect Duff & Phelps played a blinder in dragging out the 'preferred bidder' process and, aided and abetted by the 'this is not the time for protest' appeal, the Rangers have been battered from pillar to post throughout the summer. Somebody somewhere has to draw a line in the sand, it ends right here and now, there can be no more concessions. Accepting the drop into the Third Division should have been enough for any fair-minded observer and we could then have started to plan for the season ahead. But Scottish football is 2012 is anything but a fair-minded environment. The delay in granting our licence, an inexplicable desire to uphold the unlawful ban on new signings, more speculation surrounding the dual contracts smokescreen, the nonsensical edict that we should accept all further sanctions without appeal, it is a witch-hunt of unacceptable proportions...yet nobody at Rangers seems to be inclined to fight the good fight. Of course, after more than a decade of bending over to be well and truly shafted by all and sundry, we've let the Rangers-haters feel fireproof. David Murray and Martin Bain only ever felt the need to respond when things got personal. The man who had the cheek to call himself the Custodian and his well-tanned lackey let our club, its traditions and its fans be vilified both at home and abroad, it has been open season on Rangers for years and putting a stop to it all will be no easy task. Radical action is required and the suggestion that we withdraw our application for SFA membership, accept a year's suspension and watch Scottish football self-destruct has some merit. How would we survive? Well, players could be loaned out, the Ibrox facilities could be utilised for rock concerts, I'd like to think our Legends could fill the place on maybe ten or twelve occasions, there would surely be a concerted move to a fan ownership model during a year in the wilderness. Would the threat be enough to bring the SFA to their senses or would they be daft enough to call our bluff? Sadly, at this late stage, time is not on our side. Once more, lack of a respected figurehead within the club has allowed things to be drawn out and Regan, Doncaster et al will feel the balance of power has drifted back in their favour. I can only hope that the SFL stand firm in the dispute over their £2,000,000 entitlement and their TV rights, going all the way to UEFA if the SFA and SPL maintain their bullyboy approach. The presence of Rangers makes their product so much more attractive and the cash generated can only be good for those clubs operating on a shoestring in the lower leagues. Any cash crisis in the SPL is not of the SFL's making. No matter what happens to Rangers, I genuinely believe the SPL is beyond redemption. Sky will pull the plug, several clubs will go to the wall and the move towards league reconstruction will gather considerable momentum. But the damage has been done, it will take years for Scottish football to recover anything resembling respectability but the days of everyone pulling in the same direction for the greater good of the game may well be gone for ever. How can anyone trust the legislators who presided over a hate-filled death wish which chased so much money out of Scottish football? Where is the integrity of the chairmen who brought their own clubs to their knees just to satisfy their fans' hatred of Rangers? Our club is far from blameless here but the dodgy dealings of Murray and Whyte are yesterday's news. It is surely time to say 'enough is enough', we have to move on. Are the small-minds of the SFA and SPL willing to move forward or will they keep coming back for another kick at the Rangers? And the biggest question of all: Will they keep getting away with it?

I think the longer term fallout of all of this will be the rehabilitation of the Rangers support. We have taken some beating over this. It has already made us introspective and ask "why do so many people hate us and what do we need to do to change that?". For everyone else it will be dealing with our negative feelings and actions as we aim to punish those who have slighted us. Speaking for myself, I have been angry since February, and that is going to take a long time to go away. I feel disenfranchised for the first time in my life.

I understand what you mean but the football authorities are acting out with the law of the land. Bosman proved that they can't do that. Because something is in their rules does not make it acceptable. UEFA have removed transfer embargo as a legitimate sanction because it conflicts with European employment laws, yet our own association is using it. I would think that MP's etc would have plenty to say if staff lost their jobs over something that had been declared outwith their range of sanctions in a court of law. It is high time someone challenged the football authorities at the level of the European parliament. I know they have changed the sanction to apply to a condition of membership. To me that is bloody minded vindictiveness. What is so frustrating is that no-one is telling them to wise up.

I wondered about that too....future court case?