Frankie

Good work mate - admire your proactive response!

Welcome to the site mate. We won't pretend to be as busy as other forums but we do offer a good level of debate which has kept us going for the last 12 years or so...

Duff and Phelps, the administrators of Rangers Football Club, issued the following statement today. David Whitehouse, joint administrator, said: "We have today written to the Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association requesting an immediate expedited appeals process over the sanctions imposed on Rangers by the Association's judicial panel last night. "The decision of last night's judicial panel is in our opinion quite extraordinary. Not only in our opinion do the panel fail to have properly apportioned culpability between the Club and Craig Whyte, they appear to have rendered a penalty which could have a very detrimental effect on the ability of the administrators to achieve a sale of the business or a Company Voluntary Arrangement. This, in turn, cannot be in the interests of Rangers Football Club or Scottish football in general. "The football authorities are fully aware that we are in the throes of an extremely complex insolvency situation. There has been widespread support across the political spectrum and in the football world for Rangers to be saved as a club and a viable business, last night's decision can only hinder rather than help. "The decision to prohibit the Club from signing new players is akin to a court ordering the administrator of a trading company not to buy stock. The principal operating and trading asset of a football club are its players and an inability to sign new players frustrates both the ability of the company to trade and the statutory objectives of administration. "It is extremely disappointing that approximately three weeks ago purchasers were at the point of confirming unconditional offers which would have achieved the purpose of administration. This process was first delayed by the announcements of the SPL to implement the rule changes to be considered on 30th April, and has now been further hampered by the sanctions imposed last night. "We are unsure as to whether the judicial panel fully understood or considered the commercial impact upon both the Club and Scottish Football of these measures, nor are we satisfied at this stage as to whether these sanctions are indeed lawful. Clearly time is running out to achieve a sale of the business or a CVA and the Club can ill afford further legal arguments. Accordingly, we are urging both football authorities to adopt a more pragmatic approach to sanctions to ensure that the administration of Rangers Football Club can be brought to a conclusion at the earliest possible date for the good of not only the Club but also for Scottish football generally. "We would then encourage the footballing authorities to introduce a framework so as to provide clarity in circumstances such as these going forward, rather than allowing arbitrary measures to be introduced on an ad-hoc basis which clearly impede a process of administration. "We are sure the authorities recognise that any potential purchaser or investor in a football club must have clarity in relation to its future playing capabilities and revenue potential. By failing to provide clarity in relation to pragmatic and commercially sensible penalties the authorities are by default prejudicing the survival of one of the clubs whose existence is key to the well being of Scottish football. "We will continue to work tirelessly over the next couple of days to attempt to secure the comfort from the football authorities as to the level of future sanctions which will be raised, so as to enable one of the bidders to proceed with an acquisition of Rangers Football Club Plc without further delay."

PS: Unless you mean David Edgar who used to be the spokesperson for the Trust. He also resigned a while back to pursue other commitments.

Jim Templeton is his name. He's no longer the Assembly chairman but he still takes a keen interest in a variety of matters surrounding the club.

Fair comment. Essentially our club has been run into the ground by two people - SDM and Craig Whyte. These are the people who should be punished - not the Rangers support who contribute massively to Scottish football.

I edited that as I removed the bottom line until you chaps and Assembly etc give OK...

In many ways there does lie an opportunity for us to totally rebuild the club as a model for football's future - both in a sporting and business sense. We may not be able to compete with government backed Spanish clubs but we can provide a workable template for the future. But only if we're allowed to move on from past sins we had no control over.

No probs mate - didn't realise you were Empire... If you intend printing any flyers, I have a full resolution 300dpi CMYK version available for doing so.

Then his boss should have said do one.

Cool - happy to help where possible. Think this is Empire's (from FF) baby?

He makes some good points and I've no issue with our club (and the correct people) being punished for the mistakes that we've made. The problem will come when such sanctions will not be applied across the board. Look at Spain for example. Even Thomson's own very weak coverage has lacked balance. I'd rather see a public enquiry into the whole thing - I'm sure SDM and LBG would welcome that.

To be fair, surely Bennett could (and with respect should) have told BH to mind his own business...

I've not really followed this issue all that closely so hopefully BH can explain his reasoning.

As said earlier, best we have maximum impact throughout so am glad RFFF is working towards that. However, it seems we have a lot of frustrated bears wanting to protest so I think experienced groups like the RST should get involved with this Saturday's protest to ensure it is run well.

I still don't understand why you thought pressurising this guy was a good idea. People can hold a variety of different directorships and not let it affect their 'day-job'.

Both Ticketus and D&P are strangers to the truth.

Possibly but there is no bottomless pit of cash for him. And that's without considering the fact most fans won't want him given a penny.

I can assure you the claims are (at least partially) true. He wants to retain a 25% holding and representation on the board (I wonder who he'd choose for that - not), 2 director's box tickets and a cash settlement. Is it any wonder our chums from Asia walked away so annoyed last week? Especially when Tickets and D&P said they could deliver Whyte without such nonsense.

I suggest people wait 24-48hours before organising protests. Let's allow the fan groups to lead and we can help ensure full participation.

All details here: http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2565&newsCategoryID=1&newsID=9718

There have been a variety of rules broken but the main one is Rule 66 - a catch-all of 'bring the game into disrepute'. Unprecedented censure when you consider Livi, Dundee and Motherwell.

Bizarre situation on top of everything else. We can ill-afford to sideline saleable assets for what appears a minor disciplinary issue.

I find the player embargo a bit strange. Why not a ban from their competition - the Scottish Cup? Not because of sponsorship being affected would it?