chilledbear

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/spl/2012/02/28/rangers-hopeful-that-24m-ticketus-deal-can-be-written-off-in-legal-row-86908-23768226/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter RANGERSâ?? hopes were rising last night that they can escape the tentacles of Octopus and write off their £24million ticket deal. And in another dramatic late night twist Record Sport can reveal the men fighting to save Rangers have started legal action to force the release of millions locked in a London account. The administrators believe as much as £4m could be in an account held by Collyer Bristow, the lawyers taken on by Craig Whyte during his buyout. It was into this account Ticketus deposited the £24m after Whyte sold off future season ticket sales. Whyte used this money to pay Lloyds £18m but the insolvency experts reckon there should be millions left in the account. They have had no luck in trying to get Gary Withey, Rangersâ?? company secretary, who is also a partner at Collyer Bristow, to open up the account. With the axe about to fall on players and staff at Ibrox Duff and Phelps felt they could wait no longer. Last night they instructed London law firm Taylor Wessing to take action in a bid to force the immediate release of Rangersâ?? money. The Ibrox fans will also be buoyed by the news that the Ticketus deal might not stand up to legal scrutiny. The Ibrox administrators are not convinced Ticketus, who are owned by Octopus, should even be considered creditors. Duff and Phelps have already told Ticketusâ?? lawyers that under Scots Law the clear advantage WILL lie with Rangers. They will argue that personal rights canâ??t be assigned and that the rights in this case belong to season ticket holders. With 60 per cent of cash from season tickets set to go to Ticketus until 2015, and with Gers fans threatening a boycott under such a deal, it will be tougher to escape administration. It would also make liquidation more of a threat and scare off any new owner. But if the Ticketus deal is declared void it will be a hugely positive step. The administrators stated their case last week in a meeting with Ticketusâ?? lawyers Pinsent Masons. Ticketus then wrote to Duff and Phelps stressing the deal still stands but the fact the letter came from the company, and not their lawyers, raised optimism. Rangersâ?? case would be strengthened if itâ??s shown Financial Assistance came into play in the takeover. Financial Assistance, or the use of a firmâ??s assets to raise money to buy that company, is illegal and the authorities will probe this. The administrators believe Rangers can wriggle off the hook and the absence of a legal presence from Ticketus after the meeting last week is regarded as â??significantâ??.

I've not been on RM since I was branded a tim many months ago. I do frequent FF though don't post very often, I find it very good for the latest news/rumours. I have never seen the 'menu for NL', but it is easy enough to figure out which thread is worth looking at, and which ones to give a miss. I'm a bit mystified about 'bringing the orange strip back' and 'sash bash', and why you would find these offensive. After all these are public forums, and people having a 'sash bash' have the same right to talk about it, as you have to say you don't like the royal family.

Split 3 ways.

If Rangers need money from this game, then we are in a worst state than we are being told. I thought the money was going to charity.

Don't know who was going to disclose this apart from Whyte himself.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/17173031

The Article in full. Paul Murray, the former Rangers director and now head of a prospective consortium interested in buying the club, has said that he will know by the end of this week the names of the â??like-minded businessmenâ? who are going to be involved in a possible takeover bid and how much money his collective is likely to have. Ibrox director Dave King, he said, may be involved but Murray was confident that Kingâ??s massive tax problems in South Africa will not impact on Rangers in any way. King is facing 322 charges of money-laundering, racketeering, fraud and tax evasion and has, for 14 years, been pursued by the South African Revenue Services for unpaid tax of 2.7 billion rand, about £230m. King denies the charges against him, but late last year had his Stellenbosch wine estate liquidated by a government administrator. King is considered the number one target in an aggressive clampdown by the revenue services in South Africa. â??Dave and I are mentioned as if we are joined at the hip and I respect him entirely,â? said Murray, yesterday. â??Heâ??s a former colleague of mine and a friend. But Dave has got his own interests and is able to decide whether he wants to be involved or not. Iâ??d like him to be involved, but the vision here is to make this a broadly-based offering. I donâ??t think itâ??s sustainable to have one or two or even four or five people involved, we have to spread the load. Thatâ??s the most sustainable model and Dave will look at that in his own right. â??I donâ??t want to comment on Daveâ??s personal tax affairs but Iâ??m sure that he will factor that into his decision of whether he wants to invest. I donâ??t think Dave will do anything to embarrass Rangers. I donâ??t have details of his tax affairs and Iâ??ve never asked him. But knowing him well, if he felt that this was either going to be embarrassing for the club, after everything thatâ??s happened, or he felt this would be a distraction I think he would step aside. But if he felt he could manage the situation, he might look at it differently. I would trust Dave to come to the right decision.â? Murray has been trying to strike a balance this past week. He wants to engage with fans, and has done. He wants to present a vision that they can believe in and invest in but is wary of heightening expectations too much. â??What I donâ??t want to do is set expectations. Iâ??m trying to be realistic. Itâ??s a massive problem we have. Iâ??m positive, but I donâ??t want to set unrealistic deadlines. â??Iâ??ve never portrayed myself as a multi-millionaire. What Iâ??m saying here is that I will obviously invest, I will put my time into it, I know the club inside out in terms of its finances, but Iâ??m trying to bring a group of people together to come forward with a common vision. Itâ??s quite difficult to pull together but itâ??s entirely possible. Iâ??m actually staggered by the interest.â? How many potential big-ticket investors and how much money? Itâ??s not something he can nail down for definite right now. â??Iâ??m not in a position to say how much money we have, because itâ??s unclear. Iâ??m not evading the question but I want to make sure that when I come out with this I have it firmed up. You were the first to say I had a pie in the sky plan the last time and I disagree with you on that. But I want to make sure this is done properly. I think it was badly presented the last time in terms of the media coverage of it. It needs to be properly formulated before I go on the record with the details.â? A key detail is what he intends to do with the HMRC howitzer, should it arrive to the tune of £49m or anything like that sum. â??I hope we can deal with the EBT tax case through the administration process. Do it all at the same time with other issues that have to be dealt with. I sat on the board for four years and we halved the debt, but that was under extreme pressure from the bank and we were lucky to have Walter Smith winning leagues, so we had Champions League money that enabled us to pay down the debt. As a consequence, though, not just the playing squad but the entire infrastructure of the club needs to be reinvested in. Thereâ??s been years of under-investment. Thereâ??s a big capital requirement going forward. Anybody buying the club has to factor that in.â? What heâ??s doing is checking the commitments of those who have come forward, applying some scrutiny to the various Blue Knights who have appeared since the club imploded. â??By the end of next week I will have a clear view of not just the members of the consortium but how much money we think we can raise. Iâ??m not saying it will all be legally done [completed], but I will have a pretty clear view of the overall context of it. The people Iâ??m talking to have been there a long time, people who were looking at the club this time last year, so the interest has always been there. Itâ??s not like people are starting from absolute scratch, there is a level of past relationship. The people who are expressing interest at the moment are not doing it for profit-making reasons, theyâ??re doing it to try and rescue the club and put it on a solid foundation.â? He hasnâ??t spoken to Brian Kennedy, who has expressed a tentative interest in buying the club, but he would welcome a chat. â??Iâ??m only doing this so that Rangers can get into the right hands. If thereâ??s a better consortium somewhere, I will gladly step aside or even join it. Thatâ??s possibly what might happen over time; the various interested parties might come together. I donâ??t see any reason why people should be competing given the scale of the problems the club has got. I would think that people with the same interests should come together and work together. We just need to take some responsibility and go and do it.â? Easier said than done, but the coming week is a pivotal one for Murray and his team.

It'll be the usual ones that have been mentioned. I honestly don't see any others, 'American', 'Middle East', or any other part of the world getting involved. The question is, when will they step in, and what state will the club be in.

We have stopped every song/chant they have flagged for near on 2 years. Still they sing their ira songs without any reproach. I have no need to mention fenians when I support Rangers, but we should not bend down and be shafted by people who would be happy to see our demise.

Whatever you can afford mate.

Ewan Murray @mrewanmurray Essentially, Johnston is arguing takeover deal can be reversed/Whyte loses secured creditor status if such conditions not met.

I'll pledge my heating allowance. Persuading the wife will take a bit longer.

Ewan Murray @mrewanmurray Rangers' ex chairman Alastair Johnston has written to the club's administrators, calling for them to state whether or not obligations of... the takeover last May have subsequently been met. Johnston: "I believe that it would serve the public interest for the administrators to make a full declaration ...with respect to relevant compliance." Johnston alludes specifically to circular to shareholders at time of takeover, part 3, paragraph 1... Sorry about the layout, taken from twitter

Any of you on One Show Monday? Good piece, on iplayer now. Never see BBC Scotland making something like this.

Great thing twitter.

Dave King has just left Ibrox with Ally McCoist. From my spy at Ibrox:drum:

Perhaps I'm completely wrong here. It seems to me that other teams in SPL, EPL and other countries, are able to bring in young lads, at 17/18 years of age. Yet ours are never deemed good enough, and are 'not ready' at this age. We can all remember those in the past, Henderson, DJ, Ferguson etc. Is there something lacking in the way we educate them football wise at Auchenhowie? I don't expect you to give an answer, really just an observation.

We have to hope the Admin. are good at this. It's not always the case.

The guy should never have been anywhere near Rangers. He's a shyster, and the best/worst of it is, he's not very good at it.

Is the bike still there?

Rangers owner Craig Whyte sells off 102 years of Ibrox history by dumping shares in Arsenal Feb 22 2012 Exclusive by James Traynor & Keith Jackson craig whyte rangers owner Image 1 CRAIG WHYTE has flogged 102 years of Rangers history by selling the clubâ??s shares in Arsenal. The latest revelation, which will sicken the clubâ??s supporters, has come to light as part of Record Sportâ??s explosive investigation into Whyte and the £1 deal he struck to buy Rangers after selling off £24.4 million worth of season tickets to finance his takeover. Fresh information in our possession now shows how Whyte struck a deal worth more than £230,000 with a consortium called Red and White to sell off the 16 shares and cash in on a historic link between the clubs dating back to 1910. And brazenly, Whyte then blocked a move for the cash to be paid into the Rangers bank account, demanding instead it stayed lodged in one of his own companies, Pritchard Stockbrokers in Bournemouth. Pritchardâ??s assets have now been frozen on the orders of the Financial Services Authority. The FSA moved in on Friday after ruling that Pritchard, who listed Whyte as board *secretary, had used client money to cover its own costs. The increasingly *embattled Whyte then resigned from his position at Pritchardâ??s before standing down from two further directorsâ?? posts with related companies, Merchant Corporate Recovery and Merchant Strategic Renewal. Now Rangersâ?? *administrators, Duff and Phelps, may attempt to recover the missing money as they fight to clean up the financial carnage which Whyte has created during his disastrous nine months at the Ibrox helm. The close friendship forged between Rangers and Arsenal spans back to the turn of the last century when the Londoners were experiencing financial trouble of their own. Itâ??s believed Rangers attempted to help out by buying two shares in *Woolwich Arsenal because their manager, George Morrell, had previously worked for the Ibrox club. Around 20 years later, a much stronger and vibrant Arsenal gifted Rangers with a further 14 shares in return for their support during troubled times. This cemented what was already a rock solid *relationship between the then managers, Bill Struth and Herbert Chapman.Struth and Chapman are today revered by fans all over the world as the greatest servants in the history of their clubs. But Whyte ignored these historic links when he seized control of Struthâ??s old side and saw a chance to make a killing on the link.

Just hoping there's not worse in the pipeline. It's drip drip drip, every day.

The most likely would be from anyone looking at the books, checking where money has come from.

How would Traynor find this out?

So if we are to 'live within our means', how do we manage to breach this amount of money? It looks like there needs to be very very big changes in the way the Club is run.