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  1. http://www.therangersstandard.co.uk/index.php/articles/rfc-politics/320-dundee-united-are-out-of-control
  2. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/scottish-labour-pledge-scrap-snps-3262872 Not a surprise...
  3. Hi, I'm an open and avid proponent of Rangers First - I really believe this can be great for the club and the support. I have been sending this out to my contacts list and thought it could be worth an airing on here: As all Rangers Supporters know it has been a turbulent few years. We seem to move from one crisis to another and I think we are all getting to the stage where the common consensus is that something must be done. The average fan is seeking to have a more open relationship with the club, people who previously had no interest in the on goings behind the scenes at the club are now demanding transparency and openness. There is a swell of support for increased fan involvement at Rangers Football Club – and something that has previously not received a great deal of wide support is now become a possibility. Rangers First is a fan led membership vehicle, backed by Supporters Direct – a government funded organisation, for fan ownership that is seeking to purchase shares in Rangers in order to achieve the goal of the fans having transparent authoritative consultation with the club. The goal is to ensure that every Rangers fan knows exactly where the club are and where we are going – the advantages of which will lead to greater fan engagement of the club ensuring our illustrious history continues into the future. Once that initial goal has been achieved Rangers First has the capability of increasing the revenue potential of the club in order to help us regain our position as the dominant club of Scottish Football. Rangers First is a CIC (community interest company) that is set up to benefit the Rangers Community. There are currently over 900 members who have signed up to Rangers First within two weeks of the launch and have already donated various levels of finance with membership starting from as little as £5 per month in order to allow as many fans as possible to have a say in the club. It was agreed at the initial meetings that Rangers First is not interested in getting involved with the internal politics at the club (who is on the board does not matter) – we are only interested in getting the fans a voice to ensure that they stay engaged with the club and to help ensure that Rangers stays the greatest and most successful club in the country. We are focused on community involvement and fan governance - you will not see any controversial statements coming from us. We are a democratic organisation that seeks to give the fans a voice. No fan involved will receive any financial reward or payment – we are all volunteers trying to make a difference at the club. Ideally we are looking for 1872 people to buy a life membership at £500 which will give us enough cash to buy circa 5% of the club. 5% being an important number in a plc allowing Rangers First several capabilities including the ability to call an EGM. For the good of Rangers, and The Rangers Support, I would ask of you as a supporter of the club to consider becoming a member of Rangers First. If you could take the time to look at http://www.rangersfirst.org it would be greatly appreciated. I myself, and my family are all taking out life memberships in Rangers First as well as a monthly contribution. We are also donating our shares bought at the IPO to Rangers First. This is something I believe can be the vehicle that ensures we get back to where we should be. Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to ask me. I’m sure we can make a difference. We Are The People - Any constructive feedback?
  4. DAVE King will help rebel Rangers fans to finalise plans for the formation of a trust for season ticket money at talks in Glasgow this weekend. And supporters are set to show their backing for the South Africa-based businessman at the game with Dunfermline at Ibrox tomorrow. The Union of Fans - an umbrella organisation comprising six supporters' groups - will distribute 30,000 blue cards to spectators at the SPFL League One match. And they will be asked to hold them up in the 18th and 72nd minutes of the match and "paint Ibrox blue" to underline their backing of the former director. The Union want the current board to accept the wealthy Scot's proposal to inject fresh share capital into Rangers. Union spokesman Chris Graham said: "The club clearly needs investment and Dave King has stated his willingness to provide it. "We hope that fans will take the opportunity to show their support for someone with a track record of supporting Rangers both personally and financially. "Hopefully the board will realise the strength of feeling on this issue and adopt a less adversarial approach in their future dealings with Dave King. "Fans should not underestimate the power they have to push for positive change at another critical time for the club." King has spent the last two days in London speaking to institutional investors in Gers about whether they would back his plans for the Ibrox club. The 58-year-old, who previously invested £20million of his personal fortune in the Light Blues, will now meet with the Union and the current board of directors over the weekend. He is urging fans to pool their season ticket money and only release it to the club on a "pay-as-they-play" basis when their questions are answered and their demands are met. The Castlemilk-born financier has vowed not to return to his adopted homeland until a trust for pooling season ticket money is legally in place. King's visit follows the news that Rangers had agreed a £1.5m loan for "working capital" with shareholders Sandy Easdale and Laxey Partners, secured on Edmiston House and the Albion car parking facilities. The revelation that Laxey Partners will make a £150,000 profit on the loan when it is repaid in September has also angered fans. Wealthy Rangers fan George Letham has volunteered to loan the Ibrox club the money on better terms and officials are believed to be considering his proposal. Documents lodged with Registers of Scotland, the country's official land and property register, have shown that Rangers will use season ticket money to repay the loan. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/king-to-set-out-pay-as-they-play-scheme-to-rangers-fans-155805n.23693712
  5. "Now to the story from Jim Spence. He reports that Dundee United have been refused their request to have their Scottish Cup semi-final on 12 April moved to a neutral venue, if their opponents are Rangers. The Tannadice club made an official request to the SFA that the match be played at a neutral venue, but say the governing body has rejected the request, citing examples from Uefa as a precedent for a club playing a semi-final on its own ground. Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson said: "This of course is all dependent on the result of Albion Rovers v Rangers. If it is to be Rangers, then we are not happy with the fact that it is not a neutral venue. A semi-final or final should be at a neutral venue. "This is not an issue with Rangers, it's with the SFA and putting commercial and sponsors' interests before that of fans. We wanted to play the match at Celtic Park but that was flatly denied." Thompson also said that he would not be sitting in the directors' box at Ibrox for the match if United do meet Rangers, but would instead be in with his own supporters. United say they have been given a maximum ticket allocation of 13,100 for the semi at Ibrox if their opponents are Rangers and say that initially they were offered only 11,000 tickets. Albion Rovers meet Rangers next Monday night at New Douglas Park in the quarter-final replay for a place in the last four. An SFA spokesperson said: "The clubs were informed of the venue just after the first round of the cup, due to Hampden Park being out of commission because of the Commonwealth Games. "There were no issues raised then at that early stage."
  6. By Tom English BBC Scotland, in his new job with the BBC Charles Green's latest Rangers contribution might not have been as barmy a cameo as those provided by porn baron Paul Baxendale-Walker or that business with the Northamptonshire clown, Mr Custard. However, in the odditorium that is Ibrox, Green's bombast of Friday was another cringe-making moment. His new life may have taken him far from Glasgow, to an 18th-century castle in Normandy, but it would appear that the Yorkshireman is still of the view that he was God's gift to Rangers. Self-regard was always a stock-in-trade of Green's; self-awareness, far less so. At a time when Rangers have taken out a £1.5m loan in order to keep the lights on, Green's poor-mouth performance about being under-compensated for his work at Ibrox was laughable and must have served as a firm kick in the unmentionables to every fretting Rangers fan. His reappearance was fitting in one way, though. Things have reached the point of a free-for-all at Rangers. Pot-shots are being flung left, right and centre between suggested saviour Dave King and the board. Charles Green Charles Green believes he was under-compensated for his work at Ibrox The supporters needed Green popping into this saga like they needed a hole in the head. You watched Green climbing back into the narrative and, in that moment, it was easy to imagine the Rangers supporters repeating that line from Jerry Maguire, the film about the sports agent played by Tom Cruise. Maguire/Cruise was at what he thought was his lowest point only for further mishap to befall him. "Jump into my nightmare," he said, sighing. "The water's warm." The way in which former director King and the current Rangers board are training their guns on one another in public is remarkable. It was only last November that King called for some kind of decorum among key people in the Rangers story. "The best interests of the club will not be facilitated by playing it out in the media," he said. So much for that plan. Ten days ago, King issued his Gettysburg Address on the state of the club. It was damning stuff. There was a response, of course. Then King responded to the response. Graham Wallace, the chief executive, responded to the response to the response and King responded once again. The tit-for-tat carried on. David Somers, the chairman, slammed King and King slammed back. Director Sandy Easdale got involved and King replied. Then King went again. This is mortifying stuff. King is calling into question the integrity of the board while playing down other integrity questions closer to home, such as those raised by his guilty plea and subsequent conviction for epic contraventions of South African tax law, which eventually cost him more than £45m in cash and assets. We know that many Rangers fans are behind King regardless. This was the man who previously invested £20m in Rangers and lost the lot. That wins him kudos. Equally, it's the same man who sat on Craig Whyte's board of directors and who, according to the SFA's judicial panel, failed to do enough to question the former owner's disastrous behaviour. It's a measure of the mindset of Rangers people that so many have placed so much trust in King, a man denounced as a "glib and shameless liar" by a South African court. “Who will win this battle? It depends on how serious King and his supporters really are and what lengths they will go to in order to get a result” If the fans pick King over the board - and they are, in increasing numbers - then that tells you a lot about how the current incumbents are performing. They have been saying for months that there is no pressing cash crisis, while at the same time taking out a short-term, and high-interest, loan of £1m from one of its institutional investors, Laxey Partners. Their 'nothing to see here' mantra rings suspicious. Apart from the £1m loan (and the bank charges associated with it) there is an interest-free loan of another £500,000 from Sandy Easdale. Why would a club with no pressing need for money take out an emergency loan and then secure part of it against club assets? They haven't adequately explained it. There are questions everywhere for the board and not many answers. The Rangers Standard website wrote about some wealthy Rangers-supporting businessmen who would have been prepared to offer the club loans at more favourable rates of interest than the Laxey agreement. John McClure was one such businessman. George Letham is another. The board are said to be considering ditching Laxey's deal and taking up Letham's offer instead. What does it say about this board of directors when a fans' website can track down wealthy Rangers supporters who are willing to loan money on more attractive terms than the club's investment committee could negotiate? These supporters run this website in their spare time. They are not on the club's payroll. As head of the Rangers investment committee, it is the job of director Norman Crighton to do this kind of business and he's rewarded handsomely for it. Former Rangers director Dave King Former Rangers director Dave King is keen on a return to Ibrox And yet, in the hours between putting in a day's work and putting the kids to bed, the fans can find better deals than he can? Crighton really ought to state his position on all of this. At the heart of this are the fans and their season-ticket money and the power they wield because of it. Rangers can't live without that cash. More and more the supporters are saying that the board are not getting it until they answer questions and bring transparency where currently everything is clouded. King and the fans' associations want to drip-feed the season-ticket money into the club by way of a trust. It's a device that could bring the board to heel or bring the club to its knees. It's high-stakes stuff, but the fans are mobilising, that's for sure. Mobilising behind King. He is said to be on his way to Glasgow soon for this showdown with the board. They should put the Rangers TV cameras in the room and sell it on pay-per-view. In a relative blink, the cash crisis would ease. Who will win this battle? It depends on how serious King and his supporters really are and what lengths they will go to in order to get a result. Equally, it depends on how much financial trouble the club is truly in and how short of answers they really are. To the former, the response is "very serious" and in the case of the latter the reply is always "not much trouble at all". But you learn to be sceptical about everything you are told in this story. Green's cameo might have brought an air of black comedy, but at its essence the fight for control at Rangers is a thriller - with a touch of horror thrown in. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26459395
  7. Five people have been arrested in connection with crowd trouble at the Motherwell v Celtic game last week A reported £10,000 of damage was caused to seats in a section housing Celtic fans, a flare was let off in the same area before the game and two green smoke bombs were thrown on to the pitch during the match at Fir Park stadium on Friday. Celtic said they were ''appalled'' by the actions and issued precautionary suspensions to 128 supporters preventing them from attending home and away matches, while 250 season-ticket holders seated in the Green Brigade's corner of Celtic Park are to be moved to other parts of the ground. Police said 18 smoke bombs, three fireworks and one flare were set off. There were also disturbances and vandalism in Motherwell both before and after the game. Officers said five people were arrested in connection with the disorder on Monday and inquiries are continuing. The incident was the latest in a spate of trouble at Scottish football matches. A teenage girl was arrested after a flare was thrown from the Rangers support after their win at Falkirk on November 30, damaging the pitch, and a smoke bomb was thrown from the Motherwell support during their defeat by Albion Rovers on the same day. Last Saturday, 10 people were arrested in connection with football-related disorder before the Falkirk v Raith Rovers match. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/u/five-arrested-after-celtic-fan-trouble-at-motherwell-match.1386845170
  8. Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 31s #Rangers Dave King "Message to fans is..if we don't hold board to account then we will have a couple of unnecessarily difficult years ahead" Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 1m Dave King "I am absolutely confident that Craig Whyte won't have a future at #Rangers going forward" Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 1m Dave King "There are powers behind the throne at #Rangers not represented on board" would prefer him an other likeminded people involved Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 2m Dave King believes there is a "guiding hand behind" #Rangers that is not currently sitting on the board. But doesn't name names. Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 3m Dave King says "what is very important" is transparency must come first, before any future investment. Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 4m Dave King says trying to avert "another financial crisis" at #Rangers & that board is relying on fans' "fierce loyalty" to come up with cash Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 5m DaveKing says "it is obvious" #Rangers is "running out of money" & was happy go be a significant investor but board has since "done nothing" Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 9m Dave King says real aim to get "proper transparency from #Rangers & would like not to have to set up fund for season tickets. Martin Williams ‏@Martin1Williams 11m Dave King says will meet the #Rangers board and insists his statements about "financial crisis" of club was "nothing controversial"
  9. Ibrox investor Kieran Prior has thrown his weight behind Dave King's Rangers revolution THE former Goldman Sachs trader will meet the South African tycoon in London next week to discuss his plans to shake-up the boardroom at the beleaguered club. IBROX investor Kieran Prior has thrown his weight behind Dave King’s Rangers revolution. Prior will meet the South African tycoon in London next week – and reckons other major shareholders are ready to back his agenda for change. The former Goldman Sachs trader’s support of King comes as the ex-pat prepares to fly to the UK, vowing he will not leave until he comes up with a “definite game plan” for the future of the Ibrox club. Prior said: “Dave and I have spoken and I want to support his objectives for the club. He has asked to meet me in London next week for further talks to find the best way forward for Rangers. “I’ve talked with investors who hold significant stakes in the club and it’s my belief they are ready to back Dave’s vision for the future. “The board do not have the business acumen of Dave, nor his philanthropic approach to helping the club return to the top.” Prior, a childhood Rangers fan, owns around 2.5 per cent of the club and has invested £1million in the last 12 months. He is keen to invest more and is willing to take a financial hit on his existing shareholding if it helps the club back on its feet. He added: “In order for us to have a club at all we need a stable board and management structure and an ongoing supply of capital. “If that means a new rights issue then it means a new rights issue. If I have to dilute my shareholding for the good of the club then it’s no big deal. We may not need a shares issue but I’d rather have one if it safeguards the club.” Former director King, 58, urged fans last week to withhold season-ticket cash and hand it over to the club on a game-by-game basis. King, who lost £20m under Sir David Murray, decided he could no longer watch from the sidelines and claimed the current board, led by chairman David Somers, were burying their heads in the sand. He said: “I know they are running out of money, hence my approach to them late last year. “I said then, ‘It’s now early enough to anticipate you will not make the end of the year on your current cash balances so let’s try to go about a new fundraising exercise’. “I was happy to be a significant investor, in fact a leader of a consortium putting new funds into the club with the only condition they went into the club. I wasn’t interested in taking on existing shareholders and buying their shares. “I was looking for a new share issue and for those funds to go into the club but they have adopted a ‘Nero fiddling while Rome burns’ approach. “The board has done nothing, has not been transparent with the finance and we now know they have run out of funds and are trying to shuffle on hoping the fans will again rescue them. “They are looking for money for season tickets so they can continue for another couple of months before another financial crisis. That is what I am trying to avert. “The board has said my intentions are damaging but the opposite is true. The board should go to the fans and say, ‘This is the true state of the position at the club’. “I will meet the board. I will visit the institutions in London next week and put a schedule together with some of the existing shareholders to find out where they are and how they feel about a rights issue. “I will stay in Scotland for as long as it takes until we have a definite game plan.” Meanwhile, King has rejected claims from Sandy Easdale he never held talks with the transport boss about putting new funds into the club. King said: “I subsequently spoke with Sandy and he has confirmed he intended his comment to be construed as meaning I had never offered loan finance to the club. “He is correct. I have only offered equity finance. I do not believe the club can afford debt at this time. “I accept his statement was a misunderstanding and he was not intending to impugn my integrity.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ibrox-investor-kieran-prior-thrown-3212193
  10. http://www.therangersstandard.co.uk/index.php/articles/rfc-politics/310-dr-waiton-on-rangers-free-speech-and-sectarianism It's an excellent read (the Spiers part especially), very well done to John.
  11. By: Newsroom Staff on 04 Mar, 2014 17:14 CELTIC have called for a review of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Grounds Act to be brought forward and have labelled it ´unhelpful and counter-productive´. The Scottish Government introduced the legislation in 2012 and promised a review after two full football seasons of operation. However, Celtic believe that there is already sufficient evidence of the Act´s ´unhelpfulness and negative impacts´ to justify an immediate review with action to follow. Celtic have all along opposed this legislation which has been used to create a general presumption that different laws should apply to football supporters as distinct from society as a whole. This has inevitably led to a sense of discrimination across Scottish football and has brought the law into disrepute when tested in the criminal courts. It has also acted as a barrier to our own efforts to encourage supporters to behave in a way which is consistent with the club´s proud history and reputation. We believe the Scottish Government should review, as a matter of urgency, the way in which this unhelpful and counter-productive Act is operating. Celtic have always valued a positive relationship with the police and we are concerned that they too have now been put in the position of enforcing legislation which is provocative and does not command widespread respect. The Scottish Government has conceded the need to review the workings of the legislation but we see no need for delay since there is plenty of evidence available, not least from the comments of Sheriffs who have had to deal with cases arising from it. It would be helpful if the new season could kick off in August with these issues resolved so that everyone could concentrate on promoting the best possible environment for Scottish football and marginalising unwelcome influences which attach themselves to it.
  12. .........than Celtic getting Ten In A Row. THE IBROX boss knows that Celtic reaching that much sought after target would hurt, but there's a lot more going on in Govan to occupy his thoughts. ALLY McCOIST insists Rangers have more to worry about than stopping Celtic winning 10 in a row. The Ibrox manager has refused to get caught up in the storm created by Dave King’s decision to go to war with the board. The South Africa-based businessman claimed if the current regime weren’t ousted, Celtic would break through the famous nine-title record held jointly by both clubs. However, while that would pain McCoist, he insists the beleaguered club have bigger issues to address. The Rangers boss is one of only three Gers with a full set of nine medals from their run between 1989 and 1997, alongside Richard Gough and Ian Ferguson. And he said: “Of course it would hurt – but for the next 24 months there’s nothing I can do about it. “In the grand scheme of things our concerns are very much the last 24 months and the next 24 months. That’s the most important thing. “We can’t forget what happened, we can’t let it happen again, and we have to keep rebuilding. “Do we have more to worry about than a statistic? Yes but I don’t want to use it flippantly, as if I’m not doing my job. “Of course I don’t want Celtic to go to 10, it would be crazy to say that. But at the same time I think our club has far more important issues coming up. “We’ll have to improve incredibly to get back because it’s safe to say unless there’s a dramatic change in Scottish football, Celtic are everyone’s favourites for the foreseeable future. “We’re miles away if you’re talking about winning the top flight.” McCoist insists he won’t be involving himself in the politics of the club, despite having done so on several occasions over the past two years. He said: “The last few times of getting involved, we haven’t had a board, we haven’t had a chief executive, we’ve had no real stability or structure. “We have that know so they can deal with the business side of it and I’ll deal with the football. “I know my responsibilities and I know the fans look for leadership. But there are now members of the board who will also have to lead. I think the fans will appreciate that.” But supporters groups issued a vote of no confidence in the board on Thursday and backed King. They also supported his call for a trust to be set up that would collect season-ticket fees and drip feed the money to the regime week by week. Chief executive Graham Wallace responded by saying that threat was “damaging” Rangers but King rejected his claim yesterday. In a statement, King said: “I can only express bemusement at the board’s response to myself and the fans. “The board states that our statements are an attempt to undermine the club. That is an insult to fans who have nothing other than the club’s interest at heart. “They (the board) ask for trust but don’t recognise that trust is a mutual relationship and requires transparency. What the board is really asking of fans is to have blind faith – not trust. “This board has not earned that right and in fact has repeatedly demonstrated the opposite.” King also raised doubts about who was really pulling the strings behind the scenes and claimed former Ibrox chief Charles Green could still be a major player. He said: “It is quite possible that Green is still de facto controlling the club. Certainly the existing directors have a minuscule equity stake and yet won’t disclose the true power behind the throne.” Rangers needed a last-gasp Lee McCulloch penalty to see off East Fife 1-0 yesterday and move a step closer to the League One title. They can now wrap up the championship in their next league game against Airdrie on March 12 if Dunfermline fail to win against Stenhousemuir next weekend. But next up for Gers is a Scottish Cup clash with Albion Rovers and McCoist would take a repeat of yesterday’s poor display so long as Gers go through. He said: “If you offered me the same result next week against Albion I’d take it. There’s less emphasis put on performance in cup games because you only get one bite at it.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/ally-mccoist-rangers-far-more-3198056
  13. RICHARD GOUGH from Scottish Sun DAVE KING delivered an impressive statement straight from the heart last week. But as captain of the Rangers team that dominated Scottish football in the 1990s, one section really stood out for me. It was the part about the prospect of Celtic winning 10 in a row ‘— while Rangers ‘‘remain a small club who slug it out for the minor places’’. It stood out for one reason, it focused on football. It focused on the need to ensure Rangers is able to have long-term success on the pitch. Throughout this whole saga, it has often been forgotten that we are talking about Rangers Football Club. This has been a wretched story of dodgy dealings, of boardroom shenanigans and shadowy characters. But we should never lose sight of the ultimate goal ‘— and that is restoring Gers to the top of the Scottish game. I’’ve known King for a long time and share his concerns that unless serious action is taken, Rangers are in danger of being left trailing by Celtic. That can’’t be allowed to happen ‘— but there are countless tales in world football of big clubs who go through difficulties and never truly recover. You want an example? Just take a look at Leeds United’’s troubles over the last decade. I was in Dubai for a few days playing in a Scotland/ England legends match, and Lee Bowyer was in the opposition side. Seeing him reminded me of that great Leeds team from the 2000/01 season that reached the Champions League semi-final. That in turn got me thinking about our own Battle of Britain with Leeds in the European Cup in the early 1990s. They were an elite club back then. Those sides carried on the tradition of the legendary Leeds teams of the 1960s and 70s. Now? They are just an average Championship side who have been out of the top flight for 10 years. Leeds are still a massive club with a huge fanbase and they regularly attract crowds of 30,000 but they have never recovered from their original problems. So many years of mismanagement have hit Leeds very hard. Leeds are a million miles away from challenging for trophies and being a big hitter in English football again. Rangers won’’t languish in the Scottish lower leagues like Leeds have down south. But with the ongoing financial chaos and concerns over the direction of the club, it could be years before Gers can challenge Celtic. Are Rangers going to be the Scottish equivalent of Leeds? King certainly holds that fear, judging by his statement and it’’s hard to argue with him in a week that saw Rangers bank a ‘£1.5million emergency loan ‘— loaded with a crazy 15 per cent interest rate over six months. The Ibrox board claim this was part of a plan. Really? Are the fans expected to buy that? Rangers’’ response to King’’s statement said his comments were ‘‘damaging’’ but could any more damage be done? From the outside looking in, it appears Gers are in a mess ‘— once again. King’’s had enough and it looks as if the fans have as well. But who can blame them? Remember that banner from a few years back towards the end of Sir David Murray’’s reign? ‘‘We Deserve Better’’ it said. It’’s time the Ibrox fans looked that out again. For the last two years, the people running Rangers have taken them for granted. Enough’’s enough. It all has to stop now. This has to be the watershed moment. The fans have backed King. They have responded to his call for season-ticket money to be withheld and pooled. That might seem like drastic action, but why should the fans just hand over millions again? They have already seen a fortune being squandered by the people running Gers. They have watched as mystery shareholders have walked away with a massive profit in a matter of months. With the ongoing uncertainty, the fans have every right to choose to put their money somewhere safe ‘— not in the hands of people they don’’t trust. Nobody wants to damage Rangers. That is the last thing King or the fans want. Their support has been exceptional. But they need full transparency from the board before the hand over yet another huge wedge of cash. Fans are demanding answers and those in control at Ibrox will need to start providing them quick. If they don’’t, then it looks like they won’’t be getting the season-ticket money. That could put them in an impossible position. As for Ally McCoist, the best thing he can do is concentrate solely on football. My old team-mate has been shoved from pillar to post in the last few years. He has had a succession of bosses who have asked for his backing. Right now, Coisty is right to stay out of the politics. The fans look to him for guidance because he is the one man they trust. But the Rangers manager has three trophies to compete for. He has to try to lift the gloom over Ibrox. What better way to do that than by winning silverware? After all, that’’s what Rangers Football Club should be all about.
  14. Dave King’s latest intervention in Rangers’ affairs is as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. His call for fans to boycott the club in terms of buying season tickets – and his ridiculous idea to drip-feed monies to the club – is a blatant attempt to destabilise Rangers. King’s statement is a smoke and mirrors job for me and the club has had to shoot down in flames a newspaper’s assertion that the South African-based businessman had offered a £1 million loan interest free to Rangers. It could be reasonably argued that if Dave King does intend to invest in Rangers, his latest pronouncements have a good chance of driving the share price down. A cynical ploy it could be argued. I noticed that King mentioned he had lost £20 million at Ibrox previously. As I recently blogged, there is some dispute about this. However, if it is true it is a pretty self-damning example for King to use, given that he was a director in that previous regime which ended in the sale of the club for a shiny pound to a certain Craig Whyte. Hardly the best track record for success – “I lost £20 million of my own dough so let me have another go!” I have nothing personally against Dave King. I previously blogged of his potential to be a unifying figure at Ibrox. Sadly, he has become a divisive figure and is feeding Rangers-haters with every doom and gloom pronouncement he makes. Yes, there is a need for a short-term injection to help the club through a potential shortfall in income. In response up stepped Sandy Easdale with an interest-free loan while non-shareholder King is dreaming up schemes to hold the club to ransom and strangle cash flow. No doubt King’s comments will be met with glee by the fifth column in the Rangers support. I don’t propose – unlike some – to speak for other fans but I find his ideas to be nothing less than a crude concept of extortion which would hold the club in thrall to the whim of fans. In short, yet another attempt at fan power – otherwise known as mob rule. I have no doubt some fellow fans will share my repulsion at this power grab by a man who talks big but doesn’t get put his wallet where his mouth is. As far as I am concerned, King is nothing but a tyre kicker and we will never see the colour of his money. My message to Dave King is simple: Butt out or match Sandy Easdale pound for pound and give Rangers an interest-free loan. http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/blog-2/
  15. GORDON backs Hearts' incoming chairwoman to revive the club while lamenting the damage done by the would-be saviours at Ibrox. THE definition of altruism: When the answer to the question “What’s in it for you?” is “Nothing”. That’s Ann Budge for you. Sixty-five years old, self-made multi-millionaire, family woman, treasures her privacy and relative anonymity, sees her Saturday afternoons as sacred time with her daughter and grand-daughter in Section D of the Wheatfield. What could possibly be in it for her to commit herself to four or five years inside the washing machine of Scottish football? Nothing. Not a single thing. Which is why Hearts fans should be eternally grateful that she has. And, as I wrote back in September, Rangers fans should be peering east, mournfully lamenting what they could have had. The deal to take Hearts out of administration and forward is the result of months of good leadership, good governance, good PR, good organisation and, most of all, good intentions. And what they’ve emerged with is the perfect template for the handover from tyranny to the terraces. Make no mistake, Budge’s role will not be passive. She’s no figurehead. She’s real. Incongruously, for fan ownership to succeed in the long run, they’re going to need her to be a strong individual, making hard-headed decisions that would be impossible to arrive at if the club were being run by committee. Her job is to hand Hearts over in the best financial health she can create in as short a time as possible. And the only way that won’t happen is if Jambos fail to live up to their end of the bargain. That’s why they’re lucky to have her. She’s the anti-Craig Whyte, the anti-Charles Green. As executive chair, she’ll be working five days a week pro bono. She’ll be arriving at conclusions plenty may disagree with but the one thing no one can dispute is that she’s doing it for anyone’s benefit other than Hearts. There’s a legal agreement that she has to hand the club over to the Foundation as and when they hit their pre-agreed targets. She can’t change her mind, can’t flog them to a predator who fancies the place for himself when they’re back on an even keel. What that means is the fans have to create the bank of last resort for the club with their membership scheme, the financial cushion for the months where there’s a shortfall, where the season ticket money has run dry and the commercial income is a struggle. All they have to be able to do is prove that in the absence of support from an actual bank, they will never get back to the day when the wages won’t be in the bank. And there’s no reason they can’t. At the moment the Foundation of Hearts bring in £130,000 a month in direct debits. That’s £1.5million a year as your slush fund. The season tickets, corporate and commercial income, sponsorship, catering and anything else they can raise funds from provides their working capital. If they do all that? If they create a model that washes its face? There’s no reason why a club of their stature, with their support, can’t be golden in four years’ time. And in the meantime? What a Championship it’s going to be next year. A tale of two clubs from two cities whose stories over the past two years may as well have come from two different planets. The team who’ve done everything right to get out of administration against the team who’ve had every wrong imaginable done to them. Rangers will be looking at Hearts and thinking, “If only...” To be fair, their Supporters’ Trust still have faith they can make it happen. But when they needed the kind of altruism Budge offered Hearts, they got shafted. Twice. When they needed a Jim McColl, he ran shy. And when they needed unity of purpose, they fragmented. Even now, their intentions may be there. But neither the Easdales nor Dave King as a potential investor seems prepared to engage in the idea that the club need a move towards fan membership and ownership for the long-term good. They’re still saddled by the “What’s in it for me?” brigade and as long as the answer is “plenty”, they’re fighting a losing battle. But you know what? Despite the fact that Hearts’ total budget next year will probably be around the £1million mark, less than 20 per cent of Rangers’, if it’s spent well, they could challenge the assumption the Ibrox club will stroll through that league the way they’ve strolled through the last two. If they can get 16,000 inside Tynecastle every week, create a cause the way Hibs did when they went down in 1998, the way Rangers’ fans did when they went into the bottom tier? Keep the best of their kids, get a few course and distance guys in to help them when the embargo goes? Get a little momentum going? It’s going to be a hell of a race. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/gordon-waddell-altruistic-ann-budge-3151057
  16. 'Fisking' is an online term for deconstructing an article and showing the flaws in the argument in 'real time'. Graham Spiers' recent article for The Herald “Celtic, a Roll of Honour, and point-scoring galore” is a perfect candidate. Graham Spiers' words are in italics, while my commentary is in normal font. A pretty remarkable thing has happened in Scottish football in recent days - the Celtic fans have in effect just stormed the national charts with 'Roll of Honour', the Irish rebel song.The song, recorded by The Irish Brigade, laments the fate of the IRA hunger strikers who died in the Maze Prison in 1981, and cites all 10 of them as the verses unfold. It is a song which a more politically-active section of the Celtic support has chanted and, in this current scenario of national chart success, is aimed at cocking a snook at the confused - some say plainly botched - Offensive Behaviour At Football Act in Scotland. Graham immediately gets his facts wrong. Seven were affiliated to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA or PIRA) and three with the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). It is beyond doubt that both groups collectively murdered thousands and are illegal in the UK and Ireland. Many of their victims were targeted solely for their nationality or religion. During 1981 alone – never mind before or since - the Provisional IRA and INLA murdered many people. Those the song 'laments' were part of these groups and must have approved of the killings and violence. The ten themselves had been found guilty of crimes including possession of firearms, grenades and explosives, manslaughter, punishment shootings, hijackings, attempted murder and murder. Keep these hard facts in mind. By John Gow Read more...http://www.therangersstandard.co.uk/index.php/articles/rfc-politics/311-fisking-graham-spiers
  17. .........and steer club into fan control 1 Feb 2014 07:56 PAUL GOODWIN believes the Light Blues legions could own the Ibrox club within 18 months following successful attempts by Hearts and Motherwell. SUPPORTERS DIRECT chief Paul Goodwin believes Rangers fans can assume control of their troubled club within 18 months. Goodwin, the head of SD in Scotland, has long championed the importance of community ownership within our national game. And he is convinced the Ibrox faithful can overthrow the current regime – providing they mobilise themselves into one powerful movement and start pulling in the same direction. At the moment there are four main fan organisations – The Rangers Supporters Trust, The Rangers Assembly, The Rangers Supporters Association and the Sons of Struth – with all groups battling for supremacy. But Goodwin, who helped oversee fan buy-outs at Stirling Albion, Clyde, Dunfermline and East Stirling has called for them to unite as one. Indeed, given the lack of trust in the current board, the lack of transparency, the current climate of financial uncertainty along Edmiston Drive and the plunging share price, he reckons this is an ideal opportunity to get the bandwagon rolling. Goodwin said: “I believe if the Rangers fans united, and that is the key, into one cohesive unit there is no reason why they can’t own the club within 18 months. “At the moment we have 8000 Hearts supporters paying £20 a month as they move towards fan ownership and if you have 20,000 Rangers fans doing the same you can go out and buy shares because it is a liquid market. “The simple maths say 20,000 fans paying £20 a month would give you £4.8million in a year. “It just needs the right type of people to pull that together and that is the hard part for Rangers. “I don’t have any doubt it can be done. SD have been working in conjunction with clubs right across Europe. “In Greece you have Olympiakos and Panathinaikos and there are plenty of clubs in Spain, Poland and France who are also going down this route. “Hearts are the biggest we know of in this country going down the route of fan ownership at the moment.” The Rangers share price has plummeted in recent months, from 70p to just 26p and for just over £4m, fans would be able to command a 25 per cent stake in the club. And Goodwin insists the Ibrox outfit’s supporters have nothing to lose pursuing the community ownership route having given their backing to the Craig Whyte and Charles Green regimes with catastrophic consequences. He said: “I believed that Rangers being placed into administration represented a significant window of opportunity to buy the club. “Of course, as we know, this didn’t happen for a variety of reasons; mostly because for many years the fans had been divided and ruled by previous owners of the club and had been left without a united voice, forced to pick sides in amongst political infighting. “Time has moved on and Rangers have unfortunately continued to be dogged by further challenges at the back end of the administration process. “It could have been so different if a credible fans’ bid had been used to galvanise the Ibrox faithful as we have seen at Dundee, Dunfermline Athletic, Portsmouth down in England and of course at Hearts. “Rangers supporters in the past have been used to following leaders whether it be Paul Murray, Craig Whyte or somebody else. “This is breaking the mould and now they don’t have to follow anybody. “What can the objection be? “It can give the fans the empowerment to pick exactly who they want to represent them. “We have four clubs in Scotland that are currently fan owned and we have another four waiting in the wings – Annan, Ayr, Motherwell and Hearts. It is the way forward because there is no other route.” Goodwin confirmed he has already spoken with supporters’ representatives from Rangers. He said: “I have been talking with them over the past 10 days and I will continue that dialogue to see whether there is something we can do. “There is a real opportunity here and I don’t think there is anything to lose. “We can advise and consult but it is ultimately up to them. “Some people have to emerge from the shadows and then we can give them all the support possible.” Goodwin was speaking at the launch of ‘The Colour of our Scarves’ initiative which has been organised by Supporters Direct to help highlight the issue of sectarianism. World renowned photographer Stuart Roy Clarke has been commissioned to produce a series of images captured at every senior ground in Scotland. The project has been funded by the Scottish government and Goodwin is hoping the sectarianism problem can be tackled through imagery rather than words. He said: “We wanted to try to demonstrate through Stuart’s amazing pictures that all fans are the same, apart from the scarves around their necks. “It is the same emotions that bind us all together and that was the reasons behind the project. “We are going round every single ground and also doing loads of workshops in schools and colleges. “It is becoming less of an issue but you need to keep working at it.” Clarke, who singled out Aberdeen as his favourite fans to photograph, has been amazed by the reaction to his pictures which will be on show at a touring exhibition around the country over the next 18 months. He said: “The response has been overwhelming. “While I like banter and edginess I don’t like hatred so hopefully this project can make a small difference to a big problem.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/supporters-direct-chief-calls-rangers-3100404
  18. Neil Lennon was spat at, had coins thrown at him and was the subject of verbal abuse at Tynecastle, according to the Celtic manager's agent. Lennon was watching Aberdeen's League Cup semi-final victory over St Johnstone and had to leave the game early, Martin Reilly told BBC Scotland. He said: "I'm absolutely raging about the treatment of Neil, about the stewarding and the fans' behaviour. "It's scandalous that Neil is treated like this." Reilly said that Lennon and Celtic coach Gary Parker had to leave their seats in the main stand after 70 minutes of the game. During the match, which Aberdeen won 4-0, play was held up briefly as two young supporters ran on to the park and got to the technical area, where Lennon was infamously attacked by a Hearts fan in 2011, before being apprehended by police and stewards. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26002727
  19. Rolling Stone magazine has an article this week entitled "Marx Was Right: Five Surprising Ways Karl Marx Predicted 2014". Being an American magazine Rolling Stone is taking a risk with this because for many in America being labeled a Marxist is career suicide, the phrase is so loaded as to be used purely as an insult now. Yet the article points out that for many people capitalism doesn't work very well and one of the 'people' it doesn't work for is us, the Rangers support. The opposition to 'fan ownership' puzzles me. I suppose for those under 30 brought up on a diet of Sir David's largesse, of the rise of the mega-clubs like Man Utd, Barca, Real Madrid and now Chelsea, Man city and PSG and the creation of the G14 organisation then money is everything, only those with the deepest pockets can succeed. That's how football works, isn't it? But I'm 43, I watched clubs like Nottingham Forest, Malmo, Red Star Belgrade and Brugge contest the European Cup Final, I know that football isn't all about money and the club with the most money doesn't have to always win. Football has changed though, and today the club with the most money usually does win, in every league we're now seeing that. TV rights, sponsorship, endorsements and countless other 'income streams' help fuel this. Add in megalomaniacs from Russia or Malaysia or much nearer to home and the clubs run with some sort of fiscal responsibility are left behind, derided even. But here's the thing, it's unsustainable, Marx predicted this and he was right. All of these business bubbles burst eventually and this one will too. They are "chaotic by nature" and one which is as unrestricted as football currently is will crash and burn eventually, nothing is surer. Have a look at some of the ticket prices being charged in the EPL this season. Have a look at the debt being carried by football clubs all around Europe. Tell me that's sustainable, tell me that someone bigger will come along and pick up the cheque. Yeah right, go read an economics book or two. We're the guys who'll be picking up the 'cheque'. I'm not a Marxist. Professionally, when I'm not wasting my time on football forums I help grow those capitalist bubbles and i've seen a few of them get too big and go pop now. Too many of us judge 'success' on how much profit a company makes, not on how good its product or services are, how well it treats its employees and customers and how well it's prepared for the future. Time and again we fall for this, short term gain over long term stability seems to be what we desire. So look at football clubs. History tells us they can disappear, no matter how unlikely that might seem, they can and do. It happens when people no longer care about them, so it is in the interests of all football clubs to ensure people keep caring. The best way to ensure that is to involve people in them. If football supporters become nothing more than 'customers' then eventually we'll start to behave like customers. As anathema as this might sound it is starting to happen now. Already English sides (and they and the already bankrupt Spanish sides are the driving force behind this) are seeing more and more of their tickets being sold to 'football tourists' rather than supporters. London clubs in particular are seeing this phenomenon but it is also happening in Manchester too. That's helping to drive the price of tickets up and force 'supporters' out. That the concept of fan involvement seems alien to us is puzzling to me. But then how many of us are actually involved in anything outside of our work or family these days? How many of us are on the PTA of their children's school, how many of us are involved in youth organisations on a voluntary basis, how many of are in trade unions or are members of political parties or help out at the local bowling club? Tell you what I bet it's a hell of a lot fewer than did in the 70s and 80s. The whole concept of taking responsibility for our community assets has been diluted now. My father was born in an Ayrshire mining village which consisted of three rows of houses, it was tiny. Yet it had a Junior football team an amateur football team, three Friendly Societies, a quoiting club, an ambulance corps, a juvenile football club, a brass band, a dramatic society, and a phonetics class. Today, in the Glasgow area I live in my daughter's Brownie group can't find enough volunteers to staff their troop. Don't get me wrong there's no shortage of parents who want their daughters to join, just a shortage of parents who are willing to give up any of their time to help out. This is the same. Too many of us want someone else to run Rangers. Too many of us want someone else to carry that burden, hopefully someone very rich too. We can blame factionalism in our support, unhappiness with how the RST has been run, personalities involved in various groups or find reasons to explain how fan ownership can't work. But then we can't complain when things go to hell. Can we really complain about the people running our club if we aren't willing to do it ourselves? How do we judge success? What do we want from Rangers? Do we care what the share price is? The football bubble will burst, nothing is surer, economics tell us this if we care to look. When it does there will be casualties, the clubs who are stable both fiscally and politically will be the most likely to survive that. So I'd argue it is in our best long term interests to own our club, to have a say in how it is run, to be keeping a watchful eye on things. Remember, no one else cares, nobody else gives a damn about our club, only us. Why entrust it to people who don't share our values or dreams?
  20. Ignoring the usual sycophantic nonsense, I find the quote in bold crass in the extreme and I'm amazed both Easdale and his PR advisors found it appropriate.
  21. http://www.scribd.com/doc/201292857/One-year-ago Published by RangersTransparency One year ago Mr McCoist had the chance to lead by example. Subject: Ally Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 23:52:06 +0000 From: Brian Stockbridge To: Ian Hart, Walter Smith, Malcolm Murray, Phil Cartmell, Bryan Smart CC: Charles A Green, Imran Ahmad Gentlemen The Board is being asked by Ally and his agent to approve an increase in his salary to the original level of £750k per annum. Whilst some of you may be aware of the background discussions that have taken place with Ally over his remuneration, some of you may not be so I set out the detail below: Originally Ally had an employment contract paying £750k per annum. In consideration for working with the Club during the difficult early stages and as a condition of supporting Charles, it was necessary for Charles to agree with Ally that Ally would have the same option package as Charles Charles, after discussion with Malcolm, agreed to reduce his own salary by half to £360k per annum. Ally agreed to reduce his salary from £750k to £600k per annum. At the time of the IPO, it became apparent that public disclosure of Ally's salary may be necessary in the Prospectus. Ally was concerned at how the fans would react to his salary level and I understand that he wanted to reduce it further to around £200k but with some sort of guaranteed bonus to make it back up. The Executive did not accept this as it was considered misleading and the disclosure made in the prospectus was for the actual amounts paid to Ally from June to August. The Executive agreed to explore every avenue to avoid having to disclose Ally's current contract and, after lengthy discussion with the Executive and its advisers, the UKLA accepted that no disclosure needed to be made about the level of Ally's ongoing salary. The Executive has recently been contacted by Ally's agent requesting an increase in Ally's salary from £600k back to the original £750k from now but with arrears of £62.5k to be paid in the January payroll (this represents the 5 months backdated pay). The Board is asked to consider and, if appropriate, approve the reinstatement of Ally's salary at £750k per annum and the payment of £62.5k of arrears. If this is approved then Ally's original contract will become in force. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. If this is real then I can see Ally quitting or being sacked.
  22. I had the pleasure to read a tremendous article recently on the Do The Bouncy forums, by Locutus :- http://dothebouncy.com/main/threads/sharks-trolls-headstones-and-apathy.59319/ I love articles you can tell come from the heart, oozing in sheer passion for our club. One particular phrase though set me thinking “Politics should have no place in football , but thats a debate for another day.” Perhaps with events elsewhere – that day has come. Of course in a nirvana state – Politics should have no place in football, neither for that matter should Racism, Sectarianism nor Illegal betting. Unfortunately we do not live in such a sporting utopia and from time to time we have to cope with things invading our game which are neither welcome, nor enhancing for the reputation of our so called “Beautiful game”. In fact, if we are totally honest, at times it is downright ugly rather than beautiful. But if Politics has no place in football – what about Political influence ? For the Rangers support these last 3 years or so have been a real wake up call. As our club lurched from crisis to crisis and was subjected to a catalogue of unjust treatment, the silence from politicians in Scotland was deafening. Compare and contrast such silence with the political response to an illegal procession organised by The Green Brigade. http://news.stv.tv/west-central/218177-celtics-green-brigade-protest-results-in-msps-policing-question/ That’s not to say of course that Scottish Labour MP’s were silent over the crisis at Rangers, some in fact were only too happy to have something to say. http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/913 Some of you will remember Jim McGovern, Labour MP for Dundee West from some of my previous articles. He has been particularly vocal of late. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/westminster-mps-table-motion-condemning-2867719 http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/dundee/dundee-mp-calls-for-probe-into-champions-league-trouble-in-amsterdam-1.158942 The Courier article in particular saw some particularly critical online comments directed towards Mr McGovern – particulary as he was not so much vocal but noticeably silent after Celtic supporters misbehaved in his constituency of Dundee. Scenes described by Dundee Operations Manager Jim Thomson as “a throwback to the 1970′s” and “I have never seen anything like the behaviour of the Celtic fans in the 20 years I have been running games at Dens Park” warranted not a murmur from Mr McGovern. Not surprising then with conduct such as this that Mr McGovern requires annual staffing fees of £ 115, 581.17 ( as opposed to his Party leader, and Leader of the Opposition – Ed Miliband’s £ 93, 747.42 ) perhaps his staff are particularly busy answering constituent’s questions about his apparent double standards. With Baron Reid of Cardowan a recent chairman, as well as Brian Wilson currently serving on the board of Celtic FC, it would be foolhardy to suggest our footballing rivals are suffering from a lack of political influence, particularly within the Scottish Labour Party. Though such influence appears not to be confined to the bigger stage but also on a more localised level and has been highlighted previously http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/same-city-council-same-old-story.html With the Co-op Bank, with their historical links to the Labour Party, now subject to both scrutiny and investigation, it begs the question if the favourable loan rates afforded to Celtic FC were as a consequence of Celtic’s rather cosy relationship with the Scottish Labour Party ? And as preliminary enquiries into land deals run their course in Brussels and Tory researchers work long into the night scouring over Co-op loan arrangements, I have a question for the Rangers support. Is it time we sacrificed “politics has no place in football” – for the love of our club ?
  23. http://www.sportinglife.com/football//news/article/26854/9012286/violence-mars-hoops-clash Violence mars Hoops clash Last Updated: November 6 2013, 23:34 GMT Celtic's Champions League trip to Ajax has been marred by a clash between supporters and police in the centre of Amsterdam before kick-off, following which 15 fans have been arrested. Amsterdam Police told Press Association Sport that fans armed with bottles and sticks attacked plain-clothed police in an incident described as "coming out of nowhere". Eight police officers were injured with one knocked unconscious following the fighting in Dam Square, in the city centre. Police said the majority of those arrested were Celtic fans, although it is believed that supporters from other clubs were also involved. "At the end of the afternoon a large group of Celtic supporters attacked police officers in plain clothes," a spokesman told Press Association Sport. "Eight were injured and one was knocked unconscious. "A few of them had broken noses and needed stitches above their eyebrows and on their lips. "Bottles and sticks were used in the attack which came out of nowhere. "There were 15 arrests, mostly Celtic supporters." Celtic lost the match 1-0 and face an uphill battle to reach the knockout stages of the competition. Amsterdam Police said it expected the number of 15 arrests to rise during the night and that a final figures would be "high". It is thought that fans from other European clubs were involved, although police said they "had kept themselves covered". Celtic supporters had been urged by the club to be careful after an attack on Hoops supporters in a city-centre bar on Tuesday night. Thousands of Celtic supporters flooded into Holland for the Group H game at the Amsterdam ArenA. A statement on the Celtic website said: "Celtic Football Club is urging all supporters in Amsterdam for tonight's UEFA Champions League tie with Ajax to be extra vigilant following an unprovoked attack on Celtic fans last night "The attack in the city centre by an element of the Ajax support resulted in a number of arrests. "Celtic are urging all supporters to be extra vigilant in the city centre and at the Amsterdam ArenA, and to only stick to the advised areas for safety reasons." At the pre-match media conference on Tuesday afternoon, Ajax coach Frank De Boer expressed hope that the tiny percentage of fans he describes as "crazy" would not disrupt the game. UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings against the Dutch club after some of their supporters clashed with police and stewards at Parkhead last month during a match which the home side won 2-1. The case will be dealt with by UEFA's control and disciplinary panel on November 21. De Boer admitted that some Ajax fans remain a concern when asked if he was confident of the game passing off trouble-free. "I am confident in that but you never know," said the former Rangers player. "There is always some crazy people (who) try to disturb something but hopefully it will not happen."
  24. Strange email discussion on 2 October 2012 between Sandy and the CEO. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Craig Thanks for your email some parts were not asked for but if the papers have misquoted you should we not rectify The rest I will wait to see you face to face as feelings seem to be running high on certain matters . Just one point I have not moved page nor being influenced by anyone though some of the things that have been said are very close to what has happened . Yours Sandy Sandy Easdale Director McGill's Bus Service Ltd On 2 Oct 2013, at 11:59 AM, "Craig Mather" wrote: > Morning Sandy/All, > > Regarding Ally, I was asked to comment on Ally's wages in the accounts. I said I cannot comment on what wages where offered to Ally by the previous regime however I have asked Ally to consider his wages and take a significant pay cut. I said nothing has been agreed yet and no contracts have been signed however Ally has come to the table to discuss a pay cut which is good because we cannot make him take a pay cut. Nothing is in writing but Ally is aware of his wages and the associated costs when we are playing in the division we are in. I never once said he had taken a pay cut. > > I also believe Frank Blin has been stirring up trouble and talking rubbish creating a divide yet again. > > I am happy to talk on the phone or equally if the board believe they would be better served by a different CEO (which has been said to me by a number of people). Then as I have said numerous times I will give notice to the board and will stay until you find a replacement. I cannot do more than I am doing and am permanently critiqued by every side at every opportunity. > > It is not a good position when every side including at least one member of the Plc board is making statements to others about my abilities or the lack of them. > > The old saying divide and conquer comes into play here and if we stay solid then great, if not then the obvious will happen. > > I thought people maybe positive about how critical of Malcolm Murray I was and also defending Brian for his cost cutting efforts and the defending of the IPO costs. > > For clarity I will not change my allegiance and will not go back on my word. > > I won't be taking or encouraging contact with the requisitioners as they are not what this club need. > > Best as always > Craig > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On 2 Oct 2013, at 13:55, "Sandy Easdale" wrote: >> >> Dear >> Craig I was amazed that you have been quoted saying that Ally has took a significant pay cut . >> >> It would be good to share this with us if this is the case as we all agreed that was not what we were saying because there has been no deal struck on his wages . >> >> If so what is the cut as I am being asked to quote my self on these matters and must defend all these pays >> >> Which frankly I can't . >> >> Sandy from: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rvdg36
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