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In a relatively short time the changes that have taken place in our country, and at our club, have taken the breath away. Our club has survived after a prolonged and unforeseen crisis but it belongs to strangers now and is almost as remote from supporters as London is from Glasgow. Scotland is on the brink of fundamental and irreversible change and whether it remains within the UK or goes it alone, things will never be the same again. Those who grew up thinking that Rangers and the Union were forever must have been visibly shaken by this cataclysmic turn of events. Identity is important to us, and having already endured a period where our football club almost died, we are now seeing Britishness at the cliff-edge. Coming on top of the shocking collapse of our banking institutions, this is a bizarre period in our lives. It seems that nothing is forever any more, and much of what is dear to us is under threat. Even the Church of Scotland is languishing. It seems to have slipped back in the country's pecking order behind another strand of Christianity, the Catholic Church. Like Rangers, this cornerstone of society has seen better days. When the 21st century chimed in, who expected this? Inside a relatively short time, our world has been turned upside-down. The Church always had a fight on its hands to retain flock, but the Scottish parliament, which was specifically designed to stop nationalism in its tracks, has completely failed to do it. Within the Rangers family, the widespread belief that the club was immortal has been smashed, and the idea that two 300 year-old banks could fail was thought to be too outlandish to be seriously contemplated. Here we stand, days before a vital referendum, and much of what, historically, has been important to us, has either changed, is presently changing, or could change in the not too distant future. The iconic Union Flag, perhaps under a new name, could be redesigned if Scotland becomes independent, and no-one can be sure what currency we are going to use or even if the Queen will still be our monarch in another ten years. The times, they are a changing - and much faster then we ever thought possible. If Rangers gets through this period, I wonder, how much will it have to change to be at ease in this new era?
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RANGERS still need to secure substantial additional investment to get them through to the end of the season - despite raising over £3million last week. And further off-field unrest at the Ibrox club, where disgruntled fans are considering a mass boycott, could impact greatly on dwindling resources. That was the stark message from financial expert Neil Patey today as he assessed the situation at the troubled Glasgow institution. The SPFL Championship club announced last Friday that £3.13m worth of shares had been purchased at a share offering. But Patey, a partner with accountancy firm Ernst and Young, believes Rangers will only be left with around £1m of that to use for running costs. And he stressed that Gers directors will have to bring in fresh funding to stave off the threat of a second administration in three years. Speculation is rife that Sports Direct magnate Mike Ashley will increase his involvement - or club assets like Murray Park will be sold off. Patey said: "The club themselves stated that if 15 million shares were taken up it would take them through to the end of the current year. "What they raised was just marginally over the minimum so it will probably see them up to just past Christmas. "Of the £3million they have raised, around £500,000 of it will go on expenses leaving them with £2.5million. "If they repay the loans to Sandy Easdale and George Letham in full, they will be left with about £1million. "If they are saying that £1million will get them to the end of the year, that suggests they have succeeded in getting the monthly cash burn down to a fairly low figure. "Broadly speaking, going on the figures the club has given, they will then need to bring in at least £2million to get them through to the end of the season. "Towards the end of the season, the club are going to start selling season tickets once again and money will be coming in." Patey added: "But, again, that is dependent on the fans coming out and buying season tickets. The big thing for the club is fan support. "The club may only have sold 23,000 season tickets, but they are still taking in money from ticket sales on match days. "But if the supporters stop turning up for matches then it will make the situation worse. Fans have a big say in how things go at Rangers." Patey stressed the financial situation at Rangers would improve significantly when they rejoin Old Firm rivals Celtic in the top flight. He said: "Getting back into the Premiership does two things. In the first instance, they get more money from games. "Secondly, it helps them to attract investors if they are a Premiership club." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/financial-experts-rangers-warning-180534n.25322293
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........the only way to truly hurt the board is to stay away from games. GORDON argues that if fans really want to get rid of the Rangers board then they must cut off all financial support to the club. IT'S TIME for Rangers fans to pee or get off the pot. They either want regime change or they don’t. They either realise the power they wield or they don’t. The red card displays, the eternal and infernal statements, they show willing but ultimately achieve nothing. Sticks and stones and all that. But does anyone really think the occupants of their boardroom give a toss about what anyone says about them? They can’t hear you. They’re too busy counting your money. And all you’re doing is facilitating them. That’s the problem. The power of the Rangers support lies in its size, its strength but most of all in its unity of purpose. If half of you stick and half of you twist though? You’re playing right into their hands. Giving them just enough to keep their tiptoes on the bottom of the pool and their nostrils poking above the surface. That’s what 23,000 season tickets was in the summer. It was a message, it was five figures down – but it wasn’t enough for the fans, and just enough for the board. Same with the walk-ups. The drip-feeders. Around 20,000 for Hearts, another 11,000 for Clyde, 9000 each against Dumbarton and Queen of the South. You’re handing over your cash at the turnstiles and it’s going straight into a black hole. I understand there are plenty who just want to go to the football on a Saturday, who don't care about what goes on behind the scenes. They’re probably the silent majority. But maybe they need to start listening to the loud minority. Nine months ago, before their agm, was the first time they really threatened this lot with what they called ‘disengagement’. I said then that if they truly believed that was the way to go, then they all had to have the stomach for what would effectively be the euthanising of their club. A mercy killing. That the short-term pain would be acute but they’d appreciate what they’d done in the long term. But their disunity, their lack of a core belief, has crippled their true effectiveness. And here they are in the wake of that begging-bowl share issue, back at square one. So what choice do they have? They play Inverness at Ibrox in the League Cup on Tuesday. They don’t have another home league game for more than a fortnight when they play Hibs. For a club who, by their own admission, are living hand to mouth, two empty stadiums through to the end of September with no walk-ups, no hospitality, no catering, no nothing, would be financially catastrophic. But THAT’S the only language they speak. They were described to me the other day as being like wild dogs around a carcass, stripping it to the bone. When do they leave? When there’s nothing left for them. As long as there are morsels of meat to be picked off around the edges, they’ll hang around. A grasper like Imran Ahmad, for example. Only persuaded to take his leave this week by tossing a juicy chunk of what was left in his direction. So if the fans really want to do their club a favour, the place should be a morgue on Tuesday night. Will it hurt? Of course it will. But if you believe there’s a cancer, the only way to get rid of it is to cut it out – and hope. Ever since December and that car crash agm there’s been a suspicion that Rangers would have to go the grave again for a second resurrection. Is there a fear of what follows? Again, of course. But this is where a properly unified support has some control. Because much in the same way as the wild dogs won’t hang around, another pack won’t bother stepping in unless they think there’s another meal ticket to be had. Who’s going to invest in a club with no regular income? Any owner needs approval. He needs customers. So the only way to make anything out of Rangers now is to turn it into the business it SHOULD have become when they went belly up in the first place. Trimmed-down costs, sustainable plan, 40,000 people through the gate every week, build yourselves back up, develop players, sell the odd one for more money, challenge, win, get into the Champions League, get your share of that gigantic European pot… Sound familiar? The antithesis of what happened, when £70m walked in the other direction in just 18 months. Who knows, Dave King may have played the smartest game of all because he knows now he could yet be their only option, and that would have the approval of the rump of the rank and file. And don’t worry, the irony’s not lost – the uproar at the Easdales hanging out with Interpol’s most wanted, yet the open-armed embrace for a guy who’s spent more time dealing with South African courts in recent times than with affairs at Ibrox. But there may yet be plenty more pain before that scenario has a chance. Two weeks ago I said they had two choices. Neither of them attractive. Keep the regime afloat week to week, or not a penny more. Seems to me they only have one left. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/gordon-waddell-rangers-fans-must-4257414
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ANGRY Rangers fans are on the brink of staging full-scale boycotts of the club’s matches – amid new calls for Sandy Easdale to be axed as football board chairman. And brassed-off fans could also stop giving money to companies linked to the Glasgow giants – including McGill’s Buses and Sports Direct. The Sons of Struth protest group believes there is growing support among its members and other supporters for this drastic action. Sons of Struth founder Craig Houston confirmed his organisation is to poll its 1500 members over whether to boycott games and businesses. He said: “The feedback we have received from members and other fans is overwhelmingly in favour of boycotting games and businesses. “A very low percentage of fans have faith in the board. Every time a new revelation emerges we ask what we can do other than holding red and blue card demonstrations to highlight our unhappiness that is legal and this is one route we can go down.” “But there has to be a silver bullet moment where you say enough is enough. If that results in boycotts of your team, certain sports shops, certain transport or insurance companies, so be it.” The move comes after it emerged that shareholder Sandy Easdale had met with Malaysian businessman Datuk Faizoull Bin Ahmad and convicted fraudster Rafat Rivzi this week. Easdale was pictured with Rizvi, who is wanted by Interpol for corruption, money laundering and banking crime, in Glasgow. Last night the Union of Fans called on the Rangers board to remove Easdale over the visit. A statement said: “Mr Easdale has dragged our club’s name through the gutter once too often. Perhaps he feels his association with a man wanted by Interpol is acceptable. It is not. “Graham Wallace, Norman Crighton, David Somers and Philip Nash must dissociate the PLC board from this further attempt to involve Rizvi in Rangers’ affairs.” However, Rangers last night denied the meeting was connected with investment in the club. An Ibrox spokesman said: “The visit was organised as part of ongoing discussions between Rangers and Malaysian club Felda United with regard to a youth development partnership. “Mr Rizvi arrived without our prior knowledge. He is an advisor to Mr Bin Ahmad. Media reports suggesting Mr Bin Ahmad is in discussions with Rangers regarding anything other than youth development are untrue.” Meanwhile, other reports in England last night claimed Mike Ashley is prepared to sell Newcastle United for £230million so he can boost his stake in Rangers. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/ranger...048n.25297080?
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"The Union of Fans is extremely concerned at the recent public statements of Sandy Easdale, the Chairman of the so-called ‘football board’ at Rangers. Mr Easdale has a history of making ill advised, damaging and amateurish comments in the press about Rangers and last week he was engaged in more of the same. In April 2014, around a week before Imran Ahmad’s second failed attempt to have club funds arrested, Mr Easdale decided to take part in a BBC interview in which he raised considerable questions over the financial position of the club. These comments could clearly be seen to weaken the club’s case against Mr Ahmad despite victory in that instance. Last week, days ahead of Mr Ahmad’s third attempt to arrest funds, Mr Easdale did the same in a press Q&A. We would question the timing of both of these statements. Making this type of error once might be seen as naivety or stupidity. Making it twice starts to raise other questions. Mr Easdale was brought into Rangers to represent the wishes of the block of shareholders previously represented by Mr Ahmad and Mr Charles Green. Mr Easdale has, in our opinion, always represented their interests ahead of those of the club and it appears he is continuing to do so. Mr Easdale has hitched his wagon to Green, Ahmad, Blue Pitch and Margarita and, now that their influence over the board has started to diminish slightly, he appears to be seeking to retain his position at the club via an alliance with Mike Ashley. Indeed it appears that Mr Easdale will support anyone who will allow him to retain his director privileges and the borrowed respectability of being referred to as a Rangers director, regardless of their actions towards the club. Mr Easdale told the Rangers fans that Jack Irvine no longer worked for him. However, we have been told by a number of people that Mr Irvine has been in regular touch with them in a way which represents Mr Easdale’s interests. Mr Easdale told the Rangers fans in December 2013 that he had investors lined up for Rangers. This did not prove to be the case. Mr Easdale now wants the Rangers fans to believe that Mike Ashley, who has been handed “onerous” merchandise deals, virtually free stadium naming rights and now the Rangers club shops by Mr Easdale’s associates, is the man to take Rangers forward. Mr Easdale actively opposes any attempt to bring huge investment into the club from people who care about it but chooses to back someone who has clear issues with dual club ownership and is only interested in Rangers as a means to make himself money. We would ask the PLC board, the Nomad, Daniel Stewart and the LSE to investigate Mr Easdale’s comments and their effect on a court case which could have put the club’s immediate future in doubt. We would also ask them to clarify whether Mr Charles Green or Mr Imran Ahmad hold any shares for which Mr Easdale has a proxy through Beaufort Nominees. Mr Easdale is not, in our opinion, fit to be a director of Rangers Football Club and given his failure to be appointed to the PLC board we feel he has far too much negative influence on club affairs."
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I'm not clear on what is classed as repetition so perhaps we can have 1 topic where we can say what we like (within reason) and let off steam. Also, certain people can just stay away from this thread and then they won't be offended.
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I dont know the exact figures on this , but on the rangersfirst page there is a rolling screen of whos recently joined , and I have been watching it quite closely over the last few days , its been amazing to see the number of fellow fans that have been joining not just at the fan level, £5 a month, but at the supporter £10 and founder £18.72, levels , plus amazingly the life members and an amazing number of donations , where you dont need to sign up for any set monthly amounts but can donate one off amounts. Add in all the retail partners they have signed up , it is actually very impressive , anyone not checked out the rangersfirst retail section really should do so , any purchases made through the links , rangersfirst get a % back .
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The video -
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Chris Graham @ChrisGraham76 17m .@RFC_Union call on Rangers PLC board to remove Sandy Easdale as a club director immediately. #RFC pic.twitter.com/wIlX0SWgVu
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What steps might the board and their puppeteer investors take to make sure they come out on top should we go into administration again? With such a diverse shareholding spread are they able to secure admin for themselves like Whyte did?
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Between Richard Wilson and this article (with no apparent byline), the BBC have began to venture into a more accurate take on political matters at Ibrox. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29153590 -
THE displays of the Rangers team on the park last week were cause for optimism down Ibrox way. Ally McCoist's side netted 12 goals in their two competitive outings and put their shaky early-season form well and truly behind them. The size of the crowds in the home games against both Clyde and Dumbarton, however, were reasons to look towards the future with trepidation. And the attendance at the SPFL Championship fixture with Dumbarton on Saturday afternoon was particularly alarming. For the league meeting with the Sons was perhaps the best chance so far to gauge what the turnout will be like at Rangers home games in the 2014/15 campaign. The Petrofac Training Cup matches with Hibs and then Clyde were always going to attract smaller crowds due to the stature of the competition and the size of the opposition. Much was made of the fact that only 11,190 supporters filed through the turnstiles in the 8-1 victory in the latter game last Monday. It was the lowest Ibrox attendance at a competitive fixture for 29 years. Yet that encounter with part-time opponents from the bottom tier of Scottish football was - despite Gers great Barry Ferguson being in charge of the opposition - expected to draw that sort of response. There were 43,683 in the Championship opener against Hearts a fortnight ago. But there were special circumstances surrounding that fixture. The League One flag was unfurled and the Govan Stand was renamed in honour of Sandy Jardine before kick-off. Plus, the first game against age-old adversaries Hearts after two long seasons of often uninspiring outings against our national game's lesser lights was guaranteed to put a fair few bums on seats. No, the Dumbarton game at the weekend was a far better barometer of what size the attendances - and, in turn, the gate receipts -will be for Rangers in the weeks and months which lie ahead. And the fact that only 31,175 turned up on a perfect afternoon for football must be worrying for both those who follow the fortunes and those who control the purse-strings at the troubled Glasgow institution. It was the lowest turnout at a league game at Ibrox since 24,177 fans watched Rangers defeat Falkirk 4-0 thanks to a Robert Fleck double and goals from Davie Cooper and Terry Butcher on December 13, 1986. A home game against Methil minnows East Fife around this time last year drew 42,870. No company can have nearly a quarter of their customers disappear in the space of 12 months without drastic consequences. Even if all of the 34,000 fans who bought season tickets to see Rangers in League One last season had renewed this summer, the club would still not have had enough money to see them to the end of this term. So for just how long will the Light Blues be able to limp along with just over 20,000 season book holders and fewer than 10,000 turning up and paying at the gate on match days? There are ambitious plans for Rangers to hold another share offering in the very near future and the hope is to raise in the region of £4million of much-needed capital from that. But with shareholder Sandy Easdale and wealthy fan George Letham due to have loans totalling £1.5m repaid, financial experts have predicted that will only sustain the club until the end of the year. The ongoing lack of clarity over Rangers future off the field is overshadowing the fact that on it they appear to be getting their act together after some poor performances. They brushed aside Dumbarton with ease at the weekend thanks to strikes from Lee McCulloch, Darren McGregor and Nicky Clark. An own goal from Chris Turner aided their cause considerably. Bilel Mohsni, who was highly fortunate not to be red carded by referee Brian Colvin for his trip on Scott Agnew, also turned the ball into his net late on to give the sizeable travelling support a reason to cheer. That lapse of judgment by the Tunisian, though, could not wipe the smile from McCoist's face after a highly satisfactory performance by his charges from front to back. He said: "The skipper played in central midfield and chipped in with a goal, Nicky got a good goal and our right-back played well and scored a great goal. "To be scoring goals is always good. But to be scoring goals from different areas is an added bonus for us. "I was annoyed we didn't keep a clean sheet, but I thought the football was of a high standard. We created a lot of chances, scored four good goals, hit the post and had a goal disallowed. "It is consistency that is going to win us the league this year. That is what we have to work hard to get. "There are going to be a lot of difficult games for us in the months ahead and we have to be at our best every week." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/deserted-seats-show-reality-of-angry-rangers-fans-voting-with-their-177533n.25139848 -
When we went into administration I almost instantly (within the first month) had some major concerns because I quickly came to thinking that I didn't trust the administrators, didn't think they would get us out of it via a CVA and didn't think they seemed to be doing their jobs properly because if they had been, then they would have tried to rescue the company as a going concern. To do that, they would have needed to quickly address the cost base and stop the monthly loss-making, but they just went for a short-term fix/bandage to see out the season instead of properly cutting costs to address the going concern like administrators do in most football club administrations. After the shambles of their bidding process and finally bringing in Green & co (like they seem to have planned well in advance!), when D&P did their first presser with Green a feeling of dread & despair came over me because I could tell immediately that he was a bullshitting patter merchant and didn't trust him right from that point. It was a case of 'who the f**k is this clown?' and a distinct feeling of disappointment. Then we had to endure the failed CVA, being wrongfully stripped of our SPL share and kicked out of our league, left with no league at all for a period and questions hanging over our SFA license as well. When we finally got it sorted out and started the season in the 4th tier there was a sort of positive buzz that I never really understood, because I never felt as if it was right that we should be down there in the 3rd Division. I could obviously understand the positive buzz in the sense that we were still here with our history and titles despite the best efforts of our enemies and those who wanted (and tried) to kill us off, but didn't understand the positivity from numerous other perspectives, like the unprecedented treatment of our Club and the worries from footballing and financial/business perspectives. Not only did many of our fans think that it was just a simple case of 3 seasons of a journey back up through the lower leagues to the top flight, but many actually believed that it was an 'opportunity' to rebuild not only the business, but some kind of fabled & mystical footballing 'philosophy'. There was talk amongst fans of not only winning every single game in the 4th & 3rd tiers, but battering the opposition 8-0, 9-0 or 10-0 every week. I didn't buy into any of that because I thought it was always going to be more difficult than many of our fans thought it would be. Yes, we would dish out some hammerings along the way, but it was always going to be a battle too, both on and off the park no matter how many SPL-standard players we signed and no matter how many crazy moonbeams Green & co served us up. What we need to do now though, is completely forget about any mythical 'opportunities' or lost chances to create new 'footballing philosophies' and face the stark reality of where we currently are. I'm not saying forgive or forget (far from it!), but we urgently need to get up to speed and deal in the here & now. Depending on how things go off the park this month, we might be heading for another insolvency/administration event, but we don't know for sure either way because nothing is certain on that front, just as nothing is certain on the pitch either. We might drop points or lose a match, but no matter what happens, I think we all know that the 'journey' is getting tougher and tougher and that's something which was always on the cards both on & off the pitch, so it certainly shouldn't come as a surprise. The idea of an easy journey back up over 3 or 4 years while creating golden seeds for the future amidst new philosophies for the Club was a total and utter pipe dream. Even if we had been taken over by good guys instead of chancers and liars like Green & co, we were still realistically facing trouble along the way and potentially a period of 5 years or more before getting properly back on our feet and challenging in the top flight again. We might not be in a good position right now, but essentially, nothing has changed and we're still on the same path albeit a slightly more windy & rocky one than many of our fans seemed to think it would be. Our progress back to where we belong might still be set back even further by current and/or future financial issues, but we don't know for sure yet. What we do know for sure is that the people running the show need to collectively get their acts together, steer the Club in the right direction and ease the worries of the supporters, not through more moonbeams and lies like were served up in the past, but by addressing the immediate future as openly and honestly as they can without damaging the value of their precious shares.
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Latest blog from McMurdo.........
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29050877 Former Rangers commercial director Imran Ahmad has returned to court for a third time in a bid to have £620,000 of club assets frozen. Lawyers acting for Mr Ahmad claim he is owed a £500,000 bonus for the time he spent working at the Ibrox club. The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard Mr Ahmad is worried about the potential prospect of Rangers becoming insolvent. Lord Stewart continued the case to Friday when lawyers for Rangers will address the court. Mr Ahmad, who has twice lost court bids to have Rangers' assets ring-fenced, claims he is owed £500,000 for negotiating deals and wants another £120,000 to cover legal expenses. Advocate Kenny McBrearty QC told Lord Stewart that Mr Ahmad is concerned about the current state of the club's finances and fears Rangers would not be in a position to pay up if the court eventually rules in his favour. He told the court Rangers have sold 23,000 season tickets this season, down 15,000 on last season. Mr McBrearty said the Rangers board's latest plans for a share issue may only raise £3.6m and cover part of the club's obligations. He added: "There is a significant hole in the club's finances for the forthcoming season."
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I had a very good meeting today with Arnold Black, who wrote the article that was published recently about a membership scheme. I proposed this some years ago at the Club’s AGM and it was also discussed but not pursued (because we were promoting the share scheme) when I was Secretary of RST. Arnold is of the opinion that fans should put their support behind any current or new director who promotes a membership scheme. In order to get a scheme off to the best possible start we are of the opinion that all season ticket holders (next season) should be automatically enrolled as club members.* This would guarantee more or less 35,000 club members with little or no effort on the part of the club. Arnold’s thought is that there should be no membership fee for those enrolling this way at least in the first season; my own feeling is that at least a nominal amount (to be deducted from season ticket monies) or an additional £10 fee (to be added to the season ticket price) should apply; otherwise everyone would have to be granted free membership. Whilst free membership is sometimes attractive (as with the FC United of Manchester model) it artificially inflates the true membership numbers. Realistically, however, going forward the fee would need to be at least £5 per month or say £50 - £60 pa. We take the view that an initial worldwide target of 100,000 members and £1,000,000 - £5,000,000 a year is not unreasonable. This could be ring fenced for special projects within the club. Possible benefits of membership might be: • Discounts from Rangers’ sponsors and suppliers • Offers from the Club e.g. discount on Rangers TV • Membership Certificate, badge etc. • Priority/Discounted Ticket purchase (Note that in some countries e.g. Boca Juniors in Argentina, only members can buy tickets or certain categories of tickets). • Meet players and other exclusive events • Monthly prize draw • Discounts in restaurants etc. • *In future you might have to be a member to buy a season ticket. The proposal would be that the members would elect a Supporters Board (as in the Hamburg model) and that that Board would elect one or two members to the Club Board.
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RANGERS chief executive Graham Wallace was today slammed for keeping supporters in the dark about the situation at the crisis-hit club. And Wallace was warned that he risks more fans turning their backs on the Gers unless he tells them what the future holds. Fears for the Glasgow giants are growing after former commercial director Imran Ahmad succeeded in his bid to have £620,000 of club assets frozen last week. There are concerns the Light Blues - who have not repaid £1.5million worth of loans to Sandy Easdale and George Letham - will be unable to pay their wages this month. The financially stricken SPFL League One champions hope to raise nearly £4m from another share offering in the coming weeks. However, a statement to the Stock Exchange last month confirmed Rangers will be unable to pay their creditors if the share offering fails. That has raised the prospect of the Ibrox club going back into administration - a turn of events Wallace dismissed as recently as April. Drew Roberton of the Rangers Supporters' Association has called on him to speak to fans and spell out what the short-term future holds. He said: "Graham Wallace has spoken of fan engagement from more or less day one since being appointed. "He met with us once, but it seems that he doesn't want anything to do with us now. He doesn't seem to want to have any dialogue with any supporters' group. But I think he has to come come out and tell us what the situation is. He could get the fans on board by speaking to us. "There are all sorts of reports about him and Sandy Easdale not singing from the same hymn sheet. "It's all very well the fans throwing mud at the board at the drop of a hat. Some of my fellow-supporters may not agree with me, but I have a certain amount of sympathy for him. "He has always tried to be positive since being appointed. He saw a future for the club and a way forward. He thought the club would not continue like it had previously. It was a new dawn. "From the minute he joined the club, he was adamant there would not be another administration event." Roberton added: "Rangers are asking people to part with their hard-earned cash and buy tickets and merchandise. "But recent reports in the media aren't going to entice anybody to buy shares, season tickets, match day tickets or merchandise." Only 23,000 Rangers fans have renewed their season tickets for the 2014/15 campaign - around 15,000 less than snapped them up last season. And even with spectators paying on a game-by-game basis the last two home games have only attracted attendances of just over 30,000. That is a huge drop on last season when games at Ibrox against part-time club pulled in gates of well over 40,000. Roberton said: "I hate to say this, but there is a real danger of more fans turning their backs on the club if this continues." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/rangers-fans-want-answers-from-graham-wallace-179512n.25261148?
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Do you remember when we knew what Celtic players looked like? Do you remember how we would listen in nervously when they played, hoping that they'd falter? The football landscape has changed so much in Glasgow that the city is no longer an Old Firm goldfish bowl. Instead, the two sides function in separate atmospheres. With no Old Firm interaction, each has become a stranger to the other. The current Celtic team could walk past me in the street and I probably wouldn't know who they were. For Celtic fans, due to Rangers being run as a retirement home for elderly footballers, they have no difficulty in recognising Rangers' established guys, but many of our players are unfamiliar faces to them too. There was a time when fans of each side knew the other lot almost as well. They didn't need to learn the enemy team, they just knew it. Not so long ago, a Rangers-supporting friend of mine used to chat fairly regularly to a fellow dog walker. It turned out that he was talking to a leading Celtic player, and yet he had no idea. This surely couldn't have happened in the past. We knew them and they knew us. Now, Celtic's profile has dipped as a consequence of Rangers being in the football wilderness. Ours has dipped too, of course, although Rangers is such a dysfunctional entity that it retains a profile of sorts by providing a daily source of amusement to the nation. Apart from the obsessed element in the Celtic support though, which keeps Rangers under intense scrutiny at all times, there is a realisation within the Celtic fraternity that the game is up for Rangers. The laughter has abated and they even feel a degree of sympathy for us. They are looking at a future now that might not be seriously challenged by Rangers, and as they come to terms with it, there is a grudging realisation that they are poorer for it. Now that the big two has been reduced to the big one, the intensity has disappeared, the temperature has cooled and the colour has faded. Celtic fans are living in a monochrome world where the competition is either walkover material or too good for them. It is a bore. It's not boring being a Rangers fan, though. The football may be rotten but when was clinging to a life raft ever boring? Rangers fans are living out an outrageous soap opera where each twist is more absurd than the last one. This Rangers saga could not have been made up or engineered even by a bitter and hateful enemy. It is a tale of woe beyond imagination and comprehension, and with every day that passes, the realisation dawns that bouncing back is hard to do when the ball is burst. The leading figures at Rangers have become cartoon characters. There is nothing that they do which shocks or surprises. Talk of the stadium being sponsored for the grand total of £1 is eminently believable. This is the calibre of people Rangers FC is run by in the 21st century. Every statement, announcement or comment from the club is greeted with ridicule and dismissed as being symptomatic of a failed and toxic regime. Rangers has ceased to be a credible entity. It is crumbling and falling apart. We are often reminded when we complain about politicians that we get the governments we deserve. If the same can be said of the governance of football clubs, the Rangers support must have been guilty of something dreadful, or maybe we're just not that bright. Either way, Rangers fans have an allegiance to a club that is an asylum for the clueless, the calamitous, the absurd and the avaricious, and it is conspicuously rotten from the front gates of Auchenhowie to the top of the Ibrox Stadium flagpole. I have long believed that Rangers had a sell-by date. I always suspected that it was going to become an unwelcome institution in a changing world. I was concerned too that it would fail under 'private' ownership. The only solution was to become a fan-owned club that embraced a new enlightenment, but our failure in this area has been as embarrassing as it is shameful. As we remind ourselves, almost hourly, what a mess it is at the top of the house, we really have to take account of our own inability to properly attempt some kind of rescue. We may have been turned over, but we have been passive, mostly inactive and even apathetic during this crisis. As per usual, we wait on a saviour, and if there isn't one, we just keep waiting anyway. When the lights go out at Ibrox, or when they become so dim that they can barely be observed, ask yourself - how will Scotland remember Rangers? Fifty years after Rangers' passing, how will our children and grandchildren remember the football club that is so much part of our lives? I suggest that Rangers will be remembered with the same kind of affection that BBC Radio Scotland and Radio Clyde currently have for our club. We will not be fondly remembered or missed. The country will be glad to see the back of Rangers and it will speak of us in a highly derogatory tone when enough time has elapsed to make us a distant memory. Bearing in mind our current predicament - and we are all aware that another collapse could be close - not only would we lose a club that is dear to us, as people, we would be marked down by history for having an association with a club that will almost certainly be remembered as a monument to bigotry. And with this double whammy in mind, what do we do? We wait, and wait, and then wait some more. History won't be kind to us for this either.
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Mike Ashley to up his stake in Rangers to 9.9% through the current share issue. Source SSN” Sources close to Mike Ashley say there are no immediate plans to invoke the naming rights at Ibrox stadium #Rangers @charlesp_sky: It's understood Ashley views his interests in Rangers as purely strong commercial ones which he intends to protect
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Why is there so much hatred towards SOS, UOF etc?
Ser Barristan Selmy posted a topic in Rangers Chat
Hugely irrational hatred. A huge chunk of our support still hate them despite everything they have been saying coming to fruition. What is this hatred based on? I'm not trying to instigate anything here (not that this is the place such a thing would happen), I just do not understand it. -
.......to save Ibrox as new cash crisis rocks Gers. RANGERS fan groups fear the club will not be able to pay next month's wage bill after court ruling while legend Andy Goram feels it may be too late to save Ibrox. FORMER Rangers director Imran Ahmad has succeeded in his bid to have £620,000 frozen in the club’s bank account. Lawyers for Ahmad claim he is owed a £500,000 bonus for the time he spent working as commercial director at Ibrox. They went to the Court of Session because they fear Gers are about to become insolvent. Ahmad is set to take his former employers to court later this year and is concerned that if he were to win his action, Rangers would be too poor to pay him. His legal team had failed on two previous occasions to obtain the order. But yesterday, after hearing claims that Rangers were becoming the “envy of English Premiership sides” for their financial position, Lord Stewart ruled there was still a “risk” of insolvency. He said: “I have formed the view that there is a risk of Rangers becoming insolvent. “That is not to say there is an actuality or a certainty insolvency is something that will happen. At this stage, it is only a risk.” Fans groups now fear Gers won’t be able to pay wages this month. Rangers have £1.2million in their account but the wage bill for playing and non-playing staff is thought to be close to £1m a month. Salaries are normally paid on the last Thursday of every month so they will be due on September 25. The club’s recently announced share issue takes place a week earlier and the beleaguered board are hoping to claw enough cash together from that to limp on. However, Chris Graham of the Union of Fans said: “This puts the club in a really difficult position. “With just £1.2m in the bank at the moment this will make it difficult to pay the next wage bill.” Graham also hit out at director Sandy Easdale and said: “Many fans will be wondering what on earth Sandy Easdale was doing speaking to the media just days before this case and outlining how dire the funding position at the club is. “Surely he should have realised that his comments were going to weaken our chances of getting a positive outcome from this case.” Another fan, Craig Smith, tweeted his 16-month old daughter “could have run Rangers’ finances better”. But the club last night claimed they were confident they would still be able to “operate as normal”. Rangers have sought leave to appeal and the court will deal with that request on Tuesday. A club statement said: “We agree with Judge Lord Stewart when he told the court: ‘This does not mean to say that insolvency is an actuality or is going to happen.’ “We remain confident that the club will be able to continue to operate as normal.” That came after Alan Summers QC told the court Rangers’ financial situation was improving. He said: “When we were last here, we heard how the share issue would only keep the lights on at Ibrox. “I can tell you the floodlights are back on at Ibrox and are in no danger of being switched off. “Talks are at an advanced stage with two potential investors. The club has not been in rude health for some time. But the situation is improving. The club is trading its way out of difficulties. Its current position is the envy of many English Premiership clubs.” However, Ahmad’s advocate Kenny McBrearty told the court there was no proof the share issue could keep the club solvent and insisted there was no guarantee investors would come forward. He said: “A pattern of diminishing working capital is evident. There is nothing concrete that there is a saviour for Rangers.” Many fans view Dave King as that potential saviour after the South Africa-based businessman promised to pump £30m into Rangers if the board were removed from office. He also set up a trust fund with fans’ groups so punters could commit their money to the club without handing it over to those in charge at Ibrox. But Rangers legend Andy Goram believes time is running out for King to stop the club from tumbling into administration again. The former keeper said: “I would like to see King doing what he has been promising to do for a while. “King threw a grenade in at the start of the season and stepped back. The longer he leaves it, the worse it’s going to get. “The fans had three choices this summer. You either paid season ticket money, went game to game or gave your money to King. “Now it needs something pretty quick. I see Jim McColl has saved the shipyard on the Clyde. “People like that, Rangers fans like that, I think the club is still important to them. “We don’t want to see it go down the tubes again. Administration again would be ridiculous. “If King’s timing is not right, if people don’t get the timing right with the investment, it could be too late. It’s getting pretty close.” Yesterday’s court ruling came after Record Sport revealed Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct firm had acquired the naming rights to Ibrox for just £1 – a move which has sparked fury among the fans. The Newcastle supremo is one of the biggest individual shareholders at Rangers and has also taken full control of the club’s retail stores. Those deals were struck during Charles Green’s time at Ibrox and Goram believes it would have been better for Rangers if someone like Fergus McCann had taken over after the first financial crisis. The canny Canadian helped rebuild rivals Celtic two decades ago by watching every penny. And Goram said: “Rangers needed someone like McCann to sort it out from the beginning. “The deals Ashley has done all happened when Charles Green was in charge.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/rangers-brink-new-cash-crisis-4173651
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DR publishing interview with Sandy Easdale tomorrow.....and also running a headline that the naming rights of Ibrox being sold for £1!! Rumours are that the naming rights are given for £1 plus underwriting the share issue. Not 100% sure though. Looks like more grim news on the way bears....buckle up!! -
Bill Leckie; Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If they don’t heed those words as the vultures circle Ibrox once again, then hell mend them. First time their club went to the wall, they manned the barricades to protect it from a big, nasty outside world. For that, no matter what other thoughts you have on the matter, their loyalty surely deserves to be applauded. But now? Two-and-a-half years on? If, despite being given a second chance to repair the horrendous mistakes of the past, a club with this level of support goes into administration AGAIN? Sorry, but if it was me I wouldn’t give them another penny. On Saturday, once more, thousands turned up brandishing red cards to express their unhappiness at the way the love of their lives is being mismanaged. And, once more, those responsible for the mismanagement laughed up their sleeves at the pointlessness of the protest. Because to brandish those red cards, you have to pay your money to get inside the stadium. Which hands yet more cash to the people you’re protesting at so they can go ahead and waste it. Listen, what do I know? They’re not my club and the one I do follow has never been to the heights Rangers have reached to suffer such a humiliating, disorientating fall. I’m just someone looking in and wondering how the hell, in all good conscience, Bluenoses can carry on regardless if and when the accountants take over the asylum once more. Actually, don’t answer that. It’s not a can of worms that’s worth opening, this We-Are-The-People, Rangers-Till-I-Die, stick-your-fingers-in-your-ears-and-sing-Follow-Follow mindset. So, for what it’s worth, let me instead pass on my suggestion for what they should do if their club re-enters the abyss. Sod it. Turn their backs on it. Give it, as a man on the other side of Glasgow once said, not one more thin dime. And instead, invest in the future of Scottish clubs who DO run their affairs honestly and who DO have respect for those who click the turnstiles. Go and back your old skipper Barry Ferguson as he tries to make things happen at Clyde. Go and see what another ex-player in Gary Bollan’s doing with Airdrie. If you’re from Fife, go and watch East Fife or Cowdenbeath. If you’re in Angus, hand your tenner to Arbroath or Brechin, Forfar or Montrose. If you donÂ’t want to give up your wee jaunt over from Northern Ireland, get off the ferry and stroll up to Stair Park. There’s been a school of thought among some these last couple of years that Rangers being forced to do the grand tour of the colonies meant the lower divisions should have been grateful for the gate receipts and the TV handouts. For me, this always got it the wrong way round. It was those inside Ibrox should have been thankful that they were in still in business and ABLE to head for Elgin and Berwick and Stranraer. Now, as fresh financial catastrophe looms, I’d put it to Rangers fans that they could do far more good for far more people if they stopped pouring money into what has long since ceased to be “their” club and started drip-feeding it to those who genuinely are the game’s lifeblood. Why? I’ll give you three good reasons. One, those halfwits in your directors’ box shouldn’t be trusted with the remote for the telly, never mind your wages. Two, that 30,000-odd of you spread among the country’s 20-odd part-time clubs would not only create better atmospheres but also help to cement football in communities for the long term. And three? You might just get to relax and enjoy the game, rather than always being angry and stressed about it. Watching Ayr United play Stenhousemuir might just extend your life. The alternative to this is a simple one. Stand your ground and, by your very presence, condone the halfwits in the directors’ box. Two-and-a-half years on from that first administration and the liquidation that followed, these halfwits need to scramble together £4million in a matter of days to keep their heads above water. To achieve this, they may need to flog their saleable players before the transfer window closes, which will hamper your hopes of promotion back to the top flight. If they don’t raise the money, they stand to suffer a 25-point deduction as punishment for a second spell in administration, all but ending those promotion hopes. How, with the wages they pay and the crowds they attract and the sheer intimidatory force of their name that is a two-goal start against far smaller opposition, can this possibly be? How the lumping hell can the people running a club the size of Rangers be handed the chance they were to start again, to build sensibly, to tool up for their return to where they want to be, and yet fail so utterly miserably? How? The clue is in the word halfwits. So maybe I’ve got this all the wrong way round. And it’s those Ibrox directors who should be sent to the outposts of the footballing empire instead. Maybe Graham Wallace and the Easdales and whoever else is a player in this embarrassing saga are the ones who need to go out into the real world and see how real football people operate. Trust me, if a month shadowing the treasurer at Albion Rovers didn’t shame them into living within their means, liquidation’s too good for them.
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I wouldn't disagree with much of this to be fair. BY GORDON WADDELL Gordon Waddell: Like Thelma and Louise, Rangers have arrived at their destination.. the edge of a cliff 31 August 2014 08:37 AM By Gordon Waddell GORDON reckons Rangers are at the edge of a precipice but the cash crisis hasn't stopped the club signing back-up keeper Lee Robinson in a move typical of the way the club has been run for the past few years. THEY sold their road back to the top of the game as ‘The Journey’. It would appear Rangers have arrived at a destination many financial experts predicted for them long ago. The edge of a cliff. As the directors sit there like Thelma and Louise, with the engine revving, you wonder if the question was not whether the club would end up being driven over the edge but more a matter of when the crash would occur. How else do you explain it? No sane person would surely run a business the way they’ve run theirs. It’s as if they have committed commercial suicide. An example? It didn’t make a headline. Barely registered a mention. But if you want even a tiny indication of exactly how dysfunctional Rangers are, then look no further than the signing of Lee Robinson last week. A 28-year-old back-up keeper to a 35-year-old back-up. When they already have the Scotland Under-19 No.1 AND the Scotland Under-17 No.1 on their books? Another wage? Aye, why not, eh? We’ve been splashing money needlessly for two and a half years on players we don’t need and can’t afford – another won’t kill us. Their share offering on Friday was like taking a tube of Savlon to a cremation. They’ve admitted to the stock exchange that if they don’t get at least £3m, they’re knackered. And even if they do, they’ve openly shifted the problem a couple of months further down the line. Yet still they sign players like autograph hunters? They act as if they don’t give a monkey’s. Other clubs coming back from the brink, the first thing they attacked was their cost base. Trimmed all the fat and started from the ground up. Live within your means. New club motto? Numquam Iterum. Never Again. Yet here we are, back at square one. Ally on the back pages, pleading: ‘Don’t sell my stars’. Why not? Truth is you should never have been allowed to sign most of them in the first place. This whole ‘We’re Rangers and until someone tells me otherwise, we’ll continue to behave like Rangers’ schtick? McCoist is a bright, articulate, likeable guy. I refuse to believe he’s so gullible. That he never sat there and thought ‘This can’t be right’. Who would you prefer to be in charge at Rangers? I’m not saying anything I haven’t said to him in a dozen different press conferences. I’ve asked him why they weren’t hunkering down, signing players for their level, saving cash. He always replied: “The fans deserve better.” Damn right they do. But they also deserve their club to survive after what they’ve put in over the years. In a football sense, I haven’t yet met a Rangers fan who didn’t think the club would have been better bleeding half a dozen youngsters into their line-up back on day one and developing them properly than going down the road they did. I haven’t yet met a fan who wouldn’t have put up with the odd defeat to see some genuine progress and fiscal responsibility rather than watching the likes of Richard Foster, Stevie Smith, Ian Black, Dean Shiels or Jon Daly. Or Lee Robinson. Nice lad, decent gloves – but what about Liam Kelly and Robby McCrorie, two of the highest-rated teenagers in their position in Scotland? Every other club in the country is giving youth a chance and reaping the rewards. Not The Rangers. Sorry lads. Can’t trust you, even on the bench. No time to have faith in you. Other diddy clubs might get away with playing teenagers. They may even excel. Hell, look at Conor McGrandles – 82 senior games by the age of 18 and a £1million move from Falkirk to Norwich. Rangers are too good for that, though. Listen, the dysfunctional management of the club’s affairs runs a million miles deeper than the team. These are just examples of how a total breakdown in management manifests itself in public. What goes on behind closed doors or up marble staircases? We may never know. But the fact they’re putting out the begging bowl in such a humiliating manner suggests none of it is good. And then we have the ever-hovering presence of Dave King . King has been criticised for his silence but don’t let anyone kid you that he hasn’t been waiting for this exact moment. The lowest ebb. The final wheezing breaths of a regime someone as long in the tooth as he is always thought would arrive. Sure, he’s a Rangers fan. Sure, his intentions for the club will be more honourable than the current incumbents. But spare me the idea his timing suggests anything other than his own benefit being served too. In the meantime, the Rangers fans are once again left with what they call Morton’s Fork – two choices, both undesirable. Take up the share option, keep a shambolic regime functioning a little longer. Or not a penny more. Flush them out and suffer the consequences. I don’t envy them their decision.
