Search the Community

not strictly football related.... How would I go about buying RFC shares??? My Dad's 80th birthday is approaching & as a lifelong Bluenose, I though "owning" part of the club would be an ideal gift. He's still chuffed to "own" part of Ibrox in the form of a brick the we bought him years ago. Cheers

How many truly World Class players have played for the club? Jim Baxter for one. Any others?

BOARD OF RANGERS FC 1 #SACKTHEBOARD# 0 For those of us in the neutral enclosure, sitting atop a fence rather than allying with any particular faction, the weekend scoreline came as something of a shock result. A very much under strength Rangers Board managed to pull off a shock victory against their bitter rivals - #sacktheboard# The result was made all the more remarkable considering the Rangers board have “Toxic Jack” in the squad, a man whose propensity this season to cite Paul McConville and Andy Muirhead to support his arguments make him firm favourite for the “Own Goal Of The Season” award. But in what to date, has been a very ugly and bruising contest, the Rangers Board emerged as Saturdays victors with lone striker Sandy Easdale netting the winner with the following display of intricate mouthwork : “I have no desire to criticise any individual or group and believe the constant tit for tat that we have seen recently is damaging the club” Hallelujah !!! To borrow a well known beer commercial’s slogan.....”If only all statements were made this way” Many of us in the undecided camp are growing weary of the predictable tactics which make the long ball up the middle look like an intricate maze of passes taken from the drawing board. Unsubstantiated allegations based on little more than rumour and scaremongering – if you have evidence or the truth is it really too much to ask you share it with the rest of the Rangers support so that we can make informed choices ? The citing of bloggers who yesterday you ridiculed as having a lack of credibility but today you are championing because their argument suits yours – only demeans your own credibility The citing of well known anti-Rangers contributors to support your particular argument – need I say more ? Careful where you sow those magical beans Jack. The new forum user whose entire posting history is to provide links to journalists who support his/her argument. But perhaps worst of all is the level of personal vitriol being exchanged between Bears as freely as Barcelona exchange passes. As if it’s not bad enough one bloggers wife being brought into the fray, some even felt the Daily Record publishing a photo of our director’s house was justified. Furthermore it’s difficult to afford people victim status when they themselves are engaging in the type of conduct they are complaining about – in this regard the word “hypocritical” jumps out at me way before “snake oiled salesman” or “Thief”. But seeing as Tom English enlightened us all at the weekend with some parody perhaps it’s fitting we end on that note. Speaking to Easdale post match it was clear he had a point to prove. “I was delighted to get that winner. All week Chuck [Charles Green] has been winding me up, waving his honorary RST membership in front of me and declaring..." “Hey Sandy lad, have you got one of these babies yet?”

Saturday’s first ever visit of Rangers to East Fife’s New Bayview Stadium is a sell out with the game all set to create a new attendance record at the 15-year-old ground. The Fifers have confirmed that they have no more tickets available with the existing crowd high of 1,980, reached in a Division Two game against local rivals Raith Rovers back in November 2008, to be more than doubled. An increased capacity of 4,700 will be allowed in this weekend after the installation of a temporary terracing with a club spokesperson saying: “We would like to thank all our fans who have made this game a sell-out.” The last time East Fife played Rangers in a home game they moved their League Cup tie to Dunfermline’s East End Park in 2007 and went down 4-0 in front of 7,413 fans. WATP! http://spfl.co.uk/news/article/crowd-record-expected-at-east-fife/

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-rangers-chairman-alastair-johnston-2461159

From Richard Wilson http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/opinion/rangers-future-has-been-complicated-by-conflict-but-peace-can-still-break-out.22479981?

We are under investigation from glasgows finest as to armed forces day daily record page seven the police report is now complete amazing the speed of the investigation when you think that the same police are dragging their heels into those who wronged our club .

Folks, What are your favourite memories of Dutch Rangers players of the past, both Advocaat era and non-Advocaat era? Favourite Dutch player (or players), combinations of players in the team, favourite games? Just basically looking for fond memories, anecdotes, memories of a favourite game (or games) and any specific stuff you care to mention! A quick recap of some of the Dutch players: Dick Advocaat era: Ronald de Boer, Michael Mols, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Artur Numan, Bert Konterman, Fernando Ricksen. Outwith the Advocaat era: Frank de Boer, Theo Snelders, Ronald Waterreus, Pieter Huistra, Peter van Vossen. (If I've missed any players please chime in!)

An magnificent example of how the sport should be played......if that sport is running around, chasing after where the football used to be 5 seconds before you got there for 90 minutes and then kicking people when they're lying on the ground. Even more magnificently, they managed to restrict Barcelona to a mere 82% of the possession - a huge improvement on the 88% Barcelona had last year. I'm looking forward to wee neil explaining how, despite being made to look like a shower of talentless tits for an hour and a half, Celtic were actually the better side, how Brown didn't deserve to be sent off for kicking Neymar in the back and how they can still qualify for the knockout stages.

Former Rangers commercial director’s £500,000 claim against the club is based on a letter written by ex-chief Charles Green, a court has heard. Imran Ahmad is pursuing The Rangers Football Club Limited for the sum after his appointment with Rangers was terminated in April this year. He originally claimed he was due £3.4m as part of a 5% bonus he had negotiated on £67m worth of commercial contracts he had overseen. On Wednesday, the Court of Session heard that Mr Ahmad claims Mr Green guaranteed him the bonus in a letter written to him. Mr Ahmad alleges that the letter created an obligation to make the payment, although the Ibrox club are contesting the claim. During a preliminary hearing in the case Mr Ahmad's counsel, Ewan Campbell, argued that it would be possible to take a decision on whether Mr Green had "implied authority" as chief executive officer at the time in light of the company's articles of association or under the terms of a contract clause. He told Lord Woolman: "These are matters which the pursuer submits can be dealt with without the hearing of evidence and can be determinative of the matter." Alan Summers QC, for Rangers, said as he understood the case it involved an argument that is "breathtaking in its audacity". He said the primary position for Mr Ahmad seemed not to rely on a contract clause over bonus provision to the former commercial director, but that this was "an independent, unilateral exercise of power by a CEO" to give away £500,000. The lawyer added both Rangers and the court needed to know where the authority to do this came from. Lord Woolman said the court would require to decide whether the letter constituted a promise and if it did not whether it was written in terms of the bonus clause provisions. The judge said a procedural hearing in the action would be held in December. Mr Ahmad left after revelations about the dealings he and Mr Green had with Rangers oldco owner Craig Whyte around last summer when their consortium acquired the Ibrox club’s assets in a £5.5m deal. The broker, who previously founded the London firm Allenby Capital Limited and worked for Zeus Capital, was also accused of anonymously posting sensitive company information relating to Rangers on a fans’ website. http://news.stv.tv/west-central/244013-ex-rangers-director-imran-ahmads-bonus-claim-based-on-green-letter/

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5288-chief-executive-steps-down CRAIG MATHER has today left his position as Chief Executive of Rangers International Football Club Plc by mutual consent. Mr Mather has agreed to stand down in an attempt to help calm speculation over the governance and executive management of Rangers. Mr Mather said: “The interests of the Club are of paramount importance and I believe these are best served by me leaving the Club. “Despite recent events and speculation, the facts of the matter are that the Club is financially secure and in a far better place than it was a year ago. “Unlike most football clubs Rangers has money in the bank, no borrowings and this season we have assembled a squad which is capable of progressing through the leagues. “I have enjoyed a very constructive relationship with Ally McCoist and wish him and the team every success. “My short tenure as chief executive has been beset by incessant attempts to destabilise the operations of the Club, all done supposedly in the interests of Rangers. “I had real faith in the rebuilding of Rangers and invested significantly in the Club. Sadly, those who have been most active in upsetting the very good progress we have been making were not willing to do the same. “I leave with my head held high and will remain as a shareholder and a supporter of Ally and his team. “I would also like to pay tribute to the outstanding commitment and loyalty of Rangers supporters. “No individual is more important than Rangers and my departure will hopefully alleviate some of the pressure surrounding the Club and herald an end to the current hysteria, which I believe most fans desperately want to see. “I have always tried to do my best for the Club and the fans and I will continue my support of what is a fantastic Club. “There are a great many good and thoroughly decent people working with Rangers and I am proud to say that I was able to stand alongside them for a time. “It is often forgotten that I put in £1m of my own money but I can assure everyone that it was never about the money for me. “I consider it to have been my privilege and I am certain that once the Board is settled Rangers will be restored to the top of Scottish football. “I wish Rangers and the fans every success in the weeks, months and years ahead. I will continue to follow the Club’s fortunes and support the team which is playing an exciting style of football. In fact, I hope to return to Ibrox and take in as many matches as my time will allow.”

I believe we have been royally shafted again. Mather walking off with a pay off for resigning? Are you fucking kidding me? He's done the off so why are we paying him for it! If he does this and gets paid handsomely for it then will it be the same for the Easdales, Stockbridge and smart? Can we assume that Rangers have been used for the last couple of years to be nothing other than absolutely raped? Ahmad has pumped us, green has, Fuck the only one who hasn't seems to be Malcolm Murray (or did he recieve a payment) Rangers football club has been savaged for 2 years. Is whyte even away? Are ticketus still in about it? Mind ticketus have links to whyte. I said on rangers chat earlier, I don't think anyone of these manky robbing bastards will be near the AGM and these actions just prove that to me. Get these bastards hunted bears (btw Stockbridge that's not a threat ya shitebag) but it may be best you lot don't attend games from now on as I don't think you will be Rangers fans favourites. Give us our club back. I'm fucking raging tbh

Logged in today and forum asked me to change password as mine had expired after 2255 days...wasn't sure if the forum had been hacked or what.

Toyed with the idea of writing a 'match' preview for this but we'll just go for the thread instead. Case opened at 10am but has been adjourned until 11 so lawyers for Rangers can read over a late submission from the Requisitioner who seek to have an open vote at the AGM on current and nominated board members.

'RANGERS legend Sandy Jardine has led the tributes to former Light Blues goalkeeper Norrie Martin who has sadly passed away. Ladybank-born Martin moved to Ibrox in 1958 from Hamilton, initially as a third-choice keeper to George Niven and Billy Ritchie, and during his 12 years at Ibrox he made 126 appearances with 15 of them in Europe. During the 1966/67 season he wore the number one jersey in the Cup Winners’ Cup, playing against Borussia Dortmund, Real Zaragoza, Slavia Sofia and in the Final which Rangers lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich.' http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5269-gers-mourn-norrie-martin

The RST are pleased to confirm that club CEO Craig Mather has responded to our latest request, and has agreed to a meeting with us, and our sister organisations, the Rangers Supporters Assembly and Rangers supporters Association. The meeting will take place this Thursday (10th October), and will also be attended by Brian Stockbridge and Jim Traynor. If you have anything you would like us to raise at the meeting complete the form below. http://www.therst.co.uk/meeting-with-ceo-craig-mather/

Wednesday, 09 October 2013 13:00 Gers Agree M&H Partnership Written by Rangers Football Club RANGERS Football Club has today announced a new Platinum Sponsorship deal with M&H Logistics. The three-year agreement will see the Scottish firm fulfil all of the Club’s logistics requirements. Rangers Chief Executive Craig Mather said: ““We are delighted to announce M&H Logistics as a new Platinum Sponsor of the Club and we look forward to working in partnership with them over the next three years." M&H Logistics Managing Director Tom Wotherspoon added: “M&H Logistics are a leading logistics company specialising in the movement of palletised freight throughout the UK and we are delighted to support Rangers on the journey back to the top of Scottish football." http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5250-gers-agree-mh-partnership

If you were constructing a gallery of guilty men at Rangers then you’d want to make sure your walls are supported by reinforced steel, such is the weight of numbers you’d be hanging up there. Walter Smith has pretty much stood alone as the good guy in all of this. ‘In Walter We Trust’ as some Rangers supporters might put it. It’s hard not to respect and like the former Ibrox manager given all that he has done in the game, but it’s possible to hold him in high esteem while at the same time pointing out the fallacy that he is blameless in the spectacular mess that his club has become. In the deconstruction of the Rangers story you’d point the finger at plenty of guys *before you’d have Smith in your sights, but the fact is that he has played his own part in the *malaise. He possesses none of the spiv-ish nature of some of the chancers who have come and gone at Ibrox, but he still warrants criticism. It didn’t come across in his interviews on Tuesday, but Smith is no innocent bystander in all of this. We go back to last summer and a tabloid headline that read ‘Walter’s Heartbreak’ above a story that told of Smith’s failed bid to take control of Rangers in June 2012. To talk of his heartbreak was a little kind given that the bid failed partly because, as Malcolm Murray subsequently pointed out, there was actually no formal bid – he called it empty posturing – and partly because even if there was a bid it was too little, too late. By the time Smith, Jim McColl and Douglas Park mounted their white steeds and galloped over the horizon in Govan, calling on Charles Green to “step aside” in the interests of Rangers, Green had already secured the business and assets for a song. What took them so long? Where had they been? They made no secret of their concern about the motivation of Green and his group. They were spot-on there. So why wait until Green had done the deal before appearing on the scene? On these pages in the past I equated their action to somebody busting in on a funeral with a defibrillator. Smith asked Green to step aside in the interests of Rangers. Appealing to his sense of fair play wasn’t going to change the course of events. The one thing that Green would have listened to was an offer. Money doesn’t talk to Green, it hollers like a banshee. Smith’s group had the financial clout to get the Yorkshireman off the scene and they didn’t deliver. They spoke openly of their serious reservations about Green’s mysterious group but didn’t do what needed to be done. We could talk about Smith’s axis of excess with David Murray back in the day when Rangers thought they had money when in actual fact what they had was credit and iffy tax schemes, which eventually came back to trouble them and helped cause the spectacular implosion. More recent events show that the hubris of the 1990s and early 2000s hasn’t been fully purged. Smith was right to be anxious about Green. For months, Green attempted to get him on board and was getting nowhere. Getting Ally McCoist’s imprimatur was incredibly valuable to Green and the chances are that his regime would not have got off the ground had McCoist stayed true to his own initial feelings about the Yorkshireman, but he didn’t. The endorsement of McCoist helped shift season tickets and helped endear Green to the Ibrox faithful after an early and bitter stand-off with the supporters, featuring a death threat. Getting McCoist on side – publicly at any rate – was good, but getting Smith to join him was equally important given the IPO last December. In November, Walter jumped into bed with Green. They shook hands and smiled for the cameras. One big happy *family again. Smith became a non-*executive director. The veneer of calmness was what Green was looking for and thanks to two Rangers icons, he got it. Both men would have been better advised to stick to their original positions on Green and his cohorts. By changing their minds, they played their own part in facilitating the embarrassment that followed. It can’t have been that much of a surprise, given how dubious they were about Green in the first place. Smith became chairman last June, not because he wanted to but because he felt he had to in the wake of the in-fighting at Ibrox, the dysfunctionality of the board as he later described it. It was to his credit that he moved into a position that he had no experience of. He knew he lacked the tools but, equally, he vowed that he would be as hands-on as he could possibly be. “No-one should believe that I see my role as a passive one,” he said. “That hasn’t been my way in the past and it won’t be my way in the future.” Encouraging words for the Rangers fans who craved authority and order at the top of the club, but it’s easy to see how Smith was virtually powerless in that bonkers regime of Green’s. You can’t blame him for walking away from the civil war. But some of the things he said on Tuesday jar a little all the same. His comments on the financial waste at Ibrox, under his watch in part, demanded explanation. “I knew they [Rangers] would make a loss [for the financial year ended 30 June] but I wasn’t sure exactly what it would be. It was quite a surprise when it came out to be such a large figure.” Quite a surprise? Smith was chairman for the end of that period. Did he ask questions about the financial state of the club while he was there? Did he get answers? Were the answers truthful? If yes, why was he then surprised when the accounts revealed such a massive cash-burn? If no, then did he feel people inside the club had lied to him? Smith was chairman. He should have known, shouldn’t he? Having the business savvy to be able to do something about the obscene bonuses being dished out would have been a different matter entirely, but as chairman he should have known. Unless he was a passive chairman, which he said he wouldn’t be. On the football side of it, it’s pretty clear that Smith had no issue with McCoist earning £825,000 a year. Also, he has said that giving a player a wage of £7,500 a week (Ian Black, for one) while in the Third Division was not such a big deal. Presumably he had no truck with other deals, like the one given to Fran Sandaza that would have seen the Spaniard’s salary rise to £10,000 a week in the final year of his contract. The overall wage bill in the Third Division was £7.8 million. Smith said: “People come out and say ‘Ah, it’s not necessary for them to have those players in that division’. But it’s not just the division that matters at Rangers, it’s the fact that you have 45,000 people coming to watch something on a football pitch…They are still losing money. But when you make a decision to be involved at Rangers, there is no common sense to it. The financial bit of Rangers Football Club and common sense don’t often go together.” That’s a remarkable statement when you think about it. What is wrong with Rangers attempting some common sense in their spending? Why be so accepting of a lack of common sense? It didn’t have to be that way. There is no law – apart from the law of hubris – that says Rangers have to lack common sense in their finances. This is the 2013 version of David Murray’s freakonomics. ‘We are Rangers and we’ll spend what we like’. Either through arrogance or stupidity – or both – that mindset hasn’t changed all that much despite the torment. What would have been so wrong with offering Black £3,000 a week instead of £7,500? What would have been the problem had McCoist been put on £400,000 from the point of administration instead of continuing on £825,000? Why is the wage bill so eye-wateringly high for a club in the Third Division? Because there is no common sense at Rangers, says Smith. Instead of just accepting it, how about doing something about it? Incredibly, it wouldn’t appear that the penny has dropped yet. The former manager deserves all the respect for what he achieved in the game, but in the on-going crisis at Ibrox, he is not blame-free. Rangers are still stuck in a financial time-warp. And many people have allowed it to happen.

KRIS Boyd dropped a bit of bombshell on Sky before Rangers took on Ayr United at Somerset Park on Sunday. Boyd revealed that none of the Rangers stars who took the club on its glorious three-in-a-row run and on into the £20M Klondyke that is the Champions League got anywhere near the £200,000 bonus which was banked by Financial Director Brian Stockbridge for whatever part he thinks he played in Rangers winning the fourth tier league last season. That just about puts the whole thing into perspective and shows why the vast and overwhelming majority of Rangers fans believe the current directors are spivs and want them out of the Blue Room to be replaced by men such as Paul Murray, who has never taken a brass farthing out of Rangers. When Sky’s always excellent Scottish anchor, David Tanner quizzed Boyd about Stockbridge’s bonus bonanza he was presenting the former Ibrox hit man with an open goal. And big Boydie doesn’t miss those. That Boyd revelation is something Rangers supporters might be glad to quiz £300,000-a-year chief executive officer Craig Mather and his £200,000-a-year, plus the same again in a bonus last time out, financial director Brian Stockbridge about. Except that Mather and Stockbridge have refused to give them that chance after getting such a hot time from the couple of hundred supporters they faced a few weeks ago. But that was before the Sons of Struth inspired match days’ demonstrations against the board kicked off and before the accounts were published showing an operating loss of £14.4M. Now Mather and Stockbridge know that that rough ride they got the last time they met the fans would be nothing compared to the hostile reception they would face if they showed their faces in the lion’s den again. Which is why many believe they have refused to repeat the meeting. Instead, on Thursday they are due to meet not a few hundred supporters, but a mere six of them. They will sit down in private conclave with two representatives from each of the three main supporters’ groups, the Association, the Assembly and the Trust. And even that is more than they wanted to do in the first place. For I can reveal that the first request from the Rangers board was that they would meet one representative of each of those three major organisations, at three separate meetings. An offer the three groups saw as an ambush and rightly snubbed. But what about Thursday’s meeting? Will it turn out to be some sort of ambush too? Will the two executive directors, Mather and Stockbridge both be there? Will non executive directors be there too? Will James Easdale be there? Will Sandy Easdale, who is not a plc director, but who sits on the football board only, be there? My advice to the office bearers of the Association, the Assembly and the Trust would be to get cast list sorted out in advance of the meeting and to refuse to go ahead with the meeting if the board deviate from what they agree in advance. It is bad enough that Rangers are in turmoil. Respected financial figures predict the current board will run out of money by this time next year. There is also a Court of Session case, as the current directors’ reluctance to take part in a proper open democratic election is challenged by good men and true. Now Mather refuses to again stand in front of the same few hundred supporters he tried to sweet talk a few weeks ago. While financial director Stockbridge refuses to try to explain away what it was he did to help Rangers win the fourth tier in Scottish football which deserved a £200,000 bonus, which as Kris Boyd has revealed, was a lot more than any of the players who helped Rangers win three-in-a-row SPL titles and take Rangers to the promised land of the Champions League, including a money spinning clash with Manchester United, ever got.

I'm going for another convincing win today. Ayr UTD 0 Rangers 5 Daly 2, Little 2, Jig

http://www.therangersstandard.co.uk/index.php/articles/current-affairs/289-terminological-inexactitude

I pride myself on paying absolutely no attention to anyone or anything in the Scottish game apart from us. However, if you open this forum at the moment you hear Neil Lennon at a press conference . Also, he was possibly pished but he seems to think Neymar is called Nemwar haha

I'm not a member of the RST, but was wondering if any of you folks are going along to their AGM in the Ibrox Suite in a couple of hours time? Bit surprised there hasn't already been a thread about it. Was it a last minute thing?

Even from the vantage-point of this somewhat detached Celtic fan, Rangers officials sometimes appear to have a point when they occasionally complain about deep-seated hostility from sections of the media. A lot of fans believe there has been an attempt to drive them out of existence in the last few years with elements of the social media seeking to define public opinion on who is to blame for the misfortunes of the club. http://www.therangersstandard.co.uk/index.php/articles/rfc-politics/290-journalist-trophy-hunters-have-rangers-in-their-sights

Board Statement Written by Rangers Football Club Thursday, 03 October 2013 16:45 THE Board of Rangers Football Club takes serious issue with grossly misleading statements made to The Scotsman newspaper by the club’s former chairman Mr Malcolm Murray. Mr Murray claimed in an interview that Ibrox Chief Executive Craig Mather’s assertion that he (Murray) decided the controversial levels of executive salaries at the club was “misleading and vexatious.” Mr Murray also claimed he “joined the Board on the recommendation of the institutions to instil a high level of corporate governance at Rangers.” These are the facts: Mr Murray was appointed by Charles Green on June 14 2012 to Sevco Scotland (now Rangers Football Club Ltd). There were no institutions in the Club then. The Club IPO was on December 19 2012 so it is grossly inaccurate to say Mr Murray was put there by said institutions to oversee corporate governance. Mr Murray proposed Craig Mather to the board. Mr Murray agreed Brian Stockbridge’s salary and bonus. Mr Murray agreed Mr Green’s salary and bonus. Mr Murray negotiated Mr Green’s compromise agreement and signed it off. Mr Murray was removed from the Pinsent Masons investigation by the board after leaking information to a third party. The Board of Rangers Football Club are appalled and saddened at the current demeanour of Mr Malcolm Murray and the damage that he is causing to the Club and regard his behaviour as totally unbefitting a once respected practitioner in the City of London’s financial community. http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5213-board-statement