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CELTIC shareholders are demanding the club’s board lodge a formal complaint with UEFA over Rangers’ readmittance to the Scottish Football League following its financial collapse. A resolution set to be tabled at the club’s AGM on November 15 calls upon the board to demand a probe into how “an unqualified new club” formed after the Ibrox side’s liquidation was allowed entry into the league by the SFA. They claim Scotland’s footballing bosses contravened the UEFA code of conduct by granting a licence and put other clubs vying to enter the league at a disadvantage. The Celtic board has urged that the motion is rejected, saying that requesting a UEFA investigation would be “unnecessary”. But shareholders have promised a “fiery debate” over the resolution, which states sections of the Hoops’ shareholders have “no confidence in the SFA’s governance”. Rangers entered administration in February last year. Charles Green’s Sevco bought the club’s assets last June as it faced liquidation and later changed the name to The Rangers Football Club Plc. The Ibrox club was removed from the SPL but its membership of the SFA was transferred to the new owners, allowing it to start last season in Division Three. Celtic shareholders have raised questions about the SFA’s decision, claiming it displayed “a disregard for the rules and spirit of fair play” and “contradicted FIFA, UEFA and SFA mission statements”. The resolution also claims the SFA was involved in “secret cross governance agreements” to get Rangers back in the league, allowed the club to compete “without proper registration compliance” and that the SFA failed to initiate an “inquiry on improper player registration”. It is also stated “our concern is directed at the governance of the game in Scotland, the SFA, and its apparent disregard for the licensing designed to protect against such commercial impropriety and ensure sporting integrity”. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/436527/Celtic-shareholders-want-UEFA-to-probe-SFA-over-Rangers-punishment?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-scotland+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+Scotland+Feed%29

THE battle for control of Rangers will take a significant turn on Monday if a shareholders’ group led by former director Paul Murray and ex-chairman Malcolm Murray is successful in court proceedings. By Lyndsey Herron The shareholders’ group want four directors’ nominations added to the list of business for the Annual General Meeting – the two Murrays, plus Scott Murdoch and Alex Wilson. If the Court of Session rules in their favour, then this would postpone the AGM, scheduled for October 24, until mid-November as a new Notice to Shareholders would have to be issued and this has to be released 21 days before. The current Rangers board will oppose the court action on Monday but the shareholders’ group is confident that they will prevail. It would then mean that the shareholders could vote the four nominated men onto the board at the AGM while all existing board members are up for re-election. There could be more developments on the back of the court action with former director Dave King heavily tipped to have a leading role in any changes. Chief executive Craig Mather flew to Johannesburg in a bid to woo King to back the current regime. However, it is understood the talks were in vain as the multi-millionaire has an alliance with the shareholders’ group looking for change. A source close to the group said: “Monday will be a significant day in terms of the future for Rangers. “There is confidence that the Court of Session will rule favourably to set a new chain of events into motion. “It will mean that four additional directorial nominations will be added to the business of the AGM and, in turn, the AGM will move to mid-November as a new Notice to Shareholders will have to be issued.” Representatives of the major fans’ groups met with Mather, finance director Brian Stockbridge and James Traynor, the director of communications, on Thursday night to discuss all of the pressing issues. Meanwhile, Friday night football is coming to Ibrox after the Scottish Cup third-round tie with Airdrie was switched to November 1 with a 7.45pm kick-off. Sandy Jardine has led the tributes to former Rangers keeper Norrie Martin, who passed away yesterday after a short illness. Jardine and Martin, who was 74, were team-mates in the 1967 European Cup-Winners’ Cup Final when the Light Blues lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich after extra time. During 12 years at Ibrox from 1958, Martin was initially understudy to George Niven and Billy Ritchie and played most of his 110 matches in the final three seasons of his Gers career, leaving in 1970. Jardine said: “Everyone at Rangers has been saddened to hear the news about Norrie. “He was a good keeper but had to fight to get into the side because of firstly George Niven and then Billy Ritchie, but when he did get in he did really well. “He and Kai Johansen were great friends but he was largely a quiet man. “We all send our condolences to his family.” http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/436096/Ibrox-in-power-struggle?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-football-news+%28Daily+Express+%3A%3A+Football+Feed%29

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/5195-rangers-announce-annual-results

Dear Mr Fitzpatrick, Thank you for your letter of 11.09.2013, which enclosed a copy of a response you have received from David Gauke MP regarding the Rangers Tax Case. Whilst I am extremely disappointed with the content of that letter, I am however glad that you personally have now experienced the type of evasion and prevarication which gave rise to me contacting you in the first place, and which myself and many thousands of Rangers supporters, many shareholders with a vested financial interest, have also experienced. Before I proceed further however, I must take this opportunity to thank you personally for your efforts in this matter. Whilst Mr Gauke's response leaves a lot to be desired at least you managed to elucidate a response. I honestly do wonder however, if Mr Gauke and HMRC think we in Scotland "zip up at the back of the heid" for want of a better expression. ( I'm sorely tempted to send Mr Gauke my curriculum vitae and direct him to the part under training which states "Advanced Detective Training Scottish Police College" Perhaps dealing with Mr Gauke's response is the most fruitful way to proceed :- 2nd Paragraph "As I'm sure you will understand I am unable to comment on the tax affairs of individual companies as doing so would be a breach of taxpayer confidentiality" We most certainly do understand - in fact it's breaches of such confidentiality which give rise to our concerns and questions, which I note Mr Gauke, like HMRC before him, has chosen to avoid answering. Mr Fitzpatrick if you look at the previous correspondence I sent you, you will note that my questions centred around the conduct of HMRC and Westminster MP's with responsibility thereto, following the breaches of confidentiality in the Rangers Tax Case. The questions I have been asking HMRC and those Ministers are summarised as follows :- 1. When the leaks in the Rangers Tax Case entered the public domain did HMRC conduct an internal audit or investigation to determine the source of these leaks ? 2. What was the conclusion of such investigation ? 3. Did HMRC cross reference the content of such leaks in the catalogue of evidence they had seized for the Rangers Tax Case to determine if there was a match ? 4. Are there protocols and procedures within HMRC for breaches of confidentiality and if so were they adhered to in the Rangers Tax Case ? Furthermore did Westminster MP's with ministerial responsibility for HMRC, personally check that the protocols and investigations had been carried out by HMRC when the the Rangers Tax Case Leaks appeared in the public domain ? 5. Did HMRC contact the Police to report these apparent breaches of confidentiality which constituted a grave crime in Scotland ? If not why not ? 3rd Paragraph "I understand a case management hearing before the Upper Tax tribunal was set for 19 July 2013 after which HMRC expects to learn more about when the appeal is likely to be heard" This deals with the ongoing legal process and has no bearing whatsover on the questions I have asked, or HMRC's failure to respond. 4th Paragraph "As HMRC has previously advised it cannot comment on the affairs of any business or individual due to it's legal obligations of confidentiality" More or less a repeat of the 2nd Paragraph. However it’s interesting that the phrase "legal obligations" is mentioned. The jist of my enquiries as can be seen from the questions asked are not to probe confidential information relative to the Rangers Tax Case but to determine if the investigatory body has fulfilled its legal obligations in view of a breach of that confidentiality. 5th Paragraph "However I can confirm that these matters are being investigated by Police Service of Scotland in conjunction with HMRC and the PF West of Scotland" I must admit this paragraph made me laugh. They are only subject to such criminal investigation because Sir David Murray and myself lodged criminal complaints in respect of these leaks post Tax Tribunal Verdict. The real question is why didn't HMRC initiate such a complaint sooner ? It is quite clear that HMRC, and given the content of Mr Gauke's letter I suspect a number of MP's are hiding behind this "breach of confidentiality" to avoid answering very awkward questions. It is a master class in prevarication and evasion. It is blatantly apparent from the way I have presented the questions that they are an examination of the conduct of the Investigatory Body (HMRC) in the Rangers Tax Case following confidential information being leaked to a number of outlets, not any desire to seek information which would obviously be confidential concerning Rangers Tax Case. Finally I would refer to Section 98 of Lord Nimmo Smith's report into the SPL Investigation into Rangers where he concludes :- [98] Meanwhile, BBC Scotland came, by unknown means, into possession of what they described as “dozens of secret emails, letters and documents”, which we understand were the productions before the Tax Tribunal. These formed the basis of a programme entitled “Rangers – The Men Who Sold the Jerseys”, which was broadcast on 23 May 2012. BBC Scotland also published copious material on its website. The published material included a table containing the names of Rangers players, coaches and staff who were beneficiaries of the MGMRT, and how much they received through that trust. It also listed the names of people where the BBC had seen evidence that they received side-letters. This event appears to have been the trigger for more activity in response to the SPL’s request. Mr Fitzpatrick we have a situation here now where a one of the most legal and respected legal brains in Scotland is alluding to the very evidence in the Rangers Tax Case being stolen and passed to BBC Scotland and the Investigatory Body (HMRC) responsible for the seizing and care of such productions refuse to comment. I'm sure you would agree this situation is totally unacceptable. In fact there is a sinister element of deliberate avoidance emerging. In no way does it breach confidentiality to examine the conduct, and ask questions of an investigatory agency in what has been the highest profile tax case ever in Scotland, and where the evidence has been appropriated and passed on allowing considerable breaches of confidentiality. As you can perhaps determine from the tone and content of this letter I feel the response from Mr Gauke to both you and I is totally unsatisfactory. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on proceeding with this. Do you think further correspondence would be fruitful or do you think the concerns raised in this letter and our collective experiences are worthy of further debate within Holyrood itself ? I look forward to hearing from you. Yours Sincerely

Lifted from FF: I have been hearing from various sources that we as a group are being met with mixed reviews from forums etc so decided to come on and let everyone know a bit about us and our aims to allow each to make their own mind up We have been accused of being many people from tims to M Dingwall to D Leggat and even malcolm murray. We are none of these we are only normal concerned fans and if you read attachment below it will give you a better idea of who we are and how we came about. We only have 3 aims and I would question any fan who didnt want these things from their club regardless of who they are and which team they follow 1) Keep the stadium in clubs name to avoid Coventry situation 2) clear accounts which prove proper running of the club 3) a board that keep the club off the front pages and are above reproach We do not have any aims that can divide a support and only actually which to unite fans from all groups against a clear and present danger The following is a post from our facebook page that was first posted 2 weeks ago when we first started. Please take the few minutes to read and DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE surrounding The Sons of Struth https://www.facebook.com/SonsOfStruth Here we go I will try and explain in as short a post a possible who is involved to date with the Sons of Struth and how this page came about. One of our main points of agenda and a main Struthism is openness. Some of you may be aware of the Rangers Rumours website and a regular poster named George or George protester number 1. I picked up on his postings only 1 week ago and was intrigued to know what his feelings and understanding of our clubs current plight was. George arranged to travel from London on Friday and meet anyone interested in what he had to say at Ibrox. Due to my own worries about our club I felt I had nothing to lose other than 10 minutes of my time and a whole lot to gain if he had any information that could fill my appetite to fully understand the situation at our club. The fact that only 10 people turned up confirmed my general feeling that our fans are very apathetic towards the current situation and George was very disappointed also. He did, as many have since held against him, arrive minus the promised leaflets and did introduce himself as a representative of George. Both these points seem to have angered some but I understand why he done both when as he could have possibly been faced with a far greater number of fans who he didn’t know who they where and he was let down by a local printer which was a point later proven to me. To the 10 who were at the first meeting and others who visit the Rangers Rumours site, I was the guy with the red jacket who some believed was Georges minder and I post on the site as Craig protester number 2 BFH. To set the record straight I had never met George before Friday and purely turned up as a disgruntled fan searching for some knowledge. I appeared to pick up on what George was saying very quickly but so did others around me, however George seemed to like the questions I asked him and what I had to say so he asked me after the meeting if I would like to talk further on a one to one basis. This “private” meeting consisted more of us talking like true fans and swapping stories of our favourite experiences following our club than it did about revelations which weren’t disclosed at the full meeting. We did prove our love for our club and our concerns for the future just as many discussions would go between Rangers fans all over the world when two strangers meet and they find they both support Rangers. We decided we would talk again during his stay in Glasgow and exchanged numbers. During the course of last weekend we talked several times over the telephone and agreed to meet on Monday and I would introduce him to my friend Sandy who was also interested to hear what George had to say. During the course of the weekend George had put his leaflet online as he promised. George, Sandy and I met on Monday and again the discussion was no different to hundreds of chats between Rangers fans many times over. We discussed our favourite games, best goals,most manic away trips and the like but most importantly we shared a huge concern over the current state of our dearly held club and a desire to do something about. We all agreed that doing something and failing was more acceptable than doing nothing but with the hope we could make a difference even if it was just to give the proper fans some information that may put some fire in the belly and arouse some passion from within the fan base. We then involved the man power from a well known body of fans, who if they wish to disclose their important and welcome involvement is matter for them, who helped along with hastily recruited normal fans like Paisley Gary to help with the distribution of Georges leaflets prior to Tuesdays game. The leaflets went out and received a mixture of reactions. On Tuesday not long before I left for the game I started the Sons of Struth facebook page. The reasons for this is to give the normal fan who wants our club to return to a stewardship of which we would expect from Rangers. You pick up a paper on Monday going to work and you are faced with another scandal about our club. You discuss it and try to make sense of it but before you have a chance to get your head round it a few days later you’re faced with another earth shaking scandal. This is not what we expect from the custodians of our club. The mere inclusion of the Struth name in the page harks back to an era when our custodians conducted themselves with dignity, honesty and respect. We must install this again from our boardroom. Who am I? I am a nobody. Not attached to any fan group or organisation. I am you. A fan and season ticket holder since the age of 8 years old. What do I want? I want to talk about my favourite memories of Rangers and idols and goals again, not have to discuss and deal with on a daily basis another boardroom scandal and just get back to the football. I want a board that won’t embarrass me and treat me like a fan without hiding facts from me. I want to be assured that the stadium where I have had many happy memories will be in the ownership of my club and not sold off and rented back to us by some spiv. The stadium holds the spirit of not one but three disasters and has to remain ours to honour those who did not return. It has to remain for the thousands who have the names of lost loved ones chiselled on the very bricks in their memory. It is not the crown jewels it is far more important to the very soul of every fan who has ever walked through the turnstiles. Who are the Sons of Struth? We all are and can be ordinary fans or members from any other fan body. If you are a Union Bear or a Supporters Trust member, as long as your principles and desires are the same as ours then we welcome your input and support. We are not affiliated to any other fan body but welcome their involvement and discuss common aims. Our biggest and most immediate threat is the possible sale of our stadium and let me explain why. The ground swell of opinion is the current board may not have 51% of the shareholder support in the near future and as such leaves them in a position of one last heist. Let me explain in simple terms and use your house as an example. You require cash due to your ailing financial position and own a home with a market value of £200k. I agree to give you £100k cash today to solve your short term financial problems and I will rent you the house back for £2k per month. I will also agree to allow you to buy it back anytime in the next 10 years for £300k. I cant lose. I either 1) have you in the home and draw £24k a year of you in rental 2) Get £2k a month off you until your able to give me £300k to get it back 3) You leave the house and I have a building costing me half market value. Now turn this story to Ibrox and what a spiv could do. Sell the stadium to a carefully selected company that a trusted friend owns and the spiv has a vested interest in and do it soon before he loses the majority of shareholders. Couldnt happen? Think of the Monday morning paper stories we have all had to deal with in the last couple of years. SONS OF STRUTH DEMAND THE TRUTH SHOW YOU CARE AND SHARE WITH A BEAR Craig

STV - 12 September 2013 00:01 BST Rangers midfielder Ian Black will go before a Scottish Football Association committee on Thursday to answer accusations of betting against his own club on three occasions. The former Inverness CT and Hearts player is accused of putting money on his team to not win matches between March 4, 2006 and July 28, 2013. Black is also accused of betting on a further ten games in which the club he was playing for were involved in, as well as betting on a further 147 games not involving his team. It is not known which specific fixtures he is accused of placing bets on which involved the clubs he was registered with. The Scottish FA have stated that there is no evidence to suggest the player acted in a manner or influenced proceedings during a game which led to him making money. STV understands the most recent match Black bet upon was Rangers' tie with Albion Rovers in the Ramsdens Cup on July 28, 2013. Rangers won the game 4-0. It is also understood that the player's actions came to light through his use of a Ladbrokes phone account. Footballers registered in Scotland are prohibited by the Scottish FA from betting on any football match. If found guilty, players can be fined from £500 to £1,000,000 and can be either suspended or expelled from playing professional football. They are also not allowed to "behave in a manner, during or in connection with a match in which the party has participated or has any influence, either direct or indirect, which could give rise to an event in which they or any third party benefits financially through betting". The Scottish FA however have made clear there is "no evidence" to suggest Black has breached the second rule. When the allegations were first made, a Rangers spokesperson said: "The club is aware of the SFA's notice of complaint and are currently investigating the matter." http://news.stv.tv/west-central/239202-rangers-ian-black-to-go-before-sfa-committee-over-betting-claims/

Hey folks, Just a heads up that Jon Ritchie (aka nacho_nacho_man) on the RangersMedia forum is running a poll for a silk scarf design. He'll be getting the winning design manufactured in limited quantity (two or three hundred I think) and selling them for a great price. There's 5 designs to choose from, so if you're interested in this sort of thing, then check them out and place a vote on your favourite design! The thread is here - http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=258550

IT is now more than a week since Craig Mather promised there would be an investigation into Rangers’ £100,000-a-year spin doctor Jack Irvine’s slur on the Greatest Ever Ranger, John Greig. Nobody is holding their breath awaiting an outcome which would see Rangers chief executive Mather announce that Irvine has been sacked for insulting John Greig. However, it is now also a week since the three main bodies of Rangers fans, the Association, the Assembly and the Trust released a statement defending Greig, attacking Irvine and calling for Irvine to be given the boot. So far the only response, the only anger expressed and the only call for Irvine - who also acts in the shadows for James and Sandy Easdale - to be sacked has come from Rangers supporters And in that time what have we heard from the legions of Rangers legends who played with John Greig? From the army of stars who played for him? And from the well paid players of the nine-in-a-row era and after when Greig was a director and in and around the club’s training ground on a daily basis? Nothing, that’s what. Not a cheap, nary a whimper. And that is a disgrace. It is shameful and cowardly. Especially as many of these ex players put their names to lucrative ghost written columns in the two top selling daily papers in Scotland. In fact one, like Greig a former Rangers and Scotland captain, Barry Ferguson, has only recently joined the paid ranks of the Daily Record and is perfectly placed to let rip. But the silence has been deafening. Why? Are all of these former Rangers players harbouring dark secrets in their private lives which they fear that peddler of the dark arts, Jack Irvine will expose? If so, what about Andy Goram, a regular on the pages of Scotland’s biggest selling paper, the Sun? What could Irvine threaten The Goalie with? That he’s been a bevy merchant? A serial shagger? A gambler? Sorry, Irvine, but every paper in the land has splashed those stories over the years. So go for it Goalie. Defend John Greig. Of course, it could be that both the Record and the Sun have refused to allow anyone access to their pages to defend John Greig, as that would be tantamount to those papers being seen to attack Jack Irvine. Maybe Sun editor Andy Harries and Record editor Allan Rennie live in terror of Jack Irvine and despite now knowing what Irvine really thinks of them as I have revealed, they are too frightened of him to take him on. Jack Irvine is, as I have said, a deeply unpleasant wee man, who probably suffers from wee man syndrome. It is time for the editors of Scotland’s top two selling daily newspapers to call him out. And time for the Rangers players who were John Greig’s team mates, who played for him and who knew him in more recent times when he was still a valued club employee and director, to defend John Greig. And call for Jack Irvine’s head to be delivered on an old cracked china plate. A silver salver’s too good for the runt.

I'd say we need to move on other players first but interesting news nonetheless... http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/4983-zaliukas-trains-with-gers

MOST football fans in Scotland do not support Celtic. The majority are not Rangers fans either. MORI and Gallup do not exactly do polls on this sort of stuff so there is no way to be scientific about it, but maybe each of them has about 35-40% of the people who follow a team and the rest are shared around all the other clubs. What those of all allegiances are coming to terms with - whether they rejoice in the fact or resent it - is that Celtic have turned the Scottish game into a one-party state. For most of its history the league title has been an endless tennis rally between Celtic and Rangers, the championship switching from one to the other every year or two. Only now and again has one of them emerged into the clear daylight of a sustained period of dominance. Celtic won six in a row from 1905, Rangers five from 1927. In the late 1960s and early '70s there were times when it looked as if Jock Stein had built a force that would never be caught. When Rangers emulated Stein's nine consecutive titles - latterly buttressed by the bountiful revenue stream of the Champions League - it felt as if Sir David Murray, Graeme Souness and Walter Smith had moved the Ibrox club to a position of power which would obliterate any competition. And what happened? The Lisbon Lions era was built around Stein's individual genius and when his powers waned Celtic were drawn back into the pack. In the late 1990s Rangers grew old and tired, and misspent their resources, to the point a rebuilt Celtic got back among the titles. Currently the record books show only two consecutive league wins for Celtic but that is the equivalent of taking a snapshot of Usain Bolt in the early stages of a 100m race. Everyone can be pretty sure of what is coming next. At Tannadice on Saturday there were the latest renditions of a tune that the Celtic support has been singing for quite a while: "Here we go, 10 in a row." It's part-celebration, part-triumphalism, part-threat to you-know-who. There are 40 clubs which have long grown accustomed to the idea of having no real chance of being Scottish champions any time soon, and one which has a demanding fanbase unused to being denied anything for long. It is common these days to hear people talk about how Celtic have the potential to begin a period of unprecedented domination "if they use their money wisely". What they mean is that if Celtic keep running themselves prudently, employing the right manager and players, staying out of debt and always having money to spend to replenish a winning squad, it is going to take an almighty effort for Rangers to ever catch them. The apocalyptic scenario for Rangers is that Celtic keep getting into the Champions League group every year. They secured £20m in Uefa money alone last season and now they have another £16m this season. That is almost twice as much dough as Rangers raised from a one-off share issue. If Celtic pull off another two qualifications in 2014 and 2015 that would amount to around £80m washing into the club before Rangers even have the chance to take them on in the league. Given that all the fundamentals - season-ticket, commercial and sponsorship income - are otherwise broadly comparable between the Glasgow clubs, the long-term difference between them will be Champions League income. And that means that when a player's agent tries to bring a talent to Glasgow (the same player is often offered to both clubs at the same time), Celtic should be able to pay higher transfer fees and wages every time they both want the same man. All of this is a chilling thought around Ibrox. Horrifying, in fact. The Uefa golden goose that was once Rangers', and then shared, is now exclusively Celtic's. They can thank David Murray and Craig Whyte for that. It used to be the rest of Scottish football that was excluded at one or both of the Old Firm's expense; now Rangers are out in the cold too. Rangers have been in the Champions League group stage 10 times and Celtic are about to play in it for the eighth time. At a very conservative estimate (Champions League income has grown over the past 20 years) that is about £180m of Uefa money the Old Firm have enjoyed, in addition to their already vastly superior regular income. Last season Motherwell made around £195,000 from Uefa, and Hearts and St Johnstone £75,000 each - a tiny fraction of Celtic's £20m. The champions' excellent campaign also meant £100,000 in "solidarity" payments from Uefa for all other top-flight clubs, but that amounts to (welcome) crumbs. The Champions League embodies the concept of a self-perpetuating elite in which the rich get richer. When I spoke to a couple of SPFL Premiership club directors about how they reacted to Celtic generating Uefa income on a scale which makes it impossible for them to be given anything more than the odd bloody nose over the course of a season, one said: "It almost doesn't concern us. We're resigned to them always winning the league now and our competition is to finish second. Most clubs are happy for them to get into the group because it means a bit of Uefa money for us. It's probably very different for Rangers." Every empire falls eventually. The eras of Stein and Souness/Smith came to natural ends. Rosenborg show that even monopolising a country's Champions League access does not guarantee permanent rule. But Celtic's position of strength, and their advantages, are greater than any board of directors have known since Scottish football began. By Michael Grant (Herald)

In times of trouble, the crown fits old Rangers King - The Herald 'IT would be reasonable to suppose that the Glasgow experience of John Barnes would have been enough to make the former Liverpool player shrink at a Scottish accent and positively bridle at the mere mention of the game north of the border. However, Barnes speaks of his brief tenure as Celtic manager with some insight and maintains a strong connection to the Scottish game through his role as a media pundit and his friendship with Dave King, the Scottish businessman and former Rangers director based in South Africa, who has been vocal in the unfolding turmoil at the Ibrox club. Barnes travels the world in his role as a football analyst and met King in South Africa, where the former England internationalist comments on both Barclays Premier League and Champions League matches. He believes strongly that King has a role to play as the power struggle continues at Rangers. The businessman lost £20m when the club was owned by Sir David Murray and has warned they could be in administration by Christmas. Barnes believes he was a victim of that high-spending Rangers, too, with his coaching career bludgeoned by the reality that he was facing greater resources at Ibrox. He also insists King could be the leader who rescues Rangers from in-fighting and brings the club back to the top league and to financial stability. Barnes lasted from June 1999 to February 2000 as Celtic manager, with a Scottish Cup defeat by Inverness Caledonian Thistle precipitating his demise. "I was not there long enough to learn a lot," he says, his sunny demeanour failing to disguise the disappointment of a opportunity that proved short-lived. Barnes was part of a "dream ticket", coming to Celtic Park in tandem with Kenny Dalglish, his one-time manager at Liverpool. He dismisses any notions he was an innocent thrown into the jungle of Scottish football. "Nothing happened there that I did not expect. I knew the expectations were high. I knew we were second to Rangers and if that continued it would mean that it would not work out." Standing in the BT studios in London where he is about to give his opinions on the English game, he pauses to reflect on the state of Scottish football then and now. "I think a lot of people are now looking at the dynamics of the game north of the border and saying it is not as easy at it seems. In those days it was very different. In those days David Murray was spending a lot of money. Rangers had better players and much more money than Celtic. They were signing such as Joerg Albertz and Michael Mols to join the good players they already had." Barnes was consumed by the imperative to defeat Rangers but with lesser resources. "It is strange to see how it has gone with Celtic and Rangers," he says. "The dynamic is different and it shows the way Celtic were doing things from a financial point of view was the right way and the necessary way to do it." He states bluntly: "Rangers are paying the price for that period." His friendship with King has given him the inside story on his rivals when he was manager of Celtic. King, who took up his role as a non-executive director in March 2000, began his formal association with Rangers as Barnes was ending his with Celtic but King and he have become close after regular trips to South Africa. "He tells me stories of what it was like back then," says Barnes, now 49 and travelling to the Middle East and elsewhere to talk football. "He tells me of the money Rangers were spending and that has impacted on where they are now. It is shame because they're a huge club." In March, King announced his intention to sue Murray, stating: "I seem to be one of the few people who actually invested cash into the club. I have made a claim of £20m the basis of non-disclosure by the then chairman, David Murray, of Rangers' true financial position as far back as 2000." Murray said he would vigorously contend any such claim if and when it was lodged. The past at Rangers is thus clouded with much animosity for King, but Barnes is optimistic on the club's future if his friend becomes involved. "He would be good for Rangers because he is a fan. He wants what is right for Rangers. It is a huge brand that can be hugely successful and it will be successful once again. It may take a few years but the more they can have people like him involved from a footballing perspective the better. If you are a football supporter, you want people like him to involved in football." Barnes, too, would like to become more closely involved in football. He managed the Jamaican national team for a season, taking them to first place in the 2008 Caribbean Championships, and then joined Tranmere Rovers in June 2009, lasting just five months before being sacked. "I would love to get back into management but it is hard. There are a lot of ex-managers who want to get back in. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to do TV work but if something came up I would definitely look at it again." And what of a return to Scotland? Has his experience at Celtic soured him? "It was fantastic up there," he says. "Obviously, the politics were not great but the football was good. I loved it, " he says.' ______________________________________________ Excuses excuses Barnes. Not like those associated with the dark side to revise history is it?. There's no denying we spent a lot of money overall during the DA era. However, lets take a look at transfer activity of the season in question.... The Poor Wee Souls Players In Stiliyan Petrov £2.8m Ian Wright - Free? Rafael Scheidt - £5m Eyal Berkovic - £5.75m Olivier Tébily - £1.25m Players Out Craig Burley - £3m Phil O'Donnell - Free Simon Donnelly - Free Darren Jackson - Free Total loss = £11.8m Us Dirty Cheats that Bought Our Tainted Titles Players In Dariusz Adamczuk - Free Michael Mols - £4m Tero Penttilä - £0.3m Thomas Myhre Loan Billy Dodds - £1.3m Tugay Kerimoğlu £1.3m Players Out Theo Snelders - Retired Jonas Thern - Retired Luigi Riccio - Released Stephane Guivarc'h - £3.4m Charlie Miller - £0.45m Antti Niemi - £0.4m Derek McInnes - £0.3m Ian Ferguson - Free Gabriel Amato - £3.75m Colin Hendry - £0.75m Paul McKnight - Nominal Total profit = £2,150,000 Except Albertz had already been with us for 2 seasons at that point. The simple fact of the matter is that we had a good team and good manager while they had John Barnes who was about as shite as Scheidt.

Unbelievable. http://billmcmurdo.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/for-the-avoidance-of-doubt/

One of my all time favourites, a son of Airdrie. Click the link to see the full interview from May last year. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/interview-ian-mcmillan-airdrie-director-and-former-rangers-and-airdrie-forward-1-2319440 Interview: Ian McMillan, Airdrie director and former Rangers and Airdrie forward Ian McMillan remains a director of Airdrie United aged 81. Picture: Robert Perry by ALAN PATTULLO Published on the 26 May 2012 00:00 8 comments Email thisPrint this RELUCTANT star reflects on an enduring bond with Airdrie and life as a part-timer at Ibrox The McMillan family is deep into Olympic countdown mode as the days tick down to the Great Britain women hockey side’s first appointment, at the end of July. Ian McMillan, formerly of Airdrie and Rangers, is the grandfather of Laura Bartlett, one of only two Scots in the squad. He clearly believes she should be the focus of any attention, rather than his octogenarian self. This, however, is the Wee Prime Minister’s own question time. For any sports writer, an hour or so in the company of someone renowned for being one of Scottish football’s gentlemen is a dream assignment. In this version of PMQs there is no braying from across the room to have to endure either, only the pleasant hum of background chatter emitted by McMillan’s golfing crowd, who meet at the Airdrie Golf club each week to put to the world to rights. McMillan himself is slightly anxious. He is concerned that he has not got enough to say, and that, at age 81, no-one will want to read about what his views on the game any longer. He fears he is as relevant to present day football as Harold Macmillan is to contemporary politics. His near-namesake’s occupancy of No 10 Downing Street during the late 1950s and early 60s saw McMillan bestowed with his Wee Prime Minister moniker, one still employed by friends to this day. Having listened to him, however, it is not hard to understand why he is still a director at Airdrie United, as well as honorary president. It would be considered gross negligence if his influence had been lost to the game, and to his hometown club in particular, where he has also served as ball boy, esteemed player, youth coach and, for six and-a-half years in the Seventies, as manager. Sandy Clark, whose career started under McMillan at Airdrie, recalls never having heard the manager swear, something almost unheard of in professional football. That’s not to say he was not sworn at. The notorious Airdrie crowd did not even spare their own, although McMillan, whose managerial tenure included a Texaco Cup final appearance against Derby County and a Scottish Cup final defeat to Celtic, never had it as bad as some. “Do you know the old Broomfield?” he asks. “You had to walk from the pavilion right the way up to the dug-out near the stand, and at half-time and full-time you had to walk all the way round, and if you were losing you would get slaughtered – quite rightly, because some of the games we played were not very clever. “As a manager I got more abuse than as a player,” he adds. “One comment I always had a wee smile at was: ‘I think you should stick to playing McMillan!’” That he appeared for Scotland at all is notable enough. McMillan was a part-time player all his days. While this was not so remarkable in his first ten years as an inside forward with Airdrie, it became something to marvel at as he continued to hold his own after a £10,000 move to Rangers. He was the sole part-time player in a side that reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1960. “They could have given me the cold shoulder, but they never did,” he says of his team-mates. “They were very welcoming.” He does concede that working as a chartered surveyor from Monday to Friday did tend to compromise his performances on a Saturday. Given that many Rangers fans of a certain vintage rate McMillan as one of the club’s most under-rated players, it’s possible to wonder just how good he could have been had he been able to train with his team-mates each day, rather than with the youths in the evening? “I had to take wee rests occasionally,” he says. “That is what I maintain, if you are fit and able to do 90 minutes, then you can be a better player. And I think I could have been a better player. I only trained three nights a week as opposed to the others, who trained all week, so I had to rest occasionally in games. That was a fault. “If I had been able to train a bit harder, then looking back I could have been a better player,” he continues. “I could have lasted the game longer, I could have been in the game more often.” He made a conscious decision to remain part-time, and it was the sensible one at the time. He had had two young daughters, Laura and Lesley. The latter is now the mother of Scottish hockey internationalist twins Laura and Kay Bartlett, while the former passed on some of her father’s footballing prowess to Iain, a striker with Livingston. “I was 27 when I moved to Rangers, and I weighed up [whether to go full-time] and it was borderline,” McMillan continues. “If I had been 22 it would a different story. I would have gone full-time then. I had a young family, two wee girls. It was a big decision. I knew that I could get an injury, and be finished. My wife and I sat down and thought: well it is going not too bad the way it is, we will just carry on.” Making things slightly easier was a job switch from one side of West Regent Street in Glasgow to the other. “John Lawrence, who was chairman at Ibrox at the time, asked me to come over and work for him, so I was able to get away for games in Europe,” he says. “Prior to that, it had been difficult.” McMillan was thus free to star in the Ibrox side’s run to the last four of the European Cup, where they came up against Eintracht Frankfurt. “Our trouble was that even when we were abroad we played as if we were playing against Stirling Albion, we just kept going forward,” he recalls. “We were one each against Eintracht Frankfurt at half-time, but you could tell the writing was on the wall. They were a tremendous side. They ran over the top of us in the second-half, beating us 6-1, so the return leg was a bit of a non-event. We were a top side, and they whacked us 6-3 at Ibrox. I was interviewed on television afterwards, and they asked me how I thought Eintracht Frankfurt would do against Real Madrid in the final? Well after that experience, I said, I think they will beat Real Madrid!” Of course, the aristocrats from Madrid defeated the Germans 7-3 at Hampden Park, in one of the best remembered games in football history. McMillan watched on from the stand at Hampden, where he had already made three appearances for Scotland as well as enduring a 7-2 away defeat to England at Wembley. Unusually perhaps, of the six caps he earned with Scotland, five were won out of Airdrie. However, he struggles to make playing for Scotland sound like a happy experience. “We didn’t get good results,” he says. “It was not really as enjoyable as playing with Airdrie, my local club. But Rangers was the best of the lot. Great players, they made it easy for you.” Games against the amateurs of the United States and Denmark were the only ones he won, and McMillan sometimes wondered whether he belonged in such illustrious company as Lawrie Reilly and Gordon Smith. Reilly scored a hat-trick against the States that day at Hampden, in a match described as an “amusing interlude” in Andrew Ward’s Scotland – The Team. Two goals for Scotland within the first ten minutes killed the game as a contest, and the score was 4-0 at half-time. Making a mockery of the self-doubt McMillan says he experienced with Scotland is the late Bob Crampsey’s recollection of the day. Writing in The Scotsman in 1998, the respected football historian noted that “the team that had won 6-0 was never picked again yet I invite you to look in particular at the right wing, Gordon Smith and McMillan, two of the purest footballers this country has produced.” The US, whose centre-half Charlie Colombo wore leather gloves throughout the game, didn’t have a hope, despite an astounding 1-0 victory over England in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. “They had played England, and beat them, we though oh oh, who do we have here?” remembers McMillan. “We had not a clue about them. Because they had whacked England we thought we need to watch ourselves here. Maybe that was a good thing. If they hadn’t beaten them we might have come out and think it was toffee. If you think that, it can rebound on you.” Still, it’s possible to detect from McMillan that he felt he didn’t belong in a Scotland jersey. “I moved from Airdrie to Rangers, not knowing what was ahead of me, worrying about going from a wee provincial club to a big club. “I maybe had the wrong attitude. You have to be a bit like Jim Baxter was, a wee bit arrogant, a ‘nobody is like yourself’ sort of thing. Instead, McMillan was the complete opposite to Baxter. “I had a slight inferiority complex,” he admits. “It’s not a good thing for a footballer.” McMillan considers Baxter to be the best footballer he played with, but his complaint about his team-mate is a familiar one in that he feels he could have been even better. “I couldn’t believe what I heard he’d been up to on a Friday night when I turned up on the Saturday,” McMillan says. Harold Davis, who played just behind him, is a different story. The Korea war veteran made the best of himself despite horrific wounds sustained in active service with the Black Watch. Recalls McMillan: “At the end of the game you would be in the big bath and you could see the scars on his tummy. You would think: ‘how is he able to full-time football at this level after what he went through?’ That’s the type of man he is. He used to encourage me, if things weren’t going well. “I always maintain that, because he was behind me, I lasted longer at Rangers. Harold won all the balls for me, and I said to him: ‘Harold, I am fine if I get the ball in a bit of space. As soon as you win the ball, I will be looking for it right away’. And that’s how we operated. “Football is all about movement, making space to get away from your opponent. I just needed a second, then I could get the ball under control and use it. That is what I was good at. I could get the ball and take men on and I had good vision, I could pass a decent ball. But I couldn’t header and I couldn’t tackle! I had deficiencies as well as one or two qualities.” His lack of inches meant he relied on his wiles to escape the rough and tumble of the game at the time, and the lightness he displayed on his feet was perhaps partly attributable to the Italian-style football boot both he and Ralph Brand preferred to wear, to the great suspicion of manager Scot Symon. “It didn’t have that bulbous toe which was common at the time,” he says. “You could get the feel of the ball better.” The knocks have, though, caught up with him, leading to a hip replacement 17 years ago which itself now needs replaced. The complaint, he believes, is a consequence of his preference for shielding the ball with what he refers to as his “largish bottom”, and which meant 18 years’ worth of heavy impacts from behind as defenders jostled for the ball. It has curtailed his golf outings, but he will be fit enough to watch from the stands as his granddaughter plays in a second successive Olympic games, this time in a rather more convenient location than Beijing. “I think I have been allocated a ticket,” he smiles, clearly proud that the Olympic ideals he espoused throughout his career – “to my mind there was nothing better, whether you had won or lost, than coming in after a hard game of football” – are still being upheld in a talented family.

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2565&newsCategoryID=1&newsID=12361 As if we haven't got enough going on.