Jump to content

 

 

Malcolm Murray to blame for Rangers directors' high wages, claims Craig Mather


Recommended Posts

In the teeth of fierce fan dissent - and a continued campaign to dislodge existing Rangers directors by a group of investors including the former chairman, Malcolm Murray - the Ibrox chief executive, Craig Mather, mounted a forceful defence of the accounts issued on Tuesday which posted an operating loss of £14 million for the 13 months to June this year.

 

The results were in vivid contrast to those of Celtic, revealed last month, which showed a pre-tax profit of £9.74 million on a group turnover of £75.82 million.

 

Rangers’ turnover to June was £19.1 million, most of which was derived from gate receipts and hospitality income. Playing squad salaries fell during the period but so too did earnings from sponsorship and the media. Throughout the accounting period and also subsequently there has been a persistent concern amongst supporters and some investors that the cash burn at Ibrox has been out of control.

 

Asked why the costs associated with the public share offer last December were as high as £6.1 million, Mather replied: “There are the physical IPO costs, the costs of raising money and what we would deem non-reoccurring costs - for example, exceptional costs in excess of £4 million.

 

“Nobody can shy away from the fact that the IPO cost was high and the cost of raising money was high but if you go into the detail of that – and the devil is in the detail, without fear of contradiction – at the time, when I wasn’t CEO, just for clarity - there was no football security. What I mean by that is the club didn’t know what league they would be playing in.

 

“It was never ever going to be cheap to raise money against that backdrop but Rangers had to be saved. For me, and to five million fans looking at it around the world, it was imperative that this club was saved.

 

 

 

“Under normal circumstances, people in the City would take a view of somewhere up to 7.5 per cent is a normal cost of raising funds. This wasn’t normal and I’m not trying to defend the people involved - I wasn’t there, I wasn’t party to it - but it’s obvious that you have to look at what you can offer the investor in return for the investment.

 

“If you can’t tell them if you’re going to be able to kick a football, or if you’re going to be able to play in a certain division or get membership of the SFA it’s not an easy sell.”

 

Another bone of contention is that the directors have set their own remuneration, to which Mather replied: “It was a decision taken by the remunerations committee and the chairman at the time, which was Malcolm Murray.

 

“So Malcolm Murray decided the remunerations for Charles Green and Brian Stockbridge and unfortunately the directors are duty bound to honour those scenarios historically. I can assure you on my watch that won’t be happening.

 

“If you look at my pay, there was talk about £500,000 but the actual amount I agreed to in the end was £300,000. Brian Stockbridge was on £200,000 plus a contractual bonus. Again, quite openly he’s agreed to waive that contractual bonus of his own accord.”

 

The accounts reveal that £6.75 million was used to purchase trade and assets. Some critics have suggested that Charles Green’s consortium did not buy Rangers, but rather that the club itself did.

 

“That’s categorically untrue,” said Mather. “It’s just mischief making. The club was bought by the Green consortium and I wasn’t part of it at that juncture. Monies were paid in good faith for those trading assets, full stop.”

 

As to the Ally McCoist’s wages, Mather said: “I’m not suggesting Alistair become the lowest paid manager but he’s very happy to take a pay cut of his own volition. It’s a substantial pay cut.”

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/10348112/Malcolm-Murray-to-blame-for-Rangers-directors-high-wages-claims-Craig-Mather.html

Link to post
Share on other sites

The ipo was in december. Is mather a moron or does he think we are?

 

The extra costs were clearly green and ahmeds cuts.

 

I was screwing my face up at that. What a tit. We had the IPO halfway through the fucking season. There was no uncertainty around which league we would play in.

 

What a buffoon !!

Link to post
Share on other sites

“Nobody can shy away from the fact that the IPO cost was high and the cost of raising money was high but if you go into the detail of that – and the devil is in the detail, without fear of contradiction – at the time, when I wasn’t CEO, just for clarity - there was no football security. What I mean by that is the club didn’t know what league they would be playing in.

 

It was known on July 13 last year what league we would be playing in so going by Mather's own reasoning there is no justification for outrageous fees, charges and commissions after July 13.

 

The Devil really is in the detail pity Mather is part of actions to stop us finding out exactly how much, how many more frankly Satanic payments are there from Rangers back to investors like the total of £300k paid back to Eurovestech and Richard Bernstein made in December?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mather's comments alone should place a huge question mark over his suitability for the position as CEO of Rangers. Either he is unfamiliar with the facts (i.e. IPO was launched halfway through our first season in the wilderness = ignorance) or he believes that what he says will just be accepted without any recourse (i.e. total disdain for the fans). For 300k per annum, surely we can do better than this!

Link to post
Share on other sites

The remuneration committee is comprised entirely of independent non-executive Directors. It is chaired by Phillip Cartmell and the other members are Walter Smith and Ian Hart."

 

"The remuneration committee is responsible for...determining the specific remuneration packages of each executive Director."

 

No mention of Malcolm Murray being involved in any way in deciding the directors' high wages. More lies?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Stockbridge and Mather say so many things that just dont seem to stand up when checked. Yet they want us to back them while they threaten supporters with legal action and keep losing money hand over fist.

 

This is really boiling my piss.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lifted from FF:

 

From the Sun

 

"I believe in freedom of speech and 100 per cent think the fans should have a voice.But people have emailed and spoken to me in the street saying they are not going to be bringing their families to the games because of the protests and the language "

 

Really Mr Mather!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lifted from FF:

 

From the Sun

 

"I believe in freedom of speech and 100 per cent think the fans should have a voice.But people have emailed and spoken to me in the street saying they are not going to be bringing their families to the games because of the protests and the language "

 

Really Mr Mather!

 

I wasn't there on Saturday, but find it hard to belieive that the language could have been any worse than what you hear at normal game!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.