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... from Ibrox Noise.

 

I know quite a few will jump in here and there, but maybe it would do good to read the article twice before go haring after specific things.

 

Why Rangers' Board is not Rangers' Problem

 

 

On Saturday the 26th of April, Rangers had their final home fixture of the season. It was the match where Stage Two’s completion would be presented by way of a silver championship trophy to Captain Lee McCulloch, something rounded off nicely by a convincing 3-0 win over visitors Stranraer.

 

Our guests also gave us the respect of a fine guard of honour to greet the Champions, while their supporters joined in on two minutes to applaud the late Sandy Jardine, for whom an emotional powerful and impeccably observed minute’s silence had also taken place prior to kick off, and we thank our visiting fans for their dignity.

 

Unfortunately, a day which should have been of both celebration and mourning, on entirely football levels each, was once again mildly upstaged by the sideshow of the board, and in particular, supporters’ distaste for its members.

 

Even on such a potent and powerful day for all that is good about the club, politics could not be put aside for 90 minutes. “Sack the board” emanated from sections of supporters throughout the match, and during what was supposed to be a moment of celebration where the trophy was presented was embarrassingly upstaged when fans booed the board when they were shown on screen.

 

This seems to prove, categorically, that politics have become more important than football now, because even on a day of this one's gravity opinion about the boardroom was apparently more important than honouring Sandy Jardine, and being presented with a league title.

 

Even the day after Jardine’s passing, the brief ceasefire drawn up at the breaking of the news had ended, and it was immediately back to point scoring and boardroom warfare rather than continuing to honour the great man.

 

Before I continue, I have been accused of being pro-board. Anyone who knows me knows this is nonsense. I am not pro-board. However, what I am is pro-reason and so many critiques of the board are absolutely ridiculous, and borne out of football hate rather than rational and objective criticisms of those who run the club.

 

They are far from perfect in there, I do not disagree there. But it bewilders me when I see one set of rules for them and another for…well…everyone else.

 

Let me provide you with my logical and rational rebuttal for a great number of the criticisms the board get, and why I feel the poison against them has abandoned all reason. If you disagree, that is fine, I respect that. This is just my view.

 

Sandy Easdale is a crook, a ****, and a gangster.

 

Ok, let us look at this. Yes, he did spend some time inside for VAT fraud, no condoning that. But he has served his time, carried out his residency at Her Majesty’s Pleasure and has not done anything illegal since. Meanwhile, Dave King is lauded by many as the Messiah yet his tax evasion case has been dismissed completely, despite the fact it is on record as the biggest tax case in South African history. Oscar Pistorious’ lawyer, Barry Roux, managed to get it settled out of court and King stumped up 700M RSA compared with the requested 2.8B RSA. So, some Rangers fans want this man in control of their club, a man who I have on authority lied about the £18M story being false. But they do not want Easdale.

 

As for ****, does anyone actually know what that word means? To define **** exactly means someone who wears the suit but is not worthy of it. Who contributes nothing to the organisation and is just a charlatan. Well, Easdale is a huge shareholder, and has invested somewhere around £1.5M+ in Rangers. Yet, somehow being a major shareholder is not enough. Well, not if you are called Sandy Easdale. Mike Ashley has around the same level of shareholding as Easdale yet is never mentioned in any negative light at all. The argument there would be that he is not on the board. Well, guess what, neither is Sandy Easdale.

 

Let us be honest, Rangers supporters just do not like the Easdales, and no matter what money they bring to the club they will never be accepted. That is supporters’ right and they are entitled to it, but it adds a further problem.

 

This board are liars, cheats, thieves, and a disgrace to the club.

 

Ok, I am not going to deny Wallace has told a porkie or two. I will not deny that for one second. Personally I feel some of his dishonesties have come from an altruistic basis, with supporters suffering enough over the past two years. The desire not to spread panic and alarm is one of his job descriptions. Others do not share my view on that and I respect that. However, SDM told more than a few porkies in his time too but it was not until 9IAR was over (and the DA era to an extent) and things started to slide a little on the pitch that these ‘lies’ and ‘porkies’ became a problem. Success on the pitch meant these things did not apparently matter. But lack of it meant they did. As they do now by this board.

 

But then the problem then lies in the inalienable truth that ‘this board’ has undergone more changes than Roseanne Barr in the past two years. So which board is it exactly that many supporters hate?

 

Wallace and Easdale are the new ‘bad guys’.

 

Which brings me to the above. Two years ago the board was Charles Green, Malcolm Murray, Ian Hart, Phil Cartmell, Brian Stockbridge and Bryan Smart. Now it is Graham Wallace, David Somers, James Easdale and Norman Crighton. Yet the current incumbents are just as loathed and despised as the first post-admin board ended up being. It started out as Charles Green being the bad guy, once he was gone Stockbridge became the big enemy. When he left it was Jack Irvine and Media House regarded as the poison of the club, then Wallace ended that partnership. So then Easdale started to occupy that dubious slot, and when Wallace himself was originally appointed I tweeted it was only a matter of time before he too was a ****. And here we are, with Easdale becoming public enemy number one Wallace is slowly joining him.

 

Requistioners wanted Wallace.

 

Which brings me deliciously to this one. The four requisitioners, that is, Paul Murray, Malcolm Murray, Alex Wilson and Scott Murdoch themselves wanted Graham Wallace as CEO! Paul Murray is on record as thoroughly endorsing Wallace’s credentials:

 

"One of the problems is that if you're in a voting minority on the board there's no point being there. Graham Wallace is a credible, competent guy and if he's sitting there trying to get things to change and he doesn't have the votes on the board, then how do you change things?”

 

So, the man who lost to Wallace among others on the board fully endorses his character and professional competence. Let us not forget Wallace presided over Man City’s title-winning season. The man is not a crook. His CV is pretty impressive, yet Dave King, the man who backed Murray, slanders him at every given chance and is trying to crush the club’s coffers with this absolutely ludicrous season ticket scheme. A scheme, thankfully, which is not getting a huge amount of support. Anyone else see the ridiculous hypocrisy here?

 

In short, Wallace is now a ****, liar and crook, despite having the endorsement of the man who many fans wanted in power. So, which is it?

 

How can the board possibly accept bonuses?

 

Thorny topic this for cash-stricken Rangers. How can a Rangers board possibly justify giving themselves thousands of pounds in bonuses? That is the question the Rangers fan asks his or herself. First off, while Wallace did not explicitly deny the board will get bonuses, he also did not confirm they would either. This is a tabloid case of ‘assume the worst and get website hits and newspaper sales’.

 

The second, and more curious aspect is the board would not be the only employees to get bonuses. The players (and coaching staff) get win bonuses every match! In Lee McCulloch’s autobiography he states a figure of around £400,000 was owed to the squad by Craig Whyte for the 2010/2011 title win. So around 30 players would get about £13,000 each. While the numbers are not as high now, players still get win bonuses per match and another for winning the league.

 

So, it is ok for underperforming players to get thousands in win bonuses but not the board, despite it being a fairly standard law in corporate governance?

 

For me no one should get bonuses while the club cannot afford it, and that includes players. But, and here is the brutal sad truth – every player, member of coaching staff and board member has a contract entitling them to that bonus. It is standard football practise. But thanks to politics and Rangers’ situation it is the board who get blamed for everything.

 

We want Dave King.

 

Or Paul Murray. Or no one. It seems that anyone who is not Dave King or associated with the requisition group is a ****, a crook, a charlatan and unacceptable to the club. The only guy who is not associated with this lot who would be accepted is Walter Smith, and he tried once and is not going to try again. His strength is beside the pitch, not in the boardroom.

 

So…there you have it. The mangled, rambled mess of a situation we have at this club. The funny thing is no other football institution goes through this level of excruciating scrutiny, where every penny has to be accounted for otherwise someone is a crook, or faceless ‘evil’ is pulling the strings.

 

But…at least we won the league!

 

Posted by Ibrox Noise at 10:26

 

It will come of no surprise that I agree with a lot IN has to say, including that I don't view the current status quo as ideal.

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Do the players get a bonus for relegation? It seems the board get the equivalent and even in their very own words they have been rewarded for incompetence - but that is supposed to be fair? I can't see how you can accuse people of bias and then write an incredibly biased article in reply.

 

There is a saying "stupid is as stupid does" which pretty much means no matter how intelligent you think you are, if you do stupid stuff you are stupid. Basically, you are defined by what you do.

 

The stigma aimed by the fans at the Rangers board has been well and truly earned - and now officially endorsed by the current CEO.

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Personally I feel some of his dishonesties have come from an altruistic basis, with supporters suffering enough over the past two years

 

got as far a this

 

i don't think i've read so much shite in my life.

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Ahem, the current board blamed its predecessors of incompetence? Whether people blame the current one for incompetence is rather subjective, whereas the old one was obviously truly at fault for mismanagement.

 

Rather magnanimous of you to concede what some of us have been saying since Green & Co arrived on the scene, pity you spent the intervening period with your head firmly in the sand so while it was obvious to the rest of us it patently wasn't obvious to you.

 

Just saying like

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stopped at the bit where he compared the Easdales to Ashley , being major shareholders , one is , the Easdales definetly aint

 

Ahem ...

 

Mike Ashley - 3,000,000 - 4.61%

Alexander Easdale* - 2,942,957 - 4.52%

 

... matter of fact, neither are "major shareholders", but both are "major minor" shareholders.

 

And BTW, I doubt the lad refers to the more "in-the-know" folk on here when speaking about the "support" in general, not least the "flak brigade".

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