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“If ever fans required a reminder of the reasons for our campaign to secure our club’s home, it is the recent £200k windfall received by disgraced former finance director Brian Stockbridge, who in the past couple of days has been handed shares worth approximately £215,000 for which he has paid just over £7,000.

 

It is the current boardÂ’s position that Brian Stockbridge was contractually entitled to these shares and it was therefore outwith their control. We reject this entirely. Mr Stockbridge could and should have been sacked for any number of employment related issues including his abysmally inaccurate financial projections, financial mismanagement of tens of millions of pounds of fansÂ’ and investorsÂ’ money and several misleading statements to fans and shareholders.

 

That this board allowed a compromise agreement to be signed, on termination of Mr Stockbridge’s contract, which allowed Mr Stockbridge a further £200k windfall is an absolute disgrace. His share option entitlement and any other financial benefit which Mr Stockbridge was due should have been removed as part of his contract termination. Mr Stockbridge has already received considerably more than he merited from our football club as have several others with whom he is closely associated. Did Mr Stockbridge’s close relationship with the Easdale brothers, who hold undue influence over boardroom matters, smooth his path to this further windfall?

 

Furthermore, we believe that David Somers misled shareholders at the AGM on the subject of Mr Stockbridge’s share options. When a question was asked on this topic, the clear inference from Mr Somers was that this would not be an issue due to the option price of 70p, which at that time was almost twice the market value of the shares. Mr Somers clearly gave the impression that the option would not be taken due to the drop in share value. At no point did either Mr Stockbridge or Mr Somers make it clear that this option could be exercised for 1p a share – a crucial and highly misleading omission.

 

Charles Green had a similar clause in his contract which entitled him to 1,028,571 shares. Can the board confirm whether this option was also allowed to remain following Mr GreenÂ’s contract termination? If so, can we expect a further windfall in the near future for Mr Green on top of the small fortune he has already bled from the club?

 

Finally, despite repeated attempts to engage with Graham Wallace and the board over the issue of a binding legal commitment not to sell or lease back Ibrox or Murray Park, we have been unable to come to any agreement. It seems the board are happy to continue to alienate the thousands of fans who have supported our efforts through the Ibrox 1972 fund.

 

As a result of this refusal from the board to give fans any legal undertaking over the clubÂ’s most prized assets, we are left with no option but to release all those who have supported the fund from their binding financial commitment. This will be confirmed to them over the coming weeks.

 

 

 

We urge fans not to give their money to this regime in a lump sum payment via season tickets and to support the team on a game by game basis. The team deserve our loyalty, this regime, with its stranglehold on our club, deserves nothing but our contempt. Quite simply, they cannot be trusted and supporters simply do not know where their hard earned money is going to end up if they pass it over blindly."

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While they make valid claims and ask the right questions, they apparently don't want to hold any future discussions with the board. IMHO, their lack of diplomacy is greatly weakening their good intentions and ambitions.

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The trump card was withholding money so club would be forced to cave in. Now they say support the team game by game. Board will just cover any shortfalls with shares for the boys or generous loan arrangements etc.. poor on field performances more likely to stop folks going game by game. Would this force their hand to change the management?

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We urge fans not to give their money to this regime in a lump sum payment via season tickets and to support the team on a game by game basis. The team deserve our loyalty, this regime, with its stranglehold on our club, deserves nothing but our contempt. Quite simply, they cannot be trusted and supporters simply do not know where their hard earned money is going to end up if they pass it over blindly."

 

We urge fans to give money to this regime by going on a game by game basis.

 

Surely it's an either/or situation. You either go or you don't. There's not a huge amount of difference other than timing between buying a season ticket and going game by game.

 

It's also insulting to those who have bought season tickets by suggesting that they do so blindly.

 

They seem to think that if you pay for a Hearts ticket that you know where your cash is going, whereas if you have a season ticket you don't. Err, it's going to the same place. The bank account to pay for the players wages and the other running expenses of the club.

 

As a result of this refusal from the board to give fans any legal undertaking over the club’s most prized assets,

 

I thought that they were actually asking for the board to give a legal undertaking to Dave KIng's company and not the fans?

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I think the point in going game by game is that you can stop going if you feel there's an issue that warrants you withholding their money.

 

But, to be perfectly frank, I think this scheme was never going to work anyway and the UoF's performance hasn't been great.

 

In saying that, I agree entirely with their assessment of Stockbridge and it surprises me just how many people are prepared to excuse the club handing out more money to someone who has been worse than most when it comes to damaging our club.

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I think the point in going game by game is that you can stop going if you feel there's an issue that warrants you withholding their money..

 

So they are saying that there currently aren't issues that warrants us to withhold our cash?

 

:D

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As a result of this refusal from the board to give fans any legal undertaking over the clubÂ’s most prized assets, we are left with no option but to release all those who have supported the fund from their binding financial commitment. This will be confirmed to them over the coming weeks.

 

We urge fans not to give their money to this regime in a lump sum payment via season tickets and to support the team on a game by game basis. The team deserve our loyalty, this regime, with its stranglehold on our club, deserves nothing but our contempt. Quite simply, they cannot be trusted and supporters simply do not know where their hard earned money is going to end up if they pass it over blindly."

 

However contemptuous the agreement and whether or not the Board were deceitful, deliberately or otherwise, there is no relationship between Mr Stockbridge's shares and ST's or Ibrox 1972 Ltd. One has to assume that they took advice on terminating his contract and proceeded accordingly. If directors lied at the AGM then I would imagine that would be a criminal offence for which they could be held to account, never mind stock exchange rules etc.

 

The Board made it 100% clear 2 months ago that they would not give any such undertaking to a third party nor would they sell ST's to them; so to suggest that the UoF have been "unable to come to any agreement" (implying negotiations on behalf of fans) is disingenuous to say the least.

 

As I pointed out elsewhere yesterday (and had the OP tell me it was nonsense) and as PMU says today, delaying paying by not buying ST's will only continue to starve the Club of the funds it needs now and force it to borrow more or issue more sharres.

 

As BD says, the final sentence is ludicrous, because whether you are paying game by game or buying a ST you are still contributing to the Club's income to pay its expenses including the player's wages. The suggestion that if you buy a ST, you are somehow "passing (your money) over blindly" but if you pay game by game you are not, is too stupid to be worth any further comment.

 

I do hope that those who have hitherto pledged their money to Ibrox 1972 Ltd will now buy a ST and support the Club and the team, regardless of their thoughts about the current incumbents in the Board room.

 

When's Mr King's next visit and how long is he staying this time?

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So they are saying that there currently aren't issues that warrants us to withhold our cash?

 

:D

 

Well, the scale of problem is different for everyone.

 

Would a total boycott be well received when this scheme was criticised by so many?

 

Are some happy to overlook bonus payments to support the team? At what point is the line crossed for more fans?

 

These are not easy questions to answer.

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