Andrew Smith, who now scribbles away at The Scotsman, has written yet another piece of out-of-touch dirge which shows how little he understands our fans and our club, and at the same time has swung behind a little liquidation denial, using phony cases to back up his own phony claims. It’s a dire piece.
The only thing that stops me being harsher is it’s not the worst article I’ve read this week; the real prize goes to Keith Jackson and I’ll be dismantling it brick for brick later.
For openers, the story is ostensibly about how we should all be grateful to Lawwell and Desmond because they didn’t run our club into the ground.
I’ve always thought that this was a preposterous argument, only fit for debate when everyone in the pub is drunk and there’s a brief break in the karaoke. Most club chairmen manage not to get their clubs into that kind of trouble; we shouldn’t be overdoing the praise because the people running Celtic aren’t lunatics.
He starts down this wrong, long road with a bizarre argument.
“A section of the Celtic support will hate the line it is possible to draw in assessing their club’s fortunes since they were runners-up to a title-monopolising Rangers in 1995-96 – a finish that ended seven seasons when they failed to make the top two. A line brought to mind by the interview with his club’s TV channel that Celtic major shareholder Dermot Desmond gave last week.”
He’s saying – in a pretty convoluted way – that Dermot Desmond is one of the things that’s changed. He joined the board that year. But why In God’s name would Smith think any section of our support, no matter how loosely connected to reality, would not want to acknowledge that? McCann was running the club on a smart, break-even basis even before then … and we had somehow found money to invest in the team at the same time.
Smith then repeats one of the most widely used – and absolutely wrong – claims that there is about Celtic; that Fergus McCann saved us from liquidation.
This is such a part of the discourse that I’ve heard it even from people who should know better. Fergus pulled us out of the clutches of the old board. There is credit enough in his doing that. There is credit enough in his writing the big cheque that kept the bank from doing something drastic. But the bank was never in any position to close Celtic down.
The bank had the right to call in its loans. That’s a fact. If memory serves me, they had the stadium as security. But had the bank shut Celtic down it would have had to answer two serious questions to its own shareholders, aside from facing enormous and consequential rage from our supporters. The first question would have been “How are we going to get our money back?” and the second would have been “What are we supposed to do with a run-down football ground with no team to play in it, and a training centre which has seen better days?”
Fergus saved us from an administration event, not a liquidation. The possibility that Celtic would have been liquidated is non-existent. Even if Fergus had walked away, there were others waiting in the wings, including Gerald Weisfeld and perhaps even a grouping involving Brian Dempsey and his sidekick and die-hard Celtic fan Willie Haughey.
This notion that Celtic was “hours from closure” is one of the most pervasive ideas in Scottish sports journalism, but it’s not even close to being true.
Yet here it is, repeated by Smith in this woeful piece. “Only two years before, Fergus McCann’s takeover of the club resulted from his being required to pay off a bank debt to prevent Celtic sliding into liquidation.”
His next claim – or rather his next group of claims – are absolutely ridiculous.
“Some of the club’s supporters, in believing that the current Rangers should not be allowed to claim the heritage of their pre-liquidation incarnation (despite other UK clubs that have suffered this fate in such as Middlesbrough, Coventry City and Luton Town all blithely doing so), have the odd moan about McCann having had to stump up to preserve their unbroken history. However, had he not done so, a clamour would have sparked up to have Celtic penalised for going into liquidation – as happened with 2012’s supporters’ spring.”
First up, nobody ever “moans” that Fergus had to stump up. We understand how it works. To avoid the embarrassment of having administrators run our club Fergus wrote a big fat cheque. Getting rid of the old board was the real prize, and he took ownership of the situation when he elbowed them aside to lay claim to the whole box of marbles.
But let’s examine his more noteworthy claim, that what happened to Rangers has happened to other clubs in the UK. Again, this is absolute nonsense.
In the case of Middlesbrough, almost every report makes it clear that they were “minutes away from disappearing”. They never did disappear though. The final decision on them was taken an English Football League meeting where an agreement was reached “with just minutes to spare” for the club to continue to hold their league registration in exchange for its new owners agreeing to underwrite a bond. This bears no resemblance to what happened at Ibrox.
There was a process involving the administrators. The liquidators were then brought in. By the time Charles Green got the assets the SPL had already rejected any prospect of a “share transfer” which would have allowed the NewCo to pretend to be Rangers.
Coventry came very close to a proper liquidation, but the league agreed the transfer of the club’s “golden share” in the FA to a new corporate entity. Let that sink in. The They did not consider the club to have died. As I’ve pointed out, the SFA never agreed to transfer Ibrox’s share to Charles Green and his NewCo. They considered it a new club.
Luton weren’t even close to liquidation, although financial problems dropped them four divisions in short order and they had to suffer financial penalties and points deductions from the league for repeated administration events and “financial irregularities.”
The facts of what happened at Rangers are these. They suffered an administration event followed by a shareholder’s conference where HMRC rejected the offer of a pennies in the pound CVA. At that point Rangers ceased to exist. The league voted on the infamous Club 13 proposal. The space at the bottom of the tier had to be applied for. Sevco was granted a new SFA membership – a new SFA membership – and had to start from the bottom tier.
And this is not limited to “some of the club’s supporters”; it is the nearly unanimous view of the entire fan-base. You know who else holds that view? Dermot Desmond himself, and he said so in the interview that sparked this article.
This is my favourite bit.
“A left-leaning Celtic support are entitled to detest the neo-liberalism, free-marketeering methods that underpins Desmond’s billionaire status. They are, though, churlish to deny that the focus on spending only what you earn, which is embedded in the Celtic psyche at boardroom level and guides the Irishman’s hand in his string-pulling at the club, has ensured a remarkable 27-year era.”
First, most Celtic fans, even those of a left-leaning perspective, generally don’t give a toss how Desmond made and maintains his fortune. It is of no consequence to us, although I find it amazing that Smith appears to when you consider that a certain former chairman at Ibrox made his fortune by fraud and nobody cared then or now.
The reason Desmond’s fortune is of no consequence to us is that he does not fund Celtic and never has. We are not dependent on his cash in any way, shape or form. Only if we were would we have any right to bitch and moan and complain about how it was obtained.
Secondly, I don’t remember too many Celtic fans being “churlish” about the way the club is run. Most of us understand – and are proud – that Celtic runs on a self-sustaining basis. It’s why we support Financial Fair Play and regulations which would force other clubs in Scotland to be run the same way. Nobody wants to see us endanger ourselves in the manner numerous reckless Ibrox boards have endangered their clubs.
Smith talks down to us here as if we were idiot children needing this explained to us. The vast majority of us have understood this stuff for more than a decade now.
Since Andrew Smith has decided to respond in the Comments section, let me amend part of what I wrote above, but here and not in the above section as I want to play this straight. The SFA granted Sevco a license in 2012 after weeks of negotiations which culminated in the Five Way Agreement, a document with so many contradictions and wilful bendings of the rules – as well as its notorious “side letter” – that it bends the mind. So I was factually incorrect in my assertion about the “share” but accurate in that the SPL very pointedly did not agree to it. If they had the NewCo at Ibrox would have started life in the top flight. That they did not makes it very clear what the position of the clubs was … and furthermore what was written in the rulebook. There has never been a big conspiracy here to deprive “Rangers” of their SPL place no matter what some might want to write or believe. The simple fact is that all of Scottish football considered them a new club … that Charles Green did a grubby deal, and that the SFA agreed to it, at the barrel of a gun, is another historical fact but one that remains a rancid cancer at the heart of our game.
Why let the facts get in the way of a good denial story.
The media in Scotland have always portrayed Celtic as a penny pinching club, never a club that is responsibly run.
Like the Old Firm FC fans they are addicted to bring and smoke and mirrors.
Do not give this nonentity or his comic the oxygen of trying to bend the truth and facts he follows anew club and team called sevco he knows it the same as all the zombie hordes no matter how many times it rebranded it is SEVCO
Having read all of that , and agreeing with it…..I MUST point out the ONE EVENT that…FOR THE LIFE OF ME…I cannot understand.
The NEWCO under Charles Green, applied for membership which was duly.granted in time to begin season 2012//13…..in the bottom tier.
There’s no mention anywhere that the deadcos titles were purchased by Green to my knowledge…..but if he did PURCHASE the assets ..titles..etc…how much did he pay ?…and where did the mo ey go…I don’t remember the liquidators publishing the cash re ieved for titles etc.
That’s not the biggest thing though…not by a long shot.
I can’t u derstand HOW Green managed to supply.3 previous years accounts….as required to gain membership of the league….when his new company is listed with companies House from 2012 ??
I believe the SFA decided to accept the accounts of the liquidated RFC…..Accounts that surely should never have been accepted on a few reasons.
First….those accounts wouldn’t pass muster because they would show millions of debt….and tax unpaid.
Second….I believe its fraud to present accounts from one business on behalf of another.
In all, its my belief that the games governing body broke the LAW by accepting thise accounts and therfor are guilty of a huge fraud.
Why has no one taken this to court…..
Of course they broke the law. Everything associated with Sevco becoming a professional club with an sfa licence was either illegal, dodgy, or a fudge after the initial ridiculous proposal was rejected (new club going straight into premiership, remember?). The reason I do not engage with those who perpetuate the continuation myth is because the events were so clear and cataclysmic, almost bringing down the entirety of Scottish football in a mire of corruption, that anyone who chooses to forget that is never going to be persuaded to rejoin reality.
The most amusing thing is that deep down every single person in Scotland with even a passing interest in the game knows they died. They ceases to be. The team at Ibrox now are a tribute act, and not a very good one. Personally I will be happy when this club die too. Especially if there’s no false resurrection this time. Scotland and its football will be better off in the long run without it.
That’s never gonna happen, the rules have been changed in that respect, even after an administration event the team will be fined and possibly remain in the SPL.
They changed the rules regarding administration and I can’t help but wonder why?…
So, when they go t!ts up next time they KNOW it won’t be anywhere near as bad as what happened last time in 2012.
Scottish Fitba is TRUELY corrupted to its very core.
So sad, but 100% TRUE.
In the Green’s sale of goods list for the deadco it say absolutely ZERO about buying the history (unless it comes under “goodwill” then he paid exactly £1.00). The titles were “bestowed” upon the filth by their brethren in the SFA, as if that was a thing that could actually happen and wasn’t the height of biased corruption!
For any lurking gullibillies, here are the facts;
CELTIC FC – administration events – 0
– liquidation events – 0
– phoenix clubs – 0
RANGERS FC – administration events – 1
– liquidation events – 1
– phoenix clubs – 1
THE OLD FIRM FC – administration events – 0
for now….
I wouldn’t ordinarily comment on any reaction to an article I have written – everyone is entitled to take issue with my views – but I think it will be helpful to you James to present you with facts, and spare you from peddling such fictions as above.
First up, Fergus McCann himself talking about the events of 1994….
The balance sheet turned out to be negative — insolvent.,” McCann explained in an interview with The Sun. “Other liabilities — even a big tax claim regarding Paul Elliott — had to be met. It would’ve cost less, and left the previous owners with nothing, to go into liquidation but it would also be humiliating for Celtic. So we paid all the bills.”
Next the official website of Middlebrough FC….
1986: Bruce Rioch takes over the helm as coach. A last day defeat at Shrewsbury sees Boro relegated to Division Three and the club goes into liquidation in July, suffering from massive debts.
Next, a section of the Companies House report on the liquidation of Luton Town…
LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED
Company number 04977080
CompanyOverviewfor LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED (04977080)
Filing historyfor LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED (04977080)
Peoplefor LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED (04977080)
Chargesfor LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED (04977080)
Insolvencyfor LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED (04977080)
Morefor LUTON TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB LIMITED (04977080)
Case number 2 — Creditors voluntary liquidation
Commencement of winding up
17 November 2008
Dissolved on
8 January 2014
Practitioner
John Russell
The P & A Partnership 93 Queen Street, Sheffield, S1 1WF
Appointed on
17 November 2008
And as for the Coventry City situation being different (at least you acknowledged they were liquidated…sort of), the transfer for the ‘golden share’ was essentially what Rangers sought as regards their, then, SPL status in June 2012. Their share of the league could have be transferred, a la Coventry, but the clubs voted against it. In England, the FA special powers committee can wave through the transfer, as they did with Luton. The new Rangers did acquire the SFA membership of the old Rangers (five way agreement ring any bells), to correct another falsehood in your piece.
It might not suit your narrative that clubs across the world don’t for a minute think they can’t build on the history of their pre-liquidated, or “dead” version, but it is the case. Indeed, in researching the piece, which covered Celtic as the only club across Europe to finish in the top two over the past 27 seasons, I alighted up Ludogrets, who have done so every year for the past 12. “In 1997 the club merged with FC Antibiotic Razgrad and was renamed to FC Antibiotic-Ludogorets. In 2005 the club was defunct. The rise of Ludogorets started in season 2009/10 when Aleksandar Aleksandrov, director of FC Razgrad 2000, inherited the history and traditional club records of the former Antibiotic-Ludogorets, returning the name to PFC Ludogorets 1945 Razgrad.”
All this can be quite difficult to understand and there is no shame that you obviously don’t. But don’t try to present me as the one who hasn’t grasped the facts. Facts which are all contained above.
First up, I understand – and have always understood – Fergus pushing the line that he “saved” Celtic. But I always thought that the story was sufficiently sexy enough that he didn’t need to gild the lily. Fergus himself has always been clear that he got there ahead of other people too; nobody realistically believes for a second that the bank was goign to shut Celtic down. These things require a process. The first step on that process is administration. It’s the first step because believe it or not, the banks generally want to get their money back when faced with a debtor. So long as we agree that administration would have been first and that liquidation wouldn’t necessarily have followed, then the question is about who steps up to pay the bills. If Fergus hadn’t, others were prepared to.
This is the historical fact.
I’ve seen all of the other stuff you are talking about. And yet there are other versions of those events. Middlesbrough were saved deep into the 11th hour and there is nothing difficult to understand about that. And I’ll get back to why it was so in a moment.
Luton Town didn’t even COME CLOSE to being liquidated and losing their place in the league. A Companies House citation? Is that what you’ve got for me? There will be a similar one from when Fergus bought Celtic and used an “off the shelf” company to restructure the PLC.
And Coventry? I repeat; they maintained their “golden share” as an existing league club.
You are factually correct in that NewCo Rangers recieved the SFA membership of OldCo Rangers but that required a piece of perfidy and dishonesty that this website has written about time and time again … you don’t need to lecture ME on the Five Way Agreement, I’ve spent a long time trying to get to the bottom of that issue. The fact remains, that Sevco was granted first a TEMPORARY membership and the “golden share” in the SPL was denied to them by a vote of the clubs. The clubs themselves voted on the basis that Sevco was a NewCo and most of them acknoweldge this in their statements.
One last thing …
Do you think I give a shit if these clubs had died and were resurrected? Is my argument based on the idea that “Rangers” are the only club to have somehow miraculously survived the grave? Fiorentina most definitely did, but Italian football regulations DO NOT allow clubs to “die” … if I covered Italian football I’d call them a NewCo. If I covered English football I would have no problem calling any club that “phoenixed” a NewCo and I would refuse to accept that there is a continuation of their history. This stuff is only complicated because some of you insist on trying to justify the events and aftermath of 2012.
The club at Ibrox does not have an unbroken history. They died. They vanished. They went out of business. They lost their place in the league and in the SFA. The assets were bought by a brand new company, who plucked its corporate identity off a shelf. Your own newspaper said they had died. Walter Smith said they had died. To this day their former director and notorious singer of sectarian songs Donald Findlay, one of the most emmiment QC’s in the land, says they died and that the current Ibrox club is a NewCo.
Let me repeat; this stuff is only complicated by those who want to make it so by trying to justify the Survival Lie.
Do you think I care whether other club’s pretend to have the histories of dead predecessors? Does it change a single thing about the central argument here? In the end what do you think I care if Middlesbrough are a new club or Luton died and were then phoenexed back into existence? Those are semantic matters which I have never considered to have the least relevance to the debate at hand. I consider any club that was liquidated, lost its share and vanished as having gone out of business. If some other entity claims their name and their history then that’s as phony and fake and ficitious as the narrative at Ibrox is and I am perfectly content and comfortable saying so.
The “facts” for you are what you draft in to support your argument. Is Gretna 2008 the club that reached a Scottish Cup Final? No, because its founders were honest enough to accept that anything they claimed to the contrary would have been preposterous. As Ibrox’s claim is.
Here’s a fact for you Andrew; every time you or your press chums says or writes that Rangers are celebtrating their 150th anniversary you are LYING to your readers…and yourself. Yet you lot wonder why the traditional press is haemorrhaging readers?
Why must you all tie yourselves in knots over this? It would be a non-issue if from day one it was sapud by bears that “We understand that this is a new club but to us it will always be Rangers”. Who would argue with that? Nobody, that’s who. You all make yourselves look utterly ridiculous with this continuation myth. Grow up, accept the reality of what happened and maybe this could be put to bed.
Andrew
Sevco Scotland changed their name to Rangers two days after their first ever match against Brechin in 2012.
If the club survived then can you tell me why they were called Sevco in the Brechin match?
Also, when the CVA was rejected then the company ceased to be operational.
All clubs must have a legal personality in order to complete business.
Two days after the CVA rejection there was the EGM at Ibrox where shareholders were told that the club was no more, but that Charles Green was attempting to buy the assets.
In that 48 hour period between CVA rejection and the EGM, no company structure existed meaning the club died as a club cannot exist without this in place.
Finally, the new Rangers were admitted into the 4th tier of Scottish football, losing millions which clubs in the top tier rake in.
They also were unseeded in cup competitions, which old Rangers would have been if they had survived.
Hard core fans of new Rangers will tell everyone that Uefa, Fifa, SFA etc said it’s the same club.
If so, then why no appeal from the club to these organisations about ‘being put down’ or being unseeded.
After all, the new Rangers fans tell everyone that this is the case.
All the lost millions yet not even an appeal to CAS for instance.
All we can ascertain from that is that new Rangers didn’t believe the same club nonsense themselves.
Anyway, all you need to do, Andrew, is read Uefa articles of Assoc 12.2
That should keep you right, especially definition of a football club.
Uless, of course, you are calling Uefa rules as wrong, and you are the go to guy on all this?
sapid = said.
Sorry, writing on my phone on a bus with zero suspension!
I’m not going to get into a back and forth. You have provided the answers yourself. Inadvertently. Of course it would be a dereliction of duty for Celtic supporters not to give it tight to the support of their rivals about ‘dying’…though why we talk of business dying rather than closing down or going out of business, I’m not sure. But football, as you have as good as stated, sees clubs as brands. You take the name and run with it, whatever has happened in the business. You are perfectly entitled to rail against that, but my point is that it is how the game operates. And I’m not going to make an exception for Rangers. My God, I was in Little Chef after it was liquidated…before the rebirth proved short-lived! I’m not in any denial. I talk of Hibs winning three Scottish Cups, as do the club…yet Hibs went out of business and reformed between the first one and second one.
By all means disregard McCann, Middllesbrough and Companies House on these matters if you wish, but these are all factual elements. As is the fact that Rangers sought the old Ibrox club’s ‘golden share’ of the SPL in precisely the fashion it was passed to liquidated Coventry in England. None of this information was drafted by me, I didn’t have role in it existing. It just does. Like Rangers.
Andrew
You quote Companies House to back up your survival nonsense.
Companies House confirms the death of the old club.
You seem misguided.
You seem to believe that the old rangers are the same as the new rangers due to the emotional appeal.
All the best at standing up in a court of law and trying to pull that argument off.
At the Charles Green court case, Green confirmed he tried to buy the club for 7.5M, but, having failed to do so, bought the assets for 5.5M instead.
So, if the club survived, and Green failed in his bid to buy it, then who bought it?
Just give everyone a name Andrew please.
I’ve never heard Hibees banging on about 147 years of unbroken history. Buying a trademark doesn’t mean you can lie about the history of the business. If this was so commonplace Andrew why was it not mentioned before the oldco died? Why did your paper and others print headlines about “THE DEATH OF RANGERS F.C”? why didn’t someone tell the panicking bears “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, it’s just the holding company that’s going bust, Rangers will remain”? If this is such a simple matter why all the mobs of raging bluenoses outside the stadium calling for Whyte’s head? Surely no need for “Whaur’s ra deeds”? etc. You all believed in the death of the oldco just like we did until Charles Green came out with his utter fantasy about “buying the history”. Total nonsense and you all knew it then and deep down you know it now. If it was the same club there’d be no need for transferred memberships, “bestowing” of oldco’s titles etc. I understand the loss was brutally painful for you but every time you write these lies you look ridiculous to anyone with half a brain cell.
Can’t help but notice you haven’t corrected yourself on the Celtic liquidation thing – you do realise that trading whilst insolvent isn’t the same thing, right? If it was we’d be on a third Ibrox club at least by now…
HI Andrew
First- I would like to commend you for trying to argue your corner away from the cosy safety of the Scottish newspaper industry- that takes some guts- because you are being brave in the opposition area of Social media. However, “not getting into a back and forth” is just shorthand for declaring yourself the winner and running away. There is a lot of that approach taken on social media circles but you have taken “going native” to a new level.
James tried to counter some of the points you made with counter arguments that need addressing e.g. :-
1- Fergus saved the club but did not save them from liquidation
2- The Italian FA has saved bankrupt & liquidated clubs from the consequences but it was cheating and a lie- even if the media and fans and rival clubs all choose to go along with it.
3- The English clubs were saved by their FA too and other clubs accepted but was it legal?
4- Hibs went out of operation for a short while because they could not afford to continue as an SFA club but it was in the days before some Company Law measures applied to football clubs.Not relevant to modern times or most historical precedent.
I take a very simple view on the issues around Rangers’ liquidation and demise.If the Scottish Press ever develops a sense of investigation it would be fascinating to see them acknowledge and then explain, the difference between what they were writing pre-June 2012 and what they chose to forget in writing a totally contradictory narrative post July 2012 after Charlie Green came up with the “basket of assets/ engine room subsidiary” cover story for this act of blatant corruption. You know that what was written before this excuse was floated differs greatly from what you have written since. We find it risible when authors who have contrived to place their characters in a threatening situation with little prospect of escape, merely write “And with one bound they were free”. That is basically the story told by our media about how Rangers achieved a veneer of continuity in 2012.
The SFA had no difficulty in liquidating Third Lanark, Clydebank, Airdrieonians and Gretna. So why were Rangers able alone, amongst all these precedents, to maintain their history as a basket of assets transfer? And why , if they were the same , were they not allowed to compete in Europe and continue in the top division. Sense has left the building when you ignore all of this.
So, why does it matter? Why not let it go as fans in Italy and England did. Well, the situations are not similar. In Italy, so many clubs were involved in corrupt practices, many beyond mere tax avoidance/evasion. I suspect the other clubs let Fiorentina, Inter, Juve etc; off because they knew their clubs were equally guilty. There is no evidence that any other Scottish clubs were equally guilty and willing to see the convicted treated leniently. If we’d all been having bevvy parties during Covid, we would be hypocritical to be going after Johnson & Sunak but, since we all behaved ourselves, we are justified in being horrified by exceptional offenders.
In England, the clubs quoted Boro, Coventry and Luton are also ran underdogs; they are not behemoth clubs hoovering up a lion’s share of honest competitive titles and trophies through corrupt tax practices and side letters. They are also not the favoured establishment club of their country with a suspicion that other major Scottish forces would be harmed by highlighting their corruption.
So, please do reconsider the “back and forth”. You have been brave enough once to put your head above this parapet. Why not again? I cannot speak for James Forrest but I would be surprised if he wasn’t willing to give you again, a right to reply so long as you are willing to explain and defend positions. That is how some semblance of truth is arrived at not by making assertions and declaring the points proven.
Please reconsider.
Could you imagine Andrew Smith and a likes of him in the witness box putting their hand on the Bible and swearing to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
It would burst into flames.
Charles Green has confirmed that Rangers will apply for Scottish Football League membership.
(Charles Green did not buy a club, he bought a basket of assetts)
: “If our application were to be accepted, Rangers will play in whichever division the SFL sees fit and we will move forward from there.”
Rangers went into administration in February owing up to £134m to unsecured creditors.
(The SFA ripped up their registration once liquidated)
The club will eventually be liquidated and its registrations with the Scottish FA and SPL were terminated.
(the club will be liquidated and was as witnessed and recorded below) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrDlC8HyoCM
Andrew
If you are the same Andrew Smith who wrote intelligent pieces for the Celtic View then I don’t think you believe for a second what you wrote today.
I’d hate to think that todays piece was an audition for the Sun or Daily Record but I don’t believe that you are as naive as you make yourself out to be.
Only you know that.
On the membership, I remember Hearts and Motherwell entering and exiting administration with different people/companies taking over, but still retaining the same membership and being seeded for the following seasons League and Scottish cup competitions, as well as not having to apply to join the Scottish Leagues.
Can you explain, going by your logic, why if it was a change of company, why new Rangers had to apply for old Rangers membership, thereby asking for a membership to be transferred from themselves to themselves.
A bit like Celtic transferring Kyogo from Celtic……to Celtic.
Charles Green on oath admitted at his trial that what he had bought was “a basket of assets” and NOT the history of the liquidated club.
Everyone knows this in the Scottish media but for their own reasons choose to ignore it.
It is very simple: Club and Company were incorporated in 1899 and as the word entails became a SINGLE entity. This entity went into liquidation in 2012 and ceased to exist.
Put simply it died.
What exists at Ibrox is a different entity. I mean, it couldn’t be anything else.
Any attempt to describe what happened as something different is a deliberate deception – a convenient lie in other words.
SMITH IS WAY TOO HIGH ON DELUDEMOL, BEST GET HIM REPORTED TO THE SANITARIUM. OR THE SPCA(hun version)
Rangers is dead. Sevco is a tribute act. No 150 years of history. No 55 titles. No “Old Firm”. Simples!
Andrew you are just playing with words to fit with your agenda. You ignore the facts that Sevco Scotland had to apply for a license to join SPL/SFL? You ignore the fact that newco rangers were not seeded in the Scottish cup or league cup competitions. The fact that they started life in division 3. If they were the same club why were Sevco/rangers not playing in Europe in 2012/2013? Why did every newspaper write about the death of rangers? Are You ignoring the facts to suit your agenda too? ?
So Andrews found a backbone and made his case bravo,still talking rubbish but no change there