Generic Rangers in administration thread

CRAIG Whyte will not give up his position as preferred creditor with first claim on the assets of Rangers despite admitting he used more than £20 million of supporters' season ticket money to help complete his £1 takeover of Rangers.

Administrators are investigating whether his floating charge over assets such as Ibrox and Murray Park is valid as he did not use his own money, as he had asserted.

Whyte, now in Monaco, admitted on Tuesday that when he bought Sir David Murray's majority shareholding in Rangers in May 2011, he used money raised through selling off three seasons' tickets to Ticketus to pay off the £18m the club then owed to Lloyds Banking Group.

A close associate of Whyte has told The Herald that despite an "absolutely brutal public filleting", the Motherwell-born venture capitalist has no intention of walking away from Ibrox and intends to fight any attempts to prise away his hold over the assets.

Some observers believe his stance has sparked a battle for control of Rangers, stemming from the prospect of the club becoming more valuable free of debt if it emerges from administration and a more sellable commodity in the longer term.

Former club director Paul Murray met administrators on Friday to discuss his Blue Knights initiative to take control of the club, and it is known others have a keen interest.

However, Whyte believes his take-over deal remains legitimate. He points out he is underwriting the ticket agency's investment through his offshore company Liberty Capital and is "on the line" for £27.5m in guarantees and cash.

"If you are asking whether Craig Whyte will give up, the answer to that is no," said the associate. "He believed, and he still does, that what he has done is the right course of action and it will save Rangers."

Club sources fear the dispute over the validity of Whyte's security can only be resolved in the courts

and could lead to lengthy and costly legal challenges.

Whyte's hold over the club stops Ibrox and Murray Park being sold to clear potential debts of nearly £65m for the benefit of the tax man if Rangers went into liquidation. That would change if his security or floating charge inherited from the Lloyds Banking Group was deemed invalid. Rangers' tax debt includes a liability of £49m plus interest if they lose "the big tax case".

Former Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston wrote to the administrators, citing a written promise from Whyte, which said breaking the purchase terms would automatically extinguish the £18m Rangers debt which the financier took over from the bank. He believes an interpretation of the terms of the purchase agreement means the payment of the Rangers debt should not be secured against other assets, like future season ticket sales.

Whyte's associate told The Herald: "There are other people that need to be looked at. What I am suggesting is that anyone that thinks Craig Whyte was able to manoeuvre himself into the position he did, was able to do the deals he did on his own in isolation, without anyone else being involved or anyone else being aware, is kidding themselves.

"He is being described as such a deceitful crook and that his punishment should be that he should walk away and have a £27m bill for his trouble. It is kind of beyond the realms of reality."

An insolvency practitioner, experienced in dealing with handling football clubs in administration said: "To me it is quite simple. Mr Whyte has taken £24m out the club. Whether he is guaranteeing that money or not it doesn't matter. To me this means he has no right to that security over the assets."

A Rangers banking source told The Herald: "It is a matter for the authorities to investigate whether the security is valid. We think it will take the courts to decide the validity of the security."

A spokesman for the administrators said: "We are looking into all aspects of the validity of the transaction and the circumstances, so that would include the validity of the floating charge."

Rangers stand accused of failing to properly register players after a former director revealed secretive payments had been consistently excluded from contracts lodged with the SFA.
The embattled Ibrox club are awaiting the outcome of the First Tier Tax Tribunal which will determine the legality or otherwise of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs).
Regardless of whether Rangers are hit with an additional bill of £49million from the so-called 'big tax case', it appears such payments were kept 'off the books' - in direct contravention of SFA registration rules.

Former Ibrox director Hugh Adam, who had a 30-year association with the club until 2002, has told Sportsmail that the club's directors were aware of the arrangement - one he believes could have started as early as the mid-1990s.
'They weren't included in the contracts. They definitely weren't. That was the whole point of them,' he said. 'If they'd been included in the contracts, they would have had to have paid tax on them.
'I don't think a lot of the other directors knew an awful lot about it. David Murray kept everything to himself.
'The directors just wanted to sit in the directors' box. That's all. When I was on the board, I knew all about them.
'I just didn't know the details of them. They became accepted. 'The revenue were seriously challenging them at that point when I was a director.

'People never really asked serious questions about them. "It's perfectly legal" was what they thought.
'It wasn't happening in Britain, so had nothing to do with Britain. All the directors heard about them but didn't take them seriously because they didn't appear in the books.'
Adam's revelation suggests a clear breach of the SFA rulebook - and is a potential embarrassment to current SFA president Campbell Ogilvie, who had a 27-year association with Rangers, many of them spent as secretary.
The SFA rule on registration states: 'All payments made to a player relating to his playing activities must be clearly recorded upon the relevant contract and/or agreement.
'No payment for his playing activities may be made to the player through a third party.'
Adam, the man who funded the redevelopment of Ibrox through Rangers pools, believes payments into discretionary trusts may have gone on well before the turn of the millennium.
It's understood the 'big tax case' relates to EBT payments from 2000 until 2009 but, when questioned if he heard of similar payments in the mid- 1990s, Adam confirmed: 'Without having any specialist knowledge, I'm pretty sure.

'People didn't want to know about them. There was a lot of that (EBTs) going on at the time (I was there).
'You knew it was cheating but some of them not only hoped but believed it was above board. 'It's this thing that when something happens it has to have a beginning and an end, but that wasn't the case with the overseas things.
'It was just something that crept up. It was considered important but not crucial. The fans didn't give a damn one way or another. You could argue that they knew about it but didn't think it was important.
'Maybe they never thought it was as much as it really was. And maybe it wasn't. I don't know if you remember radio stations from ships.
'I don't think they were making a fortune but they weren't costing a lot of money, so no one bothered.
'When I was asked for my opinion on the way the club had been run, I said it was quite obvious how it had got into trouble.'They were doing things they shouldn't have been doing.
'They (EBTs) were always regarded in my time as a bit of a joke. They were getting away with it but nobody really thought they'd get away wi th i t forever. '
It would be an offshore trust - almost like a boat. You could dodge your taxes that way. It wasn't something that you picked up the paper and read about. It was one at a time then grew on a gradual basis.
'The players were very naive. Few of them were the Brain of Britain, of course. If they get the money, they don't give a damn where it's coming from.'

The Scottish Football Association has confirmed that it will be investigating allegations made about players at Rangers having "hidden" contracts.

Former Rangers director Hugh Adam told the Daily Mail that he had been aware of playing staff at Ibrox having more than one contract for payment but that some paperwork had not been submitted to the SFA.

The governing body's rules state that they must be given copies of all paperwork relating to player payment.

The SFA has now said that it will investigate the allegations and that it is close to completing its initial inquiry into Rangers.

In a statement, chief executive Stewart Regan said: "We are now in the final stages of our independent inquiry into the situation concerning Rangers FC. The report by The Right Honourable Lord Nimmo Smith is expected to be completed next week and will go to a Special Board Meeting for consideration.

"It would be inappropriate to make any further comment at this stage in relation to the details gleaned from the inquiry, the potential contents of the report or any possible sanctions.

"We are, however, aware of the most recent allegations made against Rangers FC today by a former director of the club. We shall investigate this matter thoroughly before making any further comment."

The Maestro wrote:SSN: Rangers administrators say the business is trading at a substantial loss. Savings of £1m a month needed for Rangers to survive liquidation

Doesn't take into account the potential £50m tax bill looming

Redundancies postponed until next week

Lu❣s Suarez wrote:Seized from Whyte?

lo lo lo

The Maestro wrote:This means it's likely Rangers have been in breach of SFA, UEFA, and FIFA regulations for over ten years, while winning league titles, cups, and participating in Europe, including a final.

Before this was brought to light there were calls to strip Rangers of their titles. Now it is inevitable.

MickStupp wrote:

The Maestro wrote:This means it's likely Rangers have been in breach of SFA, UEFA, and FIFA regulations for over ten years, while winning league titles, cups, and participating in Europe, including a final.

Before this was brought to light there were calls to strip Rangers of their titles. Now it is inevitable.

How is it inevitable if we don't know if the allegations are true or not? And why should Rangers have been stripped of the titles before this?

The Maestro wrote:Suddenly liquidation chat has become quite blasé

Whitehouse from Duff & Phelps (Rangers administrators): "A newco is a possibility as a way forward."

Ally McCoist:

"I am absolutely 100% confident that our football club will continue.
"I'm not sure yet what way, shape or form it will continue but our football club will continue.
"Every supporter to a man will continue following us in whatever way, shape or form that we are."

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:Two weeks on the trot Rangers have had the highest attendance in British football, At 47,276 yesterday. Once again proving that we are the best fans in the world. No matter what, we don't do walking away!

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:

The Maestro wrote:Suddenly liquidation chat has become quite blasé

Whitehouse from Duff & Phelps (Rangers administrators): "A newco is a possibility as a way forward."

Ally McCoist:

"I am absolutely 100% confident that our football club will continue.
"I'm not sure yet what way, shape or form it will continue but our football club will continue.
"Every supporter to a man will continue following us in whatever way, shape or form that we are."

Which has been said from the beginning. You can't re-write history, we will always be the most successful football club in world history.

The Maestro wrote:

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:Two weeks on the trot Rangers have had the highest attendance in British football, At 47,276 yesterday. Once again proving that we are the best fans in the world. No matter what, we don't do walking away!

Why have 3,000 fans walked away compared to your last home match? Stadium was also half empty in the closing stages of the match.

We had more fans at our last home game ..53,486 .. It's no big deal.

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:

The Maestro wrote:

Why have 3,000 fans walked away compared to your last home match? Stadium was also half empty in the closing stages of the match.

We had more fans at our last home game ..53,486 .. It's no big deal.

Because your stadium holds more, lol.

The Maestro wrote:

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:

Which has been said from the beginning. You can't re-write history, we will always be the most successful football club in world history.

No it hasn't. Every time liquidation was mentioned on here. Your response would always be "impossible"

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:Two weeks on the trot Rangers have had the highest attendance in British football, At 47,276 yesterday. Once again proving that we are the best fans in the world. No matter what, we don't do walking away!

The Maestro wrote:

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:

Because your stadium holds more, lol.

Your stadium holds 50,000

Why did 3,000 walk away

And about another 40,000 walk away before the end of the match?

Another thing, you won't be the most successful club in history. Look at my signature. Your titles are soon to be stripped from you, Rangers have potentially committed the biggest fraud in Sporting history worldwide.

Zzonked wrote:

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:Two weeks on the trot Rangers have had the highest attendance in British football, At 47,276 yesterday. Once again proving that we are the best fans in the world. No matter what, we don't do walking away!

Once again proving teams with bigger stadiums were playing away.

City got 47,219 yesterday, you had like 60 more.

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:

Zzonked wrote:

Jelavić7|EFC wrote:Two weeks on the trot Rangers have had the highest attendance in British football, At 47,276 yesterday. Once again proving that we are the best fans in the world. No matter what, we don't do walking away!

Once again proving teams with bigger stadiums were playing away.

City got 47,219 yesterday, you had like 60 more.

But we're Rangers in the fucking SPL, who'd want to watch that shite?

TheRangersFan wrote:Most people realise that the Newco would be the only way forward, clean slate for any potential buyers. I've said before that I believe that this was Whyte's intentions all along. Wouldn't be surprised if he was in cahoots with SDM; doing the dirty work, if you will.

I think it would be great fun starting at division 3, going to places that I couldn't find on a map of Scotland. Would far rather that than get years of point deductions in the SPL.