Walter Smith's consortium have just withdrawen their bid......oh dear even the cardigan sees the writing on the wall. I was listening to Roddy Forsythe on BBC Radio 5 last night and for the first time he really sounded concerned about their future and Roddy is a shareholder in the club as well as a journalist. He says the double contract charges could be the worst scenario they face and a real game changer as total expulsion from Scottish and European football for a long period could be on the cards. It really goes from bad to worse for them but reading some of the nasty, hateful bile on their fans websites just confirms that they reap what they sow and are getting all they deserve.

On a much more serious note.
Congrats to Ulsterman on opening page 100 of a thread.
Hail Hail Ulsterman.

Looks increasingly likely that any attempt to parachute Sevco 5088 into the First Division will be put to an abrupt end. So it's either the SPL or the Third Division, of course there's always the chance that a club like Spartans, Cove Rangers or Preston Athletic would apply for the open spot. Highly unlikely that one of these clubs would get the spot but then again they do have players and management.

Word is that fans of the old club will hold out on buying season tickets until a bit more about Green becomes public, who else is backing him and his plans for the club, as long as knowing what division they will in. So that leaves Sevco with no income stream in the short term. Admin staff have already had their contracts transferred over to the new employer so their wages will be due soon. Players if they do accept a transfer of their contracts could see a delay on payments until all this is sorted out. Chances of them going bust before the season starts?

So if they do indeed end up in Division Three how long do people reckon it'll be before we see the first New Firm game? Successive promotions and almost four years later or will they be drawn together in a cup at some stage?

If in doubt, who would the 'new firm' game be against?

Celtic vs Sevco 5088 doesnt have the same ring to it!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18509619

Yeah have to say its looking less and less likely that Rangers will be in the SPL next season. They have no name registered, no players, no sponsorship in place and very few season ticket sales. With the Cardigan Consortium walking (or should that be running as they don't do walking) and lots of fans not happy with Green and Co it looks like the newclub have far too many hurdles to clear with the new season less than seven weeks away. I also see that it looks like they will be stripped of the titles won from '98 but I read somewhere that this doesn't automatically mean they are handed over to the runner up. Does anyone know if this is the case and the titles just end up unawarded or do they get passed on to the runners up? Just trying to figure out if I need to add 5 stars to the last coupla Celtic tops I bought.

Juventus were stripped of 2 titles a few years back. One was awarded to the second place team while the other title was just not awarded to anyone so its hard to know. The important thing is the cheating was dealt with off course.

Rangers will be let off. The SPL will lose integrity.

I would have agreed with you unreservedly legend up to this and you may still be right. However the word now is that the former Club colluded in a massive fraud which involved an ex player who subsequently became a Manager in England. The NEWCO fans websites have been talking about this and Phil McGiolla who has always been ahead of the game has also hinted at the same thing. My understanding is that if they are parachuted back into the SPL they will have to agree to take responsibility for the sins of the defunct Club, this fraud allegation if its true could well be a bridge too far for even Green to take on board. Whoever even in their wildest dreams could have thought things would go this far. One thing for certain with Duff & Phelps coming to an end and BDO taking over the Liquidation there'll be no more of brushing things under the carpet. Even if the NEWCO are voted in its very likely they will have to be thrown out again before too long.

corkcelt
County: Cork
Posts: 3237

I would have agreed with you unreservedly legend up to this and you may still be right. However the word now is that the former Club colluded in a massive fraud which involved an ex player who subsequently became a Manager in England. The NEWCO fans websites have been talking about this and Phil McGiolla who has always been ahead of the game has also hinted at the same thing. My understanding is that if they are parachuted back into the SPL they will have to agree to take responsibility for the sins of the defunct Club, this fraud allegation if its true could well be a bridge too far for even Green to take on board. Whoever even in their wildest dreams could have thought things would go this far. One thing for certain with Duff & Phelps coming to an end and BDO taking over the Liquidation there'll be no more of brushing things under the carpet. Even if the NEWCO are voted in its very likely they will have to be thrown out again before too long.

Looking at some of the players signed by Rangers over the years, for relatively paltry sums, who then went on to join clubs in England for much increased fees, it's not too unbelievable to think that all was not above board. Don't think some of the claims have been made public yet but I expect one former manager to be feeling very tetchy as soon as things are let out in the open.

EBT's, dual contracts, payments to people after they had left the club are all being looked at, or will be looked at by the authorities. The reason it's taking so long is that those in power need to fully backed up in any evidence of fraud they make. Everything needs to be clear and factual, leaving no wiggle room for Rangers, such as the Appellate Tribunal, the punishment should be binding with no room for an appeal.

People believing the delay in a decision being made is a means of allowing Rangers off the hook so to speak is understandable. I reckon it's more a case of the authorities covering themselves entirely, so there's no way for Rangers (RIP) to escape from this.

Nice to see Boumsong do a Billy Dodds and put his foot in it regarding the EBT's recently. Definitely only a matter of time before trophies are stripped. It'll be relatively straightforward in who league titles will go too (unless there's an investigation into the Juninho siuation in the '03-'04 season at Celtic), the problem with the cups is you can't just award them to a team Rangers beat in the final, who knows how a team that they knocked out in a previous round would have done. I'd guess that some of the cup years could be just scratched from the records altogether.

It's very possible that Rangers in any form will not be playing football in Scotland next season, SPL nor Division 3.

Bury have poured cold water on suggestions they could be bought by Rangers as part of a plan for the Glasgow giants to ply their trade in England.
Reports today claim Charles Green's consortium, who took over the Scottish side last week, have looked into the possibility of acquiring the npower League One side.
The plan would then apparently be for newco Rangers to take up Bury's fixtures for the forthcoming campaign, while continuing to play their home games at Ibrox.

Reports today claim the Scottish Football League could be willing to accept Rangers into the Irn-Bru First Division - rather than the Third Division - in return for a revamp of the league structure that would eventually lead to a merger between the SPL and SFL.

That whole Bury situation is just completely ridiculous.......Is Green out of his mind???? Pure madess.

As for them being parachuted back into the SPL then to be relegated, well to me this makes no sense, but at least they would be punished.

The Bury thing was a complete joke from the off and their seemed to be little substance behind any of the actual reports surrounding it. There's no way anything of that nature would be allowed by the FA, especially since the MK Dons fiasco.

Still though as club names go there's not many as appropriate as Bury Rangers. Unless they went continental and tried to buy Willem II.

The retrospective points deduction that would have seen them relegated is quite a complicated issue. Ok it allows the SPL to create a loophole in allowing Sevco 5088 back into the SPL quickly, but it could create problems as SFL chiefs have already stated any new club would have to apply to play in the third division. Another problem here would be how the points deduction would have affected the end of season split, something clubs might argue against.

Another bid for the newco has also been suggested over the last few days. Valued at £11 million and coming from Allan Stewart and Stephen McKenna.

The pair of them are land developers which is rather ominous for the fans, and one of them was once suspended from being a director for seven years due to a previous business going under coupled with tax evasion I believe.

The best part though?

They're Celtic fans; The new Mr Green bidding for Rangers

And so the pantomime continues.

The situation is becoming farcical:

The belief is growing that the single solution with a significant chance of achieving a consensus will be the readmission of Rangers to the Scottish Premier League as a newco - but with the sanction of immediate relegation because of past misdeeds. Several obstacles have yet to be negotiated for this outcome to prevail.

Surely the old co should've been relegated already but they were not. To re-admit a new entity will be a disgrace, regardless of relegation or not. Scottish football is about to lose all integrity.

Unless they went continental and tried to buy Willem II

Would only be acceptable to the fans if they changed the name to Willem III

Now this is something i did not expect.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18539483

Was always going to be hard to call with Mad Vlad I felt.

Given Hearts speculative financial situation it was thought he might lean in favour of Rangers in the hope that should Hearts ever end up in a similar situation then a precedent would have already been set for them. But then he may have factored in the heavy anti newco sentiment among the Hearts support.

Maybe he sees a chance for Hearts becoming the next team to challenge Rangers and benefit from them blocking the newco entering the SPL, with the possibility of some of the glory hunters who attached attached themselves to the former Rangers club now supporting Hearts instead.

Either way if he follows through on his word then it is pretty promising.

"The football mafia represented by former owners of Rangers FC and Rupert Murdoch's media are to blame for some of the worst problems to hit Scottish football and must not be allowed back in under any circumstances.

"As regards the club itself, we can only express our deepest condolences to its supporters, who have been lied to for so many years.

"It had to happen sooner or later. Victories were achieved not by sporting merits, but through slander, conspiracies amongst players and their poaching via third parties, unfair pressuring of referees, who in themselves are as valuable to the fabric of football as the football stars themselves.

"All of this brought hollow victories and destroyed football. We can also mention the attempts to eliminate Hearts with the help of the tax petitions, through false accusations and threats to revoke the club license. There is a saying about digging a grave for someone: you get it for yourself …

The man's great entertainment, it has to be said

Can they not just have one British league and national team as will be the case in the Olympics and leave it at that?

The stories get more and more absurd:

http://videocelts.com/2012/06/blogs/gers-legend-backs-celtic-fan-mckennas-ibrox-bid

The madness continues, every day a different story and a different angle. It will make for a great book. I had a feeling that Romanov might vote no but he is such an eccentric guy anything was possible. Motherwell are more or less letting their fans decide. Its an open vote with independent Auditors checking result, I know we call them The Baby Gers but I can see nothing but a no vote here. Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hibs have all spoken about maintaining Sporting integrity so if any of them vote yes they will be total hypocrites. Funnily enough one of the Clubs who have said absolutely nothing is Celtic. The common belief is that the money men in Celtic want to have the NEWCO in the SPL, they were hoping to be able to vote NO but lose the vote. They are painted into a corner now, if Celtic were to vote anything but No there would be riots. We are talking about Div 3 or a hastily conceived botch up job whereby the SPL and the SFA combine and create a new Premiership consisting of 2 Divisions with NEWCO starting life in the lower of the 2 Divisions.