Wednesday 13 February 2013

All Archive Blogs Now online

http://www.williampoole.blogspot.co.uk/

WP Archives 19 Oct 2012: The BBC

As Phil Mac Giollabhain boasted on Tuesday night of an upcoming series of revelations from Craig Whyte set to damage Rangers, his lack of discipline, and his haste to break a story  made it crystal clear that he was being supplied information from the BBC in Scotland.

I had it confirmed to me early on Wednesday morning from a very good source that Whyte was set to appear on TV. Little was I to know that it would be the BBC.

When I did, and it appeared to be Chris McLaughlin, I noticed on various Rangers sites a broad assumption that he therefor was the leak to Mac Giollabhain
.
While that is not impossible, and indeed very likely, it could be any number of people, either from Whyte’s team, or from the BBC Production team who recorded the interview.

My understanding is that neither Whyte nor his team did anything other than accept an interview invitation from BBC Scotland.

It stands to reason therefor, that someone from the production team, or McLaughlin himself is and has been colluding with Mac Giollabhain
.
Of course many observers of Mac Giolla Bhain will remember his boasts on Real Radio following the Rangers versus Zenit UEFA Cup final, that he was involved in exposing rangers fans behaviour on the night with the BBC.

Quite how he could do that from his bolthole in Donegal is up for debate, and this raises the possibility that he was actually there.

If not, how could BBC Scotland work with him on their subsequent witch hunt?
I digress.

As I watched a very uncomfortable Whyte be interviewed by McLaughlin, it was evident that McLaughlin was well prepared, with a set of (sometimes leading) questions that have been the core of their agenda against Rangers since Whyte took over.

He was asked about his takeover, his financing of it, and the various pieces in the “takeover” jigsaw. Whyte looked unprepared, uncomfortable, and silly, as McLaughlin ran rings round him. Given that this takeover had already been the subject of a documentary, and that stakeholders David Murray, Duff and Phelps, and Charles Green had all issued statements to counter claims made in the programme, it was all a bit surreal, particularly as it seemed that the BBC simply wished the “right” answers to the questions that had been covered in that documentary.

Now that raises several other questions.

Why would Whyte agree to this? I think we all recognise that everything Whyte does is for Whyte, so why do the interview, why with the BBC, and why appear to go along with the line of questioning?

Could Whyte have been involved in the Documentary?

Strangely, Whyte seems a bit put out about something, and gives the impression he thinks he has been shafted.
Since this interview he has been ridiculed by the mainstream media, and lauded by Celtic supporters who spent 10 months slating him and digging dirt on him.

What concerns me is that if you set aside the fact that he’s a known liar, and that he made some statements and allegations without a shred of evidence, is that he felt compelled to make them. What could he possibly gain?

Is he jealous that Charles Green looks set to do what Whyte failed at, ie to buy the club at rock bottom, rebuild it, do a share issue, then swan off in to the sunset with a healthy profit and the kudos of rebuilding Scotland’s best known institution?

Did Duff and Phelps fuck him over?

Does he feel like the fall guy manipulated by David Murray and Duff and Phelps?

If so, that makes him dangerous

Do I feel sorry for him? Absolutely not.

Despite what he may claim, selling off such a high percentage of Rangers season tickets to Ticketus and thereby starving the club of future revenue for the period was not normal practice, particularly as he was increasing the cost base with new lucrative contracts for various senior players, with some of said players being rewarded with significant pay rises.

The transaction alone could actually have been an understandable a way to finance the club in the short term, providing his business plan could support the loss of revenue stream, by covering it with other revenue and also restructuring the club’s outgoings.

That he didn’t was this that was his real business failing, whether by accident or design.

Yes, we were led to believe that Whyte was a rich benefactor but we should have been more realistic, and should have heeded Alistair Johnston’s warnings to be vigilant.

Without dissecting every allegation from Whyte, his whole reasoning for the club becoming insolvent appears to be down to the club being knocked out of the Champions League, then the Europa Cup. Rangers were knocked out of Europe on 25 August 2011
.
McLaughlin questioned Whyte on a statement he made in 15 September of 2011 that the club had a strong balance sheet, in reference to Whyte being outraged at former CEO Martin Bain freezing club cash in a dispute with the club.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2037527/Craig-Whyte-goes-offensive-attack-Donald-Bain-declaring-Rangers-wont-bust.html

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/271328/Rangers-chairman-Craig-Whyte-lets-rip-at-Martin-Bain

Whyte’s response was to ramble that in early September that was true but by the end of September it wasn’t.

Frankly it doesn’t add up, and many of his other claims have been fairly easily quashed by both Charles Green and Duff & Phelps.

My concern though is not just that Whyte used (or was used by) the BBC, and fitted in to their agenda to cause damage to the forthcoming IPO, but that he feels hard done by.

Quite why he has such audacity is unclear, but he’ll need to do more that mumble his way through an interview with no evidence if he wishes any credibility.

To my knowledge, none of his allegations refer to anything illegal, so despite the efforts of the BBC or Whyte to damage Rangers, Green, or indeed Duff & Phelps or David Murray they haven’t and won’t impact the club.

What they will have done though is strengthen the resolve of those within the club to starve the BBC of anything from the club, so we will have a strange situation whereby the country’s biggest broadcaster cannot report anything on the biggest  football club.

Experience of recent developments should show them that Rangers ARE the news.

Rangers will grow and survive with or without the BBC, and it will be interesting to watch the BBC try and cope without the co-operation of the club.

If Charles Green remains in position, my money would be on the BBC to fold first.

I hope Green’s successor is as single minded and strong as he is.

Bill.

WP Archives 14 Oct 2012: Toxic Thomson - Evidence?

If I were even tempted to write an untruth or to deliberately lie in my blog, I would stop immediately, and delete my blog. Seriously.

Clearly I have higher standards than the average Celtic minded journalist.

Friday’s blog by Alex Thomson shames the trade of journalism and takes it to a very low place.

Clearly, with some perspective it is not on a par with the Sun’s lies around Hillsborough, or its sister newspaper’s penchant for hacking personal mobile phone accounts, but it is still an unbalanced rant of the highest order, chock full of “allegations” without any evidence to support them.

Unless Mr Thomson has evidence that he wishes to share (and why wouldn’t he include in his blog to give it some credibility) then he should be challenged by Rangers FC to substantiate many of his claims, or apologise, and be forced to resign by ITN

As with previous blogs, there are so many inconsistencies, and a common tactic he tries and fails to use is to appear “neutral”, by beginning with an apparent “compliment” to the Rangers support, before starting on a black propaganda campaign which completely contradicts his opening gambit.

Like fellow odious creep Graham Spiers, he believes that readers will fall for his tactic, believe him as neutral, and believe everything from that point forward.

Perhaps some are gullible.

He certainly thinks Rangers fans do not have the intellect to comprehend his agenda, which is rather odd, as we have been ridiculing his strange behaviour and his series of embarrassing faux pas.

I have blogged on Thomson on several occasions before

http://williampoole.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/toxic-tomos-tenious-tat/

http://williampoole.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/alex-thompson-the-nuj-corrupt-and-irresponsible-bullies/

http://williampoole.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/glasgow-the-toughest-gig/

http://williampoole.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/useful-idiots/

He will continue to be challenged and ridiculed, because his efforts to silence people by labelling anyone who challenges his lies and propaganda as intimidatory is exactly that; a silencing tactic to give anti Rangers propagandists a licence to attack.

I and many other Rangers fans are not fooled, and will not be silenced.

As I and others have blogged before, Thomson came to prominence in Scotland by bullying Hugh Adam the former Rangers director in to giving him the answers he wanted in an agenda driven interview, asking the same questions over and over of the 86 year old.

Charming.

“As I’ve said before my interest in Rangers stems purely from the standpoint of it being a spectacular example of a corporate omnishambles: British mismanagement so profound and bewildering it veers between performance art and social car-crash. With the loyal Rangers fans left mugged in the middle.”

Here we go with the soft soaping.

“It’s still happening. Past mismanagement matched by the odious behaviour of a no-doubt small minority of Rangers fans apparently hellbent on proving the new Rangers will be like the old.”

Still happening? How are Rangers being mismanaged, and how would Alex know about the Rangers “of old”, if he only started taking an interest in the club after we went in to Administration. Is this a slip up, or is Thomson listening to other Rangers haters?

An element of the Rangers customer base remains out of order and neither Rangers, nor Scotland’s football authorities, nor the police appear willing or able to do much about it.

“I’m talking intimidation.

Of the legal profession. Of football’s governing bodies. Of football club executives. Of publishing. Of bookshops. Of newspapers. Of TV stations.

Tellingly, in Glasgow this will come as news to nobody. Which should tell anybody half awake how sick things are in this singular aspect of that great city.

Outside Scotland people may legitimately wonder how or why this is tolerated? Or simply gawp in astonishment that such things go on almost daily this year.

And it is arguably getting worse.

Consider the following brief summary of just some of what’s happened in Glasgow since Rangers’ downfall began, not a year ago.”

THE LAWYERS

In April a 3 man Scottish FA Tribunal dared punish Rangers for bringing the game into disrepute (so seriously it was deemed just short of match-fixing).

Gary Allan QC, Raith Rovers director Eric Drysdale, and former commentator, Alastair Murning had their identities disclosed as well as private details with threats so serious the police advised all three on security measures.”

Oh dear oh dear.

This would be the panel who imposed an illegal punishment against Rangers FC, which was later overturned by Lord Glennie.

The report/propaganda that Police advised all three on security measures was somewhat shown up when it transpired that one of the 3 let slip that no threats had been made. No Rangers fan has ever been arrested or charged with any offence in relation to any intimidation of any of this group.

Who said facts were required?

“Their identities became public after the Rangers manager no less, Ally McCoist said: “Who are these people? I want to know who these people are.”

The Scottish FA was left, not for the first time, wringing its corporate hands, saying: “We are deeply concerned that the safety and security of judicial panel members has been compromised by a wholly irresponsible betrayal of confidential information.”

And: ” all three panel members have reported intrusion into their personal and work lives, including abusive and threatening communication”.

Yet the manager of Rangers itself, a man steeped in the ways of Glasgow football, was instrumental in this chain of events, knowingly, or not.

Hardly an episode of corporate social responsibility.”

“It has continued. In the past few weeks Scottish Law Lord and former Supreme Court Judge Lord Nimmo-Smith actually had to put out a statement pleading for his independence to be recognised as he embarks on yet another investigation of the fallen club.

Again – the sheer weirdness of this to outsiders, passes almost without comment in Glasgow.”

Nimmo Smith does not mention any intimidation or any threat. Quite rightly, Rangers CEO has challenged the SPL and SFA over their predetermined agenda to strip Rangers of titles and trophies. He categorically did not question Nimmo Smith’s impartiality but stated that the process was flawed if Nimmo Smith was working on behalf of his client who had a pre determined agenda.  Rangers fans recognise that. We are not silly, we know that the driving force is not Nimmo Smith, but his client the SPL.

When Green challenged the process, Nimmo Smith felt compelled to justify his position. While Green and the Rangers support had been respectful of Nimmo Smith’s position, his statement which mentioned “match fixing” in context to the allegations against Rangers were unhelpful, but have been largely missed by both the media, and the Rangers support

“THE FOOTBALL AUTHORITIES

Like anybody prepared to challenge or ask questions or charged with passing judgement on Rangers, both Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League directors have had a torrid time of it.

In the case of SFA boss Stewart Regan, there were death threats.”

The SFA have said publicly this year that private details of SFA directors have been published online.”

Where?

The details of Ally McCoist have been published online.

“The SFA Chief Executive Stewart Regan has said:

” At times, that does make you wonder whether it is going to impact on your family and your personal life.

But it’s never once made me think about walking from the job.”

Incredibly, to those outside the Clyde Cauldron, the SFA boss said he’d had to speak to Counter-Terrorism officers over the nature of the threats and the security response.

Yes – Counter-Terrorism police officers.”

There is absolutely no evidence of any such threats, nor any arrests, nor any charges relating to any such offence.

There is not even any evidence online of anything resembling a threat.

What a wonderful piece of evidence free Propaganda. It seems that Thomson is a paid up member of the “keep repeating it and it’ll become true” club.

Of course Stewart Regan has a brass neck. While he had an account on Twitter, he retweeted a death threat from a Celtic fan about Rangers Lee McCulloch, which he was forced to apologise for.

Strangely, Thomson fails to mention that.

This revolting behaviour from a minority continues to spike in activity when those running the game are forced to take action to try and clear up the Ibrox mess.

Nobody, but nobody, should have to put up with this in the course of doing their job. But in Glasgow football it is dangerously close to being accepted as part of the job.

What revolting behaviour? Clearly the fact that Rangers fans no longer sit back and take torrents of abuse, lies and propaganda doesn’t

“THE PUBLISHER

There has been just one book published on the Rangers. As you’d expect it’s gone through several print runs in the few weeks it has been out. But for daring to print a factual account of the Ibrox meltdown, the publisher, Bob Smith of Frontline Noir speaks of having to deal with a catalogue of abuse.

It had a potentially serious affect on customers and shops buying the book ‘Downfall’ he says:

“There was definitely pressure applied and there were certainly some wobbles along the way from shops and customers. But we got through and in the end people were supportive.”

Material was published online to identify where at least one person lived who worked on the production of ‘Downfall’.

The abuse I received for simply writing the forward to this factual account of the Ibrox debacle was routine for me – for publishers unused to it, the experience was frightening.

THE BOOKSELLERS

Those outside Scotland will find this hard to credit, but several shops including major chains like Waterstones and WHS were unable to display the book openly in some shops because of reported threats and actual abuse of staff.

For selling a work of non-fiction and journalistic enterprise!

In at least one store copies were ripped up. In another Glasgow shop an angry individual wearing a Union Jack repeatedly entered the bookshop to scream at staff to send the offending tome back to the publishers.”

Once again, Thomson fails to provide a shred of evidence. Anyone see a pattern here?

Why does he fail to mention the author?

The “book” was written by notorious author Phil Mac Giollabhain, who was the co founder of IRA Fanzine “TALFanzine”, and former columnist for Sinn Fein IRA Publication An Poblacht.

This is the “writer” whose book serialisation was dropped by The Sun after they were made aware of a number of hate filled bigoted sectarian rants. They stated that Mac Giolla Bhain was “tarred with a sectarian brush”. The Foreward for the book was written by Thomson, who also contributed to the C4 documentary on Bloody Sunday. It is believed Thomson met with MacGiolla Bhain while in Belfast, many years ago.

Phil is a notorious liar, and many of these accounts of alleged vandalism and threats were posted by members on the website “Celtic Minded”, and various other Celtic forums, with not a shred of evidence.

“THE BROADCASTERS

As I write a colleague at STV in Glasgow has received threats for successfully doing his job. This person wishes to keep a low profile on police advice and is constrained to say nothing at all about it.

NUJ officials say currently around 25 journalists have been threatened recently for attempting to tell the truth about Rangers.

Understandably most feel they cannot discuss it openly. As one told me in a Glasgow hotel this summer: “I’m not paid enough and I don’t feel I have bosses who’d back me up if it came to it.”

Silence…hoping it will all go away…totally understandable when you live in Glasgow. But it isn’t going away, is it?”

Prove it.

“THE FOOTBALL CLUB

Enter Raith Rovers and their redoubtable chairman Turnbull Hutton. For Turnbull it was who was somewhat thrown into the limelight this summer as a champion of sporting integrity. As the SPL set about making itself a laughing stock in its tangled efforts to defy fairness, reason and morality to try and keep Rangers up in the Premier League, it was club chairmen like Mr Hutton who said no, Rangers must be treated like any other club.

But why, exactly? Yesterday Turnbull Hutton told me: “We had to circle our wagons at Raith given what had been done to us by Rangers fans.”

And he listed the endless abusive phone calls – some from Belfast – to Raith staff, theats, heavy-breathing, silent calls and so forth.

The day Fife police passed on credible information from the Strathclyde force that two men has been paid to burn down Raith’s stadium is a day Mr Turnbull and Raith Rovers will remember.”

Yet still no arrests? No Charges? No media coverage? Seriously? Is anyone supposed to believe this claptrap?

“And all of it because that Raith man Eric Drysdale had dared sit on that SFA Tribunal and pass judgement and sanction upon Rangers’ gross mismanagement.

After all that Raith and Turnbull Hutton would lead the charge to stop Rangers remaining anywhere near the SPL, whatever it took.

The would-be intimidators didn’t tame Turnbull, their cowardice only making the club bide its time and help Rangers down into the fourth tier of Scottish football.”

The fact is that Rangers fans wished to go to Division 3 in order that the SPL’s vindictive campaign to punish Rangers, but keep them in a new SPL2 (in order to still have their bargaining power with Sky TV and sponsors) would fail. Turnbull Hutton may have gained some kind of hero status amongst some extremist Celtic supporters who wished Rangers in Division 3 despite the impact it would have on their own club, but he really is an irrelevance to Rangers supporters, whose only issue has been with the SPL and SFA boards.

In fact Rangers fans applauded Hutton when he refused to buckle under the pressure from the SPL and SFA to place Rangers in SPL2 in order to support the finances of the remaining SPL clubs.

But hey, why let propaganda get in the way of the truth?

“THE NEWSPAPER

It seems an entire newspaper can be got at, when it’s Glasgow and it’s Rangers.

Recent weeks saw one of the more bizarre editorial u-turns of recent newspaper history in the UK when a Scottish Sun double-page splash promoting the author of ‘Downfall’ prior to serialising the book – suddenly became a non-serialisation.

In a somewhat embarrassed editorial The Sun admitted to receiving a large number of complaints about promoting the book, from Rangers fans.

The paper denied it was bowing to threats. Yet the publisher of the book says the threat of a Hillsborough-style boycott was real and instrumental”

Frankly, if the Sun had serialised this book from a notorious Irish Republican bigot, then it would have deserved a Hillsborough style boycott.

The suggestion that there were “real threats” to the newspaper, ie threats of violence, or anything other than a boycott is ridiculous and completely without foundation. Had it happened, it would have gifted the Sun an even better story and helped them publicise the serialisation and the book.

They didn’t because the author was and is a sectarian bigot.

Did I mention they also slated Thomson for writing the foreward?

It’s widely known the threats were real, nasty and yet again Strathclyde police were involved.

Many – including the book’s publisher – express real sympathy with The Scottish Sun’s dilemma. It editor and staff are known to have been shocked at the level and fury of complaints.

The difficulty here is that, whatever the paper’s reasons, in the end the mob got their way. The serialisation of a fast-selling factual book on Rangers never happened.

They couldn’t get Turnbull Hutton, Lord Nimmo-Smith, Eric Drysdale, STV and many, many more – but many believe they did get the Scottish Sun.

That should give us all pause for thought. Is this the reason why not a single Scottish newspaper has reviewed a book selling way beyond its publisher’s estimates?

The book is not “fast selling”, and selling way beyond its publisher’s estimates means nothing, if it’s estimates were to sell 50 copies.

The book by the bigot is currently at number 553 in the Amazon chart, which is based on hourly sales. It has peaked today because of the publicity of Thomson’s blog.

On Book Depositary it is ranked at a more realistic 20,895.

“What kind of power does the Ibrox mob have still, in today’s Scotland?

So against all this catalogue of attempted (and mostly failed) intimidation, the new Rangers owner Charles Green must surely take a stand and trying to kick this poison out of Ibrox and some of its support for good?

Already in his short ownership Mr Green’s referred to the football authorities as ‘the enemy’ at fans’ meeting on many occasions and he faced formal disciplinary action for saying other clubs were motivated by ‘bigotry’ towards Rangers.

Mr Green must lead from the top because if he fails to do so what chance has anyone got to stop the moronic element at the bottom of the Rangers food chain from lashing out with threats against anyone who dares speak truth unto Ibrox?”

Let’s be honest, Thomsons’s various lies and cobbled together propaganda are all about silencing a support and a club that are not standing for being bullied and lied about any more, and bullys like Thomson just can’t stand it.

Of course, Thomson has previous for lying about “intimidation” when he claimed he had been threatened by journalist David Leggat. As I blogged previously, this was utter bunkum, and the Police believed his claim was laughable, while it was proven that an online “threat” came from  a Celtic supporter posing on a fake twitter account.

Both Thomson and the perpetrator of the fake threat should count themselves lucky they didn’t get charges with wasting police time, particularly as said perpetrator boasted about it on the site that Phil Mac Giollabhain is an influential member of.

This week he has already backed a MacGiollabhain piece of propaganda stating that up to 25 journalists have been threatened by Rangers fans.

Yet, still no one has been arrested or charged.

With every passing blog, Thomson is smashing his own credibility further. I didn’t think it possible, but it is.

I hope whatever he stands to gain from this is worth it.

Bill.

WP Archives 14 Oct 2012: "Still Driven by Hate"

One of the most refreshing aspects of Rangers new adventure in division 3 has been the "loss" of the Old Firm hostilities.

Speaking for both myself and many fellow bears, we have enjoyed this journey, even if the results have not been at a level we would naturally expect.
The liberation of not having any distraction from across the city has more than softened the blow.

Most of the Rangers fans I know have lost all interest in the SPL.
The only remaining interest for many is the dwindling crowds in the largely forgotten league.

You'd have thought, therefor, that Celtic fans would be enjoying the SPL without Rangers, and their first season in the Champions League for a number of years. Sadly not.

As their crowds dwindle, and their officials release false crowd figures, it becomes apparent that up to 10,000 season ticket holders who paid their money up front cannot be bothered to support their team.

While the money men will be less concerned, the crowds of 31-35,000 must be a huge disappointment to the players and football management.

Why these fans have lost interest is pretty clear. Their "support" of their own club is motivated more by an obsession and hatred of Rangers than it is by a love of their own club.

This is not only evident at the stadium of green seats, but all over the web sites polluted by these haters.

The hatred as been oh so evident this week from usual suspects  Phil Macgiollabhain and his useful idiot Alex Thompson, but this expanding world of hatred online has spawned a couple more haters this week on two seperate blogs.

One one called "fields of green" the writer displayed a level of obsession that has to be seen to be believed (just once) to see just how poisonous a mind can get.

His basic tenet was that we (the Rangers support) are too emotional and would be angered by him telling us what all our "faults" are.

The problem was that about two pages in to his rant it becomes clear that the only person consumed with emotion and hatred is the writer.

It's not a healthy level of disdain either, it's a pathological hatred of Rangers, and our support from someone who is disturbed.

I actually find it disconcerting that there are such damaged individuals out there in our midst.

It's something all Rangers fans should be aware of, in order that we understand the type of people we may be dealing with.

We as a support should be clear with each other, and with the club.

We should not compromise and should not give an inch at all, as some of our enemies (and they are enemies, make no mistake) will never be happy and will never stop demonising us and trying to damage our club.

Take note.

Bill.

WP Archives: 09 Oct 2012: "A Dark Weekend"

This weekend has been a very disappointing one for Rangers fans. The shocking display against Stirling Albion has placed extreme pressure on Ally McCoist, and has damaged an already fragile peace amongst the Rangers support.

On Sunday it was evident that some bears are backing McCoist to the hilt, with others wishing him a speedy departure.

To see Rangers fans slate each other on various forums and social networks really disturbs me, and I'm getting a horrible picture of a scenario unfolding where that anger spills over in to the stands.

I stood in the Rangers end at Celtic Park in 1994 when Celtic fans were throwing objects at their board and fighting in the stands.

Like many bears present, I found it hugely amusing.

I'm not laughing now.

While I'd never expect our support to behave in the manner the degenerates across the city do, if this team continues to sink, with fans sniping at each other, I fear the worst.

The conduct of at least two individuals from the RST board following their AGM was also unhelpful.

Some context is definitely required.

In recent months, the influence of the Rangers Supporters Trust has been diminishing significantly.

As the club slid to the edge of the abyss while in Administration, all the major supporters groups formed the RFFF in order to support the club in its darkest hour.

This group, and the communication channels it has opened up between the major fan groups, has gone from strength to strength, and gone a long way to achieving the kind of fan unity that has been the utopia for any Rangers fan.

The RTID NI group too have appeared on the scene, and contributed greatly, although I have learned that this group too have been compromised by RST board members putting the Trust above the RTID NI group.

When representatives from various Rangers fans groups stood as one on the steps of Hampden to protest against the SFA's illegal transfer embargo, it was a proud moment for many.

There was a hope that at last, the Rangers support could at last act as one and act in the best interests of the club, and wield it's power to show the club's enemies that we will no longer be messed about.

Sadly though, some confidential matters started being leaked to the media from RFFF meetings, while the Trust and TBK/Brian Kennedy were attempting to stage a coup and force Charles Green to sell up, before he'd even got his feet under the table.

The same applied when Walter Smith was fronting another bid to force Green to sell, on the day he secured the club.

In fact The Trust issued a statement asking Rangers fans NOT to buy season tickets until Green sold up to Smith.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/home-news/fans-are-urged-not-to-renew-season-tickets.17882069?

THE Rangers Supporters Trust has called on fans not to renew their season tickets until Charles Green steps down as the club's chief executive.

The body urged fans to hold off amid concerns about Mr Green's consortium following the former manager Walter Smith's statement yesterday that he is leading a bid to gain control of the club.

Last week, former director Dave King made a similar plea to Rangers supporters as he called for a "full and frank" discussion over moves behind the scenes related to Mr Green's bid.

The Supporters Trust statement said: "The board of the Rangers Supporters Trust welcome the bid headed by Walter Smith.

"We firmly support the view that Rangers men should be in charge at this critical time in our history and that no profit should be gained by any individuals owning the club.

"This bid is the only one which will ensure all the Rangers family are united and if it comes to fruition we can pick ourselves up and take the first tentative steps on the long road to recovery.

"We ask Charles Green to step aside from any deal to purchase Rangers and allow Walter Smith to lead us into this new era for our club.

"The Rangers Supporters Trust board calls on all supporters to hold off renewing season tickets till this situation is resolved."

New Rangers chairman Malcolm Murray, who is a fan, was earlier dismissive of groups that had previously tried to take control at Ibrox, saying that he was a "blue nose, not a blue knight".

He later said: "All of us would like to see Walter involved in some way.

"I would personally welcome the opportunity to sit down with him and explain to him the role that I am determined to fulfil in the interest of the Rangers supporters.

"It's important for everybody to be behind the club. The owners and the board want nothing but success for Rangers.

"One of the ways to ensure that is to ensure that Ibrox is full, and the sale of season tickets is an extremely important part of that."

When successive attempts by The Blue Knights to gain control of Rangers failed a campaign to discredit Green took place with the RST at the heart of it.

As the FF hordes, aided and abetted by bloggers associated to the Trust, made all sorts of unfounded allegations against Green, the other fan groups were trying in vain to support the club, and Green as it’s CEO.

More recently, all the major fan groups, including the Rangers Assembly, the Rangers Supporters Association, Rangers Unite, Union Bears, the Copland Road Organisation, Vanguard Bears and RTID NI have come together under one umbrella called the Unified Supporters Platform in order to work together for the benefit of Rangers.

This umbrella group represents all Rangers fans worldwide with the exception of a handful of individuals within the RST.

It is their view that those individuals are not acting in the best interests of the club.

In recent months, with the RFFF and leading individuals from some of the other groups apparently gaining a position of influence within the club, the RST has become increasingly marginalised.

Furthermore, this Unified Supporters Platform released a statement a couple of weeks ago, stating in no uncertain terms that the RST would have to radically alter its behaviour and it’s structure in order to be trusted enough to be welcomed in to this new powerful alliance.

A delay in publication from the RTID NI Twitter account seemed at odds with the agreement of the board members who attended on behalf of the RTID NI group, and it is believed the individual concerned not only sits on the RTID NI group committee, but also the RST Board.

It’s from this position that the RST AGM was set on Friday.

One would have hoped sense would prevail, and that the Trust would embrace change in order to finally achieve true unity across the whole fan base. As approximately 100 attendees out of the hundreds of thousands of Rangers fans across the globe attended, it became clear that the Trust position was not to change. Mark Dingwall still sits on that discredited board, and £93k of gersave money still sits in its bank account.

In the biggest turnout for many years, no doubt due to the appearance of Charles Green, the board declared a surprised Green an honorary member.

In a desperate attempt to ingratiate themselves with Green, this move was to become the headline grabber, as triumphant board members boasted on Follow Follow that Charles Green was now an RST member, and on twitter that “we like him and he likes us”

While the response should have been laughter at such a desperate act and such nauseating propaganda, the response from some on Twitter and other forums was far less measured.

While I would have gone with the laughter angle, I can still understand why people would take issue with a group who have moved heaven and earth to back everyone except Green in the last few months, with black propaganda, leaking of sensitive information, and a singular agenda to achieve a controlling stake in Rangers FC.

That they are now desperately trying to hang off Green’s coat tails, should be a subject of ridicule, not anger.

As fellow blogger The Wee Proclaimer pointed out recently in his blogs, the hundreds of negative posts on FF that were allowed and encouraged about Green have been deleted, as have some RST proclamations.

Clearly, revisionism is not the sole domain of the Celtic minded.

The sad thing is that while some were reacting to this hypocrisy with anger, one RST board member was spying on various Rangers forums and reporting back to Mr Dingwall of “threats”, which became the subject of further propaganda

So we as a support have grasses too, which is utterly shameful.

If there was any threat at all to Mr Dingwall, he wouldn’t be able to stand at his regular pitch selling his fanzine. He does, and always has done, and most probably will continue as long as he can while the money rolls in.

Given that he is the only high profile Rangers fan to have assaulted a competitor, by punching him in the Wee Rangers Club, I’d suggest that only the gullible will believe Dingwall (or anyone else in his clique) is vulnerable.

The AGM may have passed, and the Trust may feel they have both cemented themselves in a position of strength in the club, while successfully generating some negative propaganda against fellow Rangers fans, but the reality is they have alienated themselves even more, and noticeably attempted to damage the unity in the support, while their gesture to Green means nothing.

The fact that Rangers fans, even if in such a minority group, should act in such a manner is really disappointing, and I genuinely hope that in the coming months, as it becomes apparent that the Trust's self serving strategy is not working, that they will see the light and join the wider Rangers family in supporting both the club, and attacking our enemies.

They may come to regret that gesture to Green too.

My observation here is that while Green has been playing a blinder in dealing with the SFA, SPL and other parties out to damage Rangers, he is indeed also playing to the gallery of the Rangers support, as he strives to maximise the return on his personal investment, and the investments of his consortium.

I have been angered at smears of him by hacks intent on discrediting him and the work he is doing at the club, but we should not dismiss out of hand the likelihood that he will make his money and leave, and perhaps before we are back at the top. Of course, he could make more money in selling his shareholding if we are back in the Scottish top flight, and the CL, with Ibrox looking like Dubai, but perhaps he will sell to others to finish the job he started.

Therefor, Rangers supporters should be clear to him, that we are supportive of him in his fights with Regan, Doncaster, Lawwell and company, but not supporting him personally.

We are Rangers supporters, and the club should ALWAYS come first.

Bill.

WP Archives 05 Oct 2012: Toxic Tomo's Tenious Tat

So, I like alliteration. Forgive me.

I've been rather amused by Alex Thompson's latest blog on Rangers.

His unhealthy obsession with the biggest football club in Scotland continues with a desperate attempt to make a court case against Rangers former owner Craig Whyte current and relevant.

As 'Gers fans on Twitter questioned the relevance of his blog, Toxic replied that Whyte might still be involved in Rangers.

It's not the first time it's been suggested, but mostly by John "wherrs the deeds" Brown, and David Leggat.

Despite lots of bluster, and an admirable persistence in repeating the claims, neither have offered a shred of evidence.

Neither does Toxic.

It's interesting that Toxic and Leggat hate each other's guts, as their blogs are at times two sides of the same coin.

Both like their wild unsubstantiated claims and both have an obsession with Craig Whyte.

Toxic takes it further by repeating the curiosities previously blogged by Paul McConville and Rangers Tax Case over Whyte's various directorships and "identities".

It's hardly groundbreaking stuff.

That becomes crystal clear to anyone familiar with companies house information, and director searches.

Try it yourself.

Within 5 minutes you will find many directors with a strange tendency for providing inconsistent information.

Why they do it I don't know, but they do.

So we have a blog telling nothing new that feels a year out of date, and the author somehow immensely proud of his efforts.

Please remember this lazy amateurism the next time you see Toxic reporting from a war zone.

Bill.

WP Archives Sep 12 2012: Roger Who?

While some would argue that “all out attack on Rangers day” is every day, today’s assault on Charles Green by the press, is particularly vindictive, and reeks of the SPL Cabal calling in favours in order to discredit Green’s statement with regards to the SPL’s Kangaroo Court.

There is a shocking piece of propaganda by former SPL Chief Roger Mitchell in the Herald, who debates Green’s points with a level of finesse you would expect from a Celtic Minded blogger.

He takes Green’s points on one by one

“Claim 1 Rangers ceased to be subject to the SPL's rules when they were ejected from their league.

 Fact Rangers oldco was not ejected from the SPL. The fact that Rangers went into liquidation automatically expelled them from the league. The SPL shareholders then decided not to make an exception and let them back in. Two very different things”

Rangers history and business all transferred to the new legal entity as part of the purchase and the legal agreement reached between Rangers and the football bodies when granting Rangers an SFA Licence. Rangers “oldco” were forced to transfer there SPL share to Dundee. To date, the “oldco” have not been liquidated.

Mitchell also neglects to mention that the rule changes which allowed this to happen were decided after Rangers went in to Administration.

“Claim 2 The outcome of the SPL's process will have no legal effect.

Fact What the SPL are deciding upon is whether their tournament and their trophy was assigned to the correct club in the years in question.

The SPL have every right to examine whether participants in their competition behaved within the rules. And if they find they haven't, they can apply their rule book as recourse. More Green nonsense.

I do, however, agree with him that "whatever decision they reach is a decision of the SPL". Indeed. But the SPL should be proud of that, and not hide behind the Law Lords.

The SPL are examining the conduct of the participants in their competition well before Rangers went into liquidation, in particular the conduct of the club then owned by Sir David Murray, with the club secretary role (in charge of those player registrations) held by Campbell Ogilvie (whatever happened to him?). Charles Green and Sevco have nothing to do with this. Whatsoever.”

I’m actually very surprised the above is an original piece of work by Mitchell, given that several high profile Celtic writers and bloggers have been campaigning for the removal of Campbell Ogilvie from his position. That aside, his assertion that the SPL can “assign” a trophy is bordering on ridiculous. Each trophy is won on merit, on the field.

If Rangers are judged by Lord Nimmo Smith’s panel to have broken SPL rules, then there are a number of sanctions that can be chosen, however, as Charles Green states, Rangers take issue with both the law firm chosen to investigate, their conduct through SPL and SFA negotiations with Rangers, and the attempt to charge Rangers not on the rules applicable at the time Rangers are alleged to have used EBTs improperly, but against a revised set of rules issued at a later date.

As previous Chairman and owner David Murray has stated, neither he nor any of his representatives were asked for their views on the use of EBTs by Harper MacLeod.

Reference to Campbell Ogilvie is intriguing, as he left Rangers in 2005, with EBTs in operation for 4 years of his tenure. He has previously stated he did see or sign any “second contract” for any players or staff.

It seems that Mitchell and others are implying rather unsubtly that Ogilvie is lying.

The assertion that Charles Green and “Sevco” have nothing to do with this is also misleading for two reasons.

“Sevco” do not exist. Rangers parent company are called “The Rangers Football Club limited”. Rangers the footballing entity are just known as "Rangers"

As part of discussions to award Rangers the transfer of membership from the “oldco” to the “newco” it was agreed in print that the “newco” would assume responsibility for the SPL investigation.

Mitchell, like the SPL, seems confused as to who should be punished by their Kangaroo court.

“Claim 3 The new owners purchased all the business and assets of Rangers, including titles and trophies.

Fact Green said on June 2012 that if his CVA proposal was to fail (which it did) and Rangers were to be liquidated (which they are), "the history, the tradition, everything that's great about this club is swept aside".

Therefore he admits he has not purchased titles and trophies. Sevco has no titles and trophies.

Green made the statement as a bargaining chip to achieve a CVA. In this he failed

As part of the SFA Share transfer, his fear of history being lost was quelled, as the club retained its glorious history. In any case, other clubs such as Leeds Utd who had been through a similar situation had kept their history in full, so a precedent had been set. “Sevco” do not exist.

Had the SFA Licence been rejected, there may have been legal argument to make a case for Rangers losing their history. It wasn’t rejected. Mitchell is incorrect.

“By the way, Charles, I would not provoke commentators like me to dig this up, because what you said is not what the Rangers fans want to hear now, as you now correctly realise. Let it lie, Charlie, let it lie.”

So, even one with a leaning towards Govan would argue that, under the most superficial scrutiny, Green's attack is less than robust. But sometimes you have to chuck a dog a bone. So, to be fair, Charlie is right with his complaint on the SPL's lack of consistency,”

 Given that Mitchell’s “argument” is less than robust itself, and riddled with inaccuracies, then I’d suggest it’s Mitchell who should remain on the sidelines.

 Mitchell who was the first CEO of the SPL following the transfer of ownership from a company owned by current Celtic and SPL board member Eric Reilly, and the Administrator who oversaw the rejection of a very generous SKY deal, was a failure to Scottish Football, and has no credibility whatsoever.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/2495351.stm

He goes on:

“Green states: "The SPL took part in discussions regarding the new company's league status, where 'the EBT issue' would be dealt with as part of a package of sanctions which would be implemented in return for membership.

"We do not accept that people who are willing to come to an agreement on such matters then have a right to instigate a full-blown inquisition when matters do not unfold as they thought they would."

Sadly this falls into the general shambles of the management of the affair by the SFA/SPL. I made my own view clear on the leadership of both bodies in the summer. But I cannot see how the credibility of the current process on a simple point of law over false registration of players with Employee Benefit Trusts (being handled by independent top QCs) can be derailed by claims that the prosecutor behaved incoherently months earlier.”

Green actually makes no reference to the now widely accepted event where Rod McKenzie of Harper MacLeod ranted and raved in anger at Green and stated clearly that “you bastards cheated for 11 years”

Green is clearly referring to the SPL board. Rod McKenzie didn’t instigate an inquisition, unless he is running the SPL.

Mitchell slating the leadership of both the SFA and SPL is hypocritical in the extreme.

While it is widely accepted that the SPL and the SFA have indeed been weak and prone to making rules up as they go along, they would not have had to do so had Mitchell put in place a tight infrastructure to handle and prevent such occurrences.

“Good debating point, Charles, but it's not enough. Instead, all of us who love the game and who hold true sporting values in our hearts have a simple question: Did Rangers oldco gain unfair advantage by registering players on a basis where their full employment conditions were not declared to the SPL/SFA?”

This myth is clearly debunked by Green, and has also been debunked by former Chairmen Alastair Johnston on the RST site, and by David Murray.

For the avoidance of doubt, it is absolutely clear that the practice of EBTs, when used, were completely legal, and Rangers (and Murray) still assert that not only did Rangers comply with the SPL rules as set out when the EBTs were in use, but that other SPL members did not.

While many have attacked Green today, he appeared to be holding back

Again, for the avoidance of doubt, I should state that while the contractual agreements and payments employed by at least one other SPL side require to be investigated, all clubs were offered an amnesty by the SFA with regards to their payment practices.

None have declared any such non contractual payment

http://williampoole.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/celtic-employees-tax-avoidance/

http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/rangers/301167-scottish-fa-ask-clubs-to-declare-non-contractual-payments/

IN the interests of consistency, clubs who are found to have both exploited such loopholes, failed to declare them in annual accounts submissions, and also failed to declare their activity in the SFA Amnesty, should receive more punishment than Rangers, should Rangers be found “guilty”

These clubs have to be investigated first for that to happen.

There is enough evidence to instigate an investigation, so what’s stopping them?

Mitchell continues:

“In my mind the answer is undoubtedly 'yes'. But let's not forget the lessons of Versailles: bloodlust rebounds.

The SPL enquiry punishment doesn't arouse great passion in me. And it shouldn't either for Celtic fans. For them I'd argue the victory is in the fact that their greatest rival died.

The 125-year long struggle ended with the collapse of the adversary. The war was won. Achilles vanquished Hector.

In closing, from Mark Anthony onwards history tells us that well-crafted oratory can influence the mob.”

The choice of prose above is very reminiscent of at least one contributor to the Rangers Tax Case blog, aswell as Rangers hating activists Phil Mac Giolla Bhain and Kieron Brady.

Mitchell goes on

“While Charles Green is no great speaker or statesman, I must admit, he is no dummy. And there is no doubt that his audience is the mob, whose money and favour he needs in order to exit the Rangers investment project with a financial return.

Stoking up hatred has always energised "the base", another example of which we saw in the Republican convention in these days.”

Green protecting his club and his investment is only natural and professional. If reacting to hate filled agendas is “stoking up hatred”, then I for one am glad that Mitchell is not a judge.

“Well done, Charles. Initial Public Offering of shares here we come.

For Scottish football, the days of enlightenment around the Tommy Burns funeral are long gone, and I fear the worst.”

Enlightenment? Don’t make me laugh.

Using the Tommy Burns funeral to ingratiate himself with the Celtic support, is as low a tactic I have seen when attacking Rangers.

I could go further than this but I don’t think it’s appropriate that I sink to Mitchell’s level.

“Roger” clearly thinks the Herald readership are gullible dummys.

He should be left in no doubt that the public, and Green, are far more switched on than he ever was during his ill fated tenure in charge of the SPL.

Bill.