Rangers fans reach a new low as the club is liquidated
The biggest club death in British football
June 14 ~ Tuesday's news that HMRC would reject and therefore kill the pence-in-the-pound proposal from Rangers' administrators reached me around noon; 12pm on 12/06/12 is a fittingly poetic time of death for The Rangers Football Club plc. The club will now be liquidated. One of the richest histories in world football will be wiped out. Punters and pundits have already moved seamlessly into debating what happens with the inevitable newco Rangers. In what tier will it be allowed to re-enter Scottish football? Businessmen are claiming the history can be transferred like any other asset.
There has been no pause to acknowledge the biggest club death in British football. For Rangers fans this is the nadir of months of existential angsting. What exactly constitutes the club you love? For some, liquidation is a mere technicality. For others, it is the end.
After months of uncertainty, the endgame was swift. Two weeks ago the administrators announced their best plan to save Rangers. It was never very convincing but it was at least a clear strategy, notionally workable and out there. Having been in limbo since mid-February, Rangers fans were desperate for any sign of progress.
Creditors were asked to accept between eight and nine pence in the pound, amid promises of their loyalty being returned when Rangers were back on their feet. The latest consortium trying to buy the Ibrox assets will, despite their media protestations, regard yesterday's rejection of that Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) as the beginning of their true business model. Such is the debt at Ibrox, starting again from scratch was always the best option for any new owner.
Charles Green was previously involved, badly, at Sheffield United. When he appeared at Rangers' last game of last season, wearing a club tie and using the first person plural pronoun whenever a microphone was in the vicinity, he seemed as shady as every potential saviour of late. However, Green's bid was the type one always hoped could save the day. It came in late, apparently from nowhere, without any hoop-la and with a cartel of "private" investors behind it.
Green's enigmatic list of overseas backers is as questionable as his own business past but he claimed to have placed £8.5 million into a Rangers pot of working cash now totalling £10.5m (less than we paid for Tore Andre Flo 12 years ago). From that, a sum of £4.9m would be offered to creditors currently estimated to be owed £55m, including the likes of HMRC, St Etienne, Arsenal, a local newsagent and a face-painting artist.
The CVA required the agreement of creditors totalling 75% of the debt. Revenue & Customs are owed 39% of the total (a total which does not include the £70m potentially owed by Rangers in the ongoing tax case that set the wheels of destruction in motion). On Monday they met the administrators and rejected the CVA. Green and the administrators claimed surprise. Yet HMRC have a stated policy of pursuing liquidation where companies have abused the tax system as Rangers have over the last year.
All this as the long-awaited season ticket renewal forms hit doormats across Scotland. The covering letter, from Green, was sickening in its attempts to blackmail Rangers fans with their own history. Worse still was the inclusion of a ballot paper on re-naming the (Sir David) Murray Park training facility. The late great Davie Cooper's name was prostituted for PR designed to obtain first instalment payments for who-knows-who for god-knows-what before the end of this month.
Among Rangers fans, the blame game will last the rest of our lives. Today it is inconsequential. As is the new company being set up by Green, or whoever may yet choose to outbid him. The only blame that counts today is that Rangers have not paid their taxes. This is "our" fault, as much as any trophy win was "our" achievement. We are to blame and HMRC are exercising their moral and legal right to punish us.
The club I have loved for 35 years, from age seven, is dead. A world record 54 league titles is consigned to the waste bin of history along with 33 Scottish FA and 27 Scottish League Cups, one European Cup-Winners' Cup win and three other European finals.
Many in Scotland, including most Rangers fans, will hope all that has been unsavoury about Rangers down the years will also die today but the newco, I'm afraid, is there to carry that on into what will be either the most toxic or most disinterested atmosphere the Scottish top flight has ever known. All sides are looking to avenge something or other. No change there then.
If the new Rangers are allowed straight back into the SPL, as sponsors and rival chairmen initially wanted, then half the existing Rangers support will abandon the game before one single Celtic, Aberdeen or Kilmarnock punter. Watching a new Rangers would become inevitable for many. Same colours, same stadium, same friends in the stands. What else are we going to do. But if that new club started any higher than the third division of the SFL then, instead of a rebirth, we are watching a dead body having an electric current passed through it. If we're "starting again" then start at the bottom as any new football club would have to. Otherwise it's a zombie club, a tribute act – just one big class reunion.
Like so many Rangers fans, I love all aspects of the game. I have innumerable anorak lists to tick off which see me frequenting plenty of non-Rangers club games each season, in Scotland, England and abroad. But when I attend a German third division match, a friendly at Selhurst Park or a Junior Cup tie in Aberdeenshire, it's the life-long commitment to and love of my own club that lets me know I'm no tourist, that on some level I'm welcome. It lets me understand fully the emotions going on among other fans. The Rangers of 1872 were my ticket in. Now one of the largest supports on the planet is locked out, wondering what the hell to do. Alex Anderson
When both Cork City and Derry City went bankrupt in 2009, the FAI Licencing Committee agreed that the newcos would have to apply for readmission to the bottom tier of the League of Ireland, so by that principle, it would certainly be most equitable for Rangers 2012 to begin in the Third Division, thereby ensuring the three-year European ban. What has been less well-defined has been claims to honours, with Derry at least claiming historical continuity, and therefore all the previous trophies of the old Derry City.
Czerwony Zielony wrote:
When both Cork City and Derry City went bankrupt in 2009, the FAI Licencing Committee agreed that the newcos would have to apply for readmission to the bottom tier of the League of Ireland
Not an exact parallel, is it? The A-Championship is effectively your Division 3 (inter alia it's the main source for clubs newly entering the LoI proper). But there was never any likelihood of DC being kicked down two divisions. Mainly because the LoI needs to have a presence in Derry (and even more in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford) to avoid being seen as effectively a Dublin and suburban set-up. Add to that the stirring by Irish League clubs and their fans, which would certainly have increased had City been left playing reserve sides and at village grounds with no floodlights.
so by that principle, it would certainly be most equitable for Rangers 2012 to begin in the Third Division
Surely by that 'principle' it would be most equitable to leave Rangers in the3 SPL, given that the SFL is a separate organisation?
What has been less well-defined has been claims to honours, with Derry at least claiming historical continuity, and therefore all the previous trophies of the old Derry City
How would the new Rangers have any less historical continuity? They'd still be in Glasgow, still called Rangers with still the same fans.
Ding dong the witch is dead...!
If anyone from that club - fans included - had expressed the slightest contrition for the years of systematic cheating and tax evasion by RFC(IL), then the rest of us might offer some sympathy in kind. As it is, all we've had are veiled and not-so-veiled threats of the "see how they'll do without us" kind, incitement by the likes of McCoist and Jardine (just who are those people on the Judicial Panel, eh Ally?) and an all-round blamestorming. Not one apology or acceptance of the fact that they all are responsible for this.
And for that, stuff them.
See Alex, I don't quite understand your position. Maybe I am conveniently blinding myself to some reality for the sake of my own emotions, but the truth is that the Rangers of 1872 cannot die, because it was only ever a group of football fans playing football with a handful of identifying features, which have been added to over the years, and almost all of which the newco will retain. The Rangers that will be liquidated is its corporate shell, which was added something like 20 years after the club was formed. Personally I couldn't give a f*** about the corporate structure of my club, or of any club, I don't understand PLCs, I don't know what happened to Celtic in 1994 or Middlesbrough in the 80s or Man United when Glazer took over.
All I want is for my club to be run well and for us to do well on the pitch, clearly for the past while the former has been neglected but the latter has been achieved, while for the next while the former might hopefully be achieved, but the latter certainly won't be. The biggest worries for me, at the moment, is that I don't trust Green to run the club well, whether his intentions are good or not; McCoist has apparently quit; and a technicality of the law means all the players are able to leave, if they want. These concerns all relate to a) the running of the club and ultimately b) our chances on the field. They do not relate to the shape or size or colour of the accountants' pen or the cut of some old guy's suit.
I don't look upon Leeds as a different club from the Leeds that was so successful in the 60s and 70s even though, apparently, what happened to them a few years ago is very similar to what we're doing now. I doubt you do, either. So why would you make an exception for your own club?
Donbas Ogrodnik wrote:
Czerwony Zielony wrote:
When both Cork City and Derry City went bankrupt in 2009, the FAI Licencing Committee agreed that the newcos would have to apply for readmission to the bottom tier of the League of Ireland
Not an exact parallel, is it? The A-Championship is effectively your Division 3 (inter alia it's the main source for clubs newly entering the LoI proper). But there was never any likelihood of DC being kicked down two divisions. Mainly because the LoI needs to have a presence in Derry (and even more in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford) to avoid being seen as effectively a Dublin and suburban set-up. Add to that the stirring by Irish League clubs and their fans, which would certainly have increased had City been left playing reserve sides and at village grounds with no floodlights.
so by that principle, it would certainly be most equitable for Rangers 2012 to begin in the Third Division
Surely by that 'principle' it would be most equitable to leave Rangers in the3 SPL, given that the SFL is a separate organisation?
What has been less well-defined has been claims to honours, with Derry at least claiming historical continuity, and therefore all the previous trophies of the old Derry City
How would the new Rangers have any less historical continuity? They'd still be in Glasgow, still called Rangers with still the same fans.
Cork and Derry were put in the First Division because none of the A Championship clubs were in a position to apply for a licence, and even if they had been, the two former league clubs would have had better applications, so in that respect there is a parallel between Rangers and Scottish non-league sides seeking to fill any vacancy. As for honours, Accrington and Aldershot, for instance, cannot claim the honours of their predecessors, even though they effectively are the same clubs.
Kind of tempting to agree with Broon. All clubs today are utterly different from how they were at the time of their formation. And there are parts of the world where franchise clubs, not to mention newcos, blithely adopt the history of what they replaced. There's a bit more conscience about these things in Scotland and England.
But Alex is right in the end. Only starting again at the bottom could possibly feel right. God only knows how Rangers fans are going to feel actually. If it was my club, I suspect I'd soon come to identify with the more limited talents who'll be on display at the lower level. I'd also be looking excitedly at route maps to places like Links Park and feeling glad of a little break from Celtic and Neil Lennon (if he's still going to be around, that is.)
It's odd as well how people are still grave-dancing. Only fans who've never welcomed a big-money signing, or berated their chairmen for 'not investing' have any sort of right to castigate Rangers fans now. We WBA fans tend to congratulate ourselves on our club's careful husbandry. But in 2003, we were moaning when Birmingham bought Christophe Dugarry and we bought nobody. In 2006, we whinged when we didn't replace Rob Earnshaw. In 2008, we looked enviously at Stoke's 8 million quid purchase of James Beattie and wondered why we hadn't done something similar. The flak Jeremy Peace got at these times far outweighed the credit he's getting now.
Anyway, it's desperately sad that it's come to this for Rangers. For a reason why, look no further than Alex's last paragraph. Beautifully expressed.
Much as I dislike Rangers, you don't wipe history or a club with the death of a PLC. No matter what they come back as, no matter in what division (the fact that it may be anything other than Div 3 shows just how far footballing integrity has fallen) they are still Glasgow Rangers FC.
This isn't like Woolworths folding. Football clubs are more than businesses.
When the big tax case comes back from the final appeal; a simple * next to each of the record breaking titles haul they won by fiddling the books (anything after 2000) should be enough for the football historians. But the heart of a football club remains.
It's easy to point and laugh if you're a rival but I cannot imagine what it's like for it to happen to the club you love.
Speaking as a DUFC fan from a great distance (Australia), the attitude of RFC(1) regarding the payments to clubs (we'll pay to these but not to them, surprisingly (er, not) based on religious grounds) tipped me over the edge. If the SPL readmits RFC(2), the league will be a joke. It's not the sectarian nonsense so much as the tax cheating, dual contract etc bullshit that pissed people off. If Alex can justify the latter, he deserves all the punishment RFC(1) gets. The day RFC(1) started the whole process by signing Mark Walters is the day Alex should have signed off as an RFC(1) fan. Everything they won after that was based on cash, not quality. And they destroyed Scottish football at the same time by equating success with money. Money we don't have, up front. Really, WTF? Someone has tried to say that this is more important than Woolworth's going down? Really? Woolworth's were competing in a retail environment. RFC(1) were competing in a football environment. If you want to compare, fine, but comparison paints you in a bad light. Suck it up Rangers fans. You had the chance to save your club 30 years ago and dodged the chance in favour of silverware.
Rangers fans should move to Australia through a time machine and arrive in 2003.
Watch your club destroyed by the national governing body with no chance of reprieve.
Oh, and be attacked by EVERYONE if you complain, lose your ENTIRE playing staff for free, no TV rights, have players unable to play if they have signed contracts six months out of the new league. Oh, Rangers have it SO tough.
I'd buy Alex a pint anytime although ive disagreed with some of his posts, if not all of them. As a celtic fan his article was excellent. last night on stv it was pointed out that rangers restarting in sfl 3 might be of interest to sky and I completeley see that point and know it would interest all Scottish fans and put money in the pot for all Scottish clubs. Only sad thing as a 56 yr old man who watches 50 plus games a season from the highland league to the premiership, the celtic manager's name has to appear in a response to a good piece which has nothing to do with him
jameswba was the one who mentioned NL, but i agree 100 % re the last paragraph
canarly, point taken. It wasn't meant as a dig at Celtic or Lennon at all. I have no preference for either of the OF clubs over the other. What I wanted to say was that a break from the derby might be a good thing for Rangers and their fans as other things will come to seem more important. The same may well be true of Celtic and their supporters.
But, on reflection, you're right. It's not my place to go second guessing what the fans might feel - and the reference was unnecessary all round.
Canarly's reference to Sky's possible interest in a Division 3 Rangers is interesting.
Sky Italia actually made serious money out of the administrative relegations of Juventus to Serie B and Napoli and Genoa to Serie C1.
In the first instance, Sky bought the Serie B rights for significantly more than they had ever gone for, and charged punters extra for access to the matches.
The Napoli and Genoa situations were even bigger money-spinners, as they were able to get the rights from the clubs, and showed the matches on pay per view only.
Given the extent of Rangers' support, it wouldn't shock me if the same dynamic ultimately operated in Scotland. The away support of these clubs (which regularly increased average crowds by three or four times) also helped their lower league brethren (as it has in Argentina following River Plate's relegation to National B).
It's interesting to note that none of these cases featured claims by either the effected club or its top tier rivals that the top tier wasn't viable without the relegated club.
The news today that two fellas want to pump in another 11 million into Rangers shows just what a joke this whole thing is. Rangers didn't get liquidated because it couldn't be continued as a going concern, it got liquidated because that was the most advantageous way for the men in suits to make the most money.
I'm just glad I don't live in the UK so it's not my tax money that was pissed away by the receivers.
Great country the UK - you get 5 years for telling people they should riot, but you get to own a football club by screwing Inland Revenue for millions.
If they are still the sam club surely it's only fair that they pay off the same debt's!
Just one small point. My club, Middlesbrough, almost suffered this fate in 1986. In fact, the company Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Company Limited did go bust and a new company was established, in time to avert administrative relegations, though of course the rules were laxer then. We don't have Rangers' illustrious history, but we were proud of it all the same - Camsell, Clough, Hardwick, Mannion and many other greats played in our colours, for example. I don't consider the bankruptcy to have represented any kind of break in this history, however. Like MFAC Ltd., Rangers plc was a company - an economic entity created to run a sporting entity within a market economy. It's the company that has gone, not the club. So cheer up, Rangers fans. Take your medicine, take the opportunity to get rid of that ludicrously anachronistic sectarianism, and you'll soon be back competing with your local rivals for honours.
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