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Just a range of stories that reflect on Rangers (mainly on their delusions of grandeur, smoke & mirrors, moonbeams etc).
The Scotsman (Page one) May 22nd 1969
Rangers’ fans riot in night of violence: over 100 injured
Newcastle was under siege last night as violence erupted in all quarters of the city. Mobs of Rangers’ supporters—their team defeated 2-0—smashed their way through the streets. Police, ambulances and hospitals were swamped with calls for help. More than 100 people had been injured in a stadium melee which resulted in the Fairs Cities Cup-tie against Newcastle United being suspended for 17 minutes.
At midnight, Northumberland Police said that they had made 29 arrests: 24 were Glaswegians. Running fights had broken out from pub to pub. Bedlam came to the Central Station when hundreds of chanting supporters formed a human chain across the road blocking all traffic. As the Scots tumbled out of public-houses waving bottles and glasses in the air, calls for help were being flashed to the Central Police Station at the rate of one a minute. Even the police station was under siege at one time. Dog handlers were sent out to quell the riot.
In one incident, a seven-year-old boy with his father, Mr James Smith, of Nayworth Drive, Westerhope, was set upon by a gang as they waited at a bus stop. The boy was beaten to the ground and Mr Smith was struck about the head. He was left bleeding on the pavement.
The Newcastle hospitals — the General and Royal Victoria Infirmary—were so full patients were also taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead. One Rangers supporter was seriously ill with crushed ribs. Hospital staff were trying to discover his identity.
Frogmarched
There were just ten minutes to go in the semi-final at St James’s Park when the stadium became an arena. The referee stopped the game and players were sent to safety in the dressing room as police with dogs clashed with invading Scottish supporters.
Some were frogmarched off. Some had to be helped off. One was carried on a stretcher. St. John ambulance men were kept busy as the casualty list mounted. Two policemen were injured — one was detained in hospital with a neck injury.
The invasion began after Newcastle had taken a 2-0 lead. The Rangers crowd were clearly out to wreck the game and save their team from defeat.
Onslaught
Shortly before half-time about 100 supporters had dashed on to the pitch but were cleared by the police. Later, the referee announced over the loudspeaker system that players would be taken off if the crowd stampeded. That was just what he did when the onslaught came.
And after 17 minutes of chaos —quelled only when marauding fans were confronted by police dogs—the pitch was cleared and play restarted.
An ambulance spokesman said: “The trouble was all from the Rangers supporters, who were drunk before the match started. Most of the injured had cut heads from flying bottles,” he said.
One man had his artificial arm pulled off, it took several minutes before it was found and replaced. Several people had dog bites after they were chased back on to the terraces.
Many casualties were carried from the field, and when the pitch was eventually cleared there was a big heap of cans, bottles and torn national flags behind one goal.
When the field was cleared police lined shoulder-to-shoulder along the by-lines facing the terracing where the trouble started. Police dogs formed a second line and the crowd applauded the return to order.
Some of the injured in Newcastle General Hospital last night were:—David Bell, Ardenly Street, Glasgow; John Smillie, Cumberland Place, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire; Robert Cunnachie, of Glasgow; John Bell, Irvine Road, Kilmarnock; Andrew Rankine, Lloyd Street, Glasgow; David Cain, Glasgow; Alan Turner, Sutton Drive, Newcastle; and John Johnstone, Conston Place, Glasgow.
Tension had begun to build up in the afternoon as thousands of chanting Rangers’ supporters, some of them carrying Orange banners, flooded Newcastle. Two hours before the game three had been arrested—two for drunkenness and one for theft. A public-house window was smashed and two people were taken to hospital after a street brawl.
The tension erupted minutes before the kick-off when Rangers’ fans battered down a gate at the ground. Mounted police fought a fierce battle as supporters surged through the opening at the Gallowgate end.
Two policemen were injured and six ambulances ferried casualties to city hospitals.
Inside the ground six constables tried to stem the stampede without success. Three mounted officers struggled through the crowd to help them. After 15 minutes they managed to block the gate—but not before 300 had got in. Many people were injured as they were trampled under foot.
Ambulances sent to pick up the injured were unable to force a way through the thousands of people converging on the open gate. Within half an hour police had the situation under control.
Ugly incidents
Those fans who did gate-crash threw their tickets over the wall and more trouble developed when people without tickets started fighting for them. One mounted officer was confronted by 500 angry Rangers supporters. His appeals for order were greeted with jeers.
At the Gallowgate end dozens of Rangers supporters tried to clamber into the ground over the walls. One slipped on a spike and another fell on to an electric power wire and fused some lights at the ground.
The match itself was tense, with many fouls and ugly incidents.
More than a dozen policemen lined the platform at Waverley Station for the arrival of the Rangers special from Newcastle early today, but there was no trouble.
Police who travelled on the train for part of the journey said the first part of the trip had been noisy but the passengers had quietened down.
The Scotsman Editorial Comment 23/24 May 1969
Rangers must act
The directors of Rangers have shown proper regret for the actions of some of their supporters during the Newcastle match. They have called this ugly element “a blot on the club,” and promised action. That is welcome, but those hooligans are more than a blot on one football club. The scenes in Newcastle, the actions of some drunken riff raff, blot the reputation of Glasgow and Scotland. Other English cities have learnt through experience to fear the maniac supporters Rangers bring with them. Wednesday’s incidents seem to have been on a bigger scale than before, but the now-promised action is long overdue.
Rangers’ directors could have done nothing else than denounce the hooligans. But one must wonder whether they have shown much zeal in trying to oust the hooligan element or given the lead that is needed. To judge from the songs heard at Rangers matches there seems to be a close affinity between that element and the extreme Protestant bigots one associates with Northern Ireland. Do the directors consider they are helping the club by their inflexible attitude to religion? It is sorry commentary on their outlook that foreigners may play for the team but not Scots footballers, who happen to be Catholics. The club ought to move with the times.
From now on—as is the case with their rivals, Celtic—the only criterion required to play for the team should be football skill. But much more is needed. In fairness to Rangers, it has to be acknowledged that a section of Celtic supporters have likewise brought disrepute to their club and Scotland by their disgraceful behaviour when their team were playing in England. Continuous influence needs to be exerted by the directors of both and by their supporters’ clubs to root out the hooligan elements. Celtic players gave an example to all the supporters of both teams when they cheered the Milan team off the field at Parkhead after being unexpectedly beaten. It is to be anticipated that the European football authorities will deal with what happened at Newcastle. But it would be quite wrong if Scottish clubs generally were punished. The mere fact however, that this has been suggested ought to be a reminder of what is involved. It is an entirely different sort of reputation that Scotland wants to gain.
1974
Article is from the short-lived alternative football magazine/paper “Foul”. Foul ran from 1972 to 1976 and was in effect the first modern football fanzine. It was a decade ahead of it’s time though and the publishers eventually ran out of cash.
It was originally published in December 1974. Not sure how valid all the claims made in the article are but despite not being a great scan it’s well worth taking the time to read and makes a fascinating comparison to where the Huns find themselves now in terms of finances and wider influence.
Although a lot has perhaps changed the final paragraph – lifted from an official Rangers publication in 1923 – seems as true today as it was then.
“…all who look upon the old club with a friendly eye stand prepared, by precept and example, to protect its interests and its good name.”
1975 (?)
(Ian Archer was a football journalist and a good writer. Said he was a Man U fan in Scotland!)
1976
A wind-up
1983
1987
1989
1993
Bill Leckie’s love-in for the Huns (sycophantic dirge) (1997)
All I can say is, massive respect is due to Rangers – and Muz in particular – for keeping Brian Laudrup in the game.
And before all you Celtic fans – including the one standing over me with a
rolling pin as I write this – start giving it the there-ye-go-ah-always-
knew-he-was-wanna-them paranoia, remember one thing.
Rangers also beat you when Laudrup WASN’T playing.
This time last week I was all set to write a piece on how they had finally,
eventually, taken the leap forward they’ve threatened for so long; but then
the news broke that their greatest asset was leaving.
Suddenly all the summer’s advances – the arrival of a foreign coach, the
signing of Thern and two top-drawer defenders, the Defenders lost their
sheen.
You wondered just what a downer there would be on the day their Great Dane
went walkies for good.
A couple of seasons ago, last summer even, you wouldn’t have bet tuppence on
Muz being able to talk the boy round. But something has happened at Ibrox,
something you can’t put your finger on, which seems to have propelled them
into a different orbit.
And so, as Ajax sat back waiting with a spacecake and an Oranjeboom and
Fergie came out gloating that the player was his, Muz quietly got down to
the business of making Laudrup stay.
Were I a Celtic man, I would be so afraid. No manager, no sign of a manager,
two biggest names threatening to do a bunk, no sign of new blood, season
ticket holders in a major huff.
Call me picky, but things do not look good. And hell mend them.
I cannot believe how quickly and how far Fergus McCann has allowed things to
slip, especially after Tommy Burns took them so close.
It is easy to say now that Burns was a failure, but what is nearer to the
truth is that he was a very good manager with the wrong club.
The closer he got to toppling Rangers, the more his emotional attachment to
Celtic overtook the rational thinking his job required.
Others would disagree, but I reckon Burns will go on to be a huge success
elsewhere, starting in King Kenny’s bootroom at the Toon.
What is not up for argument, though, is that Celtic are in a far worse state
without him than they were with him. Rangers are leaving them further and
further behind with every passing day and there is no white smoke from the
Parkhead chimney to signal a comeback.
The Ibrox men are, I reckon, one more signing away from finally leaving
their greatest rivals – and, therefore, the rest of us – so far behind them
they will be no more than a dancing dot on the horizon.
Who is that signing? I’d go for Batistuta – though Muz says no – but whoever
they end up with he will be big time and he will be here soon.
It’s enough to make any Celtic fan hide behind the couch. Sorry? Oh, you
already are.
From the Autobiography of Andy Goram (arch-Hun and bigot, ex-Hun Goalkeeper)
From The Glaswegian 16th April 1998…
1994
Some Halcyon days for the huns & David Murray when he was ranked as supposedly being in the top tier of the football financial front runners. Now look at the huns, it was this type of sychophancy by journalists & others (in this case an academic) that created the hubris that brought them down. Part of a European Super League? They’re struggling now to even be accepted in zombie format for the Scottish Third Division.
Bernard Tapie? CrookBerlusconi? Another Crook.David Murray? Seems to fit in with those two other big shots of the early 90s….
MURRAY’S BLUEPRINT – By Ken Gallacher : March 2000
Scotsman newspaper
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Just as promised, Rangers are moving on to another level from the rest of Scottish football, as chairman David Murray announced a new investment of £53m for the Ibrox club, with a further massive cash boost soon to follow. The eventual cash injection could soar as high as £80m as Murray guides the club into what he believes will be a new, golden era for the Scottish champions. The money involved, the biggest financial boost for any Scottish football club, will enable them to move into Europe’s elite over the next few years. Yesterday, however, Murray maintained, as always, that he will not turn his back on Scottish football to play in any other league, and that while he remains in charge of the club, he will retain a responsibility to the domestic game.
It is clear from this latest move, however, that the Glasgow giants are setting an agenda that no other Scottish club can match – and that appears to include their Old Firm rivals, Celtic, who are trailing by 15 points in the Premier League championship and are now looking at a financial gap which the Parkhead club might not be able to bridge. There have been hints around Glasgow that Celtic could be ready to attempt a share flotation of their own, but it would seem unlikely they would be able to match the financial clout that Murray has put together. The Ibrox chairman promised his shareholders good news and a more prudent financial strategy at the last annual meeting of the club. He has now delivered this by taking on board several very heavy financial hitters, South African-based David King is worth around £300m – £20m of which he is investing in the club he followed as a young man in Glasgow.
The Ibrox chairman has spent several months and many sleepless nights piecing together the plans which will eliminate Rangers’ debt, currently sitting at around £40m, provide finance for the new training centre and the soccer academy which will be housed there, and still allow cash to invest in new players. He said: “I want to make it clear from the outset that while our small shareholders, our supporters who have an interest in the club, will have the opportunity to invest again if they want, there is no pressure on them to do so.The bulk of the rights issue is being taken up by myself and David King and some other smaller investors, including Alastair Johnston, who is a long-time Rangers supporter. We also have Trevor Hemmings coming in as an investor and Tom Hunter will join us some time in the future. Essentially, the investment we require is in place and we also have a major media deal in the pipeline which is very exciting and will bring in further serious investment to the club. I told you earlier this week that I had run the club up to now on a high-risk strategy which has involved carrying large debt.”
“These days are over. The whole method of running the club is going to change, because we are in a situation right now where we do not need to take the risks we have had to take in the past. We don’t have to spend the same money on players, for example, as we have had to do over the past two years when we were restructuring the team after the arrival of Dick Advocaat. At the moment, we have two new players set for next season, Allan Johnston and Fernando Ricksen and Dick is looking for another quality striker. He is working hard on that right now. Dick and myself know what we are aiming for. We want to be in the Champions League every season. This is what we want for the club and this is what we have been working towards. However, we shall not be going on any wild spending sprees in the transfer market. We have a player or two to add to the squad – a top-class international front player, as I said, but we don’t need to buy Numan, van Bronckhorst, Mols, Reyna, or McCann – because we have these lads in place already.”
“Believe me when I tell you that we are going for it this time – we want to be
successful in Europe, and the money we are raising now will take us there.”
“This is the last part of the jigsaw for me, but we shall always be a part of Scottish football and we will take our domestic responsibilities seriously. We respect the other teams in the Premier League and we know this news will make them try even harder against us. But, so be it. Barcelona don’t win every week. Bayern Munich don’t win every week. Manchester United don’t win every week. Yet, our supporters expect us to do so and we shall always try to do that. What we do know is that to be in the Champions League, we have to win the Scottish title, and that is our aim every season. We shall always be here with our roots.” However, the mega-deals Murray has been working on are sure to carry Rangers out of the reach of their rivals here at home and unless Celtic can somehow find the means to strengthen their own financial standing even the age-old rivalry between the Glasgow giants will be threatened as the Ibrox men grow ever stronger.
Airdrie FC “Business as usual” at Airdrie’s ground
Wednesday, 2 February, 2000, 15:52 GMT
Hope remains for struggling Airdrie
Provisional liquidators called in to Scottish First Division strugglers Airdrie have expressed hope that the club can be saved.
They have voiced confidence that a backroom shake-up would allow new investment to come into the club.
The Diamonds have called an extraordinary general meeting to discuss a change of constitution which could ensure its survival.
Up until now, no Airdrie shareholder has been allowed to own more than 10% of the shares – a matter which has been scheduled for discussion at Monday’s meeting.
Blair Nimmo, head of KPMG Corporate Recovery in Scotland, has been appointed as the club’s provisional liquidator and expressed optimism for the future.
He said: “While the liquidation is a serious matter for the club, I would like to stress our focus will be on creating a firm foundation for the future development of Airdrie FC.
“The club has first class facilities and is an important institution within Scottish football – it just needs new investment.
“Hopefully a new constitution will be the catalyst which enables the introduction of new investors with the funds, and the ideas, to take the club forward.”
‘Business as usual’
In the meantime, Mr Nimmo said it would be “business as usual” at the Lanarkshire club, currently lying at second bottom in the First Division.
Airdrie’s problems worsened when it was revealed that Rangers had arrested the club’s share of the gate receipts for Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie at Dundee United.
Airdrie v Rangers Airdrie’s finances have been tackled by David Murray
Ibrox chairman David Murray applied for an interdict, on behalf of his company Carnegie, for a debt of around £30,000 owed by Airdrie.
Mr Murray said: “I feel very sorry for Airdrie and their supporters but we’re running a business. We have given them repeated warnings and felt they were playing on our good nature.”
The Scottish Football Association described the move as “a private matter between the clubs” and made clear there had been no contact with either party.
Airdrie were at the centre of recent takeover speculation amid reports that Motherwell chairman John Boyle wanted to acquire the Diamonds and create a bigger Lanarkshire club
Football: WORST IS STILL TO COME; Gough says Gers will be Old Firm rulers for years.
Daily Record
28 Mar 2000
RICHARD GOUGH is something of an expert on the Old Firm, having played in almost 50 of the demolition derbies during his 11 years at Ibrox.
He has just agreed to extend his seemingly never-ending career by signing a new one-year contract with his former Rangers gaffer Walter Smith at Everton – but yesterday he was more concerned with the balance, or imbalance, of power in Glasgow.
Frankly, if his reading of the situation is correct, then those Celtic fans who believe that things are bad enough now might not wish to read on.
Gough returned to Ibrox to watch Dick Advocaat’s side crush Kenny Dalglish’s men on Sunday and he now fears for the Parkhead outfit.
While he would never attempt to pretend to be anything other than a Rangers man, the 38-year-old Everton defender knows that while a two-horse race for the title is bad for Scottish football, a one-horse race is even worse.
Celtic have managed just eight wins in their last 41 meetings with Rangers – and only one in the last 11 – and Gough argues that things will get worse before they get better for long-suffering Parkhead fans.
He said: “I spoke to Alistair McCoist before the game and he told me that this was the worst Celtic team since 1991. He was right.”
Back then, at the same stage – and allowing three points for a win – Celtic were 23 behind the leaders and Billy McNeill was sacked as the manager.
Eight managers in nine years is no way to run a pub, never mind a football club, and only Wim Jansen was able to deliver a title.
Now, with Celtic at their lowest ebb since they were 20 points adrift with 10 games left under Tommy Burns in 1995, Gough fears his old rivals are going backwards rather than forward.
He said: “Sunday was the biggest Old Firm victory for Rangers since the 5-1 game in 1988 and I was lucky enough to play in that match.
“However, yesterday was even more of a beating than that one. At least back then Celtic scored first and gave us a match for a while.
“But on Sunday I turned to my Everton team-mate Dave Watson in the stand after half-an-hour and said, ‘This could be a cricket score’. Rangers were totally dominant.
“Football is basically a simple game. It’s about good players – and Rangers had all the good players.
“Apart from Paul Lambert, Mark Viduka and Jonathan Gould in goal, Celtic didn’t have anyone who deserved pass marks.
“What I found really odd was the lack of passion from those Celtic players.
“I remember beating Celtic 4-1 and 5-1 but guys like Peter Grant and Paul McStay would still be running around like madmen right to the death to have a kick at you.
“At 2-0 on Sunday I watched Rangers knock together 20 or so passes right in front of the Celtic dug-out until Tommy Burns eventually had to run out and urge someone to make a tackle.”
Gough believes Celtic’s foreign legion are particularly guilty of failing to play for the jersey.
He said: “The new men brought in by Dick Advocaat discovered what it meant to lose an Old Firm game after the 5-1 game at Parkhead last season.
“It was a rude awakening and if Celtic’s foreigners ever thought that losing without a fight was acceptable they’ll know differently now.
“Sunday was the first time I’ve seen Celtic fans leaving long before the end of the game. We gave them some duntings in the past but they would always stay behind and sing in a show of defiance.
“Then again, there wasn’t too much defiance from the players, was there?”
Gough feels particular sympathy for Burns, who was back in an Ibrox dug-out for the first time since his career as Celtic manager ended with defeat there to Falkirk in a Scottish Cup semi-final three years ago.
He said: “It all comes down to the quality of player in your side and Tommy Burns will know that better than anyone. The season we made it eight in a row, the team he managed lost just once as they pushed us all the way to the wire. He worked with people such as Pierre van Hooijdonk, Paolo di Canio, Jorge Cadete, Paul McStay and John Collins and it was a far better team than they have now.
“In fact, I think their quality has dipped ever since – and I include in this their double-winning side that came together during a particularly poor season for us.”
Gough, who had answered an emergency call from Kansas to return to Ibrox in 1997 after quitting five months earlier, admits that a new broom was required at his old club. He said: “That team needed to be rebuilt and David Murray made an excellent appointment in Dick Advocaat, who has made all the required alterations.
“Rangers are definitely too strong for Celtic now. They’re 15 points in front and could easily win the title by 20 points or more.
“That will make it even harder for Celtic to attract the players they need. Both halves of the Old Firm need to pay over the odds to bring foreigners to Scotland but when Advocaat came he brought in top Dutchmen such as Arthur Numan, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Michael Mols.
“They were attracted by him as much as the contracts they were offered and, if Kenny Dalglish doesn’t take the coach’s job, they need to appoint someone with a reputation that will make top men want to play for them.
“Celtic certainly need to start signing better players than the ones they have at present. They showed a complete lack of fight.”
Gough, naturally enough, enjoyed his return to Ibrox.
He said: “John Collins was in the Celtic end and we called him on the way back down to wind him up.
“Big Dave Watson was amazed at the great reception I got from the fans and I felt proud and honoured by that. It’s quite touching that people have such good memories of you.
“I also met up with Coisty, Craig Moore and Gordon Durie so it was quite a nostalgic occasion for me.”
The Celtic fans will have felt quite differently.
On the day the Oscars were handed out, this was one particular movie they’ve seen once too often.
Meanwhile, bookies have already installed Rangers as 1-3 favourites to win the SPL title NEXT SEASON.
The Ibrox men are certainties to cruise to their second championship in a row after Sunday.
However, Glasgow bookies John Smith’s are so certain Advocaat’s men are going to win the league again next season that they have quoted them at their shortest pre-season price ever.
A spokesman said: “All the punters want to know about are the odds on Rangers winning the league again and our figures reflect that. In fact, we’ve even had inquiries about Rangers winning it for the next few years.”
At the start of this season, Rangers were regarded as 1-2 shots to lift the SPL trophy.
But their runaway 15-point gap has persuaded the bookies to make them even stronger favourites next term.
Celtic are 2-1 and Hearts are next best at 40-1.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday
Football: OUT OF SIGHT; Murray cash plan will leave Scottish football for dead.
Daily Record 28 March 2000
RANGERS are about to embark on a money-spinning strategy which will leave Scottish football stunned.
The Ibrox club are close to announcing fresh investment which business analysts describe as “enormous.”
The amounts involved will easily top the pounds 40 million received from Joe Lewis almost three years ago and a large slice of the cash will be used to add the final touches to Dick Advocaat’s new European team.
This news comes in the wake of Rangers’ 4-0 demolition of Celtic on Sunday, a result which allowed Advocaat’s side to move into a 15 point lead at the top of the Premier League.
A business insider said last night: “David Murray is working on plans which at the very least will take Rangers on to an equal financial footing with the richest and biggest clubs in Europe. He has been working on this strategy since his club’s agm last December when he outlined the club’s future strategy and I believe he is close to pulling off some major deals.
“The strategy involves bringing into play similar single-minded people who have agreed with Murray’s vision of the club’s future but it is believed these investors will only come on board provided Murray remains in control.”
Murray refused to be drawn on details of financial changes planned but said: “What I would say on fund-raising initiatives is they will be purely optional on existing shareholders. I’m the first to accept and confirm that our supporters have given us everything financially that it was fair and reasonable to ask of them in the past but there is only so much they can give.
“Next week I’ll announce a new policy on season tickets and European prices and I’m sure the majority of our supporters will be pleasantly surprised.”
The business community, however, are convinced Murray is about to take his club into the big league by pulling off another coup like the Lewis deal which staggered football at the time. They say this next one will have even greater impact.
Murray added: “I think our supporters expect and trust me to do something which can take us on to the next and higher level.
“But that can’t be done without extra and substantial funds as well as the football guidance of Advocaat.
“There are exciting times ahead for this club and if everything works out Rangers will become one of the European game’s major operations.
“I have worked on a high-risk strategy in the past with our debt fluctuating between pounds 20m and pounds 40m but I said at our last agm I didn’t want that to continue.
“I believe that we can take this club on and Europe has always been my goal. I feel that with Dick and the proper amounts of money it will be possible to make Rangers a team to be reckoned with abroad.
“We have made good progress already in the brief time Dick has been with us and even only two years ago who would have thought Rangers would beat Bayer Leverkusen and Parma, run Bayern Munich very close and also beat Borussia Dortmund?
“The Scottish co-efficient has gone up, we have been scoring better than the Dutch recently, although they are still higher than us. It is beginning to happen for Rangers although there is a long way to go.
“I don’t believe, though, that this is a time for any of us to be gloating.
“So far as Rangers are concerned we are just beginning but the future looks good at the moment.”
Rangers have already made significant moves to strengthen their squad by securing AZ Alkmaar wing back Fernando Ricksen for pounds 4m and Sunderland’s Allan Johnston.
By the time the new season starts Rangers will have added at least three more to their squad, which was augmented during the season by the signings of Billy Dodds and Tugay.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday
Hunter poised to invest in Rangers
http://www.scotsman.com/football/Hunter-poised-to-invest-in.2233782.jp
Published Date: 08 May 2000
By Ken Symon Business Editor
Tom Hunter, the leading entrepreneur, is believed to be close to agreeing a multi-million pound investment in Rangers as part of moves to establish the Scottish football club as a global brand.
Mr Hunter is expected to become closely involved in the future development of Murray International, the parent company of Rangers. It is expected that he will be involved in all parts of the business except the metals division.
Under the plans Rangers will buy a string of football clubs around the world which will become feeders to the Glasgow club and will be rebranded with the Rangers name.
Other clubs will follow in the bootsteps of Australian side Northern Spirit in which it emerged recently that David Murray plans to take a 51 per cent controlling stake.
Such moves will be part of the plans to build up the commercial side of Rangers to become truly a global brand expanding on the potential on which the club’s backers believe exists.
Those backing the scheme believe that the diaspora of Scots around the world can form the basis for a multi-billion pound global business.
The future expansion plans also involve a major media deal believed to include broadcasting Rangers games over the internet.
It is understood that Mr Hunter who built up his business to a major retail chain which he sold for œ290 million will be a key player in the ambitious plans to transform the commercial side of Rangers.
Mr Hunter is estimated to have doubled his fortune on paper in a series of mainly e-business investments. The 38-year old was recently believed to have toppled Brian Souter from the position of richest man in Scotland following the slump in the Stagecoach share price.
One source close to the talks said: “The deal is more or less done.
“Tom Hunter’s investment will be in the overall company rather than in the football club itself.”
David Murray and Tom Hunter have known each other socially for some time and Mr Hunter took up an initial smaller investment in Rangers in march.
Links between the two men include the fact that Mr Murray regularly travels in aircraft hired from Mr Hunter’s Prestwick-based Corporate Jets company.
Mr Murray recently announced a three for one rights issue creating up to 15.3 million new ordinary shares in the club at 345p a share which would raise over œ53 million before expenses.
About œ32.3 million worth of the new shares will be bought by Murray Sports, a subsidiary of the Murray Group which owns the Rangers chairman’s 66 per cent
shareholding in the football club.
Mr Murray also said at the time that he was putting all the machinery in place to prepare the business for an eventual full stock market listing. This contradicted his earlier view that because of uncertainty caused by the Bosman ruling over players transfers the club should not seek a full listing.
The financial moves which will also eliminate Rangers’ debt, currently about œ40 million.
It was also announced at the time that Scots-born South African businessman David King will invest œ20 million in the club. Alastair Johnston, a senior vice-president with IMG, the giant sports management group is also taking up a number of shares.
Adam shakes Ibrox pillars with warning of bankruptcy
Published Date: 02 February 2002
THERE are licensed premises in Glasgow where the regular patrons will consider the recent deeds and utterances of the former Rangers director, Hugh Adam, to be nothing less than acts of treason.
This should be regarded as a natural, almost understandable, reaction from immovably devoted supporters of the Ibrox club to the decision by Adam to unload his 59,000 shares in Rangers on the basis that they were heading towards worthlessness, thanks to the unsatisfactory business methods of the chairman, David Murray.
Almost certainly viewed as an even more heinous offence would be Adam’s claim that Celtic are run much more competently and that investment in the Parkhead club would be a much sounder proposition for anyone wishing to purchase shares in a football institution.
It would be tempting for many to dismiss Adam’s action as merely a gratuitous attack on Murray by a disillusioned, 76-year-old ex-employee carrying a grudge. But Adam has been a candid critic of the way Rangers have operated for years, ever willing to voice his unease – indeed, his incomprehension – at losses he has always insisted were unsustainable.
He also has impressive credentials, having been chairman and managing director of Rangers Development and Rangers Pools since 1971, raising the millions which built the modern Ibrox. Adam’s efforts brought the club around £18million, about £60million at today’s values.
To say that his final severance with Ibrox, after three separate terms as a director amounting to about 15 years of service, was done in a fury would be inaccurate, but in conversation this week it became evident that his decision is underpinned by unmistakable disgust.
Not given to sensationalism, this essentially conservative disciple of prudent forward planning and low-risk business principles did, however, cause something of a shock by observing almost matter-of-factly that, if Rangers continue on their present track, their ultimate destination will be bankruptcy.
“That’s the logical conclusion to a strategy that incurs serious loss year on year,” said Adam. “In the past five years – and it’s all there in the last annual report – Rangers have lost £80million.
“Now, the banks are well known for being a bit more tolerant of companies whose core business is a popular pursuit like football. But there is a limit to how far backwards they can bend to accommodate you.
“David Murray has always had an amazing persuasiveness when it comes to getting people to put money into his businesses, but the signs are that those sources have dried up.
“The £40million worth of shares that ENIC (English National Investment Company) bought a few years ago are now worth about £15million, with no evidence to suggest that they will recover. The money itself, that which was actually invested, was lost some time ago.
“Now the latest investor, Dave King from South Africa, will know that his £20million shareholding is worth around half, or even less, of what it was when he bought. No proper businessman will want to buy into that kind of loss.”
ADAM sold 12,000 of his 59,000 shares last year and the balance of 47,000 just recently. For the latter, he got £1.15 each; three years ago, they were valued at £3.45. He is convinced Rangers cannot trade their way out of trouble, unless they gain access to a league that will attract higher-bracket income from TV. He was in favour of the proposed Atlantic League, involving the Old Firm and clubs from Holland, Portugal and other countries, but is extremely sceptical of their chances of joining the English Premiership.
He is adamant that Rangers do not have the customer base to improve their financial standing through merchandising. “Rangers’ so-called global appeal is a myth,” he said. “When I was there, we did an exercise which involved asking 50,000 fans on the database to recommend a friend or a relative abroad.
“A big response was expected – some were even talking about getting 100,000 names – because everybody in Scotland seems to know somebody abroad.
“We got back 2,800 names and three-quarters of them didn’t know they had been nominated. It’s no surprise that Celtic are officially the best-supported football club in North America, with more official clubs than anybody else. The difference is the Irish connection.
“Many Irish people may support Manchester United, Liverpool or whoever, but they all – every one of them – have an affection for Celtic. And, of course, Celtic also have a great Scottish following.
“The difference is that, while the Irish all have an allegiance to Parkhead, there are millions of Scots who not only don’t support Rangers, but actively dislike them.
“Despite the claims of international appeal, Rangers are, essentially, a West of Scotland club. They talk of supporters’ buses leaving from all parts of Scotland, but if you look closely, you’ll see there aren’t many from each area and they are not all full.
“This doesn’t mean that even Celtic will earn fortunes from emigrant supporters. There may be more of them than Rangers fans, but it doesn’t mount to the kind of income necessary to fund their ambitions. But Celtic have been, since Fergus McCann’s arrival, much the better-run club.
“Fergus was the most unjustly maligned man in the history of the game, when you consider that he took the club from bankruptcy into the mainstream and built that stadium along the way.
‘NOW, the Celtic board have more financial heavyweights than Rangers, with people like Brian Quinn, Dermot Desmond and Sir Patrick Sheehy.
“It’s only in the last couple of years that Celtic have sustained losses, but over the five-year period they break even. But Brian Quinn and his board are taking steps to warn people that they are not in the business of heading towards bankruptcy.
“For their pains – for doing their job properly – they get crucified in the media, accused of penny-pinching. I don’t understand it.
“They are determined to keep Celtic properly managed, while Rangers, with Murray, is a one-party state and the man in power has an allergy to any form of personal criticism. But he’s not a businessman in the long-term sense of planning and prudence, he’s more of an impresario.
“But what has been happening is unfair on shareholders, and they’re being short-changed.
“It’s a nonsense, too, to say that Rangers’ shareholders are all supporters who aren’t interested in dividends or profits.
“That’s okay for the man with 50 shares, framed and hung on his wall. The number of shareholders in that category would amount to a minuscule percentage of the equity.
“But I’m 76 and haven’t had a dividend in years, so what’s the point of me keeping shares until they dwindle to nothing? And I’m certain the people at ENIC won’t be too pleased with their investment.”
- Last Updated: 02 February 2002 12:00 AM
- Source: The Scotsman
- Location: Edinburgh
(The Herald then posted this hatchet job on Hugh Adam on his passing in 2012)
Hugh Adam
5th January 2013
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Hugh Adam
Football director and businessman;
https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13087011.hugh-adam/
Born: September 1925; Died: December 29, 2012.
HUGH Adam, who has died at the age of 87, ran the highly-successful Rangers Pools and its successor, Rangers Lotteries, for more than 30 years, and was a former director of the football club.
Rugby union was his first love and throughout his life the oval ball game remained his main sporting interest whilst in football his loyalties lay with Hamilton Academical.
The Rangers Pools had been founded in 1964 – run by David Hope – and from its inception was an outstanding success, raising funds for the Rangers Development Fund, responsible for the redevelopment and upkeep of Ibrox Stadium. Mr Adam was appointed to run the pools in 1971. which over the next 30 years raised in the region of £18m – a substantial contribution to the redevelopment of Ibrox Stadium into the ultra-modern arena of today.
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Whilst undoubtedly a shrewd operator, it was perhaps an indication of his lack of football knoweldge that at a time when Jock Wallace was leading Rangers to two trebles in three years he expressed a desire to see reserve team coach Joe Mason appointed as manager.
Mr Adam was co-opted on to the board of directors of Rangers Football Club in 1986 in recognition of his work with the Development Fund following the Lawrence Construction acquisition of the club the previous year.
The David Murray takeover in November 1988 would change the club forever, but the Edinburgh-based businessman, who had experience in sport with the Murray International Metals’ basketball sponsorship, did not have control of the Rangers Pools or Development Fund, both of which were independent companies run by a separate board of directors of which Mr Adam was chairman.
It was an indication of the measure of Hugh Adam’s shrewd business acumen that he was effectively untouchable in his post with a cast-iron contract that at any time allowed him a 12-month notice of termination, that was in any case extremely unlikely provided he retained the confidence of his own board.
Under Sir David Murray – who was knighted in 2007 – Mr Adam continued to serve on the football club board, but his relationship with Sir David was strained to say the least, the Ibrox chairman deeply resentful of his inability to acquire control of the Development Fund.
Changes in the law and the introduction of the National Lottery resulted in Rangers Pools no longer enjoying the turnover it once had, although Rangers Lotteries continues to this day.
The undercurrent of ill-feeling between the two men came to a head in June 1992 when Mr Adam refused Sir David’s request to resign from the Rangers Board. A bitterly-contested Extraordinary General Meeting was called at which Sir David forced through Mr Adam’s removal despite the opposition of many shareholders.
To general surprise Mr Adam returned to the Ibrox board 18 months later following a rapprochement with Sir David and would remain in charge of the Development Fund until retiring at the age of 70 in April 1996, although he remained on the football club board until September 2000.
He remained a critic of Sir David. The two men had never got on – and by 2002 the former Development Fund boss had sold his shares in the club and publicly denounced the Rangers owner, criticising his tenure of the club as reckless and a dictatorship, allegations he substantially repeated some seven years later. It had become clear that the relationship between the two men had become untenable. Many with some justification accused Mr Adam of having his own agenda. There was no doubt that the club’s level of liabilities was at times at an uncomfortable level – but it was the collapse of the banking world, something wholly outwith Sir David Murray’s control, and the merger firstly between the Bank of Scotland and the Halifax Building Society and later between HBOS and Lloyds Banking Group that created the real problems for Sir David and Rangers.
By the time of the slide into administration in February 2012 Sir David had sold the club – disastrously – to Craig Whyte. Mr Adam later gace a newspaper interview in which he accused Sir David of operating a dual contracts system in regard to employee benefit trust (EBT) payments to players and other employees.
Mr Adam offered no proof over his accusations – his opening comment to his interviewers of “my memory’s not what it used to be” perhaps saying it all.
Mr Adam is survived by his wife Jean, to whom he was married for 60 years, and daughter Elizabeth.
Rangers to drop orange strip after sectarian outcry
Sunday Herald, The, Oct 6, 2002 | by Jenifer Johnston
Rangers are to scrap their controversial orange “away” football strip at the end of this season. The decision is described by the club as “commercial rather than political”.
The strip, officially described as “tangerine” and was introduced in April, had triggered furious debate over whether Rangers were profiting from their sectarian overtones.
The decision comes ahead of today’s Old Firm encounter at Celtic Park, the first to be televised throughout the UK. Rangers will be playing in their blue strip.
The decision has been welcomed by politicians and anti- sectarianism campaigners. Donald Gorrie, MSP, said: “I think it is a very good gesture to drop the shirt. I think it was a mistake on the part of Rangers to introduce it in the first place – I don’t think they thought through its implications.
“On the fringe of Old Firm supporters there are people imbued with sectarian prejudices, but I believe both clubs are trying to work with their fans to bring that to an end.”
Online Rangers fanzines have been urging supporters to wear the orange strip at today’s match in order to make a block of colour on the stands.
At the Rangers annual general meeting earlier this week chairman John McClelland admitted the strip was in fact “orange”, after months of the club marketing it as “tangerine” in defiance of concerned anti- sectarian campaigners.
A spokeswoman for the club told the Sunday Herald that the decision to drop the tangerine shirt was “a commercial decision, not based on politics. We change the shirt every season with new designs to try to make it new and fresh”.
The shirt has proved hugely popular with fans and was selling at a ratio of 60% to the blue home strip. The club expects to sell 300,000 this season.
Hardline Rangers supporters have been using unofficial Rangers web fansites to stir sectarian hatred ahead of the match. One Ibrox fan on the Follow Follow fansite says: “Looking forward to seeing the away corner in the Piggery decked out in tangerine shirts! The look on the mhanky mhob’s faces will be hilarious!” Another said: “We are the people, f*** the Pope and the Vatican.”
Rangers fans have been allocated just over 7000 of the 60,225 tickets for the match, which kicks off at 2.15pm.
The anti-sectarian charity Nil By Mouth, said yesterday: “This is a step in the right direction. The orange strip has been seen by many as contradictory of the good work done by Rangers in recent times against sectarianism.”
Alison Logan, of Sense Over Sectarianism, said she considered the decision to drop the shirt “a welcome move”.
2002
The Scotsman Alan Pautilo
MURRAY EYES 20TH PRIZE AND THEN THE WORLD
IT IS a measure of David Murray’s continued success at Rangers, that should the Ibrox side taste victory in the Scottish Cup final tomorrow, a fifth of the trophies the club has won in over 127 years of history will have been collected during his 11-year spell as chairman.
Indeed, Saturday may prove a milestone for a club for whom records – they have justcompleted a league season an unprecedented 21 points ahead of their nearest title challengers – are becoming commonplace. Victory over Aberdeen will ensure the Ibrox trophy room of its 100th hunk of silver, and Murray of his 20th.
This bald fact – more so than the recently announced 53 million pounds share rights investment, and the soon-to-berevealed major media deal – gives the Ibrox chairman utmost pleasure, as does the statistic that shows his manager and friend, Dick Advocaat has won five of six possible domestic trophies since his arrival here two years ago.
Their relationship has given Rangers a level of dynamism every Scottish club is struggling to cope with. Such synergy perhaps emphasises where indeed they are going wrong.
Scour other club boardrooms, and you will not find a chairman-manager bondso strong. Certainly not at Celtic, where you sometimes wonder if chief executive Allan MacDonald, the Parkhead board and Director ofFootball/Interim head coach Kenny Dalglish have ever been in the same room together. And, at Dens Park you would notexpect to find the Marr brothers and Jocky Scott engaged inbanter -tossing over a bottle of Chianti, or Hearts pair Chris Robinson and Jim Jefferiesplotting a caravan tour of the Highlands together.
While Advocaat and Murray are close socially, their relationship at Ibrox is never less than business-like. Advocaat targets the players, Murray signs the cheques. Or doesn’t, as the case may be.
The chairman recounts a favourite story involvingAdvocaat, one that underlines his ‘Little General’ sobriquet. He and Advocaat have many discussions regarding players, and some talks are allowed to progress further than others. Murray recalled entertaining a potential purchase – a striker – in his Edinburgh office this time last year: “We had agreed on everything. Then suddenly Dick phones me up, and says ‘I have decided he is not good enough!’ I asked him if he was sure, because he is sitting in front of me. I had to sit there with this player and his representatives, and bring them round to thinking it was their idea not to come. That is what Dick is like. He is very intense. He does his homework.”
Such is Advocaat and his Dutch brethren’s influence at the club, that Murray can see no harm in the controversial idea for fans to wear orange at Hampden tomorrow, despite the nefarious connections people will make and have done already.
These “Dutch” strips are not being produced fast enoughto meet the demand, andHampden won’t have seenanything like it since Dundee United last trundled into town. Murray believes it akin to Manchester United fans arriving at Old Trafford during the Eric Cantona era waving French tricolours.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong in it and I will tell you why. We are clearly aScottish club, and it is an orange strip with a lion rampant. If we had not put that on it, then I could accept people going ‘what’s the story here?’
“If people still want to interpret it any other way then that is their problem. Why are there Irish strips at Celtic matches? Has there ever been a bigger contingent of players from one foreign country at a club in Britain? Half the team will be Dutch next season, as well as the manager and his assistant. There is bound to be some association.”
Murray may not court controversy, but won’t baulk from stirring it. His refusal to let Ibrox host the forthcoming Mike Tyson-Lou Saverese fight, now to be staged at Hampden, does not stem from any principled stand. The financial package offered was not acceptable.
“What Tyson did was wrong, but does that mean that any person of any celebrity status who has done something wrong won’t be allowed into this country? Where do you draw the line? It’s just people jumping on a bandwagon again. The government agreed to it. Who are we to sit and judge someone’s morals?”
Celtic – who refused onethical grounds to host the fight – clearly believe such a responsibility is theirs, though fans of the club might wish they would concentrate on occupying the footballing high-ground.
Murray, an obviously competitive man, must have some qualms regarding the ease with which Rangers claimed their tenth title in eleven years?
“It is not my concern,” he replied, abruptly. “But what I would say is it is a bloody tough job running a football club.
“I’ve had defeat in Europe as other chairmen have had defeat by us in Scotland. It’s not a nice feeling. It’s bloody horrible.
“Stewart Milne has not gone into Aberdeen to get rich quick, he’s there because he loves the club. Allan MacDonald is getting a hard time and he doesn’t even own Celtic. He’s just a hired hand and he’s getting pelters. So I do have some sympathy, but with the greatest respect my job is to beat Celtic, just as it is to beat Hibs and Hearts.”
Murray conceded there is not 21 points between Rangers and Celtic this year: “It should have been closer. But we got the breaks when we needed them. We are the better team, butI know Dick is not being complacent. We are further ahead than anybody in strengthening the team for next year.”
Rangers have already signed Fernando Ricksen and Allan Johnston and hope to add Feyenoord’s Bert Konterman and Bolton’s Paul Ritchie next week. A striker is also beingsought from a short-leet of seven. Celtic, meanwhile, have still to name a head coach who can then only begin such scouting.
Yet you sense Murray’s sights extend far beyond putting one over the east end of Glasgow. He rails against the parochialism of Scotland – “we used to be such an expansive nation, but parochialism mixed withbigotry has been the downfall of this country” – and now aims to take Rangers to the world, in a broadening of horizons such as Manchester United have achieved. His son, also David, has masterminded a takeover of Australian club Northern Spirit. It is only the beginning.
“There is nothing to stop us hopefully having three or four clubs, with our own world TV channel, playing in the same strip, with the same sponsor.” The thought of there being four “Rangers'” in the world might be enough to send many to the brink, but Murray is adamant each club will retain its own identity, and own name.
Meanwhile at HQ Ibrox you can imagine the chairman and Advocaat, with white furry cats on laps, drinking a toast to the global march. Indeed, Holland, as Hampden will prove tomorrow, has already been taken.
—
2005
Praise For Murray Without The Need To Join The Pooch Parade
Graham Spiers, Chief Sportswriter January 25 2005
It is time for a confession. Please, don’t all shoot me at once. It’s just that David Murray, the chairman of Rangers, deserves praise for his recent activity at the club. Some people might know that I have not been an admirer of Murray. This stance was nothing personal but based purely on his policy at Ibrox. I always maintained that, having at first been good news, Murray soon became very bad news for Rangers. In recent years the fiscal damage done to Rangers due to Murray’s reckless ambition meant that the club staggered under the strain of its subsequent £75m-plus debt.
Of course, there was another reason why my smooching up to Murray in print wasn’t required. Frankly, he has enough prominent poodles in the press who do that; journalists who, for all their bravado, have hardly dared write a critical column about Murray in their lives. We all know the deal: David, I won’t write bad things about you if you will kindly drop the odd story in my lap. Just about every time you see a so-called “Murray exclusive” in print this is the deal behind it. Murray and his media pooches are famous for this brand of Winalot journalism. Having said all this, let me now give credit where credit is due. Whatever your view of David Murray, he has never wanted anything other than the best for Rangers. You may have disagreed with his stewardship at Ibrox – and this writer certainly has – but no-one should doubt that Murray has the best for Rangers at heart.
Even while I have been in dispute with Murray, to the point where he has tried to threaten me with legal action, I never doubted this principle. Today I often meet Rangers supporters who tell me that Murray “doesn’t care about the club” and they seem to automatically assume that I will agree. Frankly, I couldn’t disagree more. Murray cares passionately about Rangers. If you dispute this, you obviously don’t know him. Like him or loathe him, he wants nothing but success at Ibrox. It was probably because of this that he took Rangers near the brink of ruin. Yet with the club now active once more in the transfer market, it is only fair to point out that only Murray has made this possible. Without Murray underwriting the Rangers rights-issue with £51m three months ago, none of Alex McLeish’s current wheeling and dealing would be happening. In other words, Murray, in going out on yet another financial limb, rectified much of the damage inflicted by his dreaming.
In effect, he absorbed into his own company, Murray MHL, a huge tranch of Rangers’ debt which had been hampering the club. Of course, Murray was responsible for creating that debt in the first place, but having criticised him for that, you cannot ignore his rescue act. Without that Murray intervention, none of McLeish’s new faces would be arriving at Ibrox. The net of £6.5m received from Newcastle United for Jean-Alain Boumsong would have gone directly towards reducing Rangers’ debt. There would have been no Thomas Buffel or Sotirios Kyrgiakos arriving at Ibrox.
The best example of all concerns the imminent return of Barry Ferguson. This certainly wouldn’t be happening without Murray’s recent action. Not only could debt-ridden Rangers not afford to raise money to bring Ferguson back, but the club most certainly couldn’t have written off the £2.5m still owed by Blackburn for Ferguson’s transfer. Freedom of expression is allowed, isn’t it? If I regard Murray as posturing and vainglorious, I can say it, can’t I? If I think he enjoys milking Rangers’ “superiority syndrome”, as Walter Smith once put it, I can say that, too, can’t I? Just as, today, I believe Murray deserves praise.
2008
2009
Glenn Gibbons: Reminisces of past Rangers ‘battles’ do not bear scrutiny
Published Date: 05 December 2009 (The Scotsman)
IF, AS LP Hartley suggested, the past is a foreign country where things are done differently, perhaps it only appears that way because people often look at it with a squint. When, for example, the former Rangers captain, Richard Gough, reflected this week on the Ibrox side’s European exploits during his time with the club, he drew a picture that would be unrecognisable to many of those who shared the experience.
The main thrust of Gough’s musing was a then-and-now comparison of the respective Rangers team’s physical and mental fortitude, with the present-day representatives taking some serious flak over their wimpishness in the recent Champions League campaign which saw them lose three successive home matches while conceding ten goals.
Gough was particularly animated by a quote from Alexander Hleb, the Belarus midfielder who was the most accomplished player on the field during a 2-0 victory for Stuttgart in which Rangers were so comprehensively outplayed that the margin of defeat might have been trebled. Hleb expected a rough-and-tumble, perhaps even brutal, match and was surprised to leave the field without so much as a minor knock. Gough insisted, in his day, this would have been considered totally unacceptable.
He illustrated his argument quite colourfully, saying that Hleb would have been “black and blue” and that “in my day, our mindset was that if they (opponents) came into the area, they will get hurt.”
Curiously, despite involvement in all of Rangers’ milestone matches of the period, this (admittedly ageing) columnist has no memory of any Juventus player hobbling wounded from the field after an 8-1 aggregate victory in group matches – 4-1 in Turin, 4-0 in Glasgow – in 1995.
Nor is there any recollection of the mass evacuation of casualties the following year, when Ajax (5-1) and even Auxerre (4-2) beat Rangers home and away and Grasshoppers’ opening 3-0 win in Zurich left the Scottish champions with five defeats and bottom of the section with three points from six matches for the second successive season. Should the current squad take a point from their trip to Seville on Wednesday, they will match those “achievements”.
Failure to qualify for the group stage on the back of defeats by Gothenburg, AEK Athens and Levski Sofia and a first-round elimination by Sparta Prague add up to six embarrassing campaigns from the seven attempts during Walter Smith’s first managerial tenure, the period in which Gough and the players whose toughness he eulogised could be said to have been in their prime.
Whatever else Gough’s so-called fighting men may have accomplished, they didn’t seem to leave much blood on the carpet.
The Scotsman newspaper (with some classic sycophancy)
Long-term player David Murray in no hurry to offload prized asset so close to his heart
Published Date: 16 June 2010
WHEN Rangers set about defending their title next season, they could do worse than take a lesson from the club’s owner on how to retain a prized possession.
There have been enough hints in the past seven months to suggest that Sir David Murray was, after all, far from hellbent on allowing Rangers to pass out of his hands into the clutches of those he deemed less than suitable.
ss was taking so long was one fairly obvious indicator. A more subtle pointer was his reported anger at suggestions last week that a deal with a group led by long-time suitor Andrew Ellis had been completed, which would see him gain just over half the £6 million sum he paid for Rangers in 1989. One newspaper report was detailed enough to talk of this happening by noon last Friday. Murray, who was in Sheffield on other business last week when he heard of this apparent deadline, had, according to one source, “only just stopped laughing by then”.
Murray is a survivor, for sure. But he is also careful with what he owns. He is treating Rangers like the bottles of fine wine that are maturing in one of his cellars in Burgundy. There is no need to rush anything. The readiness is all. With a love of the cut and thrust of the business world, he is more than prepared to get his hands dirty again. Indeed, it was only ever a possibility that he would sell Rangers. It was one that, in the present financial climate, had to be considered slender indeed. And given Murray’s history with Rangers, given his emotional ties, the possibility was reduced to a sliver. All down the line there have been clues that Rangers would begin next season with not just Walter Smith in charge, but also Murray in as firm control as ever.
We only need to refer back to what was said in October last year, when the club was formally placed on the market. “It is not necessarily about price, but the new owner having the capability to take the club forward that remains essential,” formed part of the statement on the club’s official website. Even yesterday’s statement, made to the Stock Exchange at 5.30pm, included a reminder of this salient fact: the club was for sale, but this didn’t mean there would necessarily be a transaction to follow.
Indeed, MIH (Murray International Holdings] had advised that this “may or may not lead to it disposing of some or all of its majority share in the club to a third party”. In addition, Murray’s original statement to the board in October had emphasised that MIH would only consider options to sell, should they emerge.
It’s clear Murray did mean to sell Rangers. But, as he emphasised again and again, both in private and in public, there was no-one out there rushing to take the form of a white knight, no Dubai property magnates willing to plough millions into the club. And even had there been, Murray had outlined from the start that he had to be assured such characters had Rangers’ best interests at heart.
In reality, the only ones showing interest were limping like mangy dogs towards Ibrox. The sniffing around had to stop eventually. Murray put an end to it last night, although, again, the wording has to be acknowledged. MIH, the statement said, is no longer “actively marketing its controlling stake in the club for sale”, but Murray will remain open to offers. In effect, little has changed, except for Ellis’ removal from the equation.
While, for some, the announcement made to the Stock Exchange last week on behalf of Ellis’ company RFC Holdings – saying only that the company was in “advanced negotiations” to buy a controlling interest in Rangers – offered an impression of something about to happen in terms of a buy-out, others were right to interpret it as little more than a death rattle on the part of the London-based property dealer.
There is a difference between being diligent and being dilatory. Ellis, as the announcement made clear last week, was not even at the stage of making a formal offer, after months of apparent courtship. Had he been trying to buy a house he would have been kicked into touch long ago by the frustrated selling party.
The surprise is that anybody could be surprised by the turn of events last night, given Murray’s record. He has a talent for rejuvenation and has stormed back into the fray before. In August 2004, on the back of some worrying financial figures, Murray returned to Ibrox as chairman, having two years earlier stepped down. He increased his share-holding from 65 per cent to 86 per cent, and was re-installed as chairman.
The Rangers Supporters Trust gave a cautious response to this news then. The Ibrox supporters might be equally underwhelmed this time around. But no-one can deny Murray is a battler, nor that he is unconcerned about the future of Rangers. The club push on with him very much on board – as champions, it must be recalled. Nor has Murray lost his taste for the invigorating scent of success.
TAKEOVER TALKS TIMELINE
26 Aug 2009: Sir David Murray announces he is to step down as Rangers chairman and board member.
25 Oct: Rangers confirm they have received “tentative enquiries” about the sale of the club but no formal offers.
26 Oct: Lloyds Bank deny they are running Rangers.
12 Nov: Rangers annual report shows their debts have risen £10m to £31m.
6 Mar 2010: Rangers confirm Murray is “considering options” regarding his shareholding following reports a consortium headed by London-based property developer Andrew Ellis is preparing a takeover offer.
8 Mar: Rangers confirm Murray is in takeover talks with “certain interested parties”, including Ellis, that “may lead to an offer or offers for the entire issued share capital of the club”.
3 May: Ellis claims that if his reported takeover bid of £33million goes through, he will give Smith a new contract and offer the role of life president to Murray.
25 May: Murray and Ellis meet – and later the same day the club announces it has agreed a new business plan with the bank.
15 June: Taken off market.
From The Sunday Times
Who were the fans that shamed Rangers?
Scottish football has worked hard to shed its hooligan image, so what kind of supporter would want to be behind the scenes in Manchester this week?
The build-up to the match promised a carnival atmosphere – Rangers in a European final was a rarity and the tens of thousands of fans who packed the stadium were determined to make the most of it. With the sun shining and Scottish football in the ascendancy after a long period of underachievement, there was a sense of expectancy. Yet before the final whistle had blown, things had started to go wrong. With Rangers losing, their drunk fans became restive. Booing and bottle-throwing began. Vehicles were overturned as police moved in to quell the violence. Arrests were made and what began as a festival of football became another example of Scotland’s shame.
This was not last week in Manchester – it was 47 years ago in Glasgow when Rangers played Fiorentina in the first finalof the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Plus ça change, as they say in France, although it’s doubtful the French will be volunteering to host a football match involving Rangers any time soon. Last week’s UEFA Cup final prompted the kind of scenes most Scots thought had been consigned to the bank of bad 1970s memories, along with the three-day week and Ford Capris. Not since the days of inebriated fans with feather cuts and flares collapsing the Wembley posts and baton wielding mounted police charging across the Hampden turf has Scotland been so shamed. It should have been an occasion to cherish. Instead, it will be remembered for feral gangs of fans in pitched battles with riot police, cars being trashed, shops smashed and looted, terrified residents cowering in the face of the mindless, rampaging onslaught.
A Russian fan was stabbed six times, lucky to escape alive. However, the defining image of the evening will be the sight of braying, primal louts descending on PC Mick Regan like a “pack of wolves”, raining kicks and blows on his head and body without mercy or heed for his life. That he didn’t suffer more serious injury was down only to luck and determination to escape. Witness John Spencer watched a group of Rangers fans attack a car as the female occupant cowered inside. “They were kicking and punching to try and get the windows in,” he said. “They were ripping off her wing mirrors and she was terrified. I was concerned that if they got into the car they could have seriously injured or killed her.”
Donna McNeill, 22, a bar worker at Manchester’s Waldorf hotel, said: “They were banging around, screaming and helping themselves to the beer. At one stage we stopped serving because it was getting out of hand, but they turned round and said you better serve us or we’ll turn the place over and trash the pub. As the dust settled in Manchester city centre and the broken glass and empty beer cans were swept up, politicians and club officials were quick to condemn the “minority”.
They were not genuine Rangers fans, officials insisted, but had attached themselves to the club. Gordon Brown branded the rioters a “disgrace” and Rangers chairman David Murray pledged to weed out the troublemakers and ban them from Ibrox. However, there are those who claim the events of last week merit more than condemnation and promises of swift action. They think the Glasgow club has a problem with hooliganism and sectarianism which has not been addressed and, until it is, there is the risk of such events being repeated. What was not explained is who are the troublemakers, if not Rangers fans? From where did they emerge and who do they represent? And crucially, why was there no intelligence to stop them showing up in Manchester and turning the city into a war-zone?
Rangers have a track record of similar behaviour when playing abroad – their last European final in Barcelona in 1972, which they won, was marred by fans invading the pitch and fighting running battles with Spanish police. Disorder occurred at Rangers games in Wolverhampton and Newcastle during the 1960s. Four years after their European success, the club’s fans were involved in a riot in Birmingham following a friendly against Aston Villa.
“Historically, Rangers fans have caused problems when they have travelled to games in England, there’s a track record,” says Bert Moorhouse, a sociologist at Glasgow University and an expert on football hooliganism. “Different generations of football fans are not the same people but a way of behaving gets passed down.” There has been no serious public disorder at matches involving the Scotland national team for the past 30 years and the Tartan Army is now welcomed throughout the world. During the same period, English fans gained a reputation as some of the most violent in the world, clashing with police in Sweden in 1992 and France in 1998. In 1995 a friendly match between England and Ireland in Dublin was abandoned because of crowd trouble and during Euro 2000, 800 England fans were arrested following riots in Charleroi, Belgium.
Professor Eric Dunning, who has written four books on football hooliganism, said: “In recent years Scottish supporters have taken it upon themselves to behave better when abroad because they wanted to look better than the English. “However, Rangers have a long history of hooliganism. The Billy Boys were the first football hooligan gang. “I think what we saw the other night is the continuation of an old problem.” He added: “I think it is a myth to say that football hooliganism is not still going on in Scotland. It is just less obvious now as it happens away from the grounds and doesn’t attract the media coverage that it once did.”
DESPITE the ongoing Old Firm rivalry, Celtic appears to have made greater strides in banishing hooliganism. The last time its supporters were involved in serious disorder was during a match at Burnley in 1978. When the club reached the UEFA Cup Final in 2003, 80,000 fans travelled to Seville to watch the match against Porto. Despite the Glasgow side losing 3-2 after extra time, there was no crowd trouble and the club won a fair play award for the behaviour of their fans.
Dougie Brimson,a former football hooligan turned author, was with a group of Zenit St Petersburg supporters at the Rangers match. “I think the Rangers fans were so determined to make it bigger and better than the Celtic fans did in Seville,” he said. “One of the great tragedies is that the Tartan Army, who worked so hard to turn round their reputation and are now welcomed wherever they go, will be damaged by this. “It just shows that the mindset of some people who follow football has not changed and hooliganism still exists.
It’s largely invisible now compared with 20 years ago because of the policing surrounding games, but all things associated with the scene – the clothes, the hatred, the travel – are still there and it can still kick off.” Nil by Mouth,the antisectarian pressure group, said it was concerned that bigoted chants could clearly be heard from a section of the Rangers support, undermining the club’s attempts to eliminate the problem.
“The evidence over the course of this season is clear that bigotry remains a significant problem in Scottish football and far too many incidents are being left unchallenged,” said a spokesman. Because of the scenes of disorder, plans to erect open-air screens in Manchester for fans to watch this week’s Champions League final have been cancelled. A proposed victory parade, if Manchester United defeat Chelsea, has also been scrapped. While nobody condones the behaviour of the hooligans, there has been criticism of the city council for failing to prepare properly for the arrival of such a large number of fans and to allow them to continue drinking throughout the day.
Jim Templeton, president of the Rangers Assembly, which represents supporters at club board meetings, said there was a hardcore element which followed the club, but he insisted the majority of fans were well behaved. He said: “Like every big club, Rangers has an element of support that the club would not want to be affiliated with.
“These people might call themselves Rangers supporters but they are not. They are nothing short of animals.
From The Sunday Times October 26, 2008
Sean Fallon condemns Jock Stein sex slur
The former assistant to the late Celtic manager says the campaign against him is ‘absurd and offensive’ Stuart MacDonald THE former assistant to Jock Stein has spoken out against a campaign suggesting the late Celtic manager ignored the sexual abuse of boys at the club during the 1960s and 70s. Sean Fallon, who worked with Stein for nearly 30 years, said it was “absurd and offensive” to suggest Stein, the first British manager to win the European Cup, knew members of the Celtic Boys Club were being systematically abused by a coach.
The allegations have been made by Rangers supporters, who have sung the slogan “Big Jock Knew” at matches, held up banners and posted videos featuring the taunts on the internet. The campaign has grown in popularity since attempts to nominate Stein for a posthumous knighthood. The taunts refer to child sex abuse charges for which the former boys’ club manager, James Torbett, was found guilty and imprisoned. Torbett’s crimes were uncovered in 1996 when former footballer Alan Brazil revealed that he had been molested at the age of 13 at Torbett’s home in Sighthill, Glasgow. Torbett was found guilty on charges of shameless and indecent conduct with three juveniles between October 1967 and March 1974.
In 1998 he was jailed for two-and-a-half years. None of Torbett’s victims or their parents reported his crimes to the police at the time. He was dismissed from the club by Stein in 1974 after rumours about his behaviour. Fallon, 86, insisted Stein, the former Scotland manager who died of a heart attack in 1985, had no idea about Torbett’s behaviour and said he was removed from the club as soon as it came to light. “There’s no truth to any of this at all,” he said.
“Torbett was put out of the club. Jock wouldn’t have anything like that happening, particularly with young boys.” Fallon said Rangers FC should take firm action against the fans involved. “A lot of Rangers fans are good people . . . Rangers Football Club have done everything in their power to sort it out and there was talk about not letting people like that into their games. I know it is going to very difficult but they should be stopped from going in. “It’s disappointing for the club that they represent [it] because they are not looked upon as individuals, they are looked upon as Rangers supporters . . . unfortunately, some humans are like that, no matter how great you are they try and pull you down. These people should think about Jock’s family.” Last November, Peter Lawwell, Celtic’s chief executive, called the campaign “poisonous, repugnant and cowardly”. Last week club sources said they would be monitoring clips featuring the slogan on the YouTube website.
This month, Rangers chairman Sir David Murray condemned supporters of the club who engaged in spouting “bile” at games and on websites. A spokesman for Rangers said: “The club has made enormous strides in tackling sectarianism and bitterly opposes any form of discriminatory or antisocial behaviour.” A Celtic spokesman said it did not want to comment on the campaign. Pasted from <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5014308.ece>
Murray should be hailed as visionary
BBC
Chick Young | 13:22 UK time, Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Ask yourself honestly – if your ship came in would you push the boat out and buy a football club?
It’s lunacy. Madness. Financial self-flagellation. Why not just put your £100 notes in a shredder and save a bit of time?
Of course, given the lottery win, I would probably be certified insane in that department just like the rest of the fruitcakes through history who have bled themselves dry over the love affair of the local footballing institution.
We should all be locked up in another kind of institution actually.
It’s twenty years since David Murray bought himself a piece of the action. Two decades since his pal Graeme Souness tipped him off that Rangers were up for grabs and that just £6 million would clinch the deal.
It was a shrewd piece of business to persuade Lawrence Marlborough to walk away. You certainly don’t get much for £6 million these days.
Of course the running costs can be a little excessive. Murray freely admits to pumping in a further £100m just to keep the club ticking over.
Rangers chairman David Murray
Murray – now Sir David of course – has picked up more than a knighthood along the way. He is an international businessman and Rangers are just a piece of his global jigsaw.
Or “ten per cent of my business, 90 per cent of my grief” as he likes to put it.
I like the man – a heinous crime in the eyes of some observers who see me and various colleagues as his lap dogs. Apparently the canine parallel for interviewers should be Rottweilers.
Over the years he has been accused of much nonsense, including asset stripping – a difficult, never mind illegal, concept given that he actually owns 90 per cent of the club.
At various times he has been lambasted for not spending enough on players or spending too much, highlighted of course by his bête noir when the sorcerer Dick Advocaat wooed him into believing Tore Andre Flo was worth £12 million.
To paraphrase Bill Shankly, ten million wouldn’t buy him and I’m one of them.
But then again Murray massaged a deal for Alain Boumsong, a transfer which was to cough profit the likes of which usually only comes with six numbers and a bonus ball.
I cannot, for the life of me, fathom the reluctance of a percentage of the Rangers support to embrace his stewardship of the club.
No chairman has served longer, no other has witnessed such a sustained period of success.
Only in the wake of the Ibrox disaster did the stadium undergo more surgery, but after a century and more he became the first chairman to actually do something about the alarming absence of a training facility worthy of the name.
From the day of my first by-line I preached and recorded the lunacy of both Rangers and Celtic’s determination not to have a training ground and youth academy and continue to work their players in various car parks, public pitches and glorified allotments where dog mess was as big a threat to their well being as a straight legged tackle.
Men of vision? In the sixties and seventies there were directors at Ibrox and Parkhead who couldn’t have seen their own reflection in the boardroom table.
And think on this: Murray Park cost twice his initial investment in the club.
He blew away a century of signing policy which should have been banished with the slave trade and dragged swathes of the club’s support screaming and kicking into the real world.
We still have bigots supporting Rangers, but the club doesn’t privately condone them anymore. And for all the Famine Song nonsense, progress has been made in those twenty years.
I came out of the front door at Ibrox when Mo Johnston signed and watched so-called supporters rip up season tickets and burn red, white and blue scarves.
In the days that followed there may even have been Old Firm games with more Catholics in the Rangers team than in Celtic’s. Possibly, possibly not, but the point is that few would even bother to work it out.
It doesn’t matter…and that is breathtaking progress.
Murray should enjoy his anniversary celebrations. Twenty years is a long time in the job and for sure he won’t repeat the shift.
They will miss him when he’s gone. Just see if they don’t.
2011
GrahamSpiers: The ‘Rangers bigotry problem’: ignorance, deaf ears and cowardice mean it goes on and on.
The Times
Another week, another excruciating example of the problem Rangers have with a large section of their support. Walter Smith’s team, going into Sunday’s Co-operative Insurance Cup final as underdogs, won quite a few admirers for their gritty 2-1 win over Celtic.
Alas, no one who was at Hampden Park as a neutral, and who had any understanding of the type of songs that were being sung, could have found anything remotely appealing in the antics of the Rangers support.
For fully 120 minutes the Ibrox legions belted out stuff about the Pope, Fenians, and some of their other favoured subjects.
Quite a few of us have become used to “the Rangers problem” over the years but Sunday at Hampden was still quite an eye-opener. It was the consistent, incessant nature of the bigoted chanting that was truly shocking.
One of the problems we have in tackling bigotry in Scottish football is the sheer ignorance of the subject that we have to put up with. For instance, Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, clearly didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, to judge from the fatuous statement he released after attending the match at Hampden.
After the prejudiced chants had boomed out, the following was MacAskill’s take on the whole spectacle. “This was the showpiece everyone wanted to see — it was a great advert for Scottish football,” he said. “The players, management and fans contributed to a memorable occasion, and I urge that their positive example inside the ground is replicated outside it over the course of the evening and beyond. Football is a force for good in society.”
Given the nature of what was chanted inside Hampden, this was an utterly ludicrous statement. MacAskill, clearly, is totally unfamiliar with the sort of problems given an airing at Hampden if he thinks that the sort of chanting which the Rangers fans kept up apace represented “fans contributing to a memorable occasion.” This is risible.
I didn’t expect a Rangers statement yesterday on the shocking tone of their supporters’ singing, and nor was one forthcoming. Rangers’ preferred position on their problem is this: let’s just have a general media silence on the subject, and let’s keep any fuss to a minimum. From Rangers’ point of view, the fewer headlines there are about their problem, the less need there is of any requirement to act.
But that is a tough scenario to hope for. The Ibrox club have already been censured by Uefa over bigotry, and more than that, a number of Rangers supporters’ songs have specifically been banned by European football’s governing body. So it is asking a lot for every newspaper to turn a blind eye (or deaf ear) towards songs which have repeatedly been outlawed.
What is more galling for those who want to be rid of this poison is the seeming ignorance — such as was revealed by MacAskill — or inability in government or police circles to be able to fix it.
Hampden on Sunday rang out to bigoted chanting from the Rangers end, yet the police statistics for “sectarian-related crimes” were paltry, never mind MacAskill’s absurd words about how wonderful it all was.
This isn’t government action. On the contrary, this is inaction, and even incompetence. The truth is, we are getting nowhere today with the problem of sectarianism in football. In fact, we are regressing, Edinburgh summits or not, at an alarming rate.
Rangers, in trying to fight their own specific problem, have lost ground. Indeed, if you were at Hampden on Sunday, with bigoted chant after chant ringing out, you would think that the club had gone back ten years in their quest to solve the problem. And for many others, meanwhile, it actually means very little.
OK, so there is sectarian chanting, they say. So what? What does it matter? Just let it go, let’s just concentrate on the football.
Rangers lack the guts to truly take on their own support on the issue, and the same applies for the Scottish FA.
The docking of points really would force the bigots to stop their chanting, and the SFA has the power to do this, but it is too scared to.
Meanwhile, too many other people won’t touch this problem with a bargepole, claiming the accompanying aggro that comes with such debate simply isn’t worth it.
So Scotland just goes on living with its embarrassing bigotry problem. Ignorance, incompetence and cowardice ensure it.
2011
Matt Dickinson Chief Sports Correspondent The Times
Match: http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/2011-04-24%3A+Rangers+0-0+Celtic%2C+SPL
It was the game of zero tolerance against sectarianism, when police snatch squads would target troublemakers at Ibrox in the aftermath of the bomb sent to Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager.
A day when Rangers and Celtic would stand united against any form of bigotry or intolerance and instruct their supporters to focus on the football. Enough was, finally, enough.
So what did Rangers do? They allowed a small Union Jack flag to be placed in every seat of a home supporter.
There were 40,000 of these flags, supplied by the Rangers Supporters Assembly, and every one approved by the club hierarchy.
I rang Rangers yesterday to ask why, exactly? The Union Jack is not an official symbol of Rangers FC. It is not part of the club badge, not on the shirt. It is not to be found on any page of the Rangers website.
A shirty spokesman, dismissing the inquiry as a nonsense, said that it was the flag of his country and the British Isles. But there are dozens of British clubs and none of the others ever hand out Union Jacks.
If Rangers wanted to give the team a show of support, why not simply hand out regular club flags and scarves?
Why endorse a provocative symbol of tribalism, on the very day when both clubs were meant to be going out of their way to calm their fans?
The spokesman could not wait to get off the phone, although, before he did so, he pointed out that Rangers had no intention of complaining about the tricolours flown by the Celtic supporters. As if that made everything all right.
Apologists will say that the Union Jack is only a flag, a common one, and not an incitement to send parcel bombs to football managers. But it has nothing whatsoever to do with football.
In the context of the Old Firm, it has been hijacked as a sign of lasting enmity, of division, entrenching the idea that one club, for now and evermore, will represent the Protestant sector of Glasgow and the other the Catholic.
One club handing out Union Jacks cannot possibly take us any closer to the day, however far away it may be, when Rangers against Celtic becomes a “normal” sporting rivalry, defined by geography, not historical or religious baggage.
A day when the Old Firm becomes like Red against Blue, City against United, Milan against Inter, rather than the poisonous stirring of an ancient religious divide.
The bomb intended for Lennon has focused attention on the murderous imbeciles, but there will always be extremists. The battle is surely more importantly won over the centre ground, the reasonable majority.
This is the job of driving sense into the “90-minute bigots” as they were described in 2005 by Lawrence Macintyre, the head of safety for Rangers at the time, when he talked of fans with Catholic friends and workmates who became filled with hatred on a Saturday afternoon at Ibrox.
“If we can get the person that doesn’t mean it then we’ll isolate the real racists and real bigots in numbers that are manageable to deal with,” he said.
Does anyone seriously believe that the best means of education is for Rangers to hand out Union Jacks?
To make such a point to the club yesterday was to be brushed off like an idiot. But then I met the same dismissiveness when I went to my only Old Firm derby at Ibrox a few years ago and expressed amazement that a giant Union Jack was being waved in the centre circle before kick-off.
It seemed bizarre then and, given the tensions around Lennon, the ritual seemed even more extraordinary on Sunday.
There seems to be an acceptance that these two clubs will always represent a sectarian divide, and the best that can be done is to contain the worst violence and the worst chanting rather than to eradicate the problem altogether.
But it has to be asked whether such an approach will ever make sufficient progress. Many well-intentioned campaigns and initiatives have been launched in recent years, only to founder.
The charity Nil by Mouth was established after the 1995 murder of a young Celtic fan, Sense Over Sectarianism, a joint-initiative, was launched in 2001, and Jack McConnell, then the First Minister, brought together a summit in 2005 that led to tougher legislation. Alex Salmond, the First Minister says the anti-sectarian laws will be toughened further in the coming months.
We can add the Pride over Prejudice campaign launched by Rangers, Bhoys against Bigotry by Celtic and Bigger than Bigotry. No doubt there are others.
The treatment of Lennon, the victim of a street attack in Glasgow in the past as well as having the threat made on his life, suggests that this problem is no closer to being resolved and that the clubs have to take a stronger lead. Condemning bombers is the easy part.
Rangers will insist that they do plenty, but that has not been the impression given in the past 48 hours, on or off the record.
They should pay more attention to their manager, the wise Walter Smith, who talked last week of how the sectarian problem had been tolerated for too long, and his relief that he was retiring.
“To be quite honest with you, I’m quite glad to be getting out of it,” Smith said, which was a terribly sad admission from a man steeped in Rangers since he was a lad.
So that is one manager driven away and another who might have been killed. And a stupid club who think there is nothing odd, amid all this trouble, in handing out 40,000 Union Jacks.
Rangers to weigh up appeal over Uefa ruling
Martin Bain: question marks surrounding FARE’s evidence. Pic: Getty
Published Date: 29 April 2011
RANGERS will consider an appeal against the £70,000 fines and ticket sales ban imposed on them by Uefa, who last night found their supporters guilty of discriminatory conduct at both legs of the Europa League round of 16 tie against PSV Eindhoven last month.
Although the punishments handed down by Uefa’s Control and Disciplinary Body in Nyon were less severe than many observers had predicted, the Ibrox club remain unhappy at the manner in which the charges were brought against them by independent organisation Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE).
Martin Bain, the Rangers chief executive, last night questioned the integrity of FARE’s evidence but will await Uefa’s full written judgement before deciding whether to lodge a complaint with the Uefa Appeals Body. Any appeal must be made within three days of Uefa dispatching the reasons for their decision.
Rangers have been fined 40,000 Euros (around £35,000) for the discriminatory behaviour of their fans at the first leg of the PSV tie in Eindhoven on 10 March and banned from selling tickets to their supporters for their next two away games in Europe, the second of which is suspended for a probationary period of three years.
For the same charge brought against their support at the second leg at Ibrox on 17 March, Rangers have been fined another 40,000 Euros and ordered to play their next home match in European competition behind closed doors. That sanction, however, is also deferred for a probationary period of three years.
Bain expressed his relief that Rangers had avoided more “draconian” measures against them and re-iterated the club’s condemnation of “mindless” elements of their support, warning that there will be no escape from the closure of Ibrox for European games if there is any repeat of sectarian chants or singing.
“We are bitterly disappointed that our club has been placed in a position where we are subjected to these kind of sanctions by Uefa,” said Bain. “We will consider our position when we receive the written reasons for the decision which are expected in a week or so.
“The club put its own case very forcibly to Uefa and the more draconian sanctions that were recommended by the disciplinary inspector have been mitigated to a degree.
“To be clear, we condemn sectarianism and there is no doubt the mindless behaviour of an element of our support has exposed the club to a very serious situation. The people who engage in this type of behaviour are damaging the club they claim to support.
“It is abundantly clear from this decision that, if there is any sectarian singing at future matches, the suspended bans will take effect. Those fans who engage in such activity need to take that message on board. The majority of our fans understand the situation and would much rather focus on football. They showed that clearly at Ibrox and the tremendous atmosphere they created at last weekend’s Old Firm match was a case in point.
“In terms of the Uefa case brought against us, we have had serious concerns about the integrity of the evidence compiled by the FARE organisation and that remains the case.
“We are also of the opinion that FARE has been influenced by people who make it their business to damage our club in any way they can. We are committed to the eradication of sectarianism and believe it would have been more constructive for FARE to work with our club rather than against it. Instead, they submitted evidence to Uefa with a clear objective in mind and have shown a complete lack of transparency or accountability when asked for clarification on various aspects of that evidence.”
Rangers’ first match in European competition next season will be in either the qualifying rounds of the Champions League or Europa League, dependent on whether they finish the current campaign as SPL champions or runners-up.
It will also be Ally McCoist’s first as manager after he replaces Walter Smith in the job this summer. The current assistant manager expressed his dismay as the sectarian problem which continues to haunt Rangers.
“I don’t want our supporters banned from watching their team,” said McCoist. “You have to ask whether that will work anyway. I’m not sure it will hurt the people we are talking about. We need to get the whole thing sorted out.
“I think things are a lot better than they used to be. Society has changed in the respect that that kind of behaviour is far more unacceptable. You get idiots in every walk of life. Some attach themselves to the game, but it’s a small minority who do that.
“The vast majority of Rangers and Celtic fans are good, good people.
“I’ve got good pals from my home town of East Kilbride who are Celtic fans and the rivalry between us has never had anything to do with bigotry or religion. The fact is that any of our fans who indulge in sectarian chanting at our games are only hurting the club they are supposed to love.
“There is an onus on all of us to try and stamp it out, but I don’t think there’s much more Rangers as a club can do to try and get that message across. We have done everything we possibly can but some people don’t want to listen.
“If someone came to us and told us ‘do this, it will solve the problem’, then we would do it immediately.”
- Last Updated: 28 April 2011 11:28 PM
- Source: The Scotsman
Singer angry over UDA’s use of song
February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST — Rock star Tina Turner is “horrified” at the UDA’s use of her song “Simply the Best” to glorify its killings, according to her publicist, who wants to disassociate the singer from its use of the slogan.
The UDA, and in particular its notorious, drug-ridden Shankill Road “C. Company,” has adopted the song’s title. Five thousand flags were imported this summer from Taiwan, carrying UDA insignia alongside “Simply the Best.”
“Tina condemns this absolutely,” Turner’s London publicist said last week. “She has no political affiliations whatsoever but, unfortunately, cannot legally sue for mis-use of the song.”
At the UDA-organized Festival of Protestant Culture in August, the song featured in a key episode. About 5,000 people had gathered in the Shankill around a platform.
UDA commander Johnny Adair and six-times murderer Michael Stone appeared on stage, giving clenched fists and waving wildly to the crowd as the Tina Turner song blared out.
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Eight masked and armed UDA men in combat gear then came onto the podium, firing shots into the air, before leaving to loud applause — again while the song was playing.
UDA members at paramilitary gatherings have also adapted the second line of the song, singing “You’re simply the best, Second battalion of the UFF,” instead of “Better than all the rest.”
Turner’s publicist said she was aware of how her song was being used. “The song was written specially for her and her long-standing partner of 15 years,” he said. “It is a song about their love for each other, not about a bunch of idiots who want to boast about how good they are at killing innocent people.
“These fools have grabbed it and are abusing it in a way she finds utterly abhorrent. She can’t stop them, though. If she wanted she could hire 18 lawyers and demand a Performing Rights Society fee every time they play her voice.
“But as for their use of the song’s title, there is, unfortunately, nothing she can do. Rangers Football Club are also using it and there’s nothing we can do about that either. It’s a lovely song, when it’s played in the way it was written — and to turn it into a parody of hate is ridiculous.”
Craig Whyte profile: The Scots billionaire on the brink of taking over the club he loves
Today, aged just 39, this financial whizzkid from Motherwell stands on the brink of pulling off the biggest deal of his life – and finally bringing the curtain down on one of the longest-running sagas in Scottish football.
Record Sport understands self-made billionaire Whyte has entered into the final stages of negotiations to buy control of the club he loves from Sir David Murray.
And he’s still one year younger than captain Davie Weir.
A deal worth around £30million is now believed to have reached such an advanced stage that sources say Whyte, a high-roller who splits his time between a home in London and the idyllic Castle Grant in Grantown-on-Spey, could even have the keys to Ibrox in time to fund a major refurbishment of Walter Smith’s top-team squad in January.
The news will delight Rangers supporters who have been fretting over the future of their club ever since Murray first slapped a For Sale sign on the front door of Edmiston Drive around three years ago.
As the club’s financial health deteriorated to such an extent the banks moved in to control the purse strings, a series of false dawns came and went.
First, a consortium headed up by South African-based tycoon Dave King came to the fore only to fail to meet Murray’s asking price.
Then, in March this year, Londonbased property developer Andrew Ellis emerged as the frontrunner and was granted a period of exclusivity in order to get the deal done.
But Ellis, now part of the consortium, did not have the financial clout to back up his bold promises and his bid collapsed, leaving Rangers firmly in the grip of the Lloyds Group.
Exiled Glaswegian King was then talked up once more as the possible saviour but he was also engaged in a long-running battle with the tax man and while those issues remained unresolved, he too looked l ike an increasingly unlikely white knight for a club now engulfed by crisis.
But yesterday, quite out of the blue, Record Sport learned a new man is at the table and that a deal to end Murray’s 22-year reign is ready to be completed.
And that man is a relative boy.
By the age of 26, Whyte was already Scot land’s youngest self-made millionaire. Now, 13 years on, and in charge of a vast business empire, his wealth is off the radar.
Whyte is a venture capitalist who has made his millions from playing the markets – a skill he secretly began honing in his third year at Glasgow’s Kelvinside Academy. In one of his few interviews he revealed how he immediately regretted going to the private school – because he despised playing rugby.
He said: “I hated the discipline of it. It was a rugby-only school, which I didn’t play as I was interested in football.” Whyte worked weekends for his dad’s plant hire firm. And he saved up his wages to fund his habit of gambling on Stock Exchange.
It is said that, by the time he left school, he had more cash in his bank than many of his teachers.
At 19, he was in charge of his own hire plant.
Now he owns his own castle – one of the most historic buildings in Scotland. And very soon he could be adding Rangers to his portfolio. It remains to be seen if Whyte’s move to capture the club will f lush any other parties out of the woodwork because – despite their failure to strike a deal with Murray – King and his consortium have yet to throw in the towel on their own ambitions.
They had put together a package worth around £18m but this was flatly rejected and Ellis drove the price up when he agreed to pay Murray more than £30m.
The club’s debt has been reduced by around £10m since then but the selling price remains the same.
Now, quite clearly, Whyte believes he will be able to close the deal and the young gun must have said enough to impress Murray, who has stated all along that he will only sell the club to the right people – men with enough money to take the club forward.
Who knows? Murray may even regard Whyte as something of a kindred spirit.
After all, Murray was himself aged just 37 back in 1988 when he launched a takeover of the Ibrox club.
It was the beginning of one of the most successful periods in Rangers’ history but Murray’s aggressive pursuit of European glory eventually saw him writing the kind of cheques that his club could simply not afford.
Now Whyte is bringing his money to the table but it remains to be seen if he will adopt the same scatter-cash approach as the man who has owned the club for the past two decades.
But if he brings in even half of the number of trophies Murray delivered then the fans are unlikely to be complaining.
13 May 2012
Davie Provan nails it. “Post-liquidation Rangers”, Dignity & bigotry.
Former Ibrox vice chairman Donald Findlay says Rangers are a ‘new entity’ which must establish ‘its own history and tradition’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2816759/Donald-Findlay-says-Rangers-new-entity-establish-s-history-tradition.html
Donald Findlay feels sorry for Rangers fans who have stuck by the club
The former vice chairman does not know if Rangers will be promoted
Findlay is saddened to see a great club struggle
By Stephen Mcgowan for MailOnline
Published: 10:25, 1 November 2014 | Updated: 10:54, 1 November 2014
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To the chairman of Cowdenbeath nights with the directors of Rangers are not the occasions they once were.
Donald Findlay QC should be comfortable in the midst of David Somers and co. He was once one of them. Vice-chairman of the company indeed.
But these days he neither recognises the faces or names of the Rangers board. Or, indeed, the ‘new entity’ – his words – that they represent.
Former Rangers vice chairman Donald Findlay believes the Ibrox outfit are almost like a new side
Former Rangers vice chairman Donald Findlay believes the Ibrox outfit are almost like a new side
‘Welcoming them to Central Park will be no different to welcoming anyone else for me,’ Findlay tells Sportsmail, a vague waft of pipe tobacco detectable in windowless side room in Glasgow’s High Court. ‘Why should it be?
‘I don’t have many old friends there now. None on the organisational side.
‘I know Alistair McCoist and Durranty. But I don’t actually know who is involved there any more.
‘Rangers coming is a big occasion for the club and the town of course. The last time they played Cowdenbeath in a league game was April 1971. The game was originally scheduled to have been played on January 9 – but was postponed because it was the Saturday after the Ibrox disaster.’
This appreciation of the history of Rangers is a feature of the conversation. Findlay, trademark whiskers now greying slightly, is wistful on the past and shows no compunction over turning his legal mind to one of the most heated and prolonged debates in Scottish football.
His learned friend Lord Nimmo Smith may have declared otherwise. But to Donald Findlay the Rangers which visits Cowdenbeath on Tuesday is not the same Rangers he once served.
‘It is a different club,’ he tells Sportsmail bluntly. ‘They may play at Ibrox and they may play sometimes in royal blue jerseys.
‘But you cannot pass on that which is undefinable. And that is spirit and tradition and all the rest of it.
‘To me this is a new Rangers which has to establish its own history and tradition.
But it’s not the Rangers I know. To me, genuinely, it is a new entity.’
In Rangers circles this kind of thing is heresy. When liquidation became inevitable Charles Green, the former Chief Executive, insisted vocally he had paid £5.5million for the assets and history of the oldco in May 2012. Recently, Livingston’s programmed editor lost his job after wading into a contentious topic in a match programme.
Asked why he flies in the face of the consensus among Rangers supporters – that they remain the same club they always were – Findlay insists his view is a personal one. In his mind – he is now 63 – things have changed.
‘Well, the view I have is one expressed to me by a lot of other Rangers supporters.
‘There is just not the same sense of things being done the Rangers way.
‘A lot of Rangers supporters – and these are the guys I feel sorry for – paid their money and remained loyal and followed the team through thick and thin. And they tell me there is just something missing now.
‘That’s not only my view. It’s what I am told by people from the inside in the sense that they go to Ibrox. Something has changed, something is missing. It’s just somehow… different.’
This sense of creeping disenfranchisement with the running of Rangers is not unusual. Among fan groups talk of boycott is now rife.
Suggesting that a club playing at Ibrox in blue jerseys before Rangers supporters might be a ‘new’ Rangers, however, triggers a fresh stream of consciousness in one of Scotland’s great adversaries.
The former believes Rangers should not move away from Ibrox as the ground is steeped in history
The former believes Rangers should not move away from Ibrox as the ground is steeped in history
‘You can buy assets,’ he concedes, ‘but you can’t buy history. You can’t buy tradition. History and tradition are in the heart and in the mind. You can’t buy that.
‘I don’t care what anyone says.You cannot buy Ibrox, you cannot buy the Blue Room, you cannot buy the trophy room without actually understanding what it means.
‘I mean what every little piece of it means right down to the crests on the radiators in the Blue Room that were made in the same shipyards which made the Queen Elizabeth liners.’
There is the sense that Findlay, a formidable adversary and hired gun paid to represent some of the most notorious criminals in the country, has given this some thought.
‘You could argue that if they (Rangers) had moved from Ibrox to a brand new stadium at the time the whole thing collapsed, called it Rangers and played in blue that you would automatically be taking all that history and tradition with you.
‘Well, maybe some people can. That’s fine. Good luck to them.
‘But for me personally tradition and history is in here.’
He jabs a finger on his left hand towards his heart, an imprint on his black waistcoat clearly evident.
‘It’s not in material things. It’s understanding what the material things mean.
‘It’s understanding what a genuine privilege it was to walk up the marble staircase.
‘Not every Tom, Dick and Harry should trail up the marble staircase at Ibrox you know.’
In recent years, of course, a long process of Tom, Dicks, Craigs and Charlies have done just that. Findlay won’t be drawn on what he thinks of this.
‘So I’m told,’ is all he offers.
He walked up the stairs for the last time 15 years ago. The events which led to a humiliating public resignation have been well documented. Captured on camera at a club function singing ‘The Sash’ he was subsequently reported to considered suicide. He has no wish to rake over old coals.
‘It’s so far in the past I’m not going back there. Things happen to you, you deal with them and move on.’
He has revelled in running his hometown club of Cowdenbeath for the last five, fraught years on a simple rule of thumb. Frustrated by the lack of media attention – ‘your paper and others treat us like s***’ – the Fife club spend only what they earn.
Asked if the history of Rangers might have been different if he had hung around longer to espouse this manta he is mildly dismissive.
‘Ach, I don’t know. I can’t say if I could have changed things if I had stayed longer.Many people have come and gone since then making decisions of which I know very little about.’
Rangers, he claims, were living within their means when he left. The more extravagant spending of the Advocaat years had yet to begin.
‘The budget at that time was managed and in control and covered. If you are taking a financial risk it has to be against a background of knowing you can cover that risk.’
He won’t deny that the spending at Ibrox was far higher than anywhere else. Rangers unashamedly ‘lorded it’ over their rivals, including Celtic, and savoured every minute.
One reason, he believes, why there was a marked lack of sympathy among rival clubs when they hurtled towards the fiscal cliff two and a half years ago.
‘Looking back on it you do think that sometimes what goes around comes around.
‘I mean, come on …. to win nine championships in a row? You are entitled to lord it a bit over the opposition then – and I think we did.
‘You knew perfectly well that when you were beaten and your opponents said ‘thank you very much’ that the minute you left the room they would be aiming a one arm salute at your back. That was fine.
‘There was a terrific relationship with the old Celtic board you know. There was nothing personal about it. Chris White and others were personal friends.
‘But, yes, it probably did heighten the sense of schadenfreude two years ago. But it was definitely good for business.’
Ally McCoist’s Rangers, in action against Hearts, are currently playing in the Scottish Championship
Rangers will have to beat off competition from Hearts and Hibs if they are going to earn promotion
The presence of Rangers in the Championship is equally good for business for Cowdenbeath now. Findlay is under no illusions their presence is a short term situation. How short term is the million dollar question.
‘Is it inevitable Rangers will go up this season? Absolutely not.
‘I said that before the season started. There is absolutely no guarantee Rangers will go up, far from it.
‘They would be one of the favourites from the play-offs because of the resources they potentially have.
‘But Rangers, Hearts and Hibs? One of them will be in the Championship next year- guaranteed. Queen of the South and Falkirk are also ambitious clubs.
‘So it’s by no means guaranteed Rangers will go up.
‘I could be selfish and say that suits me fine. I want them for another season in the championship but for the good of the wider game in Scotland it’s time Rangers were back in the Premiership.’
He is unrepentant on this. Rangers and Celtic, he believes, are simply too big to fail in a Scottish context.
‘They are not just football clubs – they are national institutions.
‘They have a presence in sport and also make a contribution to the economy which is huge.
‘Of course it’s sad to see a great club the way it is. To see Rangers reduced is heart-breaking.
‘People lost a lot of money and something had to be done about that. It was wrong the way small businesses and shareholders lost money.
‘But has it benefitted the game Rangers being in the lower divisions? Is the game better because of it? I’m not sure it is you know…’
