Is Rhegan expecting Dave King to apply to the SFA to get on the Rangers board?

[ian1964 10,721]

SFA chief warns Dave King over Rangers return

 

 

 

by TOM ENGLISH

 

Updated on the 27 October

2013

00:10

 

Published 26/10/2013 17:48

 

129 comments

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Stewart Regan has said that the Scottish FA has given no assurances to Dave King that he would pass the association’s fit and proper person test.

 

On Friday, King flew in from South Africa to Glasgow and said that he now “knows for sure” that his attempted appointment as Rangers chairman would be ratified. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” King had said. “I’ve checked this fully with the relevant people.”

 

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Regan said: “There’ll be mitigating factors and we’re hypothesising. Article 10 tells us exactly what’s allowed under ‘fit and proper’. We have had no contact from Rangers or anyone else regarding Dave King. As far as we are concerned, any suggestions that he has no issues as far as the SFA’s fit and proper test is concerned is a little premature.

 

“I spoke to [director] Brian Stockbridge last night and he assured me that as far as the club is concerned there is no discussion on Dave King’s fit and proper requirements. Until the process is kicked off it is very difficult for us to make any comment.”

 

When told of Regan’s comments, King sought to clarify that when he referred to the “relevant people” he was talking about the financial authorities rather than the football authorities. Regan said he was surprised to hear of King’s comments on Friday. “You need full disclosure of the facts and that requires the club to lay those out to us, if they believe there are issues the Professional Game Board need to consider.”

 

Regan has not met King, pictured, since last summer. “He wanted to understand the process that had to be followed if he was to be considered [as a director]. At the time he wanted to be involved in one of the consortiums [vying for control of Rangers]. I set out to him what the process was and told him he would need to disclose fully anything he felt was relevant as far as Article 10 is concerned.

 

“What he has is an understanding of the process. What he hasn’t had is any assurances from myself or any of my board or colleagues about any proposal for him to join the board.”

 

King, who attended Rangers’ match against East Fife yesterday, said: “I haven’t even approached the SFA. The comments I gave when I arrived were in relation to the AIM requirements and were nothing to do with the SFA. But I’m certainly very happy, when the time comes and we’ve something to put towards them, that it’ll be fine. We just haven’t got to that point yet.

 

“I’ve had a total of six meetings since I came here. All of the meetings have agreed to be private and confidential. But I regard each of them as very constructive in what I’m hoping to achieve. I think it would be premature of me to speculate that I’m there yet. I’ve had six meetings and each and every one has been a good and positive one, but we’re not there yet.”

 

n Raith Rovers have said they will refuse to play the Ramsdens Cup final at Ibrox. The Fifers will meet the winners of Tuesday’s semi-final between Stenhousemuir and Rangers.

 

Eric Drysdale, the Raith director, said: “Raith Rovers will be happy to play the final against Stenhousemuir and Rangers at any neutral venue of the SPFL board’s choosing.”

 

The SPFL board is due to discuss the matter tomorrow. Rangers manager Ally McCoist has suggested Celtic Park. “I’d play the final anywhere,” he said. “Parkhead would obviously be able to accommodate more of a crowd than anywhere else and we’ve played cup finals there before.”

[RANGERRAB 3,653]

After all they've put us thro' over the past couple of years,I suspect there are many within Rangers(myself included) who would relish the thought of getting the SFA into court and what that might entail for them i.e. UEFA punishments

[ian1964 10,721]

Tom English: Unfolding Rangers’ Dave King saga

 

TO VENTURE an opinion on the Dave King saga is to take a trip down memory lane to when Charles Green was in his pomp at Ibrox, blasting out his bombast to the delight of so many Rangers supporters.

 

Back then, if your message was questioning of Green then you got it in the neck on social media from the faithful. Challenging the Yorkshireman on his stewardship of the club – his daft and groundless boasts among other things – resulted in volleys of flak and accusations of hating Rangers. In Scotland, the messenger doesn’t just get shot, he gets hanged, drawn, quartered – and then shot.

 

Some Rangers folk don’t want to hear about King’s past history in South Africa. They don’t want to acknowledge that their would-be saviour was convicted of non-compliance by the tax authorities.

 

The word “convicted” appears in the official document that sets out the biggest tax case in South African history. King pleaded guilty to not paying massive amounts of tax. These are not opinions, these are facts. King was once branded a “glib and shameless liar” in a court in his adopted land. That, also, is a fact. The only reason he is not in jail is because he had the financial wherewithal to accept his guilt and then settle the whole business 
for somewhere in the region of 
£45 million. Anybody denying this is being wilfully ignorant.

 

Any journalist mentioning this stuff is branded an obsessive Rangers-hater by some among the club’s support, but what else is there to do? Are we to ignore King’s history? Are we turn a blind eye to some of the remarkable commentary from tax court judges in South Africa that painted King as a stranger to the truth in his epic battle with the revenue services?

 

All of this must be thrown into the pot when assessing King’s suitability for a place on the Rangers board. Some Rangers fans wish to interpret the analysis of King as a witch-hunt. No. It’s a merited debate. Given some of the chancers who have darkened the Ibrox door in the recent past then it is a debate that Rangers people should welcome instead of trying to silence.

 

There is nothing at all stopping King from investing in Rangers in the same way as Dermot Desmond does at Celtic. Desmond has power but no responsibility at Parkhead. That’s Peter Lawwell’s domain. As difficult as it may be to stomach, the role Desmond plays at Celtic is the role King really ought to be playing at Rangers, if the Easdale boys allow it, which they may not. Controlling everything from a distance. He wouldn’t need approval from AIM London Stock Exchange or the SFA or anybody else, bar the bus tycoons.

 

King is many things, rich and enigmatic being two of the characteristics of the man who arrived into Glasgow on Friday with the intention of preparing the ground for a return to Rangers. He has had six meetings – or will have had six by the time he departs for Johannesburg. On Friday he stated that he was supremely confident that there is, and will be, no impediment to his return to Rangers. He said that there would be no issues as regards his conviction on 41 counts of non-compliance in his tax affairs.

 

“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” he said on Friday when asked if he thought he would be allowed by the authorities to take a seat on the Rangers board. “I’ve checked this fully with the relevant people.”

 

The relevant people? Who are the relevant people? It’s fair to say that King’s comments were interpreted as him having received the green light from the SFA and AIM. Relevant people must have included the football authorities, right? They’re pretty damn relevant to all of this. Without the say-so of the SFA, King cannot take a place on the Rangers board. Stewart Regan went on BBC Radio Scotland yesterday to refute the assertion that the SFA had given King any reassurance about anything.

 

He was pretty clear-cut in his view. Not only had nobody from King’s team been in touch seeking clarification, nobody from Rangers had been either. There has been no contact. Of his six meetings, none was with the SFA.

 

“I’ve checked this fully with the relevant people.” Apart from one of the two bodies that can actually stymie your grand plan, that is.

 

The SFA remains adamant that King has spoken to nobody about any of this since June 2012 and back then it was purely a conversation about procedures and protocols. There was no commitment given to him. No reassurance. Not even a hint, says the SFA, that he might pass a test, if it ever came to it. He might, of course. But Hampden is categoric about this. No guarantee has been given to King. So what is all this about having “checked this fully with the relevant people”?

 

Who has he checked it with?

 

Yesterday King sought to clarify what he meant. No, no, he said. He wasn’t referring to the SFA on Friday, he was referring to the AIM exchange. Make of that what you will, but people are entitled to say that King wasn’t exactly being clear when he said that he had spoken to the people who mattered.

 

Certainly, Regan took King to mean that the SFA had given him the green light because on Friday evening he picked up the phone and spoke to Brian Stockbridge about it. Stockbridge said he didn’t know what King was on about. Regan further reiterated that no reassurance has ever been given.

 

King has a long road to travel before he warrants some of the premature headlines that are being written about him. Sometimes you get the feeling that some observers have got his name the wrong around. Instead of Dave King it could be King Dave given some of the eulogies.

 

He has to do a deal with the Easdale boys, which will be a feat in itself. If that happens, and he wants to become chairman, he has to get the approval of AIM and the SFA. He will have to explain about his conviction in South Africa and how that could possibly square with fit and proper rules. He’s a formidable operator, King. And he’ll need to be.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

If so then I'd expect that if any application is rejected then this will end up in the courts. I don't think the SFA would want that but you never know do you?

 

I think Dave King knows exactly what he's saying, he's testing the waters here. He set a few pieces of cheese in a few Rhat traps and the usual Rhat pack ran straight into them, Vhermin control is an art.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

The prospect of King taking control of us is utterly brilliant and dream like.

[compo 7,030]

I think regan is going to block mr king coming back to ibrox in anyway shape or form I would think that an investment in rangers would also be seen as an investment in Scottish football its all very strange to me

[JTP 0]

What is it with all this rubbish about who he has checked it with.

 

At the end of the day King has quite clearly checked the rules and requirements and had taken sound advice that he would be clear.

 

Do the rules state that even IF you pass the test you also need approval of Rhegan?

 

Everyone is trying to make out that only Rhegan has the key here and is above the rules.

 

 

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[der Berliner 3,744]

Obviously, while some may cite European law and whatnot, this is SFA territory and we all have seen and witnessed the illegal transfer embargo and how it came to be.

 

At the end of the day, even if the SFA let a Romanov or Whyte happen, they might have put something into place that somesuch can't happen again - "for the greater good of Scottish football". Yet, AFAIK, they have no right to block King becoming the owner of Rangers FC without being a director or CEO.

[amms 0]

So is it just me (as usual) who doesn't have any problem with that Tom English article? I certainly took from King's reported statement that he'd got assurances about his 'fit and proper' status. It's clear he hasn't got that from the SFA at least. That suggests either naivety or mendacity on his part, neither are traits I'm getting excited about.

 

I worry many of us are welcoming King without knowing much about him. I personally hoped the days of a rich man owning the club and bankrolling success were behind us and we'd never allow one man to have that kind of power again. It seems some in our support openly welcome that though, 'King's got millions the Tims are scared' is a regular reprise now.

It honestly surprises me about how little we seem to have learned from the last decade or so.

[der Berliner 3,744]

Well, we have it from the horse's mouth now. Any previous info was second hand or third party stuff. In this day and age to be taken with a right good pinch of salt.

 

As for King ... I have my reservations about him too, yet, what we do know is that he's a shrewd businessman and a Rangers supporter by heart.