ian1964 10,720 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 THERE was a rare moment of unity between Rangers fans groups and the Scottish Football Association when the governing body blocked Mike Ashley’s proposals to increase his stake in the club last month. Then, a Union of Fans statement spoke of the SFA having “done the right thing” in observing their rules on dual ownership by refusing to approve the Newcastle United owner’s bid to increase his Rangers stake from around 9 per cent to 29 per cent. Yet, those same supporters are unlikely to be so taken by the SFA obeying their articles of association should Dave King succeed in his mission to oust the current board. King revealed his intentions on Friday night when he requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting (egm). The South Africa-based businessman, Rangers’ largest single shareholder with a 16 per cent stake, is “confident” he can muster the 50 per cent shareholder support he needs to remove chairman David Somers, James Easdale, Derek Llambias and Barry Leach from their directorship. His plan is to replace them with himself, Paul Murray and John Gilligan. And therein lies the rub. At an egm, which the current Rangers board could stall for six weeks, King could expect the support of the 20 per cent stake controlled by the Donald Park, George Letham and George Taylor consortium. In addition, he is believed to have the ear of a couple of the hedge funds with a 10 per cent holding between them, while individual supporters whose share totals add up to a further 10 per cent would back his efforts to put the Ibrox club into the hands of supporters. That is all well and good, and Ashley deserves to be removed because of his callous disregard for the club and its followers in this week’s moves to gain security over Ibrox and Murray Park. The current board maintain this was in return for the £10 million loan Rangers need to see out the season. But it is important to look beyond Ashley’s game-playing and not forget how we arrived at this point. In the independent inquiry chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith under the auspices of the SFA, the old board were criticised for failing to blow the whistle on Craig Whyte as he sent the club on the road to ruin after taking over in May 2011. King was a member of that board. And it cannot be forgotten either that the reason King was in no position to buy the assets once the old Rangers had been condemned to liquidation the following summer, and save it from the clutches of Charles Green, was that the Castlemilk-born businessman was then in the midst of a decade-long legal battle with the South African Revenue Service. He settled last year by pleading guilty to 42 criminal counts of contravening the country’s tax laws, and kept himself out of prison by plea bargaining on almost 300 other charges, which required him to stump up £41m. As far as failing to meet the SFA’s fit and proper person test, King – who lost £20m he invested in the David Murray Rangers era – does so with bells on. Indeed, it is almost as if the ruling has been written to debar individuals with chequered business careers of King’s ilk. Under section (h) of Article 10.2 that sets out the “considerations” that would be made concerning the board “reserving its discretion” as to whether a person is deemed fit and proper to hold a football directorship, it is stated “[if] he has been convicted within the last ten years of (i) an offence liable to imprisonment of two years or over, (ii) corruption or (iii) fraud.” King was liable for a stretch longer than two years had he not plea-bargained. Moreover, he is caught in a double bind over the fit and proper person rules. Because what also counts against those seeking to meet the criteria is having “been a director of a club in membership of any National Association within the five-year period preceding such club having undergone an insolvency event”. King and Paul Murray – who was sacked from the Rangers board immediately after Whyte took over – both fall down on this basis. They simply cannot be granted permission by the SFA to take up directorships in any Rangers board if the governing body stands by their own rules, which were tightened up because they had failed to act over Whyte’s dubious business past. King constantly puts it out through sympathetic media sources that he is confident the SFA professional game board would wave him through as a Rangers director in the event of gaining a controlling interest. That sounds like bluster, which, as well as the baggage, has led to legitimate questioning of King’s credentials to lead Rangers out of the mire. At times, though, it must be said he talks a good game. As he did in his statement on Friday in which he claimed that, as well as putting the club on a sound financial footing, a second “important task” would be “to conduct a forensic audit of the management and commercial contracts undertaken over the last few years to determine whether they are truly arm’s length and whether the affairs of the company have been pursued in accordance with the fiduciary obligations of those entrusted with that responsibility”. King thundered at the end of this declaration of intent that “any malfeasance will be pursued aggressively and transparently”. For the South African tax authorities, that might read like a sick joke. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/rangers-dave-king-s-move-faces-taxing-questions-1-3664643 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERRAB 3,653 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 From the Scotsman(Scotland on Sunday) by the looks of things. Written by Andrew Smith per chance? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RANGERRAB 3,653 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 (edited) Hilarious to think the SFA could even consider barring anyone from holding a directorship at any club after they did sweet FA when Whyte got Rangers.And they were well warned by a number of people about Whyte at the time were they not? Acertain Paul Murray amongst them IIRC? Edited January 18, 2015 by RANGERRAB 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
der Berliner 3,743 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Maybe the Scotsman's informed reporter missed an article earlier this or late last year about the investigation into the RSA tax authorities and their illegal pursuit of certain people? Published in the Scottish media as well. That said, you would expect that King would not have invested and presented himself as a director if there was any chance of the SFA et al blocking him due to his status ... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Here we go..... The next few weeks of real and actual/factual news is almost certain to be diluted and maybe even dominated by agenda driven anti-King rhetoric. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Cue Thommo, Gibbons etc etc etc........... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWee BlueDevil 0 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Cue Thommo, Gibbons etc etc etc........... Send in the clowns! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranger_syntax 4,314 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Did I see the word 'discretion' in there? If the SPFL is not free to use discretion then we must wonder if there are not two other people that Dave King could trust to fill these roles. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearman 9 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Through all the recent past of events, it was never in any doubt Dave King's 'dodgy dealings' would surface if he got anywhere near Rangers...he must be very close now. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forlanssister 3,114 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Cue Thommo, Gibbons etc etc etc........... Gibbons won't be writing anything! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.