The state of Rangers Football Club.

 

So where did it all go wrong for Rangers Football Club?

Since venture capitalist Craig Whyte acquired Sir David Murray’s 85.3% shares in the Scottish champions in May 2011, the club were doomed before they knew it when he took over the club for just £1.

This is the story of Rangers downfall.

Predecessor Murray was owner of Rangers from 1988 - 2011, after a £6,000,000 takeover from Nevada-based Lawrence Marlborough. During his time at the Glasgow club, Murray oversaw Rangers win nine consecutive league championships from 1989-1997, during the period of when Graeme Souness (1986-1991) was in charge.

Walter Smith took charge (1991-1998) and a new training complex was built, an idea that Murray thought that the club would see Rangers’ mount a serious challenge in European glory. The club went on to win two more League titles and three cups. Despite their glory, the costs soon started to build up.

“For every five pounds Celtic spend, we will spend ten.” This was the statement Murray made that would soon become the avalanche of Rangers’ debt problems.

Manager Dick Advocaat replaced Walter Smith after Celtic won the SPL and he went crazy with big name signings joining the Ibrox club such as Paul Gascoigne (reported fee of £4.3m), Ronald de Boer (£4.5m) and Tore Andre Flo (£12m) during the 2000/2001 season.

Advocaat’s reign ended when Celtic won the title back in 2001, and Rangers’ were soon reaching debts of up to £50,000,000. Murray sanctioned the Employee Benefit Trusts (EBT). This was to minimise the club’s tax liabilities for employment.

The problem was with the this tax strategy was that it was meant to be used for non-contractual payments to employees.

In 2002, with doubts totalling up to £80,000,000, Murray stood down as Chairman and handed over to John McClelland.

Murray returned just two years later looking to clear off the debts that were owed, looking to pump in £57,000,000 to reduce any outstanding debts. Only £51,000,000 were raised, but underwritten however and it was transferred off Rangers’ books and into his company, Murray International Holdings (MIH).

Murray revealed in 2006 that he was considering in cutting ties with the Scottish club and was quoted saying: “It's not a 'For Sale' sign per se, but obviously I don't want to do this forever.”

Fast forward amidst the crisis the club themselves in and in 2011, Murray sold his shares to Wavetower Limited, owned by the company Liberty Capital, ultimately owned by Craig Whyte.

Who is Craig Whyte? In a nutshell, Whyte is a Scottish businessman brought up in a business orientated family, and at just 15, after taking an interest in financial markets, it is reported that the teenager made more than £20,000 buying and selling shares before he left school.

He went on to own his plant-hire company called Whyte Hire. But in the early 1990’s the business went bankrupt with debts reported to be around £300,000.

At just 26, he was Scotland’s youngest self-made millionaire. After selling off most of his businesses, he moved to Monaco. He soon returned back to the United Kingdom, returning to London as a venture capitalist.

He become the head of London based company Liberty Capital, a business that specialises in turning around distressed businesses and eventually selling them on, despite it being dangerous, he made it a successful business.

His purchase of Rangers Football Club for £1 was not taken lightly, despite then manager Walter Smith welcoming Whyte’s takeover saying that it would “bring stability to the club.”

Whyte said he would clear off the overdraft of £18,000,000 owed to Lloyds TSB but there were immediate doubts. The uncertainties of the businessman’s ability to provide funds for the football club were soon echoed by former board members Alistair Johnston and Paul Murray. The history of the Scot is misty and far from bright and his murky past was exposed by BBC Scotland’s documentary Rangers: The Inside Story, which was aired in October 2011.

The documentary claimed that Whyte had illegally been a ‘de facto’ director of a company called Re-Tax during a seven year period in which he was banned from doing so.

Convicted fraudster and a well known associate of Whyte, Kevin Sykes was the ‘fake auditor’, who looked to sell off the company before it was wound up in 2003.

The allegations were supported from a member of Insolvency Service and was revealed that he was banned after his previous company, Vital Holdings Ltd, failed to produce satisfactory accounts.

This was followed by various other acts that lead to his ban such as claiming he had made a payment to Inland Revenue, to which they say they still have not yet received the £100,000 that was owed.

Back to the takeover of Rangers FC, Whyte waltzed in to Ibrox, with his past thought to be rosy, and considered to be a saviour to the Scottish giants.

On his purchase, Whyte said at the time: “Obviously I'm a massive Rangers fan and have been since I was a boy. I'm here first and foremost because I'm a Rangers supporter. I also see a great opportunity and think that Rangers can be a great worldwide brand. I believe there are many commercial activities that can be expanded on.”

Whyte planned to clear off Rangers’ £18,000,000 overdraft to Lloyds TSB and provide a working capital, which seemed to have convinced everyone involved with the club.

Former Chairman Alistair Johnston, along with former Chief Executive Paul Murray who were booted out by Whyte, expressed their concerns soon after they were removed from the board.

Bitter? You can see where Johnston and Murray were coming from. The £33,000,000 that Whyte pledged to put in to the club to help clear the overdraft  apparently went and sold the future rights for Rangers’ season tickets to a company called Ticketus. 

Where was the money? The greater chances were that he never had the funds to pump in to the football club and no overdraft was cleared, plunging the club into greater financial crisis.

The growing problem had only just begun, and as we fast forward to today, and today the overall debt is monumental.

HM Revenue and Customs are owed £93,000,000. This relates to the big and small tax cases, unpaid VAT and PAYE.

Other football clubs are owed money it seems, with the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City, Celtic and Dundee United being a select group of teams that are waiting to be owed.

Reports from the BBC state that Ticketus are now owed £26,700,000, debenture owners (fans who loaned money to the club) are totalled up to £7,700,000.

Other funded bodies are also owed, such as the Strathclyde Police, Scottish Ambulance Service and Glasgow City Council being amongst just three of many that are in line to be paid back by the football club.

This shocking report has jeopardised many members of Rangers’ staff, including players, coaches and club staff and losses have been made since the club entered administration some six weeks ago, reports suggest the club have lost more than £2,500,000.

On the field, the ten point deduction has hampered the club’s hopes for a second successive League title, with Celtic running away in pole position. But the results on the field now do not seem to matter any more with the club in such a crisis and in a shambolic state, Rangers are in a very dark hole.

Administrators Duff and Phelps are doing their best to help the club out of the mess that arguably Whyte has got the club in to, but you could look further back to when Murray started spending millions and millions when Advocaat was in charge.

Whyte had not helped the cause, and the fact that he did not even take the fit and proper persons test is an outrage. How he managed to be considered a businessman is highly questionable.

The Scottish FA have slapped a 12 month transfer ban on the Ibrox outfit and the imminent lifetime ban on Craig Whyte in any future involvement in Scottish football.

As a result of this, Rangers’ woes continued as the Scottish FA fined the club £160,000. In regards to the transfer ban, the club can now only sign under 18 players in the next year. The embargo was hit after the club brought the game in to disrepute.

Whatever happens next for Rangers Football Club is vital. For a club as big as them to be in so much trouble is colossal. The club must get out of this as soon as possible or Scottish football would be in grave danger as a result of their demise.

As for Craig Whyte, it’s about time he was banned from any involvement, but for Rangers Football Club to have suffered just as much as Whyte is unjustified. Let’s just hope there is light at the end of the very, very dark tunnel the Glasgow club find themselves in.

 

Leicestershire make promising start with win over Glamorgan thanks to Joseph.

 

Twelve months ago, Leicestershire CCC defeated Glamorgan in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship Division Two fixture, which would turn out to be the Foxes only victory in the 2011 season.

The league’s basement boys from last season look to have turned the corner this season with a convincing win in the same fixture as last year thanks to new acquisition Robbie Joseph’s demolition of the Welsh side with match figures of 12-111.

Leicestershire’s season look to have got off to a faulty start with Greg Smith and Jacques du Toit  departing with the first two balls of the new season thanks to Huw Waters, caught behind and leg before wicket respectively.

With overseas star and former West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan making his debut at Grace Road, he watched at the other end as Matt Boyce was removed, gifting Waters his third wicket in just his second over.

Josh Cobb joined Sarwan as they were able to stop the rot after finding themselves at 1-3.

Cobb enjoyed a terrific season in 2011 despite the club struggling in both the four day format and one-day games but the top-order batsman was one of the club’s stars as he helped Leicestershire win another T20 medal.

Sarwan made his mark on his first game for the club with a stubborn 41 off 110 balls but was soon back in the pavilion after Wagg had the West Indies’ batsman trapped for leg before.

The middle order all made starts but failed to push on, however, veteran Claude Henderson’s efforts supported by Wayne White and Robbie Joseph helped Leicestershire past the 200 runs mark giving the Foxes their first batting points of the season.

Henderson soon reached his first half-century of the season and his 57 runs helped Leicestershire up to a respectable score of 249, despite falling agonisingly short of the second batting point, score of 250.

Enter Robbie Joseph. The new addition comes with fire since his departure from Kent CCC, and he immediately made his mark on the club as he opened up with captain Matthew Hoggard

With two wickets apiece from Hoggard and Nadeem Malik, Joseph was the star of the show removing Glamorgan’s bottom order as well as dismissing top-order batsmen Walters and Bragg.

Former Fox James Allenby became Joseph’s third victim followed by Wallace, Wagg and Croft all falling to the seamer’s attack.

Leicestershire collected their full quota of bowling points and it was their turn to add runs to the scoreboard which would set Glamorgan a score they would have to chase going in to the final day.

The home side’s second innings total was the Leicestershire of old, a score that failed to see Leicestershire win any more games in the previous games.

Albeit, the Foxes revived their efforts with thanks again to Robbie Joseph in the visitor’s second innings.

With figures of 6-64 in the second innings, Joseph helped Leicestershire record their first victory of the new season and the club have got the ball rolling.

Both sides were docked points due to slow over rates, with Leicestershire losing five points and Glamorgan one, as the hosts collected 15 points and the visitors only two.

There’s a new fire of optimism at Grace Road. Lead by Hoggard, his leadership will be invaluable to the young players once again this season. The former Yorkshire man will have a controlled front-line bowling attack followed by the experience of Nadeem Malik and young seamer Wayne White.

Sarwan brings tonnes of experience to the Leicestershire camp following his international career with the West Indies for many years. The younger batsmen around Sarwan will learn greatly from the overseas as he looks to help the club improve from last season.

Cobb will look to follow up his form from last season in to the new season in all formats. There is no doubt there is a lot of talent in his locker, he used that to great use, especially in the club’s triumphant T20 season with his off-spin and his slogging mentality.

Lloyd Tenant and Phil Whitticase can take positives from the result over Glamorgan. It was always vital Leicestershire pick up their first win as early as possible. The two coaches can continue the club’s fine start to the season as they now prepare to face local rivals Derbyshire away from home.

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