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Mabawsa_Ritchie

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Posts posted by Mabawsa_Ritchie

    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    Why were they not asked to post a bond in the same way that Livingston were a few years back?

    Very good point, but it won't happen as they are the people. National disgrace. They should be asked for a bond to guarantee that they see out the season. If they can't 'cough up' they should be relegated immediately to League 2. Won't happen though as our national game is corrupt.

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted · Edited by Mabawsa_Ritchie

    Carson Yeung's murky past exposed but do Birmingham have a better future?
    As Birmingham City's owner awaits sentencing in a Hong Kong prison cell, his influence is set to remain at St Andrews.
    Carson-Yeung-011.jpg
    Birmingham City's owner Carson Yeung has been found guilty of money laundering and may spend up to seven years behind bars. Photograph: David Jones/PA

    Carson Yeung was approved by the Premier League as a "fit and proper person" to lead an £81.5m takeover of Birmingham City in 2009, despite an investigation having already begun in Hong Kong into the mystery swirling over how Yeung made his money.

    Now, after nearly five turbulent, mostly horrible, years for the football club, Yeung has been found guilty of money-laundering in a Hong Kong court, which ruled that HK$720m (£55m) of the fortune he amassed between 2001 and 2007 was the proceeds of crime. After a 53-day trial Yeung, described as a habitual liar by the judge, Douglas Yau, was remanded in custody to await sentencing on Friday, when he could face a maximum prison sentence of seven years.

    When he made his grand promises of an £80m investment into City after the holding company, Birmingham International Holdings, bought the club from David Sullivan and David Gold, how Yeung had risen to become a man of such means remained a puzzle. Just 10 years earlier he listed his occupation as a hairdresser and in response to questions his representatives in London issued a statement saying, with little additional explanation, that he was a director of two companies –Universal Energy Resources Holdings and Universal Management Consultancy.

    The prosecution alleged that the £55m of Yeung's fortune had been paid into five different bank accounts from illicit sources including employees of casinos in the Chinese gambling hotbed of Macau. Yeung claimed he had made serious money as a hairdresser to Hong Kong's rich and famous, then accumulated fortunes in share-trading and high-stakes gambling in Macau.

    Yau found this was untrue, and that there was an "extremely strange" lack of written contracts documenting Yeung's business dealings, even for transactions involving huge amounts of money. "I find the defendant not a witness of truth," the judge said. "I find that he is someone who is prepared to, and did try to, lie whenever he saw the need to do so."

    Birmingham supporters are desperately hoping that Yeung's conviction will lead to new owners and a more decent future for the club, who were relegated in 2011, the same season they won the League Cup, and have fallen into serious financial difficulties since the arrest of Yeung, who had loaned City £15m.

    However the club's acting chairman and long-term Yeung associate, Peter Pannu, reacted to the guilty verdict by insisting that the Hong Kong-listed holding company, Birmingham International Holdings, of which Yeung was the chairman until last month, will remain in charge. "I'd like to reassure all supporters and staff that today's verdict will have no impact on the day-to-day operations at the football club," Pannu said in an official statement, expressing "regret" that the club's "former president and benefactor," had been convicted. "Birmingham International Holdings limited … shall continue to support the football club … and will work to raise further investment."

    This investment, which ultimately depends on approval by the Hong Kong justice authorities which are likely to seek to recover any assets they legally can, proposes Yeung writing off repayment of the £15m the club owes him, and remaining a 28% shareholder.

    This is below the 30% threshold at which the Football League requires owners to be "fit and proper", free from criminal convictions for dishonesty. So Yeung, who resigned as a club and holding company director last month, could legitimately remain the largest shareholder in Birmingham City while serving time for money-laundering in a Hong Kong prison cell.

    Pannu, the former Hong Kong policeman turned barrister who arrived at St Andrew's as one of Yeung's main executives in 2009, remains a director of the club, as does Yeung's 20-year-old son Ryan, who lists his occupation as "student", and Shui Cheong Ma, Yeung's brother in law, who joined the board last month, when Yeung resigned.

    Ever since Yeung was arrested in 2011 and his assets frozen, Pannu, Carson and Ryan Yeung have repeatedly stated that the club itself will not be ensnared by the money-laundering trial and any consequences of Yeung being found guilty. Announcing a £4m loss for the financial year 2012-13 and the club's need for "additional funding" if it is to "continue its operations for at least 12 months", the club's most recent accounts stated: "The directors have not received any information to suggest that any funding provided to BCFC by Carson Yeung ... have any connection with the five charges that he faces. The directors do not have any credible reason to fear that the Hong Kong authorities have any recourse to the loans made to BCFC by Carson Yeung."

    This confidence will now be tested. The Hong Kong justice authorities are also needed to approve Pannu's efforts to entrench the club's ownership in Hong Kong, with a planned £7m placing of shares and borrowing of £24m by issuing a bond to a company owned by a Chinese property developer, Yang Yue Zhon, who has twice previously loaned money to BIHL.

    Buried in City's most recent accounts was the startling line about Yeung's £15m loan to the club. "The amounts … were advanced without formal documentation and there are no written terms for interest and the term of repayment."

    The Hong Kong judge has found a similar lack of documentation for much of Yeung's business dealings, before he arrived to present himself as a mega-wealthy magnate joining other overseas owners attracted to English football's money and glamour.

    Blues Trust, the supporters' trust, reacted to the guilty verdict by calling for greater involvement in the ownership and expressing hope for a new era. Pannu, though, plans to press ahead with the series of proposed deals which make fan involvement, and a sale of the club by the Hong Kong-registered holding company, still distant prospects.

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    What's the criteria in Scotland for someone to be a 'fit and proper' person ? :huh:

    P.S. Yeung found guilty and given 6 years. Yet, according to to rules of the English FA, he can still be a major stakeholder in a football club.

    Three Cheers for Carson !!......... Huzzah ! Huzzah ! Huzzah !

    Merely that the seller has to vouch for the buyer as a 'fit and proper person' apparently! So if the Easdales & Co want to sell Sevco to DK, then they merelty have to say he's really a good guy albeit a convicted crook. Much the same way as Murray vouched for Whyte. All a joke really, but the English FA patently operate on the same principle.

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    EIGHTEEN months and counting. A year and a half left of this one-horse race before we have a proper championship again.Assuming Ally McCoist gets Rangers back into the top flight on schedule.He had better deliver, an extra year of the current nonsense and we?ll need chloroform.On occasions I?ve found myself at English grounds where everyone in the media centre was glued to the lunchtime Old Firm game. Southern journalists couldn?t get enough of it.Last Thursday at Newcastle, one of them asked me which division Rangers are in right now.

    That?s the extent of the interest.If the essence of any sporting contest is uncertainty, the wise men of the SPL gave our top flight a lethal injection two summers ago.Under the guise of ?sporting integrity? they sentenced Rangers to three years hard labour and killed their own competition while they were at it. Clever, eh?It was arguably the most idiotic decision in the history of Scottish football.Boycott threats from the anonymous halfwits of cyberspace saw our Premier League chairmen fold, condemning our biggest league to three years of decline.

    SFA chief executive Stewart Regan was ridiculed for predicting ?Armageddon? in Rangers? absence. He wasn?t far wrong.Why did every club in the league have to pay the price of Craig Whyte?s ransacking of Ibrox? Did Rod Petrie and Co really believe that ?Sell-out Saturday? nonsense?Did they believe the internet eejits who promised they?d turn up every week to fill club coffers?So much for the moral high ground. Sporting integrity has put Scottish football up against the wall.Yeah, Celtic have been insulated from the fallout by reaching the Champions League proper in successive seasons.But as the growing rows of empty seats prove, Hoops punters are bored stiff with the extent of their domestic dominance.Trust me, if it was Neil Lennon?s call Rangers would be back in the top flight next season.

    Likewise, I?m told Peter Lawwell wanted to keep Rangers in the big league with a points penalty, before he too bowed to the mob.Thanks to Lennon?s European success, Celtic?s balance sheet is in good nick but defeat in next season?s Champions League qualifiers will have accountants reaching for the valium.Elsewhere the rest of the SPFL is suffering. Rangers? demotion saw every budget in the top flight slashed.When costs have to be cut, youth development is the first casualty.At a time Dundee United are producing a special crop of youngsters, who would vote to shut down the production line?Some silly people have suggested Celtic?s recent hammering in Barcelona was no reflection on the standard of Scottish football. Really?Celtic won the league by 16 points last season without breaking sweat, yet they managed just three points from 18 in the Champions League. What does that say for the rest of the league? Our other European representatives? Scottish Cup finalists Hibs got a crack at the Europa League and lost 9-0 on aggregate to Malmo. Motherwell lost 3-0 over two legs to Kuban Krasnodar, currently ninth in the Russian league.Thankfully, St Johnstone flew the flag briefly with a great win over Rosenborg before losing in the third qualifying round to FC Minsk.

    Putting Rangers in the poorhouse gave a lot of people satisfaction but was the price worth paying?Under the yoke of the Old Firm, attendances were better, sponsors easier to find and the league table was worth looking at every weekend.With the pair at each other?s throats for Champions League cash, both had to spend to stay in front.A lot of that money went to fellow SPL clubs. Dundee were weighed in for Rab Douglas, Nacho Novo and Gavin Rae.Hibs got an Old Firm auction going for Scott Brown and Kevin Thomson. Kilmarnock punted Kris Boyd and Steven Naismith. Dundee United got a million plus for Barry Robson, while Celtic outbid Rangers for Motherwell?s Scott McDonald.That Old Firm arms race kept both clubs on their toes and helped subsidise the rest of the league.Now we?ve got Celtic trying to get through the entire season undefeated while the rest play for second place and a brief skirmish with the Europa League qualifiers.League One is no less of a freak show where you can watch Rangers playing keepie-uppie with their part-time opposition.

    Eighteen months and counting.......

    Where do we start with this complete and utter pile of 5hit. Every sentence can be ripped apart.

    Provan, grade A ****.

    I don't know, the fans of these wee diddy teams are always whinging..............LOL. GIRFUY. :thumsup2

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    Bino, let's be frank here. Whether Spartans or any other club applied is irrelevant. We applied to The SFA and got a license licence for one reason only.........we're the biggest draw in Scottish football and we were admitted to The SFL on the back of our TV rights.

    Some may find this uncomfortable but it is (to quote Francis Schaeffer) a true truth: Scottish Football is all about The Rangers.

    Fixed that for you ignoramus.

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    Walking Down The Halbeath Road

    in Scottish Championship General Chatter

    Posted · Edited by Mabawsa_Ritchie

    Agreed. I seem to recall that the 'dodgy' element of the Dundee CVA was that they included ground rent as a debt when it fact the chap who owned Dens Park (a Dundee United Director if I recall correctly) did not charge rent!!

    You say that as though the administrator had a choice. Soft loans, hard loans, bank loans, trade debts - they are all debts and all have to be included by the insolvency practitioner. That's what the law says. The only way Melville's money could have gone in in such a way as to be at the back of the queue would be if it had gone in as share capital and why would he do that. As it happens, how he did it perhaps saved the company by enabling the CVA to be voted through. The same might apply to Dunfermline!

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    I'll take all the 'favours' right now if it means us getting back into the top league.

    The bumped us down for a wee bit, but the diddies didn't turn out in droves as they promised and darkhead looks bad no matter how many turn up dressed as green seats.

    And now the E S T A B L I S H M E N T has sorted our trophies out, it's only right that we get slipped right back to where we are needed most.

    As if nothing really happened.

    I'll be all the happier for us to be signing the best of the SPL players as long as we go bosman and ensure the clubs get zero fees from us.

    Moving into the future, I have no doubt we'll be playing elsewhere, but I do hope we continue to run a B team in the Scottish leagues - could be useful for developing players for the A team. As long as those players are bosmans and no fees go to Scottish teams.

    The only exception I can think of would be if we were dealing with a club on its financial uppers - like our feeder team, the wee Rangers - we could then strike deals to buy players at knock-down prices to help them out

    Best for all when you think about it.

    Breathtaking in its arrogance - and they wonder why The Rangers are detested by fans of every other Club in Scotland.

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    Oh, so you reckon all their champions league trophys are at risk? :lol:

    We have been going on and on about title stripping carried out by the SPL !

    So what happens if they are guilty tomorrow ! who is going to strip them of their League & Scottish Cups ? is this where the SFA come in as well to compound their misery ?

    The SPL do not have the authority to strip Rangers of cups but the SFA do.

    Also in hindsight have the SPL & SFA actually thought this through completely ? if found guilty they have changed their rules to such effect that the club according to them did not die.Could this open the doors in Europe for UEFA to step in if European clubs wish to pursue Rangers FC for monies lost to a club that fielded illegally registered players in European competitions ?.

    Our associations have bent rules & regulations to keep Rangers FC alive ? "apparently" but FIFA & UEFA have not changed their rules to accommodate the death of a club from a backwater league and may backfire on the club they tried to keep alive if European clubs decide to take action on monies lost to Rangers FC.

    Not the League Cup they don't - that is an SFL competition.

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    Far from trying to belittle the issue of our freedoms being under attack - I'm deadly serious about why we should resist empowering the authorities with more tools to suppress our rights.

    I don't like the plastics singing about the IRA, but I'd still rather have my nose out of joint about it than see their rights to express such views removed.

    If you give me your address in a PM, I'll send you a serf-quality forelock to tug on. It'll suit you perfectly.

    Same ar*e, different cheek.

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted · Edited by Mabawsa_Ritchie

    How many SPLers bought into shite like this, how many complainers were actually what they claimed to be?

    Reality is slowly dawning on the SPlers now......

    Good God, another conspiracy against poor Sevco. It was all the fault of the big, bad Celtic supporters 'phoning and emailing other SPL clubs telling they wouldn't renew their non-existant STs if they let The Rangers into the top league. :lol::lol: I give up!!

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    Big Rangers Administration/Liquidation Thread - All chat here!

    in Celtic v Rangers, Rangers v Celtic

    Posted

    Oh FFS. I just had a txt from a friend who does a lot of Fotball PR that Lennon will get his jotters if Celtic don't win this tie over 2 legs.

    I've known him for 30 years and he's never been wrong yet,

    'Off field conduct' is said to be the deciding factor.

    If McCoist can manage to stay in a job with his woeful managerial track record, I'm fairly confident Lennon is secure at Parkhead. :lol:

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