Living in denial
Whatever the outcomes of the various talks, meetings and votes Rangers are in liquidation with the winding up of the club about to be passed from the friendly hands of Duff & Phelps to the more forensic interrogation of BDO- appointed by HMRC.
The implications will be far reaching with many details unknown such as who will be made responsible for the big tax case- should a verdict ever be delivered- but there are a few certainties that have to be faced upto.
HMRC will not allow a lookalike newco to set up otherwise we’d still have Worthwools and Rock Northern on our High Street. Any football club based at Ibrox won’t be allowed to see the light of day if they are a mirror image of the club that began the liquidation process last month after failing to come up with a satisfactory CVA.
Continued references to Rangers in the media doesn’t help anyone with HMRC imposing stringent conditions in terms of identity on anyone attempting to set up a lookalike newco.
One thing that has been annoying me recently is the amount of articles I have read which still refer to Rangers, the Gers etc. They no longer exist or at least they will no longer exist very very soon. Have they been liquidated yet ? I have read so much conflicting information that I don’t even know if that has officially happened.
Recently, I started a health kick, which I am sure will end pretty soon. You may think this is irrelevant to football but it is relevant. It is pretty much where this article has come from.
This has involved me cycling part of my journey to work and using the train. On said trains, I catch a lot of people who are reading the Scottish tabloids and the amount of headlines that refer to Rangers as if everything is just the same as it always has been is unbelievable.
How on earth can something that doesn’t exist be referred to as a live football club? When I think about it, it seems as stupid as me referring to a random old guy as my Grandfather. Neither my Grandfathers or Rangers exist now and they never will in the future.
I dare say they will turning in his grave at the thought of being used in the same sentence as Rangers so I will apologise to him in the next life. Well they would but both were cremated, anyway, back to the football.
The world of the internet bampot with their ‘news’ and rumours travel very quickly and I think, at times, that has made the situation a bit more difficult to understand. Who do you trust and how do you know that someone isn’t just giving an opinion passing information that turns out to be false?
As it stands, newco/sevco/zombie rangers/the rangers or whatever other name they fancy being known as have no league to play in, only enough players to field a starting 11 with 2 substitutes and very few season tickets sold. Keep in mind that SFL teams will start their season three weeks on Saturday.
Given the amount of SPL clubs who have came out and said no to newco, I’d expect the newco not to gain entry into the SPL although it’s not entirely impossible. There’s already been numerous discussions about the number of fans who will walk away if they are allowed back in but do you really think so many clubs would go against what so many of their fans say?
If there is no SPL place at today’s vote I fail to see how Sevco can create a new football club to play in any division in Scotland this season.
Even if they can get into the SFL at whatever level, would they be able to use Ibrox stadium? Would the costs of using a stadium with a capacity of 50,000 for Third Division football be financially viable?
Could Sevco afford to use the stadium if, for example, there are only 1000 fans turning up per match? Let’s face it, the ticket prices are almost certainly going to be lower than that of an SPL match so whether Ibrox is financially viable to use is an important question.
The dossier that was sent to the lower league clubs which has described as a blackmailing proves the point that desperation is kicking in. That happens when time and options are running out.
What will the board at Celtic be doing in this scenario? Will they secretly be worried about how season ticket sales will be affected without the hate filled fans of the dead Rangers coming over?
Will they be worried about a potential drop in television revenue, despite the fact that Sky have said they will continue to cover Scottish football ?
Will they be laughing so hard that their jaws are hurting? I know the latter of those is what I have been doing.
I’ve said in the past that if Rangers going defunct kills Scottish football then it’s down to terrible management of the game in this country. If it ends up the case that Celtic become a part time club playing at a public park then that’s because the game in this country is rotten to the core and badly needs a shake up from top to bottom.
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