SFL clubs won’t be given a vote on whether Sevco are given a place in the First Division!
The SFL clubs will only be voting on whether or not to admit Sevco into the Third Division after which the board of the SFL, led by Airdrie’s Jim Ballantyne, will then negotiate a deal with the SFA and SPL to promote Sevco into the First Division without kicking a ball.
News of the SFL plan has been leaked to the BBC and Alex Thomson of Channel 4 news and is bound to enrage a number of SFL clubs who have been outspoken in their defence of sporting integrity.
With the SPL voting against inviting Sevco to replace Rangers it means that Ballantyne and friends will be able to negotiate a series of measures for the SFL with the bargaining tool of Sevco joining the SPL in 12 months time.
According to the memo sent to Thomson: “Notice is hereby given that a Special General Meeting of The Scottish Football League will be held within the Bell/Baird Suite on the fifth floor of Hampden Park, Glasgow on Friday, 13th July, 2012 at 11.00 a.m. for the purpose of considering and, if thought fit, approving the following proposals:-
(i) That the Scottish Football League Members agree to admit Sevco Scotland Limited as an Associate Member and agrees to permit Rangers F.C. to play in the League during Season 2012/13.
(ii) That the Scottish Football League Members direct the Board of Management of The Scottish Football League (the “Board”) to provide that Rangers F.C. shall play in the Third Division of the Scottish Football League during Season 2012/13 unless the Board shall have to its satisfaction negotiated and reached agreement with The Scottish Premier League and The Scottish Football Association on a series of measures which the Board shall consider to be in the best interests of the game, how it is structured, how it is governed and how it is financed, whereupon the Board shall be authorised to provide that Rangers F.C. shall play in the First Division of the Scottish Football League during Season 2012/13.
(iii) That the Scottish Football League Members in terms of Rule 12 approve the resignation of either Dundee F.C. or Dunfermline Athletic F.C., whichever shall be admitted to join the Scottish Premier League for Season 2012/13, such resignation to take effect as at the date of admission of such club to the Scottish Premier League, notwithstanding that the requisite notice under Rule 12 shall not have been given.Details of the series of measures referred to at (ii) above shall be made available to the Members in advance of the meeting and an opportunity for full discussion of those measures will be given prior to the proposals being put to the meeting.
In accordance with the terms of SFL Rule 53, your club must send one representative to this meeting and I would be most grateful if you could advise me of the name of your representative by return.
Partick Thistle and Hamilton Accies have already gone public in their view that the issue should be dealt with by the SFA.
News that the clubs will be denied the chance to vote on whether Sevco are given a First Division place is likely to reinforce opposition to the plan and calls for the resignations of those involved in setting up Friday’s ‘vote’.
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Joe
Maybe SFL members should be reminded of a statement made by Ballantyne;
Airdrie United chairman Jim Ballantyne insists Livingston only have themselves to blame after the Scottish Football League relegated them to the Irn-Bru Third Division.
The future of the West Lothian club is back in doubt after the SFL opted to punish them yesterday for breaching the league’s insolvency rules.
The decision to strip Livi of their First Division status saw them replaced by Airdrie, who have now avoided the drop for the second straight season following Gretna’s demise last year.
Ballantyne said in the Daily Record: “If you ask me if I feel guilty about what has happened to Livingston then the answer is no.
“They have not played within the rules and that is unfair on all the other clubs who have not overspent and have lived within their means.
“I am very happy with the decision of the SFL to uphold the integrity of the league”.
Excellent post mate. It gets right to the heart of their double-standards.
That thing ballantyne will NEVER vote for newco to go to third division .
Seems like Ballantyne has the same brass neck as Doncaster, Regan and Longmuir and will pull any stunt ‘for the good of the game’…
Who the hell are “Rangers FC” anyway? Didn’t they used to be a football team?
One hundred % correct.
Rangers fc don’t exist, no matter who try and say they’ve played in Scottish football before they don’t exist.
The SFA and SPL seem to want a war over this issue.
If newco are allowed into the premier league season after next they’ll be the richest team in Scotland no debt after cheating their way out of over £100.000.000 worth of debt.
Now if thats the way Scottish footballs heading I would rather find another league or do a Belfast Celtic.
Correct . Its newco.
SFL clubs should abstain and leave the mess back with these morons who are making up the rules to suit.
Mr. Ballantye who has already declared his conflict of interests by holding shares in the now defunct club will of course play no part whatsoever is such discussions / voting.
Pity they didn’t do likewise for Gretna & Airdrie.
These three corrupt men must be working overtime to come up with new and better ways to shaft the SFL club Chairmen so that their poodle can be pampered again. The SFL clubs (Supporters and Chairmen) MUST take the gloves off now. They MUST demand the resignation of these Mafia clowns. Why do they ignore and flaunt their own rules so readily? Why do they insist in Sevco being treated like Royalty when the economic argument has been proved to be spurious? Why are they so viciously undemocratic? Why do they behave like football fascists? Looks like the supporters are once again going to have to sort this mess out by threatening to boycott games and refuse to buy season tickets to a game that is as corrupt as the old Apartheid regime was in South Africa. TIME FOR ACTION TO SAVE THE SPORTING INTEGRITY OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL.
Ten questions the SFL Chairmen should be asking before any vote takes place:
1. Who actually owns Ibrox park? Did Craig Whyte illegally put the assets of Rangers FC into a new company to avoid them being sold off to pay their debts and taxes or was this illegal activity contrived between the corruption of Duff and Phelps and Green’s Sevco? My guess is Whyte, Green, Duff & Phelps are all in this together!
2. It is the liquidator’s legal responsibility to question the contrived sale on the cheap of Murray Park and Ibrox to Green’s Sevco thereby quashing any chance of the creditors getting the money back they are rightfully owed. Does the SFL wish these Court cases to hang over our football for the coming years?
3. Why did Duff and Phelps sell the assets of rangers, reported to be worth over 106 million pounds, to a dodgy character who required a loan to purchase the said assets for the measly sum of 5.5 million? Will the liquidator manage to confiscate Ibrox and take it back to the rightful owners, HMRC, Ticketus and the other creditors?
4. How will the administrators and SFL club chairmen feel when a huge amount of fans turn their backs on the game when they see the obvious unfair corruption going on and the blatant disrespect for the rules of the game.
5. Will Craig Whyte, Green and Murray be liable for criminal charges brought against them?
6. What are the SFA going to do regarding the fact Rangers FC players and staff broke the rules by registering players without declaring the dodgy EBT scheme.
7. If our administrators think tearing up the rule book is worth it for the overall good of our game, where will they stop? For instance, if Sevco don’t win promotion will they restructure the leagues to accommodate them in the SPL anyway, and will they instruct referees to “help” Sevco gain the success they need for the overall good of our game and commercial interest?
8. What will our Administrators do if Sevco have to go back into administration as they are likely to do?
9. What is to stop other SPL teams doing the same as Sevco, and go into liquidation to avoid paying their debts, then re-emerge as a “newco” debt free continuing in the top tier of Scottish football. Or are the rules only to be bent for Sevco?
10. What will our administrators do when UEFA punish the whole of Scottish football by flouting the rulebook putting commercial interest ahead of sporting integrity?
On second thoughts lets wait and see what UEFA and Hector’s got to say on these matters.
Personally me as a Celtic fan would tell sky to feck off and get our game back to three on a Saturday.
We’ve got the worst TV deal in Europe.
everyone is forgetting that lord carloway has still to give his judgement on the disrepute charge the minimum sanction is suspension
was reading Paul McConville(scotswordpress)according to him this will be against FIFA & UEFA RULES,so if they go ahead and do this, Scottish clubs will get punished cos of the suites at SFA,SPL&SFA.TIME 4 REGAN & DONCASTER TO RESIGN.
GB.HH
It seems to me that this resolution is doomed to fail before it is even debated.
Before the resolution can be considered competent, the SFA as overall governor of the Scottish game and the SFL as the mover of the motion must establish to the satisfaction of the members, the exact legal status of Rangers FC.
Before anybody starts shouting this one down it has to be said that there is still huge legal debate about whether the football club and the corporate entity known as Rangers FC PLC are one and the same or a separate entities. Because of the complexity of these arguments and the time it would take to go through them I will assume both cases for the purposes of this post.
If Rangers FC die when Rangers FC PLC are liquidated – as many would like it to be – then Sevco Scotland will need to start a new team and apply along with any other interested parties to join the SFL structure. Given that they can meet all of the entry requirements there is nothing to bar them from so doing. BUT IF this is the case the resolution before the meeting would be an incompetent resolution and therefore would fail before it is even debated because this is a new entrant to the league and the only part of the resolution that is competent is the part about allowing SEVCO Scotland / Rangers FC into SFL3.
If Rangers FC is deemed to have survived the car crash that is Ibrox at present, then they are still a football club and still have membership of the SFA. Their owner may have changed but the football club is the same football club that finished second in the SPL last season.
Given that this is the case – and I know most people reading this will be saying SHITE!!!! – then the motion to be put before the members needs to address the current disciplinary hearing pending concerning the conduct of Rangers FC over the last decade.
If The Appelate tribunal is reconvened then there were only two options left open to them (In fact there were only two originally and they bottled applying either of them) after the CoS ruling. Rangers should be SUSPENDED or EXPELLED from the league.
Here is the rub, from which league should Rangers be suspended or expelled?
It would seem to me to be the SPL but the opportunity to play in that league has already been denied them by SPL members refusal to allow the share to be transferred from Rangers FC PLC to Sevco Scotland.
If Rangers FC did indeed survive and have new owners in Sevco Scotland then the motion could survive save for the part that says:
…..unless the Board shall have to its satisfaction negotiated and reached agreement with The Scottish Premier League and The Scottish Football Association on a series of measures which the Board shall consider to be in the best interests of the game,…..
How could the SPL and / or the SFA agree to anything that is in the best interests of the game while there are pending disciplinary matters against the club attempting to gain membership.
The arrogance of the SFL astounds me and should the SPL or SFA enter into any dialogue regarding SFL business in this regard every football fan in the country should rebel against it.
Perhaps we should all be bombarding SFL Chairmen and asking the questions I am attempting to ask on this forum.
If this resolution fails then it’s authors fail too.
Will Doncaster, Regan and Longmuir do the decent thing if they fail to get this through? Don’t bet on it.
Has Ballantyne forgotten that David Murray put the final nail in the coffin of Airdrieonians for a debt of 30 grand. Murray stated ‘Sorry…business is business’. But not if you are Newco. This has gone on far enough.
Why don’t every other club in Scotland except Sevco, Airdrie Utd and Stenhousemuir resign from the league. refuse to play set up a new league.
Let the other three playeach other, Rangers will be Champions, after all that is the intention, isn’t it? Disgaceful.
I have always wondered why a club exists in Airdrie at all because it is obvious that Rangers are the only team for the majority of the town.