How Gavin Masterton almost killed Celtic
In the early nineties, as a director of Bank of Scotland, Masterton was effectively the king-maker of Scottish football controlling the banking facilities for almost all of the top clubs with Bank of Scotland becoming the first sponsor of the SPL in 1998.
Credit was easy to come by in those days for those with the right connections with David Murray, the shining star of the Thatcherite era, the golden boy of the banking community.
Murray International Metals were given limitless funds which Murray channelled towards winning the European Cup for Rangers with Duncan Ferguson, at £4.2m in the summer of 1993 the most expensive player in British football.
The old Celtic board would have struggled to run a corner shop as they lapsed from one disaster to the next with the sacking of Liam Brady and appointment of Lou Macari, who brought in Carl Muggleton, Lee Martin and Wayne Biggins, summing up the direction the club was going.
The early days of 1994 were particularly difficult for the old dynasties with performances on the pitch nosediving under Macari while the malcontents among the support invested their faith in the ‘dream-team’ partnership of Brian Dempsey and Fergus McCann.
Crisis point came after a Scottish Cup third round defeat at Motherwell while the overdraft approached it’s limit with continued backing from fans and sponsors under threat.
Picking up the story in the Sunday Mail Celtic director Brian Wilson reveals McCann’s anger twenty years on at the way the club was treated by the Edinburgh establishment of the Bank of Scotland.
Roland Mitchell, head of BOS Glasgow, was charged with the task of closing Celtic down, no doubt with the approval of Masterton through at Bank of Scotland HQ.
“The other condition was that McCann “superseded” this with “a £5million cash collateralised guarantee” the following week. McCann flew in from Canada to meet that challenge.
“But he remains bitter about his treatment by BoS who, he believes, did not wish him to succeed in buying the club. He recalls: “I had taken them completely off the hook. They were never going to collect the £5.2million they were owed otherwise. Ten months later, after the bank had been fully paid off, Charles Barnett, Celtic’s interim financial director, went to BoS to learn what they could offer in loan finance.
“Their proposal was £2.5million fully secured – little more than an insult. Later, we obtained £10million unsecured from the Co-op Bank in Manchester.
“What I resented enormously was trying to do a business deal in Scotland and being treated that way.”
Masterton’s power came to a halt when Halifax took over the Bank of Scotland and started to examine the unique business practices that were commonplace in Scotland, especially through football.
Further pain came when Lloyds TSB took over HBOS with the banking collapse of 2008 requiring the government to take over the entire Lloyds TSB group.
Without the unquestioning backing of Masterton Murray’s empire came under proper financial scrutiny with Craig Whyte finally buying Rangers in 2011 for £1- five years after Murray had first attempted to sell the club.
Less than a year after taking over Rangers Whyte put Rangers into administration with liquidation following soon after.