“Black Monday” For Rangers’ CEO Craig Mather

Fans of Billy Joel might be familiar with his song “Summer, Highland Falls”. It includes the lines:-

“For we are always what our situations hand us

It’s either sadness or euphoria”.

For some reason those words came to mind last night when I was thinking about Craig Mather, the Rangers International Football Club PLC CEO.

Why Might Mr Mather Have Been Euphoric?

A week ago he was in South Africa along with Brian Stockbridge to see Dave King.

The Board had told the Rebels that they were not getting their resolution to vote on 4 new directors heard at the AGM on 24^th October. This had been challenged in court, but Mr Mather had “robust” advice from the company’s solicitors, junior counsel and QC that the notices about the resolution were defective. So even though there was a hearing set for yesterday, he must have been viewing this as positive.

The AGM notices had gone out and the Board were ready to proclaim to the shareholders their success in saving Rangers from disaster, especially when none of the present rebels had been willing to stump up the cash to do so.

The football club was already running away with the third tier of Scottish football and apart from a League Cup defeat to Forfar had a 100% record.

Even the fans who praised Ally McCoist for not walking away but who were sceptical of his managerial talents seemed to be quite. An 8-0 victory does that sometimes.

As for the company there was still enough cash left from the share issue to take Rangers through to April with £1 million in the bank.

He was due to meet with selected representatives of the fans on last Thursday night to answer as many of their questions as rules would allow, and he was hoping to be able to give them good news.

And then came the cherry on the cake. Dave King agreed to come back to Ibrox and join the Board of the PLC as Chairman. He was also willing to invest, although clearly the cash was not needed now, but a nest egg for a rainy day is always a good thing, and indeed he was willing to lead further fund-raising efforts to make the nest egg into a war chest for the return to the top level of Scottish football.

The meeting with the Rangers fans went well – despite the Financial Director being restricted in what he could say about money by Stock Exchange Rules, and despite him having to leave for another appointment during the meeting – Mr Mather would have gone away thinking that the supporters understood the fiscal reality of the massive achievement he had been part of. And if it had cost Rangers £1 million to pay Mr Green for his tenure, this was a price worth paying to get rid of him, and after all it was Mr Mather who had sacked Imran Ahmad.

(The fact that Mr Ahmad’s court action against Rangers is back in court tomorrow (Wednesday) was a small and indeed unimportant matter which he did not need to trouble the fans with. After all Rangers have “robust” legal advice that Mr Ahmad’s case is unfounded.)

And whilst, as a result of Stock Exchange Rules he couldn’t say much about Mr King’s plans, he was able to tell the supporters’ representatives about a statement Rangers were about to release dealing with the problems the fans had with Media House and Jack Irvine, and this seemed to please them.

Then, on Saturday, prompted by leaks suggesting that Mr King was in the Rebel camp, came the piece de resistance.

Mr Mather and Mr King announced that the South African-based businessman, having resolved his disagreement with the tax authorities in his present homeland, was coming back. He would be chairman, bring in money and lead fund-raising.

Mr King also made clear that he was not aligned with any group and wanted to work with the existing directors.

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive.

Rangers message boards lit up with delight. A true Rangers fan, who whilst maybe not a billionaire was clearly far richer than anyone involved with the club just now, was coming back. Despite having lost £20 million when the former company failed, he was willing to put in more money. And the focus on his possible regulatory issues was a sign to the faithful that Celtic supporters were rattled. After all, why should people go on about him and the “fit and proper person” test unless they feared him?

Mr Mather seemed to have succeeded in uniting his team’s fans and in heading off the Rebels too. Mr King had thrown in his lot with the existing board and the press coverage on Sunday was also very much in favour. Some even detected the signs of a retrun to “succulent lamb-ism”.

So What Happened to Change Mr Mather from Euphoria to Sadness?

“Black Monday” happened.

(No, not Ian Black Monday, just Black Monday).

At 7am the Stock Exchange press wire put out Rangers statement amending what was said over the weekend. I wrote about that here.

The result? At least officially Mr King was not yet coming back – there was no agreement on his appointment nor on investment or fund-raising. In fact he was only discussing a possible position on the “football board” and not the PLC. Even worse the clarification was being made because Rangers NOMAD insisted that it do so to remedy possible regulatory breaches in the Saturday announcements.

Later on, despite the “robust” legal advice he had, Lord Tyre found against Rangers and in favour of the Rebels. As a result the AGM was postponed.

The release of a statement later, which I mentioned here, seemed almost to be a declaration by Rangers that they had won, or at least that the score did not reflect the run of play.

Suddenly Mr Mather was in the frame for illegally denying the Rebels the vote on new directors and, as a result, incurring the disapproval of the judge, the costs of a cancelled AGM, the costs for a new AGM and the expenses, which will be substantial, involved in defending a legal case which, on the face of it, now seems to have been a losing battle from the moment it was raised, as I wrote about here. (On the rare occasion I get a prediction right, I want to tell people!)

This morning’s papers are talking about demands for Mr Mather to resign for his botching of the King news and his defence of the court action.

The good cheer of Saturday night and Sunday will have evaporated.

The Rebels have momentum heading into the AGM and even the positive vibes gained by the imminent announcement about Media House seems to have gone, because, in fact, there has not yet actually been any public announcement!

From the weekend, when Mr Mather might have sat sipping a glass of celebratory white wine from one of South Africa’s finest vineyards (maybe a personal recommendation from Mr King?) to yesterday, when that taste of victory has turned to ashes in his mouth, is summed up by the ever-eloquent Mr Joel.

“For we are always what our situations hand us

It’s either sadness or euphoria”.

Posted by Paul McConville

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