Rangers’ Administration – Day 4,738 – Round Up Part 1 – Court Actions

This will be a briefish (yes, I know my reader finds that hard to believe) roundup of where things are as regards Messrs Duff & Phelps (D&P) and the administration of Rangers Football Club plc (hereafter referred to, for brevity, as “RFC”). The plan is to write at my usual length about as many of the legal aspects of this as I can, but no promises!

Rangers Football Club plc (In Administration – possibly)

This week it was disclosed that RFC had gone to the Court of Session to have an administration order granted. This was apparently because, when D&P were appointed by the company on 14th February there had not been any notification made to the Financial Services Authority. RFC had registered with the FSA as an Introducer on 26^th February 2008 in connection with the trading name “Rangers Money”.

Failure by D&P to notify the FSA of their appointment meant that it could have been challenged. Therefore there will be a further hearing on Monday 19^th March to decide if D&P should now be appointed by the court as administrators. The application is to backdate the appointment to 14^th February, thus ensuring that the administrators’ actions so far will not be ineffective.

It is possible that another party, such as a creditor, could challenge the petition and oppose D&P being appointed, perhaps by lodging their own petition for an administrator. That is unlikely though.

All going to plan therefore, there will be a court order on Monday which will restore the status quo and avoid any complications, at least regarding the appointment.

In addition, the back-dating of the appointment ensures that the deadline of 10^th April for D&P to make their proposals to creditors regarding how to achieve the objectives of administration will not be changed, unless of course D&P make a separate application to the court to move that back.

If Rangers are not in Administration, do they get the 10 point penalty back?

I have read some excited speculation (a) from Celtic fans thinking that the making of an administration order on Monday would be a second Insolvency Event, and thus a further 10 point penalty would be applied and (b) from Rangers fans arguing that as RFC was never in administration, they should get the 10 points back, at least temporarily, and be able to pursue a case against the SPL for penalising RFC incorrectly. Some even suggested the league season should be declared void, as the demoralising effects of the penalty have clearly affected the course of the season.