“Tax Avoidance is a Right” Proclaims SIr David Murray. “No it’s not”, Is Reply

Last week, Sir David Murray emerged from his bunker to issue a statement via the Press Association. RTC commented in detail regarding elements of the statement here on the Scottish Football Monitor.

I think the statement is a masterpiece in answering charges that have not been made, and accusations not been laid. It also includes a statement which, whilst not original, might be seen as the epitaph for the demise of Sir David’s Rangers – “Tax AVOIDANCE is a right.”

Sir David also risks offending even further the fans of his former team by referring the “new” Rangers and “Rangers Football Club” rather than “The Rangers Football Club”.

And it is always a good day when one can quote the great American judge Learned Hand.

“No Man Is An Island” – Blair Morgan, Football Agent – by Brogan, Rogan, Trevino and Hogan

The always excellent BRTH has written another of his lyrical posts. mick was good enough to link to it in the comments, but I think BRTH usually deserves a post of his own.

Readers might have seen it as a comment on the Scottish Football Monitor or CQN, but I think his thoughts deserve the widest of cicrulations.

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It was the poet John Donne who came away with the phrase ” No Man is an Island”. Interestingly the lines were not originally intended to be a poem, but were written by Donne in his ” Meditations” and were intended as prose rather than poetry.

Fittingly, they are taken from ” Devotions on an Emergent occasion”

Donne was an interesting character. He was borne a Roman Catholic but later became an Anglican Priest and a Doctor of Divinity, became the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral and was a Royal Chaplain. He was also a qualified Barrister having studied at Thavies Inns Legal School and later he was the Reader of Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn. He was the Member of Parliament for Brackley from 1602 onwards for a number of years. He had been a soldier, fighting with Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Essex at Cadiz, and before settling down to this well recorded life of divinity and respectability he managed to blow his considerable inheritance on wine women and travel.

Tinker Tailor – a short story by Richboy

I just watched a remake of John Le Carre’s masterpiece for the umpteenth time. The movie was of a standard that can only be achieved in the UK with awesome performances by the likes of Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt and many others.

If you have not seen this movie then I really recommend you take the time and effort to do so, it is a classic. The story is about how several high-ranking officials in the Secret Service have either been turned by our enemies or are just nincompoops.

Panto Season – RFC Registration Sorted? “Oh Yes It Is” – SFA. “Oh No It’s Isn’t” – Sevco + SPL!

Rangers FC still has no licence to play football. Their season is due to start in six days. There have been long discussions this week with the SFA about the terms for transferring the membership in the SFA from Rangers Football Club PLC to Sevco Scotland Ltd.

All looked well on Friday when the SFA produced the statement copied below. However this was immediately contradicted by Mr Murray of Rangers.

Some thoughts arise which are addressed at greater length below.

Had an agreement been reached between Sevco Scotland Ltd and the SFA?

Does Mr Murray face disciplinary action for stating that Rangers FC is being forced “under duress” to accede to the SFA’s demands?

Did Sevco Scotland Ltd and the SFA reach an agreement, express or implied, that Mr Murray could be publicly critical of the “agreement” reached as an effort (a) to gauge his customers’ response or (b) to put pressure on the SPL to step back from having the “dual contract” disciplinary process move forward?

Was Mr Murray making his statement to show that the new owners of Rangers FC had done everything possible to fight their corner, but that the twin bogeymen of the SFA and SPL had them over a barrel as a result of the actions of Messrs David Murray and Whyte?

Was the speed with which Rangers FC responded an indication that, in fact, it knew what was coming?

We shall see.

How Much Money = Chance of Success in Rangers’ CVA? How Does Mr Green Make A Profit?

In which I look at what Sir David Murray thought was needed to give a CVA a reasonable chance of success and what this might mean for Mr Green’s efforts to make a profit out of his proposed investment.

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As we await the formal revelation of the details of the CVA, which has already resulted in Duff & Phelps being on the receiving end of some less than complimentary comments, I wondered if any financial experts had offered their opinions on what would be needed to give a CVA a reasonable chance of being accepted.

I then saw that Sir David Murray had been asked this very question by Jeff Randall of Sky News on March 16. The full transcript of the interview is here. I recommend it as a good read.

However, and with thanks to Sky News, I reproduce the following part of the discussion.

“Jeff Randall – How much, in your view, would he (Paul Murray and the Blue Knights) need to raise?

Sir David Murray – It’s guess work because it’s interesting, we’re meeting today, the day that bids are going in for the club but I would have thought, probably, if it’s a debt free club, probably £20-25 million to then put into CVA to have a reasonable chance of paying a reasonable payment in the pound, I would have thought.”