£5M to preserve Rangers’ soul – a small price to pay

60


The Mike Ashley crest story has
reared its head again recently, even though it was broken months ago.
In essence, as part of the
various loans to keep Rangers afloat, the Newcastle owner not only managed to
snaff a couple of his own executives onto Rangers’ board, but he snatched Club
trademarks, including the badge, and the entire Retail division too.

This resurfaced as a non-story with the notion that Rangers’ board were treating it as a matter of urgency as of a couple of days ago, when in reality the scenario has existed for many
months and should have been one of the highest priorities from the get-go.
But, as previously mentioned,
Ashley holds all the aces here and controls all the above. Simply because it is
contractual, signed off, and legally bound.
However, the get-out is that if
Rangers pay Sports Direct back the £5M, it voids the contracts. They become
null, and Ashley will have absolutely no control. From STV:
“STV can reveal the “assignation”
of the trademarks is not irrevocable and ownership should automatically be
returned to the club upon repayment.”
In other words, this is not a
one-way ticket, and can be reversed.
So when one witnesses Alastair
Johnston being trotted out again (you know, the guy who helped Mark Daly win a
BAFTA with his lies over Rangers) to suggest that the multimillionaires on
Rangers’ board do NOT pay it back and instead alter over a century’s worth of
Rangers’ history by rebranding the most important symbol of the Club, the
crest, one cannot help but be astounded.
“I don’t mean a new badge entirely but
to get as close as you can get to it without trespassing on what Ashley thinks
he’s got the rights to.”
Johnston said. Or…Douglas Park (£100M), Dave
King (£XXXM) or Paul Murray (£ ? M) can find a spare £5M among them and just
pay the man off, get Sports Direct out of Rangers and let the Club move on at
long last.
To truly advocate a rebrand of
the crest, however moderate, suggests being out of touch to the point of being
on Pluto.
King, Murray and Park, among
others, fought for years to get Rangers. They have promised investment,
millions of it. And the most important investment they can provide is
safeguarding the Club’s very soul for the good of its future by securing back
Retail, trademarks, directors, and of course that precious crest.
They have control, they are the
ones who professed to do things ‘in the best interests of the Club’ (their
words), so it is clearly time to put that cash where their mouths are and get
Ashley off the Club’s back.
£5M among a group of millionaires
is a small price to pay for Rangers’ best interests.

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60 COMMENTS

  1. We should not risk being seen as poor payers, so I say chip in guys and paint Glasgow blue!

    • Hey Bunter, just go ask 4,300 small businesses you stuffed and put out of business or HRHHMQE who you deprived of funding for our vital British services like army,fire, NHS. Everybody else pays. But you say everybody hates us but we don't care. I am not a Celtic supporter, but scared to say who in case I get threatened with torching.

    • Good shout BUNTER…..
      think ill start noo, over east end, once they see the rangers blue the will be hooked, they hooked on everything else ������…!!!

    • I think painting the whole town is too ambitious. We should just start painting everybody's face. What was that company we used to use?

    • I agree with you Wharton. I am a simple squaddie, and my sister is a nurse. We both detest the hypocrisy

  2. Couldn't agree more and am sure thousands of normal supporters would be willing to put up cash, and I mean large amounts of, just to get rid of this vile thief!

    • Well you have your chance.
      McMurdo suggesting Ashley considers the loan agreeement in breach and is demanding immediate repayment of the £5m in full.
      Danger that NUFC may ask for their £500k to be ringfenced too.
      Also comparing a legal case against some of the requisitioners.

      Someone pulled the tigers tail, it seems.

  3. Yet another blatantly obvious opportunistic swipe at our board and its potential investors. You never fail to lead the way when it comes to criticizing the current Rangers regime. Your colours are clearly nailed to the mast of the departed conmen and charlatans that were driving the club to the wall whilst filling their own pockets. Most fans are angry at what has gone on previously and do not want these corporate crooks that were controlled by Ashley to gain one single penny more from our club.

    • He is owed 5 million you fool well actually I think it is 3 million because did we not pay 2 million back from the second loan of 5 million and we never took the third loan, but anyway do you not want us to pay it back and get rid of him, now tell me do you think it is ok to pay taylor ,park and letham back their 1.5 million or will we tell them to piss off also

    • What a load of bollocks. Whether we like it or not Ashley is owed £5m from Rangers and this needs to be paid back so get real. The article is bang on, the new regime need to stop banging on about the past so come on Mr King and Mr Murray tell us your future plans in the interests of transparency! And as for Mr Johnston he'd be better just keeping his mouth shut given his role in the financial collapse of our great club.

    • Just because you don't hang off every word the new board say doesn't mean you liked the last lot. Plenty of us sceptical about this new board too.

  4. next season, new shirt, 100,000 sold easy times £45 = 4.5 million or at £50 = 5 million…………………………pay him off now

    • 'You forgotten that Ashley's Sports Direct has 75% of RRL also? Whatever the full extent of that deal is, it simply means the more shirts you but the more money he makes rather than the Club.

  5. I don't think we should be rushing to give MA any monies. It's clear and now well documented that Lambias and Leach have raped and pillaged, and allowed to do so by vultures who are no longer at the club. Under any other walk of life what has happened would be cast as criminal behaviour. I say we renegotiate or find another way.

    • Intellectually you are both a bit like Advocaat, dwarfie dickies. If anythin I should pay it you morons.

  6. I thought this new board would put Ibrox in trust so never again can boards play fast and loose with our heritage, as far as paying Ashley 5m and he walks not sure that would be the case on retail as a term contract could maybe apply to the trademarks however.

  7. You are 100% correct. The King and Gough led boycott cost Rangers dearly. I would suggest around £8m into the bargain it made Rangers so vulnerable, Ashley was allowed to take a tight grip on the club. The whole process form King was totally amateurish. He drove the price of shares down expecting to be the sole player when he wasn't so much blindsided but just swatted aside. The group in charge do not have the business acumen or the financial clout to move Ashley. They made all sorts of claims when they had their noses pressed against the window now looking in. Now that they have the tie and the blazer it is a different story. Step aside and let someone with the financial muscle in. Pretenders bought the Ferrari and can't afford to run it.

    BB

  8. Seriously! Why would you pay the 5 million just because you have money.if they can get out of the deal safely without costing money why pay it.by all means yes but surely that's the last resort.

  9. As a Newcastle fan who understands exactly what the parasite Ashley and his vermin will do to your club, my advice (and I suspect that of all Toon supporters) would be do whatever it takes to get rid of the cancer that is Ashley as soon as possible. The longer you leave it the more he will destroy your great club.

  10. Its obvious that the new board don' t have 5m in readies to pay Ash off, otherwise it would already have been done.
    Just more lies and deflection from King and Co……….Park is already on the verge of walking away as he has no intention of providing another loan to keep the lights on this month. It's eventually dawned on him that King has more than a little problem with SARS in releasing his SA funds.
    What else don't the new board know …….or are keeping under wraps till the ST monies are in? What about the a £275k per month going out of the bank account, being reported on social media for months now……….are we renting/leasing the stadium from the beneficial owner, Whyte,Green, Ashley?

    • Where are you getting this stuff about Park being on the verge of walking away? Do you have a source for this information? He's only just got here and the work is just beginning. Besides, if there was any truth in it the Rangers-hating Scottish media wouldn't be slow to let us know. There's a lot of stuff to get through and there's no reason that the loan should be paid immediately. Give the Board some time, stop panicking and stop being so paranoid.

  11. My understanding (I may be wrong) is that we borrowed £5M from Ashley. Until it is paid back, he holds certain securities.
    I am not a fan of Ashley, at all. But, we borrowed the money and I don't see why we should not repay it. I have heard nothing to insinuate that the money was not needed, or spent. We simply pay back the money we borrowed, get control of our assets back, and move on without the loathsome slug.

    Any obvious problems in my suggestion?

    • The obvious problem is that the club hasn't got £5m.
      The directors excluding King have £3m between them.
      King is yet to pony up.
      Fact is, by the time you factor in the shares they bought, these guys would need to be 'in' for North of £10m to get to the end of the season with the badges, and that's before they even started on getting rid of onerous contracts and renegotiating any retail contracts.

      Fact is… this board underestimated Ashley and some of them at least are rumoured to be getting rather cold feet after finding out that the situation was not as described by Mr King.
      Talk is cheap.
      Whereas £10m+ to be no further forward is expensive.
      It does not look good.

  12. I doubt the £5 mil will be paid until promotion is gained ( if!? ). In the interim it will be painted over and over again as a great wrong. The greater the wrong, the greater the victory, when, as contracted, Our directors pay the amount owed. Our new board should do as promised and show evidence that the last 4 years or so are behind us. I have 5 season tickets I pay for my family. Right through all the dross f the recent past I paid. No more until what was promised is delivered. Forget your own Egos directors, we don't care! Pay the bill, get our brand back, and, as always, the fans will do the rest to supply the cash required to take us back to our rightful place. Hell, we'll even let you have the credit you crave so much!! Just do it or preside over a shadow of what we were!

    • Their trying to rescue the club from the clutches of Ashley and the liars and thieves who went before and all numpties like you can go on about is 'egos' and claiming credit ffs!! You have know feckin real knowledge of what King etc have in store so give them a chance…..and give us peace for feck sake!!!

    • Ian, there you go again. The only one who ever uses the word numpty and I don't need to be a forensic psychologist to know what that means.Stopspitting on the keyboard.

    • Ian is right. It can't happen overnight. A new share issue is what is required and the loan gets paid then.

  13. So much optimism, so little knowledge of what's actually in the contract. STV is a broadcaster with advertising space to sell. It is not a contract specialist and I doubt that any of it's employees have seen the contracts, yet alone read them, understood them, and passed a professional opinion on them. And before you say "ah but surely an organisation like that would have confirmed legal opinion", I would say "why would they waste their money like that to sell advertising".

    Ashley holds all the aces, no matter how hard that is to bear (no pun intended). Solution, find £27m to pay him off and then rebuild the club. £1,000 for every supporter would give that and a fighting fund of £23m to fix this once and for all. Oh and find somebody who is not a convicted criminal to lead the charge.

  14. i notIce alistair jonstones getting it tight,,,was paul,,(I,ll do anything for a blazer) and the gimp not on the board that killed club off?,,,,

  15. Ironically! we could blow Celtic away if del boy was seriously interested in making us successful with the C.L. a certainty every year. unfortunately he only cares about the brand

  16. A legal opinion? Any two lawyers will give you different opinions on any subject. That's how they make money. What most punters don't understand is that lawyers are not interested in truth or justice. Just making money. Take the EBTs that started all this. Rangers were advised it was legal and the HMRC s taxpayers funded lawyers disagree. And it is still going on! Despite two courts ruling in Rangers favour. And who is paying the lawyers? Taxpayers and oldcos creditors.

  17. Why do we need £27m to pay off a £5m loan ? People on this website need to calm down and let the new board do their job without everyone panicing and reacting to rumours .Now we`ve someone saying Park is set to walk away , where did that come from ? We will pay the £5m back when it is the right time to do so , short term its not that important .

    • Well said sir!
      The suggestion that we pay need to pay
      £27million is nonsense and can only be deliberate misinformation designed to confuse our support and can not have been posted by a real Gers fan!

    • Even with the £5m loans repaid, badges restored, club share of RRL increased back to 51% from 25%, and security of MP etc. lifted, Ashley still has alot of contracts still in place.
      25% of the advertising rights within Ibrox belongs to Sports Direct.
      49% of all shirt sales and merchandise goes straight to Sports Direct.
      And their are clauses in those contracts meaning that if shirt sales drop below a certain level (e.g. because of a boycott of SD by the bears) then RIFC must buy up the shortfall from SD at full retail price.
      These contracts right were bought paid for by SD in the past, and money was advanced by SD in exchange for these rights.
      Money that was used to fund the running of the club over the past couple of years – playing wages for McCoist and the rest, or else syphoned off by the real spivs. Whatever happened to the money, SD ponied up, and RIFC took their cash. So the contracts are legal.
      And while the money that SD advanced in exchange for buying these rights, has been spent, now by the various boards.
      But SD still has its rights in place.

      £27m is the price that SD have indicated it would take for them to walk away and assign all of their rights in Rangers Retail, over the shirt sales, over sponsorships, and over advertising rights back to RIFC, so that the club could access these revenue streams for itself.

      So no, there is no need to pay £27m back. But if the club doesn't, it just means that the bears will have no choice but to keep handing over alot of their hard earned to Mike Ashley for the forseeable. Or watch the club go to the wall, if you prefer.

      Charles Green stitched things up good and tight then escaped with the swag. But the bills keep rolling in.

      That is the reality here.

    • Well crafted, just one little rinky for me. The sequencing of the piece leaves the reader focusing on Green as the main villain and OK it can see it that way. But I actually see McCoist as mainly to blame because it was the crazy salaries of him and his useless staff together with the zillions blown on exorbitant fees and salaries on his useless crony deadwood signings which dug the hole which made the loans necessary. That was not Green's or Ashley's fault. So the proximate cause was Ashley who acted on the opportunity created by Green who became the causa causans by signing off on the contracts. The real SINE QUA NON however was McCoist and I am sure history will see it recorded that way.

  18. Please let me be first to break this fantastic news. Our new board have done a fantastic deal whereby we move to a new state of the art training facility. We retain Murray Park but will turn it into a revenue source by renting out a small part of the iconic complex. I told you Mr David King would come up trumps so never look askance again.

    • You are one wind-up stirring bassa. Murray Park will still be there in all its shining glory in another 142 years.and the people will make sure its always properly financed.

  19. I should like to float the idea of sponsored purchases under which you identify rich people who could buy and pay wages for good players and get the reflected glory from all your supporters for doing this

    • You are a rarity, and your mummy should not let you out on your own. Nobody is going to give us a penny without security. Everybody knows its strictly cash and carry.

  20. Its not just to pay off the 5M, it’s the calculated value of all the revenue Ashley is due from all his contracts over the next few years. The originator of this was a city accountant who gave the figure to a well known blogger who claimed that for 27M Ashley would surrender all his contracts and go away. Personally I think he would also want recompensed for his shares since they have lost value since King called for the season ticket boycott so that would be upwards of 30, but not by much.

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