The Scottish Football thread

[Lineker]

Today is seemingly a D-day for lots of players. Steven Whittaker and Steven Naismith have struck deals to take a 75% wage cut, BBC Scotland understands.

[Lineker]

The players have now agreed significant wage-cuts to prevent redundancies. However these only last two months until the end of the season! And, BBC Scotland's senior football reporter Chris McLaughlin on Twitter: "Some Rangers players have a clause in their new deals which allows them to walk away for free if Craig Whyte regains control of club!"

Madness!!

[METALMAN]

lol naisy stewarton scum

[Crybaby Bunting]

Press conference at 7pm

They've been sending players into the clubs office individually and trying to get them to agree 75% contract cuts. Looks like several players will just say "fuck off" and quit tonight

[Lineker]

Statement from Duff and Phelps' Paul Clark: "We are pleased to announce today a package of cost-cutting measures has been agreed with the Rangers playing staff that enables the Club to move forward.

"The agreement on very substantial wage reductions and voluntary departures from the Club represents a major sacrifice by the Rangers players."

"The discussions have been lengthy and by no means easy for anyone involved but the most important objective in all of this process has been to achieve an outcome that will help save the Club. There are a small number of matters still to be dealt with over the weekend but we do not believe these will be insurmountable in the completion of an agreement.

"The players deserve great credit and we are in no doubt that this agreement is the best way to achieve the necessary cost savings to ensure the continuing operations of the Club while preserving the fabric of the playing squad.

"The agreement has also directly prevented substantial job losses among non-playing staff both at Ibrox and Murray Park.

"This has been a difficult week for everyone at the Club and we are pleased that we can now move forward and focus on the next steps in the recovery process."

The cost cutting programme includes:-

First team playing squad members agreeing substantial temporary wage cuts ranging from 25% to 75% of their salaries.

The senior football management team accepting temporary wage cuts.

The wage cuts will prevent widespread job losses at the Club.

Non-playing job losses are being kept to a minimum.

Two members of the playing squad, Gregg Wylde and Mervan Celik, have been allowed to leave the Club at their request.

[Lineker]

"Everyone involved in the process, the Duff and Phelps team, the manager, the PFA Scotland and, most importantly, the players themselves made every effort possible to reach a consensual position where job losses among the playing staff were either prevented or kept to the minimum.

"This required a commitment to very substantial temporary wage cuts and we're very pleased to say that after all our discussions this has been achieved.

"The considerable sacrifice the players at Rangers have made has saved the jobs of other people at the Club and we fully recognise the football staff are paying a very heavy price for the greater good.

"It is to their eternal credit the players and the management have sought to find a solution that helps protect the fabric of the Club.

"We are especially grateful to the manager, Ally McCoist, who has put the interests of the Club, his players and the staff first and foremost at all times. Senior first team players have also been very helpful in trying to secure a successful outcome.

"We should be absolutely clear that this Club is in a perilous financial situation and there are no easy options. If substantial cost reduction could not be achieved then the Club would not survive until the end of the season.

"Administration is never a painless process and is imperative if the Club is to survive that the business trades viably through the period of administration.

"As regards non-playing staff, job losses will be kept to a minimum. The recently opened London office will close and another recently appointed employee will leave the business.

"We still hold to our view that the future of Rangers can be secured and the measures announced today will be an important part of the recovery process."

[METALMAN]

Ayr got knocked out the cup by Hibs today. To be expected but by all accounts they put up a good fight. League Cup semi-final and Scottish Cup quarters in one season is pretty remarkable for a semi-pro team.

[Marcos]

WFAANW!

[METALMAN]

top choon.

[Lineker]

Rangers' administrator says it has received interest from the Far East and the American continent in buying the stricken Scottish champions.

Joint administrator Paul Clark said: "What we want is to have only serious bidders left by the end of the week.

"There is at least one party from the Far East and we've had some interest as well from the American continent.

"There's been a number of meetings over the last few days and more planned for next week."

Former Rangers director Paul Murray told BBC Scotland on Friday that his Blue Knights consortium expected to finalise an offer for the club by the end of this week.

Current Rangers director Dave King is also involved with that group, while Brian Kennedy, the Scottish businessman who owns rugby club Sale Sharks, has previously indicated that he made an enquiry to the administrator.

Duff and Phelps held talks at the tail end of last week with various interested parties before reaching an agreement with the first-team squad to take wage cuts of up to 75% to allow the club to stabilise finances enough to continue playing football until the end of the season.

But the administrator wants to make sure that that those interested parties are serious bidders and Clark points out that those include some who have yet not been named in the media.

"So anybody who has just been talking - and there are a few out there who have done a lot of talking - we want to seek them out and, as it were, put their money where their mouth is," he told Rangers' website.

"Let's get them round a table so we know how many parties we've got. I don't care how many bidders we end up with, but I want to know who they are, what they are and what their worth is, so then we can have more serious conversations about achieving the end goal, which is to get Rangers under new ownership.

"This is the problem we have got. We have one or two parties prepared to talk to the media and then you have other parties who have been quietly and slowly and diligently getting on with their business behind closed doors outside of the glare of the media and we are taking them just as seriously as anybody who is on the front page of the newspapers saying, 'I'm going to buy Rangers, you just watch'.

"If somebody wants to involve the media, that's fine. And if they become the owner then they can sit on the front page of all the papers saying, 'I did it'.

"But don't be surprised if that owner isn't one of the people who is media-friendly.

"I am not ruling anybody out in this process, absolutely not. I'm just saying that nobody should assume that the only serious bidders are the ones who are in the public domain."

Clark did not wish to be specific about any bidders but stressed that there was worldwide interest.

"We're talking about Scotland, wider UK and some overseas parties," he said.

"We hope and believe that a new owner will be installed before the end of the season so that it's not us in charge at season's end. That's our objective.

"What we've done so that people realise they need to speed themselves up is to say that on Friday we want to receive absolute proof of your funding, so we understand who you are and which camp you are in because some people have feet in various camps.

"We want to know who exactly has your money. More importantly, we want some form of indicative bid, so that will distil down however many parties we have got at the moment to the final few."

[Lineker]

Hearts have released Kevin Kyle, for now.

[Cadj]

Gutted about that.

Granted he's not played since last January and only played like 22 games but he was fantastic when he was playing for us.

We'll always have that goal against Hibs

[METALMAN]

Good I hate Kevin Kyle

[Lineker]

The Scots businessman Brian Kennedy has confirmed to BBC Scotland that he will be among the bidders for Rangers.

Kennedy, the owner of Sale Sharks, is willing to put forward an unconditional offer to the administrators, who have asked for indicative bids by 16 March.

But Kennedy says he sees his offer as a fallback if the administrators believe none of the other bids are viable.

"I don't really want to buy the club, but I don't want to see Rangers die," he told BBC Scotland.

"I've said from the start that if the administrators view my offer as the best one for the club, I'm happy to take it on.

"But I'll be equally happy if someone else can take it on."

Kennedy cited the way Sir David Murray's time in charge of Rangers has become tainted in the eyes of many fans because of the financial difficulties in the latter years of his tenure.

"That's one thing that makes me reluctant," he added. "It always ends in tears. It's like being Prime Minister!"

Regarding other reported interest in the club from the Far East and America , he said: "It's the administrators' job to talk up the interest, to get the best price possible.

"You never really know, so you've got to just concentrate on your own offer."

Kennedy was previously credited with an interest in buying Hibernian and had a spell in charge of Stockport County, who merged with Sale Sharks to play at the football club's Edgeley Park home in 2003.

Two years later, Kennedy, who still owns the ground, signed over his shareholding in County to a supporters' trust.

[Lineker]

Rangers Football Club may not be in administration because of a legal technicality, it has emerged.

A hearing is to be held at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on 19 March to settle the issue.

Accountants Duff and Phelps were supposed to have been appointed administrators of Rangers Football Club plc last month.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was not notified, meaning administration was not legally binding.

The club returned to the Court of Session on 9 March to ask for a new order, backdated to 14 February, when Lord Hodge had originally granted administration.

He has now granted the club an interlocutor - a court order - allowing the matter to be heard in Edinburgh next week.

In the meantime Paul Clark and David Whitehouse of Duff and Phelps will act as "joint interim managers" of Rangers.

BBC Scotland understands HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will not use the hearing as an opportunity to challenge the way Rangers have been run in the past month, as had been suggested by an insolvency expert.

It has also emerged that Duff and Phelps are set to challenge the creditor status of finance firm Ticketus.

A two-day hearing is set to get under way at the Court of Session on Thursday.

Rangers owner Craig Whyte is understood to have mortgaged about £24m of future season ticket sales over a four year period to Ticketus.

The finance firm has since been named as a partner in the so-called Blue Knights consortium looking to take over the club.

>_<

[Kaney]

How is it actually possible? I mean really?

[METALMAN]

freemasons!

[The Lusophone]

Does this mean Rangers get the points they had deducted back?

[Lineker]

Doubt it, it's likely already being rectified.

[Lineker]

So, anyone interested in buying Rangers has until the end of the day to officially submit a bid.

Any takers?