fozzie

Sorry, but you might want to double check the stats for Scone Thistle. An average of 322 doesn't sound remotely plausible.

Surely another Seamus alias? If so, best one yet Keep it coming!

They have their membership and honours: http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/club/airdrie-united/ I believe the current Clydebank have the rights to the name and crest only.

That's assuming a hell of a lot. i.e. that firstly, there's no transfer embargo, and secondly that there's a workable business plan in place to make it till the end of the season without going tits-up again. Both are very doubtful. The squad's already a skeleton and, if the club's losing money hand over fist (which it will in the 3rd) any player that can be sold for profit will be. Then, add to that injuries, suspensions and the fact that they're only be to sign teenagers and are shouldering a loss of hundreds of thousands week in, week out. It's not looking good for them without a sizable amount of investment or a huge amount of good will from a creditor. No sign of either on the horizon.

And where did your team start?

Have you read their website?

Unforunately, until 'Club 12' is confirmed we can't do that

Och well, I'm no expert... Calm down eh It's late, and anyway, as I said, if you go back to my original post; I do think they're f**ked too. I was just chucking a few ideas about.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not really disagreeing with you. It's quite clear that there's no way for them to break even. I'm just saying that it is 'technically' possible to keep them going. If Murray Park can be sold, it can be sold. The backroom staff and the high earners can and will be axed. They can mothball 3 stands and still get 10 000 a week in (Yeah, I know, we'll see how many actually turn up...) But let's face it, if Queen's park can run Hampden at a profit and climb out of Division 3 from time to time, there's hope for Sevco, police bills aside (I've heard they have sympathetic ears.)

Fair points. Their turnover will be more than the rest of the division put together, so they should be able to put together a side that can win it. They'll of-load any high earners at knockdown prices during the transfer window too. The asset will be the surviving club, not the material assets. If there is reconstruction, they could be back in the top flight and selling out every week within 2 years. Not that it'll be turning in a profit, but there will be enough bluenosed investors about to put a deal together. Plus, the 'club' will also have a certain amount of sentimental value. That deal will look a whole lot less attractive when their in admin again with a huge points penalty and a pile of football debt hanging over them.

A combination of factors: 1) The board forcing the agenda 2) The clubs only being able to force amendments 3) The clock running down fast 4) Everyone being p***ed of with the whole thing dragging on 5) A sense of self-preservation 6) Remaining open to the doomsday scenario 7) A sense of 'they've suffered enough' (in some quarters) Add all that up and everyone just thinks "F**k this! Let's move on."

Unfortunately, a lot of the checks that are in place seem to be 'discretionary' and the committees who need to ratify it are bent as f**k and have already decided. It's a foregone conclusion I'm afraid.

It simply has to be ratified by the SFL and SFA committees - a foregone conclusion (I take it you read the leaked e-mails). There's no rule obliging them to invite applicants.

Fingers crossed for the SPL meeting next week...

I'm not so sure. It'll be cat and mouse. Sevco will be looking to get out, that's for sure, but if they let the thing fold again, they leave at a loss. Keep it running at a loss, but just enough to win the 3rd Division (which'll cost hee-haw in terms of their, still large, turnover) and they still have a saleable asset which they can recoup a few millions on. On the other hand, anyone wanting to buy will know that the longer they wait, the more desperate Green & co. will be to sell and the cheaper it'll get, but on the other hand their upping the chances of the whole thing going tits-up again. A combination of a fan with deep pockets and league reconstruction could help them immensely, but without these, they'll wind up in admin again or hit the top flight crippled by debt again.

Too right. They're going to have cash-flow issue and run at a sizable loss for sure. It's clear from the fact that Green paid nearly 3 million for contracts during the liquidation that the consortium's business plan rested on them being in the SPL. Their whole gamble has been blown out of the water. The liquidation deal also made it clear that the assets are worthless white elephants. Now they're holding a loss-maker which has no chance of providing any return in the foreseeable future. They'll be looking to get out quick before they waste any more money. Either they sell to someone who has patience and money, or they let it fold again to cut their losses and let said people with patience and money pick up the pieces. Such a person will need a few million up front at least and should be prepared to never see it again.

They trained with 5 seniors, 5 kids and 3 out of contract players. There are a handful who have refused to commit pending clarification of the status of their contracts and league status (I think we can safely say they're not coming back!) As it stands, they have a transfer ban in place, presumably that'll be lifted when their membership is ratified (Please someone correct me if that's not true.) The big question is their running costs. They have a huge back-room staff and the maintenance and running of Ibrox will not be cheap either. They also are restricted by 3rd division limits for ticket prices and as yet have no season ticket money up front. As a new company, they have little or no credit facilities available, worthless assets to borrow against, limited sponsorship appeal and their only source of funding from the consortium (whoever they are!) is apparently in the form of loans. They'll get out of the lower league sure enough, but not without going into a lot more debt first. Unless Green has genuine long-terms investor on board or finds some, they'll be looking to slash costs and flog the club and assets as a going concern to Blue Knight / Smith types as soon as possible. There's not a snowball's chance in hell of Sevco being profitable in the next 3 years and Green & co. won't wait for that. They're gambles already failed and the bills are coming in already. It's new buyers or tits-up again.

Airdrie Utd. applied to replace Airdieonians and failed. They later got in by re-branding Clydebank. There are lots of double standards at work here though. In every case when a vacancy has arisen until now it has gone without saying that applications are invited and that new clubs start at the bottom. Why didn't that happen this time? Well, we all know the answer. Bottom line is, there weren't and still aren't any rules in place.

Don't hold your breath. This'll take months. Possibly years. They can call themselves "The Rangers" in the meantime until someone says they can't. As for the trademarks thing, you'd need to ask a lawyer I'm afraid. The point is though, they can get going in the meantime, they don't have to get everything changed in order to start. They might be required to change things further down the line though, but when is anyone's guess.

Sadly that's not actually true. The tragedy of all this came about firstly because there weren't any clear rules in place and Regan manipulated that fact to his own ends. There was no rule to say that applications had to be invited in the event of a vacancy, and no rule saying that any new club had to start in the 3rd. The rules about accounts were discretionary and ultimately the board can over rule anybody or change any rule they like. Morally your right of course, but the whole root of this is the fact that the rules, like everything else in Scottish football were short-sighted, out-dated and ultimately ripe for abuse by cynics.

When they wen't into liquidation they said it would be a matter of weeks, possibly a couple of months. Having said that, that was before the fraud investigations were announced, so who knows. You could well be right about it taking years. The big question in the meantime is; what happens if the liquidators decide to nullify Sevco's purchase of the assets?

Whether or not trophies and titles are carried over is simply the call of the governing bodies in question (I think...) As for the crest and trading name, that's a question for the liquidator and the tax man. It could be that if they're judged to be a carbon copy of the club that went bust, they can stop them using them or make them assume the old companies debts. As for the issue of what name the club 'plays' under rather than 'trades' under. Again, names have to be approved by the football authorities, but whether or not the non-football authorities would stand for them using the same name is an open question. It'll all come out in due course.

Not going to happen of course, but I think it's important that it gets the blessing of all SFA clubs, simply on principle as no others were allowed to bid for the vacancy. Otherwise Sevco will always be known as the club that are only there cos the rules were bent.

Can someone please explain how it is that the SFL can bestow associate SFA memberships? Don't SFA members need to be able to vote on this?

Now as hysterical hyperbola go, that one has to take the biscuit! Due to Rangers being in Div 3, we'll have to give up football altogether. Presumably shockwaves are travelling round the world as it's no longer financially viable to buy a football and kick it around a park.