LLD

Jog on Alex.

The donation wasn't financial. Simple.

There's no need for him to answer as the fact is that not one single penny of Trust money, Fighting Fund or otherwise, was used to buy tickets for the New Year event. Not a penny. To suggest otherwise is a misrepresentation of the facts.

You can chunter all you want but the reality is that Livingston were a First Division club while an appeal was ongoing. Recorded SFL fact.

At what point? On what date?

Given that the SFL should never have asked for that game (or the Airdrie and Cowden) ones to be played in the first place, yes. I appreciate the Shire's position totally, but at the end of the day we had a right as a club to appeal the Management Committee decision and should have not been asked to play in the Third Division until that process was completed. Whether you agree with the appeal or not, it can't be argued that Livingston were in the business of disrupting the fixtures willy-nilly at that time. Our appeal was put together and decided upon in a far smaller timescale than normal to try and limited the chaos. The problem with what the Shire are asking is that it will open the floodgates for compensation claims when games are postponed, regardless of the reason.

Not to my knowledge. Meadowbank Thistle FC Ltd was still in existence when Livingston (the football team) were in the SPL.

This is all just the same old bile. You would have a point if Livingston was the only club running up debt and not paying bills, but the last few years are littered with various football clubs doing that. You don't seem quite as keen to have a go at Dundee who dodged a monster debt well in excess of Livingston's or Motherwell whose chairman ran up millions upon millions in debts, voluntarily went into admin and emerged at the other side still in charge! I am not agreeing with the way LFC has been run. It has been disgraceful and indefensible, but all you are doing now is repeating pointless bile. We're in the Third Division. You might think we should have been expelled entirely, but relegation down two divisions is still one of the heaviest punishments to be handed down to any Scottish football club in the history of the game. There was a very strong rulebook reason why we didn't play East Stirlingshire and the SFL are well aware of it. The whole sorry chapter should be brought to an end with our game v Shire being played at the next date agreeable to both teams, whether that's Wednesday or another date.

Absolute nonsense. Meadowbank Thistle Football Club Ltd. owned Meadowbank Thistle and it also ran Livingston for years and years after the move. The only thing that changed in 1995 was the name of the football team. The legal entity remained as was.

I stand on it being entirely his own fault. I have my doubts that it was his own money anyway.

I told you that Ballantyne suggested to the rest of the Management Committee that Livi wouldn't be able to raise the bond or complete a CVA. The "it sounds like to me...." bit was my interpretation of what he was trying to achieve by saying those things.

So to summarise £20m overall then? Like I said about glasshouses...

1. These things take time you clown. 2. I don't know enough about it. He's a bookie who takes bets? 3. Eh? I've just told you what Bannatyne said. Ignore if you want. As for the bond, McGruther told the league that he could not personally guarantee that the club could fulfil the fixtures but that the consortium led by Gordon McDougall could. Fact. To be fair, though, like your compatriot Sir Calum Melville you have a bit of a cheek criticising Livingston when your club has written off more debt than probably any other in Scottish football history.

No, but don't let that get in the way of a good story. £20m wasn't it when Dundee went into admin?

I wouldn't waste your breath. He's just trying to deflect attention from the mammoth debt that Dundee wrote off. The one that was more than double we have ever accumulated despite our disgraceful record of financial management. I bet he wasn't grumbling when Ravanelli and co were strutting about Dens.

1. I think the situation came to a head when it was possible to come to a head. Believe me, I thought it would be sooner, but at the end of the day WLC really had to wait until the infamous June 30 stadium purchase deadline passed. I appreciate that we are lucky still to have a club, but the timing of the whole thing has not exactly been ideal in terms of the new guys coming in. 2. But it's not Neil Rankine who is wrong! He's not broken any rules? 3. Prior to the relegation decision, Bannatyne was very vocal in suggesting to the rest of the Management Committee that Livingston would neither be able to lodge a guarantee bond (when they could) or complete a CVA (which they have). It sounds to me as though he was attempting to draw parallels with the Gretna situation, when they were relegated to the Third Division only to resign anyway.

The same could be said for your mob which makes all your tiresome rhetoric even more laughable. When it comes to cheating by writing off debt, Dundee are even ahead of the Great Satan, and don't you forget it. People in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones.

Still here?

Who's the moron? The knobend Dundee fan repeating himself ad nauseum when no one is bothered about their opinion, maybe? Why don't you just f**k off back to the First Division board and have a wankfest with the other Dundee fans about next season's probable SPL relegation campaign.

Not inherently corrupt, I'll give you that. There are certainly a lot of bad eggs, and we've had our fair share at Livingston. That the President of the SFL is found to be involved in transferring his shareholding in one club to family members in a bid to disguise his interest, while somehow getting himself involved with another is certainly very suspicious. How and why did he end up at Stenhousemuir anyway? It looks to the outsider that it was a move of convenience so that he could retain his office in the SFL. Similar to the way George Peat was offered a safe haven after things went tits up at Airdrieonians. Very strange.

After 496 pages is that the best you can do?

Undoubtedly not. Going back a post or two, so are you concerned or unconcerned about the questionable behaviour of blazers like McMaster? Or are you just going to revert to type and post yet more about how Livingston FC is the footballing Great Satan?

Is it Neil Rankine's job to keep the treasurer of the SPL right?

1. The SFL shouldn't have asked. When they did we had the right to refuse. If by using the phrase 'entirely coincidental' you are suggesting that the whole Massone period was contrived to come to an end a week before the season then you really need to have a word with yourself. 2. The bets are legal in the context of the law of the land are they not? The rules that were broken by the Treasurer were football rules. 3. A record of the meetings was made, it's common business practice.