I wouldn’t normally blog about a twitter conversation, but
as it’s bampot (as the "new club" side like to call themselves) king-pin Paul Brennan, and the exchange was so symptomatic of their hapless efforts,
I’ll do so...
The story begins when I – as a connoisseur (manic obsessive)
of this topic does – stumble across an old “Celtic Quick News” (Brennan’s
blog) article entitled “Doncaster’s Totally Inaccurate Precedents” stating…
“Creditors of Crystal Palace agreed a CVA proposed by CPFC 2010 Ltd in June
2010. Following this, CPFC 2010 took ownership of the club and
successfully applied to assume its league share.”
Eh? Club? That entity that’s “indistinguishable” from the
company, after incorporation (the bampots’ favourite club=company mantra)?
Alarm bells rang! Having prior knowledge that this was in
fact a business/assets transfer from Oldco to Newco, a quick google and there
we go…
17th May 2010, Minutes of a Creditors Meeting with Administrators of
Crystal Palace OldCo, regarding :
- “joint administrators’ progress in concluding a sale of the business and assets of the Company to the CPFC 2010 Consortium.”
Where the following proposals are “accepted unanimously by
creditors”…
- “The Company will move from Administration to Liquidation, this to be via a Creditors Voluntary Arrangement subject to approval and to last a maximum of 6 months. Any sale of the undertaking is to be by way of a sale of the assets and not the Company itself”
So there we have it. Signed,
sealed etc:
- Brennan claims CPFC “took ownership of the club”.
- Evidence proves it was an business/assets sale to NewCo, Oldco liquidated scenario (as with Gers)
- 1 + 2 = Brennan believes the club = business/assets of Oldco, Club certainly does not = Company.
But the fun was only just
beginning…
Unexpectedly Brennan tweets me asserting “Crystal Palace were not liquidated”, with
a raft of newspaper article links attached.
I reply: “The club wasn't, as its distinct from the company
that most definitely was liquidated... https://twitter.com/NewcoFCs/status/551754658923184128"
The link is to a tweet with Companies House records showing
the company’s status as “DISSOLVED”. Not “in liquidation”, as only a company in
the active process of winding up/still on life support carries that status (eg.
Leeds United’s Oldco).
But even better than that, it’s already dead. The company has moved “from
Administration to Liquidation”, as the Admins document above stated (and I
remind Brennan of that with a JPG from the very document, at this point) and
the process has concluded – in dissolution.
But Paul thinks he’s onto something. Why, lord only
knows. But he continues…
- “It wasn't! Your link even says Dissolved, if you check CHouse of RFC 2012 (the renamed Rangers) you'll see Liquidated”
- “Your link says "in event that", suggesting it's prelim doc. Check CompHouse, ANY news source, Crystal Palace fans, not liquidated.”
Erm... wow. This is an undoubted leader of Celtic
bampottery, who is as likely to be seen sharing a stage with “mad” Phil
MacGiollaBhain as he is sipping a coffee with Peter Lawwell.
- As I’ve said, “in liquidation” is a stage preceding the company finally be dissolved – using the “DISSOLVED” status as some kind of denial that liquidation happened is plain absurd, especially considering that one typically follows from the other as night follow day: a full stop ending the death sentence.
- Brennan suggests the article is merely a “preliminary document”, the company passing into Liquidation as stated merely being “in event that” and – presumably he’s claiming – it didn’t happen. Well read again, Paul: “After discussion, the joint administrators proposals, subject to the following modifications, were accepted unanimously by creditors…The Company will move from Administration to Liquidation”. Wrong. Again. In black and white.
- Check “any news source”. Oh dear. News sources in that case were interested in the fate of the football club, not obsessed – as in Scotland – with that of the company (explained to an extent given high-profile ongoing issues regarding the tax case, BDO investigations into Whyte/Duff and Phelps, etc). So as the football club continued – an essential point of the "same club" position that we know the "club=(dissolved in this case)company" side can’t explain – inevitably the media will not be writing that Crystal Palace (the club) has been liquidated, even though we know the old company was in fact doomed. All perfectly compatible with, in fact in positive support of, the position that a football club can span companies, being a distinct entity.
As a coup-de-grace (characterisitcally, to his own position) Brennan
claims:
“Crystal Palace changed status, as did Rangers in 1899”
Wow. So we now know that a business/assets sale to a NewCo,
from a soon to be dissolved OldCo, Paul Brennan describes as “Crystal Palace
changed status”. If that’s not a raised middle finger to the club=company
position, I don’t know what is!
We’ve a final own goal: “…as did Rangers in 1899”. Rangers in
1899 incorporated, where:
- A new company was formed
- To which ownership/operation of the business/assets/membership comprising the football club were transferred
- The old, committee-run, constituted entity (unincorporated) was wound up.
Essentially a scenario from which continuity of the F.C. is unexplainable
without distinguishing, in one’s definition of a football club, from the
constituted entity (be that the unincorporated body or the new company/legal
entity subsequently formed).
Once again, Paul, thanks for the unintentional endorsement of
my position ;-)
Brennan signs off – fair play to the lad – in some style,
claiming modestly “I’ve handed you your dinner on this”.
I’ll shamelessly plug a superb response from a follower of
mine to Brennan’s tweet, to sign off this demolition of a bampot and the beleaguered position he represents…
Cheers all, Bryce9A.
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