On behalf of the Board and Members of the RST the Chairman of the Trust contacted the Club Chairman on Tuesday evening urging him to publicly clarify the situation both for our members as shareholders and the wider Rangers support.

Supporters are rightly concerned about the club’s financial future with the verdict of the tax case just around the corner and reports of season ticket revenue being remortgaged for the next four years will only heighten fears. Supporters have been aware in the past of how Ticketus was used to borrow money against Champions League income which would come into the club later in the season but borrowing on season ticket money over four years seems to see the club enter dangerous and unchartered waters.

Specifically, we have urged the Chairman to give serious consideration to quickly setting a date for the AGM; and retaining a properly liquid public market in the shares of the company with the same standard of accounting information which has previously been available to shareholders. We believe these steps would go some way towards addressing the genuine concerns of our members and the wider support.

We would rather concentrate on cheering on the team but recent developments like failing to get accounts signed off, not holding an AGM and now this new debt all raise serious questions. We have urged the Chairman to give serious consideration of a way to clearly set out how he funds the club at present and in the future win or lose the tax case and communicate this to the support.

We are aware, as is every Rangers fan, that the outstanding HMRC case has severely inhibited the manner in which the club has been able to operate. Coverage of this issue has been predominantly speculative, frequently prejudiced and occasionally hysterical and whilst the RST appreciates the robust statement from the chairman we feel the steps outlined previously will go a long way to alleviate a wide range of concerns.

But regardless of the tax case outcome, members of the RST and the Trust Board remain committed to working with all members of the Rangers Family to take the club forward.

RST Board

Crowne Plaza Hotel Glasgow - Saturday 14th April

Celebrating 140 Years of Rangers with inspirational 9-in-a-row captain Richard Gough.

GREAT DISCOUNTS FOR EARLY BIRD BUYERS!

TICKETS £60 per head or £550 per table of ten


EARLY BIRD PRICES (Booked before end of January)

£55 or £500 per table of ten
Book a full table and get a complimentary bucket of bottled beer!

EVENING INCLUDES:

• Luxurious Four Course Dinner
• Auction for Ladies and Gentlemen
• Amazing Raffle Prizes
• Entertainment and Dancing ‘til late
• Speaker - Gordon Smith
• Comedian - Joe Cammy
• Top vocalist Gordon Keane
• League trophy on show
• Rangers cheerleaders performing too!

SPECIAL DISCOUNT HOTEL RATE

Bed & Breakfast - £90 (single or double occupancy)
To book, please contact 0141-306-9988
and ask for the groups department.

TICKETS

http://tinyurl.com/RST2012Seat
http://tinyurl.com/RST2012Table
Or by cheque to RANGERS SUPPORTERS TRUST, PO Box 3099, Clydebank, G60 9AN.(download form here)
Or, contact us to arrange a credit card payment.
For further info contact Clare McIntyre by email at clarymcintyre@btinternet.com or call 07807316423

Representatives of the Rangers Fans Working Group met yesterday with Campbell Corrigan, the assistant Chief Constable, plus a couple of his colleagues as well as David Brand and Dougie Stevenson from the FoCUS unit.

The meeting, which lasted for 2 hours, involved some frank and open discussions regarding what FoCUS is trying to do, what the Police in general are trying to achieve with football fans, and potential areas to look out for to ensure our fans are not in danger of arrest and prosecution under the new law.

The main points of the meeting were as follows;

The police continue to refuse to produce a list of banned songs, but during training and meetings with forces around the country, they advise the home match commander and police on duty what songs to be aware of.

FoCUS go to games through a mixture of them choosing matches after viewing the fixture list, and by being invited by the match commander. This will normally be intelligence led.

There are 15 Full time FoCUS officers and can cover 6 matches at the same time. They hope to be at 6 matches on January 2.

For the first half of the season, there was a lot of filming using the hand held cameras to gather evidence of good and bad behaviour at football matches. As this part of the work has been completed, cameras are now only deployed to a particular incident during a match.

Footage obtained through FoCUS cameras are held for 30 days and then deleted unless there are reasons to retain it, for example where offences have been committed.

When asked if FoCUS would publicise a list of matches attended on their website, we were told they had not thought about it but would look into it for the end of the season. They were keen to declare that they are not solely interested in Rangers and Celtic games, and that the most problematic areas they have encountered have been, amongst others, the Ross County v Partick Thistle match, with a group of Dundee casuals, a group of young Ayr fans, and even at a junior match in Ayrshire.

The police are happy to keep in constant contact with fans groups to discuss and advise on offensive songs. They stated they were happy with our previously published list of songs and chants we have previously advised Rangers fans to steer clear of.

FoCUS have now ordered new bibs saying FoCUS rather than the current anti-sectarian police unit.

The police will discuss fixtures for 2012-13 with the SPL before they are finalised this summer. They will again push for 1 midweek OF fixture and they were disappointed that they only midweek fixture offered by SPL was the December one.

There were 12 arrests at the recent OF game, of which only 1 was for Sectarian Breach of the Peace. There were only 2 arrests at the recent St Mirren match, 1 for a smoke canister and 1 for being drunk. These are fairly typical figures for Rangers matches.

Police were happy with current trends of policing at football, with police numbers at football down 30% in the last 2 years, which they hope continues in the future.

CC stated that he advised the Celtic Trust that "up the ra" would lead to arrests and prosecution in answer to a direct question about it, and that it was not an exclusive list.

The police are looking to develop links with fans groups to assist in the training of officers, and to observe such training when it occurs.

There was 120 litres of alcohol seized by police during bus checks at OF game. More info to follow on this.

Further to the letter sent to the SFA by the RST and our statement released on the 9th of December, we took a call from the SFA’s Head of Communications, Darryl Broadfoot. In our letter we asked for clarification on the decision making process by the Compliance Officer and appeal panel.

The spokesperson for the SFA spoke openly with regards to the new process involved where a player can be disciplined for actions that are either missed by the referee or where the match official makes an incorrect decision.

Questions asked:

What qualifications in relation to footballing matters does the compliance officer have?

Vincent Lunny is the Compliance Officer and has no previous association with football. The reason, as explained to us, is to take any possible conflicts of interests away that football people would perhaps have. This came about through incidents last season where clubs started using QCs to defend players and managers.

What is the decision-making process by which the Compliance Officer recommends an incident to the panel?

Vincent Lunny decides the punishment by himself. To do this though, he seeks advice from the match official, the match report and from other professional referees where possible so he can ascertain the rules and procedures of the game.

From this the compliance officer will decide whether an incident merits some form of punishment. If he decides there is then he will communicate that to the club and player. The club and player then have the option to appeal this and it will then go to the panel. The compliance officer has no influence over the appeal panel.

The appeal panel is derived from 104 ex-players, managers and referees. Three will sit on the panel at each hearing and make their decision like a jury does in a court of law. It was stressed that the panel is picked by geographical location and past employment. This is to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

How can a player receive a fair hearing from a panel already have been influenced by hysterical and partisan media coverage?

The SFA pointed out that anyone can submit evidence to the Compliance Officer so long as it is ”broadcast quality”.

How did the panel find Sone Aluko guilty, despite them conceding there had been contact?

Darryl Broadfoot admitted that he does not know verbatim what was discussed but he regards Aluko’s incident as a dive and he also considers O’Connor ‘s to be simulation.

Why is the player being given a relatively severe punishment for something the panel themselves deemed a refereeing error?

This was not answered but the SFA’s spokesperson feels confident that the laws of the game were applied appropriately. The RST strongly disagrees with this assertion.

Who has the greater authority in the game: the referee or the Compliance Officer?

Although this was not covered, if you take the admission that anyone can send evidence to the compliance officer, it would appear that the fans and media of Scottish Football are now the greater authority.

It was also brought to our attention that Hibernian had submitted video evidence from a camera placed behind the goal. The footage submitted cleared Gary O'Connor of simulation.

The Rangers Supporters Trust have grave concerns over this new process as it will show up to be inconsistent because there will be a different panel for each hearing, who have differing view points on each individual incident. Thus meaning there will not be one set precedent for disciplinary actions when two hearings take place that are of similar nature.

The admission from The SFA that anyone can submit evidence so long as it is “broadcast quality” will no doubt encourage the growing complaint culture already in Scottish Football. Furthermore, it is now designed, by default, to undermine the match official.

Mobile phone evidence is not of the appropriate quality to submit evidence. However, modern technology makes it easy for fans to take segments from games and download them and submit it to the compliance officer.

Though The RST appreciates The SFA taking time out to answer our concerns, we would like to point out that this new process is flawed and not in the best interests of football.

• We will now see an increase in complaints
• By default referees are being undermined by the new process
• The appeal panel will bring about inconsistencies as precedence is not taken into account
• As the compliance officer will pedantically apply at the laws of the game there is the possibilty that the context of each incident will not be individually considered properly
• Games that are not broadcast live will see incidents go unreviewed because of the lack of cameras
• Rangers, having greater exposure to the media, ensures our players will be subject to more scrutiny than those at other clubs; this is further exasperated by the main football highlights channel having an obvious agenda against Rangers FC, it's owner and fans.

1. Signed and framed Nacho Novo CIS Final shirt.
   GORDON BELL, ARDROSSAN - ORANGE TICKET 46-50
   
   
2. Framed picture of Pele.
   ANDREW ROBERTSON, BATHGATE - WHITE TICKET 36-40
   
   
3. Copy of “Aye Ready”| - Paul Smith’s book on Rangers war heroes.
   JON WRIGHT, AUSTRALIA - WHITE TICKET 171-175
   
   
4. Copy of Walter Smith Rangers Legend by Scott Burns
   EDWARD AITKEN, GOVAN, BLUE TICKET 91-95
   
   
5. Copy of “It’s Off To The Match I Go” by Duncan Whitelaw.
   ROBERT KENNEDY, G11 - WHITE TICKET 31-35