ITâS not every week you speak to someone on Interpolâs most wanted list. In fact, after 20-odd years writing about football for a living, this was something of a first.Not that it was actually much of a conversation. âHello, Mr Rizvi,â âHello, who is this?â âKeith Jackson from the Daily Record newspaper in Glasgow, I want to speak to you about your involvement in Blue Pitch Holdings.â âI think you have the wrong number my friend, I would ahem (click)...â âMr Rizvi? Rafat? Hello?â âBEEEEEEEEEEEP!â That was about the size of it. Hardly earth-shattering stuff. In fact, the only truly remarkable thing about this conversation is that it needed to take place at all. But this is the way of it at Rangers in 2013 â this club has long since disappeared through the looking glass. Vanished into a world which is as much about the fugitives as it is about the football. I phoned straight back but Rafat Rizvi, or whatever this plummy-voiced gentleman calls himself these days, didnât answer. So I followed up with a text message, offering to speak on or off the record and pointing out that the identities of those anonymous investors behind Blue Pitch and Margarita Holdings were likely to be made public soon. Again, no response. Perhaps he was just busy. Then again, perhaps men who are on the run from the authorities over a £600million bank fraud, facing a potential death penalty in Indonesia, donât do protracted conversations. Not with press men at any rate. Which would be fair enough were it not for the fact the future of Rangers hangs in the balance all over again and that there are many thousands of supporters out there who are beside themselves with worry and who are asking for one simple thing from their club, the truth. Remember that? Itâs not easy where Rangers are concerned. This is a club which currently employs more spin doctors than it does directors, a business which is engulfed in a cloud of its own toxicity. A company which attempts to confuse its own customers with an unrelenting barrage of spin and counter-spin. The truth? So many lies and so much misinformation has been spread in the name of Rangers that the truth has become a complete stranger. It has been twisted and distorted to such an extent that it has become almost unrecognisable. And it has to stop, for the sake of the fans and for the greater good of the Scottish game in general. It is time for Rangers to reconnect with the truth. Which is why it would have been nice had Rizvi stayed on the phone for a longer chat. He might have been able to clear up many of the issues which continue to distress these supporters and cause them sleepless nights. Just who are Blue Pitch for example? These mysterious offshore backers of Charles Green, who financed the Yorkshiremanâs takeover, buying up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip thanks to the stupendous generosity of administrators Duff and Phelps. It would also have been of interest to ask Mr Rizvi, a long-standing associate of Green and shamed former commercial director Imran Ahmad, if he could shed any light on some of the names of those behind the equally mysterious Margarita. Between them, Blue Pitch and Margarita hold a 15 per cent stake in the club and their voting power â which has been handed over by proxy to the Easdale Brothers â could swing the balance whenever this club finally allows its shareholders to vote on the make-up of the boardroom at its long awaited agm. Could it be that Brian Stockbridge, for example, is to be found standing behind Margaritaâs door? Just asking because if the financial director was to be among these penny-a-share investors then itâs no wonder they are attempting to block the changes that would ultimately lead to Stockbridgeâs removal from power. Right? Hereâs another thing. Did you know Stockbridge and James Easdale last week signed off on a robustly worded warning to the clubâs entire workforce, making it clear that information leaks from inside Ibrox will not be tolerated? Thatâs right. Stockbridge, who infamously filmed former chairman Malcolm Murray worse for wear at the end of a long night out, and Easdale, who endorsed the return of a certain spin doctor to the club. The hypocrisy is mind boggling. In fact, it smacks of yet another hamfisted and ever so slightly sinister attempt to suppress the truth. The fact that their internal memo has already been leaked out on to the internet is a delicious irony. Much has gone on behind the scenes of this club in recent times which defies belief. Senior, trusted and hugely respected figures have been horribly intimidated. These people too have a story to tell. Just like Rizvi. It would do Rangers a world of good if one day the whole truth emerges from this distasteful debacle, no matter how unpleasant or even inconvenient that truth might be. The truth is all that can pull Rangers back from this world through the looking glass and allow it to look at itself in the mirror once again.
They will not like this one bit, fortunately Dave King and his off-the-scale wealth is riding to the rescue on his white charger of justice. He should fit in just fine at Ibrox, him and the Esadales can swap stories of their personal convictions for Tax-dodging.
The truth is out there ! Mr Jackson is too useless or lazy to go find it . He could start with why D&P where in such a hurry to offload Rangers assets to Charles Green and his anonymous investors . i mean it's only been 18 months he's had to get his arse in gear . Better to sit in his comfy office writing bullshit columns than doing in actual journalism though .
He did mention that Aldo, "These mysterious offshore backers of Charles Green, who financed the Yorkshireman’s takeover, buying up Ibrox and Murray Park for a £5.5m snip thanks to the stupendous generosity of administrators Duff and Phelps". I suspect that's why he's phoning Mr Ritzi, to find out if he knows. "It would also have been of interest to ask Mr Rizvi, a long-standing associate of Green and shamed former commercial director Imran Ahmad, if he could shed any light on some of the names of those behind the equally mysterious Margarita".
Makes you wonder why he hasn't bothered to phone D&P or harried them weekly in his rag like he has done with RFC .
No. We want transparency. I'm all for finding out who the dodgy ****ers behind Green, Imran and the Easdales are.
I never said he was good at his job. Maybe he has, I seem to recall they were very dodgy indeed, so it's not as if they would answer his questions if they have something to hide.
5.5m was all anybody was prepared to pay, don't see anything dodgy in that. Without champions league football there is no money to made from Celtic and rangers. That's why not many people were interested and the club went for 5.5m.
It is my understanding that the Blue knights offered more than the 5.5 mill the assets were sold for . They were also sold in an unseemly haste to a mysterious consortium fronted by Green . D&Ps administration should never have been allowed to happen in the first place and their only act that was done with any speed was selling the assets to Green . It stinks to the heavens .
