Sg - Still Ensuring Bids Have Club's Best Interests At Heart!

[St. Sid]

Whit the f"k is actually going on here? In The Herald we have SG quoted as saying the consortium will sell to anybody....then we have him in an interview in the Paisley Daily Express telling us the consortium will ".........we are determined to make sure that the people taking over have the club's best interests at heart".

SAINTS chairman Stewart Gilmour last night insisted that fellow director Richard Atkinson would have no problem passing the SFA’s new ‘fit and proper person’ test ... and then claimed the rule is POINTLESS anyway!

Hampden chiefs met on Wednesday to approve measures that will mean directors who are selling their clubs must carry out detailed investigations into the prospective buyers.

The move comes in the wake of the sorry mess created by shamed businessman Craig Whyte’s takeover at cash-strapped Rangers.

Whyte was handed a lifetime ban by the SFA after refusing to pay the Ibrox club’s tax and National Insurance bills before the ’Gers plunged into administration earlier this year.

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Now the SFA is taking further action to protect clubs – but Gilmour insists there should be no fears over Atkinson, who met with St Mirren fans last night as he seeks to push through his £1.5million fan-backed takeover bid for the Buddies.

Gilmour told Express Sports: “None of the guys involved with the Community Interest Company would have any difficulty passing this new SFA test.

“Even without this rule coming in, we would carry out the same rigorous tests anyway as we are determined to make sure that the people taking over have the club’s best interests at heart.”

Gilmour also believes the wording of the new rule could lead the SFA back into court, just weeks after Rangers managed to overturn a transfer embargo by appealing to the Court of Session.

He asked: “How are the SFA going to govern this rule? There is no chance this will work.

“How do you tell if someone is the next Craig Whyte when they may not have done anything wrong yet? Unless they have a conviction for fraud, you are on dangerous ground.

“How do you judge someone without ending up in court for defamation of character? If someone said I wasn’t a fit and proper person to run St Mirren, I’d sue them.

“This is a cosmetic exercise to placate people in the wake of the Rangers episode.”

[Isle Of Bute Saint]

John we all know who has the best interests of the club at heart. You me and all the other fans so I hope you have filled up your direct debit

[saintargyll]

im going to hold my hand up and say im worried about any takeover due to whats happening down at govan

[dave.j]

The fact remains, SG has 3 bids on the table. How long has he been trying to sell his shares?

He would be a mug not to sell now.

The fact is, one of those bids will see the paying punters at the gate taking control of the club.

Only one offer allows the fans to influence the course the club will take.

You have a choice, pay 10 pounds per month and st mirren will truly be your club, you can decide its destiny.

Does that scare you? It would scare me! But it's bloody exciting!

For so long the cries have been that clubs need to listen to fans, read this poll, read that poll. This is how we feel. they are only interested in their blazer and club tie.

You can change all that, you can be that voice, you can vote on who represents the fans in the boardroom. You could be in the boardroom in 6 months.

It may be a difficult decision. Life changing for the club. But this could be the closest you come to it. Don't fall at the final hurdle!

[ktf]

The fact remains, SG has 3 bids on the table. How long has he been trying to sell his shares?

He would be a mug not to sell now.

The fact is, one of those bids will see the paying punters at the gate taking control of the club.

Only one offer allows the fans to influence the course the club will take.

You have a choice, pay 10 pounds per month and st mirren will truly be your club, you can decide its destiny.

Does that scare you? It would scare me! But it's bloody exciting!

For so long the cries have been that clubs need to listen to fans, read this poll, read that poll. This is how we feel. they are only interested in their blazer and club tie.

You can change all that, you can be that voice, you can vote on who represents the fans in the boardroom. You could be in the boardroom in 6 months.

It may be a difficult decision. Life changing for the club. But this could be the closest you come to it. Don't fall at the final hurdle!

When the fan of another club can see this, it surely means it's time to act. Good on ya Dave!

[St. Sid]

John we all know who has the best interests of the club at heart. You me and all the other fans so I hope you have filled up your direct debit

Said it before LS, I won't try and talk anyone out of signing up, just as I won't try and talk anyone into signing up. It should be their decision based on facts. We have two conflicting version on the consortiums attatude to the sale - should we get 100% clarification as there has been quite a lot of hysteria around the two bids, when no actual information has been provided.

I'm not the won campaigning for fans to sign up. I've just posted an article that contradicts what we are being told about the consortium just selling to the first bidder that can ACTUALLY produce the funds and business plan to properly support the club.

My view is the campaigning should stop, the information presented in a prospectus and fans allowed to make a decision for themselves. We are still in blurb and blah, blah mode.

[Isle Of Bute Saint]

You were sitting about three seats along from me at the meeting now while I might not be the brightest spark on the planet what I heard was clear enough from Richard so go get your ears syringed John because you obviously did not pick up on the clarity ! ! !

I still can't get my head round how you were the very person flying the fag for the CIC with incredible enthusiasm. Can't believe for one moment you want to see none St Mirren people take control of the club as it just dose not make any sort of sense compared to fan ownership. The only thing I can think of is that you're under the impression SG is telling porkies to help push the CIC through. That's a high risk strategy John

[Evil_Panda]

Said it before LS, I won't try and talk anyone out of signing up, just as I won't try and talk anyone into signing up. It should be their decision based on facts. We have two conflicting version on the consortiums attatude to the sale - should we get 100% clarification as there has been quite a lot of hysteria around the two bids, when no actual information has been provided.

I'm not the won campaigning for fans to sign up. I've just posted an article that contradicts what we are being told about the consortium just selling to the first bidder that can ACTUALLY produce the funds and business plan to properly support the club.

My view is the campaigning should stop, the information presented in a prospectus and fans allowed to make a decision for themselves. We are still in blurb and blah, blah mode.

But the campaigning has stopped. It's now or never as far as fan ownership of st.mirren is concerned.

Then again, when you see people turning up at the meetings with a carry out you have to ask if we can be trusted with the running of our own club.

[St. Sid]

You were sitting about three seats along from me at the meeting now while I might not be the brightest spark on the planet what I heard was clear enough from Richard so go get your ears syringed John because you obviously did not pick up on the clarity ! ! !

I still can't get my head round how you were the very person flying the fag for the CIC with incredible enthusiasm. Can't believe for one moment you want to see none St Mirren people take control of the club as it just dose not make any sort of sense compared to fan ownership. The only thing I can think of is that you're under the impression SG is telling porkies to help push the CIC through. That's a high risk strategy John

I'm not saying that at all LS. However, the CIC's fan rally team went to great lengths to focus fans attention on the fear of some asset stripper coming into the club. "If Reg Brealey walked into the room / if Charles Green gave up on scumgers and turned his attention to St Mirren. The PDE article states with some clarity the the consortium will make sure the people taking over will have the club's best interest at heart. SG & Co invested in the club to stop it falling into the hands of Brealey...now the insinuation is that the consortium would sell the club to a similar bidder.

I didn't publish the article in the PDE, nor did I force SG to make the statement he has about continuing to protect the club. What I am highlighting is additional information that can assist people to look at this in a balanced way. I am taking a massive step back from trying to influence people one way or another. They need to look at the facts and make their own minds up. I went into the meeting with a lot of questions regarding the CIC and left with even more than I started with. You will not that I am not asking anything controversial or putting any spin on any information. Others are taking soundbites and building a campaign around them. I don't think that is wise at this point in time with so many unknowns. If you want to be responsible for pushing people down an uncertain route that again is your decision. I'm personally not comfortable in doing that at this stage - professionally I avoid selling stuff that I don't know works. I've weighed up what I know about the CIC against what I don't know - therefore I won't push people one way or the other. If the deadline wasn't in play, and if The Herald article hadn't been released I would be pushing for the information that I would require. The fans will make a decision and we will all have to live with it - some fans that didn't get involved at this stage may end up have to bail the whole thing out with their own money at a later point. Fans have been put in a shit position - I think we should now be left to make our own minds up without any peer pressure.

Time to respect each others decisions. Let people ask questions of 10000 Hours need to. Get the response, clarify it if necessary and leave it at that. I have yet to meet a fan that has been able to speak about the CIC / SMFC strategy with any great knowledge - no one should be ramming a decision down other fans throats on that basis.

[St. Sid]

But the campaigning has stopped. It's now or never as far as fan ownership of st.mirren is concerned.

Then again, when you see people turning up at the meetings with a carry out you have to ask if we can be trusted with the running of our own club.

I've heard the pitch a number of times now.......and when TsuMirren stood up threatening to go Ebbsfleet on us again I was glad I had a beer to hand.

[Stuart Dickson]

I'm not saying that at all LS. However, the CIC's fan rally team went to great lengths to focus fans attention on the fear of some asset stripper coming into the club. "If Reg Brealey walked into the room / if Charles Green gave up on scumgers and turned his attention to St Mirren. The PDE article states with some clarity the the consortium will make sure the people taking over will have the club's best interest at heart. SG & Co invested in the club to stop it falling into the hands of Brealey...now the insinuation is that the consortium would sell the club to a similar bidder.

I didn't publish the article in the PDE, nor did I force SG to make the statement he has about continuing to protect the club. What I am highlighting is additional information that can assist people to look at this in a balanced way. I am taking a massive step back from trying to influence people one way or another. They need to look at the facts and make their own minds up. I went into the meeting with a lot of questions regarding the CIC and left with even more than I started with. You will not that I am not asking anything controversial or putting any spin on any information. Others are taking soundbites and building a campaign around them. I don't think that is wise at this point in time with so many unknowns. If you want to be responsible for pushing people down an uncertain route that again is your decision. I'm personally not comfortable in doing that at this stage - professionally I avoid selling stuff that I don't know works. I've weighed up what I know about the CIC against what I don't know - therefore I won't push people one way or the other. If the deadline wasn't in play, and if The Herald article hadn't been released I would be pushing for the information that I would require. The fans will make a decision and we will all have to live with it - some fans that didn't get involved at this stage may end up have to bail the whole thing out with their own money at a later point. Fans have been put in a shit position - I think we should now be left to make our own minds up without any peer pressure.

Time to respect each others decisions. Let people ask questions of 10000 Hours need to. Get the response, clarify it if necessary and leave it at that. I have yet to meet a fan that has been able to speak about the CIC / SMFC strategy with any great knowledge - no one should be ramming a decision down other fans throats on that basis.

Sid, just posting to back you up. 10000hours appear to have put out all the information they are going to do before the offer closes. In the absence of any significant new information people will just have to make their own minds up based on the information that is out there whether they want this or not and I think you've called it right that it's time to give everyone breathing space to come to their own conclusions.

Personally I'd love to see 10000hours get the subscribers they need and for the sale of the 52% to go ahead but that's my personal choice.

[St. Sid]

Sid, just posting to back you up. 10000hours appear to have put out all the information they are going to do before the offer closes. In the absence of any significant new information people will just have to make their own minds up based on the information that is out there whether they want this or not and I think you've called it right that it's time to give everyone breathing space to come to their own conclusions.

Personally I'd love to see 10000hours get the subscribers they need and for the sale of the 52% to go ahead but that's my personal choice.

Just took a call from my in-laws down in Ferguslie Park. The Housing Association has been approached by 10000 Hours to say that they would like to work with residents on a joint project they reckon they can get significant ScotGov funding for. The cunning plan is to attach turbines to every washing line if Feegie that will drive power to the floodlights at St Mirren Park. The SNP have offered to double the funding if fans start abusing the referee in Gaelic.

[TsuMirren]

I've heard the pitch a number of times now.......and when TsuMirren stood up threatening to go Ebbsfleet on us again I was glad I had a beer to hand.

I was ordered to stand, didn't get a vote or anything!

[Stuart Dickson]

Just took a call from my in-laws down in Ferguslie Park. The Housing Association has been approached by 10000 Hours to say that they would like to work with residents on a joint project they reckon they can get significant ScotGov funding for. The cunning plan is to attach turbines to every washing line if Feegie that will drive power to the floodlights at St Mirren Park. The SNP have offered to double the funding if fans start abusing the referee in Gaelic.

Nah, that can't be true. The SNP doing something for communities.....that'll be a first

[reborn saint]

I am hearing that the St Mirren BOD are suffering some kind of potentially fatal illness if the club is not sold now. Only a cheque for £300,000- £400,000 each can save them. Please understand that if 10000hrs dosn't raise the money then the death of our club was outwith the hands of SG as he had to save their lives.

[Guest TPAFKATS]

Just took a call from my in-laws down in Ferguslie Park. The Housing Association has been approached by 10000 Hours to say that they would like to work with residents on a joint project they reckon they can get significant ScotGov funding for. The cunning plan is to attach turbines to every washing line if Feegie that will drive power to the floodlights at St Mirren Park. The SNP have offered to double the funding if fans start abusing the referee in Gaelic.

That explains why Mooy was no longer required...

[Guest TPAFKATS]

Fans have been put in a shit position

That sums up the whole situation for me

[St. Sid]

That sums up the whole situation for me

It actually reminds me of the weapons of mass destruction dossier vote at the Commons.

[FTOF]

It may well be a "shit position" we've been put into.

However,I'm sure the fans of the blue bigots,Dundee,Livingston etc. will be able to tell you what a "really shit position" is with regards to your club.Especially,when you've got no influence over anything that happens as your club goes down the lavvy.

That potential scenario,is what has influenced me to make my decision, even though there are risks involved.

Of course one of the other bidders that will own our club,if the co-op bid fails, could provide us with a better scenario involving fan involvement and relative security for the club.However, IMO,I don't think that's very likely.

[St. Sid]

It may well be a "shit position" we've been put into.

However,I'm sure the fans of the blue bigots,Dundee,Livingston etc. will be able to tell you what a "really shit position" is with regards to your club.Especially,when you've got no influence over anything that happens as your club goes down the lavvy.

That potential scenario,is what has influenced me to make my decision, even though there are risks involved.

Of course one of the other bidders that will own our club,if the co-op bid fails, could provide us with a better scenario involving fan involvement and relative security for the club.However, IMO,I don't think that's very likely.

It's a shit position nonetheless. Well run club being after years of debt hell and uncertainty of its future and the clubs "guardians" hold the fans to ransom pushing the club into a £1.5Million debt by proxy. "Pay us or we'll sell to someone else!" - despicable stuff from the consortium.

[RickMcD]

It's a shit position nonetheless. Well run club being after years of debt hell and uncertainty of its future and the clubs "guardians" hold the fans to ransom pushing the club into a £1.5Million debt by proxy. "Pay us or we'll sell to someone else!" - despicable stuff from the consortium.

What do we do then,Sid? This just might be as good as it gets. A white knight St.Mirren loving fan might come galloping along but he has been taking his time if he exists. Are you suggesting the best thing is for the 10.000 hours proposals get kicked into touch and it's back to the drawing board playing Russian Roulette that the consortium won't sell to Whyte Mark 4 or whatever the hell we've got to?.That has to be a hell of a risk. A few short weeks ago you were waxing eloquent that SG would never let us down. It's a seismic shift in your position.

[St. Sid]

What do we do then,Sid? This just might be as good as it gets. A white knight St.Mirren loving fan might come galloping along but he has been taking his time if he exists. Are you suggesting the best thing is for the 10.000 hours proposals get kicked into touch and it's back to the drawing board playing Russian Roulette that the consortium won't sell to Whyte Mark 4 or whatever the hell we've got to?.That has to be a hell of a risk. A few short weeks ago you were waxing eloquent that SG would never let us down. It's a seismic shift in your position.

I'm not telling anyone to do anything Rick. It is up to the fans to make their own choice now. I do think it is okay for fans to be pissed off with the position we are put in though. I also don't buy into the current hysterical frenzy around the two mystery bidders. It is all too convenient.

I have been in contact with Angelo Massone directly and he does not confirm ANY approach for St Mirren. Why couldn't the professional journalists do what I have done and report this properly? Why are we being allowed to speculate that Angelo is one of the bidders when he isn't?

[Guest TPAFKATS]

What do we do then,Sid? This just might be as good as it gets. A white knight St.Mirren loving fan might come galloping along but he has been taking his time if he exists. Are you suggesting the best thing is for the 10.000 hours proposals get kicked into touch and it's back to the drawing board playing Russian Roulette that the consortium won't sell to Whyte Mark 4 or whatever the hell we've got to?.That has to be a hell of a risk. A few short weeks ago you were waxing eloquent that SG would never let us down. It's a seismic shift in your position.

Why is it always a negative example that is used if a non St. Mirren fan buys the club?

[RickMcD]

Why is it always a negative example that is used if a non St. Mirren fan buys the club?

I didn't mean to imply that there is negativity in a non St.Mirren fan becoming the new owner. If someone with the readies comes along and buys the club outright and at the same time throws a million or two in the pot, he'll get my support. With the 10.000 hours proposal there's an element of the devil we know.We more or less know the proposals. The big debatable point is can the debt be serviced and there's the rub. A fairly informed body thinks it can. If the club becomes fan owned then there is surely a collective will to make it work. Anything else is a complete unknown and fan ownership is probably out the window.

Is there an alternative?

[Guest TPAFKATS]

I didnt mean it just at you Rick - everyone who mentions the "alternative" to the CIC always has a negative slant on it, mainly as it isnt a St.Mirren fan. Similar viewpoint to the blue knights over at the tax dodgers now that I think of it.

Apparently there are 2 alternatives, we just dont know what they are! I am however 99% sure that they wont be offering more money to the selling consortium than the CIC is.

Roll on next week - good luck St.Mirren whatever happens