19.24
Bredonborough.
Visitor Jeff left at 11.20, off to visit John Wetton in Bournemouth.
For T & I: a visit to our favourite garden centre, in Herefordshire, to acquire ideas, information & pots for planting jade trees.
Travelling home from Herefordshire into Worcestershire I…
II…
III…
Continuing to organise space & shelves.
19.54 Reportedly, yesterday was Meltdown Friday for Scottish rugby. Continuing in the news, the (allegedly) avuncular, (allegedly) tight-lipped, music educator & (allegedly) consistency-challenged Mr. Bob Carruthers…
BILL LOTHIAN Fri 3 Aug 2007
ACCORDING to his website Bob Carruthers’ "main speciality" is as a producer of historical documentaries.
As sporting dramas go the Edinburgh Rugby owner could well have a blockbuster on his hands should he decide to script the inside story of a dispute involving the club and Murrayfield bosses which first began to surface back in early November last year… Today it has reached a situation where the club are under orders to quit their home ground - and the governing body are about to be served court papers claiming they owe not just those bar takings but also competition revenues amounting to several million pounds.
So, where did it all go wrong from that July date just over a year ago when SRU chief executive Gordon McKie took obvious pride in announcing that a ground-breaking deal had seen Bob Carruthers, represented by his brother and business partner, Alex, take over the club thereby freeing up cash to sustain two other professional teams in Scotland? There are two schools of thought with Scottish rugby opinion polarised as rarely before.
As part of the deal which brought the Carruthers on board it was announced that exclusive rights to stage concerts at Murrayfield had been ceded. Here I am in possession of an e-mail stating that on May 26 this year The Who would play the home of Scottish Rugby. Similarly, another headline act, Aerosmith, were due to pitch up on June 28. Neither concert materialised and critics of the avuncular Bob Carruthers, one of whose most endearing features is an unbridled passion for every task he undertakes, have seized on this fact to claim he is struggling to underwrite his investment… although Mr Carruthers vehemently denies that his concert business is linked to the fortunes of the rugby club in any way.
On the other side of the coin supporters of Carruthers - or are they professional establishment bashers? - claim the club’s goose under its present management was cooked on March 16 this year. That was the date on which Holyrood railed against a council bid to use Murrayfield’s training pitches as a flood plain for the adjacent Water of Leith… for potential investors like Bob Carruthers, however well intentioned, rugby today is a no-go area unless they are willing to give up anything resembling a measure of influence, far less control, in return for paying players’ wages. Which, of course, is just how the Murrayfield regimes of this world would want it...
Carruthers vs the SRU: how the saga unfolded
November 2, 2006: Edinburgh Rugby announce they are in dispute with the SRU over bar revenues at the national stadium on Edinburgh match days.
November 3, 2006: An SRU spokesperson laughs off the dispute over bar takings, saying: "This is not going to court, not at all. We have a very good relationship with Edinburgh Rugby whom we see as a role model for the other pro teams."
November 23, 2006: Relations between the owners of Edinburgh Rugby and the SRU hit a new low with the governing body threatening to withdraw international hospitality.
December 18, 2006: Edinburgh Rugby owner Bob Carruthers threatens SRU chiefs with legal action over a "substantial" six-figure sum the club claims it is owed . Edinburgh Rugby claim a dispute has arisen over non-payment of participation revenues from the European Cup and Magners League, which should have been collected and distributed by the SRU.
March 27, 2007: The SRU axes the Borders professional team and there are fears of a knock-on in the Scottish game, including Edinburgh Rugby. Bob Carruthers claims he had tried to organise a buy-out of the Borders from the SRU owners last October only to be rebuffed by a one paragraph e-mail response.
April 2, 2007: The SRU threatens to sue Bob Carruthers for "defamatory statements"
April 19, 2007 : Edinburgh Rugby hit back at claims the SRU had retained ownership of contracts relating to the Magners League and European Rugby Cup when the club was sold last year.
April 20, 2007: SRU chief executive Gordon McKie rejects a claim from Edinburgh Rugby of documentary evidence existing of an agreement to sign over contracts guaranteeing increased revenues from Heineken European Cup and Magners Celtic League participation. Bob Carruthers believes one third of competition monies the SRU receives are due to Edinburgh Rugby rather than the one quarter paid out at present.
June 6, 2007: Bob Carruthers warns the SRU it faces a legal battle if Edinburgh Rugby is not included in this season’s Heineken European Cup.
July 5, 2007: Bob Carruthers claims the SRU has offered to buy back Edinburgh Rugby. He claims the governing body is refusing to come up with the original purchase price for which he hinted he would be prepared to sell. "Gordon McKie would like to get Edinburgh back and have us walk away," he says.
July 5, 2007: Bob Carruthers claims at a hastily-convened press conference that Gordon McKie has made clear that any threatened court action over alleged unpaid competition revenues would see Edinburgh Rugby closed down.
July 9, 2007: Bob Carruthers hits out at SRU claims that his team had put themselves in limbo with nobody to play against as a consequence of resigning Associate Membership of the governing body. The SRU also claimed that Edinburgh’s actions disqualified them from an accident insurance scheme effectively making it dangerous for approximately 30 players not attached to Scotland’s World Cup squad to train.
July 10, 2007: Edinburgh Rugby are formally charged with misconduct by the SRU and called to a disciplinary hearing at Murrayfield. The action centres on the alleged withdrawal of players from Scotland’s World Cup training as part of the dispute involving competition payments.
July 13, 2007: Bob Carruthers warns that there will be no hiding place for any Edinburgh Rugby player he finds has been negotiating an alternative contract with the SRU during the current club versus country dispute.
July 25, 2007: Bob Carruthers rejects an SRU "request" for an explanation as to why Scotland captain Chris Paterson had been allowed to leave the club for Gloucester.
July 31, 2007: Bob Carruthers admits his team could be forced out of their hire arrangement at Murrayfield.
August 2, 2007: The SRU announces that Edinburgh Rugby have had their franchise agreement terminated and must leave Murrayfield. In addition, the club must repay £1.4million of advance funding by today.
SRU tries to crush its own investor with eviction and £1.4m demand
GARETH BLACK Fri 3 Aug 2007
The SRU has withdrawn Edinburgh’s entitlement to play or train at Murrayfield
TODAY is Meltdown Friday, the day when the quarrel between Scottish Rugby and Edinburgh heads for insolvency hearings and writs start flying. Or it will be the beginning of the end of the most bitter and divisive dispute that rugby this side of the Border has seen. The stakes are that high.
The brinkmanship in the high-stakes poker game between officials at the SRU and Bob Carruthers, the Edinburgh owner, was raised another notch yesterday when the union announced that Edinburgh had terminated their contract with the union, and accordingly were going to be banned from Murrayfield and have to repay £1.4 million that the union says it has invested in the club over the last year. And the cash has to be paid by close of play tonight.
They can whistle for the money. As far as Carruthers is concerned it was the union that ended the deal by refusing to pay its contribution to the club on Tuesday and continuing to refuse to pay a debt he says has been due since November last year.
However, there is common ground with the shared belief that the deal under which the SRU sold Edinburgh to a Carruthers-headed consortium is dead and all that remains to be sorted out is the terms under which it is buried… If the company ceases trading, then the union would launch a new Edinburgh side… The feeling is that with so many of the top earners having left the club in the last few months, they can run it in the short-term for not much more than they were paying Carruthers.
Yesterday, the SRU raised the stakes again when it announced that because Edinburgh had terminated the agreement it had lost all rights to train or play at Murrayfield… "By so terminating the agreement we are within our rights to demand payment of part of the money that was paid in the last 12 months and they lose the right to train and play at Murrayfield," said McKie. "We would like to bring this to a speedy conclusion that keeps this outwith the court room. We have tried as recently as this week to come to a sensible accommodation with Carruthers to achieve that objective but unfortunately we have been unable to do so”…
… Carruthers, who is off on holiday today, is preparing writs totalling more than £12 million should the dispute continue. His action would accuse the union of failing to pay its debts and of presenting misleading or inaccurate management accounts at the time of the original deal. However, a counterblast to have the union declared insolvent is unlikely now to go ahead. "We are prepared to give up a lot in this," he said. "But I really don’t feel that there is any place for independent rugby in Scotland the way things are run at the moment. I don’t think the union want successful professional clubs, just feeder teams for the national side."
Well. Scottish rugby seems more like the music industry every week.
"Rightness is its own necessity."
