McDougall Gone?

http://livingstonfc.co.uk/our-side-of-the-story/

Kind of thing doesn't even surprise me any more.

I think it's safe to say the Trust's offer of mediation is out the window.

Hey ho another court case is coming this season. I don't know how this one will go but i really don't see why it should be any different for McDougall than it was for Nixon. The signed agreement may cause us a problem but I suppose it will come down to a judge deciding who is being unreasonable.

Judge Rinder is the man to sort it out, it's a circus already, may as well go the whole hog and stick it up on the telly.

Looking at the last couple of "press releases" from the club I'd assume Ford is back in the states?

Sometimes when I'm really irritated by someone I'll type out an email responding in full - once completed I'll delete and write a more diplomatic one. I NEVER press the send until I've thought it over.

To be honest, reading some of the somewhat inflammatory wording, I'd wonder if someone's lost the delete button?

Must say its odd that Ford never know about the £40k due to the 3rd party agent when he took on the club; and now it seems he wasn't aware of an agreement between McDougall and Rankin - either his due diligence was sh1te or someone wasn't being entirely honest when disclosing the true financial condition of the clubs commitments?

Can't say I saw anything inflammatory...well maybe the comment about the debt spiralling under his chairmanship & his refusal to then put any more money in, I suppose that implied McDougall couldn't run a bath never mind a football club.

However, if that whole statement is factual then I'm afraid while McD probably is a decent chap who was hands on etc etc... he certainly wasn't the white knight of the boardroom that he has been portrayed as elsewhere.
If the statement is inaccurate then I'm sure McD will now also sue for libel.

The bit of the statement that struck me however, was nothing to do with the dispute with McD but in fact touches on something being discussed on another thread...the playing budget & squad size.

The statement indicates that the player budget has been stripped to the minimum (if so then congratulations all round on the quality of player in the squad) & the squad is apparently probably the smallest squad in the division! (that being the case will Lexi now go into panic mode & assume relegation?   )

If these are both true then comments like "I'd rather we paid off McD than sign another player to an already too big squad" start to appear naïve & ill informed.

Also, Durnford, not sure where you get the impression that Ford didn't know about the Rankine/McDougall (weren't they rival flour companies at one time?) repayment deal; the statement suggests it was known about but it highlights that there was nothing official in club records, it was only a deal between Rankine & McDougall & that over the last 2 months they have tried to resolve it with a revised repayment plan; so (this is now a general comment, not specifically addressed to Durnford) they were not planning on diddling McD out of his money just wanting to be a bit more realistic on the terms of repayment.

Depends what the budget actually is, before we've visibly seen the drop in budget with the quality of player that was let go being replaced with a lesser quality one. This season we've brought in a few higher quality players and some youth players with a certain amount of experience from playing at other clubs instead of bringing our own youth players through.

In fairness we don't have players of that standard coming through just yet and have brought on 5 of our own to develop them further by playing them now and again from the subs bench.

We've plenty cover in defence and up front but our midfield isn't as packed full as we're used to, normally that's our strongest area. We were unlucky with injuries all being from the same area though, and prob could do with another midfielder signed up.

My issue with the statement was the mention of the agreement only existing between Rankine & McDougall when there's photos online of the repayment contract signed by several parties, including Robert Wilson who's still on the board.

Would be happy to believe the rest of it otherwise but this raises doubts in my mind.

Wasn't aware of this, where about?

I've seen it on the Livi fc facebook, McDougall, Twigg, Wilson  and Rankine signed it. Think it was the STV gadgie that put it up on his twitter page.

Never use Facebook, don't want to & no one can make me...sorry, off on a tangent.

This document also states "the loan is not repayable on demand" & "Gordon McDougall will not pursue repayment of any part of the loan specified within this document other than as detailed below"

I suppose it could be argued that since he hasn't received the monthly payments for 6 months that the "contract" was broken by the club...but it was broken by the club under his own stewardship; so it could be argued that he forced the situation that broke the contract in order to be able to claim it all back. Which smacks of "conflict of interest"

I also find it very amusing that Lorraine Twigg (she of EastFifegate fame) is the witness.

According to the EN Livi have been ordered by the court to pay McDougall his 6 months arrears on that agreement. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/livingston/livingston-ordered-to-pay-gordon-mcdougall-13-000-1-3851523

Livingston have been hit by a court order to pay former chairman Gordon McDougall £13,000 in arrears owed to him from the past six months.

Looks like that 2K a month agreement will have to be paid then, feck knows where this leaves us if the new owners were saying they couldn't afford to pay it.


STV (spit) have a bit about it too, saying payment from the SPFL is due and it is hoped they will withhold the 13K and pay it to McDougall after sheriff officers served them notice today.

If McDougall gets this 13K arrested doesn't that mean it is frozen from anyone getting it until the court case between him and Livi decides who is getting what?

I like the STV's impartial report on it, hoping the SPFL withhold the payment to Livi and pay it to McDougall. I don't think they can pay it to McDougall anyway, Livi will be waiting till the court case with McDougall decides what they have to pay him, STV w@nkers.

I seem to remember a previous scenario when someone got an arrestment order - it was a much maligned Livi fan who'd done some work for the club and realised, very quickly, that the new owners at the time didn't have a pot to piss in and that he'd very likely have more chance of finding Red Rum and hoping he shat gold, than getting paid for the work.

After two cup crowds of sub 800 crowds, I wonder if McDougall has come to the same conclusion.

I think the court proceedings are probably a tactic to pressurise Livingston to settle out of court. At the end of the day, if he were to win the case, he's only going to succeed in putting the club into administration (where he will get buttons back) as there's obviously no money in the bank or any assets worth selling at present.

If he was realistic, the quickest way to get his money back would be to negotiate a repayment plan on a lower monthly payment but with the premise that he gets x% of any transfer revenue until the debt is paid off. Chances are there will be another 100k+ player that comes through the ranks in the next few years and if he were to get, say, half of that with continuing lower repayment, that's clearly a quicker way than 2.5k a month on it's own.

Also, does it not seem ridiculous that Livingston apparently offered him a deal worth about 8/9k a year less than what the current 'unaffordable' repayment was then proceeded to sign Gallagher who will undoubtedly be on that even with the assault conviction.

It's all very strange.

It all seems like the actions of an angry man, it's a pity the Trust couldn't act as a mediator instead of the courts having to do it.

The continued press coverage give a very strong impression that the Trust's laudable attempt to mediate has fallen on deaf ears... Perhaps it is time for another update from them?

I imagine we'll get another update next week, that's only from the previous Thursday.

I know, but the story has moved on in the press, with McDougall claiming he is still chairman as the current board don't have the authority to remove him, along with the apparent arrestment of the firsts payment from the league. All of which suggest that McD is not for changing his mind.