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2 minutes ago, capitanus said:

I think that it was more to do with them being stuck between a rock and a hard place, there was never likely to be an alternative bidder(s) for the club whenever certain parties were sniffing around, and the way they could save face and knock them back at the same time is to 'sell' to a 'fans' group.  Or alternatively, see one of my previous posts about Operation Charabanc.

 

Possibly. Could have been a business choice so they didn't lose local sales or a choice to make living in Inverclyde easier for him and his family or he just loves the club. 

Either way, I think he wanted tried to support the best option even if others in GC didn't. And that's maybe the reason lawyers are struggling to get things done if he didn't have full authority to do that. 

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Dear members,

We’re looking to create an MCT member volunteer bank. As the club season ticket tagline said this season, we’re nothing without you. 

We’re so close to bringing community ownership to the club and we’d love you to assist us in volunteering some of your time and skills if you can, to help us move Morton forward this season and beyond. 

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, can you answer the following questions in an email to business@mortonclubtogether.co.uk

  • What is your general background?
  • Can you assist us on a regular basis, for example weekly, bi weekly, monthly or even just on one off occasions from time to time?
  • The following types of items are examples of what we think our bank of volunteers could help with going forward?
    • Visitor and fan experience improvements
    • Sales of specific items, such as match day tickets
    • General assistance with tidy up of the stadium on a regular basis, or
    • Helping with matchday preparation of the stadium

The input of members in helping the team at the club to make improvements is a rewarding experience to be involved with. If you are keen to lend a hand then your support is both appreciated and welcomed. 

Thanks,

MCT Volunteering Team

TIME FOR CHANGE!

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1 minute ago, vikingTON said:

So we have a weekly update which is good, but then we have this about the takeover:

"There have been some discussions back and forward between both parties this week but the situation remains similar to our previous update last week. It’s important we get this right, crossing every t and dotting every i. It’s frustrating in the short term, but the long term is a community owned Greenock Morton Football Club."

Remember that as of the end of May, the takeover was portrayed as being done and only pesky HMRC not getting round to reading their in-tray was holding things up for a few days. So what exactly needs to be discussed back and forth between both parties now? I'm not expecting confidential details to be put in the open domain but this does not seem to be a stall as much as a reversal in progress. 

Indeed. The longer this drags on the concern that the cause(s) of the delays are more serious than they're making out is increasing. 

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19 hours ago, vikingTON said:

So we have a weekly update today which is good, but then we have this about the takeover:

"There have been some discussions back and forward between both parties this week but the situation remains similar to our previous update last week. It’s important we get this right, crossing every t and dotting every i. It’s frustrating in the short term, but the long term is a community owned Greenock Morton Football Club."

Remember that as of the end of May, the takeover was portrayed as being done and only pesky HMRC not getting round to reading their in-tray was holding things up for a few days. So what exactly needs to be discussed back and forth between both parties now? I'm not expecting confidential details to be put in the public domain but this does not seem to be a stall as much as a reversal in progress. 

Crawford Rae has played a blinder. He transfers all responsibility for running the club to MCT while he still holds onto all the assets. Then he waits to see if MCT fall on their face where he can step back in and put the club into administration and blame MCT for the failure. MCT have be naive from the start to trust Crawford Rae he's played them like a fiddle.

Time MCT grew a pair got this deal signed or walk away.

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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
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3 hours ago, 9 Strathblane Crescent said:

Crawford Rae has played a blinder. He transfers all responsibility for running the club to MCT while he still holds onto all the assets. Then he waits to see if MCT fall on their face where he can step back in and put the club into administration and blame MCT for the failure. MCT have be naive from the start to trust Crawford Rae he's played them like a fiddle.

Time MCT grew a pair got this deal signed or walk away.

I totally agree.

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"CORNBEEF IS A BELLEND"

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12 hours ago, LargsTON said:

I totally agree.

Cant agree. Crawford Rae was piledriving the club into the dirt. MCT may or may not be a disaster but the alternative was lowland league doom or liquidation anyway so something had to change.

 

Peter Weatherson is the greatest player since Ritchie, and should be assigned 'chairman for life' 


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Dear members,

In our past couple of updates we’ve stressed how important it is to get our takeover of the club right, as opposed to rushing it. We mentioned it being complex, and for those interested, we’re now in a position to explain the complexities.

The system of registering land in Scotland changed in the 70s. When you bought a house after that date, you received a neat yellow “land certificate” which outlined, in relatively simple terms, the title conditions and the extent of the land that you own. Prior to that date, transactions were recorded in the “Sasines Register”. These titles (often dating back centuries and written with quill and ink on parchment paper) had to be ingathered and checked to ensure that you were buying the property that you thought you were buying, and that there were no title conditions that would cause restrictions on your property. For example, there is one football club who have a title condition that allows the local farmer to graze his cattle on the pitch every Tuesday and Thursday. Mark Farrell has only just got Cappielow back to it’s previous bowling green condition, you can imagine his reaction if that condition appeared on the Cappielow titles. 

Unfortunately for us, the title to Cappielow has not changed hands for about 100 years. As such, it is not a neat and simple land certificate. It is further complicated by the fact that the club has acquired more land in different transactions over the years. The title actually consists of multiple title deeds covering different sections of the stadium. Not only do each of these titles have to be checked, but they have to be pieced together like a giant jigsaw to ensure that the club does actually own all the land that it is occupying.

To make matters even more difficult, many title descriptions on titles of that age include boundary descriptions like “ten paces west from the shepherd’s hut”. Obviously the shepherd’s hut is not there any more, and the length of ten paces is unclear. 

We have already discovered that the club does not own a very small parcel of land that it currently occupies. That is not a major obstacle, as the parcel of land is small and on the periphery of the stadium. However, if we were to discover an issue with a more important piece of land (eg the centre circle), that would be a problem. For this reason, we have to take great care to ensure that all the title deeds join together to cover the footprint of the stadium. 

This problem has come about due to the agreement to transfer title to the stadium from Greenock Morton Football Club Ltd into the ownership of a new property company, owned and controlled by MCT. It is now necessary to review the titles before the first registration in the land register, to ensure that there is a valid title to the land. The earlier proposals, around Golden Casket retaining title or taking a security over the land, would not have caused a change in ownership of the land and so would not have necessitated a first registration. It is only because of the negotiated position that allowed the club and stadium to be in fan ownership that these difficulties have arisen. 

As we’ve mentioned we are firmly of the view that it is more important to get this right, than to do it quickly. We are sure that you will agree with this philosophy. The delays have been frustrating for everyone but please continue to be patient with this. It is important to emphasise that MCT and Golden Casket are still totally committed to the agreed deal. It is just taking time to do this, while following all the necessary steps required by HMRC to avoid a huge tax liability. We will update you again on the takeover when there are further developments.

Club News

We hope you enjoyed the match if you were able to make it along to Cappielow on Saturday, or if you were watching at home on the stream. Just to reiterate, the current restrictions placed on fans when attending matches are far from ideal and we’re hoping they’ll be relaxed come our next home match against Queen of the South on the 21st.

There’s been some new additions to the club off the pitch this week, with the new General Manager being appointed along with our new Kit Manager and Digital Content Executive. 

Chris Ross begins his role as General Manager on Monday next week. His role is a key club appointment and MCT director, Stewart Farmer, said “we believe Chris’ experience and knowledge are extremely impressive, and he’ll bring a fresh impetus to help drive the club forward under community ownership.”

Liam McDaid and Gareth Reid have started as our new Kit Manager and Digital Content Executive, respectively. Liam joins from the Scottish FA and Gareth has been supporting the club over the past year as a volunteer, so it’s great to see him step into a role to help the club grow even further.

We know fans have been frustrated by the lack of new additions on the pitch. It was mentioned in the boardroom programme notes on Saturday that Gus is working extremely hard to bring in new players and that hasn’t changed. The transfer window remains open until the end of August. We'd like to thank all fans for their ongoing patience and support, especially behind the team that took to the pitch on Saturday. It was superb to see so many academy graduates in the squad, with Lewis McGrattan getting on the scoresheet too. That's a real positive to shout about.

We'll be back in touch in a few days with the details of our upcoming AGM.

Thanks,

MCT Comms Team

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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1 hour ago, port-ton said:

Good to see more communication coming out of the club. That's all that's needed. Good news or bad news it's just better to be kept in the loop.

Such a Morton problem to have with the stadium as well. 

It is but surely something that could have been offered weeks if not months ago. Hopefully MCT learn from this and appreciate the importance of being more pro-active in communications going forward. As for the title issue this kind of thing is really not that unusual and I would have thought could be sorted with a title indemnity policy, if required. 

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4 hours ago, port-ton said:

For example, there is one football club who have a title condition that allows the local farmer to graze his cattle on the pitch every Tuesday and Thursday. Mark Farrell has only just got Cappielow back to it’s previous bowling green condition, you can imagine his reaction if that condition appeared on the Cappielow titles. 

Unless that club is Morton and this burden appears on the title deeds of Cappielow, it is a bit of an irrelevant point to make.

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Greenock in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a hive of industry  - shipyards, docks, heavy engineering works, railways etc.  I cant imagine there would be too many shepherds poncing about in a shed in that area back then.

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On 8/4/2021 at 5:50 PM, capitanus said:

Greenock in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a hive of industry  - shipyards, docks, heavy engineering works, railways etc.  I cant imagine there would be too many shepherds poncing about in a shed in that area back then.

There was, in fairness. 

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4 hours ago, Kav said:

 

There was, in fairness. 

Obviously there was, in fairness.  Otherwise it wouldnt be mentioned in the title deeds.  :)

 

So what they need to do is establish the precise location where some farmer had his byre back in the 19th century,  and make some modern day calculations based upon this.  It should be no hassle at all really, don't know what the fuss is about.  :)

Edited by capitanus

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9 hours ago, capitanus said:

Obviously there was, in fairness.  Otherwise it wouldnt be mentioned in the title deeds.  :)

 

So what they need to do is establish the precise location where some farmer had his byre back in the 19th century,  and make some modern day calculations based upon this.  It should be no hassle at all really, don't know what the fuss is about.  :)

To be fair, when I last moved house there was a plot of land on the end of the estate that was on my title deeds for some reason and it caused a few weeks delay. That was a fairly new property so I can understand why it's taking a bit of time. 

I don't really understand why they didn't just say there was a change to the deal which threw up an issue with registering the land to the new company when they knew about it weeks ago though rather than it dragging on and rumours starting up. 

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11 hours ago, capitanus said:

Obviously there was, in fairness.  Otherwise it wouldnt be mentioned in the title deeds.  :)

 

So what they need to do is establish the precise location where some farmer had his byre back in the 19th century,  and make some modern day calculations based upon this.  It should be no hassle at all really, don't know what the fuss is about.  :)

Indeed. Piece of piss! 

As an aside, I moved into a new build house 3 years ago and been wrangled into a dispute over 1ft of land that borders onto another garden that my neighbour claims is his land. He's taking the contractors to court to settle it. These things are daft and often dependent on on how easy-ozy people are, but it can bite you in the arse. Archaic land registration is at fault and as many faults MCT have made in the last few months, this particular shouldn't be held against them. 

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