05/03/2012 Newsnight Scotland

can engage abroad. Wet look at what On Newsnet Scotland, the future of

several Rangers players hangs in the balance after an eleventh-hour

offer to defer wages. Administrators say they will take a

decision on redundancies in the morning after meetings today ended

without agreement. Will the players offer be enough to prevent any

sackings? Outspoken and often controversial -

we look back on a life of one of Scotland's top QCs, Paul McBride.

Good evening. After a day of talks at the club's training ground, a

Rangers player has emerged this evening after a last ditch effort

to save their jobs. They will have to wait until tomorrow morning to

see whether they have a future at the club after administrators

agreed to sleep on the offer. This on the day that the SPL announced

it had launched its own investigation into alleged non-

disclosure of payments to players that the Club 18-1998.

For those arriving at Murray Park today, there was not much training

going on. Instead, players and administrators spent the day trying

to hammer out a voluntary one month's pay cut of up to 75% for

the most expensive signings to try to save �1 million by the end of

the month. Players made a counter- offer which the administrators

agreed to consider over night. The administrators say they have had a

number of expressions of interest from potential buyers and have set

Friday of next week as the deadline. For that to work, the clock's

liabilities need to be clarified and minimised. Fans would like to

fast forward to a day when this is all behind them.

Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Hearts is a clear demonstration that it is

not just the financial rules which have affected Rangers. The dreary

rain at the end of the game summed up the mood including news that

administrators had rejected the offer by players to defer wages

because it would simply add to the debt and not make Rangers more

attractive to potential buyers. this stage, nothing surprises or

disappoints me. You just have to face the facts and based what is on

the table and deal with it. reality is that complete

liquidation remains a possibility and the rules say that would mean

starting again from the bottom of the Third Division. At Hampden, an

SPL meeting on financial fair play with the club chairmen discussed

potential outcomes. We're looking at what should happen when a club

goes into administration or if a club cannot exit administration, if

it needs to potentially transferor at its share in the SPL. All of

those areas were included in the debate. What was the consensus?

is not fair to say there was any consensus on any one issue. The

board will have to glean what changes are most favourable and

what clubs would most like to see and bring forward rule changes that

will take effect going forward. There was news regarding �85,000

worth of tickets sales on the by Rangers to Dunfermline. We have

come to an arrangement with them and we're happy with that and

they're happy with it. Is there a feeling of sympathy towards Rangers

at this moment? I think everyone has sympathy with the club, not

necessarily with the individuals who caused it. As one problem

appeared to be solved, another erupted. Former Rangers director

Hugh Adam has alleged that official contracts registered with the SPL

did not match the actual deals struck with players, something

ongoing for 40 years and throughout the day that my right here. The SPL

has lodged an investigation. -- David Murray either. We will

investigate whether any payments were made that were undisclosed at

that time and pursue that. How long will that process: for? I will not

make any predictions about the future. Any process will take the

appropriate amount of time. Rather than predictions about how long it

will last, we will conduct the investigations as quickly as we can.

Saturday's rainbow over Ibrox did not pave the way to a pot of gold

to solve Rangers wars, but Ally McCoist insists there will somehow

always be at Rangers. I am 100% confident that our football club

will absolutely continue. I am not sure yet what she performed it will

continue in, but it will continue and every supporter to a man will

continue following as and whatever she perform we are. As players and

staff at screened out of the club's training ground tonight, Rangers'

difficulties remained not just unresolved but mounting due to the

new allegations. I am joined now by Tom English who

writes for the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday and in Edinburgh,

football finance expert Neil Patey. Wet start with you, Tom. We're told

the players have been made this final offer tonight. At -- have

made. Any idea what is in this offer? We're in the realm of pay

deferrals. The administrators have made it clear they are not

interested in payment deferrals so they seem to be at loggerheads. We

talked about a decision on this on Thursday then Friday. Today was

supposed to be the day and now it is tomorrow. I suspect they will

not be agreement between the players and the administrators.

be clear, as we understand it, the administrators want a mixture of

redundancies and pay cuts or with the cuts varying depending on how

much the players earn? There are some big earners and smaller

earner's. There is a big debate on what the administrators want. It

seems obvious to me there are a lot of players - I could name five or

six of the top of my head - that you could cut. I do not want to be

heartless but players that are not contributing a huge amount. My

example is Neil Alexander, a top bloke, the reserve goalkeeper. He

is on about �12,000 a week and has played 13 games in two years'. Per

game, he is on a �96,000 a match. That is ridiculous for a club like

Rangers. Let's bring in Neil Patey. Why won't the administrators have

taken the decision to cut loose some players who are perhaps not

contributing as much as they might? I think some will ultimately be cut

loose. The ideal situation for the administrators as some kind of pay

cut which will minimise the players let go but they would like to do

that as a package. I would have thought unless the administrators

are very lucky, there will have to be some element of job cuts in the

next 24 or 48 hours. Redundancies are not cost-free.

administrators can let them call and can break a contract. That is

part of the administration process so it is effectively for the for

the administrators. We have heard from the administrators that they

will sleep on this proposal. In the words of Paul Clark, a very

realistic option was being explored. -- of Paris. Is it realistic to

defer wages? I think they will have to remove some players out of the

club and they do not think defending wages as an option. They

have said clearly they do not want defending wages. A lot of people

out there are wondering what the delay has. We do not want bloodlust

but this club, as we have been told constantly, need to save �1 million

per month. It seems to me that the longer the delay taking their

medicine, the greater the likelihood of liquidation. How do

you assess the chances of liquidation at this stage? I think

it is still a real possibility it and by liquidation, I mean where

they liquidate their assets. They will sell the club, the squat,

Murray Park to a new owner. -- squad. The process of liquidating

the assets has to be a real possibility. Any sign of interested

buyers? I think the deadline is still a couple of weeks.

administrators say they have had a couple of notices of interest and

have put the deadline down to see if it is a real interest and

interest with backing. I think the administrators are hoping they have

at least one or two prospective buyers that they can have a

discussion with. Let's talk about the decision by

the SPL today to launch its own investigation. How do you assess

that? I welcome it but I am slightly surprised that the SPL

have launched themselves into it. They have not known as an

organisation that get their hands dirty when it comes to the other

side of football. There non- confrontational and do not like

doing this kind of stuff. Well done to him for calling this much-needed

inquiry. Now they have jumped one step they should jump another and

make it fully independent. They currently have a six-man board

investigating one of their own clubs. I think to get proper

transparency on this you need a totally independent group looking

at the financial behaviour of this football club going back to the

mid- Nineties. And the issue at stake here? The issue at stake is

last Friday, you had you Adam, a former director, talking about the

possible existence of double contracts. -- Hugh Adam. The

players have won contract with the SPL and another contract on which

they are taxed. That is the allegation from a former Rangers

director of 30 years' standing. proved, that is pretty serious.

true, it is absolutely devastating. It would be the bigger story ever

to happen in Scottish football. You could not underestimate how huge

Mrs. Thanks very much for coming to topless. -- topless.

Tributes continue to be paid today to Paul McBride who was found in

his hotel room and a whole were up after a complaining of being unwell.

The trial of two men accused of attempting to murder him was paused

in Glasgow today as a mark of respect.

Charm, intelligence, generosity. The qualities mentioned most

frequently introduced the poll McBride. The adjournment of the

trial of two men accused of sending parcel bombs to him, the Celtic

manager Neil Lennon and others, was due to the degree of respect and

affection in which he was held by colleagues. It is an extremely

subdued place today. I have seen a number of people in tears today. He

was greatly loved in that building and will be sadly missed. He is

someone who because he has perhaps become a bit more of a media star

over the last 18 months or so, his ability in court has sometimes

perhaps been overlooked. He was an exceptional lawyer and an

incredibly intelligent man. His ability in court was not in

doubt. He became Scotland's youngest he see at the age of 35.

He was involved in many high- profile cases. He represented Tommy

Sheridan's life when she stood trial for perjury. He was also

never afraid to be outspoken and often controversial of his

political views. He was a passionate supporter of the

government's and the sectarian legislation. It is not calling

somebody a big Jessie. It is using the vilest of language on the

terraces. He was a controversial figure from time to time but he

never fell out with anybody. Those who had difficulties with him in

the past will be the first to say that - he never fell out with

anyone or lost any friendships. Efforts are continuing to get his

body repatriated from Pakistan. In the meantime, Scotland's legal

community is mourning the death of a man who always seemed larger than

I'm joined now by Paul McBride's friend and colleague, Derek Ogg.

How would you so mop your thoughts -- how would you sum up your

thoughts about this? One of the things that struck me, not just

that we were all shocked at, we're all pretty tough and hard and

personalities, but that we were all their emotional about the news.

That made me think that he would be the only quiet that I can think of

in Scotland to is not just eminent and leading and a respected, but is

loved. I cannot think of any other side: there would -- who would

provoke the skin of reaction amongst his colleagues, of a real

personal sense of loss, not just to public life but to ourselves. He

was his own man, though. Add so lightly. He could be his own man

and the changes made an be a different person now one year later.

It is one of the reasons I think he had difficult -- difficulty fitting

into in the party political straitjacket. He switch to from the

Labour to the Conservatives. He was a single issue man. If you put a

problem in front of him, he would give you his reaction to it. It

would be straightforward and he would shoot from the hat.

Politicians in a political parties had the agendas and manifestos and

you're supposed to sit -- signed up for the whole kettle of fish. He

could only be honest and spontaneous. At fantastic advocacy

ability he had been caught, winter and in politics could be

devastating to his opponents. It made him hard to love with it in a

party political sense, but all the more important in a public life

since in Scotland. They d have political ambitions that you were

aware of? No. I do not think he could fit into that box very well.

A think he very much enjoyed being a shaker and an opinion former it,

commentating, making interventions. He locked being involved in the

stuff of national Scottish Life. It is on we're relatively recently

that he has played a really prominent role, by making

appearances on this and other programmes and making the sort of

public interventions from which he That is the result of his growing

confidence on camera. He was already doing that behind the

scenes. He would meet people and organise things and do deals with

people. He was a great fixer. In the nicest sense. He would soar to

people's problems and he got to doing that. The deal work was so

big that he came quite late to but thoroughly enjoyed. He loved that.

Was there something of the maverick about him? At so what we. That was

one of his most intriguing and frustrated the characteristics, to

some people. To me, it was his most endearing characteristic. He said

to me once, I'd do not fear any of them and I do not want anything but

that they can give me, talking about the establishment. So, I can

say what I like. What are they going to do? For some in the

profession, did the sneer at them to what did he rob them up them --

that he rob them up the wrong way? -- did he robbed them up the wrong

way? Lawyer has a very involved in other countries in the political

argument of the day, the social argument of the day. Scottish legal

professionals have been pretty insular and I think Paul broke the

mould with that. The idea of a QC making a comment on things in

public life not to do with law had gained currency as the result of

his intervention. Some people resented that. Some people, as

always, in life, are just jealous. Predominately, the feeling was one

of admiration. The efforts being made to return his body to this

country, are those involved getting enough help from the British

authorities? I do not load the detail of it. I did want to intrude

on the family's private matters, but I spoke to someone tried to

expedite matters today. Things in other countries move at a certain

pace and in a certain way. He needs the support of consular authorities

and that has to be given. I know that certain government steps are

being put in place to try to assist as much as possible, so we can get

him back and particularly the family, who need him back. Think he

for coming in. Thank you for coming Now a quick look at tomorrow's

front pages. The score at and front page, the Greek debt deal set to