Senior exec at cinch used to work for MacLennan

Para Handy said:
Bet they weren’t expecting this to be disclosed.

Presumably the exec disclosed this conflict of interest and removed himself from the negotiating table ?
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Aye right, they have no shame, born out of years of arrogance from knowing nothing will happen.
 
Manhattan_Loyalist said:
OK mate. I'm not clued up on arbitration, articles of association but I find it baffling we don't just take the nuclear approach, tell them to ram it and go head-to-head big time if we're in the right.

I understand there's a balance to be had within rules of our membership and what's correct morally but I think we're far too tepid.
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I like to think, and hope, that we are playing with a winning hand and are just drawing out more and more the inadequate corporate governance within the Scottish game.

For me this is not just about winning the battle but winning the war and to do this it needs to be made clear to all the doubting clubs just how bad things actually are. One thing is sure, if there Is a loss of income to clubs, they will all soon start to pay attention.

This particular deal appears to have undersold the product and included an unnecessary finders fee. It also comes off a period of no sponsorship leaving negotiations very much in favour of the sponsor.
 
ChildOfGod said:
Could there be a difference between crossing paths and directly reporting / hired by the other party though Coza ? Bridges hasnt had many employers and it’s not working at the Local Sainsbury that’s being highlighted here .
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Executives are all bouncing about all over the place. My old team of 6 in Aberdeen Standard have gone to 6 different companies and each company has an ex Aberdeen Standatd senior exec on their board. It’s just a grubby little boys club.

I don’t think the used to work for and then suddenly on opposite ends of the table in a deal will be remotely uncommon. But when it’s the SPFL and there little band of Nolan partners hiring crew it is note worthy especially given their past. I still think the £500k finders fee is where to dig. Feels really dodgy to me given cinch we’re clearly actively in the football market already.
 
It seems that when any rock is lifted in Scottish football, underneath is a Rangers-hating scumbag or an associate. Scotland is a profoundly corrupt wee backwater, where vital Court evidence goes " missing ", and politicians caught stealing money don't go to jail. Calling it a banana republic is being complimentary.
 
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Coza said:
Executives are all bouncing about all over the place. My old team of 6 in Aberdeen Standard have gone to 6 different companies and each company has an ex Aberdeen Standatd senior exec on their board. It’s just a grubby little boys club.

I don’t think the used to work for and then suddenly on opposite ends of the table in a deal will be remotely uncommon. But when it’s the SPFL and there little band of Nolan partners hiring crew it is note worthy especially given their past. I still think the £500k finders fee is where to dig. Feels really dodgy to me given cinch we’re clearly actively in the football market already.
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I still think the £500k finders fee is where to dig. Feels really dodgy to me given cinch we’re clearly actively in the football market already.


Spot on.
 
Coza said:
Executives are all bouncing about all over the place. My old team of 6 in Aberdeen Standard have gone to 6 different companies and each company has an ex Aberdeen Standatd senior exec on their board. It’s just a grubby little boys club.

I don’t think the used to work for and then suddenly on opposite ends of the table in a deal will be remotely uncommon. But when it’s the SPFL and there little band of Nolan partners hiring crew it is note worthy especially given their past. I still think the £500k finders fee is where to dig. Feels really dodgy to me given cinch we’re clearly actively in the football market already.
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If cinch were calling Rangers asking about sponsorship opportunities it's not stretch to think they may have also called the SPFL. Especially when there is an existing relationship there between execs
 
Trueblueal said:
If cinch were calling Rangers asking about sponsorship opportunities it's not stretch to think they may have also called the SPFL. Especially when there is an existing relationship there between execs

Leads to the question of what exactly the £500k was for. Did the SPFL feel inadequate to hold the negotiations themselves. Did they believe a third party could secure a contract at least £500k better than they could?

What exactly do the SPFL execs do for their money?
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Someone asked me for 500 k as a finders fee i would tell them to sook my shite
And i aint no high flying exec by any stretch
 
Trueblueal said:
It has the look of 3 pals sitting round s table and somehow £500k has changed hands
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That is exactly what happened. They know that. We know that. They know that we know that. A combination of denial, lack of solid evidence and compliant media mean nothing will come of it. The best we could hope for is that the other 41 clubs open their fucking eyes.
 
Audubon Blue said:
"MacLennan, who it is understood played no part in the commercial negotiations with Cinch, wrote to the other 41 SPFL clubs expressing his annoyance with the situation."

Yes but he sure as hell knew the Cinch guy, and lo and behold there is a deal wit Cinch. A deal that, by the looks of it, cost Scottish Football £500,000.

Lots of people lining their pockets and Rangers are being made a scapegoat.

It'll be like the Daily Record stuff though. They'll close ranks and doors and it will all go away.
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This is damned if you did, damned if you didn’t statement. A simple process where MacLennan makes a call asking if they would be interested and passes the contact on. If he didn‘t makes this call he should be drummed out the organisation for complete ineptitude.
 
Totally agree - this should be the key point the clubs should be hammering - Putting aside his anti rangers bias people like mclennan are hired for their contacts - but the spfl have to to through a middleman - perhaps old Murdoch was sleeping all the way through the process of finding a sponsor and didnt think - wait a minute I know the head of marketing at a company that is throwing money at sports to get brand recognition
Coza said:
Executives are all bouncing about all over the place. My old team of 6 in Aberdeen Standard have gone to 6 different companies and each company has an ex Aberdeen Standatd senior exec on their board. It’s just a grubby little boys club.

I don’t think the used to work for and then suddenly on opposite ends of the table in a deal will be remotely uncommon. But when it’s the SPFL and there little band of Nolan partners hiring crew it is note worthy especially given their past. I still think the £500k finders fee is where to dig. Feels really dodgy to me given cinch we’re clearly actively in the football market already.
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Commercial negotiations?

Are they trying to imply that maclennan introduced cinch to the middlemen (then removes himself to avoid accusations of a conflict of interest) and the middlemen still walked way with half a million for negotiating that sh1tty deal?
Grant K said:
This is damned if you did, damned if you didn’t statement. A simple process where MacLennan makes a call asking if they would be interested and passes the contact on. If he didn‘t makes this call he should be drummed out the organisation for complete ineptitude.
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Grant K said:
This is damned if you did, damned if you didn’t statement. A simple process where MacLennan makes a call asking if they would be interested and passes the contact on. If he didn‘t makes this call he should be drummed out the organisation for complete ineptitude.
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Why did the simple call cost Scottish Football £500,000 ?
 
Grant K said:
The question everybody should be asking! Or, why did you not make that call and save £500k?
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He doesn't make the call. He advises the Board of an opportrunity. McLennan declares a previous working relationship. The Boad makes the call. McLennan stands back. SPFL get the contract and saves £500,000.

But we just KNOW that did not happen. We just KNOW it.

McLennan. Contract. Middleman. £500,000. Rangers dragged into it.
 
They have the audacity to complain about Freemasonry corruption and getting like minded people jobs and contracts.
By God, they could teach the Masons how it’s done.
 
Snakehips said:
£100K per year, 5 year deal, total £500K.

Still obscene though. And unnecessary.
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So it’s £7.5m to clubs over 5 years - £1.5m per year. After paying obscene salaries to Doncaster, McLennan and obese Rod, the paper gatherer, there’s not much going to the clubs.
 
Just as the SNP have turned Scotland into a mix of Monklands District Council and a Banana Republic without bananas, so the SPFL and the SFA have achieved the same sad fate for Scottish football.

Termites, the f.uckin lot of them.
 
Shropshire_Bear said:
So it’s £7.5m to clubs over 5 years - £1.5m per year. After paying obscene salaries to Doncaster, McLennan and obese Rod, the paper gatherer, there’s not much going to the clubs.
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3rd party gets paid £500k for a deal worth £1.5m per year.

I might go around all the kids football clubs in Ayrshire and see if they want me to find them a £1k a year local business sponsor for 5 years. But they each need to pay me £333 to do so.
 
If there was any decency in any of the people running Scotland at the moment there are a fair few people that would be in horrendous amounts of trouble. The SNP would be f**ked. The SFA would be f**ked, Police Scotland would be f**ked, the SFA and SPFL would be f**ked and without a doubt, Celtic would be absolutely ruined.

However, there is no decency within the powers that be. In fact, they're all playing a massive part in ensuring the corruption continues. Why anyone would want a country like Scotland to be anywhere near them is becoming quite a thing to think about.
 
So Bridge the guy from Cinch worked for Yahoo, then he worked for big Shifty McGifty MacLennan and now he's working with more Yahoo's.:eek:
 
sj2 said:
Are they under selling to the benefit of themselves?
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Certainly looks that way. Ourselves and then can more than manage due to the amount of ST holders we have, but not having a decent sponsorship or TV deal really hamstrings the diddy clubs.
 
grahamdavid said:

The Times - Saturday, 25th September 2021.​

​

Cinch executive worked for Scots football chairman​


Robert Bridge, right, was pictured with Neil Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, at the unveiling of the partnership

Robert Bridge, right, was pictured with Neil Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, at the unveiling of the partnership
JOHN PHILLIPS/GETTY IMAGES

A senior executive at an online car dealership involved in a sponsorship row between Rangers and Scotland’s football chiefs used to work for the chairman of the Scottish league.

Robert Bridge was hired as the chief customer officer at Telegraph Media Group (TMG) in 2016 and reported directly to Murdoch MacLennan while he was running the business.

MacLennan now chairs the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). A five-year, £8 million package with Cinch, a car sales business, was announced by the SPFL in June.

Bridge was pictured with Neil Doncaster, the SPFL chief executive, at the unveiling of the partnership. There was embarrassment the following month as Rangers, the Premiership champions, said they could not comply with the arrangements as the club felt it broke the SPFL’s rules. Those state the rules do not need to be followed “if to do so would result in that club being in breach of a contractual obligation entered into prior to the commercial contract concerned”.

Rangers also said they had pointed this out before the SPFL signed the sponsorship contact. Rangers are refusing to allow Cinch branding on team shirts or on advertising boards.

Douglas Park, chairman of Rangers, owns Park’s of Hamilton, one of the largest privately owned motor dealership groups in Scotland. He believes that the deal struck by the SPFL breaches a commercial agreement which has been made between his company and Rangers.

Concerns have also been raised an external agency would receive a fee of £500,000 for brokering the Cinch deal.

MacLennan, who it is understood played no part in the commercial negotiations with Cinch, wrote to the other 41 SPFL clubs expressing his annoyance with the situation.

Park won a legal ruling stopping arbitration proceedings to resolve the situation and which instead sees the dispute being heard in the courts.
Earlier this week it was suggested by Lord Keen of Elie QC that Cinch approached Rangers to discuss potential commercial opportunities prior to announcing the SPFL deal.

Rangers denied negotiations had taken place which could have led to Ibrox being renamed but acknowledged there had been contact.

Rangers previously raised concerns about MacLennan having a conflict of interest in his SPFL position as he was the chairman of Independent News and Media. At the time that company included Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s largest shareholder, and Denis O’Brien, another Celtic shareholder, among its investors.

MacLennan, 72, stepped down as the TMG chief executive in June 2017 but remained deputy chairman. He became chairman of the SPFL in July 2017.

Bridge had worked at Yahoo before he joined TMG in the spring of 2016. At the time of the appointment it was announced he would be reporting directly to MacLennan who said: “Robert Bridge will have a crucial role in developing and offering new products to the customers who lie at the heart of our business.

“I am delighted he will be joining our senior team.”

After a brief spell with a maker of children’s cosmetics Bridge joined Cinch in January this year as its chief customer officer.

The SPFL, Cinch and Rangers all declined to comment. It is understood the Rangers hierarchy still have doubts over the governance arrangements at the SPFL.
Earlier this week it was suggested by Lord Keen of Elie QC that Cinch approached Rangers to discuss potential commercial opportunities prior to announcing the SPFL deal.

Rangers denied negotiations had taken place which could have led to Ibrox being renamed but acknowledged there had been contact.

Rangers previously raised concerns about MacLennan having a conflict of interest in his SPFL position as he was the chairman of Independent News and Media. At the time that company included Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s largest shareholder, and Denis O’Brien, another Celtic shareholder, among its investors.

MacLennan, 72, stepped down as the TMG chief executive in June 2017 but remained deputy chairman. He became chairman of the SPFL in July 2017.

Bridge had worked at Yahoo before he joined TMG in the spring of 2016. At the time of the appointment it was announced he would be reporting directly to MacLennan who said: “Robert Bridge will have a crucial role in developing and offering new products to the customers who lie at the heart of our business.
“I am delighted he will be joining our senior team.”

After a brief spell with a maker of children’s cosmetics Bridge joined Cinch in January this year as its chief customer officer.

The SPFL, Cinch and Rangers all declined to comment. It is understood the Rangers hierarchy still have doubts over the governance arrangements at the SPFL.
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Rylans bumming Neil Doncaster!
 
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