I know that this shares and general finance stuff is a bit boring for most fitba fans, and I freely admit I'm not an expert in fitba finance, but the whole SFA "fitness to practice" stuff and the way King, the latest in a long line of "one true messiah"s over at ibrox ignored yon reporter kinda piqued my interest.

Apparently King was found to have acted in concert with others to get more than 30% shares in Sevco. That's no biggy of itself. He could have bought more than 30% himself if he wanted. But because he was found to have acted with the others he's been found to have effectual control of over 30% of the shares and as such needs to offer to pay what he paid at the time he purchased his shares - something like 20 pence each at the time. The most recent worth of the shares in the open market is allegedly 27p - so all King had to do was make the offer of 20p for the rest of the shares allegedly worth 27p each. Had he done so and they been worth 27p his offer would have been declined but he'd have done all that was asked of him and everybody, iincluding the Takeover Appeal Board would have been happy.

But King refused to offer 20p per share? Why is that? It seems that the 27p that was the most recent purchase value of shares was done for a very small amount of shares, because it's not listed on the main shares index such minor share deals I'm told are taken as the rate. The beat on the street is that if King had 20p per share to offer for the rest of the shares, the shareholders would have sold them to him in a heartbeat. King could have fully taken over Sevco lock, stock, and barrel. But he'd then have had 100% of something worth a lot less than he'd have paid for it. And it all presupposes he'd even had the financial liquidity to purchase said shares.

Seems poor King has controlling interest in over 30% of a company that nobody wants while Mike Ashley is on the sidelines holding all the cards.

If Sevco aren't allowed to play in Europe, and there's rumours doing the rounds that'll be the case over a rule requiring 3 years of independent accounts, then King will get booted out and Ashley welcomed with open arms