Very pleased to hear Nir Bitton has signed a contract until 2020. Five years is an astonishing extension for a player who is clearly heading in the right direction. It gives Celtic assurance that they don’t need to worry about a key player’s contract running down for the foreseeable future.
Nir was the first manifestation of Ronny Deila’s player-improvement work. At the start of last year he was little more than a squad addition, a bit like Leigh Griffiths, but he’s since excelled in domestic and European football, as well as for Israel in the Euro qualifiers.
Let’s see if he can continue to improve.
I note the media going ‘a bit Tonto’ over Sports Direct’s insistence that the Rangers Former Players Benevolent Fund stop using trademarks they own. I know this will make many people swallow hard, but’s be clear, if the Celtic Former Players Association were selling merchandise bearing the Celtic crest the club would be saying “Cease and Desist that right now, Joe”. Same is true if you are a fan selling T-shirts or street vendor selling scarves.
Without making moral judgements, football clubs earn money from licensing their logos, you want to use it, you pay. You don’t pay, the club cannot discriminate between who they pursue and who they don’t, as such discriminatory behaviour would be a legitimate defence in law by a transgressor.
Sports Direct own thousands of logos and brands. They will have a department sweeping for infringements and they don’t strike me as the kind of company who let any slip through without action. I’d be amazed if Mike Ashley, or any senior SD staff, were even aware of the action. Cease instructions will come out from the legal team without a second thought.
What remains galling to some is the fact that Newco have to take instructions from Sports Direct on use of logos and other IP. This, on top of the whole Fifa 2016 indignity, could be ended by repaying the Sports Direct £5m loan.
Why wouldn’t they stop the embarrassment and just pay Mike his money? He’s not going to cut a new deal, no positive accommodation is ever going to happen, all that lies ahead is more embarrassment, and the risk of Ashley taking genuinely draconic action to recover his loan. I’m sure they money’s there to repay, right?
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WEEMINGER. I am amazed but I am no expert on tax matters but it surprises me that you can owe the revenue money but sell your assets in order that the revenue cannot get the money owed. I live and learn. H.H.
Weeminger,
Wasn’t the EBT scheme set up under the Murray Group banner when the old club was part of it? Or were there two separate schemes? All feels like so long ago now …
LNS and his SPL Tribunal colleagues came to a specific and fundamental opinion in the matter of Rangers’ use of EBTs.
They said, paraphrasing, that clubs competed with each other for players and competitions. Each club was, in essence, obliged to do whatever it could within the Law of the Land and the Rules of the Game to obtain advantage on the pitch.
This extended to commercial deals, and in the present case, Tax policies. Rangers adopted a high risk approach to Tax to gain advantage. That the schemes used have been found to be legal means, in effect, that other teams could have chosen to utilise such an approach.
That other teams chose not to is a matter for those teams. The fact is that the scheme was available to be used, that Rangers use of it was (likely) to gain advantage on the pitch, and given that the same legal means were available to all other teams, any advantage gained was fair.
Lord Drummond and Inner House colleagues have today said in their judgement on the matter:
“Furthermore, so far as the footballers are concerned, at least, it seems to us that if bonuses had not been paid they might well have taken their services elsewhere. We realise that the fifth respondent [RFC 2012] was in, potentially, a difficult financial position, competing for good players in an international market where other countries may not have the same rigorous approach to taxation as the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, the law is clear: the payments made in respect of footballers were in our view derived from their employment and thus the payments were emoluments or earnings.”
In essence, it is the opinion of the Court of Session that Rangers’ use of EBT’s was primarily to gain a sporting advantage, and that any sporting advantage so gained was acquired using an illegal scheme.
There’s your dinner, LNS.
HeidiPoonCSC
Happy birthday to Denia. Roll on ramorra!
Does this mean that Big Eck & McCann will be pursued for unpaid tax and rangers could lose titles ? Haven’t they suffered enough ???
The point proven that they cheated is good enough for me, trophys? I couldent give a monkeys, if they strip them bonus, just knowing they cheated, and the law of the land have said so, is fine by me.
Lurking Huns GIRFUYs
darryl.broadfoot@scottishfa.co.uk
Sent an email asking if Campbell will be resigning in light of today’s decision.
Many happy returns to excellent CQN’er Dena…
Does this mean that the 5 fag burns on the jerseys and the tatoos on their big ugly hun necks will have to be removed?
How lies Scotland after THAT judgement? Are Murray and all his EBT employees going to be hauled into court to pay back the millions they owe us? Are the SFA going to chase Ogilvie and seek redress for depriving other teams of their jurisdiction of potential millions from European competition that went illegally to the deid team? Are the SFA going to take away from the deid team championships and cups won illegally? None of the above I suppose in the real world but Pandora’s Box has been opened. hasn’t it?
Weeminger
“Murray Group can appeal”.
I’m afraid that’s simply not a possibility. The entire group is being liquidated. There is, in essence, no one to make the appeal, let alone pay for it.
New club at ibrox are not responsible for Old club crimes
They have enough to deal with
Mccann should be asked the question – will he pay back his illegal gains . I would love to see all of them served demands from hmrc
I don’t want the titles – just their names removed as happened to Ben Johnson
Does this mean that the 22 trophies stolen during the David Murray ebt years will have to be stripped?
Here we go 25 in a row – CSC
ah good, history shall record what we already knew of rfc and their ex chairman,
Cheats.
a simple and effective truth.1988-2012.
SFA how do you deal with proven cheats? is that process finished?
SFA are you fit to govern our game?
HH
Time to get the illegitimately won trophies struck off from the record and Moonbeams (who incidentally is trying to Hoover up public money to build a commercial and residential development on the western outskirts of Edinburgh) sircumcised.
The Battered Bunnet on 4th November 2015 11:51 am
Yes of course but I didn’t think it was even going to be available regardless of whether it’s practically possible.
It would be interesting if the smaller clubs who lost to THEM fielding EBT players in League and Scottish Cup finals were to petition the SPFL to strip the titles but I doubt if they would have the cajones.
The Battered Bunnet,
“We realise that the fifth respondent [RFC 2012] was in, potentially, a difficult financial position”
Potentially? Difficult? That;’s like saying someone on a life support system might just be in danger of maybe becoming a little unwell.
KEVJUNGLE on 4TH NOVEMBER 2015 11:52 AM
Does this mean that the 22 trophies stolen during the David Murray ebt years will have to be stripped?
Here we go 25 in a row – CSC
——–
Surely yes.
Dena :-)
happy birthday,just googled your name,came up ‘she knows’ lol
nae tellin that wummin.
Celtic to the chore
have a great day :-)
Latest from BBVC on HMRC EBT win …
Under Mr Whyte’s stewardship, the club went into administration in February 2012 amid a cash crisis over unpaid tax – unrelated to the big tax case.
Liquidation followed months later after an agreement could not be reached with creditors.
So it was the club that was liquidated ??? So this is a new club ??? So it’s not liable for any EBT penalties ??? Or is it the same club so IS liable for EBT penalties???
Lord Nimmo Smith (David Murray’s neighbour) decision must now be reviewed by SFA / SPFL with this new information to hand. As intrepid reporter Alex Thomson has just reported …
“So Rangers are found to have won a series of titles whilst comprehensively cheating the tax man.”
I want the titles. They are ours. Get your finger oot Peter.
Aberdeen should have won the treble in 1990?
Big match on Sunday now. Need to consolidate league position. 17 in a row at stake!
Weeminger
Yip, I saw your point of view, and seems reasonable. I dunno the technical answer. Seems mot though.
thetimreaper
_____________
Fingers crossed fella.
Hail Hail
coolmore mafia on 4th November 2015 11:57 am
They’re not. It’s absolutely impossible to prove Rangers wouldn’t have still won fielding players they could afford.
For cups it’s even more difficult. You can’t prove the losers would have beaten whatever team would have been in the place of Rangers if the cheaper version had got beaten on the way.
The titles should be stripped but not awarded elsewhere.
Black Sunday didny happen coz….that particular title race wouldnt have lasted that long.
And, to think that Mowbray got the Celtic job after his ‘efforts’ that day.
Just a wee reminder. Dave King was a director of the (now proven) tax cheats. Now chairman of RIFC. Fit and proper.
weeminger on 4th November 2015 12:01 pm
When athletes are found to be dope cheats the title is awarded to the runner up? Tax cheats/dope cheats, same effect same outcome……IMHO.
FOURGREENFIELDS on 4TH NOVEMBER 2015 10:34 AM
Stupid question but here goes anyway , what happens to the year on year losses at the NEW club . Do they all get added together or do they just pretend that they didn’t happen ?
Yes FGF,I feel stupid also.In the past two years they have posted losses of nearly £16 million.Where is this money coming from?.With no cash back up,no banks,no credit,where did this money go?.Did it just disappear into the Ether?.We hear stories of MAs £5 million,and 3 bears money,but where did the rest of the debt go?.
Anyone out there please inform this perplexed Tim?.
So it’s official
They are cheating bastards
Tell all the huns you know
They never did Nine in a Row
Their contracts were wrong
They knew all along
They never did Nine in a Row!
Weeminger,
If the EBTs are counted as wages – which is why they are seen as taxable – then the old club infringed registration rules by not giving full and correct salary information to the league. All the players with EBTs were therefore ineligible in every match they played. Standard penalty for playing an ineligible player is that the result is changed to a 3 – 0 defeat.
The old club should have been relegated many times over.
Jackie mac and simon Donnelly new management team at YORK CITY.wonder if they will want to come round for BREAKIE.
Wonder if this gives LNS a chance to save face.
He could sieze the moment and say he was duped.
He could then revisit his verdict and stick it right uppem.
After all he must have been raging when he found out after,that sandy Bryant etc
had stung him.
Bawsman on 4th November 2015 12:04 pm
Yet in cycling titles are stripped but not re-awarded. Precedents for either way you want to argue it.
Turkeybhoy,
excellent post my friend and very similar to my own views on Ronny and the direction we are heading.
I also share your frustration at those calling for a removal of our Manager, when we are quite obviously a work in progress, and that progress in my own opinion is extremely heartening.
You would think that some of those holding those views did not want Celtic to succeed, and are prepared to focus purely on negatives rather than the many positives Ronny has brought to Celtic.
I’m not scared to say that I have many Deid club supporters as friends and colleagues, and they do not like Ronny one little bit. They don’t like his roar, they don’t like his comments to the MSM and most of all the did not like the way that his Celtic team made their team look like schoolboys in the semi final game.
They expected a battle, a possible upset and a chance to revel once again at turning the Tims over. It was not to be however, this team played a game that they couldn’t fathom, they passed, they moved, they remained calm and passed and moved again. Previous Celtic teams would have been drawn into a battle, a good old fashioned ‘up and at em’ brawl, and more than likely a red card or two would have been possible. Quite comfortably 2 up, they took the foot of the pedal and in all honesty if they had wanted it could have been 7 or 8 or possibly more, and I’m sure Glasgow’s finest were glad that it wasn’t.
That was the day that I saw something I haven’t seen for many a year in my beloved Celtic, composure, movement, passing and a general level of play that was a joy to behold. I know it was against a lower level side, but as I said before previous Celtic teams would have been brought down to their level in such a high profile game, this one wasn’t.
I’m more than prepared to give Ronny time to take it forward again from here. Yes a win against Molde would be great, but if we lose I’ll log off CQN for a bit, and return when the mischief makers are gone.
Next summers qualifiers will be the next major key point for me, as you quite rightly said we’ll have a settled side for the first time in years, and it will possibly (hopefully) have been supplemented with one or two in the January window.
There will be genuine Celtic supporters who don’t agree with me, but everyone is entitled to their opinion and I look forward to being proved right :)
As for the lurking Trolls GIRUY.