Trending
Celtic News Now
Celtic Quick News on News Now
Celtic Quick News
You are at:»»Double-jeopardy and cover-ups

Double-jeopardy and cover-ups

490
By on CQN BLOG & Comments

I see a lot of argument exercised over the weekend on the double-jeopardy issue. Holding an inquiry into an event, then holding another when you don’t get the desired outcome. I have sympathy to a degree with this sentiment, but only within limits. Tax cheats who successfully wriggle out of their responsibilities at a Tribunal, may be called to a second, third or fourth hearing.

This will feel like quadruple-jeopardy, but it’s correct and often needed for the law to apply evenly. It’s also worth noting that the Crown successfully convicted its first double-jeopardy case in November last year, following the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act.

For non-legal cases, such as the SPL Commission headed by Lord Nimmo Smith, there is no double-jeopardy law, either way, the SFA source trying to influence the media late last week into thinking there was, was getting ahead of himself. Any organisation can ask any question of itself at any point.

What the SPFL (formerly known as the SPL) must now ask, is was the Lord Nimmo Smith Commission fit for purpose?

Auldheid, writing on Scottish Football Monitor last year, published his correspondence to SPFL solicitor, Rod McKenzie of Harper MacLeod, suggesting crucial information, requested by McKenzie as part of his case on behalf of the SPL, was not disclosed.

The implication being that McKenzie was unable to reference the material he needed to successfully prosecute his case as the salient information was withheld by Rangers. McKenzie wrote to Rangers on 5 March 2012 asking for relevant information but allegedly did not receive documentation on EBTs Rangers had already agreed with HMRC were incorrect and liable for tax.

The SPL Commission concluded Rangers gained no sporting advantage from their EBTs as, although they found the club acted wrongly in respect of player registration rules, the Commission found that even if the EBTs had been declared, no tax would have been payable, so no sporting advantage was achieved.

We now know that a considerable amount of tax should have been paid (subject to appeal to the Supreme Court), which flips the criteria Nimmo Smith based his decision upon.

I suspect nothing will happen between now and the expiry of the Big Tax Case appeal notification window in early December. Should no appeal be made, the SPFL will need to consider its position.

Football, to a considerable extent, relies on clubs issuing information openly and fully to authorities when required. If a conspiracy to withhold information from an inquiry exists, and is subsequently uncovered, the authorities must consider what action is appropriate.

At the very least, the national association should not be privately promoting a cover-up.
Jim Craig and Brendan Sweeney will be on CQN live from 19:30 onwards on Wednesday to talk about the fascinating topics covered in Brendan’s new book, Celtic: The Early Years. You can ask questions on the blog and Jim and Brendan will get straight back to you.

We’ve held a few of these events before and they’ve always been great fun, especially when we get to chat with one of the men who won the Big Cup. And Brendan, of course!

Ladies, the unique event on the Celtic calendar, Ghirls for Good Christmas Lunch, is now open for bookings.  It’s a ladies-only lunch on Saturday, 12 December at the Kerrydale Suite, and I’m told the best day out of the year.  You can book tickets, or a table of 10, here.  No guys allowed!

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

490 Comments
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. ...
  11. 13

  1. tonydonnelly67 on

    A big well done to all who participated .

     

     

    CELTIC Park became a sea of blankets and sleeping bags as the club hosted a sleep-over, or rather ‘sleep-out’, to raise funds for the club’s Christmas appeal.

     

     

     

    3

     

    SHARES

     

     

    1

     

    COMMENT

     

     

    Peter Lawwell (right) and Ronny Deila

     

     

    RONNY Deila and Peter Lawwell both showed up as Celtic hosted a ‘sleep-out’ at Parkhead to raise money for charity.

     

     

    The Scottish champions invited a group of 60 participants to brave the cold at the stadium last night as the Celtic FC Foundation sought to raise funds for the club’s Christmas appeal.

     

     

    Over £23,000 was raised in total, with Deila and Lawwell both donating £1,000 each, and goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods held a collection which raised a further £950.

     

     

    Many participants also donated their sleeping bags and floor mats to the charities who deal with the Glasgow’s homeless.

     

     

    Those involved turned up at 9pm on Saturday and after a team photo trackside, they remained at the stadium until 6am on Sunday morning before being treated to a toasty breakfast in the ground’s Jock Stein Lounge.

     

     

    Deila and Lawwell turned up at 11pm after attending a private event within the stadium to show support for the event.

     

     

    Celtic FC Foundation offered their thanks to all the participants and to Ambulance Scotland for providing paramedic support throughout the night.

  3. hebcelt on

    Eurochamp67 Dick Wilson not really he spouts cheques his brain can’t cash he is the ultimate p—- how he got the RS gig is one of life’s mysteries – or perhaps not!! H H Hebcelt

  4. Hunderbirds are Gone on

    I thought there might have been some mileage in a comic post based around the shared characteristics of rumoured Ostrich defensive behaviour and Zombie denial. Imagine my delight when on quickly researching the Ostrich on Wiki (I know, l know), the entry opens with the following:

     

     

    The ostrich or common ostrich (Struthio camelus) is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member(s) of the genus Struthio, which is in the ratite family.

     

     

    Sons of Struthio? Ratites? Strange but true. You could have knocked me over with a feather :)))

  5. !!Bada Bing!! on

    HEBCELT-Dick Wilson is a like for like replacement for Traynor on Shortbread,unashamed Hun cheerleader

  7. timaloy29 on

    Eurochamps67

     

     

    I noticed the BBC chaps comment

     

     

    I think the article can be described as “ex-SFA chief sticks the boot into everybody but the the SFA and Rangers”

     

     

    He offered no insight outside of insults

  8. !!Bada Bing!! on

    Roger Mitchell is a no mark. He presided over the worst TV deal in Scottish football history,the bar was set so low,we are still trying to recover from. His previous claim to fame was,he used to book hotel rooms for the Spice Girls.

  10. loughrea celt on

    Afternoon Bhoys. Myself and the young lhad had the pleasure of meeting Kiaran Tierney on Saturday at the Loughrea Hotel. He is staying in County Galway just now as he is part of the Scotland U19 team playing Ireland, Slovenia and Latvia. He was an absolute gent with my son (who was nearly a quivering wreck meeting a real life Celtic player) and posed with pictures and signed autographs for him.

  11. hebcelt on

    !!Bada Bing!! I would ‘nt even rate him as high as a no mark his performance last week was a new low in Sportsound and my god they’ve they have had a few. H H Hebcelt The referees strike springs to mind

  12. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Roger Mitchell obviously has a very high opinion of himself and not a very high one of the games followers. They need lectured too and they need to accept his higher educated opinions of the game and of life. Aye Right

     

     

    But lets not forget we have the same on here. Regularly the CQN imbeciles proffer; who are we to question the guile of anyone who earns a certain amount or has accumulated a certain amount of wealth ?

     

     

    I don’t understand all the blood sweat and tears shed for ANYONE who pontificates on the game in Scotland. It is in your hands completely. Stop giving them your money and they will do something about it.

     

    Keep giving them the money and guess what ?

     

     

    HH

  14. hebcelt on

    Hi Awe no one of the imbeciles here that is a real hard one but I’d rather be in the tent pissing in than outside pissing in sorry just my t ake but I get what you are saying. H H Hebcelt

  18. Monaghan1900 on

    Doncaster explaining financial fair play in 2012:

     

     

    “But what does ‘financial fair play’ really mean? UEFA’s explanation, in 2010, was that the concept would require clubs to balance their books over the medium term, not spend more than they earn, and operate within their financial means.

     

    This is all seen as important for one key reason: because any club that is spending more on players than they can afford, is automatically gaining a sporting advantage over every other club it competes with. Whether the precise system of measurement used by UEFA is perfect is a moot point. But the logic behind the principle however is, I think, broadly sound. And it is this same principle that explains the position of the SPL.”

     

     

    The same man on the imposition of a transfer embargo on Hearts in the same year:

     

     

    “Ultimately we can only judge any breach of the rules as and when it arises – look at the circumstances, hear what the club has to say, and then form a view…..We considered a whole range of different possibilities…..We felt a sporting penalty was required because of the sporting advantage that had been obtained by Hearts by not having to pay players and coaches on time, and the appropriate sporting penalty we believed was a player registration embargo for 60 days.”

  20. RWE on

    A different article from Tony’s Huddle..

     

     

    A wee tribute to Babs – Mrs RWE’s wee sister.

     

     

    Thanks to all CQNers who reached out to us. At last count there were 45 messages and Mrs RWE saw them all. They all helped.

     

     

    http://wp.me/s6DYht-babs

     

     

    No One Walks Alone

  22. Agent Green on

    Spot on Awe Naw. The green pound is our only weapon. All the rest is heat and noise.

     

     

    I will not attend away games, Hampden or Scottish cup ties.

     

     

    I haven’t bought a Scottish paper in over 10 years.

     

     

    I will not listen to nonsenical radio garbage such as clyde1.

     

     

    This doesn’t make me a better or worse fan than anybody else, it was a conscious decision for which I feel better. Sod them all.

     

     

    Each to their own.

  24. Auldheid on

    RWE

     

     

    My condolences to your family. Been a bit busy but catching up and thanks again for nailing Dickson.

  25. thetimreaper on

    HEN1RIK on 16TH NOVEMBER 2015 1:42 PM

     

    Agent Scotland.

     

     

    That is a helluva find, it places further pressure on the Administrators & supports views expressed to me on Friday. https://t.co/75zdaHkuja

     

     

    Great find by @moo_ted

     

     

    ———

     

    Wow just seen this.

  26. Clink\o/ on

    RWE

     

    Life is not being kind to you at the moment. I hope this period passes quickly and gentler times prevail

  29. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    See those nice fans who turned a blind eye to the cheating re bets are those the same nice ones who turned a blind eye to the decades of not signing RC’s. ?

     

     

    Just want to know like

  35. Jobo Baldie on

    Good evening, friends.

     

     

    An evening being entertained by Kev-I-N Bridges awaits. Which is nice.

  37. loughrea celt on

    Will do Sipsini. I tweeted young Kiaran to see if he would be free to meet up so my young bhoy could get the chance to meet one of his heroes, and all credit to him, he was waiting in reception for us arriving at the hotel. I was actually in the hotel the night before for a meal and they had a sign welcoming some of the teams competing in the under 19 European championships. I asked the waitress which teams were staying in the hotel and her answer was priceless….”I’m not sure, but I know Alaska is definitely one of them”. Didn’t have the heart to point out how many things were wrong with her answer, at least she got the food order right.

     

    HH

  40. KevinBhoy on

    Just heard a police spokesman on the wireless encouraging us all to be alert.

     

     

    To be fair, we probably do need more lerts.

     

     

    Hail Hail,

     

    KevinBhoy.

  41. Jobo Baldie on

    Lennon’s Passion –

     

     

    Have I missed something? Thought the new club were squeaky clean on that score?

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. ...
  11. 13