I enjoy Roddy Forsyth’s articles and broadcasts but I’m staggered at today’s article in The Telegraph. The initial headline read “Scottish clubs fear bankruptcy if Rangers are stripped of titles for tax avoidance”, but was amended to “SPL (sic.) clubs fear they will be hurt financially themselves if Rangers stripped of titles”.
Justification for this claim lies with the fact that clubs who lost a cup final to Rangers during their tax evasion (not avoidance) era, may have to pay a win bonus to players, which would be enough to tip them into bankruptcy.
These clubs would, we are told, prefer to sit tight as runners up, than be awarded a cup win. One chairman told Roddy, “Celtic might be able to afford that but nobody else could”.
Nobody else could afford a win bonus, so let’s not impose the unwelcome burden of winning on them! Consider what that makes supporters of these clubs!
Another chairman told Roddy, “my view is that the EBT scheme was questionable and maybe even reckless from the start but they were given expert advice and they acted on it”. “Questionable”, “reckless”, I think the word you’re looking for is illegal. Paul Baxendale-Walker’s expert advice was only one aspect of his flamboyant commercial undertakings.
Documentation was also hidden from HMRC, the SFA and SPL, and as ‘Mr Black’ told the Tax Tribunal, the ruse was designed to recruit better players. Who win more trophies.
Falkirk, Queen of the South, Dundee, St Mirren, Dundee United, Motherwell and Ayr United all lost finals to an EBT-fuelled Rangers, as well as Celtic, of course. Let’s hear from any of them who don’t want the matter formally examined. And let the door slam on their backside on the way out of competitive sport. Forget what’s happening in Russia, this is going on TODAY in Scotland!
If any of these clubs are campaigning for Rangers to keep their EBT trophies, it’s important their fans know about it. Roddy doesn’t suggest his two chairmen-sources come from any of these clubs, in fact, he describes them as “SPL” chairmen, the former name for our top flight.
So who are they?
Celtic, Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts can all be excluded from consideration. Think what you like about any of these clubs, but I cannot imagine any of their chairpersons considering this nonsense. Which leaves:
Kilmarnock. Michael Johnston is no longer chairmen, that role is fulfilled by Jim Mann.
Partick Thistle: David Beattie.
Motherwell: Brian McCafferty.
Inverness: Kenny Cameron.
Dundee: Bill Colvin.
Hamilton: Les Gray.
Ross County: Roy MacGregor.
St Johnstone: Steve Brown.
To the horror of Accies fans, in 2012 Les Gray said “SFL clubs should not be put in the position to vote on something which may destroy Scottish Football”. I wonder what Les is saying off the record now.
The Brown family have chaired St Johnstone through many issues, but their fans were off the mark quickly in 2012 to let Steve know their thoughts the last time Scottish football faced a decision to follow the rules, or not.
Roy MacGregor bristled with irritation when others tried to influence him in 2012. He has a reputation of knowing his own mind.
I don’t know anything about Bill Colvin, Kenny Cameron, Brian McCafferty, David Beattie or Jim Mann, but I suspect the names of both Roddy’s chairmen are on this page.
You’ll never read a better insight into why corruption was allowed to fester in our game than the glimpse available in today’s Telegraph, or that it remains endemic. Scottish football cannot be a comfortable haven for lawbreaking.
Maryhill Foodbank
Remember, there’s a Christmas toy collection for Maryhill Foodbank at Wild Cabaret, THIS Saturday, 14 November, from midday to 4:30. Families who don’t have money for food don’t have money for Christmas toys. If you have something you can donate, drop it in. There’s mulled wine and mince pies on the go.
You’ll find Wild Cabaret at 18 Candleriggs (0141 552 6165).
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Note the “Slant” from the Herald.
Sevco Lawyer ;- Green’s demands be thrown out”. How about, Green’s lawyer dismisses the Club/Company myth???
No chance, eh?
skyisalandfill on 13th November 2015 7:29 am
Hi Sky is a landfill!
Hilarious stuff! ☺ Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we can change those lyrics once and for all to be “Oh Rangers are deid!” ☺
Yours in Celtic,
TB&F.
Another day
Another laugh at rangers.
Morning all, re. Roddy Forsyth’s desperate article, if any clubs are at risk of bankruptcy if they paid win bonuses (which I seriously doubt) then their financial planning is pretty poor. Any old unforeseen bill would tip them over the edge. Scaremongering. In any case, nothing rules out a gesture on the part of the players concerned. Players could return the win bonus to the club. The title-stripping and the justice it implies is all-important here and not the financial benefit.
Any bookies selling odds on whether the maggots lose their ill gotten gains?
The GASL’s statement yesterday genuinely was , for me , probably the greatest laugh in this whole saga – and there have been a few to say the least?
Talk about self delusion about their position to do anything meaningful?
This one was the clincher regarding any action taken against them “we will deal with it in the strongest manner possible”.
Really?
Exactly what are you going to do Dave?
Pull my hair..?
Margaret McGill 11;38
‘David Murray tried to obliterate the memory of Jock Stein’.
That very sentence encapsulates the whole sorry shebang.
Every Saturday I stand in the Brazen Head. A full size replica of the European Cup sits proudly on the gantry. The subject of thems comes up and I point to it. ‘That’s what caused all this, they’ve never been able to live with it’, to which my big mate usually replies, ‘its an Urn really, filled with their ashes’.
The clock started ticking at 19.15 GMT, THURSDAY 25th MAY 1967.
Melbourne Mick
BORUC
MCGRAIN
MCNEILL
CONNELLY
GEMMELL
JOHNSTONE
MURDOCH
AULD
LENNOX
DALGLISH
LARSSON
SUBS: HAY, MCSTAY, MCBRIDE
Morning All
What fun have we got to look forward to today? Could it be as funny as yesterday? Oh please
Anyway, her’s our wee offering from Tony’s Huddle – Tony’s Walk
http://wp.me/p6DYht-oR
No One Walks Alone
TLWIO
What about us baldies?
As the Warriors film reminded everyone
Don’t f with the baldies
Marrakesh,
“‘its an Urn really, filled with their ashes’. ”
Brilliant.
I’m going to unashamedly nick that and repeat it like a mantra.
Skyeisalandfill
Thanks for that, a new twist on a favourite of mine, hilarious. No doubt some will be offended.
I am off out today with the good lady , we need a wee break from a sad time recently and will be off out in Glasgow today, Rioja, paella, cocktails and cider are all on the menu….first of all , the gym beckons.
the long wait is over
Castlemilk’s hardman is going to chib ye all with one of his wine bottles – wait, he might have to do some shop-lifting at Tescos the next time he visits
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/scottish-football-cannot-be-haven-for-lawbreaking/comment-page-14/#comment-2717877
Conservative Celt said: ‘Any bookies selling odds on whether the maggots lose their ill gotten gains?’
Not sure, CC, but (and I find this remarkable) you can still get 7/1 on Hibs to win the Championship.
Sevco don’t play this weekend (not sure why), so if Hibs win their next game (at home against Livingstone on Tuesday), they’ll be 2 points off the top … (and their price will fall probably to about 7/2).
Great value IMHO …
VIP
Jungle
Really? 7-1 is very attractive. Might just hiv a wee punt.
“Throughout the period in question the shareholders were committed to providing funding to the Club. The tax scheme may have reduced the need for shareholders to provide higher levels of funding so, as I have tried to make clear in the past, any advantage gained would have been to the company and its shareholders, not the team.”
The key part (for the biggest of all the laughs) is “the period in question”.
Throughout the EBT period, had they had to gross up those net payments and almost double the wage bill the shareholders would’ve provided those funds, apparently
So when the period in question ended because the EBTs were under challenge from the SFO and HMRC it coincided with the end of the commitment from the shareholders? Incredible!
When the period ended and Rangers looked likely to enter administration it coincided with the end of the commitment of the shareholders? Amazing!
When the period ended and the Club was available for a quid the commitment of the shareholders rally had ended, eh? UNBELIEVABLE!
You crook. You charlatan. You thug. You shameless, shameless liar.
And by the way, when David Murray tried to sell shares DURING that period it fell flat on its arse, the Murray Group underwrote it by taking on over £50m of Rangers debt and went to its own death having screwed over the bank and ultimately the tax payer for nearly £1bn pounds all in. Fred the Shred had hee haw on Murray the megalomaniac.
King is surely proving how right the SFA were right to consider him to be a fit and proper person..
I mean, it’s not as if he’s said anything recently that would bring the game into disrepute or that could be construed as threatening or ill considered – about court cases, or other clubs, or even about the man to whom his club owe 5 million.
Man’s a gem. Trustworthy, ethically sound, fulfills all fiduciary responsibilities promptly and with decorum.
He has the potential to be President of SFA and be as good as any we have ever had.
That’s a testament to his fit and proper status.
Someone pointed out previously that the glib statement wasn’t the worst the judge said about the Castlemilk warrior
BT
See Expat Celts answer.
Maybe well be given a choice –
“hair pull or bottled , sir..?”
Either way they’ve been making these hilarious empty threats for years.
Q. How many times can they get their bluff called before they realise the rest of us are pi**ing ourselves at them and their posturing?
A. 10 to the power of x, where x is large and positive.
CC
Look here:
http://www.oddschecker.com/football/scottish/championship
VIP
Blantyre Tim
The baldies are from the “Wanderers ” not the ” Warriors ”
HH
Ghuys
Google eye might be from Castlemilk,but it is a Celtic hotbed,not one Hun bus runs from the scheme,,,,so listening to the Castlemilk hardman etc is becoming tiresome,by all means put the boot into King but enough with the cheap jibes at Castlemilk.
HH
The question is being asked regarding dave kings threats and what they might be
Folowing the zombies previous tactics of noising up sports direct staff – letting off tam shepherd Stink bombs – and refusing to pay back a loan which results in massive penalty clauses kicking in : anything is possible.
Thinking outside the box here :
Tamper with the celtic players kit and spread itching powder in their shorts – loosen the studs in their boots while painting a letter Rob on their left boots.
Organising orange walks to coincide with celtic matches ( or has that been done already )
Having sexual relations with sheep in Aberdeen
Buying all Dundee utds young stars for a pittance
Trashing the toilets at away grounds and abusing catering staff. …..
I bleed
Cheers, been a while since I watched them ;)
Blantyre
No probs
Both classics
HH
TBJ says Wee Oscar Knox is in heaven with the angels –
all likely courses of action!
Just file under “Civil Unrest – General”
When it comes to the ole fudoucherie duties, never get into an argument with a douchebag.
No work today so have been catching up with things posted overnight and two points stuck out in my mind.
1) The idea of “sporting advantage ” is a complete red herring, the side letters given to players were not disclosed to the SFA/SPL along with all other contractual documentation. This, despite Sandy Bryson, invalidates the registration process.
The existence of EBT’S is immaterial. Their legal status does not affect the misregistration, if that is a word. Issue. Being fully tax compliant affects Club licencing but not player registration which is a separate disciplinary matter.
The media and SFA/SPL are attempting to lead the story down a blind alley. Making it easier to create confusion and give them a chance to wiggle out of making the right, and only, decision.
2) The EBT that was paid into for Juninho was not set up by Celtic. He and his agent asked for a portion of his salary to be paid into this pre existing trust. Celtic declared all his salary arrangements in the contract lodged with the SFA/spl. No side letter no problem. They then decided to confirm everything was above board and following HMRC advice paid any outstanding tax and NI due. No hidden scheme no tax problem
Celtic have nothing to fear regarding EBT’S the huns well they’re fecked from a great height.
Lovely, as the woman in the Dietchef ad would say.
My family moved to castlemilk from the Gorbals in 1955, and not one of my family know this guy King, it’s a big family, mine that is, not one of my family’s friends know this guy King, i left for Canada in 1980 and came back in 2003 to castlemilk, I’d fly home for old firm games (then) cup finals, big European nights, like lots of ex pats did then, and still do now, and I always stayed in Castlemilk then too, as I said I do now, every time I came over I’d ask..who is this guy? No one knows him knew him, went to school with him, played football with him, had him as a paper boy, milk boy, went to the life boys or BB with him, knew his dad, mum, family, even to this day you would think they had at least a neighbor who knew him/them, where his house was? It’s all a mystery, far be it for me to be calling the guy a liar, but? If I don’t know him, and no one that I know knows him, and no one that they know, knows him, it’s a strange one, very strange.?
Just had a very cheery thought.
What if Celtic going to HMRC about Juninho’s EBT tipped them off about its widespread use in football and started the investigations into its use elsewhere.
Wouldn’t that be very, very funny.
BLANTYREKEV 0859
Nailed it!
OWEN
Hell,yeah!
Bhoys What an effort. I’ve told Mick -no more clues- He just loves U All and would love to give u all a polo shirt.However u have got till Sunday. We have got our meeting day then and will make our decision.Thank u very much for participating. I don’t post much but would one day love to catch up.Hail Hail
Good Morning Bhoys a wild wet morning in Central Scotland. H.H.
The churnalists never learn. Spinning the web of deceit about Scottish Football/Fans/Society needing to move on to a post-EBT world, with silverware intact, will only result in every decreasing revenues.
Bring it on. Fans v Fantasists
Again. The scandal isn’t that rangers cheated. They have always cheated. The scandal is that the sfa and the spl let them cheat.
David murray was given fair warning by hmrc that these schemes were illegal. He chose to ignore these warnings because he knew that he could rely 100% on the sfa and the media to support his club and to corrupt Scottish football. They always do. He thought he could get away with it. They thought that they could run up enormous debt, go bust and carry on as if nothing had happened.
They thought they could get away with it and that is why criminals commit crimes and that is why cheats cheat. There was a cheating and criminal mind set at that club.
He didn’t get away with it because things have changed. The internet and fan power has changed everything and we no longer have to rely on the Scottish media to keep us informed of what is happening in Scottish football. We all know what is going down in Scottish football.
To me the most frustrating part of this whole episode is the attitude of some of the celtic support who side with the rangers cheats and sfa cheats and the media cheats.
Let them keep their trophies they won when they were breaking rules on player registration? Rules that were vigorously enforced and with draconian penalties until rangers broke the rules.
To me the most frustrating part of this whole episode is the attitude of some of the celtic support who side with the rangers cheats and sfa cheats and the media cheats.
Let them keep THEIR? trophies they won when they were breaking rules on player registration. Rules that were vigorously enforced and with draconian penalties until rangers broke the rules.
carl lewis did not get ben johnson’s gold medal. johnson was disqualified for cheating and his punishment was a lifetime ban from the sport.
Disqualification is not a punishment. it is the natural consequence of cheating in sports. To date rangers have not been punished. I would suggest an appropriate punishment would be the withdrawal of all the trophies won under david murray. I suspect that the cheating and the bending of rules started the day and hour murray took over rangers
Blantyrekev 8.59,
As usual, a superb, forensic analysis of the disgraceful rankings of the GASL.
It got me thinking about the world before we had the ability to read each other’s views, before social media. Can you imagine if our only intelligence on Sevco/EBTs etc came from the SMSM?
Toddy Forsyth’s shameful article in yesterday’s Telegraph is an illustration of how so much would have been swept away from any critical analysis. Yet, I’m continually amazed at how many fans in Scotland have such a scant idea of any detail of the biggest scandal in British football. We who read CQN, SFM and other sites (and are well served by Auldheid, Barcabhoy, Phil and others )know and are appalled by the scale of cheating and cover up. But too many remain disinterested. This troubles me for the challenges ahead. It provides a platform of ignorance which allows devious PR to mould, shape and polish a new ‘truth’, full of the same bluster and threats of the old regime. A new ‘truth’ offering the SMSM and the SFA a lifeline away from the inconvenient logic, reason and justice they currently fear. How can this be tackled? Perhaps the various legal actions can bring some justice and overwhelm the plans of the GASL. We also need fans of all other clubs to be better briefed on how the cheating harmed their club. Another avenue would be the English quality press. I contacted the Sports Editor of the Guardian the other day and directed him toward Alex Thomson’s excellent blog. The level of awareness and interest in the Ibrox scandal is tiny so it won’t be easy to ignite activity. Nevertheless I’d encourage you to take any opportunity you have to engage with the English quality media.
To be fair Tony, Castlemilk was the largest urban housing scheme in Europe. More folk lived there in the 60s than live in Motherwell today.
Doubtful the young Dave King spent much time a Maggie Mary’s either.
But take your point; you’d have thought someone knew him. His old man was a Cop, no? You must have bumped into him surely! If he was from Castlemilk, chances are he was brought up in the Police Housing, maybe down the road at Kings Park instead?