I loved the Newco statement from yesterday evening, it betrayed the reality that they’ve lost their nerve in the face of panic among fans and a complete lack of knowledge of what to do about History overtaking them.
They cited that the SPFL had a conference call on the subject of the Court of Session Oldco EBT ruling, but quickly got onto the subject that “our Club’s (sic.) history, including its many successes, is beyond debate”.
Those of us who supported another team during the EBT decade know well that history is beyond debate. We paid money to see those competitions and there will be no denying what happened.
At a stroke Newco took a debate, which was hitherto the exclusive domain of fan comment and the occasional journalist repeating the words of well-paid Newco and Ladbrokes SPFL PR team, that there was “no appetite” for title stripping, and made it a subject football people could legitimately be drawn on. In short, they made Rangers historical successes THE debate.
I’ve spoken to Celtic on various potential public statement matters over the years. They don’t always get it right, but they know when to shut their mouth and win support for their objectives, at the cost of taking flak for not making grandstanding public comments.
Tommo Blog.
While many paid to inform us were repeating paid PR as news, Channel 4’s Alex Thomson had no qualms calling-out the cheats in his blog yesterday: Rangers cheated at football: the fraudulent silverware must go. And that was just the blog title.
Oh Mr Black! The Rangers v HMRC First Tier Tribunal was held in private, with witness names given anonymity in the written report. Mr Black, the name of a key figure at Rangers, who signed and sold up to 400 footballers, and, I guess, took a senior role from late 1988 until 6 May 2011, provided damning evidence against the former football club at the Tribunal.
Thomson writes:
“Why did this powerful but busy character introduce a scheme of wholesale – and now proven to be unlawful – avoidance of NI and income tax?
Why – so the club could gain advantage on the pitch, of course: sporting advantage. By attracting and keeping players they otherwise could not afford. How do we know?
Because the powerful but talkative “Mr Black” was good enough to spill the beans to the Tax Tribunal: “Mr Black did not consider the Trust as a means of tax avoidance, but rather as a means of retaining and rewarding loyal employees. So far as Rangers was concerned it enabled the Club to attract players who would not otherwise have been obtainable.”
Sporting advantage.”
““Mr Black” didn’t see it as a tax wheeze at all, he said, but a football wheeze. Sadly for him if you’re now found to have been cheating the taxman you’re also cheating football – so now his unfortunate admission is a smoking gun
There is more: “As for Mr Black, he denied that the scheme was for tax avoidance in cross-examination, though he went on to describe the scheme as ‘a method of us acquiring, especially football wise, better players in a more cost effective manner than we would be able to do so’; that the club had been ‘very ambitious at that time’; and ‘it was seen as a correct and proper way for us to proceed’; that Rangers ‘have been very successful, because we’ve been able to attract players of a certain standard that, perhaps, we may not have been able to otherwise’.”
One more time: “especially football wise better players in a more cost effective manner”. Sporting. Advantage.”
“It is time Campbell Ogilvie explained his conduct – the man who played a part in the tax avoidance and personally benefited before going on to be SFA President.
It is time Sir David Murray – the conductor of this disastrous orchestration, by overseeing EBTs at Rangers – is similarly held to account for what he did and now, why Rangers did it for advantage on the field: cheating.
Above all, it is time the SPFL members came out from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and beyond to denounce cheating as cheating and take action as fans from Kelso to Thurso are begging them to do.
All the titles and silverware from all the years Rangers cheated at football, as they cheated at tax, must be null and void and wiped from the record.
Let nobody try and tell me it isn’t the same club – I have always said it is and now Rangers have to take the consequence of that reality right on the chin.
Turnbull Hutton RIP – how your godforsaken Scottish game needs you now.”
‘Mr Black’ really has dropped Sir David Murray in it. I hope he stays away from Charlotte Square. This situation reminds me of that scene from Blazing Saddles, where the sheriff turns his gun on himself. Alerts in advance for the use of racial pejoratives, appropriate for the environment, in this clip:
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The auld MSM are playing this with a dead bat that Geoffrey Boycott would have been proud of.
What to do?
Maybe clue’s in the name?
No money to gerrymandering sfa competitions?
Auldheid et al. – if Res12 has a pin to be pulled, please in the name of the wee mhan pull it!
HH jamesgang
James Forrect –
If you’re looking in James – well done on that excellent article. This is one of the best I’ve read that you’ve written – it is measured and leave the emotion out, which both makes it a pleasure to read and enhances it’s credibility. I think you do your best work when you serve these dinners up cold. Good man – keep on serving…
Natknow
JF – plus 1 to that
HH jamesgang
Dontbrattbakkinanger on 11th November 2015 8:55 am
ParkheadcumSalford- I found it very depressing that someone who has been appointed to a senior position in sport ,even if only the SPL, seemed to have so little regard for the concept of sporting integrity.
I was at the game last Thursday; call me ole fashioned but I didn’t enjoy it , however we were beat by the better team on the night and I can accept that.
Sport has to be [basically] honest if it is to survive; if not there are other things I can do with the money.
——————————————————————–
Absolutely spot on. I listen to Mitchel on the radio last night and thought he must have been drinking. Even the commentators picked up on his stupidity – “Yes – they’re dead on the field. But then they came back to life”. No regard whatsoever about integrity. Exactly the kid of person who should be nowhere near sport.
I also agree that there are better thing I can do with my cash and there’s no way I’ll be taking my family along to a corrupt game. I’m actually wondering if we are already at that point? I see no action – not even a statement of intent – from the SFA or SPFL. They do not need to wait for the Supremem Court to state that they intend to address the obvious problems they have. I think I’m already at the point of no longer being inerested in the corrupt game.
Ashley V King over fit & proper status this should provide even more fun :)
SPORTS Direct supremo Mike Ashley has launched a judicial review of a decision by Scottish football’s governing body to pass Rangers chairman Dave King as “fit and proper”.
The first hearing in the action against the Scottish Football Association due to be heard at Edinburgh’s Court of Session, is scheduled for Friday, December 11.
The court action will come just two days after the bid by Mr Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United, to have Mr King thrown in jail accusing him of breaching a gagging order.
the other James Forrest playin’ a blinder
……. with his latest article………………
Well said, well played Sir!
HH
James Forrests latest article is superb.
As far that bizare homonculus and his outlandish outburst……………..
…….who writes his garbage/
Darryl takin’ incredulity to a whole new Level, or keepin’ it in-House?
HH.
Increasingly depressed by the absolute timidity of the Celtic board. A possible appeal is no excuse for the complete lack of reaction to the biggest sporting scandal in UK football.
If Celtic don’t want to make a statement, they can easily leak their thoughts to the press. Something like:
“Sources close to the Celtic hierarchy told The Herald last night that they were “deeply concerned” by the CoS judgement, and believe – if upheld – it will have serious repercussions for Scottish football, past and present”.
How difficult would that be? Let everyone know our position, but avoid committing until we know for sure the process has ended.
I am season ticket holder of 20 years standing. I will never stop supporting Celtic, but I really do have better things to do with with my life than contributing financially to a bent sport.
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Ashley is trying to persuade the King that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, “Now, I am become Mike, the destroyer of huns.”
JROppenheimerCSC
Shrodinger yesterday, Oppenheimer the day.
Physics is Fun.
DBBIA,
Just back in. I can’t argue with anything you say. (If I had been well enough I would have been at the game too.) There is a wee nagging feeling that I shouldn’t punish Celtic for the faults of others.
That we don’t pay another penny to the coffers of the SFA, unless they take decisive appropriate action, I would be more than happy to comply.
ITALIABHOY on 11TH NOVEMBER 2015 9:48 AM
‘Increasingly depressed by the absolute timidity of the Celtic board’
####
I wouldn’t ascribe the Board’s inaction to timidity.
If Shrodinger was an ole tomcat JRO was an ole hot dog.
These clever clogs don’t let the pusruit of Eternal Truth get in the way of the pursuit of houghmagandie.
Just reading about this http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11788/8512267/rangers-settle-debt-with-rapid-vienna-over-nikica-jelavic-transfer which says that Sevco paid Oldco’s debt to Rapid Vienna for the outstanding sum on the Jelavic transfer (so they could play in Europe).
If you were HMRC, what would you make of this?
ParkheadcumSalford- even ole Sepp, and the rest of his Merrie Men, if asked on a radio/TV interview would deny even the possibility of any chicanery.
Not ole Roger, he seemed to revel in it.
He might be less sanguine if his house was burgled and when the police turned up they told him ‘Houses in Mexico and Tanzania get burgled all the time, that’s how the world is’.
PJBHOYNYC on 11TH NOVEMBER 2015 2:28 AM
“…Lance is the inevitable product of our celebrity-worshipping culture and the whole money-mad world of sports gone amok. This is the Golden Age of fraud, an era of general willingness to ignore and justify the wrongdoings of the rich and powerful, which makes every lie bigger and widens its destructive path.”
Reed Albergotti, Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever
This quote applies to so many actors and institutions in Scottish Football. Banks, media, administrators, executives and shareholders.
– See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/tommo-fraudulent-silverware-must-go-blazing-saddles-comes-to-scottish-football/comment-page-11/#comment-2716664
………………………………………..
The Golden Age of Fraud –
Followed by the Dark Age of Do Nothing About It
Apparently Roger Mitchell was SPL Chief Exec from 1998 to 2002, which means that he was in charge when cheating on an industrial scale was the way to win the SPL.
Now I wonder why he would not want that era revisited?
His quality of leadership? his ethical standards? or perhaps his sense of justice fair play?
Surely all of these would have been of unimpeachable standards??
So, if I have this right, those who say No to stripping are either beneficiaries of the EBTs or were in charge when the cheating was allowed.
Well what a shocker – never saw that coming.
JF: Chapeau of the year for that article.
.
Next time I’m home i want to sing Walk On in this Stadium..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJQtNLCGPHY
Summa
Has noone told the meeja that the next stage of appeal needs to fulfill one single criteria aspect. Does the 3 Law Lords ruling have a potential (even) ‘legal flaw’ …… and it dose not …..therefore, any appeal will not even be considered for the next stage……
Incidentally, Is Mitchell playing with a ‘full deck of cards’….!!!!!!!! ?? ….. hahahahahahaha
67 Heaven
More than a full deck, he’ll have a couple of aces up his sleeve. After all, there’s nothing wrong with cheating, is there?
Sorry to keep banging the same drum,but if BDO do not make an appeal of the HMRC verdict on 2-12-15,and the SPFL/SFA,take no action against the cheats,then a boycott of the LC semi should be pushed with maximum effort to the fans of the 4 teams involved.
With the ridiculous utterings of Mitchell,we can see the esteem in which they hold us.All of TSMSM are on a course to deflect from the shocking truth that 10 years,of blatant cheating took place.The “Title stripping”they are using as a smokescreen,knowing fine well,the more they hit up on this,the more uncontrolled savagery will emanate from the Sevco hordes making “Title stripping”a very dangerous pastime for those involved.Deflect,deflect,and deflect again from the main issue.Every game that the Huns played with an illegally registered player should end in a 3-0 defeat.That is the laws of the game.No conjecture required.No one has mentioned this.Its too straight forward.Does not hold with their agenda.
We will get no fair hearing,no justice from any of these corrupt,self serving Hun apologists.We must make some kind of a stand ourselves.Leaving a National semi-final virtually empty,will do far more to shame the SFA than a banner here and there.I know many disagree.I am very willing to listen to any other form of action.
BOYCOTT.Hit them were it hurts,in the pocket,and at Hampden with the cameras there.It WILL get reported,and the reasons why.December and January gives plenty of time to whip up support from the other teams.
A simple request to the SMSM,
Please stop rolling out these hopelessly compromised people to pass comment on why they are hopelessly comprised.
Italiabhoy @ 9:48 well said my bhoy. I and I’m sure many others endorse your sentiments. JF chapeau also doffed. H H Hebcelt
James Forrest.Consistently brilliant.Last nights piece,compared to the drivel served up byTSMSM,should shame them.But it wont.
A simple request to the SMSM,
Please stop rolling out these hopelessly compromised people to pass comment on why they are hopelessly compromised.
Some poster rightly said last night that the distress flares are being shot off by the smsm. How true this is. My blood was boiling, listening to Lord Haw Haw Wilson (stolen from same post) and to a lesser extent Lambert . Last night though, Shortbread went beyond the pale, with the surely inebriated Roger Mitchell, and a hired hand for the night tax expert. What lengths did they go to, to dig this guy up? I got the impression that they’d sounded out a few other experts and got chased, before getting somebody to say the right things for beer money.
The establishment propaganda machine is firing like never before, spinning, lying, conniving, twisting, all the while sending out the message that they are running scared, terrified in fact. This is possibly going to turn out worse than liquidation itself!
Level 5 or whoever is charged with the ‘don’t strip titles’ campaign, has somehow managed to call on the BBC to bang the drum. That’s the saddest part. Clyde and the Laptop loyal are to be expected but the National Broadcaster? If we never fully realised where we stand in this country, we know now.
As another poster said, its gloves off now, or as I said last week, it’s back of the bus for us. If that happens, I’ll never set foot inside another Scottish football ground.
And never forget this…… THERE WOULD BE A MEDIA DRIVEN CLAMOR TO HAVE CFC STRIPPED OF TITLES AT A MINUTES NOTICE, CASTIGATED, RIDICULED, SHUT DOWN AND BANISHED. That’s what I find hardest to handle in the whole sorry fiasco.
Turkeybhoy on 11th November 2015 10:51 am
At the same time, nothing can really be said until it’s known for certain that no appeal is going to be made. I suspect that won’t happen until deadline day.
Reading all your comments on the weather being crap,I would just like to say,that at the moment,I am sporting a suntan,that would leave Derek Mc Innes,looking positively peaky.
Glorious here.75 degrees.
Just saying,like.
James Forrest. Brilliant.
Link for those who haven’t already seen it:
http://www.onfieldsofgreen.com/no-justice-no-moving-on/
I’m heading back there to provide a donation for his good work.
WEEMINGER on 11TH NOVEMBER 2015 10:59 AM
Turkeybhoy on 11th November 2015 10:51 am
At the same time, nothing can really be said until it’s known for certain that no appeal is going to be made. I suspect that won’t happen until deadline day.
Yep,thats why I said,it gives the fans 2 months to whip up a boycott.I cant see any other way of protesting.
I hate boycotts,but this one would hit the guilty.
Wee Roger Mitchell bears an uncanny resemblence to Harry Potter.
Does he not know there’s only room for one magic hat in Scottish football?
dbbia/hogwartsCSC
No official comment can be made until after the deadline for an appeal has passed on 2nd December 2015. As soon after this date as possible a press conference should be held comprising Peter Lawwel, Stewart Milne, Anne Budge and Stephen Thompson demanding an independent enquiry into the cheating years at Iborx and the SFA
So,we have Chuckles up tomorrow.If he gets the go ahead,I am just wondering if it will impact on Warbs attempt to net a £1 million player in January.He’s goat a brulliant scout an evertin tae help hip anaw.
Team made up of my favourite players:
Ally Hunter
Danny McGrain
Marc Reiper
George Connelly
Andy Lynch
Jimmy Johnstone
Shinsuke Nakamura
David Hay
Bobby Lennox
Kenny Dalglish
Henrik Larsson
Couldn’t find a place for Ronnie Glavin, Stevie Murray, Fat Pat McCluskey or Pat Stanton.
Can you tell what age I am based on most of these being from my youth?
Couple of interesting articles sent to me this morning.
First one is about Eddie Thompson’s daughter at Dundee United. Heart breaking and inspiring tale of her life since her father died.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34782955
Next story is a more sinister tale regarding the Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34717115
Both interesting reads for anyone interested in the wider game in Scotland.
LB
Great stuff from James Forrest again, and the author(s) of the banned LNS advert.
Early lunch, cheats on toast. Yummmmmm!
Politics
Rangers Record FC: EBT justice? Celtic’s inferiority complex is so deep-rooted even the European Cup can’t fill it
10:44, 11 NOV 2015
OPINION BY JONATHANMCFARLANE
RANGERS fan Jonny McFarlane says that the entire EBT debate has already ‘jumped the shark’ and highlights rival fans’ bitterness.
27
SHARES
COMMENTS
ReutersThe advisory group has highlighted the importance of strict liability for sectarianism in football”You have to feel for some of the Celtic fans. They talk about us all day, they tweet about us all day and they have Rangers and our ‘crimes’ fermenting constantly in their brain”
AS we witnessed on Sunday, sober reflection isn’t really Celtic fans’ strong suit.
Undeterred I would ask that those of a non Sevco-obsessed disposition look at the results of the tax case objectively.
This is a complex, layered case with many shades of grey and with two separate judicial panels voting in Rangers favour, no-one should take the final outcome of a potential appeal for granted.
This is still a story without a final chapter and no matter how much the bloggers, agitators and the demented want to twist things to meet an agenda there remains uncertainty about how this tale ends.
Press AssociationRangers celebrate winning their Scottish Cup win over Celtic at Hampden in 2002
Clearly there are some out there who smell the scent of blood and want their taste. They can gnash their teeth and howl at the moon about tainted titles with all their gusto but in the evidence of their own legends lays the answer.
When the blessed Martin O’Neill and Chris Sutton come out and dismiss the notion of ‘financial doping’ you should put down your @sevcozombies1888 Twitter account and listen.
Every pundit, journalist and ex-player asked about this situation has dismissed the notion of title stripping with the dishonourable exception of Darren O’Dea who someone managed to track down in the deepest, darkest corner of India. I’m just glad for the lad that he finally found a league at his level.
PADarren O’Dea is hailed after strike against Gers in 2009 League Cup FinalDarren O’Dea scores against Rangers in the 2009 League Cup Final
His contribution of note was to compare the use of EBT’s to Lance Armstrong who committed the most heinous, consistent and organised example of drug taking in the history of sport. It’s been lapped up on social media despite the utterly ludicrous nature of the comparison.
What Lance Armstrong did was 100% against the rules, Rangers fans on the other hand might ask someone to point them towards the EBT section of the SPFL rulebook…
Without a breach of rules pundits are left to chin-stroke on the nature of morality. Personally, the moment when I know the entire debate has jumped the shark is when football commentators, those totems of virtue, wring their hands and become moral arbiters. Pass me the sick bag.
Whyte can’t contain his glee as he watches Murray seal fateful dealThe moment David Murray signed over ownership of Rangers to Craig Whyte
All this is not to say EBT use has been without consequence. There is a punishment already in place for tax avoidance and Rangers have suffered it and then some.
EBT use was what forced David Murray to sell Rangers to the only bidder. It’s what drew in the vultures like Charles Green and Craig Whyte. It caused the liquidation of the company. These are all the results of HMRC’s process for dealing with EBT’s.
Doesn’t a fall to the bottom tier of Scottish Football, losing all our good players and being forced to watch Ally McCoist’s interpretation of tiki-taka constitute punishment enough?
I shouldn’t jest because some people simply won’t be happy unless they see Ibrox ground into a fine dust.
SNS GroupThe gambler: Former Rangers chairman Sir David Murray
EBT’s were a gamble by a discredited chairman who ran the club in an irresponsible way.
Immoral? Yes. Objectionable? Yes. Do I find it embarrassing that the clubs name is used in context of tax avoidance? Absolutely. But against the rules? No. Illegal? No.
The old saying goes ‘let he who is without sin cast the first stone’ and yet Arsenal, Liverpool and, oh yes, Celtic are among the clubs who have also used the system in the past. Several Celtic players have also been listed in a prominent tax avoidance story about film companies so let’s hear no lectures from them. Theirs is a selective morality based on the colour of your shirt.
Daily Record”A void so deep and historic, even a European Cup couldn’t fill it.”
This has nothing to do with values or politics and everything to do with the dark tribalism that stalks this country.
At the end of the day, you have to feel for some of the Celtic fans. They talk about us all day, they tweet about us all day and they have Rangers and our ‘crimes’ fermenting constantly in their brain filling them with poison and torment.
I’m sure many of them bore their long suffering wives and children at the dinner table by barking about donations to their Sevco blog and title stripping hashtags on Twitter.
It’s sad really, because you know what the driver is? A deep seated recognition of their own club’s inferiority.
It’s a void so deep and historic, even a European Cup couldn’t fill it.
After all our woes and with a division between us, it’s still all about the Rangers.
Video: The Record Sport show on Rangers and the EBT years
This drivel is making the pages in the Rectum today.Illegal,never.This is what we are up against,and the kind of p!sh the SMSM are regurgitating daily.