Alastair Johnston, selective amnesia and attempts to disguise

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Despite one former Rangers chairman, Sir David Murray, denying his board issued second contracts to players which were not registered with the football authorities for a period of a decade or more, a more recent chairman, Alastair Johnston, yesterday accepted that the club were guilty of a “breach of procedure” over player payments.

This being the case, Celtic Quick News will not be so quick in future to blindly accept despatches from Sir David as unerringly accurate.  If Mr Johnston insists procedure was breached, that’s good enough for us.

The only matter left is what course of action the SPL, SFL and SFA should follow.  On all previous occasions when a club has been guilty of a procedural breach over the registration of a player, the result of any game involving that player has been awarded as a 3-0 win to the opposition and the club have been punished.

On assessing the punishment the SPL Commission looking into this matter will consider if Rangers acted with transparency, with information given openly and when asked, or if breaches were hidden, denied to have taken place, and only uncovered after redacted contracts appeared in the press forcing the authorities to set a deadline on the club.

Mr Johnston insists that “Rangers made absolutely no attempt to disguise” the use of EBTs. Attempts to disguise wrongdoing is serious. This claim is correct but is completely irrelevant to the SPL Commission, who are solely concerned with player registration, not whether EBTs were used or not.

Mr Johnston makes no comment on whether Rangers made an attempt to disguise issuing players with second contracts.

He goes on to say, “I suspect that the [SPL] commission will not pursue this avenue of investigation, but it would be interesting whether or not ‘selective amnesia’ would be exhibited by those executives/directors called to testify under oath about their ongoing familiarity with the Rangers scheme.”

The SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie was a director of Rangers for the first five years of the clubs EBT use and benefited from an EBT himself.  Despite these revelations from Mr Johnston, Mr Ogilvie still walks the corridors of power, president of our national game.  It would be remarkable to see him testify under oath about the scheme Rangers operated while he was legally responsible for their decisions.

Cynics may suggest that Mr Johnston infers that executives at other clubs were aware of Rangers use of un-registered second contracts.  It would be quite astonishing if this was the case and an enormous breach of commercial confidentiality by Rangers.

Looking forward to Raith Rovers in the League Cup tonight. Should be an excellent opportunity for Neil to shuffle the pack and try a few things.

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  1. BlantyreKev

     

     

    Who wrote that for ye? Far too funny for you to come up with on yer own.

     

     

    Very funny indeed.

     

     

    yoda.csc

  2. Philbhoy - It's just the beginning! on

    FourLeafClover

     

     

    What I said was tongue in cheek, however, as we are now paying him a fat salary and big bonuses, is it too much to ask that he earns it?

  3. Wee mention for Oldtim67 who is kindly taking me to the posh seats tonight, they won’t know what’s hit them.

     

     

    This means that I can give my own ticket to my mate to take his wee bhoy who is buzzing after his first visit to Paradise on Saturday!

     

     

    Thank you kind sir.

  4. Paul67

     

     

    It was most interesting to read Chuck is trying to get his hands on the UEFA money paid for Oldco and that he wants the inquiry to confirm if Newco is Oldco. A few European team’s owed money will be wanting to know the answer to that one as well.

  5. The Battered Bunnet on

    Paul

     

     

    Classic stuff from AJ:

     

     

    “…the longer they maintained strategic silence on these conversations, the more extensive the number of titles that could be stripped…”

     

     

    Bit of a logic fail that one. AJ is saying that folk kept schtum on Rangers’ cheating arts so they might be able to punish Rangers all the more later. Would have been a little less painful to challenge at the time, putting an end to the practice and indeed, Rangers winning said titles at all.

     

     

    I’d be inclined to check AJ’s retinas for signs of apoptosis. Poor man.

  6. I see they are bumming up their attendances this season on the Official Sevco site.

     

     

    Fool me once, shame on you.

     

     

    Fool me twice, shame on me.

     

     

    Fool me three times, I am a stupid hun…

  7. Give ’em both barrels Paul67.

     

    Campbell Ogilvie. Like the ghost of Christmas past, like a wraith in the musty corridors at Hampden.

     

    Campbell Ogilvie. What’s the point? What’s he for? A neutered old hun rat at the head of a rat pack.

     

    How in the name of all that is unholy is that cretinous biddie still heading up the sfa?

     

    Can no one get rid of him? He is wholly compromised and is in a ‘conflict of interest’ state of being.

     

    He should just run while he can before he ends up on ‘A’ wing.

  8. ASonofDan

     

    I appreciate your posting of the Alex Thomson Blog but , in this instance, I feel that the more hits Alex gets, the better so going in via the link is more useful..

     

     

    JJ

  9. Paul67 – I firmly believe the likes of Ogilvie and Johnston were honest men prior to coming under the influence of a certain knight of the realm. They were always the establishment club, always liable to be treated better and given more leeway. Then along comes a chancer like Murray who takes full advantage of this and these guys slowly but surely drift along for the ride.

     

     

    Weak willed but honest at the start.

     

     

    God help us if there were people within the SFA or within the club who had wit AND were dishonest, with pre-meditation. Had any of those guys got into cahoots with Sir Minty we would very likely never have found out any of this stuff.

     

     

    Thank the lord they were feckless yes men.

  10. Dontbrattbakkinanger on

    Apoptosis, word of the day;

     

     

    ‘Apoptosis is a genetically controlled mechanisms of cell death involved in the regulation of tissue homeostasis. The 2 major pathways of apoptosis are the extrinsic (Fas and other TNFR superfamily members and ligands) and the intrinsic (mitochondria-associated) pathways, both of which are found in the cytoplasm. The extrinsic pathway is triggered by death receptor engagement, which initiates a signaling cascade mediated by caspase-8 activation. Caspase-8 both feeds directly into caspase-3 activation and stimulates the release of cytochrome c by the mitochondria. Caspase-3 activation leads to the degradation of cellular proteins necessary to maintain cell survival and integrity. The intrinsic pathway occurs when various apoptotic stimuli trigger the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria (independently of caspase-8 activation). Cytochrome c interacts with Apaf-1 and caspase-9 to promote the activation of caspase-3. Recent studies point to the ER as a third subcellular compartment implicated in apoptotic execution. Alterations in Ca2+ homeostasis and accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER cause ER stress. Prolonged ER stress can result in the activation of BAD and/or caspase-12, and execute apoptosis’

     

     

    – lifted off the ole internet [clue: not Vanguard bears]

  11. viewfaethewindae on

    Just a few hardy souls out at Boystown this morning, Sammy, Joe and a few of the injured players getting a workout. Looking forward to a wet and windy Celtic Park tonight, I’d like to see Dylan given a free creative role in midfield, he really impressed in the development games in this position, camon Neil you know it makes sense.

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