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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294 Comments

  1. Hamiltontim – Well done, but Philvis is eating a Chicken Caesar from Waitrose’s “good to go” range. It does taste like chicken but thankfully not like Billy McNeill or The Joker from 1960’s Batman. At least so I understand.

     

     

    I see STV’s Raman Bhardwaj is the latest journalist to run afoul of the Cult of Skaro.

     

     

    All those years of pandering to the huns were forgotten the instant Bhardwaj said something on Twitter that offended the hair-trigger sensibilities of the permanently raging.

     

     

    When will you learn that zombies are not your friends Raman? (thumbsup)

  2. The pennies seem to have dropped for the incredibly stupid huns that more Tims have signed their incredibly stupid petition than themselves and they realise that they’ve been incredibly stupid and now they want their mammies.

     

    Poor wee twisted things.

  3. reading Jonstons statement , this is the same message they have been feeding the MSM for the last month via ex-players , ex-managers and favoured press men, they are all sounding a bit worried as we all wait on the EBT tribunal findings then the SPL inquiry.

     

     

    Good point made by Thompson in his blog , only in our great wee country would the impartiality of senior legal figures be questioned.

     

     

    anyway more importantly I want us to play a strong team to ensure we win tonight , solid at the back , bring back Joe and Beryam with Dylan and Tony playing up top

     

     

    can t be there as working away so it will be the old internet in the hotel, at least i can have a beer while watching !!

     

     

    HT enjoy the posh seats :)

  4. Moonbeams WD. Kano 1000 \o/ Supporting Neil Lennon 100%. Champions. C’mon Wee Oscar.

     

    13:15 on 25 September, 2012

     

     

    tis blowing a gale on the southside here. Definetly it may not.

  5. Now seems as good a time as any to remind Murray, Green. McCoist, Johnston, Smith (both versions) , Bain , Peat, Traynor , Souness , Keevins and other assorted apologists and in some case liars, about Spartans and their registration issue.

     

     

    When you register a player in Scotland the contract requires to be dated twice. If you don’t put the date on twice the SFA deem you to have improperly , and thus illegally , registered the player

     

     

    So with that in mind…on to Spartans

     

     

    In a recent SFA cup tie. Spartans used a player who’s contract only had one date on it

     

     

    A simple and innocuous error. The punishment was loss of game 0-3 and a fine equivalent to over 30% of Spartans annual turnover

     

     

    Spartans apologised profusely, accepted the punishment and promised to tighten up their procedures. They also made no attempt to threaten anyone or blame anyone else

     

     

    In other words they acted with a degree of class

     

     

    Remember that as you listen to lies and spin emanating from Rangers and their media pals

     

     

    Loss of match for inadvertently missing off a 2nd date and a fine of 30% of turnover. For one single offence

     

     

    That’s the benchmark.

  6. MWD, it was a bargain, the club have done well with the pricing.

     

    £700 for my own and MissDoc season tickets, £130 for CL tickets. £14 bus fare to get to each game, and MrsDoc said “yer no gawn”.

     

    Seriously, I’d have liked to support Turnbull Huttons team after his stance in the summer.

     

    A bit of domestic compromise is needed sometimes.

  7. “The cup competitions provide an ideal situation for us to gauge how we are placed when we play against the top teams in the country

     

     

    It’s less than a week since QUEEN OF THE SOUTH.!!!!!!!!!!

  8. MWD,

     

    PS

     

    I sit in 209, close to the GB, great entertainment close up, they have loads of energy.

     

    You’re lhad will enjoy it, you might even have to look at changing seats next year.

  9. Now seems as good a time as any to remind Murray, Green. McCoist, Johnston, Smith (both versions) , Bain , Peat, Traynor , Souness , Keevins and other assorted apologists and in some case liars, about Spartans and their registration issue.

     

     

    When you register a player in Scotland the contract requires to be dated twice. If you don’t put the date on twice the SFA deem you to have improperly , and thus illegally , registered the player

     

     

    So with that in mind…on to Spartans

     

     

    In a recent SFA cup tie. Spartans used a player who’s contract only had one date on it

     

     

    A simple and innocuous error. The punishment was loss of game 0-3 and a fine equivalent to over 30% of Spartans annual turnover

     

     

    Spartans apologised profusely, accepted the punishment and promised to tighten up their procedures. They also made no attempt to threaten anyone or blame anyone else

     

     

    In other words they acted with a degree of class

     

     

    Remember that as you listen to lies and spin emanating from Rangers and their media pals

     

     

    Loss of match for inadvertently missing off a 2nd date and a fine of 30% of turnover. For one single offence

     

     

    That’s the benchmark.

  10. DougC – only in our great wee country would the impartiality of senior legal figures be questioned.

     

     

    Well, who are you going to trust?

     

     

    A senior judge with decades of experience serving in the highest courts in the land? Respected men whose careers require them to continually demonstrate that they are ferociously intelligent, rigorously impartial, and visibly above reproach?

     

     

    Or Charlie Green, Craig Whyte, and Sir David Murray? (thumbsup)

  11. Shelbourne, the game isnt on the telly as far as i know

     

     

    Celtic TV or your favourite dodgy internet site are the only options

  12. philvisreturns

     

     

    13:53 on 25 September, 2012

     

     

    DougC – only in our great wee country would the impartiality of senior legal figures, etc.

     

     

     

     

    “Well, who are you going to trust?”

     

     

     

    *****

     

     

    Mmmm, difficult question. Ask us one about fitba’.

  13. thomthethim

     

     

    Who was the first Celtic player to break the ‘proper black football boots only’ rule?

     

     

    p.s. in modern times and Jimmy McGrory et all and their brown belters don’t count

  14. saltires en sevilla on

    TootingTim

     

    13:22 on

     

    25 September, 2012

     

    Mitt Romney with another doozy:

     

     

    “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no – and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem…”

     

     

    —-

     

     

    TT shurely not…

     

     

    You or Aw Naw being footering about with that one ? :-0

     

     

    HH

  15. The Battered Bunnet on

    Consider this:

     

     

    It’s June 2010, AJ is Chairman of the Board, and is considering the options for the coming season.

     

     

    Over the previous 18 months he has received a succession of Tax Demands now amounting to £24M, with an additional £12M in penalties. There is no cash to meet the demands, and the club has elected to appeal them, said appeal now scheduled for a few months hence.

     

     

    The previous year the club’s owner – Murray Group – had suffered a catastrophic business failure, such that it required to be bailed out by its bank to avoid liquidation. The Murray Group now has a balance sheet value of only £7M, and debts of £500M. It is clear that there will be no bail out from the owner.

     

     

    Additionally, AJ’s kind offer to the bank to transfer all of Rangers’ bank debt plus the tax liability onto the by now bailed out Murray Group has been respectfully declined.

     

     

    Finally, despite the club being on the market for the past 3 years, talks have broken down with the only party interested in buying the club – entrepreneur sans argent Andrew Ellis.

     

     

    These are the circumstances. The situation is now clear: Win the tax case or provide for losing it.

     

     

    While the tax case liability is a huge sum, perhaps in excess of £50M if penalties are applied, Rangers do have some options, this being June 2010.

     

     

    They are slated to appear in the Champions League in the coming season, bringing with it around £20M of participation fees and ticket sales.

     

     

    They have a highly valued squad, with a number of players considered to be worth upwards of £5M each.

     

     

    They have a high level of season book renewals.

     

     

    Selling players might compromise the team’s chances of success in the coming season, but can realistically deliver upwards of £20M gain on sales.

     

     

    Moreover, cutting the cost base by selling the big players means the business would be profitable on domestic business alone, meaning the Champions League fees could be retained.

     

     

    Added to the revenue from player sales, there is perhaps enough cash to ring fence £40M to provide for an adverse result in the tax appeal.

     

     

    Should the tax tribunal apply further penalties, mortgaging the stadium or selling the peripheral assets would comfortably cover the shortfall. Decisive action now will assure the future of the club irrespective of the outcome of the tribunal.

     

     

    So there’s AJ in June 2010, with a wee decision to make: How best to protect the club from the clear and present risks it faced.

     

     

    After full discussions with the other Directors of the business, he reached the following decision:

     

     

    The best way to protect Rangers from the risk of losing the tax appeal is….

     

     

    …. to pay Rapid Vienna £4M for Nikica Jelavic, and spend the money from the sale of Kevin Thomson on bringing in David Healy and James Beattie.

     

     

    Anyone spot the flaw in the strategy?

     

     

    June 2010 was the last time the destiny of Rangers was in the hands of the club itself.

     

     

    AJ is now recorded in history as the man who chose not to act, when action was most needed.

     

     

    Poor old fool’s probably forgotten.

  16. saltires en sevilla on

    bournesouprecipe

     

    14:02 on

     

    25 September, 2012

     

    thomthethim

     

     

    Who was the first Celtic player to break the ‘proper black football boots only’ rule?

     

     

    p.s. in modern times and Jimmy McGrory et all and their brown belters don’t count

     

    ——–

     

     

     

    Wee Alan Ball with the white ones in 70’s?

  17. philvisreturns

     

     

    13:59 on 25 September, 2012

     

     

    thomthethim – Our judges aren’t perfect but they aren’t bent. (thumbsup)

     

     

     

    *****

     

    Clumsy post by me. I was trying to be sarcastic …and failed.:>)

  18. saltires en sevilla on

    BSR

     

     

    ooops Celtic player …sorry

     

     

    wee Ballsy would not get in the early 70’s hoops teams

     

     

    so I go for Paolo Di Cannio and his golden boots that were raffled at a sports shop in Forge

     

     

    HH

  19. Hi Saltires,

     

     

    it’s lifted from the Philvisgraph website:)

     

     

    bournesouprecipe,

     

     

    Was it PDC with the coloured boots?

     

     

    HH

  20. bournesouprecipe

     

     

    14:02 on 25 September, 2012

     

     

    thomthethim

     

     

    Who was the first Celtic player to break the ‘proper black football boots only’ rule?

     

     

    p.s. in modern times and Jimmy McGrory et all and their brown belters don’t count

     

     

     

    *******

     

     

    Don’t know. Was it Di Canio?

     

     

    I had a fine pair of Hotspur brown ones ,and, for my ninth birthday, I got the leather studs, with the three leg tearing nails in each, replaced by Rubstuds…..and a tin of Dubbin.

     

     

    There was a programme on telly at the time, called Ask Pickles, which featured an old radio favourite, Wilfred Pickles, who spoke like CG.

     

     

    The show was a kind of Jim’ll Fixit thing, where people wrote in asking for favourite Telly clips to be shown,

     

     

    My dad requested them to show some Celtic clip, maybe newsreel of the Coronation Cup.

     

     

    So, there we were, gathered round the telly and, they never showed anything. :<(

  21. saltires en sevilla on

    John Donne

     

     

    couldn’t even spell his own name proper…

     

     

    one branch of his family made soft drink in East End -fact!

     

     

    it’ll beSolripeonthenightCSC

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

    DBBIA

     

     

    I thought wee Catriona had a kind of navy look about her, you know…….iin the navy da da da da da da da.

     

     

    Although my daughter suggested she also had that “fell off a Christmas Tree” look too.

     

     

    I know what she meant.

  23. jeez_I_thought_blinker_was_pants on

    BSR ………Maybe Le Petit Merde ……Failed tracksuit Salesman

     

     

    Dunno about a Celtic player, but there was a Dundee Utd player who seemed to do it before everyone else, Frank Kopel, I think his name was.