CELTIC SUPPORTERS ASSOCIATION representatives Joe O’Rourke and John Andrews met with SPFL Chief Executive Neil Doncaster and his lawyer Rod McKenzie earlier this week. The meeting was held at the request of Doncaster and the CSA have now reported back to their members and the wider Celtic support through a statement on their website, thecsa.co.uk
Joe O’Rourke has been in regular contact with the SFA in recent weeks since the Supreme Court ruled once and for all on 5 July, that HMRC had won the so-called Bit Tax Case and by extension Rangers had cheated the taxpayer and Scottish football for a decade or more.
The two CSA Executives pretty much received the same information from Doncaster and McKenzie that two CQN’s were given back in April, in what was a dress rehearsal for the SPFL stance should HMRC prevail at the Supreme Court.
Joe and John however have managed to expose the true nature of the 5 Way Agreement and also establish that the SFA are now the biggest obstacle to allowing justice to be served in the Sottish game after the unlawful actions adopted and willingly implemented by David Murray and his board at Ibrox.
Doncaster believes that he is powerless to act but has admitted to the CSA officials that title stripping could only be enforced through the SFA.
“They..stated that they, the SPFL, were happy to have an Independent Review of Scottish Football as stated about three weeks ago after they elected their new Board. The problem with that is, no Independent Review is worth having unless it also agreed by the SFA, and so far Mr Regan and his cronies have not agreed to a Review,” stated O’Rourke.
“Mr Doncaster made it very clear that the decision taken by LNS (Lord Nimmo Smith) cannot be revisited, the decision to fine Sevco £250,000 is final. Mr McKenzie stressed that all the information held by the SPL was put before LNS, which included the proof of about 51 side letters. But what they cannot answer is, did the SFA act honestly with regards to LNS.
Mr Doncaster also agreed with us that the Five Way Agreement (FWA) was a barrier to Title stripping. That is the FWA that no-one outside if the signatories has actually seen. McKenzie and Doncaster actually admitted that in one of the early drafts of the agreement Title Stripping was one of the avenues that could be used as punishment to Sevco, not surprisingly Green, and apparently more so McCoist strongly opposed that route, so that clause was taken out.”
Interesting the SPFL’s later revealed to the CSA prpresetatives that other clubs were backing Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell’s call for an Independent Review, but just not in public.
“McKenzie said that club chairmen were backing Celtic, but not in public. I think that proves the point the Bullying and Intimidation by the Sevco Support is actually working, I also think the comments from Ann Budge and Stewart Milne prove that too.”
O’Rourke then gave his own summary of where we go from here.
“Well we’re not beaten yet. We have to force the SFA to back the Independent Review. The only way that can be done is by supporters putting pressure on their own clubs to call for it.
“Doncaster claims that the SPFL do not have the power within their rules to strip titles, but the SFA do have that power. So honest supporters throughout the whole of Scottish Football must stand up to the Bullies and Intimidators and force action from your own club’s. This is not a Celtic v Rangers issue, this is Honest and Integrity v Bullies and Intimidators issue. Football has to win, but it can only win if the honest decent supporters unite to make it happen.”
Last week Paul67 revealed on CQN that Stewart Regan was planning to stonewall all calls for an Independent Enquiry.
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