The SPL Commission today ruled that Rangers EBT payments in connection with side-letters should have been disclosed to the SPL and SFA as financial entitlements, that senior management of Rangers (in liquidation) decided these side-letters should not be disclosed to the football authorities, and that the old board of Rangers made such payments without taking legal or accountancy advice.
This is the result we expected, Rangers (now in liquidation) were guilty of invalidly registering players for a period of 11 years, but it was not the outcome expected. The Commission decided against imposing sporting sanctions, based on the evidence of Alexander Bryson, Head of Registrations at the SFA.
His evidence stated that “once a player had been registered with the SFA, he remained registered unless and until his registration was revoked. Accordingly, even if there had been a breach of the SFA registration procedures, such as a breach of SFA Article 12.3, the registration of a player was not treated as being invalid from the outset, and stood unless and until it was revoked”.
So Rangers failed to properly register players, withheld information which allowed this to be discovered, but as the information was not discovered, the Mr Bryson regards the registrations to be valid. With this evidence from the SFA, the Commission were unlikely to come to any other conclusion.
Mr Bryson’s evidence directly contradicts Uefa’s ruling from 2011 in relation to Sion, who registered players with the Swiss FA. The Swiss FA and Uefa subsequently ruled that these registrations were made incorrectly, and that registrations were invalid from when they were submitted, not when they were discovered.
The Commission can only rule on evidence before it and the entire outcome turns on Mr Bryson’s evidence. Mr Bryson’s evidence is also inconsistent with all previous SFA player registration errors, but led to the Commission delivering the outcome the Armageddon-merchants wanted.
We did not get the punishment some of us hoped for, but the verdict established that for 11 years Rangers were playing to a different set of rules than the rest of us.
While some disputable SFA evidence was crucial in protecting Rangers from most harm, the Commission left no doubt about the Association’s president’s responsibility.
“Mr Ogilvie dealt with all aspects of football administration at Rangers until late 2002 or early 2003”, and “assumed that these (payments) were made in respect of the players’ playing football”.
“…it should be noted that Mr Ogilvie was a member of the board of directors who approved the statutory accounts of Oldco which disclosed very substantial payments made under EBT arrangements”.
“There is insufficient evidence before us to enable us to draw any conclusion as to exactly how the senior management of Oldco came to the conclusion that the EBT arrangements did not require to be disclosed to the SPL or the SFA. In our view, the apparent assumption both that the side-letter
arrangements were entirely discretionary, and that they did not form part of any player’s contractual entitlement, was seriously misconceived.”
“There is no evidence that the Board of Directors of Oldco took any steps to obtain proper external legal or accountancy advice to the Board as to the risks inherent in agreeing to pay players through the EBT arrangements without disclosure to the football authorities.
“The directors of Oldco must bear a heavy responsibility for this. While there is no question of dishonesty, individual or corporate, we nevertheless take the view that the nondisclosure must be regarded as deliberate, in the sense that a decision was taken that the side-letters need not be or should not be disclosed.
“No steps were taken to check, even on a hypothetical basis, the validity of that assumption with the SPL or the SFA.”
“It is the board of directors of Oldco as a company, as distinct from the football management or players of Rangers FC as a club, which appears to us to bear the responsibility for the breaches of the relevant rules.”
Mr Ogilvie, “the board of directors of Oldco (that’s you).. appears to us to bear the responsibility for the breaches of the relevant rules.”
Consider your position.
199 Comments- Pages:
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Ntassoolla
I think you will see that our CEO as well as Corkcelt ,and many others,want Celtic out of the cesspit called Scotland.
Truly , truly disgusting, but really no surprise. Rotten to the core. SFA evidence swung it for cheatco. No surprises at all.
Makes me want to overcome even more.
Celtic need our support, I will never forsake them.
Hail Hail
So according to some on here we are just supposed to take it on the chin and get on with it .
Ok let’s go with that scenario , 6 months , a year maybe 10 years down the line we discover that the NEW club have done something else to give them an unfair advantage ( cheated again ) to get them to the top.
What do we do then ?
The game was, is and will continue to be a ‘bogey’. I was of the opinion that Celtic should stay put in Scottish football.
This very moment I have changed my mind. We need to leave the SFA and SPL and Rangers Old and New to their stinking, corrupt cess pit of a game.
Seems like Rangers were not to big to fail but they were and still are too big to be punished for their cheating.
Forget Euro clubs or SPL clubs looking for redress. It isn’t going to happen. It’s over.
I remain a Celtic man and I will go to Celtic Park whenever I can against whoever they are playing and I will teach my children the Celtic way. But a little bit of my interest in the whole thing has just died.
There is a uefa precedent which was utterly ignored in this fiasco. They are guilty , they cheated and they have not been punished due to a twist in rule interpretation.
Celtic, you will lose everything unless you make a statement of intent. WE are the most powerful team in scotland and we must lead as such- time to stop lying down.
If I pay my guys cash in hand and don’t declare it to the government I have an advantage over my competitors and I’m cheating the system ! What’s the difference ?
Ntassoola, I’m pretty pished off at the moment and you are the last person I want to have any chat with, I would appreciate if you ignore my posts and I’ll reciprocate in kind.
This can be seen as an opportunity. If it had gone the way we hoped we would be stuck in a continuation of before, with Rangers in whatever form, being the eternal angry victims of conspiracy. Now that didn’t happen. So what did actually happen?
Who died?
Nobody died, so that is a blessing.
What died?
A relationship died. To admit this takes courage. To ignore it and carry on is a soul eroding terminal illness and not really an option to many.
What relationship died?
The relationship between Celtic PLC and their fans OR the relationship between Celtic F.C. and the S.F.A.?
The response from Celtic PLC will tell us where we are.
The PLC can save one relationship, it can’t save both.
I read through the judgement over lunch and it is full of inconsistencies. The Commission states that the SPL rules are there to ensure sorting integrity but are not there to regulate how one club may seek to gain sporting or financial advantage over others. That makes no sense whatsoever – the rules are there to prevent illegitimate sporting or financial advantages being gained.
The commission held that there was a breach of disclosure rules in each of the three periods they looked at – the SPL changed their disclosure rules twice over the last 10 years. They then make what is possibly the most bizarre legal technicality I have seen by suggesting that a player cannot be ineligible to play if his registration stands at the time he plays. The SFA/SPL would have to revoke the registration first before he becomes ineligible. The fact that the disclosure rules were not complied with fully wasn’t caught by the SFA/SPL until after the games had finished and there was no provision in the SPL rules to allow retrospective revocation of player registrations.
Essentially that is akin to allowing burglary if the burglar isn’t caught in the act. You can cheat if you want but only if you don’t get caught in the act of cheating. Once you have cheated nobody can question your conduct. How anyone could arrive at that decision is beyond me – surely that evidence would have to be questioned by the panel. To allow inadequate paperwork to contribute towards a valid registration is bizarre and I can’t think of any other example where lack of disclosure doesn’t invalidate the decision taken. Your car insurance is invalid if you don’t disclose driving convictions and that applies whether or not you have already driven your car.
Craiginho
Chas Green was offered deal by sfa/spl to to forfeit titles,what fekn changed in the rules
from then to now ?
Paul67
Can the SPL board appeal the decision?
VertWolf
Any spare tickets for Saturday, just need the one for moi.
HH
Steinreignedsupreme, yes, all this does is validate Celtic’s century-old position. This is who we are and who we have always been.
Getting out of Scotland is the only resolution.
ASonOfDan, aye.
Philbhoy, I was genuinely surprised.
Ellboy, not sure how Celtic should respond but I have discussed this with ‘someone close to the club’. The next move can only come from the SPL, the first reaction has to be for the league to take legal advice. We need to carry others with us. Remember, this is effectively a rejection of the SPL position based on SFA evidence.
Token Tim, Mr Bryson was the only show in town. The SFA register players, not the SPL, and his evidence said although they were incorrectly registered, he was not prepared to look back. The Commission had no alternative.
Boycott the SFA led games. Don’t buy the newspapers. Don’t listen to Radio Clyde. Actually boycott the SFL as well. Boycott Scottish national team. Support Celtic. Don’t leave Celtic please.
Paul, thanks for your work on this subject. It is bewildering that people want to stop following our club. Remember how our own support castigated the board for doing the right things? Many still do.
Fill Celtic Park and show them they won’t win!
Paul
Do you expect the club to make a statement about this verdict.
Because not to do so could have a serious detrimental effect on future income streams if fans decide to chuck it.
So it was the SFA’s evidence which saved Rangers from title stripping, a body who’s President was responsible for not registering the players properly in the first place. A blatant Rangers protection racket tge entire set up. Corrupt to the core.
So we have been officially told what we all knew all along, that they were cheating by not following the same rules about registering players that every other club have to follow!!
As for the bluster of not having gained a sporting advantage!!
Over ELEVEN years they were able to pay players in a way they would not have been able to afford otherwise!!! So if they followed the same rules as everybody else they would not have had such a standard of player!! CHEATING!!
We may aswell sign Messi by telling him we will pay him 200k per week but after 6 monts of not paying say “oh we didn’t think we had to”
How can we tell our kids that football is anything other than fixed?
Sickened
Paul – Well the big wig has ruled Rangers to be guilty but the punishment is not what we wanted. On the otherhand I would rather be in our position (today) that theirs, let them celebrate their guilty verdict – like an ill educated felon. We on the other hand should be thankful for our legitimately gained football advantage ( today ) and into the future. Time to forget the past, not be bitter, and move forward concentrating on us (not them) and how we stay light years ahead of the replica club. Their past has no bearing on their future which looks decidedly unappealing – ours looks quite champion.
Ntassoolla:
It may be your opinion that Celtic is a Scottish club. However many of us disagree. Celtic is an Irish club playing in Scotland. Guess it depends on perspective! Regards.
So the verdict is “Guilty, but not punishable. Oh and by the way please note our definitions at the end of our findings – Rangers then, Rangers now, Rangers always.”
It is a farce, time for me to put my money where Brother Walfrid intended the poor children’s dinner tables – Mary’s Meals
Paul67
When Jim Farry was being grilled over the Jorge Cadete scandal, he claimed innocence and blamed Sandy Bryson.
Maybe Farry was right?
Oldco didn’t think they were doing anything wrong because if they were the SFA would have told them ..
The SFA didn’t think Oldco were doing anything wrong because they had no information that Oldco were doing anything wrong .
Utterly incompetent or utterly corrupt . ?.
Many people in Italy think that Platini isn’t as stupid as he seems.
Will the board continue with their ingenious strategy of saying absolutely nothing?
danso_1888 14:03 on 28 February, 2013
“with due respect there is a difference in thinking you have been cheated and being officially told you are.”
It’s not a case of ‘thinking’ we have been cheated. We already have proof of cheating from the SFA with the Jim Farry episode and Dougie, Dougie, as well as wrongdoing against Celtic when the SFA forced us to rent Hampden at an extortionate rate, and Celtic Park being closed because of crowd trouble at Ibrox.
Just a few examples. Today is just the latest one.
HH
Pulp SPL Fiction
Ineligble players are legal, but they’re not 100% legal. If you’re Rangers, it’s legal to pay them on the side, it’s legal to play them, and if you’re the proprietor of the club it’s legal to keep the titles gained from these players. But get this if you’re a wee team in Scotland, it’s illegal for you to miss a signature of a document. That’s a right wee teams in Scotland don’t have.
So it sounds like if you broke into an electronics shop and stole a whole load of stuff then smashed the CCTV equipment to cover your tracks.
The police suspect you done and manage to recover the CCTV footage at a later date.
When you are called into court the jury are told to discard the CCTV evidence as it was not available at the time of the incident.
You are found guilty but get to keep the stollen goods as no one accused you at the time of the offence.
Well I think I’ll go out an rob a bank.
As long as I keep the evidence secret for a while I’ll get to keep the cash with litterally a slap on the wrist for a dead relative of mine.
Anyway
FTH
Ntassoolla
14:10 on
28 February, 2013
corkcelt @14:05 “a League outwith Scotland.”
Where?
Celtic are a Scottish club. Always have been. Always will be.
Rangers are not Scotland. It is they who must leave.
============================
We are their bogey man, we are their reason for being. They are not ours. We will thrive elsewhere without them. I say let them wither on their vine.
Presumably Rangers will appeal this – after all they have said all along that they have not done anything wrong…..
Bom dia,
Companheiros – As I see it. The rights/wrongs of this one will be debated for a long time.
However, the fact remains, this decision is all about ANOTHER club. A club with a tarnished image. A club with a debatable history. A club with questionable finances. A club currently in the Fourth division due to past financial improper actions.
Therefore, as I see it, an “I’m jacking it” attitude from any fan of any other club, due to today’s decision only does disservice to their own club.
Is “It’s just s’no fair” attitude really the best way to show support for our own club? A club with a proud history and a promising future on the International stage. A club, which destiny may be piloting towards an uncharted (and undoped) 10 League wins in a row?
No companheiros, a lot maybe unpalatable with todays decision. However, there’s a lot which is wrong in this world, which a lot of people are fighting – constantly. Like Miki67.
So, although today maybe a “bad” day for most of us, it’s nothing compared to what some have to face.
Daily.
thebhoyblack
It’s not over yet, we are all stakeholders in Celtic……one way or another Celtic will suffer from this result for years to come. It is how the PLC lead that will determine the extent of the suffering.
our current leaders will be hoping as time goes by we will soften and just get on with it,
if our leaders do not come out fighting this then you know that money means more than
celtic to these men, in the name of god look at that decision and tell me you are not
sickened for yourself your father and your fathers father, if like i say that nothing is said or done then the betrayal is complete all round, and that hurts far more than anything the cabal has done because it will mean celtic are part of this cabal shafting their own.
No disrespect intended to St. Mirren (who have won all cup games between the teams this season) but if Celtic get to the semi final, there has surely got to be a refusal of Celtic supporters to take tickets.
A fully empty Celtic end and North stand at Hampden. f.t. sfa .
P67
registrations made in error or under false or incomplete represenation cannot ever be considered as proper registrations …..otherwise the whole system is a nonsense
are teams therefore allowed to play players whom they have inappropriately registered until the get caught …and that it will be deemed that no sporting advantage was gained not withstanding the fact that the registration was a sham
where is the equity in that
I still think there is room for a legal challenge from Celtic shareholders.
Paul67
Agree about our century long status continuing. Except that it is clearly now official. No debates. And if the club does not move to openly and publicly protect its customers, past present and future then we await the return of Old Firm. No debates.
Another 100 year ?
HH
Craiginho
14:15
Brilliant summing up there, my learned friend. Everyone should check out what one of the good lawyers has to say.
Lunch is for wimps though.
stephenpollock
I could not agree more.
Celtic are top dogs in Scotland,in spite of everything that they have thrown at us.
Some form of Euro League is inevitable in the near future,and when it does happen,we’ll be there.
We just need to keep on winning.
Bring on the zombies.