It is 13 days since Celtic Quick News first raised a concern that the SFA were not investigating the alleged improper registration of football players by Rangers FC for a period of over a decade. Our central concern was:
Allegations of players having two contracts had been repeated in the media but it was not known if both alleged contracts were submitted to the SFA in accordance with Player Registration Rules. As fans, we had no authority to check, but with an SFA inquiry into Rangers convened, this seemed like an excellent opportunity to demand answers.
We had two secondary concerns:
The scope of the inquiry led by Lord Nimmo Smith was not made public, nor was there any commitment to make the findings public.
SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, as a SFA board member, was due to receive the report and could have been in a position to influence the scope of the inquiry. Ogilvie was general secretary and director of Rangers from 1978 until 2005, presenting a clear conflict of interest, which the SFA had not acknowledged.
Subsequent events have moved beyond the association:
The SFA have confirmed Nimmo Smith’s report will not investigate the alleged improper registration of players at Rangers but they have left the door open to a future inquiry into the matter.
The Scottish Premier League have not been so lax and will now investigate the alleged improper registration of players. We can perhaps imply that only one contract per player has been lodged with them.
The Sun and Daily Mail have produced a redacted (second) contract and evidence from a former Rangers director respectively.
Despite the issue being reported throughout all media channels, no one from Rangers, past or present, has denied the existence of the second contracts, or claimed player registrations were valid.
What next:
We await the SPL inquiry.
If found guilty, some punishments are clear. Playing an improperly registered player in any match invalidates the result of the game. A 3-0 win is retrospectively awarded to the opponent. Always. Just as your history books do not record Ben Johnson as Olympic 100m champion for 1988, Scottish football records would be changed.
An offense such as this would be “literally off the scale” to borrow a phrase. The SPL and SFA would need to decide on an appropriate penalty. Sport does not provide many good reference points for behaviour on this scale (Johnson was banned for three years).
The HMRC v Rangers tax tribunal and current financial plight of the club remain huge issues but, if found to be valid, the improper registration of footballers over such a long period has the potential to be the biggest story in the history of Scottish football. The SFA must initiate an immediate inquiry.
Everyone else must simply wonder, what next?
I would like to be the first to congratulate Dundee United on their 2008 League Cup win.
Issue six of CQN Magazine, the Fit and Proper edition, is set to become a landmark collectors item. You can browse the magazine online here but you can buy your own hard copy by clicking on the link below. Read with 20-20 vision…..
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
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Ard Macha – saw the first three together but have missed them since.
Will check back tonight.
cheers
gordybhoy64. Only my guess fella but it would look like the administrators and the players are comeing to an agreement on wage cuts to save jobs.Making players redundant wouldnt take all day.H.H.
Philvisreturns,would the administrators not just allow those who
volunteered to leave to go?,why would they be kept on?,
how many more would you expect to go?.
lots of questions i know
How many Rangers players are going to risk getting injured if they agree to a 75% pay cut?
They’ll pretend to work, while Rangers pretends to pay them. (thumbsup)
Can only assume that Celik and Wylde already have something else lined up.
Everybody else is probably playing a game of bluff with the Admin to see what proportion of wage they can hold onto. I suppose if I was in their shoes, I would probably do the same. Problem for them is that some might overplay their hand – but you could see yet another day passing by with Dumb and Dumber no further forward…
philvisreturns on 6 March, 2012 at 16:46 said:
gordybhoy64 -Administrators are still trying to talk them into working for free.
The way this is going I am half expecting to hear that the players are trying to talk the administrators into working for free.
gordybhoy64 – Rangers are stuck in the tar as the steamroller approaches.
It doesn’t matter how slow the steamroller is going, it’s going to get them. (thumbsup)
Kayal33 on 6 March, 2012 at 16:36 said:
Chris McLaughlin@BBCchrismclaugReply
Retweet
#Rangers administrators still hopeful of media conf tonight. Progress being made on wage cut discussions I believe.
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Really? to the tune of £1m per month saving?..they must be including both contracts to achieve that!
Meanwhile the creditors large and small must be looking on completely bemused and open mouthed…this stinks. hh
If as reported 3 others do do walking away, but are told they are not aloud to do walking away.
Then you are left with i’d assume 3 first team players who’d rather be elsewhere.
Not good for team moral and hopefully not good for results.
iki – The way this is going I am half expecting to hear that the players are trying to talk the administrators into working for free.
Ally McCoist disappointed not to be allowed to sign “free Nelson Mandela”. (thumbsup)
According to Clyde at 2pm Wylde was speaking to 3 unnamed English clubs(and no Portsmouth probably isnt one of them!)
I want casualties,preferably rats like laffatme,naibalance elbows and bartley
Remember the administrators are in there to look after the interests of the creditors…are they?
so many different ‘parties’ involved : players, administrators, Whyte, HMRC etc not 1 of them gives a jot about Rangers. So while it is a bit frustrating let’s enjoy them squabbling safe in the knowledge that no matter the outcome Rangers will be the losers.
Craig Whyte has asked for his £1 back…
So what percentage of the £1M a month have they saved so far?
Given the fees the administrators are on their bill for today alone probably come to as much as they have saved!
Blackpool and Southampton were earlier reported as wanting Wylde.
Yoker and Clydebank after Celik..
Rangers have apparently stolen £50m+ from the UK taxpayer to pay players over a number of years.
Rangers have apparently fielded inelligible players in most or all of their games going back for over a decade.
Rangers have revenues of ~£30m, operating costs of ~£45m and potential debts due immediately of ~£75m.
Rangers are 21 points behind Celtic in the league, out of both domestic cup competitions and are unlikely to qualify for a license to compete in either Scottish or European competitions next season.
Why does anyone care whether any players get made redundant today or not? It is an irrelevance.
Newsflash: Bartley has located the Arsenal money.
Two nice wee updates on STV website:
Enquiry into Rangers Charity Foundation over Ibrox friendly match against AC Milan, and …..
Kyle Bartley speaks of ‘bleak’ atmosphere at Rangers
RaRaRasputin. Well said fella it makes absolutely no difference at the time of the end game it will be an irrelevance . H.H.
RaRaRasputin on 6 March, 2012 at 16:58 said:
Well said that man!!!
STV website reporting that OSCR (the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) is investigating the huns’ charity after they announced that the money raised from the charity match v AC Milan will go to the club.
I’m so glad I dropped them a wee e-mail … but then others probably did too
Will Naismith’s wages be covered by insurance as he’s currently injured?
Not sure players can agree to play for nothing;it is against FIFA rules in a professional league,but more importantly,invalidates their insurance.
On that subject,bearing in mind that Whyte seems to have decided against paying any bills since he took over,does anyone think that he might not have kept the insurance policies up to date?
I wish it were true,because that would really be a finisher for Wishart.
new article posted.
bleak (big) house
pigalle
EmeraldBee\o/ on 6 March, 2012 at 16:59 said:.
“Kyle Bartley speaks of ‘bleak’ atmosphere at Rangers”
Bleak Big Hoose ?
mikefstv Mike Farrell
Inquiry into Rangers Charity Foundation over Ibrox friendly match against AC Milan
I asked about this a couple of days back, RE: charity game funds being diverted to RFC (IA)
STV Repoting on it:…..
[http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/299946-inquiry-into-rangers-charity-over-match-against-ac-milan/]
An inquiry into the Rangers Charity Foundation has been launched after it revealed the crisis-hit club would receive most of its proceeds from a friendly match.
The Ibrox club are hosting a game between former players of both Rangers and AC Milan later this month.
It had originally been organised to raise funds for the Rangers Charity Foundation, which was going to receive 60% of all money gathered by the game on March 30.
The charity, which has donated more than £2.3m to various causes since it was set up in 2002, has reduced the amount it will take from the game to 10%, meaning the majority of the money raised will go to the club, which is currently in administration.
On Tuesday, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator confirmed it had been made aware of “concerns” regarding the game after the change to the benefactors.
A spokesman for the regulator said: “We can confirm that we have an ongoing inquiry into the Rangers Charity Foundation. It would therefore not be appropriate to comment further.”
Rangers boss Ally McCoist, who is expected to feature for the Rangers side in the game, previously welcomed the move by the charity foundation.
He said: “It is a tremendous gesture by the Rangers Charity Foundation to forego the majority of the proceeds of the legends match to benefit the club and it is going to be an evening of nostalgia for all the fans, players and supporters.”
The AC Milan Foundation is also due to receive a percentage of money raised by the friendly, which will see Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne featuring for the Rangers team, while the Italian team will include the likes of Paolo Maldini and Jean-Pierre Papin.
Connal Cochrane, manager of the charity foundation, added: “The club and the Rangers fans have been tremendous to the foundation over the last ten years and now it is our turn to stand alongside them and step up for Rangers. The Rangers Charity Foundation suggested the club should now benefit from the match and we were delighted that the AC Milan Foundation agreed.”
RaRa and Joe Fillipi
You’re right, them losing players today isn’t really that important.
But it is fun!
Kyle Bartley gas returned to Murray Park. Seemingly he forgot his Cheerios.
RaRaRasputin: Why does anyone care whether any players get made redundant today or not? It is an irrelevance.
In the grand scheme, I agree. However, I want them punished and so far there has been no sign of it. I would like them to field a ghost team for the rest of the season, and get thumped each time they take the field, …
I could go on.
SFL dont want to join the party: see below
( probably because this would take them into 9 in row territory)
The Onlooker
The Scottish Football League (SFL) has no current plans to investigate allegations of ‘hidden’ contracts at Rangers, STV understands.
Former Rangers director Hugh Adam recently claimed former players were paid using Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) from the mid-1990s, potentially pre-dating the SPL.
The club are facing a probe from the Scottish Premier League (SPL) over claims not all payments to players were declared in playing agreements, as per league rules. The Scottish Football Association (SFA) are also looking into the accusations.
The SPL’s investigation dates back to the inception of the league in 1998, prior to which the Premier Division was controlled by the SFL.
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Deep in the darkest bowels of ibrox there is a vast configuration of “establishment secrets”…it is a maze of filing cabinets…it is a confectionary of nefarious schemes, aborted evil plans & macchiavellian stratagems ( a bit like the Vatican vaults except darker & the opposite)…at its evil rotten heart is a “HURLOCK” (a bit like a Minotaur except uglier)…will any Indiana Jones type Tims go in and retreive those secrets?
I HAVE BEEN MADE AWARE OF THIS SUBTERRANEAN LAIR FROM A RELIABLE SOURCE
Marrakesh:
Surely manually blow drying FPLG’s kebab encrusted skid marked Y-fronts is punishment enough for anyone?
Even in the Dark Ages career torturers would have recoiled in horror at such a suggestion?
NEW ARTICLE BHOYS
18881888188818881888
Malarkey on 6 March, 2012 at 16:39 said:
@RalphWaldo Ellsiion
thx – that’s my article. I though it a bit long to post here though…
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Malarkey, my apologies if posting it here was bad form.
I was impressed.
Article tied together so many of the strands for me.
Not blowing smoke either, but you are good writer, without the anger that so often goes with it.
HH
RWE CSC