How many times have we warned against internecine strife over the years? No one from outside a football club can really lay a glove on it, any real damage can only be done from the inside. Yesterday was Internecine Strife Day for one of the world’s biggest West of Scotland clubs.
Following on from Stewart Regan’s assertion to the media on Wednesday that an unnamed member of Rangers senior management did not properly disclose the damaging Employee Benefit Trust arrangements to the company’s directors, one of those directors, Dave King, has lodged a £20m claim against the club to compensate for the £20m he invested in shares in 2000.
There are so many acts in play at the moment it is difficult to know exactly what outcome King is hoping for here. The company is broke and at most will pay pennies in the pound to creditors, but Mr Regan’s assertion that some managers did not discharge their duties correctly opens up wide-ranging ramifications for those he referred to.
Regan excluded SFA president and former Rangers director, Campbell Ogilvie, from his allegations but it is unclear where his information came from. Concern is that it may have been directly from Ogilvie and that Regan spoke without an independent investigation being conducted. We hope that the SFA chief executive would not be so foolish as to attempt a cover-up of these matters.
Good corporate governance practices not only reassure the public, they protect chief executives from embarrassing resignations.
His silence on who conducted the inquiry that cleared Ogilvie and established that someone “higher up the chain” hid facts from Ogilvie, and perhaps King, is alarming. The SFA is not an old boys club, we need to know, did they properly investigate Ogilvie’s role or is something more sinister underway?
Who at the SFA knows about the inquiry which cleared Ogilvie? My previously-reliable sources at the Association were not aware the matter was investigated. It would also be good to know if the SFA board received the report that allowed Mr Regan to clear Mr Ogilvie. After all, the SFA are acutely aware of the dangers when important matters are kept “higher up the chain” from board members. What a sorry mess that would be.
I could cynically guess at these answers but after hearing Stewart Regan, it’s perhaps better to establish the facts first.
Let’s hope someone asks Mr Regan and he is able to clear the matter up. Better still, let’s hope someone keeps Fifa up to date with these developments and the ones we covered yesterday – don’t leave it to someone else, make sure they hear from you.
The Herald today listed charges including tax evasion, fraud, racketeering and money laundering against Dave King, but explains why he is crying foul play against the current, previous and potential future owner of Rangers.
In fairness to King, he has seen many obvious pitfalls in the Green proposition, perhaps a bit more internecine strife at the right times would have been better than blissful ignorance.
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having read Paul’s piece above and the Herald article you might be interested in reading this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2009/jul/01/football-money-laundering-report
Good luck to Cha. He was very unfortunate to be sent off at Minas Morgul for denying a ‘goal-scoring’ opportunity.
Thanks for the memo-Ri’s!
The Token Tim on 8 June, 2012 at 13:36 said:
St Stivs,
cheers trying again.
it doesnt like my works email addy,
Paul
As a member club of the SFA can / should Celtic not have raised a vote of no confidence in the SFA board at the last meeting of all member clubs?
I’m becoming increasingly frustrated at our clubs silence on how our game is being run. Many on this forum including myself have paid good money on season tickets in advance of next seasons fixtures and quite frankly the level of incompetence being shown by the SPL / SFA has me worried about what product we’ll get. Will it be cups and leagues with the rankers in them, will be playing Dundee, will we have fair play and integrity? So many unanswered questions from fans and given we are Scotland’s biggest club, perhaps we should be showing more leadership?
Good luck to Cha,must be great to play in countries with no biased ref’s.
They are hanging on to the edge of the cliff by their finger nails and here comes hector with a pair of nail clippers.
The Token Tim on 8 June, 2012 at 13:36 said:
Re St Stivs,if he doesn’t get it this time,leave him out ,plenty of fholk
on there already :O)
Doing a bit of checking and a couple of newspapers at the start of the week stated the Appeal Tribunal was meeting today.
What changed?
The hun “Bobo Doll” will be taking a terrible beating as we speak.
The drumheads are hurtin’ real bad.
Look! There! Fata Morgana!
Is it another march?
Coming over the horizon.
Paul67
Superb again
Getintaethum
HH
M
If I was Regan and had folk writing articles like this about me, i’d be squirming like a bear in a chapel.
St Stivs
Don’t you have any work to do
Or ye multi-tasking ;)
HH
M
P67,
Searching questions indeed
Cutting edge Internet bampottery.
What with the way the participants run with their elbows going at twenty to the dozen and a propensity to collapse, the marathon has to be Mr. McCulloch’s event of choice.
As the Chinese say: the SFA is an old boys netwok :
it is “Guanxi” in their mother tongue.
Don’t be fooled by Regan sitting like a Guy
at the top of the pile.
All that is needed is a spark
& it will go up like a bonfire.
I still believe board playing a blinder in this case
There are enough people sorting them out now… The process is in place .. It is happening to them
If our board say a word all the attention and blame will immediately focus on us
Why give them that opportunity?
Let them stew slowly in their own juice
We just stay up wind cause it’s gonna get pretty whiffy :)
HH
M
30k walk is surely Souness?
100m Hector
VP,
yep we are doing well currently got 126 joined up!
But as always the more the merrier, so if anyone else want to join in the FREE Kano Foundation Predictor, please feel free to do so.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
If Kennedy comes back in,they could play the 7 a side rugby at Poundland,like the Commonwealth Games.
Tokes – got an ole link to the ole predictor?
I wonder how involved our Club is involved in the processes behind the scenes?
saltires en sevilla – Yup.
Can’t see any upside for Celtic if our board decide to publicly intervene in Rangers’ troubles.
Leave them to fight it out amongst themselves.
We know we’ll still have a club to support and trophies to win next season. They’re still being peddled moonbeams and snake oil cures, and every passing day makes it less likely the Big Hoose will stay open. (thumbsup)
sorted bhoys, cheers.
cmon the irish.
DBBIA,
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Prizes include limited edition drawings of 3 of Celtic’s most iconic managers as well as the usual Kano Foundation goodies.
Simply log onto
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The huns are checkmated.
Instead of accepting the fact.
They want to upend the whole board.
A bad loser says: “Forget about that last game. Lets start again, from scratch.”
or after a time ( if they can stall long enough): “You were mistaken. I wasn’t checkmated. There is something wrong with your memory. Do you understand the rules buddy? I checkmated you!”
Saltires/ Philvis
The worst conceivable thing that Celtic could do would be to make a statement on this.
At the very least any subsequent turns for the worse in the Southside Saga would be linked to us somehow, however illogical and incorrect that would be.
In any event they’re doing pertty well all by themselves…
Ukraine is really upset that HM Government won’t be sending any of its ministers to their Euro 2012 matches.
I hear they’ve binned their “Hague” baseball caps in protest. (thumbsup)
I am quite sure that everybody behind the scenes at the sfa/spl will know how Celtic feel about this whole situation
Why should they come out publicly and say anything?
the time will come when Celtic will speak out
it is like the last days of the war at the big hoose, plots and sub plots
I wrote few comments on the BBC’s Panorame. This piece from “The Econimist” is better than my opinions.
Euro 2012 is overshadowed by accusations of racism and anti-Semitism
Jun 6th 2012, 11:24 by K.T. | WARSAW
THE Euro 2012 Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine that is kicking off on June 8th has stimulated great enthusiasm for the beautiful game and an unprecedented construction boom with new stadia and a long-awaited transport upgrade to the host nations. But it is overshadowed by rumours and accusations that racism and anti-Semitism are rife in both countries. Football fans all over Europe who are on their way to the championship games are asking themselves: how bad are racial prejudices in Poland and Ukraine? And should we stay at home?
A BBC Panorama documentary entitled “Stadiums of Hate” that was first aired on June 4th showed football fans in Ukraine beating up south Asians at a match as officials were looking on, Ukrainian skinheads in fight training with a far-right organisation in the forest, hooligans making Nazi salutes and a police officer denying that Nazi salutes had been made. The scenes in Poland showed a group of fans making monkey impressions at a black footballer, and the word “Jew” being used in a derogatory manner.
These images are shown to a shocked Sol Campbell, a black former England football captain. “You could end up coming back in a coffin,” he said. His advice to fans is to “stay home, watch it on TV… don’t even risk it.”
The Polish and Ukrainian governments stated that the BBC grossly exaggerated the reality on the ground by selecting worst cases and presenting them in isolation. No racist attacks against British people have been reported to the British embassy in Warsaw for at least three years. The explanation is not that black people don’t go to Poland anyway: John Godson, one of Poland’s two black MPs, said in an interview in Wprost magazine: “I believe that Poland is a tolerant country. Very much on this matter has changed and continues to change for the better. Poles have ever more opportunity to come into contact with foreigners – such as dark-skinned people – and that is better for them. Recall that in the election 30,000 people voted for me. Do you need any other proof of the tolerance of Poles?”
It seems that BBC reporters were highly selective in their reporting in the Panorama documentary. On June 6th, Jonathan Ornstein, the executive director of the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, sent to our correspondent in Warsaw the following statement:
Krakow, June 6, 2012.
As an American-born Jew living happily and safely in Poland and working
diligently to build Jewish life in that country, I am furious at the way the BBC
has exploited me as a source. The organization used me and others to
manipulate the serious subject of anti-Semitism for its own sensationalist
agenda; in doing so, the BBC has insulted all Polish people and done a
disservice to the growing, thriving Jewish community of Poland.
I have reason to believe the BBC similarly misrepresented the black African
football players it used as sources in the same programme.
Moreover, the BBC knowingly cheated its own audience – the British people
– by concocting a false horror story about Poland. In doing so, the BBC has
spread fear, ignorance, prejudice and hatred.
I would urge the BBC to become more aware of its own negative stereotyping
of Poles, before it goes pointing the finger of judgment.
On April 30th, 2012 I was interviewed by Chris Rogers for a BBC Panorama
program about racism and anti-Semitism in Polish and Ukrainian football
ahead of the Euro2012 football championships taking place in those two
countries. The interview lasted approximately one hour during which I
emphasized that the small number of football fans in Poland engaging in
anti-Semitic and racist behavior do not represent Polish society as a whole. I
stressed throughout the interview the remarkable progress Poland has made
in the 11 years I’ve been living here and carefully explained that the Krakow
Jewish community, with whom I work closely in my capacity of Director of the
Jewish Community Centre, feels safe and well integrated into broader Polish
society.
I suggested to the reporting team that they interview the two Israeli footballers
who played for Wisla Krakow this season and were active members of the
Jewish community so that they could hear firsthand about their positive
experiences. The reporters responded that this line of inquiry “didn’t fit their
story”, a response which perplexed me at the time.
The tendentious programme which aired on BBC One on May 28th “Stadiums
of Hate”, a name which I was not aware of while being interviewed,
completely disregarded anything positive I said and aired only comments
critical of Poland. I am profoundly disturbed by this unethical form of
journalism.
I cannot speak about Ukraine and the revolting images filmed there but
the Poland I have lived in for the past 11 years, while certainly not devoid
of problems with tolerance, has made great strides in that area and in my
opinion has been unfairly portrayed by the BBC. The report is so tendentious
that Poles cannot recognize themselves in it. Had the report been more
nuanced and closer to the reality, they would have been forced to accept that
problems do exist and support solutions currently in place.
To recover some of its journalistic integrity, I call on the BBC to air a follow
up episode that truly represents the state of anti-Semitism in Poland, but also
highlights the increasing support for pluralism in Polish society by accurately
reporting interviewees’ comments.
Jonathan Ornstein
Executive Director
Jewish Community Centre of Krakow
Ugo Ukah, black player who was interviewed in that film, issued similar statement.
why would celtic want to involve ourselves in this unholy mess, nothing good would come of it and it wouldn’t change anything.
with thompson at dundee saying he won’t vote a newhuns into the spl the momentum is so clearly against them we’d be foolish to risk stopping the march to armageddon just to have our say.
much as it wold be sweet to deliver the coup de gras, it would be even funnier if the rest of scottish football did it.
the long wait is over – At the very least any subsequent turns for the worse in the Southside Saga would be linked to us somehow, however illogical and incorrect that would be.
Yup.
The media would immediately reach for its dog whistle and rouse the mentalist wing of the Rangers support to attack anybody associated with our club. Especially with the looming season of silly walks, their permarage will be at an all time high.
We’ve had enough bombs and bullets and death threats from them in recent times.
Best thing to do is just try not to laugh out loud while they march over a cliff. (thumbsup)
Paul67,
Absolutely. You’ve got to be thanking the Gods for the almost daily incriminations of the participants that’s giving you plenty of ammunition for your leaders.
I find the DR’s comments section a good barometer for gauging reactions and this mornings section devoted to readers views on the King story was a resounding success for Celtic supporters, hardly a Rangers supporters rose to the baiting.
You’d think It’s getting near the time for a compassionate referee to put an end to this cruelty, but then again as we’re not guaranteed a result in Scotland the punishment needs to continue until they ask for mercy.
DBBIA,
follow following Big Sammi and his team in the Euros then?
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
TTT-Done Kano Predictor without having to enter codes?
Is at Edinburgh airport awaiting his flight to Poznan, can’t get any Internet coverage in the terminal so only checking online when out for a smoke, any cqn’ers on the flight?
Gordon J @ 13:39
I just find it curious that Whyte says “My shares will form part of the consortium’s shareholding” – He doesn’t say he will be giving up those shares, this could be construed as “I am part of the consortium”, which is what Dave King seems to think.
Jim Spence @bbcjimspence
Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson believes clubs would not vote a Rangers Newco into SPL as things stand at present