There has been a pattern for me in recent days. I’ve read a statement by a current/former football club director, then I’ve gone looking for corroboration, just in case the report is a sabotaged attempt to make the author appear foolish.
A statement was released by former Rangers chairman, Alastair Johnston yesterday, discussing the current SPL Commission looking into how his board administered football player contracts. I agree with him that any “capital punishment decision” should not be left to the SPL, but the SPL have no authority to impose capital punishment on a football club. The decision to terminate a football club can only be taken by the SFA (I am discounting the reckless behaviour of directors), and is perhaps a reason the SFA decided to delegate this inquiry to the league. It is interesting timing for Johnston to put this on the table.
Johnston’s main thrust is in connection with the SPL Commission, saying “the SFA wrote to us asking for more details about the public speculation concerning our financial and tax situation. The latter obviously referenced the impact of the EBT schemes as creating a potential taxation liability.
“The club responded accordingly and provided details, as it had done in previous years, by declaring player salaries, bonuses, benefits, etc., but also payments made to a Remuneration Trust. The SFA compliance officers must have known, both from the description and context of the reports, that such expenditures had some connection to player compensation.
“However, without any further investigation at the time, Rangers FC received its SFA license to compete in the 2011/2012 season. Rangers, therefore, were entitled to believe that they were not in breach of any SFA regulation requiring reporting of player compensation.”
Mr Johnston clearly implies that the SFA were in receipt of sufficient information to ascertain if Rangers correctly registered players (and considering the SFA president was on the board which sanctioned these decision was have to wonder), but the key point is missing from his testimony.
While disclosing this information to the SFA did Rangers reveal the existence of the alleged second contracts? For the purposes of the SPL Commission, it doesn’t really matter how much players were paid, or if they received this money through a Remuneration Trust, what matters is: were contracts submitted and players correctly registered? If not, then it doesn’t matter what else the club submitted to the SFA.
Sir David Murray, then Rangers owner, vehemently denied the existence of second contracts as recently as March this year, so it would appear unlikely that Rangers revealed these allegedly non-existent contracts at an earlier date.
Labouring this point slightly Johnston said: If the SFA now decide to adopt a more focused evaluation of the data they request from its members in order to be granted a license, they should ensure that the legislation upon which they rely for enforcement and the corresponding sanctions are more transparent and predictable.”
For clarity, the information the SFA requires in order to grant a club licence is not being changed in any way. The SFA and the SPL do, however, require clubs submit player contracts as part of the player registration process. It is not the club licence which is in doubt here, it is the registration of players, Mr Johnston, we have to wonder why you are trying to focus away from this matter.
Our own club was brought into the issue: “A lawyer representing Celtic recently was successful in having charges against that club dropped because of the inadequacy of the SFA’s prescribed rules, regulations, and sanctions. The same principle should apply here.”
Perhaps time is playing tricks on Mr Johnston’s memory. Paul McBride ensured a punishment imposed on Neil Lennon (not Celtic) was enforced in line with SFA rules. Johnston also meanders on the subjects of match fixing and financial doping, distancing his former club from both, but neither charge is of any consequence.
Despite his extensive diatribe on the subject, at no point does the former Rangers chairman deny the central allegation – that for over a decade Rangers gave dozens of players second contracts which were not registered with the SPL or SFA. Like Charles Green the previous day, he never suggested Rangers have been wrongly accused, he just complains about the club being accused.
There is a degree in Cognitive Bias in this matter if anyone is looking for material.
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Declan has’nt gone he is abt here somewhere. KOJO?? MMMM
Looking for a Bus for the Benfica game from Livingston or nearby, for a friend and her young son, both 1st timers at Celtic Park.
Any advice or CSC’s appreciated
ItaliaBhoy, indeed, why talk about everything apart from the matter in hand? Let’s discuss Financial Doping instead!
Folly Folly, thank you. I’ve missed all reporting over the last couple of days (would really like to have seen some of Andy Murray’s coverage) but I doubt some of the major media outlets gave these matters sufficient scrutiny.
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby, indeed.
Kilbowie Kelt, sure will, thanks.
Interesting views from some Everton fans,including a medic.
The Ambulance crews,apparently,were told there was a riot,and were kept away?
Bloody hell……..
http://www.evertonfc.com/forum/discussion/11520/hillsborough
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time, run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar, go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Well, my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee
Talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought, I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John, go do my will”
Go tell that long tongue liar, go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time, run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Well, you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s down in the dark will be brought to the light
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time, run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar, go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Seems very appropriate lately.
philvs
What you on about? LLR is at work and im paying his wages. No wonder it takes ages to get thru to council offices if the staff are on webites they shouldnt be while at work.
Your response is like what is in your bins. RUBBISH!!!!!
Miki67:
Have you seen Adam Curtis’ 2004 doc “The Power of Nightmares”. Curtis suggests parallel’s between the rise of Islamism in the Arab world and Neoconservatism in the United States in that both needed to inflate a myth of a dangerous enemy in order to draw people to support them. It illuminates the shadowy origins of these ideologies. Part 3 section of the doc reveals the rise of Al Qaeda in Algeria and other failed revolutions- but after so much bloody murder the people of Algeria utterly rejected their credo. It gives a detailed biopic of the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, the founder of modern Islamist thought- after suffering torture Qutb’s polarised thought took on vengeful, sadistic, extremist overtones and of course perverting the essential message of the Koran.
RhebelRhebel @RhebelRhebel
Big Tax Case verdict to come in October – http://tinyurl.com/9qztkh2
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Cameron is handling the debate with great sensitivity it has to be said.
jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ – Council workers do very useful and important work and we should be happy to pay their wages.
Who else is going to leave peevish comments on the Guardian website?
How many people work in local government? About half of them. (thumbsup)
Seen this on TSFM site
——————–
MDCCCLXXXVIII says:
September 12, 2012 at 13:15
the waiting’s almost over….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19569680#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
23 years waiting for justice.shocking collusion.RIP The 96.
YNWA
wonkyradar – Told ya, it’s the religion of peace. The fact that millions of its adherents all over the world seem to think they have a right to murder anybody who upsets them is just a coinkydink.
Probably something concocted by those awful neocons. (thumbsup)
Paul 67
Another brilliant response to the rambling from CG / AJ
Keep up the good work
Hail Hail
Lennon n Mcmjallby -i think I’ve heard three versions of that song- the blind boys of alabama, j.r.cash, tom jones.
Aldo- you and yours well? Still in bedlam?
I wonder where Kelvin McKenzie is today shame on him
Philvis:
Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer. (thumbsup)
That is a preposterous assertion- no way could a mummy’s boy with no mojo whatsoever and who wore his trousers that high above his waist, with a hairdo like that, and with wan baw could actually dance- that just takes credulity to new levels.
I bet he moved like a club footed Zombie Uncle with a catheter bag at a wedding…
!!Bada Bing!!
13:19 on 12 September, 2012
”Cameron is handling the debate with great sensitivity it has to be said.”
That’s an old Etonian thing.
Dbbia.yep.alls well.hope with you and yours also.and everyone else on the site. :-)
Still in bedlam.lol.
Laters peeps.nightshift beckons me fto her bosom.
BTC verdict and Charlie’s share issue both in the next few weeks – should be interesting.
Bada Bing – Cameron is getting very adept at delivering apologies, by the end of his tenure I think he’ll have perfected it.
philvs
L L R Has admitted he is using council property on council time. Lucky he is not sacked cos he is breach of his contract.
I have great admiration re C W’s. a lot of my mates and friends are council workers. Thats your brown bin filled BTW. lol
A SON OF DAN 1305
Too young,marginall, to remember the 69/70 game,but I always wondered why there was a toss of a coin in those days-reading back,obviously-when it’s a widely-held view that Bobby Lennox’s “goal” in the 66 CWC semi would have put us through on away goals.
Obviously,the away goals didn’t come into it with Benfica,but,blinkin’ flip,if they can figure out the away goals idea to split a tie,then surely either penalties,or Jock’s preferred method of number of corners would have been preferable?
Toss of a coin in such an important situation,simply ridiculous.
I’ll bet,though,there were a number of people come 28 May 1970 wishing we’d lost the damned toss
59 out of 96 could have survived if the police had let the emergency services in rather than reporting ‘crowd trouble’
Shame on them!
Kelvin Mc Kenzie is a pompous prat!! He and that rag were meant for each other.
DBBIA —–
God’s Gonna Cut You Down .
Great version by Bobbie Gentry [ on the Delta Sweete LP ]
Great version by Odetta [ on the Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues LP ]
PHILVISRETURNS 1306
Do you have your Gentleman’s Gentleman do it for you instead?
If you ever feel the need to dispense with the cove’s services,just mention it on here.
I’m sure one of our regular posters will be round tout-de-suite to offer his services.
Seems only fair-he’s already hijacked your catch-phrase,you may as well give him a shot at your cigars…….
The independent panel says that the Police Federation met on 19th April 1989, the day the Sun article was published. The Police Federation representative apparently confirmed then that “putting our side of the story over to the press and media” had been his priority. He told the meeting that the Chief Constable Peter Wright had stated “the truth could not come from him”, but that he had given the Police Federation a “free hand” and his support.
At the Police Federation meeting, Chief Constable Peter Wright joined in and advised that the South Yorkshire Police case had to be pulled together. A “defence” had to be prepared, and a “rock solid story” be presented. Cheif Constable Wright believed that the Force would be “exonerated” by the Taylor inquiry, and considered that “blame” should be directed towards “drunken ticketless individuals”.
Labour leader Ed Miliband: “The tragedy was not caused by fans but by an unsafe ground and terrible mistakes and negligence in policing. There was a systematic attempt by some in the police to cover this up after the event, and disgracefully to spread the blame to the fans. They were aided and abetted by parts of the media, and finally it is clear that the original inquest was hopelessly inadequate, declaring the so-called 3.15 cut off, assuming that all those who had died had sustained fatal injuries by that time when in fact the post mortem records show that not to be the case, and tragically show some of the victims could have been saved.”
The Sun newspaper is carrying a story claiming police and emergency services made “strenuous attempts” to deflect blame for the disaster away from them and onto fans. BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins tweets the PM says former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie needs to “face up to his own responsibilities” over their Hillsborough coverage.
News International’s executive chairman James Murdoch has apologised for The Sun newspaper’s “wrong coverage” of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.
Police need to declare membership of secret societies
interesting that the link posted earlier to the everton forum, is actually a forum on everton fc’s official website. the Celtic site had something similar many years ago, but it is now long gone unfortunately. Am quite impressed that everton stil maintain one on their website.
If there was any justice in the world then the stinking rag that is The S(h)un would be dragged into a court of law, broken, thrown out of the country, and its editors at the time of Hillsborough, imprisoned along with the rats who tried to stitch up the dead and the grieving.
Sometimes this world fills me with loathing.
MisanthropyCanBeCathartic CSC
philvisreturns
13:21 on
12 September, 2012
wonkyradar – Told ya, it’s the religion of peace. The fact that millions of its adherents all over the world seem to think they have a right to murder anybody who upsets them is just a coinkydink.
Probably something concocted by those awful neocons. (thumbsup)
There are 1.5 billion Muslims on the planet. A small minority of extremists are not representative of the essential message of the religion. You have to remember that the Islamic world does not experience the separation of religion and politics as we do in the secularised West. Political gestures can often be tied up with a religious element. People in the Islamic world are not politically naive: they are cognisant of historical precedent and the role of America/UK in their neck of the woods- after all the Americans did target the Middle East oil fields as the primary area for foreign strategy immediately after WWII. The people of the Islamic world don’t want the complete separation of religion and politics- why should they imitate how we live in the West?
ERNIE LYNCH 1326
Respectfully,he has handled it better than his predecessors.
Labour had a fair few years to open that enquiry too.
They didn’t.
Cameron seems genuinely shocked at the revelations.
Which,as Prime Minister,he shouldn’t be.
LuxCelt
13:45 on
12 September, 2012
interesting that the link posted earlier to the everton forum, is actually a forum on everton fc’s official website. the Celtic site had something similar many years ago, but it is now long gone unfortunately. Am quite impressed that everton stil maintain one on their website.
…….
The SFA hold clubs responsible foreverything on their offical sites, the club had no option to shut it down as it had to censored so much it was pointless
Paul67
In my days of work meetings I always listened for what the staff were not telling me. The silence could be a gold mine.
I posted this yesterday soon after AJ spoke and capitalised the same registration point.
On Alistair Johnstone’s statement
” The SFA is complicit in all of this because they have not at least up until now had the courage to publicly acknowledge that they either ignored or did not really understand the well-publicized structure surrounding the relationship that Rangers FC had with certain of its players.”
So the SFA polis did not tell Rangers they were breaking the law the SFA polis were supposed to uphold so that means no laws were broken or the polis cannot later enforce the law?
” The reality of the situation is that Sir David Murray, who was intimately involved in the architecture of these efforts to organize the business in a way to mitigate taxation which is totally legitimate and acceptable under all tenets of the law, would have signed and paid for these very same players whether or not EBT schemes were in effect or not.”
So had the tax payer not paid for those players directly they would have paid for them indirectly through bank rescue? Was it not the Rangers Board responsibility to caution SDM that the business was being run on an unsustainable manner only with bank permission and that could not be relied upon. Surely the Board’s role was to do this. Instead they ignored the predictions of Hugh Adam and allowed SDM free reign.
Finally did they provide the SFA will all contracted payments as part of the registration details or not? If not AS PART of THE REGISTRATION then why not?
Is he honestly saying Rangers were unaware of the on field advantage ebts gave Rangers over their main competitor in wage terms? Really? Celtic were aware of EBTS but eschewed their use because they had doubts about their legality, Rangers took a punt when common sense prevailed elsewhere. Surely the responsibility of Rangers was to act with the same sense of propriety but having decided not to, the price must be paid not least because of what that decision cost those acting with propriety.
Litmus test is if the position were reversed would Rangers think it was all ok not to feel cheated?
PS. I would just luv it if what the SFA asked Rangers in the context of the UEFA license granting and what Rangers told the SFA in March/April/May 2011 in respect of the unpaid wee tax bill (not the ebt bill) were to finally come out, if indeed questions were asked by the SFA on the wee tax bill (AJ is not clear on that).
However being infinitely patient I await the result becoming immediate because with so many canaries now singing one is bound to chirp a bum note.
I’m a guy who likes to give others the benefit of the doubt but way back in early 2010 suspicions of skulduggery took me to the St Mary meetings, but I never imagined it would verge on criminality and the extent folk would go to to hide that sort of behaviour.
However when you hear today the extent and higher reach of the cover up after Hillsborough then with every passing day it looks like the same thing is going on in Scotland re Rangers and the SFA. Lets hope it does not go fully that way and take as ong for the truth to emerge all the way up.