In his Christmas Day message last year, Uefa president, Michel Platini spoke in the firmest terms possible about many of the issues facing Scottish football right now.
He told us that 2011 was “one of those years where one feels the weight and magnitude of one’s responsibilities, but which equally serves to provide greater strength. Because, the just cause – however difficult it may be – is all the more obvious.”
This is a strong statement of intent. Platini fully understands the position of president is not ceremonial, it has weighty responsibilities. If he believes these specific words, “the just cause – however difficult it may be – is all the more obvious”, he must take an immediate active involvement to protect the game in Scotland.
M Platini goes on to say, “To be a president is not to have an organisation at one’s service, but to be at the service of an organisation, of a game, of football.”
Scottish FA president, Campbell Ogilvie, who has been inextricably linked to the on-going improper registration of Rangers players allegations his organisation declined to investigate, would do well to consider these words. He is in place to serve the game yet he has offered us no information on the subject.
Michel then added, “It has been a year which has underlined the importance of our organisation [Uefa] as one of the guarantors of the values, stability and equity of this sport.”
Uefa guarantee the values, stability and equity of football. They do not work towards equity, they ensure it is imposed, you have the president’s word.
“It has been a year in which certain of our national associations have had to take courageous decisions to preserve the justice and integrity of our sport.”
Here, Michel could be speaking about the SFA, who have to take courageous decisions to preserve justice and integrity in the face of gross charges of financial and regulatory doping on a scale not seen anywhere in Europe.
His most important comment, which reflected on 2011, was:
“A year in which we have also had to remain solid and defend our values – sometimes alone – to guarantee the respecting of the rules and the equity of the competitions, and to prevent football becoming a hostage of a few for their own profit and interests.”
“Respecting… the rules and the equity of the competitions”. This includes player registration rules.
More importantly, “to prevent football becoming a hostage of a few for their own profit and interests”.
This is where we are today. Football in Scotland has become a hostage of a few who will follow their own interests, not those values Michel Platini holds dear.
The president goes on to say that 2011“has been a year in which, unfortunately and at the expense of certain agonies, football has emphasised its need for transparency and governance, aspects which are so important in relation to the respect which is so dear to me.”
There may be other countries in Europe more deserving of M Platini’s intervention, but the crisis in Scotland is acute and urgent, and the SFA appear overwhelmed. We need the oversight only Uefa can provide and its president promised in his Christmas message.
For an extended synopsis of how we got to where we are, catch up on Saturday’s blog.
660 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 18
- »
Tom English@TomEnglishSportReply Retweet
I fear for some Celtic fans if Duff and Phelps have got their analysis right. We’re talking spontaneus combustion on a frightening scale
Did Sone Aluko give himself a pay cut last week?
AndyM,
you can bet the morgage on taylor doing his best damage limitation job from the inside. As Awe_Naw says he is right in the firing line when the bubble bursts
Duff and Phelps have got their analysis right.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
stupid huns
What does Tom mean by that MICK, is that in a good way or bad way? very cryptic Mr English. He’s went up my estimations after the pod cast last week.,clever man.
KLV
Mick
I think Tom English is going to be disappointed
“There are two parties involved as creditors – HMRC and Ticketus – and the last thing the club needs right now is any kind of long legal battle.” Paul Murray
Scheme linked to former Rangers owner demands £3m back from club
Professional Pensions | 12 Mar 2012 | 12:05
By Jack Jones
Categories: Investment, Law Topics: High court, Craig whyte, Jerome group pension, Glasgow rangers fc
Trustees of the Jerome Group Pension Fund have begun proceedings to recover almost £3m from the administrators of Glasgow Rangers FC.
Jerome Group’s parent company Worthington – part-owned by former Rangers chairman Craig Whyte – released a statement today confirming the money had been provided to the club’s solicitors while the trustees considered making a fully secured loan.
But the club was plunged into administration last month after failing to pay the tax man, and £3.6m found in an account belonging to Whyte’s solicitor has been transferred the administrator’s solicitors.
The statement said the funds held to order of the trustees may have been the subject of an unauthorised release to the club before it entered administration.
Worthington said Whyte held 7.54% of its shares through investment vehicle Liberty Capital – which also held 100% of Ranger’s shares – but had no involvement in the management of the company or its pension scheme.
It added the trustees had obtained specific legal confirmation that Liberty’s holding in Worthington did not prejudice their ability to advance the £2.925m sum to the club.
The company said trustees had acted in accordance with very detailed legal advice at all times and obtained favourable independent commercial advice from a regulated adviser.
They have been advised by their lawyers that they have a very good claim for recovering the funds from the administrators or the solicitors.
Lawyers for the administrators said in the High Court they had expected to find £9.5m in the account but there had only been £3.6m and there were other creditors claiming ownership.
These include HM Revenue & Customs, which is seeking £2.8m and Merchant Turnaround – which lists Whyte as a director and is also part owned by Liberty Capital – which wants £1m.
Whyte was banned by the UK Insolvency Service from being a director of a British company for seven years in 2000, and last week was found to be unfit to hold any position within football by the Scottish Football Association.
I fear for Tom English if what every sane person knows about rangers and liquidation comes to pass.
The Laptop Loyal are a joke.
Tom English doesn´t read the papers. He should stick to being SIr David Murrays mouthpiece and Jim Traynors intellectual side kick bouncer.
Hail Hail
P67
Keep it coming Paul…if the shoe was on the other foot, they would be relentless on our throat….talking of which…..
Why is RFC (IA) U19’s not deducted 10 points also? ;->
hhplc
matt mcglone @MattMcGlone9 Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
(1) Some inaccurate scaremonger talk coming from Mr Dublin/English today! Celtic are waiting & noting every move, CFC would accept …..matt mcglone @MattMcGlone9 Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
(2 nothing less than a 3 year 25 point deduction for any Newco RFC,when the going gets tough Celtic will lay down a major marker on all this
Touché Monsieur English as Michel would say…
Whatever the words of those at the helm of European football, and the excuses and attempted distractions of those nearer home, this whole sorry episode has demonstrated that Scottish football has, for almost 20 years, been devoid of sporting integrity and credibility.
All the way from the players, through match officials, right up to those charged with overseeing the proper running of our game, people have become corrupted by their own personal agendas, effectively nullifying the outcome of every Scottish league title race and major cup competition throughout this period.
The cancer must be expunged if our national game is to be allowed to once again prosper. And every tainted trophy must revert to a team who competed within the rules.
Does Tom think Duff & Phelps are going to make the ‘two contracts’ situation go away?
Stupid hun…
Awe_Naw,
would be VERY surprised if Taylor or Peat were implicated in this mess, if for no other reason than the registration rule and penalty still exists! Surely if you had three successive SFA CEOs in on something like this you would try and install some sort of escape hatch in case your cover got blown at some stage, nothing mega but maybe a little clause that limits the number of games the penalty could be applied to.
I’ve met Taylor and my impression was that he was a decent man who had little time for our financially imperilled neighbours.
Just for clarity I’ve never met Peat and he strikes me as a loudmouth arse.
Come on celtic no more joint shirt sponserships with you know who, also change coach buses ,parks in with the blue knight mob , so celtic its the right thing to do .look after ourselfs for a change.
All the media are doing is playcating them so there’s not a blood bath at ibrox next week, it far too volitle as it is.
KLV
Despite the apparent cosy relationship that Uefa has with the SFA through the many ex SFA employees that stalk the corridors of Uefa Towers, I am certain that Uefa would be quietly happy to have an open and shut case against one of the gang of four associations that still form part of the IFAB. Their place at this top table allows the SFA to have an inflated sense of its own importance and an apparent influence far in excess of its size and place in the football food chain.
The SFA have looked down their noses at other national associations and how ironic if they were to be confronted with their own ineptitude and mismanagement by Platini.
Keep it up Paul. All we seek is fairness, a level playing feild, transparency and accountability.
Starry
is Matt doing what Tom is doing …. dampening expectations
3 years 25 point for a Newco THAT WONT PAY THE TAX BILL
Celtic cannot even countenance being involved in such a scheme.
It would be seen as the Old Firm cheating the tax man.
Hail Hail
Vice Chairman of UEFA’s “Club Financial Control Panel” is non other than Brian Quinn.
I’m sure Brian won’t be slow to keep up Platini up to date.
;o)
However, maybe we shouldn’t get too misty eyed about our Michel.
In 1982, he was caught up in the infamous “caisse noire” in which St Etienne players were receiving huge amounts of cash “sous la table”. Subsequently, he was trasferred to Juventus, but was called up about the affair and had a suspended prison sentence (later revoked by amnesty).
Let’s just say, he learned his lesson and won’t let others do what he did…( does that sound convincing, m’lud?).
Jimmci-from previous thread-I posted earlier about Salmond seeking political gain for the stupid Sectarian Bill,after attending Paul McBride’s funeral,where does this halfwit get off? Bernard Ponsonby speaks very well on the piece.STV News @ 6.
Afternoon
In any other walk of life, and in any other coumtry, it would be obvious that Campbell Ogilvie’s position is untenable.
However, this is a combination of a discredited football club, and a football association that still thinks if you ignore such minor (in their minds) matters, then given time it will all go away.
Welcome to the 21st Century.
Hail Hail
The Singing Detective on 12
March, 2012 at 16:36 said:
Canamalar..
Victorian workhouses,child labour,Gin
Alley….
I blame the mealy-mouthed limp-
wristed encumbent Liberal
Governments of the day.
Moving on,Prof. T.E.Smout ,”History
of the Scottish People” (Second
Volume)
“Even as late as 1958,82% of the
Scottish population lived in
accommodation comprising of just
two rooms per family,with an outside
toilet
which was shared/communal….Lest
we forget..
However,thanks to the inspired
leadership and utilitarian principles
so evident in the SuperMac and
Douglas Home administratoins,vast
model housing schemes had been
commisioned in the virgin greenbelt
of Easterhouse,Clydebank,EK,
Cumbernauld,and Lanarkshire,to
provide the worthy and long-suffering
population of our Sceptred Scotland
the dream homes to which they had
always aspired,after the Years Of
Blood,Sweat,and Tears,when Our
Gallant Country and Dominions stood
alone and steadfast,against the Nazis
and Ernie’s Nefarious Pals..
Sunlit uplands beckoned,then
disaster as all hopes were
crushed………as the swivel-eyed pipe
smoking charlatan and his Union pals
usurped the reins of Her Majesty’s
Government…..and swiftly set about
snipping off a fair portion of “The
Pound In Your Pocket”,at the behest
of his Kremlin Puppetmasters…
Fast forward to present times,where
the very fabric of society,our Christian
Heritage ,is daily under assault,and
one has no right to wear a crucifix in
one’s place of work.
Who are the guilty….?
AndyM
When they all start to squeal and probably for hack cash .. we shall see
Hail Hail
Did a UEFA press officer not tweet something last week when Dave King stated rangers would not be stripped of titles, that he was being a bit premature with that declaration.
I see that a Hvnshop in Inverness is using RFC(IA) as an ideal business method. Don’t worry though, pre-arranged goat sacrificing will still be taking place
— — —
RANGERS fans are shocked that tax problems affecting their football club could be replicated at a city pub which is home to their supporters club.
The future of the Portland Club — home to the Inverness True Blues — is in doubt after a petition was presented to Inverness Sheriff Court on behalf of Revenue and Customs (HMRC) demanding it is wound up and a liquidator appointed.
It comes as the plight of Rangers Football Club continues after it entered administration last month due to allegations of unpaid taxes.
But, for the time being, the Portland Clubs stresses it will remain open and honour any bookings.
“It would be a big loss for Rangers fans in the city and Highlands,” said a Rangers supporter, of Douglas Row, Inverness.
“When the team plays Caley Thistle, supporters from all over Scotland stop off at the Portland for a few drinks and there is usually music and it’s a very lively atmosphere and always very busy.
“It’s sad that the Portland is facing their financial troubles at the same time as Rangers and puts the tin lid on things really for blue noses at the moment.”
It is understood an emergency meeting was held at the club, in Portland Place, earlier this week to discuss the matter.
Staff at the club said they had been advised not to comment due to the legal action.
“It will be business as usual for the foreseeable future,” added a club spokesman.
“Anybody who has got functions that have been booked has been told it is not a problem.”
Craig Macleod, landlord of the Innes Bar, in nearby Innes Street, hoped the club would be able to rectify any problems
“Obviously I wouldn’t like to see the club close,” he said. “I wouldn’t like to see any pub in the area or the town close, it’s the type of industry where I think we should all help each other and try and pull together to get through the quieter periods.”
A spokesman for HMRC refused to reveal the extent of the problem but confirmed the action was a result of alleged unpaid taxes.
http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Blues-Inverness-base-being-pursued-by-taxman-09032012.htm
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 12 March, 2012 at 16:42 said
Not sure what Matt is doing it seems to me he is countering the claims of Tom English whether or not Matt is privy to what Celtic will do I have no idea.
Personally I think Celtic are playing this perfectly and they are surely holding good cards.
They would be foolish to start spouting off in the press will the orcs are self-destructing.
This is a one off opportunity it will never come again..
I expect Celtic to play this hand to the max..
SP
http://www.slideshare.net/jeremylepaulbinet/uefa-report-about-european-football-clubs-finance
nice presentation
HAil HAil
John Yorkston shows where his loyalties can be bought.
Printed in last weeks Dunfermline press.
—–
Yorkston said that, contrary to reports, he did not want Rangers to be demoted to the third division if and when they emerge from administration.
And he added that a suggestion by the Glasgow side’s supporters to come to the Dunfermline v St Mirren match this month to compensate the Pars for the financial trouble Rangers caused could still go ahead.
“That had been mentioned before we came to an agreement with the administrators so I made a point of calling the Rangers Trust, as I didn’t want them to be misled or to think we weren’t getting the money.
“Irrespective of that, they felt it may still go ahead, which is a nice gesture and I genuinely hope that Rangers will find a way to come out of this.”
—-
TT
Paul67 et al
Platini probably will not have to worry about Rangers, in any guise, any time soon. The problem, for all other Scottish clubs, is that if the SFA is deemed negligent in registering players over any given period, then sanctions could be applied to the Association, the punishment meted out to the innocent, and not the guilty. Both the SPL and the SFA can avoid sanctions if, having investigated Rangers FC, and found them in breach of their own and UEFA’s rules and regulations, they take immediate and unilateral action, and terminate their membership of both the league and the association. If, despite finding Rangers in breach, the SPL and the SFA seek to find a back door re-entry into both organisations then they will have colluded with the perpetrators. Uefa will side with the SFA, if the SFA does the right thing.
Starry
Sure they cant do anything until the FFT return sits verdict once it does I expect our litigations will be in direct proportion to the presence of a Newco. No newco then maybe (I say maybe) will let sleeping dogs lie as it will curry some favour with UEFA. It wouldn´t surprise me if FC Sion was the first step in that. If we play our cards right we should be able to recoup lots of lost earnings by qualifying for the CL every year. That´s a deal for Peter and Desmond to decide upon.
If Newco is allowed in I expect Scotland will be expelled from Europe due to the deluge of litigations from Celtic plc.
Hail Hail
TSD,
the labour movement is still 100% responsible for the improvements to everyones standard of living, the fact that some corrupt hypocrites managed gain power under the guise of the labour movement makes not one bit of difference.
Its a bit like whats happening today with clegg a supposed libdem doing the dirty work of the torys.
I wouldnt be at all surprised if clegg was a tory mole.
Cleggs always seem to hang around a horse’s ar@e.
Oh, wait a minute……..
gerrys,
cheers
another wee bit of fun, when they get liquidated and the club is put on the market, should the local Celtic supporters take i and make it the new CSC, what a laugh.
stupid huns
miki, Kojo,
Hope your health problems are resolved soon.
I noticed the rare time I tune into SSB, that it is sponsored by Parks of Hamilton.
No chance of a sponsor’s agenda there, then.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 12 March, 2012 at 16:56 said:
I think the direct inclusion of a Newco in the SPL would have serious repercussions for Scottish football and Celtic are aware of this it just a pity that all the other teams in the SPL have such tiny visions of themselves, crumbs from the table type visions, they don’t seem to be interested in fairness and transparency.
I can’t see how UEFA could stand back and watch cheating on the scale of Newco back to the top table.
My personal hope is to see Mr Ogilvie and others up before the beak and they can all meet up in the real Big House.
The treble this year will put the cat amongst the pigeons, it is written 2012 and all that.
Celtic make a clean sweep while rangers are flushed down the stank…
Perfecto Mundo..
Right lets form a green knights consortium and bid for the huns. Fergus can lead us.
I posted the uncle Tom post to inform others,but to be quite honest the hacks a practising black propaganda for the huns.
I think I’ll try and leave them to their own devices in future,the big tax case will not go away.
HH
Jist watched Yisterday’s Victory, agin
Ah’ ll Gie ye..folks.. A few random thoughts..
James Forrest ,is a Brammer!
James and Adam are the Terrible Twins..
These two kids.. are gettin’ Bettahand Bettah..
Best Partnership, since… Rolls and Royce!
and..
Paddy?
He wiz Smashin’..when he came oan.
A Super Sub!.. and Ah am no talkin’ about.. Subway’s !
Victor Wanyama?
A Great Player.. who wull only get.. only… Greater.
Ma Darlin’ Charley?
He is the HEART and Soul o’ this Team!
Broonie..
Ah must apoligize , tae Him. fur.. Ma Past.. Excoriations…and Abuse.. that Ah Hurled… at’ this Guid Fellah..”
Mea Culpa. Mea Maxima Culpa!
Yep, Lenny.. Congratulations..
Ye hiv Buildeth a Greateth… wee Team. so Ye Hiv!
Thank You,
Kojo
Still Laughin’ Ma Heid Aff.