Since Stewart Regan’s letter to the 93 SFA member clubs was uncovered by STV yesterday evening I’ve read what feels to me like unfounded concern at the news. Regan asked clubs to declare “any written agreement(s) falling within the scope of Article 12.3 which has/have not previously been lodged with the Scottish FA in the previous ten years, in respect of any current or former players of your club.”
The most pleasing point is that the letter was dated 9 March. A look at the chronology of events is perhaps useful.
Rangers troubles with HMRC have been public knowledge since 2010 but it was only on 22 February this year that questions were first raised (here, of course) as to whether the club registered the Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) payments with the SFA. Everyone knew Rangers players had EBTs, we knew HMRC were contesting that these should be taxed, but there was no reason to believe Rangers did not to declare them to the SFA (unless you count the “sniff test” on Sir David…).
The EBTs were noted in Rangers audited accounts so it appears clear that Rangers at least notionally believed they were both legal (which they were) and legally executed (which we will soon find out). When we took a shot in the dark on 22 February and posed the registration question, there was no reason to assume the SFA board had even considered the issue. I’m sure they hadn’t and like the rest of us, were caught cold by the question.
Earlier that day the SFA announced an inquiry into Rangers headed by Lord Nimmo Smith. His report was considered by the board on 8 March, when they presumably decided to send letters out to the member clubs the next day. In short, this issue has been active at the SFA every day since it was first raised.
Had we known this at the time I suspect our view of the (apparent) SFA inactivity would have been different. Maybe a PR lesson there.
Several friends and one brother have suggested that Stewart Regan’s letter is a prelude to an amnesty. I doubt this. The SFA chief exec does not have the authority to offer an amnesty and in his letter Regan says, “the Scottish FA reserves the right to refer any Club to the Compliance Officer, which might result in proceedings before the Judicial Panel”.
The letter is an attempt to establish if the problem is prevalent in one, or more than one club, a perfectly reasonable step at this stage. I’m guessing around 90 clubs will be able to respond within minutes.
As a result of this letter, the phoney war is over. Comments like “there were no double contracts” can no longer be reported as though they have some validity to questions over unregistered payments to players. Even those reporting from the back of the class will now have to recognise the validity of the questions we have been asking for weeks.
More on the nature of these questions later, specifically, is it cheating?
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PaddyG
I read your post about the man the other day, shocking stuff, puts things into perspective, go out for a few beers and don’t come home, no the way it should be mi amigo.
Also, what you consider to be explosive is the sound of a cap gun compared to the howitzer of the second item I learned of today
We need to get through the first 15-20 minutes and then we can go onto get a result (a win obviously).It’s at the start of the match that they will be at their most,aggressive,shall we say.The corpulent cup specialist will have them pumped-up in the traditional hun way; “Get f***ing right intae them.Hard and dirty.”
If we get through that period unscathed we should have more than enough to see of this current Turdlanark line-up.
Of course i’ve not brought up the MIB’s role but i’ll hope we can overcome him as well.
After Sunday our bhoys should be CHAMPing at the bit to make up for the disappointment.And that’s not to mention a possible title win.
Come on you bhoys in green!
‘oh when we score a barrelload down the Copland Road…….’
FOREVERANDEVER!!!
RC
I used to be bothered with my teeth, not any more, I don’t have any, the best thing I ever did, apart from marrying the wife obviously, just in csae she is lurking..
In the space of 24 hours Celtic fans ( mostly CQN’ers ) have given about £2,000 to Niamh Curry’s appeal.
That is just astonishing!
Rascar
I wasn’t suggesting you should a do a Dustin Hoffman and run! :))
BRT&H @ 23:41
Excellent respsonse. Wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t brought it to our attention.
Regular reminders as you did with Vanessa’s appeal will make all the difference !
Good work amigo.
Essiac, it works, trust me on that.
another great post, P67.
there is something special happening here, it will never happen again, we are witnessing it. It is the birth of something new, the 5th estate maybe ( P67 and the others tbb, brth, soal, jf, pmcc and rtc, philmcg and the many personal testimonies that appear on cqn). RFC (IA), sfa officials, refs, churnalists have swept things under the carpet/cheated/colluded but because one guy says -hang on, what about ……- it isn’t going away, this is a huge transfer of power.
because ‘they fouled the ball’ one man (with the help of other clever geesers’ can say ‘no that is not what happened, this is what happened’ and it won’t go away, they cannot get away from what they did.
I’m nearly tired of saying great post ‘cos it’s more than that now and cqn/rangers (IA) is the start of it, groups of people can no longer shut up the voiceless.
TET
I have not been the dentist in years.
Just have to bite the bullet.
But when you start biting said bullet, where does it stop?
So I’m doing this in all parts of my life, and it is scary.
I might end up being me in the end, and that sounds fine.
There will be a few huns playing against us for the last time and have nothing to lose by injuring our bhoys.Calum Murray is a coward for failing to back up his red cards in last seasons cup tie.No faith in him,lets get in about them and battle for ourselves on Sunday.Win the war and we will win the game.Samaras and Commons to start for me.
O.G.Rafferty on 21 March, 2012 at 23:36 said:
1, Caught up
2. Oh goody. A Liitle Boy is it?
Jackie Mac
The democratization of information brought about administration and liquidation.
Who’d have thought the ‘send’ button would wield such power?
In another universe, Mourinho and Rangers would have been a perfect match. His teams resort to bullying and cheating whenver they are under pressure and then he manipulates the media to portray himself and his club as victims of a Barca conspiracy.
Tonight his players once again lost the rag, as did he and his staff. Reminds me so much of RFC it’s uncanny. Mind you, one has won a bucketload of European Cups and one hasn’t won any so maybe I’m enjoying the Malt a little too much.
Jackie Mac
“they fouled the ball”
Is that from The Name Of The Father?
I did the Gerry Conlon monolouge in my student days, love the emotion of it.
Love the film too.
Is it safe?
RC
Not going to the dentist for years is how I ended up without any, still think it’s for the best, no more pain :>)
You will be fine
Night bhoys, have a kitchen to finish painting in the morning.
We will win on sunday, I have no doubts about it, win the midfield, win the game, easy when you think about it.
BadaB
Pass them to death and take Murray out of it, not ideal, but the way it has to be.
Enjoy NY
Night again bhoys
Take care and god bless Timland
HH
Bhoys , was looking at the spanish table on the oul beeb web thingy and underneath it was the swiss league . bhoy does that look good.
So there’s a precedent in Europe already for points deduction for ineligible players.
HOME AWAY
PL GD PTS W D L GF GA W D L GF GA
1 FC Basel 23 26 49 9 2 1 27 8 5 5 1 19 12
2 Lucerne 25 9 38 6 4 2 18 9 4 4 5 13 13
3 Young Boys 24 8 35 4 4 3 19 14 5 4 4 13 10
4 FC Thun 24 3 34 6 4 2 20 11 3 3 6 7 13
5 Servette 24 -3 34 5 1 6 17 21 5 3 4 16 15
6 FC Zurich 25 1 30 3 4 5 18 13 5 2 6 14 18
7 Grasshoppers 24 -22 23 5 2 6 13 15 2 0 9 9 29
8 Lausanne Sports 23 -31 14 3 3 6 8 15 0 2 9 8 32
9 FC Sion 24 9 3 6 1 5 11 10 5 5 2 17 9
Note the 9 teams , Neuchatel Xamax have folded mid-season.
Sanna
Auld Neil Lennon, 23:52
Oh, it has many things to commend it.
Unless you are a well-known former Rangers board member
drat , all that formatting and it’s blown out the water.
Highlight . Sion have 3 its after 24 games . that’s what cheats should get !
Sanna
TET- Cheers NY was magic.
I’ve not been to the dentists in a while either, i’ve decided to transcend dental medication.
I went to the dentist last week,he said my teeth were fine but my gums will have to come out.
bedtime.
Any teeth in the story that the hun 9iar will be wiped off the records??
sixtaeseven
democratization of information – that’s what’s I was looking for -I couldn’t sum it up in a phrase, they cannot hide now, they can’t hide anything.
Rascar
yeah, I’ve been looking for that clip on youtube, the best I could do was find the whole script on google.
Yeah, I’ve been looking for
O.G.
Give us a clue mate.
Jackie Mac
You just need the words.
DDL is an astonishingly good actor.
But we have lived some of Gerry Conlons’s life, and can let it spill out in genuine tears.
That is the actors game.
O G you are a big T(ease) http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2798/4367222444_a6f3d2749e_z.jpg?zz=1
The media seem to think we are immune to disappointment.
Tell that to the two young Bhoys I took to the final on Sunday :O(.
In an earlier post,Bobby Iussell talked about singing at ibrox,i beg him,in the name of humanity,do not inflict that voice on the unfortunates sitting nearby
Oops,should of course have read,Russell.
Killie won, so everyone is happy it seems.
I read here summit about the ole union flag raising its ugly heid again on Sunday in mass numbers to make a small contribution to Duff and Skelps.
Will these be at half mast on their wee sticks for funereal reasons, or upside down as a sign of distress.
I’m picturing a mass masonic distress signal coming from the hoards on Sunday in between two of their pleasant wee vocal numbers.
My first cup final was a 2-1 defeat by Aberdeen.
So I’m thinking that was 1984.
Anyone?
So if Rangers die, where does all the unionism come from?
They would have to think about it.
Here is one for the Night Shift . It is about why real Truth and Reconciliation is almost impossible to achieve. Not the psuedo sort that apologises out of fear of consequences of not doing so, but real T&R built on the principles of confession contrition and absolution.
I have a theory that I hesitate to voice lest it is given a meaning I do not intend but that is maybe a risk worth an auld heid taking..
Imagine you have been raised in a tradition (Call it Group A) where confession, contrition and absolution are part of the way of thinking. Such thinking makes those exposed to it (and lets not introduce judgements on the process and just accept the process as fact) approach issues from a perspective of if I have done wrong I can deal with it and have it forgiven if I confess to it.
Fine and dandy for those who hold that way of thinking but the tendency then is to think everyone must think on similar lines.
Now imagine that you come from a tradition (Group B) that is lighter on confession and contrition and does not believe in absolution. That thinking makes admission of wrongdoing more difficult than it is for a person from Group A. Not impossible but perhaps the last port of call when wrong has been done, rather than one that the other tradition is more likely to enter as a matter of course.
So Group A.find it hard to understand why Group B are so reluctant to take responsibility for what appear to Group A to be wrong (and to them all wrongs are forgiveable if recognised and contrition is present) and Group B do not even understand just what on earth Group A are wittering on about! For them wrong has to be proved externally before it is addressed because in that Group’s thinking the tradition is to avoid admission until wrong can be proven because there is no absolution for that wrong. The price of admission is too high.
So Group A is saying you have been doing wrong, go on admit it whilst Group B says prove it.
Eventually the truth, whatever it is, comes out, but if in fact it turns out Group B were in the wrong, think of all the time saved and acrimony avoided if Group B were able to take the same approach as Group A?
How we behave is governed by what we think, if we are ever going to get out of the sectarian ghetto in which our thinking imprisons us, we all need to honestly examine the thinking that created it and locks us into it in the first place.
Someone posted about Edinburgh pubs for Sunday?
Plenty on Leith Walk. Never had any probs there. Good atmosphere in support of the good ghuys.
But defo take advice of other re avoiding Mini Huns.
They’ve grown vicious in recent years. Suppose we have Jabba and co and their Hun Blame Deflection and Hun Rescue campaign to thank for that.
Good job Jabba. Ya d@~k.
Some of the people that I know who are from Group A have a great deal of trouble admitting that they are at fault for anything.
In fact, they’re all Egyptians as far as I can tell…
Well they all live in denial at any rate.
Hat, coat and taxi…