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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Does anyone know when Alex Thompson will be doing another report on the state of Scottish football?
After keeping a low profile the likes of FF and rangersmedia starting to raise their stupid heads again. This is a belter from a Chris Graham on RM.
Paul67
I don’t think they like you…
Alex Thomson is a respected Channel 4 journalist and has no previous with issues involving Scottish football, so when he announced his intention to investigate the goings on at Rangers, and in Scottish football in general, it was an intriguing proposition. Maybe Alex would be the first to get to the bottom of things? Perhaps he would be able to either confirm or quash the many rumours doing the rounds and get some straight answers from the main players in this story? Well, no. It seems that despite covering wars and political intrigue for 20 years, Alex was not quite prepared for the vitriol and rumour-mongering of a small collection of people whose only purpose in life is to damage a football club as much as they can. One day these people will become the story, so lets have a look at them and their methods – it’s not as if they try to hide what they are doing.
Let’s introduce the members of this Mafia; Phil McThreeNames, Paul CQN, Tony the Hat and Mr Tax Case. They all share a nominal interest in Celtic Football Club but much more than that they share a pathological hatred of anything British, a love for Irish Republicanism and the IRA and a paranoia that the Irish are a persecuted people in Britain. These views are mainly the result of years of inferiority complex. One is a failed social worker with genuine mental problems, another a failed journalist and both have been shunned by what they like to call the “mainstream media” or MSM for short. There should be no doubting their sincerity – they really feel persecuted and they really hate Rangers, which for them is the embodiment of everything British and has been responsible for ensuring their club of choice has always been second best.
Now I know what people are thinking – this is madness. Yes, indeed it is, but that doesn’t mean these people don’t exist. So how exactly do this band of reprobates get themselves taken seriously? Well it’s a measure of them that they realised that one of them would need to be a journalist of sorts, if only to give them some initial credibility and the ability to ask people for interviews and press passes without being laughed off. Paul CQN has already tried the journalist route but it hasn’t really worked out for him. Mr Hat and Mr Tax Case don’t want anyone to know who they are so it can’t be them. This leaves the failed social worker, so he applies for an NUJ card. A clever move since it means he can pretend to be a journalist without actually needing a job.
With his NUJ card in hand, Mr McThreenames starts a blog and writes every week about Rangers. How evil they are, how nasty their fans are, how they made his daughter cry. He writes the occasional blog on other topics. Most of these are about Irish Republicanism and how some Celtic fans have a right to sing in praise of terrorists because of how persecuted they are in Britain. Irish people don’t actually like Phil but some of the Plastic Irish in Glasgow do, and that has always been his target audience anyway. Meanwhile, Paul CQN continues to expand his ‘magazine’ for the Celtic minded. This magazine writes almost exclusively about Rangers. How evil they are, how they might get away with years of ‘cheating’, how they made Phil’s daughter cry…. Mr Tax Case and Mr Hat are more confined to Twitter although Mr Tax Case does also have a blog where he writes incessantly about Rangers. This blog uses information in the public domain to paint as bleak a picture as it can of Rangers. It has more incorrect predictions of Armageddon than Nostradamus but gets just enough right to stay within the realms of plausibility. This will be very important to the group since McThreenames in particular is a loose cannon.
Still, no matter how much they write, they are not really being taken seriously. The Scottish media have been subjected to these goons for years and so they tend to ignore them. Only the most desperate will give them the time of day, others preferring to get their information from more reliable and less bitter sources. But then something magical happens, Rangers go into administration and, despite getting so much wrong, they can claim victory. Suddenly the story is UK and worldwide and so Phil, Paul and the others have a new set of real journalists to pester. Journalists who, crucially, have no idea of the background of these people.
What follows is something Goebbels would have been proud of. Firstly you lobby journalists on Twitter. Rule number one of this is that hyperbole is your friend. If you don’t exaggerate and make your allegations sound sensational then they might not be interested. It doesn’t matter that you can’t back up what you are saying – that’s their job.
EVEN now, almost half a century after he left the club, Jock Stein remains a reference point and source of inspiration for every Dunfermline Athletic manager.
As Jim Jefferies settled into his new surroundings yesterday for what many consider the highly improbable task of keeping the East End Park club in the SPL over the remaining eight games of the season, he paused to reflect on the remarkable salvage mission successfully undertaken by Stein in not dissimilar circumstances.
It was in March 1960, following Andy Dickson’s resignation, that Dunfermline turned to then Celtic reserve team coach Stein in a time of crisis. With six games of the campaign left, they were in the relegation zone of the old 18-club First Division, three points adrift of safety in the days of just two points for a win, and were without a victory in their previous 15 fixtures.
Starting with a 3-2 home win over Celtic, Stein guided Dunfermline to a club record sequence of six consecutive victories to ensure top flight survival and kick-start the most successful period in their history.
“Jock did it when they were in big trouble,” said Jefferies, who also recalled director of football Jim Leishman’s return from the boardroom to the dugout in 2005 following Davie Hay’s dismissal when Dunfermline were bottom of the SPL with three games left.
On that occasion, they won the first two of those games to ensure their safety. So in relative terms at least, Jefferies has greater leeway as he bids to overturn the four-point gap currently separating Dunfermline from second-bottom Hibernian in this season’s relegation dogfight. “It’s not ideal in the sense that you would like to come into a club with a better opportunity,” he said. “For example, Stuart McCall and Steve Lomas joined Motherwell and St Johnstone when they were in the top half of the table which is always a nice situation.
“I’ve come into something different, where we are running out of games. But I must stress there are still enough games and points available to give ourselves a chance. I wouldn’t have taken this job if I didn’t think we had a chance of staying up.
“I asked the players this morning at my first meeting with them that if anyone thinks we can’t stay up, they better tell me now because there’s no point going on. But they all nodded in agreement that they are up for it. They are still determined to give it their best shot, so we will just have to make sure that they are organised and give them the belief that they can do it. If we can win at home to St Mirren on Saturday, it could make a huge difference. It is suddenly a whole new ball game with seven games to go.
“Everybody is saying it is just between Hibs and Dunfermline but, if we could put a couple of wins back to back and teams above start to falter, they could then face the pressure. Football changes very quickly and I bet some of their managers are already saying they aren’t safe yet and they have to get a win.”
Jefferies has signed an initial 15-month contract, keeping him at the club next season irrespective of what division they are in, and will then revert to a rolling 12-month deal. Gerry McCabe remains at the club as his assistant, having carried out the role for Jefferies’ predecessor Jim McIntyre, who was sacked last Friday.
It means that, for the first time in his long managerial career, the 61-year-old will not be assisted by his closest footballing friend and ally Billy Brown. Instead, he could become responsible for Brown suffering relegation with Hibs where he is now No 2 to Pat Fenlon.
“Football does tend to throw these things up,” said Jefferies, “but Billy is part of a backroom staff at Hibs, he’s not the manager. It would be the manager in focus if Hibs went down. Don’t get me wrong, Billy wouldn’t want relegation to happen while he was there, but he wouldn’t be responsible for it.”
Jefferies was speaking on a glorious spring afternoon at Dunfermline’s training ground, adjacent to Pitreavie Golf Club where many were making the most of the kind weather. He knows his own visits to the golf course, which had been regular since being sacked by Hearts last August, are about to be drastically reduced again. It was during one round last week with Mike Aitken, the former chief football writer of The Scotsman and latterly golf writer before his retirement, that Jefferies contemplated the prospect of spending the rest of his life at leisure. But coaching footballers, it seems, is far more addictive than interviewing them.
“Mike, who is semi-retired, asked me ‘Why would you want to come back? You must be enjoying the quality of life.’ I could see where he’s coming from. I don’t mean to be disrespectful but, for a while, if anybody had offered me a position I would probably have turned it down. It was nice to have the wee break and not wake up thinking, ‘I have to do this and sort that’, but I think when you’ve been in football, it’s in your blood and you have that competitive edge to do well. Dunfermline could be a big club. We have a big stadium and the fans will come out when we are doing well. The challenge was there and, dare I say it, I look at this as maybe my last job.
“I’d never say never, so that’s not cast in stone. I’m not saying I wouldn’t like to stay in football in another capacity but, in terms of management, this will probably be it. It would be fantastic to keep Dunfermline in the SPL or, in the worse case scenario, bring them straight back up next year.
“If that happens, then I might be in the position where the chairman wants to offer me a new contract. I don’t think I would go to another club as manager now.”
This is what I get for not reading back, did not realise Mr Graham’s wonderful piece had already been covered. Feckin hilarious so it is. :)
Tooting Tim:
A word of advice:
Before reading anything on the internet, check to see if swapping the first name and second name of the author produces another viable name. If so, failure to ignore their ramblings has a ninety five percent chance of raising your blood pressure.
It even works on here:
Jungle Kev, Bhoy Cults, Jo Ko, Tim Sydney, Danny Donegal etc…..
The DR epitomises what is wrong with journalism in the UK. The majority their “quotes” never have an actual named individual attributed to them. To coin a well known phrase on CQN “Lazy Journalism”.
For years the Daily Record has been making up stories to sell newspapers to appease its quintessentially british target demographic. An source at the Glasgow based tabloid said “Quite simply Celtic fans tend not to buy our product. There is very little point printing positive Celtic stories and negative Rangers stores, we would sell less papers”.
An insider confirmed “The last few years have been challenging, with all that is happening at Ibrox putting a positive spin on things has been difficult. Fortunately our journalists are very experienced at exactly this kind of reporting”.
MWD
From earlier.
You only want me to boycott so that you can get my ticket for Ibrox!!! :-)
ASonOfDan on 22 March, 2012
Chris Graham seems somewhat agitated. Paranoid pehaps?
I can see the attraction to winning the league on Sunday, but the potential for trouble is great. The uglies could turn even uglier and try to spoil the party.
It would probably be better to go into a home game to win it. Or to have won it beforehand and party all day I suppose.
THM
Far out. Pure tooth spooky, zone twiglet stuff…:)
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 22 March, 2012 at 10:13 said:
By Tom English
Rangers are duty bound to supply us with the information we are looking for,”
Rangers have a responsibility to act in the utmost good faith, so I do fully expect them to give us the information, but we haven’t had it so far.
All this investigation is directed towards ra gers to provide all the documents etc.
Only there is a big problem here!
R C ogilvie said minty an MIH dealt with all contracts and payments.
As MIH and minty dealt with all contracts and payments and do not come under sfa or sfa rules and reg.
If the sfa and sfa what the full paper work they will have to get it off Minty.
The whole ebt thing was run by minty and MIH and they knew that they did not have to follow sfa and spl rules and if there was any probs how would they get access to the real documents.
IMHO they all looking and asking in the wrong place
Jam67
jungle jam67
I think it might come down to Sir David Murrays lawyer and plea bargaining
Hail Hail
can’t help feeling there’s going to be an eruption from the Hun support on Sunday no matter the outcome of the game.
not concerned about the stadium itself but the aftermath later at night could be nasty. certainly not a time to be walking about in colours celebrating.
Chris Graham seems intent on undoing the anonymity of RTC.com but says nothing of the situation that gave birth to that blog ……. his club insisted that the FTT be held in private; his club have misled its fans; his club used MSM to mislead everyone.
ASonOfDan on 22 March, 2012 at 10:30 said:
ASOD,that’s it,after reading your post,I will not believe a word
Paul67 prints.
Will someone kindly direct me to Chris Graham’s blog,he sounds
like an honest chap.
GOHOMEYAHURTINHUN
Who is Chris Graham from which rock has he crawled out from under.
Starry
jock steins celtic
Every probability. I know the polis have targetted potential hot spots on Sunday, but the risk to individuals is more probable.
Great to see Chris Graham rail against hyperbole in the same paragraph that he likens some tweets about Rangers’ current predicament to the Goebbels propaganda machine in Nazi Germany.
From yir fishul site.
Get along to Paradise on Sunday for derby beamback
By: Newsroom Staff on 22 Mar, 2012 10:31
CELTIC take on Rangers this Sunday in a vital league match, with the Hoops closing in on the SPL title.
And you can join us on Sunday to watch the game in the comfort of one of the lounges at Celtic Park.
Tickets for the beamback are only £5, which includes a breakfast roll on arrival and a half-time pie. Drinks will be available to purchase.
Demand for this has been extremely high, so please book as soon as possible. If you want to come along, to book contact us on 0871 226 1888 (option 4)* or email us at conferenceandbanqueting@celticfc.co.uk
*Calls cost up to 10p per minute, telecoms provider dependent. Mobile and other provider charges may vary.
The one result I want to see on Sunday is for all Tims, both on and off the park, to resist all provocation from the morons in blue. You can guarantee that every form of abuse and skullduggery will be used and the authorities and MSM will be only too ready to punish & report the slightest reaction from those in green.
I’d rather suffer an embarrassing defeat this Sunday than to see us dragged into the gutter with the effluent tide in blue.
We have plenty of games to win the league. Let’s do it without blemish.
So is Chris Graham of Rangers media the same Chris Graham of Rangers media who called Ian Murray a Fenian ******* on Twitter?
He has a cheek does he not?
The same old nonsense comes out:
Inferiority complex mentioned – check
Defamation of character – check
Use of the word paranoia – check
Calling Celtic bloggers mentally ill – check
Accusations that PL is behind it all – check
Mention of terrorism – check
Did I miss any?
I know one such Rangers fan who described me as mentally ill and suffering from an inferiority complex and a victim mentality – suffice to say I do not speak to this individual any longer and I won’t ever again. the kind of Rangers fan who when they are losing doesn’t really care for football but when they win is there with bells on – well folk like that are beneath consideration to be frank.
I really do feel for my fellow Celtic fans who must live amongst such peepel. They will never get any better and the world would be a better place without them.
Glad I never came back to live in Scotland, not seeing and having to listen these folk on a daily basis does wonders for you. Seeing it on the internet provides ample distance and an ample reminder while you are at it.
What Chris Graham says about himself…
Season ticket holder and avid fan of the Rangers F.C. I’ve been amazed and saddened by the constant attacks on my club and it’s fans. I hope to be writing about football and the issues which surround it in Scotland.
I’m married with a young son and run my own company.
Spring has Sprung in the Sun Bathed Chilterns;
Read the Scotsman article, sounds like the SPL are on this as well,we bit of frustration with the RFC Administrator.
Mind you I can hear what Mr English is saying about that Independent Board;
A’mean first of all not only has the Chair got Omnipotence, but carries three casting votes.
Now I have no doubt he’ll come down on the side of righteousness. But is it Democratic?
And no Judas, they will be trying to him back – he was clearly and constitutionally replaced by Matthias.
Hail! Hail!
I think the beamback is a superb idea
I am actually surprised it is not on the big screen with paradise being sold out
Hail Hail
kitalba, 00:16, BobbyRussel, 00:23
I don’t want to say anything that hinders the story coming out. What I can say is that the information is known to HMRC
Beamback then Gallowgate for the party. Sounds good to me:)
HH
Bobby Evans Superstar 10.59
What does his company sell?
Union Jacks outside Ibrox?
I think it is interesting that the SPL 10 are clearly hell bent on the destruction of the huns… dont get me wrong they shouldn´t be rewarded for it but quite clearly it makes any proposal to buy the the huns far more difficult. If you are a prospective buyer and it is looking extremely likely that the income streams will be further reduced then it makes buying them far more difficult to contemplate.
I hope we dont say too much on this matter. Actions speak louder than words and sometimes even a lack of action is even better.
Not complaining I think we have played a blinder … pity the on field stuff recently doesn´t match how we are performing off of it.
Hail Hail
Hail Hail
Bobby Evans Superstar on 22 March, 2012 at 10:24 said:
Cheers mate.
Don’t You Have More Important Issues To Think About
When you’re beginning to feel backed into a corner, you could do worse than to trot this one out.
As with the best of all these techniques, this step operates on several levels. First of all, it communicates to the Marginalised Person™ that you think the entire debate is trivial and below consideration, indicating you entirely disregard their feelings and emotions. Secondly, you disown responsibility for your part in the debate and anything that you’ve said that may have been discriminatory or offensive.
Finally, you reinforce your Privilege® by suggesting that it is Privileged People’s® job to set the agenda for the Marginalised Group™. After all, how could they possibly know what issues they should prioritise for themselves, they’re far too inferior and stupid! You, with your objective, ractional Privileged® perspective, on the other hand, know exactly what is most important and it is definitely not confronting you with your own bigotry and ignorance!
Gents… ‘Derailingfordumies’, it is their bible and it is free on line, it is where they get all their best ideas.
They are winding you up, the best way to wind them up is not to get wound up by their winding you up and instead they will get so wound up themselves because they’ve been unable to wind you up that they will not be in a very good mood all day. So there.
For some reason I’m not able to post….
new article posted.
Chris Graham (interesting first name that one…) said: “There should be no doubting their sincerity – they really feel persecuted and they really hate Rangers, which for them is the embodiment of everything British and has been responsible for ensuring their club of choice has always been second best.”
Of course he is absolutely right. I guess those he is referring to do indeed really hate rangers. Why should they be different?
And of course “always being second best” is an accurate statement after all, Celtic were the 2nd British (not just Scottish) team to win the European Cup and they were also 2nd to win 9IAR. I’m sure those tims on-line here can quote all the other times when Celtic were 2nd best…
In fact, there is only one absolutely unquestionable achievement which TFOD have reached which Celtic will never be able to match, they are in Administration pending total oblivion. Bring it on….
O.G.Rafferty
you could e-mail me.
now I am…weird.
Civil war is threatening to break out in the Scottish Premier League, with Celtic at odds with their rivals over organisational reform.
The 10 clubs outside the Old Firm are to propose an alteration to the league’s voting system at a special general meeting on 12 April.
They want a 9-3 decision to push through major change in Scotland’s top flight rather than the current 11-1.
The 10 will also seek a more even distribution of revenue.
However, just how they intend to push through these proposals is unclear.
And Celtic are deeply unhappy with the suggested changes.
Sources close to the Parkhead club argue that the Old Firm contribute around 85% of the SPL’s revenue, while they are disappointed by the other clubs getting together without consulting them.
Celtic fear that changes to the status quo could jeopardise future sponsorship deals
It has also been suggested that changes to the voting structure or distribution of income could threaten any takeover of Rangers, who are currently in the hands of administrators.
It is understood that potential buyers of the Ibrox club may be put off by any uncertainty over future revenue.
Continue reading the main story
“
“The rest of us are fed up of the Old Firm. Forget Rangers for the moment, what we have here is one club dictating to the top end of Scottish football.
”
Anonymous SPL club chairman
Asked whether the situation threatened potential civil war between the 10 and the Old Firm, John Yorkston told BBC Scotland: “It’s not potential civil war. It’s on.”
Kilmarnock Chairman Michael Johnston added: “I hope it doesn’t end up in civil war. You have to ask why Celtic are so upset at changing to a 75% rule that would exist in many other businesses.
“Why are they scared of change and a 75% majority running the league? They will do all in their powers to control Scottish football. They have no concern for Scottish football, only themselves.”
He added: “No clubs are of a mind to change the distribution of money that radically changes the situation to the disadvantage of Celtic and Rangers.
“But you have to ask them why do you really need this power?
“We must drive through change in the next 18 months or we will go backwards. What the ten must focus on is to shape the game going forward, to bring the change we know the game badly needs.”
A third chairman told BBC Scotland: “The rest of us are fed up of the Old Firm. Forget Rangers for the moment since they are in administration, what we have here is one club dictating to the top end of Scottish football.
“They are not going anywhere, English football doesn’t want them and they have done their damnedest to get out of Scotland for the last 10 years. Do they want to play in a league of two?
“We want to change the voting rights to be able to change the game for the better.
“We need to have a stronger championship or SPL2 in place. Relegation can cost clubs £1.5m and we need to provide a softer landing place. We want change for the good of all of Scottish football. This is about democratic change.”
I like how this bigot Graham roasts phil etc yet he calls Ian Murray a Fenian bass.
The one paragraph I did lol he wrote was, I have a young son and my own business, it’s as if he’s trying to say look I’m a respectable chap honest I am, just ask Ian Murray you bigot.
BMCUW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fuaslKJwzo&feature=related
A bit of LUBO among others, think I saved from a kit post.
HAIL HAIL