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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guys sorry to go off track but Milliband is ripping
Osborne and Clegg to pieces after budget announcements
Paddysmarket on 21 March, 2012 at 13:49 said:
shouldn’t be hard, the Duff & Duffer of british politics
Perhaps a daft question. Perhaps a question no one knows the answer to yet.. but… are there any guestimates for the date of the home game against rangers?
A guesstimate at this time would do as I could “pencil-in” time off just to give the guys in the office an idea of who is where and when etc…
Off topic…
Has Ed Miliband ever been as good before?!?!?
succulence on 21 March, 2012 at 13:54 said:
Assuming we win league before split, i’d imagine it will be the first game post split, April 21/22 i think.
Won’t find out for definite until last game before split, April 8th.
BRTH
Thank you again for link to donate by text,A great way to help a wee lassie.
Yes you can donate by texting CURE50 £x to 70070
http://www.justgiving.com/NiamhsNextStep
two pages of donations by Celtic fans so far.
Thanks Very much to all. If you do donate make sure you mention CQN or Celtic so that the family know just who the greatest team on the planet are!
Cheers
Brogan
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Auld Heid
Hiya, mon Vieux??
Ah think…
The I.R.S. wull.. decide that they hiv tried and tried.. but,
they hiv Failed tae Reach a Verdict..oan the G.A. Tax Case.
And
They wull hiv tae gie the matter further study.
Expect , anither.. long delay.
Ah jist hiv that Feeling.. Ah cannot Explain it.
Kojo
yer pal…who likes ye aloater.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra12L1Bl0Z4&feature=related
GOT TO BE PLAYED WHEN WE LIFT THE TROPHY. ULTIMATE GIRUY TO MURRAY, SOUNESS, SMITH AND THEIR FANS.
succulence on 21 March, 2012 at 13:54
I think Wednesday 2nd May is most probable date for TFOD game – only mid week date scheduled & the Polis prefer a mid week date for this fixture.
Kayal33 on 21 March, 2012 at 13:55 said:
cheers Kayal33. That’ll do for the time being something to plan with but something which can be changed later.
Of course, they’ll be in the bottom half of the table by then once their player registrations have been sorted by the SFA, SPL, Uefa, FIFA and Channel 4.
neveralone on 21 March, 2012 at 13:55 said:
Has Ed Miliband ever been as good before?!?!?
Has Milliband ever been good?
Having just watched the budget.
I demand CQN do everything in its power to get Spitting Image back on our screens.
Over to you Paul.
Paddysmarket – Milliband is ripping
Osborne and Clegg to pieces after budget announcements
Srsly?
Being ripped to pieces by poor Ed must be like being bullied by Adrian Mole (aged 13 and a half). (thumbsup)
LiviBhoy on 21 March, 2012 at 13:24 said:
The Onlooker on 21 March, 2012 at 13:12 said:
I was having a debate on the Juhinho ebt on KDS and reached a similar conclusion in that what we did with Juhinho is to Celtic’s credit but more important contrasts completely with what when on at Rangers.
Since the Juhinho case is well in the public domain it is reasonable to assume that the SFA and Celtic have all the correspondence on the matter. Whether it says directly why Celtic wanted to change his contract to standard or not, and you would imagine it would with reasons, then that should have acted as a warning alarm to both the SFA and Rangers.
The SFA knew from public accounts that Rangers were using EBTS, Rangers knew they were using them but in comes correspondence/regisration change from Celtic that says or infers the EBTs are dodgy. You would think somebody at the SFA or Rangers would have asked questions.
This could be an important point that would undermine the current “we didnae know” defense of CO and SDM. A line they are now taking having been flushed into the open.
Surely if their biggest rivals, with a Chairman of Brian Quinn’s standing was saying EBTS were wrong, Rangers and the SFA were required to look into the matter and ask questions of each other in 2005?
The other point this brings out is the diffrence in attitude’s towards corporate governance. One club sees rules as something to be followed, the other sees them as something to be manipulated or avoided according to their own needs.
I think the problem is the apparent contrast in how both sides think and how that defines how we both behave and ultimately who we both are as identifiable groups. It is like trying to explain to someone who has never seen a strawberry what it tastes like. No matter how many strawberries you have tasted the other person cannot understand the taste experience until he tries tasting a strawberry.
philvisreturns on 21 March, 2012 at 13:48 said:
I agree,spent one night(one night) in Edinburgh last
year ,felt I was in foreign.
Thumbsup.
Agent Craig “Green and” Whyte!! – Spitting Image is one of those shows like “Minder” or “The Crystal Maze” that seems better in the warm fuzzy glow of nostalgia than it actually was at the time.
I think they should bring back “Woof!” (thumbsup)
voguepunter – I agree,spent one night(one night) in Edinburgh last
year ,felt I was in foreign.
I think we should be tough on Edinburgh and tough on the causes of Edinburgh.
The Scottish Parliament should enact a Radge Tax, so as to decrease the surplus Edinburgherer population. (thumbsup)
Auldheid
Grasping the nettle for the first time is maybe also a unique experience in the manner of the taste of a strawberry!
Auldheid
Yep,totally agree,good elaboration on the central point.
Hail Hail
Livibhoy….13.24
ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON……… and that is why I accepted being called a ‘happy clapper’………. I have always been convinced that our Board were ensuring we didn’t cheat / spend money we didn’t have ……they have played a binder here and ‘their day has come’ …….they knew the authorities would inevitably catch up with rfc………what I am wondering ALSO is when will someone ask questions about the circa £80m of ranker’s debt still sitting in MIH ‘books’
RaRaRasputin at 13:45
Super post. Chapeau.
I like Edinburgh.
Auld Neil Lennon heid on 21 March, 2012 at 14:03
Very good point. If Celtic indicated that EBT’s were ‘inappropriate’ in 2005, that information must have been available to other member teams & the SFA at that time – unless they chose to ignore it.
Bobby Evans…
Quite!
Auld heidi…….13.34 ……Understood…….normally, I would say “How do you know” ………but, as ever, you are the guru of all……..and pleased that you have clarified what I had previously read on CQN ……… Pity, though…..!!!!!
So they will have to go into liquidation if the FTT rule against them …….!!!!!!!!
The Chancellor says tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance are “morally repugnant”.
Lets hear it for Gideon.
Joe Filippis Haircut
info@snp.org
HAIL HAIL
Edinburghs alright , its that Dingwall that we will visit next year thats a S**t hole.
Paul67
“is it cheating?”
In answering that one the first queston has to be – Why two contracts or a contract and a back letter or a contract and a “side agreement” , in other words why not just one complete ,transparent contract.
Obvious I know but sometimes the most obvious question – why approach the issue of a contract in that way AT ALL ? – gets overlooked.
The answer , of course, is that the parties dont want someone to see anything other than the headline contract for reasons which are beneficial to one or both contracting parties. Again pretty simple.
Given that the only people other than the parties who have a justifiable interest in footballers contracts are the football authorities and HMRC , logically , the second documentation has to contain something that the parties want either one or both of those organisations not to see. Again pretty simple.
With Rangers , given that their position for the Big TC has to be that the payments under the secondary documentation were not contractual but discretionary it is logical for them NOT to be registered with the SFA . Registration with the SFA would have been suicidal for the tax case.
And heres my worry – if as expected the lose the big TC on the basis that the payments were not , legally, discretionary Rangers will argue to the SFA that their intention all along was that the payments were not contractual but discretionary and that its taken judicial examination at an appellate level for that to be proved incorrect.
They will argue that that doesnt ,however, alter the fact that the intention was not to create a second contract and therefore they , in good faith , believed they were not disclosable to the SFA.
The matter then turns on interpretation of the SFA rules – is it a breach of the rules if you can establish to the satisfaction of the SFA – and lets face it it’s unlikely that there will be any real probing as to the Rangers director’s good faith in this – that you believed the payments were non contractual , not taxable and not football related?
I fear that Rangers will argue that and will do so successfully. Rightly or wrongly thats what I believe will happen.
Ive said before on here that I feared that ultimately we will be disappointed at the sanctions for Rangers. Despite the growing storm I fear that still.
TLWIO
As long as we don’t have to go to Renfrew…….
Hehe
I thought that might flush you out!
Hows it going are you over there at the moment?
Morally repugnant, is it?
Rangers think it’s a lifestyle choice, according to Alex Thomson.
They think all this fuss should just go away now and that, yes, it would have been better if they hadn’t got themselves into this unholy mess, but better still if they had been allowed to carry on cheating and lying and never been caught.
They think that what’s really morally repugnant is anyone having a wee laugh at their expense. That’s really, really, really bad.
Maybe one more trip in the south. Then….?
Alasdair MacLean – I like Edinburgh.
Alasdair, that’s like admitting to decorating your home with pewter dragon figurines and being into Wicca. (thumbsup)
Just heard today Ij suds is coming on the offshore phase of this one.
What about Rons job?
Aye, I’m home a week today. Passing time at the moment, (as I type), waiting for some decisions to be made. Drop me a line with a number and I’ll give you a call.
Long Wait
The flaw in that is that hmrc had already issued a verdict in the form of an invoice,it was due to an appeal process that muddied the matter.
Pubs in Edinburgh
I currently live in the toon ken!
I agree with most people’s analysis but it is a place that is very secretive in many ways. The locals are more likely to tell a tourist where the best bars or nightclubs are than they will to someone who has a central Scotland accent other than their own.
It’s full of Jambo’s and Hibee’s who detest us. Yes even the Hibee’s hate us. When the Celtic v Rangers match is on you will find a lot of bars won’t even show it and will show English matches to appease the tourists and the locals who have very little interest in our match.
However, there are a few bars that show the Celtic matches. The Irish bars are not always the best to go to but Drop KickMurphy’s is where the Edinburgh Uni and Herriot Watt CSC is now resident.
at
7 Merchant St
GRASSMARKET, Edinburgh
EH1
Down Broughton Street the Phoenix is the place to go. There may be others like Malone’s which is a massive Irish bar up towards the university and Finnegans Wake which is just off the Grassmarket but I had heard they wouldn’t be showing soccer matches from now on due to trouble which had flared up.
My advice would be phone or check in advance if they will be showing the match. Avoid the Spiders Web which is a Rangers boozer and anywhere in the Tynecastle area.
LB