There is something curious about the England national team. While pretty much every other country around England’s calibre select players, on merit, from clubs large and small, for decades England appear caught emperor role, seldom selecting players outside a top clutch of clubs.
This made Southampton striker Rickie Lambert’s recent selection memorable, despite the fact that his club sit comfortably above several of England’s heavyweights, significantly as a consequence of Lambert’s play.
Fraser Forster has been the best goalkeeper in Britain for a year, but he is English, and he plays domestic football for the Scottish champions, so despite his Champions League credentials, England Roy Hodgson has not capped him.
With the incumbent “England’s number 1” producing ample material to have most national team managers hide their eyes, no matter what Hodgson thinks of his preferred keeper, today’s news coverage suggests he has been boxed into a corner. If he plays Joe Hart in Brazil, and the keeper performs to his current level, Hodgson will carry the can for being the last man in England to see the obvious. England managers have a long record of having to deal with strong media sentiment coming to bear on their selections.
I’d like to see Fraser get the recognition he deserves. It would also be good for Celtic to be able to offer not only Champions League football, but also the chance to gain international recognition, at an ever-higher level. Holding onto him is another story, but all of those who were so upset when we passed on Stipe Pletikosa to take Newcastle’s third choice will not be too upset at that.
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Twists N Turns.
Your right.Senility arriving quicker than I thought.but He hasn’t died in my eyes,I used to go to the dogs in Falkirk,and there would be Neilly standing at the winning line, every race.( I think he bet on the photo finishes)
Sorry for that misinformation, but the six different positions were correct. Fantastic servant to Celtic.
Blantyretim.
I didn’t realize he had passed away. As t&t said I was looking at John Clark and thinking it was Neilly.
Apologies that should have read neoni – neoni. Rhymes with Ronnie. Or pawnie.
supersutton
20:20 on 29 October, 2013
-1———————
Only time I was really worried was against ShackedUpLagerShandy – three or four times he could have came for it, and particularly the one that bounced from a throw in right in front of him.
That said, it is only a minor gripe, and he more than makes up for it with his shot-stopping, which is awesome.
HH
BGFC
ASonOfDan
Is King still a Millionaire?
__________
Rumour has it – he’s some kind of Randiaire!
DU striker Cfifti straight red card will miss game on Saturday
jimbo67
” I found myself thinking at some point in every chapter ‘ God I never knew that’.
In that case it is on my Christmas list :))
Ramsdens have just announced that every player in the team that wins the cup will get a Sovvy ring and a 24 inch Belcher chain. What an incentive for Sevco eh.
Bada bing
Vg. Laugh out loud moment there.
Blantyretim.
I said to you on the phone my blood sugar level is at sixes and sevens today,the way I’m thinking it still is at 6&7s.
Hail Hail all, I see peace has broken out on the blog, good times.
Notthebus 20.21 – don’t think Sevco are playing for a plaice in the final, but that’s their sole focus. Hope they flounder tonight.
Pretoria – Dave King settled on a payment
of R706.7m to the South African Revenue
Service (Sars).
Sars confirmed on Thursday that a
settlement agreement was reached between
King and the State.
This settlement was achieved following
submissions made to Sars by King and
entities associated with him.
“My experience should serve as an example
to taxpayers, who find themselves in a
similar position with Sars,” said King.
“Rather seek early resolution and cooperate
with Sars when asked by them to explain
your tax affairs. I am delighted to finally
put this behind me and to be able to
actively resume my business career.”
The Scottish-born was in the news again in
June when he claimed R33m from Gary
Player, for what King says was a loan of
R6.1m made to the golf icon in July 1999
plus interest on the loan. This matter still
has to be resolved.
The governance and oversight committee of
Sars found that the submissions that were
made met the requirements of the
applicable tax legislation.
HSBC, which acts as trustee on behalf of
King and the associated entities, as well as
King in his personal capacity and members
of his family, were all signatories to the
settlement agreement.
King has conceded his tax debt and has
agreed to a payment of R706.7m to Sars in
respect of his personal income tax and the
tax liability of Ben Nevis, a King trust
company managed out of Guernsey.
The fraud charges against King were not
pursued by the State and King accepted
liability in respect of 41 lesser counts of
contravening Section 75 of the Income Tax
Act.
This includes the failure to disclose
information and the failure to provide
correct information about incomes earned
over a number of years.
King appeared before the Palmridge
Regional Court on Thursday and entered
into a plea and sentencing agreement with
the NPA.
King has to pay a fine totalling R3.208m
(R80 000 per count) or 24 months
imprisonment.
In addition, he was ordered to pay an
amount of R8.75m towards the Criminal
Asset Recovery Fund.
“When this tax dispute arose many years
ago I took a conscious decision not to
cooperate with the authorities,” said King.
“That was a mistake. I regret not engaging
with the State sooner as I have found them
to be extremely firm, but fair in their
dealings with me once I fully engaged with
them.”
He accepted the fact that he has been non-
compliant in the past and said he will
rectify it.
Sars said it welcomes the finalisation of the
matter and the settlement.
“The outcome demonstrates that Sars
remains approachable to any taxpayer, who
wants to resolve a tax dispute in a bona
fide manner, even when formal processes of
litigation are before the courts,” said Gene
Ravele, chief officer for tax and customs
enforcement investigations at Sars.
Oldtim – think Neily’s grandson won the h/t £20K at the Barca game?! Fix….!!
See Sevco are doing well at the crossbar challenge tonight. What time is the pen?!
T4
twists n turns
Meant Billionaire lol! Phone must have changed it because I had King in the same sentence.
Oldtim
I knew about Neil loving the dogs. I was brought up doing the flapping tracks with some doggy men, and Neil was around a lot of the time. I think those who knew him referred to him as ” smiler” but maybe I’m getting mixed up about that. My memory is also shocking.
fieldofdrams
Their FINishing is poor.
Leftclucktic
Cheers- it’s excellent.
Jimbo67 supporting Oscar Knox
2011-07-20 20:22
Johannesburg – The NPA on Tuesday
disputed claims made by businessman
Dave King against its asset forfeiture unit
head, Willie Hofmeyr.
“His letter does not correctly record the
facts and it is false and misleading in
numerous respects,” National
Prosecuting Authority spokesperson
Mthunzi Mhaga said in response to an
open letter by King to Hofmeyr.
NPA head Menzi Simelane has referred a
corruption complaint from King regarding
Hofmeyr to the police for investigation.
A Sunday Times report on it quoted two
sources as saying it was part of an
attempt to shut the AFU down.
In the letter, among King’s complaints,
were allegations that the NPA offered
him the option of paying a fine of R200m
and not go to jail for tax irregularity
charges, or of paying no fine but pleading
guilty to fraud.
Mhaga said the terms of any discussions
between King and the tax authorities
were protected by a court interdict, which
King was allegedly violating by
discussing them in public.
This would be referred to the “appropriate
authorities”.
‘Glib’
He said King was identified as “N” when
he testified at tax xourt and the
commissioner and assessors hearing the
case called him a “glib and shameless
liar”.
Mhaga said they could not comment on
the content of the plea and sentence
negotiations with King, but would say
that decisions were not taken by Hofmeyr
alone, but by the NPA executive
committee.
Finally, King’s statement that he would
have no penalty if he committed fraud
but would pay a severe penalty if he did
not, is wrong, Mhaga said.
“As he knows many of the charges he
faced provide for a minimum period of
imprisonment of 15 years.”
Following the Sunday Times report,
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe would meet
Hofmeyr and Simelane to get to the
bottom of apparent tensions between
them.
Hofmeyr was also accused of allegedly
violating tender procedures for office
refurbishment.
He has welcomed an independent
investigation into the allegations, and
did not mind if the police investigated
him.
Leftclicktic even
Jumbo67 supporting Oscar Knox
Tonight’s donation to charity line is – Raith (10/11), Montrose (4/6), ICT/Dundee Utd (draw) (23/10) and Stenhousemuir (at +3 goals) (4/6).
Oldtim
Look after yourself.
NatKnow – Supporting Wee Oscar
There was a great call on SSB earlier (I know, I know) where the guy commented that the Celtic fans were up to their usual bigoted singing at the Thistle game..what songs, says Jim Delahunt…why, the Soldiers Song, says the caller. you mean the Irish national anthem, says Jim….is it, remarks the caller. i never knew that….jeez.
would our many Indian/Pakistani followers be bigots if they sang their national anthem?
i think not.
why is it so bad to be Irish in this country?
Twists n Turns.
I was at the Coronation Cup, and the 7-1 Games,faded memories, but I was there.
Fit & Proper? Here is the Fraud case he got away with on technicalities.
A “BUNGLED” prosecution that let billionaire
businessman Dave King off the hook for fraud
and racketeering could cost taxpayers
hundreds of millions in damages and legal
fees.
King said this week he would use his
acquittal to attack other cases against him
and launch a R300-million damages claim
for wrongful prosecution.
King said the case showed that the National
Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had “no hope” of
even taking commercial cases to court, let
alone successfully getting a prosecution in
their favour, partly due to a lack of skills,
internal rivalry and low morale.
“I don’t believe the NPA could prosecute even
a mildly [complicated] case. In a complex
commercial case, they’ve got zero, zero, zero
chance,” he said.
Judge Margaret Victor was forced to acquit
both King and MICROmega CEO Greg Morris
last Friday, after one of the most bizarre
reversals in recent history, when the NPA
rested its case, failing to call all but five of
the 71 expert witnesses, including Xstrata
boss Mick Davis, Old Mutual, Sanlam and
others.
“It was astounding,” said one of the
witnesses who was not called. “We were all
ready to testify, and it is incomprehensible
why the prosecutors effectively rested the
state’s case.” Having signed confidentiality
statements, witnesses could not speak on the
record.
“They’ve done a huge amount of homework
over the last two years, so [resting the case
like that] is poor. It’s not good enough to say
that there are still criminal charges in the tax
case against him,” said the witness.
In acquitting King, Judge Victor also
slammed the NPA for failing to put up a
case, and criticised a number of “highly
irregular” actions. These included conducting
a search-and-seizure operation without
authority and failing to store documents and
a seized computer properly.
King described this as a “momentous defeat
for the NPA”, which is likely to have
ramifications for other corporate crimes it is
trying to prosecute, including those of
construction firms accused of rigging World
Cup stadium tenders and the Ponzi scheme
case against Barry Tannenbaum.
Although the 37 criminal charges related to
Specialised Outsourcing were withdrawn, King
still has 322 charges of tax fraud that he is
defending, but they will not be in court for
many months.
King said he had racked up R400-million in
legal bills for his various cases to date, and
estimated the state had spent even more.
This is in addition to R636-million that the
state effectively forfeited when the NPA
torpedoed a signed settlement with King in
2009.
SA Revenue Services (SARS) confirmed it had
spent close to R200-million on legal costs.
This excludes an unknown sum spent by the
NPA in bringing the fraud charges against
King that fell apart this week.
But SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay stressed
it had won a judgment against King’s
company Ben Nevis for a R2.75-billion tax
liability in 2010.
SARS had recovered “significant amounts
through the sale of assets for which various
court orders were obtained. This included the
sale of a Falcon jet. SARS would continue
civil litigation to recover outstanding tax
debts,” Lackay said. “Money spent on
litigation should be seen in this context.”
SARS has also frozen King’s assets overseas
estimated to be worth R800-million in places
like Scotland and Guernsey – freezing orders
he will now try to overturn using this week’s
acquittal.
Lackay said the SARS international freezing
order was not based on this case.
During the case, which ran in the South
Gauteng High Court from August 3,
prosecutors claimed King had conned
companies like Old Mutual and lied to the
JSE when he made more than R1-billion by
selling shares in Specialised Outsourcing in
1999.
A 1999 report by former Investec analyst
Andrew Cuffe accused King of misleading
shareholders and recommended investors
avoid the company.
King claimed Cuffe’s research report had
been “discredited by Investec itself”, but CEO
Stephen Koseff said through a spokesman he
had “no recollection of such a conversation”.
A 2001 forensic report by Ernst & Young said
there was a “fundamental error in the
preparation of Specialised Outsourcing’s
financial statements for 1998 and 1999”.
King was also later accused of secretly
selling his trust’s shares in Specialised
Outsourcing. But King responded: “Who did
they think they were buying the shares from?
They knew I had all the shares.”
He said that if the institutional investors had
a justifiable gripe with him they would have
launched a civil action.
The NPA said in a statement it was forced to
acquit King after “a material witness” crucial
to proving the authenticity of key documents
was unable to testify for health reasons,
which resulted in the documents being ruled
inadmissible.
Spokesman Bulelwa Makeke said she could
not comment.
The NPA annual report shows that it had a
conviction rate of 91.6% when it came to
“complex commercial crimes” for 2011/2012.
But this does not show that the NPA enrolled
only 754 cases during that time – about half
the number it was prosecuting three years
before, suggesting it was cherry-picking the
easiest cases.
T&Ts.
He was called smiler.
Big nan
Petition signed
oldtim67, I remember 1 time a crowd of us went up to Celtic Park from Sussexto watch
a Celtic v them cup game.
We were in the Tolbooth & their was a prize if you could answer the question & no one had got the right answer in over 2 years.
The question was,who won 2 cup medals with Celtic before he played a home game ?
Well my wee pal disappeared & came back a couple of minutes later & said to the manager
” was it Neilly Mochan ? ‘”
He couldnae believe it efter 2 years someone got iy right.
He got a good bottle of whiskey as I remember.
I said to him how the hell did ye know that ?
He said ah didnae .Ah went & phoned yer Dad & he said right away och that´ll be our Neilly.
I saw him a lot myself in the 50´s & I loved him too.
Hail hail.
30.05.2008
How do you hide a R1-billion fortune from
the taxman? With bespoke help from offshore
bankers desperate to get their hands on your
portfolio, suggest documents emerging from
the long-running battle between the South
African Revenue Service (Sars) and its
number-one target, Dave King.
A series of memos, emails and file notes from
the Bank of Bermuda, which is now a
subsidiary of global banking giant HSBC,
show how the bank, eager to secure King as
a client, helped him restructure his network
of trusts and offshore companies to “present
a blind alley to any revenue investigation”.
The documents are evidence in a Pretoria
High Court trial, which will effectively
determine whether Sars can seize assets held
by King’s offshore structures.
King made about R1,2-billion from the sale
of shares in Specialised Outsourcing, the
company he founded to handle treasury
operations for parastatals and government
bodies. The company’s share price crashed
not long afterward, as news of the sales
trickled out. It was pushed down further as
concerns about the company’s accounting
practices grew and King moved on to a new
venture, Financial Insourcing Specialists.
Angry institutional shareholders racked up
massive losses while revenue authorities
tried to reconcile King’s apparent enjoyment
of a wine farm, a Ferrari and a private jet
with his modest reported income.
In late 2000 he was contacted by Sars,
wondering where the government’s slice of
the proceeds from the share sales were. He
has since stood on the defence that the profits
were a capital gain, not revenue, an incurred
no-tax liability, but at the time he quickly
set about making sure that the money, much
of which was held through a company called
Ben Nevis, stayed firmly out of reach of the
fiscus.
On November 15 2000, Steve Bougourd,
senior trust officer at the Bank of Bermuda,
wrote to his colleague, Dave Hewitson,
saying: “Apparently DK wishes to ‘dismantle’
current structure and transfer the assets of
Ben Nevis into a new company, as the ‘tax
authorities are chasing him’.”
This is important for two reasons. First, it
helps bolster the case that King was the true
owner of Ben Nevis. Second, it suggests he
restructured his holdings solely to escape tax
scrutiny, which is a crucial plank in the case
against him. King’s role in managing his
assets was also to be kept quiet, Bougourd
made clear: “DK’s position as an adviser
should be very much an ‘off the record
relationship’.”
Less than a week later a summary of a
meeting with King, circulated within the
Bank of Bermuda, restates the case: “DK has
no tax adviser but is happy there is no
problem from his point of view in closing the
Ben Nevis company. His intention is just to
present a blind alley to any revenue
investigation.”
By March 9 2001 there was a clear plan,
Bougourd wrote in an email to the bank’s
Adrian Fairbourn: “[W]e are restructuring
Ben Nevis to stop the South African taxman
in his tracks. To kill two birds with one stone
we are also liquidating all investments, as he
wishes to take stock, consolidate his position
and think through his strategy going
forward.”
Even at this stage, before the bank secured
more of King’s business, the sums involved
were substantial.
“What we are doing is selling all his
investments in the name of Ben Nevis, that is,
a £10-million portfolio with Barclays
Private Bank, and two Royal Skandia
portfolios (managed by [Cape Town hedge
fund firm] Alpha) amounting to approx £3-
million.
“There is already some £50-million on depo
with Barclays Private Bank (he has a long-
standing relationship with Sir Anthony
Richardson),” Bougourd wrote.
As the assets were sold they were
“transferred up” to King’s Glencoe Trust and
then into a new holding company, Metlika,
“thus making a clean break with Ben Nevis”.
“Other assets, namely a property and shares
in Murray sports, are being reregistered in
the name Metlika … Glencoe Trust is also
selling its portfolios with Old Mutual and
Capel Cure Sharp, which amounted to £2,5-
million”, the email continues.
The net effect of this move was temporarily
to obscure from Sars the more than R500-
million in cash and other assets that had
been inadequately concealed by Ben Nevis.
HSBC may have a difficult time proving that
the Bank of Bermuda (which it bought three
years later in 2004) wasn’t a wholehearted
participant in a dubious arrangement.
“The timing of the visit creates a great
opportunity. He is heavily encashed, he is
taking time out to think his strategy through
and hopefully the markets will have
stabilised a little by then and therefore offer
a calmer selling environment. The key, I
think, is that we need to be creative … this
could be significant business for the bank,”
Bougourd wrote.
Sars’s efforts to recover R2,5-billion in taxes
and penalties from King have been mired in
a series of preliminary court battles over the
seizure of assets and other technicalities —
trial on the main tax charges is yet to begin.
The state is pressing a raft of criminal
charges, including money laundering and
racketeering, against him.
HSBC denied any knowledge of the type of
services being provided to King through its
subsidiary, Bank of Bermuda. Asked to
comment on the evidence that its subsidiary
had potentially been implicated in tax
evasion and money laundering, HSBC said:
“The incident would appear to relate to the
period before HSBC acquired Bank of
Bermuda. We do not believe, on the evidence
presented, that HSBC is implicated.”
King claimed he had no idea which court
case the documents related to, saying Sars
constantly changed its version. The “bully
tactic” of “seizing everything” and forcing
“you to negotiate with them” has only made
him more determined to fight the case, he
said.
“We have fought for six years over the
seizure of assets and still not gone to court,”
he said. “After six years they have not won
anything because their [case’s] merits are not
good enough.” Despite the help of the South
African Reserve Bank and the Financial
Services Board “they still can’t beat me”, he
said.
“I believe in the legitimacy of the trusts … I
will do everything within my power to
protect the legitimacy of my interests until I
lose the tax case.”
Additional assets to seize
Last Wednesday, Sars won the first round in
its latest bout with King.
The Pretoria High Court rejected with costs
King’s application for the postponement of a
trial to determine whether tax authorities
can lay hands on assets held by Metlika, an
offshore company allegedly used to hide
hundreds of millions of rands in profit from
the sale of King’s shares in Specialised
Outsourcing.
Sars wants the court to reverse a series of
transactions in which cash, shares, and
property were shuffled from Ben Nevis, one
of King’s main offshore vehicles, to Metlika.
Sars is leading evidence that suggests that
this move was intended purely as a tax
dodge.
Ben Nevis owes about R1,4-billion in taxes
and penalties and if the transactions are
reversed it will mean assets worth at least
R500-million flow back into the company,
where they can be seized by Sars and sold.
The trial, which is set down for six weeks,
should help bring an end to six years of
complex legal skirmishing over the recovery
of money from King and set up the
conditions for his trial on criminal charges
arising from the affair.
Blantyretim.
A couple of glasses of Ciroc is keeping megoing.
asonofdan
20:23 on 29 October, 2013Is King still a Millionaire?
Chris Tarrant retired last week so he wisnae taking any chances….cough cough
Oldtim67.
I take it you are supporting resolution 12 with gay abandon ?
I typed out a long script about the old school and bloody lost it there, not trying again, so an abridged version –
Call me an auld Celtic romantic, but the longer I get in the tooth, the more yearn for the sights , sounds , and smells of the past. I love our magnificent steel framed stadium, seen in the skyline from most of south east glasgow, and from all the high points elsewhere, but I miss the floodlights and front door of old Celtic Park, and jeese oh, do I miss watching a match from the jungle. A living breathing bellowing monster, with 10,000 different opinions , but mostly the 1 supporting roar.
I dont want the old school to go. If Celtic Park was the handsome edwardian Irishman , built by his own hands , and a beacon for the poor, then the Primary school was his Scottish bride, a place of education, and progression, hopefully many of the people who went through the gates acheved their dreams.
She stands now like a widow. Still there, hanging on, still proud, and sometimes you catch something still beautiful about the old girl.
I like buildings, I like Glasgow. I loved Celtic Park, and I admired the old school.
I really wanted it saved, I feel a wee bit let down about this. Could more effort have been made, or was the plan allways to let it get so bad (which I dont believe by the way, looking at most of the outside) that it could be knocked down. Ive seen some great old pictures of players coming down Kerrydale Street and kids standing on the railings, The architecture of the school very alike the old Celtic Park frontage. I wanted this to stay, to be a reference to a great old history, to be a cornerstone , the lions on london road on the bus led by a horseman, what a picture, never to be repeated. The schools red stone would not have been out of place against the stadium and the arena, in fact, the thousands of visitors next year would have looked at it and thought ….. cool.
We will have something new in its place. I listend to John Paul on the etims podcast, pretty good interview all round. He said demolition will start straight after the United game.
I hope some of the old school materials are reclaimed, some of the stone used in the triangle, Please make it happen PLC, renew something.
Get your pictures this weekend before its gone.
ps, I would still try and re-erect one of the floodlights. sad as i am.
http://www.glescapals.com/celtic/lisbonlions3.htm
timbhoy in spain.
Watch this bit of movie,interesting about that quiz answer.
twists n turns
20:16 on
29 October, 2013
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ki25YwdsEs8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dki25YwdsEs8
Oldtim, you’ll enjoy this
John McKay need look no further than Derek Ferguson for a player who didn’t really make it.
He broke into Rangers first team at roughly the same age as The Maestro broke into ours.
They played against each other for several years.
Compare there respective careers .
I remember the hype around DF.
He couldn’t lace Peter Grants boots ,never mind The incomparable Paul McStay.
TT
timabhouy
20:44 on 29 October, 2013
Been watching out for you mate, received your cheque and it was deposited today.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail
Stenny miss an open goal ffs
Canamalar.
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
20:48 on
29 October, 2013
Oldtim67.
I take it you are supporting resolution 12 with gay abandon ?
Of course.
Glad to see you back on the blog,meeting up with TET in Barcelona.I’ll have to get him to get his wife to make me a leather belt. He’s bringing his wares to Barcelona.
1-1 ICT V DU
TinyTim
True. But an even bigger failure than Derek was his brother Barry.
He remains the most over-praised Scottish player I can remember, yet his career consists of 2 so-so spells at Der Hun, and one complete failure at Blackburn.
He also disgraced the Scotland jersey.