When you have a potential loss to the tax payer of £75m, allegations of tax irregularities, political interference, alleged sporting malfeasance and stand of the brink of the largest corporate failure in Scottish history (discounting the bailed-out RBS) the profile of the story rises above the blogs and regular Scottish media.
Alex Thomson, chief correspondent for Channel 4 News, a man who reports from war zones, interviews prime ministers and presidents, decided to look into how the SFA were handling the current crisis in Scottish football. Yesterday he blogged on the subject, raising many of the questions we have asked in recent months.
On Twitter this morning he reported his experience in trying to get some sense out of the SFA, this is what he said:
“SFA say President Campbell Ogilvie is ‘distancing himself from the current Rangers investigation’ but did not explain how.
“Campbell Ogilvie ‘did not know’ about EBT contract when he was Rangers FC secretary?
“When we asked why not – that was his job – SFA said they didn’t know.
“SFA say their President and fmr Ranger secretary Campbell Ogilvie will not be interviewed by c4news about what he knew…
“SFA say their President Campbell Ogilvie ‘has no plans to stand aside from his job pending current Rangers probes…
“Interesting SFA have just accused me of ‘lying’, ‘pig-headedness’ and then put the phone down mid-conversation….
“all because I put their own statement back to them that Campbell Ogilvie denied knowing about EBTs at Rangers…
“And suggested there might be a perceived conflict of interest in his current position until the investigations are complete”
Three weeks ago we suggested that Ogilvie’s position as SFA president was untenable, saying “The association cannot have a president embroiled in a tax evasion scam which, even before a verdict has been decided, has already caused untold harm to his former club and the reputation Scottish football.”
The SFA have been able to dismiss pleas for sporting integrity and ethical standards from the blogsphere while the mainstream media have either chased the hapless fall-guy, Craig Whyte, or refused to take the Improper Registration of Rangers players seriously.
SFA chief executive, Stewart Regan, was flushed out his slumber by Mr Thomson’s comments this morning, Tweeting to the reporter, “Please could you confirm who you have spoken to. thank you.”
Stewart, if you really need to ask that question, you’re in more trouble than I thought. There are several thousand CQN’ers who could help answer that one.
Campbell Ogilvie and the SFA cannot hide from the facts of this crisis. He is president of the SFA and both he and the association must acknowledge there is work to do. We can only hope Uefa finally decide to take a look.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/sports/soccer/14iht-soccer14.html
The New York Times article.
HH
JUDE2005 1507
I know I made a somewhat embarrassing typo in my earlier reply to BB,which kinda detracted from my point,but yours was worse.
I mean,FUDD!
That’s TWO typos in one word,ffs.
Awe_Naw..,
dont confuse me like that
:oD))
hail hail
The Fairy Tale Of The Blue Knights
Couldn’t resist this …
canamalar
this isnae the home of lazy journalism
get yer acronyms right !!! ;-)
Ok let me put it this way what you want today is not going to be forgotten about.
The sectarian singing and the debt to the Arabs and the SFA´s part in it are
Hail Hial
Gordon_J,
(paraphrase) “Even the knights who said ni had to back off”? Chapeau to you.
Media starting to gather outside Murray Park. Is there a story?
Has the Alex Thomson show been on the telly yet???
Aw Naw
First Tier Tribunal
Rangers have launched a Rangers Fans’ Fighting Fund to raise money towards the club’s running costs.
Manager Ally McCoist and his predecessor Walter Smith were joined by former defender Sandy Jardine in endorsing the move to urge supporters to make donations to help the club during administration.
Smith, Jardine, supporters’ liaison manager Jim Hannah and Rangers Supporters Assembly president Andy Kerr will control the bank account and pass on donations to administrators Duff and Phelps as and when the money is required.
Rangers’ two home games since they entered administration on February 14, against Kilmarnock and Hearts, were sold out and manager McCoist hopes the latest initiative is well received.
McCoist said on the club’s official website, http://www.rangers.co.uk: “I encourage all fans to back the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund and help the club in any way they can, as they have done in recent weeks.
” Things are pretty bad when there isn´t even toilet paper too wipe yer arse with. The last thing we need is for the Adminstrators to throw he towel in, if you pardon the pun , at this stage solely due to having rancid erse flaps”
“Our fans have been fantastic. They are showing their true colours and have not walked away during these times of need.
“On behalf of everyone at the club I would like to thank our supporters for all their efforts and I ask them to keep backing us and keep filling Ibrox for matches as their support will make a difference. Please no throwing the toilet rolls on the pitch. Please hand them to a steward”
Smith, who led Rangers to three successive Clydesdale Bank Premier League titles before stepping aside for McCoist last summer, added: “It has been an extremely difficult time for everyone associated with Rangers but the supporters have shown unbelievable commitment to our club throughout the administration process and deserve great credit.
“I encourage all fans to make a donation and back this campaign as their support will help safeguard the club’s future and cut down on the awful smell about the place”
Interested party turns up to declare his interest in rangers.
http://t.co/3xrRYkbB
Awe_Naw..,
I doubt very much any of it will be allowed to be forgotten.
:oD
The corruption continues in the SFA.
The best race meeting in the world currently on CH4
Cheltenham is an education of ambiance.
Huns who visit the meeting find themselves in a friendly atmosphere where
racegoers have respect for their fellow punters, drinking Guinness, discussing form,while listening to pleasant live music with an Irish flavour.Nae hate.
Green & White wins the C H!!
11/1 ur cash!!
Just cant get enuff!!!!
Hello to all
This, I’m afraid, encapsulates all that is wrong with Establishment section of Scottish Society.
We have been politely asking if Campbell Ogilvie should maybe stand to one side, at least where investigations into Rangers were concerned. By responding to legitimate questions in this manner we now have our answer
In calling a highly respected journalist such as Alex Thomson a liar, he leaves the rest of us wondering about just how much effrontery these people have. I think the issue is that they are used to dealing with lick-spittle journalists who will report the news just as those in authority want it reported. However, the problems surrounding Rangers, and now the SFA (should that read the Rangers board members pension top up company), are proving too much for those involved.
If Mr Ogilivie refuses to stand aside, and if Regan is too timid to force him out, then the only alternative is for EUFA to take over the running of the SFA until such time as a board of more honest, and capable people can be assembled.
For far too long, we have endured dishonesty, corruption, and incompetence from the press and the governing body.
I read Gordon McQueen’s comments about how people are laughing at Scottish football. They may well be. But, in the long run, if all this means we end up with a far more honest sport, where people are not judged by the church they go to, the colour of their skin, or any of the other things that just don’t matter, we might end up with our game being run by people who are actually interested in good honest football.
Hail Hail
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2012-03-13/rangers-pension-fund-regulator?mod=sectionheadlines-home-AM
Drip drip…..drip
HH
There are so many humourous aspects to the followin Daily Record headline that one just dosn’t know where to start:
“Rangers launch Fans Fighting Fund to help cover costs as Walter Smith joins”
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 13 March, 2012 at 15:24 said:
“Media starting to gather outside Murray Park. Is there a story?”
Yip. Sone Aluko has called a press conference. He’s asking the hacks to show a bit of solidarity by taking a 75% pay cut for the fighting fund.
Here I stand head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If he’s gone we can go on
playing fair football
Everywhere peeple stare
Each and every day
I can see them laugh at me
And I hear them say
Hey you’ve got to hide your Ogilvie
Hey you’ve got to hide your Ogilvie
How can I even try
I can never win
Hearing them, seeing them
In the state I’m in
How could they say to me
Truth will find a way
Gather round all you clowns
Let me hear you say
Hey you’ve got to hide your Ogilvie
Hey you’ve got to hide your Ogilvie
Freemasons ,the brothers look after one another,2 men who were freemasons ,2 scumbags Hamilton the dunblane rat, the other one who was a bus driver from coatbridge murdered a wee girl betty i forgot her name ,but her gran sent her to the shops ,only to never return,they say he was involved in a padephole mob ,that included members of the police, and church members..the brothers new about them 2 and did nothing about it ,that tells you what kind of people frequent there lodges, disgusting shower , and you know what the media gave them a easy ride, cowards everyone of them .
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 13 March, 2012 at 13:31 said:
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/dangers-rangers-tax-shambles/850
ok folks click the facebook recommend button
Hail Hail
Good link,man! Alex Thomson is not the kinda guy to let this go…..even more so, now that he’s being called a liar by the Masonic tendency rampaging all across the Scottish meeja.
Bobby
I have next to know idea what you’re talking about. You could either engage with the point I’m making or leave it alone. I mean, it’s your style of reaction – i.e. unthinking, not understanding, not interested, that put’s a lot of folk off.
I pretty much ignore everything you write. Being forced to state this is probably as bothersome for me as it is for you, but, try to review what I added and what you added to CQN today and see if it makes any sense at all. If you don’t like the point I’m making prepare to defend that perspective. If you can’t then I’ve every right to assume you don’t understand it. That is pretty much my CQN story… and that’s why I rarely bother these days. I have never once declined a polite debate, no matter how divergent the opinions are.
Judd,
I missed your reply, and I’m not correcting it or above a typo or spelling mistake myself… give yourself a break.
“Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth and falsehood,
For the good or evil side;”
James Russell Lowell – As quoted by Rev. Martin Luther King
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 13 March, 2012 at 15:31 said:
Thanks for that. I’ve had Paddy McGinty’s goat in my head since earlier (so to speak), but you’ve now displaced it. Appreciated :-)
TIMBHOY 1532
There are a number of articles on the net about this,an absolutely obscene state of affairs.
If you dig back on the likes of CAPTAIN RANTY’s blog-I think but I’ll check it out-there are a lot of wholly unpalatable details not suitable for this site.
Including the story of a young lass by the name of Holly,IIRC.
There are allegations that people have died in strange circumstances due to scratching the surface on this particular topic.
The Battered Bunnet on 13 March, 2012 at 15:29 said:
There are so many humourous aspects to the followin Daily Record headline that one just dosn’t know where to start:
“Rangers launch Fans Fighting Fund to help cover costs as Walter Smith joins”
I hear they have also made a commercial to raise awareness and the Michael parkinson is fronting the campaign whereupon signing you receive a parker pen or a carriage clock(batteries sold seperately).
Any truth in the rumour jardine handed over the huns fighting fund in a brown envelope as thats how the myth prefers to be given cash.
Surely not??
BONTYBOY1538
Your idea of a polite debate has always been to call anyone who disagrees with you a moron.
About a year ago,you were arguing pretty much the opposite from what you are now.
Who’s the moron?
Man,oh man; now they’ve reduced themselves to this kind of infantile imbecility : ” Liar,liar, pants on fire! ” And they call themselves ‘men of authority ‘? Gie’s a brek, ya flamin’ Orange numpties!
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 13 March, 2012 at 14:31 said:
We were in danger of relegation that season????????????????? Eh!
We were no such thing.
Referee Gordon (if I remember correctly) was responsible for that outrage. He ran about 25 yards into Rangers penalty box and pointed to the spot. Our players stopped playing and gathered expecting a penalty only for him to perform a U turm and wave play on with abut 7 of their players running towards our goal.
If it was indeed Gordon who refereed that day, he had to resign or was sacked in later years for a bribing scandal involving a European game at AC Milan where he allowed himself to be taken out by AC on an expensive shopping expedition.
timbhoy
It was Moira Anderson who was murdered in Coatbridge. Body has never been found.
Lessons can be learned in all of this in our non-Celtic lives.
I have taken an enormous amount out of watching this situation.
If you click on my blog name you will end up at George Monbiot’s site. The stuff the SFA and rangers have been getting away with, until now, is the same as the government and their bosses in the multi-nationals and billionaire community are still at.
Accountability, transparency, honesty – all missing from the culture of governance in the UK and at the SFA. Why – because when you have something to hide the three core qualities I have listed are a threat. Arrogance, obfuscation and self interest rule the roost.
TIMBHOY 1532
The girl’s name is Holly Greig.
I have a feeling you don’t have to google that.
Anyone who does needs a strong stomach.
Especially if you come from NE Scotland.
timbhoy
Where Thers Evil is a book that covers Moira’s story. Haunting read!!
Somebody should send Tommo the link to the Falling Masonry article by that other TV journalist Alan Stewart, R.I.P.
This one: http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Rangers+-+Falling+Masonry
Then he would know what he was up against in this Masonic wee country.
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has just got back to me about the huns’ wee charity football match.
They’ve taken my e-mail suggesting they look into the use of the money by the club rather than the charity as a complaint are are now carrying out an investigation!
“OSCR is aware of the recent media interest in the Rangers Charity Foundation regarding its apparent intention to forego most of its share of funds raised from the Legends football match to be held on 30 March 2012 in favour of Rangers Football Club. We have also received correspondence from members of the public expressing concern that a charity may use its funds in this way. In view of this, OSCR has determined it is appropriate to make further inquiries into the matter and is contacting the charity for further information.
We will contact you again when our inquiry is completed to let you know, in general terms, the outcome.”
Go OSCR!
philvisreturns 14:22
“Rangers are the Daleks of Scottish football”.
Haha aye, but their own special RFC-SFA lift is about to break. Daleks don’t do stairs.
BuildingaTescowhenRangersDieCSC
JohnnyClash on 13 March, 2012 at 15:31 said:
It wouldn’t surprise me Johnny :-)