Various people have demanded an explanation as to why executives at the SPL and SFA proposed to fast-track disciplinary procedures against Rangers and rubber-stamp access for their successor club into the Scottish Football League First Division.
There are two possible scenarios for this:
Rangers are guilty as sin, everyone knows it, results achieved by illegally registered players will be void and a severe punishment would be due. If subject to due process, punishment from independent commission could be expulsion from the SFA. “Powerful forces” at the SFA and SPL tried their best to protect Rangers’ successor club.
Or
Rangers are innocent of the charge. This was an attempt to impose an inappropriate punishment on their successor club when they were vulnerable.
Neither explanation is satisfactory.
Sir David Murray, who was on the board which authorised remuneration during the period 2000-2011, when the unregistered second contracts were allegedly used, has categorically denied these contracts exist. Earlier this year The Sun produced a redacted second contract and the BBC documentary into the club claims to have seen dozens of second contracts worth tens of millions of pounds.
Next month we will discover the true situation. For the record, Celtic, nor any individual at the club, were not involved in any meetings, telephone conversations or emails discussing or promoting this accommodation. The plan was also not put to the SFA board or the SPL board.
As we have noted before, if Sir David Murray is mistaken on the conduct of the former Rangers board, the toxicity attached to this SFA ‘franchise’ makes it untenable.
On other matters:
Spartak Moscow players Jurado and Romulo were both injured at the weekend and will miss the visit of Celtic next week.
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Have celtic apologized for the green brigade banner or whats the latest ?
Saw great banner from them saying justice for zombies. Brillant
dena29
Lovely to meet you on saturday.
TBB
SFTB
The SFL want nothing to do with the whole thing. Never have.
Shoot also included a CL team of the week selection where, alongside the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Oscar and Pastore, we find Kelvin Wilson???
TBB
I was on the committee of the GCSFA for several years and if fact coached the select side for 3 years. Strangely the guy who was my side kick was the RFC supporter who I referred to in my post to SoT.
Every year letters were sent to every school in the city, regardless of denomination, to register a team in the league but sadly the uptake from non Catholic schools was small.
In recent times it had more to do with the polarised views on 11-a-side school football than anything else.
TBB
That would remove the LC results from the fray but what about the SC results, a tourney run by the SFA?
Will Ayr, Motherwell, Dundee United and St. Mirren be willing to let the SFL maintain this position if other titles are stripped?
ToneLoc
Greenlees! – forgot about them, and of course ‘Timpsons Shoe Shop’ was also popular.
SoT
You’re absolutely correct it is indeed a complicated world. Generalisations don’t help to uncomplicate that and unfortunately too many stereotypes still exist.
SFTB
The sham proposal included 4 Scottish Cups.
The entire thing is a charade though. The primary breach is not the SPL’s rules, it’s FIFA’s Rules on the Registration of Players, as applied worldwide, that have (allegedly) been broken, the responsibility for implementing which lies soley with the SFA in this country.
For the SFA to delegate/abdicate their responsibility in this singular case is inexplicable…
SFTB
Nice to meet you again on Saturday.
setting free the bears @ 16 09
Pastore !
Used to travel to Palermo [ 4hrs away ] just to watch Pastore . A truly fabulous football player . Bought for @ 5 million euros in 2009 -sold to PSG [ against his will ] for @ 40 million euros in 2011 .
A true great !
Just got a hun on my table at “poker stars”online.Asked him to promise he wouldn`t cheat. Let`s just say his response was “blue”
Moderator has interceded.
Wee Oscar 4 Life Green Bucket Army expect to announce total @ 5:30pm.
MWD
TBB
There must be an olfactory equivalent of the Richter Scale for the concept of bad smells. I would suggest that the SFA handling of this has shot up to a Spinal Tap level of 11 on this scale.
Any olfactory scientist out there know the terminology and gradients of said scale?
HT
It was indeed a pleasure to meet so many of the CQn family and beyond. Has Sannabhoy confirmed if we are in the same quiz team for next week as I have gained a Mo Johnston type rep with my former quiz team aka The Perennial Runners-up?
South Of Tunis
Many moons ago I briefly attended college in Edinburgh – early 70s – and was astounded to meet several devout practising Catholics who were ‘devoted’ Hearts fans.
A person’s religious devotion, or otherwise, has never been an issue with me.
HH!!
SFTB- it ‘s better to be in a team of honest [if perennial] runners up…
Curley’s
Lipton’s
City Cash Tailors
Crazy House
Goldbergs
Massey Ltd
Bayne & Duckett
Coopers- Fine Fare
Galbraiths
Lewis’s
Arnott and Simpson
Hoey’s
Hobo Power is a unit coined by Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew on the radio show Loveline as a measure of how bad something smells. Some noted reference points include:
0 hobo – Doesn’t smell bad at all
13 hobo – “A robust fart”
30 hobo – The smeller must vomit.
50 hobo – Carolla suggested the hypothetical: “50 hobo power is a cat that’s been fed nothing but blue cheese for a week defecating on a white-hot hibachi.”
100 hobo – Purely theoretical (comparable to absolute zero). Near 100 hobo would cause death by asphyxiation.
A running section of The Adam Carolla Show involves callers relating foul-smelling situations for which the hosts then determine the equivalent Hobo Power.
-lifted from Wiki/EWLM/EWTB
I am sure one of Curley’s lads went to Holyrood in the 60’s
Tallybhoy @ 16 24 .
Indeed ! .
BSR- I see JJB Sports has gone into administration, it must be contagious.
DBBIA
“it ‘s better to be in a team of honest [if perennial] runners up…”
But my agent, Mr McMurdo Sannabhoy reckons I will get more money elsewhere :-)
“Hobo Power is a unit coined by Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew on the radio show Loveline as a measure of how bad something smells.”
For Scotland then we should maybe refine this as The Scrofulous Chronic Hobo Infested Zombie Meter or SCHIZM for short.
Me thinks the Zombies petition has been hijacked
LEAVE THEM ALONE :))))
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/the-people-together/signatures
MWD, looking forward to the announcement.
The photos are great.
Gollum to referee our match against Motherwell. The usual ‘honest mistakes’ then.
FF in meltdown shut out shocker.
Que pasa?
SECC 2 half pints of Cider £7.50
Lewis’s – I played in a Subbuteo tournie in Lewis’s, Saturday afternoon place was mobbed, felt like a superstar, got beat in the U-16 final by a guy from Carnbroe, they were a top dog league. I only got to final cause the 2 Canbroe lads got drawn together in the semi. Not bad considering I only played it on the floor at home with my bro’s!!
Full delayed transmission of our game on Sat on BBC Alba apparently – 5.30pm – according to Packie Bonner CSC
HH
I think the below from Tom English is excellent, simple but effective. PS Can someone let me know what trawling the boards means? I know it is frowned upon but unclear as to what exactly it is. Thanks in advance.
______________________________________________________
Tom English: ‘We need to know what happened, when and how it happened and whether it
Tom English: ‘We need to know what happened, when and how it happened and whether it was dodgy’
Banner headlines? The SFA and SPL with their attempts to bypass justice have made it easy for Rangers and their fans to feel victimised
By TOM ENGLISH
Published on Monday 24 September 2012 07:47
WHEN Lord Nimmo Smith and the panel of distinguished legal minds who are adjudicating on Rangers and the endless saga of EBTs and double contracts deliver their findings, you would hope that a section of their report would deal with not just what happened (or didn’t happen) at Ibrox but also what appears to have happened at the SFA and the SPL these past few months.
As surely as possible rule-breaking payments need to be investigated so, too, does the accusation that the authorities in Scotland attempted to broker some kind of deal to get Rangers back into the First Division instead of the Third. The details that have emerged are grubby and demand exploring.
Among a list of “Agreements and Undertakings” that the SFA and SPL were dangling under Rangers’ nose were: “(i) accept and agree to be bound by each and all of the EBT Sanctions; (ii) the SFA and the SPL agree that no further sanctions will be imposed with respect to or concerning the EBT Payments and Arrangements; and (iii) RFC and ***** shall not directly or indirectly make any claim and/or representation to have won any of the Championships and/or Cups which are the subject of any and all of the EBT Sanctions”.
The SFA and the SPL – both lamentable in this entire affair – looked to have sidled up to Rangers and whispered in their ear: “Hey listen chaps, why don’t you admit guilt on the whole EBT front, give up a heap of titles to appease the masses and we’ll slip you back into the First Division with no more questions asked. How about it? Give us your trophies and we can all move on. Nirvana awaits. Just sign here.”
If this is what was proposed – and it certainly looks that way – then it is an affront to justice. Rangers may or may not be guilty but, whatever your stance, they have an inalienable right to be deemed innocent unless Lord Nimmo Smith finds otherwise. Were the SFA and the SPL trying to circumvent this process? Were they looking for a confession before hearing the evidence? “Admit everything and we’ll make your life easier.” What about fairness? What about integrity? Such a devalued word in this farrago.
The bottom line in the EBT case is that we need a conclusion, not the kind of half-arsed solution that the SFA and SPL were shovelling at Rangers. As a nation, we need to know what happened, when it happened, how it happened and whether it was dodgy or not. We need to know if there is substance to the world of rumour. We need to know precisely how Rangers applied their EBTs and precisely what they did or didn’t do with the double contracts.
If the SFA and SPL had their way then Rangers would have accepted punishment and we would never truly know what exactly happened here. We’d be condemned to a lifetime of EBT debate, one side saying there was nothing wrong, the other side saying Rangers were at it, when all we need is the truth as established by some of the finest legal minds in the country. A kangaroo court, this is not. Yes, the commission was set up by the football authorities but it is not in thrall to them. Lord Nimmo Smith, below, and Co. don’t give a toss what Stewart Regan or Neil Doncaster think. If anybody thinks they would put their professional reputations – and careers – on the line by being dictated to it the SFA and the SPL then they really need to think again. Their verdict, one way or another, will be respected by all bar those whose opinions are so entrenched as to be unreachable by logic.
Only when the commission has examined every scrap of information can innocence or guilt be established. Only then can possible punishment be discussed and meted out. Not before.
Charles Green has thrown the toys out of the pram so often now that it’s easy to dismiss pretty much everything he says given how infantile some of his comments have been but, amid the wall of noise and the pathetic attempt to paint Lord Nimmo Smith’s commission as a collection of patsies for Regan and Doncaster, there is some truth and the truth is that the SFA and the SPL were spectacularly out of line when attempting to cut a deal. It’s not dissimilar to a High Court judge opening court proceedings by telling the accused: “Right son, you say you’re innocent of this crime and blah-de-blah but, before we hear the evidence I’m going to propose a solution. I’ll tuck you up in the shovel for a three-year stretch and we can all get out of here pronto. How about it?”
The SFA and the SPL have made it easy for Green to walk away from the commission, to throw his hands up in the air and cry foul. In attempting to force through a lousy compromise that would have done an enormous disservice to the game, the authorities came across as a hanging party busily constructing the gallows before a word had been heard from the defence.
Green’s interpretation is nonsense, of course. The commission is beyond reproach, but the behaviour of the SFA and the SPL gave Green an easy way out. “They’ve already found us guilty. They want our trophies. What chance have we got? We’re walking away.”
Nobody should be walking away. If Rangers truly believe that they have done nothing wrong then they should have nothing to fear from this commission, respected by all except by these who see conspiracy around every corner. If the verdict comes in and they are deemed innocent, then nobody can ever throw this mud at them again. Surely that is in their interest.
If the verdict goes the other way then a scandal will have been exposed and the game will be better for it.
The rush to judgment does nobody any favours, though.
Let justice be done – in the business of the EBTs and in the behaviour of the SFA and the SPL.
Rangers is not the only institution that has questions to answer.
http://www.scotsman…..odgy-1-2542656
So why is our top of the table, game of the day clash with the Mothers not being televised? Do they all have some zombie show to attend or something?
leftclicktic,
The reserve strip for 55-58 is the best ever in my opinion. We should go back to that. Of course, it should be remembered that that was the strip we used to wear when I first started watching the mighty Celtic….So, I suppose I’m biased.
SFTB
Just had a wee check, Sanna is down for a team of 5 but hasn’t named any team members apart from himself.
If you wish to be moved, quietly mind, then have a word with me at the door and I’ll place you with some brighter chaps. :-)
Had my blond locks and curls first cut in Lewis, about 1952.
hT
Not asking to be moved. Just concerned that I might have been transferred out of two teams and into none.
Parkheadcumsalford
I remember getting sat on the plank of wood in the barbers and my Da saying “give him a MOON CUT”.
Whats that says I . “Just like Tony Curtis” says he.
Never liked Tony Curtis after i seen my head when he had finished :)))
setting free the bears
16:09 on
24 September, 2012
What does Mark Hateley say about big Kelvin?
SFTB
That’s not a problem I’m pretty sure that Sanna mentioned you being in his team and if not then you can join up with some of the people that you already know.