“The appeal is dismissed.” With those words at the Supreme Court in London at 9:52 this morning, Rangers tax cheating was established as fact. The charlatans who manipulated Scottish football fans were shown to be the disgrace they are.
Rangers made unlawful payments, totalling many millions of pounds, to footballers, who, by the club’s own admission in court, they would have been unable to recruit if they had to pay tax and National Insurance contributions for.
They lied to HMRC.
They also hid documents from HMRC, which only came to light during a City of London Police raid on Ibrox.
They hid documents from the SPL and SFA, failing to honestly register dozens of players.
They cheated the tax man.
They cheated the welfare state, the NHS, the police, councils, schools. They cheated the Army and other services.
The SPL’s (now called Scottish Professional Football League) Commission into these matters must now be set aside. It was conducted on the assumption that Rangers acted legally. Lord Nimmo Smith was clear that his conclusions were predicated on this point. A fresh commission is required, we cannot just allow the biggest cheats in British sporting history wander off into the distance.
The SFA has failed to call Sir David Murray to account, or the other directors of Rangers, who had explicit responsibility to ensure the club acted within the laws of the land and within the rules of football, both of which it failed to do.
Murray should be sine died. God knows, I cherish every moment Dave King controls things at Ibrox, but he was a director of Rangers with legal responsibility for its actions. They should all be censured.
NEW CQN PODCAST WITH SFA PRESIDENT ALAN RAE OUT NOW!
Episode 2 of ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ finds Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham discussing a variety of topical subjects concerning Celtic Football Club, including:
* Callum McGregor: The Youth of Today;
* Death of the Cult Hero;
* Norwegian Wood – Ronnie Deila’s Exit Interview;
* Farewell to The Stone Roses;
* Hillsborough: The Truth.
Paul John Dykes also chats to SFA President, Alan McRae, to challenge him over recent comments made about Celtic’s domination of Scottish football.
Connect with A Celtic State of Mind @PaulDykes and @CQNMagazine or just listen using the link below…
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yipeee
Bring on the handcuffs..
Thanks for the links earlier guys.
What a beautiful morning!
BANKIEBHOY1 on 5TH JULY 2017 10:23 AM
At the heart of the issue,
this is about the love of football, the delight in playing, the despair of losing, the hopes and fears of supporters rolled up in a package served up by the Scoddish authorities.
This is about championing fairness for all, not the currant Sweet FA……..
This is an issue for us all, Scotland is better than the huns – let’s consign thum to an asterisk’d series of footnotes in a tainted historical record.
Scotland The Brave?
HH
Paul67
censored? surely you mean censured- on second thoughts
So we finally see some justice…
It’s the close season and appropriate time to speak up about what we have been witnessing …
Specifically, the role of our Celtic Custodians in the complete and ongoing farce that is Scottish football!
My view that debating such matters during the season is an unhelpful distraction to the efforts of the team out on the pitch.
It is rather daunting prospect, as anytime anyone has anything to say on the subject they risk opprobrium from fellow Celts. So with tin hat firmly on napper and chin strap fixed tight, I will prepare for the incoming from some fellow hoops fans who will inevitably point me to an Invincible Treble and advise me to lighten up.
I accept that for some that is all that matters, and I try to understand that thinking, even if I cannot agree with it. I’m certainly not going to judge anyone or have an online punch up!!
My contact with CQN regulars informs my view that most are from the generation who remember first trips to Celtic Park when the Lions were in their heyday. When the birth of the Quality Street Kids saw us continue on our merry wee way towards the Original 9 in a row.
I remember a stream of constant victories and delicious glory, winning quarter finals,semi finals and final…and that was just in Europe!!
Fantastic days, and in hindsight we were rather spoiled, compared to the ‘faithful’ generation of our fathers. Men who had few, but albeit glorious successes, in a period when our club was generally becalmed in the doldrums.
Saturday afternoon was the bread and butter of domestic league football and regular trips with dad and his mates, in the car or supporters bus, to Paradise to watch the ransacking of one of the 100 also-rans in the old Scottish 1st Division ( actually only 17 other teams;-)
One of my hobbies back then was taking cuttings from the colour supplements issued with the Evening Citizen ( was it called the pink?). Tremendous action colour photographs of the players and always available immediately after the game.
How did they do that so quickly then?
As I got older I became fascinated with the crowds attending games in all the divisions and somewhere in my mum’s attic there is a scrapbook of pasted photographs with lists of aggregate crowds at Scottish games, week by week. Don’t ask me why I was focusing on that then, but I do remember 40,000 plus crowds were extremely rare in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Yes, I now appreciate they were poakling the attendance numbers to confuse the taxman…a touchy subject … when one really thinks about it!
Dareisay we recall the reports of clubs buying pubs to retain star players who were considered a ‘risk of flight’ back in the day when the game was ‘amateur’ in Scotland.
How reasonable to conclude there has always been surreptitious chicanery in Scottish fitba? Some acceptable and a ‘blind eye’ turned when it suits the individual or club narrative…
Ouch!! Stoappitt!!
If going to games on a Saturday and spending an hour or so poring over the blatts, was a ritual for this Bhoy in those days, so too was the ITV wrestling programme aired around dinner/tea time ( mebbes one of those toasted/roasted cheese debates in there?)
I have clear and fond memories of the whole family crowding around the DER television to watch the ‘Blue Eyes’ versus the ‘Heels’ or the ‘Goodies/White Hats’ v the ‘Baddies/Black Hats’ as they grappled and groaned on the canvas, we all watched it in our house, boys and girls, young and old. Simple pleasures!
The public interest in that period was huge. In 1963, 22 million viewers tuned in to watch a televised bout between ‘Blue Eye’ Jackie Pallo and my favourite ‘Heel’ Mick McManus. Imagine the potential revenues for ITV or London Weekend/Thames back then?
Channels would kill for that exposure now… ahem!
The scene was set and battle lines drawn. A ‘good guy’ from Highbury in North London versus a ‘bad guy’ from Dulwich, South East London. The fact that neither were originally from either location and that Pallo was actually Jack Ernest Gutteridge and ‘Mick McManus’ was actually William George Matthews, hardly mattered. It was all about picking your side, White Hat v Black Hat, North v South, Anglo Saxon v Celt, Good v Bad!!
I was too young to understand that particular bout ( although I’m sure I saw it), and by the time i was old enough to have an opinion I was naturally inclined towards the underdog ‘Mick’ McManus in his black shorts, Dracula style haircut and short forearm smash. He was the hero in our house.
Much later, and by the time I had already sussed out it was all a complete sham, I was still cheering on the ‘Irishman’ (folks from Mayo) Giant Haystacks against the Top Hat/Union Jack wearing arrogance of Big Daddy.
Underdog v Top Dog.
I didn’t know 40 stone and 6′ 11 Giant Haystacks was ‘ Irish’ back then, and it hardly mattered, as I was naturally inclined towards the underdog in almost all circumstances.
The majority of the public wanted the good guys to win, but the controllers of professional wrestling had realised that the underdog had to be thrown the odd bone…to keep the interest going and the gate receipts and tv advertising money rolling in. Otherwise folk might get bored and start watching other stuff…like darts or snooker…
Despite the fact I knew the wrestling was simply a pantomime of light entertainment, one ex-wrestler, now comedian, claims ” wrestling wasn’t a sham…it was a fix!” I didn’t care, it was just fun and it wasn’t costing me anything but time. There was no personal investment in the outcome.
As I grew older I continued to watch occasionally , out of habit, with the rest of my family until around 1982, but had lost interest completely by the time I reached my early twenties.
The rest of the UK was no longer watching, and tv audiences had halved by 1988 when the programme had been axed completely.
The growth of American RAW & WWF may have had an influence on
UK tv viewing figures too, but mainly folk had given up on watching an obvious sham that had become tired and dull.
The fitba? Now that was altogether different…there was a significant cost, both emotionally and financially.
The age old complaints about masonic refereeing and establishment clubs gaining advantages were there, almost legend! Much discussed and debated in my family and circle of friends.
As I was playing football at school and youth/juvenile level and had seen my fair share of crap refereeing, my attitude was resolved that there were always going to be weak ‘homer’ refs and linesman (we even had coaches running the line in some games)…but, generally the guys were trying their best. Some of them were excellent and some were just awful. Just like the players.
As there was no actual proof of any wrongdoing in the senior game, and we were all enthusiastically enjoying those leagues, cups, trophies and general success, I actually believed in the integrity of the senior game. Any odd or unusual decisions were put down to win some/lose some. That and blatant hunnery by individuals acting alone!
When I gave up any dream of making my living playing at a serious level after one failed senior trial, my focus moved to following my beloved Celtic and to find a proper job…of sorts.
Phrases like ‘Honest mistakes’, ‘Gratuitous Alienation’ and ‘Trading whilst insolvent’ were half a lifetime away.
However, Attitudes were changing during the Nineties!
Realisation was slowly dawning. Doubts about affordability were already there. Then by 2000 (Y2C) we were confronted with £12 million Tore Andre Flo!
How?
On one hand we had the obvious sham of professional wrestling in the UK “you grunt, I’ll groan” ( see Pallo’s autobiography) and the assumed genuine integrity of professional football.
Albeit with a few half-formed, puzzled questions forming!
Both sports were Incomparable…or were they?
As we now know the definitive outcome of the Big Tax Case, I am fully expecting my club to demand justice for a generation of wrongdoing by the SFA and by Rangers FC. I’m not having the argument that all the other clubs must share the burden and responsibility should not fall not solely upon Celtic.
Naw!
Hold that thought!
I’m slowly reaching the conclusion and beginning to suspect the custodians at Celtic Park have always been willing to play the role of ‘Mick’ McManus or Giant Haystacks or Kendo Nagasaki. The role of Heel to the Blue Eyes of Rangers??
Think about it!! The potential rewards are obvious…if you are motivated by personal greed, and what billionaire or millionaire isn’t, at some level, prepared to grasp the main chance?
Happily sucking up shoite whilst patiently waiting for their inevitable turn on the trough?
There are exceptions, but how many of them have sat on the Celtic board in your lifetime? …I can think of only one who put up his own million to save the club in 1994, and is an honourable exception that proves the general rule. I am prepared to be convinced otherwise!
Of course, the actual fans will not be thinking like that. Most will just be happy humping the huns, regardless…
Yet there is an alternative question to consider.
Are Celtic slowly morphing into the White Hats/Top Dogs in the absence of the Blue Eyes/Shirts. Is Celtic’s traditional role reversing?
How does that sit with everyone…hmmmmm?
I’m clear about what must happen next:
I want the club I support to act, alone, if necessary!
I want Ogilvie and company to pay the price, including forfeited pensions.
I want the SFA and League organisation from top to bottom to be restructured, with capability, visibility and accountability, at all levels.
I want the refereeing structure revamped and existing office holders removed with a classic cleansing of the stables. Adopt the model that works best in Europe and make it happen. In a few years with some assigned refs from Europe our game will reap benefits in quality of play, with the clugging style we see now consigned to the rubbish tip where it belongs! Remove ANY lingering Doubt by declaring club supported!
I want criminal charges, prosecutions and convictions for trading whilst insolvent and probably other fraudulent activity that may or may not emerge, for David Murray and his cohorts/company.
I want to see ‘Nimmo Smith’ revisited and titles stripped. Not necessarily awarded to Celtic or other clubs. My feeling that we cannot move forward and look one another in the eye until it happens is practically stifling me emotionally… (dear father it has been x weeks since my last confession. ..)
I want EBT taxes repaid to the treasury and the revenue to benefit the disadvantaged in society.
Knowing what we know now, there can be no excuses for failure to act decisively by Celtic, and if they choose to hire a group of consultants to take the personal focus away from vulnerable individuals, then fine.
I’m not expecting all of above to be achieved. However, the questions and challenges must be put forward without rancour or emotion. Discourse visible, openly and with no back room deals.
The wording must be clear and with the Celtic crest shouting loudly on the page!
If this does not happen, all the considerable efforts of the ‘internet bampots’ will be as relevant and effective as those mental but adorable wee grannies who jumped onto the wrestling rings and battered the wrestlers with their handbags back in the day!
My haunting fear is that we are condemned to a future watching a WWF version of fitba.
Then, slowly and painfully, reality will dawn on more and more fans, season by season and it will die…and be lost and gone forever.
For me, I’m already inclined towards other pastimes than going to, or even to watch the games on tv.
Like the ‘all in’ wrestling back in the day, I might be ‘all out’ with fitba, very soon..
The game I love is rapidly losing it’s lustre.
I want it back!
SALTIRES EN SEVILLA
Quality post mate..
IMATIM WANTS JUSTICE AND THE TITLES TO BE STRIPPED FROM THE CHEATS on 5TH JULY 2017 10:18 AM
We now have to do whatever it takes to see justice done.
I truly hope you are listening Celtic because this is not going away.
As a shareholder I will be demanding my Club takes all steps necessary to have the cheating Huns stripped of all the titles they won through cheating, subterfuge and financial doping.
May God Bless all those who have in the past, and will continue to fight for what is right
Stand up my fellow Celts. Stand up for all those who have gone before us and for all those who will come after and see justice done
Hail Hail
I hope Peter Lawwell opens his mouth now.
Its about time.
We cannot ignore this.
This hun stranglehold on the SFA needs to be exposed.
I will be looking for action to be taken, and there is no reason whatsoever not to call it out for what it is.
There will be no excuses.
Enough.
HH
Paul67,
‘They should all be censored’, at the end of the article. I agree with that, but also wonder if you meant ‘censured’ – with which I also agree.
THOMTHETHIM FOR OSCAR OK on 5TH JULY 2017 10:05 AM
No matter how much they try to dilute the consequences, it is official and established by law.
They cheated -They died.
They lie tainted in their grave for Eternity .
Like Macjay, I never thought that I would live to see the day.
It must be the Jeremy Corbyn effect!
: > )
====================================================
Can`t help thinking of those before us who introduced us to the Celtic family .
In a joyful , not a morbid way.
Jeremy ? Aye , Ok. :-)
For today.
Gene, got it, thanks!
let’s be seeing and hearing from……
The Busted Flush…….
Grimmond McCrummoch………..
Nodding Donkey…………………………………….
Feldman? An irrelevance.
Sircumcision is a must.
The past 24 hours have been fun fun fun and to top it off, I’m heading of to visit the Estadio National.
Just a few weeks late but I may have the place to myself.
#srtipthetitles.
SALTIRES EN SEVILLA
Well said my friend in Celtic
It was all Craig Whyte’s fault….
Paul67
I blame kafflick schools
I hope it wont come down to a Citizen,s Arrest
But im quite willing to arrest any of these cheats.
Im not kidding either.
HH
The men who oversaw this scheme are all working directors of Sevco, the men responsible for allowing that to happen have to be removed from our game as do the directors of Sevco now rubber-stamped as cheats and thieves by the highest court in the land.
Justice For Scottish Football
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” -attr. Martin Luther King
Park with the grandson beckons – may have a go on the swings
Strip the titles.
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan on 5th July 2017 10:33 am
thetimreaper on 5th July 2017 10:17 am
At to think the first tier tribunal ruled in their favour. Corrupt cheating Huns.
————————————————————————————————————————————————— I
I don’t think you have that right, honestly.
The First-tier decision was decided on a very narrow point of law as was the second tier decision. That was the argument that HMRC had invited the court NOT to treat the trusts and loans involved as shams. they said that they should be considered as “Real”.
This was because HMRC did not want to have to prove a fraud or a sham because that involves a higher standard of proof and an extra step.
If the loans were to be treated as genuine, then the first tier ruled that no one pays tax on a loan – which is true.
However, they allowed Heidi Poon to absolutely let rip on the quality of the evidence and the veracity of the witnesses and for 60 pages she tore into them.
The two judges who found in favour of MIH in terms of the law did not write a single word which disagreed with her view of the credibility and reliability of those witnesses and that is REALLY unusual.
At the third step, HMRC subtly changed their argument. Instead of saying that they wanted to the court to treat the trusts and loans as real they now argued that it was not NECESSARY as a general principle to prove that the trusts and loans were real — they might be, they might not be — the most important thing was to look at the contract and what had actually happened here in this case.
That allowed the Court to look beyond the real loans argument and guess what? They found a detailed explanation of the evidence provided by Heidi Poone with the other judges tacitly assenting to her findings.
Game set and Match.
Not only that, when it came to the Supreme Court, at the end of the hearing part of the grounds of appeal were ditched at the last minute.
Why? Becuase this was BDO (on the instructions of HMRC as the biggest creditor) appealing against a decision in favour of HMRC – and HMRC wanted the detail of the judgement to read exactly the way they wanted it and I will bet it makes a point of law which is causing lots of people not connected with MIH or Rangers to reach for the chequebook this morning or book a hasty flight to God knows where.
I said at the time of the first tier tribunal that the judgement was an odd one and that when you realise what they had done — Judges are sometimes clever bar stewards!!
He who laughs last laughs longest.
What an amazing last few hours! Back to back humiliation for the Huns. I never knew early retirement was going to be this much fun.I should have chucked it years ago
The only downside is my birthday isn’t until Friday. It’s going to be a complete anti-climax this year!
The first 2 tribunals laid out the letter the SC dotted the i’s and crossed the t”s por cierto
Breaking news.
SFS and SDM issue joint statement to the effect that it was just a few years of honest mistakes.
Mark Hately to make statement on ‘TAINTED TITLES AND TROPHIES’.
Vindication.
Five years of stating the bleeding obvious to the peepul about their club’s cheating and death.
About the new club’s ridiculous claim’s of 146 year history.
It is now official that oldco rangers have perpetrated the greatest, world record, sporting scandal ever known in UK sporting history.
Time to act Celtic.
Clear out at SFA, SFPL and at the Bigotdome boardroom.
Time for title stripping.
Time for Police Scotland to do their duty.
Time for criminal charges to be brought.
Time for EBT recipients to pay their dues.
The cesspit that is the newco, the assets etc should be realised, sold off to pay the creditors. The discredited institution removed from decent society, named and shamed for what it was and still aspires to be.
The biggest sporting scandal, cheating and fraud ever to have been perpetrated in UK sporting history.
Those responsible must now be held accountable.
Eurochamps67
Now…If we sit back and allow Regan, Doncaster, Ogilvie, and the rest to escape justice.
We deserve to be cheated.
HH
MSM EBT bingo:
Oldco
Previous owners
Murray Group
Juninho
Club unaffected
No sporting advantage
i see Triggers brooms dedicated sports network, Sly sports, are running a story regarding the legality of Progres first goalscorer taking a banned substance, for Asthma, in May. My god they are a desperate despicable corporation
.Plenty more suffering where that came from
BLANTYRETIM IS PRAYING FOR THE KNOX FAMILY on 5TH JULY 2017 10:37 AM
He who laughs last laughs longest.
Hopefully in stripped title and trophies the longest laugh is yet to come.
I am old enough to remember the sneers and jeers of the Seven Lean Years.
Have THEY suffered enough. As Big Iain would have said. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.
The Celtic board must act now to support the foot soldiers who have done all the ground work.
C’mon Celtic
SES
Xlent post. Here’s hoping, no holding breath though. Vindication feels good, but won’t bring back my season book. Hope all have as good a day as I’m going to.
Feck me.
The detailed decision was written by Paddy Hodge.
Back with the good bits later!!
TULLY57
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPY Birthday