“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…
953 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- »
Ernie- i thought that too, for years, but I think this is too big for CFC to hide behind now.You could have the embarassing scenario, of Shareholders taking the Club to court, if they don’t pursue this properly.
Told you a couple of years ago that it should be renamed ‘light-grey’ Sunday!
Fir Park Five-In-a -row Day will do now.
Not forgetting the Three in ’03 at Rugby Park.
Just to get started, of course.
Kevjungle@6.48
100%. No football match is worth the life of one of our supporters.
My concern, given the numbers in the away support who follow our club, was people wandering into areas were a Celtic top would have been tantamount to a set of crosshairs.
This would be true at any time of the year the bigotfest does nothing more than oil their wheels.
Possible solution might have been distribution of tickets through AICSC. It will break my heart for Celtic to be playing at the bigotdome beag with no hoops in the crowd but I genuinely think that the risk to our travelling support was too great.
Hope you’re well.
HH
JustpumpthemCelticCsc
If anyone has twitter maybe he can suggest to Alex Thomson of Channel 4 to follow up his scathing comments regarding Rangers cheating with a documentary on Channel
Bankiebhoy
They have more faith in Peter Lawell than me. But that’s nout new. :-)))
MWD
Celtic will DO nothing. Other clubs will do nothing. We should have stopped them getting in league. We should have stopped any claim of being same club. We will assume role of gallant underdogs against the masaonic cabal.
ps Lukaku 74M to man Utd.. Dembele to Everton?? Minimum 35M?
Anything further on industrial action in Luxembourg following the sacking by ASDA of an employee who was wanting yet another night off to play football.
“Rubicon ferries are pleased to announce additional services will be sailing during season 2017-18 for those for whom the silence has become too deafening”.
What the SFA could have said….
We note the Supreme Court decision. It is the highest court in the land and as such, we accept its conclusions.
Rangers are guilty of ongoing, systematic financial cheating over many years.
To those fans who bought tickets during that period, the SFA understands your anger.
To those fans who are critical of the SFA as the regulator, who didn’t detect or prevent such abuses, we understand your concerns and accept our responsibility.
To those who seek an explanation as to why the SFA have declined to take the expected step in stripping those titles ‘won’ during the period of cheating, we say this:
Unknown to supporters and member clubs, we, the SFA, had secretly entered into an agreement with Rangers, Sevco, and the SPL. This agreement, while intended to allow Rangers to not ‘die’ following Liquidation, and to also facilitate Rangers’ continuation in the top flight of Scottish football (which you, the fans, prevented), also has the effect of tying our hands when it comes to ‘disciplining’ Rangers (old and new).
This ‘Five Way Agreement’ was a secret agreement intended to further advantage Rangers (old and new), and its existence now prevents the SFA from fulfilling the most basic aspects of its role as Regulator of our game.
We hope that fans will understand and simply ‘move on’.
Just a thought……
The new Rangers renaged on the 5 way aggreement; why can’t the SFA do likewise?
pps we needed to sign a CH before Boyata injury. We really need one now for qualifiers.. and a centre forward ,,,that’s before anyone leaves
MWD
By any standards he’s done a good job so far. It’s a long game.
Keep The Faith.
HH.
The SFA and SPFL don’t have a legal leg to stand on and if they’re not going to act on this then the whole stinking edifice has to be torn down.
This cannot stand..
beatbhoy on 6th July 2017 10:37 am
“Rubicon ferries are pleased to announce additional services will be sailing during season 2017-18 for those for whom the silence has become too deafening”.
——————————————————————————-
Can I buy a flexible ticket?
Alex Thomson
9 NOV 2015
Rangers cheated at football: the fraudulent silverware must go
Cheats get punished in sport. You commit a foul: free kick. Bad foul: yellow card. Dangerous foul: it’s a red.
You foul to gain unfair sporting advantages. It is cheating. It is punished.
Let’s widen it a bit. If you cheat off the field of competition you get punished. Lance Armstrong…Ben Johnson…you can add into the familiar rogues’ gallery. Again, the cheating is done to gain an unfair sorting advantage. Again, it is punished.
Let’s widen again a little to group cheating by a team. If you field an ineligible player to gain sporting advantage, you are punished.
So it is that the game is now up for Rangers FC and only a successful Supreme Court appeal can now save them from what must now ensue.
After the biggest organised cheating scandal in the history of Scottish football – probably British football and possibly in British sport for all I know, the former Rangers owners now face at last paying the British state the tax and NI they dodged for all those years.
But that is only one side of the cheating. Because as we know, as Rangers people testified , the club cheated because they want to get an advantage on the football field.
Eh? How do we all know this to be factually true? Why, because of “Mr Black” of course.
The Rangers Tax Tribunal was held in secret because many of those under HMRC scrutiny wanted it that way. So witnesses in the Rangers case testified under codenames of colours: Mr Red, Mr Yellow and so forth – all a bit Reservoir Dogs meets Extreme Cluedo for Suits.
Step forward “Mr Black”.
Here is how the Tax Tribunal describes him: “While Mr Black had been involved in ‘signing and selling’ 350-400 players in 20 years of involvement at Rangers, he had not, and could not, because of all his commitments, devote any real time to detailed contractual negotiations. At the start of each football season he would meet with his manager to decide on which players might be possible recruits.”
Who on earth could that possibly be, we wonder? What role for instance did Sir David Murray himself play? We need to know. We have, of course, approached Sir David, but we’ve yet to hear back from him.
Why did this powerful but busy character introduce a scheme of wholesale – and now proven to be unlawful – avoidance of NI and income tax?
Why – so the club could gain advantage on the pitch, of course: sporting advantage. By attracting and keeping players they otherwise could not afford. How do we know?
Because the powerful but talkative “Mr Black” was good enough to spill the beans to the Tax Tribunal: “Mr Black did not consider the Trust as a means of tax avoidance, but rather as a means of retaining and rewarding loyal employees. So far as Rangers was concerned it enabled the Club to attract players who would not otherwise have been obtainable.”
Sporting advantage.
“Mr Black” didn’t see it as a tax wheeze at all, he said, but a football wheeze. Sadly for him if you’re now found to have been cheating the taxman you’re also cheating football – so now his unfortunate admission is a smoking gun
There is more: “As for Mr Black, he denied that the scheme was for tax avoidance in cross-examination, though he went on to describe the scheme as ‘a method of us acquiring, especially football wise, better players in a more cost effective manner than we would be able to do so’; that the club had been ‘very ambitious at that time’; and ‘it was seen as a correct and proper way for us to proceed’; that Rangers ‘have been very successful, because we’ve been able to attract players of a certain standard that, perhaps, we may not have been able to otherwise’.”
One more time: “especially football wise better players in a more cost effective manner”. Sporting. Advantage.
Of course when he said this “Mr Black” thought it was all legal. Sadly for him three Law Lords have now unanimously disagreed in uncharacteristically pungent language.
Rangers – obstructive, unhelpful and evasive, according to the Tax Tribunals – are now found to be tax cheats on an industrial scale by the Law Lords.
Which is why “Mr Black’s” candid admission – Rangers did it to again sporting advantage – now matters so much. His evidence could not be clearer.
When Lord Nimmo Smith’s commission found no such sporting advantage they did so:
1) on the basis that the tax avoidance was legal
2) on the basis of the information they had, though this turned out so much had been withheld from them
The Appeal Court judges have now changed all of that. “Mr Black” now needs to come out and be held to account for cheating at football and income tax. He is far from alone.
It is time Campbell Ogilvie explained his conduct – the man who played a part in the tax avoidance and personally benefited before going on to be SFA President.
It is time Sir David Murray – the conductor of this disastrous orchestration, by overseeing EBTs at Rangers – is similarly held to account for what he did and now, why Rangers did it for advantage on the field: cheating.
Above all, it is time the SPFL members came out from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and beyond to denounce cheating as cheating and take action as fans from Kelso to Thurso are begging them to do.
All the titles and silverware from all the years Rangers cheated at football, as they cheated at tax, must be null and void and wiped from the record.
Let nobody try and tell me it isn’t the same club – I have always said it is and now Rangers have to take the consequence of that reality right on the chin.
Turnbull Hutton RIP – how your godforsaken Scottish game needs you now.
I am one SAD individual
All tkts I buy I put in my desk at work.
Since turn of century i have been to very few away games but
Have had season tkts same name same seats since North stand
built.
In my drawer I have a lot of tkts.
Receipts if you like.
I would like a refund on the following
Celtic v Rangers 7th March 2004 (presume league) £29
Celtic v Rangers 9th Jan 2005 SC cup 3rd round £30
Rangers v Celtic 20th Aug 2005 League £31
Celtic v Rangers 9th Nov 2005 CIS R4 £25
Celtic v Rangers 31 AUG 2008 League £0 ? one of Boys tkts
Celtic v Rangers 2 MAr 2011 Sc Cup £38
Celtic v Rangers 2 MAr 2011 Sc Cup £28 kids
Celtic v Rangers 20 MAr 2011 CIS Final £10 My kids
Celtic v Rangers 20 MAr 2011 CIS Final £10 My kids
Any idea who I ask refund off SFA or CELTIC
PS Celtic should have receipts for all home games on season tkts
Now that it has been demonstrated that other clubs were not in a position to use EBTs as Rangers (1872-2012) did, LNS’ conclusion that they afforded no sporting advantage must be reversed, and appropriate action taken to correct the records.
This wasn’t match-fixing, it was season-fixing for over a decade.
BTW – Does anyone have a copy of “Sashes To Ashes” from etims…..4th March 2014?
http://etims.net/?p=4672
Thanks matey – the pics are missing tho’…….
The board backed Martin O’Neill with serious money to close the gap on Rangers Mk I, now would be a good time to do likewise with Brendan Rodgers and widen the gap with The Rangers Mk II, and insure our dominance for years to come.
http://www.thecsa.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1947&p=6137
Davidopoulos.
One way only, I’m afraid. However, seats are limited, and, if there was a sudden overwhelming demand, the need to cross might disappear.
As it did in 2012.
celticforever
I would have thought that Joe would already have contact details of other Supporter associations and could / would be actively in touch. This is not just a Celtic issue.
earnie
It was predicted HMRC would be happy to lose the tribunals to get this to court. The case – i’m informed by others more knowledgeable – focused on the wrong arguments in the tribunals and judges form opinions based on the arguments presented. A change of tact at court won the day. Was this the strategy all along as predicted BEFORE the first tribunal. Clever judges don’t need to collude to know exactly what is happening. Have you never watched Better Call Saul? :-)
Bankiebhoy
Something similar
http://itsanewclub.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/not-new-club-then-by-retroscot-140.html?m=1
HH
beatbhoy
Alright, but can I at least use some Avios?
The kinks…..1996…..Sunny Afternoon…….the tax mans taken all my dough……..wonder if it will be re-released……brilliant song……play it round the grounds
An Tearman,
Thank-you for that. Much appreciated.
HH
Gene on 6th July 2017 11:02 am
celticforever
I would have thought that Joe would already have contact details of other Supporter associations and could / would be actively in touch. This is not just a Celtic issue.
I agree the best and perhaps only chance of any justice is if all team supporters somehow joined together
what about a nationwide petition signed by every clubs fans
Wait till we go after the huns tainted 9IAR…..
Celtic have taken a good position on this. For starters.
The empty Blazers are now full focus. The execrable scoddish government need to be involved on behalf of their constituents who have been cheated and with regards to the mis-use of their financial patronage.
All that Blood Of Our Blood sherbet…… etc etc.
Huns……..
…..Nein-In-A-Row?
Davidopoulos
Sorry, our records show you’re improperly registered, consequently you don’t have enough points. Had you been merely imperfectly registered. . . . . .
beatbhoy
Have I not been punished enough?
Jackass telling us today that Pedro could be facing the sack with one more bad result.Oh really?.A guy with a 4 year contract.A guy who has his own backroom staff,with 4 year contracts.How does this buffoon imagine Squinty will be able to afford the pay off?.We are already waiting on the tribunal for the last management team.Something that Jackass seems to have totally forgotten.Just how does this cretin keep his job?.
Would it be a total shock if Dorrans fails his medical today?.Can Squinty afford him to pass it?.
Not another penny of income will be coming into The Bigotdome for at least a month,after that,probably enough to pay the Electric.