Walter Smith was not named by BBC’s Mark Daly as a recipient of an Employee Benefit Trust in the recent documentary, however, before this matter is put to bed I expect more names to emerge. As soon as Smith makes himself available to a proper journalist he will be asked:
Did he receive EBT loan payments from Rangers?
If so:
Did he repay those loans or hold his cash while the club ran out of money and died?
Was he in receipt of a letter from Rangers confirming he was not required to repay?
Did his then employers, the Scottish FA, know he was perhaps receiving money from a member club while employed by them?
Are SFA employees contractually inhibited from taking payments from a member club or required to inform the SFA board of any payments received by a member club?
Did his earlier employers, Everton FC, know if he was receiving money from another club while employed by them?
Was Smith contractually inhibited from taking payments from another club or required to inform Everton of any payments received from another club?
As manager of Rangers, was he involved in negotiations with players who had EBTs or was he another one who concentrated on administrative and legislative duties?
Was he one of the men SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, suggested failed to reveal side contracts to the Rangers board?
Rangers’ liquidators, BDO, will forensically pour over most of these questions, so Smith’s answers will be verifiable.
No one who played an active part in Rangers EBT scandal will come out of this clean. The ramifications multiply if Rangers were discretely paying any senior employee of another club.
I simply cannot imagine the justification for a member club discretely paying a senior employee of the SFA. Frankly, it would be beyond every Celtic fan’s most paranoid fantasies. I am sure Mr Smith will quickly and easily be able to reassure everyone.
An interesting twist in Smith’s bid for the assets of Rangers is that if he is to inherit Green’s application for a SFA licence and take a controlling interest in the club, Green is obliged to do due diligence on Smith to determine if he is a Fit and Proper person. Perhaps Mr Green can use the above as his due diligence questionnaire.
One final thought. In the unlikely event that it is established that one senior SFA employee was receiving discrete payments from Rangers, we need an immediate and independent inquiry to establish how many others received such payments and what they were for.
As a matter of some urgency I would recommend Stewart Regan brings himself up to speed on this one. I am sure his president is banging the table as you read this insisting the chief executive gets to the bottom of this. It’s not as though he is heavily conflicted and the SFA is in dire need of an independent president to steady the ship.
My friends in Celtic, this just got interesting.
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Wonder if there was anything in Paul67’s specific comment about Steven Naismith being a free agent?!
On another note, I always remember listening to SSB in years gone by and Shuggie telling us no non Old Firm clubs will win the SPL title in our lifetime.
Well Shuggie, my money is on that happening next year, and that team being..CELTIC
HH
tommytwiststommyturns on 16 June, 2012 at 12:50 said:
Wales very unlucky there in Melbourne. As were the Irish, going down to a drop goal at the end of their game against the All Blacks.
That Ireland game was a kick in the nuts at the end. It’s suprisingly a lot easier to take the Spain hammering on Thursday than a last gasp effort like this morning. Especially against the All Blacks who I do not like at all.
TomMcLaughlin 12:44
There was no national ballot but there were regional ballots, Nottingham voted to stay in and did, Wales also voted to stay in but when the union called the strike they went out.
Nottingham had a grievance against Yorkshire over a lack of support some years previously, therefore when Yorkshire went out and demanded that Nottingham followed suit it became an issue of ‘Why, you did nothing for us?’ and so on and so on.
The fact that some of the coal brought in to the country to make up the shortfall came from communist Poland was grimly ironic.
Auld Neil Lennon heid on 16 June, 2012 at 12:51 said:
Proper writing…
Joined up and everything..
Invercelt
Au contraire, Thatcher changed the hegemony in this country and her Milton Friedman,Reagonomics economic model has persisted right up to and including today. More than 90% imo of politicians of all the main parties have continued with this system which has led us to the brink. I suppose we’ll have to wait until it completely disintegrates before anyone suggests another way, or are we all, politicians included, slaves to the multi national corporations.
That’s what i think.
HH
For the day that’s in it (Bloom’s Day) I spotted this wee gem in Joyce’s masterpiece
LENEHAN’S LIMERICK
There’s a ponderous pundit MacHugh
Who wears goggles of ebony hue.
As he mostly sees double
To wear them why trouble?
I can’t see the Joe Miller. Can you?
I’m sure some of our great wordsmiths on here could do something with this.
Ally McCoist demands to know why its not a secret ballot, ‘For their own safety’ he explains. Or he will do,after he has been found.
Where is Ally? Any reward offered yet?
Shocked by the breaking news that ex celt, Paul Elliott received an EBT.
sorry……CVA
sorry……it’s a CBE. Paul Elliott received a CBE
Does anyone know what the criteria for a new club entering the SPL are?
Other than having an all seated stadium with undersoil heating ( which FC Sevco might not even have anyway if Craigy Bhoy fights them for the ‘Brox), I’m not sure if anyone has ever explained what the other basic qualifying conditions are.
Does an applicant club, for example, have to have :
1. a minimum squad size
2. A registered set of team colours
3. Key personnel in place, eg club doctor, finance people, lollipop ladies
4. A certificate that none of the staff have ever had rabies etc etc etc
You get the drift. And that’s BEFORE anyone has to sit a fit and proper person test.
Might FC Sevco, born 14th June 2012, be a little ill prepared?
I think we ought to be told.
Por Cierto on 16 June, 2012 at 12:03 said:
Prayers-0
Tell you one thing, they weren’t “AYE READY” for all this …….!!!!!
Phil MacGiollaBhain@Pmacgiollabhain
The only other details coming my way on this is Davis to Southampton. New source-let’s see :0)
will he take his EBT with him??
macanbheatha on 16 June, 2012 at 12:48 said:
I was told by a fellow CQNer with a contact that agents told players to hold off and see how the CVA vote went.
Keeping the playing squad intact is a key element of the strategy of whoever tries to get into the SPL. If you do not have recognised professional players at that level how can you possibly justify being allowed in. To do what get relegated and rewrite the rules for next season.
Nope the strategy is omerta on player trading. Players of course will have told agents to line up the best options but I can see emotional pleas being made, particularly by the Smith led consortium, for players to stay.
But on what wages, surely not the ones subsisdised by the unwilling taxpayer?
Nope it is but a matter of time before that particular truth dam breaks, I see Phil tweeting Davis is offski. The first cracks?
Blindlemonchitlin on 16 June, 2012 at 12:58 said:
Indeed. As suggested several times already: Not Ready Yet.
Kayal33 on 16 June, 2012 at 12:59 said:
will he take his EBT with him??
apparently being at another club is only a minor inconvenience…..
AndyM said:
The fact that some of the coal brought in to the country to make up the shortfall came from communist Poland was grimly ironic.
Ironic? In what way?
Absolutely raging
Dropped into the Greenock Mall a couple of weeks ago to get the wee one some shoes. Went to the machine to get a ticket (had to enter my reg) no ticket dispensed.
Just got a letter from sone company wanting £75 raising to £150 if not paid within 2 weeks!
Anyone else been stung like this at the Greenock Mall?
new article posted.
Monteblanco
Ally’s away on his holidays, we know not where.
A poster on FF said his dad met Alcopop on a train to Prestwick yesterday so the presumption was he was ‘jetting out’, as the laptop loyal say, to rejoin his family.
Destinations from Prestwick incude , Rome and airports near Fatima, Knock and Lourdes. Maybe he’s gone all holy.
Walter on the other hand has definitely been identified by Phil McG as having flown to Nice on Wednesday.
Nice is near where Sir David Murrray has one of his vineyards.
Hmmmm……….
Tom McLaughlin on 16 June, 2012 at 12:44 said
Tom
You`re just up the road apiece. :-)
Would absolutely love to share a wee tincture ( careful,Dennis ) with yourself one of these days.
Managed to spend a marvellous , but all too short, time with Kitalba and his lads about a year ago.
Mate.
We`re all on the same side. Our divisions are with the best of our intentions and are a product of our differing experiences.
Sydney hospitality awaits you.
bigngreen…..I am Neil Lennon on 16 June, 2012 at 11:26 said:
Had to pop out for a haircut.. Are you JD :-)
HH
TomMcLaughlin – you don’t find the idea of a communist govt like Poland helping to defeat a very left leaning union like the NUM ironic? I do.
I just had this thought, not sure if it is a goer
Could the SFA have been paying the myth’s salary as scotland manager in two parts? one contract taxable and one tax free through the dead one’s EBT vehicle
Them all being such old and dear friends and that..
Blindlemonchitlin on 16 June, 2012 at 12:58 said:
It is all specified in National Club Licensing for SFL clubs and below and UEFA FFP Licensing which the SFA use as a template for SPL clubs.
There are a number of criteria on grounds, development, finance etc.
It is all in here.
http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/football_document_libraries.cfm?page=2570
In terms of finance 3 years accounts are required and the CST questionned this and got a reply from Regan that still leaves doubts about who has final say and what that means.see
http://www.celtictrust.net/?func=d_home_article&id=375
Is Gillian Smart a supporter of that former team fae Govan? She is wearing an orange ensemble while reading the News on BBC Scotland.
Liquidation = the huns must have defaulted in their contract with Satan.
it’s the end of the huns as we know it and I feel fine