We’ve not really discussed the enormous political and disciplinary matters hanging over Scottish football since before our Champions League campaign got underway but it moves to the fore today, as the SPL Commission, headed by Lord Nimmo Smith, sits to consider charges levelled by the league against former member, Rangers FC. The Commission is expected to conclude by the end of this week.
Rangers are charged with improperly registering players by allowing footballers to enter into contractually binding agreements to receive money in connection with the game, directly or indirectly, without registering these agreements with the SPL or the SFA.
Playing an improperly registering footballer voids the result of a match, no matter how innocuous the registration impropriety is, as Spartans discovered 14 months ago to their cost. They saw their Scottish Cup win over Culter overturned because a player’s registration form was dated only once, not twice as required.
As well as being awarded a 0-3 defeat, the improper registration of players will cost the offending club any prize money ‘won’ and will result in a disciplinary measure being imposed. Spartans were fined £4000, approximately 20% of their annual income, and were suspended from the competition for 12 months. A steep tariff for leaving a box on a form empty and fielding a player in one game of football.
Lots of speculation has centred on the so-called ‘stripping of titles’ but in the event the Commission upholds the charge the voiding of results will happen as a matter of consequence; it should not subject to speculation. What is more interesting is the size of prize money the league would seek to reclaim, and redistribute, and any penalty imposed by the Commission.
SPL teams receive prize money based on their final league position, funded by the league’s TV deal, which for teams finishing in the top two positions is well in excess of £1m each year. Any ‘stripping of titles’ is likely to be a headline grabber, but the repayment of prize money and disciplinary measures will be far more significant, for some.
Sir David Murray, who owned Rangers throughout the period of alleged improper registration of players, insists the club registered all contractually binding payments players received in connection with playing football. SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, was an executive director of Rangers for some of the period under investigation and may have been responsible for some registrations.
Charles Green rejected an offer to limit the consequences of the charge being upheld in return for his company (then called Sevco 5088 Ltd) acquiring the SFA membership vacated by Rangers. We will soon discover if he is master of the Cunning Plan or an over-ambitious gambler.
I expect calls for SPL and SFA rules to be upheld without fear or favour to be met.
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BMCUW @ 11 07 .
I have very vague memories of seeing them in Sgt Peppers @ Glasgow Botanic Gardens . Zoomed on pills purchased in The Silver Slipper Cafe..Such was life.
Finally got round to watching -Looking for Sugarman ——- Excellent documentary . I am really ambivalent about him -I like him but the music fails to float my boat
Stewart Fisher in the Herald.
Then there was penalty-gate. Ironically, considering it was a late Kris Commons penalty which took Celtic into the last 16 of the Champions League, the club have struggled from the penalty spot in Lennon’s time, with Charlie Mulgrew’s tame effort late in the second half which was beaten out by Craig Samson merely the latest symptom.
“late in the second half”
Is my memory playing tricks or his?
Even on bbc1 Scotland all you get is the anglo Muck of The Day…..they cannae even stump up for crappy old Sportscene.
(I think I’ve been scraping my mind with sandaper the day.)
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
12:36 on
29 January, 2013
Rangers Supporters Trust statement on re-construction
The Rangers Supporters Trust are disappointed but unsurprised that the SPL clubs have decided to show total disregard to football supporters, and vote through a reconstruction proposal which has serious question marks over it’s (sic) viability.
At the moment there is no sponsor and there are serious concerns over the future of the current broadcasting deal. Back in October Neil Doncaster reported that the SPL was adapting remarkably well without Rangers. Given this prosperity, one would question the need to rush the proposal through for the beginning of next season, especially when there are so many unanswered questions.
We can only hope that our fellow SFL clubs are able to display the integrity, transparency and common sense so sadly lacking from their SPL counterparts, and treat this proposal with the same level of contempt as the SPL have shown football supporters.
In the summer the directors of many SPL clubs stated how important it was to listen to fans – yet there would appear to be an almost universal rejection amongst fans of all clubs against 12-12-18.
We also note statements in recent times from the Dundee United Chairman and the Celtic CEO concerning the unsuitability changing of the rules of a competition during a season.
FOR INFO –
“You can’t ignore fans. Any business which ignores its customers is doomed to fail”. Stephen Thompson, Dundee United. 9th June 2012.
“However the league must not be compromised by changing the rules during the course of the competition and these decisions should not be made on an ad-hoc basis.”
Peter Lawwell, Celtic, 22 April 2008
If it was during the season, I would agree.However, the rules are not being changed for the CURRENT season. They are being changed for the COMING season, i.e. the one that follows this one. Bunch a morons! And they wonder why their old club is being liquidated.
Tallybhoy
11:25 on 30 January, 2013
I was lucky enough to have seen a fair bit of Bobby. The word ‘legend’ is not in any way an exaggeration. He never made any significant money out of football & I remember he worked as an insurance agent in later life, when sadly he had a lot of health problems.
It makes me sad when I see how overpaid & pampered much lesser players are today.
I suppose that is some sort of progress,
Good luck.
Philbhoy – It’s just the beginning!
11:39 on 30 January, 2013
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
Remember, big Fraser hurt his neck with a ,err, pillow.
I think he might be off as well.
Cricked neck? 24 hours,not 3 weeks.
Profoundly hope I am wrong.
This would be a measure of Celtic`s intentions.
bmcuw:
“You’ve gotta watch yer blood-pressure,etc”
>>>>>>
How did you actually know that?…..because it happens to be absolutely true right now….on doctor’s orders.
Anway….I’m one of those who if you tell me the radiator’s hot, I just have to touch it.
HH!
SOUTH OF TUNIS 1146
At the risk of sounding patronising,I envy you your musical mystery tour over the years!
I hadn’t heard that for a while-had a search through my collection and it ain’t there now!
Bummer…..
Rodriguez? As you know,I am extremely fond of his first album-your former girl had good taste!-and less so of his second,but the story of his rediscovery is amazing.
And very well told in the film. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I certainly enjoy the challenge of even finding on YOUTUBE some of the tracks you mention! And they tend to be worth it,too……..
Parkheadcumsalford, Kilbowie Kelt – I could be wrong, and maybe there will be far more like yourselves but I would say, and I don’t mean this as a criticism, why treat them differently to any other club at that the same level? It just highlights that we still connect them to the dead club.
If and when we play them I would hope that we get exactly the same crowd as we would get playing any other team at the same level ie had we drawn them in the SC I would expect similar numbers as we got against Arbroath. Similarly the club should allocate them no more tickets than necessary.
A few weeks ago Paul 67 wrote a blog leader about how MON was being found out in the EPL because he had an inability to switch tactics. I felt it unfair and suggested that Lambo might be the first ex celt to be the bullet. Have a look at the EPL league table today and find out who has been “found out”.
These ‘unfamiliar’ pillows that Paul mentioned recently appear to be a real health hazard!
We have heated trousers – what about heated neck braces?!
HH!!
Bobby Evans .
I’m old enough to have seen him lots of times . He was great !
My old man didn’t like the fact that he didn’t tuck his shirt into his shorts.. I thought it was Rock n Roll.
MIKI67 1153
I saw the prescription when I was checking to endure you didnae have any spare bedrooms!!!!!!!!
Only kidding-a lucky guess based on what you have said in the past.
Take care of yourself,buddy-we’re gonna need people like you the way things are going………
PHILBOY
If Fraser leaves before the window closes,I’ll give up the blog for a week.
Will you do the same if he stays?
weeminger
11:55 on 30 January, 2013
______________
Same club ? Different club ?
Don’t know. Don’t care.
They are playing at the same ground, with the same strip, the same manager, many of the same players & to the same odious support.
I hope we NEVER play them again.
Good luck.
Big Fraser
On the other hand,if he has a health or injury problem,then that is his business and that of the club,and none of ours.
Hopefully I`m wrong.
new article posted.
Any updates on which charity or charities that Charlie chuckles is donating the gate money from the dundee utd game?
He said seems to have went a tad quiet on it;-))
Tallybhoy
That would be a conservative £35,000,000.
I hope PL disney read the blog!
BTW,speaking of BOBBY EVANS,what about the pocket battleship that was BOBBY COLLINS?
O bviously,we could trawl through the history and name hunners of players,but the stories I read about the wee man put him in illustrious company.
In fact,watching our team in the fifties,with all the excellent players and inconsistency and downright poor results drove my Dad prematurely grey!
Or maybe I did that……..
Forty years ago it looked for all the world as if President Richard Nixon would not only be kicked out of office but would face a raft of criminal charges and end up in prison. The charge sheets had been drawn up, Grand Juries had indicted him, only to be informed that he could not be brought in front of a criminal court until he had left office.
Whilst he was still President, the Congress was busily preparing to impeach him. He appeared to have been caught bang to rights and had nowhere to turn. Stay in office and be impeached (having lost the support of the majority of House members) or leave office and be tried in a criminal court. Nearly fifty of his close allies were convicted of charges of perjury and fraud. Those who were sentenced to imprisonment even included an Attorney-General whilst Vice-President Spiro Agnew, facing charges of tax evasion, managed to cut a deal to avoid imprisonment by resigning from office and pleading No Contest to the charges.
Nixon’s position seemed hopeless when he fell on his own sword and resigned before he could be deposed by the House.
He was saved by the Campbell Ogilvie of the day, the man whom Nixon appointed to the vice-presidency after Agnew’s inglorious departure. Gerald Ford spent most of his career engaged in dull committee work, poring over details and minutiae while working in the background. A sort of Great Administrator, if you will.
He is still the only POTUS who was never chosen by the electorate for either the presidency or the vice-presidency. He was appointed by Nixon and the first decision he made was to grant his sponsor a “full, free and absolute” pardon, ensuring that Auld Nick would never, ever be held to account for any crimes he had committed as President. Nixon wasn’t even required to apologise for the incalculable damage he had done to the self-esteem, prestige and national pride of the citizenry. He was given a ‘Get out of jail free’ card and he played it.
Ominously from our point of view, Ford asserted that Nixon had “already suffered enough.”
And that was that. There was no appeal against Ford’s executive decision. No second opinion. The judiciary were taken right out of the game, the legislature was completely impotent and the people of America had to wait for over two more years before they could have the minor satisfaction of dumping him out of office and installing a peanut farmer in his place. Not that Ford cared. He knew he was only a stop-gap Prez whose sole purpose was to get his fellow crook off the hook. His work was completed within a month.
Regardless of what Lord Nimmo Smith comes up with this week, if the SFA end up hearing an appeal, I’ll wager a fortnight’s stay in the Watergate Hotel that the President will do everything in his power to slip his partners in crime another ‘Get out of jail free’ card. That’s why he was embedded there in the first place.
And after all, haven’t they been punished enough?
( More here … http://henryclarson.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/all-the-presidents-men/ )
Simply one of the all time great performances: ‘ Kashmir ‘:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-MdiUm1_Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player