The Scottish Premier League has acted with clarity, issuing a statement today that they have instructed an inquiry into the alleged non-disclosure of payments to the league by Rangers since the inception of the SPL on 1 July 1998.
The SPL statement refers to rules to “impose a prohibition on players receiving payments for playing football or participating in an activity connected with football except where such payments are made in accordance with a form of contract approved by the SPL and require that all such contracts are submitted to the SPL within 14 days of being entered into.”
They helpfully link to The Rules of the SPL, which is sure to be one of the most read regulation documents in the world this week.
Compare and contrast this action with the goings-on at the Scottish Football Association.
SFA chief executive, Stewart Regan, told Scotland on Sunday the association president, Campbell Ogilvie, is “heavily conflicted” on the subject of the investigation into Rangers and as such would not be a party to conclusions, saying, “Campbell won’t play any part in any meeting, discussion or conclusion on any activities surrounding Rangers”.
It would, of course, be helpful for Mr Ogilvie to tell his SFA colleges exactly what went on when he was general secretary and director of Rangers. His evidence should be an integral part of the investigation, unless his memory is less effective than fellow ex-Rangers director, Hugh Adam.
Regan spent some of last week dismissing demands for a comment on allegations that Rangers have improperly registered football players for over a decade by suggesting matters concerning the club were under investigation, headed by Lord Nimmo Smith, which is due to report this week. However, it appears that Nimmo Smith’s secret terms of reference do not include the most important question surrounding the club. On the subject of improper registration, Regan said, “The board will meet to discuss it within a week or maybe slightly longer. Very, very quickly the board will get together to consider the facts.”
Scotland on Sunday’s Tom English induced a variety of reactive quotes from Regan. Asked if the SFA would hold an inquiry into Rangers contracts, he said, “That will depend on the board’s view of the facts and what information is there. The situation is changing daily and new information is emerging all the time. We’ve got our hands on certain pieces of information and we’re exploring it and we’re asking for further information. By the time the board meets we will have a fuller picture and if it’s the board’s opinion that they want a fuller investigation then that will be an option. If they feel they have enough facts to draw some conclusions then that will be their decision.”
So now we know that Lord Nimmo Smith’s report is likely to ignore the main issue surrounding Rangers. Without SFA clarification, we can only guess it will address the Fit and Proper suitability of Craig Whyte to own a football club, surely a complete waste of resources.
We also know that the association might still decide against investigating the evidence of Hugh Adam, The Sun newspaper, and various other journalists, that second contracts exist.
The SFA cannot be dragged along behind the story like this. Like the SPL, it should issue an early statement of intent to investigate the serious allegations made about Rangers during their president’s time on the club’s board.
Step up, Mr Regan.
Issue six of CQN Magazine, the Fit and Proper edition, is set to become a landmark collectors item. You can browse the magazine online here but you can buy your own hard copy by clicking on the link below. Read with 20-20 vision…..
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Shame on some of you
Whatever happened to Innocent until proved guilty..
I am sure these two contracts thing is just a wee mistake
Dont rule out anything in the best wee country in the world I could have sworn
I seen our manager attacked at tynecastle last year and even heard that the man pleaded guilty but low and behold he walked free.
doubtingthomasCSC
is it possible that some people might have informed rangers of todays announcement just that little bit earlier and as fergus slayed the blues says the lorry rolls up to remove shredded material very strange coincidence or backs being scratched?
I imagine some people would like to add yet another contract to one or two individuals right now. :-)
RogueLeader on 5 March, 2012 at 17:04 said:
‘Tim Malone Will Tell – Nope. Remember they each have the letter of comfort received from Rangers regarding Tax Liability or as I prefer to call it, the smoking gun’
The letter of comfort only protects them from the huns asking them to pay the PAYE. It doesn’t protect them from HMRC.
The players, their agents, their accountants, their lawyers, their financial advisers etc all knew or should have known that the contracts were well dodgy.
Someone will have to explain to me why this doesn’t amount to a conspiracy to defraud.
Tim Malone Will Tell, an employee on PAYE has a reasonable expectation that his employer is making suitable tax payments involved in his employ.
Awe Naw, plea bargain? Zsa Zsa will be glorious if called to give evidence. Picture the scene:
“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!
“You are happy to sit there in judgement but deep down you were willing me on. Deep down you want me back up there signing English internationals.
“Now, if we’re done, I have a job to do.”
It appears that Craig Whyte is a genius.
He was set up by Sir Minty Moonbeams as a £1 patsy who would oversee the last days of Rangers inevitable descent into oblivion while Minty would escape criticism or being called to account.
Minty, obsessed with preserving his reputation, insisted on inserting a clause in the sale of RFC that prevented Craig Whyte from criticising the Succulent Lamb provider`s mismanagement of RFC.
Craig Whyte then desisted from paying any bills, tax or VAT, and took RFC into administration and onto the radar of all sorts of government departments and agencies. In effect he opened every single cupboard at Greyskull and showed the world all the skeletons that Moonbeams had stashed away over 20 years of unsurpassed cheating.
Illegal contracts, clandestine payments, cheating scams dreamed up by Moonbeams and implemented by his stormtroopers such as Ogilvie and Dickson, ignored or not noticed by a succession of football administrators – Jim Farry, David Taylor, John McBeth, Lex Gold, Roger Mitchell and others stretching over two decades.
And would any of this have come to light but for Craig Whyte? :)
bobbycfc
There is a difference between good advice and good advice that you want to hear.
According to the porno star that arranged the EBTs for Murray was that he got good advice but did not apply the advice that was given to him.
And when asked to reconsider on many occasions over the years as he undoubtedly was he flatly refused.
Hun Megalomania they are the peeple you know ?
If I was you I would make sure that I had such insurance indemnity if I thought like you seem too.
And I bet you Murray never had this insurance .. why ? when you have Gossart in your back pocket ?
Did the SPL give any reason why they are only going back as far as 1998? Interesting to see what it was and how long they can hold that position before the real titles that matter are called into question. Also do Celtic get their 5 stars when they are redistributed (and become the most successful team in world football)?
From RM. There is no hope, none whatsoever, for the huns with idiots like this in their ranks.
“Rangers or someone on our behalf should issue a statement saying “we plan to hold talks with Sky,UEFA and the FA about our club entering the lower divions of England due to the obvious agenda in the current SPL set up”
watch them back off “
Paul67 – the Huns seem to have been into everything else…..I wonder if the ref’s were getting a slice of the pie?
Doesn’t sound so far fetched now does it?
RogueLeader on 5 March, 2012 at 16:07 said:
“Anyone remember when wee Nacho Ratface was convicted and fined at court?”
I could not find anything contemporaneous when I was looking recently but from memory I thought it was a court in Inverclyde area ….Greenock, Gourock are the names that come to mind
Goram was in Linlithgow 1995 and there are articles online to back it up.
..everything is moving too fast. I have an article I wrote this morning on RFC due to be published at 7.00 tonight and it’s almost out of date…
Surely a timposter on FF? He is asking why don’t the administrators call in the EBT “loans”?
Glorious question my good man! Glorious!
Paul67
I think more one flew over the cuckoos nest than a few good men
But I get where you are coming from
Hail hail
I wonder if Fraser Wishart’s role might be compromised when the EBT scandal kicks in…..
Bobbycfc had they followed the advice of accountants given to them then everything would be above board, fortunately we can always rely on the hun trait of not content of getting a small advantage their greed/sense of entitlement caused them to cheat to an even larger degree. GIRUT.
Paul67,
are you expecting any news from murray park soon,
or can i go and start the dinner?
OG Raff
SPL founded in 1998.
SFA must now look at the earlier era.
quonno on 5 March, 2012 at 16:52 said:
It is now obvious that the devalued/tainted title jibe is not going to go away…
Quonno.
I think all we need when this nonsense cones up is clarity.
There is only one thing in Scottish football which is ‘tainted’ as a result of the events being enacted and the discrepancies being uncovered at Rangers Fc (in administration). The reputation of that ‘institution’.
Just keep telling people that.
Hail Hail.
O.G.Rafferty on 5 March, 2012 at 17:12 said:
Tthats when SPL started, they cant investigate previous to that. Maybe we’ll have another body investigating them, the SFL!!
O G Rafferty
That is when the SPL was started/ formed, they only have jurisdiction from then.
Like Lord Acton said: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…
So we come back like the snake eating its own tail to the eternal question:
Who guards the guardians?
Are the watchers being watched?
Guys.. Ah hiv an Announcement tae Mak.. Seems tae be
awe the Rage..,
so. Here Goes..
“Hey, You Celitc Fans, oot there..
Don’t Be Too Sanguine .. over How this.. S.P.L. Investigation wull Turn Oot.. regarding.. the “Great Double Contract Investigation”
Figure .. a ..
“We Hiv Found Nae sign o’ Dirty Woik at the Crossroads”
Verdict, being Arrive at… by the Faithful Lackeys, o’ the S.P.L.
Kojo
Even the brilliant Bob Massingbird will not get the huns out of this one.
Massingbird’s previous cases included convincing a jury that a man who had a bloody knife in front of a dead man, who was seen stabbing the man in front of 13 people and said “I’m glad I killed the *******. Massingbird not only got him acquitted, he got him knighted in the New Years honours list and had the victims family pay for the dry cleaners to get the blood out of his suit.
blackaddercsc
!!Bada Bing!! Kano 1000 on 5 March, 2012 at 17:15 said:
”I wonder if Fraser Wishart’s role might be compromised when the EBT scandal kicks in….. ”
Not just Wishart, the entire union.
There’s no way they didn’t know what was going on.
All hun players, admin guys, FW etc still in a meeting at minty park.
Could still be payoffs tonight.
wonkyradar on 5 March, 2012 at 17:17 said:
‘Like Lord Acton said: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…’
‘Power tends to corrupt and……’
Surely the great “Walter”, a man who became national team coach at the SFA, was not paid through these illegal multiple contracts?
FF has its thread on this and i kid you not, to a man they are all hoping to get kicked out the league for this , and heres the kicker, its so they can go and play in England, I swear to god its side splitting stuff,its ttaking all my self control not break cover and just laugh at them
delusionsofgrandeur csc
Jabba the Hutt regrets that he was not put on two contracts by Minty as it would have entitled him to two helpings of succulent lamb.
Contract error costs Spartans Scottish Cup place
Spartans have been thrown out of the Scottish Cup for fielding an ineligible player in their 2-0 win over Culter.
Striker Keith McLeod signed a new contract in the summer but it was dated only once and the Scottish Football Association want it to be signed twice.
Spartans chairman Craig Graham said the club were “disappointed” by the ruling, adding: “We wish Culter well against Partick Thistle [in round three].”
Spartans have also received a £4,000 fine suspended for 12 months.
“
I apologise to our players, coaching staff and supporters for what has happened
”
Spartans chairman Craig Graham
The club had their case heard at Hampden by the judicial panel set by the SFA on Thursday, having been reported by the compliance officer for fielding an ineligible player during the second-round 2-0 win at Culter .
Scottish Cup rules now state that any club that plays a player who is ineligible will be thrown out of the competition.
The rules also state that neither the judicial panel or anyone at the SFA has the authority to change this rule.
Use accessible player and disable flyout menus
Highlights – Culter 0-2 Spartans
“It’s always tricky for a club like ours with volunteers in all the key positions however we have made a number of changes to help ensure a mistake doesn’t occur again in the future,” said Graham.
“I apologise to our players, coaching staff and supporters for what has happened.
“However, I know we will bounce back. We have far too many great things happening at Spartans with fantastic people involved to allow this to be anything more than a minor setback.”
Scottish Division Three side East Stirlingshire were expelled from the competition last season for fielding an ineligible player in their fourth-round win over Buckie Thistle.
Goalkeeper Michael Andrews featured despite the SFA not having received registration documents for the extension of his loan from Falkirk.
See another ned been arrested over internet threats to our manager,
heres hoping he faces a long spell in the real “big hoose”
Chris McLaughlin @BBCchrismclaug Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
No decision re #Rangers cuts tonight. Players have asked for delay until tomorrow.
Wonder what Aberdeen, Hearts and Motherwell will make of this. All three could have won the league when Rangers were allegedly doping themselves to 1st place. All three would have benefited from resulting European money, which would not only have led to better players arriving at their clubs, but would have given them an increased chance of winning the league the following year.
I wonder how these clubs’ owners, when they look around at their half-empty stadia, would would feel about a financial slap on the wrist for the club that robbed them of what would have been a prouder history, creating the the malaise that affects their fanbase and current levels of income.
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. TwistsnTurns..
Ye really Think so,pal?
Kojo
yer pal.. who likes ye aloater
Anyone heard the Poppy Campaign niw added to list of creditors?
rangers saying they forgot to pass money on.
HH
Meanwhile we are being fed spin about the dignity of Ally and the players – sickening.
the glorious balance sheet on 5 March, 2012 at 17:11 said:
It appears that Craig Whyte is a genius.
………………………….In effect he opened every single cupboard at Greyskull and showed the world all the skeletons that Moonbeams had stashed away over 20 years of unsurpassed cheating.
Do you think they will find Shergar and Lord Lucan? :-)