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…..
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
671 Comments- Pages:
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Joe Fillipis:
Don’t think life jackets will come in any good…I think as time goes on they will end up in straitjackets!
Have you ever seen an octopus in a straitjacket?
Medication time! Medication time!
Valdimir Romanovs insane utterings will soon be the template for the new laptop loyal
Hail Hail
Awe Naw
“The rules also state that neither the judicial panel or anyone at the SFA has the authority to change this rule.”
We will surely see this tested.
All we want is that they are treated according to the rules. Nothing more, nothing less.
!!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…..
Was thinking that earlier, and found some quotes from Wishart relating to the stand-off situation that Aiden had with Gordon Strachan and there were some quotes attributed to him along the lines of The PFA having looked through Aiden’s contract.
He is reported to have been in constant discussions with the Rangers playing staff recently. He didn’t see ANY player contracts ? He’s NEVER seen one.
I wondered. Mmmmmm. As you do.
There is NO email contact for him on the PFA site as far as I can make out.
Anyone know how to get in touch ?
pigalle
“What’s happening with the club today is not a new thing. For almost 7 years we have been fighting to shield the club from crooks, criminals and thieves. Many of the top players at the club have felt the bitter results of the swindles that have been carried out with them on their own skin. Skacel and Webster have returned to the club after realising where these ‘football patriots’ have led them.
“Over a short space of time 4 players at our club have been on the wrong end of the law. We note that 3 of them are represented by the same agent – Gary Mackay – who has been so vicious in his attacks against Mr Romanov.
“Taking into account the facts that have been omitted by the media it can be presumed that each of these cases is not a coincidence, but the result of targeted actions of a mafia that wants to manipulate the club and the results.
“Every year Hearts fights to be in the top 3, but even last season in the last 12 games of the season it was almost like someone replaced the team with a different one. Whose fault is that? Players? Manager’s? Or it is mafia.
“Stealing players, bad games, problems with the law – all of that on top of record SFA fines. Problems are just shifted to another level.
“Mafia are dragging kids into the crime, in order to blackmail and profit on them. It is not possible to separate these people from pedophiles, and you don’t need to do that. Each year we are forced to fight against these maniacs harder and harder. We are standing in their way not letting them manipulate the game of football in the way they want. As such they undermine us in every possible way they can.
“The task of the club is to tear these kids out of hands of criminals.”
Celtic Football Club’s official Twitter account @celticfc reaches almost 30,000 followers in just over 1 month.
Lol the most bizarre administration of all time continues to delight.
No decision until tomorrow! Another 24 hours. More money leeching out the door. More millions about to be spent. But the administrators are still getting paid.
Liquidation is more imminent by the day.
Lord Acton goat it Wrang..
Power, is Might.. and Might is..
Ayewiz.
Right!
That is..
Until… Somebuddy else ..
Wi’
Greater Power..
Comes Alang.
Boattum …
It is Good tae Be Powerful.
Kojo
Asonofdan,or anyone else,
are the administrators not supposed to produce a list of
all creditors,if so how soon and does it become public knowledge
Did you know that in order for a Football Registration to be valid, in addition to the contract requiring to include all terms relating to payments for football related activity, the contract must also be signed by the Agent who represented the Player.
Now, a certain well woven media personality, lately Director of Football of Rangers and previoulsy CEO of the SFA, was in an earlier career a Football Agent.
He worked on his own account for a number of years through his eponymous Sports Management Ltd agency, before joining Raymond Sparkes’ Prostar Management Ltd agency as a Director.
IF a player represented by Smith or the companies he directed signed for Rangers, his signature will be on the contract.
Now, as CEO of the SFA in later years, he would be ‘somewhat conflicted’ as Stewart Regan might say, were it to transpire that he negotiated and signed a contract for a client that was not valid.
We can see clearly that the current President of the SFA, simultaneously Secretary and Executive Director of Rangers and Director and Treasurer of the SFA, was involved in implementing and managing Rangers’ contractual affairs with their players, while being responsible for the Adminstration of the game at the SFA.
We also know that John McClelland and Martin Bain held similar positions simultaneously at the SPL and Rangers.
In essence, Directors of the SFA and the SPL HAVE conspired to corrupt the game over 2 decades. Whether that includes the previous CEO perhaps we’ll find out in early course.
In any event, it rather looks as though the game has been demonstrably bent for 20 years.
Question is: What the heck do we do about it?
These Guys who are Supposed tae Be Administrators..
Are Acting Mair Like..
Prevaricators..and Obfuscators…
Kojo
Still Laugin’
Sally McCoist heads home in his Bedford Rascal, amidst gale force winds
Hi
I wrote an article more than a week ago on the Rangers story for the political blog Left Foot Forward
“Rangers FC: How a market leader went bust”
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/02/rangers-fc-how-a-market-leader-went-bust/
I’ve just published a new one
“What will happen to Rangers?”
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/03/what-will-happen-to-glasgow-rangers-fc/
The details are probably familiar to most people here- but for me it’s nice to try and get a wider audience for this story.
cheers
While these so called Administrators continue to pass the buck,,,who is paying the bills??
Where is the money coming from??
How long can this joke of a club be allowed to play players they cant afford to pay???
Hail hail
pigalle on 5 March, 2012 at 17:28 said:
!!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…..
Was thinking that earlier, and found some quotes from Wishart relating to the stand-off situation that Aiden had with Gordon Strachan and there were some quotes attributed to him along the lines of The PFA having looked through Aiden’s contract.
He is reported to have been in constant discussions with the Rangers playing staff recently. He didn’t see ANY player contracts ? He’s NEVER seen one.
I wondered. Mmmmmm. As you do.
There is NO email contact for him on the PFA site as far as I can make out.
Anyone know how to get in touch ?
pigalle
You will find him on radio clyde most nights bumping his gums.
Paul67,
How much more slack do you think HMRC will give these Administrators?
Looks like the players/staff are running the show at rangers.
My big sisters’s partner said “I presently dispatch freight daily for a road haulage concern”. I thought “He’s an articulate lorry driver”.
surely the moment the taxman took an interest in RFC, the game’s worthy administrators ought to have though, ‘ wait a minute… these payments Hector is referring to aren’t in the contracts lodged with us… time to get investigating.’
Why have they waited until NOW (in fact, as Paul points out, the SFA are still spouting froth) to launch an investigation? They are supposed to be the game’s administrators, who keep everything above board!
How deep does the rabbit hole go?
Byline: By GILL SMITH
RANGERS goal-grabber Nacho Novo has bagged himself a new set of gnashers…and here they are above in all their glory.
The striker hasn’t had much to smile about lately after an indifferent start to the season with Rangers.
But now the 25-year-old is hoping to dazzle defenders after replacing his crooked grin with a Hollywood smile.
The Spanish striker, who has scored twice for his team this season, has splashed out thousands on a gleaming new set of pearly whites.
It is thought Nacho has spent around pounds 8,000 on repeated trips to his dentist to have veneers put on his teeth and also make the others whiter than white.
The Sunday Mirror asked a dental expert to examine recent photos showing Nacho’s new gnashers.
Our dental expert said: “It looks as though Nacho has spent as much time in his dentist’s chair as he does in the penalty box because this appears to have been a lot of costly work, involving several visits.”
Our expert revealed how Nacho has spent hundreds of pounds per tooth to have porcelain veneers glued on to his teeth to give him a Tom Cruise smile.
The process involves taking a fine layer off the surface of each tooth, putting on temporary teeth and then a week later bonding translucent porcelain to the tooth surface. “To the untrained eye it would appear that some of his teeth have been straightened, but that can be ruled out,” said our expert. “He would have had to wear a very obvious brace for about two years to complete the process and that clearly hasn’t happened.”
He added: “He has had them whitened which, depending on the process, can be costly too. Gel-Tray whitening, for example, can cost pounds 300 to pounds 700, while laser whitening comes in at between pounds 700 and pounds 1,300.
“Before the work, his two lateral incisors on the top – either side of his two front teeth – were barely visible yet they have suddenly appeared in brilliant white form. Whitening alone wouldn’t do that. It appears he has had porcelain veneers placed on to the front of this teeth.
“They are the cure for teeth that are severely discoloured, chipped, have small holes or pits, misshapen or crooked, or for the correction of spaces. Unlike crowns, veneers won’t require the dentist to remove much of the tooth in most cases.
“Again this is not cheap. You could be talking about pounds 600 or pounds 700 per tooth and if he has had the front six at the top, canine to canine, covered in this way then the overall bill would clearly mount very quickly.
“Add into the equation the other charges required for several visits, whitening of the teeth which haven’t been veneered and implants required, and he wouldn’t have much change out of seven or eight grand.
“If he’s had the bottom ones done as well you could double that.”
Other celebrities who have had their teeth fixed include Martine McCutcheon, Noel Gallagher and David Bowie.
Novo has faced abuse from some Rangers’ fans this season after failing to hit the net more regularly.
As well as having his gnashers restored, he has also been recovering from a hernia operation he underwent the day after Rangers clinched the championship in May.
Novo, who earns pounds 10,000 a week, lives with his partner Donna Clark and her five-year-old son Ross.
Since arriving in Glasgow the striker has been caught up in a series of controversies.
Earlier this year the Sunday Mirror revealed how he’d been the victim of a sectarian attack from his own fans during a boozy night out in Greenock, Renfrewshire.
And in May we told how the star was caught up in a bitter tug-of-love over his lover’s son.
Novo was unavailable for comment last night.
bobbycfc on 5 March, 2012 at 17:04 said:
”What I can’t get my head round is that if there were all these players with two contracts, then surely the agent involved in every transfer must have known and been complicit?
So therefore ever player, their agent and the directors involved could be accused of illegally breaking tax rules?”
Plus the lawyers, accountants and other professional advisers involved. Conspiracy to commit fraud.
#######
#However, what if they have written confirmation from a company confirming that these EBTs were legal? (Assuming RFC didn’t just think this EBT plan up themselves). Are the directors still culpable if they followed good advice?’
The EBTs were legal ie effective at avoiding tax if they were administered properly. That meant the payments had to be entirely discretionary, not contractual. The huns would have been advised of that but chose to ignore the advice because it suited them to do so and they thought they were untouchable.
######
I am a company director and follow advice given to me by Accountants, Solicitors and Surveyors. All professionals who know more about their individual area than I do. I have Directors indemnity insurance, would this cover this sort of event?
Only if you followed the advice, and not if you knew what you were doing was illegal.
There will come a point where any financial arguments for having Rangers in the SPL give way to the overwhelming need for justice.
The above three clubs I mentioned should look at the pitiful state they are in now and reflect on the consequences of not doing the right thing once the SPL reaches its findings.
Thegoodwillprevale. Fella the whole thing smells rotten and they will try there level best to cover as much of it as they possibly can.H.H.
“When you put on the the Celtic jersey you are not just playing for a football Club – you are playing for a community and a cause ”
Tommy Burns RIP
paulsatim,17:17 Kittoch, 17:17
Of course. Thanks
The Walrus jist said..
“It’s Time,Methinks… tae Investigate..the Investigators”
Noo , why Didnae Ah think o’ That…???
Kojo
Laughin’
My understanding from reading this blog and others is that HMRC (God bless them), really really really want to win the BIG tax case. Not for the £49+m that Rankers (IA) owe, but so they can go after the English teams that that will make this look like small change.
Will this see a number of English clubs pushed into oblivion? Wishful thinking, but will the EPL be looking for any well run, global brand with one of the biggest stadiums in Britain and a renowned large travelling support?
” the prime concerns are saving money and the fabric of the first team”
This is a stitch up not administration.
If they don’t do walking away they could:
Use an escalator?
Use a penny cycle?
Operate a parachute?
Toboggan down Edminston?
Get blown out of a giant cabaret canon?
Am i sounding facetious?
Paul67 et al
An SPL investigation can only go back to 1998 for obvious reasons, but it does give us a point of reference. That point of reference is a season in which Rangers, for the first time since the 1980s winning precisely nothing, Celtic and Hearts picking up the silverware. And yet, over the next two seasons, Rangers won five out of six trophies available. True, Celtic lost some momentum after winning the league, but when you look at Ranger’s squad when Martin O’Neil arrived, “the benchmark” in other words, well it must have taken a fair (if that is the right word) bit of financing.
While looking back I noticed an interesting statistic, between them Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian have finished League runners-up a total of 33 times! 33 times! You might think, under a fairer system, they would have turned more than a few of those into Championships. If you were fair minded you might very well think that.
Agent Craig “Green and” Whyte!! on 5 March, 2012 at 17:43 said:
” the prime concerns are saving money and the fabric of the first team”
This is a stitch up not administration.
====
When the fabric is torn, a stitch up is exactly what you need.
HH
No news 2night chaps…………………………..
Looks like we will have 2 wait till the morra.
A……………………….well……………………
BigJoeOFF2thePUB
wonkyradar,
surely there must be a Sinclair c5 for some of them to use
Seems to me that the PR company that are Duff and Phelps are not carrying out their duties to the creditors as directed by the courts…..
Whatever deal the Admins must save £1m/month.
Much more delay and it will be £1.25m
Another two weeks… £1.5m
So the deal is 50% cuts or 12/more players out…
Bournesouprecipe 17.32
Nothing wrong with a Bedford rascal, gets me there & back.
Looking at that D+P statement, the axe will almost certainly fall tomorrow
Load up on the Ben + Jerry’s bhoys
…any truth to the rumour that the SFA/SPL honchos buy their clothes at Banana Republic?…
…makes sense tae me…
Hail Hail!
i take a crumb of comfort knowing that v romanov is not in the scottish “establishment”-i like some of his rantings-ahl get ma coat