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:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- ...
- 18
- »
silly question perhaps, but…
the administrators (doing a fine job for a very reasonable fee) want firm offers of interest submitted by march 16th. fair enough. i want a sordid tryst with elle mcpherson, we can all dream… but…
do they actually expect to be taken seriously about that when no accounts exist for any prospective buyer to acquire an insight of the murky goings on in the cesspit?
will we, should we expect to, see statuatory docuents finally being released before march 16th, signed by the administrators as true and accurate, so that prospective buyers can get a handle on the financial situation, and we can hurt ourselves laughing when the even more appaling mess comes to light?
Now it’s on to tomorrow,the players have given their last option.A bit like ‘The tail wagging the dog’
The Battered Bunnet on 5 March, 2012 at 17:31
Absolutely bang on,, thanks,
Paul67 et al
What happens when the Administrators go into er… Administration?
The end game nears. With the news of the SPL investigating the two contracts and the potential for possible legal action by the police what a sight it will be when the canaries start signing to save their skins. Who will be the first to tweet.
Like an episode of Law and Order when they have all the suspects in the different rooms and the detectives say whoever talks firsts saves themselves.
Is it really happening? :o)
Dan
At this rate is it possible we could be literally playing Zombie FC later this month?
Maybe people will act as if nothing has changed even if rankers die- maybe Regan is a Voodoo Witchmaster who can animate the dead.
But what if the zombie is a golem- it would be a puppet monster doing the bidding of its masters will…
Am away fur a cornetto…
wonkyradar on 5 March, 2012 at 17:47 said:
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?
———————————————-
pity they sold that bike, eh?
signing = singing
From The Battered Bunnet @ 17.31
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?
======
TBB, Thanks for this.
I’ve done the retweet thingie because it is so good.
HH
RWE CSXC
Kojo
maybe I am being a tad optimistic, and given my age and knowledge of how Scotland looks after the establishment club I should perhaps know better, but never in my experience has such an avalanche of wrongdoing been evident.
The eyes of the footballing world are on this one, FIFA, UEFA are said to be ‘observing and monitoring’ events, so, in respect of the contract stuff the hun is in deep with no shovel.
Add to that, the tax case, which will no doubt be of interest to Portsmouth and others. Mind you, the tax case looks to be the least of their worries now, so when a £75m tax liability becomes a sideshow, you know you are in more than a a bit of soapy.
Hearts have already been threatened with a winding up order for a fraction of the hun debt, and will also be eager viewers.
There can be no escape. They have 12 days or so to hope a maniac with £75m to throw away walks thro’ the doors or it is liquidation day. Then, they need to walk away from decades of cheating/fraud. I can’t see them throwing 2 double sixes….. unless they have loaded dice
Dan
Don’t let Paul hear you mention, The Prisoners Dilemma!
STV News ……………….Rangers ‘talks’ continue.
Just a cosy wee chat at Sir Minty Park, – move along Timbo.
itd be fab if a caller on snyde managed to say succulant lamb-when
mr ts on
We know duffield is complicit.
STV News………… Concentrates on ‘cost saving measures’ and demotes the new investigation into illegal payments.
Plus ca change
Recent tweet.
THT @TheHumanTorpedo
Reply RetweetedRetweet
Delete
FavoritedFavorite · Close Open Details In Olympics if Silver medalist fails drug test the Gold medalist’s title isn’t tainted. It just means the Silver medalist is a ******* cheat.
How appropriate. Only in SFAland and Scotland could the team who played by all the rules be accused of winning unfairly.
All this chatter about tainted titles is code for exactly that.
Celtic are bing accused of winning this title unfairly.
Fight back against cheats and those who pander to them.
HH
RWE CSC
I know from personal experience that David Murray is a particularly litigious individual and this is one of the main reasons the Scottish media has been eating the peanuts out of his jobbies for over 20 years.
What is interesting, given his speed at seeking retractions and threatening lawsuits over more than two decades, is Murray has not made any comment on Hugh Adam’s claims in the Daily Mail or on the second contract story in the Sun.
Is there anyone on here who would bet against Murray’s entire regime at Ibrox being corrupt from the day he first entered the building as owner?
When did Peter McGuire get a gig on Unreal Radio?
Seems like the administrators are negotiating with the players rather than taking hard decisions.
What is the administrators’ job again?
Can I Have Raspberry On That on 5 March, 2012 at 18:05 said:
We know duffield is complicit.
=======
Indeed, but he seems to be fairly unique in that he held the top post at the SFA, a senior post at RFCIA and was also a football agent at the time these issues were very much alive. He is screwed 3 times over with any luck.
HH
RWE CSC
SSN……………Ragers trying to set up a friendly v Enron.
I may have misread this somewhere, but i thought duffer and duffer had to work to a timescale for making redundancies.
My interpretation was 14 days . Perhaps i am totally wrong on this. I asked Paul67 in an earlier thread how long he thought before HMRC say enough is enough and get rid of these buffoons. it really is a case of the dug wagging the tail here. There is another agenda going on here and it stinks. Then again what doesn’t in the skunkdome ;-)
hh lbb
If th is a police invstigatio into their fraudulent scmes, then no Scottish police force can be considered competent or objective enough to investigate, only the City of London Police are truely objective and competent enough to carry this out, as there may be links to Scottish Police personel.
if… nobody registers an interest by march 16th, what happens then?
could we conceivably see a situation where a valentines day administation becomes a saint patricks day liquidation?
it would be handy though, for remembering the anniversary.
serious question though, because it sounds to me like they just laid down an ultimatum which, if it isn’t taken up effectively puts then onto plan z.
also, i assume craig whyte is still the owner of 85% of the shares? can administrators really sell those off if he wants to keep them? i wouldn’t have thought so.
jock tamson on 5 March, 2012 at 18:11 said:
St Patricks day is a Saturday and courts won’t be open.
I’ve heard March 19th or March 20th as a possible important day.
Mort
Whit! more shredding at Ibrokes.
Look out for this wee wumin at Hampden.
http://i.imgur.com/7TALF.jpg
jock tamson on 5 March, 2012 at 18:11 said:
if… nobody registers an interest by march 16th, what happens then?
They way their going about things just now, they’ll just extend the deadline to the 17th.
If still no takers, then make it the 18th.
etc.
etc.
This stinks from top to bottom.
Hun on Snyde complaining about Saturdays
referee,welcome to our world you fool,we’ve
had to put up with this for decades not weeks.
Shouldn’t be happy about someone misery but,
these animals deserve it.
Celtic Mac on 5 March, 2012 at 18:01 said
:0)
It’s just incredible how it’s snowballed in the last three weeks. Could not have imagined beyond my wildest dreams the way it would snowball. It’s like all our Christmas’s and birthdays coming at the one time. And as Phil Mac said at the weekend, much more to come.
Dan
Listening to Snyde (aye,ah’m a glutton for punishment) and I felt a sudden urge to void my bowels & projectile vomit….
The only people who so far haven’t been dragged into der huns cheating is the refs.
I wonder how mr tait is these days.
Have Duff & Phelps sent the YTS administrators to Poundland to deal with the cheats?
£1m/month needs to be saved, 3 weeks in and still no cost cutting. Am I missing something here or do they have no clue in what they are trying to do?
Ironically they are looking at whether Whytey was fit and proper, yet Minty has a knighthood…. for now
RWE
Thank you!
I keep hearing that the “Big Case” decision was made weeks ago but won’t be announced until next month. Anyone explain why this is?
Could I suggest that the first player to be questioned should be Gazza?
The rest of them would be sh….. themselves.
FF content
bring a tear to a glass eye….
Just a lone Bear’s thoughts on why it is taking so long to decide who goes and who stays.
We have seen over the past 3 years what this team are willing to do for each other and The Club. This pain they are having to endure would be like the death of a thousand cuts to you and I – but it will barely scratch their metal – such is their resilience. This is a team unlike any other.
The spirit in that dressing room has driven them to succeed and achieve goals beyond our wildest expectations against the bitterest of odds. They were solid at the back throughout the relentless attacks on our great Club – due entirely to their camaraderie and fellowship. They went through brick walls for each other and for the Club – we must never overlook this fact. What we are seeing now is desire and a determination to do what is best for the Club and Each Other. We are unlikely to ever encounter such a strength of collective character outside the trenches – this troop have been at war for 3 seasons and they are now fighting their dirtiest battle ever.
It is perfectly understandable that their eye has been ‘off the target’ whilst they have been plying their trade on the park over the past few months – sadly there are real skirmishes being fought ‘off it’. There will not be one player in that dressing room that will want to see any other player disadvantaged more than themself – such is the strength of their bond.
Finances aside for the purposes of this post – I fully understand why this decision is taking longer than the administrators had hoped for.
This is not what they are used to dealing with – this is not your typical football team – this is not a team of modern day mercenaries – this is a brotherhood.
No Surrender.
“Our Prognosticators.. Think that the U.S. wull have Twelve Tornados.. and Sixteen Hurricanes.. this Year…and.. Whytie, wull dae a Peter Brady..”
Taken fae the .. the Latest Edition of
“Farmer’s Almanac.”
Kojo.
Still Laughin’