I’m very pleased the SPL have charged Hearts over the failure to pay players on time, the action shows a much needed appetite to tackle financial laxity in the game. A battle for the hearts and minds of Scottish football lies ahead where the integrity of our competitions will be up for grabs. Should Rangers lose their HMRC tribunal, which is due to conclude today, how the SPL reacts will forever establish if we have an open, free and fair league, or if we are cowed by a club we would all rather live without – irrespective of the cost.
We should applaud Neil Doncaster as his league colleagues for their determination not to be diverted from their course by Hearts in the face of some absolutely atrocious misrepresentation of the facts emanating from media sources close to Romanov.
The weeks ahead will require all parties to adhere rigorously to the spirit of Financial Fair Play, membership rules and precedent.
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Michael Jacksons son has no chance of getting into St Mirren Park then.
My Efrain Juarez tribute poncho will not be putting in an appearance at the Methadome.
Breaking news Ex Sports Superstar in shock bid for takeover of ragers
Crabtree Consortium
WGS says:
18 January, 2012 at 16:45
Please God, no…
Robert Tressell Like yourself I am not over keen on Heskey I would much rather have Kevin Davies from Bolton but we know for sure it wont be Baba as he is moving for a reported 3 Million to the Spanish League.H.H.
Nae blanket men at the game………..blanket and songs debate anyone?
RobertTressell says:
18 January, 2012 at 16:50
WGS – striker? heskey? same sentence? Dear God spare us from the Heskey.
—————————-
I think you will find Heskey is deceptively slower than you think.
Interesting media show on R4 just now. An interview with the editor of the guardian. They are 100,000 a day down compared to last year’s readership, an operating loss of 38 million and a five year plan to get sustainable losses with their parent company. All tghis due to the digital revolution. They are moving to slow news – more in depth analysis type rather than breaking news.
Hearing the young Nigerian doing his chances of a contract no harm. Hearing a work permit has been applied for.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
MadraRua says:
18 January, 2012 at 13:51
http://youtu.be/sdO733POGDY
Don’t know if this was already posted, it’s magic.
================================
Brilliance.
The one thing that would have made it perfect would have been a picture of a flailing Van Der Sar on the side of the bus.
hamiltontim says:18 January, 2012 at 16:38
Is he going to change hours name to PaisleyTongues ? ;-)
hh
Lennybhoy…Supporting Neil Lennon and CFC until I die
16.37 ;-)
Celtic have agreed a deal to sign Nigerian winger Rabiu Ibrahim, STV has learned.
The 20-year-old free agent is set to sign a three-and-a-half year contract with the Parkhead club, subject to completing a medical on Thursday.
The former PSV Eindhoven player has been on trial at the club’s Lennoxtown training complex and has played in a bounce game.
Ibrahim has impressed Neil Lennon and his coaching staff and STV has learned that Celtic have applied for a work permit endorsement.
Ibrahim has represented Nigeria at Under 17, 20 and 23 levels but requires a work permit to play in the UK.
The player left Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven last month and previously had a spell at Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.
Icelandic youngster Ingulfor Sigurdsson has also been on trial at Celtic but STV understands no decision has yet been taken on a contract offer.
The attacking midfielder started his career at Sporting Lisbon before joining PSV in March last year.
However a lack of first team football meant the club agreed to terminate the player’s contract
Lennybhoy
Any news on his compatriot the striker? (6’7)
The Met Police spent £35k over the past two years ringing the speaking clock. http://t.co/u3i2ICfp
STV- electric hunguffery.
Aipple
12.37
I also see the future,tomorrow I see slightly well fired rolls(2 of ) I see chopped ham & pork(4 slices per roll)
I see beetroot in between.I see lashings of Lurpak.
Once on route to LA going through customs at Chicago one of those pesky beagle dogs got excited at the contents of my
hand luggage.Inside the customs man found one of the above rolls.Took it away he did.The beagle got a biscuit.
In the future I can also see much anguish & wailing from the huns.All self inflicted of course.HH.
TopCorner says:
18 January, 2012 at 16:23
Cor blimey Naka
Re them selling the season ticket money and catering on 3 year contracts. I can’t believe that they would have got 3 year monies up front. The risk the financiers/suppliers would take would be commercial and given the information out there there is no way that anyone would have paid 3 years up front. as a nd when they go down only secured creditors are likely to get much.
The biggest elephant in the room (awaiting the guilotine from HMRC) is that TFOD are asking for season ticket money before the end of this season. so they could get a full season from the hordes and then pull the plug. While it may mean that a bad guy such as Whyte manages to scalp more funds for his coterie there will be still a certain amount of schadenfreude involved. Can you imagine if we were trying to do such a thing. They LL would be harping on about from the roof tops.
To quote Declan McManus “when they finally put you in the ground, I’ll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down”
A thought experiment:
A dodgy bloke goes into a boardroom
Psst , Mr Quinn, Psst
Brian Quinn goes over
Dodgy bloke opens mac and shows Quinn EBTs in in the inside pocket.
Look at these you can punch above your weight
Quinn thinks ‘great nobody will ask any questions, we’ll dominate for years’
Years later he’s found out and the club is up the creek.
How would you feel ? Ashamed ? Angry ?
Angelgabriel,
just hope for you that the chopped ham and pork is from the co-op,best there is
James Forrest 1459
Superbly argued piece.
Make sure you keep it and post it somewhere as an open letter to Celtic, the SPL and the SFA when the time is right , hopefully soon , to which Celtic fans and , in particular , shareholders can put their name.
As P67 has said and you reiterate-
whatever part of my club is dependent on Rangers is a part I’m willing to sacrifice.
That would make a Green Brigade banner to rival “Scotland’s Shame”.
TLWIO
Mick
First chance I got to post, just in from work. Got the information about half four, just as I posted and that the work permit has been applied for.
His fellow Countryman, Michael Uchebo (spl), other than what I posted last night no, just that he has been offered to us. Don’t know if we are interested but he has been offered.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Interesting times bhoys….
– Swedish international right back signed
– young Nigerian winger having medical on Thursday
– young (ish, 24 – not young for our batch of wonder kids) polish CH signed, already building for next season.
– media trying to sell our stars (hooper) but they want to stay.
– we have wanyama
– top of the league
– scoring sensation commons fit again
– oh aye and the gers are in a right state
Interesting article on the young Nigerian
http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/12572/2012/01/07/rabiu_ibrahim_promise_unfulfilled.html
“Ibrahim is fast, technically skilled, physically strong and has a good sense of field position; there is something in that boy”
“The sack came after Ibrahim failed to break into the PSV first-team and was subsequently fired as the contract his England-based agent negotiated for him was strictly based on his performance level at the club.”
thejurysoutfornow
James Forrest @14:59
That is a fine piece of writing and an even finer speech.
Make no mistake the end of the tax case — whenever that may be— is merely the beginning of the real proceedings, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.
This is not about the insolvency of Rangers PLC. Nor is it about sums due to HMRC as a result of the EBT that was under investigation.
This is about to be about what the tribunal finds in fact. About what a properly constitued court ( for want of a better word ), recognised as a judicial body with the power to hear evidence under oath, will find and determine has been proven by way of reliable and credible evidence.
Of course where you have two juxtaposed positions in relation to either what went on by way of fact, or in terms of the law of the land, you will find that any tribunal or enquiry will determine that one side is credible and reliable and that the other is not.
And it is there that the danger lies for certain players in this pantomime. Forget whether the tax is due or not– it almost certainly is— the key issue will be whether or not the board of Rangers PLC deliberately and willfully entered into an arrangement and a series of contracts which were designed to negate the need to pay taxes which were otherwise legally due.
The likely answer to that question is yes they did.
The next question is a difficult one and it is this:
In so acting did they (the directors) knowingly break the law. As I understand it they will have argued “No they didn’t because they took legal advice on what they were doing and that they relied on that advice”.
However, that is an argument that is frought with danger, because if that detailed legal advice was laid before the tribunal, and it was then shown that the advice concerned is to the effect that the course of action concerned is only legal if you do A,B, C and D– but that the Directors did not follow that clear advice to the letter, then it follows that the course of action must therefore be not only illegal but knowingly illegal.
Remember too, that whilst some may moan about the sums paid to the Chief executive of Celtic PLC, that it was not only the players who were paid by the EBT– others at Rangers Director level were paid by this possibly unlawful method as well.
In other words, The Directors gained by the very same system that has short changed the taxman.
The way that the tribunal decision is handed down is by way of a written judgement which sets out what facts have been established and what the consequences are in law arising out of those facts.
The next question will be whether or not those same Directors sought to hide and keep those contracts from the footballing authorities in breach of the league rules.
If the facts established are as I expect them to be then there may well be no end of further proceedings- instigated by various bodies– as a result.
However, there are those who I believe are completely oblivious as to what is about to happen. Some of those are completely unimportant in the scheme of things. An example of such a group is the Mainstream media who have consistently shown that they have not grasped the ramifications of what has happened here!
Of great importance, however, are those who have sat on various SFA and SPL boards over the period.
It is clear within the rules of the footballing authorities that Football clubs must act in good faith towards one another and towards the footballing authorities and their rules. Those rules state clearly that each and every year the football clubs must tender all relevant contract documentation between the club and the players registered with the club. The same applies to the contracts of key personnel such as managers, trainers and Chief Executives and key financial officers.
If it turns out– and I suspect it will— that Rangers PLC have repeatedly failed to tender and properly disclose all necessary contracts for players and executives- so breaching the football rules- then that is when the real enquiry will start.
Because at that stage the very people who are deemed to safeguard the performance of those rules are in the firing line and unless they show that they have behaved with propriety then they must accept a degree of culpability.
The rules of the league constitute a contract between the clubs. If one club has, by way of deliberate deception of league and football association officials, gained an unlawful financial advantage then that club and its official may well be liable both civilly and criminally.
Worse still, if anyone within the football authorities were either party to this behaviour or were privy to second contracts or hidden letters of indemnity, and did not blow the whistle– then they too are in the firing line. If say, someone held a position of authority and was in a position to blow the whistle but chose not to– and instead simply resigned for non specific reasons– then they would not be clear of the legal flak.
Further if the current incumbants of any executive position have it brought to their attention that there has been a prolonged course of misinformation and failure to disclose material and legally due information, then they are duty bound to launch a far reaching enquiry if they are to be seen to be fulfilling their own duties.
Any such enquiry in terms of the League rules, can lead to the citing and the examination under oath of any persons who were involved in any of this at any time. Just think about that- ANYONE AT ALL. Former chairmen, former players, former managers, former executives– the list is endless.
Who comes to mind? Well let me throw a few names at you. Murray D, Findlay D, Advocaat, Smith W, Smith G, Johnstone, Bain, McIntyre, Greig, Lewis J, King D, Murray P, McLeish A, Le Guen P, Whyte C, – all former Directors, all former players, Former Directors of Rangers PLC and subsidiaries, advisers Legal and accountancy, Bankers past and present, all members of the SFA and SPL boards throughout the years concerned together with all and any officers of the league who were in charge of compliance.
Will any of these people be happy to be examined under oath and state what occurred as a matter of record?
Were the league officials told the truth about contacts throughout– and that is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
While there is talk of what may or may not happen to a stricken Rangers or any Phoenix club, The hacks ignore the fact there are salient precedents which have been long established. Today Neuchatel Xamax have become the latest club to find themselves severely disciplined by a EUFA afilited Football Association.
As Blantyre Kev has pointed out the circumstances of their demise are not unsimilar to the current Rangers position.
However, whilst not on all fours, great regard should be had to the fate of one Bernard Tapie and Marseille,
There that once great clubbed were stripped of a Chamions league title on the basis that it had been earned through “illicit” means, The club were placed in receivership, relegated, banned from Europe, forced to sell players, banned from buying new ones and criminal amd civil proceedings resulted in damages and jail sentences.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the allegations there related to match fixing- which is not suggested here- but strange payments to former players after they had ceased playing and other matters of lrregular financial deals were prevalent.
According to FFF president Jean Fournet-Fayard: “We had to take sanctions in this affair, which has seriously harmed the morality of our sport.”
That lack of morality brought down a once great club and destroyed the reputation of a once lauded and respected national Tycoon and businessman.
It is not the tax case that is the pinacle of this affair but the steps taken by those to instigate and then cover up the tax practice itself.
As a wee boy there was a childhood game called Consequences. Anyone who is a devotee of the much talked of Breaking Bad will know that each and every act has consequences for those who choose not to abide by the straight and narrow by even so much as a whisker.
Anyone who thinks the end of the tax case is the conclusion of this particular game of consequences is mistaken. The end of the tax case could be the beginning of the game of consequences and exactly where those consequences come to rest is, at this moment, anyone’s guess!
The end of the tax case will simply lead to many more questions– with potentially uncomfortable answers.
Evening Celts,
Have we sold our chance of winning the league this season yet?
Sell Hoops for 8 mill, buy in a project for the future, gamble that we can find goals from somewhere in the team and hang the manager out to dry, the board couldnt be that stupid surely, could they?
Vinny
Gordybhoy
Morrisons !
Off out now to have a bevy with an old blue nose pal I dont see much of these days. Got a call today & he has just
won some serious cash. I told him of my happiness at his news only for him to say yes, great news but you should see my Tax bill !
Common theme going on somewhere !
As a rule to maintain our friendship we just do not discuss Celtic / Huns.
Tonight that rule is ditched.How much ammo have I got. :< ) .
With the possibility of Rabiu Ibrahim signing, could it be the exit of Paddy or Kris?
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Celtic have ‘not’ received another bid for Gary Hooper despite The Daily ( Gers can be Kings of Europe ) Record’s repeated bestist Orcery.
Vmhan Supporting Lenny! says:
18 January, 2012 at 17:52
I sincerely hope not, there will be a rebellion me thinks. Keep Hooper and buy another striker…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Lennybhoy…Supporting Neil Lennon
Thanks for the update.
Michael Uchebo would be interesting 6’7” striker mind you don’t know if he’s any good.
welcome to Celtic Rabiu…
pending a work permitt of course..
Another good signing by the Club, well done Celtic. Welcome Rabiu.
new article posted.
More signings just announced…lot going on this week..
James Forrest 14.59
NO BAD.