Football is not really about money. Not at its core. It is about trust.
Every supporter who buys a season ticket, every sponsor who writes a cheque, every broadcaster who pays millions, does so on the assumption that the competition is honest. Not perfect, but honest. That is why the Manchester City story matters.
The independent commission’s findings, as reported, paint a devastating and familiar picture. “Sham contracts”, disguised funding, misstated accounts and years of financial manoeuvring designed to present a reality that differed from the truth. The details are shocking enough. What is perhaps more remarkable is something else entirely.
The Premier League actually pursued the case.
For years.
Against one of its flagship clubs.
Against a club backed by vast wealth and equipped with the finest legal resources money can buy.
The English game has many faults, but nobody can accuse it of lacking the courage to ask difficult questions.
Whether you agree with Financial Fair Play regulations or not is largely irrelevant. Manchester City signed up to the rules and the commission’s reported conclusion is that those rules were systematically breached.
The authorities investigated. Evidence was gathered. Arguments were heard. Independent judges reached conclusions. That is how regulation is supposed to work.
Compare that with Scotland.
Many Celtic supporters will be looking south and wondering what might have happened if Scottish football had possessed even a fraction of that determination during Rangers’ use of Employee Benefit Trusts.
For more than a decade, questions were asked. Questions about player registration. Questions about undisclosed contacts. Questions about sporting advantage. Questions about governance.
Those questions generated reports, commissions, reviews and carefully worded statements. What they rarely generated was accountability.
Scottish football appeared more interested in managing the consequences than investigating the causes.
The contrast with England could scarcely be greater.
Nobody can accuse the Premier League of trying to protect Manchester City from embarrassment. If anything, the league has endured criticism for taking so long.
In Scotland, there was often an overwhelming sense that the priority was protecting the authorities themselves. The result was predictable, trust suffered.
Not simply trust in one club, but trust in the governance of the entire game. That is the real lesson here.
The Manchester City story is not a triumph. It is an embarrassment for English football. A reminder that rule-breaking on a vast scale can occur under the noses of regulators.
But there is a crucial difference, the regulators eventually acted.
Supporters can at least point to a process and say the allegations were examined. Scottish football still struggles with that test.
Years later, many supporters remain convinced that important questions were never fully addressed. The SFA refused to participate in an independent inquiry.
Transparency was sacrificed in favour of expediency, in favour of ‘Rangers’ and the people who destroyed their club.
Today, Manchester City’s owners are reportedly preparing appeals and legal challenges. That is their right. What they cannot reasonably expect is immunity from scrutiny.
And perhaps that is where English football has finally arrived ahead of Scotland. No club should be too big to investigate. No owner should be too wealthy to challenge. No institution should be too powerful to question.
The health of a sporting competition depends on that principle. Without it, trophies lose value. League tables lose legitimacy. And supporters lose faith.
Football can survive scandal. It cannot survive a belief that the rules apply differently depending on who breaks them.
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First paragraph of reply to the Lawyer representing Res 12
We refer to your correspondence dated 27 May 2016 and understand that you are acting for a group of shareholders in Celtic Pic. It is not the generai policy of EFA to write directiy to lawyers representing
unidentified clients and if this is a matter that a member club of the Scottish Football Association (i.e.
Celtic) wishes to take up with UEFA then the club should do so directly.
This reply was copied into the SFA and Celtic FC
Traverso is calling out both Celtic FC and the SFA
He is saying directly to Celtic FC as a member club of both the SFA and UEFA, they have the right to take the matter up directly with UEFA, and as a member club EUFA will investigate further
Celtic declined to take this action………………….we all know why
Auldheid on 30th September 2026 4:22 pm
This is an excellent a analysis by my friend Alan Morrison of the relevance of the Man City situation and Rangers and a very accurate account of what took place in 2011 & 2012.
Alan is well informed and will be listened to by many.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thehuddlebreakdown/p/man-city-rangers-and-the-story-scottish?r=55bmto&utm_medium=ios
____
A smart guy who always seems to know what he’s talking about. Could do with his type on our board. Lots of smart folk in the Celtic community. Pity we don’t utilise them.
lionroars67 on 30th September 2026 5:24 pm
I would be interested to read why we all know why.
I might have something to add.
Auldheid on 30th September 2026 5:43 pm
lionroars67 on 30th September 2026 5:24 pm
I would be interested to read why we all know why.
*aye me tae
I might have something to add.
AULDHEID on 30TH SEPTEMBER 2026 5:43 PM
You are the Res12 Tolstoy, although you have probably overtaken his famous novel “War and Peace” famous for its massive scale, intricate detail, and philosophical depth, I find hard to imagine you have further depth to add to the disgraceful sham that was the SFA and SPFL dealing with the Rangers FC failure to register players properly
Sandy Bryson fabricated invented a false interpretation of Rangers registration of players, as TBB referred to earlier
AI puts the rules clearly as I have known them for nearly 50 years and have personal knowledge of many teams who fell foul
The punishment for registering a player incorrectly or making an error on an official teamline depends strictly on whether the player actually took part in the match and the specific competition rules. However, the standard outcomes mandated by the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and the Scottish FA (SFA) typically follow a strict framework.
1. Fielding an Ineligible Player (The Severe Offence)
If a registration mistake or teamline error results in a team fielding a player who is legally unregistered, serving a suspension, or otherwise ineligible to play, the penalties are swift and severe:
• Forfeiture of the Match: The most common sporting sanction is that the match is declared a 3–0 victory for the opposing team. If the offending team won or drew the match, those points are wiped out.
Simply Celtic FC wanted Rangers to survive, that’s why PL went to negotiate a deal with SKY which included live Sky coverage of Sevco and payments to keep them financially afloat
Celtic wanted the whole debacle to be kept within the remit of the SFA, to allow the best possible outcome for Sevco to survive, as per “The Owners” glowing testament of the Rangers football club demonstrates, asking EUFA to investigate would mean Celtic would have no means to control the outcome
TONTINE TIM on 30TH SEPTEMBER 2026 5:45 PM
Nothing of interest to me
lionroars67 on 30th September 2026 2:21 pm
Some SPL clubs were in financial bother at the time and it was not in Celtic’s football and financial interest to let them go bust or Rangers.
Killie spring to mind. MWell perhaps so no chance any of them were going to support any sanction that saw Rangers disappear.
The consequence of Rangers going bust is that SFL clubs benefitted and if it came to a vote of SFA Members in Senior leagues Celtic would have been outvoted.
So double whammy.
Celtic did not want to do what supporters wanted.
Celtic could not do it anyway.
Off the top of my head, a couple of “hold your nose” cameos from that shameful period that scunnered me.
The reveal of the contractual obligation to broadcasters to “provide” four O** F*** events each season.
That’s sporting integrity out the windae already.
And actually unnecessary … the possibility of either club having such a stinker that they don’t make top 6 at the 33 game split?
Remote.
But much worse?
Regan asking for permission about the wording of a statement from the very legal entity he was supposedly overseeing.
I’ve never met either Doncaster or Regan.
I don’t like what Doncaster did or how he came across … but he did project as a guy who faced up to a bad situation and attempted to lead his organisation through it (skilfully enough to keep his gig)
IMHO, Regan came across as a spineless, easily manipulable wimp who was totally out of his depth.
County cricket being his level (as long as it is a small county)
I recall huns in my office citing “the Sky contract” as their saviour and how Sky would stop showing Scottish football if the huns weren’t playing in the top league.
A cursory scroll through their sports channels offering the chance to watch live tiddlywinks, ludo and snakes & ladders would have told them broadcasters were generally short of content.
Lionsroar
It goes a lot deeper than you set out.
For a start, compensation has now surfaced as result of Man City debate sanctions.
UEFA had that to fear from clubs in Europe who lost to Rangers back in 2012 but down in the dungeons where there be dragons is an interesting e mail from SFA to Rangers in Sep 2011.
It begins Good News and goes on to say SFA got a verbal agreement with UEFA to accept Rangers monitoring submission of 30 June that contained a fraudulent statement about the status of the £2.8m wtc bill and then helpfully added UEFA had said Rangers did not need to provide future financial forecasts. 5 months before going bust…
It is a fact by Sept 2011 Rangers had exited CL and EL qualifying at hands of Malmo and Maribor.
That meant no concerns of Rangers being active in any UEFA 2011/12 competition they might not have been eligible to play in.
So as a matter of convenience SFA and UEFA let the fraudulent statement of Jun die. No questions asked.
So UEFA already know in 2012 when PL wrote to Infantino about Rangers use of EBTs that there is something amiss at Ibrox.
My theory is that UEFA did not want to investigate Rangers for compensation claim fears. The very thing being aired darn sarf.
Move in to 2013 and Res12 surfaces and asks UEFA to investigate Rangers iro the £2.8m overdue payable in 2011.
Such an investigation risks uncovering events of Sep 2011 but also the side letters with EBTs.
Now in another Investigation at the time into Giannina FC a Greek club who had an overdue payable, UEFA found private agreements for 5 players that on their own breached another UEFA article about Fair Presentation of accounts.
How many did Rangers have going back to 2000?
When Res12 was pursued Celtic constantly said UEFA were not interested in pursuing but it was only in 2017 when the May 2012 letter surfaced I started to realise why Celtic did not do as UEFA suggestedin 2016 because of whatever Infantino told PL in answer to his letter of May 2012.
This is a bit of a War and Piece length reply enable by the gift or curse of good powers of recall.
The same power that abandons me when I leave one room for another and forget why.
Lionsroar
Ps
Check what I said to An Dun about the 5WA and the LNS sham.
And so it begins……………
Andy Burnham has said he would be “really concerned” if Manchester City’s owners decide to sell up after the club was found guilty of Premier League financial rule breaches.
The prime minister said the situation was “contested by Manchester City” and he praised the club’s owners since 2008 – led by Sheikh Mansour, United Arab Emirates deputy prime minister and royal family member – for investing in Manchester.
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full on 30th September 2026 6:21 pm
I am not sure how reliable that 4 OF games guarantee is. I don’t recall seeing any document in support and it may just have become “real” as result of social media repeating until it did. However if it can be shown to be true what an indictment of protecting the integrity of the SPL it would be and I doubt if even Doncaster would accept that condition in a contract.
As regards Regan and the event you refer to fill yer boots:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6uWzxhblAt9bHQxSHNuTnNoTG8/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-Hm91c5L87soEA1Y6iUYGYg
B2B….that’s a myth re 4 x o*d f**m games in the SKY contract.
That was never ever in the SKY contract.
However the viewing figures required for the SKY payments to be achieved could only be reached by 4 x derbys.
Lawwell done the deal in London to stop half the teams in the SPL going bust.
He could have persuaded the other 10 teams to accept Sevco in the top league with a points deduction but he never.
Celtic didn’t need the SKY money but we needed teams to play.
Not getting at you in particular but there’s some lazy anti Celtic pash being spouted on this.
Not in the least surprised at Burnham’s stance on the Cty issue, if you do a little digging, you will discover that the house of Saud has jewish roots, just a little digging is all it takes.
Laxalt
If we had allowed other teams to go bust, I would have bet my grandweans futures that the brit FA would have accommodated us and any other scottish teams
test
‘Sky paid all that money because of Celtic and Rangers… …
The Herald
https://www.heraldscotland.com › sport › 17236404.sk…
20 Nov 2018 — Sky Sports may have paid as much as £160million for a five-year contract for exclusive rights to the SPFL Premiership, although the full price …
SCOTTISH football’s new television deal will be even Old Firm-centric than before which is sure to dismay those who feel the game would be better served by not showing every Celtic and Rangers away game.
Sky Sports may have paid as much as £160million for a five-year contract for exclusive rights to the SPFL Premiership, although the full price has not yet been confirmed, and with so much money involved there was no chance of the two Glasgow giants not being absolutely central to that decision.
This is the informed view of Colin Davidson who more than anyone else has been more deeply involved as to the how Scottish football has been shown in this country over the past 30 years.
Click on the link to read the rest of the article
An industry informers opinion
TET….I’m not so sure about that PLUS it’s some gamble.
Colin Davidson(?) and yourself are basically backing up what I’ve just said.
There is never been a mention of Cel V Ran or OFirm in any contracts.
But…the viewing figures required to trigger the payments to ALL clubs needed the us v the huns x 4.
Rightly or wrongly that is the facts.
Laxalt
I am, but it was never gonna happen, the OF back on track was always the end goal
The Battered Bunnet on 30th September 2026 12:54 pm
Good stuff.
Speaking to some old compatriots about the Seville final today…looked at our chances of qualifying for next years final……… Not good reading !!
Apparently 1.1%
Surelywerenothatshite…
Auldheid on 30th September 2026 7:01 pm
The same power that abandons me when I leave one room for another and forget why.
JOIN the club.now do you remember DONALD MCCLEOD
charlie kelly
willie smith
joe sinagoga.
philip mcgee
wilfred malone
peter quin
vince carey
bunny brennan
tam gormley
Thats without even trying. now as of getting out of bed this morning
brennan
Perfect opportunity to go retro.
Dig out our old Persistence beats Res12tance teeshirt.
HH.
Visited the Estádio Nacional do jamor today….
What a wonderful place..very rural ….and so hard to imagine this was the actual place that our immortal “Lisbon lions” won the big cup here…
I was 10 when we won the cup and feel so lucky to have watched it on the old black and white tv back in the day ….
and then going to Celtic park to watch the Lions parade the trophy round the stadium with my Dad, uncles and Granda…. ……………
My wife …..Mrs Bearsden ( no interest in football ) asked how we managed to get into Celtic park that day…to be honestly I hadn’t actually thought about it….. I would like to have asked my dad ?
I just remember it was jam packed but being that age didn’t think too much about it,
We visited from The Corinthia Lisbon who actually knew all about the stadium tour and were absolutely brilliant with all our requests….
I will honestly say …it was very, very, emotional looking up at the place that big Billy lifted the cup thinking …there are not many of them left….
Just to add ..The Portuguese sports authorities as you no doubt know , have provided a quite wonderful exhibition in one of the tunnels highlighting the achievements of the lions… as previous people have said the security guard is happy to accompany you around… we did try to bribe him to allow us up to the area where Billy received the cup but he was not for having it… I have heard on other days depending on who’s on duty you might have a better chance..
Honestly contemplating visiting again on the 60 th anniversary next year…
Yes there where other hoops supporters turning up when we where there…spoke to some of them with some great stories about the big day…. …such a bitter sweet day but absolutely loved it 🙏☘️
Tictastic on 30th September 2026 1:12 pm
The President of the SFA Campbell Ogilvie had received payments through EBT while at rangers. He knew fine well what was happening. The whole EBT episode which clouded Scottish football makes an absolute mockery of our football governance. The “people” at the very top are an embarrassment. It has not recovered.
*well as I said a week ago we are NOT a European side and huvnae been for many years especially the Big Cup, the current set up puts paid to that, that arrangement was put in place by some of the biggest clubs in it to ensure that at least one of them prevails, one of the architects was unbelievably campbell ogilvie.
AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi wanted to design a closed-shop league of 18 teams, but it was ogilvie who proposed the winning plan of a round-robin format, unfortunately it was us and NOT them that benefitted from it.
Who do you think placed him in UEFA with the SFA’s blessings, a rag and bone man who was knighted for his services to himself and who was also the architect of the current 3rd world fitba in our country, a country that produced some of the greatest players ever and who the english at one time labelled the “Scotch Professors” which led to our game going professional as we kept losing the finest to our noisy neighbours (©) Sir Furious
https://x.com/conorbyline/status/2105288195155878333
Laxalt on 30th September 2026 7:26 pm
B2B….that’s a myth re 4 x o*d f**m games in the SKY contract.
That was never ever in the SKY contract.
However the viewing figures required for the SKY payments to be achieved could only be reached by 4 x derbys.
Lawwell done the deal in London to stop half the teams in the SPL going bust.
He could have persuaded the other 10 teams to accept Sevco in the top league with a points deduction but he never.
Celtic didn’t need the SKY money but we needed teams to play.
Not getting at you in particular but there’s some lazy anti Celtic pash being spouted on this.
=========
So my memory was right. There is quite a lot of pish being spouted on social media with no accountability which is ironical giving what is being asked of Celtic.
That Celtic needed teams to play has got lost in anti Celtic narratives that become facts after a while.
THE EXILED TIM on 30TH SEPTEMBER 2026 7:34 PM
Not in the least surprised at Burnham’s stance on the Cty issue, if you do a little digging, you will discover that the house of Saud has jewish roots, just a little digging is all it takes.
_____________________________
I honestly didn’t see that one coming, and I tried a little digging but instead came up with this.
Historical Lineage: Standard genealogical records trace the House of Saud back to Muhammad bin Saud and the ancient central Arabian Banu Hanifa tribe of the Najd region, rather than any historical Jewish tribes of early Arabia
Auldheid / Laxalt – thanks for clarifying.
Good to put myths to bed … including if I am the one spouting them.
The viewing figures carrot is more logical.
PS – Laxalt, totally cool that you aren’t getting at me.
FWIW – I don’t pin any substantive blame at all at Celtic’s door for the disgraceful way this was handled.
This had brogues, funny hand shakes and fear mongering all over it.
Where we might have done better in the margins, IMHO?
A cynic might think Eric Riley’s holiday was extremely convenient.
DD might have stayed silent but, if he felt empowered and motivated to say anything ?
We could have done without “wonderful brand” type views and the “relegated” word.
Tontine Tim on 30th September 2026 9:26 pm
Tictastic on 30th September 2026 1:12 pm
Here is a five page read that implicates Campbell Ogilvie in the LNS mis direction. I had overlooked that document. They were all at covering up.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FgwuwsNueMU2Hji0yQbd2yB761MIhE9WB7o7JY_MPPw/edit?usp=sharing
auldheid
Unlike in England, so far, re Manchester City, Rangers FC pre and post liquidation were examined at three different levels, the most important of which initially the First Tier Tribunal, ruled 2-1 in the club’s favour back in 2012. As did the Upper Tribunal later. Both the SPL and the SFA also addressed Rangers FC from their own perspectives re relevant rules and regs. Neither of those addressed them fully, leaving more questions than answers. The SFA later attempted to address the issue of the Euro licence, again setting up another Tribunal, later abandoned through its’ own claim to lack of jurisdiction, the word ‘competence’ may also have been used. If not the SFA then who? Not UEFA which if I remember said it was a moot point, and not via the CAS, or at least not via the SFA. and not a role for Celtic FC either I though at the time. The only definitive rulings came via the Inner House of the Court of Session, and later the Supreme Court. And of course BDO on October 17 2024. The football authorities found wanting….
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full on 30th September 2026 11:16 pm
DD does say things that become hostage to fortune but keeping Rangers in Scottish football from a wider business perspective is what he would do.
There is another story, perhaps a myth, that after Rangers in the Championship put Celtic out of the Scottish Cup in April 2016 in the semis after they won 5 4 on penalties that a Rangers official pissed off DD to such an extent DD has sought revenge since.
Later events often change perceptions from previous ones.
Celtic Mac
Celtic asked the SFA to review both LNS and the grant of the UEFA Licence 2011.
The SFA used QC sophistry to refuse looking into LNS but because of testimony at CW trial put the UEFA Licence issue to SFA Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal . Rangers challenged the JPDT jurisdiction under Clause 16.2 of 5WA which meant taking the case to CAS.
The SFA for a number of reasons – cost, time passed since original event ,commercial and public interests gave up pursuit in May 2020.
We all know the real reasons I’m sure.
Greenpinata on 30th September 2026 9:02 pm
Perfect opportunity to go retro.
Dig out our old Persistence beats Res12tance teeshirt.
HH.
============
Ha ha. I still have one. There is a story there too . I was pissed of at Winning Captains who did the work at jumping the gun but as all was well that ended well I was grateful he had.
AULDHEID on 30TH SEPTEMBER 2026 11:37 PM
“Later events often change perceptions from previous ones.”
Not just later events. History tells us that time always brings a different perspective.
Certainty is for fools
FAVOURITE UNCLE on 30th September 2026 8:29 pm
Auldheid on 30th September 2026 7:01 pm
The same power that abandons me when I leave one room for another and forget why.
JOIN the club.now do you remember
DONALD MCCLEOD – Ochone, Ochone from Barra who supported Rangers until he arrived in The Mungo
charlie kelly – Toonheid I think who was as hard as nails footballer. I think he had a cousin who played for Celtic
willie smith Was that the teacher who took one of the football teams?
joe sinagoga. – I can see him in my minds eye. Did he pal with the Gladrialla (sp) lads Frank Brennan?
philip mcgee -was he the really bright we lad and class swot?
wilfred malone No recall but maybe second to Phil McGee for brains
peter quin – tall, lanky another Toonheider possibly. Good lad
vince carey Oh aye went to Shawfield with him to see Tommy Rae who left Partick Thistle to join Aberdeen. His dad had Clyde FC connections. Bumped into him one Saturday out side Argyle Arcade and ended up at Shawfield
bunny brennan – was that Frank who had another brother at the school Galardia again?
tam gormley Was that Vincent Gormley fair haired lad and fast footballer?
You. wore a funny cap in winter with ear flaps?
Gerry McDade -we used to run amok in St Kentigern play ground playing one twos.
Peter McNenemey SP. Footballer who might have played in the 5s in Engelberg on a school trip. Sammy Henderso, John Park and James? Peacock who all went to Celtic played in that tournament in Engelberg.
Who was the guy who had a gun draw with Farmer Kelly – I remember – Ian McLaren.
Farmer had the belt out before Ian, who shot his arms in the air in surrender.
Farmer Kelly was a legend.
Thats without even trying. now as of getting out of bed this morning.
brennan