The fourth episode of ‘The CQN Podcast: A Celtic State of Mind’ finds Paul John Dykes and Paul Brennan discussing the HMRC’s landmark victory in last week’s tax avoidance case against Rangers (IL).
Much has been written in the aftermath of this historic ruling, and Paul Brennan dissects the key issues before explaining where Scottish football goes from here. Some of the highlights of Paul’s interview include:
On Newco being admitted to the bottom tier of Scottish football in 2012:
“Without pressure from all of these other clubs in the SPL, it wouldn’t have happened… And what you would have got is that Newco would have been straight into the SPL.”
On the Supreme Court’s EBT decision:
“Everyone knew that this was a scam… It was a euphoric moment when the words, ‘The appeal is denied,’ were uttered at the Supreme Court.”
On Celtic’s response:
“Celtic are busy on this subject.”
On the SFA’s response:
“That was an attempt to bolt the door on it. That’s not good enough… It is utter nonsense.”
On Rangers’ response:
“The Dave King Friday night special, which is utterly glorious. ‘We did nothing wrong?’ It’s intellectually incoherent… He’s shot his bolt.”
On the governance of Scottish football:
“There is a huge governance issue here. This is not a banana republic. The executive of the SFA right now believes that they are untouchable.”
“The one categorical issue here is that our game has been brought into disrepute. Our game is forever impacted; Scottish football is never going to be the same again.”
On other Scottish clubs pulling together to demand a fresh independent investigation:
“It is important that clubs’ fans make their views known; express their opinion… Press the button now; make your feelings clear on it now… You need allies in this game every now and again, and right now Celtic need allies.”
Paul John also chats to Alternative View Editor, Matt McGlone, about fan power and what can be done following the SFA’s attempts to quickly bury the case in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision on EBTs.
Over 20,000 listeners have tuned into the first four episodes of The CQN Podcast, and we have some fantastic guests from the world of football, broadcasting and music lined up for shows in the coming weeks.
The latest podcast can be found here:
