Your fathers, their fathers, and their fathers before them, have walked away from football grounds thinking the game in Scotland was skewed in favour of another team. As a club founded by immigrants, with our historical support drawn largely from some of the poorest sections of society, for decades Celtic-friendly people were underrepresented in the professional classes, the very classes those who administered and refereed our game were, and still are, drawn from.
No one believes more than me that times have changed. That immigrant community gained equal access to all professions years ago – yes, including referees. The prejudices which, perhaps not surprisingly, developed in Scotland when an incessant flood of around 800,000 immigrants poured into the country over a few short decades, have moved on. Our society is not without prejudice, but it’s others who are now targeted most.
Football decisions made by referees are difficult to prove to be deliberately unfair. I have no doubt that Celtic suffered unfairly in this regard for decades, but I see little evidence of it now, and even if there was, it is impossible to tell the difference between incompetence and bias.
Conclusive evidence of what we were up against was established in 1999 when an independent SFA Commission heard a complaint from Celtic that Jim Farry, the Association’s chief executive, deliberately delayed the registration of Jorge Cadete, meaning the player was unable to play for Celtic in a cup game against Rangers. The Commission upheld Celtic’s complaint and Farry was sacked for gross misconduct – even back then holding a torch for due process.
That incident came at the end of a difficult period to be a Celtic fan. Rangers had violated one of our cherished records, Nine-in-a-row, was matched, not by wonderful athletic achievement, as Celtic did, but by the might of the cheque book. Fergus built a stadium, left us a little over £2m in debt and taught the SFA a valuable lesson. In short, he put Celtic on a level playing field with everyone else in the country.
In August 2000 an almighty game of football reset all the dials. Celtic scored six against then champions Rangers. We won the league by 21 points, won the Scottish and League cups, our first treble in 32 years. On and off the park, we were better than a team who only a few years earlier seemed light-years ahead of a sorry looking Celtic.
Rangers responded by flooding more cash into their football squad, this time using Employee Benefit Trusts. In February last year Celtic Quick News was first to raise the question that these EBT payment might not have been registered with the SFA and SPL. Within three weeks the SPL commenced an investigation into the question, which found Rangers had a case to answer. The league set up the Commission which will report at noon today.
This is the most important decision in Scottish football history with implications for past and current directors of the organisations which run our game; people who were legally obliged to ensure rules were applied fairly, thoroughly and evenly.
It has implications for the Rangers group of clubs and for the international reputation of Scottish football, but none of this matters to you and me. We want to know if we were watching a level playing field for 11 years, or if the game was rigged. I can’t think of a more important decision in the history of British sport. There has never been and will never again be a decision which casts a shadow on 14 trophies, ‘won’ allegedly by a team playing by different rules to the rest.
The First Tier Tribunal decision last year and forthcoming Upper Tier Tribunal are sideshows. This is the main event, second only to Lisbon in importance to Scottish football. I am confident the decision will go against the group of clubs. If it doesn’t, we should not demean ourselves by slipping into paranoia. This is an independent commission, anyone who tells you otherwise is deluded.
My only concern is that the scale of punishments which would be appropriate for a guilty verdict are, frankly, so enormous, I expect every available opportunity to mitigate the sanctions to be exploited. This is a black cap verdict, but despite their impartiality, I don’t expect the Commission to dress sombrely when signing the decision.
A bottle of expensive fizzy stuff is in the fridge, in case we need to toast all those generations who, unlike us today, never had the opportunity to nail the truth.
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next move your mr lawel…we are waiting quietly for your response..i believe that you are about to make the biggest call of your time as chief exec…i have a feeling that 99% of celtic fans will be happy as long as you come out and declare this ‘whitewash’ as a disgrace..if you dont ?….i believe we are in big big trouble
Seville67
why punish yourself and Celtic?
We all know this decision stinks and the SPL was a farce for 10 years, but we need to stick together and back our club against this corrupt society.
Keep the faith
CTTC
TwoMacaroons,
they wont do that just as they wont take titles
It stinks that there is a verdict when the tax case is undecided
the only way to topple this regime of cheats is to
tumblweed all grounds in scotland and force them ALL out
would be great if all fans stayed at home for a fortnight
Celtic MUST comment. They have to say something to the fans. This result IF correct means that we have no say in this game and we would be as well packing up and playing GAA at Paradise.
This is the biggest scandal in British football history.
I am on the verge of chucking it. I can handle them cheating if the punishment is just and steps are in place going forward to prevent it happening again. I can’t and won’t accept a nothing to see move along and geez yer money!
LB
I rarely agree with James F cos he called me a drunk diddy once, but I’d almost go along with him above.
Possibly there is a better way…..a concerted position by fans across the game to ‘boycott’ totally UNLESS the boards agree to tendering resignation letters and re-establishing under a new single ruling body.
Should the boards fail to follow the wishes of the fans………well imagine…..no income…..no fans………no players…………no television…………..
Just giving up without offering a route to safety and money in the administrations wallets is like kidnapping someone and not telling the victim’s family what the ransom is.
I would give them a month, and then they would know what Armageddon really looked like.
Hail Hail
Estadio the Drunk diddy
Is there no one out there that can do something about this in your face bias in favour of Cheating FC.UEFA FIFA someone
Tom English@TomEnglishSport
SPL commission, previously derided as a kangaroo court by Rangers fans is now declared a paragon of justice by the jubilant Bears
regans social unrest comment is a threat-not his place to say things like that
Judgement from Lord Nimmo Smith’s
independent commission will say no unfair competitive advantage was gained on the field.
I hope Spartans have a good lawyer…
kevjungle – scf 1980=the only time huns faced true justice
11:45 on 28 February, 2013
I think it’s time for the fans of ALL Scottish Clubs
to go – OFF OOT – from the game and rebuild it.
HH
so so true
hail hail kev
Celtic_to_the_core
Turning up and giving your hard-earned cash to a team in a corrupt competition makes you a mug.
There are so many rewarding things to do in life other than follow football.
10 years of a very large number of repetitive adminstrative errors.. you honestly couldnt make it up. Threats of extreme violence and intimidation clearly works in 21st century Scotland.
Bye bye planet fitba, Im going to spend my time and hard earned on other things.
if people want to contribute to their own cheating then its their choice
Hi Paul,
a very rare poster, and love your earlier post. It was very hoeful that fairness and justice would prevail.
But If what has been reported so far is true, then I am absolutely disgusted at this verdict.
But should I really be surprised? They have orchestrated tthis scam from the start. They had a long term game-plan to free themselves from their toxic debts and to start afresh.
Murray and Whyte have been colluding in this from the begining, years before they went into adminstration last year.. The brazen faced Whyte has taken the grief to spare Murray the embarrasment of closing the old club if due process had taken place.
Green is just a temporary puppet in it for the money and will sell on to some other hun in due course once the heat has settled down. Expect that to happen before the end of the year.
Last year, their former director and empathisers in postions of power thwarted the rules and raised a vote which would have allowed newco to start in the SPL, no debts and business as usual.
This vote should never have never have taken place and is an indication of the favouritism awarded to them then and will always be awarded to them.
“Aye ready” .. you betcha .. ready to cheat for their brothers whenever ithe situation arises .. Just don’t make it too obvious or we will upset Timmy and those Timmy lawyers are getitng wiser to us these days”
If it had not been for the decent fans from the rest of the Scottish teams, with their sense of fair-play, then they would have been back playing in the SPL with minimal punishment and no significant changes and laughing at us.
Well they’re laughing at us now.
They’ve cheated us, like they’ve always cheated us.
Like they will always cheat us.
Worse, its not your average hun that has cheated us, it’s institutionalised, orchestrated, long term cheating.
The long game .. get your chees pieces in position and don’t make it obvious.
My gut reaction is .. Walk away Celtic .. walk away from this corrupt little back-water of a country.
But thats what they want .. then they win. Europe every year, back in the big time.
So stuff them Celtic, challenge this corruption at every opportunity.
On the football pitch, loan out our best young players to the lower division and lets prevent them from getting back up where they want to be.
Hail Hail all .. keep fighting the good fight.
Disgusted Glasgow.
Estadio should the board FOLLOW the wishes of the fans we’d be marching on Ibrox this very minute with our sledge hammers and steelies.
Blue gates into ploughshares. That’s what I say.
Estadio:
The memory of it escapes me mate. Must have been a drunk diddy myself at the time!
I will get into trouble saying this, but anyone expecting our club to lead the way on this is going to be very disappointed.
to all those thinking of walking away, why havent you walked away before ? or did you believe the msm and also believe that tims were paranoid ?
Jane Lewis @JaneLewisSport
RT: @BBCAlLamont Judgement from Lord Nimmo Smith’s independent commission will say no unfair competitive advantage wasgained on the field
Retweeted by Electronic Tims
If Ogilvie is still in a job this time tomorrow, we should kick off a vote of no confidence in the SFA.
There would be quite a reaction if we pulled out of the game on Saturday too, but just can’t see that happening…
T4
79caps
Hadn’t even considered that until now. You might have a point. Wouldn’t surprise me if that was the plan all along.
Now would be a good time for the Pro Independence mob on here to make their case as to why a Roman Catholic of Irish descent like myself, would ever dream of voting Yes for a Salmondland whose sole purpose from top to bottom is to appease ‘The Peepul’.
jungle jam67 & kevjungle that start afresh cry was aired on here last night and attracted some support..
Telt ewes telt ewes telt ewes telt ewes telt ewes telt ewes telt ewes!!!
What a load of tosh, raging with this decision. Same old same old, corrupt as hell
Celtic has no bigger right to be disgusted by this ruling than any other club.
This has to be an issue for all clubs disadvantaged by thems actions……
Absolute disgrace of a decision.
Celtic_to_the_core,
It will be El Classico next year ans somewhere else next year. The only way that I would consider returning will be determined by Celtic’s actions.
My thoughts are that the Celtic board can’t wait to get them back in the SPL.
I honestly can’t see UEFA accepting this one. They need some sort of standardisation across Europe – and this is so out of line with other countries that I hope they step in.
Seville67
Seville67
the whole thing has been a stage managed charade from day 1, exit murray,exit smith, enter whyte, exit bain and others – enter greeen etc – did any of you really expect anything else ?
To you blue nose lurkers GIRUY.
He who laughs last…
A wee word of thanks and appreciation in advance to those with the diligence and discipline to read through the decisions and give us, gratis, the fruits of their labour.
Buzzers at the ready………….
tttt
O will be there well after you and I are gone!!
Surprised? – I don’t think so!
spikeysauldman
No the belief was that this time we had them bang to rights, cheating out in the open, ball in front of goal Nimmo Smith with the shot…………………..OVER THE BAR!!
If this wasn’t going to go the right way then it never will, and if it never will what’s the point?
Is anyone really surprised.
Rotten to the core.
Celtic’s reaction to this latest whitewash will determine whether or not I spend another penny on the club. Sadly, I have little confidence that we will see sufficient reaction to satisfy me that they have a genuine desire to fight/end this corruption, so my money will be spent elsewhere until we are no longer part of Scottish football.
Be good if he took Sevco’s titles away by declaring them a new club.
It wont happen right enough.