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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£250,000 fine for oldco
SCANDALOUS!!!!!!!!
Thought the bhoys were p**s poor last night
The game in Scotland died many years ago, today is just the funeral…
Heartsick..
On a brief reading, Smith has drawn conclusions which don’t stand up to scrutiny, and has made reference to the club/company issue landing firmly on the side of nonsense.
Don’t know if l will bother going back to football what’s the point!
Do the people who believed the Commission was ‘impartial’ after reading the above, still believe that to be the case?
If they do, they are utterly delusional imo.
This is the real tainted world. In other news bankers making huge losses pay themselves millions in bonuses while disabled families have benefits cut to bail them out.
Stomach churning news day.
To be fair to the rulers – did the huns gain any advantage by fielding legends such as Kontermann, Flo and other heroes? Seems like the commission may know something about football after all!
That punishment makes absolutely no sense.
Might as well complain that your lover is ugly and has a lousy personality . Why continue the relationship if that’s what you think ?
It looks like the plan is give them a light slap on the wrist for years of cheating and move on quickly to the next part of the plan which is to get them back in to the SPL as quickly as possible.We the fans have over the years spent a small fortune following our team in a corrupt league the huns got the trophies and the laughs at us.Scottish football will continue supporting the establishment team while expecting us the mugs to keep paying up.Bhoys if this is not sorted honestly the future of Scottish football is dead. H.H.
quantum @12:02 the Neil Lennon fiasco was due in no small measure to prosecutors who put their desire for self-aggrandisement ahead of their duty to prove the charges that they laid. They assumed guilt and so saw no need to prove it.
There does appear to be a Fourth Reich after all. Geme’s a bogey.
SalmondLandCSC
That’s it ….
I’m finished with it too.
The game is corrupt to the core.
I won’t set foot in a Scottish football stadium again after today .
What is the point
History
[4] Rangers Football Club was founded in 1872 as an association football club. It was
incorporated in 1899 as The Rangers Football Club Limited. In 2000 the company’s name was
changed to The Rangers Football Club Plc, and on 31 July 2012 to RFC 2012 Plc. We shall refer
to this company as “Oldco”.
[5] The SPL was incorporated in 1998. Its share capital consists of sixteen shares of £1 each,
of which twelve have been issued. Oldco was one of the founding members of the SPL, and
remained a member until 3 August 2012 when the members of the SPL approved the registration
of a transfer of its share in the SPL to The Dundee Football Club Limited. Each of the twelve
members owns and operates an association football club which plays in the Scottish Premier
League (“the League”). The club owned and operated by Oldco played in the League from 1998
until 2012 under the name of Rangers Football Club (“Rangers FC”). Throughout this period,
Oldco was also a member of the Scottish Football Association (“the SFA”), the governing of the sport in Scotland.
[6] When the SPL was first formed, a controlling interest in Oldco was held by David (from
2007 Sir David) Murray through the medium of Murray MHL Limited, part of the Murray Group
of companies. On 6 May 2011 the controlling shareholding was acquired by Wavetower
Limited, a newly incorporated company formed for the purpose of the acquisition, and controlled
by Craig Whyte. Oldco experienced financial difficulties, and on 19 March 2012 the Court of
Session made an administration order and appointed Paul John Clark and David John
Whitehouse, both of Duff & Phelps Limited, as joint administrators, with effect from
14 February 2012 (the date of their original, invalid appointment). Oldco is now in liquidation; a
winding up order was made by the Court of Session on 31 October 2012, and Malcolm Cohen made an administration order and appointed Paul John Clark and David John
Whitehouse, both of Duff & Phelps Limited, as joint administrators, with effect from
14 February 2012 (the date of their original, invalid appointment). Oldco is now in liquidation; a
winding up order was made by the Court of Session on 31 October 2012, and Malcolm Cohen
4
and James Stephen, both of the accountancy organisation BDO, were appointed joint interim
liquidators.
[7] On 14 June 2012 a newly incorporated company, Sevco Scotland Limited, purchased
substantially all the business and assets of Oldco, including Rangers FC, by entering into an asset
sale and purchase agreement with the joint administrators. The name of Sevco Scotland Limited
was subsequently changed to The Rangers Football Club Limited. We shall refer to this
company as Newco.
[8] Newco was not admitted to membership of the SPL. Instead it became the operator of
Rangers FC within the Third Division of the Scottish Football League (“the SFL”). It also
became an associate member of the SFA. These events were reflected in an agreement among
the SFA, the SPL, the SFL, Oldco and Newco, which was concluded on 27 July 2012.
As things stand I won’t be spending one more thin dime on Scottish football.
It’s a mug’s game.
James, it’s not getting there that would be success. Just taking the first step on a journey in the right direction would be a start.
Here’s yer first step…..A posting to every club blog/message board and a letter to every fanzine. Test the water and find out. We have the technology….we can rebuild it…and we can OWN the objective and the outcome across all of football. Look at what is possible and not what the obstacles might be.
Otherwise what do we do? Nothing?
Hail Hail
Estadio
daddy, why don’t you watch the fitba anymore ?
fitba’s deid son, fitba’s deid
Vhman
They broke the rules but it was just a wee accident,
Administrive error £250k fine.
Nothing to see here move along
A travesty.
Richard Wilson @timomouse
Seriously, LNS was punishing within the boundaries set by the SPL. This is a whitewash and nothing more.
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HH
FFS.. No advantage ?
Shambles..
Vmhan,
Whitewash mucker.
No sanctions, in fact, pretty much states that there was nothing much done wrong.
A bigger slap in the face is then delivered by stating that this is the same club, but different companies ran it.
Move along Timmy, nothing to see.
Mucker
I have not been able to afford a season ticket for two seasons now.
so have been pay as you go when i can, that and taking up the offer of season tickets that were not being used on the day, means I have been to most home games since.
Since the start of the season I have been putting a little by weekly in the hope that I could afford a ST again in the summer.
IFFFFFFFFFFFFFF today my beloved club goes along with this charade one more day I AM FINISHED.
celtic have been a major part of my life for nearly 52 years ,From my granda, my da, my uncles Neily & John who all will be sitting at the right hand of God today saddened at these events.
Today I beg my club NO MORE please , you are in a position of strength like never before,Help me stay strong in our love affair.
I cannot live anymore with three of us in the relationship you me and corruption.
PL it is up to you and the board to show me you think more of me, my childre and those that have went before us than making a profit.
I cannot believe I am typing this with tears of sadness running down my cheeks.
I dont care what HMRC The FTT or LNS say BUT I DO need to know that I mean more to you than just money, it is up to you show me and I will STAND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER with you till my dying day or I will have to live broken hearted watching one of the loves of my life from afar.
I could say so much more but will wait for another day on here.
ASonOfDan:
your desire to make political points is odd. The huns were given the freedom to discriminate under Labour administrations for decades. Indeed they encouraged bigotry.
I believe they did gain an unfair advantage however guilty means guilty and so the punishment should be the same as for other found guilty for similar misdemeanours.
V
John O Neil
12:14 on 28 February, 2013
To be fair to the rulers – did the huns gain any advantage by fielding legends such as Kontermann, Flo and other heroes? Seems like the commission may know something about football after all!
—
if that’s meant to be a joke your timing is inappropriate.
I dont buy this tosh of “never gained an advantage on the field of play” Nacho Novo was signed by the dead club when we were also interested in him. Difference being, they could pay him via an offshore trust while we would have to go down the PAYE route. They save 1m by doing this. Scunnered aint the word i feel today.
Didnt expect anything else. For all the reasons mentioned before I do not understand how it can be said that they did not have an unfair advantage in playing players incorrectly registered and paid in a way that allowed their club to field players they would not otherwise be able to afford.
Do not expect Peter Lawell or Celtic to say anything for the reason that they see them as the pivot to arrest declining ticket sales and revive TV interest. For all who say they will not attend, the next Celtic v them game will be a sellout and will see hype never seen before. A sad day guys….. but expected.
Cqn beats the bbc to the drop!
‘…payments in the form of loans….’ a mega pant-filler for those players/former employees who will get the knock from BDO!
HH
Lance Armstrong to appeal to LNS!
Bullshit cop-out saying that once a player is registered they need to be de-registered to becoming ineligible.
Ntassoolla
12:15 on 28 February, 2013
‘quantum @12:02 the Neil Lennon fiasco was due in no small measure to prosecutors who put their desire for self-aggrandisement ahead of their duty to prove the charges that they laid. They assumed guilt and so saw no need to prove it.’
The prosecution proved assault beyond doubt.
They also provided evidence of the aggravation from the Hearts steward.
The jury could have return a conviction for assault under deletion of the aggravation.
They didn’t.
timgreen:
a little unfair! I am also disgusted with this sham decision.
I know I was driving at 90mph going past a school, but I didn’t kill anyone, did I?
I know I shot a gun into a crowded room but I didn’t kill anyone, did I?
Surely it is the act of breaking the rules or laws that constitutes an offence? What the consequences of that act might be is a separate issue.
They were just a wee bit pregnant M’lud.
like i said if you pay to get shafted you cannot really complain, anyone from now on who
pays in to watch their football is going get what they paid for and its official now,
the difference now and all the previous years is we thought we were cheated on,
now you will know you are and whats more you will be paying for that privilege.
Dont see that they refused to sign a Catholic for over 100 years.
There’s nothing left for us here we have to find a way out of this league.
My understanding from what I’ve read so far is that LNS is saying the authorities were entitled to revoke the registrations because of the incomplete documentation on payment submitted by the huns. Because the authorities did not revoke those registrations, the players were eligible to play.