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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tom mclaughlin
12:25 on 28 February, 2013
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Don’t kid yourself mate, if we go, they go to.
11 years of side letters which were illegal and it’s an administration error
Can’t get my head round that
im perfectly willing to continue with scots football and support the team i love.today’s pathetic findings came as little shock for me.
the only condition i insist on is that celtic football club make their feelings clear and public on this matter.if they dont i will never ever set foot on celtic park again.never.
i dont expect anything to be done,i dont even ask for a bycott or ‘half time walkout’…all i want is a statement of honesty and support from our directors..we have been mugged and raped by rangers and scottish footballs governing body.
Haud on, The payments were not illegal, the players registration did not advantage them. So, what was the £250,000 fine for????
If all the references are to Oldco and the fine is Oldcos and the registrations are Oldcos, why are the board of Sevco satisfied and happy with the verdict, its got nothing to do with them.
Total obfuscation and peesh of the highest order….
cavansam \o/
12:26 on 28 February, 2013
‘The report seems to be claiming that as HMRC lost the case about the EBT’s then their relevence as payment to players is moot, but the side letters should still have been disclosed to the SPL.
What happens if HMRC win the appeal?’
######
This farce puts me in mind of Lord Denning’s ‘appalling vista’ comment.
Fine at the time but when the truth eventually came out it showed him up for what he truly was.
The Huns will be delirious, no sporting advantage ? ??? Even they in their wildest dreams could never imagined this result !!!
Disgusting, disgraceful, shocking, pathetic , rank rotten
Oldco is responsible for the fine. LNS says his commission knows this means the fine will be irrecoverable, but Oldco were really, really naughty, so they were, and he is fizzing mad at them, and therefore feels this is the appropriate sanction.
Might as well make it £2.5 billion, then.
ernie
He’s been promoted.
asonofdan, please stop using this travesty to push your political agenda. Leave it for another time
What is the point of watching Scottish football anymore?
I am loathed to hurt Celtic but I feel like not spending any more money watching a rigged game.
Celtic fans spent 250M watching Celtic in those 11 years and they get a punishment which dwarfs it.
The SFA may (ha ha) decide to remove Scottish cups but I won’t hold my breath.
All we have now is to see them in Division 3 as a newco and while it will provide some laughs for some time to come justice again has evaded them and they’ve got away with it.
This day is reminiscent of the Diouf /Bougherra bouncing out of Hampden with a wee fine when neither should have played again that season (the latter especially).
The game is now seen to be rigged more than ever.
But what do we do?
Hurt Celtic because they are cheats but some Lawyers decided not to punish them?
Attend European games only?
That would seem silly to me but it would reflect the mood of many.
I have never been so disgusted in my life but lets face it at the back of our minds we knew it was coming.
Brother Aidan
For not telling the SPL and the SFA that they were paying the money stipulated in the side letters.
LNS doesn’t know why Oldco directors chose to do that, but he does not think it was because of dishonesty.
I remain dissapointed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21604986
However, the findings rule out any sporting penalty, as the non-disclosure did not affect the eligibility of players.
“Rangers FC did not gain any unfair competitive advantage from the contraventions of the SPL Rules in failing to make proper disclosure of the side-letter arrangements,” it states.
“Nor did the non-disclosure have the effect that any of the registered players were ineligible to play, and for this and other reasons no sporting sanction or penalty should be imposed upon Rangers FC.”
Side letter = wee brown envelope?
SKY Sports and ESPN cancelled.
Won’t be watching fitba going forward game is a disgrace.
take care fellow Tims. The dark days are among us. This country is slowly going backwards. Try and explain that verdict to a child. Makes no sense. Scotland has said cheating is OK.
Celtic should withdraw their stadium from the Commonwealth Games on sporting integrity grounds.
I am scunnered by the wording of that document. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. It’s not even in the same ball park.
LB
mrs j. “I telt you” Hate when shes right.<;o(
Their blatant contempt for the rest of Scottish football and its fans is breathtaking. Yes, they cheated. Yes, we know what the rule book says, but we’re going to totally ignore it and let them off SCOTT FREE. now bugger off WATP.
This’ll save you reading the 42 page version.
Ten Men Won The League
12:14 on 28 February, 2013
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.
—————————————————————————————————————-
I’d hoped that they would’ve been impartial but – hey – we live in the best wee (bigoted) country in the world. I’m finished with it. I won’t put another single pence into, a clearly biased, Scottish football.
Paul67
What is your take on this decision please?
Now I think about it, I’m sure if the FTT was scored 2-1 instead of 2-1 then the ‘punishment’ would’ve been much steeper. I know they are separate investigations but I feel that the first outcome influenced this one. The disappointing thing is that first outcome could prove to be incorrect.
would the last man to leave put the lights out …..the flush well and truly busted ghents
Livibhoy
LNS has not said cheating is all right. He has said that the crafty old huns cheated but that they cannot be deemed to have gained an advantage from the cheating because they registered their players in good faith and no one told them the registrations were incorrect.
Spartans, eat your heart out.
Surely if no scottish cups are removed Spartans etc can sue the sfa?
Instead of 1-2 I meant.
If this is true……
Sick, Disgusted and finished with it.
One rule for one and another for everyone else. Not a sport any more, it’s just like WWE only with 11 a side.
Never again. Celtic and the other teams in SFL are complicit by their silence…..
Bhoys we have only one hope that our beloved club come out with a statement saying that they and there fans are extremely disatisfied without the out come of the whole Rangers fiasco.That they and there fans feel that the years that they were cheated out of trophies have not been satisfactorily delt with.However,dont bet your mortgage on them doing it.I think many fans will walk away from the Scottish game today.H.H.
ernie lynch @12:20 the Hearts steward’s statement was not given immediately and was not corroborated by anyone within earshot i.e. – Neil Lennon, Alan Thompson. Joham Mjallby etc … The statement was not believed.
The prosecution refused a plea of guilty to the lesser charge of assault, went for broke and lost. The prosecution were not competent. And let’s face it. Some of the senior prosecutors in Scotland are not top drawer and hold their places because the politicians prefer Law Officers of a lesser calibre.
There are no words to describe what I have just heard on SSN…..disgusting comes nowhere near it……..no sporting advantage…..!!!!!!!???????…… This has got to be the biggest coverup in Sport …….Scottish Football Clubs have been well and truly shafted by Oldco / SFA / SPL / MEDIA / politics, and It will come back to bite the lot of them……fans like myself are now forced to review whether or not we want to be part of, and feed, this corruption by continuing to attend football matches……..and Celtic / other Clubs can do nothing about this, since it is a legal ruling…..but we, as individual fans can……it’s decision time…
If and when HMRC win the tax case then it will be obvious that the huns did gain a competitive advantage by fielding players they could not otherwise have afforded.
And they only got away with it for so long as they did because of the lack of disclosure.
Furthermore the huns conceded at the FTT tribunal that certain of the payments made were contractual and accepted liability for the tax.
Surely a competitive advantage was gained from fielding those players?
If you offer enticements to players in order to sign them which they accept, and you fail to disclose those enticements to the authorities,
HOW IS THAT NOT GAINING AN UNFAIR SPORTING ADVANTAGE.
250 k fine for a defunct club that dissolved owing tens of millions of pounds!!!!
is it true that the commision has also imposed a 5 year prison sentence on ‘jimmy savile’ for his crimes against children?
Games over Bhoys , ever other club should hand in their resignation and attempt to get clearance from Uefa to start up a new Association and league set up in Scotland .
If this is not contested by our club in particular then I will find it very difficult if not impossible to put anymore money into Scottish football.
It will break my heart but sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in .
HH
“(6) Rangers FC did not gain any unfair competitive advantage from the contraventions of
the SPL Rules in failing to make proper disclosure of the side-letter arrangements, nor
did the non-disclosure have the effect that any of the registered players were ineligible
to play, and for this and other reasons no sporting sanction or penalty should be
imposed upon Rangers FC;”
A sad day indeed.
The FTT case gave us a taste of how fine legal minds could make a bald assertion without explanation and only defend it via an appeal that they were unimpeachably impartial, therefore it must be right and we had to accept it.
Brogan, Rogan & Paul 67 had tried to discern some devious intent in the non-explanation of the Assenting Judges in the FTT case. They felt that they were, possibly teeing Sevco up for LNS to deliver the coup de grace. But, sadly, no, they meant to find them Not Guilty. They meant to follow the Calvin Coolidge principle of saying little for fear of exposing the inconsistencies and lack of candour in their reticence.
And now, with the quote above, LNS does exactly what Mure & Rae did. A pronouncement without an explanation of why that decision was deduced.
I am making no knee jerk reaction today on how I will treat Scottish football in future. I will study the reactions and fall out to this whitewash. But, I have trailed my intention to quit active support of a game I love, if appropriate responses are not forthcoming.
LNS, on behalf of his masters, has just called out every Chairman, Major Shareholder, Board member & fan of every football club in Scotland but mostly, for me, of all Celtic fans.
These are testing and trying times.
How will we respond?
If you let someone break the law and they get away with it they will do it again. They think they are above the law and today’s verdict gives the same impression.
They will cheat again. They are above the law.
I am finished with it all unless Celtic make a statement now regarding this.
LB
theweegreenman
Never again. Celtic and the other teams in SFL are complicit by their silence…..
It’s been 40 minutes since the findings were published. Clubs will have to take time to read everything before deciding whether to comment or not.
Mort
Suppose we overcome Juve………………..should be plenty of tickets available for the quarter final. :-)
Hail Hail
Estadio
theweegreenman
12:37 on 28 February, 2013
If this is true……
Sick, Disgusted and finished with it.
One rule for one and another for everyone else. Not a sport any more, it’s just like WWE only with 11 a side.
Never again. Celtic and the other teams in SFL are complicit by their silence…..
…………………………..
Give them a chance! It’s only been public for about 40 minutes.
Will the final piece of the jigsaw be HMRC winning their appeal?
Looking forward to Sunday. My 5 year old grandson plays his first full football game. <:o))