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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we always knew they would get away with it
as they do with their walks
hearts sack McGlynn
!!Bada Bing!!
10:59 on
28 February, 2013
Our Board will see at last 3 free shots at the CL, and all the money that comes with it, as more than enough compensation!
One hour before the verdict has been delivered Bhoys keep your dry, steady….
Is the verdict guilty? It seems so – at least in some cases.
Paul
Irrespective of how this shameful episode is finally put to bed, your piece today is up there with your best
Even if this isn’t resolved to our satisfaction – WE KNOW what the dead club did
starry plough
hooooooooooooold
The Bartin Main @BartinMain Protected account
£250k fine? That’s a scandal. A real, unashamed scandal @ScottishFA
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Kris@neurosceptic
Rangers lost those titles anyway when their team decided to go into liquidation. They didn’t need anyone to strip the titles off them.
fanadpatriot
10:52 on
28 February, 2013
Celtic has been cheated out of millions.Celtic what ARE YOU going to do?
=============================
I reckon Celtic will already have been involved in discussions on their reaction. They will be pragmatic in terms of financial compensation. Where will the money come from? Not Rangers Oldco and NewCo will argue it is not their problem.
The SFA? They allowed the licensing documentation to go through for years and share the blame. An agreement may be reached with them but it will be symbolic rather than real cost.
Best hope is to use a guilty verdict as a bargaining chip to either get out of Scottish football or replace the SFA with something fit for purpose.
Alison Robbie@AlisonRobbie
#Rangers won’t be stripped of any titles. There’s only a small punishment. More soon…
Retweeted by Angela Haggerty
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41 secsHarry Brady@HarryBradyCU
I expect – RFC Guilty. Sanction SHOULD be…But no longer in league. Over to SPL on sanctions applied to any NEWCO entering top flight
ever heard the phrase anything for a quiet life,that is the way it is in this country.rather than publishing the absolute truth they will say there was guilt and give a fine which will never be paid just like the loans which will never see the light of day.after last nights result this makes it a bad 24 hours for s and a good 24 hours for them.
we,ll let u know.
Suppose we need to wait for the verdict, but if, as the rumours are going, they are found guilty, how can they not be stripped of Titles.
Or what have they been found guilty of???
I seem to recall a decision last year where, when sanctions where being handed out, their deeds had been described as almost on a par with Match fixing.
If this is true, then what will be done about it?
Don’t mean to sound like I’m getting caught up in a screaming match over a rumour, but this smells really bad with almost an hour to go, til we find out for definite.
Mucker
NoMoreCSC
Not being stripped of titles according toBBC…….oh well
What happens if HMRC wins their appeal against the tax case and it turns out all of the payments were taxable earnings?
Will we need another tribunal?
Auldheid
Could there be a breakaway football association for those who no longer wish to be governed by bodies they can no longer trust (SPL/SFA) ??
The verdict is obviously GUILTY, when the only issue that’s important to “thems” is the stripping of titles. Anything other than that, they couldn’t give a $!!T.
Why hasn’t Chucky opened his gub yet?
What other sanctions can be applied??
I said yesterday it looked like a deal had been done dependant on them clearing their football debt.
SFA/SPL stitch up the fan of every other club again. I hope the likes of a Spartan look to sue someone.
http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/rangers/215764-rangers-oldco-fined-250000-by-spl-commission-but-club-retains-titles/
STV Sport@STVSport
Rangers oldco have been fined around £250,000 but will keep their SPL titles http://bit.ly/YBw0WK
Post for Snake LOL
BFI@BFI
Steven Spielberg has been announced as chair of this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury http://bbc.in/VcPDsx
Jonny the Tim
I feel he will soon be back on his soapbox.
The verdict is guilty but the commission fine a dead club.
Justice my erchie.
They COULD have stripped titles, they just didn’t want to.
Time to act.
RIP Scottish Football.
You have just driven the final nail into the coffin lid.
That’s it. Football is finished in Scotland!
Their punishment looks like a joke so far.
Snake Plissken
Why are the press allowed to report this if the official verdict is not yet out? Makes a mockery of the whole thing..
STV stating that oldco found guilty and fined £250K but keeps its titles.
So … they have fined a club that is in liquidation. Pathetic. And pointless.
But … the titles clearly belong to the oldco, including the many tainted ones.
On thinking about paying all that debt, might kill them anyway, they are already running at a loss.
Sham, sham, sham. Right lets get the Atlantic league up and running and leave the corruption of Scottish football behind.
On a different topic, this from today’s Herald:
Fears over police misuse of anti-sectarian powers
Gerry Braiden
Local Government Correspondent
Thursday 28 February 2013
LEADING lawyers have raised concerns that football fans in Scotland are having their human rights undermined by new police powers introduced to crack down on sectarianism.
crackdown: A year on from the introduction of the Offensive Behaviour at Football legislation, police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics. Picture: PA
crackdown: A year on from the introduction of the Offensive Behaviour at Football legislation, police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics. Picture: PA
They are making their claims in public for the first time about laws that have seen supporters put under surveillance orders and even quizzed by detectives at airports when returning from holidays.
A year since the introduction of the Offensive Behaviour at Football legislation, lawyers claim supporters are facing police harassment, with their rights being routinely eroded.
And many cases eventually brought against fans are either dropped or found not proven, it is claimed.
However, the officer in charge of the police’s national football unit (FoCUS) says no complaints have been received from lawyers, adding that while arrests have remained static, convictions are increasing.
Instances of alleged heavy-handed enforcement include a 17-year-old kept in police cells and a young offenders institute for almost a week after being refused bail before later receiving a banning order.
One fan’s application for a taxi driver’s licence was opposed by police who said he was the subject of an application for a Football Banning Order despite no ban materialising.
The prosecution of 18-year-old Connor McGhie, a Rangers fan who received three months for sectarian remarks at a game in Inverness, has also been highlighted as an example of the legislation “cracking a nut”.
Most of the attention is also focused on Celtic’s Green Brigade fans and Rangers’ Union Bears group, neither of which are associated by the Football Co-ordination Unit for Scotland with casuals or illegal groups.
Paul Kavanagh, director of Glasgow and Edinburgh based legal firm Gildeas, said: “While going on holiday with their families, people who have been recognised at football matches by the police are stopped routinely at Glasgow Airport.
“It is correct for people who sing sectarian songs or shout sectarian insults to be arrested and processed through the courts. However, what about a person displaying a banner that is not sectarian in anyway, simply walking to a football match and being told to provide his name and address to police for no apparent reason, or walking down the street with his family and being spoken to by the police as they recognised him at a football match? Where is their right to privacy? Where is the crime?
“Innocent people are being criminalised for things which are not criminal, purely because of the interpretation and implementation of the legislation.”
Glasgow-based advocate Owen Mullan added: “I’ve acted for men and women never previously in any difficulty with the police and courts, but who now complain of harassment.
“Fans of various clubs can’t understand why the police follow them as they make their way to football grounds, why they are filmed as they watch football, and why they are continuously searched and required to provide their details to the police.”
Solicitor Bill McCluskey, a former police officer, said: “There is no doubt supporters are routinely subject to surveillance.”
A police source said surveillance gave police squads “something to do”, adding: “Intelligence gathering isn’t just about a specific crime. It’s also for databases.”
Head of FoCUS, Superintendent Stephen McAllister, said he had yet to see evidence of routine searches or surveillance, despite being frequently presented with allegations.
He added: “Our filming of the Green Brigade at Celtic Park at the weekend lasted 30 seconds. But that doesn’t get out. We have the powers to stop, ask for details and search under a number of powers but it’s simply untrue we have a carte blanche approach to this. If there’s evidence of this happening inappropriately we will investigate.
“Football disorder is not like the 1980s but it’s still there. The new laws have made convictions easier.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The 87% charge rate and 83% conviction rate for people arrested under this legislation shows that it’s working well.
“The act strengthens and improves the law dealing with sectarianism at football. We introduced this law in response to police and prosecutors when they told us they needed greater powers to take a hard line on sectarianism – recent events have further underlined this need.”
This wait is interminable.
As with every awaited judgement, I am determined to read this one front to back, and not back to front!
I have never yet managed this with any judgement.
I’m not as confident as Paul67 on either substantive charge, for reasons outlined in previous blogs. This is not to say I don’t think oldco knew exactly the risks they were taking with player registrations by embarking on the ebt and side letter path, and aren’t sweating very significantly right now. However, my reading of the FTT(T) judgement is that it provides alot of cover for LNS to determine that (1) the ebt arrangements in cumulo were not operated in such a way that “payments” were actually ever made to players at all; and (2) that the duty to deliver all original “contracts of service” attached only to those “contracts of service” which dealt with “payments”. If the ebt arrangements were not “payments”, then the side letters (perhaps contracts) were not “contracts of service” relating to “payments”.
I am 50/50 as to how this will go. Anyone professing confidence either way is either alot more gung-ho in their approach than me (or perhaps hasn’t gone through litigation before) or has insider info.
Looking forward to disecting it on here later!
When they were liquidated, their history should have died also…….(shut up, 67 heaven,and wait until high noon….) ……..we certainly do have decisions to make if justice doesn’t prevail here……
alex thomson @alextomo
TOMOBLOG: RANGERS http://bit.ly/ZL2WCU
If the 250K fine is in anyway accurate compare our100K fine for speaking to TB when he was killie manager
The other clubs like Spartans etc who have been kicked out of cups, deducted points must surely sue the SFA after this sham.
Sevco get the verdict they wanted, titles kept and to them their history intact
A pointless fine
A ludicrous conclusion from which i have no idea how any future Scottish football authority now rules on registration appeals, indeed some clubs may feel they have a case given previous punishments in the past
A political judgement meant to appease all sides