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Topping increasingly sounds like Blatter

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Retiring SPFL chairman Ralf Topping addressed the issue of Rangers EBTs in the light of the recent Supreme Court ruling in an interview today with The Scotsman.  It is clear he is well-briefed on what is ‘in the post’ for the football authorities in Scotland from “fans groups”:

“There are a lot of wealthy people who support football clubs who will fund certain activities around challenges. The authorities just have to accept it and be measured in their response.”

Topping told The Scotsman, their solicitor, “the finest in the land”, made sure they were “ready for any challenges subsequently”.

The SPFL would save themselves and everyone else a lot of time and money if, instead of briefing friendly journalists who would refrain from asking the pertinent questions, they would address the matter in hand.

 

Why did the SPL (now the SPFL) set the parameters for what became the Lord Nimmo Smith (LNS) Commission to examine from 1998, then, when it became clear Rangers would admit guilt for offenses between 1998 and 2000, change that date to run from 2000?

Why did the SPL not lead evidence to the LNS Commission on the five players Rangers admitted guilt to the First Tier Tribunal, for offenses committed during the period in question (after 2000)?

Why did the SPL not reserve the right to appeal the LNS decision, which was predicated on EBTs being executed legally, pending the HMRS appeal?

Other questions, like who made the above decisions and why, can be addressed later.

If only the SPFL would “be measured in their response”, if only they would respond at all!  There has been no response to these questions, only prevarication, misdirection and evasion.

The more those at the top of Scottish football speak, the more they sound like Sepp Blatter, who for years set inquiries and boasted about his robust legal advice on the running of Fifa.

Frankly, Topping and his cronies are not in Blatter’s league.  They are not career criminals, but their briefing of selected journalists while studiously avoiding the question every fan would like to see answered, increasingly looks like a cover-up.

Celtic’s call for action will be ignored by the SPFL and SFA, but that must not be the end of it.  Just do the right thing, Ralph; answer the questions.

 

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  9. Dbhoy on

    Babasonicos71

     

     

    Liked Rufus Wainwright’s wee nod to the beatles. Great video/version of a classic song

  13. petec on

    Amazing Celtic.

     

     

    The Bhoys tried to impose their game on an Excellent Lyon side.

     

     

    I”ll be worried until Aidan and his wee Brother are home safe.

     

     

    Those Linfield dudes are Haters.

     

     

    ParentThang.csc

  19. A Stor Mha Chroi on

    A CEILER GONOF RUST:

     

     

    I’m good mate, keeping the blood pressure on simmer and burstin’ my nut trying to figure out how to haste the elusive ‘level playing field’.

     

     

    They (SFA/SPL) are contaminated by the evil princes hubris, bigotory, envy and their king money. They’re behaving like cornered rats.

     

     

    Oops! phone’s ringing… I wonder who that could be…

     

     

    I knew it was you as soon as the phone rang.

     

     

    as just discussed

     

     

    Celtic v Lyon (in French)

  22. A Ceiler Gonof Rust on

    Kit, good to talk to you and I’ll watch the first 45 then hunker doon wi the big burd.

     

     

    HH bruv.

     

     

    BTW, theres a poster on here pretending to be you. Are you famous?

  33. aburntoutcase on

    Evening/morning all. Any bhoys from Derry on? watched the darts earlier, and the lad Gurney made the final. Was wondering about the colours he wears. Predominantly blue with red flashes. (He played well against the machine that is MvG)

  35. A Stor Mha Chroi on

    Scott Sinclair urges ex-Swansea City team-mate Steven Caulker to make the move to Celtic as Brendan Rodgers considers move for central defender

     

     

    Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been helping Steven Caulker the former Swansea man has had battles with depression and drink problems

     

     

    Scott Sinclair has implored his former team-mate to join him north of the border

     

     

    By Fraser Mackie For The Scottish Mail On Sunday

     

     

    Scott Sinclair has implored potential Celtic signing Steven Caulker to join him at Parkhead.

     

     

    Brendan Rodgers could reunite his former Swansea players by making a move for the Queens Park Rangers defender.

     

     

    The Celtic manager revealed he has been supporting his former loan signing Caulker during his battles with depression and in overcoming drinking and gambling problems.

     

     

    With Dedryck Boyata due to miss three months with a knee injury, Rodgers is in the market for a centre-half. And last season’s Player of the Year would love ex-Cardiff and England defender Caulker to be the man.

     

     

    Sinclair teamed up with Caulker when he spent a successful 2011/12 loan in Swansea’s first Premier League season under Rodgers.

     

     

    A fit-and-well Caulker, 25, would represent a brilliant acquisition for the Scottish champions, according to Sinclair.

     

     

    ‘If Caulks spoke to me, I’d tell him it’s the best place to be,’ said Sinclair. ‘He was terrific that year on loan at Swansea.

     

     

    ‘It would be amazing for Caulks to sign here. He would be a great signing. The manager knows him well from Swansea. This is a great club to be at for him as well.

     

     

    ‘I really don’t think there would be a better place for Caulks than to come up here and get his football back on track and enjoying it again.’

     

     

    New signings Olivier Ntcham, Jonny Hayes and Kundai Benyu all started yesterday as a youthful Celtic side lost 4-0 to Lyon at Parkhead.

     

     

    Meanwhile, full-back Cristian Gamboa could be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines after tearing a thigh muscle on international duty.

     

     

    The defender has missed Celtic’s Champions League action as he is playing for Costa Rica at the Gold Cup, but he had to be carried off in their 1-1 group-stage draw with Canada in Houston, USA.

     

     

    The Costa Rican FA have already flown him back to his homeland to be looked at by medics and he has been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament.

  38. A Stor Mha Chroi on

    Kundai Benyu has convinced Brendan Rodgers he’s good enough to play for Celtic now

     

     

    Neil Cameron The Herald

     

     

    BRENDAN RODGERS has changed his original plan to send new signing Kundai Benyu immediately out on loan because the teenager has impressed him so much.

     

     

    The 19-year-old midfielder certainly caught the eye in yesterday’s friendly match against Lyon in which the French side ran out 4-0 winners in the end against a Celtic team that got younger as the game went on.

     

     

    Benyu moved from Ipswich Town for around £200,000 and, given the size and strength of Rodgers’ squad, the idea was to loan him out for at least half a season to get some game-time.

     

     

    However, Benyu has done more than enough to convince his manager he would be better staying at Celtic and challenging for a first-team place.

     

     

    “Kundai has been very good,” said Rodgers. “He’s surprised me to be honest. We knew he was a good player. You see what we’re trying to build here in terms of players being technically gifted.

     

     

    “But they have to have good mobility and good physicality. And he has that. He’s played with a nice little edge, he’s competitive, and he’s got a confidence.

     

     

    “We’ve played him off a side where he can come in and help the team dominate the ball on the inside. How he receives the ball is very good, he’s an attacking player.

     

     

    “He wants to get goals and he’s actually quite exciting. I thought he was very good for 19, coming into this environment and just having a close look at him.

     

     

    “We will see how Kundai develops. Initially the plan was to have him in, thinking he can get an idea of how we work and then go on loan.

     

     

    “But I’ve sort of changed my mind, really, over the last period of time just watching him. I think it’s going to be good for him to probably come in have six months certainly in there.

     

     

    “To see how we train, how we work, get an education in our footballing idea then review in January and see where he is at. He’s certainly a boy who can contribute for us.”

     

     

    Oliver Ntcham, signed for £4.5m last week, made his debut and showed in glimpses what he’s capable of.

     

     

    “For Oli it’s only fitness, you see how he moves in the game today he could’ve played for them,” said Rodgers. “He has the qualities to play at the very highest level.

     

     

    “His range of passing makes the game look very simple. He can play short, long, can dribble and shoot. Has everything to be a top level No 8.

     

     

    “So, for him it’s just time, really. That’s his first game, 62 minutes was enough for him and he’ll just build up his fitness over the next few weeks and when he’s ready he’ll be a big player for us.”

     

     

    For a game, even a friendly, to be arranged for less than 24 hours of a competitive match is unusual. The explanation was that this visit by Lyon was agreed long before Celtic’s qualifier with Linfield was switched to a Friday.

     

     

    If proof were needed about Celtic’s strength in numbers, the team which began less than 24 hours after a Champions League qualifier – i.e. the players who didn’t start or even stripped – included Moussa Dembele, Ntcham, Callum McGregor, Nir Bitton and Jonny Hayes among others.

     

     

    And 18-year-old Mark Hill was also named in the eleven, while the substitutes bench, which hosted eight players, might have been the youngest in Celtic history.

     

     

    Lyon are a good side and given how many changes Celtic made, reading too much into the result would be wrong.

     

     

    Celtic should have taken the lead on 18 minutes. With his back to goal and on the edge of Lyon’s box, McGregor’s neat turn took him away from his marker, the midfielder perhaps should have shot but squared to Dembele who failed to score with two shots, while Benyu also had an effort blocked.

     

     

    It was a step or two up from a training match, nothing more, but the Celtic supporters who had the effort would have enjoyed much of what they saw.

     

     

    Their team moved the ball about well and while these fixtures are never classics, some of the stuff played but both sided was easy on the eye.

     

     

    Ntcham almost got on the scoresheet on 39 minutes when he hit the ball with some force from distance and Anthony Lopez’s save was needlessly spectacular. McGregor did find the net from the rebound but was offside.

     

     

    Conor Hazard, a 19-year-old from Belfast, played the second-half in goal for Celtic. He was beaten on 51 minutes by Lyon’s Maxwel Cornet for the game’s first goal but the young lad could count himself unfortunate because he’d made a fine save a second before conceding.

     

     

    Lyon’s Myziane Maolida made it 2-0 on the hour and so good was the dribble past three Celtic players and his chip into the net that he received a round of applause from the home crowd.

     

     

    By the time Amine Gouri got a third and then a fourth for the French, Celtic’s team was full of kids It was a decent enough run out for Rodgers and it’s now on to Wednesday and the serious stuff.

     

     

    “I really enjoyed it,” said Rodgers. “Up until the hour it was a really good game. What we wanted out the game in terms of fitness for our players, we could very easily not have played the game after Linfield was moved.

     

     

    “But I have a responsibility to get as many of my players as fit as we can for the beginning of the season and throughout the season. For that it was a great exercise.”

  40. aburntoutcase on

    Not sure Caulker is the answer for us. Hope the guy gets his life sorted out though.

  42. A Stor Mha Chroi on

    Celtic may ask UEFA to reverse Leigh Griffiths’s ‘Buckfast booking’

     

     

    Neil Cameron The Herald

     

     

    CELTIC are considering whether to appeal Leigh Griffiths’ controversial booking from Friday’s match against Linfield at Windsor Park.

     

     

    The striker was shown a yellow card during the 2-0 win in the Champions League qualifier for picking up a bottle thrown at him from the crowd, as he tried to take a corner, and showing it to the referee. Coins were also aimed at the player.

     

     

    Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, may decide the club should ask Uefa to investigate the incident, especially as the booking could come back and haunt Griffiths later in the competition.

     

     

    Asked whether the club would look into their being any chance of the decision being reversed, Rodgers said: “We may do. It’s one that I haven’t overly looked at. It’s something I will speak with the club on – if there is that possibility depending on the report of the referee.

     

     

    “It did seem a bit strange with the provocation and him ending up booked and how dangerous it was. I felt the referee could have handled that situation better. But the most important thing for us was going there and getting a good result to take back for the second leg. That’s my only real review of Friday night.

     

     

    “We showed a real nice calmness and confidence at this early stage. The confidence was there in what could have been a more difficult tie. We have a nice cushion for the home leg on.”

     

     

    Griffiths has been criticised in some quarters for making a gesture towards the Linfield supporters and for tying a Celtic scarf onto a goal-post in front of the small away support at Windsor Park; something he has done previously at the end of matches.

     

     

    This may have an impact on what if anything happens next, although it seems unlikely, and Rodgers said: “We’ll see. I haven’t…..I don’t think as deeply as you guys sometimes.Whatever comes my way, we’ll take it from there.”

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