Campbell Ogilvie’s appointment as president of the SFA was always controversial. As general secretary and director of Rangers, Ogilvie was the club’s chief administrator during the final 11-year period they refused to employ Catholic footballers. In many other walks of life, this background would make him an embarrassing relic of a former era, but in Scottish football it was enough to see him promoted to the ultimate honour position.
He remained in position at Rangers long after the new regime of Sir David Murray arrived and set aside the decades-old sectarian employment policy but left the club in 2005, joining Hearts as operations director two months later. All of this puts the SFA president in central position regarding the on-going tax tribunal, which is charged with deciding if Rangers illegally evaded tax from a period starting in 2000 and going on well beyond Ogilvie’s departure.
If the First Tier Tribunal finds against Rangers the SFA must ask for Ogilvie’s immediate resignation. The association cannot have a president embroiled in a tax evasion scam which, even before a verdict has been decided, has already caused untold harm to his former club and the reputation Scottish football. The scale of the damage to public finances has yet to be definitively established but it will not make good reading.
The SFA has just embarked on its first proper investigation into whether directors of a football club, in this instance Rangers, are fit and proper persons to hold such a position. Office holders at the association cannot exercise power over the game if they are not subject to the same standards they demand from clubs. Pending this investigation, and the outcome of the tax tribunal, Ogilvie should temporarily step aside. Scotland is not yet a banana republic, public bodies must have robust ethics and must not allow the shadow of contagion to be cast over the body charged with ensuring legal and moral standards are adhered to.
The SFA has some enormously important months ahead. Its president is currently in a position to influence which course it takes and, if the tribunal verdict falls against Rangers, could be implicated in the scandal which precipitated the crisis. While I am sure Campbell Ogilvie will be shown to have acted with impeccable ethical standards, the SFA must quickly establish a structure clear of contagion.
If you would like to read CQN Magazine online (for free), click here. You can download a pdf of the magazine using the button at the top of the page, second from the right. Click on the link below to order a hard copy of the magazine.
You can support the online edition by making a discretionary donation here.
[calameo code=000390171c1ea04287bcd page=38 lang=en width=100% height=500]
917 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
Can anyone imagine “them” establishing a german membership model?
What a terrifying thought.
“those” supporters running “them”…aaahhh!
Prematch entertainment: a reinactment of the Boyne in tge form of pitbull fighting?
Orange fakebake cheerleaders?
Loyalist clowns for the kids? ( sorry akready plenty of them)
Eleven pure white anglo saxon protestants on the field?
Aryan insignias flying full mast?
Sacrificial slaughter of virgins in the blue burger kiosks?
Goats as mascots?
A mass conjuring of baphomet in a blaxk mass?
The skid bowl would be a festering crack den of pure evil.
Post match bonfires burning effigys of lawell & lawell?
Flute music at half time ( i did actualky see this one suggested one
time on hun media)
It would be like last night at…nuremberg
Surely the sfa would not allow such an apocalyptic event to take place?
Listening to Dingwall and The MP O Donohoe (?) on Scotland Tonight I can see pressure and a case for an HMRC deal to be done.
I argued the possibility a few weeks back and it has NO downsides for all parties IF a repayment plan is put in place that allows the taxpayer to be satisfied that it will get its money back as quick as is prudent and so is in their interests to agree to such a deal.
Rangers keep their history (but get the EBT titles of 2003 and 2005 definitely removed under unfair competitive advantage rules and possibly the last three titles for switching competitive advantage from EBT to Debt, rather than budgetting for the potential back EBT tax)
Scottish Football avoids the integrity dilema of where a Newco starts not to mention the nightmare logistics and challenges
The tax gets paid and Rangers get what they lost chasing empty symbols of worth – some vestige of dignity.
TV company is happy
Rangers get saddled with the kind of wage paying and so playing circumstances clubs like Hibs and Dundee Utd* have learned to cope with but with a much larger income source to meet the tax due.
The only downside “however” is who is put in charge of Rangers for frankly their attitude culturally cannot be trusted (and this also was recognised by Speirs tonight) . Some sort of “Governor” arrangement is required with two aims:
To follow specific adherence rules that are transparent to everyone to stop rule bending to get out of the tax mire more quickly.
To prepare for handover to independent ownership once the tax is paid.
* I had a quick look at Dundee Utd accounts for 2009. The wage bil was £3.6M on a turnover of £5.8M. Using that as a rough guide:
Working backwards if the “Governor” set the wage bill at say £6M how much, after paying other running costs would anyone estimate would be left to pay HMRC annually at a rate that would satisfy taxpayers it was a good deal for them and not an easy way out for the dodgers?
All Rangers supporters have to do is decide what is more important, beating Celtic or having a club to support. The club made the wrong decision in 2007 and the support went with it, but knowing the conserquences would they now accept what always had to have priority and that is the long term sustainabilityof their club?
So I have still not ruled out a deal until the guys with the figures tell me a repayment plan cannot be done within a £3M to £6M wage ceiling.
bjmac
Thanks for that info on Alan on the radio.
As someone else said recently, this common sense will have to stop, people will think we are serious about applying the same rules impartially to all teams.
As for the experts, they are intellectually dim and professionally complacent. Radio phone ins are usually excuses for these journos to strut and preen.
Well done Alan, whoever you are. I do hope you are a regular CQNer.
HH Bjmac
Hello Paul and all of you that appear on this CQN site, the best in the entire world, there’s passion, there’s humour, there’s history and stories, it’s just simply CELTIC.
I was sitting down on my lazyboy chair with my legs up in the supported position, dinner on my stable table watching the news on my 46 cm tele on the wall that is usually reserved for Celtic games on satellite when I can get them on setanta.
Anyway, the news comes on that yesterday’s reports in the news were inaccurate (happens down here in Qz too) and the 300 miners will not lot there jobs, but instead will be shifted around( not sure what that actually means ?)
And this my dear Celtic Companions ( almost wrote championees ) Was a jelly and icc cream moment for me, the news guy said ” we will go to Mr Martin Head of something, I can’t remember, for Onesteel.
The camera zooms in and this guy is wearing a blue jumper, and he look like a young fergiehun, either one, they all look the same.
On the wall was a glass framed poster of R*ngers, with is guy, and MBB Mr Whyte’s arm around him, both smiling away, the poster had trophies adorned all over it.
Must have been recent and he’s may returned from his trip of a lifetime, well that’s ma dinner, noo for the jelly and icecream. oh how I laughed