When a bad situation unfolds it is always a good response to claim that you have no knowledge.
If you don’t know then you aren’t really responsible.
However, the Sergeant Schultz defence of “I know nothing!” no longer works down at Stalag Hampden.
If people at the top of Scottish football are not aware of the scale of the ethical and organisational challenge posed to them by the Rangers scandal then they are working very hard at being ignorant.
The Mark Daly documentary last night laid out the extent of the second contracts debacle at the Ibrox club.
Even just including Barry Ferguson and Stefan Klos the amount of games were these players took to the field may force history to be re-written and trophies to be re-engraved.
The German keeper played 208 games for the Ibrox club between 1999 and 2007.
Barry Ferguson, in just his second spell at Rangers, played 137 times between 2005 and 2009.
If the second contract inquiry finds that this meant that these two players were ineligible then all of those matches which the club won are now three nil defeats.
Remember dear reader I have just selected TWO of the players implicated in the EBT story.
TWO.
According to the Mark Daly expose there are another 36 with these side letters.
When all of the players are included then this is cheating on a massive scale unparalleled in Scottish football history.
I am confident that Rangers to lose the Big Tax Case (BTC).
I have not spoken to anyone with knowledge of what went on in that tax tribunal who expects that HMRC will not win.
However, apart from the issue of massive bill that the dying club (in administration) can’t pay there is the breaking of the football regulations.
This makes any sweetheart deal for a NewCo operating the Ibrox franchise much more difficult to sell to the rest of Scottish football.
After the Mark Daly documentary the guys at Hampden have an even tougher task.
If, in the interests of clarity and transparency, Mr Doncaster and Mr Regan canvassed the opinion of the supporters of ALL Scottish clubs then I think they would have a clearer picture.
They would find that there is a genuine hostility to a NewCo Rangers being allowed back into the SPL even with sanctions.
The idea that they are allowed back in without any domestic sanctions is truly unconscionable.
The coverage from the mainstream media has helped insulate the Rangers klan from morally indefinable position that they have assumed.
They see their club as a victim of a bad man (Craig Whyte) and that Rangers are blameless in the entire mess.
The Mark Daly documentary really should put that fairy story to bed once and for all.
If a NewCo Rangers is parachuted back into the SPL with no sanctions then it will be entirely appropriate that the theme tune from “the Great Escape” becomes the new club’s anthem!
The Ibrox faithful are very fond of their World War Two heroes.
Such a pity that Hogan is an Irish name…
Wars are often started about resources and the side with the best logistics usually wins.
Rangers, under David Murray, signed players and paid them wages that they could not have afforded if everything had gone through the PAYE system.
In doing so the Ibrox club had a genuine financial advantage over other clubs.
The David Murray boast from the year 2000 about fivers and tenners now takes on another meaning.
Rangers were able to afford to spend double what the Parkhead club could because the chaps in Kerrydale street were paying all due taxes!
It is, of course, just the bad luck of Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan that they are the guys in charge when all of this poo has collided with the air conditioning.
They are blameless in all of this.
However, they weren’t conscripted to serve and they willingly stepped forward.
No doubt when they volunteered neither of them could have seen this mess happening on their watch.
However, it has and it needs to be dealt with in a way that saves the national game.
There is now a clear choice that both men have to make.
They can either save the Ibrox franchise or save Scottish football.
At this stage it does seem to be a mutually exclusive proposition.
All the facts are there for them to make their deliberations.
On a human level you could forgive these guys at Hampden for starting a tunnel of their own!
