This is undoubtedly a defining moment for the national game in Scotland.
In many ways, it is wider than mere association football.
If the establishment prevails, then there can be no pretence anymore that this is a sport.
It will be out there that professional football in Scotland is rigged in the interests of the Ibrox franchise.
I would wager that if the EBT decade had emanated from the board room at Celtic Park, Pittodrie or Tynecastle then there would be a very different narrative within the mainstream media.
However, the cheating was done by Rangers.
That, in an instant, makes it different.
Suddenly the stenographers talk about “healing” and “moving on”.
Many of them speak with one voice on this.
It is almost as if they have been given high-Level instructions on the matter.
Almost…
I listened with head shaking credulity yesterday as I heard Gordon Smith on Radio Scotland state that the EBT years should not be revisited because they were “exciting”.
Remember, dear reader; this is the chap who was the Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association.
I’ll just leave that there…
The incumbent, Mr Stewart Regan, wanted the new Rangers dropped into the SPL in 2012.
It was fan power that stopped that crime against sport.
Then the former cricket administrator had a cunning Plan B.
That was to insert the new club into the second tier of the professional game in Scotland; SFL 1.
Thankfully strong decent men spoke out against that in the summer of 2012.
Consequently, Charlie’s basket of assets started life at the bottom.
It was fans of SPL clubs and people of good authority in the Scottish Football League club that prevented the game in Scotland being tainted forever.
Now FIVE judges in the UK Supreme Court have ruled finally and totally on the matter of the Big Tax Case.
For a decade Rangers were scamming the tax man.
In order to do so, they had to indulge in subterfuge.
Documents were concealed, and this led to players being improperly registered with the football authorities.
Consequently, the EBT recipients who were playing for Rangers during those years were akin to a player taking to the field while still serving a suspension.
If the authorities find this out then the result is always overturned.
It is the indemnifying side letters and the implications for player registration that is the real issue here regarding football governance.
If the financial advantage of the EBTs is focussed on then glib and shameless folk can say that those players would have been signed anyway.
I have heard that the shaky proposition that Sir David Murray would have found funds by other means.
It is a fatuous argument, but it probably convinced the average stenographer.
Then again, they want to believe that everything is tickety-boo at Ibrox.
The stenographers will conveniently ignore that Sir David Murray admitted in sworn evidence during the Craig Whyte trial that the EBT scheme allowed Rangers to recruit players that would otherwise have been beyond their financial reach.
However, there is no wriggle room on the side letters.
The EBT players were not properly registered.
What does all of this mean?
Well, if you paid into any SPL match in Scotland during those years then you were cheated.
You were watching a rigged game.
It is just that you didn’t know it, but you do now.
If you paid into a League Cup or Scottish Cup game during those years, then you were cheated.
You were watching a rigged game.
It is just that you didn’t know it, but you do now.
Indeed, if you were supporting a team other than Rangers and were also a taxpayer then you were paying to support the opposition!
Cheating in sport is punished retrospectively.
It can only be thus.
Once the cheat is uncovered then anything that they had “achieved” is declared null and void.
Moreover, the record is amended to show that cheating occurred.
The Scottish Football establishment and the on message “journalists” are saying that there is “no appetite” for title stripping.
If they are correct, then the game in Scotland is dead, and the Herrenvolk at Ibrox will strut their fascist stuff.
That is the outcome that the establishment and their pet stenographers want.
It is now down to the lifeblood of the national game in Scotland, the supporters, to have their say.
Anyone who thinks that the campaign to strip the titles is wrong is in favour of cheats getting away with it.
Nota bene
Dear reader, I will be posted missing from here for the next few days. I have a pressing task awaiting me down the word mines. The traffic figures into this site convey to me the unequivocal message that this content is valued by you.
Míle buíochas
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good job carry on
Absolutely correct!
Stripping titles is only setting the record straight. It is not punishment for the crimes.
There needs to follow sanctions and punishment for the match/ cup/ tournament fixing over 12 years.
I suggest exemplary fines (£1m per year for each cheated year) to be paid immediately and Relegation to the bottom tier.
Or fine them the value of EBTs (£50m) to be paid at £5m per year for ten years.
Given the Supreme Court has declared Rangers EBTs as taxable employment income, it therefore follows that anyone who received an EBT was officially employed by Rangers FC.
This gets awkward when looking at individuals who were employed with other clubs or bodies whilst receiving an EBT. Graham Souness comes to mind. Did he have a club exclusivity clause as a manager with another club whilst receiving RFC employment payment? Oh dear!
His Rangers EBT officially makes him a Rangers employee whilst working as a manager with an EPL Club.
If this is whitewashed, which I suspect it will be , it will only compound the theory,that this pure dead brilliant, best wee country in the world is still being run by the men wearing the white gloves and no sign of Michael Jackson anywhere
I fervently believe that hey should be stripped of those “Tainted Titles” and compensation made to all those affected
I agree with all that you have said, particularly the importance of fan involvement. What is equally important is HOW the fans can become involved. Without a means of focussing fan involvement, this will all fade away as the season gets underway.
Suggestions on which fan bodies should be contacted and how these efforts can be coordinated would be most useful. The amunition is there in spades but the means for firing it is missing.
Rebus
Absolutely correct Phil. This narrative coming out of Ibrox that they were won on the field fair and square is utter BS. Winning on the field is not the same as winning fair and square. It is only ‘fair and square’ if it is a level playing field, in terms of both teams abiding by the rules. SDM has admitted that the tax dodging arrangements and side letters enabled Rangers to field players that, had the been abiding by the same rules of the game as the other clubs, they couldn’t afford. So while this team may have won games on the field, it artificially and illegally strengthened by the inclusion of ‘ringers’ and so their victories can hardly be described as ‘fair and square’. To take a highly unlikely, but informative example, if we brought Messi in for a few games and played him under say Armstrong’s name, we would probably win those games on the field, but would anyone for one second think that it was ‘fair and square’?
A team I played for some years back played in a league in which one of the teams was caught drafting in unregistered players and playing them under a registered player’s name. This was done just to ensure they had a full compliment of players on matchdays, rather than to field stronger players than they actually had (results seemed to bear this out). They probably weren’t the only ones doing it either, and I imagine this happens regularly in amateur leagues up and down the country. However, they were fined, threatened with expulsion from the league, told that all squad players had to report to the ref before games with picture ID (this was then extended to all clubs) and had several results reversed to 3-0 defeats. Every other club in the league was also warned. Had they won any titles, they would have been scratched. In contrast to the Rangers case, the only statement the club in question issued in response was an admission of guilt and an apology. If that can happen in a small, local league, why are the great and good dragging their heels over this. Like many of them and the more deluded supporters of the club concerned, it’s a no-brainer.
Phil, who do I sue for those years season ticket monies? Genuinely want to get my cash back. No different to a PPI claim – the rules were not adhered to by a league member who profited handsomely from it..
Agree 100%. I do not have the on-line skills to organise a proper petition , hopefully someone can which should be linked to each club’s home page so that only registered fans can vote and hopefully this will illustrate to the top tier of Scottish football that not only is there an ‘appetite’ for something to be done but that genuine fans are at this moment, in the middle of a ‘famine’ over the lack of action.
In particular I found the statement issued by the 1872 lobby, repulsive in its non disguised threats against anyone or any organisation daring to question their club’s right to retain these trophies.
Totally agree, lots of great work going on out there , keep the momentum going .
Listening to a classic leftfield track “Open up” with the lyrics :
You lied, you faked , you cheated, you changed the stakes. ….let the bubbles burst,
All in all a dreaming circus ….
Remind you of any team in particular?
Sometimes things are just better when put to music
Cheers , john
I remember Gordon Smith well. In his role with the SFA he attempted to move the date of the Scottish Cup Final without notice to Rangers opponents.
Who can forget his car park interview with Sky after Whyte delivered his State Of The Nation admin address from the Ibrox front door?
As he played dodgems with the Sky interviewer Smith was adamant that he knew nothing about anything going on at Ibrox……..makes you wonder what he was actually picking up a wage for!
If I wanted to know how to deal with a case of cheating, the last person whose advice I would seek would be the person who had been caught cheating. The second last person whose advice I would seek is the person who is pretending to be the person who was caught cheating.
Honestly now believe the SMSM sports “journo’s”, realise the only readership they have are “ra peepul”! They cannot be stupid enough to believe the lies they themselves print! Can they?
Great article as usual Phil.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand what Rangers did, the fact that they deliberately incorrectly registered players to help with their “Tax plan”. That’s where the focus should be rather than financial doping. A lot of clubs have been guilty of that.
if it was last season or even a couple of seasons ago I’d say go for it. Right now I’m more concerned that our club sides and national side seem to be really shit at football…and before you say Celtic aren’t, their record in Europe last season was Played 12, won 3, drew 4, lost 5…and that includes a 7-0 in the Nou Camp and an absolute battering in Beer Sheva they were lucky to escape from. Yet we’re going on about financial irregularities from 10/15 years ago. I can’t be the only person who doesn’t see this as that important?
You may not be the only one but you are in an extremely tiny minority among Celtic fan if you think for a nanosecond that this is not that ‘important’. On the field I have complete faith that Brendan, the players and the rest of the staff will take care of things and I am looking forward to it immensely. Off the field there has been a pungent stench of corruption and collusion in foul play that has become unbearable over the last 5 years as we discovered the source of said pong.
If you don’t think it’s important to clean up the house and get shot of this disgusting mess then I do despair for your sense of fair play. I take it you weren’t spending your hard-earned Bucks following the Hoops through those years? We could be Invincibles again next season and lift the Champions League trophy and ALL of the Celtic fans I know and associate with would still want action taken over the dead club’s legacy.
Absolutely spot on. Great comment.
STRIP THE TITLES. Then and only then can the game begin to heal and we can all move on.
Celtic have to stand up and confront the sfa. The cheating has always been there but to be this blatant is rubbing our noses in it. I’m still hopeful we can get out of this cesspit of a country. FTSFA
Speaking of scamming the tax man,refresh my memory and tell me about the Kelly’s in the 60s/70s!
Mind your apostrophes there, Squire! That’s a Mortal Sin.
Thanks again Phil for your great work , it’s much appreciated , cheers !!!!
Invaluable service, Phil. Cheats must pay.
Just to add to you’re excellent piece, their is also the small matter of deterrent. The press are asking for cheating to be profitable.
That’ll teach anyone in the future, aye right.
Additionally and more worryingly you are also setting an extremely dangerous precedent.
Hypothetical scenario, by no means unthinkable:
Sevco struggle on and fail to win any honours in the next few years, crowd’s dwindle. The loonies on the board, as we know are not averse to taking major risks decide to embark on another unlawful scheme to gain a sporting advantage.
This time they are caught after a year in which they win their first major honours by bringing in expensive players and the odd honest mistake of course.
The SFA are made aware of the unlawful scam and discipline them ( I know, just bear with me).
Forced to take title stripping, Dave King then declares they are a new club and pleads first offence.
Then he says. By the way you can’t strip Sevco’s title, because you have set a precedent by not stripping Rangers.
Absurd isn’t it?
Regan blocked me years ago on Twitter because I had the audacity to say “sweep sweep” to him about titles getting stripped ….. great peice Phil keep up the pressure #stripthetitles
This is a make or break time for the scottish football establishment. Their beloved sevco
have been found GUILTY by the highest court in the land of cheating on a scale
unprecedented in the history of british sport.Will the powers that be finally grow a pair
and do the right thing and strip sevco of all the tainted trophies that they aquired during
the EBT years or will they do what they always do and protect the establishment club.
If they choose the latter option scottish football is dead as oldco.
As usual a great post Phil.Keep up the good work.Planet football needs to know the
truth now more than ever.
There’s most certainly an appetite to see proper justice done, cheats should NEVER be allowed to prosper.
Very much valued Phil. Good luck with your ”pressing task”. Cheers
Boycott….. it is that simple…. justice will be instant hit the club’s in the pocket and they will act….. no boycott and their will be “healing”…and the “people” will laugh all the work of Rangers Tax Case….Paul McConville and Phil…. all the way to their 55th title it is that simple….Celtic supporters can do this on their own call for a boycott on the first away game of the season……they will cave before a ball is kicked
If more proof was required, and it really isn’t, that the SFA is a morally bankrupt and completely ineffective organization, it has been supplied by themselves by their actions, or rather lack of them, in the last five days. If this lack of action is down to fear of a backlash of ANY kind from the dignified followers of the team now playing out of Ibrox then cowardice can be added to the charge sheet. How these people can peer at a mirror and look themselves in the eye is beyond my understanding.
Spot on as usual I just wish the worldwide media picked up on your factual recordings,thank you
I’m doing my dawned estate to give some poor bastard a stroke over at the ET website! I keep posting that the titles should be stripped, then they remove the post, only for me to post another… ad nauseum. I reckon we should all bombard these kiddy-on newspaper websites with the same message. Eventually, they will cave in!
PERS12TANCE BEARS RESISTANCE!
Hi Paul
If the authorities do not punnish them now the end is near for our game
Let’s look at a different angle if the judgement had went the way of the oldco
All the blazers ex players journalists would never in a million years have been telling us all to move on.
If and when they implode again would we want them back NO definitely NOT
We and all other member clubs should terminate our membership of the spfl and sfa
And begin a new football federation maybe radical but not really
To a lesser extent the many dart players left the BDO to start the PDC and went from strength to strength.
Let’s hope for the good of our game the right action is taken.
Can everyone please remember that PR is a medical term for shoving your finger up someone’s arse. That’s what’s happening with this.
I listened to Mr Gordon Smith also…
I didn’t shake my head with incredulity..
I was instantly angered by his attitude (although not unexpected)
which was doubly sickening as he was both at fault as an executive of both Rainjurz AND the SFA at the times concerned. Disgusting to even give him voice.
No.. I didn’t shale my head. I phoned Radio Scotland in my disgust.
My point was not aired of course.
It became laughable when he used the years that Celtic lost the league by a margin of only a point or even goal difference as an indicator that its as a close fight..
Not acknowledging that perhaps (as we all know) there had not been that sporting advantage then the balance would not have tipped in favour of the cheats. He had the gall to use ‘helicopter sunday’ as an example. What a Zoomer!
His attitude said it all!
..from a Rainjurs Mans point of view
….from a rainjurz fans point of view
and from a corrupt SFAs point of view.
Much discussion of ‘appetite’ to take action.
Since when did right or wrong depend on ‘Appetite’?
Should all criminals only be tried/convicted if there is public ‘Appetite ‘ to do so?
to use the much heard exclamation (among us like minded folk)..
“Only in Scotland”
You are, of course, right Phil it is the reistration issue that is the “sin”. Unfortunately we have too many calling for title stripping because now illegal financial advantages are what is wrong. We MUST drop this as there are so many obfuscations that can be used to place doubt on that charge. What needs to be recognised is that, while DOS and EBTs did give an advantage, it is the registration that has proven guilt and demonstrable precedents for the punishments.
I have pushed the registration wrongs and all that the peepul can come back with are reasons why EBTs cannot prove that an advantage was gained. They recognise that there is such “reasonable doubt” around the tax issues that they try to turn ANY opposition around into being about EBTs. We need to persist with excluding the Tax findings from the argument. The fog it creates is not to our advantage.
As for the SFA’s legal advice that they cannot have an enquiry that may result in lost titles. They have the “out” of legal advice. It may be that the legal advice is that the 5WA agreement ties there hands and they cannot discuss it because of the “agreed” secrecy clauses so we need to circumvent that. Personally I reckon that we neet to take one step to the side of all that and call for an enquiry into how our sport’s regulatory authority ends up unable to investigate the wrongdoings of one of its members. Additionally it exposes LNS to examination. It allows us to interject with ” Why???” when it is explained that they are not at liberty to discuss the 5WA or to explain why LNS’s remit was shortened by two years.
They have built walls to protect themselves but each have built their own walls and these walls meet forming, as is normal, corners. Let us back them into those corners and finish them off
Stripping has to be done
Frank mcavennie embarrassing himself in the paper siding way the cheats shame on you.kings ransom springs to mind.????
Phil, I think this plays onto the hands of those peddling the victim myth a little. Retrospective stripping of honours for cheating isn’t a punishment, but a consequence of that cheating.
Punishment would be in addition to that, such as a fine or transfer embargo. As there can’t be a punishment (wouldn’t be fair to newco, and we have to be fair in this) then what people are looking for isn’t a punishment for Rangers (IL) at all.
Rangers fans, media and the rest are just fueling the bonfires by taking the angle this is a calculated punishment for Rangers. It’s nothing like it.
I wholeheartedly agree….
Take aside the legalities of EBT’s or the possibility SDM would have found fresh finance for these players…
The side letters are concrete evidence of cheating.
Paying cash behind the book is cheating.
The football rules clearly state that all remuneration has to be declared on the contract…. this was not the case for many players during that period.
If a team register a player incorrectly they are punished…. if they play him and the registration is found to be invalid then…. the club are deemed to have fielded an illegal player and the result(s) of matches in which the player /players participated in … is reveretedto an automatic 3-0 reversal for keague matches and expulsion from domestic cup competitions.
This issue cannot be swept u fee the carpet…
I am not looking for titles or cups to be awarded to runners up… I simply want the null and void trophies identified in the record books
Keep up the good work Phil, It is vital that the Scottish football authorities are brought to task over the ludicrous way they treated us the Fans with contempt.
The were complicit in making sure that they appeased ” The People” and allowed the hate and bile from such a horrible bunch of so called fans to continue.
The New Rangers fans are still deluded and believe all the bullshit that the MSM print and go from loving their inept manager and chairman to hating them in the blink of a eye.
Great days to be a tim
Bang on and anyone who thinks differently is also guilty of favouring a rigged game for cheats to prosper.
It can’t be put any simpler than that, in a perfect response to the lunatic statement put out by Club 1690 in full Louder n Louder Tavern mode.
Their comment about ‘no illegality’ is up there with King’s ‘Celtic should be further ahead’ and Smith’s ‘the EBT years were exciting’ for sheer and utter bumph and mad deranged guff.
The titles will be stripped and this mob know it.
Enjoy the word mines, Phil.
Haste ye back.
Great piece again Phil thank fuck there’s the likes of yourself and James Forrest keeping us informed.
It’s time for every for every Scottish football fan to stand up against this institutionalised cheating, if we don’t will the last person out please turn the lights off and lock the door for good.
I agree 100% with everything you write here Phil. I am a Hibs fan and both fans and boards must insist on the stripping of trophies won. For too long we have all been cheated and there was never the chance of a level playing field. The ignorance of all previously connected with Rangers and currently at The Rangers knows no bounds.
I find it very strange that the “no appetite” phrase started being used simultaneously by all journalists. It’s a quite unusual phrase not really used often by the media yet I’ve heard it a thousand times this week. You would almost think someone had briefed them on what to say but I suppose that’s taking the conspiracy theory to another Level…
Agree about Gordon Smith yesterday. The guy is a clown. Celtic won more league titles the Rangers did during that era so what are we moaning about? The logic of a child aimed at those with the IQ of a child.
It’s utterly pathetic that the taxpayer funded BBC gives us garbage like this. They would not dare to put out tripe like this if it was regarding an English club and on Five Live.
I am totally scunnered and almost feel like giving up on football.
Will Livingston now be talking legal action against the SPFL. They had to pay a big fine and dropped down a league because of something that the SPFL now say is ok. They must be entitled to at least 5 million in loss of earnings. If not then
as I stated in a previous post it must be the SPFL’S best interests to put in a clam for all the money Reangers received during those years. If not then they are not only letting cheats keep titles but also rewarding them with millions and saying Fk you to every other club in Scotland. I for one want every penny I spent on ST back if this is the case.
Are we just to keep going in this atmosphere of utter corruption? Supporters of all other clubs are tacitly accepting that scenario if we don’t push this.
As always Phil a great piece of journalism it’s ashame you can’t reach the back pages of the rags who try steer our game down the path of no return,..I bid you happy and safe travels and will await you’re return to expose the fake media headlines that’s pushed during your absence!! Our day will come! Peace & god bless
Great piece as usual Phil
No truer words have been spoken! Cheating in any form should and must be punished.
Without an indemnity would those players with one have played?
Why if the wanted a tax free salary of say £10K at 40% tax were the not offered in the region of £14K PLUS (to cover the tax on the extra £4k) ? Why was that extra £4k+ not offered as DK is suggesting but an indemnity was offered instead?
Was at least one player not told it was payment by ebt or no deal?
Boumsong would have preferred payment by normal means and only found out payment was by ebt at the last minute. Rather than up the offer to cover the tax he was given an indemnity.
Other players may have been aware of the arrangement from the off but only the indemnity made them agreeable to sign.
You are spot on Phil its the indemnity that made an ebt unlawful that put players on the park who would not be there without one.
Bang on the money again, as always.