An important part of the trade of journalism is to ask questions.
That is how power is held to account.
Nine days ago I sent this email to UEFA:
Hello, I am a journalist (NUJ Press Card attached).
I am investigating the consequences of the secret 5 Way Agreement of July 2012 between The Scottish Football Association, The Scottish Premier League, The Scottish Football League, The Rangers Football Club (in Administration) and Sevco Scotland Ltd.
The document is secret but what has since emerged in the public domain is that it’s existence has prevented The SFA completing an investigation it began under its judicial protocols into compliance of Rangers FC Ltd with UEFA FFP in 2011 where evidence since suggests the Licence was granted under false pretence.
What caused the judicial process to be abandoned was a clause in The 5 Way Agreement requiring any aim, dispute or matter arising under or in connection with the Agreement to be irrevocably submissive to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport,(CAS) Avenue de Beaumont 2, CH-1012 Lausanne. This is how the Scottish Football Associations justified not taking the matter to CAS.
“A judicial panel convened to consider a notice of complaint raised against FC in 2018 – in relation to alleged new evidence regarding representations received prior to the awarding of a European licence for season 2011/12 – determined at a preliminary hearing that it did not have jurisdiction to determine the matter.
“Instead, it concluded that jurisdiction lay with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“Following consideration of the implications of such a referral, including legal opinion, it was the board’s unanimous position that this matter should not be referred to CAS.
“The Scottish FA now considers the matter to be closed.”
What also emerged following the 5 Way Agreement was a construction from a rule change in 2005 in SPL Articles that introduced the concept of a club as owned and operated an association football club which was applied to Rangers FC PLC in spite of the previous rule carrying no such distinction.
The concern with the 5 Way Agreement in this case is that it in effect creates a franchise be that of any club playing in the now SPFL or the SFA, who are the ultimate arbiters of who can play in Scottish Football but are subject themselves to comply with UEFA regulations.
The area of apparent conflict is Article 12 of UEFA FFP where changes of structure to the detriment to the integrity of UEFA competitions are of paramount concern.
Consequently, I have these questions:
- Were UEFA ever asked for advice on the construction of the 5 Way Agreement by The Scottish Football authorities and were UEFA content the final Agreement did not undermine or negate the purpose of Article 12?
- If not involved in advising, should UEFA Integrity Unit not be checking whether or not the abandonment of the SFA judicial protocol process in 2020 is to the detriment of the integrity of UEFA Competitions, when it refers to an event where a UEFA Licence appears to have been granted under false pretence and so not subject to statute of limitations?
- If not should UEFA not be examining the 5 Way Agreement in total to check if:
3.1 It does create franchise conditions , not only to the detriment of UEFA Competition participants , unless other European clubs are free to operate as franchises, and
3.2 If the Agreement is also to the detriment to the integrity of the domestic competition in Scotland and
3.3 Advise the SFA and SPFL of the risks to the integrity of Scottish football of applying the construct on which the 5 Way Agreement appears to rest based on a rule change introduced in 2005 for the purposes of discipling identifiable owners of a club and not for separation purposes with no written contract defining the roles and responsibilities of both parties?
- It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that if the ultimate integrity protection principle inherent in Article 12 of UEFA FFP ( dumping debt via liquidation and continuing as same club) has been circumvented by The 5 Way Agreement then history will repeat itself. Hence the importance of the questions being given due consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Today they got back to me with this reply:
Dear Sir,
UEFA is not aware of the [sic] any 5 Way Agreement or other information mentioned in your email, therefore we cannot provide any comments on this matter.
Kind regards,
UEFA Media & Public Relations
So, dear reader, there you have it!
It is little wonder that the Scottish Football Association did not refer the non-compliance charges (Re: Resolution 12 etc ) to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (CAS) in May 2020.
The backroom deal that has bent Scottish football out of shape since 2012 was done without UEFA’s knowledge.
Quite frankly, the governing body in Nyon could not approve of something that the SFA did not tell them about or seek their guidance on.
I am informed by an impeccable source that the 5 Way Agreement is in contravention of Article 12 of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP).
The purpose of that article is to protect the integrity of UEFA competitions from clubs dumping debt and continuing as before.
So, all it took was a journalist asking questions to reveal that the SFA, SPL and SFL had concocted this little arrangement nine years ago that spits in the eye of sporting integrity.
Of course, the chaps at Hampden had no worries that the Stenography Corps would cause them a problem on that score.
They only ask nice fluffy pre-approved questions and that’s why they are not journalists.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Ask the football governance. Of Europa league as they nothing about it would they like a in house copy of the five way agreement , apply to Eric Reilly at Celtic,,and at the SFA , and a list of signatures who out whited the Europa league
If the Five-Way agreement is indeed exactly what it says, and I’m sceptical about that, then a massive chunk of the blame for this entire shambles lies fairly and squarely at the door of the Celtic Boardroom.
Our oldest and biggest rivals are in Administration, an event brought about by breaking the laws of the land, and the three Footballing Authorities in the country, collude with their Administrators and a newly formed company, (Sevco), to draw up a SECRET document/agreement which will have major repercussions for every club in Scotland, and the Board of the biggest club in the country by fucking miles at that point, just ACCEPTED it?
If that IS indeed the case they were guilty of a gross dereliction of duty.
Frankly, I am of the opinion that, at that point, had ANY club or organisation mounted ANY kind of legal challenge to the agreement, which bound ALL other clubs to conditions into which they had no input, it would have been torn up and binned before it was ever implemented.
That challenge would be more difficult now as it’s been in place and accepted by EVERY club in the country for so many years.
The lack of action is a kick in the teeth to decent Celtic fans.
Great stuff Phil. Please keep at it! I guess the other question that needs to be asked, though, is why the franchise tribute act keeps getting waved through to play in UEFA competitions. They have never made an operating profit in their short history and, in fact, have made multimillion losses year after year, ever since they were formed, to fund a playing squad they patently cannot afford. This should, on its own, prevent them from kicking a ball in Europe. UEFA were quick to jump on Man City for alleged FFP breaches and have imposed sanctions on other teams. All this action was taken without any prompting, notification of breach, or any other form of complaint from the home associations of the clubs concerned. So clearly UEFA can act unilaterally on this. That being the case, why have they never even questioned Sevco participation in Europe, when its accounts are freely available, public records and they are so obviously in breach of the rules? I thought that the whole point of FFP was to put a stop to precisely the kind of underhand, sugar daddy funding and perpetual flirtation with insolvency that has been the hallmark of this sh1tshow since its inception.
The truth will out, goes the saying. No it won’t, not in Bonny Scotland.
Everyone is in this up to there necks, we’ll done Phil hope we can all push on with this and get a action plan in place.
An absolutely brilliant piece Phil…..
I believe all it would take is a member club (any member club) to make a complaint to UEFA about the 5WA, they will only officially investigate it from a members complaint…..
HH
Phil, once again you ask the relevant questions. However, do FIFA,UEFA only respond to complaints that are directly asked by member clubs or association, ie SFA, Celtic or Sevco. So you may ask a Q, they (UEFA) may reply yae nor naeb however the only way that the matter to which you refer can be followed up is through the afire mentioned channels. Keep at them Phil and hope tgat this will be resolved someday.
One sentence dismissal in reply? UEFA couldn’t give a monkeys. Fail to see how this changes anything at all.
Brilliant article Phil, no wonder Lawell wanted it forgotten it stops this “Old Firm ” brand he wanted to trade on.
Of course UEFA don’t know; they don’t want to know. UEFA don’t care about such things. They leave local matters to local associations unless it might lose them money, which is what they do care about. The SFA have investigated themselves over the matter, decided that there is no need for further action and declared it closed. The only way for this to proceed further is for Celtic or another club (aye, right) to defy UEFA and FIFA edicts and take it to a Court of Law or for someone to put all the evidence gathered in a book and hope that the SFA, SPFL or Sevco are stupid enough to sue.
It’s already gathered.
https://res12.uk/
Best work your way backwards from latest date.
You need to educate me here Phil…
Will this go any further…??
Thank you.
The short answer is no. Uefa don’t care.
What happens now ? will EUFA take any action against the signatories of the 5 WA, or is the notice they received not actionable, or perhaps does a member have to complain before any action can be taken.
And there’s nothing to be done about it now?
What a wonderful letter, I cannot begin to tell you how delighted I am to read this. As we have all said for years this should never have happened. I would just like to thank you.
Hi Phil, once again you have to be applauded for your tenacity in investigating this issue, when no other journalist outlet has. My concern, however lies in the response from UEFA. To confirm it knows nothing if this dodgy deal, but says no more on the matter, leaves us all, no further forward.
Is it your intention to push them to review and act, if they find that they have been duped by our Ludge Members here in Fair Caladonia?
Phil that’s all well and good, but UEFA never said anything about looking into it. Maybe that could be a follow up question?
But then again UEFA seen as corrupt as the SFA so I wouldn’t be holding my breath on anything getting done.
Superb piece of journalism. Thank you Phil!
How the Celtic board can sleep at night over this beggars belief, the EBT years was blatant cheating to buy titles and nothing less. Time UEFA held an investigation.
UEFA apparently wasn’t aware of the 5 Way Agreement, and now you have made UEFA aware of it.
What happens next?
I suppose the next question is what are they going to do now that they do know?
You would get a better reaction from the clubs that rangers beat in Europe
Will they UEFA start asking questions, hopefully not fluffy ones.
Keep at them Phil
TAL
Well done Phil, the truth will out.
Hi Phil. Now that UEFA have been made aware of the 5 way agreement they ought to make enquiries to ensure their rules are continuing to be ignored by Scottish footballing authorities. Regards David Owens
So can uefa not take the sfa to task over this 💀🍀
Aye but will Celtic do anything about it? I doubt it.
So can eufa not take sfa to task over this
Get it sorted
What actually is the rule change in 2005?
The definition of a club before 2005 made no mention of an owner and operator. That came in to let SFA deal with Romanov, not to confer immortality on clubs.
That is not to say UEFA don’t allow such a concept, they do under Article 12 but the owner has to be a member of the national association and the operator called a football company has to have a contract in writing with the owner.
That might apply now to RFC Ltd and RIFC Plc but neither existed before 2012 only RFC PLC.
Interesting though that is in banter terms the crucial point is does the 5 Way Agreement allow circumvention of UEFA Article 12 by muddying the definition of who UEFA are dealing with?
Southhampton tried the “holding company” trick to avoid points deduction and other clubs objected for obvious reasons – it opens the door to debt dodging with no sanctions. See
https://twohundredpercent.net/southampton-insolvency-bending-the-rules/ to avoid points deduction but the FA weren’t having it
for same reasons UEFA treated Rangers “rebirth” as detrimental to the integrity of UEFA competition under Article 12.
The 5 Way Agreement removes or weakens that deterrent to debt dumping but as UEFA never were consulted they could not consider that point.
They might OK with 5 Way but there is a serious sporting integrity issue at stake which everything under the 5 Way Agreement runs rough shod over and is one of the reasons UEFA treat Rangers FC LtdRIFC PLc as new club/company.
The question is why don’t the Scottish Football authorities for the same integrity protection reasons.
If only a new start had been recognised from the off, winning a title after 9 years would get the recognition it deserves (debt not withstanding) but wanting your cake and eating the previous 54 is a step too far for others to stomach.
Phil, that’s all good and well but what happens now?
How do we get UEFA to take a look under the SFA bonnet?
Having been made aware of this, could not UEFA demand a copy for scrutiny?
Oh …. does that make Saturday’s title tainted….as the late great Bernard Breslaw used to opine….”I’m only arsking”…!!!
So UEFA don’t have internet access, don’t read the news, are not aware of the famous Celtic advert from 2012 declaring Sevco to be a new club and aren’t privy to any of the rumours that fly around any industry as to what’s happening and where ..?
For a two line reply to the biggest scandal in European sport shows to me that contrary to your claim that UEFA DON’T know about the 5WA that instead they know all about it and are doing all they can to pretend that they don’t.
Does Campbell Ogilvie work in UEFA’s Media & PR Department by any chance?
For this reply has his poker faced prints all over it
UEFA are as corrupt if not more corrupt than Sevco and their mates in the Celtic PLC and I reckon you should use your journalistic credentials to probe this matter further as I believe with just a little bit more pushing your enquiries will suddenly start to show some serious results.
Trust me on this.
Good luck.
So what happens next, will the Scottish authorities do the decent thing and fess up.
Or is EUFA obliged to step in.
Well, what’s clearly happened next is that Phil is now claiming to have ‘established’ that UEFA don’t know about the 5 Way Agreement when he has done no such thing in any way.
Though I guess we shouldn’t expect anything less from a fiction writer than pure fiction.
You may have just given All of Us a glimmer of hope Phil, because if UEFA take action over this, that may well lead them into taking action over the plethora of glaring ‘errors’ committed by the klans klub.
We’ll just have wait and see…indeed it may lead to a new governing body,let’s face it if UEFA look over the very unusual financial goings on at ibrox well,that could prove very, very interesting.
Absoloutely nailed it, there should be no place to hide if the approriate people pusue this case further, the paying public have been shafted for the benefit of one club, well done!!
What happens now phil if anything
Is there such a thing as freedom of information within Celtic to ask our club questions about this as I believe they have plenty to answer for