Much has been made during this transfer window about Mr Beale casting an envious eye across the city to his allegedly lucky adversary.
The local media love this sort of stuff as it provides easy copy that fills the pages of their terminally ill titles.
Terminal?
Well, if you don’t believe me, then look at the circulation figures for 2022.
That is a list of commercial enterprises that are as financially unsustainable as Sevco.
Yes, Ange DOES have more money to spend than Mr Beale.
That’s observably true.
Now, there is a real story here, but the local media are not permitted to go anywhere it.
The basic logic of Mr Beale’s observation is inescapable.
In any professional team sport, money confers an undeniable advantage.
It just does.
Even some among the notoriously credulous Ibrox klanbase are starting to follow follow the logic of their situation.
Yes, money DOES matter.
Moreover, Ange is at a club that is run on a financially sustainable basis.
Celtic was only EIGHT minutes away from insolvency in 1994.
It was a lesson that has never been forgotten at Parkhead.
Of course, it follow follows on from that if the finances have been illicitly garnered-say by some tax scam that required players to be “imperfectly registered” with the SFA- then said club would have an unfair advantage over opponents.
One of the legacy issues of the death of Rangers that still have to be fully addressed is how the football authorities wriggled out of addressing the decade of EBT cheating.
A fully functioning Fourth Estate would have dissected the findings of the Nimmo Smith commission years ago.
However, it suited them to look the other way and simply regurgitate what they were emailed from Hampden.
Mr Beale has inadvertently opened the door to the reality that having greater finances than your rival is a game changer.
Now, in contrast to Sevco, Celtic have gone about their transfer business in this window with quiet efficiency.
Consequently, there has been no need for Ange to give updates in pressers that are redolent of David Brent.
That’s because Celtic actually have money to spend.
Discover more from Phil Mac Giolla Bháin
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sevco did well in selling Aribo and Bassey for the money they did and it has helped them trundle along but both players are struggling. Bassey is being ridiculed but what chance did these players have on improving their skills at Ibrox when the whole game is rigged in their club’s favour. No worries about off-side, tripping people up in the penalty area and using their hands as these all go unpunished and this must breed laziness and a lack of concentration.
Perhaps it explains the lack of interest in Kent and Morelos as they definitely have talent albeit unhoned.
Imagine they hadn’t got the champions league money AND the money from a once in a generation lucky run to the UEFA cup final
We wont have to imagine for long, this is Sevco season 2023/24
Like the vast majority of Celtic supporters…I have no idea what is going on with the big Greek fella…and so will not speculate on the situation.
However there are two things I would like to say…
First up…the sagas of Jusip and Georgios…
I can’t believe we’ve gone back to this kind of protracted and drawn out way of doing business.
Perhaps all will be revealed…and we’ll discover that the Club is not to blame…but when Mr. Lawwell is hovering in the background…Who knows ?
Also…so angry to discover that another emerging talent has left us…This is becoming a bad habit.
But to discover that its West Brom ( with all due respect to them) who have snapped him up…leaves me mystified…Why would a young guy fancy West Brom over us…??
Anyway….maybe the big Greek fella will be away by the time I write this.
@James Cullen
The EBT payments were illicit. Twice.
Rangers FC (in liquidation) did not disclose these to the SFA. Which they were required to do because the rule book says the SFA has to get full details of all payments made to players.
The dead club didn’t tell HMRC about that EBT scam either. As if anyone would tell the taxman they were dodging tax.
I’m not saying the WAY the dead club used them was legal.
I’m saying EBT payments themselves are not illegal, provided disclosure and tax paid etc.
I think you’ve misinterpreted my point m8…
I’m a staunch believer that the recipients of these “illicit” payments by the liquidated rfc be made to pay their taxes at the least.
I’m also totally of the opinion that the liquidated and no longer in existence RFC should have been stripped of the titles and other honours illegally won during the period….and that in certain quarters criminal charges should have been brought.
I also will go further and state that football teams propping their advantage via such means is no diffrent to any other athlete taking performance enhancing steroids…..and I firmly believe that recently the newco were actually doing just that with the use of inhalers and other drugs commonly used to treat asthma sufferers….and that GERRARD brought this with him from Liverpool who, amongst others…are being investigated in relation to this matter.
Yes…..illicitly and perversely used to cheat by the oldco defunct rfc…..but ebt payments themselves are not illegal if declared and appropriate tax etc paid
Hh
Excellent post James.
Incorrect. EBTs are lawful/legal if used as specified by law
The law does not specify that an ebt accompanied by a side letter is lawful/legal.
Rangers used lawful ebts in an unlawful/illegal manner.
That was findings of Supreme Court.
EBTs could be used by other clubs as long as players did not require an indemnity aka side letter and happy to trust that HMRC would never come after them in event an ebt was not a means of avoiding tax otherwise collectable via PAYE.
As soon as a side letter guaranteeing a player he would not have pay the PAYE level of tax was issued the ebt to which side letter referred was unlawful.
A. EBTs lawful if used as law intended.
B.EBTs unlawful if not used as law intended.
Clubs including Rangers according to LNS free to organise tax affairs in lawful manner so no unfair advantage from their use.
At that time in 2013 ebts were deemed lawful but in 2017 Supreme Court changed the status of ebts as used by Rangers as unlawful meaning no other clubs could have used ebts as Rangers did putting them at an unfair advantage.
SFA however refused to reopen LNS Commission in 2017
Hi Phil…..I write yet again to ask an opinion on certain matters.
This piece obviously.relates to money and the lack of it at Ibrox.
Yes, their support, in part, are beginning to see the dire consequences of borrowing and running on empty simply to achieve one league title.
It has left them MORE broke than ever…but the EBT scandal relates to the dead club, and as much as the new club would love to get right back onto that wagon, the fiscal responsibility being imposed by UEFA means they’ve got to tow the line or face the possibility of being banned from Europe….something which, if it didn’t kill them like their predecessors, would make them a mid table team.
The new recruit to Beales squad, CANTWELL, is reportedly being paid from outwith the coffers of the club…..and I ask your solid opinion again, if you can verify this.
It also leads to the question, if its true, that thus would be a failure in financial terms, to be running the finances under the new UEFA rules…..so again…can you elaborate.
I believe there’s a story in that one.
As far as EBT payments are concerned, I don’t believe they are illicit, so long as declared and tax is paid on them….yet a lot of fans believe them to be illicit…..
The team that died put a team on the park to gain the advantage…and for 9 years it worked….then Hector brought the full house of cards down…or did he ?
Let’s be honest, the liquidised club may have been the ones paying under the radar, but the SFA by way of ignoring or simply turning a blind eye, are in law, guilty of conspiracy to defraud the tax man…..of course, it would only be done to aid the establishment club.
What I have never understood is WHY other clubs, cheated out of European slots due to the ibrox dead clubs cheating, have never demanded an inquiry.
Lastly, Beale, who is quickly becoming a real pain in the posterior….talks of needing 3 windows to build….
The irony of this is that their financial position remains untenable…unless someone steps in with a huge cash injection….and for me Beale is simply protecting his own position making the sort of statements he has.
Let’s look….Ange is lucky, he can buy success, I can’t…..so don’t blame me there’s no money.
I need three windows….in other words expect nothing….and don’t blame me cos there’s no money.
I’m not responsible for the 9 point gap…I I inherited it…..so don’t blame me.
In reality we need to double that gap to 18 points…just to shut Beale up……and I believe we can.
I hope you’ll find time to answer that couple of questions Phil….hh
James, you have to understand that EBTs, as a concept, were designed to get around the principle of paying income tax on financial benefits which were a reward for undertaking activities for an employer. HMRC challenged the principle of EBTs, claiming that they were a disguised remuneration. The fact that Rangers (IL) didn’t declare these payments to their employees was, they claimed, because these payments were not subject to the deduction of income tax. However, David Murray, having only very briefly attended the Paul Baxendale-Walker school of EBTs, couldn’t even implement them properly. The concept of EBTs required an employee to APPLY for a loan, with each application being scrutinised and then granted or refused by an independent board of trustees. The infamous side letters guaranteed regular payments to EBT recipients and in the case of Billy Dodds, he was approached by David Murray and asked to accept a payment due to him via an EBT rather than a direct payment from the company. Guarantees of regular payments and also asking an employee to accept a contractually promised payment BOTH fatally negated the principal of the EBT, regardless of the fact that EBTs were subsequently ruled to be a disguised form of remuneration to an employee.
You also have to understand that Rangers (IL) weren’t initially the principal target of HMRC and their war against EBTs. The EPL was awash with them and of course, being the EPL, they paid much, much more than in Scotland. The discovery of side letters at Rangers (IL) during a completely separate investigation put them front and centre as far as HMRC were concerned and made them the ideal test case. Once that case was (eventually) settled, EPL clubs started resolving their own EBT situations more proactively, which is exactly what HMRC wanted in the first place.
So apologies for the long-winded explanation, but EBTs WERE illicit, even as a concept and once you accept that they ARE, and always were, a form of remuneration liable for income tax (which cannot be deferred until after death) you’re basically rendering them a pointless waste of time. And the biggest irony in this whole farce was that David Murray paid himself a small fortune (via an EBT of course) as the club’s EBT consultant, when he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) implement them properly in the first place.
P.S. I’m solely referring to the way EBTs were used by all football clubs…
Another issue with the EBT’s as far as I know is that the players, particularly the Dutch players, wanted reassurance that the loans would be paid on request, hence the side letters guaranteeing payment.
On creating these letters RFC then committed two errors:
The first being that this made it income / payment which required it then to be registered with the League and SFA.
Secondly, in creating the side letter guaranteeing payment that made it liable for tax.
The side letters were crucial in the whole affair. Their existence meant that the payments had to be registered with the League and SFA but in doing so made them liable for tax which negated the schemes very purpose.
RFC had already refused to pay HMRC for an earlier case on Discount Option Scheme for De Boer and Moore. This meant Hector had little sympathy.
Italy don’t mess about,if only
The circulation figures (if I’m reading them correctly) seem to show that the Record has gone from ~630,000 copies a day in 2020 to 60,000 copies a day now, with the other papers in Scotland in similarly dire straits.
you do wonder how long they can actually survive
The LNS Commision Decision that ruled there was no competitive advantage to be gained by use of ebts in an unlawful manner not available to other Scottish clubs has, with passage of time from Feb 2013 , been shown by Supreme Court Decision in 2017 to be, not only an insult to the intelligence of all Scottish football supporters not wearing blue or orange colours, but a crock full of shit.
This will poison Scottish football as long as Scottish main stream media continue to peddle the lie that Rangers never cheated the rest of Scottish football for ten years.
There are few if any Scottish journalists, earning a living from hiding this fraud, and so are willing to expose what an independent journalist based in NI has done.
History will roll out the truth.
Actually Phil is based in 26 county republic
NI – North of Ireland? What else could it possibly be…?
Phil, What would be the minimum sales the papers could go down to before they are no longer viable?
Good question.
The major titles in these islands have been in a race to the bottom for at least a decade.
Staffing establishments have been gutted, and the fall in quality is easily discernible.
The business model that sustained mass circulation newspapers from the late 19th century to the start of this millennium is now gone.
The digital revolution is just starting.
AS with all such events it is a recipe for chaos and unintended consequences.
When “Mrs Hinch” attains celebrity status, with her tips on eliminating condensation by filling an old sock with cat litter, and running “major scoops” on the goings-on on Love Island/Strictly/Masked Singer, etc – you know they’re already on their death throes! All that remains for the print media is to lay down and play dead. 😉
How long before the SFA try something like a wage cap?
Now there’s a clever thought Scott…Nice one.
Aye, and we all know what the level any cap would be based on!
That’s what I meant😁