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View Full Version : Scottish football .... Allowing cheats to prosper



NAE NOOKIE
05-11-2015, 02:33 PM
The finding in the Rangers 'big tax case' has stated that, in the words of the court, "without the use of EBTs many of the players employed by the football club would have probably found employment elsewhere" In other words Rangers would have been a weaker team, possibly much weaker, without their scheme to deliberately cheat the tax man ...... a scheme other clubs could have used but didn't because they knew it was dodgy.

Which brings us to Rangers International Football Club:

This club claims to have nothing to do with the financial cheating of the old Rangers ... including any judgements against it by courts of law. Yet in the same breath they lay claim to honours won by the old club. Clearly having your cake and eating it.

The SFA / SPFL have a clear duty here IMO. They must ask this club to clearly state what they are .. a new club who have won 2 lower league titles .. or the same club who won 50 odd league titles and umpteen Scottish and League cups .... which is what they are clearly claiming to be.

If they claim to be the club that won league titles and cups during the EBT era then they must be stripped of the honours won during that period. If they say they are not then the SFA / SPFL must insist that they remove all reference to any and all honours won by Rangers FC prior to 2012 from all and any literature or merchandise produced by the club.

If the SFA / SPFL do not do that they are clearly saying that its against the rules of Scottish football to win honours by cheating, but if you do you will be allowed to keep the stuff you win.

If that is the case, then when and if Hibs ever reach another Scottish Cup final we should stuff the players bung full of performance enhancing drugs. They don't test until after the game and so obviously Hibs would still be Scottish cup winners, even if all the players were found to be high as kites later, because by the looks of it, if you aren't caught 'in flagrante delicto' cheating is ok. At least according to the SFA ' SPFL.

Time to show a bit of backbone ..... I wont hold my breath.

pennyhibee
05-11-2015, 02:46 PM
Can't argue with any of that

McIntosh
05-11-2015, 02:51 PM
The finding in the Rangers 'big tax case' has stated that, in the words of the court, "without the use of EBTs many of the players employed by the football club would have probably found employment elsewhere" In other words Rangers would have been a weaker team, possibly much weaker, without their scheme to deliberately cheat the tax man ...... a scheme other clubs could have used but didn't because they knew it was dodgy.

Which brings us to Rangers International Football Club:

This club claims to have nothing to do with the financial cheating of the old Rangers ... including any judgements against it by courts of law. Yet in the same breath they lay claim to honours won by the old club. Clearly having your cake and eating it.

The SFA / SPFL have a clear duty here IMO. They must ask this club to clearly state what they are .. a new club who have won 2 lower league titles .. or the same club who won 50 odd league titles and umpteen Scottish and League cups .... which is what they are clearly claiming to be.

If they claim to be the club that won league titles and cups during the EBT era then they must be stripped of the honours won during that period. If they say they are not then the SFA / SPFL must insist that they remove all reference to any and all honours won by Rangers FC prior to 2012 from all and any literature or merchandise produced by the club.

If the SFA / SPFL do not do that they are clearly saying that its against the rules of Scottish football to win honours by cheating, but if you do you will be allowed to keep the stuff you win.

If that is the case, then when and if Hibs ever reach another Scottish Cup final we should stuff the players bung full of performance enhancing drugs. They don't test until after the game and so obviously Hibs would still be Scottish cup winners, even if all the players were found to be high as kites later, because by the looks of it, if you aren't caught 'in flagrante delicto' cheating is ok. At least according to the SFA ' SPFL.

Time to show a bit of backbone ..... I wont hold my breath.

How on earth has David Murray not been stripped of his knighthood?

Bostonhibby
05-11-2015, 02:53 PM
Yep, agree every word, the SPFL have a chance to win back some respect with the wider football fanbase who they are massively out of touch with - all they have to do is take action in the interest of sporting integrity now that what has been staring everyone else in the face for ages has been stated by the court.

I won't be holding my breath as I don't believe the blazers are that bothered about anything other than their cosy little clique and every so often they have to panic when they come under media pressure or direct pressure from the uglies - they are as bad as fans of the now defunct Glasgow rangers in that they have their inward looking way of doing things and nothings going to make them change.

Smartie
05-11-2015, 03:00 PM
I do think the SPFL have to - again - look at their punishments for financial misdoings.

I'm reasonably calm about the past dirty deeds. None of the teams who finished second to Rangers during that period will want trophies awarded to them retrospectively. The past is the past, Rangers have turned out to be losers from that period and frankly the whole of Scottish football has lost out. That's what happens when cheating occurs, the credibility of competition is diminished.

I'm fed up of the old club/ new club argument. There is no doubt in my mind that they are the same club. Same ground, same colours, same odious fans, same songs, same air of unpleasantness when they come to your ground, same triumphalism and the same glorious feeling when you ram it right up them. So it is the same club for me, irrespective of what jiggery-pokery may have happened at companies house in order for them to continue.

They went to the bottom of the pile and were imo handed a hand up by being allowed to jump to the head of the queue of teams who want to join the Scottish League. As much as we may not like them, they were too big a club to be allowed to disappear completely, there were potentially too many paying customers who could have been lost to Scottish football and so I thought a reasonable compromise was found. They had an opportunity to rebuild their reputation whilst they climbed up the leagues, spreading a bit of wealth around whilst they did it.

I am a big believer in "innocent until proven guilty" and up until this point the new club haven't done anything wrong. But I have serious problems with their current financial plight. Every club should have to live within its means. Even bloody Hearts seem to be getting their heads around this now. Rangers are no different and instead of "needing £x million to see out the season" they should be closing stands, selling players, terminating loans, laying off staff and doing all of the other things that any other business would have to do in order to survive. I'm horrified that by all accounts they have a playing budget 4x that of ours yet they are in financial trouble.

Our authorities are going to be under massive scrutiny over the next few months. I understand that the "blue pound" is important in Scottish football. But (dare I say it) sporting integrity should always come before that.

I repeat - as of yet they've done nothing wrong. But if they do suffer an insolvency event (or similar) and are allowed to dance a merry dance around the Scottish football authorities again then every trophy they win in future will be as tainted as those they won during the most inglorious period of their history.

NAE NOOKIE
05-11-2015, 06:42 PM
I do think the SPFL have to - again - look at their punishments for financial misdoings.

I'm reasonably calm about the past dirty deeds. None of the teams who finished second to Rangers during that period will want trophies awarded to them retrospectively. The past is the past, Rangers have turned out to be losers from that period and frankly the whole of Scottish football has lost out. That's what happens when cheating occurs, the credibility of competition is diminished.

I'm fed up of the old club/ new club argument. There is no doubt in my mind that they are the same club. Same ground, same colours, same odious fans, same songs, same air of unpleasantness when they come to your ground, same triumphalism and the same glorious feeling when you ram it right up them. So it is the same club for me, irrespective of what jiggery-pokery may have happened at companies house in order for them to continue.

They went to the bottom of the pile and were imo handed a hand up by being allowed to jump to the head of the queue of teams who want to join the Scottish League. As much as we may not like them, they were too big a club to be allowed to disappear completely, there were potentially too many paying customers who could have been lost to Scottish football and so I thought a reasonable compromise was found. They had an opportunity to rebuild their reputation whilst they climbed up the leagues, spreading a bit of wealth around whilst they did it.

I am a big believer in "innocent until proven guilty" and up until this point the new club haven't done anything wrong. But I have serious problems with their current financial plight. Every club should have to live within its means. Even bloody Hearts seem to be getting their heads around this now. Rangers are no different and instead of "needing £x million to see out the season" they should be closing stands, selling players, terminating loans, laying off staff and doing all of the other things that any other business would have to do in order to survive. I'm horrified that by all accounts they have a playing budget 4x that of ours yet they are in financial trouble.

Our authorities are going to be under massive scrutiny over the next few months. I understand that the "blue pound" is important in Scottish football. But (dare I say it) sporting integrity should always come before that.

I repeat - as of yet they've done nothing wrong. But if they do suffer an insolvency event (or similar) and are allowed to dance a merry dance around the Scottish football authorities again then every trophy they win in future will be as tainted as those they won during the most inglorious period of their history.

That's the whole point of my post though smartie.

Like you I would be happy to let RIFC get on with it and accept that they, as you say, have done nothing wrong. But if this 'new club' is laying claim to honours won by a previous incarnation then it simply cannot be allowed to claim the 'glory' without also paying the price for the cheating which enabled them to win some of those honours. So I will repeat what I said:

If they see themselves as the club who won all the honours since 1872 and want to validate that claim and give it any credence, they must also accept that they are the club who cheated during the EBT years and accept having honours won during that period stripped from them.

If they say they are a new club with no responsibility for the cheating that took place, then how on earth can they in the same breath claim that they are the same club who won the honours?

Its one thing breaking the rules of football .... its quite another to defy the rules of logic.