Celtic will confront the SFA over shareholder concerns regarding the 2011 licence issued to Rangers despite the club having unpaid social taxes dating back over a decade.
A resolution to debate the issue was scheduled for yesterday’s AGM but dropped from the agenda after discussions between a group of shareholders and the club directors.
At the crux of the matter is the so-called wee tax case involving the Discount Options Scheme used to pay Craig Moore, Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer between 1999 and 2004.
After years of appealing Rangers finally admitted that the scheme was illegal with the final bill coming in at £6m including penalties.
Despite having that outstanding bill the SFA provided Rangers with a licence to play in the 2011/12 season giving Ally McCoist’s side the opportunity to bring in £15m from the Champions League which would more than pay that bill.
Had the SFA applied their own licence rules correctly Rangers would have been denied a licence allowing Celtic to compete in the Champions League qualifiers rather than in the much less lucrative Europa League.
Another take would be that if the SFA had applied pressure the £6m bill would have been paid to HMRC rather than allow McCoist to go on the summer signing spree that saw Allan McGregor, Steven Davis and Steven Whittaker with new contracts as well as scouring the world to recruit talents such as Matt McKay, Lee Wallace, Dorin Goian and Juan Ortiz.
Losing out on the opportunity to earn £15m is clearly a big issue for Celtic shareholders with respected blogger Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan posting details to Celtic Quick News with details of talks with the board on the matter.
Last night the poster explained: “I will prepare a fairly detailed post on Res 12 — but right now I am knackered.
“However, can I just clarify a couple of things some of which will be a repeat of Auldheid’s comments and others won’t.
“First– it became clear that Celtic PLC had questioned various things as far back as 2011.
“Second— these concerns were taken up with the SFA and it was clearly explained that the board were asking questions as a result of enquiries and concerns which came from shareholders.
“Third — The nature of the enquiries were not confined to those matters which were raised by the resolution. Celtic questioned other matters altogether some of which are now of no relevance but others which are not.
“Fourth— The SFA replied and provided various answers. To my knowledge, Celtic at no time said that they were satisfied with that answer and chose to simply remain silent.
“Fifth— Later, as a result of further prompting from shareholders and further information, The Celtic Board made further enquiries– this time on a slightly different point and a different tack– of the SFA.
“Sixth — Once again the SFA responded.
“Seventh—- The board initially took the view that this procedure rendered the resolution unnecessary.
“Eighth — following meetings with some of the requisitioners the Board:
a) Withdrew from their position that the resolution was unnecssary
b) Took the view that they would formally continue dialogue and have further meetings with the requisitioners.
c) Agreed to keep the entire matter “live” by adjourning the resolution rather than simply voting against the resolution as they had previously intimated.
d) Agreed to open a formal line of communication with the requisitioners through the Company Secretary– who is legally qualified– and to formally announce that line of communication to the AGM.
e) Further to publicly and formally commit to further dialogue and communication with the requistioners on the issues raised within the resolution.
“In turn the requistioners were publicly allowed to formally accept the board’s invitation to engage in further discussion ( and that was noted in the formal minutes) and to formally acknowledge that some of the steps which had already been taken by the board satisfied some of the concerns of the requisitioners— but not all.
“The wording of the chairman and the requistioners was agreed and adjusted late yesterday as the dialogue was ongoing throughout last week.
“The effect of all of this is that resolution 12 is most definitely a live issue.
“Of key importance is that it has been formally adjourned in public meeting.
“Now there are a whole host of key benefits to this not least of which the board were persuaded to depart from their initial negative position.
“They acknowledged that there was merit in at least some of what the requisitioners were about and that the entire issue was worthy of further discussion and examination.
“In addition maintaining a discussion with the requisitioners was in the interest of the club and its supporters.
“If I can add another point just now.
“Of key importance here was getting into a position where the board accepted that they should stop and consider the arguments and points raised by people like Auldheid with regard to compliance and regulation governance.
“That has been achieved.
“They may ultimately not agree or they may ultimately disagree on how to take such an argument forward in terms of a next step. But at least it can be discussed, suggestions made, and a next step agreed.
“However, as far as the SFA and all other football fans are concerned, what happened today was that a group of fans took a formal route asking a member club to hold the SFA to account. The Club concerned, after consideration, decided not simply dispose of that proposal by rejecting it and instead allowed the matter to remain live.
“With regard to secrecy and all that:
“All I can say is this. The main movers of the motion were party to the discussions and documentation was produced which demonstrated all that has been said above.
“A preference was expressed that the documents concerned not be placed in the public domain. Note that it was a request and not an order from on high.
“The benefit of acceding to such a request?
“To be honest, some of the matters raised by the club and the responses, may be germane to legal processes that are still ongoing and possibly yet to start. Nothing in the documents would tend to suggest that Celtic were failing to pursue the SFA for answers to their questions, or failing to represent the interests of the supporters.
“Further– how can I put this?
“When there is a written confidential record of certain matters, I can understand a protective reluctance to make that record public so that others can adjust their stance and position to suit their own ends.
“There are those who have nothing to do with Celtic Football Club who could use such records for their own purposes and try to stir trouble for the club, its shareholders and its fans.
“Best to leave them in the dark.
“Lastly all negotiations and discussions are about achieving the art of the possible. It is not possible to say that this issue is at an end, or has been voted against by Celtic PLC, and it is possible to say that the SFA and their practices formally remain under scrutiny by the shareholders of CELTIC PLC.
“By the way— that was the only vote in the hall today that was truly unanimous!!!!”
To be continued…
CLICK HERE for more detail on the matter
HELLOOOO WE WERE CLEARED OF THAT TAX REMEMBER OR ARE YOU TOO THICK TO TAKE IT IN
We are coming a-humping my friend. We have our boot on your disgraceful club’s neck, and we will never take it off till you are ground into the dust. So fuck you, fuckyou.
We lost £15 million because of the cheating lying dead club.
An investigation is called for.
The SFA bent over backwards to help the dead Rangers.
Only in Scotland would this have happened.
As for the new club Sevco 5088, losing money by the day, everyone walking away through the revolving door, Sneaky Sally smoozing up to the next pretender, “Oh i will do this for Sevco”, and wee Craigy Whyte still running the club.
Take them down Craigy.
In Craig Whyte We Trust.
you admitted guilt in the wee tax case, to date this amount remains unpaid!
you WERE found guilty on about 15 loans in the big tax case, for about 45 loans the appeal from murray international and rangers (RIP) was upheld. (Exact numbers may be slightly wrong)
As usual though you are a thick zombie and believe what suits you, but hey ho rangers paid the ultimate price for dodging taxes and non-payment of bills, they were liquidated, you now support a new club who will also soon follow the same path. Chuckles stole all you and your fellow zombies money and bought himself a nice house. And Sir Craig Whyte is looming on the horizon.
enjoy being obsessed and posting on celtic forums, i however will enjoy watching top flight football, champions league football, winning the big league, sipping champagne with my jelly and ice cream and supporting an honest, tax paying, bill paying, financially sound and scotlands most successful club.
so in short GIRFUY and enjoy supporting rory bremner fc
Yes but rangers or the rangers or sevco what ever you clowns call yourselfs are back court in January watch this space the huns are going bust again canny wait
No you were not cleared. Small case lost. Big case under appeal right now. In any case one Judges decision does not reflect the opinion of other Judges and can be overturned. Lets get back to court and see what 99% OF ALL UK BUSINESS CEO’S SAY IS TRUE – LIQUIDATION MEANS END OF BUSINESS INCLUDING CLUB BECAUSE YOU OPERATE AS A BUSINESS FIRST AND FOREMOST!!
or are you too thick to take it in.
We need to keep pushing this issue and put the Huns and the SFA to shame. Cheating bastards the both of them.
hmmm this whole matter stinks. The above suggests that Celtic fc asked for answers from the SF regarding the European licence, got them and good or bad that was the end of the matter as far as Celtic were concerned (gross incompetence, or worse) – until the shareholders asked questions of Celtic forcing a response. Now celtic have not only managed to silence the shareholders asking the questions in the first place but also not put a timescale on any further action (if any is actually ever taken).
Surely they will have all the information they needed already? if the information from the SFA was bad and highlighted their poor standards or bias, Celtic had a duty to its shareholders at that time to immediately report the SFA to UEFA and start legal proceedings. However instead of this the Celtic board were unwilling to take any action and in fact recommend the shareholders vote down resolution 12. Why did they not simply say they will be taking matters further? postponing the resolution indefinitely hints at sweeping the matter under the carpet in my opinion.
The only way this is going to be a positive for Celtic is if they have been holding this info for a reason – i.e. to force the SFA’s backing should they apply to leave the Scottish league. Otherwise i fear that Celtic must have played some part in this whole sorry mess – what I do not know, but I cannot for the life of me understand why any company would sit back and blindly accept a mis application of clearly stated rules that cost approx £15m with not so much as a grumble.
please forgive any poor grammar above, its a very complicated subject for a layman and trying to make sense of my thought and feeling on this matter is hard lol. HH.
scott,good points made.
The shareholder group deserve great praise for vigorously highlighting RES.12.
I don’t think it’s a case of the board sitting back. Clearly the SFA as the ruling body have been negligent,with regards due diligence.
In other words, our board were duped by the SFA who in turn were lied to by the liquifated club. Why did the SFA accept these lies,without doing numerous checks ?
It is now time to bring the SFA’s dirty linen into the public domain (there’s lots of it )
not only the aforementioned,but how SEVCO 5088 (craigies) got a licence ?
PETER LAWWELL,should resign from the SFA, with immediate effect,due to the above.
We should approach sky,about joining the english championship in 2015 (when they lose CL )
2 years notice is required.with our global fanbase, and ultimate Premiership appeal, it would be a no-brainer for SKY.
How good would it be to play in this new
environment ?
Moreover,we would be leaving behind a
corrupt governing body (remember farry,
ref-mc donald ) AND………
SEVCO EXPLOSION (shit) ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN
thanks peter, however again if it was found that the sfa were lied to why then are they not taking further action? why are celtic not forcing this issue?
nopretender – i can not believe that uefa would actually ban celtic or any other club from europe due to the lies of a now deceased club that led to celtic losing £15m, or the inaction of a corrupt fa. even if they did surely it would highlight the mockery of uefa, the sfa, the scottish league, and save us money long term as should we be forced to stay and accept this has went on, what will be next?
in my opinion celtic may never be in a stronger position than right now, if we do not use this power and take to task those in the sfa we may never get another chance.
The problem is this, if Celtic bring this matter to UEFA then there is a strong posibility that Scotland will will be booted from both European & International football for a few years for the crime of corruption. In that celtic will loss out in european & commercial exposure & therefore it would be detrimental to the Club. The Hun’s, the SFA & Celtic all know this, hence the Clubs silence. For those Narcissistic that would make getting Liquidated worth it all.
Unfortunately UEFA’s rules state “that if UEFA have to intervene in a domestic matter from one of there member nations then they run the risk of being banned from International & European Competition for up to 3 yr’s.
Yes, np , in principle you are right.
but in theory there have been many cases where no action was taken.
our very own LIQUIFATED club broke rules (again ) by going to C of Sess. re- player ban.also Sion,were in dispute with their gov.body.in both cases eufa did not intervene, with bans.
So,our board should sue sfa for financial loss suffered due to their negligence.as we have a bona fide case.
I would apply to join english championship (as said before) SKY would help push this through.no confidence in sfa rulers would help our cause.
Dirty cheating scum and the same goes for the new huns. Its always been the same from the beggining, it time for change now. Lets push this and rid them the whole dirty cheating scummy lot of them.
Would I be wrong in saying that if we are in dispute with our governing body it renders europeN football null and void
The original Huns should not have been granted a European license that particular season, the SFA rules demand this.
The problem is with people like Campbell Ogilvie in office,they would not dare deprive them of the license.
Scottish football is broken, for me it became clear there was something very,very wrong at the top of our game when they were awarded any kind of license last season!
Every single club in Scotland should have refused to play Newco & supporters of every club should have refused to buy a single season ticket until the entire SFA & SPL were forced to leave office!
something stinks about here….ah yes Ogilvies arse……….its on the line LIAR
They are cheating SCUMBAGS and they are still cheating with the help of the sfa.
Go get’ em Bhoys!
And Ghirls I should add.
Our collective foot must remain on the neck of the new zombie club until it like the old dead club is choked out of existence.
Die zombie die!
Ogilvie is still employed by the governing body that sanctioned a licence to the cheating Scum. i hope that Celtic pursue the whole matter until a rightful and justifiable conclusion is reached. Better still total extinction of Corrupt FC would be karma.
I am very struck by the extent of anti Celtic press coverage which is being spawned by the Scottish papers : Tom English and Keevins are in today’s papers picking fault and earning their fee for low grade reporting .Quite pathetic.
I want Scottish Independence and I am quite used to the negative press re this issue from the BBB,Scotsman.Record and the Herald -the latter is shifting ground a wee bit -obviously trying to hold on to circulation.With regard to Celtic who are these journalists pandering to??
BREAKING NEWS !!!
just heard on talksport- press pass ( where they have a fair press,unlike ours )
A top sports lawyer talk about FFP.qpr could be hit with a record fine for not breaking even over 3 year period.other clubs like sevco 5088 are in the same boat,with record losses.y
Fines will be dished out from jan. 2015.
fifa and uefa say FFP gives every club a fair chance in their leagues.
i
So where does this leave craigies sevco ?
they are lauding it over part time teams in div.2,with gushing praise from the press.they can’t go for another IPO.the investor stories are nonsense,who would invest in lame duck ?
with a FFP fine awaiting,I feel Mr.Whyte will sell up this toxic brand.NOT as a going concern,but by asset-stripping (which he does (simply) best )
SO, BHOYS and GHIRLS LIQUIDATION II
is CLOSER than YOU THINK !!!!!