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Is the dam around Resolution 12 about to fall?

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I’ll

ogilvie letterThe stony silence over Resolution 12 and the vow of secrecy over SFA governance is showing signs of finally breaking.

Last week’s report into DOING SFA FOR FAIR PLAY: A REPORT INTO THE RANGERS TAX AFFAIR AND THE ROLE OF THE SCOTTISH FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION by The Offshore Game has given the subject some much needed traction and slowly engaged UK wide organisations into Scotland’s shame.

Taking the matter offline into the public arena was covered in depth with The Offline Game by The Scottish Football Monitor highlighting the fears of two print organisations looking into the issue while the maverick John James site went into great detail over The SFA Ride Again.

For anyone looking into the matter for the first time the issue is fairly simple- Did the SFA knowingly nominate Rangers (IL) to play in Champions League qualifiers in season 2011/12 while they had an overdue tax payable on 30 June 2011?

Evidence uncovered in the year following that decision suggests that a £2.8m bill was served on the club on 20 May 2011 after a decade of denial followed by negotiating over payments made to Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer.

That bill was overdue on 20 June yet a self certified licence was accepted by the SFA and sent on to UEFA.

For the avoidance of doubt Sheriff Officers visited Ibrox on August 10 to serve the demand, between June 30 and August 10 Rangers (IL) had been knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Malmo despite handing out lucrative new contracts to Steve Davis, Steven Whittaker, Allan McGregor while recruiting stars such as Lee Wallace, Juan Ortiz, Matt McKay and Dorin Goian.

Had Malmo lost out to a club and football association that was banking on reaching the Champions League group stages to keep their head above water the Swedish FA would certainly have blown the whistle.

If the SFA, with the highly regarded Campbell Ogilvie on board, were unaware of the June 30 deadline then they certainly know about it now. After initially being dismissed by the club a group of Celtic shareholders raised the matter at the 2013 Annual General Meeting.

Discussions with the SFA have remained a closely guarded secret, many Celtic fans have taken to social media articulating their concerns.

As a member of the SFA and SPFL Celtic appear to be part of the silence. Knowing that their club appear complicit in the initial decision and have kept silent on the matter is eating up hundreds and possibly thousands of season ticket holders at a critical time of the season.

In summary it appears that the SFA either mistakenly provided Rangers (IL) with a licence that could have earned them £10m plus from the Champions League or they were alerted to the issue afterwards and have decided to cover up and attempt to move on for the good of Scottish football.

campbell ogilvieIronically it’s the supporters of Rangers (IL) who ultimately suffered. Had the SFA insisted that the tax bill was paid it may have alerted some supporters to the lack of finance in the club despite the takeover by former billionaire Craig Whyte.

If Nikita Jelavic and Steve Davis had been sold to settle up with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom rather than retained to stop Neil Lennon’s title charge the club may have avoided the humiliation of administration followed by liquidation.

Last week’s report by The Offshore Game highlighted all of those issues and more and made some serious accusations about Ogilvie and SFA chief executive Stewart Regan. The future career prospects for both men looks grim, fortunately Ogilvie has now retired.

Other non Scottish publishers are believed to be looking into the matter while the size of Mark Warburton’s transfer war-chest to stop 6-in-a-row is the priority within Scotland.

Aware of how foolish they will look at a story of fraud and collusion breaking on their own doorstep BBC Scotland blundered into the issue on twitter yesterday.

A junior member of staff, Kenny McIntyre, made the fatal mistake of acknowledging the story from The Offshore Game while his more experience colleagues looked the other way. McIntyre’s in-box from a favoured PR company is likely to make for interesting reading today!

With season ticket sales critical to all Scottish clubs it won’t take much of a slowdown to set off alarm bells across the country, the AGM of the SFA may see some of those clubs finally start to ask questions about what has been going on.

Many of the questions of governance are coming into the public domain with the agenda of the internet pampots starting to take root.

When the dam breaks the carnage caused will make the summer of 2012 look like a tea party for those caught in it as Armageddon finally hits home.

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