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The day that Scottish football's lingering credibility finally died

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Neil Doncaster SPL news

Any lingering notion that Scottish football was based around fairness was finally killed off today when Lord Nimmo Smith delivered the verdict on undisclosed payments to Rangers players going back over a decade.

While finding the oldco guilty of breaching the rules a feeble fine of £250,000 was imposed on the company which is already in liquidation.

Amazingly Nimmo Smith claims that: “Rangers FC did not gain any unfair competitive advantage from operating side-letter arrangements, nor did the non-disclosure have the effect that any of the registered players were ineligible to play, and for this and other reasons no sporting sanction or penalty should be imposed upon Rangers FC.”

What those other reasons are remains to be seen but the suggestion that a football club doesn’t pay players money to gain an advantage is almost laughable.

Celtic recruited and pay Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Fraser Forster to give them an advantage on the football park. If Celtic  offered those players the same terms as Stirling Albion they wouldn’t be Celtic players.

Every professional club and business pays people to give them an advantage- that’s why Barcelona and Real Madrid want Gareth Bale. Manchester United are enjoying the advantage of having Robin van Persie in their team compared with last season’s side.

From Celtic to Annan Athletic, with the exception of Queens Park, every club in Scotland recruits players to give them an advantage on the pitch. How Nimmo Smith justifies the notion that no unfair advantage was achieved by recruiting players and only declaring part of their payments to the authorities is anyone’s guess.

However with Neil Armageddon Doncaster, Stewart Social Unrest Regan and Campbell joint shareholding Ogilvie leading the Scottish game anything is possible as they follow in the footsteps of Jim Farry and others.

Almost twenty years ago Celtic were fined £100,000 for an illegal approach to recruit formerplayer Tommy Burns from Kilmarnock. Today’s fine for a club in liquidation is less than £25,000 a season or less than the price of a good night out with President Ogilvie.

With leadership like Farry, Gordon Smith and now Regan it’s little wonder that Scotland plunge down the ratings at every level showing a couldn’t care less attitude to governance for one club while hammering others.

Last summer Scottish football fans found their voice as the powers that be tried their best to retain the commercial cash cow of the ‘Old Firm’ in their top division.

The worry this time around will be that fans will just walk away knowing that things are loaded too heavily against them with Scottish football having all the credibility of WWF.

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0 comments

  • fallsroadcelt says:

    Finding nemo is a better shout than that chunt lord nimmo ffs a whitewash just like bloody sunday 40 years ago pure blatant secterian bigoted cu nts

  • Celtico102 says:

    For the next 11 years we should sign Europes best, give SPL and SFA false contract docs and at the end of the 11 year period they should put us in front of a panel and let them fine us £250,000 in between times we’ll have made about £100,000,000. No bad eh
    On second thoughts lets just keep our dignity and integrity intact, wait for the scum to arrive and maul them each time we play them.
    We are a SCOTTISH team, we play in a SCOTTISH league if anyone should leave it should be the CHEATING, FINANCIALY DOPING KNUCKLE DRAGGERS FROM GOVAN hail hail

  • mark says:

    Forget this Celtic board doing anything about this, Does anybody think for a second they care about 10 years ago it even last year all they care about is next seasons season ticket money once they get that we are on our own just ask the GB. HH

  • Aldo says:

    scandal we were fined for tapping up Tommy Burns…. how could we tap ourselves up

  • Scott Mackenzie says:

    i have written and rewritten this post for over 40 mins, writing, deleting, writing, deleting while trying to get my point, shock, disgust, anger, heartbreak across in a logical and fair minded way. celtic need to speak up now, and come out fighting harder than they have ever fought for anything in our history. we either give notice to resign and move to another/any other league, or accept we have been and will continue to be officially cheated for years. we must accept that even though rangers stole millions by tax avoidance while buying players we could never afford thereby cheating us out of millions in possible income and priceless memories from league and cup wins, they are protected. they are scottish football. they can say whatever they like about referees, sfa/spl staff, reporters, bloggers, clubs, fans etc and will never be held accountable. we must also accept this is just the beginning. they will move through the leagues as fast as possible to regain their place at the head of scottish football. we must accept that they never died – despite every single liquidation ever telling us otherwise – in fact if you even mention it you will be threatened with death to you and your loved ones. the fact however is much simpler – we have allowed this to occur. celtic are no diddy team, we have a world profile. we are respected, we have a loud voice that needs to speak regarding this latest injustice. or we can sit quietly and take it as usual like a good little timmy knowing his place. i want celtic to go to uefa, the court or arbitration, the national media (worldwide media – not the clowns in scotland), i want them to turn the spotlight on this perversion of justice and many others. then leave with our heads held high. if not fine, but i wont be supporting a team that allows this to go unchallenged because make no mistake we could stop this or at the very least make things very difficult. the thought of us doing nothing and having to endure more of this or dare i say it worse makes me sick. this is no rash talk either, i’ve had enough of this – no more.

    • Kendo88 says:

      Scott your post is very emotive and true of most of us who eat sleep and breathe Celtic. I agree with all you say the men who represent our club/culture most not sit idle they must act on our behalf to challenge this shocking example of rule disregard and fudge. Our wonderful club has a huge responsibility to us as their people. Yesterday was a watershed a time when we make a stand a move in new direction, no more of this illegal club flaunting so called rules and getting away with anything. You’re right we are a club with huge respect from all around the world and therefore need to display responsibility not just for us bug the other clubs who play here. With that said Lawwell and Desmond need to show courage to take us forward and to pastures new.. Right at this point I’m not particularly fussed where that will be. Because my Celtic friend, as the song says “You can take us anywhere we won’t let you down” 😉 Celtic is our team but also a symbol of our culture and will remain a great source of joy and meaning in our lives. This is the beginning of our new Celtic future lets embrace it. Hail Hail

  • Sweeney Hughes says:

    Demanding the resignation of Ogilvie, although maybe bolting the proverbial, would be a start.

  • Oz Celt says:

    It would seem from this judgement that the SFA/SPL learned nothing from the case involving Neil Lennon where (the late ) Paul McBride showed that,
    (a)They don’t even know their own rules,
    (b)That their rules are more full of loopholes than a sieve.
    Then again,maybe they did learn something from that ??.

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