Gutted bhoy Darren O’Dea is still waiting to receive his 2008/09 and 2009/10 SPL winners medals.
While some former players take a shilling for trotting out the ‘they won it on the pitch’ line the former Celtic defender has a different approach. O’Dea doesn’t believe that Lance Armstrong or Ben Johnson should retain their places in the record books.
The Irishman did win medals on the pitch, overcoming the tax cheating regimes of Paul le Guen and Walter Smith in 2006/07 and 2007/08, but was denied further medals as a consequence of paying 40% of his salary to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (plus national insurance) while the shamed club from Ibrox recruited players on token salaries while squireling millions away into EBT’s with no repayment schedule.
On Wednesday when HMRC were found to be correct in their tax assessments the Irishman tweeted: “Haven’t even kicked a ball and I think I might have doubled my SPL football winners medals to 4 today.”
Alas justice moves slowly, last night from Mumbai he tweeted: “Do @RoyalMail deliver on Saturdays? Still waiting on a package from the @ScottishFA …”
Do @RoyalMail deliver on Saturdays? Still waiting on a package from the @ScottishFA …
— Darren O’Dea (@odea_darren) November 6, 2015
O’Dea’s humour is in stark contrast to what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to downplay the extent of cheating which robbed honest law abiding clubs and tax paying players of glory for over a decade. And also Her Majesty.
Every player that played against Tore Andre Flo or Ronald de Boer had a win bonus stolen from their bank account.
Every club drawn against Rangers (IL) in a cup tie were playing against a team that refused to pay Her Majesty in the same manner as their opponents.
When details of the tax schemes used by Gary Barlow, Amazon, Vodafone and others has come to light they have taken a pounding.
As the last 20 years have shown those close to Scottish football prefer to do things differently with deflection now replacing denial.
On the day of the HMRC announcement the message was that there was little appetite by the football authorities to revisit the issue.
Less than 48 hours later the SPFL had arranged a conference call for it’s board members to discuss the matter suggesting that there may be an appetite to revisit, or perhaps it was PR deflection stunt to take the sting out of supporters anger?
After yesterday’s SPFL board meeting a source has told the Press Association that they are ‘a million miles’ away from deciding on the tax cheating trophies.
December 2 is the final date to appeal the most recent verdict on the Big Tax Case but it’s unlikely that Darren will have his four-in-a-row medals for Christmas.
Until the SPFL show an appetite for dealing retrospectively with industrial scale financial doping they leave themselves wide open to a repeat. With the new club from Ibrox showing the same attitude and arrogance as the liquidated one it seems that little has been learned by the SFA and SPFL.
Should they fail to take action they may find that supporters are a million miles away from renewing season tickets for a ‘sport’ that seems set up to produce one particular outcome- regardless of how it is achieved.
All the kings soldiers and all the kings may couldn’t put humpEBT together again
I see Sutton is spouting the line “they won it on the pitch” and he is not interested in getting his medals, well Chris I am not interested about you getting medals either but I am interested in sporting integrity…..and there was none in those EBT years, most Celtic fans will realise that you write for the Daily Rag(ord) and they pay you well no doubt……..probably the same as the other sports writers who bury their heads in the sand about those years.
Sporting integrity in Scotland ? when will that ever happen?
Never mind all that – when’s John Eustace signing?
Patience ya rocket! talks believed to be at an advanced stage, these things don’t happen overnight.
Well done Darren….at Last somebody that has a backbone….and states the Honest Truth…
By rights you should be given your winners Medals….
Because as been stated earlier, in any other Sport …Ie Athletics,Cycling, etc etc….if you are found to be Cheating….you have your titles removed, and the runner up given 1st place……
Can the Dignified Gentlemen of the SPFL/SFA , do the principled thing and take the Tarnished Titles and Cups of that other Club from Glasgow…..”what is there actual name anyway”…and give them to the “HONEST” winners……it’s time to act NOW !
Supporters paid good money for their season books during these years, only to be robbed and cheated.
PATHETIC !
HH
sutton, is this the same guy who said celtic were cheated out the league championship in the seville year by the rankers.. turncoat sutton.
It matters not about the stripping of titles or ever the return of medals which were obtained through cheating. It matters not what the history books print. What matters now is that the trophies, titles and medals were only won through cheating which has now been officially and legally clarified.
What it does though is deem the dishonest accomplishments worthless. It is no different to the stars above their crest. They mean nothing. Actually, now double nothing! The stars above a crest was originally representative of being a champion of europe. We have that distinction, they, even the old extinct club, don’t. Hence, these stars mean nothing on either of their two different clubs crests. So as the saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.
You can keep the names on the trophies, keep the stolen medals, titles etc. You are still officially and legally cheating ugly pigs!
The truth is the truth.