Stewart Regan has claimed that Rangers (IL) were given a license for European football in season 2011/12 because their tax bill was under negotiation with HMRC.
Incredibly after three years of meetings and correspondence over the issue the Chief Executive of the SFA isn’t aware that with a tax demand issued on 20 May 2011 the bill was overdue from June 20 with the SFA approving Craig Whyte’s application ten days later.
Nothing was in negotiation, the bill arising from undeclared payments made to Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer a decade earlier was unpaid and overdue.
UEFA regulations refer to overdue payables, a bill is either paid or overdue, there is no grey area over ‘negotiations;. Having initially denied, then dragged their feet following a police raid on Ibrox in 2007, the negotiating phase for Rangers (IL) had long passed when the SFA were approving their 2011 UEFA licence.
Yesterday following a lecture in Edinburgh about football governance Regan was questioned by what some might term an internet bampot. This particular bampot would be known to the SFA having recently met up with President Alan McRae and communications supremo Darryl Broadfoot.
“After the meeting, when only he and I and Harvey were present, ( Harvey said he had seen me before at Hampden , but couldn’t say in what context) I again asked Regan whether he would categorically state as the official SFA position that RFC were not in debt to HMRC at the deadline,” Scottish Football Monitor John Clark reported.
“He said that the SFA had met the requirements of Art. 66 and that the club had been ‘in negotiation’ with HMRC. I said that, no, in fact the club was actually in debt in respect of social taxes, and the SFA were derelict in duty, intentionally or otherwise.”
In season 2012/13 Malaga tried the ‘in negotiation’ card over their unpaid tax bill to the Spanish tax authorities but were refused entry by UEFA.
In short Malaga had refused to pay their taxes in order to qualify for UEFA competitions and were refused a place. In 2011 had the same process been applied Celtic would have been put forward for the Champions League qualifiers.
By paying HMRC in full and on time Celtic were punished while Ally McCoist was given the chance to bring in £15m by negotiating through two rounds of qualifiers to reach the group phase of the Champions League.
Yesterday’s discussion clearly shows that the SFA chief executive is aware of the issue but doesn’t understand the license procedure.
The initial error could have been put down as an honest mistake although the involvement of Andrew Dickson from Rangers (IL) and Campbell Ogilvie at the SFA may suggest otherwise.
If the Chief Executive of the SFA, a man that lectures on Football Governance and who speaks to Parliamentary committees doesn’t understand the licensing issues then his resignation must be the first step towards restoring credibility in the Scottish game.
Since initially rejecting Resolution 12 of the 2013 Celtic AGM the club have made no public comment on the issue.
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