Guardian Media columnist Roy Greenslade has ‘done a Regan’ as he attempts to deal with and justify the reasons why The Guardian pulled the plug on a £5,000 advert regarding Resolution 12 from Celtic’s 2013 Annual General Meeting.
Anyone capable of spending an hour looking at the issue will know that it is very clear cut- Did Rangers (IL) have an outstanding tax payable on 30 June 2011? If they did, as many suspect, the SFA shouldn’t have licensed them for the 2011/12 UEFA competitions.
It’s not difficult to understand the issue.
Last week in his first public comment on the issue Regan mentioned 30 March 2011 which isn’t under dispute.
Today in his column Greenslade goes off on another tangent about the ‘new Rangers’ obtaining a UEFA licence to play in the European Champions League!
There truly will be a storm when a club outwith the top division is put forward to play in Champions League qualifiers ahead of at least 12 other clubs!
Greenmslade explains: “It concerns a situation that has little resonance outside Scotland and, arguably, outside Glasgow, about Rangers Football Club having gone into administration in 2012 followed by its re-emergence as a reconstituted entity.
“The nub of the shareholders’ allegation is that rules were broken by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in order to allow the “new” Rangers to obtain a Uefa licence to play in European Champions League.
“To be honest, the background is much more complicated. A fuller account can be found on a site called the offshore game. But I hope my short version provides just enough context to deal with the complaint about the advert.
“Firstly, I need to deal with claims that the Guardian agreed to run it and then refused to do so at the last minute.
“My understanding is that the advert was indeed booked in, but that the copy had not been seen at the time. It was in French, the ad having previously been published in a Swiss newspaper.
“Once it was translated into English, the usual procedure for dealing with all ads kicked in. The content was reviewed in the normal way and it was decided, on balance, that it did not comply with the Guardian’s advertising terms and conditions. I believe legal advice was also sought.”
With so many inaccuracies running through his version of events Greenslade’s take on other events will be much harder to digest.