Celtic have kept the spotlight on title-stripping with Club Ambassador Davie Hay calling on the football authorities to review the cheating years of Rangers EBT use.
On Wednesday afternoon Celtic were the only Scottish club to comment on the issue with a statement expecting the authorities to review the original whitewash that was the Nimmo Smith enquiry.
The fact that every EBT was liable to tax adds to the fact that the payments weren’t declared to the SFA and SPL completely changes the terms of the enquiry.
The wall of secrecy around the issue is incredible with no one within the SFA or SPL raising any questions about players like Neil McCann, Barry Ferguson and Stefan Klos signing new contracts on lesser terms (but topped up and more by a payment into an EBT)
Similarly in 2000 the contracts of Ronald de Boer and Tore Andre Flo were considerably lower than the deals that Celtic registered for Neil Lennon and Chris Sutton. Did the Ibrox duo really quit Chelsea and Barcelona for the weather?
Keeping the issue under scrutiny, in the Evening Times Hay states: “The Scottish football authorities need to be strong with this. When sides have been found to have breached financial rules elsewhere, then they have received those sorts of punishments. It happened to Juventus in Italy, so why not here?
“I’m not saying this through sour grapes, although Rangers supporters will probably see it that way, but from a position of trying to protect the integrity and fairness of our game.”
Hay added: ““Personally, I don’t really care if Celtic or any other side who lost out are given the titles or trophies that would be taken from Rangers.
“In the Olympics, if a runner gets the gold medal years later after the winner at the time is found to have cheated by taking drugs, then it is never really the same.
“For me, this amounts to a similar situation, so perhaps the most common-sense thing to do is simply to strike those honours from the record books.”
