Among the changes recently announced to the SPFL board it almost escaped notice that Andrew Dickson had been voted onto the SFA Congress for 2017/18 by the SPFL.
Almost but not quite.
Even among the catalogue of horrors under the watch of Neil Doncaster this one stands out a mile.
Forever lurking in the background in and around Ibrox, Dickson was groomed by Campbell Ogilvie to become the second greatest administrator in football, charged with the key task of cheating the football authorities plus every club in the country.
That’s the clubs that have sent him the keys to the SFA Council to set about regulating the game. Yes that’s right, the guy who never thought it necessary to even check the rules with the SFA is advising on regulating the game!
Under questioning by the First Tier Tax Tribunal of 18 April 2011 Dickson played dumber than Dumb and Dumber. It was like Manuel from Fawlty Towers ‘No Mr Fawlty I know nothing’ he repeated despite keeping the shadow contracts quiet from the SPL and SFA while assuring Michael Mols and others that there was nothing to worry about over the ‘petrol money’.
Asked about the side letters that turned EBTs into secondary contracts Dickson told the FTT: “In certain instances, in particular with foreign players, that’s all they’re interested in, is net salary. So after discussion with Sir David, there must have been enough grounds to suggest that, yes, there would be.”
Followed by: “I can’t comment on whether Sir David would mention the Trust to them or not.”
Having played the Manuel card with the FTT, keeping the blazers at the SFA and SPL in the dark would have been straightforward after Ogilvie had teed everything up.
Dickson told the FTT: “The Trust was explained to the player at the time andthe Trust — sorry, the player understood the situation regarding the Trust, in terms of we could not give the many guarantees about them being paid the money.”
It all seems very like those politicians that make massive decisions for the country but who have incredible oversights in their personal finances from claiming expenses for porn films bought by their spouse or not realising that their mortgage borrower is being changed every three months to change the status of their main abode.
Dickson was up to his neck- and beyond- in the cheating decade. He had no idea from 2005 to his FTT testimony in April 2011 that HMRC were asking Rangers about ebts with side letters just like those he was handling?
Not even about the wee tax case correspondence beginning in Oct 2010?
Not even when he was on the SFA Licensing committee that in April 2011 granted a UEFA licence to Rangers the day after he gave his testimony to the FTT that he knew nothing?
FTT: Were you aware of the fact that HMRC personnel were asking for documentation persistently over a period of years in relation to the operation of the Remuneration Trust?
DICKSON. No.
Q. You weren’t aware that they were asking for documentation?
A. Well, again, unless Ian came to me looking for information, but I wasn’t aware of the correspondence and the detail of it between Ian, if it was Ian, and HMRC.
Q. Were you aware or are you aware now that, in the course of those investigations, the HMRC were asking a wide range of questions about how the Remuneration Trust operated?
A. No.
Q. You weren’t aware of that at all?
A. No.
Without blinking or pausing for a second he is now networking his way back into power with the full support of all those clubs that sit on their hands and roll their eyes and ask supporters to move on.
Any remotely competent sports body would have had Dickson, Paul Murray, Dave King, Alastair Johnston and most of all David Murray banned for life.
An investigation into how they got away with it, who they ‘duped’ and how would be ordered with legal action one step behind.
But not in Scotland, no, not in Scotland.
It’s time to move on, let’s all be friends and pretend that it was all a bad dream.
With the sound of shuffling papers followed by silence every club in the country is in on this scam as they applaud Dickson into power.
Some supporters have had enough. The original crimes of 2012 were bad enough, the cover up and lies since then have now become a bigger problem.
When the Judicial Review opens up this can of worms, everyone that has held a committee position will be guilty by association.
They may operate in a cosy little bubble but that bubble is going to be pricked and the fall out isn’t going to be pretty for those that have cheered Dickson, Murray, King and Johnston into positions of power.