After seven years of deflection, delays and outright denial a very unwelcome guest will confront the SFA at Hampden tomorrow.
The Notice of Complaint over the 2011 UEFA licence awarded to Rangers (IL) despite the club very clearly refusing to pay a £2.8m bill owed to HMRC finally surfaces.
Rather than settle that bill which dated back a decade to illegal payments made to Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer the club continued to spend money recruiting players thanks to new tax scams introduced by Dave Murray.
Assisting Murray in cheating every club in the country were Campbell Ogilivie, Andrew Dickson, Paul Murray, Dave King and Alastair Johnston.
If it hadn’t been for the dogged work of a group of Celtic shareholders the issue would probably have been swept aside.
Those shareholders were quickly onto the issue realising that a rule breach had denied Celtic the chance of a £20m windfall.
Whether Neil Lennon’s side would have got through two qualifying rounds isn’t the point. Adherence to the rules is at stake- from a distance it looks like there were as many guilty men inside the SFA as at Ibrox.
By April 2011 the £2.8m ‘wee tax case’ was public knowledge, Craig Whyte used it to drive down the asking price for the distressed club to just £1.
Various deadlines were missed, everyone at Ibrox kept quiet while the SFA sat on their hands hoping that qualification for the group phase would allow the club to pay off the bill to HMRC.
Defeat in Malmo followed by the arrival of Sheriff Officers on Edmiston Drive proved something of a game changer. If the SFA had belatedly acted at that stage they could have headed off much of the grief that they are now facing.
As part of their angry response to the Notice of Complaint Sevco claimed that it ‘neglects to properly capture the provisions of prior agreements made between the club and the SFA.’
Publication of the 2012 Five Way Agreement would be welcomed by almost all football supporters.
Those who have followed the various issues involving Rangers (IL) and Sevco anticipate a fudge, similar to the Nimmo Smith verdict over ineligible players.
Admissions of guilt, promises to learn lessons and a token fine with Dickson as the fall guy wouldn’t come as a surprise.
Ian Maxwell’s reign as chief executive of the SFA has already seen Sevco put forward to play in the Europa League at Kilmarnock’s expense despite running up debts miles outside of the permitted limits.
The new chief executive isn’t directly involved with the Notice of Complaint but it does fall on his watch.
If all of the guilty men aren’t given 10 year bans from football the ball is most certainly burst, if Celtic aren’t compensated the SFA can expect to hear more from the shareholders that they have spent seven years denying justice to.