Back on the 13th of June, 2019, the toxic UEFA licence given to the old Rangers club in 2011 while having overdue tax payables made a surprise return to the news agenda.
Rod Petrie had just been appointed, unopposed and unanimously by the member clubs as President of the SFA when the subject cropped up.
It is an exhaustive subject but briefly the old club were given a licence that went against UEFA regulations, for years the club had relied on UEFA prize money to pay back some of the debts from the previous season.
It was a dangerous business model to follow, once Ally McCoist masterminded defeats to Malmo and Maribor the Sheriff Officers were marching down Edmiston Drive. Liquidation began a few months after administration.
Eventually Celtic plucked up the courage to question the SFA on the licence after being presented by evidence from shareholders that the 2011 licence shouldn’t have been issued.
In September 2017 Stewart Regan announced that the issue would be reviewed while refusing to rake over the coals of other issues of governance.
In July 2018 the SFA claimed that they couldn’t take the issue further due to the Five Way Agreement signed between the two Ibrox clubs in 2012, only CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport could rule on the issue. Celtic seemed happy with the slow moving nature of the investigation.
Reporting on the matter on June 13 the Daily Record quoted new chief executive Maxwell saying:
I would expect that to come back to the board in the not-too-distant future. It (going to CAS) is still under consideration. We’ll come back on that in due course. I wouldn’t want to put a timescale on it but I don’t think we would let it go for ever.
Two months later nothing more has been heard, it seems that a decision is as far away as ever with Petrie and his sidekick Andrew Dickson both inside Hampden kicking the issue into the longest of long grass.
