Peter Lawwell’s trust in the SFA and ignorance of the Five Way Agreement of 2012 have come home to roost with the issue of the 2011 UEFA licence given to the old Rangers club dropped by the SFA.
The cynical will look on the timing of today’s announcement as some sort of deal alongside Celtic being confirmed as the 2019/20 champions by the SPFL.
Concerned by the prospect of losing out on a potential £20m Champions League windfall a dedicated group of Celtic shareholders looked in detail at the UEFA licence given to the Ibrox club shortly before Sheriff Officers from HMRC visited Ibrox.
Lawwell was presented with concrete evidence that £2.8m was overdue to HMRC on 31st March 2011 but from day one the Celtic board seemed reluctant to challenge the SFA on the issue. During Craig Whyte’s trial in 2017 it was made crystal clear that the tax figure was overdue from November 2010.
Had the SFA applied UEFA regulations correctly Ally McCoist’s side would have been denied a place in the 2011/12 Champions League qualifiers giving Celtic the opportunity to reach the group phase.
SFA rule Rangers being awarded a Euro licence in 2011/12.
‘Following consideration of the implications …. including legal opinion, it was the board’s unanimous position that this matter should not be referred to CAS. The SFA now considers the matter closed.’
— stephen.mcgowan (@mcgowan_stephen) May 19, 2020
Was anyone at Celtic involved in 5 way agreement?
PL- No and I’ve never seen it#ticagm
— Celtic Underground* (@celticrumours) November 27, 2019
The case taken up by the Celtic shareholders was against the SFA not any club from Ibrox. The national association has the job of auditing applications but took no action even after Sheriff Officers confirmed that the £2.8m was overdue and not under dispute as Stewart Regan claimed in an interview with Radio Scotland.
After dragging their feet for years through various AGMs the Celtic board finally got the issue referred to the Compliance Officer of the SFA. Last June after the AGM of the SFA new Chief Executive Ian Maxwell said that he didn’t want the licence issue to drag on indefinitely.
Now, 11 months later and 24 hours after Celtic were confirmed as 2019/20 champions the SFA has announced that they are dropping the issue.
Following consideration of the implications…
A Judicial Panel convened to consider a Notice of Complaint raised against Rangers FC in 2018 – in relation to alleged new evidence regarding representations received prior to the awarding of a European licence for season 2011/12 – determined at a preliminary hearing that it did not have jurisdiction to determine the matter.
Instead, it concluded that jurisdiction lay with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Following consideration of the implications of such a referral, including legal opinion, it was the board’s unanimous position that this matter should not be referred to CAS. The Scottish FA now considers the matter to be closed.
Rod Petrie and Andrew Dickson who were both on the Licence Committee in 2011 are current office bearers at the SFA, Petrie as President.
From today’s statement it seems crystal clear that matters involving a club from Ibrox are beyond the jurisdiction of the SFA and need to be referred to CAS, almost certainly this is part of the Five Way Agreement between the football authorities and both clubs from Ibrox.
At the 2019 Celtic AGM Lawwell denied knowledge of the Five Way Agreement which had been sent to him and also to Eric Riley as a SPL Board member as an e mail attachment. No response to the email by the following morning would be taken as acceptance of the contents of the Five Way Agreement.
In terms of next season’s UEFA competitions clubs had to submit their Interim Accounts to 31 December to the SFA by April 30. With the issue now out in the open a lot of people will be watching closely, including within UEFA to ensure that the Scottish nominations comply with Financial Fair Play.
Should any Scottish club fail to comply Livingston would be awarded a place in the Europa League, assuming that they are compliant with FFP.
However since that Rangers FC no longer exists, there is only one potential loser in this now and that’s the SFA for their decisions taken back then, so it’s no wonder they don’t want to take this further. This is more about them now than the [then] Rangers FC
2/2 pic.twitter.com/KAlj9YAupZ
— Stefano (@StefanoSix7) May 19, 2020