Some People Did Want To Appeal The LNS Verdict On “Sporting Integrity” Grounds
If you don’t think there’s an appetite for going over this issue again, you ignore the fact that this appetite always existed and never went away.
At least two members of the SPL board – Ralph Topping, who I lacerated on here last week before this information came to light and Duncan Fraser of Aberdeen – believed that the verdict and the scope of the inquiry were drastically at odds with the severity of what the club had done, and made that plain.
Topping clearly thought an appeal should be considered whereas Fraser believed it would be a waste of time, given that the key issues were never covered by LNS in the first place.
Eric Reilly of Celtic was out of the country, on holiday, when the decision about an appeal was being taken; that was clearly deliberate. He offered no view on whether there should have been an appeal, because he knew it was futile and the numbers were already against him. Celtic’s position on this is crystal clear and has been from the start. There is no question that Reilly would have voted in favour of an appeal in this matter.
Stephen Thompson of Dundee Utd voted against an appeal and suggested it was time to “draw a line under it.” For all Sevco fans lacerate this guy and his club, they took the view that sporting integrity should be subservient to an easy life.
I understand it. And I utterly condemn it.
Their supporters have more integrity in their fingertips than their board does combined.
No surprises where Kilmarnock are concerned.
Michael Johnston voted no to an appeal in under five minutes. His own fans are still disgusted with his stance on all this today.
Reilly, Fraser and, to my surprise, Topping all believed that sporting integrity should have primacy here. They were all appalled by the way the scope of the investigation was narrowed to exclude key evidence and the issue of whether EBT use itself was a violation of the spirit of the sport. You can read disbelief in Fraser and Topping’s emails that the verdict has levied on the club a slap on the wrist fine but left titles and trophies on the record.
After an email from Petrie, pointing out that the “no sporting advantage” issue wasn’t considered in relation to EBT’s, Fraser wrote this damning section;
“Rod’s point that we did not suggest a sanction and were clear in leaving it to the Commission rules out any appeal on the grounds of “the punishment fitting the crime”. In summary, I do not believe that the Commission came to the correct decision in terms of sporting advantage and we have no grounds for an appeal based on the punishment being too lenient or it appears sporting advantage given the narrow line they pursued. Therefore reluctantly I have to draw the conclusion that the process is at an end.”
With the verdict of the tax case in, the issue of sporting advantage is now primary. EBT use has found to have been a violation of the law of the land. The documents were concealed with the purpose of perpetrating a fraud. UEFA statutes on tax liabilities payable were pissed all over by a club that knew those liabilities would be due if what they were up to was discovered. This is the guts of the matter, and it’s what’s troubled many people from the start.
Topping summed it up as such:
“My question therefore to all Board Members is this: are you happy that in not appealing you are effectively saying that competitive disadvantage to all SPL clubs is immaterial and that you are happy with the scale of the fine?”
That’s the question fans have been asking from the start and it’s the one we’re still seeking an honest to God answer to.
LNS wasn’t about sporting integrity … but right from the start a lot of people thought it should have been.
Those are the people who will have a huge say in what happens next.