Well, well, well.
The newspaper I singled out earlier this week, mourning its “sad slide towards tabloid irrelevance”, has today published what is, far and away, the best piece I’ve read on the issue of our call for a review. It is excellent. It brings clarity to the matter, and demands that the views of the most important people in the game – the fans – be taken into consideration.
This is the article every single newspaper should have published.
This is what every single journalist in the country should have been writing, and saying, from the moment Celtic published their letters, and actually from way before.
I cannot commend them enough for this, or the journalist, Stephen McIlkenny, who wrote it.
Our reasons for wanting this inquiry are perfectly clear; we want a look at how things have been done, how decisions were made, how the key issues have been handled. Everyone knows what Rangers did; that matter has been the subject of an inquiry already – which found the club guilty, let’s not forget – and by a Supreme Court verdict which affirms what we knew. The club withheld tax in order to win football games.
Their guilt is an established fact.
But Celtic wants to know how the SFA dealt with that.
When did they know what the club was up to? How did they respond?
Crucially, evidence has emerged this week which suggests they were aware of the EBT scam in 2009, a full year before the story hit the press, a time frame in which the club continued this scheme. Did the SFA give HMRC evidence? If they did, then they knew the club had broken Scottish football rules and did nothing until they were forced to in 2012. If they didn’t give HMRC evidence then people lied; was it Rangers who lied, was it the SFA itself who lied or did they both lie?
The implications of it are monumental.
And that only covers a tiny piece of this.
There’s evidence in the public domain that makes it clear that Craig Whyte told the governing bodies that he was planning a liquidation in October 2011. That information could have been useful to creditors. It would have meant the SFA and SPL knew the club was probably not paying its bills, including its tax bills.
And they let him continue.
They lied to the fans about the chances of there being a CVA; they knew Whyte never wanted that.
They scotched their own TV contracts and relationships with sponsors.
The SFA’s handling of all this is suspect.
A campaign lasting three years, from the Resolution 12 guys, has proved they mishandled the Rangers European license application in 2011 … the association is currently trying to blame the club for that, but their own actions have to be examined, closely, in relation to it.
There’s evidence that they knew that license was ineligible and that, too, has to be given a proper examination.
McIlkenny has grasped the huge significance of what we’re asking for and he isn’t interested in the cowardly answers of chairmen who simply want to keep their heads down. It’s clear he believes they are abrogating their responsibilities as much as the governing bodies are.
For the first time a journalist has highlighted the large number of fans who want to see openness here, and he has utterly waved away this nonsense one of his media colleagues was talking about a “silent majority” wanting this to go away.
He has got right to the heart of what that would mean for the sport;
“I refuse to accept that it is only one club and a minority of fans who want to see a review of the SFA. In fact, if that is the case and no other club or fans want to have a transparent organisation or a review into proceedings, then we may as well call an end to Scottish football right now.”
He has scotched the lie behind which much of the media wants to hide, that which the breathtakingly ignorant Derek Johnstone was talking today;
“Contrary to what some have reported, Celtic are not calling for a review of Rangers, but a review of the governing body as a whole in the light of new evidence.”
He has called the “excuses” why no review should take place “weak and ill informed.”
He has blasted Regan for promising transparency and then offering none.
Honestly, if there were more editorials like this one we would be far down the road to the review that is required.
We need the media behind this; some of them are, but even they are sitting on the fence and many of them utterly refuse to discuss it in the context of EBT’s and Rangers … apparently ignorant of the fact that those issues are at the very heart of the whole need for it. The behaviour of the club is a minor matter compared to what we suspect about the so-called governors of the game. It’s that which should worry the media, and all clubs.
Stephen will not accept the denial of reality which seems to afflict a lot of his colleagues, and that which definitely appears to affect a lot of chairmen … the idea that by ignoring this it will just go away. He knows it won’t.
Far from “moving the game on” McIlkenny says it “could signify a real roadblock for the future of the game in our country.”
Exactly. That’s right on the nose.
This will prevent the game from moving on.
Many fans will never trust the governing bodies – or the boards of their own clubs – ever again.
This will poison the well for all time.
It will start the slow unraveling of all of it.
For the first time since this crisis was sparked by the leaking of a letter to The Times of London a fortnight ago, we have an honest and sincere piece from a journalist who, as he points out is also a football fan … and I wonder how many of them there actually are.
More than have stuck their necks out so far anyway.
His article is not only welcome – and timely – but hugely appreciated.
I wish to God more of them had done this already.
It isn’t too late.
You can read Stephen’s first-rate piece here.
Please do so and share it widely; and especially with his fellow journalists.
Ask why they haven’t written similar.
Ask them what they’re afraid of us all finding out.