Read that headline.
That’s not an allegation, it’s two separate questions.
Both are in the interests of Sevco fans, who might be under the impression that theirs is a “well run football club.”
Both are being asked by Phil, and there are whispers from others.
Rumours about this have been “in the wind” as it were for a few days now.
I didn’t hear as much as Phil did – the part about a travel company and unpaid invoices is highly interesting and illuminating – but I did hear about players being told that they had to pay for their flights and other things and this would be subtracted from their tax take as “business expenses.”
I don’t know enough about tax law to say if that’s suspect or not, but as a self-employed writer I do my own return and I know what qualifies as one of those and what doesn’t, and although you can be imaginative and flexible with that stuff I’ve never heard of someone on a contracted salary doing it, to save the company he or she works for money.
But then, as I said, I am literally a babe in the woods when it comes to this stuff, so perhaps that’s a normal way to do business.
I know for a fact it’s not how other clubs do theirs.
This whole thing is one of those stories that would normally fall under the rubric of “too crazy to be true” but this is Sevco and nothing can be readily dismissed when it comes out of Ibrox. This story is out there, in the public domain, doing the rounds in various places and some of the sources of it appear to have links with the club and certain players.
It bears all the hallmarks of a strategic leak by someone who’s very unhappy and concerned at the situation.
And if it is that, then some of the press already know this.
Hey, it could be bad information.
But the person who told me originally seemed pretty sure about it and Phil has added a juicy detail in his own article – you can read it here – which is impossible to simply dismiss. There’s smoke here, and when it comes to Sevco that usually means there’s some fire. This would not surprise me one bit.
Hey look, if this is true then don’t think for a second I’m knocking it. As far as I’m concerned, if pampered footballers are being made to pay for their own flights so a club can save money that’s just someone at said club showing some solid fiscal discipline and enforcing changes which are to the benefit of all involved. It would hypocritical to have written so often about their need for sanity and then to knock it when it looks as if they’re finally showing some.
But no-one should pretend this isn’t a sign of a company in financial distress.
No-one should kid on that this isn’t a news story worthy of the back pages if not the front.
When The Daily Record’s head of sport can afford to go over there to cover the thing like they are reporting on a royal wedding they are just pissing money away if they’re not also getting actual journalism.
His “Florida diary” was school paper stuff.
Its attempts at humour were about as funny as a bucket of warm sick.
His insight was about as piercing as a foam bullet from a toy gun.
Assuming there’s a story to find – and I’m satisfied there is – players talk.
And when it comes to something like this, players also complain. If Scott McDermott can’t get one of them to go off the record at the very least, then he’s in the wrong business and should join a PR firm or become a stenographer and stop pretending that he’s something more.
The coverage in his paper has been embarrassing this past week.
Thank God for real journalists doing real work or the football supporting public would know nothing at all.
This is their chance to break open a real story for once.
If they don’t write it, I know at least one guy who will.
Why is it that a guy in Donegal seems closer to the action than they are?