The Outside Agency Who Raised These Issues … And Who The Scottish Press Ignored.
The Tax Justice Network is a well known independent organisation, who’s stories frequently make it onto the front pages of national newspapers.
Their off-shoot organisation, The Offshore Game, which was set up to examine issues within football and in particular foreign ownership of clubs, are equally respected.
They have no axe to grind.
In May 2016, they released an astounding report on these issues called Doing SFA For Fair Play?
In that report, they smashed the SFA’s credibility and they brought this story to an audience that had never read the full facts and the response was instant. And venomous.
Threats were issued. Counter articles were quickly rushed into print, mostly focussing on minor errors, others on the backgrounds of the writers and the TJN itself. One conspiracy theorist tried to prove links between Celtic officials and the authors of the report.
And although it was an independent agency offering a damning verdict on football governance in Scotland and labelling serious accusations at the SFA … the Scottish press treated the story as if it had never existed. Not one newspaper covered it objectively, based on the facts.
Indeed, the only mention of it up here was in articles which sought to do a hatchet job on those who had commissioned it. One newspaper allowed a Sevco fan blogger to write a piece accusing its writers of having an agenda against their club … a ludicrous notion.
The Offshore Game report is well worth reading.
It offers a superb overview of these matters and contains enough verifiable information to get people digging.
But more importantly, the Scottish media’s silence on the matter constitutes a story in itself, one about how PR firms hold unhealthy influence over our press and how one football club and its supporters can intimidate writers and broadcasters.
No joke.
All of this happens here.
Right here in Scotland.
