Yesterday, I heard one of the funniest things I’ve heard in quite some time, except that it was not one of those things that is supposed to be amusing. It was a senior official in the Met excusing the decision not to investigate the alleged Downing Street Christmas Party of last year by saying they do not engage in “retrospective investigations.”
Eah, what? What other kind is there?
Does the Met have a Thought Crime department? A Pre-Cog unit immersed in bath water somewhere? A team of officers just sitting around drinking tea, waiting for red ball? Do they investigate crimes before they take place?
The comments are so ridiculous that they drew immediate fire on social media and in the press down south. So much so that a “clarification” was quickly issued, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense either.
So determined does the Met appear to be to avoid looking into this, attempts are now being made to bounce them; MP’s and others have written to the Police Complaints Commission asking if the cops stationed outside Downing Street facilitated the law-breaking.
And so a story that was already bad to start with grows and grows and now risks momentous collateral damage. You know what? That’s all to the good. This should be investigated fully.
It’s a scandalous series of events, and it needs to be taken more seriously than it is.
Still, you have to give the Met credit for what, on the surface, is something of a novel argument.
Except that it really isn’t. Because we’ve heard it before.
Celtic fans will be all too familiar with this phony-baloney guff because it is precisely the same argument the SFA used in the Lord Nimmo Smith case when Sandy Bryson was put in front of the judge and asked to explain why the governing body wasn’t asking for title stripping. His excuse – which will forever shame the organisation – was that retrospective punishment was impossible.
The contracts were thought to have been valid and information received after the fact doesn’t make any difference. Because the SFA did not know a fraud was taking place at the time, they had no remit to investigate it even when they found out that it had.
Which is a laughable assertion, and made even worse because, of course, Campbell Ogilvie, who was the SFA President at the time, actually had known about the EBT’s and presumably that there was some concealment of the documents, but had “recused himself” and the SFA decided that meant he couldn’t even be questioned about it.
It’s like saying “we think this guy was involved in the crime and because of that we don’t think it would be proper to question him about it.” It is not illogical as much as it’s corrupt.
And this, of course, is what we put up with as Celtic fans.
This is what our club allowed to go essentially unanswered.
It’s one of the things the Five Way Agreement conceals, as it came with its own side letter that guaranteed to Charles Green that no title stripping would take place.
All that was left for the SFA to do was manufacture a “justification.”
And that’s the one they came up. “We didn’t know it was happening, so as far as we’re concerned it didn’t happen. Or at least, we admit that it did but nothing can be done about it”
The Scottish media swallowed that. Lord Nimmo Smith swallowed that. Celtic, the club, swallowed that. Which is one of the reasons so many lies and deceptions lie at the heart of Scottish football today. In any other country, that would have ended up in front of CAS who would have laughed that excuse out the door. But we didn’t take it there.
What we allowed instead was the creation of The Cheats Charter.
Do as you like, just don’t get caught at the time. If you can escape detection for a while there’s literally nothing anyone can do about it; it’s as if there were a statute of limitations on match fixing.
It’s been eight years now since that notorious verdict was handed down, in February 2013.
Our club’s weak – virtually non-existent might be a better way to put it – response to that verdict is as big a stain on us now as it was then.
It is one of the many things that those who sit at the top of Celtic should have to answer for one day.
I gave up on Celtic in 2012 because of the Lord Nimmo Smith paid for whitewash and the corrupt 5 way agreement. I sent two letters to Lawwell one handed in at front door of Celtic Park the other registered post.
Both letters were not responded to. Celtic are a major part of the corruption to facilitate and enable senior individuals who have controlled the club for years to continue to earn six and seven figure yearly incomes from the club. James yourself and others are completely wasting your time with all the noise you have been making for nine plus years now. Unless you are prepared to cut off the financial oxygen to Celtic then you will just be continually feeding the corruption.
Hit the nail on the head Joe McCann ,all the rest of this is just posturing,why would the Celtic board upset the apple cart and risk their massive payouts as board members, you’re right the only way we will ever stop this cheating and collaboration with Sevco and the SFA is to cut off the money supply to the Celtic board but I can’t see that ever happening so all this hand wringing and questioning is futile.it is what it is Scottish football corrupt to the core and Celtic complicit in this .
The corruption in scottish football has been going on for years celtic part of it 5 way agreements etc letting the lie continue same rangers scottish foot ball is like a banana Republic that’s also why I stopped being a supporter of celtic now just a fan.regarding the downing Street Xmas the tories don’t give #uck about the public 150000 deaths likey higher they covd the police know who goes into that cesspool in downing st and who comes out its all logged 24 hrs 7 days but then again that lot just as bad covering things up the whole system is corrupt the country is $ucked up.
Those who sit in the Ivory Tower at Celtic Park will never answer for their inactions.
I doubt that a single one of them have the slightest discomfort in their collective conscience,each having the skin of a rhino and a brassier neck than Dave King.
As far as our Board are concerned life in Scottish football is based on the Glasgow derby- they may title it differently- and as such that is how our League is maketed and promoted. To hell with the rest, it’s the war of the west. Sevco exist and do what they like without fear of retribution, survival is key to the TV. 4 Glasgow derbies undermines the possible chances of decent sponsorship in our SPFL as any proper sponsor do not associate themselves with corrupt practices. As long as the,(pardon my swearing), Old F*** is allowed breath then the rest of the game gasps for air.
James feel free to mail me to engage with you directly if you are at all serious about the corruption within the walls of Celtic Park.
If not continue with you’re articles they wont even touch the sides of the corruption within the game here.
Rangers cheated the whole game and every other member club. That cheating was enabled by the chums of Ibrox who administer the game in Scotland.
Now in 2021 9 years on we have 60,000 customers STILL paying into this corruption with Rangers back !!! Message me James if you are serious or just making an earner out of youre5blog ?
Ah well I for one although I miss going to watch my team, feel justified in not giving a single penny to our cowardly board, and I won’t until mr. No show Desmond gets the hell out of my club. Just wish there was more like me.
Peter Lawell and the board should be ashamed at the damage they have done to our club by their inaction in 2012. The mob across the river think they were hard done by, But Celtic and the rest of Scottish football with their inaction have left us with a corrupt game. The SFA, referees and the Scottish football so called journalists now know they can getaway with any Skullduggery. I thought that the Kelly/Whyte board were bad but Bob Kelly would never have sat on his hands if Celtic had been cheated out of money and trophy’s over a long period. What Fergus thinks about what went on would be very interesting to know. Good luck to big Ange having to work with a faceless board who hide when the going gets tough.
Excellent Post, Joe McCann.
At last, someone with integrity, willing to take action.
If sufficient numbers followed your lead, there would be meaningful change. Until this happens; NOTHING will ever change.
We should have been boycotting every game at hampden until they were stripped of every trophy won under ebt cheating. This not only would have hit the sfa hard in the pocket but would have drawn worldwide attention to the farce of our corrupt game and kept it on it every time we played in a final or semi. It still could be done but no one in a position to organise it has the balls to try
Hit the nail on the head Joe McCann ,all the rest of this is just posturing,why would the Celtic board upset the apple cart and risk their massive payouts as board members, you’re right the only way we will ever stop this cheating and collaboration with Sevco and the SFA is to cut off the money supply to the Celtic board but I can’t see that ever happening so all this hand wringing and questioning is futile.it is what it is Scottish football corrupt to the core and Celtic complicit in this .
I agree with the sentiment of the comments above wholeheartedly. However I’m not prepared to bankrupt my club while they win title after title as our demise begins. There has to be another way.
Continued fan marches through Glasgow to Paradise, Ibrox and the SFA offices would have helped highlight the corruption and ramp it up some and still would, but no-one wanted to organise that either. It would be hard for the media to ignore thousands upon thousands repeatedly marching the street of Glasgow. Any supporter from other clubs would be welcomed with open arms. Its a mess alright and we the fans have sat on hands too.
No doubt the Celtic board are complicit in this but if the board continued with inaction and a face off then we’d only serve to bankrupt our club. The media and press would love that. We don’t need to guess who the beneficiaries of that action would be. Their corruption would revel in our self harm, TIAR and more would be sealed in history but not for Celtic. Just can’t face that so find another way. HH
SSMPM – my thoughts exactly. What could be done that preserves the sporting aspect of the club whilst at same time goes after the board and highlights the corruption attached to the huns rebirth? Its a near impossible situation and the only way it will resolve itself is if the current board were removed from office. However, in the corporate world of business the line would be no doubt be explained to any new owner of the “need” for a competitive Rangers (V2) to make scottish football viable. Only by having a true celt owning our club will we get any level of justice – shining a light on the whole corrupt lot of them.