Should Rangers fail in their appeal then not only will criminality be evident but also Rangers will demonstrably be in breach of several footballing rules. Rules which every other club in Scotland had to abide by. Rangers gained an unfair advantage over every single club they played against as a result of this tax dodge. This is cheating. The punishment for this is a 3-0 reverse in each and every game in which dual contracted players played. If you do not believe the punishment is commensurate with the crime, then I'll ask you what you think would be a suitable punishment?
I don't know what the punishment should be. There isn't a precedent for this, is that 3-0 in the rules? It wouldn't have changed much, they'd have just been in a bit more debt. Also, being in debt doesn't mean you've cheated your way to victory, there's a whole host of clubs in far more debt than rangers ever were. Real Madrid, Barca, Man Utd. Even Celtic are in debt.
3-0 is not a specific rule although it could be exercised if the SPL want. I suspect it won't and it will be the withdrawal of titles (which is specified). I think that is entirely appropriate for a club that has cheated for so long considering they now cannot impose any other meaningful sanctions against a club that is losing its league share and ceasing to exist. If Rangers had not have used EBT's in the fashion they did, I am firmly of the belief that they would not have been able to sign the players they did, would not have won the trophies they did and gained access to the Champions League money for the seasons that they did, which in turn had an impact on the corporate reputation of the club (and conversely a negative impact on the clubs that would otherwise had that position). I never argued that Rangers debt was cheating. Banks love debt. I have argued that their use of EBT's was cheating. I have argued that the non payment of PAYE, NI and VAT is cheating. Both offences I would have booted Rangers out of the league for on their own. Murray had a friendly relationship with the banks bordering on the incestuous that will need more investigating (The same bank that was ready to see Celtic out of business). There are certainly governance issues there to be examined. I also believe that there were further governance issues prior to 1998 that will now go un-investigated that may or may not have had footballing ramifications and I suspect they did.
I must admit I never knew celtic fc and it's fans were so jealous of rangers history. I knew they liked living in the past with constant references to winning the big cup but I never realised that all this time they were so jealous of rangers history that their main objective now seems to be to see rangers stripped of titles won on the park. It's all a bit sad really that they would be quite happy to steal titles that they never earned, and it will be a sad day for scottish football if the SFA / SPL top brass give in to their constant whining and award them any extra titles or trophies. At least if it did happen, the rest of the football world will be able to look at celtic's history and say "we know you didn't really win all those titles"
Evidently you are not a great believer in the Corinthian spirit. Just as well folk like you shall have **** all to do on a saturday afternoon any more.
I will confirm that he does, he has made equally ludicrous statements in the past and this latest outburst of nonsense fits into his pattern of denial and deflection.
