Leggat - CELTIC LAWYERS COULD CAUSE FIFA AND UEFA MELTDOWN

[ian1964 10,514]

FOOTBALL bosses at FIFA and UEFA could be landed with their greatest ever crisis if Celticâ??s lawyers decide the Scottish Premier League should strip Rangers of titles.

 

And the Scottish Football Association and their team, the national team, Scotland, would also be in the eye of a global storm

 

That is what the enormous responsibility Celtic director Eric Riley and his colleagues on the SPL board have handed to Celticâ??s lawyers, Macleod and Harper.

 

According to a senior source I have spoken to with wide experience of Scottish football administration and contacts at the highest levels of the FIFA and UEFA hierarchies, all hell could break loose.

 

For if the Celtic lawyers, Macleod and Harper, decide there is information to support accusations that the EBTs some Rangers players had, constitute an extra contract, one which was not registered with the SFA, and if the SPL then decide to strip Rangers of titles won by the Ibrox club during that period, world football will be thrown into turmoil and engulfed in by an unprecedented crisis.

 

For that will meant that any player who had an EBT will be deemed to have been UNREGISTERED with the Scottish Football Association.

 

Making it unlawful, according to world governing body FIFAâ??s Laws, for any such player to have taken part in ANY match.

 

And that includesâ?¦.

 

INTERNATIONALS!

 

So any country which lost out on a place in the finals of the European Championships or the World Cup Finals because of defeats against any Scotland side containing any such Rangersâ?? player, will have sound legal grounds for appeal.

 

The list of fixtures which will have to be poured over will date all the way back to the start of season 1998-99.

 

That includes the qualifying campaigns for the 2002, â??06 and â??10 World Cup Finals, along with Euro 2000, â??04 , â??08 and THIS summerâ??s tournament in Poland the Ukraine.

 

It will cause FIFA and UEFA a major headache and will be a nightmare for the Scottish Football Association.

 

UEFA may also have to deal with appeals from clubs who played against any Rangers team in the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Europa League which contained even a single player who Celticâ??s lawyerâ??s Macleod and Harper, tell the SPL was not registered with the SFA.

 

And it does not end there either. For the Scottish Premier League would also be landed with a relegation, top six finish and Euro qualification legal tangle, dating back over a decade of campaigns, which could cost them MILLIONS and BANKRUPT Scottish football.

 

Clubs who were relegated on the back of bad results against Rangers, clubs who failed to make the top six on the back of bad results against Rangers and clubs who failed to make it into a European qualification spot because of bad results against Rangers, would all be in line to appeal against loss of income and even go to the Court of Session to try and make the SPL cough up.

 

And while all of this was going on Sky may just be tempted to wash their hands of the whole mess and walk away from the £50M new television deal which remains unsigned.

 

That is the can of worms opened by Celtic director Eric Riley and the Gang of Six, which includes Dundee Unitedâ??s Stephen Thompson, Neil Doncaster and Ralph Topping, who sit on the SPL board and who called in Celticâ??s solicitors, Macleod and Harper to probe Rangers.

 

It is called the law of unintended consequences!

 

Of course the man who brought in the EBTs, former Rangers owner, David Murray, vigorously denies the EBTs are in any way any sort of second contract and has legal advice to back his claim.

 

While Rangers supporters have sensibly called for the SPL to suspend their investigation until the Tax Tribunal, sitting on judgment on the EBTs, delivers it tax verdict.

 

Right now the Scottish Premier League board have backed themselves into a corner, possibly without properly examining the world wide ramifications of their knee jerk reaction.

 

No susprise there, then!

 

For we have already seen Stewart Regan and Peter Lawwellâ??s Scottish Football Association blunder in, by jumping the gun and announcing an SFA probe into the EBTs and any contract implications, before legal advice â?? lawyer Lunny? â?? forced chief executive Regan into an embarrassing U turn when he had it pointed out to him that the SPL had already announced they would be investigating and that any appeal which may come from the SPL verdict would have to be dealt with by the SFA.

 

It was a typical example of the sort of pre-emptive strike the Regan-Lawwell SFA seem keen to launch against Rangers.

 

But now the Scottish Football Associationâ??s very own team , Scotlandâ??s results, plus results in FIFA and UEFA tournaments from 1998, could be have to be re-assessed if Celticâ??s lawyers, acting for the SPL, decide Rangers are guilty and strip them of titles.

..........

AND.......

 

LEGGOLAND DOES IT AGAIN!

 

THE SFA have stepped in to demand Neil Lennon explain himself after the Celtic manager branded referee Willie Collum a criminal.

 

But only after LeggoLand pointed out the extremely serious nature of Lennon's blackening of Religious Instruction teacher Collum's character.

 

Lennon seems to be oblivious - according to what he is quoted as saying in today's papers - as to what Rule he has broken.

 

So let me fill him in. It is SFA Rule 68 and it states quite clearly that "IT IS AN OFFENCE TO CRITICISE THE PERFORMANCE OF A MATCH OFFICIAL OR MAKE REMARKS WHICH IMPINGE ON HIS CHARACTER."

 

Of course maybe it is just me, but I'd have thought calling a man a criminal was a pretty clear cut case of being guilty of impinging his character in anybody's language.

 

Let's see what lawyer Lunny comes up with...eventually.

 

However, it has taken SFA lawyer Lunny the best part of a week to get round to, according to Lennon, having a cosy wee chat with the Celtic manager about the "criminal" rant.

 

No fast track ban from lawyer Lunny for Lennon.

 

Here's a wee tip. Lennon will offer the defence that his words were not meant literally, but colloquially and will get away with a wee warning to be a bit more careful next time.

 

For that's the way things appear to be done in the cosy relationship which many see as existing between Stuart Regan and Celtic chief executive and Hampden board member, Peter Lawwell's SFA and Celtic.

 

http://leggoland2.blogspot.co.uk/

[der Berliner 3,363]

Ach well, they will simply hand us a penalty of say ... 30 points for each of the next ten seasons and that's it.

[stewarty 1,896]

Seems a bit fanciful and hysterical. I have no doubt that should we be found guilty then punishment will be reserved for us, not anyone else.

[der Berliner 3,363]

Seems a bit fanciful and hysterical. I have no doubt that should we be found guilty then punishment will be reserved for us, not anyone else.

 

Yep. We have been "found out", much like with some songs. UEFA, after being noselead by some offended Hooped Horrors, went after us, blamed us, shamed us and made a ruling on US! No-one else. Hence, the SPL and the SFA can hare after every supporter in Blue uttering the odd FTP amongst thousands of other ... while claiming that the "Rangers support" as a whole does not abide to the law and whip up points deductions and fines and whatnot. As no-one has yet blamed the Hooped Horrors (at least with any tangible result) or any other support, that is someone like UEFA the SFA and SPL can hide behind, they will not be charged or targetted whatsoever. You know, I'm kind of intrigued of the idea of writing to the Ministry of Defence* and ask them about their opinion with regard to the SFA's and SPL's constant neglect of written law and anti-British behaviour during games under their jurisdiction. For while it is all fair and square to have a political opinion that opposes others, it is not allowed (under existing SFA / SPL guidelines) to express somesuch in football grounds. (Remember the outcry in certain factions of Scottish football with regard to the wedding note an Davie Weir's jersey?) And since what is being expressed by certain supporters is also against the Terrorist Act 2006 - i.e. a law in existence for what, 6 years? - you do wonder how the SFA and Co. will answer to this.

 

*Dunno whether they will answer to a German, but we shall see. And you do wonder why it has to be Germans to come up with such ideas ... and Double Standards.

Edited March 24, 2012 by der Berliner

[Guest Dutchy]

Surely that's all dependant of us being found guilty of abusing the EBT's and I don't think that's nearly as clear cut as some may think.

 

But if his scenario were to come to pass, what about all our foriegn players not being registered and playing for their natiional teams? England certainly had a few here.