Rangers take Scottish FA to court over its player signing ban

[aweebluesoandso 290]

Very happy my contributions to the RFFF, is being used in this way.

 

The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave die but once. IF we have to go down lets go down fighting and take a few of these currupt bassas with us.

[caseyjones 0]

Glad to see those really running our club have had the balls to see this through. The kangaroo court of the SFA must not be allowed to be able to excessively punish a club on a whim and a prejudice. The rules are there for a reason, as are the penalties.

 

I would hope all fans would continue to support the RFFF in its defence of the club at this time.

 

A couple of questions. It became three.

 

What are the grounds for having the SFA decision overturned?

 

Why use the same QC who failed to overturn the original ruling when it went before the appeal panel?

 

Who instigated this action?

[ian1964 10,416]

Statement on Court of Session proceedings

 

 

Scottish FA spokesperson:

 

“We note Rangers FC’s initiation of proceedings at the Court of Session in relation to the sanctions imposed by an independent Judicial Panel, which were subsequently upheld by an Appellate Tribunal chaired by Lord Carloway.

 

“With the hearing continued until Tuesday, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

 

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2986&newsID=9934&newsCategoryID=1

[ian1964 10,416]

Rangers have asked the Court of Session to overturn a year-long transfer ban imposed on the club by the Scottish Football Association.

 

Lawyers acting for the financially-stricken Ibrox club said the ban would cause them "utterly irretrievable" prejudice if it was upheld.

 

They claim the embargo is unlawful and outside the powers of the SFA tribunal.

 

The club's administrators are seeking to have the ban suspended in a judicial review.

 

The sanction was imposed on Rangers along with a £160,000 fine after it was charged with bringing the game into disrepute.

 

Richard Keen QC, acting for Rangers FC plc, said an agreement which saw senior players accept substantial pay cuts is due to expire next month.

 

In return for agreeing to the pay cuts, the players will be able to seek a transfer from Rangers for only about 25% of their perceived market value.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

 

If the additional sanction was to remain in place for all or the material part of the transfer window the prejudice on the petitioners would be utterly irretrievable”

 

Richard Keen QC

 

Mr Keen said the players would have "every incentive to go" because they would likely be able to secure a "golden hello" from buying clubs signing them for a knock-down transfer fee.

 

"If this sanction is in place they cannot be replaced by players over 18 years of age," he told the court, adding: "If the additional sanction was to remain in place for all or the material part of the transfer window the prejudice on the petitioners would be utterly irretrievable."

 

Mr Keen said an appeal tribunal held to review the original SFA decision had heard the suggestion that Rangers had a squad of more than 40 players. However, he said 25 of those players were aged 18 or under.

 

"If the additional sanction was to be suspended they would be able to sign replacement players for those who are in all probability leaving," he added.

 

Mr Keen pointed out that administrators Duff and Phelps were also seeking to finalise arrangements for the takeover of the club with Charles Green, a former Sheffield United chief executive.

 

"The indications from him are that he would be willing to proceed even if the additional sanction is in place", Mr Keen said.

 

"However, the preferred route for any resolution of the present difficulties is a CVA (company voluntary arrangement) and it is not clear all other creditors would take the same view of the company's prospects if the additional sanction was in place."

 

Administrators were called in at Rangers in February following an unpaid tax bill and the club was charged by the SFA for bringing the game into disrepute.

 

Mr Keen argued that it was not competent for the tribunal to impose the additional sanction on the club and that it was outside its powers.

 

He said that a fine, suspension, expulsion and termination of membership were available, but added: "The sanction of suspending the registration of players is not available under the general disciplinary rules to the tribunal in respect of an alleged breach.

 

'Suspension or expulsion'

 

"It follows in my submission that the purported additional sanction imposed by the tribunal and confirmed by the appeal tribunal was not a competent sanction and was not one available to the tribunal.

 

"My understanding is that those representing the SFA at the original hearing were as surprised as we were when the tribunal came back to impose such a sanction, or I should say purported sanction."

 

Aidan O'Neill QC, for the SFA, said the tribunal had sought to find a punishment or sanction which would fit the breach.

 

"They did not want to be in a situation of giving a sanction which is not effective and not dissuasive, or a disproportionate sanction - which is suspension or expulsion," he said.

 

He said it was understood within the sport that a transfer ban preventing the registration of new players was a sanction.

 

"We don't want a clunky reading of these rules which means either we have a useless sanction or a nuclear option. That is just nonsensical," he said.

 

Mr O'Neill argued that the tribunal had properly applied its mind to come up with what it considered to be an effective and proportionate outcome.

 

"This club brought the game into disrepute because it did not pay its taxes, among other things," he said.

 

The hearing is due to continue next week.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18211947

[mitchellenman 0]

Is this what Sion did last season about being thrown out of the Europa League, and the Swiss FA were threatened by UEFA?

[Thinker 875]

Regardless of how morally justified this is, it can only lead to more pain.

 

Neither UEFA or FIFA tolerate clubs taking associations, officials, whatever to civil courts (for obvious reasons - it'd be chaos). The correct course of action for a club that feels their association is biased against them, is to request UEFA intervention.

[der Berliner 3,249]

Is this what Sion did last season about being thrown out of the Europa League, and the Swiss FA were threatened by UEFA?

 

No, they signed players while stil under a FIFA ban from doing so. Then they used said players in competitive games, the results of which within the Swiss leage were pending a final result. UEFA, after first registering the palyers correctly for the European cup competitions later on (after possibly being told to by FIFA) withdrew these registrations and expelled Sion for utilizing players they should not. (I would assume the Sion wikipedia page covers that bit. Obviously, the Swiss FA followed UFEA's exampled, penalized them with 30odd points and whatnot ... (talking about crows)

 

Thinker

Regardless of how morally justified this is, it can only lead to more pain.

 

Neither UEFA or FIFA tolerate clubs taking associations, officials, whatever to civil courts (for obvious reasons - it'd be chaos). The correct course of action for a club that feels their association is biased against them, is to request UEFA intervention

.

 

As has been said, if the penalty was within the legislation or rulings of the SFA, fine. If it is not, anyone (as in: anyone) should be able to question any unwarranted penalties.

[Zappa 0]

Aidan O'Neill QC, for the SFA

 

[Zappa 0]

I see that boss over on RM has been doing some digging again.

 

He came up with this article in The Tablet, a weekly catholic journal, written by Aidan O'Neill the SFA's QC for this new court case:

 

2.1 I am a lawyer. I practise in the area of human rights. I have a particular interest in European and constitutional law. I am also a Catholic, although to understand that last statement it is perhaps necessary to unpack more of my personal history and upbringing.

 

2.2 My Catholicism is, in one sense, tribal. I was born into it - as the sixth of nine children, all but one of whom survived to adulthood. My parents were Catholics of good standing, both teachers in the wholly State-funded Catholic school sector in Scotland. The Catholicism into which I was born was Scottish Catholicism, which by the time I was born was composed primarily of third or fourth generation descendants of immigrants to Scotland, predominantly from Ireland but also from Italy, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine. Catholics in the west central belt of Scotland where I was brought up sometimes comprised 50% and over of the predominantly coal-mining and steel-producing communities in which they lived, but taking Scotland as a whole, the proportion of Catholics was just under 20%. Catholics in Scotland when I was growing up were overwhelmingly working class in culture, although there were also the beginnings of a Catholic middle class, school teachers, publicans and criminal lawyers being in the vanguard of its creation.

 

2.3 Growing up Catholic in Scotland in the 1960s involved, however, a series of "not-belongings" or dislocations. One didn't feel wholly Scottish, since the then dominant cultural myth of what it was to be Scottish seemed to be one that commenced with the Reformation of 1560 and John Knox denouncing Mary, Queen of Scots for her "foreign harlotry". Despite many of our forenames and surnames, we didn't feel ourselves to be Irish - they had a different accent and attitude to life, and a wholly different politics and history. We were certainly not English. But even any sense of "Britishness" was fraught with difficulties, given that we knew that the Monarch vowed to uphold the Protestant religion and would lose any claim to the throne on becoming or marrying a Catholic.

 

 

2.4 The one identity one could be sure of, however, was one's being a Catholic. And the Church we experienced - as a minority Church in a historically hostile land - was one marked by solidarity with the poor, the down-trodden, the immigrant, the oppressed. Our Church gained moral authority and respect for that. We had little, if any, of the oppressive experiences which marked Irish Catholicism in the age of DeValera where strong social and political power rested in (and was abused by) members of the clergy and religious. Instead, to identify as a Catholic in Scotland, was to identify with the powerless and those discriminated against. It was to accept a calling to witness to truth and to fight against injustice. It was all one seamless web.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

i would be more worried a out the judges persuasion. that the defence lawyer.