Rangers take Scottish FA to court over its player signing ban

[the gunslinger 3,366]

this is the trouble. two judges have already ruled this as ok.

 

I have to say I doubt a third will over rule it. especially as our case looks week.

[Zappa 0]

It was a 'real court', given that it was headed by a senior member of the judiciary.

 

Lord Carloway? Did you know that he recently (end of last year) recommended in a review for the Holyrood Justice Committee that the Scottish legal system abolish 'corroboration' in prosecutions which would effectively remove the presumption of innocent until proven guilty? I'm not kidding. That muppet thinks it would be ok for more innocent people to get a criminal record as long as it helped convict more guilty people. You couldn't make it up!

[caseyjones 0]

Lord Carloway? Did you know that he recently (end of last year) recommended in a review for the Holyrood Justice Committee that the Scottish legal system abolish 'corroboration' in prosecutions which would effectively remove the presumption of innocent until proven guilty? I'm not kidding. That muppet thinks it would be ok for more innocent people to get a criminal record as long as it helped convict more guilty people. You couldn't make it up!

 

I never said that judges were living in the real world!

[craig 5,199]

The SFA are in the process of monumentally shafting us and I'm pointing out that they've probably hired one of the most anti-Rangers QCs in Scotland. That's not searching for bias Craig.

 

I think the SFA have made a very poor choice given the nature of this case and the highly strung emotions in Scotland just now, but that's just my opinion.

 

I couldnt disagree more.

 

The SFA are trying to defend their position. Just what difference does it make to us whether he is pro-Rangers or anti-Rangers ? The QC will defend his client, the SFA.

 

maybe I am being thick but I simply cannot see what relevance this QC;s religious background has to all this. It really makes not one iota of difference who they select.

[Owain 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.

 

 

I have alot of respect for you Zappa, you put real good post's in most of the time and I'm sorry I feel I have to bring this up. I sincerely hope I have misinterperrated your post.

 

I have supported Rangers since before I can remember. I was born in Castlemilk to mixed religion parents (Prod & Tim....as opposed to Buddhist & Hindu; Jewish or Muslim etc., etc.). I was christen a catholic (I think that's what its called) and when very young we moved to Engirland and I went to a catholic school for a short while.

 

So I myself could be described as being very much partly "tribal" catholic by those who chose to do so.

 

I have 7 cousins who were also brought up as "catholic", 3 of whom are also Rangers supporters , one being a season ticket holder for Ibrox. One other is a Celtic supporter (doesn't even go out of his way to actually see how his team are doing) and the other three have no interest in Scottish fooball whatsoever.

 

Just because Mr O'Neil is a catholic, doesn't neccessarily follow that he is anti-Rangers.

 

With everything that has been happening of late, I would argue that it is somewhat misleading and diversional for the finger of blame to be pointed at members of any particular religion.

 

Is SMD a catholic? Is Craig Whyte a catholic? I suspect not.

 

Both are capitalsit's. Both (although I suspecy SDM to be more guilty) are feeders of their own ego's.

 

That is what has destroyed our club more than any catholic.

 

And unless things change, that is what will continue to destroy our club, and many others.

 

I do feel it is about time that we woke up to that fact and started to lobby the polititians that claim to hold our best interests at heart; a whole reform of football is what is needed. Blaming catholics will only prolong our agony.

 

The root of the problem is there for us all to see. It doesn't and never has; lay with what God someone chooses to worship.

 

Greed & self interest.... we need to protct our club from. All else is banter.

[Owain 0]

and by the way, please don't ban me whoever keeps doing it. Just because I speak my mind doesn't make me a tim.

 

3 times now, getting a bit sick of it.

[Zappa 0]

and by the way, please don't ban me whoever keeps doing it. Just because I speak my mind doesn't make me a tim.

 

3 times now, getting a bit sick of it.

 

I'll speak to the rest of the admin & mod team about that. I know you were banned once and reinstated, but I know absolutely nothing about the other two bans you speak of.

[Owain 0]

I'll speak to the rest of the admin & mod team about that. I know you were banned once and reinstated, but I know absolutely nothing about the other two bans you speak of.

 

I got banned just after I joined ( don't know what I said wrong), wrote in and was back in. Happened a little while later but was back in without mailing.

 

Last time Frankie wrote to me. I didn't mean to imply it was you Zapa and sorry if it came across that way. It's not a prob anyhow, as long as I'm here still!

 

It may be down to my dongle, Not sure as I'm backward with technology. Tried to PM this to you but it won't let me.

 

Sorry to distract from the thread.

[craig 5,199]

Owain, I only know of one instance where you were banned incorrectly - I certainly wasnt aware of it happening any other time. Apologies that you have had to suffer this.

[Bears 0]

In all honesty i don't think the religion of the lawyer the SFA have employed will make one bit of difference. It's paranoia by Bears IMO