ian1964 10,418 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thoms...-football/2137 Quote: It all makes the clearest possible sense. Running one football club whilst having a financial interest in another is about the clearest potential conflict of interest possible in the business of sport. Yet Channel 4 News can now reveal such possible potential conflicts are a commonplace within the game, involving key individuals, and it is allowed within the rules of the governing bodies as presently written. Not only that. In one case this perceived conflict involves none other than the current president of the Scottish Football Association, Campbell Ogilvie, already described as â??heavily conflictedâ? by his own chief executive and currently offering to stand aside if his presence in the job is a problem. Offering â?? but not doing so. Channel 4 News has a Companies House list of Rangers shareholders for 2008 and 2010. They prove, for instance, that the current Airdrie chairman and president of the Scottish Football League, James William Ballantyne, had 568 Rangers shares in 2008 when chairman of Airdrie. Now, nobody is pretending these shares are worth very much money at all in the vast sea of Rangers shares. People will be interested in the principle of all this, though, not the money. Let us consider some other high-profile figures â?? like Mr Ogilvie. He remains president of the Scottish FA, despite that â??heavily conflictedâ? comment from his chief exec. In 2008 a Companies House report showed Mr Ogilvie held 3,505 Rangers shares whilst in senior management at Hearts. That year he became chief executive at Hearts and suddenly transferred his 3,505 Rangers shares to his wife Karolina, who already held 400 â?? thus giving her 3,905 shares. And so to the one-time sectarian crooner Donald Findlay. Infamous for leading sectarian singing at an Ibrox function in 1999, he may have been forced out of Rangers over that unfortunate musical issue but he has not left Rangers in so many other ways. By 2010 Companies House records will tell you he held 9,900 Rangers shares whilst Chairman of Cowdenbeath FC. No doubt there are other examples. And so to the rulebook. Well, the Scottish Football Association rules state that: â??Except with the prior written consent of the Board, no Member, Associate Member or Official, may at one time either directly or indirectly:- 21.1.1 hold or seek to acquire beneficial ownership of or deal in the shares or securities of another club; or 21.1.2 be a member or shareholder of, or lender in any capacity to, more than one clubâ?¦â? Along the corridor at Hampden Park, the Scottish Football Association handbook says pretty much the same things. And in the rules there is the rider that owning less than a 3 per cent total share value is OK. We are talking about way less than 1 â?? let alone 3 â?? per cent in these cases. The rules also state that having family members owning shares means they are treated as associates. That is, youâ??re all one in the eyes of the SFA and the SFL rulebook. Transferring shares from, say, Campbell Ogilvie to his wife would make no difference at all in law. Presumably Mr Ogilvie knew all this â?? heâ??s widely seen as an expert in football regulation. So itâ??s a curious tale. What binds these people to their shares, since it cannot be the financial value? Emotion? It is far from clear. And what makes them hang on to them year after year, when doing so clearly suggests a potential conflict of interest to many, regardless of whether or not any rules have been broken? Jim Ballantyne said everything had been declared to the boards, and in any case the share numbers are absolutely miniscule. He said: â??I see no problem here at allâ? and â??I cleared everything with the boardsâ? and â??You are talking about the tiny fragment of one percent of ownership and this involves absolutely no influence whatsoeverâ?. We say that may well be true, but would it not be sensible to divest all shares in any other club when running a different one, let alone the SFL itself, just in order to avoid any perceived conflict of interest? â??No â?? not at all. Itâ??s never been raised at any board meeting,â? said Mr Ballantyne. â??Well, Iâ??m raising it nowâ?? I said. â??Well, youâ??re not in football,â? he replied. I cannot seriously think that the president of the Scottish Football League believes only football directors can take a view on this â?? not the fans, not the public and not journalists. But that is what he told Channel 4 News. And so to Donald Findlay. His case is perhaps the most curious of the lot. There is the perceived conflict of interest in running Cowdenbeath whilst owning almost 10,000 Rangers shares. We asked Mr Findlay about the shares issue. We received the message back that he is not interested in answering, and a Cowdenbeath messenger said Mr Findlay says: â??You can do what you want.â? So the world must wait to know whether or not Mr Findlay regards his Rangers as a conflict of interest. If he does, he certainly does not want to talk to us about it. At the end of the day, what you have here is another spotlight into the cosy, cronyish old world of Scottish Football, which has predictably lumbered into the 21st century only to come close to real collapse through lack of proper oversight and governance. Many would simply say any sport which allows anyone a financial stake at all in one club whilst running another is a sport badly in need of urgent overhaul. From these men today, no consideration or comment on the fans, the public, how this might look. Just the usual insouciance when faced with the concept that whether rules are actually broken or not, this hardly conveys a healthy impression of Scottish football. Follow @alextomo on Twitter 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Moon 1,113 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 This guy has been on a personal crusade for months to publish anything he is presented by our enemies to bring us down. His one sided campaign , masquerading as journalism, brings shame on himself and his profession. Go on then, Mr thomson, take on Mr Findlay, but for the sake of your professional integrity do a piece on Celtic's lawyers investigating EBT's and Celtic men in the judicial panel and question whether there is a conflict of interest there? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWeeBlueDevil 0 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Alex Thomson needs a close encounter with a bus. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
biggordy 0 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Confucius say "When fuckwit ask you personal question you must tell fuckwit to fuck off" Tell tim thomson nothing as he is only trawling for information to attack us with. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunslinger 3,366 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 did he investigate celtc shares? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
way2go 0 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I used to be a big fan of channel 4 news but this clown has dragged it down to gutter press level with his "nuggets of truth" gleamed from kerryfail st and rtc. A fool who is being used as a mouthpiece by our haters 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
amms 0 Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I was actually quite excited when Thomson took an interest in this way back. I foolishly believed a heavyweight journalist might help uncover a smoking gun, nail a few obviously guilty people and perhaps expose a few others. Boy was I wrong. This particular 'story' is perplexing. So it's news that Cambell Ogilvie is a Rangers fan, and that as a one time director he owned shares? Had he sold them to a stranger would that have meant he was no longer a Rangers supporter? Donald Findlay, again has made no secret at all of his Rangers leanings. He doesn't own Cowdenbeath, he's the Chairman. Whilst an important role it isn't an executive position, he isn't involved in the running of the club, he chairs the board meetings. Yeah, big conflict. I don't know the Airdrie bloke, I certainly haven't heard of Airdrie doing Rangers any favours lately. The Hamilton owner used to be on the board of Clyde, I doubt he grew up supporting either club, has he not been of benefit to Hamilton then? Livingston used to have Dominic Keane on their board, who did he support again and how did that all work out for Livi? Fucksake we were owned by an Ayr Utd fan for long enough! Anyway, good to hear Thomson is advocating clubs should only employ supporters of that club from now on! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueflag 378 Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Has he removed the blog, or is the link broken? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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