Larger than the Law.

[pete 2,499]

On 12th of august 1974 Joao Havelange defeated the Englishman Stanley Rous in a vote for the presidency of FIFA, the Federation of International Football Associations. From that day on the game of football would change for ever. Football was no longer about the love of the game; it was no longer â??warâ? as some people said it was. Football became a commercial industry and Havelange became a money Glutton! He stated himself, when he took over FIFA, that there was not a Penny in the drawer. After his election He teamed up with Adi Dassler of Adidas and Coca Cola and the money started rolling in. What a difference now to the multi-trillion dollar industry football has become, with some of todayâ??s players earning more in a week than many will earn in their whole lives. FIFA has grown into one of the most powerful organizations in the world, employing directly or indirectly more than 500.000 people and representing more lands than even the United Nations. They represent 209 countries at this moment of time.

 

Joao Havelange considered himself the most powerful man in the world and was not frightened of taking the most powerful world leaders on. In 1974, while he was a representative of the International Olympic committee (IOC), he backed Barcelona to hold the Olympic Games in 1984.

Paris had put in a far better bid and president Chirac of France had travelled to Marseilles expecting to hear Paris being named the winner. Instead he heard stories of Havelange showering other countries representatives with gifts from Rolex watches to Holidays and back-hand payments. Chirac was furious and shouted at Havelange, he would see that he was removed as president from FIFA if Paris did not get the games. They didnâ??t get the Games and Havelange would last 24 years in the job.

 

The Bribery and corruption finally caught up with Joao when the Swiss firm, International Sports Leisure, went Bankrupt. Files passed onto the Police proved Havelange and his ex-son-in-law Ricardo Teixeira were linked to illegal payments to pay bribes to give ISL the TV rights for the World Cups. Both were found guilty. Feeling the heat under his shoes Havelange had already quit as president from FIFA but even after retirement he still received a multi-million pound a year wage for many years to come. While his vice-precedent Sepp Blatter was never mentioned in the files a person known as P1 was regularly mentioned. Blatter would later admit he was that person

What may be interesting to Rangerâ??s supporters at this point is that when Sepp Blatter, who was Havelangeâ??s vice-president for 17 of the 24 years, was asked if he knew of the payments said, â??These payments were not against the Law at the time. You could even pay tax on them.

Today they would be illegal but you canâ??t put todayâ??s standards on things that happened in the past.

Now I am sure Mr Blatter will be well in the knowledge of Rangers EBT case and there will be a directive already lying in the e-mail inbox of SFA Chief Mr Regan reminding him of the fact that you canâ??t put todayâ??s standards on things that happened in the past. After all surely what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

Bear with me I will return to Mr Regan and the SPL a little later.

 

Sepp Blatter succeeded Joao Havelange after a voting tussle with Lennart Johansson. Stories of Bribery and corruption still hung high over the FIFA Headquarters in Zurich and the BBC did a documentary on how in 2006. 10.000 tickets ended up in the hands of a company owned by Jack Warner the FIFA vice-president which were sold on the black-market.

Blatter denied any wrong doing at that time and backed his vice-president up.

When the same allegations were brought forward at the 2010 world cup, Blatter realizing his position could become untenable decided to throw his vice president to the lions and allowed Jack Warner to resign

 

Not only do FIFA seem to stand above the Law they also seem to be able to get laws of the land changed to suit them when the World Cup is on offer. This became apparent during the South Africa World cup. Heineken were the official Dutch sponsors of the tournament along with the Sony Playstation and Ford. Bavaria, another Dutch beer company, came up with the idea of giving an orange females dress away with every crate of beer sold. This was tied to an advert of a bored (ageing from young to old) steward standing watching the crowd while the Dutch team were playing. Up to the present time and he is again looking bored. Then these beautiful women in their orange dresses jump up and start dancing about. All of a sudden the stewardâ??s face is all smiles.

During a real qualifying game, the same girls waited until the cameras were on them and then jumped up and pulled off their coats showing their orange dresses.

Heineken were livid and complained to the Dutch Football Association. After that any females wearing an Orange dress were not allowed into the ground during the Dutch games.

Bavaria then decided to pull off the same stunt in South Africa where they employed SA models to enter the ground dressed as Swedish supporters. The TV cameras quickly homed in on the 36 beautiful girls in Swedish colours. The models then pulled off their Swedish kit to show off their Orange dresses.

The girls were arrested as African Law had been changed to defend the World cup sponsors. They were only released after Bavaria agreed a sponsorship deal with FIFA.

 

FIFA are also forcing Brazil to change Brazilian laws for the next World cup. The sale of Beer in football stadiums is illegal, a law that FIFA are looking to change during the World cup. Presently they are only allowed to sell Alcohol-free beer.

 

Any Country wanting to host the World Cup now has to be willing to change the laws of the land to suit FIFA. Belgium and the Netherlands put in a bid for the 2018 WC but were told that Laws would need to be changed to make every person involved, free from paying Income tax. Many Dutch people were shocked when it was discussed in the Dutch Parliament. England who were also in the race claimed to lose out after refusing to pay money into certain funds.

Russia is hosting the games but again the voting was cloaked in a selling of voteâ??s controversy, with 2 members of the committee being suspended.

 

In 1995 Jean-Marc Bosman took the Belgian FA to the European court of Justice in a decision concerning the freedom of movement for workers. Bosman won the decision allowing players at the end of their contract, to leave one club and join another within the EU without a fee.

It also ended the ruling only allowing 3 foreign players in a team. A team can now play 11 foreigners if they want,

 

Since that decision FIFA do all in their power to stop clubs using courts out with the umbrella of FIFA. Sanctions to Football associations whose members do go to court include: Suspension for an International team from International tournaments and suspensions for club teams from European competitions.

 

Just recently the SFA (Scottish Football Association) got a reprimand from FIFA after Rangers successfully contended a transfer ban in the Court of Session. Rangers, who were charged for bringing the game into disrepute, claimed the transfer ban administered by an independent tribunal was unlawful as it wasnâ??t listed as a punishment for that offence, and therefore outside the remit of the SFA tribunal. Judge Lord Glennie overturned the ban, ruling that the association had indeed acted beyond their powers, and ordered them to reconsider the punishment.

It is indeed strange how an independent tribunal can come up with a punishment that is not in rule book. I wonder who exactly brought an illegal transfer ban to the table.

The SFA did temporarily drop the ban but later forced Rangers into accepting it in exchange for membership into the association. It would seem that FIFAâ??s disrespect for the law has been adopted by Mr Regan and his associates in the corridors of Hampden.

 

In fact the whole handling of Rangers re-entry into the Scottish leagues leaves a bad taste of Bribery and corruption in the mouth. The illegal transfer ban strangely appeared again in a 5 point agreement drafted by the SFA\SPL which they tried to get Charles Green to sign in exchange for SFA membership and a place in the Scottish 1st division.

 

The 5 points were:

 

STRIPPING the club of their league titles from 2002/3, 2004/5, 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11;

 

WIPING OUT Rangersâ?? Scottish Cup triumphs of 2001/2, 2002/3, 2007/8 and 2008/9;

 

FORCING Rangers to accept the one-year transfer embargo imposed by the SFA and overturned by the Court of Session;

 

Rangers must pay the SFAâ??s £31,000 costs and the £160,000 fine imposed at the same time as the transfer ban.

 

Rangerâ??s newco would have to pay Rangers oldcoâ??s football debts to clubs in Scotland and Europe.

 

 

The stripping of titles was linked to Rangers use of EBTâ??s(Employee Benefit Trust) which was a legal tax avoidance system, used to pay less tax to employees. The law was changed in 2010, making it illegal.

Rangers accepted the illegal transfer ban, the fine and costs and to pay Oldcoâ??s football debts to acquire the membership so as they could play in the Scottish 3rd division but refused to accept any loss of trophyâ??s.

 

On Tuesday 20th of November 2012 Rangers were cleared in principle of any wrong doing. This makes it very strange that the SFA\SPL had already found Rangers guilty and attempt to get Rangers to accept a punishment of loss of trophyâ??s before any official verdict had been given.

I have no legal knowledge but the word Blackmail springs to my laymanâ??s mind.

I say Blackmail because the Law states: Blackmail is a crime involving unjustified threats to make a gain or cause loss to another. As I said I am no legal expert but it would seem to me that The SFA used the denial of membership to get Rangers to accept an unjustified punishment and the loss of trophies speaks for itself.

 

Tomorrow (Tuesday) an SFA\SPL tribunal led by Lord Nimmo Smith and including Nicholas Stewart QC and Charles Flint QC, will be looking to find whether or not Rangers breached SPL rules through the use of EBTâ??s. Many people in knowledge believe the positive HMRC decision will clear Rangers of any loss of titles but as we know Football is a law unto itself and any decision is possible. Hopefully if they do try to take away any titles the Rangers Fighting fund will keep their promise and drag the decision through the Court of Session.

It may bring down the wrath of FIFA but we must not let Stuart Regan and Neil Doncaster think they can enjoy the same power as Joao Havalange and Sepp Blatter have enjoyed.

 

If Rangers are totally cleared by the tribunal then it may be an idea for Mr Green to pass the SFA 5 point draft onto his lawyers as the taking away of trophyâ??s will then be totally unjustified and there just may be a legal case for Mr Regan and Mr Doncaster to answer.

After all nobody should be larger than the law .

 

I don't know whether there could be any case against Regan or Doncaster but the loss of their jobs would be a plus as well.