Title Stripping. Why It Can’t Be Done. This is worth a read. So much of what we “know” about the goings on in Scottish football over the last few years comes from leaked sources, including documents. A lot of it is second hand, even third hand, information. A lot of it is useful; one major article I wrote, on the TV deal and how Doncaster rigged it, was written using leaked information as background source material, which I then had to stand up by linking to stuff that was in the public domain.

But as with all such information, there’s some of it which you can never use, because the source of the documents is uncertain and because the information in them is so sensitive and “close- hold” that you would put sources at risk if you did, or even expose yourself to the possibility of criminal prosecution. Even with that story, which is amongst the most controversial I’ve ever published, there were things I had to leave out. One of them I can only describe as explosive. Having seen the evidence I can say with certainty that Doncaster was up to no good, but that information can’t be backed up by public information and will remain hidden until it can. I tend to believe that when information that was secret is uploaded to where anyone can see it then it’s no longer secret; it becomes public whether it was intended to be or not.

That’s what Wikileaks and other websites are for, after all. For a long time you could download oodles of compromising information from Scottish football’s dark year of 2. Scribd; I have my own extensive catalogue of stuff from that period, including the Five Way Agreement, the No Title Stripping Guarantee, the outline of Whyte’s Project Charlotte and much else. I am not surprised to see internal SPL documents now online. I am not surprised that some of the bloggers, like Johnjames, have chosen to use them to cast light on the Nimmo Smith inquiry and other affairs.

I said in a piece two years ago that nothing that happened in that time will forever remain a secret; too many people are in possession of too much information and all of it will eventually become public. It’s inevitable. The SPL emails which have found their way onto the net are illustrative in more ways than one. I’m going to go over them now and what they mean . I believe their publication is in the best interests of Scottish football. I believe fans have a right to know, and use this information in their deliberations about the future. This is important stuff. It casts a light on this whole affair.

1. The anime recently ended its weekly airing in Japan and teased the potential evolution of Ash’s Rockruff. There are several things that point towards a new form, or.
2. You can no longer directly search for the TouchArcade app, Ridiculous.

The Lord Nimmo Smith Inquiry Was Never About Sporting Integrity. The most interesting thing which emerges from these emails is not actually a secret and it never was, but I think it helps to have it on the record and in the proper context nonetheless.

It’s important that before we start tearing LNS apart that we recognise what the purpose of the inquiry actually was. Please take note that no- one is suggesting that we appeal the Lord Nimmo Smith verdict; as I said on the day of the tax case verdict itself, in a lengthy article which you can read here if you haven’t seen it yet, we’re significantly beyond that at this point.

Since it was published, the LNS verdict has been spun outrageously by various people with various agendas. The governing bodies did it to “close the book” on the case. Certain clubs did it in an effort to “move things on”.

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The media did it because certain PR firms pushed the line that the verdict had somehow exonerated those at Ibrox and. Hampden. Sevco fans embraced it because it meant historical titles wouldn’t be taken off Rangers. Here’s the crux of it though; in terms of what LNS was asked to investigate, he and his commission found Rangers guilty on all counts. Guilty, okay? Of concealing documents. Of lying to investigators.

Of deliberate obstruction. The club was fined for that behaviour. The LSN inquiry was set up to examine only the issue of whether registrations rules were broken. That is a cast- iron fact. Sporting integrity was never part of the remit.

LNSnever said that EBT’s did not confer a “sporting advantage”, although many people still persist in the belief that he did. What he said was that a deliberate failure to properly register players didn’t. You may or may not think that an absurd suggestion, but that’s not relevant to the point here. The sporting integrity issue was not covered at all.

LNS was deliberately limited to cover only that issue, and the SFA was on hand to provide their own interpretation of what should happen when failure to register players is discovered. That, of course, is a bomb just waiting to go off one day; the Sandy Bryson definition of what constitutes a punishable offence is palpably absurd. The SPL email exchanges make it abundantly clear that the inquiry itself was not supposed to look into other aspects of this affair. It was set up to do one thing, a very small thing, covering a very narrow issue. And within that framework it reached a verdict. Major matters, the ones of greatest significance, were excluded; the legality of clubs paying players via tax fraud, the “governance” of the SFA, the registrations procedures, who knew what and when .

LNS was set up to give the appearance that a sweeping inquiry had taken place when no such thing happened. The validity of the inquiry itself was also fatally compromised when the so- called “appellate body”, the SFA itself, gave evidence in the case and allowed its officials to steer those sitting on it to draw conclusions which defy logic and credibility. When I say we’re significantly beyond LNS I mean it. LNS has no bearing on where we go from here. Some People Did Want To Appeal The LNS Verdict On “Sporting Integrity” Grounds. If you don’t think there’s an appetite for going over this issue again, you ignore the fact that this appetite always existed and never went away. At least two members of the SPL board – Ralph Topping, who I lacerated on here last week before this information came to light and Duncan Fraser of Aberdeen – believed that the verdict and the scope of the inquiry were drastically at odds with the severity of what the club had done, and made that plain.

Topping clearly thought an appeal should be considered whereas Fraser believed it would be a waste of time, given that the key issues were never covered by LNS in the first place. Eric Reilly of Celtic was out of the country, on holiday, when the decision about an appeal was being taken; that was clearly deliberate. He offered no view on whether there should have been an appeal, because he knew it was futile and the numbers were already against him. Celtic’s position on this is crystal clear and has been from the start.

There is no question that Reilly would have voted in favour of an appeal in this matter. Stephen Thompson of Dundee Utd voted against an appeal and suggested it was time to “draw a line under it.” For all Sevco fans lacerate this guy and his club, they took the view that sporting integrity should be subservient to an easy life. I understand it. And I utterly condemn it. Their supporters have more integrity in their fingertips than their board does combined. No surprises where Kilmarnock are concerned. Michael Johnston voted no to an appeal in under five minutes. His own fans are still disgusted with his stance on all this today.

Reilly, Fraser and, to my surprise, Topping all believed that sporting integrity should have primacy here. They were all appalled by the way the scope of the investigation was narrowed to exclude key evidence and the issue of whether EBT use itself was a violation of the spirit of the sport. You can read disbelief in Fraser and Topping’s emails that the verdict has levied on the club a slap on the wrist fine but left titles and trophies on the record.

It’s All In The Planning. New Head of Recruitment Lee Congerton has been telling us the why’s , the wherefores and whats it got to do with you of his new job at Celtic. Of course, there’s the Brendan Bonus. Obviously Brendan’s a big reason why I’m here but I’m also delighted to work for Celtic and I’m very proud. I feel fantastic and I’m really looking forward to the challenge ahead.”  So, whats the plan ?“We will be looking worldwide, but we can’t forget our roots and Scotland, Ireland and the rest of the UK are very important for us,” he said. I mean whats really the plan ?

Where recruitment is concerned we need the sort of planning that you get when you eat toilet paper so you can wipe your bottom on the way out. Hanging around public football pitches with a Celtic top won’t be enough. Even if, er, as he says.“Scouting is not about I.

It’s about the team. I like to smell the grass and see the player. So, players we are recruiting need to be able to play Champions League football. In the years BB - Before Brendan - we were recruiting players we could turn into champions League players- have we stepped it up a level ? Congerton also points to his time working with Gen Driscoll and Brendan Rodgers in a previous life, and standing on the outside looking in, one could be forgiven for thinking that Brendan is, in fact , on a mission. Sunday won’t be easy, and we need to remember that the prize of being the first team to beat Celtic - purely notional- is still up for grabs. Thats despite the bleatings coming from Ibrox.

A sort of general euphoria at getting a point. It will probably take a few months. After all, they need to be spot on with what their conclusions, because our source at HMRC, at least he said thats where he was from, i personally doubt it becuase he was drunk and smelt of wee wee, said.

There’s a lot of people right now who must be wishing they’d been eating toilet paper to keep their bottoms clean on case of accidents. And I’m intrigued by this letter, which at the very least hints at some sort of cover up. I accept that, in the past, there was good reason to fear that the personal safety of certain individuals was threatened; but the information now before me indicates that the threats have abated and have probably disappeared. In some respects that may be the correct view; but it should nevertheless not be overlooked that a modern professional football club is not a .

If only we had a couple of reporters north of the border prepared to dig into this story. For years, Rangers lied about their remuneration policy, they amassed debts they couldn’t pay, and as a result plunged into oblivion. Its not that difficult to understand, and yet it seems beyond our media to ask the standard seven “w” questions. Buy Darkness Rising (2017) Hq. Look at this, which also needs investigating. Patricks Day, so lets be careful out there.

Earlier in the week , she said that Nicola Sturgeon was a traitor, and demanded her execution by proclaiming“Off with Her Head “Having been reminded that MP Jo Cox had been murdered in the street by an extremist under a year ago, the bold Pearson changed her tune, sort of. Nicola Sturgeon – another treacherous queen of Scots – has miscalculated. On that basis, Allison Pearson is the first female winner of the prestigious Etims award!