On Grounds for Judicial Review

While the proposed Judicial Review of the LNS decision is to be welcomed it is a position that is fraught with legal difficulties such as the capacity to raise the proceedings, potential time bars and all sorts of other arguments.

It would be complete folly to base an argument here solely upon a judicial review of LNS as that would only leave one string to the bow.

Further, take the stated opinion or Mr Rod McKenzie that LNS only dealt with the issue of Player Registrations within the SPL/SPFL — and nothing else.

Any analysis of what is meant by that statement (and others made by Neil Doncaster) leads to the conclusion that there are other matters to be considered which were outwith the tight and narrow remit handed to LNS by the SPFL.

For me, the clearest consideration is this.

1. Craig Whyte has already been personally convicted by the SFA for deliberately failing to pay taxes as and when they fall due under article 5.1 of the SFA rules.

2. No such charge has ever been levied against RFC — just against their CEO.

3. Not only did RFC fail to pay taxes as and when they became due under Whyte’s watch, they deliberately failed to pay taxes for a 13 year period under the stewardship of Sir David Murray. They did this by deliberately entering into two unlawful tax aggressive tax avoidance schemes which even their advisers warned them could only be undertaken at considerable risk to the club as the schemes were never guaranteed to be successful.

4. Those schemes were entered into so that the club could buy players they would otherwise not have afforded.

5. In furtherance of those schemes, RFC chose to deliberately withhold the full details of their contractual arrangements with both players and managers from both the SFA and the SPL when submitting their applications to play under licence and in terms of the rules of both organisations.

6. In each of the years concerned, RFC had to apply for both domestic and European Licences to play football, and it is the granting of these licences which allows any football club to play in structured competition organised under the auspices of, or with the approval of, the SFA or UEFA.

7. Each and every licence application as submitted to the SFA in the knowledge that key financial and contractual information had been excluded in furtherance of tax avoidance purposes, and tax, which has since been declared to be legitimately due and payable from 1999 onwards, was unpaid and remains unpaid.

8. The above processes and procedures are no different, and indeed are considerably worse, breaches of article 5.1 under which Whyte was personally convicted and fined.

9. Further, as part of the HMRC investigations into the use of unlawful tax schemes, RFC deliberately lied to HMRC, SFA and SPL about the existence of side letters and other contractual documentation. This is particularly so in relation to the annual application for a playing licence.

On 20th May 2011, HMRC, in relation to one of the tax schemes, wrote to RFC and accused the club of “deliberate and fraudulent” behaviour in relation to the continued submission of false PAYE and NIC returns over a period of years.

10. It, therefore, follows that each and every application for a football licence made by RFC to the SFA from 2000 onwards (at least) was based on falsified financial, contractual and tax information and was designed to mislead the SFA with a view to persuading them to grant a licence on misrepresented grounds.

11. Not only is the above a breach of article 5.1 of the SFA handbook, but any licence obtained by misrepresentation has not been validly obtained as it has been obtained by way of false representation and deception.

12. It is a pre-requisite of entry into any league competition that the participating club holds a valid licence to play football.

13. In the event that a club did not or should not have held/hold a valid licence to play, that same club is not free to enter structured competition or register players to participate in such competition. It also follows that any declaration of a result of 0-3 in relation to any particular game as a result of a rule breach (such as fielding an ineligible player) is of no consequence because the club concerned was not eligible to participate at all.

14. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has already been invited by UEFA to hold that any application for a licence or any other compliance submission, which is devoid of all necessary financial and contractual information should be treated as null and void and as never having been received.

15. The same Court has also held that any title, championship, award, record, reward or other benefit which has been gained as a result of an improper or prohibited process should not be allowed to stand, the records of the award etc should be expunged and the sporting records corrected accordingly.

None of the above is dependent on a successful review of LNS but goes hand in hand with that process.

In the forthcoming review of Scottish Football recently announced by the SPFL, in conjunction with the SFA, all of the above should be under consideration.

LNS, under review, may determine that the players were in fact not eligible, but much more fundamental is the fact that there are clear facts and circumstances which should mean that the club itself was never eligible in terms of established legal jurisprudence.

As had been pointed out by Rod McKenzie, none of this has been considered by the SPFL as all matters concerning a licence are solely under the jurisdiction of the SFA.

Thus far, the SFA have taken no action against RFC or any of its officials as a result of the clubs involvement in, and cover up of, the Big Tax Case or the Wee Tax Case – both of which will be the subject of the forthcoming review demanded by Celtic and others.

541 thoughts on “On Grounds for Judicial Review


  1. Hirsutepursuit, Thanks for that reply.  I read the link provided by Cluster One and it seems that you have it pretty well spot on. 04

    One lives and learns.


  2. Cluster OneAugust 30, 2017 at 21:06 
    The instalments. may be the stumbling block for any club that has a player that is on the ibrox radar. If i’m not mistaken (and i’m sure i will be corrected if wrong) always happy to be corrected. Did i read somewhere that players have signed for the ibrox club, with the ibrox club paying in instalments only for the ibrox club to sell the player before the final instalments have to be made? Then the ibrox club pay off the balance with the money they have made from the sale of the player. Nothing wrong with that maybe, but risky. It looks like you have bought or splashed out say a million (Banner headlines and all that) Makes you look like you are a big club buying big money players.but in actual fact you have paid a deposit then paid off the balance with the sale of a player that has been hyped to be worth more than what you paid in the first place, trying to get a quick turnover and a little profit. Hope you can get where i’m coming from
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    There is of course the Boumsong alternative for raising cash.

    Sign relatively unknown player and get the SMSM to hype his performances out of all proportion to his ability. A smokescreen is created. In steps a sympathiser to pay way over the odds for no apparent reason. Bosh bosh, shoom shoom wallop, dosh


  3. BOGS DOLLOX
    AUGUST 31, 2017 at 13:44
    =============================

    Unfortunately that opens up all sorts of things like investigations into transfers, search of premises, other things coming to light. It can all get rather messy. 


  4. Bogs DolloxAugust 31, 2017 at 13:44

    One of the greatest unreported crimes of the century – certainly within football – and only beaten (as far as we know) by the, not unrelated, EBT & DOS scams! Oh, and the European licence fraud..! The list goes on, I’m sure14


  5. HOMUNCULUSAUGUST 31, 2017 at 08:56
    —————–
    Thanks for information


  6. ALLYJAMBOAUGUST 31, 2017 at 11:58  the refusal of our clubs to make it clear that TRFC are not ‘Rangers’ will cost them all (with the obvious exeption of Celtic) as young, impressionable players, continue to believe they have the oportunity to sign for that once mighty club. I am sure the likes of Jamie Walker would believe the media’s published view that this ‘Rangers’ ‘return to glory’ is just around the corner, and sees signing for them will take his career to heights unimaginable at Hearts.
    ——————
    Like the Lad Ryan jack.
    “Obviously coming to a club like Rangers, it’s always exciting and the European football is a massive appeal. That’s something I’m looking forward to, a European night at Ibrox.
    ————
    He got his wish “A” European night at Ibrox.


  7. ALLYJAMBOAUGUST 30, 2017 at 15:27  I am sickened by my club’s refusal to sell Jamie Walker to TRFC at a knock down price – by instalments. How dare any football club refuse to sell to the Govan club at whatever price.
    ————
    Hearts have been burned before by an ibrox club when waiting for the final instalment. Why would they accept a sale of a player now to an ibrox club if the payment is in instalments.They may be not as cash strapped now and don’t have to accept a deal from an ibrox club.
    ————-
    Hearts have agreed a cut-price deal with Rangers over the remainder of the transfer fee for Lee Wallace.
    The cash-strapped Tynecastle club were due to receive £500,000 this summer as the final payment on his £1.5m move to Ibrox in July 2011.
    But BBC Scotland has established that the clubs agreed last week Hearts would receive £400,000 immediately as full and final payment for the defender.
      
    The Scottish Football Association insisted Charles Green’s consortium must pay all “oldco” Rangers’ football debts when it transferred the club’s membership to his “newco”.


  8. The media really are excelling themselves today. Apparently Hearts must get real in terms of a player’s valuation in order for Rangers to sign said player!!!!

    Every day I don’t think they can get any worse and every day they surprise me, and it seems journalists called Chris are the worst of the lot.


  9. UPTHEHOOPSAUGUST 31, 2017 at 20:30
    —— That Hearts what are they like, not selling a player undervalue to help make a strong rangers. Club 1872 statement and boycot to follow.
    More news to follow….10 Ok i’m trying to get into this deadline day tickertape thing16


  10. Messi to Celtic!!!!

    ” I love the Tic.  This is the transfer of my life.  I can’t wait to beat the Bears at Parkhied.”


  11. OOps my source seems to have got it wrong.
    “Celtic last night completed a deadline deal for teenage PSG striker Odsonne Edouard, while also keeping their own first-team squad intact. ”

    Welcome to Scottish football OE.Here is a song for you and everyone else:
    (BP will love this)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQFFLBMEPI


  12. CLUSTER ONEAUGUST 31, 2017 at 21:23  
    UPTHEHOOPSAUGUST 31, 2017 at 20:30—— That Hearts what are they like, not selling a player undervalue to help make a strong rangers. Club 1872 statement and boycot to follow.More news to follow….  Ok i’m trying to get into this deadline day tickertape thing

    ====================================

    Whatever the rights and wrongs of Craig Levein becoming Hearts Manager (and it’s for Hearts board and fans to decide, no-one else), I’m sure he was never going to back down to Rangers appalling tactics on this one. Those tactics clearly aimed to use the media to put pressure on Hearts to sell below what they valued the player at. Some the reporting could have been written or spoken by Rangers fans standing at the end of a bar. Some of the more informed Twitterrati claimed whatever fee was eventually agreed was demanded in full and up front by Hearts. Bravo to them if that’s the case. Just think, if that had been the 80’s or 90’s Hearts would have what they want, Rangers would have the player, and the only people to suffer would be the taxpayer many years down the line as almost £1 billion of Murray Group debt was written off by the state owned Bank of Scotland. 

    As I said previously, life can be a real bitch when you have to play by the same rules as everyone else!


  13. I woke up this morning to the news that Gordon Strachan has told his players that tonight’s game is not a ‘must win’.
    I know that if I was a player, I doubt if my morale would be boosted by such straw-clinging remarks by the manager : I think I would think ” what a fatuous, unrealistic comment that is” ( oops, pardon my language, I meant  “what an ar.ehole of  manager”.
    If Scotland don’t win tonight the pressure on them to win v Malta will be absolutely humendous, any defeat leaving us once again the rejects of World football.
    All four games are  ‘must wins’, and the boys on the pitch have to be told that.It’s
    It’s not  time for holding-hands-comfort, but for true grit, biting the bullet, and fighting to the death.
    If we have to die, let it be at the feet of  a more powerfully skilled enemy.

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