In the wake of another frankly tedious retread of the ‘Big Tax Case’ debate (editorial opinion – suck it up), Scottish football is once again focused on the great will they/won’t they story of the last few years: will Rangers be stripped of the titles they won thanks to EBT?
For many it seems like an open and shut (big) case but this divisive issue has seen furious debate and foaming at the mouth argument right across social media so we asked our writers what they think of the Rangers EBTitles…
Eddie Cassidy – @EdCassidyComedy
When the court of appeal declared midweek that tax evasion had occurred in the EBT case at Rangers, their website quickly posted that this decision was nothing to do with them.
I completely agree, making the club currently playing at Ibrox pay the tax would be like me having to pay the guy who rented my flat before me’s outstanding utility bills. Gambling on EBTs is what killed Rangers, now the question is should the corpse be stripped of its ill gotten gains?
The Nimmo Smith enquiry found that there was no sporting advantage as the scheme was legal. That is clearly no longer the case. Some would say what good would it do, but at the same time, to do nothing is saying to all the clubs just now that dodgy financial tactics which help you buy players you can’t afford, is 100% acceptable. I think any trophies won in the period in question should be removed from Rangers but not awarded to anyone else. The game was a bogey, let’s not encourage something similar to happen again
Rangers fans keep saying we need to forget about it and move on. I wonder, if their titles were to be removed, if that sentiment will remain the same.
Ross ‘Teddy’ Craig – @RossTeddyCraig
I don’t have a clear answer for you, all I have is a feeling of dread at everything being dragged up again. I think what we all have to get back to is what happens on the pitch and those feelings of elation, despair and everything in between that it brings.
Taking titles away from Rangers is one thing, but then logically it also means awarding those titles and medals to others – mainly Celtic and their players of the time.
It’s a given that no Rangers player would feel like they should be giving up their medals.But I don’t actually think there are many Celtic players who would welcome being handed a belated winners’ medal either. Martin O’Neill has already said that for him stripping titles wouldn’t actually change anything.
Imagine a lost titles party at Celtic Park. Some young kids giving it laldy in the stands. A group of former Celtic players who lost those titles out on the pitch wanting the ground to open up and swallow them. Celtic fans who were actually there through those years just sitting in the pub saying, “This is all very well, but can we pay attention to the fact that in the present day we’re getting horsed by Molde and Efe Ambrose seems to be the first name on the teamsheet every week? Can we do something about that?”
Flick to social media and the Rangers support would be in meltdown.
More years of bitterness. More years of football fans turning into corporate lawyers. More years that should be spent talking about how to improve the game being spent talking about history.
Which sums up many of the problems faced by Rangers and Celtic over the years.
I watched those Rangers teams, I idolised some of those players (Shota, Canniggia…). If your memories can be ripped away, then what actually is football? If you can’t even keep your memories – what’s real? What’s worth feeling? What’s the point in any of it?
I get why some Celtic fans want the debate and want the titles.
I get it. But I just can’t see anything positive coming from it.
And people will say, “JUSTICE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE POSITIVE!”
And I’ll think – ‘This is why Scottish football is just chronic self-harm for all involved.’
Euan L. Davidson – @tweeteuan
I’m not hardcore about it, and I think it honestly makes very little difference, but I think if the SFA want to earn a crumb of respect within UEFA then it must do as Serie A did when Juventus cheated.
If it’s settled swiftly and with little fanfare everyone can move on.
Grant Hill – @GrantH1979
I know all the focus has been on titles but I’m looking at the possibility of all the EBT Years trophies being stripped because it affects my team.
Dundee stand on the brink of winning the 2003 Scottish Cup. My whole life I’ve fantasised about nervously begging the referee to blow his whistle, not sitting at work, half-heartedly checking the internet to see if a faceless bureaucrat has emerged from a locked room yet. The anti-climax would comparable to going to bed with Beyonce and discovering that, not only does she have a knob, it’s considerably bigger than your own.
Part of what got me hooked was listening to my family’s stories about Dundee’s glory days. Telling my son, “well, it was a fucking horrible day that I’d done my best to forget then 12 years later some cunt decided Rangers had cheated” is unlikely to have the same effect.
Football is, or at least should be, about what happens on the park and sharing the rare magical moment with those who’ve suffered with you over the years. The prospect of results being decided in the courtroom and an asterisk appearing next to your greatest achievements is utterly depressing.
Andy Todd – @AndyRTodd
If you read Jon Ronson’s ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’ you’ll read the story of a man convicted of running over a girl and killing her. It’s a sad story but relevant here because, as part of his punishment, he was made to write a cheque for $100 dollars and send it to her parents every year. After 10 years he cracked. He couldn’t take it anymore. Every time he wrote the cheque he was reminded about what he did and the lives he’d affected. He could never move on. Never forget.
That’s why I don’t want the SPFL to strip Rangers’ titles. Instead I want them to have every title emblazoned across their strips. I want every trophy to be written in large letters on their back. I want them to unfurl the flags for all the tainted titles on the opening day of every season – and to receive the trophies again at the end. They should never be allowed to forget.
Already we have seen stories about how this is all part of the past. That it doesn’t affect the current Ibrox club. History should not be rewritten. Rangers must always be reminded about what they did and how they did it. And, perhaps, they might then show the dignity and honour they always claim when, after 10 years and they finally crack, they voluntarily hand back the titles to show that they are finally, truly sorry.
Daniel Downie – @DanielLindsay01
I feel woefully underprepared to comment on the Rangers situation, the last 3 weeks for me has actually been a bit like being back in 2001. After having my phone stolen I was left with a phone that could only make and receive calls and, at the same time, I moved into a new flat with no wifi. All I needed was dial up, a desktop, windows 98 and Shevcheko’s signature for Ross County and I’d back in the early naughties.
That’s right, hold your phone lines, in ’01/02 I managed, through some exceptional man-management and the use of every Champ Man cheat in the book, to sign Andre Shevchenko for County. Now no one from Champ Man has ever written to me asking for the titles we won together back, but despite the success I’m not adding them to my Champ Man portfolio.
Like one of Armstrong’s worker-bee domestiques when all is said and done, despite the hard work and the professionalism you may or may not have put to the cause, ultimately the game’s a bogey. Rangers titles are tainted,pure and simple, whether they have to give them back is irrelevant.
I’m not counting my Naughties titles and I don’t think Rangers should either.
Iain Todd – @IainMacIverTodd
Danny Jones was a member of the gang who committed the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary.
During April 2015 the gang robbed an underground safe deposit facility of £200 million. When he was caught he admitted his role in the crime and offered to return all the money he had taken. Despite making amends he will still be sentenced for his crime.
What relevance is this to the Rangers case? In my opinion a crime is a crime even if, like Danny, you’re sorry about it afterwards. A crime is a crime even if you try to make amends.
Using EBT’s is illegal. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle and Celtic have all used at least one. Is it less of a crime because they paid theirs back? Did players sign for them who may not have come if they didn’t get one?
It’s not a crime to NOT pay back an EBT. It’s a crime to use one in the first place. If you punish Rangers you have to punish everyone else.
Less seriously – I’d punish Rangers by making them replace the disputed trophies with Simba from the Lion King. Then future generations looking back at the pictures will never take the achievements seriously…
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