"Just What Game is Whyte Playing?"

[Joe O'Rourke]

[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]Almost 100 years ago; on the night of April 14th 1912, the Titanic; the ship everyone said was unsinkable went down with enormous loss of life. The inquiry that followed was dubbed a whitewash. The owners of the ship, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company; better known as the “White Star Line” were exonerated. I sincerely hope that the owners of Rangers are not cleared and exonerated for their wrongdoing.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]There has been much jubilation amongst the Celtic faithful about the news regarding the Evil Empire potentially going into administration; but I have some reservations about partying too early.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]Whyte has made a cold and calculated decision to lodge papers with the Court of Session intimating that he might place the club in administration; and that seems very likely to happen; but is it a deliberate strategy to avoid paying massive debts owed by the club? Then starting out fresh again debt free.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]Whyte could have made the same decision in October when he was 15 points clear in the League and still in both cup competitions; with a ten point deduction he would still have been top of the league by five points.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]Like any business decision; an owner would usually make sure of his ground before jumping onto it; so has Whyte used the time to canvass support from the other SPL Chairmen; and the people in authority to ensure a Rangers Newco would gain the necessary votes to re-enter the SPL without any rolling sanctions?[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]The Scottish media; including guys like Graham Spiers have consistently churned out the notion that Scottish Football couldn’t survive without a strong Rangers; that’s absolute tosh. I was contacted last night by a reporter asking if the Celtic fans agreed with the comments by Peter Lawwell that we don’t need Rangers; I said; “not only do we not need them; we don’t want them” but this guy writes freelance for the Scottish Sun; so he was told to politely go somewhere else for his comments.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]The reality of the situation is this; Rangers while operating using EBT’s gained a 40% advantage on Celtic and every other club in Scotland; effectively cheating; they bought and paid players with money they didn’t have; while clubs like Celtic struggled to keep pace with them financially; the old fiver/tenner routine.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]If that is eventually found to be the case; then all the trophies won during that period are tarnished; they were won while operating illegally; and therefore should be forfeited; and awarded to whichever team was runner-up in that particular competition.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]When you consider what was going on; it is even more remarkable what was achieved by Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan; and indeed Peter Lawwell and the Celtic Board. It is always sweeter when you win something through your own honest endeavours.[COLOR=#000000:eb51f290]Finally, what about the clamour from the media to get Walter Knighted for his services to Rangers; if the playing staff were being paid through EBT’s; it would not be unreasonable to assume the management team were being paid in the same manner; they were all in it together; they were all complicit; and maybe rather than the Police locking up young boys and girls for singing songs; they should be looking at the more serious crime of Tax Evasion.

[kenibhoy]

Hear hear. Yes I must say that (especially on Radio Clyde phone in) the party line is Celtic need Rangers, Scootish Football need Rangers and worst of all the consensus is if you don't agree with that then you're a liar, won't buy a season ticket, etc - coulndnt make this up.

[Kiwibhoy]

General question to which I don't know the answer. How dependent is the game in Scotland on money from television rights? Graham Speirs mentioned this last night on the BBC.

The old proverb, "be careful what you wish for", should be brought to the mind of the Celtic faithful. There is such a thing as the law of unintended consequences.