Clubs fought ... and the law won

Focus on football — not title-stripping

WHEN a lawyer has emerged as one of Scottish football’s most recognisable figures something, somewhere, has gone badly wrong.

No one, who has ever spent 10 minutes in conversation with Rod McKenzie, can doubt our learned friend’s knowledge of the nooks and crannies of the national game.

The SPFL have leaned heavily on the senior partner of Harper Macleod to guide the Scottish footballing public through the intricacies of EBTs and the Rangers fall-out in recent days.

As belt and braces, they also engaged the services of Gerry Moynihan QC to test and probe every conceivable challenge to their stance on the Rangers tax case outcome and title-stripping.

It’s unlikely any of this comes cheap.

There’s no public record of how much Messrs Moynihan or McKenzie cost Scottish football.

But only one body of men have emerged as undisputed winners from years of bitter squabbling in the Scottish game. The lawyers.

Moynihan earned his corn with pages of legal advice showing Rangers oldco had already been fined £250,000 for the nondisclosure of side letters by the Lord Nimmo Smith independent commission. And that the rules needed to act on non-payment of tax back in 2012 simply didn’t exist.

They do now, of course. As soon as the powers that be at Hampden realised their rules were less than watertight on a deeply divisive issue they had no choice but to call for a redraft.

Performed — naturally — by a very expensive lawyer.

It’s likely the job fell to the formidable legal mind of Rod McKenzie. Yet the suspicion clubs like St Johnstone would rather spend future funds on a goalscorer liable to improve their chances of staying in the Europa League until August 1 is hard to shift.

Not least when many supporters refuse pointblank to accept what the finest legal minds in the country have to say anyway.

As Michael Gove observed during the last election campaign, ‘people in this country have had enough of experts.’ If Queens Counsels and senior partners of top law firms can’t or won’t tell football fans what they feel or want to be true, they have a simple solution. They’ll find someone else who will.

And there are no shortage of fee-chasing legal silks willing to lend their services as a hired gun.

That groups trying to crowd-fund a Judicial Review of Lord Nimmo Smith’s independent SFA commission have received some encouragement from Counsel, then, should surprise no one.

The hope of fans’ groups is it won’t come to this. That Celtic will go to war on their behalf.

But Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has been placed in an unenviable position.

He either heeds the calls of his own paying customers, challenges the opinions of Moynihan and McKenzie and goes after Rangers’ titles, thereby triggering a new and bloody civil war in Scottish football.

Or he risks incurring the wrath of the same fans by letting the whole business die a slow lingering death.

Make no mistake, this is a toxic issue. In a city where bombs and bullets have been sent through the post over a game of football, it’s a decision no football director can take lightly.

If Celtic go after Rangers’ titles only one group can be certain of emerging quids in and victorious at the end of it all. The briefs.

The days of Ayatollah Ernie Walker and Jim Farry acting as the SFA’s judge and jury have mercifully gone. Calls for a review of how the SFA and SPFL handle these things are fair and right. But the pursuit of good governance comes at a price. And most of it is paid straight into the pocket of expensive law firms.

All of which raises a tricky question for the Celtic board.

Rival clubs have shown little or no appetite to go after Rangers’ titles.

Aberdeen’s Stewart Milne has urged everyone to move on. Kilmarnock’s Billy Bowie feels the same.

And Rangers and their supporters have already vowed to fight any attempt to void the titles tooth and nail.

Fighting a legal battle might appease supporters. But this week’s events show how difficult — and costly — it could be to win.

Right now Celtic’s Champions League qualification is hanging by a thread. Aberdeen travel to Cyprus seeking to stay in Europe beyond the first week of August. Scotland’s national team haven’t reached a major finals since 1998. The choice then is stark. Clubs can either pick up the phone and call Saul.

Or focus their time and money on the forgotten art of winning tactical battles on the field of play.