Green rails against disrepute charges

Sports writer

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Charles Green last night defended himself against a Scottish Football Association charge of bringing the game into disrepute.

Charles Green: 'What I'm doing is using free speech to tell the fans exactly what has happened'

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Richard Wilson

The Rangers chief executive was also cited for not acting in the best interests of the game for questioning the integrity of the Scottish Premier League's independent commission into Rangers' use of Employee Benefit Trusts.

However, Green claimed he was careful not to criticise the panel itself when he said earlier this month that Rangers would not co-operate with the commission. He again accused the SPL of having pre-determined the outcome of any findings, since the original five-way agreement between the club and the various governing bodies involved during summer negotiations over the club's SFA license involved Rangers agreeing to titles won during the EBT years of 2000 to 2010 being stripped in return for staying in the top flight."We made very clear in the statement that we made that we have never questioned the integrity of the panel. That is beyond reproach," Green said. "What I do have an issue with is the fact that the SPL has relentlessly been pursuing a fixed and predetermined agenda on EBTs from the moment they realised that they would not be able to get Rangers back into the SPL without a fan revolt. Until that moment, the SPL were looking to trade SPL status for an admission of guilt on EBTs and a sanction of stripped titles. We couldn't and didn't give them that."Earlier yesterday, the SFA issued the two notices of complaint to Green. He was given five days to respond to Vincent Lunny, the SFA's compliance officer. Green was cited for saying the club would not attend meetings led by the commission, chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith. "[Rangers] are not turning up at supposedly independent hearings where the SPL appoint the jury, set the outcome, and set the punishment before we have the trial," he said, although his remarks were carefully drawn up to explicitly avoid directly questioning the integrity of the commission itself."You need look no further than the initial draft of the five-way agreement," Green added last night. "There is reference in that to EBTs and the outcome was stripping titles but if I make a statement that the SPL is pursuing a predetermined outcome then I'm bringing the game into disrepute. From the moment that SPL status for Rangers was off the agenda we've been heading for stripped titles."What I'm doing is using free speech to tell the fans exactly what has happened and I am now on disrepute charges for matters of fact. The words that seem to have upset the SFA so much are that 'the SPL appoint the jury, set the outcome and set the punishment before the trial' - those things are true and I stand by them. If [the SPL] Chief Executive and lawyers were drafting agreements that contained definitions of titles that would be stripped in late June/early July long before a Commission was even thought about, how can anyone say they are not pursuing an agenda and a predetermined outcome?"I would ask the SFA and the SPL to release the first draft of the five-way agreement put together by their lawyers to reveal all of the sanctions. Stripping of titles was definitely within that document. What I said before is that this commission is not independent because the SPL have set it up. Saying that they are not independent is not saying that they are not impartial."The commission is due to meet again on November 13, and a provisional date of October 4 has been set for his hearing in front of the SFA's compliance officer. Green was charged last month with bringing the game into disrepute for claiming that bigotry was behind some the decisions made about Rangers' fate during the summer, and was censured by the SFA.

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Green rails against disrepute charges

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