Scottish FA fail to respond to newspaper’s query on Ibrox UEFA licence drama that impacted Celtic

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The Scottish FA have failed to respond to The Herald’s query about the current status of their investigation into Rangers’ application for a licence to play in Europe during the 2011/12 season, that resulted in them taking part in the Champions League at Celtic’s expense.

As reported by the paper, the Hampden organisation issued charges against Rangers following statements made in court during the trial of former Ibrox chief Craig Whyte.

UEFA requires all clubs taking part in the Champions League and Europa League to declare overdue tax payable.

The Herald reports that in Rangers’ submission for a licence in 2011 that declared they had no overdue payables and that they were “in discussions” over a disputed tax bill.

However, Rangers directors testified during the Whyte court case that the Ibrox club knew a tax bill was overdue in November 2010.

The Ibrox outfit were free to take part in qualifiers for the Champions League in 2011/12, with league runners-up Celtic missing out on the potential riches on offer in the main European competition.

It’s become a hot button topic with some Celtic supporters ever since, with fans recently exasperated at the club’s stance on the issue during our AGMs.

Following the comments made in the Whyte trial, the Scottish FA issued two charges, while Rangers claimed the matter had to be heard by Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland rather than in Scotland.

As quoted by The Herald, SFA chief exec Ian Maxwell said in June 2018: “I would expect that to come back to the board in the not too distant future.

“It [going to CAS] is still under consideration. We’ll come back on that in due course. I wouldn’t want to put a timescale on it . . . but I don’t think we would let it go forever.”

However, the paper followed up on the issue this week, asking Hampden chiefs about the next steps in the process on Tuesday, which they have still not responded to.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see whether there is any further reporting on it all throughout this week, but given the apparent lack of desire to publicly comment on the situation, don’t expect too much from the decision-makers in Scottish football.