Time for Rangers to challenge the Illegal SFA/SPL Agreement

Hearts & Dunfermline Punishment vs Rangers Punishment

As Rangers CEO Craig Mather noted on the 1st August 2013, the Transfer Embargo handed by the SFA to Hearts for going into Administration is 50% of the one dished out to Rangers. While Hearts also missed out on a comparable £50,000 fine. No fine was also imposed in Dunfermline’s Administration whose Transfer Embargo only lasts till end of 2013.

Thus demonstrating clearly that the agreement that the SFA/SPL imposed on Rangers was inequitable as well as illegal. Now is the best time, should Rangers wish to take the SFA and SPFL to court to get the Transfer Embargo declared void and get the return of their withheld SPL winnings, the fine and any damages for the oppression of Rangers.

Agreement Rangers were forced to sign

For the act of going into administration and liquidation, Rangers were docked points by the SPL, a Transfer Embargo was imposed by the SFA and then were ejected from the SPL under a member vote. Rangers, with the RFFF funds donated by fans, then successfully challenged the Transfer Embargo in the Court of Sessions in Edinburgh when Lord Glennie ‘sent them [SFA] back to think again’. Rangers were then welcomed by the SFL into Division 3 but in order to participate Rangers needed the transfer of the SFA membership.

To obtain the SFA membership transfer, Rangers were forced to accept an agreement which included:

1. The Transfer Embargo previously declared illegal in The Court of Sessions by Lord Glennie

2. A £50,000 fine

3. Forfeiture of Rangers SPL winnings of £2.55m in prize money from the league for the 2011/12 season

From the leaked prior 5 Way Agreement, which included forfeiture of titles, Rangers were told they were lucky getting the one above. However, that’s normal in negotiations that worst punishment is postulated in order to look like Rangers were being given concessions in the final agreement. And all the SFA/SPL did was move it to a separate SPL Investigation anyway which failed.

This agreement was made on July 27th 2012 just one day before the first game of the season against Brechin on July 28th. As well as being late and preventing any pre-season games this agreement/contract was illegal under a major breach of contract law.

Contract Law

Under contract law it states clearly that a contract cannot be made if either party is under duress, ie. with a gun to their head. Therefore the agreement/contract made between SFA/SPL and Rangers is illegal and should be rescinded and restitution made of any fines/funds.

Where duress is established the common law permits the victim, in this case Rangers, to escape their contractual obligations by rendering the contract voidable. To be established one of the contracting parties must exert ‘illegitimate‘ pressure on the weaker party which induces the weaker party to enter into the contract. That describes exactly the situation the SFA/SPL cabal forced onto Rangers.

Timing

It is therefore in Rangers power as to the timing when this contract/agreement is challenged and if it goes to court then there will be more transparency. The minutes of SFA/SPL board meetings, emails/phone calls and the initiators/drivers and the parties behind the agreement will be exposed that was the basis of the illegal contract. This will hang over the offending parties until settlement and there is no way they can make the crime disappear. [Watch for documents being lost/erased or memories being effected]. For any innocent parties, for example the SFL, they would be advised to retain drafts/minute copies else their history will be wrapped up with the usual suspects. There is always a risk of failure in any court case but pressure would be on the SFA/SPFL to settle out of court. Even the threat by Rangers may be enough.

All of this could be achieved through the Court of Arbitration of Sport [CAS] in Switzerland totally compliant with UEFA rules and not through the Scottish courts.

Both Stewart Regan and Neil Doncaster and their Boards at the SFA & SPFL will also be wrapped up in the investigation and required to give evidence. Any legal parties, Harper McLeod, involved in drafting the agreement would also be called to give evidence under oath. I am not sure any of the above parties would want their dirty washing aired or to be seen as imposing an illegal contract on Rangers.

Now that the oppression and bias against Rangers is so obvious, compared to Hearts & Dunfermline punishments, it would seem that now is the appropriate time for the Rangers board to get the agreement rescinded and the return of Rangers SPL winnings, the fine and any damages as equitable restitution.

Obviously any returned fine and SPL winnings would go to BDO but the damages and satisfaction of the SFA/SPFL losing money and credibility would be Rangers.

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