Financial Versus Criminal: Just Why Have Celtic Got Off So Lightly Compared With Rangers? | OneFootball

There is a distinct curiosity in the world of Scottish football at present. This article will certainly not be sitting on the fence per se, and will be covering a rather controversial couple of topics. These topics generally get little coverage in the press in terms of these days, but one certainly more so than the other. And it is curious to look at the differences.

Back in 2012, as all Rangers and indeed Scottish football fans know, Rangers experienced administration. Fundamentally, the cause of this was former owner Craig Whyte withholding VAT, PAYE, and National Insurance payments from the players in terms of their contributions towards the government. By withholding these, he alerted HMRC, who came in regarding the big tax case over EBTs once and for all. There are details and nuances to this that we won’t cover, and we know fine well that the Sevconians will most certainly come through here and scream at us.

But the big thing that we wish to cover here is the clear and palpable difference in terms of coverage and response to this compared with what Celtic have been through. Now, we do not want to get into the Celtic stuff at all. It is not only not our business, not only not our interest, but it is also extremely distasteful to use it as a point scoring tag. That said, the fact that Celtic are simply paying out, whereas Rangers were forced to go through what we went through, really does seem like an uneven level of repercussions.

Regardless of what level of intensity both quote-unquote crimes are argued as being under, there is a distinct difference in how one club was treated compared with the other. Rangers were strung from the highest court in the land, we were pilloried completely left, right, up and down, and Scottish football made it clear that we had committed the worst crime in the history of football. The hatred for Rangers was absolutely through the roof. All Rangers had done, of course, was financially hit a bit of a brick wall.

Every single thing that could be used against Rangers, by both the authorities and by Scottish football at large within the media and fan base in general, was at the top level. The intensity was insane. Meanwhile, the Celtic side appears to have got off more or less scot-free. Not an ounce of investigation by the authorities in terms of Scottish football, not an ounce of hatred for what they allegedly did by the Scottish game in general, the fan base, etc.

The two crimes aren’t great. One involves finance. Another involves, well, children. We will not go any further with that. And yet only one of those were hit by repercussions from the game, from the fans, from the law, and from the authorities in football in general. Why is that?

This is not us trying to use anyone’s suffering as a football, as a political football in any way, shape or form. We are above that. But we do fail to grasp why we were so harshly dealt with back in 2012. And Celtic, with what many might argue is a worse set of circumstances and crime, have not been dealt at all. Funny that, isn’t it?

Of course, what Celtic are accused of doing has got to the courts, and there have been payouts to avoid further court action. But Scottish football has completely and utterly left them alone, has done nothing about what they did. We do find this to be an uneven level of recriminations. Wonder why Rangers were so harshly dealt with back in the day.