NEIL DONCASTER appeared on the increasingly discredited BBC Sportsound this afternoon and schooled Tom English after the Ibrox apologist’s sensational and completely inaccurate article this morning, in which he confused advance payments with loans to fit the agenda he’s been pushing over the past few weeks, at the expense of his credibility.
Neil Doncaster riding Tom English like a Blackpool donkey. pic.twitter.com/lwH6p18aVb
— Chairman Lmao ☭ (@BenTheTim) May 2, 2020
English is supposed to be impartial. He’s supposed to be a journalist and he’s supposed to get the basics rights.
After the league’s Chief Executive’s appearance on the programme – where he was interviewed by Richard Gordon, the SPFL released a detailed statement – hammering home the failings in the BBC report this morning that was written by English and flagged up last night prior to it’s publication on the Rangers forum Follow Follow.
@mstewart_23 Any comment? https://t.co/92SGELxdK3
— Timposter (@Tim_Poster) May 2, 2020
And then I said , do you know the difference between a loan and an advancement ? pic.twitter.com/kyAhREQKPe
— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) May 2, 2020
Here is the SPFL Statement that has been released this afternoon and is now on their official website.
SPFL STATEMENT
Regrettably, we have to correct Ann Budge’s statement in the article by Tom English on the BBC Scotland website today, where she said: “I’ve sat on the SPFL board and I’ve approved a loan for another club.”
Quite simply, she did not, (and neither did anyone else during Ann’s tenure on the SPFL board).
Her subsequent statement in the same BBC interview is far more accurate: “I genuinely can’t remember the club involved, but a club required an advance. We discussed it, it wasn’t contentious , everybody agreed and we moved on.”
As Ann herself correctly states in the latter comment – it was an advance payment of fees due to clubs – and not a loan, which is a crucial distinction.
The confusion is unfortunate, but the facts are clear:
In 2016, the SPFL agreed to pay invoices from two clubs for fees they were due to receive in the 2016/17 season. This was to help them with cash flow problems caused when Rangers’ promotion into the Premiership meant some clubs would have only two Old Firm home games pre-split rather than three, which they had had prior to 2012.
To overcome this challenge, the Board, of which Ann was a director, approved £150k advance fee payments to two clubs.
• These advance payments were subject to VAT – Loans are not.
• These advance payments were invoiced – Loans are not.
• Loans, by their very definition, have to be repaid – these advance fee payments did not.
Moving forward, we are still being asked if we could have made loans to clubs of £9m in April, but there is no practical nor realistic way to have done so.
Before directors make loans, they must carry out due diligence into whether clubs have the ability to repay the loans.
That is a major exercise and to do so 42 times in a short timescale would have been impossible. And, being frank, given the financial crisis that the game is in, it is impossible to see how the Board could have satisfied itself that all 42 clubs would have been a good credit risk. Clubs defaulting on loan repayments would have left every other club liable for the loss – which is exactly what happened when Gretna were given a loan over a decade ago.
As to the question: could we not have made millions of pounds of further advance fee payments in April, to help clubs weather the financial storm caused by Covid-19? The answer is no. By the end of March, the SPFL had already made fee payments up to roughly the entitlement of the bottom club in the Ladbrokes Championship, Ladbrokes League 1 and Ladbrokes League 2.
With fee payments being entirely dependent on final League placings, the Board’s resolution remains the only realistic way to have made substantial and quick payments to lower league clubs, as well as giving them the certainty and clarity they required to make the tough decisions necessary to get them through to the point that matches can be played once again.
Statement Ends.
We explained the difference to Tom this morning but his preference is clearly for fans media from the other side of Glasgow. And in case you have missed it Rangers Tax Case ((RTC) has popped up again on social media to have his say.
A busted flush, Tom English and the subtle difference between Loans and Advances…https://t.co/QDa4ywHYxm
— The Celtic Star Editor – INVINCIBLE (@CelticStarMag) May 2, 2020
“Really Scottish football, we are debating the meaning of “loan” again? This all feels very deja vu,” the account stated. “The real points of this argument has been buried in the “hubris” of many journalists.
“It is about whether the SPFL could make the specific loans that Rangers* wanted in their abortive attempt at a resolution.
“Until the Supreme Court delivered a slapdown for the ages in 2017, Rangers’ representatives had spent 20 years pretending taxable wages were loans.
Now the water carriers for their successor are trying to argue an advance and a loan are the same thing?”
English kept digging the hole however. He tweeted this: “A chief executive of an SPFL club texted me during the show to say that Neil was informed of bullying on the day of the resolution vote. I would imagine that Neil will completely reject that.”
Scot Gardiner up at Inverness Caley Thistle perhaps?
A chief executive of an SPFL club texted me during the show to say that Neil was informed of bullying on the day of the resolution vote. I would imagine that Neil will completely reject that. https://t.co/ZQi6fUoR8N
— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) May 2, 2020
Matt Corr’s debut Celtic book is titled INVINCIBLE and is published by The Celtic Star on 15 May 2020. You can order a signed copy at thecelticstarbookstore.co.uk
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