SPFL chief Neil Doncaster accused of misleading MSPs over Scottish football minimum wage scandal

Snakehips

Well-Known Member
Just a wee reminder that he has form in duplicity.

From 2017:-

SPFL chief Neil Doncaster accused of misleading MSPs over Scottish football minimum wage scandal
Doncaster has come under fire for contradictions in a statement made to politicians and a briefing given by the SPFL to the Daily Record last month.
By
Gary Ralston
  • 07:00, 13 JAN 2017
Neil Doncaster is facing a probe from MSPs over claims he misled parliament on the failure of Scottish clubs to pay national minimum wage.

Doncaster is under pressure at Holyrood over contradictions in a statement made to politicians and a briefing given by the SPFL to the Daily Record last month.


In a move that is certain to embarrass Hampden powerbrokers still further, MSPs and campaigners have also been angered by a claim from Doncaster he first knew about players signing £1-a-week contracts only when he read about it in Record Sport .

Doncaster was called to give evidence to a cross-party group of MSPs on December 22, the latest chapter in a youth football petition first raised by grassroots campaigners Willie Smith and Scott Robertson seven years ago.

We revealed that a string of clubs – including Queen’s Park, St Mirren, Falkirk, Stirling Albion and Dundee – have flouted the law.

Doncaster told MSPs: “I offer the absolute assurance that, where we have an allegation that any of our 42 SPFL clubs is not paying the national minimum wage on a professional contract we will investigate because, on the face of it, that is not compliant with our rules. We will investigate and take appropriate action.”

His statement was entirely at odds with a briefing given to Record Sport the previous week when we revealed the SPFL were so concerned they had instructed lawyers Harper Macleod to draw up a document advising clubs how to stay within the law.

We asked the SPFL what action, if any, they would take if any club is found to be in breach of national minimum wage legislation.

They told us: “That would not be a breach of SPFL rules. That would be a breach of the law of the land, for the appropriate government authorities to deal with.”

SNP MSP James Dornan, who quizzed Doncaster last month, said: “We take very seriously the possibility the SPFL have misled parliament and will be looking for answers.”

Campaigner Smith added: “It beggars belief the SPFL, through Neil Doncaster, are telling the committee one thing and the Daily Record another.

“It strikes at the very heart of the transparency and integrity of the game and we hope the committee seeks a full explanation for these glaring contradictions. We must have trust in the people leading our national game but far too often that trust is lacking.”

A spokesman for the SPFL said: “To our knowledge, no UK sports body has a specific rule covering the national minimum wage and the SPFL is no different.

“Therefore, SPFL clubs cannot breach a rule which doesn’t exist.

“However, we have rules covering late or non-payment of wages due to players and failure to pay the national minimum wage could be examined under those rules.”

He added the issue was to be discussed in detail at the next SPFL board meeting on January 26.

We told last month how Queen’s Park rode roughshod this season over their amateur status by signing players on professional contracts with the peppercorn deals.

That was more than two years after we first reported the existence of the illegal £1-a-week deals, flagged up when St Mirren kid Kieran Doran reported his club to HMRC and won his case.

Doncaster also told politicians he “did not have knowledge of any clubs paying £1 a week” until he read Record Sport.

Dornan said: “It’s disappointing the people responsible have not realised, or have forgotten, they’ve dealt with such a case before.”

We asked the SPFL to outline what action could be taken against clubs who breach national minimum wage legislation and if they had investigated St Mirren for the Doran case and if any action was taken.

We also asked for an update on the investigation the SPFL told the committee it had launched following our exposure of Stirling Albion, Queen’s Park and Dundee last month.

The SPFL declined to comment.
 
SPFL chief Neil Doncaster accused of lying to MSPs about £1-a-week contracts for young players
The chief executive said he had no knowledge of the contracts but Scotland's children's commissioner Tam Baillie torpedoed the comments yesterday.
By
Gary Ralston
  • 06:00, 10 FEB 2017
Football chief Neil Doncaster was last night accused of lying over £1-a-week young players.

MSPs demanded Doncaster be hauled back before them to answer allegations about his knowledge of the exploitation of promising youngsters by a number of clubs .

In December, the SPFL chief executive denied knowing anything about the £1-a-week contracts revealed in a series of reports in the Daily Record.

But his plea of ignorance was torpedoed by Scotland’s children’s commissioner Tam Baillie yesterday.

At a sitting of Holyrood’s public petitions committee, Baillie produced documents to prove that Doncaster was sent copies of a contract belonging to then St Mirren footballer Kieran Doran on January 23, 2015.


The Doran contract refers to a “weekly basic wage - £1 from 1st December 2012 to 30th June 2013”.


Baillie said money and power were more important to clubs than the interests of children and accused the SPFL of being weak in dealing with the issue.

Under questioning by SNP MSP Rona Mackay at a previous sitting of the committee, Doncaster said he “did not have knowledge of any clubs paying £1 per week”.

But furious Baillie turned up yesterday holding copies of the damning letters.

He told the committee: “I have letters dating back to December 2014 from the petitioners to the SPFL highlighting the reports in that paper (The Daily Record’s stories on Doran’s dispute with 
St Mirren).

“They wrote again on January 23, 2015, with a copy of the player’s contract, sent by recorded delivery, and there was no response.”

Baillie later told the Record the evidence was available to the committee if requested.

He said: “I had the letters in my possession and was prepared to hand them over as evidence. They remain available to the committee at any point.”

After hearing Baillie’s evidence, Tory MSP Brian Whittle demanded Doncaster and SFA chief operating officer Andrew McKinlay return to clear up the issue.

Whittle said: “It has come to light, obviously, that some of 
the evidence has been less than forthright and, perhaps, less than truthful.”

The Record has repeatedly exposed breaches of national minimum wage legislation, stretching back to October 
2014 when we told how 
St Mirren had offered 16-year-old Doran a £1-a-week contract.

In December, we revealed 
Stirling Albion, Queens Park and Dundee all used £1-a-week contracts.

A week later, Doncaster told MSPs the first he knew about the deals was when he read them in our pages.

Despite the documents produced by Baillie yesterday, the SPFL claimed Doncaster had not lied. They said his comments to the committee were solely about the Record report on the three clubs alleged to pay below the the minimum wage, not the wider issue of illegal contracts.

An SPFL spokesman said: “In response to the question from Rona Mackay – ‘Are you saying that you did not know that until you read it in the press?’– that is indeed the case.

READ MORE
“Neil was not aware of 
the recently reported cases (involving Dundee, Stirling Albion and Queen’s Park) before they were reported in the press, which is consistent with the response to committee on December 22.

“Further, 
no player reported to be involved in these cases brought their case to the SPFL directly.

“With player registrations administered by the Scottish FA, it is not routine for the SPFL to have sight of player contracts.

“For avoidance of doubt, no player has ever approached the SPFL asking for the assistance of the SPFL in securing payment of sums claimed to be due to him by his employer in terms of national minimum wage legislation.

“However, the SPFL board recently wrote to all member clubs to remind them of national minimum wage obligations.”

Committee convener Johann Lamont said: “The children and young people’s commissioner told us the SFA and SPFL are no longer fit to regulate themselves in 
relation to youth football contracts.

“We also heard about ‘a conspiracy of silence’ in football, where young people and their families do not speak out, for fear it may damage budding careers.

“Many issues came through in the commissioner’s evidence, and the committee will wish to hear from the SFA and SPFL again.”

The row came amid the most recent discussion of a long-running petition aimed at overhauling Scottish youth football, first submitted seven years ago by grassroots campaigners Willie Smith and Scott Robertson.


Baillie has called on the SPFL and SFA to open up their books.

He said: “The factor that 
contaminates is money and when it comes into the equation, the best interests of children tend to be less of a focus.

“Neil Doncaster has said time and time again the balance is just about right between the best 
interests of the child and the 
incentives for the clubs to invest in youth development, but that’s not the case at all.

“I no longer have any confidence whatsoever in the self-regulation of Scottish football to help make the changes required.

“We need an independent review of governance.”
 
The best interests of children has never been safeguarded by these organisations just look at the cover up that they have known about for decades.
More and more people are calling for an investigation into these people and their organisations, perhaps they should all be shipped out to UEFA it seems to be a magnet for them.
 
He’s becoming increasingly unuseful to the fat controller and will be disposed of in due course. Uglier the better for us, don’t think he’s got the spine to take anyone with him.
 
How he is still in a job is incredible and how and why he is backed by so many member clubs/board members is just further staggering.

Doncaster has ruined our game beyond repair and we all know why and for who's benefit.
When this imposter is outed I can see a few getting jail time....the drum beats are getting louder and coming from different angles regarding having a good nosey through the governance across the board.

I honestly think if the SFA and spfl are audited/inquiry were talking world news corruption
 
The problem with all these corrupt arseholes ( in football and elsewhere) is the news cycle is so fast everyone is onto the next story with no follow through on anything.
 
He's a fucking goon.

Sat in place to benefit one club.

Same as "Cler". Football's fucked.
 
He’ll surely be gone soon. The issue is who he’s replaced with. If it’s another puppet we’re back to square one
 
Oh, and for any Timmy lurkers who have been defending Doncaster recently, make up your mind.

As someone says in that link. "I have heard the term a useful idiot mentioned when I enquire why Celtic continues to support this guy remaining in his post"
 
He’ll surely be gone soon. The issue is who he’s replaced with. If it’s another puppet we’re back to square one
Need to hope he spits the dummy out if he is forced to go and starts opening his mouth about who else is involved
 
Interesting timing of this coming out. Is PL beginning to set him up at the fall guy in an attempt to try and stop a full investigation from happening ?

My thoughts too. Actually I think he would welcome this excuse to ‘resign’ and thus swerve the real big scandles. And I’m so skeptical now I wouldn’t be surprised if the MSP is deliberately offering him an easy escape route.
 
This guy does as he sees fit there is an ongoing court case at the moment regarding child abuse ,now the case has accusations about a club he is well paid to represent as all other 41 clubs yet there is no statement not even a shred of interest from this puppet the silence is deafening .
 
He goes pig eyes will just replace him with someone else they all need cleared out and an impartial board put in place , Sadly this will never happen .
 
For those thinking that the timing of this coming to light is interesting, or that this is some sort of indication that the fat Japanese is lining ND up as the fall guy, I don't think it is - not based on the fact it's from 2017.

The OP is simply reminding us of the story -

"Just a wee reminder that he has form in duplicity."

"From 2017:-"
 
He'll not turn tout on his masters at the Piggery. His silence has been bought by promotion to UEFA, where corruption is also seen as a virtue (a bit like the Vatican).
 
It is amazing that he is still in a job. He has messed up our game and sold it short too many times. The sooner he goes, the better.
 
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