You’ll never catch Celtic’s billionaire owner soliciting prostitutes, but a conviction like Jed York’s? That feels very ‘Rangers’…

Yesterday, in a municipal court in Columbiana County, Ohio, a man who owns a slice of the Ibrox club was convicted of two offences.

His name is Jed York.

He is 45 years old, he is chief executive and principal owner of the San Francisco 49ers, and through 49ers Enterprises he is a co-owner of both Leeds United and the Ibrox side.

The BBC carried the story this morning.

York was arrested for soliciting prostitution.

He pleaded no contest to two charges, and he was found guilty of disorderly conduct and of possessing criminal tools.

One day in jail on each offence, to be served concurrently, with credit for time already served.

A $150 fine for the disorderly conduct.

A $1,000 fine for the criminal tools – thought to be the phone he used to answer the advert.

And according to reports in the American media, that advert had been placed on a prostitution website by undercover officers from a Human Trafficking Task Force.

The arrangement, those reports say, was sexual activity with a woman in exchange for $140.

A hundred and three quid.

Read that back, and then remember we are talking about a man who sits on top of an NFL franchise worth billions.

An expungement request was filed on the very same day, and it was refused on the very same day

That is a request to have the records sealed away where you and I would never get to see them.

Denied.

So here we all are, reading them.

Now, I want to be fair about this, because fair is fair.

York is not involved in the day-to-day running of the Ibrox club.

He isn’t picking the team, he isn’t signing the players, and he certainly isn’t the man who decided staunch Del was the answer to anything.

Nobody is suggesting otherwise.

But he is an owner.

He is one of the names on the paperwork of a club that has spent the last fourteen years lecturing the rest of Scottish football about standards.

Back in May of last year, 49ers Enterprises and Andrew Cavenagh took a controlling 51% stake in that club after months of negotiation.

Cavenagh took the chairman’s seat, and the Americans took the wheel.

So when we talk about who owns Ibrox now, York is one of the men we are talking about.

And what did their due diligence look like, do you think?

Say what you like about Dermot Desmond, and God knows I have said plenty, but you’ll never see him in a courtroom in Ohio

I’ve written more words about the absent meddling golfer than I care to count.

I’ve hammered him over Robbie Keane.

I hammered him over every single summer where the balance sheet mattered more than the football team.

And I’ll be hammering him again before this window shuts, you can bet the house on that one.

But there is a difference between a billionaire who frustrates you and a billionaire who embarrasses you.

Desmond is boring.

Desmond is private to the point of being invisible.

The man barely gives an interview, and when he does want something said, he lets the Irish Independent say it for him.

You will never catch Dermot Desmond in the back of an American police car.

You’ll never see his name on a charge sheet.

Whatever else he is – and he is plenty – he is not that.

When was the last time our owner made the news for something that wasn’t football?

The 49ers have declared the legal matter resolved, which is corporate for please stop asking us about it

Here is what they had to say on it. It is one sentence long, and you can almost hear the lawyer standing behind it:

“As this is a legal matter, which has been resolved, we will not be providing any further comment at this time.”

Resolved.

That’s your lot.

Move along, nothing to see here, back to your seats.

Would that line have washed if it was Celtic?

The Ibrox club, meanwhile, said nothing at all.

Neither did Leeds.

Of course they didn’t.

What exactly would you say?

The NFL were the only ones who didn’t hide behind a full stop:

“We are aware of the matter which will be reviewed under the personal conduct policy.”

A personal conduct policy.

Imagine that.

Can you picture the Ibrox club reviewing anybody’s personal conduct?

This lands on a club that is already dealing with a manager under pressure and a season coming apart in August

And that’s the thing about that place, isn’t it?

It is never just the one thing.

It’s the results, and the recruitment, and the refereeing conspiracies, and the fan media meltdowns, and the staunch pubs pulling their shutters down for the last time.

Now it’s a co-owner with a conviction.

This from the people who told us they WERE the people.

The ones who wrapped themselves in the flag and the moral high ground and spent decades telling everybody else in this country that we didn’t measure up.

That lot.

You couldn’t make it up, and you don’t need to, because the court records in Ohio have done it for you.

So say what you want about our board, and about the man who runs it from a distance.

I certainly will, and I’ll be doing it soon enough.

But there is one headline you are never, ever going to read about the majority shareholder of Celtic Football Club.

And they can’t say the same, can they…

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