The ghost of Rangers past reappeared on Planet Fitba yesterday.
Those pesky EBT things.
Last night on Radio Scotland Mikey Stewart intentionally lobbed a fact grenade into the discussion when he brought up the example of Arsenal and their tangle with Hector.
For the avoidance of doubt, the big difference is that the Gunners were not liquidated and Rangers were.
At least one ex-RFC player who works in the media has privately stated to colleagues that if the current entity is the original Rangers then they should pay his bloody EBT!
Of course, such a conversation would be verboten on air at Pacific Quay.
They all remember what deluged down the dignity pipe onto the head of Jim Spence.
The likeable Dundonian committed the grave error of speaking the truth about the death of Rangers.
However, the fact remains that if the club currently playing at Ibrox is Rangers (Est. 1872) then EBT recipients with side letters should be knocking on their door.
On Radio Scotland last night both Darryl Broadfoot and Al Lamont appeared to fluff their lines on the “club/company” nonsense.
Same club?
Then honour those indemnifying side letters.
In 2010 the Fitba Fourth Estate ignored the gathering financial storm clouds over Ibrox.
This journalist was mocked and derided by many of them for following the Rangers story.
Then the inevitable happened in February 2012.
What they said was impossible did indeed come to pass.
Even then they were soothing the klan with pish about a CVA that would save the club and the history etc.
Within days of administration, I was writing about the inevitable liquidation.
This site is fully searchable and free to view.
It is all here.
When the CVA was refused it was important to pretend that Rangers had not died.
Since the basket of assets was sold to Charles of Normandy and his Gallant Profiteers it has been necessary for the stenographers to abide by the club/company fiction.
Yesterday was just another embarrassing episode for the Fitba Fourth Estate.
They failed on the Rangers story and they are continuing the cover-up by pretending that Sevco isn’t a new club.
Around the world, journalists risk their lives every day serving the public interest.
With a few honourable exceptions, Planet Fitba is not well served by those who should be speaking truth to power.
Yesterday was just another reminder of their collective failure.
The man who bought said assets of course put the record straight (and all the other meeja numpties) when his QC Alan Dewar stated in the Inner House of the Court of Session that:
“The Rangers football club does not exist, it is an idea in people’s minds, a myth of continuity. No-one knows what the Rangers football club is, but it has no legal personality.”and also :
“you can only be the chairman of an entity that has a legal personality. Sevco Scotland, and it alone, bought the assets and carried on the business. The concept of the Rangers Institution continuing exists only in the minds of die hard supporters.”
Fantasy Fitba … Club 😉🧟♂️
My thinking would be any advisor advising the players would be to go after the people responsible for the ebts. Namely RFC. This would then highlight the same club bullshit. If there are numerous players claiming against the current (buns) club to the tune of thousands ,maybe even millions ,because of the sins of the previous club, im pretty sure the current club would have no choice but to finally admit they are a different club. How ironic (and side splittingly hilarious)would it be if the players they hold in such high esteem were the reason the continuation myth was blown out of the water. Developing story(if i may phil).
It appears that I may have been wrong in my earlier post when I suggested that Hector would not be chasing sevco for the unpaid tax. Hector knows that Rangers died and are in liquidation. However, it has been suggested that the wording of the infamous side letters is such that “the club” will pay any tax which becomes due. If this is the case it changes everything. Because we all know that sevco claim to be the same club and if the club admitted liability in print then that would be a game changer.
Not being obsessed, I don’t have a copy of any of these side letters to hand. Can anybody out there shed light on the precise wording of the letters.
This could be fun.
Whilst the news of HMRC’s hot pursuit must be distressing for Barry Ferguson and Neil McCann et al re the EBTs the good news is all of them received a letter from Rangers agreeing to underwrite any tax liability that resulted in them agreeing to take a portion of their remuneration in this way.
So, all they need to do is pass the correspondence to Rangers and that’ll be OK, right?
I can only assume that according to HMRC rules
A. The ‘oldco’ would have to pay NIC’s on the EBT’s – say 13% of the pay and benefits
B The EBT holders will have to pay NIC and PAYE on the pay and benefits – say 40% ish minus yearly allowances
I wonder if any of these EBT chaps could have a case to go after Murray in court for their bills? Murray was the man who ran the scheme and who greatly benefited from administering it. Any legal folks out there who could opine on this. Just curious…..
Their insistence these players were registered and employed and assets of the company and NOT the club surely begs the question:
If the club had no players how could they have won games/cups/titles?
I am quite sure that fifa regs stipulate that player registration must be held by the member club (to avoid 3rd party interference) If registration was held by a separate entity from the club then they were breaking football laws.
Nothing new there then.
Any action by HMRC will have no direct effect on sevco as Hector is well aware that Rangers are being liquidated and will target his efforts at the living rather than the dead. It will however be very interesting to watch the journos squirm to report the action without admitting that Rangers died.
My money is on them generally ignoring this story as much as possible in the hope that it goes away quickly without forcing them to face the truth. Do not expect any in depth anlysis. The only depth will be how deep the journos bury their heads in the sand until bad old Hector goes away.
First up…
“The Gallant Profiteers”….hat tip Phil…very clever.
In fact it might be on an LOL banner soon.
Well…maybe no…:0)
Secondly…There’s a tried and tested way out for the EBT recipients…
‘Phone… Barry “Always with Dignity” Ferguson…he knows how to avoid paying his dues.
I can’t claim coinage on that one…
Honesty is always the best Policy Phil…as I said to the Dean of Glasgow University when accepting my Ph.D. in Astro-Physics…:0).
The ebt recipients should hold on to their side letters,might be worth a few bob if signed and put up on eBay or they could simply donate them to the lads running The Gallant Pioneer,4 lads had a dream roadshow.I am sure any memrobalia concerning the old club would be well received.
How many of the EBT-ers are working for media companies. I suspect having folk who don’t pay their taxes would not be the best folk to represent your public domain company. Or indeed the Scotland manager. Sack them all.
Was there not an ex youth player recently told to go see the old club as he looked to discuss some vile abuse case from years ago. That to me covers the big lie nonsense.
Phil – let’s, for the sake of argument, say that your sterling journalistic endeavours on this ongoing saga are a “work of fiction”, and that they are indeed the same club… since the majority of these ebt beneficiaries signed up to play for the club (not the “company”), then the current club playing out of Ibrox Stadium are duty-bound (as well as morally bound) to pay HMRC what is owed to The Treasury, no? This then brings us to the new company being asked to pay what’s owed. Of course, they will, rightly, claim that it is not this new company’s debt. The means of recourse open to HMRC then becomes a case of lodging a claim with BDO, resulting in no monies becoming available to the outstanding creditors. This course of action would leave HMRC in a position whereby their public reputation hits rock-bottom, so they will already have it in their mind to pursue these recipients as individuals.
Conversely, if they then claim to be a different club, then their “going for 55” is seen as a false claim, and their fake five stars are removed from their cheap Hummel shirts, along with their tainted titles and trophies.
The upshot of all this is, they are in a “heads – you win/tails – I lose” situation, which then creates a “perfect storm” that will expose the failings of the governing bodies, as well as RFC (1872-2012), and, you know what?… there will be collective tears and snotters, saying “naeb’dy tellt us!”. Ultimately, your “work of fiction” will be proven to have accurately predicted everything that has happened to them. Even then, they will fail to acknowledge you. Maybe, when they learn to walk upright, and evolution allows their brain to develop to a stage where they are capable of rational thought, they will thank you for forewarning them. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that acknowledgement from them, though.
Phil , expecting the Scottish media to acknowledge the death of The Rangers is like banging your head off a wall – and just as likely to achieve the same result .
Doublethink within the Big Brotherhood is alive and well so you had better watch out Phil.The Ministry of Truth will have you arrested and they’ll lock you up in Room 101, then they’ll start brainwashing you into believing that 2 plus 2 equals 5. It’s simple really. The new Rangers are not liable to any debts left behind by the old Rangers because the old Rangers were liquidated, and the new Rangers are a new club, but the new Rangers are the same team as the old Rangers because the old Rangers were never Liquidated, just unfairly demoted.
Could the impending shite storm that EBT’s are going cause be the final undoing of the carefully crafted fairy-tale by the media about the club having survived liquidation? And once again a sorrowful land called out into the wilderness……psst, SFA, are you paying attention!
Only when the stolen titles are stripped will the EBT years be put to rest.
As for the New club or same Rangers myth, it will finally be put to rest when the new club goes tots up like it’s predecessor.
Could these not be counted as “football debts” …and thus payable by Sevco whether or not they are the same club. Just a thought.
“No, they can’t be ‘football debts’ because the side letters weren’t registered with the SFA. ”
Sandy Bryson
It will indeed be interesting to see if any of the recipients is prepared to raise his head above the parapet. In these days of ambulance chasing legal practices, surely some sort of class action against the 146 year old (stop sniggering at the back), club must be worthy of consideration?