Back in glory days of EBT FC, it seemed for a while that manager Dick Advocaat was assembling the core of the Dutch national team at Ibrox.
I remember at the time wondering how Rangers could possibly afford such a repertory company of stars.
Well, now we know.
Since Hector finally won his case against Rangers in July 2017 the reckoning day for EBT recipients was always coming down the fiscal pipe.
I have lived inside the Rangers EBT story since the spring of 2010, but if I had to explain it to an uninformed person in two words then I would pick these two:
“Side letters”.
It is these incriminating missives that enabled Hector to nail the Murray Group and ipso facto Rangers on their use of the EBT scheme.
Now these letters will be a central part of story that hasn’t gone away you know.
In the past week I have been putting together some fragments of chatter from the Square Mile.
I’m now convinced that a group of ex-Rangers players based on the continent have clubbed together to instruct a high powered legal team in the City.
Each of these chaps was given an indemnifying side letter when they signed for Rangers.
Now it is their collective objective to test these instruments to the limit of the law.
I asked my initial source for this story who might be the target of any future litigation.
My information is that is what is being discussed at the moment.
It could be confined to liquidators BDO.
However, the plaintiffs could tell their legal team to cast the litigation net even further.
The current club playing out of Ibrox and the SFA could also be in their crosshairs.
The latter arguably had failed in their duty of oversight and allowed this situation at Ibrox to continue for a decade.
As for the former, well if they are the same club as Rangers (1872) then I’m sure they will honour the indemnifying side letters.
Anything else would be undignified.
The same club myth could become a costly day in court for Sevco.
Interesting times…
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It’s worth pointing out that, between 2000 and 2010, Celtic’s spending on salaries was approximately £8 million PER YEAR higher than Rangers (even factoring in Rangers spend on EBTs). If asking Rangers how they could afford their repertory company of stars, it might also be worth asking Celtic how they could possibly afford theirs.
Just off topic but it has to be said. Andy Robertson is never as good a player as Kieran Tierney both in attacking or defending. He can play in another 5 CL finals. Kieran is in the top 2 LB’s in the UK.
Best of luck to those Aberdeen fans who are seeking clarification from the SFA on their disciplinary procedures.
Wow, if they ever get a reply, it will be very interesting to discover why Devlin’s so so soft red card wasn’t rescinded whilst the two Rangers players petulant kick outs were not automatic reds.
Never mind where is Maxwell hiding whilst all this is going on, where is Fleming the referee supremo.
We all know that no one can justify these 3 decisions, no wonder most of the refs look as if they don’t know whether they are coming or going.
What is clear to them is that if a Rangers player kicks out at an opponent off the ball in future then a red card is out of the question. It would be career suicide.
What a feckin shambles. Well done Maxwell, well done Fleming and again best of luck Dons fans getting any response from the Hampden circus act.
Strange sensation right now!
I can’t EVER remember wanting Scotland to lose a football match…
… until tonight! Such is my need to see a barely coherent, tax cheating , barrel bottom dwelling so called manager given his marching orders.
Unfortunately it’s a win -win for Big E(bt)ck ! But at least he’d be gone for good this time.
I’ve supported Scotland for more years than I care to remember, seen so many great games over the years but with McLeish and his corrupt cronies at the SFA in charge you couldn’t pay me to watch them now.
Regan oversaw the collapse of Rangers. On his watch the Ibrox club was awarded a UEFA licence.
No doubt they lied to the SFA about unpaid tax but the wee tax case had already been highlighted to the football authorities.
We know that the Ibrox club spent years hiding the side letters from HMRC so what does it say about the SFA checking procedures that no one picked up the phone to HMRC to validate the club’s no overdue tax claim.
This was a massive fraud yet not one of those implicated have been arrested and questioned by the police never mind being charged.
There is no time bar on fraud. Most of the fraudsters are still involved in Scottish football in one capacity or another.
Maxwell had the opportunity to shake up the organisation when he took over from the disaster that was Regan.
He’s done sweet FA, said even less and must be spending lots of time with McCrae, the original invisible man.
All the heat is on McLeish at the moment but Maxwell should be in the firing line as well as over the last few months, on his watch, Scottish football has been playing to a different set of rules to that of the rest of the world.
How did that happen?
We have a Compliance Officer whose football credentials are unclear. Is it too much to expect the SFA on her appointment to highlight what she was bringing to the job and what her previous history was with football?
It’s not even clear what credentials Maxwell had to be the best candidate for the CEO job.
If there was a PR release from Broadfoot I must have missed it.
On top of that we have 3 ex referees looking at issues brought to them by the CO and clearly making decisions that at the very least are inexplicable and that are biased towards the wellbeing of one club.
Again what’s to stop the SFA calling a Press Conference, play various angles of the incident in question, and walk us through their thought process?
Too much to ask for or are the Morelos, McGregor, Devlin decisions so far removed from the video evidence that the panel decisions would be shown to be a travesty?
Part of the condition of granting Sevco a licence was that they were required to pay all footballing debts of Rangers FC. If EBT recipients are compelled to pay tax from their earnings to HMRC, then it can be argued that they were not paid in full. Players earnings are fooball debts and if HMRC obtain a judgement against a player, that player can then seek indemnity from Secvo as it is a football debt. This scenario will lead to an insolvency event for Sevco.
Ooh just when you think things are going all quiet again. Then this bombshell. Of course to the MSM it’s all pish and if you bury your head in the sand or hold your breath, it will go away. I would love all this to come out for everyone to see what really happened. Title stripping on the menu again mmm
They don’t have a leg to stand on.
At best they can claim against the BDO, but it’s pennies in the pound.
The club and players hid the side letters .. they have no chance of going after the SFA/authorities.
I would have no difficulty in arguing the players hid nothing. They signed contracts and had no reason to believe their contracts were improperly registered.
Do you mean they hid nothing……..Like the time Andy Goram appeared in court and made out that he was only earning £2000 per week ? HH
I’d be surprised if HMRC put in all that time, effort and cost only to sit of the oldco debtor’s list and get a few pennies in the end.
I assume a company in Liquidation only has to take on new debtors for a defined period so maybe HMRC could avoid that route if some legal team argued that the oldco were liable.
Personally looking forward to greetin’ faced players in the papers. Maybe Sevco can do some crowdfunding for their ex-champions, look at all the silverware they supplied. A new RFFF, cos the old one went to good use it seems. Maybe that’s another story.
Phil,
No way will sevco go to court to contest
this. It will be a case of “Rangers Who?
They’re dead beat it !”
The two words that spring to mind with me Phil are “Cheating Bastards”
HH
Personally, I support the ex-Rangers players in their quest for justice.
It’s very simple. The present Rangers FC claim that it wasn’t the previous company who won these titles, it was the players, on the park. So it surely follows that, if the present Rangers is indeed the same club, then they must honour those players’ agreements, or relinquish as a club the titles won by them, on the park.
You can’t have it both ways.
We already know that when it comes to matters of finance the same club narrative disappears down the toilet.
But hey, honours of Oldco transferred to Newco, no problemo.
Our football authorities, once again, have tied themselves in knots in trying to appease one club and to hell with everyone else.
Corruption didn’t begin and end with Jim Farry. It’s woven right throughout Hampden and if you don’t adhere to the narrative you are out the door or most likely never passed the sniff test in the first place.
Where is Maxwell, what the feck is he doing?
Maxwell’s probably on the phone to his local glaziers, giving them windows measurements, or even checking company SIA licences are 100% legit.
Perhaps ONE reason at least for moving away from Hampden …
Aye – there’s so many bodies buried, the pitch is uneven…
Good question.
Might as well be Robert Maxwell, for all the positive change he seems to be effecting…
Unfortunately it seems they can have it both ways.
#keep the history
#bin the debt
HH
You can if you’ve the SFA in your back bin.