Billy Dodds, who was named by the BBC as a beneficiary of Rangers Employee Benefit Trust, wrote in today’s Sunday Herald on the subject. He alleges Rangers paid him money, which should have been taxed as income, through an EBT.
Dodds wrote, “David Murray came to me and asked if I would receive a payment that was due to me, after tax, through the EBT trust. And I said that I would. It was money that was owing to me when I had six months left on my contract and I moved to Dundee United. After the tax was deducted, that money was put in the trust fund.”
What happened to the “tax… deducted” is the crucial question. Dodds is clear. This was money due to him through his contract of employment which should have been taxed. The seriousness of the allegations against Rangers just cranked up a notch – and from a surprising source.
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anyroadup
time for baw baws
nigh night n
hail hail
Roy Keane on the wind up?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/republic-of-ireland/9293424/Republic-of-Ireland-winger-Aiden-McGeady-shrugs-off-jibe-by-commentator-Roy-Keane-following-defeat-of-Bosnia.html
Reading the ridiculous Ewing Grahame of the Telegraph stating that Rangers have been given a licence to play in mext seasons SPL.
One of the comments amused me.
Titanic given permission to dock in New York.
HH
SIALF
A Passionate Plea to SFA……..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_raXzIRgsA&feature=related
.
You have to salute the Celtic hordes; they are a breed apart. That said, we proud North Folk need to stay true to our own roots…
Scattered beer cans and sore heads were, no doubt, the order of the day last Wednesday morning as the city blinked its bleary eyes and slowly attempted to recall the events of the previous night, writes Gary Gowers.
I think it’s fair to say that, if nothing else, Tuesday night’s Norfolk invasion by the Celtic masses gave us all some light relief from the negativity that has pervaded City related message boards and social media over the last week or so.
The whole evening was an undoubted triumph for all concerned – not least for the star of the show, Adam Drury – whose wish for a ‘party atmosphere’ was followed to the letter by the 4,000 ‘invaders’.
Such was the infectious nature of the Celtic following we were treated to the unusual Carrow Road phenomenon of ‘audience participation’ from the Geoffrey Watling stand – their unbridled version of the Celtic Huddle, as they joined in with the rest of the ground, presented an image that will remain in the minds of those present for quite some time (note: Huddle, not Poznan, as our Scottish friends were very quick to point out!).
What on earth would dear old Geoffrey himself have made of it?
The game itself, whilst largely irrelevant, was unusually competitive for a Testimonial – although given the combination of a team managed by Paul Lambert and a passionate and fervent visiting support bigger than other seen at Carrow Road this season, then I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised.
For Celtic to bring such a huge travelling support for what was really nothing more than an end-of-season friendly was astonishing although, again, we shouldn’t have been surprised – after all, their following for Tim Sheppard’s 2001 Testimonial was equally as passionate and possibly even greater in number.
Ever since Ms Smith’s ever so slightly embarrassing ‘Let’s be havin’ you!’ rant back in 2005, I think a few of us have been fooled into thinking we actually are the best fans in the world.
Please think again folks – yes, on our day we can put on a decent show and there’s no denying that our away support is right up there with the best that the Premier League has to offer.
But compared to those clad in green and white hoops, if we’re really honest, we seriously have to ‘up our game’ to even get close to emulating that wall of Glaswegian sound.
I jest of course – in reality there’s no way we would ever be able to recreate that same embedded unity and passion that they display, particularly given that their united beliefs lie far deeper than supporting just a football team.
Such was the sense joy on display on a balmy Norfolk Tuesday night we were all prepared to overlook the odd sectarian chant – but in truth it is these songs, even more so than those of the footballing variety, that bond this mass of Scottish folk together so unconditionally.
The closest we can get is the odd raw, raucous, heartfelt (and spontaneous) version of On The Ball City, which does still retain the ability to make the hairs on the back of the neck stand up.
The Fields of Athenrye and You’ll Never Walk Alone clearly have a similar effect on the Celtic faithful, and also anyone else in earshot – or perhaps it was just me. And the song about Paddy McCourt has led me to the brink of emailing Neil Lennon to implore him not to sell!
(Does anyone know when/why Celtic and Liverpool formally traded those two songs?).
Some argue that On The Ball City is something of a dirge, but to all those doubters – be proud that we have a song that resonates so deeply with us, and us alone.
Yes, it may be considered a bit of a dirge, but it’s our dirge and never should anyone even contemplate replacing. Add to it with some new, uniquely Norwich songs by all means, but please never lose it.
The melodramatic part of me wants to say it’s part of who we are. Many clubs, and I’m not looking too far afield here, have no songs that are unique to them and in my view are much the poorer for it.
Whilst I’m not expecting to hear On The Ball City belted out regularly at Parkhead next season (wouldn’t work would it?), I do wonder if the bond forged between the Celtic and City supporters as a result of last Tuesday’s ‘party’ will be more enduring than your average holiday romance – I certainly hope it is.
Summa
A PAssionate Plea from SFA….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBQ9dm7zaQU
.
Courtesy The Scotsman
Rangers administration: Seeds of club’s destruction sown by Fergus McCann..
THE cast list took on the proportions of a Cecil B DeMille production. Yet BBC Scotland’s investigation into Rangers’ monetary meltdown, The Men Who Sold The Jerseys, made no reference to the man who can be held, at least indirectly, responsible.
Football law-breaking and the collapse of the club’s financial stability seem to be the consequences of Rangers using Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs). And David Murray’s decision to turn to these risky schemes can be traced to the rebirth of Celtic. Which makes a key player in Rangers’ downfall none other than Fergus McCann.
Simply by getting so much right, McCann caused Murray to send Rangers down a path which has proved patently so wrong. McCann was the antithesis of Murray. The Scots-Canadian detested what he called football’s “jam tomorrow” philosophy of Murray. And, as Rangers rampaged to nine consecutive titles between 1989 and 1997, for all his brilliance in rebuilding Celtic, McCann lost the on-field battle.
By the summer of 1997 – year four of McCann’s five-year plan – Celtic were still stuck in the shadow of Rangers. Murray made sure of that. For much of the 1990s, Rangers had run at a profit. With no challenge from across the city, they needed only the occasional luxury such as Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne, which they could just about afford. However, in order to rack up a historic tenth straight title, Murray decided greater investment was required. A Scottish record close-season spend of almost £15million was sanctioned.
A posse of players, headed up by Italians Lorenzo Amoruso, Marco Negri and Sergio Porrini, each of whom cost around £4m, was added to a proven squad. In contrast, under new head coach Wim Jansen, Celtic reconstructed their entire team with what they brought in from the sale of prized assets Pierre van Hooijdonk, Paolo Di Canio and Jorge Cadete. The modest £650,000 acquisition of Henrik Larsson was mocked for being much trumpeted by general manager Jock Brown.Celtic’s efforts were considered futile. The Daily Record set out three Rangers teams capable of winning the league.
In the end, Walter Smith’s final season brought no silverware to Ibrox as McCann’s mission was accomplished, Celtic winning the title and League Cup. Everything changed. Almost, it seemed, as an act of vengeance, the bullish Murray escalated the arms race and put his club on a path to self-destruction. With cash injections from new investors Dave King and investment firm ENIC totalling £60m, he recruited Dutch manager Dick Advocaat and allowed him to lavish a British record summer spree of £24.5m on players. But, even though Murray’s credit tap from the Bank of Scotland was flowing freely throughout his business empire, he saw the need to make efficiency savings… of the tax variety. For it was in 1998 that discussions began with Paul Baxendale-Walker over such schemes.
Moreover, in that summer, the legacy that McCann would leave Celtic when selling up his stakeholding the following year was cast in bricks in mortar as stadium rebuild was completed. With a 60,000 capacity, it ensured a revenue advantage over Rangers, whose Ibrox home housed 50,000. Only borrowing or fresh investment could allow Rangers to keep pace.
EBTs were a means by which Murray could even up the figures. Ultimately, the £47m paid into them between 2001 and 2010 can be implicated in all sort of ways in the predicament Rangers now find themselves – and the possibility that they could be stripped of 13 trophies won during that period.
EBTs allowed them to retain a spending level to compete with Celtic when the club’s bankers halted the easy access to credit while debts across Murray Group spiralled out of control. It is no coincidence that the zenith of EBT use came in 2007, when Celtic won the title, reached the last 16 of the Champions League and posted a £16m profit. However, these trusts were administered in such a fashion that, a year later, HMRC hit Rangers with a demand for unpaid back taxes of £24m. That is the basis for the Rangers appeal, subject to a first-tier tribunal that has yet to deliver a judgment. It is expected to pass down a harsh one that could land the club with a £50m bill.
Baxendale-Walker says that EBTs were only a “problem [for Rangers] because of how they implemented the structure”. Rangers’ botch is that in order to fulfil the discretionary and loan elements of legal EBTs, they could not lodge payments made to these trusts in the playing contracts forwarded to the SPL and SFA. However, few agents would accept payments to their players that were simply verbal understandings. Hence the fact that, of the 63 Rangers players who are thought to have had EBTs, the BBC claims 53 had side letters detailing payments that were made for contractual fundamentals such as appearances and bonuses. SPL and SFA rules state that all payments made in respect of a player’s playing activities must be included in the contracts lodged with these authorities. Essentially, in seeking to serve, however dubiously, the tax laws, Rangers were not able to serve footballing law.
It is difficult to see how Rangers can now avoid being found to have improperly registered almost half their players between 2001 and 2010. In the past, clubs who have been guilty of this offence have had their results voided. In Rangers’ case, this would mean their title successes of 2003, 2005, 2009 and 2010 would have been won unlawfully, and likewise the Scottish Cup victories of 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2009, and the League Cup triumphs of 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010.
That would be a bitter blow. But no more bitter than the fact that, were it not for the EBT case hanging over Rangers, Murray would have found a buyer other than a shyster such as Craig Whyte, and the club would have avoided the descent into administration and possible oblivion. That man McCann has an awful lot to answer for.
Summa
Summa
Hope you are well, particularly after your travels.
Read that earlier on twitter.
Great stuff.
No more OF.
Loud and Proud…..
THE cast list took on the proportions of a Cecil B DeMille production……..?
Kojo??????
Lot of Roosting going on in the SFA of Glasgow…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XaWNuV0mrg
SFA RIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6TFW1F6oY0&feature=related
If they are lucky…….
.
PJBhoyNYC..
Yes I’m Good..Still on My Travels..:O(
Cheers Buddi..
Summa
Summa
Night Night.
For you sir….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCC0eXSAhYE&feature=related
Morning Celts, another warm yin on the NW coast of engerland, a slightly cooler 23c forecast and not a cloud in sight.
Tweet of the day yesterday…….
“Does anyone else think Neil Lennon looks like Brother Walfrid”
Hx2
Good Morning to all from hot Warsaw.
You should wear CQN Working Class Hero badge. First for work, first to say good word to the others.
Vmhan.
Working Class Hero was about you, my friend.
Good morning CQN from sun drenched (again) East Kilbride.
Good morning CQN from a sunny Clydebank
What will today bring?
Looking forword to the day unfolding
Keep the Faith
Hail Hail
Morning,all.
I thought I would log back on to wish my sister
A HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
If Celtic had concentrated on the matter in hand when my sister was celebrating her fifth birthday,we would have twice as many stars on our jerseys…….
..
Breaking News on SSN..
Up to a Dozen Arrested in Match Fixing Scandal..
Has Our Day Finally Came..?
Alas No.. Italians Again..;0(
Summa
Q: if it is the Fighting Rangers Fans’ Fund that are paying for the appeal to the court of session, does that get around the “Clubs won’t go to court” rule? And even if it didn’t would they need to act on a judgement rather than ask for one be the action point? I genuinely don’t know, but as we’ve seen, there’s no more cunning a creature than a cornered rat.
BTW I too read that piece in the telegraph and I am appalled that a footballing administration mercenary like Doncaster can ride a coach and horses through our national game. Lines MUST be drawn in the sand between the SFA and the SPL. So if the SPL can ignore SFA rules vis a vis licensing, hey, why not ignore rules like transfer embargoes?
Hmmm I wonder if players who play for Rangers in a non-UEFA licesnes capacity could be stripped of their National eligibility, or even rpofessional status. Again, people like Donkey come out with these statements without thinking it all the way through. Anyone go any thoughts?
How desperate the efforts to ensure hun survival?
Smile and wave bhoys, not too long now…
Zbyszek on 28 May, 2012 at 06:11 said:
Vmhan.
Working Class Hero was about you, my friend.
…………..
I missed this post as I was travelling into work Zbyszek…… You embarrass me mi amigo, I’ve turned a to a shade of Red , or perhaps it’s the sun :>)
Hx2
After the telegraph article, there’s an understandable clamour over on RTC for the nuclear info to be released now.
Right now, people with a say in our wee game are breaking cover, being forced to show their hand. The more this is exposed, the better. If this is as good as Barcabhoy claims – and he’s been on the button in the past – these people are going to look extremely foolish, to the point that some will have to go. Patience and cojones, I’d suggest, will pay dividends.
Bundoran Bhoy and CRC just read my email addy re the CQN badges,
Can you change my email to home one please? Ta
Ps CRC has it, or just use Funny Book.
V
Hx2
Ghuys
I see our journalist friends are filling pages full of pap again, licenses , deals etc. all rubbish , what do they know!
Important things, will the CVA come out today? will Charlie Endell pledge his money as working capital soon?
The important questions for the SFA are :
What are the provable sources of Greens money?
What is his financial plan?
Charlie boy will fail on both counts?
On the conspiracy theory for the nuclear revelation , it seems to me that as the Shame had a big dirty secret there seems little point in extending it too far beyond its own tainted walls.
I accept that there may be some payments made to dodgy officials however, I predict that Dignity continued to pay players via the EBT after they have left the club due to cashflow problems. One player springs to mind playing for the Hoops but being partly funded by the Shame!
Makes sense at me!
Conspiracycfc
Quick jump on Jobo (apologies) Not a cloud in the sky it’s going to be a Belter today from the Glasgow South Side
Vmhan
No probs, will get that sorted
HH
CRC
Fae the papers:
Brown has not been short of English admirers himself in the past, but demonstrated his commitment to Neil Lennon’s side by signing a new long-term contract in December.
“England is for some people and not for others. I enjoy being at Celtic and have no intention of leaving. That’s why I was delighted to sign my new deal.”
BROONEEEEEEEE
On his way to becoming a Celtic legend.
Morning all from a gloriously sunny North Ayrshire. (It seems to be the last day; still, it’s lasted a week. Great.)
Have their crimes caught up with them as yet?
jocky bhoy on 28 May, 2012 at 07:14 said:
no, it makes no difference who’s paying, it’s the cheats who are going to court to overturn a decision against them.
the main villain in this isn’t the spl or the sfa, its the huns who are trying to wreck our game. again.
Back from a cider-induced laziness over the weekend – it was magic!
Not been on since Friday and just read the article above – great work Billy Dodds you truly are a jug-eared buffoon!! Dear oh dear, things just go from bad to worse for Dignity FC (IA).
More comedy to come today with the CVA proposal? I hope so!
Hail, and indubitably, Hail
Tombola
James Forrest is Neil Lennon! We are ALL Neil Lennon! on 28 May, 2012 at 01:11 said:
————————————————–
rfc(ia), the msm and the nuttier elements of society are desperate for celtic to up the ante. As soon as PL makes a statement, either way, the focus will shift from the cheating, criminality and institutional corruption that has surrounded scottish football for years.
PL and the board are well aware of how supporters feel about newco, newclub or whatever. Kilmarnock will live to regret their chairman’s statement. Precisely because a CVA for pennies in the pound would be a precedent for the likes of hertz, HMRC will not agree one.
The court cases, the ‘takeovers’ the cvas, it’s all just show, ranjurz are gone.
Doddsy is the first to break cover re: EBTs, but how many other UK based recipients are now anxiously phoning their agents/accountants to ask about a ‘friend’ who filled his boots with tax free moolah?
Dodds line essentially is ‘SDM duped me!’
Stand clear and watch the show!
Lads serious ? here, would you rather they get a CVA or liquidation ?
Reason i ask this is because if they get a CVA then the other big revelations to come out then if they’re as bad as we think they are then they will have to be booted out, thoughts please.
If it’s a newco then surely they won’t be able to punish a new team.
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous Hillbillies the day?
How can they speak to other creditors if the FTT hasn’t revealed a verdict yet ?
Aah! It’s Monday, it’s sunny in EK and DBBIA is asking Whither the cash strapped scrofulous Hillbillies the day?
All is right with the world.