Amid the acres of confusion that surrounds Rangers and the Scottish game at the moment, one matter is now clear of the tax authorities, not subject to dispute by the various parties squabbling over Rangers, and free for the SFA to examine. If they are interested.
Former Rangers director, Mike McGill, when speaking to the media alongside Sir David Murray on Tuesday, said, “The club used an old offshore EBT scheme in 1999 with three players. That scheme is the subject of the small tax case.
“The Revenue provided some information to us in early 2011 and we conceded based on that information and provided for payment in the club accounts.”
The simple question for the SFA is, were details of payments made through the old offshore EBT scheme, which HMRC challenged last year and Rangers’ old board conceded, submitted to the SFA?
If they were, our faith in the governance of the game can be restored and we can all look forward to the Cup Final on Sunday. If not, whose registrations were invalid and which games did they participate in?
As this question affects more than just SPL football, the SFA are the only body competent to investigate this matter. They are also competent to administer any appeal process. We hear the SPL inquiry will not mature until after the HMRC-Rangers First Tier Tribunal reports, which could be well after the SPL split, potentially creating chaos if Rangers were incorrectly placed in the top six.
This is a governance issue of enormous proportions. The SFA should use McGill’s comments as an opportunity to take a fresh look at this issue and quickly instigate an inquiry.
I’m off the see the lawyers this morning. More later, I hope!
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Henriks Sombrero on 15 March, 2012 at 11:40 said:
A paranoid person would think they were giving the huns time to clean up the trail…..
///////////
I’m THAT person :o)))
Hail! Hail!
It is not administration; it is maladministration.
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on 15 March, 2012 at 11:25 said:
Paul67′s last two lines are a bit ominous, could he be facing a gagging order ?
—————————————
I read it as a positive – possibly seeing what he can and cannot write/ put in the public domain? Or perhaps checking what course of action we can legally take should the SFA/ SFL whitewash this. Pretty sure also that Paul67 will have buddies in the business of the law who he may be consulting for the various angles on this.
But then again, I’m often wrong on these things!
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby on 15 March, 2012 at 11:22
“the letters of intent” just show that nothing has changed with the laptop loyal. As soon as SDM shouts they all sit up and beg. Even when all the information is there they still do not want to believe. God knows how they will react when they hear there is no Santa Claus.
“the letters of intent” argument is obviously what MIM and Them have been runnig with HMRC and it clearly does not hold water. As has been stated many times on the blog the EBT scheme rules require strict adherence and any deviation leaves the scheme to not work.
It baffles me whay they were so stupid and arrogant to do this but they are on the hook.
As has also been said this has got nothing to do with the registration of players and second contracts.
This might also lead to a review of a lot of clubs in England. For years demands were allegedly made for foreign imports to get paid “netto” as UK was tax prohitive. I find it hard to believe that EBTs were not prevalent in that time down there.
Enjoying this Thompson fellow’s contributions BUT one thing I have learned since follwing CQN has been not to get too hopeful about what ‘out of towners’ may or may not do once they get here. UEFA, Regan, Doncaster – all ‘chickened out’ when faced with the situation they arrived in.
Good luck to Thompson, I hope he manages to keep his eye on the ball and not feel the need to drag celtic in to the story just to ‘even things up’ or to allow the extreme hostility he will meet in the press and media distract him from the truth.
Wait and see. Wait and see.
savo01 on 15 March, 2012 at 11:16 said:
The bar in the airport landslide opens early everyday. Bars open in city at 1230
Poordeadking
I spent a fair amount of time twisting Ewan Murray’s tail about the unattributed smear. He dealt with my correspondence by ignoring it.
I like The Guardian, but it is prone to self-regard.
.
Paul67..
Do You have the Bombshell Everyone is Waiting for..? Checking Out Legally if You can Make it Public..
I have been told for a While the 16th was the Day the Judge was going to Give his Verdict..But seems Elsewhere it Will be Later..(Leak!!!!!)..
Summa
Can I Have Raspberry On That,
Cheers for a response. Alas I can’t see there being much of an atmosphere in the Airport unless there’s a load of Hoops on the easyjet from Gatwick with us ;-) No early houses, not even the Weatherspoon’s?
Savo
Tolbooth on the Gallowgate used to open early, worth a shot. Give them a bell.
HH
Son of Dan:
I will be happy if the part about splitting gate receipts was true as I would have cancelled my season ticket and put the money into Celtic via pools and merchandising. I would not give those F***’s a penny of my money from watching Celtic.
You do know, don’t you, that visiting teams get about 35 per cent of the gate money from Scottish Cup games? Maybe you and all the other people who profess to be outraged by the notion of sharing the gate money had better start a campaign to boycott next season’s home cup-ties?
AFS – Association Fleeing Succulanters
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon on 15 March, 2012 at 11:14 said:
Celtic_First,
Some posters have nothing to say. So they repeat bad jokes, calls for independence and support for right wing nutters over and over again.
Still, not everyone can be erudite and entertaining like us, I suppose
Some of us with nothing to say, do weather updates.
Lifted from RTC.
ooft!!!
It’s A Deal
57 Votes
In a move backed by the Treasury, a government source today announced that the taxpayer will fund a stadium made of gold (complete with hover-pitch) for Celtic Football Club.
See- I can do it too. I can publish fabricated nonsense. Can someone now send me an NUJ card?
It is a confusing business following events surrounding Rangers these days. Depending upon the agenda of the day, we are treated to stories designed to either terrify players into accepting reduced terms or to build confidence in ticket buyers and prospective investors.
The story this week that the Treasury is supporting an HMRC deal to write off all of Rangers’ debts to allow a CVA to go through shows that a nauseating mixture of naivety and cynicism is still pumping through the hearts of the Scottish media. Are they really so stupid to believe the same individuals who briefed them on behalf of Whyte? Those same people are still employed by Rangers but are now fabricating on behalf of their new bosses.
(How many “HMRC about to do a deal” stories have we heard from the media in the last year?)
An actual source close to the facts of this story described the latest wave of claims of about a Treasury sanctioned deal as “utter bollocks”.
There is no process for, and no history of, the Treasury involving itself in this type of discussion. Of course, the people who invented this story know that HMRC cannot comment. So, they hope to do a “Dave King” and make all sorts of claims about deals with the taxman in the belief that the stories will go unchallenged and eventually be accepted as fact.
Quite what HMRC will do after the FTT returns a result is anyone’s guess. My guess is that after mishandling deals with Goldman Sachs and Vodaphone, they will want to demonstrate that all tax bills must be paid- end of story.
They might offer time to pay (which is of no use to Rangers as the amounts are unpayable on any time scale), but I think that they will want the tax paid in full.
However, the idea that anyone is discussing a deal- and with the Treasury no less- a bill that has not been legally determined and with an unknown amount- is just stupid.
Any journalist who accepted the word of a PR company, especially one that has been proven wrong in almost its every utterance about this subject, without seeing documentary evidence is an idiot.
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Circle but nae Magic on 15/03/2012 at 12:02 pm said:
0 0 Rate This
Torrevieja Johnbhoy says:
15/03/2012 at 10:17 am
_____________________
Thanks for clarifying – that makes sense now. The Rangers Football Club plc is registered with the FSA, but appears to have done nothing. Trading name is the (somewhat ironic) “Rangers Money”. Its ‘Principal’ for a period was Origen Financial Services Limited.
Looks like a real technicality.
bobosleg on 15/03/2012 at 12:03 pm said:
0 0 Rate This
famous song says:
15/03/2012 at 11:17 am
Even further off message.
Hector the hero is a lovely Scottish lament written By James Scott Skinner in 1903
Not The Huddle Malcontent on 15/03/2012 at 12:03 pm said:
0 0 Rate This
redetin says:
15/03/2012 at 12:00 pm
0 0 Rate This
“So once again – who funded the Ticketus VCT? It is a massive question here.”
AGREED! Indeed, who are Ticketus? I know they are part of Octopus (WTF are Octopus?).
There are 5 companies called Ticketus Holdings # and about 35 called Ticketus Services #. I can’t get any deeper than that. On the Octopus site, the press release is just headed “Ticketus” and then refers you to a PR company.
===========================================
have you emailed them? thats how this new media lark works!!! WE ARE SPARTICUS!!!!
Max B Gold on 15/03/2012 at 12:06 pm said:
2 0 Rate This
In the meantime, if anyone anywhere has any concerns that anyone may not be paying their lawful taxes, you can always check out http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/reportingfraud/index.htm and fill in the form.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ya wee rascal.
WOTTPI on 15/03/2012 at 12:08 pm said:
1 0 Rate This
Is Alex Thompson going to be asking his Channel 4 colleague for some input?
A certain Mr Cosgrove doesn’t take kindly to clubs living outwith their means.
No Sympathy For A Fitting End To Big Ego Trip Based On A Fantasy
Mar 13 2008
THE four words that always send a shiver down my spine are “I told you so”. They smack of self-righteousness and are usually uttered by those who cannot bear to lose an argument.
But when it comes to the grotesque farce of Gretna Football Club, I have no hesitation in saying it – I told you so.
Nothing in Scottish football over the last 20 years has angered me as much as the Gretna’s god-awful slogan “Living the Dream”. It is baseless nonsense and I cannot feel any sympathy for their plight.
Gretna’s collapse is entirely self-inflicted and the squalid sight of them grubbing around in administration is the natural ending to one of the biggest ego trips in the history of Scottish football.
Last month the Government was lambasted for allowing Northern Rock to slip into crisis and for not restraining the company’s excesses.
The circumstances bear some remarkable similarities to the subprime gamblers at Gretna. The club extended their spending way beyond credibility yet none of football’s spineless authorities stood up to them.It is shameful that good governance and plain common sense were ignored because one “eccentric” man waved his wad.
Are we so in awe of money we can’t see a fiasco when it passes?
The comparisons with Northern Rock are too tempting to ignore.
Brooks Mileson made his fortune in the north east of England in insurance and construction.
Gretna’s director of football, Mick Wadsworth, the man with the least appropriate surname in football, earned his reputation there, and both befriended Sir Bobby Robson, who laughably delivered Gretna’s victory motivational address at Raydale the day they were pumped by St Johnstone.
I despise the way Gretna have cheapened Scottish football. In the end they were not living a dream, they were leeching off the back of better and more honourable clubs. Some will think I harbour a specific grudge because Gretna beat St Johnstone to the First Division title. I can’t say it helped matters but if I was to make an enemy of everyone who has beaten my team over the years it would be a long list.
Ages before they were even in the same division as St Johnstone, I voiced deep suspicions about Gretna and the sustainability of the dream.
We were told the money would never run out, that a trust fund would protect the club in perpetuity and the community would be the real winners. Every one of those claims has been proven to be bogus beyond belief.
Measured by the yardstick of fair competition Gretna have won nothing. Everything they achieved was bought, well above the market rate, using players who were the most expensive in their division, and in most cases had been lured away from more financially diligent rivals.
Winning league titles on that basis may be a dream to some but to me it is corrosive and immoral.
I have always argued Scottish clubs should be expected to offer wages, capped at a reasonable percentage of the club’s annual turnover. This may be “unromantic” to those who demand clubs “open the cheque book” and “break the bank”.
But it is fair and honest. What is now clear, and should have been screamingly obvious to even Gretna’s cheerleaders, is the clubs who have failed to pursue that policy – Dundee, Livingston, Motherwell and Gretna – have all been forced into administration.
Only Gretna among them managed to con the country into believing they were a force for good, when in fact they were engaging in an act of low-level deception because they could not afford to bankroll the dream.
Gretna have behaved in a tawdry and indefensible manner and those now shedding crocodile tears should look at the chaos they have left in their wake.
The rest of us should ask why so many adults, many of them at the very heart of the media, bought this shallow fairytale hook, line and sinker.
The only thing that gives me comfort is there is one thing worse than a bad loser – and that is a bad winner.
canamalar
When I was in Ireland the wife ran a charity and wrote for another charity, some of the stuff she wrote was reproduced on other web sites without her permission, she saw a lawyer and as long as she put copyrite after every post she was covered in law.
She wrote someting once that incurred the wroth of the Irish politicos, they spent a fair bit of time and money persuing her, but their super briefs who no doubt were paying a fortune to missed a disclaimer in the small print on the site that everything that was posted was alledged and in no way was inferring anything untoward.
He also told her that if you put alledgedely after your posts nobody has any legal recourse as to it’s content.
If you post something that you know to be true. the onus is one the other party to prove otherwise, a time consuming and costly business.
Paul67
Feel free to delete above post. I meant to copy the Gretna story, but IPhone ‘selected all’
Apologies to those reading via mobile.
I strongly believe – and hope – that the FTT will not report until April at earliest. At that point given new tax laws any debt to the taxman created by Oldco can be recovered from the Phoenix company.
So all round Rangers are absolutely stuffed.
I seem to recall listening to, Phil Mac on, Beyond The waves(Hail! Hail media) after, Hibs 0-5 Celtic recently and, if I remember correctly….Phil said ” If, Rankers don’t get taken over by a, hun-consortium before Mar 16th then, they will be liquidated on St.Patrick’s day and, Hampden will be full of Celtic fans for a, Cup final party @Hampden the next day!”
Did anyone else hear this ?
P.s. Sorry canny do the link-thing :o(
Hail! Hail!
Last day in Geneva, wish I had a succinct message on a placard to stand outside UEFA building to make a point about the state of Scottish Football……….but I’m working…..hmmmm
Michael Kelly is either a crawling hypocrite,… or a latter day Marc Antony.
Could he really be as duplicitous as the noble Roman ?
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interréd with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men—
Should we be reading between the lines of Michael’s bizarre tribute ?
Aff for a stoat roon the shops
Keevins said last night he wouldn’t hound Ogilvie or Adam,2 of the major figures in this story……..oh and Brian Rix.Adam is interviewed in the Daily Mail(i know..) today rubbishing Minty’s lies.Hugh,it’s what a journalist is supposed to do.
RobertT….
Initially that is how I read it too.
But remebering Pauls warning a while ago that this would become very dirty, they have tried to shut downthe blog with electronic attack, now they may be trying to do it through the law.
I’m just used to reading the worst into things.
I much much prefer our initial interpretation, and expect Paul would have let us know if it was anything along my doomsday scenario.
Mr OG Rafferty might be able to put our minds at rest as he and Paul have been very cryptic recently.
Freddiebhoy on 15 March, 2012 at 12:26 said:
“F@#k UEFA” seemed to get their attention before :-)
Hail Hail
jhilday on 15 March, 2012 at 12:20 said:
Some of us with nothing to say, do weather updates.
And very good ones too, if I may say.
jimmci @ 12:23,
The Government have been making some of these new Tax Laws retrospective, do you know if they will do the same with that one?
Chairbhoy on 15 March, 2012 at 12:32 said:
Yes, the retrospective element comes into force on 6 April which is why I believe there will be no FTT finding before that date.
deliasmith
I am well aware of that. How many home cup games have we had the last few years anyway?
BIG difference between the odd cup game to getting their hands on 18 home games.
Stick to shouting “Where are ya!!”
Dublinbhoy on 15 March, 2012 at 12:32 said:
lol!
Is it just me or is the biggest shock about the whole rangurz debacle the fact that papers have actually been using a cracked crest? I never thought I would see the day. I thought it was like a Unicorn or Bigfoot, fabled!
Kilbowie Kelt on 15 March, 2012 at 12:28 said
I loved your reminder of schooldays.
Michael is a Kelly.
So,we can make allowances.
BUT, we can keep focussed on the issues and the prize , while we ignore his unhelpful contribution.
Hi Paul and all,
Sorry in work and only had time to read Paul’s leader.
Excellent stuff again, sir! Just looking at the teams from that period declared – 1999 – and so you’d have to look at who was signed from season 1998-99 & 1999-2000 to guess who the 3 players (aye right!) were.
1998-99
18 May 1998 Arthur Numan PSV Eindhoven £4.5m
06 Jul 1998 Gabriel Amato Real Mallorca £4.2m
06 Jul 1998 Giovanni van Bronckhorst Feyenoord £5m
15 Jul 1998 Andrei Kanchelskis Fiorentina £5.5m [2]
16 Jul 1998 Lionel Charbonnier AJ Auxerre £1.2m
16 Jul 1998 Rod Wallace Leeds United Free
31 Jul 1998 Daniel Prodan Atlético Madrid £2.2m
04 Aug 1998 Colin Hendry Blackburn Rovers £4m
06 Nov 1998 Stephane Guivarc’h Newcastle United £3.5m [1]
14 Dec 1998 Neil McCann Hearts £2m
24 Dec 1998 Stefan Klos Borussia Dortmund £0.75m
01 Jan 1999 Lee Feeney Linfield £0.1m
01 Apr 1999 Craig Moore Crystal Palace £1m [2]
13 Apr 1999 Claudio Reyna VfL Wolfsburg £2m
1999-2000
26 Jun 1999 Dariusz Adamczuk Dundee Free
01 Jul 1999 Michael Mols FC Utrecht £4m
16 Nov 1999 Tero Penttilä FC Haka £0.3m
23 Nov 1999 Thomas Myhre Everton Loan [1]
05 Dec 1999 Billy Dodds Dundee United £1.3m
22 Jan 2000 Tugay Kerimoğlu Galatasaray Undisclosed
Most interesting to see wee Billy Dodds amongst that last lot. Maybe someone should be asking him questions anaw!
HH
jimmci on 15 March, 2012 at 12:35 said:
Chairbhoy on 15 March, 2012 at 12:32 said:
Yes, the retrospective element comes into force on 6 April which is why I believe there will be no FTT finding before that date.
====================================
Although it may turn out no finding will arrive before 6th April it will have nothing to do with the changes to be effected from that date. The FTTT is not part of HMRC & HMRC have no influence over the timing of publication of findings. I understand that the FTTT have until Jan 2013 before they MUST report. It won’t be that late though – just saying.
(And in any event I think someone last night was able to confirm the changes from 6th April wouldn’t apply to the RFC case anyway).
jimmci @ 12:35,
Just three weeks away, can’t imagine a pheonix up and running before then, still you never know.
Thanks for the info.
Hail! Hail!
3 players – my jacksy! even angus og himself said he used them. you can bet yer life every snr player was/is on them.
miki67, that link goes beyond parody, it’s like a sketch from Chewin’the Fat. We’ve got th http://m.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3D1pDk75Y1SZ4&feature=player_embedded&v=1pDk75Y1SZ4&gl=GB e Thai Tims, they have this…………..
I feel a bit sorry for Michael Kelly.
It’s been nearly 20 years since the rebels won, and he still seems bitter about it today.
He is absolutely spot on in his description of the talented Mr Whyte as a scapegoat. Sir David Murray and others have shown incredible brazenness in their statements about Our Hero.
All Craig Whyte did, apart from a bit of financial prestidigitation in keeping with the Rangers tradition, was to accelerate the day or reckoning Sir David’s stewardship of Rangers had made inevitable.
I am sure that, when all loose ends are tied up, it will be confirmed that the money was just “resting” in Craig’s account.
As for lending a helping hand to our raggedy trousered neighbours from south of the river, I wholeheartedly agree.
Celtic was founded to provide charity and with Rangers openly begging for handouts they are now, officially, a charity case.
I note with satisfaction the considerable generosity already shown by Celtic supporters in pledging champion sums to the Save Rangers fund.
Perhaps Celtic should set up a soup kitchen to feed the bears. (thumbsup)
deliasmith on 15 March, 2012 at 12:11 said:
Poordeadking
I spent a fair amount of time twisting Ewan Murray’s tail about the unattributed smear. He dealt with my correspondence by ignoring it.
I like The Guardian, but it is prone to self-regard.
—————————
If you’re RealDelia, I’ve seen your badgering of Ewan Murray and defence of CFC, you do some good work. You might want to add your tuppence-worth to the latest request for Ewan to reveal his SFA source.
Here