More evidence emerged today on how Rangers recompensed players through their Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) scheme in The Sun newspaper, who have a draft contract Rangers offered an unnamed player. The contract was a letter confirming a six figure payment as well as a £1200 per game appearance bonus.
An accountant told Sun reporters Paul Thornton and Ewing Grahame:
“I have been shown a contract of employment showing how much money players were going to get but also a back letter which I presume that individual has assumed is part of his salary. It seems like a contract.
“If the two documents are handed to someone together, is that seen as being his overall package? If the answer to that is yes then there is a problem because the money that goes into the trust really should be getting taxed because it is his salary.
“The fact it is there as a back letter at all suggests it is dodgy.”
Attention is obviously drawn to the potential criminal consequences of these tax arrangements but football fans throughout the country will be alarmed that Campbell Ogilvie, the man who was general secretary and director of Rangers when the EBT scheme started, is currently president of the SFA and would have been involved in scoping out the secret remit of the SFA inquiry into Rangers, which was asked to report within an incredibly quick two week period. Ogilvie is also one of the few men the inquiry will report to.
If the allegations in today’s Sun are accurate, Rangers have improperly registered football players for a period of around a decade. The penalty for playing an improperly registered footballer in any game is a 3-0 forfeit.
When the SFA president is in a position to confirm all of this, the association have all information they require to make a ruling on this, but despite these allegations being widely reported for many months, they have yet to even acknowledge there is anything to investigate.
Can you imagine the scrutiny the Football Association in England’s board and chief executive would be exposed to if this scandal was not being actioned?
Issue six of CQN Magazine, the Fit and Proper edition, is set to become a landmark collectors item. You can browse the magazine online here but you can buy your own hard copy by clicking on the link below. Read with 20-20 vision…..
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Barrach
Cheers bud
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby says:
27 February, 2012 at 10:00
…for some reason its saying media failed
———————————————–
***sigh*** tell us something we don’t know.
;-)
Lennon N Mc….Mjallby
http://youtu.be/AufjB2Ydxmo
Here you go
Am I correct in thinking the side contracts printed by The Sun yesterday gub Rangers either way? If the details in the side contract were in the main employment contract then it would be almost impossible to argue that the EBT payments were not remuneration. Equally if the the payment details on the side contracts were not in the main registered contract with the SFA then there is no way to argue that they have breached just about every rule going regarding registering playing staff for a decade.
Is that about the crux of it?
Oh and VERY strong rumours that this morning MIH were handed the results of the FTT……bowls at the ready lads
tomtheleedstim says:
27 February, 2012 at 09:47
‘That smacks of Whyte threatening to blow the lid off if he’s left out to dry. Interesting times ahead.’
It crossed my mind yesterday that Whyte might feel inclined to tell the whole story if he feels he’s scapegoated too much.
I doubt either Murray or LBG would want that to happen.
Imatim and so is Neil Lennon says:
27 February, 2012 at 09:24
2010 Never Again
David Murray is the supreme architect of everything that is happening. Whyte is going to take one for the team (and that team aint rangers)
You can take that to the Bank….Oh! wait a minute…
share
======
‘Supreme Architect’, brilliant!!
Who’s going to be the first caller to the phone-ins to use this phrase?
I would think that there is a simple question to be asked regarding these EBT’s.
I am no financial or accounting wizard but a question I would like to see asked is…
If the EBT’s were not wages and were in fact loans, how much money from these loans
has actually been returned?
If I borrow money from a friend or a bank I do pay it back and if I didn’t I would expect
to be asked. Why not?
THOMTHELEEDSTIM 0947
If they liquidate,there will be NO newco in the Scottish League or SPL.
They will have insufficient time to organise it,check my previous posts on it.
Obviously I could be wrong,but unless someone comes up with around £120m to keep them alive,I truly believe they will be gone for good.
The greater good…….
Lennon n Mc….Mjallby
No probs pal. Check out some of the other pieces as well.
Funny thing happened to me the other day.
I attended a Well North Outer Hebrides Health Checks clinic for people who don’t visit the Doctor very often.
After filling the forms with all the usual info the nurse* asks me some routine questions about my health etc.
Everything is going ok until she asks me “have you being feeling down or depressed in the last month or so?”
I burst out laughing and after about a minute of this, she goes “I’ll take that as a no then”
“a no, could you put a smiley face instead please!”
Just can’t get enough!
HH
*Thankfully the nurse was from Cork and realised I didn’t need sectioned and was just a happy Bhoy!
If the liquidiser hits the ‘Brox it could be conceivable that there will not only not be a Rangers next year due to legal wrangling but the year after too.
The Herald indicates today that Whyte will not acquiesce with his referred creditor status and it will take a court case to sort that out. How quick do people think that would be sorted out? That could take 18 months……then the Blue Knights etc can start fighting over the carcass.
Once again their fans are not being told how bad things could get.
They will eventually rise again though, without a shadow of a doubt. What form they take however even Nostradamus would struggle to guess
From Henning Wehns latest bulletin:
Dear Friends of German Comedy,
I’m on the train back from Edinburgh and let me tell you, reading the Scottish sports pages now that Rangers went into administration requires a degree in business studies.
It’s all CVA, PAYE, HMRC, VAT, EBT, and the Companies Disqualification Act…. The Huns’ poor supporters are so busy getting their heads round the economic jargon that Celtic manager Neil Lennon hasn’t had a bullet in the post for days.
DJBEE says:
27 February, 2012 at 10:14
The loans could be for 100 years with a proviso that they die when you do.
From the Herald this morning…..
What madness made Whyte think he could treat Rangers so shabbily?
Michael Grant
Chief football writer
THE phone rang mid-morning on Thursday, March 2.
Craig Whyte was on the blower to The Herald, not at all happy. I had written that HMRC were “all over” Rangers not just because of the big tax case he inherited from Sir David Murray but also due to things that made them suspicious about Whyte himself.
The article also speculated about whether the Ticketus deal meant he may not be the preferred creditor when Rangers went into administration. The chairman and owner of Rangers Football Club, custodian of the oak-panelled boardroom and the marble staircase, described the article as “complete pish”. There was the usual talk of us maybe hearing from his lawyers, but that went without saying. We’ve heard from them before and so have plenty of others. They must have some papers and BBC Scotland on speed dial. Whyte has held only two press conferences with daily newspaper reporters during his chairmanship of Rangers and The Herald was banned from one of them. He hadn’t liked a story saying that Rangers would appear in court because of a dispute over a small, unpaid legal bill. It was true, and within hours they did, but that wasn’t the point as far as Whyte was concerned.
Plenty has been said about the slipperiness, the ability to tell a bare-faced lie, the empty promises, the sheer brass neck of this guy, but another unappealing aspect of his character has been a tendency to bully and be aggressively controlling when it came to criticism, scrutiny or investigation. Now we know why. In the epic, sweeping drama of Rangers’ collapse and his individual downfall it is the little things which sometimes seem most revealing. Whyte spoke to a BBC reporter on Thursday. For months the BBC has been in Siberia as far as Rangers were concerned, banned by Whyte for the documentary which shot to pieces his claim to have “nothing to hide” by revealing he had been disqualified from being a company director for seven years. Now, with his reputation in tatters, he took the BBC’s call and spouted that nonsense about coming back to finish what he’d started.
If that wasn’t so laughable it would be chilling.
He’s behaving like a fugitive rather than a chairman. After a week in London, he flew to Nice and he’s holed up in his apartment in Monaco, declining to talk when a journalist arrived from Glasgow to buzz his intercom over the weekend. “I’m not doing interviews” were four words more than Ally McCoist has had out of him for nearly a fortnight. Whyte looks like a guy who’s been rumbled and has fled with Strathclyde Police, HMRC, Duff and Phelps administrators and a SFA inquiry on his tail. If he has nothing to hide, he shouldn’t be acting like a guy in hiding.
Whyte’s threats and writs have no power now. In fact, what fun the newspaper or BBC solicitors could have if they ever got him in a witness box. While Duff and Phelps desperately try to find a way to save Rangers, HMRC contemplates whether deals can be done with a new regime, and Paul Murray, Dave King and others try to guess how big a black hole their cash will disappear into if they take over, the police are rummaging through the figures trying to find out if Whyte did things which could result in him being prosecuted and even jailed.
It’s up to the Crown Office to decide whether what he did was illegal or simply immoral, but it’s reasonable to suspect that as a venture capitalist the basis of his approach to Rangers was similar to his modus operandi at untold other companies in the past, many of which collapsed. With due respect to creditors and anyone who lost their jobs in those cases, the wider world didn’t care. Rangers are different. What madness possessed him to think he could get away with not paying VAT and PAYE while lying to thousands of people about what he’d done with season-ticket money? At the centre of all of this is the fact Whyte seems to have had no comprehension of the enormity of what he was getting himself into by owning Rangers.
As for that article of “complete pish” at the start of this month: HMRC soon confirmed they were all over Whyte and his status as preferred creditor has been questioned even by Duff and Phelps. The phone call, like so much else, was hot air.
And Another Thing . . .
Way, way down the list of things Rangers need to concern themselves with, but something they’ll have to address in time, is the name of their training ground. It may be absurd to talk of Murray being stripped of his knighthood over what’s happened to Rangers but there is something jarringly inappropriate about the players’ headquarters being named in his honour while fans are carrying banners saying they’ll never forgive or forget his “crimes against RFC”.
Name it after Walter Smith, or Bill Struth, or umpteen other candidates – or even raise a few quid by flogging off naming rights – but one way or another it has to change. And it would be a nice gesture if Murray came out and said so himself.
For a bit of balance I speak to an old timer every now and again, passkeeper at the pineapple, played for Celtic in the pre Stein 60’s, and then for a couple of other Scottish clubs. He laughs when says he was at Celtic and everyone (including him) felt they never got a break from the refs, every wee decision when against them. When he played for the ‘wee teams’ he thought the refs were influenced all the time by the big crowd at Celtic Park!
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS says:
27 February, 2012 at 10:14
Agree with that analysis. What I would say is that a fans group could buy another team and do an Airdrie. I believe the SFA will allow this to happen. It means their history goes tho and hopefully they take years to even compete with the rest in the SPL while we rack up titles and compete in Europe. Donald Findlay is at Cowdenbeath. I always thought it was strange that he was there. Never really struck me as a football fan just a bigot. Maybe I am just putting two and two together but could Cowdenbeath become Newco Rangers?
LB
Mr B Winklepickers
You are absolutely spot on! The timeline for a Newco is against them. The longer they are in Admin
before liquid the better. If they do not go liquid before long then no hunsrus next season!
Thanks snake could not get mr cloud working
But no problems with mr tube :)
What happens if they are liquidated THIS season?
praecepta says:
27 February, 2012 at 09:52
tomtheleedstim says:
27 February, 2012 at 09:47
goldstar10 says:
27 February, 2012 at 09:40
That smacks of Whyte threatening to blow the lid off if he’s left out to dry. Interesting times ahead.
Conspiracy requires more than one player!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good point,plenty dirty laundry to come.
On the other hand,from Dylan’s “Desire” album and a track about a small-time hoodlum,Joey.
“They done him on conspiracy,they were never sure who with”
RogueLeader,
Payments for appearance fees are clearly for football related activity and, if paid though an EBT, clearly come through a third party. That’s against the rules in itself.
Either the letters were registered with the SFA and they knew about the breach of the rules, or the huns were in breach for not registering them.
There’s no way out here.
Ernie – maybe he is also standing his ground against the increasing clamour for him to back down from the floating charge he holds. There seems to be a momentum building for him to walk away (I know they don’t) and leave the whole stinking package for the vultures to pick up.
Whyte might be firing a warning shot that he has no intentions of losing out on the fixed assets.
Either way it does seem that there has been a hell of a lot of pre-ordained steps in this process and that maybe old Whytey wasn’t the only one in on the plan.
kitalba says:
27 February, 2012 at 08:50
The collated information was destroyed, however the raw data is still available for anyone who wants to re-collate the information. Charge sheets, arrest records, court reports etc, are still available to the authorities, should they choose to use the info, not likely tho’.
Vinny bhoy -Gold star
Well I was not close to the McCall incident so I accept what you say.
It was a throw in to us but a little unclear.
Seems a minor incident for the 4th official to be over-ruling.
Snake Plissken at 10:25
What happens if they are liquidated THIS season?
We party like never before.
Mort
If they do go liquid does anyone know where I could get one of these EBT loans?……
Anyone…..
Hello…..
Anyone there…
Tully57 –
wan bad aipple/orange disny waste the barrel
JoeHarper,ML2
murdochbhoy says:
27 February, 2012 at 07:28
Good morning CQNers from MK where it’s a fine morning.
With all the investigations into Rangers perhaps the most telling will be the one that Paul67 highlights, namely the SFA’s investigation.
Peter Lawwell’s interventions have been timed to perfection so far, I’d expect he’ll have something to say about the SFA’s inquiry and transparency in the next couple of days
share
murdochbhoy . like many on here i would like to know when the investigation INTO THE SFA is going to commence.
jimtim
The Fall Of The House Of Murray….
Just imagine if the ‘official’ contracts for all these EBTing hun players over the years that had been lodged at the SFA showed they were on a ‘salary’ (not including EBT payments) equivalent to that available at MFC, KFC etc, etc.
Something stinks to high heaven here…
.
The End is Nigh..4:45pm Tues..
Set Your Alarm and Jelly..
Summa
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS actually posits an interesting scenario.
They are liquidated now, or steps taken to do so. Whyte refuses to give up his preferred creditor status and his security over the assets, the assets being what would allow somebody to run a football team in Govan. It will require a court case to do so. There is no way that could be sorted in time to have a team presented to play in Scottish football for the season 2012/13.
What happens then?
There is surely no way they would play an 11 team SPL next year. The 1st division team would have to be promoted etc so there would be a space at the bottom of Div 3. Would NewCo Rangers be ready in time to apply for that space for 2014/15? If not how long would the SFA keep a slot open? How long could they?
Tick Tock Tick Tock
Rogueleader – the side letters prove there was a contractual arrangement to pay the players a regular fixed sum from the trust fund, this equates to an employment contract and for the tax case at least represents the ‘smoking gun’.
The core principle of a “trust” is that payments are discretionary and are based on the auspices under which the trust is established. Beneficiaries are supposed to make an application for funds, the trustee evaluates the application and pays the beneficiary if their needs meet the conditions of the trust.
The registered SPL/SFA contracts is another matter, once you’ve established that additional contracts existed you’ve then got to establsh whether those contracts were registered with the SPL/SFA in the prescribed manner, unless I’ve missed some news I don’t think this has been ascertained as yet.
A wee walk down memory lane…
Graham Spiers vs. Urine Cameron
——————————————————————————–
Graham Spiers versus Real Radio on a recent phone in program with Ewan Cameron.
Rangers Supporters Trust caller: “Mr Spiers can you recall an article you wrote in November 2003?”
Spiers replied immediately: “Of course I do, that was the Old Trafford article were I highlighted the embarrassing, sectarian bile sang by the vast majority of the Rangers fans that night. Songs like we’re up to our knees in Fenian blood and f…. the Pope. Are you saying those songs AREN’T uncivilised?”
A lengthy pause and then the Orc recovered his composure.
The Orc replied: “Eh, eh, um, eh, but what about the Celtic fans and their up the IRA songs?”
Spiers: “Yes, I found that also offensive and I’ve also written articles criticising them. I think you’ve got some cack-handed conspiracy theory about me. Would you like me to give you details of the articles?”
Long silence……..
Spiers 1 Orcs 0
Ewan Cameron then decided to have his first attack on Spiers.
Cameron: “Graham, you are the Chief Sportswriter at The Herald, should you be writing such comments (about the Rangers fans) on a Sports page?”
An astounded Spiers: “I certainly should. You think I shouldn’t mention it at all?”
Quick-wittedly, Cameron replied: “Eh, eh, um, but, but”
Spiers 2 Orcs 0
Now Cameron decided to play his ace card, and in a sombre tone read out word for word David Murray’s recent statement accusing the media of constantly criticising the Rangers board, players, fans, manager, etc.
Cameron: “Well Graham, what was your reaction when you first heard that?”
Spiers: “I chuckled. It’s laughable that the man who is fawned over by the Scottish media is trying to make out that there are panzer divisions of critics after him. He fell out with me because I criticised him for the financial situation at the club and the bigotry within the Rangers fans. He has since admitted I was right and has tried to do something about it”
Cameron was now clearly unhappy that Spiers isn’t in the least worried by Murray’s threats and asked him: “Do you think Rangers have got a bigger sectarian problem than Celtic?”
Spiers: “It would be wrong to tarnish all fans of both clubs, but yes, Rangers have it worse, and their decent fans are embarrassed by the thousands who have one brain cell between them, who missed out on civilisation and who still chant f….the Pope etc.“
Spiers 3 Orcs
Now Ian from Paisley (alias the Barman from Follow Follow), the first of the real knuckle-draggers, and who has an unfortunate speech impediment, which means he talks about the “Wainjurs”. He immediately goes off on a rant:
“Mr Spiers, the Celtic fans have voted you their favourite journal (I think he meant journalist) for the last 5 years. Well we despise you. So that tells its own story!”
Now the knuckle-dragger is in full flow and starts rambling about the Celtic minded. “Mr Spiers can you remind me what Fergus McCann said about the Celtic minded?”
Spiers: I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about
Knuckle-dragger: ”McCann said Celtic minded equals Roman Catholic”
Stunned silence, as the studio try to fathom what relevance this statement has. Ian from Paisley is disconnected.
Spiers 4 Orcs
Next on is Grandmaster Suck
Suck: “Hi there, my names Matt, and I’m an educated Rangers fan.” (Surely an oxymoron) “Why do you exaggerate the bigotry at Ibrox but don’t mention the songs that Man Utd fans sing?”
Spiers: “I’m a SCOTTISH Sports Writer”
Suck: “You hear things at Ibrox that no one else ever hears. For instance Klinsman is a klansman”
Spiers: “So what about the 30,000 at Ibrox chanting F…. the Pope? Do you agree it is embarrassing and uncivilised? Do you agree with David Murray who stated it is indefensible?”
Suck: “Em, eh, eh,…….I don’t share your views on the Pope”
Spiers: “I’m a Baptist!”
This makes Suck look very silly, but he is still given plenty of opportunity to condemn the shameful chants. Suck refuses. He’s exposed as a bigot, albeit an allegedly educated one, and the show producer shows him the door.
Spiers 5 Orcs
Giuseppe, an Italian Rangers fan, confirms his fellow countrymen don’t want the huns in Milan following their shameful behaviour in Parma. Ewan Cameron can’t believe this sensible Rangers fan has slipped through the net and threatens Giuseppe that thousands will still travel, making it sound like Custer’s last stand.
Spiers 6 Orcs
The show is now drawing to an end and Cameron, not the most intelligent of presenters, decides to have one last go at Spiers. Once again he asks, “Do you believe Rangers have a bigger problem than Celtic?
Spiers: Yes.”
Cameron then tries to change tact by stating the bloody obvious: “Graham, would you agree this is a society problem? If so, why do you focus on Rangers and football?
Spiers: “Because I am a Sports Writer”
Cameron: “So why keep highlighting Rangers. I don’t understand it. I just can’t see it.”
Spiers, patronisingly: “No, I don’t think you will see it actually.”
Spiers 7 Orcs
Now Cameron really spits the dummy: “I don’t agree with the articles you write about Rangers”
Spiers: “I thought you didn’t read the Herald?”
Cameron “Eh, eh, em, err, ……people send me in copies. I wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole, I don’t agree with it.”
Spiers now realises that Cameron is on the ropes, intellectually defenceless.
Spiers:”So you don’t agree with the Herald, but you’ve never read it? Are there too many big words in it for you? Is it the joined up writing?”
Final Score – Spiers 8 Orcs 0
——————————————————————————–
medtim says:
27 February, 2012 at 09:16
Yes, Green Mondays on Cyprus are a bit special. It’s nice to see all the Dads coming out and enjoying their picnics and having lots of fun with their families. Also believe the weather is back to normal after a wet winter. Enjoy this special day and I am very envious. Unfortunately we are selling our lovely villa in Peyia ( anyone interested?) so we will not be able to enjoy them so often in the future.
there are insufficient funds to see out march far less till the end of the season
there will be redundancies within the playing staff this week
UNLESS there is a positive outcome from the tax case verdict SOON
the end is nigh
golf club gossip?
yeah but one of the gossips just happened to be employed in a senior position at ibrox until relatively recently when he felt that he had to leave by his own accord.
there is a real belief this could all come to fruition soon.
Snake Plissken,
If they are liquidated during the season, there will be no relegation. All of their results will be removed and the league table recalculated. The first division champions will be promoted and we will have a 12 team league again next season.
At least that’s what the SPL rules say will happen.
Snake Plissken,
If there are liquidated during the season, the league table will be recalculated after removing all of their results. There will be no relegation and the remaining eleven teams will play on. At the end of the season the first division champions will be promoted and we will have a twelve team league again next season.
At least that’s what the SPL Rules say should happen.
I’m warming to the idea of them not being “ready” for season 2012/13.
Taking a sabbatical, if you will.
We will need music to mark this beautiful limbo situation.
“By The Time I Get To Phoenix”.
pigalle