“The appeal is dismissed.” With those words at the Supreme Court in London at 9:52 this morning, Rangers tax cheating was established as fact. The charlatans who manipulated Scottish football fans were shown to be the disgrace they are.
Rangers made unlawful payments, totalling many millions of pounds, to footballers, who, by the club’s own admission in court, they would have been unable to recruit if they had to pay tax and National Insurance contributions for.
They lied to HMRC.
They also hid documents from HMRC, which only came to light during a City of London Police raid on Ibrox.
They hid documents from the SPL and SFA, failing to honestly register dozens of players.
They cheated the tax man.
They cheated the welfare state, the NHS, the police, councils, schools. They cheated the Army and other services.
The SPL’s (now called Scottish Professional Football League) Commission into these matters must now be set aside. It was conducted on the assumption that Rangers acted legally. Lord Nimmo Smith was clear that his conclusions were predicated on this point. A fresh commission is required, we cannot just allow the biggest cheats in British sporting history wander off into the distance.
The SFA has failed to call Sir David Murray to account, or the other directors of Rangers, who had explicit responsibility to ensure the club acted within the laws of the land and within the rules of football, both of which it failed to do.
Murray should be sine died. God knows, I cherish every moment Dave King controls things at Ibrox, but he was a director of Rangers with legal responsibility for its actions. They should all be censured.
NEW CQN PODCAST WITH SFA PRESIDENT ALAN RAE OUT NOW!
Episode 2 of ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ finds Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham discussing a variety of topical subjects concerning Celtic Football Club, including:
* Callum McGregor: The Youth of Today;
* Death of the Cult Hero;
* Norwegian Wood – Ronnie Deila’s Exit Interview;
* Farewell to The Stone Roses;
* Hillsborough: The Truth.
Paul John Dykes also chats to SFA President, Alan McRae, to challenge him over recent comments made about Celtic’s domination of Scottish football.
Connect with A Celtic State of Mind @PaulDykes and @CQNMagazine or just listen using the link below…
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another wee gem over on Munter media ……….. the 2nd rangers dont have any friendly games scheduled as they thought they would be doing european qualifiers,
they are out of action for 32 days before the next fixture.
hahahahha,
scrambling now to put together closed doors fixtures.
hhaahahahha
Personally I’d like to see the titles stripped but not re-awarded to anyone else. Put asterisks and explanations in every record book from here to eternity – Scotland’s permanent shame.
The FTT, while recognising that the scheme was an aggressive
tax avoidance scheme (para 193), held in a decision dated 29 October 2012 (by a
majority, being Mr Mure and Mr Rae) that the scheme was effective in avoiding
liability to income tax and NIC
This was because the FTT considered the steps in
the scheme were not shams and that the employees had received only a loan of the
moneys which the employing companies paid to the trusts. The Upper Tribunal (Tax
and Chancery Chamber) (Lord Doherty), in a
decision dated 8 July 2014, upheld the
FTT’s decision, because it detected no error of law in the majority’s reasoning.
Rangers Tax-Case @rangerstaxcase 57m
More
There is also the issue of potential criminality involved in Rangers’ 2011 UEFA license application. This must be investigated.
lest we forget
——
WHO GOT WHAT
Alan Hutton £364,000 . Made debut in 2002 and played 94 games, before £9million move to Spurs.
Alex McLeish £1.7million . Managed Rangers from 2001-06.
Alex Rae £569,000 . Midfielder arrived at Ibrox in 2004 and spent two years there. Played 34 games.
Andrei Kanchelskis £145,000 . Russian winger arrived from Fiorentina in 1998 for £5.5million.
Andrew Dickson £33,000 . Head of football administration since 2003. Previously financial controller at Ibrox.
Arthur Numan £510,000 . Dutch full-back arrived at Rangers from PSV Eindhoven in 1998 for £4.5million. Played 118 times.
Barry Ferguson £2.5million . Former youth player who became Rangers captain. Played at Ibrox from 1996-2003 and 2005-09.
Bert Konterman £300,000 . Dutch defender signed by Dick Advocaat for £4.5million in 2000.
Bert Van Lingen £65,000 . Assistant manager under Dick Advocaat from 1998 to 2002.
Billy Dodds £190,000 . Arrived in a £1.5million deal from Dundee United in 1999.
Bob Malcolm £125,000. Central defender started his career with Rangers in 1997. Played 88 games. Left for Derby County in 2006.
Carlos Cuellar £448,255 . Spanish centre-half arrived from Osasuna in £2.37million deal in 2007. Moved to Aston Villa in 2008.
Chris Burke £55,000 . Started career at Rangers, playing 96 games from 2002 to 2009. Left for Cardiff City.
Christian Nerlinger £1.8million . German midfielder signed from Borrusia Dortmund in 2001 and left in 2004.
Claudio Caniggia £1million . Argentinian signed from Dundee for £1million in 2001.
Craig Moore £1.1million . Australian centre-half played more than 90 games from 1994-98. Returned in 1999 and stayed until 2005.
Dado Prso £1.9million . Croatian striker was free transfer in 2004. Left for Dinamo Zagreb in 2007.
Dan Eggen £68,000 . Norwegian central defender signed in 2003 from Spanish club Alaves.
Sir David Murray £6.3million . Owned club from 1988-2011. They won 15 titles and 26 cups. Sold shares to Craig Whyte for £1.
Dick Advocaat £1.5million . Rangers manager from 1998-2002. Spent almost £74million to win five trophies, including two titles.
Douglas Odam £119,000 . Finance director for 15 years. Left in 2003 to take up a role within
Sir David Murray’s business empire.
Egil Ostenstad £370,000 . Norwegian forward signed from Blackburn on free transfer in 2003.
Fernando Ricksen £684,225 . Dutch right-back signed in 2000 from AZ Alkmaar for £3.75million.
Federico Nieto £24,500 . Argentine striker joined on loan deal in 2005 from Almagro. Scored once in three matches.
Gavin Rae £376,000 . Midfielder signed from Dundee in 2004 for a fee of £250,000. Moved to Cardiff in 2007.
George Adams £30,000 . Ex-player was head of youth development between 2003-05.
Graeme Souness £30,000 . Player-manager from 1986-91.
Gregory Vignal £173,000 . French defender joined on loan from Liverpool in 2004. Moved to Portsmouth in 2005.
Ian McGuinness £25,400 . Club doctor sacked after Paul Le Guen left.
Ian Murray £95,000 . Midfielder was free transfer from Hibernian in 2006. Left in 2007.
Jan Wouters £285,000 . Former Dutch midfielder joined as a coach under Dick Advocaat, then Alex McLeish. Left in 2006.
Jean-Alain Boumsong £630,000 . French centre-half joined in 2004 on free transfer. Moved to for Newcastle for £8million.
Jerome Bonnissel £48,000 . French left-back arrived in 2003 from Bordeaux.
Jesper Christiansen £320,000 . Danish goalkeeper signed in 2000 as injury cover.
Joel Le Hir £28,275 . Paul Le Guen-appointed physiotherapist from 2006 to 2007.
John Greig £40,000 . Played for club from 1961-78. Managed Rangers from 1978 to 1983. Later became a director.
John McClelland £225,000 . Appointed a director in 2000. Chairman from 2002 to 2004. Resigned last year.
Julien Rodriguez £638,000 . French centre-half signed from Monaco in 2005 for £1million. Left for Marseille in 2007.
Kevin Muscat £1million . Australian defender joined from Wolves in 2002 on free transfer. Joined Millwall in 2003.
Kris Boyd £215,000 . Signed from Kilmarnock in 2006 for £500,000. Left in 2010.
Libor Sionko £178,000 . Czech midfielder signed from Austria Vienna in 2006. Played 18 matches before signing Copenhagen in 2007.
Lorenzo Amoruso £639,000 . Italian defender signed from Fiorentina for £4million in 1997. Moved to Blackburn Rovers for £1.4million in 2003.
Martin Bain £249,000 . Chief executive of Rangers from 2005 to 2011. Resigned after Murray sold club to Whyte.
Marvin Andrews £316,025 . Centre-half from Trinidad and Tobago joined from Livingston in 2004.
Maurice Ross £120,000 . Played 78 games for Rangers from 2000 to 2005, before moving to Sheffield Wednesday.
Michael Ball £1.4million . Left-back signed from Everton in 2001 for £6.5million. Moved to PSV Eindhoven in 2005.
Michael Mols £260,000 . Dutch striker joined Rangers under Dick Advocaat. He arrived in 1999 and spent five years at Ibrox.
Mikel Arteta £674,603 . Spanish midfielder joined in 2002 and played 50 matches, scoring 12 goals. Moved to Everton.
Nacho Novo £1.2million. Spanish striker joined in 2004 from Dundee for £450,000.
Neil McCann £500,000 . Winger joined from Hearts in 1998 for £2million.
Nuno Capucho £970,000 . Portuguese winger who arrived in 2003 for £700,000.
Olivier Bernard £224,000 . French defender arrived on a free transfer in 2005.
Paolo Vanoli £592,000 . Italian left-back joined from Bologna in 2003 and played in 28 matches.
Tore Andre Flo
Tore Andre Flo was given £1.3m from the EBT cheme
Paul Le Guen £201,250 . French manager replaced Alex McLeish in 2006. Left in January 2007 after a string of poor results.
Pedro Mendes £1million . Portuguese midfielder joined in 2008 for £3million. Joined Vituria Guimares in 2010.
Peter Lovenkrands £902,000 . Danish winger arrived in 2000 from Akademisk Boldklub for £1.3million.
Ronald De Boer £1.2million . Dutch midfielder joined in 2000 under Advocaat.
Ronald Waterreus £510,000 . Dutch goalkeeper joined Rangers in 2004 from Manchester City.
Sasa Papac £319,000 . Bosnian left-back arrived in 2006 from Austria Vienna for £450,000.
Sotirios Kyrgiakos £532,200 . Greek centre-half signed from Panathinaikos in 2005.
Stefan Klos £2million . German international keeper signed in 1999 for £800,000. Join Bayer Leverkusen in 2007.
Stephane Wiertelak £28,275 . French fitness-physiotherapy coach joined Rangers in 2006 under Le Guen.
Steven Davis £600,000 . Northern Ireland midfielder. Left for Southampton in the summer.
Steven Smith £7500 . Defender came through youth ranks and made debut in 2004.
Steven Thompson £485,000 . Joined from Dundee United in 2003 for £200,000. Went to Cardiff City in 2006.
Tero Penttila £140,000 . Finnish defender joined in 1999 for £300,000 from Haka Valkeakoski. Left in 2002 to join HJK Helsinki.
Thomas Buffel £1.2million. Belgian midfielder joined in 2005 for £2.3million from Feyenoord.
Tore Andre Flo £1.3million . Norwegian striker joined from Chelsea in 2000 for £12million. Sold for £6.75million to Sunderland in 2002.
Yves Colleau £106,200 . Former French midfielder served as assistant to Le Guen at Rennes, Lyon and Rangers from 2006 to 2007.
Zurab Khizanishvili £405,000 . Georgian defender joined on a free transfer from Dundee in 2003. Moved to Blackburn Rovers in 2005.
LEFTCLICKTIC
That’s what we want..
Mon The Handcuffs!
Gloating aside
have we bought anyone else since last week
Impatient CSC
Ben Johnson
Lance Armstrong
Rangers (IL)
An unique collection of people who stop at nothing to cheat and undermine sporting integrity
Strip those titles
HH
CRC
My expectations:
a) SFA will do SFA
b) SPFL will do SFA
c) Celtic will do SFA
d) Powder will finally fall to a flooding accident and be announced that it requires an infinity to dry out before being kept dry again.
MWD
Saltires
Great post.
MWD
31,875,426 tickets for #SPL games during the “EBT years” were purchased by fans of ALL Scottish Premier League clubs in those nine years.
BBC – “The court’s decision is not expected to have any material or financial impact on Rangers now as the club is owned by a different company”!
As this is an appeal on a point of law and as the UT did not make separate
findings of fact, I derive my summary of the facts from the judgment of the majority
of the FTT. Some of those findings are terse and require explanation from the
documents which were before the FTT and have been made available to this court.
Dr Poon, who wrote the minority judgment, made additional findings of fact, which
she derived principally from the documents before her. I do not have regard to her
findings in so far as they are inconsistent with those of the majority. I refer to her
findings on two occasions, first, where they explain findings by the majority which
need clarification (para29 below) and, secondly, as a check on a conclusion which I have reached based on the majority’s findings (para 27below). I state below when
I am drawing on her findings for these purposes.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-the-former-rangers-players-paid-1447843
Piggy banks of the above being emptied. Love to tap phones of Minty, Barry and Alex Rae….imagine what conversations are taking place right now….
I find Alex Rae particularly Hunnish. For someone so stupid he has a particularly superior and condescending manner. Most hilarious is when he tries to modify his accent and diction for Sky…but inevitably exposes his thickness with some grammatical clangers. This will likely only make him angrier as he doesn’t do humility.
Wee Baz is just a numpty but in fairness he could play the game.
Minty is a criminal pure and simple as that.
Ah mean,…..
see if, the PLC didn’t have the cojones….
to fight the Tonev case…..
why do you think that….
they’ll act on this ?
………………………….
prediction……..
if, 53,000 season tickets are sold…..
the PLC will, brass it out and,…..
use Brendan as a shield, which,….
imho, is the very reason that, Brendan….
was recruited in the first place…..
to get the PLC off with their inaction.
……off-oot.
Para 24 of judgement –
“The SFA required football clubs to register players’ contracts with it. RFC registered the contracts of employment but did not disclose the side-letters to the SFA”
Boom!
PTLawwell@celticfc.co.uk
Best though to write an old fashioned letter and put a stamp on it.
Emails easily ignored!
MWD
he is at it allready – murray, strip the knighthood.
lesterpiggot csc
——————
Rangers have lost their long-running dispute over a tax avoidance scheme after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
Lord Hodge announced in court that five Supreme Court judges had unanimously dismissed an appeal by the liquidators of oldco Rangers.
HMRC had lost two earlier tribunal hearings over the Employee Benefit Trust scheme before a ruling in their favour in the Court of Session in Edinburgh in November 2015.
About £50 million was paid to dozens of Rangers players and staff through an EBT scheme administered by the Murray Group, then majority shareholder of the Glasgow club, from 2001 to 2009. The club contended these should be classified as loans but HMRC insisted they were taxable earnings.
READ MORE
How to watch Rangers big tax case live judgement from Supreme Court due today
The pensioner is believed to have watched Rangers play Hearts
The Supreme Court ruled in HMRC’s favour (Photo: PA Wire)
The result will mean the creditors of RFC2012 will receive less money from the pot collected by liquidators BDO, as HMRC will now be owed even more money. Rangers, then run by Craig Whyte, went into administration in February 2012 over a separate tax debt and the tax authority rejected a creditors agreement in June of that year.
The result is a major victory for HMRC in its attempts to recoup tax from thousands of other companies which ran EBTs and similar schemes, which were the subject of a crackdown in legislation enacted in December 2010.
In a written judgment, the judges said: “The sums paid to the trustee of the Principal Trust for a footballer constituted the footballer’s earnings. The risk that the trustee might not set up a sub-trust or give a loan of the sub-trust funds to the footballer does not alter the nature of the payments made to the trustee of the Principal Trust .
“The discretionary bonuses made available to RFC’s employees through the same trust mechanisms also fall within the tax charge as these were given in respect of the employee’s work.
“Payment to the Principal Trust should have been subject to deduction of income tax under the PAYE Regulations.”
Former Rangers chairman Sir David Murray expressed his disappointment with the verdict.
READ MORE
Oldco Rangers set to discover ‘big tax case’ fate next week
Sir David Murray is disappointed with the decision (Photo: PA)
In a statement issued, Sir David said: “I am hugely disappointed that the Supreme Court has upheld the decision of the Court of Session, reversing the decisions of the specialist tax First Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal in this matter.
“The decision runs counter to the legal advice which was consistently provided to Rangers Football Club, that on the basis of the law and legal precedent at the time, the contributions made to the trust were not earnings and should not be taxed as such.
“It should be emphasised that there have been no allegations made by HMRC or any of the courts that the club was involved in tax evasion, which is a criminal offence.
“The decision will be greeted with dismay by the ordinary creditors of the club, many of which are small businesses, who will now receive a much lower distribution in the liquidation of the club, which occurred during the ownership of Craig Whyte, than may otherwise have been the case.
“I have not had the opportunity to discuss the decision in detail with Tax Counsel, but will do so, particularly in light of proposed legislation, which will alter the tax position applying to loans made by trusts to employees. Once the impact has been assessed, a further statement will be issued.”
Paul67
Look forward to hear your views on how our club should now act.
Powder has never been drier.
MWD
Macjay1,
I was taken to my first Celtic game in 1950 and from 1951 my father took my brother and me to Celtic Park, Parkhead in those days, to every game.
Apart from when I played Boys Guild football, we went to as many games, home and away, until he died in 1978.
I left Glasgow shortly afterwards.
I had the privilege of taking my two sons, two of my daughters plus a grandson to games.
Hopefully the faith has been passed
on, but they will never have the experiences that I have had, through Celtic, over the past 67 years, culminating today with the definitive exposure of the villains of Ibrox.
Thanks dad.
The gift that keeps on breeding like a rabbit
HAPPY HOOOOOOPY BIRTHDAY to
TULLY57!!!!!
Btw,my Dad wanted that for his moniker,I had to break it to him gently…
alex thomson
Verified account
@alextomo 60m
60 minutes ago
More
The governance of Scottish football under Regan and Doncaster is totally exposed by the Supreme Court. The position of both is untenable.
Paragraph 24 of the Supreme Court Judgement
24.
The Scottish Football Association (“SFA”) required football clubs to register
players’ contracts with it. RFC registered the contracts of employment but did not
disclose the sideletters to the SFA.
Been off grid for a few days…………………………..
Have I missed anything………………………….
BigJoe………………….backondryland
WHAT KIND OF JUSTICE SYSTEM IS IT THAT CAN FIND SDM GUILTY AND CRAIG WHYTE INNOCENT.?
SALTIRESINSEVILLA
Wow,first-class.
MAY 1967 COMES HOME WITH A VENGEANCE.
The thought of that wee runt Neil McCann waiting on Hector dropping a large bill for unpaid tax through his door .
youknowwhatimeanCSC
Interesting (in bold) from BBC website on BTC …
Former Rangers chairman Sir David Murray said he was “hugely disappointed” with the verdict, which he said ran counter to the legal advice which was consistently provided to Rangers Football Club.
He said: “It should be emphasised that there have been no allegations made by HMRC or any of the courts that the club was involved in tax evasion, which is a criminal offence.
“The decision will be greeted with dismay by the ordinary creditors of the club, many of which are small businesses, who will now receive a much lower distribution in the liquidation of the club, which occurred during the ownership of Craig Whyte, than may otherwise have been the case.”
The basis of this appeal
32.
The majority of the FTT found that the trusts and the loans were valid and
were not shams. It refused to hold that the trustee was a cipher and concluded that
the trustee genuinely exercised discretion in its appointments upon the subtrusts
and the making of the loans. HMRC does not challenge those findings in its defence
of this appeal.
Our club have done well so far to stay out of this and keep the powder dry.
The day has no come to have our say and make it very clear where we as a club and PLC stand on this.
As if things couldn’t get any worse after last night’s Sevxit from Europa League plus losing the BTC appeal to HMRC (implications pending), Pedro has lost out on his top signing target as Messi signs Barca contract extension to 2021.
MWD
I’m with you.
Move along timmy………………….
Re supreme court ruling .
Jimtim delighted to be wrong again . HH
There’s just not enough tinfoil in the world
Chris Graham @ChrisGraham76 2m2 minutes ago
You need to have an engrained loser mentality to try to remove titles won fairly on the pitch. But of course we are dealing with losers.
MOONBEAMSWD on 5TH JULY 2017 10:55 AM
My expectations:
a) SFA will do SFA
b) SPFL will do SFA
c) Celtic will do SFA
d) Powder will finally fall to a flooding accident and be announced that it requires an infinity to dry out before being kept dry again.
Sadly,I fear that your post is the most accurate today.The only entity which can change this is Celtic FC.
My fellow Tims, please spare a thought for poor Davidopoulos who has no zombies nearby to mock in person…