Walter Smith was not named by BBC’s Mark Daly as a recipient of an Employee Benefit Trust in the recent documentary, however, before this matter is put to bed I expect more names to emerge. As soon as Smith makes himself available to a proper journalist he will be asked:
Did he receive EBT loan payments from Rangers?
If so:
Did he repay those loans or hold his cash while the club ran out of money and died?
Was he in receipt of a letter from Rangers confirming he was not required to repay?
Did his then employers, the Scottish FA, know he was perhaps receiving money from a member club while employed by them?
Are SFA employees contractually inhibited from taking payments from a member club or required to inform the SFA board of any payments received by a member club?
Did his earlier employers, Everton FC, know if he was receiving money from another club while employed by them?
Was Smith contractually inhibited from taking payments from another club or required to inform Everton of any payments received from another club?
As manager of Rangers, was he involved in negotiations with players who had EBTs or was he another one who concentrated on administrative and legislative duties?
Was he one of the men SFA president, Campbell Ogilvie, suggested failed to reveal side contracts to the Rangers board?
Rangers’ liquidators, BDO, will forensically pour over most of these questions, so Smith’s answers will be verifiable.
No one who played an active part in Rangers EBT scandal will come out of this clean. The ramifications multiply if Rangers were discretely paying any senior employee of another club.
I simply cannot imagine the justification for a member club discretely paying a senior employee of the SFA. Frankly, it would be beyond every Celtic fan’s most paranoid fantasies. I am sure Mr Smith will quickly and easily be able to reassure everyone.
An interesting twist in Smith’s bid for the assets of Rangers is that if he is to inherit Green’s application for a SFA licence and take a controlling interest in the club, Green is obliged to do due diligence on Smith to determine if he is a Fit and Proper person. Perhaps Mr Green can use the above as his due diligence questionnaire.
One final thought. In the unlikely event that it is established that one senior SFA employee was receiving discrete payments from Rangers, we need an immediate and independent inquiry to establish how many others received such payments and what they were for.
As a matter of some urgency I would recommend Stewart Regan brings himself up to speed on this one. I am sure his president is banging the table as you read this insisting the chief executive gets to the bottom of this. It’s not as though he is heavily conflicted and the SFA is in dire need of an independent president to steady the ship.
My friends in Celtic, this just got interesting.
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Some tweets below bhoys.
Fritz A. Grandold @fritzagrandold
The NewRangers company name ‘The Rangers Football Club’ has the same name as the old company minus the ‘plc’ bit.
The SPL must reject their transfer of share and the SFA should have a long think about the membership.
These things cannot be transferred in the mind of any sane person who has been following this. It’s an awful precedent and ruins the game.
The only way I can accept NewRangers if they forgo OldRangers SPL share and SFA membership and start from where a new team starts.
By the laws of the game, if applications are successful, NewRangers will keep everything apart from debt. How can that be right?
“All this negative energy dealing with this bid and that bid is diverting away from resolving outstanding issues with the SFA and sitting down with members of the SPL and asking them if we can come back in their club,” Green said.
“No-one had confidence we would buy the club. I’ve got confidence in Charles Green. I knew on February 20 we would buy the club. That’s why I’ve been working for four months. All we have is distrust, that I’m Craig Whyte’s man or that we haven’t got any money, or that we’re going to use season ticket money. It just goes on forever.”
Green obviously in need of some Feng Shui…
hen1rik on 15 June, 2012 at 09:33
Some tweets below bhoys.
Fritz A. Grandold @fritzagrandold
The NewRangers company name ‘The Rangers Football Club’ has the same name as the old company minus the ‘plc’ bit.
Write a letter to trading standards.
Fritz A. Grandold @fritzagrandold
No-one seems to be mentioning this scandal, there’s no opinion pieces about how this shouldn’t happen. It’s all about their SPL status.
Paul67
Another top post, keep the pressure on them.
So dignified wattie steps up to the plate, with his tax dodging consortium.
I do like the sound of Green, hope he stands firm when the parcels start turning up at his local sorting office.
No Newco, not now , not never.
St Stivs
Good Man.
Postcode update on Lantern lighting.
G77
G71
PA (whatever St Stivs is)
& hunners mair
feel free to add….
I too have doubts that any journalists will ask these questions. Will Stewart Regan? If not it may have to be a case for the courts.
DBBIA – likewise to you :-)
Paul
You’ve done it again:
“My friends in Celtic, this just got interesting.”
Vintage stuff!
Paul
There was me thinking my day at work yesterday could not bettered. Then I come in to read this!!!
This is so much fun! It’s almost like there is a Dossier of information out there whereby one can snip at the details and dish them out at exactly the right time.
Keep it coming.
HH
ZKS
Show me the money !!
Postcode update on Lantern lighting.
G77, G71, PA 7
please add.
hen1rik – The NewRangers company name ‘The Rangers Football Club’ has the same name as the old company minus the ‘plc’ bit.
Like a particularly shameless band of rogue plumbers. (thumbsup)
G69 will be lighting the sky.
So FUBAR FC is gone, but the fighting and disgrace continues. Of all the things that Walter Smith could have done, undermining Green on day 1 is the most outrageous, ego-centric and destructive.
Rangers’ history was officially floccinaucinihilipilificated yesterday.
Now, after the annihilation, civil war. Bravo Walter. Bravo.
(Must say, modren official floccinaucinihilipilifications of Rangers’ history isn’t rubbish)
Paul67,
So, you’re taking us off on another journey, I’m thinking of calling you Garmin – keep up the good work.
Paul67…you missed out an “only” between “that” and “one” in your third from last paragraph.
Really need to eradify these mistypes…
One of Green’s investors states it has cost them £10 Million to purchase rangers and if anyone wants to buy them out it will take ‘multiples’ of that figure to do it.
Well they did get a property deal worth £110 Million for just £5.5 Million. Who is going to walk away from that…
Postcode update on Lantern lighting.
G77, G71, PA7 , G69,
please add.
murdochbhoy – I’m thinking of calling you “Howling Mad” Murdoch. (thumbsup)
THere’s a thin line between clever cloggery and smarty pantsery..
alex thomson @alextomo
If Smith’s got nothing to hide on EBT payments theb he can issue a ful disclosure today. Simple.
The man with no surname gets his!!
The journey is just beginning…
Follow the money!!
Saint Stivs- G67 to light up the sky as the huns die.
playing at your local super-surround bigotdome!
CHANCERS ASEMBLE!
in which a group of chancers, led by ‘the cardigan’, attempt to wrestle control of the ‘dignity’ the ancient source of venomous bigotry and hatred.
The cardigan has a faithful sidekick in the Sulk, a normally placid 23 stone manager who turns into a raging 23 stone monster if he doesn’t get a steakbake every ten minutes.
These two chancers team up with SDM, during the day a very low-profile businessman, but when called upon he puts on his kneck of impenetrable brass and baffles booze soaked journalists with his fantasies of floating pitches and casinos.
Ranged against the chancers are the blue knights, they all have the power of invisibility, in fact no-one has ever seen them.
The chancers must defeat the Green Chanty Wrassler, who spouts incomprehensible p1sh in a comedy accent. In the background is the Googly-Eyed Fud who finds it impossible to tell the truth.
Will the Chancers win the day?
Will anyone ever buy a used car from Parks of hamilton again?
Will any of our heroes enjoy being some drug dealers bunk-muffin?
Watch the skies!!!!
Are the SFA/SPL just about to roll over and have their tummies tickled by Walter and his merry band of brothers?…
BTW,
Just in case anyone hasn’t noticed, there is currently a company which holds a licence to play in SFA competitions and a share in the SPL. There is also a different company which owns a football stadium and a training ground.
Just in case anyone makes the “continuity” argument. Leeds, Fiorentina, Derry City, Bournemouth and Middlesbrough are referred to as examples of clubs which have “newclub’d”. Even if supporters of the club formerly known as Rangers are right that newclub=oldclub, here is a list of clubs which retain the same corporate structure they have always had: Celtic; Barcelona; Real Madrid; Manchester United; Liverpool; Bayern Munich; AC Milan; Ajax Amsterdam; Benfica; Porto; Juventus. It’s the COMPANY you keep eh?
philvisreturns on 15 June, 2012 at 09:44
Thanks, I’ll take that as a compliment.
From @Scotzine
pm
Rangers Football Club consigned to history – the titles will not transfer over.
Posted by Andy Muirhead
Today is a black day in the history of Rangers Football Club and it is also a stain on the history of Scottish Football as the 140-year old institution comes to an end with the rejection of the CVA by creditors officially today. But with all the rhetoric of the titles from Rangers 1872 being transferred to Rangers 2012 – can the newco really claim these?
Two days ago Charles Green said: “The history of Rangers is not going to disappear just because HMRC decided to do an about-turn on what they have been suggesting over the last few weeks. This club’s history and traditions are based around its fans, their support and their loyalty and we’re going to ensure the new structure preserves that.”
While Rangers manager Ally McCoist said back at the start of May: “….make no mistake, we wouldn’t lose our history at all. We wouldn’t allow that to happen. If there is a team playing at Ibrox in blue shirts, it’s Rangers. I think I’m right in saying we only became a plc in 1899, which was 27 years after we were formed. Nobody really recognises that change, but there have been changes all the way down the years. Rangers are Rangers and that would be the opinion of the vast majority of people.”
Now there has also been the peddling of the notion that Celtic should not be able to claim their history pre-Fergus McCann era because the Parkhead side named The Celtic Football and Athletic Company 1888 ended under the Canadian’s tenure. However it became a subsidiary of Celtic FC plc, that change in name also heralded the most successful share issue in British football history raising over £14 million. The club was re-branded and renamed Celtic Football Club plc. A massive difference from the saga surrounding Rangers Football Club 1872, whose timeline started in 1872 and was broken in 2012.
Some fans of the Rangers persuasion may think that Celtic’s timeline was broken, but at no time did Celtic ever enter into administration or liquidation unlike Rangers, all that happened was a re-branding of a name nothing else.
Scottish football has a number of clubs who have ended up the same way as Rangers – going into liquidation and then being reborn as a newco – Airdrieonians, Gretna, Clydebank and Third Lanark.
Third Lanark went into liquidation in 1967 and has only re-emerged within Scottish football over the past few years. The current reincarnation of the Hi-hi’s cannot lay claim to the 15 trophies won by their fore bearers.
Likewise Clydebank formed in 1965 and went into liquidation in 2002, saw their history wiped out and consigned to history books, while they saw their registration bought over by Airdrie United under Jim Ballantyne after the Lanarkshire club’s previous namesake Airdrieonians went bust.
Neither Airdrie United nor Clydebank lay claim to the titles of their forebearers, neither do Gretna 2008 whose previous namesake Gretna Football Club were liquidated in 2008 and reborn as Gretna FC 2008 Ltd.
Of those clubs that went into liquidation a total of 18 major trophies have been consigned to the history books and have been honourably laid to rest along with the defunct clubs.
So what makes Rangers so different? They aren’t.
They may have won significantly more trophies than those clubs listed above, they may have had a long and successful history but that has all ended in 2012 whether they like it or not.
THE Rangers Football Club 2012 has now been born and awaits acceptance of its bid to not only join the SFA but also the SPL. June 2012 is the formation date of the newco and it currently holds no titles and no honours. Fans of THE Rangers Football Club can no longer claim to follow the world’s most successful club. The 54 championship titles, 33 Scottish Cups, 27 League Cups and the European Cup Winner’s Cup are not the property of THE Rangers Football Club 2012, despite what Duff & Phelps, Charles Green and Ally McCoist peddle to the press, they belong to the now defunct Rangers Football Club 1872.
Former Rangers player Alex Rae commented this week in a column in the Daily Record, and is very apt: “We can now say that 140 years of history have effectively come to an end.”
I posted yeserday afternoon upon hearing NewClub’s Finance Director’s comment that they had ‘spent’ close to £10m so far, that Green + Co wouldn’t accept less than £20m for their troubles
Green + Co hold the aces in the pack
We will now see how much WalterEBT + Co love a NewClub
‘crushed nuts?’ – I can’t wait to see that on Netflix. (thumbsup)
Paul67
Another great article and possibly the most understated use of the word “interesting” in the history of journalism!
Great article and tried to imagine any scottish journalist asking the myth those questions ,then I thought of wee chico and nearly fell off my chair laughing at the thought..there isnt one journo in scotland capable and who has the balls to ask those questions.
HH
Paul67
It certainly is getting really interesting now …… And they’re running out of money daily…….. We could have administration of Newco, if they drag this wonderful game out for much longer … Silly newcos
newclub, same old same old. great stuff paul
USmashingMilkBottles on 15 June, 2012 at 09:36 said:
Please add PA8, a few in G64 too.
I’d like some number cruncher to see if they can determine just how much Sky, ESPN, or whoever will pay for the rights to broadcast SPL games if (when??) The Rangers are voted into the SPL and they (the broadcaster) suddenly realises that The Rangers are a busted flush due to not being propped up by David Murray’s business empire the Bank of Scotland and various unlikely to be repeated sources in the same manner as the last 20 years: £40m Joe Lewis, £20m Dave King, £51m MIH write-down, £20m JJB, £30m NTL, £4m tax, £45m tax, £14m tax.
Now consider the amount of money gained on the back of that, remembering that Rangers non-CL/EL income is approx £35-40m, although being kind we’ll say that it is £40m.
Since 99/00, and not including 2011′s figures (as they are slimmer on content and certainly shadier than Marshall Mathers III), Rangers have posted £561m of income, of which at least£120m is absolutely directly attributable to European competition. Add to that, the Dave King money (2000, £20m), various tax dodges (2000, 2001…2010, ~£65m), JJB (2006, ~£20m, also another £3m a season since), MIH debt to equity (2004, ~£51m) and of course the various sums taken by out-sourcing parts of the business.
I think we can postulate that Rangers, in the 11 seasons from 99/00 to 09/10, Rangers have benefited very directly by easily £200-250m that The Rangers could not ever count on.
Think about that for a moment.
Being handed £20m+ per season still couldn’t prevent them going bankrupt.
Being handed £20m+ per season still couldn’t prevent their nearest rivals winning the same amount during that period.
Being handed £20m+ per season still couldn’t prevent them finishing 3rd
Being handed £20m+ per season still couldn’t prevent them being knocked out of Europe by the giants of Kaunas, Malmo and Maribor.
And being handed £20m+ per season still saw them sold for a single shiny (presumably it was shiny) pound coin.
We are to believe that the SPL needs The Rangers. And apparently they need to be strong, as Rangers once were.
I ask: who is going to pay that £20m+ per season for The Rangers to be strong?
…just a little homage to the son of the scullery
In fact, WalterEBT + The Phoenix Knights is my new name for them