So much happened yesterday, I’ll be as brief as possible:
Newco Rangers sent their counsel to the Court of Session to protest Charles Green’s contract with the club, stating it should pay legal expenses, now crystallising ahead of his forthcoming criminal trial.
In opposing Green, James Wolffe QC raised various objections, but as is often the case when people speak on behalf of Newco, included an arbitrary insistence that Newco operated the same club as the now liquidated Rangers.
Green’s QC, Jonathan Brown, put his pit boots on before stating his client’s case, but tantalisingly, before lunch informed the court that he would return to the same club/new club debate later. And didn’t he. Brown explained that Sevco Scotland purchased the assets of Rangers, not the club itself, with poetic prose adding:
“The team are paid by Sevco, plat at a ground owned by Secvo, are trained by a manager who is employed by Sevco and fans buy tickets from Sevco. That is the business that is being carried on.”
Adding that Rangers were “a collection of assets”, “What if the players were sold to one person and Ibrox to antoher, where is the ‘club’ then?”
I had to look away from court reporter, James Dolman’s Twitter feed at this point. It was like watching an acquaintance being humiliated. Not something you want to see.
Lord Doherty will determine if Newco should pay Green’s costs in due course, but this will be soon, as Jonathan Brown noted, “the rainy day has arrived”.
This next bit is really important:
Soon after court ended, Dave King was out with a rambling statement on the Newco website. If it was designed to play to the galleries, it hit the spot. If it was designed to influence what happens to his club, or how others will regard his input, it was surely an horrendous mistake.
It was a hard day to be chairman of Rangers International FC PLC. The court hearing only happened because the club objected to its contract with Green, so the unedifying episode could easily have been avoided. Despite this, sometimes you have to shut your mouth.
Sure, some Newco fans love a bit of grandstanding, but you know what yesterday’s statement will achieve. If the objective of the statement was to convince other Scottish clubs not to consider disciplinary action against Sir David Murray, or oldco Rangers, for their actions, it was an almighty miscalculation.
Threats seldom work. This one is unlikely to curry favour: “If the history of our Club comes under attack we will deal with it in the strongest manner possible and will hold to account those persons who have acted against their fiduciary responsibilities to their own clubs and to Scottish football.”
In short:
Don’t threaten clubs you are trying to influence.
Don’t grandstand to your own fans if you are trying to influence other clubs.
Keep a poker face. Keep your mouth shut, even if it means taking grief from your fans for the lack of public reaction.
King’s statement also addressed the sporting advantage issue from what we now know was an unlawfully operated tax scheme. While the EBT scheme saved tens of millions of pounds, and King earlier intimated this did provide a sporting advantage, yesterday he insisted the advantage was financial, that the shareholders were “committed to providing funding to the club” and would have done so, if required.
Here’s the thing, in 2012 another King statement revealed, “I have made a claim of £20m on the basis of non-disclosure by the then chairman, David Murray, of Rangers true financial position as far back as 2000.”
That commitment to further shareholder funding seems predicated on some controversial information. According to King, of course. Controversial enough to launch a £20m claim, but not to inhibit investment.
For the war-chest hunters among you, if you read this article covering King’s 2012 statement, you’ll find a strong clue.
One other quick but important point:
Some media are attempting to portray questions of sporting advantage as Rangers being punished for spending money they could afford, a travesty, as so many other clubs have done likewise.
This must surely be a deliberate attempt to misunderstand the issue and manipulate the debate.
No one suggests Rangers should be punished for spending money they could not afford. The questions are straightforward:
Did Rangers break tax law, break SFA rules and break SPL rules, when contracting football players?
Did they disclose matters openly with authorities (in other words, inadvertently make mistakes), or did they conspire to subvert the rules by hiding incriminating information?
Spending like the Borgias? Time to move on. Conspiracy to subvert the rules? We have a problem.
Don’t be distracted by potential ramifications to these questions, they are irrelevant for now. We should consider no more than did they break all of the above rules, should any the rule breaking be interpreted as an oversight, or does evidence of conspiracy to subvert the rules exist?
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I came across a site yesterday; I think it was somebody on Twitter that posted a link to it. It’s the website of chartered accountants BKL, who have more than a passing interest in the use of EBTs. According to this site, HMRC pursued a less tortuous and more direct and common-sense approach at the Court of Session, which elicited a direct and common-sense judgment. The argument was that if a company pays an employee’s remuneration to his wife, then it is still a payment of earnings and, therefore, taxable. The same argument applies if the payment is made to someone else, including an offshore account. It doesn’t matter what happens afterwards, whether it was passed onto the employee in the form of a ‘loan’ or whatever; the fact is that as soon as the money is paid it is taxable. The Court of Session agreed.
Since the employer is responsible for PAYE then this leaves Rangers up shit creek. They dodged paying tax deliberately and HMRC wants its money. According to BKL, however, all the players that received such roundabout payments can rest easy. Employees are given credit for PAYE contributions, whether they are made by the employer or not. There are only two circumstances where the employee has to stump up. The first is where the employer failed to pay the tax due to a genuine error or oversight; something which hardly applies in the case of Rangers. The second is when the employee was well aware of what was going on and, indeed, colluded in the non-payment of tax. BKL seem to think that the ex-Rangers employees and their ‘loans’ are perfectly safe. But are they?
The infamous side contracts surely prove that everybody involved went into it with their eyes open. All those players signed up in the full knowledge that Rangers would not be paying PAYE and they were happy to sign hidden contracts, which they knew would be kept secret in order to swindle HMRC, the Scottish football authorities and the whole of Scottish football. No wonder they’re all so desperate to ‘move on’. It’s not just the Rangers titles that are at risk if a real investigation into the side contracts take place; the likes of Barry Ferguson and Sooperally will be hit where it hurts most: their pockets. They won’t just have to pay back the tax they were involved in swindling; they’ll have late-payment fees and fines on top of that. Sooperally will be losing a lot of weight as he tosses and turns in his sweat-soaked bed!
A lot of folk are saying that if the Tainted Titles are stripped then the players should keep their winners’ medals; I say, should they hell! Get those side letters out and let’s see if they can squirm out of the accusation that they colluded in the cheating. As soon as HMRC gets a court to decide that the players are liable for the tax then their medals should be forfeit as well. Cheating bastards!
A new strategy seems to be being employed by some Huns, especially on newspaper forums. Instead of screaming about being the same team, that EBTs were legal etc. etc. they try to turn it back onto us decent folk. They ask questions, like What specific rule did Rangers break?, thinking that they’ve trumped everyone. Here’s an easy question for them: If Rangers didn’t gain a sporting advantage through the use of EBTs, then why the hell did they use them?
Meanwhile, Richard Gough has been in the Sun to say that if it turned out that Henrik Larsson had an EBT during the 1997-98 season, then there is no way that Gough would want Celtic’s title stripped from them. What a load of shite; he’d jump at the chance and Gregory Campbell would make sure the whole issue was shoved in front of the European Commission. Anyway, he’d better not speak too soon. As well as looking into the EBT payments, we should be insisting that the tax-dodging scheme employed in the 1990s is looked into as well. In Gough’s fantasy, Rangers would have won ten in a row. In reality, they probably cheated to win their nine in a row. Much though Gough and our media would like it to go away, this issue is going nowhere.
Reducing my squad.
Simpson
McGrain. Gemmell
Murdoch McNiel Clark
Johnstone McStay Larsson Dalgliesh Lennox
Subs: Lubo VVD. Burns.
My post @ 9:01 was from Paddy on the Railway, I didn’t write it, my appols.
tonydonnelly67 on 16th November 2015 9:01 am
The rumour is that the players all had indemnities from their employer against any subsequent demand for payment by HMRC.
If that’s true then it’s clear they were aware that they were involved in tax evasion.
RWE
_____
So sorry to read yer news fella.
Thoughts & Prayers to all who are close, so sad.
NOWA
Gerryfaethebrigg
__________________
Right back at ye, thank you.
Hail Hail
BlantyreTim Ar La
__________________
Keep it lit ya bold Tyre Fenian.
YNWA
At least he said Derby game, and not old firm, things are looking up :)
THE Celts aren’t taking to the pitch this weekend so, ahead of next week’s home game against Kilmarnock, we are featuring some of the In The Spotlight articles from this season’s Celtic View.
Answering the 10 questions here is Nir Bitton.
1. Who was your boyhood hero?
My boyhood hero was probably the Brazilian Ronaldo. As a child you always like the fancy players and he was the best player by far at that time and I liked him so much.
2. What other team did you support?
When I was a kid I remember I used to like Manchester United, maybe because they won the treble with the likes of David Beckham and Ryan Giggs. When you’re younger, you don’t really support a team from Europe, but I remember that I did like Manchester United. Football is the most popular sport in Israel so there were always games on TV to watch.
3. Who is the best player you played with?
Probably the best player I played with was when I was with Manchester City and it was Yaya Toure. As a midfielder I tried to learn a lot from you. He’s an unbelievable player and it was a joy to play with him. I think he’s about 32 so he’s a few years older than me. I didn’t speak to him too much because I wasn’t long at the club, but I did learn from him and enjoyed playing with him.
4. Who is the best player you played against?
I think it was Neymar when we played against Barca. When you see him on TV you don’t realise how sharp he is, but when you play against him you understand how quick he is and how strong he is and I think he’s the best player I’ve played against. When Messi plays, of course, there is no-one even close to him, and I also like Cristiano Ronaldo so much but you always watch Messi and the things that he does are just unbelievable. Of course when I played Barca and Neymar, Messi was injured.
5. What is the best goal you’ve scored?
It was probably against Dundee last season. I had a bit of luck because I tried to clear the ball! But it was my best goal – although the goal against Kilmarnock recently was a good one as well. It’s nice to score goals, and it’s even nicer to score these kind of goals, but the most important thing for me is that the team wins. When we played Dundee, my goal was a bonus – it was a very nice goal but it was better that we won.
6. What is the best game you’ve ever played in?
I would say against Barca, because it was Barca, but we lost 6-1 so that wasn’t the best result. So maybe the game against Rangers last season because of all the preparations and build-up beforehand, and this kind of derby game, so it was a special moment for me.
7. What would you be if you weren’t a footballer?
That’s a very difficult question but I’ll give you the answer that my parents would want me to answer. If I wasn’t a footballer, I think I’d have studied to become a lawyer, but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen now … or maybe a journalist!
8. What is the best stadium you’ve played in?
Probably the Camp Nou. I used to see the stadium on TV and when you play there, it’s one of the most famous stadiums in the world with 80-90,000 fans, and all the history of it, so to play there was something special. It was a special night because, as a kid, you always dreamed of playing in places like the Camp Nou, and I’m happy that I did it.
9. What is the strangest thing that has happened to you on a football pitch?
I can’t really think of anything strange that has happened when I’ve been playing … maybe when the sprinkler came on during the first-half of the Ross County game, although I was on the bench. I can’t really think of anything else.
10. What words of advice would you give to a young Nir Bitton?
The advice I got when I was a kid was – if you have a dream, then just do everything possible to get it. Don’t listen to other people who try to let you down. You just have to go and get.
RWE,
Condolences with you and your family.
TONYDONNELLY
ERNIELYNCH
The players should be having strong words with their advisors about this. They should never have been placed in a position where they could be accused of being party to a fraud.
If an agent wanted,say,£20k a week for his player,and the club then said that they would facilitate this in a ‘tax-efficient’ manner which is so dodgy that the club will give the player a letter of indemnity,the agent should have simply requested that the amount negotiated be agreed as,say,£9500 nett of tax,etc.
I doubt the players were willing participants,by and large. Just typically out for the best deal available to them.
RWE
I’m sorry for your loss.
RWE. Sincerest condolences to your wife, her family and your self on your sad loss. Times have been difficult for you all, but there are many here who wish to remind you that you do not walk alone. Leaving soon for Mass. Will remember you and the deceased in my prayers. God go with you all.
Re: All the bombing and tragic deaths….just in-comprehensible.
I know hee-haw about politics but….Cameron’s swaggering-hunlike announcement about – “We’ve just killed Jihadi John!”…dont tempt the invisible army.
Would I be right in saying that, ISIS were born out of the slaughter of all the wee innocent Iraqi orphans who praised the huns for taking the British army into ibrokes for the poppy-pish-parade and, ensuring that the Iraqi kids would get a sleep that night?
Cameron started off brilliantly in his term of office when, he apologised to the victims of ‘bloody sunday’ and, the Queen laid a wreath on the graves of the IRA-Old Brigade and bowed and prayed and, later that night apologised saying stuff along the lines of….”I wish we could have treated your country a lot different from what we did, I’m so sorry.”
Since then….Cameron has just done what his predecessors(sp) did….shaft the poor.
But, as I said….what do I know?
Notre Dame – YNWA.
It’s all down to greed, they all knew it was dodgy, and it was like a runaway train they couldent stop, rules where not ad heard too, pieces of paper juggled and shredded, dodgy characters all over the place, from porn kings to of the radar billionaires, and a milk boy fro Castlemilk.
Now the jig is up, and the piper must be paid, move on? Hahahaha, naaaa a don’t think so, paranoid? Obviously not enough.
Lurking Huns GIRFUYs
“Bizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzare Shout-Outs CSC?”
nah.
RWE
I’m very sorry to hear of your family’s loss.
Condolences to you and your family.
If the EBT beneficiaries were offered, if you return your tainted gongs and admit it was cheating, you can keep the EBT money, how many would keep the gongs and pay the tax ?
My wife and her family are still struggling to come to terms with their recent loss.
But, you know what…the funeral service for Granny Duddy could best be summed up as being, the saddest, warmest, heart-breaking, tear-jerking, uplifting, magical, probably the most unbelievable feneral that St Marys RC Church in Hamilton has ever seen or, will see for a long, long time.
Maybe it’s just me…..I know that I’m strange but, is it possible that, a funeral for someone so collosal to so many….is in the top five days of yer life?
All the family have heard back from folk who were there that, the service was beyond belief…even the priest was overwhelmed!
I’m going away now to try with all that I’ve got to, follow in the footsteps of Granny Duddy.
God Bless All Celtic Supporters.
I became informed of an interesting thing re Syria. Rubert Murdoch ,whos news outlets are constantly pushing for war ,happens to be a major partner in the Genie Energy ,a company who want to extract the oil thats been discovered on the Golan Heights. This area is part of Syria but under Israeli occupation.
So when Murdoch pushes for war in Syria his real motive is probably-certainly OIL. A fellow company shareholder is Jacob Rothchild. A Syria divided up with the Golan Heights being swallowed by Israel will be the goal.
Basically they’re crooks and profiteers of the worst kind. Playing with the world as if it was a big game of chess.
This morning’s media at their usual double standards: take medals off Russian cheats but please stop the obsession with Scottish cheats.
I’d say we need to keep the pressure up. And we really need fans of other clubs to come on board. This is about fairness and a rigged game that all clubs were fleeced by.
RWE
Thoughts and prayers with you and your family
HH
I filled in the BBC Questionnaire BT posted. Here is one bit I filled in if anyone is interested:
” In the main, decent enough in most areas but dreadful in sport. Michael Stewart, an ex-Hearts player, is the only impartial pundit I can bring to mind. Every Scottish Football fan I have spoken to believes Rangers have cheated over a ten year period. The BBC in Scotland finds only ex-footballers who believe otherwise. Terrible indictment of the otherwise estimable BBC.”
Right, off to the Dear green place for a pint or two.
JJ
What it comes to, is this.
If thems get away with their criminality.
Are we just expected to look the other way, and continue to pay towards the corruption?
Personally speaking, if this corruption is not opposed by Scottish teams, I will just remove myself from Scottish Football….If they are so desperate to cheat, fans should walk away and leave them to cheat amongst themselves.
A rigged league run to suit the bigots out of ipox, isn’t my idea of sporting integrity.
Feck that….they can keep it.
HH
Canamalar on 16th November 2015 5:32 am
And at 8:07 am
Thank you for both of these posts which I thought were enlightening. My own views are really not formulated through the MSM, certainly not in the UK anyway as I’m not even there and rarely read or watch anything produced there. I try to use what experience I’ve gained personally and discuss issues with those that I know who are directly involved in these matters. I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my posts there and generally agree with the factual content you presented.
I also agree with the part where you said I should know better as I do want to know and understand more, and I do strive to base my comments on what I have experienced personally rather than what I read in ‘the news’.
Hail Hail,
KevinBhoy.
Kev Jungle. I have always thought that funerals were like a two sided coin for any Christian there is the sadness that we wont see the dearly departed person in this life again and that hurts.However,we must have faith and believe that person has gone to a new life with Jesus Christ the Lamb of God in the new life there is no pain, no sadness, no illness, no wars so in a way we can feel a certain amount of happiness at a funeral among our over whelming sadness and as a Christian we believe we will see that person again.The people I feel saddest for are the people who do not believe it must be a very empty future that faces them.God Bless you and your family Kev.H.H.
I think that the supporters of other clubs in Scotland are just waiting to see what the reaction from the SFA/SPFL is before tossing their hat in the ring, after all we are the team that’s been robbed most, and if as it may come to there is a stand alone policy by us, with no help from other clubs? Then so be it, the people running our game have some really big decicisions to make, and if this week goes by like last weeks with not a word from them, then I’m afraid it’s a sheet storm coming and we had better batten down the hatches, thems can not go unpunished, this waiting to see if they appeal is a red herring, that’s why you are getting all this…..awe it’s getting boring now…from the SMSM, all this sheet flying about has to hit someone at some point, this boring, and move on crap won’t fly, well not with Celtic supporters anyway.
THE GREEN MAN on 16TH NOVEMBER 2015 9:57 AM
I totally agree with you, and Celtic know this too.
See Alan Stubbs has rattled the magic hats cage again
and got desired response.
WTF has his budget at Brentford last year got to do with
Stubbs point that the Loaf has x 4 budget of Hibs.
Joe Filippis Haircut on 16th November 2015 10:01 am
I lost my beautiful wife just over 5 years ago to cancer. If they are all powerful, what kind of ‘loving God’ can make really beautiful, kind, thoughtful, tender, loving person die in such a way?
Prior to her Humanist funeral the person who handled it spent 3 evenings in our home with myself and our 3 children, we just talked about how much love, fun and life we all shared. The daft things, the funny things, the sad things.
The service was wonderful, a celebration of the life of the woman I feel so humble at having shared 28 years with, we laughed, we cried, we left feeling that it was such an honour to have shared her with the packed hall. He allowed us to celebrate her life and feel glad we had shared her, it was such a contrast to the many religious funerals I have attended wher the priest, minister, vicar goes through the motions.
If there is an after life, she’ll be there, if there’s not she shone brightly enough whilst here for her to live on in many lives.
So Sir David Murray is the largest beneficiary of an EBT £6M as well as charging RFC ( IL) £500k a year for his EBT services to RFC ( IL), a cool £12M net.
During his tenure at RFC ( IL) he systematically sells his shares to NTL, ENIC and The Lying King, banking around £80M in the process. This together with the “supplier” arrangements he had in place with RFC (IL) must bring the total income to over £100M during his chairmanship of RFC (IL)
SDM then “controls” the liquidation of his group who were £600m in debt to HBOS and his family’s enterprise buys some cash generating companies from the group. So he wins again.
When will we see a book written on this or has the establishment ( particularly HBOS) too much to lose if it ever gets out?
Surely the gong has to be withdrawn??
Makes my blood boil the amount of money extorted………..
TD67
Its a sad day, when we need to plead for sporting integrity.
Thems need to be held responsible for their criminality, end of story.
HH
None of scotlands politicians brave enough to call for a public enquiry into Murrays role in this saga?
This scandal calls for nothing less than a Public Inquiry, led by someone from outwith Scotland.
While the sporting world is awash with the exposure of rank corruption…Russia, FIFA etc
Regan and Doncaster, Ogilvie, and the rest of their minions continue to act as if the SFA is a Masonic Lodge.
These people need to be confronted.
They need to be held to account.
That’s the only way to ensure sporting integrity.
HH
Anyone interested in an Association of Irish CSC 2016 calendar? They are £7 each (£1 of which goes to The Celtic Foundation’s Ability Counts Ireland project).
I will have some with me next Saturday and can meet up before the match. Email me at dublin2016@mail.com
Here is a preview:
http://www.aicsc.com/aicsc-2016-calendar/
Tonydonnelly67
There was a rumour on Twitter yesterday that Ming was on his way out……so, perhaps that’s why park is re-entering the shambles….?
A full, independent investigation of Murray, HBOS et al would be too uncomfortable for the real high heid yins. They will do all in their power to prevent it.
The mental gymnastics which we are soon to witness will be awesome and hilarious.
HH
Bawsman on 16th November 2015 10:24 am
Thank you for a touching and beautiful post.