The evidence is in, you have been cheated

There is so much material to wade through as a result of the excellent BBC documentary, Rangers – The men who sold the jerseys.  Much of it is of only passing interest to us, although we will examine it in more detail in the days to come, one part, however, concerns Celtic and Celtic fans more any anyone else in Scotland.

BBC have evidence that the following players had side letters contracting payment to Employee Benefit Trusts:

Alex Rae, Arthur Numan, Barry Ferguson, Carlos Cuellar, Christian Nerlinger, Craig More, Dado Prso, Dan Eggen, Egil Ostenstad, Fernando Ricksen, Gavin Rae, Gregory Vignal, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Jerome Bonnissel, Julien Rodriguez, Kris Boyd, Lorenzo Amoruso, Kevin Muscat, Libor Sionko, Marvin Andrews, Michael Ball, Mikel Arteta, Michael Mols, Nacho Novo, Paolo Vanoli, Pedro Mendes, Neil McCann, Olivier Bernard, Peter Lovenkrands, Ronald De Boer, Sasa Papac, Ronald Waterreus, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Stefan Klos, Steven Davis, Steven Thompson, Thomas Buffel and Zurab Khizanishvilli

The BBC list a large number of other Rangers players and non-playing staff who benefited from EBTs but they have no documentary evidence of side letters.

Scottish FA registration procedures are clear:

Rule 2.2.1

Unless lodged in accordance with Procedures Rule 2.13 a Non-Recreational [professional]Contract Player Registration Form will not be valid unless it is accompanied by the contract entered into between the club concerned and the player stating all the terms and conditions in conformity with the Procedures Rule 4.

“Will not be valid” being the key point.

The SFA’s Articles of Association also say:

Furthermore, all payments, whether made by the club or otherwise, which are to be made to a player solely relating to his playing activities must be fully recorded within the relevant written agreement with the player prior to submission to this Association and/or the recognised football body of which his club is in membership.

Article 98 states:

A club making payment of any kind to a player, either amateur or professional, must obtain from the player a written receipt for the same showing details of the payment, and any club under the jurisdiction of the Association must produce such receipts to the Association when called upon to do so. For a player registered by means of a Full Professional Form, a club must produce on request receipts for the wages paid to him in terms of his agreement lodged with the Association.

Documentary evidence exists that Rangers played 38 players with invalid registrations between 2000 and 2010 (the last year financial information is available for Rangers) .  Results from all games involving these players, which is all games Rangers have played since 2000, are void.

I am sure the BBC will forward all evidence to the SFA and SPL for investigation.

You were cheated out of five league championships.  Fortunately, evidence exists and the history books will be rewritten.

The SFA and SPL must immediately take action.  A statement must be made this morning reflecting the gravity of the situation and reassuring fans that our game’s administrators are able to deal with this matter.

12-in-a-row!  Who would have thought it!

Just a quick comment on Juninho. Juninho had an EBT for a short period while he was at Celtic. He had no side letters or contracts from Celtic and tax was paid on money paid into the EBT. ‘Nothing to see here’.

You can buy a hard copy of the new issue of CQN Magazine via Magcloud here.

The graphic below is just for a flick through, to read the magazine go here to it’s dedicated site.