I see several “fans’ groups” are engaged on the subject of our old friend, Juninho, who played around 13 games for Celtic eight years ago and benefited from an Employee Benefit Trust before and during his time at the club.
Can you believe this is where their focus is?
As Sir David Murray and a gaggle of his former directors will tell you, there is nothing illegal in EBTs, it’s the undeclared second contracts the football authorities have a problem with. Juninho’s EBT was not subject to any contract or side letter whatsoever. Moreover, our then chairman, Brian Quinn, regarded EBTs with suspicion and instructed the club to declare Juninho’s to the Revenue. Celtic even paid tax on money paid to the EBT.
The SFA and SPL, and every journalist in Scotland interested in getting a story right, are fully aware of the facts.
I suppose running with this beats looking at links between Green and Whyte. Keep up the good work, guys!
And for the record, stripping titles is not the ultimate sanction, not by the length of Argyle St.
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Rangers in crisis: Former Ibrox star Jean-Alain Boumsong lifts lid on EBT scheme
HE had never heard of an EBT until the day he signed for RFC. But now those six little letters will live with Jean-Alain Boumsong for the rest of his days.
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HE had never heard of an EBT until the day he signed for RFC. But now those six little letters will live with Jean-Alain Boumsong for the rest of his days.
The Frenchman has watched on from afar with utter astonishment as Rangers have unravelled over the past six months and last week’s liquidation of the old company has hit him so hard he feels somehow compelled to return to Scotland to do what he can to assist in efforts to save Ibrox from oblivion.
He may have only spent six months in Glasgow – and that was some eight years ago now.
But even so he insists in that short time he felt a bond with the club the likes of which he has never experienced before or after.
Which is perhaps why, even now, he still feels uncomfortable at the very mention of the tax avoidance scheme from which it is claimed he benefited to the tune of around £630,000.
Something about that offshore payment plan just never sat easily with Boumsong. So much so, in fact, that for the first time he has revealed he gave serious thought to pulling the plug on his free transfer to the club on the day he arrived in Glasgow to sign his name on the dotted line.
Eventually he was persuaded by accountants there was nothing illegal about the structure of the contract which would make him a wealthy man and a Rangers player.
But Boumsong smelled a rat back then. And it’s rankled with him ever since.
In an interview with Record Sport here at Euro 2012 he said: “My salary was ,,,,,normally paid but there was a trust. I was ,not comfortable with that to be honest. I didn’t know anything about it until the day I was going to sign.
“When I discovered it I first refused to sign the contract and said, ‘What is this?’
“I didn’t want to sign because it seemed very strange indeed, we don’t have that kind of payment in France and I didn’t know anything about it. When I left Rangers, for example, to sign for Newcastle, it was for a normal contract with normal payment.
“But the day I was signing for Rangers I was told it was legal.
“As players we don’t know the law but my advisers and Rangers advisers and board members assured me said, ‘It’s okay, you can sign it. It’s 100% legal’.
“I wouldn’t have signed otherwise, no way. If I thought it was wrong legally I wouldn’t have gone. It’s important to be able to sleep at night without any fear of being chased by the tax office.”
If only those running Rangers had been just as scrupulous or even shared some of Boumsong’s reservations, then the club may have been spared from at least a proportion of its ongoing crisis.
EBTs may not have been the cause of their undoing – that one rests with Sir David Murray’s decision to hand the keys to Craig Whyte – but they did leave a huge tax liability hanging over Ibrox and those potential losses led to Lloyds Bank leaning heavily on Murray to sell up in the first place.
The finer details of how Rangers got into such a mess are all a little lost on Boumsong who was off to Newcastle in an £8m move after only six months into that lucrative five-year deal.
He has since spent time at Juventus and Lyon and is currently looking for an escape from stricken Greek outfit Panathinaikos who are experiencing a financial meltdown of their own.
There is for him though a very bitter sense of irony in all of this. He says he would gladly return to Rangers tomorrow, especially if he can help in Walter Smith’s attempts to stabilise the club.
He would be willing to do so for around half of the wages he might earn himself elsewhere. All he would ask for in return is a stake in the future of the new Rangers company.
He insists such a deal would not be about money. And there’s the irony right there. Because Boumsong insists the chance to make a quick buck was not the reason he chose Rangers in the first place.
Which is why he still can’t get his head around why the club was willing to take any kind of risks over his contract.
He said: “Believe me, I could have gone to other clubs for more money. I was a free agent at the time and sometimes it is not about money. I wanted to go there because they believed in me and they wanted me.
“They wanted to build a team with me a big part of it so I decided to go. They trusted me and I trusted them so I signed.”
Now, eight years on, Boumsong would relish the opportunity to do it all over again.
He’s been stuck in Athens without any wages at all for most of last season, just one of the millions of victims of the economic disaster which threatens to bring all of Greece down. And now he would choose to return to Ibrox?
The words “frying pan” and “fire” spring instantly to mind.
But if the club can successfully overturn the disputed transfer embargo which was imposed as a punishment for Whyte’s shamed regime then Boumsong will be there, standing at the front of the queue, ready and willing to help.
He insists it’s all down to a sense of duty or an inner calling.
But most of all though he says he just wants to help clean up a mess that was made by others
He said: “I don’t know too much about what’s happened. Of course, I watch it on TV but I don’t know exactly what’s going on there.
“I hear there is a chance they could be forced to play in the Third Division and that would be a disaster. What would happen to the Scottish League without Rangers?That would be a real shame and to be honest I can’t believe it. It’s incredible.
“I know the other clubs need to complain because they don’t think what’s happened is fair but maybe they will find an agreement because they know how important Rangers are.
“The lesson we have to take from this is that financial fair play must happen. Every single club must now control their finances. But I am quite surprised Rangers didn’t use the money they had better than they did. I mean, they paid big wages, but I’m surprised they weren’t better at business.
“They sold the right-back, Alan Hutton, for £9m. When I left it was for a big transfer worth £8m and I cost the club nothing.
“Sure, they’ve had to pay out wages so it’s not as though you can add £8m and £9m together and ask where the money is now. But you still ask yourself how can this happen to a club like Rangers?
“I still have strong feelings for the club. It doesn’t depend on how long you spend at a club to feel part of it. I had some of my best moments in football at Rangers really.
“I was happy there, my family was happy, and if I had the opportunity to go back I’d go, even now.”
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon on 6 August, 2012 at 18:44 said:
He’s a Knight of the realm, he could not possibly be lying.
Sevco news.
Murray has always played the media game, so his prepared statement via the PA today can only mean one thing. He has some idea of the week’s timetable/revelations etc, and is thus preparing the ground.
Best part of Minty’s statement today was when he wished ‘NEW RANGERS’ awra best.
Awra best yersel Minty for that little gem.
SPF
And before anyone chides me for talking about THEM in my appeal for us to stop talking about them (!) not another word will flow from my keyboard about THEM.
THE END :-)
Miki67 @1406 The Celtic European game is live on Setanta Ireland as indeed was the first leg last week. Come on the HOOPS.
Lawwell has his finger on the pulse.
Celtic do not need to make statements about some fantasist opinions.
Why do some CQNers doubt so much.
Celtic have people on the inside of SFA and SPL. It is their business to manage our club.
With the best will in the world any CQNer does not know the minutia that our board do.
Trust them rather than a fantasist or MSM.
That Doddsie is a Liar fat sleekit Ally says there were no EBTs? let me say this to Sir Skinty,the cardhun and fat sleekit Ally your to late circling the wagons.The cheating and non tax paying is now public knowledge ask a certain Frenchman.H.H.
HK loses the plot as soon as someone mentions ex-Rangers not paying their way.
HK. Rangers bringing money to the SPL is essential for the good of the game. But somehow, newRangers bringing money into the lower leagues is bad for the game.
Is it true Keevins has been banned from Celtic park? If so, why?
Keevins is beginning to sound like a real bitter and twisted old man,,,you know the auld guy that sits in the corner babbling away,while everybody else ignores him!!
The boy hosting Snyde tonight is getting tore into Keevins at every opportunity!!
HH
So if the shoplifter says to the judge, “But sir, I just avoided paying for the goods – I didn’t evade paying for them”, he gets off?
So Wattie Smith thinks that Scotland will end up like the Irish League.
Maybe thats why the huns never signed a single player from that league in their 140 year history. I read somewhere that they were the only British club from the top three divisions of England and our own top two divisions to never have signed a player from the Republic.
Like McCoist, he has no class or dignity, yet he still has a fawning press. Whats in it Jabba, Young and Keevins to sook up so much to this phoney?
hh
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…
FJIW on 6 August, 2012 at 19:01 said:
Is it true Keevins has been banned from Celtic park? If so, why?
because he is Keevins and takes every opportunity to have a dig at us…………….is that not enough??
Fat swally,we will only sign players that’s economically valiable to sign,earlier he was greetin how they’ve done no wrong,ther is no shame in them,strip them then bury them.hh
Doubt very much that Keevins has been banned from Celtic Park. I believe Celtic would have come out with a public statetment if it was the case.
The Record omitted New Rangers from Murrays statement.
HH
Anyone else having bother with the last page of comments not loading properly?Thought it was just happening on Iphone but seems to be on PC as well.
The Rangers Supporters Trust is Scottish football’s equivalent of the Ministry of Silly Walks.
It’s quite a day when anyone is calling for Celtic to respond to any of their lunatic statements.
That would suggest someone is taking them seriously. Disappointing.
EVERTON are heading for a tribunal to determine the fee they could be due for Scotland striker Steven Naismith – as Rangers chase five clubs for cash for their contract rebels.
Ibrox owner Charles Green is desperately trying to get compensation for the players who walked out on the club when he transferred Rangers’ assets to his newco.
Green wants £1.5million for Naismith, with the SFA set to hear cases over Steven Whittaker, Jamie Ness, Kyle Lafferty and Sone Aluko.
If they go against the Ibrox side it will be a huge blow to Green’s plans for the club.
A_poke_o’_chips_noo
Very funny,,,,,:)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=internet+bampot
HH
The Honest Cover -Up
Are you logged in?
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 6 August, 2012 at 19:12 said:
The Record omitted New Rangers from Murrays statement.
HH
Maybe Jabba was proof reading the rubbish, after his succulent lamb lunch ,with Minty last week.
The Honest Cover-up on 6 August, 2012 at 19:13 said:
Yep. Problem appears to disappear if you log in on a PC. Still having access problems with phone
Is this a ploy by Paul67 to make all lurkers come across? Fat Sally demands to know the name of all those lurkers :-)
HH
CRC
I see the colourful and controversial busted-flush has broken cover with an accomodating platform from the national broadcaster…………………….
He’ll eat his words……………….the law will see to that
…………At this juncture I’d like to add that I’ve been eating pies for years and years and I completely reject the idea that I will gain weight as a direct consequence…………..absolutely ludicrous!
Shameless brass-necked hunnery.
I hope Keevins daughter does not allow him to make a speech at the wedding as he would probably start it off by quoting the present divorce stats in Scotland .
Do yourself a favour hen give him a large hip flask for the service and hope the sedative licks in before the reception .
hail hail
!!Bada Bing!! on 6 August, 2012 at 18:51 said:
LOTHIAN BHOYS-Any pubs in Penicuik,Bonnyrigg (Calderwood Bar not got it) Gorebridge,Newtongrange,Dalkieth area showing Helsinki game,thanks in advance.
———————————————————-
WILL SUMBDY HELP MY BIG MHATE OUT.
Celtic have fans all over the Whorld,shooorly
there are some over EDINBURGER way.
Just tell him a fekn pub to watch the gemme.
I thank you.
Surely as the hun players never TUPED all transfer fees raised goes to the creditors ?
And that is exactly why the SFA has sole legislation over any players who never TUPED and were in fact left in limbo due to liquidation …which has not yet happened and wont until September according to wide boy Imrhan.
If the SPL has withheld RFC prize money but the SFA does not then surely FIFA has to intervene ?
HH
I managed 5 minutes of radio snyde,turned off again
Since when did 48-000 plus become a bad crowd???
HH
Keevins is on a mission tonight to stick the knife into all things Celtic,,,bitter,bitter wee rat!!!
HH
ElDiegoBhoy on 6 August, 2012 at 19:18 said:
celticrollercoaster supporting wee Oscar on 6 August, 2012 at 19:19 said:
Thanks, seems fine now that I’m logged in.
voguepunter on 6 August, 2012 at 19:21 said:
!!Bada Bing!! on 6 August, 2012 at 18:51 said:
LOTHIAN BHOYS-Any pubs in Penicuik,Bonnyrigg (Calderwood Bar not got it) Gorebridge,Newtongrange,Dalkieth area showing Helsinki game,thanks in advance.
———————————————————-
WILL SUMBDY HELP MY BIG MHATE OUT.
Celtic have fans all over the Whorld,shooorly
there are some over EDINBURGER way.
Just tell him a fekn pub to watch the gemme.
I thank you.
You put it so much better mate ta.
I have been told that no hun employess have been paid yet. As of close of business today. Officially late now.
HH
Just heard about Gary Barlow’s wee baby being still born,,,horrible horrible news!!!
HH