The dangers of Rangers’ tax shambles

The dangers of Rangers’ tax shambles

Last week, I asked non-Rangers and Celtic fans in Scotland to share their thoughts on the current Ibrox detox. Several hundred emails later, I return to present you the first in a series of blogs.

First and foremost, many thanks for the hundreds of emails and tweets. It is apparent that very few Scottish football supporters share Ahmedinejad’s views; almost no one wants Rangers “wiped off the map”. However, when it comes to appropriate punishment, there is a strong consensus, which will be discussed further later.

What comes through strongly is the notion that the Rangers fiasco represents a genuine opportunity to rebuild Scottish football on a more interesting and equitable basis. Ramsey spoke for practically everyone when he remarked, “Most see this as the perfect opportunity to better the league and the game as a whole.” A chance to reintroduce genuine competition in the SPL and address bigger issues than “the self-interest of not just the old firm but the entire SPL.”
The crucial insight, however, is that the present attention on owner Craig Whyte and his assertion that he is not “fit and proper” to govern a football team misses the point.

According to non-Old Firm fans, Rangers’ alleged decade-long habit of paying players one amount for tax purposes and another greater amount to save roughly £45 million in tax via so-called employee benefit trusts began long before Whyte. Legal or illegal? At least one past director has publicly verified this.

Rosaleen went on to say: “It all stemmed from before Whyte’s arrival, and yet nobody up here from the media is doing any serious investigating beyond him!”

However, this contradicts recent substantial discoveries in both the Sun and the Mail, which shed light on Rangers’ alleged habit of paying stars one figure while informing the authorities they were paying another in order to save millions in taxes. We are awaiting word from a tax tribunal on whether or not this method was legal. The fact that this occurred appears to be undisputed; nonetheless, the legality is called into doubt.

And now we get a massive surge of opinion from disgruntled fans outside of Glasgow (a la Partick Thistle). Because the laws clearly specify that you must provide the authorities with full details of player contracts or they will be ineligible. If Rangers did not do this – and there is still a “if” remaining that tribunal – a decade of silverware, championships and glory is under possible forfeit. The stakes could not be higher.

If this is the case, Tony writes: “In effect, Rangers have fielded many ineligible players in all competitions over many years.” Former Rangers director Hugh Adam acknowledged this last week, and the Scottish Premier League is currently conducting a probe.

Mr Adam also acknowledged the practice, telling the Mail that it had been going on for more than a decade and predates the SPL.

Many fans, however, do not realize how major figures in the game served as Rangers FC directors as well as on the Scottish FA and SPL boards. Directors are responsible for overseeing appropriate governance of the football club.

Campbell Ogilvie, for example, is the current president of the Scottish Football Association and was not only a director of Rangers during the investigation, but also the club’s company secretary. It was his responsibility to be aware of all contractual arrangements with players.

So yet, Mr Ogilvie has not resigned from his current position while the SPL inquiry continues. How many similar contracts have been signed? How many did he see? Did he know anything about them? If he did, did he approve the signing off? If he didn’t, why wasn’t he performing his duties? Is there no conflict of interest in his current position?

We are currently posing these and other questions to Mr Ogilvie through the SFA, but as things stand, he is not conducting any interviews and is “distancing himself from the current investigations”. When we inquired whether he had formally stood down pending the conclusion of the investigation, we were told that he had not.

According to a member of the public: “If it is held to be true that Rangers, in implementing an unlawful tax evasion scam on a huge scale, fielded ineligible payers, whilst those responsible were serving as directors of the regulatory and licensing bodies, we can say with certainty that the game of football in Scotland has been corrupt for 15 years or so.”

A Clydebank fan put it this way: “I am now reading that I’ve been ploughing my hard-earned cash into a league that has effectively been rigged in favour of one big side … but now I’m expected to just move on.”

This is the major area where fans seek answers and, right or not, believe they are being shortchanged by what they perceive to be an overly cozy connection between the Old Firm, the SFA and SPL, and the Glasgow media.

A phrase that is frequently used is: “The media in Glasgow keep telling us how much Scottish football needs Rangers – what they mean is how much they need Rangers, not Scottish football.”

No one appreciates a cheater in sports. And it is said that we have one in the form of the loudest, largest club, which some regard as having a tawdry history of prejudice, violent fans, and a plainly supremacist mentality. So, when the bully and cheat get their comeuppance, there will be some venom.

If anything, I was startled by the thoughtful answers most people had to the Rangers’ collapse.

But, of course, there is genuine rage out there: A fan said, “We have been duped … for 15 years, and we are now sinking the boot into the perpetrators of the deception.” They have been in pain for several days. We have suffered for over two decades. To heck with them and everyone who supports or feels sorry for them!  them. They are cheats, simple as that.”

It is up to HMRC and the tribunal procedure to determine whether Rangers FC was, in fact, and by law, a criminal and deceitful enterprise throughout the period under consideration. However, evidence to support that yet-to-be confirmed accusation is beginning to emerge in the public domain.

With the clock ticking at Ibrox, fans throughout Scotland have plenty of ideas about what should happen. But, as I previously stated, very few people want Rangers extinct. They simply want existing regulations implemented – a near-revolutionary suggestion, considering the current turmoil at the top of the Scottish game.

Next up: Crime and Punishment – What to do with Rangers Football Club if they are found guilty, and is liquidation the only way out?

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