CAMPBELL OGILVIE, the Scottish Football Association president, was last night cleared by Sir David Murray of any involvement in the payment or administering of the controversial Employment Benefit Trust scheme used by Rangers for a decade.
Ogilvie, the former Rangers secretary, has been thrust into the spotlight since one of his former colleagues at Ibrox, ex-director Hugh Adam, made allegations of "under- the-table payments" stretching back into the 1990s and also claimed that double-contract agreements were regularly in place for players at the club.
This has already been denied by two of the leading players at the club in the 90s, Brian Laudrup and Jorg Albertz.
"Campbell Ogilvie wasn't involved in paying people," said Murray.
When then asked if his position at the SFA was in any way conflicted because of the use of EBTs he added: "No. In no way, whatsoever."
This two-contract claim attached to EBTs, also rubbished by Murray, has prompted a Scottish Premier League investigation as, if this was proved to be true, it would be a direct breach of registration rules that state all contractual payments for playing activities must be declared to the governing body.
To date, neither the SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster, or Stewart Regan, his counterpart at the SFA, have made any contact with Murray to try and establish if there is any case to answer, although that may still happen in due course.
The former Rangers owner and chairman said that paperwork that had appeared recently in a Sunday newspaper, which appeared to outline payment terms to players into a trust, were no more than letters of intent. They were never binding contracts, he said.
Murray said that, by definition, payments into EBTs had to be discretionary and they always were. If two contracts had been in place, he said, then the club would have been unable to mount any defence in the case brought by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs against Rangers' use of them.
The outcome of Rangers' appeal to a First Tier Tribunal over the bill served on them by HMRC, which could potentially rise to £49m if they are found liable, should be known inside the next four weeks.
Murray's finance director, Mike McGill, who was present yesterday at a press briefing at Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, said it was important to clarify what HMRC's case was. "It has to be made clear that the use of EBTs was in no way illegal," he said. Both Murray and McGill stressed that, even if the tribunal finds against Rangers, it is wrong to suggest that is proof of "illegal payments" to players.
HMRC have contested that Rangers have not paid enough tax on the money paid into the EBTs. The club's defence is that they have.
When asked if he was still of the mind that Rangers would get a favourable outcome, based on the assessments given to him by the Murray Groups legal counsel Andrew Thornhill QC, Murray said: "We're confident that we have a strong case. I think that's been well documented."
Murray then spoke of his sympathy for Ally McCoist, who has had to endure the season from hell in his first campaign as Rangers manager in his own right.
McCoist has emerged as a strong figure in the club's darkest hour after they were plunged into administration on February 14.
Murray added: "I really feel sorry for Alistair McCoist. In the past at the club there was always a spine of people like myself, Martin Bain, Walter Smith, Richard Gough, David Weir . . . I think it always gave a solidity at Rangers, and there was always a confidentiality there. Nobody leaked anything. Unfortunately, that's not there just now. It's like a rudderless ship. And as soon as somebody, whether that be Paul Murray, gets their hands on the tiller and gives it solidity again – I hope that happens sooner rather than later."
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