DURING a high-profile court case Shota Arveladze's lawyer revealed Rangers actually paid £8.5million for the Georgian striker when they signed him in 2001 - which staggeringly is more than four times the publicised fee.

The former Ibrox hero, who is now a manager, won a legal action this week against his former club Ajax from a dispute dating back 18 years. The Amsterdam side claimed Arveladze owed them £855,000 over his transfer from Dinamo Tbilisi in 1997.

The dispute was over whether the player's share of the deal was included as part of his gross or net salary and the Dutch club took the matter to court to sue their former player after years of claims and counter-claims.

Dutch courts ruled in Arveladze's favour this week and ordered the Amsterdam outfit to pay all the 42-year-old's legal costs.

His lawyer, Rob Cohen, made the astonishing claim that Ajax were actually paid 12 million Euros - around £8.5m - by the then big-spending Ibrox side to sign the player when Dick Advocaat was in charge, despite a fee of just £2m being widely reported at the time.

Cohen said: "We have fought long and hard for this, but finally won. There is a party atmosphere at the Arveladze family home. Ajax must take a good look in the mirror.

"They received 12 million Euros from Glasgow Rangers for Shota and he did not deserve this outrageous treatment.

"They are all cowards. Edwin Van der Sar, Marc Overmars, the old and the new management. They all knew they were wrong and refused to comment."

Arveladze managed in Turkey until this year when he left his last job as boss of Kasimpasa.

He was part of the Rangers squad that won the treble in 2002-03 and the double in 2004-05.

If Rangers did pay that enormous fee, it would make Arveladze the second-most expensive import in Scottish football history, behind the £12m the Ibrox side infamously paid for Tore Andre Flo from Chelsea.