Green: 'the Commission has, in effect, ruled that Rangers and its history did not die'

Chief football writer

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Charles Green launched a fresh attack on the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League last night, claiming there had been no grounds to prevent his newco club playing in the SPL this season.

Charles Green seized on a preliminary report by Lord Nimmo Smith

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Michael Grant

The Rangers chief executive said that the goalposts had been moved on the Ibrox club by the authorities' "chaotic" handling of the matter, although the language in his lengthy statement was more measured than on the previous occasions which had exposed him to SFA disrepute charges.

Green seized on a preliminary report by Lord Nimmo Smith, who is heading up the SPL's Independent Commission examining whether Rangers made undisclosed payments to players via Employee Benefit Trusts. Although Green does not recognise the authority of the Commission over his consortium of owners, he cherry-picked from Nimmo Smith's report to claim evidence that the football bodies had mishandled the transfer from oldco to newco Rangers. Graham Spiers: why Green and Murray should meet Nimmo Smith Green is angry that his newco Rangers were required to settle football debts by the SFA but did not get £240,000 from Uefa for player participation at Euro 2012. Green signed a five-way agreement in order to secure Rangers' SFA membership, accepting the SFA and some SPL conditions. But he interpreted Nimmo Smith's report as evidence supporting his own view that Rangers should have remained as an SPL club and not been subjected to a vote to reapply for membership, which was unsuccessful. "Lord Nimmo Smith has said that Rangers FC is a recognisable entity which continued in existence notwithstanding the change in ownership," said Green. "He also stated that Rangers FC, the club, includes its owner and operator. The Commission has, in effect, ruled that Rangers and its history did not die on 14 June despite reports to the contrary. This means that Rangers FC and its owner, ie me and my consortium, remained a member of the SPL even after the change of ownership. "The bemusing part is that no-one at the SPL or SFA appeared to realise that. The SPL made the club [including its owner and operator] reapply to be a member of a league that the Commission says it was in already. If the Commission is right then the change of ownership was frankly irrelevant to SPL status. Nevertheless, we duly applied and that application was rejected." Green said the SFA told him Rangers Football Club had "never in its long existence" been a member of the governing body, despite the club having a framed and mounted certificate of membership signed by former SFA secretary Jim Farry. "So taking the Commission's reasoning and our newly-acquired framed membership certificate, you would have thought, not unreasonably, that Rangers FC and its owners were in the Scottish football family. You would have thought Wrong. No, we were told. We needed to apply for oldco's membership! "That recognisable entity, Rangers FC then reappeared suddenly when the SFA demanded that we pay oldco's debts despite there being no legal obligation to do so. The SPL then wanted Rangers FC and its new owners to admit guilt in relation toover EBT breaches that had never been framed and accept five stripped titles. "Rangers FC suddenly vanished again when UEFA informed the SFA that Rangers FC were due in excess of €300,000 [around £240,000] for player participation in the Euro 2012 qualifiers, the SFA have refused to confirm that the monies are due to Rangers FC despite obligations placed on them from UEFA that these monies should be distributed to member clubs. "If the Commission is correct about this recog- nisable entity, then the SPL and SFA must be wrong in making that entity apply to join bodies it was already in. "In our view, the Commission chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith has been placed in an invidious position by the SPL. The establishment of the Commission is the most striking example of the chaotic way the fate of Rangers has been handled by the football authorities. "We believe that most people would not think it right that a football authority that was willing to horse-trade league titles and cups for league status, should then embark on the course of action it has chosen in setting up a Commission. There is no clearer case of moving the goalposts." The SFA declined to comment on Green's statement last night. No-one was available from the SPL.

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Green: 'the Commission has, in effect, ruled that Rangers and its history did not die'

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