Rangers snub EBT inquiry and threaten legal defence

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Rangers last night accused the Scottish Premier League of "breathtaking hypocrisy" as the Ibrox club announced their refusal to co-operate with that organisation's inquiry into alleged illegal payments before they entered liquidation and reformed in the third division.

Charles Green issued a lengthy statement

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Should that investigation result in a move to strip the club of titles won in its previous era, Charles Green, the chief executive of Rangers, said his club would consider legal action.

In a lengthy and aggressive statement, Green claimed the SPL had no authority over his club since its members voted against allowing them to start life in the top division after the purchase of the assets of the old company. Green, who said this course of action received unanimous support from his board and Ally McCoist, the manager of Rangers, also questioned the independence of the panel appointed by the SPL to examine Rangers' use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) between 2000 and 2011, chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith. The commission is due to hold procedural hearings this week.

In the statement, Green said: "The club cannot continue to participate in an SPL process that we believe is fundamentally misconceived."The club ceased to be subject to the SPL's rules when it was ejected from its league. Our lawyers have made that point repeatedly to the SPL in correspondence and yet our requests for an explanation from the SPL have been completely ignored. The outcome of the SPL's process will have no legal effect."Despite this, the SPL now see the new owners of the company, and the new company itself, as fair game for punishment for matters that have nothing to do with us at all. "Let's be very clear about what this commission is. Although the SPL goes to great lengths to emphasise the independence of its commission, the commission is not independent of the SPL. It has been appointed by the SPL. It follows SPL rules and its process is managed by SPL staff. I don't question the impartiality of the individual panel members, but whatever decision they reach is a decision of the SPL."The new owners purchased all the business and assets of Rangers, including titles and trophies. Any attempt to undermine or diminish the value of those assets will be met with the stiffest resistance, including legal recourse."Green revealed Rangers and the SPL discussed including punishment for "the EBT issue" as part of sanctions the club would have accepted as part of a deal to start life in either the SPL or the first division. He added: "What compounds the breathtaking hypocrisy of the SPL is that the SFA, the SPL and us took part in numerous discussions regarding the new company's league status, during which it was made clear that a deal was there to be done where 'the EBT issue' would be dealt with as part of a package of sanctions which would be implemented in return for membership of the SFA and a place in either the SPL or the first division. We do not accept that people who are willing to come to an agreement on such matters then have a right to instigate a full-blown inquisition when matters do not unfold as they thought they would."In our view, it beggars belief that an authority which can be heavily involved in these discussions to the point that the chief executive, Neil Doncaster, repeatedly stated he was not interested in stripping titles from Rangers can lurch from that position to setting up its own commission under the chairmanship of Lord Nimmo Smith."Green questioned the wisdom of pursuing the inquiry in the absence of a ruling from the tax tribunal. And he added: "Rangers was not the only club in Scotland to use EBTs yet nothing was done and little has been heard about it."Green added: "There are powerful representatives from clubs within the SPL – not all of them by any means – who appear hell-bent on inflicting as much damage on Rangers as possible. Furthermore, as a club we are not satisfied that the issue of conflict of interest relating to advisers to the SPL has been satisfactorily dealt with."Green finished by saying: "As far as I am concerned, Rangers Football Club has won a world record 54 league titles, and, whatever the decision of the SPL commission, these titles cannot and will not be taken away from us and our Manager Ally McCoist is in total agreement."The announcement was quickly followed by a statement from Duff and Phelps, who remain asthe administrators of the original club, now called RFC 2012 PLC.Duff and Phelps, whose lack of co-operation in providing documents held the probe up for three months, also stated they would have no involvement with the commission.They said: statement added: "Our primary role as administrators was to rescue the business which has been achieved by Charles Green and his consortium and wWhilst any sanctions the commission may levy will not affect RFC 2012 PLC [the oldco], this process would not appear to us to be helpful to the ongoing revival of Rangers."

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Rangers snub EBT inquiry and threaten legal defence

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