Thoughts…From a Taxpayer’s Sofa

El cormaco has been sitting on his sofa again…   

Rangers paid players using a tax avoidance scheme which it is now stated in law, was liable for income tax paid, and none was paid. This equate to them cheating the tax man, and Scottish football for nigh on a decade. I’ll be honest, writing that feels great.

There is scope for appeal, so it may not be the final word, but I can’t see who will. Both MIH & Rangers themselves are now in the hands of the liquidators and I don’t see their motivation to pursue this further. If Murray wanted to I m not sure he can, as again MIH are in liquidation, and so he is not in any form of control of events or decisions there.

I felt quite a few emotions yesterday. I lurked on the RTC blog almost from its inception, never feeling qualified to comment as some fine  minds were debating points of law and tax regulation in which I am merely a layman, but it was engrossing, and the more I read and found out the bigger my desire to see Rangers brought to book for their actions.

Through the hugely delayed first FTT tribunal decision I was confident that Rangers would be found guilty – it seemed such a clear example of improper use of an EBT scheme to subsidise player salaries, including the existence of side letters, the determination to hide what they were doing from both the taxman and the SFA and the decision to sell Rangers for a pound rather than face the potential liability of the tax assessment; I could see no way they would not be found guilty.

We all know now we were wrong, and apart form the redoubtable Ms Poon, who refused to sign up to the decision and submitted her own contradictory and highly critical findings, Rangers were in the main exonerated. Of course there was admission of guilt on some elements and they certainly were by no means completely exonerated, but the narrative was decided, Rangers were innocent, victims of a nasty HMRC vendetta that was wasting all our money and that was that.

Except it wasn’t. HMRC exercised their rights to appeal, and again substantively they lost. Again they appealed, and finally, “common sense” held the day and the “self evident” tax avoidance scheme has been indentified for what it was.

So my feelings yesterday were certainly happiness that “justice” has been seen to be done – I’ll come to football justice later. Also satisfaction that a story I have long followed, I’ll wear the “obsessed” tag if they want, I know Celtic occupy much much more of my time than either Rangers does but this story was too big and too significant in my mind to ignore, much as the Scottish press would have liked us to. Also a sense of contentment for those who put themselves front and centre in the face of hostility from bullying Rangers fans, the slavering press and many others with vested interests in not rocking the status quo; for Rangers tax case himself, who opened my eyes to much of the detail in this story, for Celtic research, for Barcabhoy, for Phil Mac, for the late great Paul Mc Conville – good good people in my eyes who wanted to pull the curtain back and let us see how devious the wizard had been all this time.

Today there is a new feeling, what now?

Lord Nimmo Smith we now has already judged on the side letters issues in a hamstrung investigation the parameters of which were determined by the very bodies who had most to lose if they were found to have acted negligently or worse. The legal position of the tax liabilities themselves were not a consideration and the investigation itself was not shown any of the existent side letters to the best of my knowledge. It was also to be the final word on the whole Rangers Tax Case issue. Almost as if those funding the investigation had reason to fear if its parameters were set too wide.

Its conclusion was that Rangers had cheated in not making full declarations with regard to player contracts, but no sporting advantage had accrued. The penalty was a £250k fine and a 12 month signing ban, which of course they were allowed to have start after they had a pre season of signing players. The fine is still in dispute, I m unclear if the money was withheld from prize money and 2^nd Rangers want it back, as “it wisnae us” or if they haven’t paid the money and the SPFL are seeking payment. Either way, it’s been handled with the dignity and class once can associate with any iteration of Rangers and the SPFL and Rangers re in arbitration over the matter, as stated in their accounts.

Subsequently Lord Nimmo Smiths findings have also been used by press and Rangers fans to justify the same club notion, despite 1) him not being asked to decide on that and 2) his comments on the mater being contradictory throughout his report.  The desired “same club” narrative was clear and the bits that suited that were repeated ad nausea until they begin to taken as “fact”.

So the football justice has been dealt with, as far as those in high office in Scottish football are concerned, and they would all like us now to be good and just go away.

Except it hasn’t. The cloud over whether or not Rangers cheated has been removed: as we speak today they did, and additional to that it is the Law Lords considered opinion that if Rangers had not cheated there is a doubt whether the players they signed would have come to Rangers and contributed to the on field success they had during this period.

That alone should be sufficient for the football authorities to want to open an new enquiry into the period 2011-2009 at Rangers, not at the behest of Celtic or “obsessed mhanks” or whatever they want to call us, but for the good, and  yes, integrity of the entire game.

I don’t want this to be a Celtic vs. Rangers thing. It’s likely we were the club most affected as we would have been the club mostly incompetition for trophies but all football teams playing in Scottish football, and so their supporters, were wronged and should be seeking to see justice served. As in 2012 with “no to Newco” the authorities will only listen when there is a broad range of opinion from all quarters of the game in Scotland massed in opposition to what they would like to do.

The governing body should be proactively coming out and saying “in light of these findings we have serious reservations over the scope, conduct and decision of the Lord Nimmo Smith enquiry and want to launch a fresh, wide reaching independent review, in which our conduct will also be scrutinised”

Except they won’t. They want all this to just go away. Already today the papers are again toeing the line and trying to set the agenda – the LNS review can’t be re opened, there will be no title stripping.

The media are again hoping to shape the narrative, get the idea embedded quickly that despite how you may feel, tough, and it’s a done deal. Nonsense.

It was amusing to see 2^nd Rangers distance themselves from their predecessor club, the valiant determination to be seen as the same club by everyone else except when it comes to any wrongdoing or monies owed is almost charming in its transparency. Only the very very gullible and Rangers / Sevco fans would swallow it, luckily they are one and the same people, so that’s good.

For what it’s worth I really don’t know how I feel about the stripping of titles. I know I don’t want Celtic to be announced as league or cup winners in their place for any of the years in question.  We win our trophies by playing hard on the field and can take pride in every one of them; I don’t want the tag of “tainted titles” hanging over us, as it does Ibrox.  It’s an emotional topic and I m sure other Celts will feel differently to me about this, but I m lukewarm on removing titles, unless we are talking about the “Sir” in front of David Murray’s name.

However a waived 12 month signing ban and a £250 thousand pound fine seem an insufficient punishment for year after year of doping Scottish football, so in my opinion LNS’s decision needs to be scrapped, hell even give back the £250k for now, and a new wider reaching, fully independent and unlimited enquiry should be launched, with title stripping as one possible sanction available to them.

Let the process run its course and be transparent and at the end of it, hopefully, we can all see an acceptable punishment for crimes committed handed down. And then the rehabilitation of old Rangers can begin and the fans that TUPE’d over to Sevco can be brought back into the wider fold of Scottish football.

I d also wonder if any enquiry into the original FTT decision will take place, the verdict of yesterday was quite damning on the original decision (Ms Poon excepted) and how they could miss such a transparent, poorly disguised scheme for paying players without paying the tax due.

And lets be thankful to HMRC, Ms Poon and the many many others who were not prepared to go along with the narrative the football authorities and some of those in the establishment it would seem wanted us to. Hail Hail

Factually these opinions are incorrect, if the member clubs want a new review, there will be one, and if they want title stripping to be a possible sanction, it will be available