Looking for signatures re Rangers

[robslappa]

Rangers have had the Scottish media, especially printed outlets, under it's thumb for many years. In addition, it's pretty evident that major decisions made by the SFA hierarchy in the 80s and 90s were largely made at the behest of the Old Firm - TV rights, SPL re-structuring, tolerance of sectarian aspects...... and so on.

 

It's a claim that can be levelled at Celtic too but particularly relevant to Rangers since Murray brought a level of media and structural management previously unseen up here. Once you add the financial ethics that were clearly in play, it adds to a pretty unsavoury picture.

 

Yet with all that power and influence Murray was still forced to sell the club to a shyster on the back of false HMRC charges, which ultimately ended up with Rangers in 3.

 

I would hate to think what would have happened had Rangers not had all that influence and power.

[mgw100]

They chased European glory while constrained by the TV revenues of a minor European league. Their wage bill was astronomical for years. Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup do not come cheap. especially if you are paying over the odds for them. What happened later was set in stone by the lack of financial governance from the beginning of Murray's tenure.

[11albertz]

They chased European glory while constrained by the TV revenues of a minor European league. Their wage bill was astronomical for years. Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup do not come cheap. especially if you are paying over the odds for them. What happened later was set in stone by the lack of financial governance from the beginning of Murray's tenure.

 

 

Gazza signed for Rangers in 1995 for 4.3m

Sold to Middlesbrough in March 1998 for 3.4m

 

Laudrup signed in 1994 for 2.3m left on a free to Chelsea in 1998.

 

What was their astronomical wage bill during that period?

[barosrocks]

To those comparing it to our situation under Cancer & Aids, it's entirley different. Sure we could have gone under but because we were financially raped by the 2 of them.

 

Rangers were financially doped to give them an unfair advantage over everyone else.

 

Not signed.

[A Red]

Signed

[Laburnum]

Did you know that 15 English Premier League clubs were being chased by HMRC over the non-payment of tax on image rights contracts?

Image rights allowed a club to pay a portion of a player’s wages in exchange for using their image to promote the club and their sponsors. Payments were made to a separate company, often based offshore, and taxed at a lower rate or not at all.

HMRC insisted the system was being abused by clubs, particularly at the lower end of the league, allotting an unrealistic proportion of their payroll to image rights.

Interestingly, instead of launching investigations into each of the clubs with a law lord at the helm, the FA Premier League decided to broker a deal with HMRC.

Indeed, they successfully came to an agreement with the taxman and it turned out Chelsea paid the most money in the shape of £6.4million.

The strange thing is that the man running the SPL, Neil Doncaster, is familiar with the workings of the FA and the Football League because he worked for both of them.

As Chief Executive of Norwich City, he was appointed a director of the Football League in 2006 and subsequently joined the FA in 2008 as one of the FL’s two representatives.

Indeed, he was working for the Football League when Leeds United transferred ownership from oldco to newco when a CVA failed in 2007 and was party to the decision to allow Leeds to remain in League One.

 

Did you know the Scottish FA and the Scottish Premier League tried to force Rangers into accepting the stripping of five league titles among a raft of sanctions in order to gain SFA membership in July.

Of course, they might yet try to take that ultimate sanction because the SPL have not called off their investigation in Rangers’ usage of EBTs and how they may have affected players’ contracts – despite the court verdict.

 

As Charles Green says, strange things happen in Scotland.

[No2]

Did you know that 15 English Premier League clubs were being chased by HMRC over the non-payment of tax on image rights contracts?

Image rights allowed a club to pay a portion of a player’s wages in exchange for using their image to promote the club and their sponsors. Payments were made to a separate company, often based offshore, and taxed at a lower rate or not at all.

HMRC insisted the system was being abused by clubs, particularly at the lower end of the league, allotting an unrealistic proportion of their payroll to image rights.

Interestingly, instead of launching investigations into each of the clubs with a law lord at the helm, the FA Premier League decided to broker a deal with HMRC.

Indeed, they successfully came to an agreement with the taxman and it turned out Chelsea paid the most money in the shape of £6.4million.

The strange thing is that the man running the SPL, Neil Doncaster, is familiar with the workings of the FA and the Football League because he worked for both of them.

As Chief Executive of Norwich City, he was appointed a director of the Football League in 2006 and subsequently joined the FA in 2008 as one of the FL’s two representatives.

Indeed, he was working for the Football League when Leeds United transferred ownership from oldco to newco when a CVA failed in 2007 and was party to the decision to allow Leeds to remain in League One.

 

Did you know the Scottish FA and the Scottish Premier League tried to force Rangers into accepting the stripping of five league titles among a raft of sanctions in order to gain SFA membership in July.

Of course, they might yet try to take that ultimate sanction because the SPL have not called off their investigation in Rangers’ usage of EBTs and how they may have affected players’ contracts – despite the court verdict.

 

As Charles Green says, strange things happen in Scotland.

 

Image rights is an interesting topic but it's almost impossible to quantify what a particular player is worth. Steven Gerrard could quite easily argue that his image is worth 50k a week to the club and therefore pay less tax on that amount. When you get down to the Brad Jones's, Jay Spearing's and Stewart Downing's of the squad then the argument gets more complex, do any of those bring anything to the table? Probably not but then its doesn't really matter that much to Rangers anyway because their payments where just loans. Any luck chasing repayments?

[angermanagement]

Is the current sfa investigation not about dual contracts ? Its got nothing to do with the tax case. If the loan contracts were registered with the SFA there should be no problem for Rangers but if they weren't, titles should be stripped.

[JohnnyH]

But you didn't pay tax on £49M on "loans" - so HMRC are still thinking of appealing. classic tax avoidance aren't they? The issue of "side letters" re payments off their official contracts is still to be decided also? Rangers also paid no tax or VAT at all last season.

 

I don't think it's as cut and dried as you are saying, but I understand you backing up your club.

[Bjornebye]

i doubt there are many Celtic fans who dont want you back in the SPL despite the jokes, but.... you broke the rules and duly should be punished. if you had any sort of defence or mitigation then it would have came to light months ago. it wasn't like this was an overnight decision to relegate you. of course, support your club as anyone would and also, fair play to the thousands that turn out at your home games but its your own club you should be pissed off at right now. not hmrc or the spl/sfl.

[11albertz]

Is the current sfa investigation not about dual contracts ? Its got nothing to do with the tax case. If the loan contracts were registered with the SFA there should be no problem for Rangers but if they weren't, titles should be stripped.

 

Its has everything to do with dual contracts,thats what TBTC was all about.

 

Yes they were registered with the SFA.

 

FFS i expect better on here.

[11albertz]

But you didn't pay tax on £49M on "loans" - so HMRC are still thinking of appealing. classic tax avoidance aren't they? The issue of "side letters" re payments off their official contracts is still to be decided also? Rangers also paid no tax or VAT at all last season.

 

I don't think it's as cut and dried as you are saying, but I understand you backing up your club.

 

Tell me about the loans

 

Classic tax avoidance?

 

The floors all your's.

[MAC5]

Don't know the whole story regarding Rangers so can someone tell me why they went into administration and ended up in the bottom tier of Scottish football?

 

A short version though!

[Rafa_The_Gaffa]

I ain't signing it. I absolutely detest the huns with a passion. What gets me wound up are the attendace boasts & the 140 year history. I asked rangers fans I knew to help with the email campaign and the Hillsbrough petition and got told "the hubcap stealing bin dippers got what they deserved".

 

So for those reasons of being offended by so-called friends ... I'm out.