Main points of Lord Nimmo Smith report

The commision charged with examining whether or not Rangers broke SPL regulations ruled that the club was to be fined £250,000 but that the ‘oldco’ club would not have its titles stripped.

Here we look at the main points of the report of the commision which was appointed by the SPL:

• Rangers Football Club, entered into side-letter arrangements with a large number of its professional players under which Oldco undertook to make

very substantial payments to an offshore employee benefit remuneration trust, with the intent that such payments should be used to fund payments to be made to such players in the form of loans.

• Clubs are required to declare contracts to promote sporting integrity, by mitigating the

risk of irregular payments to players

• Rangers FC did not gain any unfair competitive advantage from operating side-letter arrangements, nor

did the non-disclosure have the effect that any of the registered players were ineligible to play, and for this and other reasons no sporting sanction or penalty should be imposed upon Rangers FC.

• There is no allegation that the club’s current owners contravened the SPL Rules or could be held responsible for any breach by Oldco

• Side-letter arrangements were required to be disclosed under the Rules of the Scottish Premier League (“SPL”) and the Scottish Football Association (“SFA”) as forming part of the players’ financial entitlement and as agreements providing for payments to be received by the players.

• Senior management decided that side-letter arrangements should not be disclosed to the football authorities, and the Board of Directors sanctioned the making of payments under the side-letter arrangements without taking any legal or accountancy advice to justify the non-disclosure