Rangers administration: ‘Loophole’ will not shield Craig Whyte from verdict

By STEPHEN HALLIDAY
Published on Wednesday 22 February 2012 00:07

CRAIG Whyte may have confirmed he does not intend to return as chairman of Rangers once the club emerges from administration.

Indeed, it remains open to serious doubt whether he will be back at Ibrox in any capacity at all when the dust settles on the crisis currently gripping the Scottish champions.

But, irrespective of whether Whyte has a formal connection with Rangers in the future, SFA chief executive Stewart Regan insists there will be no hiding place from the verdict delivered by the independent inquiry into the club’s business.

By removing himself from Rangers’ Official Return of listed directors with the SFA, Whyte could effectively distance himself from the disciplinary reach of the governing body. According to Regan, however, there will be a price to pay for any breach of the SFA’s articles of association which Whyte’s takeover and subsequent running of Rangers is found to have committed.

“You may say it’s a loophole if an individual is not on the club’s Official Return with the SFA,” said Regan, “but we still have the power to hold the club to account. The club has an obligation to manage their directors and make sure they are behaving in a way that is fit for association with football.

“It applies to any team official or person associated or involved with a club, even if they are not on the Official Return. There are individuals not on the return in a sporting context, but they are still employees of the club. They have to maintain the image and reputation of the club and the SFA will be looking at what can be done in that regard. If there is a new Official Return, the club itself will still be held to account.

“It all depends on the specific elements within the report of the independent inquiry and which of the SFA’s articles may have been breached. If you read the articles, you will see our board has power to hold a club to account.

“There is no fit and proper person test as such. What a club does is sign up to our articles and effectively says: ‘All our directors are fit and proper’. Regarding Mr Whyte, there were question marks being raised while we were looking for that information. It became clear they were being obstructive and unwilling to give us the information required.

“There were other issues which became clear, although I cannot go into details. Article 10.2 gives the SFA board powers which brings into focus the behaviour of any director, which in this case means Mr Whyte. We have been trying to establish information around a range of activities.”

The scope of the independent inquiry panel, where Regan is joined by retired judge Lord William Nimmo Smith, Professor Niall Lothian OBE and former BT Group director Bob Downes, will extend beyond Whyte as an individual. Regan added: “It is looking at a range of activities which have gone on at the club over the last few months in particular, and possibly pre-dating that, and we will decide what happens next when the findings are reported to the SFA board in a fortnight.

“We clearly were concerned at the stories that were emerging not just with Rangers, but the allegations against Mr Whyte.

“We decided that having been held at arms length from October to the end of January, enough was enough and we had to launch an inquiry into what was going on.

“We made a number of requests to solicitors that were acting for Mr Whyte and had an exchange of correspondence going back to October. I don’t know how many letters were involved but there was a lot and we were becoming increasingly frustrated at the obstructions being put in place to prevent us finding out information we needed. I think the BBC documentary last year was the catalyst for us to get under the skin of what might be going on.”

Regan also believes that Rangers’ financial fall from grace raises wider questions over the sustainable business models Scottish clubs require to embrace in the future.

“I don’t think there is one easy answer,” he said. “If there was, clubs would have done it or the SFA or SPL would have tried to do it. At the root cause of it, you’ve got a football market with blue chip brands that is consolidating.

“In every market, you have a small number of big brands getting bigger, whether that is banks, petrol stations or supermarkets. Football is consolidating and fans are supporting big teams overseas and they are not perhaps supporting the teams locally that they used to support.

“That is a big challenge for the game in Scotland. We have to get fans interested in their clubs again. Some clubs still get good attendances, but the football needs to be competitive to retain their interest.

“That gets us into a discussion around league reconstruction and what the best model for Scotland is. My work with Neil Doncaster at the SPL and David Longmuir at the SFL is looking at how we might restructure the game to provide a more competitive environment for clubs to survive, particularly ones that get relegated.

“They have to make swathing cutbacks which affect their sustainability. We want to create a competitive environment and the other issue is one of living beyond your means. Uefa, through Michel Platini, have made it clear that Financial Fair Play is something they are going to insist upon for clubs competing in Europe.

“I think there are a lot of things to learn from that such as making sure you have a model that ensures you are not running your club at an ongoing loss. That is quite a complex area because it means you have to look at the funding that is coming in from individuals and owners rather than just the normal day-to-day trading activities.

“There are a number of clubs in other leagues that are owned by individuals who perhaps treat them as a little bit of a plaything and invest money into them. As a good practice, I would like to see Financial Fair Play coming into play because it is very much in the long-term interests of the game.

“The SFL is more of a community model and we have a number of clubs making a profit there because they are managing their accounts. But at the top end of the game, it is important that clubs can live within their means.”

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TheCount

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 06:09 PM

I'm a Celtic supporter and I think he should be knighted. Sir Criag Of Whyte.

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Curious Yellow

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 11:04 AM

I'm a Celtic supporter, and I think he should be strung up.

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