Dundee United to get all of cup money through diverted funds

THE Scottish Football Association will pay Dundee United their outstanding share of the Scottish Cup tie against Rangers last month by diverting cash which was due to the Ibrox club from other sources.

Every member club of the SFA receives solidarity payments from sponsorship and other income streams secured by the governing body on an annual basis. Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, revealed money due to Rangers will be ring-fenced to ensure Dundee United are not out of pocket.

United are owed around £100,000 from ticket sales at their 2-0 Scottish Cup win at Ibrox in February. Rangers have been issued with a formal notice of complaint from the SFA Compliance Officer for their failure to pay up since going into administration. “We do have the right to set off payments due to Rangers in the future from a variety of different areas,” said Regan. “Dundee United will get their money. They won’t get it from the SFA, as has been suggested, they will get it from Rangers through money we divert to Dundee United. We have also written to the administrators asking them to look at this because they could face disciplinary action. There has been a hearing set up for 29 March to consider that, so they have got three weeks to get that money in full to Dundee United or face disciplinary action. Irrespective of disciplinary action, we will recover the money for Dundee United anyway via other means.”

Regan, meanwhile, says any SFA inquiry into alleged improper registration of players by Rangers will be dependent on the outcome of the SPL’s investigation into the matter. But he insisted the Employee Benefit Trust scheme operated by the Ibrox club, through the Murray Group, is not in itself a breach of football regulations.

“EBT is not an illegal scheme, contrary to popular belief,” said Regan. “It’s a scheme used by other businesses, not just football. It involves money being paid into a trust and that trust making voluntary, rather than contractual payments to individuals as loans. Rangers’ view is that they chose to operate that scheme in the early part of the last decade. It’s clearly part of the HMRC investigation and the ‘big tax case’ and what it hinges on is the definition of payment to player.

“The SPL have initiated their own investigation, not because of the existence of the EBT as that has been disclosed in Rangers’ annual reports. It’s the fact that there is a belief that some of the contracts were not fully disclosed and some of the side letters which were deemed not to be contractual were not disclosed. We are not getting involved at this stage because the SPL, in their investigation, are challenging the fact the club has applied their own rules and those of the SFA. If they find that there has been evidence of wrongdoing and they sanction the club, then the right of appeal is to the SFA so it would be foolish of us to get involved until that process has been exhausted.

“If there is evidence of wrongdoing and Rangers do get sanctioned by the SPL, then any evidence would form part of our own challenge to our own articles and we would deal with it.”

SFA president Campbell Ogilvie, who served as a Rangers director during the period EBTs were in use, has, at his own request, not been party to any of the SFA board meetings about the issue. But it is understood the SFA retain complete confidence in Ogilvie and are certain he had no involvement in any potential breach of regulations.