Rangers liquidation: Uncharted territory as SPL face EBT fall-out

THE uncertain future of Rangers may be top of the agenda as far as the Scottish Premier League are concerned at the moment, but the fall-out from the Ibrox club’s sullied recent past began to settle in their sixth-floor office at Hampden yesterday.

More than three months after instructing an investigation into alleged illegal payments to players by Rangers through the Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) scheme operated by former owner Sir David Murray’s group of companies, the SPL board of directors received a final report from their lawyers Harper Macleod.

What it contained was enough to persuade them that Rangers do have a case to answer. An Independent Commission will be set up to hear it before the start of next season, although SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster last night admitted it is not yet clear exactly who will be facing the charges.

The uncertainty over a newco Rangers playing in the SPL next season, dependent on the outcome of a vote of all 12 current members at Hampden on 4 July, means a further delay to any potential punishments over EBT payments.

“The board will have to make a decision on who to prosecute,” explained Doncaster. “There are two companies in play at the moment. The board have said that the proceedings will be undertaken by an Independent Commission.

“That will take place when the future status of Rangers has been determined and prior to the start of the season. They are charges at the moment. They are not proven. The charges will be levied.”

There are a wide range of sanctions which could be imposed on Rangers if they are found guilty of improperly registering players as a result of their failure to declare the alleged ‘side contracts’ given to players under the EBT scheme operated by Murray Group from 2001 to 2010 and which is the subject of the ‘big tax case’ dispute between HMRC and Rangers.

They include the right to “withdraw or withhold the award of a title or award”, which could see Rangers stripped of SPL titles won while the EBT scheme was in operation. Other possible sanctions include expulsion from the league and closure of a club’s stadium.

It remains unclear how the SPL would approach applying any punishments, in the event of a guilty verdict, to a newco Rangers which is attempting to distance itself from previous regimes at Ibrox.

“The sanctions which apply to any alleged breach of our rules are absolutely unlimited,” added Doncaster. “There are 18 different types of sanctions and there is no tariff set out. So it is a case of whatever is deemed appropriate in this case by an Independent Commission if guilt is established.”

It represents uncharted legal territory for Scottish football. Rod McKenzie, a senior partner of Harper Macleod and head of their litigation department, attended yesterday’s meeting with Doncaster and his fellow board members – SPL chairman Ralph Topping, Celtic director Eric Riley, St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown, Motherwell vice-chairman Derek Weir and Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson.

All of the club representatives on the board made their way into Hampden via the underground roadway and left by the same exit in order to avoid the media camped outside the national stadium. But more than two hours after the board meeting concluded, McKenzie left by the front door after further discussions on the sixth floor.