Rangers: SFA head Ogilvie ‘assumed’ pay was legal

Scottish Football Association president Campbell Ogilvie told the investigation into undisclosed payments at Rangers that he “assumed” all football regulations were being complied with during his time as company ­secretary.

Ogilvie last year stepped out of decisions regarding the collapse of Rangers after admitting receiving £95,000 from the club’s Employee Benefit Trust scheme during his spell at Ibrox.

Ogilvie was called as a witness during the Scottish Premier League-appointed commission’s hearing, which yesterday resulted in a £250,000 fine for liquidation-hit oldco Rangers after they were found guilty of breaching rules over the disclosure of payments from 2000 to 2011.

The commission’s report noted that Ogilvie, who was employed by Rangers from 1978 until 2005, was company secretary and dealt with aspects of football administration at Ibrox until late 2002 or early 2003, although former chairman Sir David Murray took the lead in negotiating player contracts.

The report noted that Ogilvie, who was also an executive director, learnt of the remuneration trust in 2001-02 when he received a payment, which he under­stood was non-contractual, but did not know any details of it. He then learned similar payments were being made to players for football matters but had no involvement in the management of the contributions.

Ogilvie was reported as saying in his evidence: “I assumed that all contributions to the trust were being made legally, and that any relevant football regulations were being complied with. I do not recall contributions to the trust being discussed in any detail, if at all, at board meetings.

“Nothing to do with the contributions being made to the trust fell within the scope of my remit at Rangers.”

But the commission said: “However it should be noted that Mr Ogilvie was a member of the board of directors who 
approved the statutory accounts of Oldco which disclosed very substantial payments made under the EBT arrangements.”