The decision

[Bluedell 5,627]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

THE RT HON LORD NIMMO SMITH,

NICHOLAS STEWART QC

and

CHARLES FLINT QC

the Commission appointed by Resolution of the Board of Directors of The Scottish Premier League Limited dated 1 August 2012 in relation to RFC 2012 Plc (now in liquidation) andRangers Football Club

__________________

Summary

[1] For the reasons which are set out in detail below the Commission has unanimously decided:

 

(1) Between the years 2000 and 2011 The Rangers Football Club Plc (now known as RFC 2012 Plc (in liquidation) and referred to in the decision as “Oldco”), the owner and operator of Rangers Football Club (“Rangers FC”), 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;

 

(2) Those 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;

 

(3) Oldco through its senior management decided that such 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;

 

(4) The relevant SPL Rules were designed to promote sporting integrity, by mitigating the risk of irregular payments to players;

 

(5) Although the payments in this case were not themselves irregular and were not in breach of SPL or SFA Rules, the scale and extent of the proven contraventions of the disclosure rules require a substantial penalty to be imposed;

 

(6) Rangers FC did not gain any unfair competitive advantage from the contraventions of the SPL Rules in failing to make proper disclosure of the 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;

 

(7) As noted in the Commission’s earlier decision made on 12 September 2012 there is no allegation that the current owner and operator of the club, The Rangers Football Club Limited (“Newco”), contravened the SPL Rules or could be held responsible for any breach by Oldco;

 

(8) In all the circumstances the Commission has imposed a fine of £250,000 on Oldco.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Bluedell

[SteveC 150]

Thank you. Point 6 says it all.

 

WATP

[rbr 1,256]

So who gave the SPL/SFA , the advice to try and blackmail Rangers into giving up titles last summer as part of the 5 way agreement

[Annan Bear 0]

I think point 5 says it all

[Guest DavieBlue]

points number 5 & 6 declare us completely innocent so there shouldn't even be a fine?

[Blue Moon 1,292]

Well, it doesn't get any clearer than that.

 

The decision that Rangers had a case to answer to and the actions of the low level paper gatherer are shown up for what they were....a witch hunt brought about by bigotry and hatred.

 

Heads should roll for this.

[Bluedell 5,627]

points number 5 & 6 declare us completely innocent so there shouldn't even be a fine?

 

The payments weren't against the rules but they should still have been disclosed, which they weren't, hence the fine.

[Thinker 887]

points number 5 & 6 declare us completely innocent so there shouldn't even be a fine?

 

I think the point is that, even though the paperwork wasn't submitted, the payments were by the club, to the players, for normal reasons, so no competitive advantage was gained.

 

The whole disclosure of payments thing is to avoid situations were external parties offer financial incentives to the players (e.g. club A paying club B's players a bonus to win a match against club A's rivals). Obviously, nothing like that was going on. Point 5 is just restating that.

 

Still seems like a hefty fine for not filing paperwork though.

[elfideldo 411]

How did it take them so long to come up with that

[Bluedell 5,627]

Still seems like a hefty fine for not filing paperwork though.

 

£25,000 per year, given the size of the payments, doesn't seem too unreasonable.