Rangers administration: ogilvie out of ibrox probe

Tom English
Published on Sunday 4 March 2012 05:16

STEWART Regan, chief executive of the SFA, has confirmed that Campbell Ogilvie, the president of the association, will play no active part in their investigation into alleged secret, untaxed payments by way of reputed hidden contracts at Rangers going back a decade and more.

Ogilvie was the Ibrox secretary throughout the period in question and though he sits on the board at Hampden and would normally be involved in all such business, he will be excluded when the SFA begins their examination.

“Campbell won’t play any part in any meeting, discussion or conclusion on any activities surrounding Rangers,” said Regan on Friday. “I think it’s pretty obvious that he’s heavily conflicted. We’ve been aware of the issue for a while. We’ve been aware that people have views and believe that pieces of evidence exist. What we’re trying to do at the moment is get hold of as much information as we can.

“The board will meet to discuss it within a week or maybe slightly longer. Very, very quickly the board will get together to consider the facts. This will be the Scottish FA’s main board. There are seven people on the board, but if you exclude Campbell it’s six. He’s not going to be able to take part.”

On Friday, former Ibrox director Hugh Adam claimed that secret payments were being made to Rangers players as far back as the mid-1990s. Employee benefit trusts (EBTs) were believed to have come into vogue at Ibrox in 2001 but Adam suggests they might have been in operation even earlier than that, a fact that has exercised the SFA and will, no doubt, have Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs looking on with interest at the outcome of the association’s investigation. HMRC have already fought an epic battle with Rangers over their use of EBTs, the findings of which are imminent. If the verdict goes against the club, they could be looking at a tax bill of around £49m.

It has been rumoured for some time that many Rangers players in the years from 2001 to 2010 operated with two contracts, one declared to the tax man and to the SFA and the other held privately. If Adam is right – and a tabloid newspaper claimed last week to have seen one of these redacted contracts – then the ramifications for Rangers could be immense. Secret contracts are in direct contravention of the SFA articles of association and would have rendered all players holding such a contract ineligible to play for their club.

“Without having any specialist knowledge, I’m pretty sure [that EBTs were being used in the mid-1990s],” Adam told the Daily Mail. “There was a lot of that going on at the time. You knew it was cheating but some of them (his fellow directors) not only hoped, but believed, it was above board… They were doing things they shouldn’t have been doing… They were getting away with it but nobody thought they’d get away with it for ever… You could dodge your taxes that way.”

Adam, now 86, was removed from the Rangers board by Sir David Murray in 2002. Adam was a vocal critic of Murray’s financial stewardship of the club and was forced out after a 30-year association with Rangers. Since speaking out on Friday, Adam has been criticised on supporters’ websites. He has been accused of merely having an axe to grind with Murray while his recollection of events has also been called into question given that it is believed that EBTs only came into force at Ibrox in 2001, not years earlier as he seems to suggest.

Sources said last night that the EBTs were not Ogilvie’s domain at Rangers and that they were handled instead by the Murray Group. Indeed, it is at Murray’s door that Adam lays the responsibility for whatever fallout comes from the club’s use of the controversial trusts.

The SFA have taken Adam’s words extremely seriously. “It is one director’s take on things but as a board we have to examine it,” said Regan. Asked what the possible punishment might be if Rangers were found to be in breach of the regulations, the chief executive said it could be anything from Armageddon to a slap on the wrist. “If you look at our articles of association it shows a range of powers that the judicial panel has. What will happen is that the matter will go to the Scottish FA main board and will then pass through to the judicial panel. There’s a whole range of things from suspension and termination of membership at the extreme end to fines and ejection from Scottish Cup competition or other such penalties the panel deem appropriate.”

Regan did not rule out a more wide-ranging inquiry into the alleged double contracts saga. “That will depend on the board’s view of the facts and what information is there. The situation is changing daily and new information is emerging all the time. We’ve got our hands on certain pieces of information and we’re exploring it and we’re asking for further information. By the time the board meets we will have a fuller picture and if it’s the board’s opinion that they want a fuller investigation then that will be an option. If they feel they have enough facts to draw some conclusions then that will be their decision.”

In the next week or so, the SFA’s independent inquiry into Craig Whyte’s takeover of the club, headed by Lord Nimmo Smith, is due to report its findings. “The terms of reference cover primarily the Craig Whyte era but in digging into facts it has taken us into other areas, so it’s thrown up matters which are of interest to the committee. I’m there representing the board. We’ve got into the meat of what has been going on at Rangers now and the inquiry has gone in different directions, so I can’t really comment on any particular area of it. We call witnesses and speak to people. That’s what the inquiry has been doing. I’m not prepared to discuss who we’ve spoken to. People we think have got information that will be useful to the inquiry.

“The inquiry isn’t judge and jury. The process is one of investigation and presenting the facts. The board will consider the facts and if the board feels that the facts are compelling they will pass that to the compliance officer and it will go through the normal disciplinary process.”

Asked about the perception that the SFA will not impose the maximum penalty on Rangers – termination of membership – even if they are found to be in serious contravention of their articles of association, Regan said: “You’re asking me to make comment before the inquiry is concluded. That’s inappropriate.”

When contacted last week, UEFA declined to comment on the happenings at Ibrox. “If you think about it,” said Regan, “would FIFA get involved in a UEFA matter before the actual body itself had been allowed to conclude their investigation? You have got to let the governing body go through the facts and establish conclusions. UEFA don’t run Scottish football, they run European football. They’ll only get involved here if they feel that something has happened that hasn’t been addressed and it impacts on their competitions. The new UEFA licence will be considered on or around 31 March and at that stage the matter will clearly be of interest to them. They are aware of what is going on at the club, though.”

Taken from the Scotsman