About the The Scottish Football Monitor

The purpose of The Scottish Football Monitor is to pay homage to, and carry on the work of the groundbreaking RangersTaxCase blog (RTC). The aim of the Scottish Football Monitor is to cast a questioning and watchful eye on Scottish Football officialdom and the compliant mainstream media (MSM).

Scottish football, in the immediate wake of the Rangers FC liquidation, faces great challenges. The MSM have provided no sensible checks or balances on the actions of the authorities. The Scottish Football Monitor aims to provide those checks and balance.

The cosy relationship that has existed between the media and people at the top of Scottish Football has dissuaded those who may otherwise be moved to blow the whistle on wrongdoing. The Scottish Football Monitor aims, through time, and by winning the trust of ordinary fans, to fill a gap in the football media in Scotland that has been up to now filled only by RTC.

The Rangers FC saga, its consequences, and consequences of the accompanying stream of untruths and misdirection fed to us by the MSM is far from over. RTC was successful in getting the previously buried truth of the Rangers tax case into the mainstream despite a hostile MSM reaction. The Scottish Football Monitor hopes to use the skills and expertise of those in our community to a cast light on matters that those in authority would have concealed, or at least present alternative arguments to those being presented as having none.

Scottish Football Monitor asks contributors to remember only a few things;

1. The site is not the domain of any one club and is open to fans of all clubs.

2. Absolutely no discussion with regard to religion should take place.

3. Posters should refrain from using foul or abusive language.

Welcome to The Scottish Football Monitor

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Tom Byrne

About Trisidium

Trisidium is a Dunblane businessman with a keen interest in Scottish Football. He is a Celtic fan, although the demands of modern-day parenting have seen him less at games and more as a taxi service for his kids.

2,167 thoughts on “About the The Scottish Football Monitor


  1. Frank Forrest says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:21
    0 0 Rate This

    BowenBoys says:
    August 6, 2012 at 22:24
    19 0 Rate This
    THE FUTURE Of TSFM

    this is precisely the reason for fans of football uniting into one organised body that can speak with one voice to MSM and chairmen alike without fear nor favour. i strongly advocate such a body and welcome any ideas on how this can be achieved.

    ======================================================

    Frank, if there is one good thing that has come from this sorry rangers saga is that whichever team we individually support, we have discovered a bond. Fans of football is a very good description. I hope the good will lasts long into the new season.

    I don’t like to see this site to go round and round in ever decreasing circles I don’t know how to take this forward. I know that it is important that we do.


  2. CE on August 6, 2012 at 23:24

    Apologies CE if I noted that incorrectly. Only going from what my twitter feed in regard to Sportsound and Mark Daly’s comments were.


  3. With you all the way, EB. I suspect that GT will get away with it, stating that, in disclosure terms, they represented the EBTs correctly in the accounts. And PKF will say that that the EBT scheme, had it been admistered correctly, as they advised, would have been legit. I doubt that the discilpinary committee of ICAS won’t be sitting in judgement on either of these …. somehow.


  4. Tomorrow’s newspapers will be a defining moment. the BBC did okay today by having Mark Daly on disagreeing with Murrays statment. But tomorrows papers will be crucial. We know what The Sun, Herald and Record will say – but surely The Times, The Guardian and possibly The Scotsman won’t fall for this nonsense?
    I understand papers are understaffed but surely they still have time to make phonecalls/emails to ask some questions? they can’t just print SDM statement can they?? surely they will challenge it…

    over to you Stunney…..


  5. longtimelurker says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:27
    ‘Right Clarke outside, now!

    I do the rumours and other sh!te round here son, got that!?
    🙂 ..’

    I like the ‘son’ bit!
    You know, I sat at the game on Saturday, and realised that in an area as far around as I could see, I was the oldest person!

    But I see that no one else has picked up any groundswell of rumour on the assault issue. Pity.


  6. Billy ‘Robo-signer’ Dodds claim that he just ‘turned up and signed the forms’ sounds plausible enough except for the fact that he also claims that Sir Murray of the Mint asked him personally to take his severance pay via a ‘Trust loan’ and ‘after tax’ rather than a conventional payment. Surely none but a fool would agree to this without either a written guarantee (side letter ?) that all tax would be paid or some other incentive. I kept waiting for Spencey or Daly to ask him “but why would anyone do that ?”.


  7. slimshady61 says:
    August 6, 2012 at 19:57
    8 0 Rate This
    Mark Daly tried his very best with Doddsy but it was akin to pushing water uphill

    “So did you know the £190K was a loan and you would have to pay it back?”
    “I left all of that stuff to Struan Marshall, my agent”
    “Yes but did expect you were going to have to pay it back or not?”
    “I didn’t have anything to do with that sort of detail, I left it all to my financial adviser to sort out”
    ============================================================================

    anyone know mr marshall’s contact details?


  8. Sadly for Oor Billy, ignorance will be insufficient defence. BDO will be asking for a few bob soon, no doubt.


  9. john clarke says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:47
    1 0 Rate This
    longtimelurker says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:27
    ‘Right Clarke outside, now!

    I do the rumours and other sh!te round here son, got that!? ..’

    I like the ‘son’ bit!
    You know, I sat at the game on Saturday, and realised that in an area as far around as I could see, I was the oldest person!

    But I see that no one else has picked up any groundswell of rumour on the assault issue. Pity.

    __________________________________________________________________________

    Hi John, there are very few rumours on the ground certainly on KDS now that the mods have relegated the hoons’ thread to a generic SFL thread. Basically they are saying that they (TRFC) are simply not interesting any more which is true to an extent I suppose.

    However if you look closely at the posts I’ve re-posted here especially the one with BRTH’s post included you will see a ‘massive’ rumour/hint at what’s to come.

    It’s not the post you need to look at it’s who is posting it and that one comes from one of the top internet bampots on KDS.

    I’m not talking about the guy who posted the link to BRTH’s post BTW I’m talking about the reply below.

    😉


  10. Frank Forrest says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:55
    2 0 Rate This
    slimshady61 says:
    August 6, 2012 at 19:57
    8 0 Rate This
    Mark Daly tried his very best with Doddsy but it was akin to pushing water uphill

    “So did you know the £190K was a loan and you would have to pay it back?”
    “I left all of that stuff to Struan Marshall, my agent”
    “Yes but did expect you were going to have to pay it back or not?”
    “I didn’t have anything to do with that sort of detail, I left it all to my financial adviser to sort out”
    ============================================================================

    anyone know mr marshall’s contact details?

    ==========================================

    Seriously, does anybody have contact details for Struan Marshall? We could ask some questions on behalf of Mr. Dodds


  11. Thanks to BRTH for reminding us that the (hopefully imminent) FTT (T) is going to unleash the whirlwind.
    Slightly off topic, and this wee anecdote may have something of the ‘urban myth’ about it, but at the time it came from a ‘good source’. I am sure we can all recall the horrific injury sustained by Ian Durrant at Pittodrie some time in the 90’s. As was widely reported at the time, substantial damages were received by Durrant.
    A couple of days after the ‘case’ was settled, David Murray asked Durrant if he had invested his compensation wisely. Allegedly, Durrant told Murray, somewhat embarrassingly, that the cheque was ‘in ma locker, huvnae got to the bank yet.’ Minty was appalled and demanded that all Rangers players henceforth take professional financial advice.
    If there is any truth in this, it would appear that, with his usual panache, Minty let the whole shebang get out of hand and well, here we are!
    I may (also) be wrong about this, but around the same time, did not a certain Gordon Smith make an appearance at Ibrox as’Financial Adviser’?


  12. You could be right TBK, I’ll listen to the podcast tomorrow.

    Would just be shocked, his main(only) line of defence of his Gravy Train ticket seems to be that he was just having the remainder of his contract ‘paid up’, and signed whatever was put in front of him. Yet to hear him claim to be aware of any ‘loans’.

    The plot thickens! 🙂


  13. Thornlyboy says:
    August 6, 2012 at 22:54
    Interesting that among all the concerted excuses round the EBT issue, up pops one Neil Patey, an ‘independent’ tax expert,
    ————————————–
    This is what Mail Online reported Neil Patey saying on 11 June 2012. “I was initially in the camp that said it was more likely than not that it (CVA) would be rejected by HMRC,’ he revealed. ‘To be honest, I’m now in the camp that thinks it’s more likely HMRC will vote it through.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2157407/Rangers-backed-seal-CVA-deal.html

    “Tax Expert”, if he is still with Ernst & Young, you would think they would tell him to keep his head down until this blows over (or maybe explodes over)


  14. Heard Dodds tonight.
    Heard Dodds when he first admitted to EBT.
    Heard Dodds when he denied all knowledge of EBTs etc.

    I look forward to hearing Dodds deny that he ever played for RFCIAetc.


  15. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19151600

    There is so much to despise in the statement from (-S)DM it is hard to know where to begin.

    Well actually it is easy – go check BRTH’s post at 21.38 – devastating 😉

    I want to highlight another odious feature of the BBC coverage. Down near the bottom we hear Big Eck trying to defend the indefensible with:

    “My lawyer looked at it and it was the type of contract that you know that going to a club like Rangers or Celtic, you would be expecting”

    Oh really. Well you were half right Eck – you might expect it at Rangers…

    Two points about this.

    1. Yet another brazen attempt to try to defelct attention and besmirch Celtic by suggesting the financial mismanagement occurring at Ibrokes was happening across the city – flying in the face of a complete lack of evidence to support the claim… Eck should be mortified at the role he is playing at this time, and the BBC ought to be challenging this rather than printing it without comment.

    2. Following the excellent analysis by BRTH, we can surely expect any number of EBT recipients to be lined up to defend the indefensible as (-S)DM has made it abundantly clear that if he is going down he is taking them with him. It’s like a scene from the Godfather – you couldn’t make it up – Get oot there and back the Boss or else! Well a lot of ‘big names’ are going to have their reputations torn to shreds by this.

    In an age when Internet Bampottery is shining a light on the dark deeds and shady practices of corrupt management, there really is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

    Bring on the FTT ruling. Hector says it’s payback time.


  16. BowenBoys says:
    August 7, 2012 at 00:01
    ‘…Seriously, does anybody have contact details for Struan Marshall? We could ask some questions on behalf of Mr. Dodds
    —-

    MARSHALL Struan WMG Management 33 Soho Square – 5th Floor
    LONDON W1D 3QU Tel:+44-020/7009 60 00
    Fax:+44-020/3230 10 53


  17. “As was required of a PLC, all accounts were fully audited and made available to all entitled parties. All football rules were complied with. All enquiries from entitled parties or organisations were answered.”
    ========================================================================
    Anyone want a guess at what “football rules” mean.
    We only ever has 11 men on the park at any one time, plus a referee and three other officials?
    If Dundee Utd score then that goal can be chopped off if Rangers need the points?

    What does “football rules” compliance have to do with EBT/Loans?
    This is not Financial Fair Play Rules, or SFA rules or SPL rules, he is talking about “football rules.

    Anyone seen Derek??


  18. As noted by others, and which I also believe to be the case, the FTT(T) has returned a verdict, and interested parties have been notified of those findings, as is procedure.

    In my opinion, sDM, via MIH will obviously have been made aware of these findings, know the game is a bogey, and has come out in defiant defence of his beloved rangers.

    For all his business dealings / past success stories with MIH etc, is it too much to assume that, as his empire has crumbled, he will do whatever it takes to protect his legacy of running / funding, ‘the most successful club in the world’?

    As it is in the public domain that MIH is crippled by debt, and for the last few years he has been selling of all the ‘toxic’ stuff related to MIH, IMHO he will spin more stories like….The players and staff at the club knew nothing about the executive decisions that were taken, it had nothing to do with them, the club, etc etc etc…leaving the club blameless (as much as he possibly can, with regards the spls independent commission findings and level of sanctions that may / will be applied) I’m thinking, mitigating circumstances.

    So, effectively consigning MIH to the bin, because that is where it currently sits anyway, in essence, all MIH poor business decisions were to blame, but leave my beloved club out of it.


  19. laughing Tim says:
    August 6, 2012 at 21:17
    It was said before on RTC that when a decision was made on the BTC, they would know 7 days before everyone else.
    Was RTC in the loop enough to find out at the same time they find out.
    Is this the reason RTC wound up. Is it 7 days since RTC his time had come to an end.
    Tick Tock went the Taxmans clock.
    ——————————————————————————-
    RTC did say last year that both parties (RFC and HMRC) are served with the tribunal’s findings a week in advance of the decision being published for public consumption.

    One poster on RTC who kept us right on all things FTT was Derek. I do hope he comes on here as his contribution will be invaluable to this blog.


  20. Thornlyboy says:
    August 6, 2012 at 22:54
    ——————————–
    TB, Neil Patey is an insolvency expert, not a tax expert. He doesn’t proclaim to be one, but, thrust into the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd, it’s only human of him to agree to be interviewed.

    But he has little detailed knowledge of tax so far as I am aware and his track record on RFC(IA), which started strongly, faded into farce when, 24 hours before HMRC drove the final nail into the RFC coffin, he opined strongly that this was one case where he felt HMRC could indeed do a deal.

    Incidentally the only reason it took HMRC so long to drive the nail in was that there were already so many nails in the coffin, it was difficult to find a free bit of wood.

    All of the evidence I have seen, including one of the side letters, indicates that the Revenue should win their case hands down. The decision though appears to be in limbo and it could be months or even years before it comes out.

    The reason for that would be if one or other force of law and order has asked to see the written transcript of the evidence given before the tribunal as part of its investigations in wrongdoing, particularly a suspected case of criminal wrongdoing.

    It is of course a lose lose situation for RFC(IA).

    If they lose the tribunal case, that means the tribunal finds the payments were contractual and unless those payments were disclosed in full to the governing authorities, then there would have been a breach of the regulations governing payments and RFC(IA) would face significant sanctions for honours won during the relevant period.

    But it is axiomatic that if RFC(IA) were to win the tribunal, then de facto the payments must have been deemed to be non-contractual and so that would make inevitable a finding that 3rd party payments had been made to football players.

    That too is a clear breach of the regulations leading again inevitably to the sanctions mentioned above.

    Murray of course took detailed advise from Baxendale Walker at the beginning but probably baulked at his fees £250K plus 10% of the tax saving, and when deciding to repeat the exercise in future years, seems to have cut corners and proceeded without detailed advice. He also began doing it wholesale for the majority of players, for the majority of their earnings.

    Greed gets you in the end.


  21. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:
    August 6, 2012 at 21:38
    ————————————–
    I agree with much of what you say BRTH but with one major exception. The Liquidators would get nowhere with the trustees of the EBT.

    They are offshore, they are independent and they have no responsibility to the liquidators, legal or otherwise. They are answerable only to the beneficiaries of the trust(s).

    The trustees didn’t ask for the money to be paid in, they didn’t decide where it was to go and how. They were given the money and told what to do with it and how. We all know that the big crowbar HMRC has managed to insert into the case is who gave the trustees the money, who told them what to do with it and who told them how. I think we all know and his “apologia” today fools no-one.

    Unless anyone can show conclusively that money was given to the trustees at a time when, in the following 12 months the company would be unable to meet its debts as they fell due, then the liquidators have no absolutely no recourse to the trustees. Be assured that the trustees will not be asking for the loans back.

    The terms will have been that the loans are repayable but without stipulating how or when. As a matter of practice, as with all of Baxendale-Walker’s schemes and in accordance with the way in which Trident Trustees operate these schemes, the loan would have been repayable only at death, thus lessening the IHT bill of the deceased, upon which the loan would then be advanced to the deceased’s beneficiaries entirely tax free…et cetera.

    PS I also think the “tick tock” phrase was a slight infringement of my “tick tock goes the Dignity Clock” but in view of your many good works, I will not be referring the case to my learned briefs, Joe Harper & Murdo McLeod.


  22. It sounds like a lot of people with nothing to worry about are worrying about a lot. They don’t even seem to concern themselves with the actual punishment for cheating as the stripping of titles goes along with penalties, not in place of them.

    As an aside, when did goals become chopped off rather than chalked off?


  23. john clarke says:
    August 7, 2012 at 00:17
    0 0 Rate This
    BowenBoys says:
    August 7, 2012 at 00:01
    ‘…Seriously, does anybody have contact details for Struan Marshall? We could ask some questions on behalf of Mr. Dodds
    —-

    MARSHALL Struan WMG Management 33 Soho Square – 5th Floor
    LONDON W1D 3QU Tel:+44-020/7009 60 00
    Fax:+44-020/3230 10 53

    ==========================================================

    Thanks John.

    Possible draft of letter to Struan Marshall. I welcome advice on or additions to content.

    Dear Mr Marshall,

    In a recent media interview Billy Dodds was asked to explain details of a £190,000 payment made to him by, the now liquidated, Rangers FC. The payment referred to was a loan arrangement set up by Rangers in an EBT scheme currently interesting HMRC.

    To quote the interview;
    Mark Daly: “So did you know the £190K was a loan and you would have to pay it back?”
    Billy Dodds: “I left all of that stuff to Struan Marshall, my agent”
    Mark Daly: “Yes but did you expect you were going to have to pay it back or not?”
    Billy Dodds: “I didn’t have anything to do with that sort of detail, I left it all to my financial adviser to sort out”

    As well as being of interest to HMRC, this matter is of great interest to many contributors to The Scottish Football Monitor.

    I would be grateful if you could inform me of the advice on the £190,000 payment that you gave to your client, Mr Dodds, at the time the deal was arranged.


  24. john clarke says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:14
    Rate This
    Bigrabbit says:
    August 6, 2012 at 22:50
    ‘…She was in fact known as Mandy (you are right) but real first name Marilyn.
    Yes misspent youth, reading the “news”papers I delivered, which I have no use for, about 9 years, now, (ageing internet bampot) no attic for me I am out in the open.’

    Well, there you are!
    Thank you for that, Bigrabbit.

    You might incidentally be able to confirm, from your reading of the papers at the time, whether what I used to swear I read about the main character-Christine Keeler was true.

    JC Unable to recall, but slight stirring of the grey cells on “kinky thing sharing”
    As you said, Oldtimers again ?
    Google is your friend.

    Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:
    August 6, 2012 at 21:38
    Masterpiece.


  25. slimshady@00.28: Thanks for the correction; he’s still a rank forecaster, though. I’m off to foreign climes for a while – I hope somebody’s world has fallen down round them in the meantime, but given the glacial pace of this affair, probably not.


  26. I was an avid reader of RTC and looks like this blog will also be consuming far more of my time than any reasonable wife should be expected to put up with. Sorry, darling!

    I have no formal professional qualification to call upon, so incisive comment from me will be as rare as hen’s teeth.

    My only comment on Minty’s statement is that in over 10 years in Jersey and the Isle of Man administering Offshore Trusts (including the occasional EBT), I encountered loan repayments to Trusts a total of 0 times.

    Keep up the good fight, ladies and gentlemen.


  27. Simple question Billy Dodds

    How trusting are you about your agent – are you certain that the document you signed was not a loan to your agent and you would pay off the loan? Did you really not read or understand what you were signing?

    I don’t hire a car and not read what I am initialing nor signing – but for a major amount of money (enough for you to not have to worry much more) that you never asked what is the catch or read the small print………..

    Somehow I don’t think so…….


  28. Murray is trying to elicit a response from those who know he’s lying. He’s hoping to find out who peoples sources are. Mark Daly has already put Murray’s statement firmly into the land of fantasy.

    It’s not going to work Dave. When the FTT reports we are going to have a field day with you. Your reputation, in tatters already , is going to be rag dolled . Nobody deserves it more. You have ruined everything you have touched. You are toxic and the FTT are going to lay bare just exactly how you cheated and connived


  29. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:

    August 6, 2012 at 21:38

    Quality post, excellent read!


  30. As Barcabhoy has already said David Murray has been thoroughly discredited by the work of Mark Daly – even his own peepil can’t stand him. He and the club he mismanaged are now an irrelevance. I just wish the media would have the balls to refuse to publish his statements out of hand and demand instead an open press conference so they could ask him the relevant questions. I for one would love to ask him about the side letters, in particular the ones pertaining to players who Mark Daly revealed had taken a significant drop in basic salary only to have the remainder paid through the EBT scheme. Non contractual Mr Murray? Discretionary?

    As for Billy Dodds, what more can I add that he hasn’t already. His continued protestations of ignorance say more about him than anyone else can. I happen to believe he is telling the truth regarding his knowledge, or lack thereof, of the EBT scheme. I don’t think he is one of the players who had side letters and believe him when he says the amount paid through the EBT was after tax. What I’d like to know is whether or not HMRC got the tax that was deducted – to my mind they could quite easily have hived the gross amount into the EBT scheme and paid Dodds the net and be seen to be operating within the law.


  31. Para Handy says:
    August 6, 2012 at 23:32
    4 0 i
    Rate This

    Essex beancounter says:
    August 6, 2012 at 22:33
    3 0 Rate This
    Para Handy says:
    August 6, 2012 at 21:38

    PH…nice to see you posting…chust marvellous.

    I hope you are settling in ok.
    ————————————–

    Good; thank you for asking, although office too close to some of the Soho pubs…

    Glad to see the pressure ramping up wrt Murray’s diversionary mutterings. Surprised Spiers hasn’t jumped all over him as there is no love lost there.

    Mind you, Spiers has shown himself to be so small-minded and parochial in this affair that I was hardly surprised to find him making what can only be described as careless, racist tweets on the Olympics.

    Unfortunately the MSM in Scotland is now reduced mainly to regurtitating press releases and personal statements with no test of their accuracy. It used to be that sports reporting was always looked upon as a bit of a joke by the more serious areas of news. It would now seem that in Scotland the rest of the news categories are going that way and my only hope is that places such as these will continue to shed light on not just footballing corruption but that found in other areas.

    I used to read all the posts on RTC and unfortunately won’t be able to do so here but I will still bring The Vital Spark into port from time to time.

    Chust sublime, Dougie. Chust sublime.

    =====================================================================

    PH…delighted to hear things are going ok.

    When you brink The Vital Spark into port, do be sure and visit the Ship Inn in Brewer Street…it is a Fullers house and reminds be of some old Glasgow howfs I used to frequent in my youth.

    The Bar, gantry and mirrors are “listed” by the local authority…honest!

    Sorry for the OT .


  32. stunney @ 3:46am

    That’s surprising the threat of violence from an ex rfc(whatever stage of dying they’re at now) employee?? 🙂


  33. Good thing about being one hour ahead is managing to work back through the posts to 21.30 without too much new stuff being posted. Even bampots have sleep, sometimes 🙂

    Amazing read that, BRTH. I was also wondering about the foreign aspects of that interpretation, how those would be dealt with?

    Someone, Zilch, mentioned that AM was trying to besmirch CFC by association on Sportsound. I know there have been efforts to do this by some. Here though, he seemed like someone who was hugely ill at ease. I saw the contract reference as him saying ‘It was an unusually generous deal.’ In other words, he was now revealing that at the time he perhaps thought it was too good to be true. He’d never managed in Glasgow and therefore he put it down to the impressive standard of financial reward among the big two. If that was actually what he inferred, it could be far more significant than any mention of Celtic in the same breath, benign or otherwise.

    Billy Dodds, on the other hand, is floundering. It’s a little sad to witness relatively small fish being grilled live time and again – while others seem to be as unapproachable as an electric eel. I suppose it speaks volumes that none of the more elusive varieties will talk to Mark Daly.


  34. “Alex McLeish insists nobody can take his memories”

    ——

    Oh I don’t know. I imagine sometime in the not so distant future McLeish may be saying, “I have no recollection of that” quite a lot.


  35. A reminder. Rangers FC Ltd are not being liquidated because of recent mismanagement of the club. The statement by HMRC on their rejection of the CVA is quite explicit.

    “A liquidation provides the best opportunity to protect taxpayers, by allowing the potential investigation and pursuit of possible claims against those responsible for the company’s financial affairs in recent years.”

    The liquidator appointed, BDO, with specialism in forensic accounting and detection of fraud.

    Now read Murray’s statement again.


  36. slimshady61 says:

    August 7, 2012 at 00:43

    I agree with much of what you say BRTH but with one major exception. The Liquidators would get nowhere with the trustees of the EBT.

    They are offshore, they are independent and they have no responsibility to the liquidators, legal or otherwise. They are answerable only to the beneficiaries of the trust(s).

    The trustees didn’t ask for the money to be paid in, they didn’t decide where it was to go and how. They were given the money and told what to do with it and how. We all know that the big crowbar HMRC has managed to insert into the case is who gave the trustees the money, who told them what to do with it and who told them how. I think we all know and his “apologia” today fools no-one.

    Unless anyone can show conclusively that money was given to the trustees at a time when, in the following 12 months the company would be unable to meet its debts as they fell due, then the liquidators have no absolutely no recourse to the trustees. Be assured that the trustees will not be asking for the loans back.

    The terms will have been that the loans are repayable but without stipulating how or when. As a matter of practice, as with all of Baxendale-Walker’s schemes and in accordance with the way in which Trident Trustees operate these schemes, the loan would have been repayable only at death, thus lessening the IHT bill of the deceased, upon which the loan would then be advanced to the deceased’s beneficiaries entirely tax free…et cetera.

    PS I also think the “tick tock” phrase was a slight infringement of my “tick tock goes the Dignity Clock” but in view of your many good works, I will not be referring the case to my learned briefs, Joe Harper & Murdo McLeod

    ==========================================================================

    Slim

    As I said, The Liquidators are the Liquidators of Rangers PLC– and as you have confirmed they have no direct control or power over the trust.

    In normal circumstances, the old “off shore trust” position— whereby everything is thrown off shore to an independent trust situated somewhere like the states of Jersey— would be pretty tight with the Jersey based trustees telling the Liquidators and British Tax Authorities to beat it!

    I have tried myself, in years gone by, to try and get some info out of Jersey in certain circumstances and have been told ever so politely that nothing is doing– and thereafter been invired for numerous tax free bottles of Vino down the Cock & Bottle in St Helier!

    However, in this instance things appear different.

    For a start, I am told that the original trustees became concerned about the way in which Rangers were administering their end of the paperwork re the players, the EBT, the payments and so on– so much so that the original trustees resigned!

    Do you have any information on that?

    Second, as you say, there are questions to be asked especially if there were discretionary payments made by Rangers at times when their accounts show that the company appears to have been insolvent. Some others can dredge up the Rangers PLC accounts in detail, but from memory, Rangers PLC had a trading loss of over £16M in the year ended 2001 or 2002.

    That being the case, did the payments made to the EBT’s contribute towards that loss? If Rangers PLC then returned to profit the following year or years, did it then carry forward losses, and so avoid paying tax on the profits? And what if the losses carried forward were shown not to be true losses?

    In such circumstances, the powers of investigation may well be such that trustees may be inclined to reveal rather more than normal.

    Not only that—- in such circumstances one might expect the auditors to have advised the board to stop using the EBT scheme. Whether they did or not may well come out in the FTT decision.

    “The trustees didn’t ask for the money to be paid in, they didn’t decide where it was to go and how. They were given the money and told what to do with it and how.They are offshore, they are independent and they have no responsibility to the liquidators, legal or otherwise. They are answerable only to the beneficiaries of the trust(s).”

    I don’t think the position set out in the above two sentences can stand scrutiny. How can the trustees be independent and have control of their discretion if they are given the money and then told to whom it has to go, where it has to go, when it has to go, and how it has to go?

    There is no discretionary element in any of that– and they are clearly seen to be a postbox and no more.

    Murray has made it plain in his public statement that these “loans” are due to be paid back!

    In other words the Trust has debtors which means that the players are indebted to the trust. That will come as a shock to them. The players never expected to pay part of the money back. However, if the Liquidators can make out a Prima Facie case which shows all of this paperwork to be a sham— if there is just one letter which says ” By the way don’t worry about any of this as Rangers PLC will pick up the tab if it goes wrong”— and The Liquidator takes action against that player—- then as you say the trustees are answerable to the beneficiaries
    (the players) and the players- through their legal advisers- will authorise the trustees to talk for fear of worse down the line.

    Listen to Dodds last night bleating on about his advisers! The next question that the liquidators would have would be ” In that case can we speak to your advisers? Will you authorise your advisers to speak to us then so that we can ask them some questions?” .

    How many do you think will just face out the Liquidators and blank them?

    The way I read it, Murray will want the players to pay up something, and the players will want to say ” That is what I was told to do by Rangers ( namely Murray ) and my guys checked it was legal-That’s all”. They will turn on one another, if they haven’t already.


  37. How EBT’s Work – and How They Go Wrong – the Melchester Rovers Debacle

    Suddenly the acronym EBT is front and centre in the sporting news, leading some to speculate that a decision from the Tax Tribunal dealing with the appeal against tax assessments by Rangers is imminent.

    I have therefore, in an effort to clarify and explain the matter to new readers, taken a post I wrote in January and revised and extended it.

    It also has Roy Race and Melchester Rovers in it.

    I should declare that neither the famous footballing hero, Mr Race, nor his world-famous club, are accused of wrongdoing by me. They merely provide a hypothetical example.

    In addition, I refer to a Mr Waxendale-Balker. He should not be taken as having any connection to a tax expert called Mr Baxendale-Walker.

    On with the explanation – http://scotslawthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/how-ebts-work-and-how-they-go-wrong-the-melchester-rovers-debacle/


  38. Almost p!ssed myself laughing on the bus this morning. It was a rare occasion I had purchased the Daily Record, interested to read what (S)DM had to say.

    The jewel in the crown of the article was (S)DM saying (apologies for paraphrasing) its right that Rangers are punished for the wrongs that had taken place OVER THE LAST YEAR – everything else is a witch hunt.

    I sense that some brown bio-degradable matter is about to hit a revolving air circulation machine.


  39. Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan says:
    August 7, 2012 at 08:19
     
    The way I read it, Murray will want the players to pay up something, and the players will want to say ” That is what I was told to do by Rangers ( namely Murray ) and my guys checked it was legal-That’s all” ….
    ———–

    Please excuse a layman’s question BRTH. Is it correct to assume that any monies sought by the liquidators could also include interest, fines, and so on? Or would that be part of a separate legal process?


  40. Why are the papers continually posting ‘news’ thay various RFC ex-players and managers don’t agree with their honours being stripped – They’re hardly going to say ‘yes, it’s a great idea’
    Also, on the BBC website today, the investigation appears to include 2000 onwards, why is that, I thought the misdemeanours started before the SPL even existed?


  41. Paul McConville says:
    August 7, 2012 at 08:39

    ‘HMRC Memo – Mildly Secret – Only to be read by Executive Officers and Maintenance Engineers….’

    Brilliant Paul. I wonder what happened to our friendly janitor.


  42. manandboy says:
    August 1, 2012 at 18:41
    0 0 i
    Rate This
    Zilch says:
    August 1, 2012 at 6:12 pm
    _________________________________________________________________________________

    Zilch

    On the occasion of your first post a week ago, I was not in a good place due to the, then, imminent demise of RTC. And, having posted against Jack Irvine, aka Oldgold, in the past, I am always on the lookout for Jack’s visits.

    So, against this background, I mistakenly identified your good self as Jack under a new name – as you know, and proceeded to say some things that were not nice, as I am inclined to do with Jack.

    For this I apologise most sincerely.


  43. I know that FIFA have, since 2008, said that clubs have to register all employee benefits on player contracts and people continually say all payments have to be included on SPL/SFA registered contracts.

    However can someone confirm that this has been the FIFA & SPL/SFA position since 2000 and if not when did this clause enter the rules? Just to understand if there is any wriggle room at all for the lawyers.


  44. Sir David Murray is trying to frame the arguments in people’s minds on his terms and when the shit starts hitting the fan he hopes people will be thinking of it in terms of what he told them, what he claims their motivations were and try to exonerate themselves of accusations of bad motives in the peepuls perceptions if not the blame as of course it will all have been an error of judgement or bad advice etc or so they will try to claim.

    Whatever will be will be and sooner or later the truth will out, if he’s done nothing wrong then he will have nothing to fear then will he?

    He and Rangers wouldn’t be punished unjustly although of course they would try to claim otherwise.


  45. Worth putting a reminder out on sell out Saturday daily to show that fans can support “sporting integrity” ….. I can’t normally attend many games but I’ll be taking me, myself and “ma boy” (yes, I’ll buy an additional ticket to show financial support) to Motherwell v St Johnstone..a true community club versus a club managed with financial prudence.

    As Delia once said “lets be avin ya!!”..now that I think about it…maybe she was shouting at ND and not her own fans??


  46. “He was at his enthusiastic best”,
    “The smile was back and so to were his famous one-liners,as he held court inside Murray Park”, “There was a glint in his eye…..”,
    “His sense of mischief was also undimmed…”

    Thomas Jordan, writing in the Herald today.
    Richard Wilson will need to up his game if he hopes to match such an obsequious piece on McCoist.


  47. Sir David Murray helped finance (or perhaps facilitate is a better word?) the most trophy laden quarter century in Rangers history, in terms of trophies won and domination this was their golden era but of course he built his house on sand (metaphorically) of course the vast accumulated debts, losses and unpaid taxes eventually brought them down albeit Craig Whyte was the one who finally collapsed the company.

    If Sir David Murray is lucky it will be Whyte who is blamed for them ending up playing in the bottom division and perhaps he (SDM) will get some blame for any trophies lost or erased from their records although he will try to deflect that anger onto the SFA, SPL, HMRC, Regan, Doncaster, hector ie anybody but himself.

    If he is not lucky then it will not end there, not only will he be blamed and exposed for the wrongdoing during the SPL era but perhaps more serious charges will head in his direction and other people might be motivated to look and perhaps find evidence of further wrongdoings in the earlier periods of his reign at Ibrox which would accord with the things that Hugh Adam claimed was happening.

    Will he be lucky or unlucky? Will history be gentle or savage towards him?


  48. Barcabhoy on August 7, 2012 at 03:45

    In agreement, it goes along the line of thought that I have harbored for a long time.

    Has anyone else thought that DM received free advice or strategic planning from reading the posts on RTC?

    The quality of the posts were of such a high standard that his own legal/financial team could have been pointed in a direction they may not have thought of.


  49. manandboy says:
    August 7, 2012 at 09:17

    Dear Manandboy

    You have just proved yourself a true gentleman.

    It takes great courage to say sorry. You have that courage.

    Manandboy I salute you!

    Zilch

    PS. If only the MSM hacks or the leaders and former leaders of the Ibrokes mafia had the cojones to apologise for their transgressions.

    Sadly, the WATP mentality precludes that possibility. (It’s a superiority complex thing)

    For me, it is this failure to show any sort of remorse for actions that are ‘second only to match fixing’, not ‘bogitry’ or any of their other pathetic excuses, that means they cannot start afresh and we must continue to press for the full application of the laws of the land and the laws of the sport.


  50. I can see a protest tonight at ibrox, maybe a dozen or so being called to arms

    Remember they don’t do walking away, and they won’t stand idly by 🙂


  51. If my memory is correct there was an agreement in place that the SFA would be notified by Duff & Phelps when they received the result of the BTC. That being the case it would be amiss of them to have granted a SFA membership AND allowed the transfer of the SPL share on Friday.

    Therefore the result could not possibly be known at this time…… or could it!!


  52. There is no doubt about it RTC and now SFM plus other blogs are changing the face of Scottish football. The football media never saw it coming, the SFL/SPL/SPL never saw it coming, but now it is here and football administration will never be the same again.
    If we retain the high standards already establish we will achieve whatever goals we set ourselves i.e. letter to Dodds agent, polls, boycott of sports newspapers who are distroying the game in Scotland by their lazy and dishonest reporting, etc.


  53. Any requests to Struan Marshall for info will be met with the usual client confidentiality reply. Someone needs to get him into a studio and ask him live on air. I’m sure that Billy Dodds would have no objection to this and would readily give his agreement.


  54. wellfiredtrolls says: at 09:59

    Has anyone else thought that DM received free advice or strategic planning from reading the posts on RTC?

    The quality of the posts were of such a high standard that his own legal/financial team could have been pointed in a direction they may not have thought of.

    _____________________________________________________________________________

    He recived his financial advice from a digraced porn peddler. I am not aware of anyone on this blog that fits that description – although Slim Shady can be a bit risque at times. I will repeat that again for those that still like to portray David Murray as titan of business – he received his advice from a disgraced porn peddler.

    54 fake orgasms to 0


  55. Senior says:
    August 7, 2012 at 10:11

    perhaps if you think of it in Orwellian terms it is US/WE who will become the functional equivalent of Big Brother or in terms that PL(TSFM) might find humourous We will be the All Seeing Eye ?

    Backroom deals, cronyism and other shady deals or sleaze will be under the gaze and microscope of the ‘integrity’ police, the hidden won’t remain hidden very long in the internet age and there will be fewer hiding places.

    It is a dangerous power we have acquired or are in the process of acquiring – grant us the wisdom to use it well and wisely. 🙂


  56. I wonder what the TSFM will look like in a couple of years time?
    Could it morphe into an online football newspaper providing news solely from people with integrity?


  57. tomtomaswell says:
    August 7, 2012 at 10:24
    Any requests to Struan Marshall for info will be met with the usual client confidentiality reply. Someone needs to get him into a studio and ask him live on air. I’m sure that Billy Dodds would have no objection to this and would readily give his agreement.
    —————————————————————————-

    AT is based in London….surely Struan Marshall would wish to clear up the current confusion that is currently portraying him as not having kept his client fully informed?

    / Red Lichtie


  58. Goosy says:
    August 7, 2012 at 10:45
    I wonder what the TSFM will look like in a couple of years time?
    Could it morphe into an online football newspaper providing news solely from people with integrity?

    —————————————————————————————–

    …and a home for repentant writers who have seen the light? Blogs like ‘Jabba’s Jottings’, ‘Speirs Spoutings’, ‘Chic’s Chatter’ and ‘Keevins Keech’? Maybe not that last one….

    / Red Lichtie 🙂


  59. Goosy says:
    August 7, 2012 at 10:45

    What kinda like the Huffington post ? but for scottish fitba & sporting integrity? somebody might well see an opportunity to do something like that and it is needed albeit it’s probably easier to morph an existing site or improve the standards & behaviour of existing offerings.

    Actually the Scottish Football League already runs a high quality multimedia website covering our fitba clubs http://www.scottishfootballleague.com

    The others could learn a lot from them.


  60. BowenBoys says:
    August 7, 2012 at 00:44
    ‘..Thanks John.

    Possible draft of letter to Struan Marshall. I welcome advice on or additions to content.’


    Just seeing your post now, BowenBoys. Good letter: wonder if you will get a reply.(And nice mention of TSFM)


  61. Danish Pastry says
    August 7, 2012 at 07:33

    …Billy Dodds, on the other hand, is floundering. It’s a little sad to witness relatively small fish being grilled live time and again – while others seem to be as unapproachable as an electric eel. I suppose it speaks volumes that none of the more elusive varieties will talk to Mark Daly.
    ____________________________________________________________________

    While Billy Dodds is indeed a small fish floundering in a rather large net, we have to remember the reason he is the one who finds himself caught is that he is now a football ‘pundit’, no doubt recieving a salary far in excess of his capabilities. He holds that position with the BBC purely because he was a Rangers (IA) player and not because of any skills or knowledge he has. While I fully believe him when he says he left it all to his agent and just signed what he was told to sign, any sadness I feel is when I wonder just how many people missed out on, or had delayed, operations in hospital because of underfunding to the tune of, say, £190,000. And while he’s floundering, he still managed to avoid giving any real answers to the questions Mark Daly posed to him last night. In truth, he hasn’t really been grilled, though he might be feeling a little battered at this time, while awaiting his turn to be tossed onto the grill, by those far more able, and with a greater sense of self preservation, than he. People like Murray will not concern themselves with how much damage they do to other peoples lives while they do everything they can to preserve their position in society. There is no one Murray will not lead, as the ‘succulent’ lamb to the slaughter, in his efforts to mitigate his actions.


  62. Working for the BBC Billy Dodds is of course being paid from the public purse ie via the license fee payers & general public whilst admitting he participated in a scheme that aimed to withhold significant sums of money from the very same people who now ultimately pay his wages.


  63. john clarke says:
    August 7, 2012 at 11:03

    ================================

    We have amongst us some intelligent and eloquent people. One of the strengths of TSFM. I will wait until later this evening to see whether anybody has anything to add to prosed letter.

    I will be interested to see whether I get a response.

    tomtomaswell at 10.24 suggests that the firewall will go up.

    Jim at 10.46 thinks that Marshall will want to put his case.

    By writing letters (and namechecking TSFM) we let these people know that the monitor is watching them. If enough letters are written, and answers published here, TSFM will begin to add weight to any enquiries. Hopefully, knowing that their response will be published, people will want to give substantial answers.

    We have to try.

    Think I should add at bottom of letter that response will be published here.


  64. The more I think of Minty’s statement, the more ludicrous it becomes
    We are asked to believe that players signing for RFC (IA) are told, that in addition to their contracted payments, money will be paid into a trust in their name, so that they can take a loan from the trust, and according to Minty, these loans all have an agreed repayment schedule

    If what he says is correct, it beggars belief that Dodds has accepted an EBT for £190.000, which he says is severance pay, and he isn’t aware that it has to be repaid

    Murray must think we are all stupid, and the old adage of if it walks like a duck etc was never more appropriate
    He is obviously trying to intimidate people by saying I’m telling you what the situation is and don’t dare disagree

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