Rangers chairman Dave King has issued a response to the ‘Big Tax Case’ findings and he’s taken a pretty blatant shot at the club’s bitter rivals Celtic.
As we told you earlier this week, the Supreme Court has found Rangers guilt, once and for all, of miss-using Employees Benefits Trust schemes to pay its players and staff between 2001 and 2010, finding that the £48 million paid to employees during this time should have counted as taxable earnings.
As we also told you earlier this week, Celtic issued a statement in the wake of the findings, and effectively asked the Scottish footballing authorities to examine once again whether or not Rangers enjoyed an on-field advantage by employing this tax avoidance method.
Well, earlier today, King hit back at his Glasgow rivals, and insisted nothing has changed.
Writing on the Rangers website, King said: “The Celtic board issued a statement agitating for a re-opening and reversal of the decisions previously made when, in fact, nothing has changed.
“It is disappointing that they have attempted to influence the footballing authorities to alter its historic football honours by calling on administrators and lawyers to achieve off the pitch what its teams failed to do on the pitch.
“As an investor and board member during the period of the so-called benefit I can categorically assure all supporters that the Club received no benefit whatsoever.
“The opposite is true as the effect on the Club was wholly negative. It was charged huge sums for advice from other Murray Group entities and it bore the consequences when that advice proved inadequate.
“Every single player that was signed during that period would have been signed whether the Murray Group tax scheme was in place or not. The real beneficiary was the Murray Group.”
Perhaps remarkably, King went on to add: “While I am Chairman, Rangers’ overspending will always be on a sustainable and robust basis and one that safeguards the future of our Club.”
We have no idea whether or not this’ll be the end of the matter, or if we can expect a few more statements in the coming days.
But one thing is certain: the atmosphere in the Ibrox boardroom on September 23 will definitely be icy.
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