The same club fantasy pedalled by Sevco looks like tieing the club in knots as a mountain of invoices arrive at Ibrox.
After more than two years of using the ‘nothing to see here let’s all move on for the good of Scottish football’ line it seems that the SFA and SPFL have finally grown tired of being treated with contempt by the current mob operating from Ibrox.
Less than a week after using the same club card on a club statement, which was quickly retracted, over the Charlie Telfer fee, Sevco have appealed two SPFL decisions attempting to play the new club card!
Former goalkeeper Neil Alexander has been denied £84,000 from the 2012/13 season while Sevco have told the Alternative Investment Market that £250,000 is being withheld by the SPFL due to an unpaid fine for undisclosed EBT payments made to players for a decade of financial doping.
At the heart of the matter is the highly secretive Five Way Agreement which fast tracked Sevco into the Scottish game and which now seems to be falling to pieces as the club flies headlong towards administration.
On Monday the SFA announced that Sevco and Mike Ashley are to face charges of breaching the Five Way Agreement, today the SPFL have announced that 21 months after Lord Nimmo Smith announced the EBT fine it remains unpaid.
The SPFL stated: “In February 2013, an independent SPL commission, chaired by the Rt. Hon. Lord Nimmo Smith, fined RFC 2012 PLC (previously The Rangers Football Club plc) (in liquidation)) (“Rangers Oldco”) the sum of £250,000 in respect of multiple breaches of SPL and Scottish FA Rules.
The Rangers Football Club Limited (“Rangers Newco”) signed an agreement under which they would be liable for sums such as this. The Chairman of Rangers FC, David Somers, and on one occasion the club’s then Chief Executive Graham Wallace, engaged in individual discussions with the majority of current SPFL Board members several months ago acknowledging the liability and suggesting ways of paying the sums due.
“Following such discussions, it was only when no sums actually arrived from Rangers FC that the SPFL Board decided to offset this liability against future sums payable to the Club.”
It remains to be seen if any sanctions such as a registration ban are imposed on Sevco or if other clubs will be allowed 21 months to pay fines.
SFA President Campbell Ogilvie was a director of Rangers (IL) when the EBT scheme came into operation and received a £95,000 EBT payement.
