David Murray was the main beneficiary of the controversial Rangers EBT scheme that threatens the very existence of the club.
According to a BBC documentary screened tonight the former Ibrox owner received £6.3m through his own Employee Benefit Trust.
The explosive details look certain to shake the foundations of Scottish football after highlighting the inability of the SPL and SFA to monitor the game in line with UEFA regulations.
In total Rangers operated 87 EBT’s covering managers, players and directors.
Ten years after leaving Rangers Graeme Souness received £30,000 through an EBT. As manager of Blackburn Rovers Souness signed Barry Ferguson and Tugay from his old club before splashing out £8m on Jean Alain Boumsong once he had taken over as Newcastle manager.
Souness introduced Murray to Rangers in 1988 and declined to respond to the BBC allegations.
The BBC investigation listed some of those that benefited from the EBT’s which are under investigation from HMRC to discover whether they were discretionary ad-hock payments or whether they were contracted.
With players like Stefan Klos (£2m) Barry Ferguson (£2.5m) and Christian Nerlinger (£1.8m) picking up seven figure sums it’s highly unlikely that those sums could be argued as being discretionary payments.
Klos and Nerlinger left lucrative deals in the Bundesliga to join Rangers with midfielder Nerlinger spending just three seasons at Ibrox.
Amongst the club managers Alex McLeish had £1.7m paid into his EBT with Paul le Guen receiving £201,500 for six months work and Dick Advocaat £1.5m.
As well as the big names there are a number of people even the most fervent Rangers supporter would struggle to identify who benefited from the scheme such as le Guen’s physio Joel Le Hir who collected £28,275 and former club doctor Ian McGuinness who received £25,400.
Former youth development manager George Adams had £30,000 paid into his EBT.
Earlier today the SPL issued a statement claiming that they were still waiting from details from Duff and Phelps on the contract matter but after tonight’s programme Neil Doncaster has to be seen to act quickly if he is to retain any level of credibility.
Tonight’s programme looks likely to be one of the final nails in the coffin of Rangers with investors in Charlie Green’s consortium unlikely to follow up their interest after the facts of the way that the club has operated over the last 20 years were laid bare in front of a nationwide audience.
CLICK HERE for RTC names Nerlinger in double contracts enquiry
CLICK HERE for the BBC EBT list
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watched it tonight if its all true and ive no reason to think its not they deserve everything thats coming to them cheats to there rotten core. hail hail and death to the huns
And they think they are hard done by already?
Well let’s see how they feel when their tainted titles and cups are prised from their claws!
Rangers took the Ecstasy Pill in 1990’s (9-in-a-Row) and now they got the Come-Down (Liquidation). Very satisfying this.
Sorry but I thought the programme was the biggest con ever. I do not know about anyone else, but my overriding feeling in the end was that M.D. and the B.B.C.S. were more about raising sympathy for the poor wee blue bear in the guys garage and all his other wee teddy friends than about the pertinent issues. Look, we have been made aware from many, many sources about EBTs, the intrigue of the takeover, the secrecy, the tax, the hidden agendas, the rulers and courtiers of the evil empire.
CQN, Phil, RTC and sites like this have been at the forefront of all this reporting. It benefits me none to have M.D. add some further detail that contributes little to the overall issues. If you already have a well-establish dung heap, a few more shovelfuls of horse-shit may add to it but they is not contribute anything to its enhancement.
What was needed tonight was a right good going over of the current sidetracking. EBTs should have been directly challenging the Scottish footballing authorities. All the information should have been directed at the immorality of all that is going on with individuals, clubs, footballing administrators and authorities to demand a swift and just outcome for this club as the evidence of malpractice is unequivocal.
Instead of shedding tears for the pathetic wee boys in blue, the programme should have contributed to the condemnation of the whole club including the abominable behaviour of its fans throughout every country, city, town, village and hamlet in Europe where they have left their racist, sectarian and violent excrement for years and years. But not even boo!
No, they can all go away and have a good cry at what they have to put up with from all those bad supporters from other clubs who do not see how they have been duped (years we have told them), abused by boards and chairmen (that’s why they rebelled against the pro-catholic policy change)and disliked by all the other supporters in Scotland (oh, and them not doing anything to them even. AAAh!).
As for the protagonist in all of this viz. the Murrays, the Whytes, the directors, the managers, the footballers and the fans as well as club chairmen, the SFA and SPL, what can they do now after all these revelations? Quake in their shoes? Start making final decisions? Change their attitude? Be honest and fair? NO, oh no!
They can just carry on as normal because not one was really exposed or threatened by a programme that merely shook a wee bit of icing on a big cake that Celtic sites have been making for years. I am absolutely sick because, in spite of my deep suspicions that it would be a dud, I still watched it with great expectation. More fool me.
H H
your a glass half full type of guy a guess mate.
I can’t help but feel they are going to wriggle out of this, just like Pensioner Bhoy says. We all know the delays in action is to buy the establishment time to sweep the corruption under the table, shred documents that will never be seen, and find ways to have the other chairmen in the league really believe that they will die without the establishment team.
The funny thing is, there will be no fans when they are in the lower half of the league, no fans when they aren’t in Europe, no fans when they are bumped out of the cups. The other thing the chairmen are missing is these criminals were using THEIR cash, stolen from their own accounts, buying players with their money, stealing their points, and taking heir place in Europe for years.
I really believe they will get off scot-free to be able to start the season without a penny of debt while all the honest clubs start behind them! Corruption at its finest.
Heres the link of the guilty I mean accused maybe someone should forward it on to the sfa to speed up the execution of this financially and morally bankrupt so called institution.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18148818