BBC: David Murray's £6.3m EBT
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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