Green walks away from EBT hearing

Sevco chief Charles Green has issued a lengthy statement explaining why the Third Division club won’t be at tomorrow’s SPL sitting into the use of EBT’s by Rangers.

Green has been selective about which parts of the soon to be liquidated club that he wished to inherit with the big tax case and EBT enquiry body-swerved by the Yorkshireman.

Playing to the gallery has sent Green’s popularity soaring in the last six weeks with SFA chief Stewart Regan turning a blind eye to comments aimed at rallying fans behind season ticket sales.

The Ibrox chief also questions why the SPL never investigated the club despite being contacted by HMRC about the role of EBT’s in October 2010.

Despite the concerns of HMRC Rangers were given a licence to play in Europe in season 2011/12 when Celtic could have taken part in Champions League qualifiers and another tax paying SPL side entered into the Europa League qualifiers.

Tonight Green stated: “The Rangers Football Club Limited will not attend tomorrow’s ‘earing (Tuesday, September 11) of the SPL-appointed Commission investigating the circumstances surrounding the use of Employee Benefit Trusts by previous owners of the Club.

“The Club cannot continue to participate in an SPL process that we believe is fundamentally misconceived.

“Neither the SPL, nor its Commission, has any legal power or authority over the Club because it is not in the SPL.

“For that reason it has no legal basis on which to appoint its Commission. The Club ceased to be subject to the SPL’s rules when it was ejected from its league.

“Our lawyers have made that point repeatedly to the SPL in correspondence and yet our requests for an explanation from the SPL have been completely ignored. The SPL’s silence on these issues is deafening. The outcome of the SPL’s process will have no legal effect. ”

With the SFA avoiding the issue of whether Sevco are a new club or a continuation of Rangers the situation is open to interpretation with Green happy to claim the glory but washing his hands of the debts of the old club.

Turning his attention to the football authorities failure to properly govern and licence the game he added: “Why did the football authorities do nothing to address an issue that was public knowledge for at least two years, and was reported in the Club’s accounts for several years, before the Club went into administration and was subsequently taken over by new owners?

“HMRC contacted the SPL regarding EBT matters in October 2010, they met to discuss what documentation the Club had lodged with the SPL.

“Did the SPL launch an investigation? Did they appoint a Commission?  Did they ask to see EBT correspondence? Did they ask any questions at all?  No. They did absolutely nothing.

“What compounds the breathtaking hypocrisy of the SPL in this whole saga, is that the SFA, the SPL and us – as the new owners – took part in numerous discussions regarding the new company’s league status during which it was made clear that a deal was there to be done where ‘the EBT issue’ would be dealt with as part of a package of sanctions which would be implemented in return for membership of the SFA and a place in either the SPL or Division One.

“We do not accept that people who are willing to come to an agreement on such matters then have a right to instigate a full blown inquisition when matters do not unfold as they thought they would.

“In our view, it beggars belief that an authority which can be heavily involved in these discussions to the point that the Chief Executive Neil Doncaster repeatedly stated he was not interested in stripping titles from Rangers can lurch from that position to setting up its own Commission under the chairmanship of Lord Nimmo Smith.”

Trying to bring Celtic into the debate Green added: “Rangers was not the only club in Scotland to use EBTs yet nothing was done and little has been heard about it. Also, Rangers stands accused of achieving sporting advantage unfairly – yet there is little debate over the fact in all the years EBTs were in existence at Ibrox, the Club often failed to win either the league title, or the main cup competitions.

“Furthermore, the period concerned saw a significant downsizing of the playing squad both in money spent on transfers and players wages.

“The decision we have taken has not been taken lightly. There are powerful representatives from Clubs within the SPL – not all of them by any means – who appear hell bent on inflicting as much damage on Rangers as possible.

“It is lamentable that the Board and executive of the organisation have not been able to deal with this appropriately. We do not ‘old every SPL club in the same regard. Several clubs were placed in an invidious position and we believe their interests were not best served by those in more powerful positions.”