Dave King statement, line by line, lie by lie

You don’t need to be Mike Ashley’s highly paid QC to take apart the comments of Dave King.

Being branded a glib and shameless liar is a lot to live upto but the policeman’s son from Castlemilk is all that and much much more.

Totally contradicting comments from three years ago is understandable, contradicting yourself in the same statement takes some amount of arrogance.

Thursday’s rabble rousing snarl included ‘the football team had no advantage’ quickly followed by ‘Certain players may not have signed for the Club without the perceived benefit of personal tax savings’.

Using that sort of logic it looks like being a cold lonely Christmas for Mr King should he show face to defend himself against Sports Direct on December 9.

Looking at Thursday’s rant there’s not a single line that stands up to any scrutiny.

King opened with: “It is disappointing that a debate has re-emerged around the subject of Rangers’ history in Scottish football. It must be especially frustrating for the Club’s supporters who again find individuals within the structures of Scottish football unfairly targeting the Club.”

Not a single word had been said by anyone in Scottish football at the time of King’s rant, Celtic issued a short statement 24 hours later.

King added: “As the one individual who was a major shareholder and director throughout the period that gave rise to the HMRC dispute, and again find myself in a similar capacity, I believe that I am uniquely positioned to make three important observations.”

On no you weren’t. Mr King, in a bid to hide money from the South African tax authorities invested in Murray Sports through a company called Ben Nevis Holdings, he never invested a penny in Rangers Football Club. His shares were in Murray Sports, as a non-executive director he had a duty to examine the accounts for the benefit of shareholders.

Hilariously he added: “First, irrespective of the final outcome of the tax appeal (which might take several more years) the football team had no advantage from any tax savings from the scheme put in place by the Murray Group. Throughout the period in question the shareholders were committed to providing funding to the Club. The tax scheme may have reduced the need for shareholders to provide higher levels of funding so, as I have tried to make clear in the past, any advantage gained would have been to the company and its shareholders, not the team.”

That will be the same shareholders that couldn’t put together the £1 that Craig Whyte stumped up to buy the club from Dave Murray. Were they concerned by the debt that Mr Whyte took on or the elephant in the room as then chairman Al Johnston described the club finances in March 2011.

Next up Mr King offered us: “Certain players may not have signed for the Club without the perceived benefit of personal tax savings but there was no general advantage for the player squad, or the performance on the pitch. We would still have signed players of equal abilities if one or two had decided they didn’t want to sign under different financial circumstances.”

Finally a grain of truth, certain players may not have signed. Just what was it that attracted Dado Prso to leave the tax free joys of Monaco for life in Govan? If he hadn’t scored 25 goals in season 2004/05 who would have? Every single signing, even Alex Rae and Egil Ostendstad are signed to gain a sporting advantage.

It is entirely possible that Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney would have signed for Rangers (IL) if Prso hadn’t, the only thing that matters is that Prso DID sign, Her Majesty wasn’t paid and the SFA and SPL weren’t given details of his payments from the club. Prso was paid £1.9m by EBT.

Going on King tells us: “Secondly, Lord Nimmo Smith has fully and finally dealt with the legitimacy of the continuity of the Club’s history. There is no more to be debated on that issue.”

Perhaps Mr King could explain why Sevco have failed to pay the £250,000 fine imposed by the Lord Nimmo Smith report.

Continuing, the South African based criminal added: “Finally, it is extraordinary that representatives of other Scottish clubs – who admit the damage done to Scottish football by Rangers’ removal from the Premier League – should even wish to re-engage with this issue. It is time those individuals, who represent other clubs, recognise their legal and fiduciary responsibilities to their own clubs and shareholders rather than submit to the uninformed ramblings of a few outspoken fans to whom attacking Rangers is more important than the wellbeing of their own clubs.”

At the time of Mr King’s statement not a single word or comment had been made since Her Majesty triumphed in the Big Tax Case.

Going on he added: “This is a misguided attempt (that will ultimately fail) to rewrite history and defeat Rangers off the park when their teams could not do so on the park at the time. The history of many other clubs would have to be rewritten if this illogical argument was to be consistently applied.”

Quite a claim that one, every club currently in the SPFL has survived through good times and bad, Dunfermline of League One used to enjoy regular campaigns in Europe, Ross County used to be in the Highland League. Every club is where their finances and ability allow.

Moving on we have this whopper: “Having reviewed documentation that has become available to me I believe that Rangers was harshly and, in some instances, unfairly treated in the period leading up to demotion from the Premier League.”

For the avoidance of doubt Rangers were liquidated, they died. For reasons that are kept secret to this day an agreement was reached between the SPL, SFL, SFA, Duff and Phelps and Charles Green in his capacity as founding father of Sevco 5088/Scotland to provide league football at Ibrox.

Mr King completed his rant with the following: “However, that is now history and I have publicly stated, with the full support of the recently installed board, that we wish to put the past behind us and move on in partnership with all clubs throughout Scotland to improve and restore the image and quality of Scottish football as a whole. This will be to the benefit of all clubs.

“For the avoidance of doubt, however, I wish to make one point clear. If the history of our Club comes under attack we will deal with it in the strongest manner possible and will hold to account those persons who have acted against their fiduciary responsibilities to their own clubs and to Scottish football.”

For the avoidance of doubt the League Three (2013), League One (2014) and Ramsdens Cup Runners-Up (2014) are not under any sort of threat despite the incredible pile of debt run up in achieving those honours.

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