He’s the quiet man in the background, rarely seen, never heard and at the heart of the slowly unfolding disaster that looks like ripping Scottish football apart.
Andrew Dickson.
Whatever the composition of the board at Ibrox, Dicko can usually be found sitting in the directors box, usually with a slightly worried look on his face, perhaps fearful that a torch is about to shIne in his direction.
As momentum grows over the infamous Resolution 12, outside pressure is growing on the SFA and Celtic to let rip on the initial decision and the subsequent stone walling of questions.
While Campbell Ogilvie instigated the original Discount Option Scheme for Ronald de Boer and Tore Andre Flo the baton was quickly passed into the trusting hands of Dickson.
As head of football administration Dickson ensured that full details of payments to players was held back from the SFA and SPL.
When HMRC got wind of the extent of EBT payments in 2005 Dickson was on the scene knowing the detail of the player contracts as the Football Administrator. HMRC were reassured that the scam was being run correctly with discretionary payments being made, no side letters involved.
When the Metropolitan Police ordered a raid on Ibrox in 2007 the side letters that had been denied were uncovered and The Big Tax Case kicked into action. Rangers (IL) under Dave Murray and Dickson continued unaffected to recruit players and pay coaches, directors and medical staff through EBT’s.
As the noose tightened on the old club the paperwork was submitted for the 2011/12 UEFA licence, at 31 March there was no outstanding tax payable, that arrived on May 20.
With the tax demand from Her Majesty overdue on 20 June the SFA completed the UEFA licence paperwork on June 30 which takes us to the heart of Resolution 12.
Did Rangers (IL) fail to declare the £2.8m Wee Tax Case liability, plus interest and penalties, or did they declare the overdue payable to the SFA who turned a blind eye in the hope that Ally McCoist’s side would reach the group stage of the Champions League to settle the bill?
With a decade of experience of financial and footballing administration there is no doubt that Dickson was at the heart of the issue.
As concern set in at Hampden Stewart Regan showed an interest in the matter, emailing Dickson about how the SFA should handle tentative media enquires about the issue. Knowing the scale of the matter Regan was told to hold off with the Charlotte Fakes twitter account publishing the correspondence which seemed to be smoothed over as Ali Russell met with Regan and Ogilvie for dinner.
When the SPL ordered an enquiry into player registrations from Rangers (IL) dating back to July 1998 Dickson provided them with contracts from November 2001, after Flo and de Boer had signed up to their Discount Option Schemes- the contracts that led to the GUILTY verdict over the Wee Tax Case. No action was taken over Dickson’s failure to provide the contracts from July 1998.
Dickson survived the handover from Murray to Craig Whyte, he Tupe’d over from Rangers to Charles Green’s Sevco club, when Green was ousted he retained his post as Head of Football Administration.
Despite the findings of the Nimmo Smith whitewash, Dickson’s failure to disclose contracted payment details to the football authorities went unpunished, it’s hard to imagine that he hasn’t been involved in the three years stalling tactics over the non-payment of the £250,000 fine imposed.
As Derek Llambias took control at Ibrox, Dickson remained in place, a year ago as Dave King and Paul Murray swept to power the familiar pale face of Dickson remained in place knowing which cupboard each skeleton is stored in.
Compounding this Roll of Dishonour in July 2015 the man with all the files and paperwork was voted onto the Scottish FA Regulatory Advisory Group, perhaps supporters and shareholders in Hearts, St Mirren, Alloa and Celtic may wish to ask Ann Budge, Brian Caldwell, Henry McClelland and Michael Nicholson how they feel being associated with Dickson on the Regulatory Advisory Group.
The Resolution 12 group won’t be disappearing or giving up any time soon. The circus that Scottish football has evolved into could still be rescued but with every member club of the SFA and the SPFL looking the other way the mess is only going to get deeper with those keeping a ‘dignified silence’ on the scandals as guilty as those who have been at the heart of the matter which has attempted to prop up a club in blue from Ibrox for over a decade.
Dickson helped himself to an EBT for £33,000, just over a third of the value of a good night out with his mentor Ogilvie.
