Doncaster and the wee tax case
General Sport - Leaders Sport Summit 2012 - Stamford Bridge - 11/10/12 (From left to right) Karen Espelund, Executive Committee Member of UEFA, Neil Doncaster, chief Executive Officer of the Scottish Premier league and Heather Rabbatts, Non-Executive Director of The FA during a talk called "Governance: Are you serious?" Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Paul Childs Livepic
Neil Doncaster has been caught out being very economical with the truth.
During an interview on STV last week the SPFL chief executive claimed that the wee tax case had been dealt with by the Nimmo Smith enquiry in 2012.
Unless looking at the issue and changing the terms of his remit can be described as dealing with it Doncaster has been caught out.
The wee tax case resulted from the Discount Option Scheme used to lure Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer to Ibrox in 2000.
When the SPL set up the in-house Nimmo Smith enquiry the starting date was July 1998 when the SPL came into being.
By the time the report came back the enquiry decided only to examine contracts from November 2000 missing out on the de Boer and Flo contracts.
— Grant Russell (@STVGrant) July 27, 2017
Prior to administration Rangers, under Dave Murray, were forced to admit their guilt and confirm that the two stars had additional contracts.
By failing to operate the DOS properly the club admitted guilt in paying players through dual contracts.
HMRC demanded £2.8m for income tax and national insurance- the SFA and SPL had cut and dried information of undeclared secondary contracts.
They did nothing.
With a Judicial Review expected to be launched soon every action of the SPL, SFA and SPFL will be looked at in forensic details.
As the cover up deepens Doncaster and his backers are digging a bigger and bigger hole for themselves.
In eight years as chief executive of the SPL and SPFL Doncaster hasn’t had a single vote of no confidence. Ladbrokes, Betfred, Mitre and Irn-Bru are the major sponsors of the SPFL.