John Hartson has revealed that he would have been in on the tax scam if he had signed for Rangers (IL) in August 2000.
The Welshman famously ‘failed’ a medical after arriving at Ibrox in response to Celtic winning 6-2 in the first derby under Martin O’Neill.
Dick Advocaat had already signed Kenny Miller, Peter Lovenrands, Fernando Ricksen, Bert Konterman and Allan Johnston but a hammering from Celtic forced Murray into desperate measures.
It was fairly well known that Chris Sutton was earning £30,000 a week at Celtic, the same as he was picking up at Chelsea when Dave Murray decided to up the stakes- in an unconventional manner.
The Discount Option Scheme allowed Murray to pay half of the players salary through conventional means with a tax free lump sum sent offshore to keep the Ibrox club competitive.
WATCH MONDAY 5PM: You really don’t want to miss Ep 1 of @siferry8‘s chat with @CelticFC legend @JohnHartson10 where he gives a detailed & funny insight into his career including this fascinating retelling of his visit to Ibrox the day he failed a medical for for rivals @RangersFC pic.twitter.com/iyDA7622jh
— Open Goal (@opengoalsport) March 23, 2018
Speaking to Simon Ferry on Open Goal Hartson said: “Again it wasn’t about money, I think it was about £15,000/week, a five year deal, goal bonuses, European bonuses, whatever it was.”
A 30 minute medical however had ended Hartson’s hopes of moving to Rangers (IL) but strangely at the same time Ronald de Boer did pass his medical.
Hartson returned to Wimbledon with Murray signing Tore Andre Flo for £12m from Chelsea. Like de Boer the Norwegian was put onto the Discount Option Scheme that led to the club admitting their guilt and having to pay £2.8m to HMRC.
A year after failing his Ibrox medical Hartson joined Celtic on a contract believed to be worth £30,000/week.
Despite failing to disclose full details of te payments being made to Flo and de Boer the SFA never took any action over the Scottish Cup ties that the players were involved in.
