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Barry Ferguson’s tax agony

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Barry Ferguson has revealed that the aftermath of the Big Tax Case is haunting many of his former team-mates.

For over a decade Dave Murray used a botched EBT scheme to recruit and retain players in an effort to keep up with Celtic.

The hoops boasted a much bigger stadium, bigger ticket sales plus better commercial contracts but found themselves constantly under threat from Murray’s tax cheats.

Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer were the first players to rob Her Majesty but soon the schemes were rife throughout the dressing room with jobsworth players like Bob Malcolm and Steven Smith grabbing a slice of the action.

In January 2005 Ferguson quit Blackburn Rovers to return to Ibrox with a contract for less than £10,000/week registered with the SFA and SPL. No questions were asked by the authorities with the midfielder holding a side letter guaranteeing him £2.5m in EBT payments which would be free of tax and national insurance payments.

Speaking to David Tanner on BT Sport, The Sun reports Ferguson saying: “It’s not been life changing it’s been disappointing for a lot of the players.

There are still ongoing issues that you can’t speak about. It’s disappointing for the players.

I know a lot of the players are in difficult situations just now, that doesn’t help but obviously I can’t go into it in depth but that’s what’s happened.”

In July last year the Supreme Court ruled that the ‘EBT’ scam that Murray operated was disguised remuneration and liable to income tax and national insurance payments.

Among those that benefitted were Alex Rae, Neil McCann, Alex McLeish, Steven Thompson and Billy Dodds while Graeme Souness and Walter Smith received ‘EBT’ payments even after they had left the official Rangers (IL) payroll.

After transferring all of his assets to his wife Ferguson declared himself bankrupt in July 2017- before receiving any demands on his £2.5m ‘EBT’ payments.

CLICK HERE for a list of the Rangers (IL) tax cheats.

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