John James has published details of a letter revealing the extent to which the SFA helped cover up an unpaid tax bill as they provided the old club with a UEFA licence for the 2011/12 season.
On Tuesday it emerged that a Notice of Complaint had been issued to the new club at Ibrox relating to the 2011 licence.
While the old club were clearly breaking the rules they appeared to do so with the help of the SFA to the disadvantage of every other club in membership.
Had the SFA insisted on applying the rules Her Majesty would have been repaid £2.8m in income tax, national insurance, penalties and interest relating to the illegal registration and payments made to Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer. No punishment was ever made for fielding those ineligible players.
If Rangers hadn’t paid Her Majesty Celtic would have gone into the Champions League qualifiers with the prospect of earning each SPL club a £300,000 payment.
According to John James:
On 19 September 2011, Keith Sharp, financial accountant at the SFA, wrote to Ken Olverman, Financial Controller of The Rangers Football Club Plc, with some heartening news:
“First the good news – we have had verbal confirmation from UEFA that they are satisfied with the submission in respect of Overdue Payables as at 30 June. This means that Rangers do not have to provide updated information on Overdue Payables as at 30 September, and also do not have to provide updated Future Financial Information.”
Sharp continued:
“In view of recent media reports, could you provide us with a brief written update of the current situation re the amount due to HMRC, as required under Article 67 of the UEFA Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations. UEFA will be aware of the situation and a brief statement should satisfy their requirements.
“There is no indication that this will result in any follow-up action from UEFA as the Club Financial Control Panel already has a large number of cases to consider at its next meeting.”
With news of the unpaid tax widely available Celtic made enquiries to the SFA but were told that everything was in accordance with the rules.
After reaching the 2016/17 Champions League group stage Celtic spent £2.5m signing players from Aberdeen and Dundee.
In 2009/10 Rangers (IL) reached the group phase of the Champions League and signed players from Austria and England who were later listed among the 276 creditors when the old club went into liquidation.
Under new manager Ally McCoist Rangers lost out to Malmo in the Champions League qualifier before crashing out of the Europa League play-off to Maribor.
Campbell Ogilvie was president of the SFA from 2011 to 2015.
