The Times has dragged Celtic into their EBT story after claiming that the final bill to Rangers could be reduced to just £20m after a miscaluculation by HMRC.
Yesterday’s story was greeted with widespread scepticism and appears to be based on a report from BDO to 276 creditors issued in June.
A couple of tax experts have discredited the story but, in a bid, to create an ‘Old Firm’ angle to a flagging story Celtic have been drafted in to give the story fresh legs.
The Times claims:
Celtic have not given up hope of the Scottish Football Association agreeing to a judicial inquiry which would examine fully the roles played by the game’s ruling bodies before, during and after the financial implosion of Rangers in 2012.
It is understood that, while the SFA have yet to respond to a call from the Ladbrokes Premiership champions for such a forensic investigation some two months ago, Celtic believe that more stringent rules, checks and balances ought to be in place in order to restore confidence in the SFA while simultaneously ensuring that Rangers or any other club are not allowed to run up such unsustainable debts in future.
In September 2017 Celtic made public some correspondence between the club and the SFA but Stewart Regan later announced that he didn’t want to rake over old coals but did refer the 2011 UEFA licence given to the Ibrox club to the SFA’s Compliance Department.
More than two years later no answer has been received.
Last night HMRC issued a tweet discrediting the initial story in The Times, no one in Scottish football has commented on the claims from yesterday’s story.