Ally McCoist has denied that the EBT scams ran by Dave Murray cheated football.
Although the media likes to call the scam an Employee Benefit Trust it was a form of disguised remuneration as the Supreme Court ruled in July 2017.
Rather than offer a contract with Income Tax and National Insurance deducted at source Murray offered players, coaches and managers a token contract in the traditional manner topped up with guaranteed payments into a trust that could be withdrawn gross. No Income Tax or National Insurance was deducted to fund the NHS, schools, pensions and the Armed Forces.
Under it’s use the old Rangers club were able to share the honours with Celtic as they attracted players that they couldn’t normally afford.
Since the scheme was ended by Craig Whyte in 2011 not a single trophy has turned up at Ibrox, Celtic have won nine championships on the bounce alongside sweeping up the last 11 domestic honours.
Excusing the widespread cheating that he benefited from McCoist told the Daily Record:
“I was at a meeting as Rangers manager involving the SFA and some other characters and the subject of title-stripping came up. I stood up and slammed my papers together.
“There were about 14, 15 people at the meeting and I said, ‘Gentlemen, you’ll have to excuse me because from this moment on I’m taking absolutely no part in this madness’ and I walked out of the room.
“Not only was it a non-starter for me, it was people trying to play to an audience that should never have existed.
“I look back and I tell people, Juventus actually got caught blatantly cheating and they were put down one division for a year. Now I’m not asking people to make comparisons, I’m making a statement of fact.”
Rangers’ use of the EBT scheme played a key role in their financial demise as it led to a tax dispute with HMRC. But McCoist insists he does not think the club were guilty of cheating. He said: “No I don’t, absolutely not at all.
“A lot of people were making those (EBT) payments at that particular time. Now that doesn’t necessarily make it right but I don’t for one minute think that anybody involved at Rangers FC was carrying that out thinking they were cheating – absolutely no way.”
Without the disguised remuneration scam McCoist lost to Falkirk and Dundee United in the 2011/12 domestic cups.
In charge of the Tribute Act he lost cup ties to Forfar, Alloa, Queen of the South, Raith Rovers, Inverness Caley Thistle, Dundee United and Motherwell.
Since promotion to the top flight in 2016 Mark Warburton, Graeme Murty, Pedro Caixinha and Steven Gerrard haven’t won a single trophy with players recruited and paid in the same manner as all other clubs in Scotland.
Soon after being drawn against Celtic in the semi-final of the 2014/15 League Cup McCoist opted to go on gardening leave with Kenny McDowall and Stuart McCall in charge for the remainder of the season, finishing third in the Championship.