Topping wants SFA to set up review into tax case handling

SPFL chairman Ralph Topping has urged the SFA to follow their lead and enable an independent review into what lessons Scottish football can learn from its handling of the Rangers tax case. The league yesterday confirmed they had no legal power to seek further sanctions against the Ibrox club for its use of Employee Benefit Trusts between 2001 and 2010, ruling out any prospect of title-stripping. A 2013 SPL commission chaired by Lord Nimmo Smith fined Rangers £250,000 for breaking player registration rules during the EBT period, but decided the club ‘did not gain unfair competitive

advantage’. Celtic had called for that decision to be re-examined in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling against the Ibrox oldco’s deployment of the controversial tax scheme. However, the SPFL are acting on the legal advice of senior counsel Gerry Moynihan QC, who concluded the case against Rangers was ‘now closed and cannot be re-opened by the SPFL. Nor can the commission or a new commission now impose further or different sanctions’. The league have published Moynihan’s answers to a series of questions — formulated by the SPFL board and legal adviser Rod McKenzie — in the interests of ‘transparency’. Topping revealed they would now support setting up an independent review into how Scottish football had dealt with tax-related matters, insisting the SPFL intended to be ‘entirely open’ in an attempt to eventually move on from the divisive issue. The participation of the SFA — in charge of protecting the reputation of the game as a whole — would be required to make any review meaningful. ‘If we are going to have a successful review, we need our SFA colleagues to aid that process,’ said Topping, who has offered his help to successor Murdoch MacLennan when he assumes the role on August 1. ‘I would be very surprised if there was not a demand for that from the press, public and football clubs. ‘If they don’t, that’s their decision. I think they would find it hard to have the Aunt Harriet approach and sweep it under the carpet or stonewall it — and we don’t want Aunt Harriet to have her way. The SPFL will seek to agree terms of reference with the SFA and the identification of appropriate independent reviewers.’