Venture capitalists and Rangers FC
As working class people and the poorest in our society know the global capitalist “premier league” bosses are presiding over an unprecedented world economic crisis caused by the failures of their free market, profit driven system.Here in Scotland a microcosm of that failed bosses system is playing itself out with the events surrounding Rangers FC, as the club is used by “second division” venture profiteers looking for a quick buck.
This appears to have been going on for almost two decades as the BBC has revealed that Sir David Murray, the Tory supporting owner since 1988, put almost nothing of his own cash into the club and indeed ran Rangers into an financial abyss through dodgy bank loans from his pals at the Bank of Scotland and tax scams which, even if not illegal, were not an acceptable way to run a club supported and loved by many in Scotland and beyond.
Murray’s approach, whist bringing a barrel load of silverware in the last twenty years, is now being roundly criticised by more and more Rangers fans, adding to the smaller number who began to question Murray’s running of the club many years ago at the time of the Tore Andre Flo signing.
Over 100 players, managers and senior staff were paid through these tax scam trusts. The revelation that Murray paid himself £6M through his trust, a figure exactly the same as the price he paid for the club in 1988, has enraged many Rangers supporters. The dodgy financial background of the asset stripper Craig Whyte (pictured) has been widely reported in recent months.
The recent revelation that Whyte went to the wall to get Duff and Phelps into the position of being the club’s administrators now makes complete sense in light of the fact that one of the partners in Duff and Phelps helped Whyte scam Rangers season ticketholders through the Ticketus deal.
Rangers as a club must be made to pay for their flouting of the financial rules of the SPL in relation to the tax scam trusts and use of second contacts for players. Any new owners of Rangers must accept that as an institution it cannot get away with blanket tax evasion and come to a proper repayment figure with the HMRC. However, real supporters of football in Scotland recognise that neither the Rangers fans nor the workers at Ibrox were to blame for the problems at the club. Were some fans too quick to accept the assurances of second rate capitalists like Murray and chancers like Whyte? Probably. Do Rangers fans think that evading taxes which would have been used to provide jobs and services in the communities in which they live is acceptable? The vast majority, like all other working class people, would say no.
In the long term the only way to ensure a principled, supporters first approach to running Rangers, or any football club, is the establishment of a genuine fans ownership model. There is a growing realisation of the need for such a model amongst some Rangers fans. Most football fans in Scotland, despite all the tensions and rivalries, want to support clubs that are well run, controlled by the supporters and play a positive role in our society. The lessons of the Rangers story must be learned.
