Mark Patrick Finlayson

Man City scandal tip of the iceberg as football erodes from the top || Stephen McGowan "In Scotland people know how toxic the stench of scandal can be. Fourteen years have passed since Employee Benefits Trusts and side letters entered the national vocabulary and Rangers fell off a financial cliff. The bitter scars from those events still weep, angry and raw. "Former Ibrox chairman Sir David Murray popped up on the podcast Graeme Souness Tackles the other week to rouse sleeping dogs from their slumber. "Murray used his recent autobiography to appeal to Rangers supporters to remember him only for the good times. He was pushing the same line on the podcast, telling old mucker Souness that the Ibrox club were ‘targeted’ by an HMRC witch hunt. “'It hurts me very badly,' said Murray. 'Okay, I’m remembered for the end, but I would like to think I’m remembered for Laudrup, Gascoigne and 35 trophies.' "A bit like the captain of the Titanic asking people to remember him for a smooth push-off at Southampton, Murray knows better than anyone why HMRC used Rangers as a high-profile test case. "EBT arrangements were used between 2001 and 2010 as a form of disguised remuneration to avoid tax and national insurance contributions on player earnings. In 2017 even he had to admit that EBTs and the non-disclosure of side letters to the SFA or the SPL gave Rangers the ‘opportunity to get players that we perhaps would not be able to afford”. "While some still get misty eyed over Gazza and nine-in-a-row, then, plenty of Rangers fans blame the former owner for Craig Whyte, administration, Charles Green, Mike Ashley, liquidation, Sevco, Duff and Phelps and the recurring issues which led to just three trophies in 14 years. That’s David Murray’s legacy right there." 👇 𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘌: 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘯/𝘗𝘈 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘷𝘦/𝘗𝘈 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴