der Berliner

According to sources of FF, said journalist has been booted from Ibrox / Murray Park today and was not allowed to take part in Craig Whyte's press conference.

Regarding Spiers and others who write on that topic: Would you and your lot keep in mind that "if Rangers lose their tax case" is nothing imminent. No matter how often it is repeated, it will not come to our doorstep anytime soon*. The only thing you lot do is discredit the name of Rangers FC for something of the past and something that is currently looked into. *The case might be presented in November, but as has been said the outcome will most likely be challenged by either side and will most likely go on for years. Just keep in mind how long a certain über-Rangers fan in South Africa held the local tax authorities at bay. (Anyone knows the outcome here?) I would assume that both Murray International and Whyte had/has the best legal team working on this, as neither wants to lose another few million.

At the time it was said that we paid in full. I would assume that we paid a certain amount up front and - as is usual these days - additional sums at set dates. Nothing strange these days, just remember that cash-rich (you would expect) Liverpool does the same with Wilson. (Even though his money was tied on appearances et al - which is the worse deal, IMHO.) Yet, with us it is all just assumptions and hearsay, born out of the rumours regarding the tax bills and law case. As I said on the time, this will grow arms and legs unless it is checked early on. We will have to counter any silly rumour uttered by the press or on a Hooped Horror board ... and all this see our reputation suffer. On a sidenote, while Bain's papers may claim this or that, I would assume that he knows next to nothing about the way Whyte handles Rangers' finances and payments these days. If you consider that money was there to finance the various deals which did not come off (Goodwillie, Verhoek, Juhasz ... ) and don't follow the rather hysterical assumption that this was all a bluff to appease the fans, I for one can't understand why people think we are in monetary difficulties. Of course, the current actions by HMRC make us look a bit stupid, but shouldn't we have the right to contest bills we deem irregular? It's what every company this side of Saturn's ring does .. and usually isn't questioned for it.

The Kurier is probably as bad as the Sun or the Daily Record over in Rangers lands. Sportsnet took it on from there and you could have picked Scotzine for a similar accurate report. Essentially, it looks to be exactly what I expected to happen when the press started highlighting our "tax problems". Hence I asked for the club to sue those who leaked this information, as it is bound to damage our reputation. Anyway, here it goes ... See, the Austrians already know that we have to pay ...

See, I just asked something similar on FF. Had the Take Over not happened, who would have found out about the 2.8m HMRC bill? Some clever chap in the future who would have been told to shut up? Or HMRC once they start dealing with the big one? This all sheds some "interesting" light on Bain's job at Ibrox and I would assume that Whyte accused him of a HMRC 2.8m bill cover-up before "suspending" him. If that is the case, Bain shows more audacity here than he did against UEFA.

Which means exactly what? There is very strange business going on with the Spanish and the Portuguese when it comes to South American footballers.

Says some lawyer who acted against us. Well well. A little bit above that it is actually stated that Whyte wanted to double check on the issue ere paying anything. Since he's been quite busy of late - I mean, he's not just owning us, but has other things to run as well - not least with HMRC, there were bound to be delays. IMHO just a new attempt at shyte-stirring.

These days you really don't want us to deal with Houston and his lot again. There sure is some sort of decrease of dignity in recent month when it comes to transfer activities - sadly enough, that holds true for all sides - but their antics with regards to the Goodwillie deal take some beating. No clue about Allan and I just hope he will not be hyped up as the next best thing that happens to Scottish football (like Goodwillie) and we are engulfed in another transfer wrangle that sees the fans up in arms over someone very much unproven once again. (On a sidenote, this talk will sure raise a few question marks over the lads mental stability tomorrow. ... then again, it spurred Goodwillie to snatch a Tangerine winner at Ibrox last time around ... )

No. Not widespread. Just one bampot from beyond the Clyde babbled some rubbish and the press followed suit, including our great grand old dame, the BBC. Tossers the lot of them!

Great player from what I remember, had him in a few Fantasy League teams of mine. Yet, nowadays a dark horse like Rothen was. Was really pleased we got the latter and never understood why we didn't use him more often later on. And I for one doubt it was solely the player to blame.

Was thinking exactly the same this morning. You really wonder how many cases like ours with HMRC have been done over these past few seasons, but with less media attention ... for whatever reason. The only "scandal" of late I remotely remember is the one of Portsmouth ... On the other hand, many of those involved - including press folk - will not know that much about such deals and how they are handled, but shoot away freely with this stuff and create a hysteria well beyond joke. And this, BTW, is the point why I would like to see Whyte's lawyers check out who revealed this - I would assume confidential - stuff. They simply need to double check the phone bills of that renegade journo for starters ...

It would have been good if someone would have taken the time and noted down the games, players, and scorers. No chance to see any of it overseas ...

An interesting article by a Glasgow accountant is to be found here: Football Focus - disguised remuneration = disguised HMRC bias? - Jim Gillespie

But really, should Whyte been in trouble and he saw that HMRC thing heading our way all along too, he could just have sanctioned the Jela sale for 8m or whatnot and be done with it. Not the wisest of decisions squad-wise, no doubt, but short-term business-wise no doubt. That said, I do believe that the money for some of the transfer targets was and is there, so who knows what is actually happening.

Re Jelavic ... STV were the frontrunners ... at least according to NewsNow ... and we all know that the STV twitterers are even faster than that. I wouldn't be surprised if Jela's agent was actually the one who got this going.

6-figure sum can be anything from 100k to 999k, which is a third of what is demanded. Do you know what sort of pay-back period has been given? Nope. Neither do I. The point is that we are willing to pay it, so why's the apparent undue hurry here? They waited about a decade for it (and we (!) found it and told them in the first place, apparently). Make that: "are already being paid back". That is what I assume, for what else would that sum be? Forgive my language lapse. Doing this now is IMHO quite simply over the top. For we won't just go away next week or leave the country. IMHO a neat publicity stunt by whomever drives these events on. So you rather want these details about our dealings with HRMC being played out in the public? I find that quite strange. For - as with all tax documents (yours or mine included) - I do assume that this is confidental stuff. As a Rangers source said, we should be dismayed that every cough of it hits the news outlets faster than the club knows about it, apparently. Thus, there sure is a breach of guidelines involved here and this should be investigated. I'd have to dig out the relevant news or twitter sites, but I'm firmly believing that the info about the Leicester bid was not published first on rangers.co.uk.. We just send out a signal. Rangers FC is no celebrity, it is a company. Just imagine this thwarts the deal with Fox Sports? Over no matter of consequence to that media outlet at all. Just because of the bad publicity involving a disputed tax sum. IMHO, the Rangers business department looks in terror on these "revelations" and spilled beans. All just MHO, of course.

While we all start debating this and why Whyte does that, has anyone any idea how other clubs handle this stuff? Maybe it is common practise, but we just haven't done it before. Right now, it is like people telling me that drinking Coke is bad because it has 12 pieces of sugar in one glass. What they do not tell me is that apple juice has 10 pieces of sugar per glass too ...

As far as we know (official sources), Rangers have already paid a six-figure sum. We / Whyte always said that he does not contest the 2.8m, but we do the extra-charge. This is the thing - IMHO - that is talked about between Whyte's people and HMRC. Why the latter deems it necessary to jump on our accounts and "ring-fence" the 2.8m when these are already paid back is everyone's guess. IMHO, there is something more sinister involved. Something that also makes sure that every fact and figure is being relayed to the public. If I was Wyhte, I'd send my lawyers out there and sue HMRC and any informer till there is no tomorrow. For this whole behaviour is damaging to the name of Rangers FC ... when there is absolutely no need to play this out in public as they do. I wonder whether we can find an instance where HMRC has done the same with another company.

Working from a Channel Island and pay them all with dubious offshore stuff so it all comes falling down on them ...

What? Expand please ...

Obviously the club needs help and backing. That it would get. And I would hand a few 100k to the Rangers Ladies teams too. Better chance of becoming Champions of Europe there any time soon* ;-) *Just being realistic.

FF has no report on this whatsoever, which is somewhat dubious. Anyways ... what does the document actually say?

That chap is simply a grade A tosser. Comments like these endear him as much to the public as does TLB's antics on and off the park. There is a reason why so many people want to see the Hooped Horrors fail at every level possible. On a sidenote, it is not the case that we have heard of 10m bids for Kayal and Ki and Izaguirre and the like. Nope! Never! The problem is that the average human's memory lasts longer than that of a goldfish, Peter.

Originally out of Beowulf (I. 455) and literally means "Fate* always goes a she likes" *Wyrd / Wurd is the Germanic personification of Fate. Wrote the German Wiki article (Wurd) myself.

So the Grandmaster got tangoed and 33odd pages of FF-thread were about next to nothing. It is typical of the "edge-on-hysteria" attitude that is present at FF over these last few months though.