Company history
Prior to incorporation
The football club was formed in 1872 and was operated by the four founders until its incorporation on 27 May 1899. At the point the Club was Incorporated, a limited company (The Rangers Football Club Ltd) was formed and the Club now had legal personality, with directors and liabilities in accordance with the Companies Act.
Minority shareholdings
From the company's formation in 1899, no single shareholder obtained a large enough shareholding to have a majority (and thereby be deemed the owner). From 1963, John Lawrence (Glasgow) Ltd began increasing its shareholding in the company, eventually becoming the largest shareholder with 15%. John Lawrence of John Lawrence (Glasgow) Ltd, became the club's Chairman and served for nearly ten years, retiring in 1973 due to ill health.[11] On Lawrence's death in 1977, his shareholding in the Lawrence Group, and in its business, was transferred to his grandson, Lawrence Marlborough. The following years saw a steady increase in the Lawrence Group's shareholding in the club.[11]
Lawrence Group
In 1985, the Lawrence Group increased its shareholding in Rangers to a 52% majority, following a deal with then club vice-chairman Jack Gillespie.[11] In November 1988, head of the Lawrence Group, Lawrence Marlborough sold the company for £6 million.[11]
Murray International Holdings
Between 1988 and 2011 Scottish steel magnate David Murray was the owner of Rangers, after he had purchased the company for £6 million, via his own company Murray International Holdings.[12][13][14][15]
During the late 1990s Murray increased the club's player transfer budget in an attempt to succeed in both domestic and European football. High-profile players such as Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup joined the club during this time.[16][17] After Dick Advocaat became manager, Murray again sanctioned some large transfer spending on players such as Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer.[18][19] During this time, Murray employed an Employee Benefit Trust scheme to pay players, and other staff at board room level, including himself. EBTs have been described as tax avoidance schemes, and allowed Rangers players and employees to pay less tax on what they were paid. David Murray denied any cheating took place with regards to this EBT scheme during his stewardship.[20] HMRC took issue with the scheme and provided Rangers with a bill of £49million, inclusive of interest and penalties. This was disputed and was ruled upon by three judges at a First Tier Tax Tribunal; the verdict was announced on 20 November 2012, with Rangers winning the appeal.[21][22] An Upper Tribunal upheld the decision in 2014,[23] but HMRC appealed to the Court of Session.[24] In November 2015, their appeal that the EBT payments made to Rangers employees were undeclared taxable earnings was upheld by all three judges.[25] In July 2017, the Court of Session's ruling was upheld by the UK Supreme Court in a final decision.[26][27][28][29]
Rangers Football Club became a limited company on 27 May 1899[30] when it was incorporated as The Rangers Football Club Ltd. It continued in this form until the year 2000 when Sir David Murray decided to list the company on the stock exchange, making it a public limited company. The name of the company was therefore changed to The Rangers Football Club Plc.[31]
