Former Rangers striker's agent claims club paid four times publicised fee

[pete 2,499]

Former Rangers striker's agent claims club paid four times publicised fee

 

Mark Walker

Wednesday 13 May 2015

 

DURING a high-profile court case Shota Arveladze's lawyer revealed Rangers actually paid £8.5million for the Georgian striker when they signed him in 2001 - which staggeringly is more than four times the publicised fee.

 

The former Ibrox hero, who is now a manager, won a legal action this week against his former club Ajax from a dispute dating back 18 years. The Amsterdam side claimed Arveladze owed them £855,000 over his transfer from Dinamo Tbilisi in 1997.

 

The dispute was over whether the player's share of the deal was included as part of his gross or net salary and the Dutch club took the matter to court to sue their former player after years of claims and counter-claims.

 

Dutch courts ruled in Arveladze's favour this week and ordered the Amsterdam outfit to pay all the 42-year-old's legal costs.

 

His lawyer, Rob Cohen, made the astonishing claim that Ajax were actually paid 12 million Euros - around £8.5m - by the then big-spending Ibrox side to sign the player when Dick Advocaat was in charge, despite a fee of just £2m being widely reported at the time.

 

Cohen said: "We have fought long and hard for this, but finally won. There is a party atmosphere at the Arveladze family home. Ajax must take a good look in the mirror.

 

"They received 12 million Euros from Glasgow Rangers for Shota and he did not deserve this outrageous treatment.

 

"They are all cowards. Edwin Van der Sar, Marc Overmars, the old and the new management. They all knew they were wrong and refused to comment."

 

Arveladze managed in Turkey until this year when he left his last job as boss of Kasimpasa.

 

He was part of the Rangers squad that won the treble in 2002-03 and the double in 2004-05.

 

If Rangers did pay that enormous fee, it would make Arveladze the second-most expensive import in Scottish football history, behind the £12m the Ibrox side infamously paid for Tore Andre Flo from Chelsea.

 

And then play him as a winger.

[Davie P 4]

Given that Barca are now being chased by the tax authorities in Spain for under declaring the amount of Neymar's transfer, I think that we could be in for a new bout of scrutiny from HMRC.

[RANGERRAB 3,293]

Given that Barca are now being chased by the tax authorities in Spain for under declaring the amount of Neymar's transfer, I think that we could be in for a new bout of scrutiny from HMRC.

 

If so it would be an oldco problem

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Player's transfer fees are amortized (written off) over the period of their contracts and a balancing adjustment made when they are sold, so it would not have been in our interests to undervalue the player in the accounts because that would boost our profits and hence the tax we paid for the years that he was here.

 

The fee itself was no doubt paid over a period of time and may have been subject to add ons for appearances etc. It is quite possible that the £2m reported was just the initial fee. The actual amount of money that we paid from time to time would have been reflected in our bank balances which are factual and audited at given dates.

 

Transfer fees etc are not individually reported in the accounts so it would be very difficult if not impossible to check although there may have been statements in the notes.

 

The pound was just under €1.60 in late August 2001 so €12m would have been £7.5m.

 

The BBC reported "Arveladze, who joined in a deal believed to be worth around £3m" Wednesday, 29 August, 2001, 20:16 GMT 21:16

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rangers/1515958.stm

[JohnMc 2,483]

I wonder if the the lawyer, Rob Cohen, is the same Rob Cohen who is Frank DeBoer, current Ajax manager's, father in law. Might make for interesting family visits.

 

This is 'old' news and unlikely to make much of a difference now, but it serves as a stark reminder of our club's inability to properly play a 'number 10'. Naismith is the closest we've ever come in my time watching.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I wonder if the the lawyer, Rob Cohen, is the same Rob Cohen who is Frank DeBoer, current Ajax manager's, father in law. Might make for interesting family visits.

 

This is 'old' news and unlikely to make much of a difference now, but it serves as a stark reminder of our club's inability to properly play a 'number 10'. Naismith is the closest we've ever come in my time watching.

 

Arveladze was a goal scoring machine so naturally we stuck him out on the wing and we were the only club where he averaged less than a goal every other game (league games) which he did throught his career. He was enormously successful at AZ when he went back at age 32 in 2005.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shota_Arveladze

 

How about GS's friend Vuckic for no.10 as per last week.

[Laudbertz 0]

Rangers : Playing players out of position, 10 years and counting!

 

^ Shota still managed to score a fair amount of goals for us though, didnt realise it was quite that many til I looked at his Wiki page.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Arveladze was a goal scoring machine so naturally we stuck him out on the wing and we were the only club where he averaged less than a goal every other game (league games) which he did throught his career. He was enormously successful at AZ when he went back at age 32 in 2005.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shota_Arveladze

 

How about GS's friend Vuckic for no.10 as per last week.

 

Certainly stop him ruining our chances of winning by getting him out the way.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I find the notion we payed 12 million euros for shota highly dubious

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Certainly stop him ruining our chances of winning by getting him out the way.

 

Alex McLeish once told me a very funny story about the same thing re Nacho Novo; if you get me drunk on Sunday I might tell it but not sure I can manage Novo's Glesca/Spanish accent.