Rangers Under Investigation By SPL For Non-Disclosure Player Payments

The Scottish Premier League has opened an investigation into the claims made by former Rangers director Hugh Adam that the club made non-disclosure payments to players that were not a part of their contracts. According to Adam, Rangers had been making payments to players that were not in the contracts submitted to the SPL and SFA, which would obviously breach league rules.

A statement from the SPL read: “The SPL Board has instructed an investigation into the alleged non-disclosure to the SPL of payments made by or on behalf of Rangers FC to players since July 1, 1998.

”SPL rules F1, G1.1 and G1.5 give the SPL Board wide powers of investigation into potential breaches of the SPL rules.

“SPL rules D9.3 and D1.13 impose a prohibition on players receiving payments for playing football or participating in an activity connected with football except where such payments are made in accordance with a form of contract approved by the SPL and require that all such contracts are submitted to the SPL within 14 days of being entered into.”

Rangers are already facing their fair share of problems after going to administration and being accused of several financial irregularities in addition to their obvious poor financial management of the club. This accusation of improper player payments just adds to their woes, not that many will feel bad for a club that, if these accusations are true, intentionally skirted the rules.

While the report from the first-tier tribunal on the EBT arrangement deployed by Rangers is expected soon, the SPL doesn’t seem to be on the verge of a verdict. In fact, the SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster went out of his way to clarify that any “off-the-books payments” to players would breach league rules so there won’t be a lot of room for interpretation.

“We will be looking into it and taking whatever action is necessary,” said Neil Doncaster.