"New club" claims and rulings As a result of the Rangers business and assets being sold to a new company when The Rangers Football Club plc entered liquidation, Rangers Football Club post-2012 was described by some in the mainstream media as a "new club", whilst Charles Green maintained "this is still Rangers", and the SPL chief executive
Neil Doncaster stated "it is an existing club, even though it's a new company". Former Celtic captain
Tom Boyd and
Donald Findlay, Rangers' former vice-chairman, said they thought the post-liquidation Rangers was a new club.
Steven Naismith, one of the players who chose not transfer his contract to the new company under
TUPE regulations, justified his position by stating that he had no loyalty to the new regime. Five years later, Naismith retracted his comments and said he had been poorly advised over the situation at Rangers. On 20 August 2012,
Falkirk suspended one of their announcers after he referred to the club as "the Sevco Franchise" (
Sevco was the new company's name prior to it being changed to
The Rangers Football Club Ltd). Some Celtic supporters were particularly vociferous in their 'new club' assertions, having displayed banners at their stadium on numerous occasions mockingly referencing 'zombies'. In January 2015 a Celtic group paid for a full-page newspaper advertisement announcing that their club would soon play its first fixture against the new club and that the 120-year
Old Firm rivalry had ended. In 2013 numerous complaints were made to the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), after Rangers produced marketing materials which stated they were "Scotland's most successful club". Having considered the evidence, the ASA did not uphold the complaints.
UEFA advised the ASA that their statutes allowed for a team to have "sporting continuity" under different corporate ownership. On entering liquidation, Rangers lost their membership of the
European Club Association, and as a new entity they had to reapply for membership. The ECA granted them associate membership (rather than ordinary membership) on the basis that Rangers were a founding member of the Association, and acknowledged that the new entity had acquired the
goodwill, which included the history, of the old company. In May 2015, Scottish newspapers published articles which purported that the governing body
FIFA had 'stepped in' on the debate, or had even 'insisted' that Rangers were the same club, but the organisation had not made any official comment on the matter. The claims related to an article published in the weekly FIFA magazine, which carried the disclaimer that
"any views expressed in The FIFA Weekly do not necessarily reflect those of FIFA". In June 2022 the
Scotland Office and
UEFA marked the 150th anniversary of the forming of Rangers.
Nimmo Smith enquiry and EBT verdicts In late 2012, the SPL set up an investigation, chaired by
Lord Nimmo Smith, into alleged use of dual contracts by Rangers through the EBT scheme. David Murray denied any cheating took place during his ownership of Rangers, while Alastair Johnston and Charles Green questioned the independence of the investigation. The enquiry found that Rangers had deliberately failed to disclose the trust payments to withhold information from HMRC and fined the old company £250,000. It had been anticipated by some that the investigation would revoke honours won by Rangers during the period between 2001 and 2009 when the trust payments were made (three League titles, four Scottish Cups and four League Cups), but this was not done because it was considered that Rangers had not obtained any sporting advantage by withholding information. The
First-tier Tribunal verdict in relation to Rangers' use of EBTs was announced on 20 November 2012, with Rangers winning the appeal on a majority verdict. After the verdict David Murray confirmed that Rangers had offered HMRC a settlement of more than £10 million two years previously. Murray also stated that, "The biggest question is why the Revenue knew in August 2011 that Craig Whyte wasn't paying national insurance and tax but didn't put him down – this has so many ramifications for business." but HMRC appealed to the
Court of Session. In November 2015, their appeal that the £47 million-worth of EBT payments made to Rangers employees over nine years In July 2017, the Court of Session's ruling was upheld by the
UK Supreme Court in a final decision. after receiving no support from the SFA. Celtic were the only club to make a formal request for the matter to be reviewed again, with the chairmen of other clubs expressing their desire for the matter to be put to rest – although some fans did not necessarily share this view. In August 2018, players and staff who had received EBT payments from Rangers were advised that they should seek professional advice as HMRC may seek to collect income tax from them if they are unable to collect the relevant liabilities from the liquidated company.
Craig Whyte In 2013, Ticketus successfully sued Craig Whyte for damages. In September 2014, he was banned from being a company director for 15 years. Whyte was declared bankrupt at the High Court in London in October 2015, following his non-payment of damages awarded to Ticketus. On 27 November, Whyte was detained by police in Mexico and was held due to the warrant. On 28 November he appeared at
Glasgow Sheriff Court; no plea or declaration was made and he was released on bail. On 2 September 2015 Whyte appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court along with Charles Green; Whyte was charged with conspiracy as well as a charge under Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 Section 28(1). On 6 June 2017, after a lengthy trial at the
Justiciary Buildings in Glasgow (with Donald Findlay acting as his defence attorney), Whyte was acquitted of all charges.
"Resolution 12" In 2016 a group of Celtic ordinary shareholders canvassed both their club The SFA issued Notices of Complaint regarding this in May 2018 to Rangers, who issued a blunt statement vowing to contest the matter vigorously, and stating that it was only being pursued due to being "directed by individuals intent on harming the Scottish game, Rangers Football Club and its supporters". In May 2020, the SFA decided to close the case, as it determined that it did not have jurisdiction in the case (that lay with the
Court of Arbitration for Sport) and the financial penalty that could have been levied on Rangers would have been significantly less than the legal costs of taking the action further.
TUPE process The handling of the TUPE process led to sixty-seven players launching legal action against Rangers via
PFA Scotland, while three players claimed constructive dismissal, although it was subsequently found that the PFA had not spoken to the players to see if they wanted this to be raised on their behalf. Rangers made a counter-claim for loss of transfer fee revenue from players who refused to join the new company. The panel set up to consider the cases ruled in April 2013 that Rangers should pay its costs.
Bookmakers In January 2017, the
Court of Session heard an action from Albert Kinloch against bookmakers
Coral. Kinloch said in court that he had placed the bet after learning that Rangers were in financial difficulties.
Historic child sexual abuse BBC Scotland reported in May 2018 that a former youth footballer had contacted Rangers to claim compensation for alleged sexual abuse by Gordon Neely, who was their head of youth development during the 1980s. Writing in response to the claim, Rangers said that their present company had no "duty of care" for the claimant and advised him that he would need to contact the liquidator of the old Rangers company. As well as winning each of the lower division titles and the
2015–16 Scottish Challenge Cup, they reached the
2016 Scottish Cup Final, losing to Hibernian. In their first season back in the top tier, Rangers finished in third position behind Celtic and Aberdeen and qualified for the
2017–18 UEFA Europa League; the return to European football after a five-year absence ended abruptly with a
shock defeat to part-time club
Progrès Niederkorn from
Luxembourg in the opening round. Rangers improved under the management of
Steven Gerrard, appointed in 2018, and in
2020–21 the club won their first
league championship since their insolvency. Rangers missed out on qualification the lucrative Champions League group stages the following season, but reached the
2022 UEFA Europa League Final which would have brought an automatic Champions League place if won; however, they lost to
Eintracht Frankfurt in a penalty shootout. The club sold two of the players who took part in the final, Anglo-Nigerians
Joe Aribo and
Calvin Bassey – the latter for a club record fee of around £20 million. ==References==