Rangers turned away from UEFA for not paying tax bill

RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB administrators have said it is near impossible that the club will play any European matches.

Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, both partners at Duff & Phelps, were appointed to the club on 14 February.

As part of financial fair play rules brought in by UEFA the club needs to show it has paid its social taxes such as PAYE and NIC, estimated to be about £5m, or come to an agreement with the taxman. It must also have its accounts signed off by the auditors and pass a going concern test.

However, the administrators said there is no realistic prospect Rangers will meet these obligations, which includes a range of financial requirements from clubs.

The going test must show that the club can continue to be funded until the end of the next season. However, without knowing who the next owner will be by March 31 the auditors will be unable to fulfil these obligations.

Clark said: “As regards the club playing in European competitions next season, there is no realistic prospect of the club being able to fulfill its obligations prior to the March 31 deadline set by UEFA.

“There are four main reasons for this and they lie in the stewardship of the club prior to going into administration.

“The final major hurdle is that the club must have paid or compromised all of its outstanding “Football Creditors” prior to the deadline of 31 March 2012. That issue is again extremely unlikely.

The football creditor rule sees players, other clubs and manager to the front of the queue in terms of payment when a club enters insolvency. Other creditors, including the taxman, are paid with what is left in the pot after the so-called ‘super-creditors’.

The administrators also said it was “accelerating the sale” of the club as it could not agree cost-cutting measures with the playing staff.

Earlier this month the administrators said they were in discussions with playing staff to either; make 11 players redundant; eight players taking redundancy and the rest taking a 50% cut to wages; or all staff taking a 75% pay cut.

“No one should be in any doubt that in the absence of sufficient cost-cutting measures or receipt of substantial unplanned income, the club will not be able to fulfill its fixtures throughout the remainder of the season,” a statement from the administrators said.