The Scottish Professional Football League confirmed it will not launch a new probe into Scottish Premiership side Rangers' use of EBTs as the board "backed calls for an independent review of how the football authorities deal with clubs not paying tax," according to the Scotland DAILY RECORD. In a statement on Wednesday, it was announced the decision not to pursue further disciplinary proceedings had been taken "following extensive legal advice." Rangers Managing Dir Stewart Robertson, voted onto the SPFL board earlier this week, is "believed to have played no part in the discussions," which league execs "hope will draw a line under the controversy and allow the game to move forward." SPFL Chair Ralph Topping confirmed that the board supports "calls for a review" (DAILY RECORD, 7/26). The BBC reported a '13 Scottish Premier League commission found that Rangers was "in breach of player registration rules during the EBT period." Headed by William Nimmo Smith, the commission fined the club £250,000 but resisted calls for it to be "stripped of titles won during that period." The governing body said, "The SPFL has no power in law to re-open these issues and the commission has no power in law, assuming it wished to do so, to modify or supplement the sanction previously imposed." The SPFL's senior counsel, Gerry Moynihan QC, "also concluded that there was nothing in the rules of regulations of the SPL, or its SPFL predecessor, that would have allowed the governing body to pursue the matter further" (BBC, 7/26).
