Scottish Premiership side Rangers accused the Scottish FA of "wasting money on a vendetta against the club" after the ruling body on Tuesday charged it with "having broken rules about financial information" in order to secure a license to play European football in '11-12, according to Michael Grant of the LONDON TIMES. After a nine-month investigation, the SFA brought two charges against Rangers concerning submissions made by the "oldco" regime, before liquidation, over the "wee tax case." That was a £2.8M liability owed to U.K. tax authority HMRC but Rangers insisted "the sum was in dispute" when it secured a license in March '11 to play in Europe the following season. Evidence in former Rangers Owner Craig Whyte's recent trial suggested the club had "already accepted exactly what it owed" by late '10. A principal hearing date was set for June 26 but the Ibrox club issued an immediate statement, saying, "The club questions whether the time, cost and expense of this investigation was justified and was a good use of the SFA's limited resources. Disappointingly, and presumably rather than accept that the investigation was a waste of all parties' time and resources, the club has been served with a new revised notice of complaint relating to the monitoring period subsequent to the grant of the Uefa licence" (LONDON TIMES, 5/16).
ABUSE CLAIM: The BBC's Mark Daly reported a former youth footballer who said that he was sexually abused by a Rangers coach was told by the club he "should pursue his complaint with liquidators." The man claims he was abused within the Ibrox stadium by Gordon Neely, who was head of youth development in the '80s. But the alleged victim has been told by lawyers for Rangers that "the duty of care is not with the current owners." They said that when the abuse took place, Rangers was owned by a different company, which is now in liquidation (BBC, 5/16).
