As the mess that is the financial collapse of Rangers Football Club continues to play out in the courts, more evidence emerges of financial foul play by the club in the years leading up to the crash. And that evidence confirms the accuracy of what has been reported here, and the critical questions that the…
The Scottish Football Association, in seeking to defend itself from allegations that it unfairly awarded Rangers a licence to play in Europe in 2011/2012, appears to have admitted that it withheld evidence from the Lord Nimmo Smith inquiry into rule breaking by the club in its use of tax avoidance schemes. In 2013, a commission…
The Offshore Game can reveal that Companies House has started enforcement action against the company which controls Bolton Wanderers Football Club after the club failed to file their annual accounts. Bolton’s accounts for 2015 are now more than 6 months past their due date. Failing to file annual accounts is a criminal offence for which both…
There has long been overwhelming evidence of corruption in football: from the many hidden conflicts of interest in club and player ownership, to the prevalence of match fixing and the stark lack of accountability of football associations, both national and global. In each case, people in the game make money. In each case, the growing costs…
British football clubs will soon see a new level of financial transparency, as UK companies are now required to identify ‘persons of significant control’. Football clubs have had to disclose similar information to football authorities for a while, but it is a shame that the football authorities, despite their rhetoric on transparency and accountability to fans,…
This seems like a good time for a quick round-up. It’s been a few weeks since we published a report into misgovernance at the Scottish Football Association, calling for an independent inquiry to ensure a level playing field and greater accountability to fans. Now things are moving… To recap briefly, we identified two main issues around the SFA’s…
The Offshore Game’s new report into the Rangers tax affair shows just how a badly-run football association can undermine a level playing field - and what needs to be done about it. Here’s the short version… In 2012 Rangers were put into liquidation. One of the contributing factors to this was an offshore tax avoidance scheme that went…
Bolton Wanderers were in court yesterday defending a winding up order. The company, founded in 1895 and one of the founding members of the football league was just moments away from execution. HMRC is owed £2.2m in unpaid taxes and are seeking to liquidate the club. In the end the judge granted an adjournment until…