[1]The faux fancy speedboat of Glasgow Rangers Football Club sputtered up debt creek last week without a paddle in sight. Rangers have been involved in a tribunal with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, relating to historic employee benefit trust payments to players. The Rangers owner, Craig Whyte, claimed that the potential tax bill could be as much as £75m, including penalties.
The administration move has been made before the outcome of that tax case has been published. Whyte, who took charge in May last year, said, “The most practical way to safeguard the long-term future of the club is to go through a formal restructuring process.” Whyte has already mortgaged £24mn of Rangers’ future season-ticket money to meet costs.
Essentially, a club entering administration implies that it is unable to pay its bills. This process protects the club from its creditors, till the business is restructured. A qualified administrator is thereafter appointed to run the business in the interim. The club looks to sell assets, players, training grounds and merchandise for money to pay creditors. In a worst case scenario where the club has no hope of raising cash, the club can be liquidated, i.e. closed down.
Rangers look set to avoid liquidation, but this economic catastrophe, a result of irresponsible financial management and greed for profit, has raised fears about the stability of modern clubs as they hunger for trophies and success. Meanwhile Portsmouth revealed that they would apply for similar status to avoid a winding-up order from the taxman, less than two years after they infamously became the first Premier League club to enter administration, owing more than £120m.
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