Rangers Finances Exposed: £14.8m Loss, No Europe and the Word Scottish Media Won’t Say. Celtic jelly and ice cream

A Pro Sport Media report published on September 2 has raised serious questions about Rangers’ finances.

The report focuses on record revenues, substantial losses, the disappearance of European league-phase football and the huge levels of fresh investment required at Ibrox.

It is exactly why I wanted to write this opinion piece.

I do not agree with every detail in the report. In particular, the suggestion that £36million has simply been provided as owner loans needs correcting.

The new ownership initially provided £20million through equity investment. That was followed by another £16million share issue.

However, correcting that point does not make the wider financial questions disappear.

Quite the opposite.

How can Rangers generate record revenue of £94.1million and still record a £14.8million loss?

That followed another £17.2million loss the previous year.

Now Rangers have also lost European league-phase football.

For the first time since 2017, there will be no European league-phase football at Ibrox.

So where is the forensic examination from Scotland’s mainstream football media?

Rangers finances deserve forensic scrutiny

The Pro Sport Media report raises an important wider issue.

Rangers themselves acknowledged that European participation helped drive their record revenue.

That income stream has now disappeared.

Yet the financial discussion surrounding Ibrox often appears remarkably restrained.

If Celtic recorded consecutive eight-figure losses while requiring tens of millions in fresh investment, I believe every penny would be examined.

Rangers’ history makes that scrutiny even more important.

This is a club associated with perhaps the most extraordinary financial collapse Scottish football has witnessed.

That brings us to a word which some people now appear remarkably uncomfortable using.

Liquidation.

“You Let Your Club Die”

In 2012, Rangers entered administration.

A proposed CVA failed after HMRC rejected it. The Rangers business and assets were subsequently transferred to a new Rangers entity, which then required admission to Scottish football.

Back then, nobody appeared frightened of the terminology.

Liquidation.

Newco.

New club.

Those descriptions featured prominently throughout contemporary reporting.

Today, however, liquidation sometimes appears to have become an uncomfortable word whenever Rangers’ history is discussed.

Celtic supporters have their own very clear interpretation of what happened in 2012.

You hear it regularly:

“You Let Your Club Die.”

And:

“Your Club Died.”

That is also my opinion.

I believe the Rangers which existed before liquidation died.

Football authorities recognise continuity of Rangers’ sporting history, while Rangers supporters strongly reject the Celtic interpretation.

That argument will undoubtedly continue.

However, nobody should be allowed to erase liquidation from the historical discussion simply because the subject makes people uncomfortable.

Given what happened previously, Rangers’ financial position should attract more scrutiny, not less.

The EBT years cannot simply disappear

Neither should the EBT era disappear from Rangers’ financial history.

For years, payments were made through Employee Benefit Trust arrangements involving Rangers players and staff.

The Lord Nimmo Smith commission found Rangers had failed to disclose side-letter arrangements to the football authorities and imposed a £250,000 fine.

For accuracy, that commission did not conclude Rangers had gained an unfair sporting advantage. Titles were not removed.

However, the UK Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the relevant payments constituted earnings and were therefore taxable.

Those findings matter.

Many Celtic supporters regard that period as cheating.

Players received financial benefits through arrangements which had not been properly disclosed to the football authorities.

For supporters who watched Rangers win trophies during that period before the financial catastrophe of 2012, it remains an enormous part of the story.

It cannot simply be airbrushed from history.

Keith Jackson and Craig Whyte

Scottish football journalism should also have learned an unforgettable lesson from Craig Whyte.

Before Whyte took control at Ibrox, Daily Record journalist Keith Jackson famously presented him as a “financial whizzkid” whose wealth was supposedly “off the radar.”

Few pieces of Scottish football journalism have aged more spectacularly.

Whyte was portrayed as the wealthy businessman who could secure Rangers’ future.

What followed?

Administration.

Then liquidation.

Jackson has subsequently acknowledged his involvement in what he described as the “Motherwell billionaire abomination”.

Surely the lesson should have been obvious.

Do not simply accept the Ibrox narrative.

Check the numbers.

Examine where the money originates.

Question whether spending is sustainable.

Look beyond transfer headlines, wealthy-owner narratives and promises of investment.

That is precisely what journalists should be doing now.

Scottish football has been here before

Nobody is saying Rangers are currently about to enter liquidation.

There is no evidence to justify making that claim.

However, questioning Rangers’ finances is not sensationalism.

A £14.8million loss despite record £94.1million revenue deserves scrutiny.

Another £17.2million loss before that deserves scrutiny.

£36million of fresh equity investment deserves scrutiny.

The disappearance of European league-phase revenue deserves scrutiny.

Rangers’ financial history makes those questions even more important.

Scottish football has already watched Rangers suffer catastrophic financial failure once.

Celtic supporters remember exactly what happened.

You Let Your Club Die.

Your Club Died.

That remains my opinion.

Perhaps rather than appearing uncomfortable with the word liquidation, Scotland’s mainstream media should remember why that word became such an enormous part of Scottish football history in the first place.

Key Takeaways

• Rangers recorded a £14.8million loss despite generating record revenue of £94.1million.
• That followed a £17.2million loss in the previous financial year.
• Rangers have received £36million of fresh equity investment from the new ownership structure.
• European league-phase income has now disappeared.
• Rangers’ 2012 administration and liquidation remain important historical context.
• The EBT era included undisclosed side-letter arrangements and later resulted in a major Supreme Court tax ruling.
• Scottish football journalism should scrutinise Rangers’ finances rather than simply accepting optimistic narratives coming from Ibrox.