Graeme Souness’ Man City ‘Cheats’ Rant Is Staggering Given His Own £30,000 Rangers EBT

Graeme Souness has delivered a brutal verdict on Manchester City.

However, for Celtic supporters with long memories, his comments raise an obvious question.

Where was this uncompromising attitude towards sporting integrity when Rangers and the EBT controversy engulfed Scottish football?

Souness has said Manchester City’s “legacy is gone”. He also argued they would be “consigned to history as cheats” if the case went against them.

Furthermore, he suggested that whatever City won during the relevant period “should not count”.

Those are remarkably strong words.

Coming from Souness, though, they deserve considerably more scrutiny.

Souness and the £30,000 Rangers EBT

This isn’t simply about Souness being one of the most famous Rangers figures of the modern era.

Souness himself received £30,000 through a Murray Group EBT sub-trust in 2001.

That was around a decade after his spell as Rangers manager had ended.

The wider Rangers EBT dispute eventually reached the UK Supreme Court.

In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled in HMRC’s favour.

HMRC subsequently stated that the tax avoidance scheme used by Rangers did not work. Income Tax and National Insurance should have been deducted from payments made into the scheme.

In total, more than £47 million was distributed through Rangers’ EBT arrangements.

Therefore, Souness’ latest comments deserve to be viewed alongside that history.

What Souness said about Rangers

Now consider Souness’ language when Rangers entered administration in 2012.

He wasn’t talking about a destroyed legacy.

He wasn’t demanding that trophies should “not count”.

Instead, Souness described what was happening to Rangers as a “tragedy”.

Moreover, he characterised the club’s predicament as a case of “chasing the dream” and trying to give supporters what they wanted.

The contrast is remarkable.

Rangers were “chasing the dream”.

Manchester City could be remembered as “cheats”.

Rangers were a “tragedy”.

Manchester City’s “legacy is gone”.

Meanwhile, City’s achievements potentially “should not count”.

Those aren’t subtle differences. They represent dramatically different ways of discussing financial controversies involving two football clubs.

One standard for Rangers?

There is an important distinction.

The independent commission examining Rangers’ registration-rule breaches did not strip the club of its honours.

It also concluded Rangers had not gained an unfair competitive advantage from those breaches.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t make Souness’ contrasting rhetoric disappear.

Souness is entitled to demand serious consequences for Manchester City.

However, Celtic supporters are equally entitled to question why his language was so different when Rangers were involved.

After all, Souness wasn’t simply watching the Rangers EBT controversy from a distance.

He personally received £30,000 through a Rangers/Murray Group EBT.

That makes his current intervention particularly striking.

Souness’ own words tell the story

Perhaps the most damning comparison requires no exaggeration.

Simply put Souness’ own words alongside each other.

When Rangers faced financial catastrophe, he talked about “chasing the dream”.

Now, when discussing Manchester City, Souness talks about “cheats”, a destroyed legacy and trophies that “should not count”.

That is quite a transformation.

Sporting integrity cannot conveniently become an absolute principle only when discussing somebody else’s football club.

If Souness believes financial wrongdoing should bring devastating sporting consequences, that principle should surely be applied consistently.

Manchester City can rightly be scrutinised.

However, Souness’ extraordinary intervention means his own history with Rangers and the EBT scheme deserves scrutiny as well.

For Celtic supporters who remember the Rangers financial saga, the contrast in his language will be extremely difficult to ignore.