Rangers ‘win’ UEFA licence battle as SFA forced to take case to Court of Arbitration for Sport

The Scottish Football Association will have to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to pursue a case against Rangers for an alleged breach of rules over a UEFA licence.

The Glasgow club’s legal team has successfully argued that the issues surrounding the licence for the 2011-12 season would need to be dealt with by the Swiss-based court under the terms of the five-way agreement, which allowed Rangers to continue playing in 2012.

Rangers refused to accept a notice of complaint issued in May by the SFA compliance officer which raised two charges relating to complying with UEFA rules, observing the principles of sportsmanship and “behaving towards the Scottish FA and other members with the utmost good faith”.

(Image: SNS Group)

An SFA statement read: “This preliminary issue raised by Rangers FC challenged the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA’s Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal to hear the case, and contended that the notice of complaint must be determined by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“Having received submissions on 26 June the Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal have issued a decision upholding the preliminary issue raised by the club.

“The Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal proposes to continue consideration of the complaint until parties consider next steps and terms of reference for any remit to CAS.”

In 2011, Rangers told the SFA they were in dispute with HMRC over the “Wee Tax Case” – a Discounted Option Scheme used to play players at Ibrox between 2000 to 2002.

But during the Craig Whyte trial last year, directors at Rangers and the Murray Group told the court they had agreed to pay the taxman the cash and the Wee Tax Case money was already overdue in November 2010 – before the UEFA licence was applied for.

The SFA noted the evidence and took legal advice before asking their compliance officer to probe the matter.

In response to Thursday’s ruling, Rangers expressed hope that the SFA would now consider the matter closed.

A club statement said: “Rangers has always been clear about the futility of this action and hopes the Scottish FA will now put the matter to bed and agree to move on and concentrate on the development of Scottish Football in the interests of all members of the SFA.”