Boumsong song offers to come back. He wants shares in the Rangers.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

Well at least we have a former player wanting to do something to help - some of our ex players have been very quiet on the subject of help!

Also shows how the phche of the Rangers support gets under the skin - Boomsong was only with us 6 months.

[RFC55 108,967]

Well at least we have a former player wanting to do something to help - some of our ex players have been very quiet on the subject of help!

Also shows how the phche of the Rangers support gets under the skin - Boomsong was only with us 6 months.

Maybe some of them are remaining tight lipped due to the fact they benefited from EBT's etc

[MayboleLoyal_atb 3,696]

Where's the fox in the box these days?

[Guardian 4,281]

A strange one. In his full interview printed in the sun, it looks like he's trying to sink us. No doubt prompted by loaded questions.

JEAN-ALAIN BOUMSONG has revealed he almost walked away from Rangers over tax-free payments.

In a sensational interview the star was alarmed that part of his wages would be paid into an EBT account.

And he feared the taxman would hound him for the whopping £630,000 that was placed in the controversial trust.

Gers are currently in the dock over payments made to players and staff between 2001-2010.

They’re battling to prove their use of Employment Benefit Trusts — totalling a whopping £47million — were above board.

Boumsong, who joined Gers in 2004, said: “When I discovered it I first refused to sign the contract.

“It’s important to be able to sleep at night without fear of being chased by the tax office.”

The former French international defender Boumsong, now 32, was signed by Alex McLeish from Auxerre in 2004.

He arrived at Ibrox on a free transfer, signing a big-money five-year deal.

But Boumsong has told how he was stunned to learn that a percentage of his wages would be paid tax free into an EBT.

He insists he was ready to walk away from the deal at the eleventh hour because alarm bells were ringing in his head.

It was only when his legal and financial advisors convinced him that the controversial Employment Benefit Trust was above board that he put pen to paper.

HMRC are currently trying to recover the lost millions in a tax case that could cost Rangers — once owned by Sir David Murray — up to £75million once fines and interest is added to the bill.

SPL chiefs are currently investigating Gers’ alleged use of dual contracts and could strip them of titles won while the EBTs were in use.

The SPL club insist they were NOT abusing the system and that it was 100 per cent legal. But Boumsong — who earned a whopping £630,000 from his EBT in less than SIX MONTHS — said: “My salary was paid normally, but there was a trust.

“I was not comfortable with that, to be honest. I didn’t know anything about it until the day I was going to sign.

“When I discovered it I first refused to sign the contract and said: ‘what is this?’

“I didn’t want to sign because it seemed strange, we don’t have that kind of payment in France and I didn’t know anything about it.

“When I left Rangers, for example, to sign for Newcastle, it was for a normal contract with normal payment.

“But the day I was signing for Rangers I was told it was legal.

“I was not comfortable with it, because it wasn’t a normal way of payment, but I was told it was fine.

“As players we don’t know everything about the law but my advisors said: ‘it’s okay, you can sign it. It’s legal’.

“I wouldn’t have signed otherwise. If I thought it was wrong legally I wouldn’t have gone. It’s important to be able to sleep at night without any fear of being chased by the tax office.”

The accusation levelled against Rangers is that by paying percentages of players’ wages into the off-shore trust they were able to attract players on bigger deals than they could have afforded without the incentive.

Boumsong, though, insists he did NOT sign because of the money on offer through tax-free payments.

He added: “With the trust payments it’s a good way for the club to save money — if it’s legal.

“But when I signed for Rangers it was not for money. I could have gone to other clubs for more money. I was a free agent at the time and sometimes it is not about money.

“I wanted to go there because they believed in me and they wanted me.

“They wanted to build a team with me a big part of it, so I decided to go. They trusted me and I trusted them, so I signed.”

Jean-Alain Boumsong feels part of Gers despite playing only 18 games for club

SACRE BLUE ... Boumsong feels part of Rangers despite playing only 18 games for club

Boumsong — now with Panathinaikos in Greece and working as a TV pundit at Euro 2012 — was bought by Newcastle boss Graeme Souness for £8m after just 18 games for Gers.

And the former Juventus and Lyon stopper can’t believe the situation Rangers are now in.

Shaking his head, he added: “I find it all astonishing, I’m surprised and amazed at what’s going on there.

“How can this happen to a club like Rangers? I still have strong feelings for the club. It doesn’t depend on how long you spend at a club to feel part of it. I had some of my best moments in football at Rangers.

“I don’t know too much about what’s happened. Of course, I watch on TV but I don’t know exactly what’s going on there.

“I hear there is a chance they could be forced to play in the Third Division and that would be a disaster.

“What would happen to the Scottish League without Rangers? That would be a real shame. To be honest I can’t believe it. It’s incredible.

“I know the other clubs need to complain because they don’t think what’s happened is fair, but maybe they will find an agreement because they realise how important Rangers are.

“The lesson we have to take from this is that financial fair play must happen. Every single club must now control their finances.

“But I am quite surprised Rangers didn’t use the money they had better than they did. I mean, they paid big wages but I’m surprised they weren’t better at business.

“When I was there they sold the right-back, Alan Hutton, for £9m. When I left it was for a big transfer worth £8million, and I cost the club nothing.

“Sure, they’ve had to pay out wages so it’s not as though you can add £8m and £9m together and ask where the money is now.

“But I cannot believe Rangers have the problems they have. It’s like in Greece with the two biggest clubs, Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. If Panathinakos collapsed it would be difficult for the Greek league.

“The thing I don’t understand is that Rangers have some rich, rich supporters in Scotland. Why has it taken until now for them to sit down around the table and bring their money together?

“Rangers is a massive club with a huge history. We cannot leave that club like this, we cannot leave this club to collapse.

“It is not war, but some great people have given their lives to Rangers.”

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

Maybe some of them are remaining tight lipped due to the fact they benefited from EBT's etc

Why? EBT's were not illegal - and even the EBT trial is only (only ??) looking at whether they were ill-managed or not?

Also Booomsong benefited from the EBT and it has not stopped him speaking out

[Guardian 4,281]

One wonders why they'd seek out Boumsong for an interview today of all days.

I smell a rhat.

[WVB 2,560]

His strong feelings for the club weren't evident when he wore the jersey.

Pinch of salt anyone?

[ray 105]

Rangers in crisis: Former Ibrox star Jean-Alain Boumsong lifts lid on EBT scheme

Jun 18 2012 By Keith Jackson

jean-alain boumsong Image 2

HE had never heard of an EBT until the day he signed for RFC. But now those six little letters will live with Jean-Alain Boumsong for the rest of his days.

The Frenchman has watched on from afar with utter astonishment as Rangers have unravelled over the past six months and last week’s liquidation of the old company has hit him so hard he feels somehow compelled to return to Scotland to do what he can to assist in efforts to save Ibrox from oblivion.

He may have only spent six months in Glasgow – and that was some eight years ago now.

But even so he insists in that short time he felt a bond with the club the likes of which he has never experienced before or after.

Which is perhaps why, even now, he still feels uncomfortable at the very mention of the tax avoidance scheme from which it is claimed he benefited to the tune of around £630,000.

Something about that offshore payment plan just never sat easily with Boumsong. So much so, in fact, that for the first time he has revealed he gave serious thought to pulling the plug on his free transfer to the club on the day he arrived in Glasgow to sign his name on the dotted line.

Eventually he was persuaded by accountants there was nothing illegal about the structure of the contract which would make him a wealthy man and a Rangers player.

But Boumsong smelled a rat back then. And it’s rankled with him ever since.

In an interview with Record Sport here at Euro 2012 he said: “My salary was normally paid but there was a trust. I was not comfortable with that to be honest. I didn’t know anything about it until the day I was going to sign.

“When I discovered it I first refused to sign the contract and said, ‘What is this?’

“I didn’t want to sign because it seemed strange, we don’t have that kind of payment in France and I didn’t know anything about it. When I left Rangers, for example, to sign for Newcastle, it was for a normal contract with normal payment.

“But the day I was signing for Rangers I was told it was legal.

“As players we don’t know the law but my advisers said, ‘It’s okay, you can sign it. It’s legal’.

“I wouldn’t have signed otherwise, no way. If I thought it was wrong legally I wouldn’t have gone. It’s important to be able to sleep at night without any fear of being chased by the tax office.”

If only those running Rangers had been just as scrupulous or even shared some of Boumsong’s reservations, then the club may have been spared from at least a proportion of its ongoing crisis.

EBTs may not have been the cause of their undoing – that one rests with Sir David Murray’s decision to hand the keys to Craig Whyte – but they did leave a huge tax liability hanging over Ibrox and those potential losses led to Lloyds Bank leaning heavily on Murray to sell up in the first place.

The finer details of how Rangers got into such a mess are all a little lost on Boumsong who was off to Newcastle in an £8m move after only six months into that lucrative five-year deal.

He has since spent time at Juventus and Lyon and is currently looking for an escape from stricken Greek outfit Panathinaikos who are experiencing a financial meltdown of their own.

There is for him though a very bitter sense of irony in all of this. He says he would gladly return to Rangers tomorrow, especially if he can help in Walter Smith’s attempts to stabilise the club.

He would be willing to do so for around half of the wages he might earn himself elsewhere. All he would ask for in return is a stake in the future of the new Rangers company.

He insists such a deal would not be about money. And there’s the irony right there. Because Boumsong insists the chance to make a quick buck was not the reason he chose Rangers in the first place.

Which is why he still can’t get his head around why the club was willing to take any kind of risks over his contract.

He said: “Believe me, I could have gone to other clubs for more money. I was a free agent at the time and sometimes it is not about money. I wanted to go there because they believed in me and they wanted me.

“They wanted to build a team with me a big part of it so I decided to go. They trusted me and I trusted them so I signed.”

Now, eight years on, Boumsong would relish the opportunity to do it all over again.

He’s been stuck in Athens without any wages at all for most of last season, just one of the millions of victims of the economic disaster which threatens to bring all of Greece down. And now he would choose to return to Ibrox?

The words “frying pan” and “fire” spring instantly to mind.

But if the club can successfully overturn the disputed transfer embargo which was imposed as a punishment for Whyte’s shamed regime then Boumsong will be there, standing at the front of the queue, ready and willing to help.

He insists it’s all down to a sense of duty or an inner calling.

But most of all though he says he just wants to help clean up a mess that was made by others

He said: “I don’t know too much about what’s happened. Of course, I watch it on TV but I don’t know exactly what’s going on there.

“I hear there is a chance they could be forced to play in the Third Division and that would be a disaster. What would happen to the Scottish League without Rangers? That would be a real shame and to be honest I can’t believe it. It’s incredible.

“I know the other clubs need to complain because they don’t think what’s happened is fair but maybe they will find an agreement because they know how important Rangers are.

“The lesson we have to take from this is that financial fair play must happen. Every single club must now control their finances. But I am quite surprised Rangers didn’t use the money they had better than they did. I mean, they paid big wages, but I’m surprised they weren’t better at business.

“They sold the right-back, Alan Hutton, for £9m. When I left it was for a big transfer worth £8m and I cost the club nothing.

“Sure, they’ve had to pay out wages so it’s not as though you can add £8m and £9m together and ask where the money is now. But you still ask yourself how can this happen to a club like Rangers?

“I still have strong feelings for the club. It doesn’t depend on how long you spend at a club to feel part of it. I had some of my best moments in football at Rangers really.

“I was happy there, my family was happy, and if I had the opportunity to go back I’d go, even now.”

[The Godfather 71,899]

His strong feelings for the club weren't evident when he wore the jersey.

Pinch of salt anyone?

Thought he was bigger than The Rangers before, I don't see how it will change now.

[The Godfather 71,899]

He was being praised earlier too...

[Guardian 4,281]

You have to ask why this interview is appearing today.

Why seek out an ex-player and ask such loaded questions.

Clearly an agenda.

[The Godfather 71,899]

I think it's clear to all why it was done today.

The sooner we go to Div 3 the better, fuck all this agenda pish! I just want to concentrate on The Rangers and football, I don't care where it's played.

[debear 603]

Doesn’t really say anything we don’t know, we know we used them, we know he had one.

They question is did we use them in an illegal manner.

Just because he didn’t want one, or was concerned about it, doesn’t make it illegal.

Total non story.

[rayq81 231]

More total bollox from the Scottish gutter press, thank fcuk I dont live in that taighole any more.

[AlCapone 7,678]

I wonder if he would care to elaborate on how much of the £8 million fee received for him came to Rangers,my understanding was that more than half the fee was kept by the agent and then paid onto the player, an ex Rangesr manager and a certain persons vineyard pension fund. After wages Rangers were lucky to make £3 million from the Willie McLies deal....

[rangersross 6,530]

His (very brief) time with us might have been the highlight of his career. Lauded in the press, part of an excellent team, enjoyed the adulation of an enormous support, great form throughout - however, he got caught up in the hype, thought the grass would be greener in England and (to my mind, quite reasonably*) decided to go to Newcastle. Ambition often wins out over contentment, but it's telling that he's now so keen to return. Personally, I'd take him back in an instant (certain league-based considerations permitting). He left, but the important thing is that he has since realised that our club really is special: like countless others have.

*If I was a professional footballer who'd played in Scotland my whole career, then moved to France, to a team which I was only vaguely aware of, then received an offer from a superior league (Spain, for instance) which included better wages, more chance of playing for my country and a greater professional challenge - I'd probably leave too. Quite simply, a player arriving in Britain for the first time, with only approximate knowledge of football here, wouldn't know that very few of the other 'big' clubs in Britain are quite as special as Rangers. That's something you can only learn after you've left. That's why every one-time Ranger deserves a second chance.

[RFC55 108,967]

So boumsong reckons he played when Hutton was sold ffs big man we're not the tims we don't just make shite up Hutton left years after yae

[sprotson11 147]

Was it not an investigation into his transfer to Newcastle that led to the ebt case?

[adam2102 577]

who's all up for a Pro-Boumsong march?

[Jimfanciesthedude 24,550]

excellent. We can reassemble the helicopter Sunday squad. Wonder what thomas buffel is up to.

[Edmiston Drive 3,846]

Enjoy Sion big man

[Straight-Edge-Loyal 6,686]

Marvin Andrews made him look good by covering for him and actually being able to defend. An arrogant footballer who had ideas well above his station and who has struggled with every other club he has been at since he left because he hasn't had that natural defensive partner to cover when he did something daft.

[GraemeDavis 4]

I'd love for him to come back.

[WilliamFyfe 1,438]

Just seen that there, I'd welcome him back of course

[Marco Negri's Beard 1,423]

Haha I like it.