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

[ayrshireranger 8,085]

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.

Rubbish. Boumsong strolled the SPL.

[IainB 599]

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

There is also a story of Boumsong being surprised at being offered the EBT and not wanting to sign the contract till HIS advisors told him it was legal.

Also interesting is that he has been in Athens and has not been paid in almost a YEAR if that had happened at Ibrox it would be all over the press. EUFA are going to have a nightmare on their hands trying to sort this financial fair play thing out.

Monday, June 18, 2012 4:36:35 AM

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."

[Straight-Edge-Loyal 6,686]

Rubbish. Boumsong strolled the SPL.

So did Boughie and he's playing in the middle east does that make him brilliant. Andrews was the better defender of the two il grant you Boumsong is a better player but he strolled the SPL because anyone of any quality at all should stroll it and it helps when he has someone who can and does defend very well beside him.

[jonbryce 63]

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

EBTs are not illegal. Having it written into your contract is, and this article is alleging that it was written into the contract.

[DamienM855 413]

Rubbish. Boumsong strolled the SPL.

Great player, but prone to ridiculous errors that could cost his team a goal, that's where Big Marv stepped in.

Without a covering defender he'd be lost.

[sassaaaa 11,406]

I must have been watching a different Boumsong , cause the guy i watched was a fuckin bombscare . We won a watch when Newcastle paid £8m for him , something they regretted .

Was absolutely garbage at every club he played for ............

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

EBTs are not illegal. Having it written into your contract is, and this article is alleging that it was written into the contract.

No - having EBT's written into your contract is NOT illegal - (and by illegal in this sense we are talking about SFA rules) having a dual contract where part of your salary was not declared is illegal (and as yet unproven!). It is alledged some of our players had 'side letters' refering to the EBT payments!

[jonbryce 63]

No - having EBT's written into your contract is NOT illegal - (and by illegal in this sense we are talking about SFA rules) having a dual contract where part of your salary was not declared is illegal (and as yet unproven!). It is alledged some of our players had 'side letters' refering to the EBT payments!

I was referring to tax rules rather than SFA rules.

[Stevie1892 3]

"My family need feeding" what an arsehole. I bet he's got £10m in the bank.