Rangers owner Craig Whyte admits using £24m season ticket cash to fund takeover

Rangers owner Craig Whyte has admitted he used £24m from selling future season tickets to complete his takeover of the club.

In a statement released by Mr Whyte on Tuesday, he claimed he is "personally on the line for £27.5m in guarantees and cash" in relation to the takeover.

Mr Whyte used £18m raised by selling future season ticket sales to Ticketus to wipe the club's debt to Lloyds Banking Group, which allowed him to complete the takeover.

The administrators are now working to find out where the remaining £6m of the £24.4m sum from Ticketus was spent.

Mr Whyte said: "Everything I have done has been with the best interest of this football club at heart. Any suggestion that I am trying to make a fast buck or have indulged in illegal manoeuvring is clearly ludicrous."

In relation to the Ticketus deal, Mr Whyte said he regretted "not making the arrangements more transparent".

According to documents previously filed with Companies House, the deal with the London firm was for four seasons from 2011 to 2015, for a total of 100,339 season tickets. Under the deal, Ticketus now owns the season tickets in question.

In the statement on Tuesday, Mr Whyte claimed that the Ticketus deal was for three seasons, not four, and was for "£20m plus VAT", which comes to around £24.4m.

He added: "The Ticketus deal was by far the best way to protect the club given the circumstances in that they have no security over any assets.

"The only person at risk from the deal is me personally because I gave Ticketus personal and corporate guarantees underwriting their investment; the club and the fans are fully protected. In terms of exposure, I am personally on the line for £27.5m in guarantees and cash."

After recent speculation, Mr Whyte confirmed on Tuesday that the deal "would allow us to complete the takeover and maximise working capital for the club’s day-to-day business".

He also claimed that he provided former owner Sir David Murray and Lloyds Banking Group with "proof of funds amounting to £33m" long before any deal with Ticketus, which is owned by Octopus Investments.

Administrators

David Whitehouse, joint administrator, confirmed Mr Whyte had not used any of his own money to clear the £18m debt with Lloyds Banking Group.

Mr Whitehouse said: "Since being appointed administrators last week there has been widespread concern raised with us, not least by Rangers supporters and season ticket holders, about the agreement between the club and Ticketus.

"Following information received, it is now apparent that the proceeds from the Ticketus arrangements amounted initially to a sum in the region of £20m plus VAT. Subsequently, £18m was transferred to the Lloyds Banking Group. The application of the remainder of these proceeds is subject to further examination.

"We are now investigating all the circumstances surrounding both the purchase of the majority shareholding in Rangers Football Club plc and the flow of funds which stemmed from the transaction and were intended to fulfil the purchasers' obligations at the time of the sale. We cannot comment further on these matters while enquiries continue".

Administrators Duff and Phelps confirmed last week that Rangers owed £9m to HM Revenue and Customs in PAYE and VAT dating back to when Mr Whyte took over.

Tax cases

In the statement released on Tuesday, the owner, who has not returned to Ibrox since flying to London the night administrators were appointed, said that part of this was in relation to the "wee tax case" against HMRC.

It centres on a tax bill of £2.8m that the club had agreed to pay HMRC before Mr Whyte took over, but is now in dispute.

In his statement, the Rangers owner said: "It is simply not true to say that Rangers or I have reneged on paying these liabilities since the takeover. The truth is that around £4.4m of the £9m demand is, in fact, the ‘wee tax case’, including penalties, and which is in dispute.

"We offered to pay £2.5m of the PAYE and VAT up front with the remainder at £500,000 a month, but HMRC flatly rejected that."

Mr Whyte continually refers to the "big tax case" in his statement, which he claimed could result in Rangers being hit with a bill of up to £75m. It relates to HMRC claiming the club owe at least £36.5m in tax as it allegedly wrongly used an employee benefits trust scheme to pay staff between 2001 and 2010.

The outcome of the appeal in this case is not yet known, but in his statement on Tuesday, Mr Whyte claimed HMRC had rejected a payback offer from him.

The Rangers owner questioned whether HMRC’s refusal of his offers for payment of both tax cases was because it was "simply determined to make an example of Rangers." He claims it was judged "far too risky to pump further funds into the club" while the result of the 'big tax case' is not yet known.

Mr Whyte added: "On the big tax case – and, of course, no one yet knows whether that has been won or lost or how much the liability would be – we wanted HMRC to confirm that they would accept repayments of £2.5m a year if we lost. But again they said, ‘No’."

Last week, administrators said "existing liabilities" had triggered the club to call them in, specifically the £9m owed to the tax authority, but that the tax case had caused "financial uncertainty" at Ibrox.

Share 'gifting'

Mr Whyte claimed he would consider "gifting" shares in Rangers to the fans if the club is under his control if they exit administration.

On Tuesday, Mr Whyte said: "If I can succeed in coming through this administration process I am very keen on the idea of gifting the majority of my shares to a supporters’ foundation. It makes a lot of sense, but fan ownership would work only after the current process if completed because the club has to get into a position where it is running at break-even in order for that prospect to be viable."

He added that he is "open to all serious offers of outside investment" while he will step down as chairman at Ibrox "post-restructuring".

Mr Whyte concluded his statement by admitting that "there have been times when I have wished that I had never entertained the idea of taking over Rangers".

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