THE BIGGEST CHEAT

Season's Cheatings!

Our penultimate cheating bastard is the big one, il capo di tutti capi, the man that almost singlehandedly destroyed Scottish football. Presenting David Edward Murray, Scotland's leading agnifer.

Murray is one of those 'entrepreneurs' that we're all told we should venerate and emulate. Like most of the self-made millionaires we hear about, however, Murray had a good start in life. Even when his old man ended up in the chokey for fraud (tax, ironically enough) Murray was still able to make a start in his uncle's business. Eventually he had built up a business of his own and was worth millions, if not billions; at least, that's what we were told.

As it turns out, Murray's empire was built on sand, and wet sand at that. His fortune was all on paper and he relied on the old school tie to get him unlimited credit with Gavin Masterton at the Bank of Scotland. Even his purchase of Rangers was done with somebody else's money. As he promised The Peeppul world domination he had to spend more and more money; money that he didn't have. Juggling the books didn't quite cut it and The Peeppul themselves failed miserably to take him up on his share issue, meaning more money having to come from MIH, which could ill afford it. Still he put himself under pressure, promising to spend a tenner for every fiver Celtic spent. With money getting tight but the expectations of The Peeppul built sky-high, Murray had to find other means of signing big players. And so he introduced DOS and then EBTs.

Nobody ever questioned Murray's spending; The Peeppul, the football authorities and the media swallowed whole every tale he spun. There was the famous, phantom casino, interplanetary leagues, multi-dimensional pitches etc. etc. Anything he said, no matter how outlandish, was regurgitated in the media as gospel truth; Murray could do no wrong.

And then it was discovered that the whole thing was a fraud. The whole of MIH owed millions upon millions to the tax man, the bank and a multitude of other creditors. Rangers was part of this empire and the same thing applied there. Again, though, nobody can bring themselves to blame Murray. Administration and liquidation was all the fault of Craig Whyte, who merely continued with the tax-dodging exploits of his predecessor. Even HMRC has come in for criticism for hounding Murray over the EBT scheme, while Lloyds-TSB had a bloody nerve wanting their money back. All the Murray years of success were paid for with other people's money, including the taxpayer but you won't hear about that in our media.

While many folk lost their jobs, creditors were stiffed and the taxpayer, who mostly owns Lloyds Bank, has had to pick up the tab for Murray's failure, the man himself hasn't been affected at all. He's got other businesses running and still lives the life of Reilly. Again, though, there has been no criticism levelled at him in our media. Mike Ashley is rightly castigated for his treatment of his employees, but nobody points the finger at Murray for ruining the lives of many. All they can see is that Rangers dominated Scottish football under his ownership and that's all that matters. Meanwhile, Craig Whyte, Charles Green and others are all up in the dock facing charges of fraud. And, yet, Murray was the one that handed Rangers over to Whyte, even though he was well aware of what kind of man he was dealing with. Shouldn't he be up before the judge as well?

Now that HMRC has won its case, pending the unlikely success of any appeal, it's safe to say that Murray's winning years at Rangers were the result of fraud. Even if HMRC are ultimately unsuccessful there's still the little matter of the side letters. Murray set out to defraud the rest of Scottish football and has got away with it. Our craven, biased football authorities are reluctant to do anything, while our media is still trying to sell us the story that Murray was an innocent 'doop'. The worst of it is that there's nothing to stop Murray buying into another football club, even Sevco. In English football he'd probably be banned from being involved in football for life, but nobody in Scotland is making the slightest move.

As well as being banned from football, Murray should be barred from being involved in any business at all. He defrauded HMRC, defrauded creditors and left a convoluted mess for the bank to clear up. He's been the biggest cheat in the history of Scottish football and it's time this truth came out in our media. Get him banned! Oh, and get all those tainted titles and trophies he won stripped from the record books. I don't just mean the ones during the EBT years. Let's have a proper enquiry into all his dealings at Rangers since he first bought them over with somebody else's money. I've no doubt that his cheating goes much deeper than the EBT scheme and that there are other titles and trophies to be stripped as well. I won't hold my breath, though. It seems that it's still the case that Murray can do no wrong.

"Now, let's just hold on a minute here. Fraud? How dare you! I'd take you to court and sue the arse off you if it wasn't for the fact that the truth might come out!"