Scottish Championship club Rangers have agreed a settlement with former commercial director, Imran Ahmad.

Ahmad was suing the club for breach of contract over £500,000 in unpaid bonuses from Rangers.

Last week he won the right to arrest £620,000 from the club’s bank account pending the court case in light of their ongoing financial difficulties.

Rangers were given leave to appeal that Court of Session decision with their case due to be heard in two months, but they announced an imminent end to the case in a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Friday morning.

The club has confirmed the matter will formally be taken out of court in the next few days. 

The statement read: “Rangers have agreed formal terms of settlement with former commercial director Imran Ahmad regarding his current court action. 

“The sum agreed is significantly less than the total amount which Mr Ahmad had been granted permission to arrest. 

“As part of the settlement terms Mr Ahmad has agreed to refrain from arresting funds in Rangers’ bank account or in the hands of others pending the formal removal of the case from court. 

“No such arrestment will now take place. The case will be formally taken out of court in the next few days.”

A unique but truly inspiring story, not surprisingly, hit the headlines this week. Steve Way became front page news after finishing 10^th in the Commonwealth Games marathon. A fine performance in its own right but not one which would normally receive the coverage it did. What grabbed everyone’s attention was that just seven years ago, Steve was a self confessed boozer, smoker and lover of kebabs who weighed 16 and half stone – not the traditional lifestyle raw material of an elite marathon runner!

Steve Way must be blessed with great genetic raw materials for long distance running because having decided to take up running in an attempt to make some changes in his life, he ran the London Marathon in a little over three hours on just three weeks training, a very impressive feat in itself. The serious training then started and Steve’s performance in the 2014 London Marathon gained him selection for England and a Commonwealth Games performance we’ve now all heard about.

Of course only a very small minority of people are ever going to achieve the feats and the rise to fame that Steve Way has, but running (the most simplistic of sports) has the power to completely change lives and allow the everyday person to achieve goals that they often think are beyond them. The stories of the journeys taken to achieve these goals are every bit as  powerful as Steve’s and any other Commonwealth Games athlete.

Events like London 2012 and the Commonwealth Games with the unprecedented levels of media coverage they attract, certainly highlight the human endeavour, the personal journeys and the enormous potential and attraction of sport.  However, for the vast majority of athletes, sport goes beyond TV coverage, gold medals and glory – when sport becomes intimate, it’s about an individual and whatever that person’s goal is.  The ever increasing numbers of people with the will to get involved in sport has led to an explosion in the number of organised events for people to take part in.  These events meet their level of competitiveness and present them with clear challenges and goals to aim for and work towards.

These growing number of events bring with them huge new opportunities.  The numbers of people getting involved in mass participation events are now significant and extend well beyond just the athletes to include friends and family.  Organisers and sponsors are able to develop closer links with competitors and can tap into the emotional engagement of those who are so committed and passionate about what they are doing.  Steve Way’s achievement rightly hit the headlines but there are tens of thousands of individuals who have also got up off the sofa, trained hard and committed themselves to a sport, surpassed their expectations and achieved their own personal goals.

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Tom Kerry is the Events Director of Limelight Sports.

Tom joined Limelight Sports in 1999 initially working on mass participation multisport events for young people. He is now Events Director with responsibility for a team of over 20 people creating and delivering premium participation sporting experiences.

Tom’s 

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British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson believes FIFA have only themselves to blame regarding the strenous scenario which may lead to the 2022 World Cup being moved to the winter. 

Speaking to the Press Association, Robertson added that he saw no other option than moving the tournament to the winter to escape the stifling heat of Qatar in the summer.

“I don’t think anybody in the world of football thinks a World Cup in Qatar in the summer is a sensible or deliverable option,” Robertson told PA.

“To that extent, this is a mess of FIFA’s own making.

“I don’t blame the Qataris at all – they wanted the World Cup and every country is entitled to have that ambition and they entered the bidding competition in the way suggested by FIFA. I entirely blame FIFA.”

Qatar was awarded the right to host the 2022 tournament in 2010, but FIFA, UEFA and footballers’ union FIFPro have since called for it to be moved to a different time of year.

However, proposals to change the date of the tournament have met opposition from leading European clubs, who are concerned about disruption to their traditional calendars.

“I also don’t see that moving this (to winter) should be allowed to disrupt the years either side of the event,” said Robertson, who was part of the delegation for England’s failed bid for the 2018 World Cup.

The minister also called for FIFA to compensate those other countries who bid for 2022.

“FIFA has to remember there are a series of other countries who bid for that 2022 World Cup in good faith and are now going to find the goalposts have moved,” he said.

“If it’s held in the winter, that’s absolutely sensible but to have a re-pitch would be quite unfair on the Qataris.

“I think a deal should be done where the fact the Qataris won it fair and square is acknowledged but other nations who bid for 2022 are compensated in some shape or form, either financially or by hosting other FIFA tournaments.”

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Manchester City raised eyebrows when it stated that despite reporting a net loss of £97.9 million for the 2011/12 financial year, the club is on course to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFPR). Many asked how could a club which has reported a loss of £197.5 million for 2010/11 and a further loss of £97.9 million for 2011/12 possibly comply with regulations aiming to punish clubs that don’t break even? 

‘The application of UEFA allowable reliefs for certain categories of expenditure and investment in 2011-12, position the Club well for compliance with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations which come into effect in season 2013-14’, read a 14 December club statement. It is important to remember that this statement has been made by an Executive Board that includes bank Directors and international company Chairmen. They would not say this if they were not confident that City will comply. 

UEFA’s FFPR are loosely based on the concept that clubs which spend more than they earn will be banned from European competition. As City rightly state, they come into force next season (2013/14), when UEFA will analyse club accounts relating to the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons (not 2010/11). Clubs will be permitted a total ‘acceptable deviation’ of €5 million, plus €45 million for both the first and second monitoring periods under the FFPR (i.e. the 2012/13 monitoring period and the 2013/14 monitoring period, which encompasses the 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons). 

In other words, for the 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons, City must keep its financial losses down to a total of €50 million. 

On the face of it, Manchester City looks to be in serious trouble. Its losses of £97.9 million translate to €120.6 million, way above its €50 million allowance. However, City has said it will be able to deduct £17 million from its 2011/12 total for academy spending and other items that are exempt from the FFPR under Annex 10, taking its losses down to £80.9 million. 

Also, if a club has reduced its deficit (This is why City’s £197.5 million loss during 2010/11 is important) and can prove that the ‘aggregate break-even deficit is only due to the annual break-even deficit of the reporting period ending in 2012 which in turn is due to contracts with players undertaken prior to 1 June 2010’, then Annex 11.2 of the FFPR applies, which allows a licensee to avoid being sanctioned for breaching the aggregate break-even deficit. 

In layman’s terms, if Manchester City can prove that the main reason for it breaching the €50 million ‘acceptable deviation’ is wages paid during the 2011/12 season relating to players under contracts signed prior to 1 June 2010, then it can escape sanctioning. This exemption is because UEFA doesn’t want to unduly punish clubs for players signed before the FFPR were drawn up in June 2010. 

Guess what? The main reason for Manchester City breaching the €50 million deviation is because of wages paid during the 2011/12 season due to players signed prior to 1 June 2010. Such players include Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott and Carlos Tevez, who is reputedly paid more than £200,000 per week. “Looking at the players involved, this is likely to save the club in excess of £60 million”, said Ian Lynam, a Partner with Charles Russell LLP. 

This takes City’s losses down to £20.9 million (€25.7 million) for the 2011/12 season. This leaves City able to report a total loss of €24.3 million for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons and still escape UEFA sanctions. City’s prospects for the 2012/13 season look good. City will benefit from extra revenue from UEFA for qualifying for its Champions League as Premier League champion next season. A Nike kit deal signed in May 2012 will also add extra revenue. 

City’s statement said that it is positioned well for FFPR compliance. The club does face a task in generating enough revenue to compensate for its wage bill during 2012/13 and 2013/14 and it is also possible that City’s losses could still rise above the permitted level – even with these exemptions. Perhaps it would be a better explanation to describe City’s position as being positioned well to avoid UEFA sanctions under FFPR.

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About Andy Brown

Andy is Editor of World Sports Law Report, a monthly journal tracking global developments in the regulation of sport. Prior to this, he was Managing Editor of Sport Services Group, a subsidiary of the Press Association that provided information services to the sporting industry. He was founding Editor of Football Insider magazine and has also worked on a number of other sports business publications.

Andy Brown’s