by Kieran Mather
First we heard the decision could be put off until the 12th then hours later it came. Falling down like an already tainted axe on Charles Green’s consortium that have taken over Scottish giants Rangers.
This week there have been outcries of corruption within the Scottish FA, Premier and Football League and reforms have been demanded but the outcome remains unchanged. Glasgow Rangers “Newco” application has been denied the opportunity to play in the SPL next season and will now take their application to the SFL.
The meeting at Hampden reportedly witnessed the vast majority / overwhelming majority voting “no” to the application. Charles Green told the clubs official website he was “deeply disappointed” and that the public declarations by clubs last week had resigned them to the fact early.
So where will they fit into the SFL then? Obviously to make the Scottish Premier League a 12-team league shuffles throughout will have to be made. The League of course is planning an expansion to 16 teams in the future and will only relegate 1 team whilst 3 will be promoted in successive seasons to achieve this figure. Maybe that should start now?
This is most definitely the Football League’s gain and the Premier League’s loss. It’s well known now that the Sky Sports contract with the League is now worth £4.5million less. Average attendances will lower in the SPL whilst they will grow in whichever league “Gers” find themselves in and the competition of that division will certainly increase. They will enjoy an array of away days, the Iron Bru hoardings will be seen by potentially 50,000 more people every other week and the brand of Scottish Football League will be worth a little more. The most important thing is that the sorry affair of financial mishaps involved with Rangers can now be put behind them; they have been fined, handed transfer embargos, effectively demoted, lost players, been subject of a criminal investigation into the purchase of the club and publicly ridiculed and humiliated. The fans don’t deserve it – they are amongst the best in the world. The club however….
I do think the punishment is fitting. Apologies have been made and the right people have now been banned from running clubs in Scotland again. It’s hard however to see how this benefits the SPL? The going phrase is the chairmen are valuing integrity above money, which to some effect is true because the chairmen evaluated all possible outcomes recently meaning the decision reached is based on the best interest in the clubs financially however unapparent these reasons are only time will tell.
On the pitch, manager Ally McCoist has to come to terms with the recent losses of Steven Whittaker to Norwich and Fleck to Coventry City but will surely be eyeing up a promotion or even title next season. Celtic will be eyeing up a title too, but will they benefit at all from this? Bookmakers will more than likely not take bets on the Hoops to win the league expecting them to walk it, and where is the competition going to come from? Motherwell? Hearts? I hope so but highly doubt it at the same time. These clubs are now eyeing up second place and with it come a Champions League spot. An allocation, which will probably be pulled (again) by UEFA eventually, as the intended recipients aren’t both claiming them.
Rangers haven’t been sent into the wilderness. They haven’t been stripped of any chance of success ever again. I’m sure we will one day see a team in Glasgow win 5 titles in a row again: it does look to be Celtic next time though. The Scottish game has always been known for its firm treatment of clubs who don’t operate in a financially responsible way and this is the biggest case it’s had to deal with to date. It’s got it spot on in the eyes of the leagues members and fans. It will undoubtedly raise talks of merging Scottish and English football again but there are only a minority who want it.
The effects of events in Scotland since 14th February aren’t yet visible but they will be truly lasting and it may even go up to the top of the football pyramid and effect the national team. Until the story reaches its conclusion however uncertainty will certainly overshadow the game itself in Glasgow.
Why doesn’t anyone see this? It is over for Rangers F.C. (1872/73)!Rangers(IA/IL) will be no more when they are liqidated. When BDO take over the running of the club, assets will have to be sold and what is there? Ibrox, Murray Park and a carpark – I think the valuation of £100million is dreamwork. They have not yet been punished but merely suffered the consequence of their own actions – the fine and transfer bans are yt to be ratified – all other ‘punishments’ are of their own making. They HAVE been denied the chance of future success as any success will be that experienced by a NEW club. Last point,with the 6 titles about to be stripped from ‘old’ Rangers, Celtic could well be on 12 already. I see no reason why they should break evemnthat ‘record’
There is only one Champions League place for the season after next,so the race for second place means nothing in this regard
Whos Rangers1876?
hi Kevin. All we want is to apologise take our punishment and go to the 3rd division but the spl do not want to lose us for too long! If it were up to the integrity every of the game this should be the only option andit is the option rangers support wants.please put us in 3rd division and let us play football end the ongoing punishments for going into liquidation as so far that is all we are guilty of!
he thing is 90 percent of rangers fans want to go to division 3 because wee know all these other teams that have kicked us when down wont survive without rangers there is 8 teams in the SPL who could go bust just because there not getting our away support because they cant fill there own ground but that isn’t even the worst of it they want rangers kicked out of SPL not just for football reasons but the lot of them are bigoted they hate protestants and they hate the fact were pro British and there anti British i would love it if rangers could play there football in England it would be a fresh start and a new challenge and let Scottish football get on with what there doing and we get on with what were doing but unfortunitley that does look unlikely because not enough people support us playing in England maby one day my dream can come true they also go on about sporting integrity that we should be put in division 3 but now that they have looked at there balance sheets they have noticed they wont be able to cover the shortfall so they now want us in division 1 for there own gain where is the sporting integrity in that only wanting rangers to cover there own arses
We don’t want you lot in England, other Scotish teams dislike you because you are a horrible bigoted rabble. You go on about your religion in your post? It’s a football team you support not a church. Keep your nasty venom north of the boarder please.
Apologies for the mistake I made in the title here. 1872 not 1876.
Among the best fans in the world? Speak to the people of Barcelona, Dublin, Sunderland, Uricezni, Villarael, Pamploma and Manchester to name but a few? Scum bully fans in large numbers and a scourge of our society. Praise the Lord that club is dead & let’s hope the fans of Sevco 5088 are far better behaved! Kid yourself on it’s the same club but day one next season you will see a new club crest, new club sponsor & a new name on the match program. This is NOT Rangers FC, it’s Rangers FC’s zombie bastardised son.
Really, the best fans in the world, same fans that rioted in the streets of Manchester, same fans that th police in areas of england won’t sanction friendlies because of the bother.50000 every week don’t make me laugh, they couldn’t even get 20000 along to the last competition they were involved in they had a chance of winning. I wouldn’t be surprised if the attendances are below 10k by mid season, less if they aren’t winning.
Rangers haven’t yet been punished for bringing Scottish football into massive disrepute and going bankrupt: a number of investigations by the SFA are still on-going. If the Newco want to claim continuity then they have to take responsibility for the past actions of the oldco and take whatever punishment is handed out. Loss of players, inelligibility for Europe etc. are the consequences of bad fiscal management, not the punishment for it. When punishment for administration was meted out that was taken to the Court of Session, an action itself against the rules of the SFA. Punishment for all Rangers have done is still to be decided.
Kieran
“It’s well known now that the Sky Sports contract with the League is now worth £4.5million less.”
Source? Many fans have had replies to the effect that Sky have no plans to change their contract with the SPL next year.
‘I do think the punishment is fitting”
What punishment? Rangers are dead; about to be liquidated. They were fined £160k, which is £60k more than Celtic were fined for “illegally” enticing Tommy Burns from Kilmarnock, a fine avoided by Rangers when they enticed Wattie from the National team manager’s job. In addition, they had a transfer ban imposed at a time when they had no finances to pay anyone their contracted wage, far less buy new players with more borrowed money. That transfer ban helps to save Rangers from their own spendaholic tendencies.
The three years out of Europe is not a punishment for Rangers, it is a regulation affecting Sevco and any new club. You must have three years of audited accounts in order to qualify to take part in Europe. Incidentally, you also need three years of audited accounts to apply to join the SFL at Div. 3 level.
Scottish football is being incredibly generous in offering to allow Rangers to join Div. 3. It is a snub to well run clubs like Spartans and Pollok to have them leapfrogged.
There is no way to adequately punish the old club for their cheating use of double contracts and the scam of attempting to drop £140m of debt and buy back for £5m assets previously valued at £100m. The nearest restorative punishment we can impose is that they lose their history and continuity. No other punishment comes close to reflecting the severity of their cheating.
Newco Rangers have not been punished for the financial problems of its the old Rangers. Rangers FC is being liquidated – what we have is a new club trying to get established to carry forward the spirit of the old rangers. Like any othet new club, it should start at the bottom and work its way uu – not as ‘punishment’ but because that is the way sport works.
Rangers fans can now switch allegience to this new club and look forward to it rising to the top, but the history of the old club belongs to the old club.
Written like a true Englishman. For the record, Rangers have NOT received any punishment. We have been allocated the correct measures in accordance with the fact we got caught cheating. Punishment as you call it is not an option. Stick to what you know best, the EPL. Leave Scotland alone, unless you live in Glasgow you have no idea of how either Celtic or Rangers fans feel about the game.
Not sure that the author of this piece has access to historical facts but in the season 85/86 the last 3 home gates at Ibrokes averaged around 5000…..with this in mind I cannot see how there will be a sudden influx of away support to what ever division that Sevco 5088 are playing in this coming season…that is of course if they are playing at all.
Hi alL, firstly thank you for reading.
W Harvey – the statistic you’re citing as an argument that Rangers won’t fill away ends next season on the 85/86 season, this bears no relevance to attendance in the 12/13 season i’m sorry. True your statistic may be we can’t look to that for a prediction on next season, for example in 83 in England’s old division 3 Sheffield United held the highest attendance one week at 16,000 but 2011/12 the division was graced with attendances of 39.000 on more than one occasion. I’m basing my suggestion on the number of tickets allocated to away fans by SFL clubs and going by more recent statistics (i’d look to 11/12 attendances by Rangers fans away from home) it’d be apparent that they are more than capable of filling out the away ends in whichever division they end up in. The capacity of Ibrox, this does as i said “potentially” mean 50000 could see the advertising hoardings. Potentially never means “certainly will”
Sftb – Sorry it was the telegraphed who posted the figure online on July 4th. I think this in relation to the game which attraccted 900,000 viewers on one occasion last season has gone. Other games in the SPL attracted 79% less. So the money SKY can command from advertisers for these slots can’t be justified at the same amount as previous seasons so will inevitably drop when the contract is for renewal/review.
I am aware that Rangers are being liquidated and i should be referring to them as “Newco” or Charles Green’s consortium however, when i say Rangers we all know who is meant by that.