by Kevin Henning
The ongoing soap opera revolving around Glasgow Rangers and Scottish football in general took another turn last week when “an overwhelming majority” of SPL clubs voted against the Newco Rangers being admitted back to top flight football. (The) Rangers are now obliged to approach the Scottish Football League to request a place in one of its three divisions. This, we are warned, could be disastrous for the professional game as a whole north of the border, as money generated by the presence of the Old Firm will not be forthcoming for at least a year and possibly upwards of three. I won’t claim to be knowledgable on the subject of another nation’s footballing financial state but unlike what appears to be most English football fans, I have to admit I am intrigued as to what happens next.
I would completely understand any Glaswegian of the blue persuasion hoping and praying that the SFL allow their club into the 1st Division. This would give the crisis club the quickest route back to the top and see them going toe to toe with Celtic again. The idea of being away and therefore giving the Bhoys a free run at the title for at least three seasons must send a shiver down the spine of any supporter of the Bears. However, even a decade of uninterrupted titles would still see Celtic’s total fall short of Rangers’. The Ibrox club have time on their side and this, I believe, is important to consider when I suggest what path I’d like to see my own club take should they ever find themselves in a similar situation.
Even the most ardent Ibrox regular can hold his hands up and admit that what has gone on at Rangers over a number of years, no matter who is to blame, is wrong. The club need to be punished and are currently being hauled to Scottish Football’s Headmaster’s office and being given a relentless spanking. The biggest sanction possible from here seems to be the Scottish Third Division and it is there that I’d wish my own club to be placed.
I can almost hear the howls of derision from some Gers fans reading this but allow me to explain. Being lumped onto the bottom rung of the ladder would please a lot of supporters of Scotland’s other clubs. They would never be able to question the severity of Rangers’ punishment. The sentence would be served whilst fans of the club experience the ultimate ride and this is where the dark cloud over Ibrox would reveal an extremely narrow silver lining for the fans.
I’ve watched my own club, Manchester City, plunge down two divisions before. Ironically, it was at a third tier English League match where I met a group of Rangers fans and became good friends with them. It was a boozy day at Reading and one of my fondest memories of watching City away. I watched the Citizens from the Kop at Wrexham (I could only get a ticket for the home end) to the tiniest bank of terracing at Colchester’s Layer Road. It was a blast. As the club lurched from one crisis to another, the fans found comfort in displaying their loyalty and the darkest humour as we visited places we’d never been.
This would be the same for Rangers supporters. Forgive my ignorance if you’ve been drawn at any of these clubs in cup ties during recent years, but arriving en masse at places like Elgin, Montrose and Stranraer sounds fantastic to me. Plunge down to your lowest ebb and fight your way back, laughing along every step of the way. You’d arrive back at the top table windswept and looking like you’ve been mugged on your way to the dinner party, but hell you’d have a catalogue of anecdotes to entertain the other guests with.
Leave Celtic to fend off Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United for a few years Rangers, you’ll experience a few years that you’ll cherish for the rest of your lives and wipe away any doubts over the alleged bias towards your club along the way.
. However, even a decade of uninterrupted titles would still see Celtic’s total fall short of Rangers’ Really ??? you’ll be forgetting the titles that will be removed from Govan tax dodgers in due course.
hope you enjoy your tainted titles, and tell me thicko, how can you take titles of a club that doesnt exist? and the tax fiddling rangers done was nothing to the fiddling your club done in the 70s and it took brave men in the nineties to come forward, so just remember, all clubs have scandals, and whos was the worst?, i would rather die with our history than live with yours
Please, do.
dear oh dear another bigot brother,
Fact 1) titles/trophies can retrospectively be declared null and void,noone said anything about them going to Celtic,thats YOUR paranoia coming thru.
2) what fiddling did Celtic do in the 70’s,we know the rumours suggested by the press and if your smart enough you will see that the crowds at ALL games in 60’s 70’s were rather large yet by all accounts never seemed to match those figures noted in the press,,every club including yours would have had ample oppurtunity to under report attendances.. but unless you have proof i suggest you are the THICKO.
3) As for the brave men,i assume you are referring to the abuse scandal which you and your supporters regularly mock with vile songs and chants (HOW NOBLE OF YOU)and had a campaign against our manager at the time,rember this,Fergus Mcann instigated a police review as soon as he took over,the police said there was no case,no evidence,it was only when the Daily Retard offered money that several people came forward with stories,make of that what you will.
As per usual when you are found out ,you fall back into you bigoted ways,there are many shameful things about Glasgow Rangers,sectarian bigotery,flying the Swastika at ibrox,the amount of Celtic Fans murdered In glasgow by yuour crew,Loyalist Terrorist being arrested at ibrox,killing each other on the way home from ibrox… thats not what this story is about,its about your cheating.tax dodging etc,try to stay out of the gutter and take your medicine when it comes
rumours in the press? wise up. jim torbett of celtic got 2 years in the jail for it, child abuse, , and if you know your history? i dont think so,and how does that make me a bigot? alan brazil, scottish internationalist came forward along with others to give evidence, you really must be thick but then again you lot are used to sweeping things like this under the carpet,,,i couldnt care about rangers or celtic , but you terrorist loving dirt take the biscuit
Dear oh dear Jim,one J in Jim by the way,who’s the thicko cant spell his own name.
Clearly you cannot read either,my point clearly referred to press rumours re attendance rigging,which i mistakenly thought you were referring to re ‘Fiddling’,i hadnt realised at that point you were making a vile point scoring reference to child abuse,scandalous that you would bring that into this type of discussion. Im well aware of who got what re the case and Mr Torbett dhould have got alife as far as im concerned,however you despite not caring about rangers.. seem to spout a lot of similiar rhetoric that they thrive on.. now try and read the answer properly this time PS nobody swept anything under the carpet,nobody would talk to the police until money was offerred,dont you remember? Incidently what terrorists do i love? or is that another non rangers fan type logic, away you go you silly little man,gutted that your team has been found out…
Spot on hector i make it 12 in a row already for the team that didnt cheat 50 and counting……
Oh dear dear mr Breen 54 & counting The Rangers Football club.Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha to the rapists fae the east end o Oireeeland
hi Kevin.great comments.no howls of derision from bears tho.we had a vote last week and over 80% want the 3rd division but all the teams who say don’t need rangers want us in 1st to make money from us and they go on about integrity!every gers fan i know wants to go into 3rd can u help us by getting English football fans to back us as the only fair way?we are sorry.we want 3rd no other option.thanks for reading this.
the 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
80% of gers fans want 3rd division but the corupt sfa want us in 1st some sporting intergity there m8 all the best 2 city for the season WATP
First off,Rangers fans wish to go SFL 3,and as a Rangers fan I think it is totally wrong to place Rangers anywhere other than SFL 3,my whole SKY subscription will be cancelled this week and this equates to over 3 times what it costs for SKY SPORTS
good point,but with the size of our support,a lot of away games will lose a lot of fans.it will be great for their fans to come to ibrox.let’s get the uncertainty over with.there is a lot of hatred out there for our team.we’ve had points deductions,fines,negative publicity,uncertainty,we’re losing our best players-davis,naismith,jelavic for silly prices.we,the fans,are innocent in all this.good luck in europe city.wasp
Rangers issues also involve cheating for years by not paying tax through an EBT scheme and still face sanctions for this, which may well include being stripped of titles. Some of which would go to Celtic.
The article also states that there is an ‘alleged bias towards your club’. I assume that you mean from the governing bodies of football in Scotland? The same who have warned of civil unrest if Rangers are not given a First Division berth and appear to be doing everything in their power to give them this position, including changing voting rules and trying to restructure the leagues?
There is much to be done before those allegations disappear….
what ebts? didnt all that die with liquidation,they have asked for the 3rd division, sfa/spl ect are scared of all the tv money and rangers away fans,money that has kept teams going for years, and in the words of neil lennon, we will have trouble bringing players to celtic because rangers arent here,and we may have to sell top players,rangers will go into the 3rd division debt free with crowdsof almost 50.000 for home games, so it wont really effect them.
How wrong you are, the majority of Rangers fans want to go to the third division, as does the manager..
alright pal, your article on rangers going into div 3 has appealed to thousands of bears. most of our team has deserted us, and will never be forgiven for that. i will personally sit back and laugh as team after team in the spl go bust. pity that celtic wont. most of the travelling bears will boycot any team that opposed us, we will come back stronger than before and not have the wage bill that we had before , anyway good luck to all you bears out there
All fellow rangers fans including myself want 2 go 2 division 3 and rid of any favours everyone keeps saying we r getting. We will start again and build a team 2 get us back 2 the top where we belong and winning titles again. We r not here 2 protect any tv or sponsorship deals 4 the shambles they call the spl. 2 the bottom we must go. Charles green needs 2 listen 2 his own fans and force the issue. We r glasgow rangers and we will never surrender!!! Watp
Looks like you’ve been using Craig Whytes calculator, Celtic currently sit on 47 titles to the recently deceased RFC* who have 54*, that total could change if RFC* are found guilty of illegally registering players over an alleged 8-10 year period, they stand to “lose” 7 titles. So as it stands Celtic are currently 7 behind but “a decade” would count 10 titles, as you concede though that being a City fan you may not be up to speed with things 😉
Wish u were correct about the titles but Celtic have 43 as it stands….hopefully this number will change when the erronously won titles are deducted from the EBT manipulators
There will be no howls of derision mate, we all want to start in div 3 and work our way back up. Then no questions or accusations will be aimed at us. We will sit back and watch how the ‘sporting integrity’ clubs cope.It will be a along and strange road but as you say one we may cherish.I know what your talking about with city as i follow them as well and have great memories like seeing SWP score his first goal at the new den and dickov versus the gills at wembley.
Thank you for a common sense approach,you cannot have a discussion with supporters of other clubs in Scotland,a delirium of hate,envy,jealousy,bigotry and sectarianism seems to have overtaken the rational to have fair minded argument.I have attended Rangers matches for 45 + years and have never wished or caused anyone harm,my priorities have always been my family,health and friends,football is a sport,something to be enjoyed,not to bring out feelings of bitterness and hatred.
and are you saying that for 45 years following the old rangers you have never seen a delirium of hate,envy,jealousy,bigotry and sectarianism from rangers fans ????..they are the worse in Britain…. are you blind ? who are you kidding ?
think youll find 75% of rangers fans want to be put in division 3 myself included why should we be punished time and time again yet help the spl with the money we pull in stuff them i say because a few will be dying next or next yr again and ill be sitting laughing all the way
Ending up in the 3rd Division would not be a part of Rangers’ punishment, simply an application of the rules and following precedents already set: new teams apply for the bottom division. Punishment is still to come.
Have you banged yer head pal? Glasgow Rangers does not exist, so your opening sentence is not satire, it is not humour, it is pointless. Do you mean The Rangers Football Club? Try and keep up pal, afterall, satire is supposed to be funny.
Rangers are dead gone kaput therefore any new club should start at the bottom and work there way up like Livingston Gretna.
What everyone seems to forget is what if they just punt the whole idea and just decline the first action of giving servco scotland a membership.
Yes indeed punishment is still to come and don’t bet against Strathclyde’s finest becoming involved.I’m enjoying this so much I’ve stopped watching Rivercity!
The gers fans,dont you just love em,thet still dont get it,YOU HAVENT BEEN PUNISHED YET!!!!!!!!!.the 10 pt deduction was for aministration, nothing else,your club was liquidated.. so you dont exist as Glasgow Rangers anymore,you are a NEW club,therefore with no accts you cannot play in eorope for 3 years ..rules not punishment.As a new clunb you should start at the bottom,its not a punishment its the RULES, DONT YOU PEOPLE ACTUALLY LISTEN.if the EBT case goes against you thereMAY well be further sanctions,titles stripped etc,they wont be awarded to anyone else,they will be declared null and void. So plaese stop the whining aboyt too many punishments.. you havent had them yet.
Well put. I’ve had that attitude for a while now. It’s been impossible to tell what is going to happen and all the fans can do is enjoy the ride back to the top and back the team. I’m a Rangers fan but I’ve also been brought up to follow City, and the fact that the blue side of Manchester are now the team to beat, after falling so low, just makes it all the more sweet.
@OldRossCo … So the SFA are biased in favour of Rangers because they want to put Rangers in the SFL 1st Division? Despite the fact that goes against the wishes of 80% of the support and the manager and chairman have both declared they are more than willing to start over in Division 3? Despite the fact the biggest winners in that scenario would be the teams in the SPL and not Rangers? Is it just me or does 2+2=5 in your reasoning there?
And Rangers have also been found guilty of “cheating”? I missed that one, when did that happen and why was it not announced? It sounds like it would have been news worthy.
Typical rubbish we’ve been reading everywhere from Celtic fans, obsessing over the name of the new club, finding us guilty and allocating preferred punishments for crimes we’ve not been judged on yet.
I’m wishing we get allocated a third division place not only because it is the right thing to do, not only because of the adventure and the chance to re-build with our heads held high and not even because we get the schadenfreude of watching our former league collegues implode …. as a football supporter all of that will be nice but the bonus is we’ll be out of the way of the vitriol and bile thats been spewed at us since entering administration.
Not a bad article, except that over 75% of Rangers season ticket holders polled want division 3 for many of the reason you say
61 titles and counting
Most Rangers fans want Div 3 as for the Green Fascists you are on 43 , a long way behind the 61 yes thats right 61 titles that Rangers have won .
Now away back to singing songs about your beloved nazi collaborators .
Great article! You’ll find that your comments will not be derided by the majority of Bears. 76% of Rangers fans want SFL3. We’ll leave Septic to enjoy their “tainted titles” until we return to the top division.
There is a rule that no new team can join SFL at lowest level without three years of audited books. Sevco(new rangers) do not have such and still may not kick a ball next season (unless it’s in the juniors). That is what the rules say, do the twisted ones still want the full letter of the law applied. See you in six years.
Rangers will be stripped of 7 titles that they won during the illegal under the table contracts they used to finance players wages. those titles will be awarded to the team who played by the rules and will see their total go from 43 to 50. The Defunct Rangers FC will always be shown by the SFA, UEFA and FIFA history files to have won 47 titles in the years before their demise.
The New Team started by Sevco 5088 called “The Rangers (2012)” has started life with at least £20million of debt as that is the amount they have to pay in interest for the loans provided by Sevco. So it will be along time before the new team are challenging for titles.
Maybe the new club badge can have 1 star for each £10million Sevco is going to take from the new club’s fans when they sell it to them. So get your money out and make Mr Green (and Mr Whyte) very rich and happy peeeeplee.
As the author of the article, I’d like to apologise to the Rangers fans who had already decided they wanted Division 3. One can sometimes forget that fans of other clubs can act with such grace and honour so I take my hat off to you all.
On the subject of the Newco not being the same team or club as Glasgow Rangers, absolutely ridiculous view. Do the people claiming that they are two different teams also banish Fiorentina’s history to the rubbish bin? Of course not. People in charge of Rangers have made terrible mistakes but the fans should not be punished. The club are being punished and that is enough.
Hopefully, we’ll see the Gers at Eastlands in the Champions League in about 5 years.
Well said. Been saying all along that if they require sporting integrity, then the same rules should apply that we’re there from the beginning of this whole sorry episode. In the long run, I think scottish football will benefit. However some of those vindictive football fans may not have a club to support at the end of it. As a Ger, I know I always will. GIRFUYous.