Now we will see if there is any sporting morality in the game when the SPL peasants vote on the newco joining them. My guess is they wont be playing East Stirling next season.

It's a real dilemma. They should be punished as would any other team. However, I don't think it's fair to admit them to the SFL as this penalises any team looking to win Div 3 this coming season. Why should that entire league be destroyed for a season just to accommodate Rangers (not to mention Div 2 the following season and Div 1 after that - effectively ruining the integrity of the SFL for 3 years).

I can't therefore see any other option thatn to chuck them out altogether. For clarity, I would say exactly the same were it Celtic or any other team. I also felt the same when it was Livingston.

Celtic could resign from the SP Hell and join Rangers in a 2 team league playing each other every week, like the Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers on the Scilly Isles. After all, the outcome in terms of who won the league would be no different to what we have at the moment

I totally agree that rangers need to be punished and if that means dropping them down to the third then so be it, however i do have one concern with this.
Say for example Rangers get dumped down to the third, there will be die hard fans who will probably stay with them, of the 50 odd thousand they have at games just now ambitiously say 15-20k. What an advantage that will give teams like queens park, who in hampden have a 50,000 seater! The travelling rangers fans will guarantee at least 2 big paydays a season for them, in contrast to teams like ourselves with much smaller grounds.
If rangers zip up through the leagues, which i have no doubt they would, then not only will we have an uncompetitive league for the year we're in the same division as them, but other teams will be cashing and and improving their squads far beyond what they were capable of before.

I think your estimate of how many Rangers fans will travel to see their team in the SFL is way out. Over the last few years when either Rangers or Celtic visit other SPL teams the total attendance often struggles to reach five figures.
Should the situation arise where Rangers must play in the lower leagues with "youngsters" and are losing games the travelling support may struggle to reach four figures never mind five.

during the early 80's when rangers couldn't buy a trophy they struggled to get crowds of 10k. their average attendance figures were boosted when the successful teams at that time,(Dendee Utd, Aberdeen)visited.
towards the end of the 80's we now find they were buying the trophy's with taxpayers money

Good for HMRC for rejecting the deal.

Hopefully it sets a precedence that this isn't a way out for clubs and that they need to pay their bills.

Rangers should make enquiries about joining the English non league set up.

It would be ironic if the other SPL clubs vote them in and then in a few years time they fuck off to England or a European league anyway like both the Old Firm seem to want to do.

The clubs need to realise that both the Old Firm will drop them quick as fuck if the opportunity arrives down the line.

A Rangers new co won`t be kicked out the league as the other Spl chairmen quite simply won`t vote them out for financial reasons. I can only see a massive points deduction and Celtic walking the league. It`s a mess tbh. Scottish football comedy gold. I hope Fifa step in and fuck Rangers over bigtime.

The worst thing for me in this has been from day 1 a complete lack of humility and remorse for cheating and in the process threatening the livelihoods of other business and clubs from Rangers. They have brought the game into disrepute yet continue to dupe their own peepul with promises of signing the likes of Gattuso and going on pre season tours in Europe. (Everyone knows he is retired and living in Kelty)

I've already heard Rangers fans outraged at the HRMC for sending them into liquidation like the whole thing is the tax mans fault. A complete basket case of an institution which I hope dies a slow and painful death. The more frugal Celtic will then not know what to do with themselves and can hopefully do what they've been promising for years and F off to another league with less "diddy" teams in it.

A thought Gattuso had retired to South Kinross?

Aye I heard that as well, has he not learned a trade or summit now?

Re the point of this thread, just been listening to a bit of the real radio football phone in and one of the panelists reckons there is no way the other spl chairpeople will not vote them back in as they need them for fiscal reasons and due to the debt the other teams are in.

Now there could be an arguement for saying some of this debt is due to the 'smaller' teams trying to compete and spending outwith their means to try to achieve this, so if they didn't vote them back in and say the other half leave as well, wouldnt the 'smaller' teams be better off as its now a more level playing field?

whats the name of that place between methilhill and lower methil again?

i dont think any lower league team will benefit from Rangers fans filling their grounds(as i think they will boycott away games),more likely a teams own home town supporters who want to turn up to see Rangers.

Spl chairmen will now have the choice of listening to their own fans or listening to their bank manager and share holders.Depending on tv money then teams like Dundee Utd and St.Johnstone will be ok if Dundee(who average better attendances than half the Spl teams) replace Rangers.
With no European football for 3 yrs then this might benefit Rangers in the long run as they will play younger players who will develop during 3yrs out of the SPL,playing 1st team football instead of being farmed out to Partick,Dunfermline etc.

my own opinion is to kick them out of the league and also watch the others try and beg Sky to show their games.

Ps.. will the draw have to be put on hold for the Ramsdens cup now???

i read a letter from the aberdeen supporters and hibs fans which said that if rangers were voted back in they would lose up to 1500 season ticket sales which in effect would wipe out the money they get from the visiting rangers fans over the course of a season.
so financially its a bit of a crisis either way

Agree with much of the above. If Scottish Football (SPL/SFL/SFA) has any integrity left at all, then Rangers must go. The fact remains that they have plundered the public purse for decades and now expect us the taxpayers to pick up the tab. Unbelievable cheek! Institutions come and institutions go Rangers are not a special case. As a new legal entity, the new 'Rangers' should be treated no differently to any other club.
I expect the only people to profit from this debacle will be the legal/actuarial firms who will have a field day with the legality of sanctions/actions taken against old/new Rangers, not to mention the legal work from possible criminal indictments, the probable involvement of FIFA etc etc. No doubt the taxpayer will pick up that tab as well. The similarities with the demise of Third Lanark (board corruption....allegedly) are striking and why should the outcome be any different? Be great to see Rangers playing in the amateur leagues.

In my opinion if the SP Hell Chairmen decide to allow the neco back in, then they are effectively condoning what has gone on before and there is no sporting integrity left in the sham of a league.

thats because the "travelling" support are mainly rangers supporters in the small club's community.I Think all lower league clubs would benefit if they are demoted 3 leagues..IMO

Take St Johnstone as an example. Home games against rangers have about 2700 more fans than their average home game. And you get 1-2 of these a season.

Doing some quick sums shows that the extra fans account for 7.7% of the total season's attendance. Not very much. And, SPL chairmen need to consider that this lose will be offset should attendances go up due to the league being more competative. I'm sure St Johnstone would see a bigger traveling support from Hearts and Dundee United if they were fighting it out for 2nd place.

All in all, the financials don't make Rangers invaluable to the SPL.

You forgot the Sky reported £110m in your sums. That said, boot them out, forcing the other lot to follow them somewhere else in a couple of years. Would love a better-supported, more-competitive, lesser-quality (is that even possible in all seriousness?) Scottish top league.

Finances are fucked as it is for the other teams with them in the SPL as it is, as is the national team.

Question - All the talk is around how the SPL Chairmen
vote as regards which league Rangers will be in but Rangers now need to apply for re-election so.....
Is re-election decided by the SFA or SPL and is which league they are allowed to play in based on a "punishment" decision or that they are elected as a new team (which they are)e.g. a new admission from the Highland League who would automatically start in Div. 3 ?

It's a bit hard to follow all the news at times over here, so sorry if this is a well known answer, but has anybody actually asked Sky to clarify whether they will take money away if Rangers aren't in SPL?

Apparently only 2 people in sky ever see the contracts but all the old firm tinted pundits have been peddling that its in the contract there must be 4 televised old firm games per season.
Where that would leave that contract if rangers or celtic never made the top six one year I dont know. Im sure a diddy emirates and/or north american tournament could be rustled up to fulfil the alleged demand. Like wise if they are in different leagues.

With the old firm now in the second season of being allowed to move league fixtures to play in glamour tv friendlies to the disadvantaged of their scottish opponents it really wouldn't be a problem for sky.

Some commentators have said that sky wouldn't pull out anyway because they make an increasing share of their income from Scottish games via the live betting route.

Can't see it being the financial Armageddon that the weedgie/Hun media would have us believe. Dundee, Livi and Gretna all went into administration while in the same league as Rangers, whereas Inverness, Scumfermline, Falkirk and Partick have all been relegated from the SPL and seem to have kept their heads above water (maybe just) without Rangers. With regards to the Sky contract, if the rules of a sport are going to be dictated by a TV company, then the ball is well and truly burst.
Did you hear Sir David Murray's latest boast:
For every 5 years Craig Whyte spends in jail for tax evasion, I'll spend 10!

So, since fairness must be seen to be upheld and since the authorities have an open mind on what will happen with Rangers, we're told they won't be appearing in the SPL fixture list when it's released, being replaced instead by 'Club 12'.

Bet Club 12 have a game against Celtic around New Year though.

So the latest appears to be that the newco Huns will be admitted back to the SPL but then immediately relegated. Relegated not to the 3rd Division, oh no, but to the 1st.

What a fucking stitch up. What a lame punishment. No wonder genuine fans are in despair about the game in this country.

I still can't see that getting the necessary backing.

What a waste of a season that would be for Div 1 clubs. Nothing to play for.

I can't even see that working. Newco gets passed to the SFL, who is to say they won't relegate them to the 3rd.

Even if punted to the 3rd, Rangers may well play next season in the 1st should the buy-up hun friendly cowden.

At 100-1 to win the league, I'm thinking it might be worth taking a punt just incase such a merger should occur.

I didn't realise that the old Rangers get a vote at the SP Hell meeting on 4 July, how does that work, they don't exist anymore!!

The most recent nonsense appears to be of New Rangers buying Bury and playing in England.

At last a solution we can all support. Rangers to be Buryied.