SPL Reduce Scottish Football to Farce

What would it mean for Scottish football and wider Scottish society if a business was allowed to build up massive debts, live well beyond its means, distort the ‘market’ of it’s own league, operate illegal business practices for years and then be let off with a slap on the wrist? It would mean that the SPL is a farce not worth taking part in.

It would mean that the idea of a common code – a leveling agreed practice was made a nonsense of. The games a bogey. Time to do walking away, en mass.

The administrators report to creditors published last week lists the debts, the largest estimated combined amount, more than £93m, is to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). That’s your school and hospital and your community that doesn’t have income because of tax evation on a scale of grand larceny.

And taxpayer-funded bodies are also directly owed money including: Strathclyde Police (£51,882), Scottish Ambulance Service (£8,438), Culture and Sport Glasgow (£10,338), Glasgow City Council (£7,000), and others.

The report also reveals that Rangers owe more than £2.3m to 12 football clubs in Scotland, England and throughout Europe, including Hearts, Dundee Utd and Dunfermline.

Today we’re told that such behaviour will result in a pathetic sanction. That Rangers could start the next season with a ten point reduction in the SPL. But this completely contradicts past precedent that newco’s have to provide three years accounts.

As Rangers Tax Case has put it:

” I understand (but have not yet verified) that the process for a team that does not fulfill all of its fixtures is that all of its results are voided and it finishes the season on zero points. (or -10 points in Rangers’ case due to the penalty for insolvency). This would relegate Rangers from the SPL. The number of clubs who would likely object to a newco being dropped into the SPL could then start to rise. The chances of the SPL getting bogged down in court proceedings start to increase dramatically. Thus far, the SFA and the SPL have failed miserably to provide leadership in this process. Only recently stirred from their slumbers, they do not appear to have thought any of these processes through. It is vital that these organisations start thinking and listening to expert advice. They must figure out all of the pathways and pitfalls now.”

This is true, but the SPL clubs and fans of all clubs need to make it clear that any attempt to waive the rules and allow Rangers back into the league will humiliate Scottish football.

We’re asking all fans to support the statement: “If Rangers #newco are allowed back to the SPL immediately I will officially stop attending SPL football matches.” Put it on facebook and fans forums and twitter.

There’s an opportunity to remake Scottish football, but if this is allowed to happen, there is no point.

Also – sign this petition to to the SPL: http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/norangersnewco

Comments (0)

Join the Discussion


  1. The Game is officially a bogey.

    1. damien says:

      You all do know that in those yers where you are chastising Raners that they paid out over £30m in transfer fees alone to SPL clubs. Now that along with an estimated £20m in gate receipts is a pretty penny SPL clubs have gained from Rangers. BE careful what you wish for, it might just happen.

      1. John Burns says:

        Its all coming true, all those fans who hated Rangers, sell out Saturday, well……I am still waiting for it. Nobody is bigger than Rangers in Scotland and every other supporter in every other team should take note, we are biggest and best, always have been and always will be….FACT. You got your wish boys, 2013/2014 will see your current heads, just above see water finally sink or will you survive one more season?

  2. Jimmy Cunningham says:

    Scottish football is corrupt!
    Rangers are getting away with murder.
    Rules being changed at the drop of a hat for them.
    Fans will walk away in their droves.

    1. Oh Dear. says:

      Sorry no murder has been commited by Rangers and why you would drop that in just shows there are bigoted people everywhere.If you dont believe me phone Strathclyde Plod & Im sure they will say that Ally McCoist & co are not under any murder investigation.

      1. Doug Daniel says:

        Wow, talk about taking things too literally. You have no problem with the idea that they dropped a hat on the ground to signal a requirement for rules to be changed, though?

      2. william milne says:

        i think it was a figure of speech and not meant literally and where does bigotry come into it?

    2. g.daly says:

      were livingston not demoted for being in liquidation a couple of years ago. same rules should apply to all teams.

      1. I agree but I also understand the argument which will be used to counter this point which is this:
        The SPL and SFL are entirely separate organisations; within the SFL a club can be demoted from division one to division two or three but the SPL is only a single division and, technically speaking, clubs aren’t demoted from the SPL – they lose their membership and apply to join the SFL. By convention, the SFL offers the ex-SPL a place in the first division in exchange for which a membership share in the SPL is offered to the current SPL champions.
        Daft, I know. But that’s what the argument will be.
        Obviously, the fair and sensible thing to do would be to offer the SFL champions the SPL membership share of a liquidated club rather than that of a solvent club which finishes last in the SPL. But that would be far too much like doing the right thing, a process which is alien to SPL thinking.

  3. bkbloodaxe says:

    What a stupid idea! The SPL has been a disgraceful sham since its inception. So what’s new if they decide that their pliable rules are even more elastic than we thought? Go watch some real football on a weekly basis instead of making empty threats. The more interesting question is – should Ross County accept promotion?

    1. Doug Daniel says:

      Wait, you’re saying it’s a stupid idea… Yet you’re also saying to go and “watch some real football”, seemingly to imply that this is not what is served up by the SPL.

      Same thing?

      1. bkbloodaxe says:

        Was Rangers rule-breaking real football? Is the SPL as currently set up (since its inception) anything more than a means of some clubs keeping more money. SPL is not real football. I watch Airdrie. We have had our reality check.

      2. Doug Daniel says:

        I absolutely agree, which is why I find it strange to call this a stupid idea. If anything, it’s long overdue.

    2. Big D says:

      At least they won the league 100% on their own steam.

  4. Or the bogeys are officially the officials.

  5. Ian Gilmartin says:

    The SPL should hang its head in shame. I will not be back.

  6. David says:

    Surprised they haven’t removed Rangers points and then stated that County’r facilities aren’t up to standard, ground share not acceptable etc etc therefore no team from SPL will be demoted.

    1. g.daly says:

      Proposed “Rangers Newco” going to use current Rangers SPL Licence to rejoin SPL.
      Surely if Rangers go into Liquidation then that Licence is liquidated or lapses and then cannot be used again by new formed “Rangers”
      What about team that is relegated from Premier League? Can they not claim their Spl licence allows them to play on in SPL.
      Surely that could be Questioned by Dunfermline Chairman, Mr. Yorston to keep Dunfermline in SPL for Next season.
      Any team that is liquidated and reforms as a “Newco” should have to apply to the governiong body “SFA” for licence to play in senior professional leagues and start from the bottom again.
      The Italian league did not show any favouritism when they relegated many top teams for breaches of the football regulations just few years ago.
      If “Rangers Newco” walks back into the SPL then FIFA and EUFA must look into the running of the game in Scotland and consider penalties against Scottish International and club teams entering their competitions.

  7. Scott says:

    Hear Hear! I don’t support a SPL team but if I did and this happened I would stop going. The game would be well and truly up. Every team should be treated the same. Damn sure Kilmarnock or Dundee Utd would be forced to start again in the Third.

  8. Time for UEFA and FIFA to remove the digit from the orifice.

  9. Peter Preston says:

    I will not go to another SPL game if newcoRFC are immediately parachuted into the SPL. #Hibs

    1. wankidea says:

      You must feel relieved having an excuse to avoid attendance at Easter road.

      1. bellacaledonia says:

        Well that is a bonus given this season, yes

  10. pierce says:

    justice for scottish teams

  11. Dundee (or on the outside chance, Falkirk) fans should be annoyed. This is their SPL place being robbed right in front of them.

  12. Let’s get this straight. Scottish fitba is a disgrace – ayeways has been. The OF have been allowed to get away with all sorts for decades as long as they kept it all nice and cosy with the blazers. Time for the UEFA and FIFA blazers to get involved and sort them out. I don’t support an SPL team so can’t ask the board to vote against this keech but when Thistle get back into the SPL I hope they man up and take a bolder stance against the OF and the kind of nonsense that has shamed our game, our city and our country for far too long. FTOF

    1. Big D says:

      Scottish football would be dead without the Old Firm – that’s the truth whether you like it or not!

      1. GuelphTim says:

        Scottish football wasn’t dead when Rangers had 85,000+ show up for the famous Thistle game at Ibrox where the official attendance was actually around 19,000 or something, and yes, it would survive without you, as would a number of people who would otherwise be found in A&E on certain nights of the year

        Me Oh Me Oh Me Oh My – Oh How I’d love to say Goodbye,
        We’d Love to see Ross County with The Blue Scarfs On,
        We won’t hear your hatred more,
        But I Don’t Have To Tell You That The Best Of All,
        Ibrox is a Tesco store

        well,…one can only dream

      2. stevenluby says:

        Why would it not survive? Football is Football no matter what the teams are called!
        I supported Celtic for many years,now i’m just a fan,but if RFC hits the wall I would like to see investigations into all clubs.Get this mess sorted and string the Premier League up by its neck.If it could be proved,as is already suspected,that
        Celtic or any other club for that matter have had double contracts etc etc I would hope they would be punished and severly and relagated one or two divisions.
        While we are on about it, 3 divisions only,no veto’s for the ego run Old Firm, just a single vote,that would bring the financial situation back to where it should be.
        Then as has been noted earlier,just then we would get to see competitve football each week from players who don’t buy 6 bedroom homes and villa’s abroad,driving their ego to the training ground.

    2. montrealbhoy says:

      This has nothing to do with Celtic, they paid their taxes. It is about rangers and rangers only

      1. Correct, in so far as it has nothing to do with Celtic.
        But it does concern clubs such as Dundee who have taken their administration medicine, suffered the consequences, faced up to their responsibilities and put their house in order but are now to be denied a place at the top table so that another club can remain in denial of its wrongdoing and carry on as if the world owes it a living.
        It also concerns Partick Thistle, Falkirk, Livingston, Dunfermline, Hibs and every club which has been relegated from the SPL (or denied promotion to it) during the years in which Rangers’ rogue operations should have led to all of their matches being declared as 3-0 wins for their opponents.

  13. Teri says:

    The SPL is a farce. As a senior citizen I am furious the I pay tax and will do so till the day I die yet Rangers can get away with not paying £93 million. Also, it’s possible that teams like Dunfermline and Hearts and others who are owed money by Rangers, may themselves end up in liquidation as they will just need to whisle for it. as unsecured creditors. Why should other teams be allowed to go to the wall to save Rangers? It should be compulory that all taxpayer funded organisations must be paid what they are owed in full over the next few years by Rangers on top of paying all their bills timeously each year. I’m disgusted.

  14. Doug Daniel says:

    When I think of the SPL changing the rules to allow Rangers to remain in the SPL at any cost, I’m reminded of the banks being bailed out at massive cost, which hasn’t solved the root of their problems. The same disgusting greed is at the heart of this. Rangers aren’t a football club any more, they’re just a big business, and their brethren in the SPL are determined to keep them in because all they can think about is how much money Old Firm games generate. Pathetic.

    There’s no point in watching the SPL any more anyway. There’s no competition. Look at Aberdeen, the only team in the third largest city in Scotland. Our attendances are under 10,000 the past two seasons. That’s utterly pathetic, and we’re still higher than any team outside of the Old Firm and Edinburgh. But it’s no wonder, because you go to watch Aberdeen and the football is rank rotten, you’re watching the same teams several times a season, every season, and there’s nothing to play for. What’s the point? And now this.

    Well I’m sorry, but no. Just no. Let everyone outside the Old Firm leave the SPL, and if Celtic and Rangers want to have their little two-team league made official and play each other 36 times a season, then they can go ahead. The sad thing is, they’d probably enjoy it. And Sky would still buy the rights to their little hatefest. Scottish football is already dead, so whatever excuses the SPL have for wanting to keep Rangers in, they’re wrong.

    1. Glover says:

      As a Celtic Fan I agree with most of what you say, but I would rather see Rangers be relegated to the 3rd division and increase the league to 14 or 16 teams. Neil Doncaster has called this wrong, I will be amazed if club chairman support some of these resolutions but everyone will have to contact their own club and make their views known. They should also cancel subscriptions to SKY and ESPN and make them aware of the reason.

      1. bellacaledonia says:

        We agree. This action should be seen alongside a positive plan for reconstruction:
        Abolishing the SPL
        16 team league
        Winter break
        Two up two down
        New rules about refereeing transparency, governance
        and training

        And so on – much that there will be already fans consensus on.
        But that is the next step, this protest should come to put a stop
        to Doncasters proposal, that’s its immediate focus.

        1. bellacaledonia says:

          Here’s a fuller version of ideas from a Jambos forum:

          1- 16 team SPL, so top four of SFL1 promoted, currently this is Ross County, Falkirk, Dundee and Partick Thistle. Hamilton come too if/when Rangers fold. Teams playing each other twice a season of course.
          2- The remaining six teams merge with SF2 to form a second 16 team league.
          3- SF3 devolved with the ten teams merging into the Highland League and the Juniors depending on location.
          4- All leagues under one umbrella organisation.
          5- Return of terracing under strict regulations of strength of the crush barriers like the Bundesliga.
          6- Return of beer sales, NO SPIRITS, to stadiums. To be sold in plastic cups that cost £2 refundable after the game.
          7- Return of 50/50 split of gate receipts
          8- 16-way even split of TV revenue
          9- Ticket prices for all matches set before season starts and cannot be changed. ie No more Category A/B/C games. Why should OF fans be charged more ?
          10-UEFA approved 4G pitches to be allowed if wanted. This means the pitch can be used 24/7 to increase revenue for each club.
          11-20% of ALL sponsorship from each club to be pooled into financial support for the lower leagues.
          12- a percentage of each clubs income has to be spent on youth development.

      2. Doug Daniel says:

        I would be completely in favour of all those proposals, particularly the league size. After all, on their day teams like Raith Rovers, Dundee, Falkirk and Ross Country are all more than capable of beating SPL teams (particularly the useless shower that I support, as has been proven countless times over recent seasons). The gap between the OF and the rest of the SPL is far, far greater than the gap between the rest of the SPL and the first division. It would be a much more interesting league. The people who complain that there would be too many meaningless games at the end of the season seem to forget that most games are utterly meaningless already, hence why no one bothers to attend matches any more. Taken to its logical conclusion, this way of thinking sees you creating a league where every position is either a European place or a relegation spot. Besides, whatever happened to football just being about playing football for the sake of entertaining people, rather than having to win things?

        No serious, self-respecting league has as few teams in it as ours does. Let’s get a proper pyramid structure in place too, so that the junior league teams who are bigger than many 3rd division teams can get a look in as well.

        But as Mike says, the first concern has to be about this protest. We need to remind Doncaster and his ilk that football clubs exist first and foremost for fans, not shareholders. Let’s come together to exert our authority.

    2. Muzz says:

      Yet another anti Rangers Dons fan who sees “brethren” behind every decisions. I despair for Scotland sometimes, i really do. As for Old Firm hatefest, do you suffer selective deafness when it comes to the foul, disgusting chants about the Ibrox disaster or Ian Durrant’s horrendous injury that emanate from Aberdeen fans ? yeah, let’s go there….

  15. Ross Paterson says:

    A ten point deficit means nothing to Rangers. It’s hardly going to take them long to claw back 10 points. The official bodies in charge of football obviously look at the league falling apart without Rangers. I couldn’t really care less about the ten points as long as they pay the money back in full. If they don’t and they close down Rangers, a junior team should be admitted to the third division and a second placed team comes up from the first etc.

    Rangers are clearly being allowed time to see how the SPL, monkeys will react should they start a newco. They should be forced to make their decision without knowing what the penalty will be.

    I guarantee if they were told a newco club won’t be allowed back in, they’d all of a sudden come up with the cash.

    If this goes through, it is simply because the powers that be are controlled by Rangers, and for them it is of vital importance that Rangers keep on winning the league. It would prove once and for all that the corruption goes all the way to the top of the governing bodies, who are supposed to impartial.

    I don’t feel like i want Rangers to go under, but i feel if they do so intentionally, it is premeditated, and they deserve to be booted out forever, which in itself would be very sad, but if you want to cheat the system the system should cheat you right back

    1. FrankyBoy says:

      I agree. If Rangers get away with it then corruption is top to bottom and Scottish football is finished.

  16. Peter Craig says:

    Will never attend a Scottish game ever again if this goes through

  17. Paul Ensa says:

    I am finished with the SPL, SFA and the corrupt farce that is Scottish football.

  18. Ntass Oolla says:

    Whatever lies behind these proposals, one thing is certain. It cannot happen without the acquiescence of Celtic. And every club in the SPL.

  19. MusselburghHibee says:

    Neil Doncaster should be sacked for even contemplating this horrid deal with those fraudulent swine. This will be the end of my SPL days. Disgusted with those horrible people through there,let them have their horrible little marches wearing their mickey mouse uniforms but keep their filth away from the SPL.

  20. matthew townsley says:

    Will NOT be at another away game until this is kicked into touch . If voted in will stop going to watch SPL altogether .

  21. Andy Mcbean says:

    Like Italys football it’s full of corruption, I am fed up of the corrupt institutions that govern our game, safe to say I will not be attending future matches like many others.

  22. No to Zombie Rangers

    Will never attend a Scottish game ever again if this goes through #Celtic

  23. Roddy Stewart says:

    What a surprise this piece is written by an Aberdeen fan….deary me

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      I’m a Hibs fan for my sins Roddy but full marks for research.

    2. Doug Daniel says:

      That’s it Roddy, go straight for argumentum ad hominem. Don’t bother trying to debate the actual issues Mike raised.

    3. This piece could just as easily have been written by a supporter of any club in Scotland with the probable exception of Rangers. Yet even some of the more thoughtful Bears have quietly acknowledged that they’d rather see their club hold its hands up and accept that the only fair course of action is to start again from the bottom.
      It’s not difficult to see the strength of the argument which has been advanced here by a Hibs supporter unless your view of the world is distorted by an unwavering conviction that no matter what they are guilty off, Rangers must be allowed to get away with it.

  24. sven f says:

    I have decided that since various presidents are being set with regards to rangers not having to either repay their tax fraud or either get punished for clear criminal activity and corruption that i as a small business owner shall not be paying any tax ever again if rangers are offered any sort of deduction of their tax implication. When i get prosecuted i shall call upon this case as my reason not to pay, lets be honest why should anybody pay tax if rangers can just run up a massive debt to hmrc and everybody else and then be allowed to laugh at the system and pay a small fraction back, would my business be allowed such a luxury, hell no i am sure i would be hung drawn and quartered by hmrc and would have been shut down and banned from trading by now. Shocking what is going on here whilst half of Scotland seems to brush the corruption under the carpet.

  25. John McQuade says:

    Being a fan of an SFL team that has never troubled (nor is ever likely to trouble) the SPL, I would walk away from Scottish senior football if Rangers are simply let off with a meaningless slap on the wrist. And I’ve been going solidly for over 20 years. The proposed twitter statement should be amended to read “If Rangers #newco are allowed back to the SPL immediately I will officially stop attending Scottish senior football matches.” Many SFL fans will walk away too rather than watch their teams “compete” in a rigged senior system set up solely for the benefit of the two biggest clubs.
    I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. The only thing that surprises me is just how brazen the SPL is in paving the way for Rangers redux to enter the SPL as though nothing has happened.
    The juniors are meant to be a much better day out than paying £12-£18 to watch part time football anyway.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Good point

  26. J Kelly says:

    I agree and I will stop watching senior football. If anything I will follow Euro and English football on Tv and go to the odd Junior game. This is a major scandal and any integrity in Scottish football will be lost .

  27. iantm says:

    It has gone on for a long time at every level ,including political.
    The agenda seems to be, save Rangers at any cost.

    Salmond wants Independence, but tells us Rangers ARE part of the fabric of Scotland & a deal should be made, so much for equality for all & how about political interference in sport?

    I now wouldn’t vote for Salmond under ANY circumstances.

    The SFA & SPL are proving themselves not fit for purpose. Time to shape up & be fair to ALL or vanish in a Corrupt cloud of infamy.

    Maybe Sepp Blatter is right, ONE British body & BIN the inept SFA & SPL.

    1. CW says:

      No, because I’ve said this before until I’m blue in the face – the Scottish football community is overwhelmingly Unionist – hence the Rangers bias. Even if Salmond made the mistake of appealing on behalf of Rangers, the vast majority of Scottish nationalists cannot stand what that institution stands for. The people who inhabit these corrupt institutions do not care about Scotland or its football, its just a boys’ club to keep things the way they’ve aye been. If they defend these institutions in the face of FIFA etc., it is simply as an act of self-preservation.

    2. stevenluby says:

      What ?
      Did Salmond say that RFC should not pay back its tax.
      Did he say they should not be punished?
      Or did he say that RFC should not be relagated?
      Just asking as I have not heard what he has said.

    3. shaunthebrummie says:

      why would the English want to be lumped with the terrorist lovers and anti English Scots.we want complete seperation from the celtic nations,and that means removing foreign clubs not inviting them to join.

  28. Scott mackenzie says:

    The SPL and the majority of the Scottish football media is an absolute disgrace. I am not going back if Newco get in.

  29. Hartley says:

    Any boycott would have to include the TV companies to be effective.

  30. bob curran says:

    Dundee Fc have taken 2 penalties for living beyond there means. now a so called institution are not even reprimanded for living far beyond Dundee’s Level even after 2 resuscitations, We are at present 2nd in first division Glasgow Rangers place belong to us, Think Livingston, that is where rangers should be…….3rd Division ENDEX!!!!!!

  31. liam richardson says:

    the sfa need to get a grip utd are struggling to claw back money because we charged them twice for a game and what do they do fuck all except pay some of the money if they do become a newco they should join the lower leagues that way smaller teams will get a chance at the top

    1. Oh Dear. says:

      U have just blew ur argument right out the water by confirming that DU charged Rangers supporters twice for a match(& u talk about fair).Did Thompson need it for child maintenance???

  32. I wouldn’t dream of paying money to watch any SPL or SFA competitions if Rangers Newco is parachuted into the top flight. The very fact that this is even being contemplated is a national disgrace.
    I think there are directors and chairmen of Scottish clubs who are calling their supporters’ bluff – they know that their season ticket holders will be angry but they still expect them to cave in and renew when the crunch comes. It’s important now for the fans of every club to get the message across to their own boards that it would be totally unacceptable for them to vote Newco in to the top level of the league.

  33. richard mcleish says:

    As far as I can see spl fans don’t attend games anyway unless it’s the old firm against whom they exploit their.fan base by hiking up prices. So maybe rangers would be better off out of the spl

    1. CW says:

      We have the highest attendance to population ratio in Europe. But yes, get them out of the league.

      1. Coplin McBurnie says:

        St.Mirren’s home crowd has ALWAYS been less when The OF come to town, and I suspect the same may be for most of the other SPL teams.

        The Saints fan do not take their kids to these games either, No prizes for guessing why…

        If Rangers get away with this I will not be renewing my Season Ticket and the Juniors will get my money.

  34. Paul says:

    The chances of the SPL getting bogged down in court proceedings start to increase dramatically!
    This can only occur if a CURRENT SFA member takes them to court. If Rangers Re-form as a company then they will have to apply to join the SFA league structure and would infact not be able to take the SPL to court as the company would CEASE to exist

  35. ted says:

    My, my, my, after taking the old firms money for years to help every other club in the SPL out ? I find it shocking that you all of a sudden want the death of RFC ? Short memories ? Remember, SKY would not be interested in the rest of the SLP clubs if the old firm were not there ? The fan base for every other SPL club in Scotland is a joke !!! Scotland need both Rangers and Celtic to survive. They both give more money to SPL clubs than the clubs generate for themselves. Think before you all open your mouth and utter pure trash ? Your club will not survive 3 seasons without the cash generated by the old firm !!!! Now, put that in your pipe ?

    1. Doug Daniel says:

      You’re quite right Ted. Perhaps we non-OF teams should be more appreciative of the charitable endeavours of the OF to keep us all afloat (but only just) by gifting us with their continued presence. We’re such ungrateful wretches. Really, we should be glad we even get to glimpse these footballing giants with our own eyes.

      Money is the only thing that is important, particularly TV money from Sky. Never mind the fact that the complete lack of competition has made Scottish football the most boring spectacle going, which is why no one bothers to attend matches any more. We should just be grateful that the OF allow our teams to exist.

      All hail the Old Firm!!!

      (In case you missed it, that was sarcasm.)

      1. bellacaledonia says:

        Worth thinking about how tv has wrecked the game with stupid kick off times too.

    2. CW says:

      Jesus Christ, this sort of thing just makes me want to walk away from football whatever happens with Rangers. Sometimes I wonder if Scotland as a whole would be better with a set up like the League of Ireland.

    3. GuelphTim says:

      Dear Ted, what on earth are you talking about? your first line is utter pish and explains why the rest of Scotland dislike the OF more and more. What kind of an attitude is that?
      State of Scottish Football: Scottish football needs a cleansing, so let’s start with the dirtiest first. The ‘South China Celt’ guy makes a good point earlier. Attendances were rubbish for a good part of the 80s and for many reasons but they were better balanced if I remember correctly, which is/was better for the nation, at least i think. Aberdeen and Hearts in particular used to bring massive away supports sometimes. Then Hibs, Utd on a lower level weren’t too shabby either etc. The league as a whole was more balanced in that way in the pre- or even early Souness years. I, for one, enjoyed watching Dundee Utd’s runs incl. Barca, Roma, UEFA cup final, Hearts gubbing Munich 1-0 (does everyone remember Dave McPherson’s genius pass?), Aberdeen goes without saying, and St Mirren’s one -nil ‘trouncing of Tromso’…etc etc. We abused it (the 80s) at the time but there were some decent things no?? and oh,..is everyone looking forward to another Euro with us not being there by the way?!….and by the way Ted, i can’t really remember that many clubs folding due to lack of funds from the massive Rangers away support not coming twice a year can you? So,….more balanced football, more Scottish players playing, more big Championships qualified for………hmmmm… interesting….
      State of RFC: then along came Mr. Murray……the balance shifted, and the rest as they say….i have no problem with him trying to improve his club but it is a simple matter of how you do it, who you step on, pay off, who you ‘avoid’ to do it, etc [whose titles are tainted now by the way???]. Anyone who lived in Glasgow in the 90s who had their eyes and ears open knows this. It’s a small place after all

      Please be assured that Sky have nothing to do with this. Celtic have nothing to do with this. Every other club and how YOU perceive they might want/need their oh-so-fantastic-Rangers-away-fans-gate-money to survive or not has nothing to do with it either.
      They have been committing some serious wrongs to a ridiculous amount of people, groups, individuals, other clubs, public services, their own friggin’ players for a long long time, and they have to be held accountable. And so should our friends apparently running the game be if they cannot, or refuse to sanction them properly. A 10 point penalty and no more is a joke. Your handshake culture can FFF right off, and if it turns out to be that it is the same handshake culture which gives RFC a little slap on the wrist and nothing more then we have one ‘institution’ which is financially bankrupt, and another which is morally bankrupt running the country.

      Ted,..Scotland does not need both Rangers and Celtic to survive. It needs to clean up its act to thrive though, and your pals have been doing the opposite for too long, it has caught up with them in an ugly way, yet they still seem to hold a Get Out of Jail (relatively) Free card……..does nothing seem wrong in that for you?
      No, there’s not a team like the Glasgow Rangers…….never a truer word spoken.

      For many people, Apartheid, the Third Reich, slavery, the KKK were also great traditions but I think we can all agree that the world is a better place without them can’t we?

    4. stevenluby says:

      Oh dear,we just love the old firm don’t we,which is a shame,as it would reduce alcohol abuse and wife beating on Saturday and Sundays.
      Football survived very well without Sky before greed gripped Celtic & Rangers.
      Stick those two points in your pipe and choke !

  36. craig says:

    Mist fans I’ve heard from seem to be all for rangers dropping to the third and working back up the leagues, all the time watching the haters clubs fold due to the lost revenue from the tv deal they will no longer get, lost revenue from the missing 1/2 stadium of fans in blue (sometimes 2/3rds). The theory being rangers get stronger without the constraints being forced on them,while those that claim they’re better off without rangers crumble without the foundation of the lost income. For me, rangers go to the third and gain entry through qualification to the top and if the rest fold then they fold. They can start again as we did, maybe this will give Scottish football a much healthier foundation, money no longer bring the driving force.

  37. South China Celt says:

    The 1980s. A weak rangers team. Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United chasing titles. Teams doing fairly well in Europe. Hearts taking it to the last day. Why do we need rangers?

    Then D Murray ruined scottish football. Cheat for the best part of 25 years and get a slap on the wrist? Not for me. I’ll never be back to another Scottish game. We need the SPL to know that no fans of any team find this acceptable .

    This could have been a chance to reconstruct the game in Scotland for the better of all teams and tried to get a more even playing field and competitive league. Absolutely scunnered by this

  38. raymond howard says:

    O would some Power the gift to give us
    To see ourselves as others see us!
    It would from many a blunder free us,
    And foolish notion:
    What airs in dress and gait would leave us,
    And even devotion!
    wonder how the rest of the foot ball world sees us

  39. Peter says:


  40. Glover says:

    I have cancelled my Sky and ESPN subscriptions on the back of the SPL press statement. I intend to move my Phone and Broadband from SKY to a new supplier. I have informed SKY and ESPN that this is a result of the statement. I hope that I can influence others to do likewise and make people in the SPL aware of the views of those that provide the money. Punishment for those that do wrong should be punitive to discourage others from such behaviour. 2 seasons with 10 point deduction and a minimal fine would hardly seem punitive.

  41. dundeeArab says:

    Dundee football club should be taking note on what happening in the Scottish pathetic league rangers are doomed Ross county don’t have a stadium and dundee and should be saying Oi we had to make our stadium worthy of a place in the Scottish pathetic league so let us back in

    1. batkeeper says:

      Point of information – Ross County do have a stadium – it’s called Victoria Park (I think). They have plans to upgrade it in time for next season and have plans in place to ground share with Caley should it not be ready in time.
      Good luck to Ross County, they deserve their promotion.
      It’s just a shame they are being promoted to a discredited SPL. I like the “Hearts” proposals above, the only thing I would add is the disbanding of the SPL. It is a failed experiment which should have been strangled at birth!

  42. FrankyBoy says:

    I already made up my mind before this article that if Rangers are allowed a soft landing and all their tax evasion and market interference is to be ignored I will stop watching and participating in football. I have been a Hearts season ticket holder on and off for most of my life. My children too.

    If Rangers are not punished for robbing the Scottish people of its taxes I walk away from football forever. Rangers have robbed the people of their taxes and so our public services have been diminished and thousands of people’s lives directly affected in schools and hospitals. Rangers have robbed other clubs of quality players.

    Rangers are an open sore in Scottish football and amputation is the only remedy.

  43. joyce says:

    There will always be corruption when corrupt rich people get involved in Sport This is not a new thing. The working man or woman if they has a couple of kids cant afford to go watch a football game, or any eletist game in this country just look at the Olymoics what a joke millions of tickets been given again to large corporations, Sports men & women are paid millions now they themselves there wives there fecking budgies all have some sort of conntract tv adverts magazines perfume clothing they are all just a business and there main job of playing sport is just a hobby. So until all the rich corruption is taken away from every sport this will always be an onging problem They are rich they can afford to hide money and pay for the best accouintants I’m just surprised that people are getting so emotional about a football team doing the same as every other company in this country and no one seems to say a thing about or be as emontinal about them1 weird but i am not a football fan by any means And a lot of this comes down to bigotry & hatred of one anothers clubs The same thing happened when dundee went down United and other clubs oh thats terrable well yes it is but they are saying it for all the wrong reasons just because they hate other football clubs and so they can sing whatever to insult them on a park on a sat thats if they can afford to go in the first place By the way I have heard the German way of managing football is not corrupt and run by fans so maybe clubs should learn from them

  44. As much as this Bella Campaign is a good idea, everyone should be emailing their respective club chairmen to tell them that if they vote for this then they will not be back in the club.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Absolutely right – we need to out pressure on our own clubs.

  45. wallsy says:

    Can someone tell me why there is no out cry either at the banks, we now part own why are they allowed to sponcer sporting events Do you get free tickets cos I dont But I bet all your bankers are sitting snuggly in there corporate boxes sipping on bubble while we have to pay for it sport is corrupt always has been just look at boxing sports.people get paid millions for working one day a week or hitting a wee ball while in the sunshine oh ye realy feel sorry for them. And football fans want to see players paid millions and they are bought for millions so dont sit and cry now when there is no money

  46. Arab in Asia says:

    I notice a few comments here re other clubs not being able to survive without the Old Firm money and the supposedly riches this brings. As someone pointed out Scottish teams did OK and the national team were OK before the Old Firm started galloping ahead and splashing the cash.

    Look at it this way, the difference in monetary terms from finishing 2nd to 3rd is more than the rest of the money for the other teams put together I believe.

    Less TV money, make no mistake there will be a TV deal of some sort, will mean much the same to the other teams as it will be more evenly split – so it seems the only real losers in that sense will be Celtic i imagine.

    In addition, for a team such as Dundee United would need to increase their average attendance over the year by an extra 500 or so per game – in a more competitive league would be easily attained as shown in past seasons when they were in the 1st division for example.

    Furthermore, should Dundee FC ever get promoted this would be more than sufficient to cover DUFC not having the privilege of playing Rangers.

    If the bigwigs dont listen to the fans and the reaction to this they are in big big trouble.

    1. GuelphTim says:


  47. Here is a draft email you could send…


    I am writing to inform you that if our club votes for Resolution 2A, which if passed will subsequently allow any proposed Newco Rangers to continue in the Scottish Premier League, I will not be attending the matches of our club in protest.

    Secondly, I will also not buy any merchandise of our club and will actively encourage my fellow supporters to do the same.

    I do not wish to take these measures but believe that this resolution would undermine the principle of fairness on which I hope our game is based.

    Yours Sincerely….

  48. Roddy Mackay says:

    I own a small business, we struggle to survive in this current economic climate but we pay our bills and get on with it. Why should we? Maybe we should just run up loads of debt, buy the most up to date equipment and liquidate, we can always start again next week in a better position to compete with the big boys. If Rangers* are allowed to do this then years of cheating is rewarded. I for one will never set foot inside a football stadium in Scotland again. The game in this country will die. Corruption wins, where is the integrity of the game?

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      Absolutely right Roddy, this isn’t about football this is about social justice and the role of big business and corruption in football.

  49. Alan says:

    I would love to tell the tax man I am not paying tax for three years as i want a holiday. They have cheated scotlands people, scottish football and HMRC so what gives them the right to be made a special case. This SPL are as morally corrupt as Rangers and they are all as bad as each other. What gives them the right other clubs don’t…the answer is Sweet F***k All (SFA) A disgrace

  50. Dodger says:

    Why do you all want to punish your own clubs ? Why not just stay away from NewCo’s games. I despise the OF as much as the next guy and am disgusted at this proposal but I support a SFL club so it doesn’t effect me or my club. I would never walk away from my club when it has survived administration itself and survives now without the TV or OF money. MTID

  51. Philip Thomas says:

    Agree with the consensus but just to clarify/elaborate on a couple of points:

    If RFC go bust it doesn’t mean that Dundee FC i.e. the second placed team in Div 1, would sdsdpromoted. Clause H5 of the current SPL rules states that the number of relegation places is reduced if a member club ceases to operate – in other words, Dunfermline would not be relegated.

    There is another caveate that I haven’t seen any commentators pick up on yet, and it’s further related to the above. The above would only up until the end of the season i.e. before relegation becomes effective. If relegation has already taken place then Clause 14 would, I think, take precendent. I suggest you all read up on Clause 14; it effectively states that the company can vote in any member it chooses, meaning the company could vote in a Newco RFC regardless of whether any new resolutions are passed or not.

    If I were a conspiracy theorist I might postulate that yesterday’s announcement by the SPL has played right into the hands of RFC and it’s administrators, despite the faux outrage shown on their part. The administrators have now been ‘forced’ to delay the sale of the company/assets until the end of the season (when the SPL have announced the resolutions will be voted on). This means that RFC won’t be liquidated until after the end of the season i.e. after relegation has taken place. It’s Dunfermline FC, not Dundee FC, who I think have been stiffed here.

    Again, I suggest you all make yourself familiar with Clause 14. The SPL is a company and the teams within it are essentially franchises, much like the sporting set-ups prevalent in the US. Scottish football became a joke when the SPL was established which just happened to be when I stopped following it altogether. The only hope for Scottish football is that the SFA show strong leadership and go to war with the SPL and it’s member clubs, forcing the latter to rejoin the SFL. There are ways they could do that but it would be very dirty and the game at the top level would be put at severe risk. That scenario would assume that there is sufficient will within the SFA and sadly I doubt there is. Stewart Regan is an honest guy but he’ll find the backing he receives to be thin on the ground if he goes down that road.

    Just an afterthought – I’ve seen many comments (not just here) suggesting that Scottish football is going the way of Italian football. Give credit where credit’s due – go and read about what happened to Juventus; ask yourself if the same will happen here; and then ask yourself who has the right to point and laugh at who. Scottish football is (and has been) filthy for decades. Is anyone under the illusion that we’ve managed to send quite a few of our guys to the top tables in UEFA and FIFA – those bastions of uprightness – because they were the best men for the job?

    1. CW says:

      Good point actually, has anyone ever listened to Roger Mitchell talking about our game from his house in Lake Como – “we’re mediocre and we always have been” etc. Given a regular platform for his girnfests by our cringing media too. Why the hell would any sane country nominate a man like that?

  52. Iain says:

    I suppose the Rangers fans still deserve no sympathy, since that’s what I keep hearing?

    Never mind that I pay taxes and that individual men have messed up my club, i’m complicit in this somehow and deserve the team I support to die.

    1. Philip Thomas says:

      Iain, I can see why you’d come to the conclusion that everyone who expresses opinions such as the ones I’ve expressed would think that; there are a lot of people out there who’re obviously getting a lot of satisfaction out of RFC’s (and by extension, their supporters) predicament.
      I’m not a Celtic supporter. I’ve no engrained opinions about RFC or their supporters and I don’t get any satisfaction out of seeing the demise of an institution that plays a huge role in many people’s lives. I don’t, for that matter, consider everyone who turns up at Ibrox to be a bigot and – despite being a nationalist – I don’t put too much stock in people waving union flags in the stands.
      There’s a simple reason for that: my younger brothers are RFC supporters. Since I know they aren’t bigots, I don’t jump to conclusions that everyone who follows RFC are bigots. But the fact that my family hails from more than 100 miles north of Glasgow also helps convince me we have a major problem in our game.
      The two Glasgow clubs have been allowed to strangle the life out of our national sport in a vain and ultimately futile attempt to garner respect in Europe and, absurdly, to try and manoeuvre an exit to either a foreign or a continental league – two options that have been completely discredited but which are still floated as possibilities by some of the lunatic fringe.
      And look where we’ve ended up! Ignoring RFC’s issues, the squads of both teams have been diminished considerably in the past few seasons as reality began to dawn on their respective hierarchies and they realised they had to cut back and attempt to live within their means and their own borders. These clubs demanded the whole cherry leaving only the pips for the rest but the cherry is getting smaller and smaller each year and the pips are sterile – nothing can grow from them! The standard has continued to fall until now where we find it’s not just the rest of Scottish football who’re a joke…
      Some years ago my own team, AFC, were spared the ignominy of being relegated to the First Division in what I still consider to be disgraceful circumstances. We should have gone down. I was ashamed then and I still am. That was when I discovered what the SPL actually was – a cartel. There is no level playing field in Scottish football and so, I can’t consider the game in this country to be a sport. I would put it on a par with the idea of allowing handicaps to exist in professional golf.
      RFC should be subject to the same consequences as other clubs who’ve found themselves in similar circumstances; Gretna; Livingston; Airdrie; Dundee; Hamilton. No more, no less.
      If RFC come out of administration (which looks nigh on impossible) then they should be subject to the same rules as others have been to date. If they are liquidated then they would cease to exist meaning that Dunfermline should not be relegated. If a new company is formed and acquires the assets of the former RFC then that new company should be forced to apply for membership of the SFL and enter that league from the 3rd division if accepted (and they in all certainty would be).
      That would be a tragic outcome but would be nonetheless fair and consistent. I’ve sympathy with you and other RFC supporters who might have to bear the consequences of other people’s actions but I don’t see how you can consider any other conclusion to be fair and I don’t see how you can retain your dignity in any other way. Any other conclusion will make an absolute mockery of Scottish football. It will be nothing more than sanctioning a cheats charter and I, for one, would rather walk away with what dignity I had left than carry on brazenly in the knowledge that everyone else knew me for what I was – a cheat. It might be difficult to accept Iain, but your team haven’t ‘won’ anything for over ten years.

      1. bellacaledonia says:

        Well put

      2. Iain says:

        Believe me, I can accept what you’re saying, it’s got some balance to it. What I object to is the notion that Rangers fans aren’t also victims in this because we are, these things may have been done by individual’s in our club’s name but fans were not a part of it, and fans are what really make a club.

        I accept whatever punishment is appropriate will or should happen, and I’m not morally bankrupt either, not paying your debts is wrong.

        Only thing I do disagree with is the idea of ‘cheating’ and that we haven’t won anything, if the two contracts situation is proven to be true then I would talk differently since that would mean player eligibility rules were broken. But just going by the current situation, we’ve built up debt due to financial mismanagement which sadly happens all the time in football, as i’ve said before it’s not right and in hindsight i’d give up the trophies in exchange for financial security. But no club has had titles stripped because they’ve ended up in financial mess, if you get yourself into so much trouble you’ll suffer consequences as we’re doing now and will do for a while, but unless referees were bribed or eligibility rules were broken (yet to be proved although we’re accused) then I’d say the trophies are genuine enough, although not worth the price they’ve come with for sure.

      3. Philip Thomas says:

        Iain, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Rangers support are the major victims here. We can talk all night about the implied effects on other clubs but Rangers supporters are the only ones whose club are staring into the abyss. I find it more than a little distasteful to witness the sheer pleasure many are taking in seeing this unfold. The idea that all RFC supporters are bigots and knuckle draggers isn’t one I subscribe to – I’d dare say that the majority of the support are good people who’ve more right to be upset by these goings on than the rest of us. It’s clearly not the case that RFC were ploughing the tax savings into subsidising season tickets or replica shirts – RFC supporters put their hard earned cash into the club the same as the punters from every other club and they’ve been betrayed in the worst way imaginable by people they considered to be acting in their best interests. My boss is a shareholder (nothing significant) but he couldn’t care less about losing his money – he never considered it to be a financial investment. I witnessed a man (in his 60’s at least) wearing a Rangers tie cry his eyes out while I was waiting for a train in Partick last week. He was drunk, to be fair, but I still felt for the guy.

        By the same token, I’m not taking the line that the proposed resolutions are being driven by RFC and RFC alone. It’s the entire set-up that stinks here. Commercial interests are not only being allowed to drive the sport but are being allowed to govern it completely to the extent that it barely qualifies under the definition. There are board members of several clubs who’re may think they’re acting in the best interests of their clubs by keeping them on life support but will only succeed in killing the game in this country and in proving how morally bankrupt they are.

        I have a simple outlook. If the game isn’t fair then there’s no point in playing. If you win by bending or breaking the rules then you’ve lost, and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. These board members have to ask themselves, what is the point? If everyone knows you’re cheating then there’s no glory to be had. And I repeat: it’s the entire set-up that I consider to be cheating here, or at least contemplating doing so. They’re literally trying to make up the rules as they go along.

        I’ll concede your point that RFC haven’t been found guilty yet but I think, deep down, that we both know where this is headed. There’ve been no serious attempts to deny the accusations by anyone associated with RFC – only allusions to nothing having been proven yet – and that’s telling in itself. If it’s found to be the case in the tax tribunal then the governing bodies will have no choice but to act. Others will see to that.

        I hope against hope that RFC survive in their current form, if only for good honest people like my boss and those in my family who derive a great amount of happiness from seeing the club succeed in the sporting arena and nothing else. I don’t think it’s likely but nonetheless I hope. But regardless of the outcome, RFC need to be treated according to precedent.

        Out with that, I see this as perhaps the last opportunity we’ll have to rethink the game in Scotland before it dies out as a professional sport. Two teams wallowing in the hot tub while the other ten lie in intensive care could never have been a sustainable business model in the long run. If I had it my way we’d move to a two tier league structure with 18 teams in each division. It would be a bumpy ride to start off but I think it would create a healthier and more secure model and would even help RFC if they were relegated to the lowest division – they’d only need to be promoted once…

        1. bellacaledonia says:

          Great comment Philip, on all counts. Totally agree with you. No doubt the many decent Rangers fans have been taken for a ride. Yet efforts to somehow distinguish the board from the club, or the club from the board, or the directors from the fans, are kidding themselves. The board and directors ARE the club, ratified annually and deified weekly in a pliant sports and business media.

          You could say this is an opportunity for Rangers to re-emerge and for Scottish football to transform itself free of the baggage of bigotry and the model of big business rules all.

  53. Jim says:

    My son and I are Dundee united season ticket holders who live in Aberdeen if the spl bend the rules for rangers then we will not be back we will go and watch cove rangers instead (local team) they (rangers) need to start from the bottom, to be deducted 10 points next season would be a joke every club needs to cut there cloth so they don’t need to rely on the OF enough said I think.

    1. GuelphTim says:

      Agreed Jim!

      I am fed up certain people saying that smaller clubs lives depend on 2 visits from Rangers each year. Come on! – what kind of nonsense is that?

      Equally fed up with non-OF fans/clubs blaming/justifying their own failures on the OF. Isn’t that passing the buck also?

      Fact: The OF haven’t been as weak for a long long time. The OF should have been there for the taking in recent times but smaller clubs have all been asleep at the wheel on the development front just as RFC have been on the finances front.

      Other Scottish (non-Rangers) teams in the past would have pounded Tony Mowbray’s team for example into 3rd or 4th, and yous should have done so with the current OF teams. So why didn’t you? Where were you? Why weren’t you working away at it, smelling the chance to smash this OF duopoly that you all hate so much? Anyone could have grabbed second or first that year if they had been half decent so why weren’t you? Whose fault is that? Is that all the OF’s fault too, your years of neglect or zero ambition? Is that the SPL’s fault too? Don’t explain away your own failures by trying to switch focus to the SPL/SFA/OF. That’s pretty lame. Or,…. if you say, okay, we are actually happy with 5th, or wherever you happen to be, then don’t bitch about the gap between the OF and the rest. I’m fed up with your lack of proper challenge but don’t blame it on Celtic or Rangers.

      One of the teams, or at least squads, that Walter Smith won the league with lately was a joke. And they won it comfortably. I suspect a lack of true effort and cohesion in too many clubs – Hearts’s payment issues, look at that Mark McGhee interview about Aberdeen, clubs who can’t control their players off the park. I didn’t see Hibs complain too much when they got £4.4m for Scott Brown. Nor Utd. with the £4.whatever it was from Rangers for Duncan Ferguson back then so how much do you want to complain?

      If your goal is to survive then that is all you will do (“ with a bit of luck, we could get 4th this year “ WOW! That’s awesome!! ) When was the last time you saw another team in the Scottish Premier League with any reasonable, sustainable ambition, over a period of years, to do better than its ‘status’? Aye, exactly…its far easier to sit back and bitch about the OF instead in’t it?

      I take my hat off to Motherwell’s initiative, and let’s see how Falkirk go but come on people, …enough with the moaning because that anti-OF attitude is becoming pretty boring too and is just as much as part of the problem. Maybe RFC’s problems will help you right your own ships and provide a stiffer test over the course of a season. It will be a big opportunity lost for you if you don’t.

      Fact: Fergie’s Aberdeen could have won the last few leagues and he wasn’t exactly given a large chequebook was he?

      1. RevStu says:

        You miss the point. The SPL, by design, has so polarised the finances in Scottish football that it’s no longer possible to build a team like Ferguson’s Aberdeen. You only need to look at the current Aberdeen – over the last few years they’ve brought through more than enough talented players to form a competitive side, but they can only afford to pay them in beans. The minute anyone shows any ability, the Old Firm wave some cash in front of them and that’s that – the two most obvious recent examples being Aluko to Rangers and Mulgrew to Celtic.

        We’ve reached a point where nurturing young players is actually counter-productive, because all you’re doing is creating another stick for the Old Firm to buy off you and beat you with.

        Losing the Sky deal, which massively widens the gap between the OF and the others every single year, is the best thing that could happen to the Scottish game.

      2. Doug Daniel says:

        GuelphTim, there are some serious flaws in your criticism of non-OF teams. Yes, the recent OF squads have been the weakest in years, but so are the other teams. You seem to be under the misconception that while the OF teams have become worse, the rest of the league has remained at the same level. They haven’t, they’ve become even worse. Put the current OF teams against the Aberdeen squad of 2000, for instance, and Aberdeen 2000 would indeed win comfortably. But then by the same token, put the current Aberdeen squad against the Aberdeen squad of 2000, and Aberdeen 2000 would annihilate the current Aberdeen team. This is because these teams are scrabbling around the English lower leagues for players – even English League 2 teams can offer players more money than SPL teams.

        In Fergie’s day, money didn’t rule football in the way it does now. Europe is a massive money-spinner these days, far more than it used to be when it was about finding out who the best champion of all the leagues was, rather than just a competition for the elite clubs of Europe. Rangers and Celtic have had constant access to those funds, allowing them to remain ahead of every other team in Scotland. They also get most of the TV monies etc at the domestic level, so everything is geared towards creating and maintaining an OF hegemony. You might say this is the other clubs’ fault for not being ambitious enough, but that’s like Tesco opening up beside a small shop and then telling the small shop owner that it’s his own fault he went out of business because he couldn’t match them on prices, even though they set their prices specifically to destroy the competition.

        Think about all the years in which clubs nurtured good young players, only for the OF to buy them up and then leave them on the bench, while they fielded cheap foreign imports instead. The other clubs play a small part in this, as they sold the players in the first place, but financial constraints meant they usually had no choice, especially as they could not match the OF on wages.

        But more than that, think about Scottish football before David Murray got involved in Rangers. It was a competitive league. Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hearts were all up there, and while Rangers and Celtic have always been the two big clubs, they were not completely dominant in the way they are today. You didn’t start the season knowing which two teams would take the top two places every year before a ball was kicked. Murray’s millions changed that. He created a completely uneven playing field, and while those teams were fools to try and match his spending (leading to financial troubles later on), they had little choice. Indeed, if they hadn’t tried, then they would have been guilty of the lack of ambition you talk of.

        Tell me, how exactly are the other teams supposed to overtake the OF without access to the same sort of funds as the OF? The only club to split the OF hegemony over the entire lifespan of the SPL was Hearts, when Romanov bankrolled them. But we’ve seen what this has ended up doing to Hearts, so even if it had properly worked, it’s unsustainable. You seem to know a magic formula for how other teams can be ambitious and compete, so what is it?

  54. Muzz says:

    never realised this forum was an anti Rangers sectarian bigot fest representing the very worst of contemporary parochial Scottish culture. The rush to bury a great Scottish Institution and globally recognised Scottish brand shows all that is wrong with Scottish society and why things will never change.
    As a Rangers man, I would walk away from the SPL and those who would seek to destroy our club and heritage. I would give my money to the SFL clubs before the charlatans and bigots at the SPL. Lets see how the SPL fares without sponsorship or tv interest as will be the case if Rangers are not there, the lost millions in transfer fees and gate receipts will have a knock on effect as clubs struggling to survive will have even further reduced incomes.
    Those who seek to destroy the club are the bitter and the bigoted as no right thinking person would like to see any Scottish club go to the wall, especially considering not all charges levied against Rangers have been proven. The club and its fans have been as much victims at the hands of certain individuals, yet you call for the demolition of our club ?
    Now we have the anti Rangers mob baying for our blood, you don’t get it do you, even if the club were gone, we will still be here, the Rangers fans, as our fathers were, and as our sons will be, to rebuild our club and maintain our proud heritage and traditions.

    1. RevStu says:


      Don’t let us stop you, then.

      “a great Scottish Institution”

      “Institution”? Certainly. “Scottish”? Pushing it a bit, but okay. “Great”? We can live without institutions who operate sectarian, discriminatory, illegal employment policies for decades on end, thanks.

    2. GuelphTim says:

      Wow Muzz, Touchy touchy
      It’s not an anti-Rangers fest mate, it’s a simple Follow Follow the rules (or not!!) fest which is Mike’s/BellaCaledonia’s point all along.

      Question is, to what degree will the rules be enforced. If your worst case scenario happens, it is not a case of ‘those seeking to destroy the club and heritage’ at all….too late for that now…..isn’t this actually about those who are trying to safeguard it as much as possible,…..isn’t this about the fear that it will be saved (unfairly) in some form, with some minor ‘appease the masses with fake or Diet/low calorie justice’ instead of the real and proper punishments merited by those representing your club and heritage?!
      is it not the people who have put RFC into this mess in the first place who are the real ones who have run the risk of the “destruction of the club”.
      Any ‘burying of’ or punishments to RFC are a reaction, not an action. It is towards them, those so-called custodians of RFC’s tradition, that i would be directing my anger if i were you. It is they who have disrespected your club/heritage more than ANYONE else by putting you into this debacle, at least i think, just as the biscuit tin brigade on the other side of the city did years ago.

      Once any joking and ribbing has subsided, most other fans probably do feel some sympathy for Rangers fans actually. I kinda do when i watch Jelavic at Everton and a few other good players you’ve let go….

      Not anti-Rangers,….anti-potential-non-application of rules.

  55. Muzz says:

    How can Scottish football rid itself of bigotry by removing Rangers, are you seriously saying there are no other sources of bigotry in the Scottish game ? Have you never heard sectarian chanting from Celtic fans or Hearts or Hibs etc
    Have you been to the fitba at all ?
    I have, all over Scotland, and belive me sectarianism and bigotry are not the fault of one club, to try and lay blame at one door and exonarate those whose bigotry you agrre with is shameful and indictive of parochial ScotsIrish thinking that blights our society.
    But then, in your eyes, were all the same us mad Huns arent we ? Stereotyping us all as knuckle dragging bigots makes it easier for you to demonise us and our club, then trying to whip even more hatred of our club from the wider Scottish public, these are tactics used by various unsavoury characters in history in order to achieve their agenda, company I am sure you will be suited in.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      You are right every club has it’s own idiots.

      But this isn’t about bigotry, religion or even football. Its about corruption, cheating and malpractice.

      Yes I regularly attend the Leith San Siro.

    2. Philip Thomas says:


      3.1.1 The Licence Applicant is the legal entity fully responsible for the football team participating in national and international competitions and which is the legal entity and member of the Scottish Football Association. This membership must have been in place for a minimum period of three years.

      3.1.3 The licence applicant is fully responsible for the participation in national and international football competitions as well as for the fulfillment of the club licensing criteria.

      The Licence Applicant is, in particular, responsible for ensuring that –
      all the compensation paid to the players arising from contractual or legal obligations and all the revenues arising from gate receipts are accounted for in the books of the registered member;

      3.3.1 Licence Awards for Scottish Premier League Clubs (SPL)
      A Licence cannot be transferred from one legal entity to another.

      From the NewCo perspective:

      The current RFC hold the license with the SFA.

      The license can’t be transferred from one legal entity to another i.e. it can’t be transferred to a NewCo.

      To be a member of the SPL, the club must be in possession of a membership of the SFA that has been in place for a minimum of 3 years.

      A NewCo applying to join the SFL must join at the lowest tier i.e. the 3rd Division.

      From the perspective of RFC coming out of administration:

      If found guilty of improperly registering players i.e. of having operated second contracts representing compensation paid to players that hasn’t been declared to the SFA, all matches in which improperly registered players have participated are declared as a 0-3 defeat. That could, potentially, see RFC finish the season on 0 points and be relegated to the first division.

      Muzz, it’s nothing personal. Those are the rules. They should be applied consistently or the sport is dead.

  56. eck says:

    The board, of course, is a six-man deal including four clubs (Celtic, Dundee United, Motherwell and St Johnstone) as well as Ralph Topping as chairman and Doncaster as chief executive.These are the teams that will vote rangers back in should they liquidate.
    Remember thier names with shame?

  57. stevenluby says:

    We can but hope that if this current situation does go against RFC then it stands as stated above.
    As so many of us say when someone is found guilty of major fraud,they get what they deserve with what the laws throw at them.I just have one of those horrible feelings that if RFC does look like going down then people will cry out that Scotland ‘needs’ a RFC. I would be happy to see Celtic dragged into this and found out,then Scottish Football would have the chance to start again.
    No veto for any club etc,level playing field etc etc……………..dream on eh 🙂

  58. Philip Thomas says:

    I should probably add, there is one ‘legitimate’ vehicle a ‘new’ RFC could potentially exploit in order to play in the SPL under any circumstances.

    They could buy an existing legal entity i.e. another club who already have an SFA license that’s been in existence for a minimum of 3 years. That’s nothing new. It’s what Airdrie did and, I believe, Wimbledon did in the English leagues. They can then simply change the name or register a subsidiary called RFC; buy up the old RFC’s assets, including the stadium and training ground; and, carry on like nothing happened (albeit the loss of the previous entity’s history).

    That legal entity could then be invited to the SPL or, in theory, RFC’s share could be transferred to them regardless of what division that club currently play in.

    One of the points I was trying to get across earlier, but which I don’t think has been picked up on, is that Clause 14 of the SPL rules already allows the SPL to invite whomever they like. No new resolutions are required to make that happen, only a vote. As I said, the SPL is essentially a franchise system.

    I’m not going to attempt to justify that approach on a moral level but, technically, it would be within the current rules and I happen to think it’ll be the eventual outcome. To minimise the potential hurdles, I’d imagine the ‘new’ RFC would sniff around current SPL clubs first and look for a club that are relatively well run and who are carrying a modest debt. It wouldn’t cost much to buy any of the clubs with that kind of profile in the SPL. The sticking point would be the will and the ability of the owners of those clubs to resist the approach.

    The proposed resolutions are simply an attempt to punish any ‘NewCo’ RFC, but if the above approach were taken then I would imagine the SPL would find itself up to it’s neck in legal issues. You simply can’t punish one company for the actions of another.

    And this, in a nutshell, is why I stopped following the game in Scotland. It isn’t a sport by my definition.

    Finally, to give credit where credit’s due, I don’t think you’ll find many RFC supporters who’d be in favour of the above. There’s still a majority for whom honour and dignity play a major role, who want to hold onto their history, and who want to pay off their debts. I haven’t heard from many who’re in favour of wiping out the debt via liquidation. The potential buyers though?

  59. Sensible says:

    Ying and Yang – one cannot survive without the other!!!

    Please stop talking through the hole in your rear end!!!!!!!!!!


  60. darren says:

    its a joke what has happened to rangers. in the daily record yesterday showed you other clubs that went into administration no punishment was giving to them and for a politcal group like the snp to come out with a comment like is a pure disgrace CMON THE GLASGOW RANGERS, RANGERS TILL I DIE

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      So Darren, its the SNP’s fault that Rangers in a bit of a pickle?

      1. Jim Dallas says:

        No bellacaledonia, not the SNP’s fault…but then again this isn’t an SNP blog really is it?


    CANT WAIT for rangers to go into div 3… watch the hibs,aberdeen,killie,st mirren,m/well st johnstone,ict,etcetc even celtic when sky pull the plug, then bbc then espn,sponsers of the sc slc all walk… BE VERY CAREFUL WHAT YOU LOT WISH FOR….WE SHALL REMEMBER THOSE WHO KICKED US WHILE WE WERE DOWN

Keep our Journalism Independent




Bella Caledonia