[h=1]Rangers playing a game of high stakes[/h] By RecordView on Feb 14, 12 06:30 AM in AFTER 139 years of history, Rangers are teetering on the brink of collapse and for the club's fans across Scotland the shock is still sinking in. Yesterday was a dark day indeed for supporters, players and staff as owner Craig Whyte took legal steps towards placing the club in administration. If that happens - and Whyte insists it is the most likely outcome - Rangers will be docked enough points to make their season meaningless. They also face a possible lengthy and ruinous ban from European football. For the club's shellshocked fans, Whyte's brash boasts of delivering a new trophy-laden era have never sounded more hollow - or cynical. Loyal supporters are now sitting on the sidelines not to cheer their team but to watch a very different game, one of high stakes brinkmanship. No wonder they jeered and heckled as Whyte made his statement on the steps of Ibrox. Yesterday's manoeuvring means he is now holding a gun to the taxman's head over Rangers' disputed £49million tax bill. His threat is simple: Either Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs cut Rangers a deal or he'll wind up the club. There will be a lot of losers if it comes to that. For a start, hundreds of club employees face losing their jobs and our hearts go out to them. And Scottish football itself would be poorer for the loss of Rangers - in every sense of the word. Supporters of smaller, less glamorous clubs, who have struggled to get by over the past 20 or 30 years, might have little sympathy with Gers' plight. The news will have been met with ill-disguised glee in some quarters of Scottish football. But, like it or not, the game as a whole needs the cash the Old Firm generate, either through the gates or from vital TV revenue. Then there's the taxman. He's another character for whom sympathy is usually thin on the ground. But one thing's for sure, if he doesn't get his pound of flesh one way, he'll get it another. So if Rangers do manage to avoid a hefty tax bill they should have paid then we'll all suffer for it. Finally, of course, there are tens of thousands of dedicated Rangers supporters. They have proudly followed their club but yesterday, they felt exploited, let down and kicked in the teeth. They have done nothing to deserve this. The next few days will be a crucial time for the future of Rangers and the shape of Scottish football. We can only hope a solution emerges that allows a great club, a Scottish institution famous the world over, to survive and prosper at no cost to others.
Next years headlines "Income tax set to rise as failure of Rangers to pay Hector impacts on world economy"
its not sad to discuss your biggest rivals especially when they are in the ****. should we instead have a thread with pictures of huns?
...and they were all created yesterday. Nev's right - we should be talking about our club's normal day at training yesterday None of this "'We've been telling you for years" crap
