Latest on Rangers is that new proposals by Charles Green and co. have 'brightened' the picture..... ...and the other main SPL clubs are facing up to the loss of revenue that Rangers' disappearance would result in.
It all sounds as if the others might well vote, today, for Newco to stay in the SPL. ....but they'll have lost all their players!
There's all this talk about the effect on money for the rest of the league, but surely Newco are still going to be broadcast more than any other team than Celtic whatever division they are in. The only team losing out will be Newco as they won't get CL football, but their place would be taken by another team who will benefit. In addition, surely playing in the lower leagues will bring in revenue for every club they play again. especially if they host the away games to maximise revenue for the smaller clubs with poor grounds.
It is on the BBC website that Rangers have been kicked out of the Scottish Premier...integrity beats money
The SPL are obviously now trying to bully the SFL into allowing the Newco Rangers straight into the First Division, as opposed to allowing them permission to apply for a place in the Third Division. It's as if the SPL sides are saying, "we can do without you for one season, but not three". I think it's very interesting that there's now talk of introducing play-offs between one SPL side and three Division One sides each season, as well as of expanding the top tier to 16 teams. Clearly this supports my point that there's concern among the clubs still in in the SPL that they'll end up being liquidated themselves, should Rangers - and the huge amounts of additional cash that comes with them - fail to win promotion in as quick a time as is possible. The SPL have also, I think, arranged with the SFL to buy all TV rights to games involving Newco Rangers for £1m, whatever league they end up in.
If the SPL wanted to bully the SFL into letting Rangers into D1 then they'd have delayed their vote until after the SFL had announced their plans for Rangers (ie sending the message "if you don't let them into D1 and make them go all the way to D3 then we'll just vote to keep them in the SPL"). The talks about expanding the SPL to 16 teams and having playoffs have been going on for years, they were amongst the alternatives when they expanded to 12, so inevitably they come up for discussion on a regular basis.
Old Rangers are Dead and Newco Rangers look doomed for Divison 3 next week,. 10 of the 12 SPL clubs voted No. Kimarnock abstained and only Rangers said yes. On the 12th July the SFL will vote to see if Newco Rangers can go into Divison 1. They need 16 out of 30 votes for this to happen and so already 11 have said No. Looks like Elgin City v. Newco Rangers will be a Div.3 fixture very soon.
The thing of interest there is how many of the "no"s to going to D1 were from D1 clubs as well. You'd imagine that when it comes to it all the D3 clubs would vote for them to start at the bottom, they get the benefit of the moral decision also being the one that benefits them most financially so why on earth would they vote for them to go to D1, and for those in D2 it must be in their interests as well so that they get the benefit as Rangers work their way up.
