The ongoing saga of the problems at Rangers took a significant step forward yesterday with a 12 month transfer embargo and the proposed sale of the club still rumbling on. Its no secret that Scottish football is Rangers and Celtic and it will continue with or without them but in what form. The questions are.. Will Rangers be allowed to fail, if not what can be done? Can Celtic survive without a strong Rangers and can Scottish football survive, if yes in what form. And, is it fair to put all the blame on the Craig Whyte's of this world, what about us fans and our constant demands for our club to splash the cash, why don't we pay 15 or 20 mill for a top player to bring success. Is it sack the board when they don't spend and sack the board when it goes tits up. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rangers owner Craig Whyte has been banned for life from any involvement in Scottish football. The Scottish Football Association also imposed a 12-month transfer embargo on the club, who are in administration. Rangers have been fined £160,000 The transfer embargo means they can only sign players under the age of 18 for the next year. Rangers in administration Roddy Forsyth Scottish football correspondent "The transfer embargo will come very close to crippling the club. It's very difficult to see what consequence this can have other than pushing the club right to the brink." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's sad to see such a great club in such a mess, and it will have negative consequences for all of Scottish football..
Whyte isn't at fault for the mess Rangers are in that can be traced back to Murray, most Celtic lads I know are enjoying taking the piss out of Rangers but would hate to see them go out of buisness. Scottish football would survive with out the Old Firm but it wouldn't be the same with out the same amount of money as they are the big draw.
I think Scottish footy should be brave at this point. They have not got the resources to compete in Europe and the game is dying up there so I would cap the number of foreign players really strongly at say 2. Basically force the league to become home grown players again. Personally I think the majority of fans would prefer leagues more local talent as they used to be. Get more Scottish kids playing footy the national team improves over the next 10-15 years, competition might even improve in the league if you have to scout and develop players rather than a quick fix from abroad.
Agrred 100% - Without Rangers and Celtic, Scottish football would be a similar level (and have similar attendances) to our League 2 if not lower
Thoughts; This is, in a way, vindication of UEFA Fair Play rules to get clubs to manage finances better. The football and government authorities need to tighten controls, regulations and "Fit and Proper" person checks. Rangers won't be allowed to disappear as Alex Salmon and the Scots Nationalists won't / can't allow it to. And if it did how long before the Scots blame the "English" (ie UK Government) and the HM Revenue and Customs. This must NOT be allowed to justify any attempt to get Rangers and/or Celtic into the English game !
I'm sure our Scottish friends wont agree but joining the English league would kill either Rangers or Celtic, after the initial novelty they would become small fish down here in the lower leagues, IMO.
But if they survived the initial stages, and then progressed up the leagues, and if either made it to the Prem, given decent backing backing etc..They could be a force, given their fan base etc.... Two massive clubs, who could offer a lot............... Won't happen like.
Scottish football needs a total rethink, how can a league be competitive when the SPL is made up of teams that would compare as follows to the english leagues: In terms of average attendance (income through the turnstiles), if in england, Celtic would have the third highest average attendance behind Man U and Arsenal. Rangers would be 5th. The next best would be Hearts with 14,000, better than only 7 of our current championship and Hibs with 10,000 better than only 3 of our current championship. Aberdeen would be 6th highest in league 1 and the rest, another 7 clubs, are comparable to the lower reaches of league 1 and 2 ................... and that is before we get to scottish 1, 2 and 3. Perhaps they should adopt the US model and have 8 or 10 teams, Celtic, Rangers and 6 or 8 more franchised teams receiving equal amounts of money from the SFA .... none of those 6 or 8 would be recognisable as current clubs but maybe cover the regions around Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dundee, Dumfrees and Borders etc etc and try and link the smaller established clubs as feeders to the regional SPL clubs to balance the potential attendances. any other ideas?
