POOR Rangers. Poor, poverty-stricken Rangers. They are being kicked mercilessly while they are down. According to their fans the 11 other top clubs are sinking the boot in for no reason other than spite and hatred. But they aren't the only fans wailing about the injustice of it all because supporters of many clubs are equally incensed. They are also raging against the treatment of Rangers and in ever-increasing falsetto tones claim the punishment isn't tough enough. Again, a nation is divided. Rangers' legions believe they are victims of a witch-hunt but the rest insist that instead of battering the Ibrox club with points deductions and financial penalties they should be banished to the depths of the SFL if they are liquidated. However, only last weekend Rangers' support demonstrated their fear of liquidation with a show of red cards warning potential owners that emerging from insolvency as a newco was not an option. But it should be. In fact, if these fans believe the other SPL clubs are determined to neuter Rangers while they are vulnerable and unable to fight back, liquidation shouldn't be a dread. It should be their preferred option. Perhaps Rangers fans need to take a different view. The insolvency trauma, while painful and hugely embarrassing, needn't be an end. It can be a new beginning if eyes and minds could be opened up to a different and radical way. By now it ought to be obvious to everyone that if just one of the three offers to lead Rangers out of insolvency through the CVA doorway clearly represented better value to creditors than liquidation, the administrators would have awarded that person, or group, preferred bidder status. And this announcement would already have been made despite the unhelpful timing of the SPL's desire to bring in further sanctions against "insolvency events". The top clubs will meet at the end of this month when more than a few at the table will hope to have new punishments rubber-stamped in time to be used against Rangers should they be born again as a newco. And rightly so. They should be hammered if liquidation is their fate for failing to pay the taxman and other creditors and no fan in his or her right mind should be arguing against further penalties. The game must have suitable deterrents to prevent others from escaping debts in a similar way. Such rules should have been enshrined in the SPL's constitution long ago, perhaps when Motherwell lapsed into administration back in April 2002. But even though the dark cloud of liquidation settled over Fir Park there was no talk of meetings to bring in new rules to deal with breaches of financial fair play. Dundee slipped into administration 19 months later but still the SPL failed to address further sanctions for liquidation. Three months after that Livingston were dragged into administration and even after Gretna closed the laws didn't change. But now, as Rangers seek a way out of their financial problems, there will be talks to lay down new rules. About time, too. But what about the time, Rangers fans are asking. If the SPL had introduced proper insolvency procedures at the correct point they wouldn't now be under attack from all sides with just about every fan in the country believing Rangers are being treated differently. Rangers fans say they've been singled out unfairly and the rest are adamant that because there is no threat of expulsion from the SPL in the event of liquidation this club is receiving preferential treatment. Hold the back page! Rangers are being treated differently. Well of course they are. They are one half of the machine which drives Scottish football and that's why the other SPL clubs, including Celtic, stopped short of insisting Rangers be thrown out of the top division if they can't be rescued from administration. So, come the end of the month Hampden's boardroom will be packed when the clubs discuss further sanctions. Hypocrisy and cynicism will also be jostling for space because while more than a few in that room would love to see Rangers banished to the lower reaches they also know their own survival depends on the Ibrox club remaining in the top flight. "Let's put the boot in but be careful not to deliver a killer blow - to ourselves, of course. Remember, we have to protect our annual benefits by delivering at least four Old Firm matches to our television paymasters." Ladies and gents, remember the place and date: Hampden, April 30. You are invited to view Scottish football at its self-serving worst. Right now it might seem as though Rangers are defenceless and unable to do anything about their plight but it's their own fear, of liquidation, which renders them powerless. This final strop on the insolvency road holds such dread for so many people but actually it shouldn't. Certainly not in this case. Why do Rangers fans want to avoid liquidation? They are already in so much trouble it will probably take the best part of five years to recover but the rehabilitation could be quicker and less painful through a newco after closure. It would be a different matter, of course, if the three bidders were all pledging to chuck millions at a team rebuilding job. That is what's required but Paul Murray and his Blue Knights aren't saying they'd lavish money on a manager. And neither is Bill Ng's group from Singapore nor the American, Bill Miller. They can't because they don't have that kind of cash and Rangers fans might have to get used to losing more often to Motherwell, Hearts, Aberdeen and the others while watching Celtic run off with the championship every year. They just wouldn't buy into that. And it would be much worse if Rangers have to be reformed because of liquidation. Life in the SPL with all the new sanctions would be purgatory. It would, in fact, be virtually pointless. But even if they avoid liquidation European football would be beyond a makeshift team for more than just next season so Rangers fans, and the three bidders, should see the sense in deciding themselves that closure, with a new beginning in the SFL's Third Division, might actually be the best way forward. Rangers have only themselves to blame and it would be a fitting gesture if they said they deserve to be shunted all the way down to the very bottom. That rather than a rushed batch of half-baked new rules and points deductions over two or three years should be the punishment for liquidation. Also, if Rangers fans believe they are being unfairly treated by the SPL then why wouldn't they want to get the hell out and leave the rest to get on with it. And if, as so many people appear to believe, the top flight would be able to carry on regardless without Rangers everyone would be happy. But what if Rangers went into liquidation, were reformed and then insisted the newco suffer the ultimate penalty and remove themselves to the Third Division? They'd be expected to win promotion back to the SPL after three years and if their fans continued to follow them the game's needy would benefit. The smallest and poorest clubs would have decent pay days and Rangers wouldn't be shelling out fortunes on players. If their fans bought into the new Rangers they could stockpile season ticket money and by the time they made it back to the SPL they'd have much more cash for a better standard of player than they'd have for the start of next season if they remain in the top flight under new ownership. The SPL clubs would be worse off because of restructured telly deals. Celtic wouldn't be immune and would have to play in the Champions League proper every season to get the kind of money they need. Some Rangers fans believe the club's history, which would end with liquidation, must be protected but there is a shameful part of that history which they should want to forget and any newco should make it clear a new beginning means exactly that. A new club open to all from the very beginning.
Funny how Jabba waited until the SPL had opened the door to a Newco before he made his stand. Typical Hun journalist ****ebaggery.
He's a prick right enough. Rangers fans wont buy into not being top dogs in the SPL (true, as the early 80s proved) but he thinks they'll follow them if they're demoted to the 3rd division? Aye sure, I can see 30,000+ fans turning up to see the likes of Arbroath, East Stirling and Montrose. They could only manage 17,000 against Dundee Utd, a game in the Scottish Cup which was their last hope of winning silverware.
He's hawking a placebo to these morons. The whole part about saving millions by "stockpiling season ticket money"......he means Ticketus' money surely?!?!
This doesn't warrant a thread but check this utter utter madness out http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=216732
Not directly related but I saw something on FF the other day that I at first presumed was a wind up by a 'taig' but then I noticed the poster had over 12,000 posts and was, therefore, a genuine hun: It currently stands at 11 pages of general agreement and worse.
please log in to view this image Bluepeter9, on 13 April 2012 - 10:02 AM, said: .... You have to much time on your hands and are deep, deep down in the paranoic, conspiracy depths to even contemplate following up on that. Even IF he is his brother who actually cares and what does it actually prove? --------------------------------- Sold my business 6 years ago and yeah have loads of time on my hand. Re conspiracy and my state of mind hmmmmmmm poster made what i thought was a good point and yeah I phoned. The exact same way i phoned the snp media officer in Edinburgh and was shocked by the lack of answers she could give. Seems to me that you like to make comments but will do nothing to acknowledge the fact or take time to deny the fact, by seeking the answer to the post. Lost for words , apart from typical snp voter please log in to view this image Edge?
we could still win the league at this point as we hadnt entered administration yet. Get yer facts right
Absolutely unbelieveable, "However, when Rangers are gone, the last crumbling bastion of Scotland’s Protestant resistance will go with them". What ****ing planet is this guy on? It's a football club for ****'s sake, no more no less and it no more represents Scotland's Protestants (me being one of them) than the Masons.
Getting fed up with all this dragging on and on and on and on. We got ourselves in the financial **** and really cannot expect to get away without punishment. Shut the **** up with the whining and hand wringing and take our lumps; whatever they may be. It's no the end of the ****in world. It's as farcical as it is pathetic.
I take it that's from FF? That's one of the problems with single team forums. Endlessly discussing one sided 'agendas'. They get each other wound up and actually start believing some of the utter ****e they talk.
Yep, I agree 100%, that's one of the many reasons why i've never been a member of any of the Celtic only forums, too many ****ing arseholes who think they speak for everyone.
This That's why I've never posted on a single team forum - if no-one challenges a preposterous view, then the preposterous view simply becomes embellished until it becomes fantastical. Been trying to stop fitba chat on facebook as well - got into a big argument with a few tossers about the O'Rourke tweet ****e. The world is largely populated by idiots - multi-team forums should be compulsory if you're going to post on any forum
