Whilst I am sure that none of us would revel in Rangers plight, I was wondering how many here think that Rangers deserve to be punted down to the third tier of Scottish football? I personally would be very suprised if the other SPL chairman actually condone such a move. Bit of a quandry, but I reckon money talks, & the loss of gate revenue would be too hard to take. Money over principles perhaps. On a lighter note, a Celtic supporting friend of mine pointed out the irony that the last 2 owners of rangers could be " whyte & green " !
Ofcourse they deserve to be punted down the leagues but it won't happen. Scottish football needs a strong Rangers to at least have more than 1 team competing. And the gate sales are important to the other clubs. However I do not think that the other clubs should even get the chance to vote on this and they should start at the bottom of the pyramid On the Leeds board someone wrote about whether Rangers would be able to apply for English football like Cardiff and Swansea, obviously starting at the bottom but it may be an interesting proposition for the 'new rangers'. Not sure the FA would agree with the idea though (neither would I but who cares what I think)
Scottish football is in such a sorry state that Rangers are virtually assured of being elected into the SPL. Some of their clubs are far from solvent and the loss of income from the four matches against Rangers would push one or two near the brink financially. The only doubt is the fact that Rangers took the SPL to court over the transfer embargo which breaches FIFA regulations, as a result some clubs may look to put them in their place. A more likely scenario is that they will impose a points deduction, anything up to 50 points which may be for more than one season. I see that the 'newco' are saying that the players will automatically have their contracts transferred over from the liquidated company under TUPE regulations but the players union argue that they can walk away from the club as free agents. It's a mess and whatever the outcome Scottish football is the loser...
To change the current set of SPL rules I think it needs a 1-11 majority - so its always the Old Firm sticking together to preserve their duopoly. Despite what their fans might think, Celtic wont vote for Rangers to go down. As the other 11 clubs will then be able to change all sorts of other rules for the SPL - like revenue distribution etc against the Old Firm's interest. They certainly deserve to go down.
