Rangers newco: Supporters’ trust blames ‘malice’ for SPL decision

Published on 05/07/2012 00:00

The Rangers Supporters’ Trust last night accused other SPL clubs of acting out of “malice” by refusing the application from the newco club to play in the top-flight next season.

A meeting of all 12 SPL clubs took place yesterday and it was decided Charles Green’s new Rangers would not be allowed to compete in the top flight.

Mark Dingwall, as spokesman for the Trust, now believes entering the club in the Irn-Bru Third Division is the only option. He said: “We are disappointed but not surprised by this decision which has been taken out of malice rather than for the greater good of the Scottish game.

“This decision is also a massive social blow as refusing entry to the SPL will likely result in job cuts at the club as well as damage the local Glasgow economy.

“The decision has absolutely nothing to do with sporting integrity as if it was the club would be joining the SFL in the third division rather than being parachuted into the first division.

“If Steven Thomson, Rod Petrie, Stuart Milne and the other SPL chairman who voted to refuse Rangers entry into the SPL are serious about sporting integrity then they too will insist on the club starting again from the bottom of the football league. If Rangers are to enter the football league then we must do so with integrity by joining the third division and working our way up.”

Dingwall was scathing in his views on the decision taken by the SPL and feels the club has now been punished enough for previous wrongdoing. “The SPL in one hand claims to be protecting sporting integrity yet in the other is trying to enforce a shameful solution that is solely designed to protect their self-interest,” he said. “Given that new-found desire of most SPL chairmen to listen to fans they will surely take on board the findings of the recent survey of Rangers season-ticket holders which shows that 80 per cent of fans think Rangers should join Division Three.”

Dingwall also called for any further punishment to be handed out in court to the previous owners of the club and expressed his desire for Rangers, and Scottish football in general, to start moving on from the crisis.

“The club cannot continue to be punished for the misdemeanours of previous owners,” he said.

Related Articles

• Rangers newco: ‘Slow lingering death for Scottish football’ if Rangers in Third Division

  SCOTTISH Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan has warned that football faces a “slow lingering death” in this country if newco Rangers are denied entry to the First Division of the Scottish Football League following the emphatic rejection yesterday of their application to retain top-flight football at Ibrox.

  364 Comments