Ally McCoist: ‘Even if we come back as a newco,Rangers will never die’

IT PERHAPS says everything about where the sorry saga of Rangers’ financial affairs might be heading that the other day Ally McCoist, to his credit, was willing to discuss the implications for the club should liquidation follow administration.

Of three bidders still being considered by administrators Duff and Phelps, it is crystallising that only Paul Murray’s Blue Knights consortium is attempting to keep the Ibrox club alive as the company it is at present. The other two, the US-fronted Club 9 Sports and Singapore consortium, seem to favour re-animating Rangers’ corpse.

The attraction of a new company (newco) is obvious. It is the means by which the assets are obtained without any of the previous liabilities. But in football “cleaning up the balance sheet” in such a ruthless fashion can carry a cost that cannot be measured in pounds and pence. Essentially, if Rangers were liquidated and started again, many would contend that their past, as well as their debts, would be scrubbed. McCoist, not surprisingly, would beg to differ.

“As far as I’m concerned, the club will never die,” he said. “Even if we came back as a newco club, it will never die. We’d get a bit of stick and there would be a few arguments. I hope it doesn’t happen but, if it does, I wouldn’t see it as anything other than the old club. I don’t go along with the idea that 140 years of history would be wiped out.

“Of course, there is concern, but I’ve got to be positive. Last weekend’s derby win was a big help because it gave everyone at the club a real boost. But the most important thing is where Rangers go from here and where the new owner will take us. I’m still hopeful that we’ll have a new owner to take us forward in the not too distant future. But as positive as I am, I’m also cautious. We are by no means out of the woods yet and liquidation is still lurking away in the background. There is no doubt about that.”

Were liquidation to occur, Rangers would have racked up bills to gain a financial advantage, and therefore a sporting advantage, they subsequently couldn’t pay. McCoist accepts that would be a stain on the club, never mind that a newco Rangers would be precluded from playing in Europe for three years. However, it is questionable as to whether a newco Rangers should even be allowed to be in a position to qualify for European competition for three years. For there is a horrendous moral maze that the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football Association would find themselves trapped in if confronted by applications from a newco Rangers. It is up to the six-man SPL board on which basis a member is allowed to transfer their share to a new company. So they could claim there was no precedent for whatever they decided.

Yet, to serve sporting integrity, it would seem grossly unfair for a club beginning again to start other than at the bottom of the senior ladder, meaning the SPL would reject their application in the expectation they would apply to join the Scottish Football League and work their way up. The commercial clout of any Rangers, new or old, is likely to see economics trump ethics. McCoist accepts that a newco Rangers would place the authorities in an invidious position.

“Of course it would,” the Rangers manager said. “It wouldn’t suit a lot of people. I don’t think the SFA would want it. That goes without saying. Contrary to what a lot of people might say, it wouldn’t suit Scottish football at all. It would not be good and I really believe, or am very, very hopeful, that it will not be the case because it would not be good for Scottish football.”

Yet it is difficult to see how Rangers can avoid liquidation. And in tandem, escape sanctions for systematic rule-breaking over a 12-year period. The two are entwined. Frankly, only the foolish can now fail to see that the Ibrox club’s ruination can be traced to the use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) during the David Murray regime.

If a potential bill of £50 million to HMRC resulting from a tax tribunal – the result of which is expected in the next couple of weeks – hadn’t been hanging over the club for the past two years, then a more welcome buyer than Craig Whyte surely would have been found. And had the EBTs not been administered in such a fashion as to mean that appearance money and bonuses to players were not disclosed to the SPL and SFA, then there would not be such a cloud hanging over the club now, with all trophies won since 1998 open to challenge.

As a former director, Paul Murray may not be above reproach over these weeping sores at the Ibrox club. But he is the best chance Rangers have of staying Rangers. He is willing to put money into a Company Voluntary Arrangement that would mean creditors receiving around ten pence in the pound, should HMRC win the big tax case.

But in all this there is the (not so small matter) of the holder of 85.3 per cent of Rangers shares. It was reported this week that Craig Whyte wouldn’t sell to his arch-critic Murray. That may not be out of spite. If Rangers are liquidated, as it stands he has a security over the assets.

McCoist naturally can see merit in the Murray approach. “No-one really wants liquidation, even if a potential new owner might want to from a business point of view,” he said. “Paul doesn’t want liquidation and he’s coming at it from a Rangers supporter’s point of view. We don’t want that stain on our club and it would mean no European football for three years. It would not be a complete disaster but I do not want it to happen. I’m sure the vast majority of Rangers fans would agree with that.

“Paul has Rangers at heart, he’s just interested in getting us out of administration and taking us forward. But it doesn’t matter who buys the club, as long as their view of the future is positive.”