In full: Rangers chief executive Charles Green’s statement on today’s vote by SPL clubs

SPL clubs today voted against allowing a newly-formed Rangers back into the SPL.A total of seven clubs had expressed their intention to vote against allowing Rangers into the SPL prior to today’s vote. Charles Green said in a statement that a number of SPL member clubs had approached the Govan side over the weekend to suggest that some opponents to the proposal could yet changed their minds.

“We are deeply disappointed that our application to rejoin the SPL has been rejected overwhelmingly by the member clubs.

“This time last week, all of us at Rangers were resigned to the fact that we would not be admitted, due mainly to the public declarations of clubs indicating they would not support our application.

“At the weekend, we were approached by representatives from the SPL suggesting our application still stood a chance of success and we should discuss this further with clubs. This we did in good faith but with the knowledge of the hurdles that lay ahead of us.

“We had asked the SPL whether it would be more appropriate for us to withdraw our application but were advised against this.

“We made a presentation to the SPL clubs this morning, detailing our proposals in support of our application and this included what we believed to be penalties and sanctions that would have dealt fairly with the difficulties caused by events at Rangers prior to our acquisition of the Club on June 14.

“Sadly this was rejected by the other clubs and we regret that our Club and our supporters were given false hope by this initiative.

“We will now proceed as we had planned from late June to apply for membership of the SFL.

“It is entirely a matter for them whether our application will be accepted or rejected and we will make no representation to any member club prior to that application being considered. We also recognise that the SPL has been placed in a difficult position because of the way events have unfolded.

“If our application were to be accepted, Rangers will play in whichever division the SFL sees fit and we will move forward from there.

“The Club hopes that the supporters, who have been absolutely tremendous since the Club went into administration on February 14, will continue to support the Club and make Rangers a success once again.”