Rangers administration: ‘Expulsion would be disaster for Scottish football’

• Prospective new owner Charles Green says expulsion or suspension of SFA membership would be “disaster” for Scottish football

• Fears that club could be hit with further sanctions over and above original 12-month transfer embargo punishment

The prospective new owner of the Ibrox club is considering carrying out a pre-emptive strike in order to forestall such an extreme sanction, after Lord Glennie last week referred the Ibrox club’s appeal over a 12-month transfer embargo back to the SFA’s appelate tribunal. Green said his consortium’s legal team would consider the options over the holiday weekend.

The SFA accepted Lord Glennie’s proposal that the case be referred back to its appelate tribunal which would leave Rangers with no recourse for appeal if the new tribunal gives them an additional punishment that is clearly within their rules.

Rangers have 21 days from the date of the ruling to appeal to the Court of Session in a bid to move the case back to the first stage of the appeal or be annulled. They could even accept the transfer ban in fear of greater punishment for bringing the game into disrepute over financial irregularities dating back to May 2011, when owner Craig Whyte took over the club.

“Throughout this process, the club, the administrators and most importantly the supporters have taken the view that any sanction against Rangers – due entirely to the misdeeds of individuals no longer at the club – should be proportionate,” said Green last night.

Green is clearly of the opinion that suspending or terminating Rangers’ membership of the SFA, two sanctions available to the tribunal, would have a devastating impact on the game in Scotland, as well as on his own bid to see a Company Voluntary Arrangement approved by the club’s creditors later this month.

“We are fully aware that one of the sanctions available to the Appellate Tribunal should the matter be referred back there is the suspension or termination of Rangers Football Club membership of the SFA,” he said. “That in our view would be a disaster for Scottish football and a major setback to our plans to take Rangers forward after a particularly difficult period in its history.

“Equally, the alternative sanction of expulsion from the Scottish Cup is itself a very serious punishment which would also have a severe impact on Scottish football.”

Green is also concerned that Lord Glennie has referred the matter back to the appelate tribunal, which published a written judgment stating that the other sanctions available to them, including a season-long suspension from the Scottish Cup, were not considered to be “severe” enough. Rangers now clearly fear being hit by a more extreme punishment than the 12-month transfer embargo, which was set aside by Lord Glennie following the club’s successful appeal at the Court of Session.

The pressure is on to find a punishment considered to be of equal or greater weight to the original transfer embargo. Fifa, world football’s governing body, has made clear its unhappiness at the matter having been taken to a civil court.

Lord Glennie’s ruling declared the embargo to be outwith the SFA’s remit since it was not included in the range of punishments laid out in its own Articles of Association. Green has claimed that the SFA’s own rules prevented Rangers from taking their appeal against the embargo to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. However, this was quickly rejected by the SFA in a statement released at just after 8pm last night.

The SFA statement read: “In referring the matter to the Court of Session, Rangers FC utilised the court’s right of Supervisory Jurisdiction contained within Scots Law. Given that any two parties can seek arbitration, the club was not ‘prohibited from appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport’, as was claimed. Indeed, no representation was made by the club to the Scottish FA to discuss the possibility or the process of seeking arbitration via the Court of Arbitration for Sport before Judicial Review was actioned.”

The SFA is due to hold its agm on Wednesday as the pressure to start bringing some resolution to several outstanding issues concerning Rangers continues to intensify.