Rangers administration: ‘Others will go to wall if newco Rangers are kept out of SPL’

STEVE Brown, the St Johnstone chairman, has warned that if Rangers go into liquidation and are not permitted to re-enter the SPL as a new company, several top-flight clubs would go out of business.

One of the six members of the SPL board whose job it would be to consider an application by the “new” Rangers, Brown stressed that he had yet to make up his mind as to what would be the most appropriate course of action.

He said that he hoped never to be faced with the decision but, if he was, he would have to weigh sporting integrity against the cost to clubs such as his own. Refusing to grant the Glasgow club an SPL licence would, in his view, lead to a financial “disaster”.

Asked if he meant that some clubs would go to the wall, Brown replied: “I think they would. I think a lot of them are kidding themselves on. One or two of them are on the brink as it is. If they’re on the brink as it is, and they’re getting support financially from Rangers and Sky, there can only be one thing [that would happen].”

In an exclusive interview with Scotland on Sunday, Brown also called for a more conciliatory approach by the SPL’s non-Old Firm clubs to the current row over voting rights. Some have said that they would consider resigning from the top flight in protest.

He says that only the best-run clubs would survive in a league without the Old Firm. “Would you get by without the Old Firm? We [at St Johnstone] would get by. We’ve demonstrated that because we’ve been in the First Division for seven years, but you certainly wouldn’t have the same calibre of player at your club. Could the other teams get by without the Old Firm? I think three or four of them would go out of business. Careful what you wish for.”

Brown says that, if a newco Rangers were to be excluded from the SPL, the economic impact would outweigh any other benefits. “You probably would get more supporters because your team would be likely to be more competitive, but in financial terms, it would be a disaster, an absolute disaster.

“In financial terms, I can’t see how [the other clubs] could possibly fill the gap. The revenue they [Rangers] bring with them equates to probably three or four games against teams from the bottom six. It’s a huge void, both in gate revenue and TV money because it is my understanding that the Sky contract would fall through.”