SFA 'to make decision on Rangers UEFA licence' before end of the year

The Scottish Football Association will make a decision before the end of the year whether to pursue Rangers in connection with "alleged irregularities" in the Ibrox club's application for a UEFA licence in 2011, according to reports.

A general view of Rangers' Ibrox Park stadium

Two years ago, the SFA tasked then compliance officer Tony McGlennan, with launching an investigation into the application.Rangers are understood to have had an unpaid tax liability at the time the application was submitted which, had it been disclosed, would have almost certainly voided the application with Celtic instead competing in the early qualifying rounds of the Champions League.

The Times claims that Rangers' belief is that the Five-Way Agreement, "signed in 2012 by the SFA, Scottish Premier League, Scottish Football League, the old Rangers and the new club set up by Charles Green" means that Scottish football's governing body has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Last July, the Association's judicial panel agreed, and indicated that the case would be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, if they decided to punish the club.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell told The Times: "I would expect that to come back to the board in the not too distant future.

“It [going to CAS] is still under consideration. We’ll come back on that in due course. I wouldn’t want to put a timescale on it... but I don’t think we would let it go for ever.”