Rangers liquidation: Newco must forget SPL, says Gordon Smith

Former Rangers Director of Football Gordon Smith has called on Charles Green’s newco to withdraw its application to the SPL and volunteer to start again in the Scottish Football League First Division.

Smith said: “If I had still been at Ibrox, that is the route I would have been recommending.

“As a Rangers fan, I find it embarrassing the club has put the rest of Scottish football in this position.”

The 11 existing SPL clubs, plus Rangers, will meet on 4 July to discuss whether the so-called newco Rangers, owned by Green’s Sevco consortium, should be allowed to play in the SPL next season. If the clubs vote no Rangers would have to apply to the SFL and could begin again in the Third Division. The Scottish Football Association is currently trying to push through proposals to merge the SPL and SFL with Rangers admitted to a new First Division or SPL2.

And Smith said: “I would really like to see Rangers to make a strong statement by saying: ‘Listen, we will go down and start again’. I believe it would be a great gesture and one with real symbolism. They would be saying, we know we have done wrong and we are taking our punishment.”