Rangers

[Isaac]

Over-eager posting... to continue.

And whether a competitive league would come out of that carnage, who knows? Unless 1 strong Edinburgh club came through then I'd suspect not, for years Celtic would rule before Rangers built themselves up again.

[Oxford Bhoy]

The argument that clubs rely heavily on (at the most) four (less if they don't make the split) visits from the two big Glasgow clubs is greatly overstated, in my opinion. Although bigger, the attendances for these games are not so massive as to make a major difference to the clubs' overall financial position.

The point re. the debt to Dunfermline is spurious - this was money that Rangers owed to them for match tickets that had been given to Rangers on the understanding that payment would be forthcoming later. No Rangers = no unpaid bills. Clubs will have to live within their means (quite a few already are) - once this is happening, I see no reason that Scottish football couldn't begin once more to produce good young players and return to its previous level in terms of quality and support.

[neilw]

Surely all of Glasgow could get behind the remaining local club. Rename it to something like Celtic Rangers, stick 'em in the Premier league, job done

[Oxford Bhoy]

Surely all of Glasgow could get behind the remaining local club. Rename it to something like Celtic Rangers, stick 'em in the Premier league, job done

Yeah, good luck with that one.

[Oxford Bhoy]

Surely all of Glasgow could get behind the remaining local club. Rename it to something like Celtic Rangers, stick 'em in the Premier league, job done

A bit like Cap'n Bob's fabled Thames Valley Royals, perhaps?

He's fat,
He's dead,
His firms are in the red,
Cap'n Bob,
Cap'n Bob...

[Snake]

This BBC fly on the wall documentary is dead interesting - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Year_Plan/

As for Glasgow Rangers, then as I’m neither protestant or catholic I hold no allegiance, but I can see Rangers at some point in the near future being a shining model of how to not run a football club, or rather, how the national footballing authorities let this kind of situation happen in the first place. The ‘fit and proper test’ springs to mind, and I was reminded of that when IL came on RadOx after the Scum game to give an extremely rare live (but boring and uninformative) interview. It’s a shame that Ian doesn’t have the bollocks to do the same when we lose a big game, or the fact that we as Oxford United fans were not even aware he’d bought the club at the time he did.

And if Ian is reading this then even putting your egg chasers on the Wigan pitch that you also rent didn’t disrupt the Swansalona style of play last Saturday from what I watched live on the internet when I got home at 3.

[pottersrightboot]

Predict Rangers will not be allowed to go bust. ie they will retain their premiership status come what may.

The ramifications for Scottish pro football and society as a whole are too shattering otherwise.

Celtic are nothing without Rangers. Discuss.

And going by all the ongoing overemotional shenanigans about last Saturday lunchtime by many, Oxford are nothing without Slumdon.

Two games, six points that's all it was.

Thought last night's 94th minute slip was a great shame. But, 'football, bloody hell' as one great Rangers' supporter once said.

[Snake]

Celtic are nothing without Rangers. Discuss

As a starting point if the Scum went bust then I'm sure we'd survive

[BigCrompy]

What many forget and, indeed, many in England are unaware of, is that throughout history, clubs like Hibs, Aberdeen, Dundee United, Dunfermline and others have competed for, and won, honours in the Scottish game.

Seven long and painful years of watching Aberdeen, and I assure you, they were in no danger of winning anything (in fact for most of that time, they probably weren't even the best team in the city). The transfer of players between the two countries was enough to suggest most SPL teams would be mid-table competitors in Div 3 at best.

Please have no doubt that this will be curtains for the SPL if Rangers go under. I can't say that I want it to happen (for the record my allegiances during my time in Scotland were mainly to Partick and Peterhead, depending where I was), but the Rangers support will NOT filter down to other clubs, there are enough monied fat cats with blue tendencies prepared to abuse enough power to ensure it doesn't happen, and the Dons in Europe would be a bit of a laugh, especially if they drew Irish opposition again.

[theox]

Predict Rangers will not be allowed to go bust. ie they will retain their premiership status come what may.

Agreed. See my comment re Leeds above.

I see a new limited company on the horizon with a CVA and initial points deduction...........

[GodalmingYellow]

Predict Rangers will not be allowed to go bust. ie they will retain their premiership status come what may.

The ramifications for Scottish pro football and society as a whole are too shattering otherwise.

Celtic are nothing without Rangers. Discuss.

And going by all the ongoing overemotional shenanigans about last Saturday lunchtime by many, Oxford are nothing without s*****n.

Two games, six points that's all it was.

Thought last night's 94th minute slip was a great shame. But, 'football, bloody hell' as one great Rangers' supporter once said.

I agree with the comments on Scottish football.

The trouble is that the Scottish League is not competitive because of the allocation of TV money and the huge crowds that C &amp R get.

Gone are the days when the likes of Aberdeen could win the title.

There wll never be a re-allocation of wealth in Scottish football because C &amp R will just say no (and Sky are really only interested in those two sides) and because there will never be a re-allocation of wealth, the league will never be competitive. It is a self serving cycle for C &amp R and they have effective control over it.

[GodalmingYellow]

Surely all of Glasgow could get behind the remaining local club. Rename it to something like Celtic Rangers, stick 'em in the Premier league, job done

Does this come under the category of &quotInternet instructions on how to build a bomb?&quot

[Myles Francis]

There was already a new company - Rangers Football Club of Glasgow Ltd - registered on 20th Feb this year.

Whether that has been formed as a new vehicle to take over the husk of what's left of Original Rangers, or the basis of a phoenix club, I know not.

Obviously there is a huge partisan bias in OxfordBhoy's posts, but even so, I really don't get some of the logic. If Rangers were to go under and a phoenix club formed with a quarter of the support, I don't see how this will lead to a more competitive league. The only increased competition will be for second place as Celtic will remain as the sole dominant power. And once the phoenix club rises again, the status quo will return.

Not convinced that Celtic are a paragon of financial virtue either. Between 2009 and 2010 (latest available accounts) net bank debt increased from £1.51m to £5.85m, and a pre-tax profit of £2m became a loss of £2.13m. Also turnover dropped from £72.59m to £61.72m, largely attributed to competing in the Europa rather than Champions League.

[Isaac]

What is also interesting in Scotland is they don't have a football creditors rule, so the football debts aren't first to be paid unlike in England. I haven't looked into it in detail but I think this is probably a good thing (as it probably helps protect local businesses and staff a little better). However it does mean that if a club goes bust, unpaid transfer fees and debts to other clubs won't necessarily be honoured so the knock on impact could be significant - I think this was the reason the rule was introduced in England, to help prevent a domino effect.

Anyway, it confirms to me that Rangers being liquidated would cause major changes in Scottish football, whether these would be for the best I'm not sure. One thing is for certain though, as others have said, there would be literally no interest from the likes of Sky in a division where over 50% of the total attendance all go to watch one club.

[Oxford Bhoy]

How can anybody not &quotallow&quot Rangers to go bust? They ARE bust - the only way out of administration for them is for somebody to offer a serious cash injection and Murray had them up for sale for the best part of four years with no takers until Whyte/White stepped up with his pound coin.

Anybody buying them now would be inheriting a mess with virtually no revenue streams over the next few years - 100,000 season tickets covering the next three seasons have already been sold to pay off the bank debt (although this debt still exists, just with a different creditor - the aforementioned assett-stripper, Whyte/White). This, of course, is also to completely ignore the potential Big Tax Bill of anything from £50-£75 million. Who in their right mind will buy Rangers with this still undecided?

So, no season tickets to sell, no catering (already sold off), no merchandising (also sold off already) and very little in the way of playing assetts. A business that's losing £1m per month and under investigation by the police, the SPL, the SFA and the Charity Commission.

HMRC have no interest in whether they are a Scottish &quotinstitution&quot or not - they are interested in what they're owed - there's the &quotsmall tax bill&quot, the &quotbig tax bill&quot still undecided and the PAYE and NI that was left unpaid from the moment White/Whyte took over last April. They are the ones who will decide whether or not Rangers will be &quotallowed&quot to go bust and I can't see how they can do anything other than demand payment of the debts to the tax payers of the UK.

Rangers ARE going bust. Scottish football WILL continue in their absence, for better or worse. I look forward to it.

Finally, somebody posted previously that they had no allegience as they were neither Catholic nor Protestant. For the record, I'm originally from Glasgow - moved to Oxford when I was six - both my parents are from Scots Protestant families, my Dad was a Rangers man yet I have supported Celtic (and the Us, of course) for over 40 years. Whilst there is no doubt that the bulk of Celtic's support in Scotland are descended from Irish immigrants to the west of Scotland and, therefore, mostly Catholic, the club has always been inclusive and non-sectarian and non-Catholics have always been welcome as players, managers and supporters throughout the club's history.

The same cannot be said for Rangers.