SPL Postpone Vote On New Fair Play Rules

By Inverness Reds News Staff
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Updated: April 30, 2012

Scottish Premier League clubs have delayed a vote on financial fair play proposals that could have a significant impact on Rangers.

The 12 top flight clubs met at Hampden to discuss increasing the points deduction for teams in administration from 10 points to at least 15.

Any club applying for re-entry as a ‘newco’ would also be docked 10 points for two seasons and lose league income.

Clubs will meet again at Hampden on Monday 7 May.

There was also a balloting delay on plans to change the voting structure to a 75% majority away from the current layered approach which sees major change needing an 11-1 majority.

Rangers, who have been in administration since February, have appealed against last week’s decision by the Scottish Football Association to hit them with a 12-month ban on signing players as well as fines totalling £160,000 for breaching various regulations related to finance.

And angry Rangers supporters have already threatened to boycott away matches if their SPL rivals agree on sanctions they believe are unfair.

Former Ibrox star Sandy Jardine, speaking at a meeting of the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund, said: “We will wait to see what the SPL and the SFA do with the supposed sanctions and, after that, we as a body will take appropriate action against either the governing bodies or the individual clubs we feel have been detrimental to Rangers Football Club.

“There is nothing off the table, we will wait and see what the SFA and SPL do.

“They might not take any action, which is great. But if they do then we will address these actions in an appropriate manner.

“There is a feeling in the supporters’ group that they have been kicked that much, that if we have to we will go to the Third Division.”

The potential new regulations were drafted in the wake of the Ibrox club’s descent into administration amid a potential debt of £134m .

Rangers were docked 10 points this season and the proposals would see them docked a third of this campaign’s tally if their situation has not changed in time for the new term’s kick off.

Former SPL chief executive Roger Mitchell believes a solution will be eventually be found that keeps Rangers in the top flight.

He told BBC Radio Scotland: “The clubs vote principally through self-interest and they will all have had a word with their bank managers, who will have said ‘whatever you do, make sure you still have revenue from a television deal and from Rangers fans coming through the turnstyles’.

“Rangers and Celtic basically finance the whole of the Scottish game.

“If you were looking at it on principal, Rangers should go to the Third Division if they go into liquidation, there is no doubt about that.

“However, it’s 60 shades of grey in life, not black and white.

“And you can’t expect clubs to shoot themselves in the foot. They would like to punish Rangers, their fans would love them to, but the real politic is that they are going to have to find a solution.”