Rangers - Scottish Division 3

[RetroRik]

Well they will be playing in Division 3 next season...

Great news for the teams in there with big gates to come.

But in getting rid of Rangers have the Premier teams doomed themselves to bankruptcy.?

Are we now going to see 20 years of titles going to Celtic.?

Lets face it, every year it seems you get Rangers and Celtic fighting at the top and the rest miles behind fighting for 3rd.

I think they have made a big mistake today. Cannot see a good outcome for the league.

RIK

[sscott]

It probably is a mistake but I can also see why clubs from higher divisions didn't want to compete with them (particularly those looking for promotion or fighting relegation)

[RetroRik]

It probably is a mistake but I can also see why clubs from higher divisions didn't want to compete with them (particularly those looking for promotion or fighting relegation)

Agreed but this is the problem to come.

The other teams can only see the short term advantages. In the long term they will suffer i think.

RIK

[psj3809]

Find scottish football a joke, just constantly the two teams battling for the title. Yep in the 90's it was Man Utd constantly but i'm glad the last decade theres been other top sides coming through, used to be Arsenal then Chelsea, now of course Man City.

Considering the long long history of the club its quite sad in a way to see this happen to Rangers but they'll bounce back (As did some italian sides who were put down a division or two recently)

I think all leagues should have a salary cap (As the NFL has) where each team can only spend a maximum of x million pounds, so its a level playing field. Makes it much more interesting as the premiership was dull when Man Utd were winning title after title. Be better for the premiership (And also the scottish league)

[the_hawk]

From someone else on another forum....

Almost every Rangers fan I have spoken to or heard on the radio wants to go into Div 3, for various different reasons:

1. To spite the clubs who voted them out.
2. So that no-one can say at a later date that they were treated leniently.
3. To allow them time to re-build properly.
4. Because with a highly depleted squad, they know that promotion from Div 1 is not guaranteed.

Will be interesting to see what crowds they get, the players who have walked out have got some tremendous stick, let's see if the fans who accuded them of "walking away" have the stomach for those trips to the likes of East Stirling & Alloa every other week.

With Queens Park in that division, it's interesting that a league with average attendances barely in treble figures has 2 teams with grounds of >50k capacity!

[RetroRik]

The other big hit the Scottish Prem might get is the drop in TV rights money.?

No all firm to televise. Scottish Cup maybe but thats just one game.

Don't know the in's and out's of this... ??

RIK

[jdanddiet]

Could be the end of the Scottish league or the dawn of a new era!

[The Laird]

I was quite shocked the first division teams turned down the financial incentive of playing Rangers but it is the right choice in terms of the rules. If they had allowed Rangers to break them then it would have set a precident that could be argued in the future.

[psj3809]

I must admit its going to be fascinating to follow to see how Rangers do, i presume they'll lose most of their big name players but even so i can see them easily winning their division.

Another story i cant wait to follow this year is the story of Wembley FC...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wembley_FC

There'll be a TV documentary about them, theyre in the qualifying stages of the FA cup, guess who they have playing for them...

Graham Le Saux
Martin Keown
Claudio Cannigia (!!!)
Ray Parlour
Brian McBride
Carl Leaburn

And Terry Venables helping out !

[RetroRik]

My theory is that the other Premier clubs wanted Rangers out of the league but expected Rangers to be placed in the 1st Division.

They expected Rangers might then bounce back quickly and therefore the other clubs would only take a financial hit for a short time..

Well that has back fired... Now Rangers won't be back for many years.

By the time they are back ( if they ever do get back ) it will have already been curtains for some of the other clubs.

Interesting times ahead for Scottish Football.

RIK

[fujiHunter]

I think they have made a big mistake today. Cannot see a good outcome for the league.RIK

Actually I don't think there has been any mistake. As someone from Scotland, I can tell you that feelings have been running VERY high with football fans from all clubs threatening en mass to turn their backs on Scottish football FOREVER if the rules were changed to suit Rangers and they were admitted into Div 1. To be clear, the precedent in such situations had already been set in recent years with Gretna and Livingstone feeling the full force of sanctions when they got into serious financial trouble. Rangers deserved to receive no special treatment simply because of the clout they possess.

Yes, the money coming in from the Sky television contract may now be in jeopardy (apparently Sky have a getout clause if either of the Old Firm are not in the premier league), however had the decision gone the other way Scottish Football would still be in dire peril with lower gate receipts of disaffected fans voting with their feet. In many ways it was a lose-lose situation. No matter what happened, the outcome wouldn't be great... it was just a case of following the least worse scenario in the end for most clubs.

At least this way Scottish Football retains some shred of integrity in this whole mess. For a while there, I was starting to believe that Vladamir Romanov (Hearts owner) was right about corruption within the Scottish game and favouritism toward the Old Firm. Hopefully now the whiff of any kind of corruption can be put to one side.

The story probably isn't over yet though. The threat made to clubs if they voted against Rangers entering Div 1 was that the authorities would set up a breakway SPL 2 (in effect a new division 1) which would include Rangers. All clubs were told that they would not be welcome in this new league unless they supported Rangers.

What a mess......

[ahb]

Correct me if im wrong but isn't there plans for the top teir of scottish premeir league being reformed so if thats true rangers could be back in the top flight soon i mean its good for the likes of east stirling and montrose because those types of clubs need the money that rangers fan base brings them so really its a win win situation for the likes of them and lets be honest scottish football been in declined for nearly two decades in my opinon, i mean like many people i remeber the rangers team that won 9 titles in a row the team that had the likes of ally mc coist, paul gascoigne, gordon durie, trevor stevens etc so i do find it sad that they in this positon dont get me wrong i think justice has been done but how was for example tor andre flo worth £12m or michael ball £6m i think david murry is to blame for this it was him and the board at the time that gave the club money to spend that they didnt have in the first place.

i think we will see rangers get back to back promotions for scottish divsion 3 and 2 and i think it will take another two years to get them back to the SPL.

[RetroRik]

i think we will see rangers get back to back promotions for scottish divsion 3 and 2 and i think it will take another two years to get them back to the SPL.

With last season team, maybe... But if they cannot retain the same higher quality players then maybe predicting a quick return will be premature.

@fujih
Thats fine, heads held high and morally correct and all that.
But for that you might destroy many clubs, players but much more importantly the industries and small business that depends on the big matches and money.

I agree it is a knife edge situation but in this financial climate the last thing you want to do is burn your wallet.

RIK

[Liamh1982]

I know exactly who Rangers' troubles have benefitted - Motherwell, at least for this season.

Don't forget Scotland still has two Champions League places (at least for now), and having finished 3rd in the SPL last season they got a spot in the qualifying rounds. A kind draw and a following wind, who knows - they could end up in the group stages. Even if they end up losing all six games they'd still be guaranteed a heap of cash.

[rocky1980]

Being from Scotland I really have to say I could not give two shits about the whole mess and I wish it just like the olympics was banned from the news