News Letter journalist BILLY KENNEDY, a life-long Rangers fan, looks at the future ramifications for one of the largest and most successful British soccer clubs
GLASGOW Rangers Football Club is a huge British sporting institution; has been for the past 100 years and, I am confident, will be in the foreseeable long-term future.
Yesterday’s shock news that the Ibrox Park directors had filed notice to have the club placed into administration is a blow to the enormous pride and the trophy aspirations of the legions of loyal Rangers fans across these islands and, globally, where Scottish migrant influences are at play.
The precarious financial position which the Glasgow club now finds itself in has made administration an almost inevitable development, with the footballing goals of manager Ally McCoist and his players in the famous Royal Blue now a secondary consideration.
News of the acute financial crisis at Govan in Glasgow’s west end will be viewed with great alarm and concern within the club’s large support base in the Protestant and unionist heartlands of Northern Ireland.
With four Ulstermen in the present Rangers squad – captain Steven Davis, Kyle Lafferty, David Healy and Andrew Little – the club’s present plight is an absolute nightmare for ‘Bluenoses’ on this side of the North Channel.
If the club goes into administration it will automatically lose 10 points in the Scottish Premier League, a penalty that will ensure the League title will go to bitter rivals Celtic.
The club says it will continue with “business as usual” until it is decided within 10 days whether the administration step should be taken.
The club awaits a tax tribunal decision over a disputed bill, plus penalties, totalling at least £49m. The case relates to the use of employment benefit trusts (EBTs) to pay players and other staff and any alleged irregularities took place on the watch a decade and more ago of former owner Sir David Murray when the club was paying huge transfer fees to recruit top players.
The case taken by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) centres on the club’s alleged misuse of the scheme and avoiding the payment of significant sums in tax.
West of Scotland businessman Craig Whyte, who bought the club from Sir David Murray last year, said recently that administration was an option if the club lost the tax case.
But yesterday, after an administration application was filed, the club stressed that any such move would have “no impact on season ticket holders and shareholders”.
Mr Whyte said the move towards administration had been made to protect the club.
He insisted: “What is of paramount importance is the long-term security, survival and prosperity of this great football club.”
That has to be the ultimate aim of everyone connected with Rangers.
The Rangers chairman admitted, that even with an average home crowd of 50,000 for Scottish domestic fixtures – among the top ten attendances in Britain – the club was running a £10m annual deficit and it was in the best interests of the club to cut costs significantly.
I have travelled regularly to Glasgow for Rangers games for 50 years; stood on the terracing at a Scottish Cup final with Celtic at Hampden Park in 1969 when 120,000 fans were in the stadium; personally got to know iconic Rangers legends like John Greig, Willie Henderson, Alex Willoughby, Bobby Shearer, Jimmy Nicholl and Billy Simpson and enjoyed official club and corporate hospitality at Ibrox Park on frequent occasions.
They have always been a club with dignity, prestige and standing and will survive.
The Rangers – with a world record of 54 league titles and a history, heritage and legacy that is deeply engrained in the fabric of Scotland – are synonymous with success and soccer achievement at the highest level.
The present cloud of trials and tribulations surrounding finances at Ibrox Park will, I am convinced, ultimately lift, maybe not this season but sooner rather than later.
There will always be a Rangers, they are too big a sporting institution to go under, and, notwithstanding what Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell insensitively and quite surprisingly said yesterday about his club being able to exist without Rangers, Scottish and British football absolutely needs a successful, vibrant Rangers.
The Glasgow Old Firm game – one of the biggest fixtures in the world game – could not exist without them.
That is the reality of football in Scotland.