SFL newboys Annan Athletic won’t be bullied into letting Sevco start life in the First Division.
The former South of Scotland club were voted into the SFL in 2008 and have held their own in the Third Division.
Annan replaced Gretna and have demonstrated that good housekeeping creates a sustainable club rather than following the spend spend spend model favoured by Brookes Mileson at Gretna.
Stewart Regan has been at the forefront warning clubs to vote Sevco into the First Division but Annan chairman Henry McLelland won’t be pushed around by the hysterical actions of Regan.
“The SPL are threatening that, without Rangers in Division One, the money would be withdrawn – because they can’t afford to pay,” the Annan’s chairman claimed.
“Annan would get around £60,000 that could disappear. But, if that’s the case then as a club they will deal with it by cutting their cloth accordingly.
“We feel Rangers should be in Division Three and our stance hasn’t changed.”
“When Gretna hit trouble, it was made clear by the SFL then that, for the integrity of the game and the Scottish Football League, Gretna would have to drop into Division Three.
“The same thing happened with Livingston. Rangers are a big institution, but that doesn’t merit them being a special case.”
McLelland added: “The restructuring of the game and the way forward needs to be dealt with separately from the Rangers situation.
“Once the Rangers issue is settled then the clubs need to remain level-headed and move on to make radical changes for the good of the game, but that must be dealt with on its own.”
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I understand why Gretna have a grievance about this, but too many other teams will be adversely effected by a the newco going down to SFL3, like it or not the OF are a special case. Combined they have ~80-90% of the support base and responsible for about ~95% of the revenues.
We’re all deeply committed to Sporting Integrity, but there is no great show of Integrity to be made by voting in such a way that a large number of the league clubs will be in administration within 2yrs. Nobody will be talking about the Integrity of the game in Scotland when the clubs don’t pay their bills.
There is ZERO evidence that a large number of league clubs will go into administration within 2 years- just scare stories from Doncaster and Regan who draw handsome salaries from Scottish football.
We were told the same story when Setanta pulled out.
Strangely enough no club has been liquidated following relegation from the SPL.
A very dangerous precedent could be set where SPL clubs can go into administration followed by liquidation knowing that a First Division place is waiting for them.
Would Dunfermline have gone for that option in April if liquidation meant a First Division place and a new debt free start?
Trying having a word with Kilmarnock’s Board, they probably have a slightly different perspective on things than you. I could go thru the list of SPL clubs with barely manageable levels of debt as it is. How big does the reduction in SPL money have to be before these “possibles” have to go into administration?
The £4-£5m from overseas rights to OF games has definitely gone for the foreseeable future, the first casualty for next years finances. Other to follow? You live on in your dream world, Yes that’s right when SKY/ESPN say they will renegotiate if Rangers aren’t in there in 12 months time, they mean they want to pay more!
I agree with you, the newco should not be put into Division 3, they should be told to go and join the Juniors and get some history, accounts and membership of the SFA and if you are are right about clubs going to the wall there will be plenty of opportunities in the next few years to apply for membership of the SFL!!!
BTW
You do know that the team you follow are DEAD, DECEASED, FINITO, OOT THE GEME, PASSED, EXPIRED, GONE, don’t you? As you still call them Rangers, not Sevco!
If The Rangers aren’t Rangers, why get so emtional about it? Do you get so intense when every newco applies to join the league (I don’t think so and neither, deep down, do you) 😉
Enjoyed the Caps, they prove a point.
I’m not get emotional, I’m laughing (hold on though, that is am emotion I guess). Your club is dead and due to be buried any day now.
A few points for you
1. Rangers were not relegated/demoted/kicked out of the SPL, they ceased to exist. The Newco were not given a place in the SPL after they applied to fill the vacant spot.
2. Your former clubs manager has admitted the newco is not and never will be Rangers.
3. Actually I was a wee bit pissed off the last time they filled Gretnas spot in the SFL as they never gave it to Spartans.
4. The caps lock was in case you had trouble reading the small stuff and that was the reason you hadn’t read that Rangers were deid!!!
5. BTW newcos playing record is below
6. see what I did there?
“6. see what I did there?”
Yes I did, you put a bucket over your head and pretended it wasn’t all happening. Clever.
😉
There should have been NO vote for newco to get into the SPL ,there also should not be any vote to get them into 1st div either.There are teams ahead of newco who have been waiting years to get into the SFL .They do not have the required 3 years audited accounts needed for entry.The corruption in this country is terrible.Please FIFA step in and end this absurd situation.There is no integrity in scotland ,none what so ever.
GSW
It’s you who is puting a bucket over your head pretending your team is still alive and trying not to listen.
They are dead and never will they play a game of football again.
Anything that comes out will simply be a tribute act like Bjorn Again or The Bootleg Beatles!
The Bootleg Huns, now theres a name for your new club!!!
🙂
“The Bootleg Huns, now theres a name for your new club!!!”
Actually I kind of like it!
🙂
@GreenJedi
Why does NL keep referring to ‘newco’ as “Rangers” 😉 Thought he was supposed to be on your side?
Perhaps you should have a word with him.
😉
In a nutshell !!!
Well said Annan now why does the MSM have a problem understanding this?? Hmmm
Regan is Ogilvie’s bitch.
Did Regan go to the same school as Ogilvie? Why is the heavily conflicted Ogilvie still in a position of authority in the administration of the game?
GSW
I can feel your pain.
Your team is called Sevco.
You have 6 players.
Enjoy the SFL
Thanks for the empathy Jim, far less pain here than you imagine. It’s going be an interesting week, one that will not please you lot I think.
😉
I think that your forgetting a few very important things. It was Rangers that screwed up Scottish football by cheating. It was Rangers that broke all the rules and eventually destroyed themselves. It’s Rangers that are still under investigation for cheating and for tax fraud. And it’s sevco that will probably loose the Ibrox assets that it got for next to nothing to the official liquidators. Rangers are gone.
It doesn’t matter whether the rest of Scottish football will loose money or even go bankrupt because Rangers are gone. The damage is done. Despite all this pathetic intimidation from Regan etc, Rangers are dead and there’s nothing they or anyone else can do about it.
Dont you understand that it’s over. Things will never be the same again- especially for you.
@Marvin
Nobody is claiming that Rangers are not at fault in all this. It’s the fact that the other clubs seem to be electing to commit financial suicide as a result, that has everyone one bemused.
Go, sit down, have a quiet cup of tea for 10 minutes and just read what you just wrote.
“It doesn’t matter whether the rest of Scottish football will loose money or even go bankrupt because Rangers are gone.”
Whatever damage Rangers have done, it’s nothing compared to the damage you lot are perfectly capable of inflicting on yourselves. So, far less pain here than you imagine, your policy of Mutually Assured Implosion, we can just sit back in wonder at it all.
If clubs go under due to rangers being put in the third division then so be it, this is the problem to many clubs not living with in there means, if they cant afford to be in the spl they should drop down to a level they can afford.
GSW
For many years Celtic and the supporters of other clubs accused the SFA of being in cahoots with Rangers and the ‘establishment’ club was perceived to receive an easy ride from the authorities. Of course Rangers fans believed that their history was a glorious won, earned through hard work and skill (even though people like Tait, McCluskey, Davidson, McCurry and others helped a little).
These were only suspicions, and Celtic fans in particular, were accused of ‘Timmy paranoia’. Recent months have shown that many of the suspicions were real. Are you telling me Ogilvie and others at the SFA knew nothing of Rangers dubious financial practices? (Ogilvie was a Director for nearly 30 years for God’s sake).
Now Rangers are gone, dead and a desperate new company is trying to gain access to the finances of Scottish football without meeting any of the criteria to do so (so that Rangers can become rich again, having ripped off European football for years). And this new entity, and it is completley new; no history; no team; no accounts, no money; no season tickets holders and whether it actally has a stadium or training ground is a matter of debate.
And Scottish people, not just football fans, are asked to accep this as being fair. Like Oldco, the Newco are asking to be given a privileged position in Scottish football without even having kicked a ball. This is corrupt and against the rules and principles of sport. This Newco is nothing to do with Oldco, despite what the media and the SFA are trying to say. If they are then the punishments are going to start and they will pour down on top of the ‘entity’. Remember, Rangers have only been docked 10 points for going into administration, no other punishment has been given. Newco cannot and should not be punished for the sins of Rangers because they are NOT Rangers. They are a new entity and should be treated as such.
Rangers have not been relegated because Rangers are dead. They have not been banned from Europe. Rangers are dead and the Newco do not meet the requirements of UEFA (and will not for three years even if they are gerrymandered into the SPL). I very much doubt if Newco will be allowed to use the name Rangers without many people taking a close look at it.
This is the reality, despite what idiots like Traynor are saying.
One shocking thing that has coe out of this for me is the poor reasoning and understanding skills of the general public in Scotland. I no longer live in Scotland and am glad of this as many of the schools must be terrible. People don’t seem to be able to read and understand what they are reading. A country which bases its opinion on the Daily Record’s pronouncements is really in trouble.
JohnP
You let slip, your words “so that Rangers can become rich again” says something, if not what you intended. We know we’re out of Europe for three years, which is disappointing, but them’s just the facts.
Nobody accepts the pronouncements of the Daily Record as gospel that’s just absurd, as is your disdain for reasoning and education for the “general public of Scotland”. Scottish Education is amongst the best in the world, anyway how do you know if you don’t live there anymore?
@GSW I think you misunderstood what I mean’t when I said: “It doesn’t matter whether the rest of Scottish football looses money or even goes bankrupt because Rangers are gone”. And I did also say “The damage is done”.
What I mean’t was that we couldn’t save them even if we wanted to. No team wants to loose money, but there is now nothing that any of the other teams can do to save Rangers without destroying Scottish football completely. “The damage is done”. Rangers going into administration, then being liquidated, set in motion a sequence of events that are still on-going, and no-one knows what the final outcome will be. No-one knows what’s going to be left of Rangers, it’s assets, or sevco when HMRC and the football authorities are finished with them. So, what’s the point of shoehorning sevco into the SPL or SFL 1 only for them, a team with no players and no financial records, to go into administration and then get liquidated as well.
And do you really think it’s a good idea to rewrite every existing rule in Scottish football for financial reasons. I realise we need to be pragmatic, but we also need to retain some credibility, regardless of the financial consequences. Breaking even more rules to save one team- a team that probably can’t be saved anyway- would destroy Scottish football.
Thanks for the response paranoidandroid, you don’t need to worry about the “newco” Rangers, HMRC are done with them. “I realise we need to be pragmatic”, indeed and I think the authorities see themseleves in damage limitation mode – Just because Rangers catches a cold, doesn’t mean the rest of Scottish football has to go down with pneumonia, does it?
All shall be revealled in the fullness of time. It’s going to be interesting either way. There’s one ting for sure though. If the scottish football authorities are corrupt and powerful enough to get rangers back into the SPL next year, debt free and unscathed, then the rest of the teams might as well just give up.
“then the rest of the teams might as well just give up”
Going by their recent performances how could we tell? Appologies to all, only kidding, couldn’t resist.
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If the SFL refuse to let the New Club into the 1st Division they have threaten to set up an SPL2 which they then claim will have a terrible detremental affect on those clubs cut adrift and will see them all go to the wall?
Sounds strange to threaten 3 divisions of clubs with the prospect of financial ruin if they don’t let a newly formed club into the top SFL division.
Why are the board of te SFA going to allow this and is it not a case of just threats as the clubs in the SFL could go to court to force the SFA to stop the breakaway from this action.
ALL teams can only play in European competitions and deal and play with other leagues if they are affiliated to FIFA and FIFA recognise only SFA as the governing body. So whoever threatens the lower clubs can be punished through refusing the very people who take the action with expulsion from World football.
The teams left outside the SPL 1 & 2 could go to CAS and seek them to force the SFA to act in all the teams interests and not just 1.
This can get a lot more messy
Gsw just another example of low iq and personal hygiene bigots that we wont have to suffer much longer. Why bother coming onto a celtic forum doesnt your team have one? Aye thats right ya smelly bawbag clown rangers fc no more. Hahaha prick