Walter Smith accuses SFA of negligence
It looks like the SFA will have to revert to Plan C after the SPL turn down Sevco’s application to join the top flight with SFL clubs going public with their opposition to a plan to create a place in the First Division for Sevco.
With Rangers in the process of being liquidated Charles Green is desperately trying to establish Sevco against a background of hostility and uncertainty.
Green’s claims of transparency and open-ness are already sounding hollow with no fresh investors beyond Zeus Finance with season ticket holders concerned about attempts to take direct debit payments from unrecognisable companies.
John Brown is the latest Ibrox savior and has told supporters not to buy season tickets to starve Green out with the Rangers Supporters Trust also refusing to endorse season-ticket sales.
The SFL season starts in less than four weeks with the Ramsden’s Cup but despite the catalogue of problems facing Green Smith believes that the SFA have mishandled the entire crisis.
“There has been negligence on the part of the SFA in handling the overall situation,” the former Ibrox boss told The Scotsman. “ I don’t think Rangers want different treatment from anybody else. It’s just the whole thing has been so badly handled.
“Ten years ago Motherwell went in to administration. Four years ago Gretna went defunct. So, surely the SFA should have put sanctions in place then? That’s why I am saying they have been negligent.
“Now we’ve got a free-for-all around Rangers and everyone is having a kick at them. If there had been proper statutes in place, a lot of stuff that’s coming out now would not have occurred. After what transpired at Motherwell and Gretna, other clubs should have known exactly what would happen to them in similar circumstances.
“Any club that goes into liquidation and wishes to come out again as a newco should know exactly how they are going to be treated. Instead, everyone is posturing just now.
“But the bottom line is that if they carry out what they are supposed to be going to carry out in the next few weeks and Rangers go into the Third Division or even the First, then it’s going to affect the whole of Scottish football in a drastic way.”
Scottish football has no mechanism for providing a league place for the newco of a club that is liquidated.
Since Motherwell went into administration in 2002 the authorities have gradually imposed sanctions to punish clubs that spend beyond their means.
In 2008 Gretna were playing in the SPL but the new season will see Gretna FC 2008 start the campaign playing in East of Scotland Football League Premier Division.
In 2009 Livingston found themselves demoted to from the First Division to the Third Division after a complex brush with liquidation that saw owner Angelo Massone forced out by a consortium including former directors of Cowdenbeath and Dumbarton.
Livingston won back-to-back promotions to return to the First Division in 2011.
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