The newly formed SPFL have made their first concession towards Sevco by watering down their rules on trialists.
A draft of the rules and regulations for the merged SPL and SFL showed that no trialists would be eligible for league fixtures- following the workings of the SPL rather than the SFL.
However, just days after forming, the SPFL are about to do a u-turn on that ruling with the news leaked to Sevco friendly STV Sport- the preferred broadcaster of both Craig Whyte and Charles Green while they called the shots at Ibrox.
According to a report on their website: “STV understands that regulation has been amended for the final copy of the rules, which will come into effect when all 42 clubs unite under one umbrella later this month.
“The news will be of particular interest to Rangers who have agreed to sign a raft of new players when the club’s registration embargo ends on September 1.
“Manager Ally McCoist had intended to field Nicky Law, Nicky Clark, Jon Daly, Cammy Bell and Arnold Peralta as trialists in league games before that date, only for that to be cast into doubt.
“All five players will now be eligible to play in a maximum of three SPFL games prior to their registration on September 1, with Rangers allowed to name up to two of the players on their teamsheet for any given match.
“Trialists will not be allowed to play in top flight games in the new league but it is understood all clubs in the other three leagues can continue to field unregistered players until March 31 of the year in which the season ends.”
In a further boost to help the Third Division champions as they move up a division the report added: “The current SFL rule which places a limit upon the number of players aged over 21 in a club’s squad will not be included in the new SPFL regulations.”
It’s believed that the rule changes came about following discussions between David Longmuir, Neil Doncaster and Sandy Bryson.
Further talks are expected to explain how players who have signed lucrative long term contracts can be described as trialists.
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Celtic have waited 20 years to develop around Celtic park and all of a sudden they have been granted permission hmmm I wonder why ?
Favour for a favour I think here.
Are you nutcases for real? You could always field trialists in the SFL, other teams will also benefit. Smaller teams will benefit more than Rangers. Fed up with this stupid obsession.
We need to give a shit because if they’re allowed to cheat their way back into league 1 (or whatever it’s called now) it won’t stop there. The honest mistakes and financial cheating of the past will seem like nothing compared to what happens in the future.
I get that trialists can be played and that rule hasn’t changed, but how can you sign somebody on a pre-contact then claim them to be trialists?
its a joke but its of no interest to celtic as we are not cheating scum HH