UEFA have banned Partizan Belgrade from European competitions for three years.
The ban comes after the Serb side owed just 2.5m euros, slightly more than the cost of Joey Garner.
News of the ban is bound to lead to further questions of the SFA over their decision to award Rangers (IL) a UEFA licence in 2011 despite owing HMRC £6m in the wee tax case.
A decade after making undeclared payments to Tore Andre Flo and Ronald de Boer, who both featured in UEFA competitions, Rangers (IL) were in possession of a tax demand and penalty at 30 June 2011.
Rather than strip them of their licence and alert supporters to the extent of the club’s dependency on Champions League money the SFA allowed Rangers (IL) to compete in the Champions League qualifiers.
Malmo put pain to a £15m lifeline with the club going into administration in February 2011 with the last income tax contributions transferred to HMRC five months earlier.
Earlier today Yahoo Sports announced: “UEFA has banned Partizan Belgrade from the Champions League and Europa League for the next three seasons because of unpaid debts.
“The ruling from UEFA says the 2015 Serbian champions had racked up almost 2.5 million euros ($2.6 million) in unpaid debts as of September, most of it to social and tax authorities in Serbia.
“A three-year ban is unusually severe, but UEFA ruled it was needed because Partizan had broken rules on unpaid debts three times in the last five years.
“Citing ”a remarkably similar set of circumstances” to Partizan’s last debt case in 2013, when it was given a suspended one-year ban from European competitions, UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body said only a harsher punishment ”is appropriate and also capable of producing a general deterrent effect.”
The SFA haven’t commented on the licence implications for next year with Sevco announcing losses of £11.9m over the last two seasons with UEFA only allowing £4.2m of debt over a three year period.
Should Sevco be given a UEFA licence at the expense of a club that lives within it’s means it could bring the SFA into direct conflict with UEFA
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CLICK HERE for written details of the UEFA decision.