Derek Johnstone has urged Scottish football fans to ignore a decade of cheating and move on.
The former Rangers (IL) striker is a regular on Radio Clyde and in the Evening Times and famously tipped Mark Warburton to take last season’s title to Ibrox.
His grasp of financial matters has never appeared especially strong with Chris Sutton taking apart his unstinting loyalty to whatever regime is in place at Ibrox.
The SPFL ruling on Wednesday and explanation provided on Thursday has been ridiculed across social media with discrepancies exposed at every turn.
Double standards in punishments handed out to Dundee United, Livingston and Dunfermline compared to the treatment of Rangers (IL) have been highlighted with the notion of moving on or a kangaroo court review kicked into touch by fans that were robbed for a decade.
Despite all those factors Johnstone told the Evening Times: “In relation to the tax issue, that was for HM Revenue and Customs to deal with and that was nothing to do with the League. In terms of the football authorities, the Lord Nimmo Smith commission was held and Rangers were fined £250,000.
“That was the punishment that was handed down at the time and nothing further can be done now, but I fear it won’t go away because you will still get a fringe that want to hammer Rangers.
“As far as the SPFL are concerned now, the matter is closed after they took their own legal advice. That should be that and I think they have got it spot on.
“It would be great if we could say that is it over and that we could move on. Our game isn’t in the best state and we should be getting everyone together to help improve things.”
When Johnstone played football his contracts were registered with the Scottish Football League and SFA with all payments recorded.
Failure to inform the SPL and SFA of payments being made to players makes them ineligible, other clubs get 3-0 defeats for such breaches. There is nothing in the rulebooks about seeking to gain sporting advantage which Dave Murray admitted to in court.