SFA chief Maxwell backs Bennett and Bisgrove as they take Doncaster and the SPFL to court

Ian Maxwell has apparently given the Ibrox Tribute Act permission to take the SPFL to court for costs and an apology over the Cinch sponsorship deal.

This morning Keith Jackson revealed in the Daily Record that Maxwell and SFA President Mike Mulraney had met up with John Bennett and James Bisgrove to try and resolve past disputes.

Jackson added that a resolution to the Cinch dispute could also be on the cards but tonight The Herald revealed a resolution very unlike the one that the Daily Record was hinting at:

Herald Sport understands that at the time of the ratification of the Park’s contract, the SPFL indicated they would provide an apology to Rangers and Park’s Motor Group and consider paying the legal expenses incurred by the club in contesting their position.

However, no such apology nor financial compensation has been forthcoming, leading the Rangers board to lose patience with the SPFL, and they are now ready to launch legal proceedings imminently with the blessing of the Scottish FA.

It is understood that if a statement including a formal apology and costs are offered to Rangers, they will be happy to finally draw a line under this particular matter, but such a public climbdown would prove embarrassing to Doncaster and may lead to questions around his handling of the deal from stakeholders.

With legal expenses already running into hundreds of thousands of pounds for both the SPFL and Rangers, the dispute over the deal – worth roughly £1.5m a season – may end up ultimately costing the league a hugely significant portion of that revenue.

UEFA bans football clubs from taking outside legal action but with the backing of the SFA the SPFL look to be in deep trouble.

It now looks like Doncaster could be in serious bother for continually caving in to the Ibrox club.

Any other club failing to comply with a sponsorship deal would be fined with further sanctions applied if they failed to go along with the deal agreed by the SPFL collectively.

Having created and pushed through the Five (Six) Way Agreement of 2012 Doncaster is in a very vulnerable position, if he dares stand up to the Ibrox club by applying the rules of the organisation the CEO of the SPFL could find damaging claims about him being leaked out.

As part of caving in to Douglas Park the 11 other SPFL Premiership clubs had to take on additional coverage for Cinch.