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Get Rangers back in the SPL before it's too late


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Get Rangers back in the SPL before it’s too late

We need Old Firm rivalry if our game is to survive

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FIRM DECISION ... SPL needs Celtic and Rangers

By DAVIE PROVAN

Published: 6 hrs ago

9

IF Lord Nimmo Smith’s tribunal had stripped Rangers of five titles we might have needed the army on the streets of Glasgow, so a big thank you to m’lud this morning.

On their hourly rates, our learned friends will have done very nicely out of this investigation, but you can bet they’ll be glad it’s over. It’s always a relief to leave the nuthouse.

Nimmo Smith was damned if he did, damned if he didn’t.

The day before the tribunal announced it’s findings it was described as a “kangaroo court” by former Rangers striker Mark Hateley.

A bit harsh on Nimmo Smith who graduated from Eton and Oxford to become a Supreme Court judge, but I doubt he’ll have lost sleep over it.

Inevitably, in the land of the full moon, the verdict has upset everyone. Celtic fans see it as a whitewash, Rangers punters are demanding apologies and the heads of Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan. In the meantime, the race for the moral high ground has become a stampede.

Despite Rangers oldco being found guilty of breaching disclosure regulations, Sir David Murray was quick to break cover.

During Rangers slide into liquidation you couldn’t have found Sir David with the Hubble telescope, but you can’t keep a good man down.

Murray claims Rangers have been victims of a “retrospective witch-hunt.”

More likely Gers are victims of Murray’s deal with Craig Whyte, despite him being well warned against it by Alastair Johnston.

Murray though is yesterday’s man and with some justification Charles Green spoke on behalf of the club.

Whatever you think of Green, his decision to refuse the plea bargain that would have seen Rangers trade titles for a place in the First Division, has been vindicated.

Despite the £250,000 non-disclosure fine, Nimmo Smith ruled that Rangers had gained “no sporting advantage” through their use of EBTs.

If that’s good enough for the man who tried the Lockerbie bomber, it should be good enough for the rest of us.

Green is the man who’ll decide where Rangers go from here and his reaction to the verdict was refreshing.

When he could have promised a pursuit of Doncaster and Regan he instead chose to draw a line under the EBT issue and promised to help rebuild the Scottish game.

It won’t be easy. The commercial madness that saw Rangers relegated to Division Three is coming home to roost.

Nowhere more so than at Celtic Park where supporters are struggling to stay awake on match days.

With no credible opposition for at least another two years, Peter Lawwell will have his work cut out selling season tickets.

Spare me the idea that Neil Lennon’s boys will take the same satisfaction from clinching this season’s title. In Rangers’ absence this championship was a gimme.

This week Jose Mourinho said his Real Madrid players “live for the games against Barcelona”.

It’s no different at the Old Firm where nothing matches the satisfaction of beating the other lot.

With a one-horse title race until at least 2015, how does the SPL sell itself to punters and sponsors?

On Wednesday, first played fourth in the SPL at Fir Park with James McFadden’s homecoming thrown in. Less than 9,000 fans fancied it.

Where are the chocolate gladiators of cyberspace who threatened to boycott their clubs unless they voted Rangers out of the SPL? Didn’t they promise they’d turn out every week to make up the shortfall?

Aberdeen had 6,000 for the midweek game against Ross County for heaven’s sake.

Scottish football is heading for rigor mortis unless someone has the balls to say the bleeding obvious.

Without the Old Firm at each other’s throat the SPL is a busted flush.

It’s time to boot “sporting integrity” into touch and bring Rangers back into the top flight.

Reconstructing the leagues to accommodate Rangers might upset the Luddites but it’ll send 30,000 volts through the top division.

If it means switching to a 14-team league to squeeze Rangers in, why not?

The return of four Old Firm games would bring hard cash and competition into the game in its hour of need.

Charles Green eyeballing Peter Lawwell in the boardroom? Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist in each other’s faces on the track in front of a baying mob?

Bring it on.

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Not for me ,unless they are going to compensate us for the players that walked away last year we would have no chance with the squad we have and the illegal transfer embargo still hanging over us. I'm getting sick of this let's move on for the benefit of Scottish football,nobody gave a fuck last year when they should have helped us instead of trying to kill us , why the fuck should we now help the same bastards that tried to kill us , Fuck Regan,Fuck Doncaster and Fuck the SPL

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Here is the obvious being stated. It was complete madness for us to be pushed down to third division. In competitive terms it killed two divisions stone dead and will be the same next year. I agree that we should not be fast tracked back to line the pockets of teams who let their fans make decisions they were not fit to make.

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Here is the obvious being stated. It was complete madness for us to be pushed down to third division. In competitive terms it killed two divisions stone dead and will be the same next year. I agree that we should not be fast tracked back to line the pockets of teams who let their fans make decisions they were not fit to make.

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It's true that the SPL needs Rangers but given that it's blatantly obvious that ceptic orchestrated much of the bad feeling against us which contributed to our ending in Division 3 while I want to be back on top I would be perfectly happy if we never played them again.

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I know we tried to kill you, but it turns out that the top league in Scotland is shite without you so please come back . ( to be honest we don't care about your team -or fans but we could sure use the money you bring )

no thanks for me . sporting integrity was the buzz word of the summer, if a couple teams go bust because of their hatred of rangers,so be it . maybe now the average fan of the other spl clubs well realise that bar our titles celtic got everything they wanted from this

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I hope CG tells them where to go. They tried to destroy us and now the result hasn't gone the way they wanted it they want to put us straight in back at the top.

They all screamed for sporting integrity and demanded we start from the bottom, so I expect us to make our way back to the top by winning our way there, sporting integrity at its best.

They might be suffering now but I hope they all suffer for a lot longer.

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It's like a guy being accused of a heinous crime...the media have decided his guilt before the trial...his friends and peers turn their backs on him and take the opportunity to attack him..he lost almost everything and the only reason he survived was because his family rallied round him... Even after being acquitted that isn't good enough for people and the media continue to twist the facts to make it seem he somehow got off with it....he is then just expected to go back to work and act like nothing's happened and work with the very people who assumed his guilt and attacked him, despite no apology being forthcoming, just because it benefits them?

Erm no thanks davie...I think wel be waiting on our apology and for investigations to be conducted into said accusers...

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Really pleased with most people's reactions to this. I thought I was in the minority.

Stick it Provo we want other scottish clubs who recognise what has happened to us and form our own league.

That'll probably leave Sellick, Dundee Utd, Baabaadeen and Hibs on their own!

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All for it. Just the small matter of compensation for the loss of players, season ticket revenue, tv revenue,sponsorship as well as the prize money, Call it £30million.

I agree with me. In any other business the SPL would be taken to court under competition laws. Time for shareholders to have a think?

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There is surely no way this could realistically happen, no-one can go from 4th tier to 1st in a season. We would hate it, and everyone we played would hate us for it (on top of everything else they hate us for). And doing it to save THEIR skins? I don't think so, Davie.

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