Why should English football bother with what’s happening at Rangers? (Because there’s more to come) « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
There is still the question of the legal case that Rangers took against the SFA in which they persuaded the court that the SFA could not ban them from buying new players for a year. The SFA appeals panel is looking at that again, and it could throw out Rangers, or ban them from the Cup or fine them. Whether such action would then apply to New Rangers is not clear to me – if you know about situations like this, let me know!
But if New Rangers get back into the Premier League Livingston are likely to sue the Scottish Football Association since they were demoted to the 3rd Division in Scotland in 2009 over insolvency rules. The SFA will need to show why it is making a difference between Rangers and Livingston other than just by saying “its Rangers”.
So why should any of this bother us?
Because so far in England we have seen clubs use the rules to go down and come back again at high speed. Accrington have been morphing in and out of existence since the very first days of the league. Leeds City were thrown out of the league and quickly came back as League United – so it goes on through the history of football in England.
Now lined up for treatment are Portsmouth and Birmingham City. And who knows what’s hanging about in other boardrooms especially now, as we showed yesterday, not many people want to buy clubs in England.
Remember, Rangers story was lurking around on websites for several years, but never once reported in the press until it finally exploded. A parallel might be this site’s endless investigation into referees. I said “might” be – it might not, because apart from the BBC getting interested in us, and the referees’ association shutting down their web site, we are still in the same position as “RangersTaxCase” was – gathering the information for those who want to see, and being ignored by those who don’t.
It is unlikely that Rangers is the only case of its kind, in my opinion. It happens in all countries – take the example Anne covered here of Neuchâtel Xamax Football Club which was ejected from the Swiss Super League and declared bankrupt on 26 January 2012. We can keep on saying “oh it wouldn’t happen to a big club here” but there are growing signs that it will.
OK that Swiss club is not a name you are likely to know – but this situation is everywhere, and the walls holding it all together are paper thin.
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