UCF2008

I've been wondering the same thing myself. Obviously if we're playing in a lower league then our ticket prices would have to be adjusted accordingly. Even a small reduction on that front would see a significant drop in revenue over the course of a season. If the JJB contract remains in place without any renegotiation then our merchandise revenue wouldn't be effected. If not then that one could go either way. Sponsorship money is more likely to drop than increase. Overall, the turnover would likely be reduced by at the very least a couple of million. The most significant factor, as far as I can see it, would be how much ticket prices need to drop to keep attendances up.

I really want to know what's in that business plan. The gist of it that we got from Dave King was that it was 'ambitious' and that if it worked out then that would be great but as far as he could see it was unrealistic. There must be something to it that's viewed as being too high risk for King and the rest of the Rangers Men to invest but in walking away they have wished him luck. What's Green up to?

Was suggesting the other day that for this reason we shouldn't be too hasty in applying for SFA membership. No doubt it wasn't intended, but all the same good to see the muppets at the SFA have taken a stance which could actually do us a favor for a change.

Having checked over the CVA proposal again it seems quite clear that the money for outstanding player transfer fees for players sold on or before 12 May 2012 would be payable to creditors no matter the outcome of the CVA. Newco and liquidation would still see this money payed into creditors pot. Newco doesn't get a penny of it as it's not seen as a fixed charge asset. Not sure why Rapid Vienna think otherwise.

'Eh, um, it's just been all the uncertainty' - No, I don't think so.

Looks that way yes. Whittaker's statement was slightly better worded, but more to the point it wasn't just expected for Whittaker to leave. By a number of fans it was apparently hoped for.

Have to agree with Craig here. It's inevitable that we're going to lose players. It's possibly easier to tell which players are likely to stay as opposed to those who will leave, especially if we drop to Div3. Of course we would expect both players to leave for the sake of their careers if we're forced to start from Div3, but they did so preemptively. The timing of their decision and excuses given by Whittaker and Naismith were difficult enough to comprehend never mind the fact that Naismith in particular gave ammo our enemies. In that sense it's not just an act of desertion, it's betrayal and that's hard to take. As a 'Rangers fan' Naismith had an opportunity to leave with his head held high and unanimous best wishes from the support. He could have spoken out in defense of the club and attacked those who have done so much damage to our club. He could have said that he no longer wanted to play in the Scottish game over what has transpired. Instead his statement was filled with as much squirming uncertainty as that which he claimed had forced him to make this decision. It was clearly a difficult decision for both players to make never mind announce. In their defense they do at least deserve some credit for doing so rather than sneaking away and allowing media speculation to do the talking for them like others have done. They unfortunately didn't do a very good job of it. That's all.

Don't agree, but I also won't be wasting any time defending him.

I do wonder if the contract clauses they had inserted had them covered for our current situation. Possibly not. In which case accepting their TUPE transfer could have left them in a position where the club would have been holding out for close to their book value. Needless to say if we don't get back into the SPL, I don't think the club is going to be difficult to negotiate with over transfer fees for our higher paid players.

Possibly, depends where he ends up and how he's utilised. Could be a decent midfielder to some teams. Might even manage to reinvent himself as a proper RB. Unlike those who left with our best wishes however, I won't be wasting any time on tracking his progress.

It's unsurprising, understandable even given that Ally felt the transfer embargo would be enough alone to spark an exodus. It's also unforgivable though. I don't wish ...well anything really for the players who abandon us at this stage. They're lost to us.

Have to agree with that. Now the excuses are starting to roll out ...blaming Green for not giving them full disclosure on investors etc. Bullshit. They've let the club, the coaching staff, the fans and themselves down with this action. They could have been legends. Instead they decided to jump ship. Now they may be free to carry on their careers elsewhere, but they will live to regret this decision. They'll have fond memories of Ibrox and the adulation they received, but that's all they should have. Exile is what this deserves.

While your optimism is commendable, don't kid yourself into thinking our 3 year ride would be full of fanfare from welcoming supporters happy to have their turn at filling the stands with our support and being blown away by the mere sight of our magnificent team. We would be completely decimated. A skeleton squad of die hard Jig types (we've only got one of those btw) to compliment the few youths who haven't yet had their shot at the first team. It might gradually improve as we work our way up through the divisions, but barring a HUGE financial injection at the end of the tunnel when we return to the SPL we'll be struggling to compete let alone win anything. Ochilview Park has a capacity of 3,776 with 626 seated according to that useful resource known as 'Wikipedia'.

I wouldn't wish what we've had to endure over the past few months on my worst enemy. Honestly I wouldn't. This whole witch hunt's been conjured up and fueled by the same propaganda machine that hit us repeatedly with one 'sectarianism' shit storm after another over recent years. Honest and loyal fans of all clubs have been brainwashed into thinking that this notion of 'sporting integrity' somehow means that Rangers shouldn't be allowed to exist let alone continue in the SPL. What reasonable minded football supporter would contact their own club threatening not to renew their season ticket should the club vote favorably for the survival of a fellow club? Like I was saying in another thread, I hope we can find a route out of Scottish football entirely (political asylum perhaps?) as this problem won't go away and we're certainly not the ones to solve it.

I would like to think that other fans like yourself will follow on no matter what. However, dropping to the third division is almost as bad as it could possibly get for Rangers and not something we could hope to recover from over any short period of time. Yes, other clubs could suffer for it, but unlike what would appear to be the majority of fans in Scottish football at this point in time, I'm not the least bit interested in any club other than my own.

What exactly makes you think that we'll be welcomed with open arms in the 3rd division? Do you think the fans of those clubs will for some reason have been living in a bubble for the past five months and won't have been fooled into thinking they've formed their own opinion just like the rest of Scottish football?

Thing is there aren't any realistic alternatives. What's realistic about thinking the real issues we're facing here would be resolved by dropping to the third division? Does anyone really think we'd be working our way back to anything but the foolish, narrow minded, hate filled cesspit we left behind? Scottish football has well and truly imploded and we are currently and shall remain the scapegoat. There's no getting around that. If we're not accepted now we never will be. So what are the alternatives? England: The English league system comprises of a pyramid that should an application to join be accepted we might be able to work a deal to join at a reasonable level, but could just as easily find ourselves having to work our way up through 20 leagues. The alternative would be to buy an existing club. This isn't likely to go down well with the supporters of said club, unless of course we were to give the local community a reason to support such a move. Foreign: Applying to join a foreign league (German or French for instance) would be no different technically to applying to the English league. Sure, you might ask why on earth would they even give such a request consideration? In the case of Germany I see a sizeable local fanbase and no shortage of friendly clubs who may be willing to support us in our application. It works well with a fan ownership model, would be good for the tourist trade of both countries and even if we had to start from the bottom that's just 6 levels to the pyramid. Euro league: This one's the most ambitious of the lot and despite being spoke about with a similar level of inevitability as the OF playing in the English prem it's by far the most hazardous. I would imagine that the likelihood of setting up such a league system within one or two years is low but still possible. Could we survive by only playing friendlies in the meantime though and would it be worth the risk?

Exactly. Like I said when Newco was first mentioned and we had talk of SFL3, why would we want to go through the hardship of working our way up from the bottom just to come back to this? No matter how slim a chance, there will never be a better opportunity for us to leave Scottish football and we should be giving the SFA as little power as possible to stand in our way.

Don't think it would stop the SPL vote from taking place. If the SPL vote goes against us however, it wouldn't leave the SFA holding all the cards.

I think we should withhold / withdraw our application for SFA membership until the SPL vote has taken place and make them sweat.

While I think that the OP may have a point in terms of their spending not all being above board - they did after all manage to match and even better our spending on transfers and wages during many of our seasons of supposedly doing so excessively - my point remains that they won't be taken to task over it without significant evidence or otherwise reason for the authorities to investigate. Like Craig says, the EBT one is insignificant. It was inherited from his Middlesborough contract apparently. Other forms of tax avoidance / evasion could yet come back to bite them in the arse if it boils down to undisclosed payments as in our case to answer to the SPL. Debt doesn't count though. Even Dundee were £23m in debt when they went into admin first time round, purely through buying players they couldn't afford and thus giving themselves an 'unfair sporting advantage'. Similar accusations could be made against Motherwell. Both got off scot free.

I agree. I would hope even a showman like CG would appreciate that it was ridiculous enough (even for a club the size of Rangers) to suggest names like those as transfer targets. Like I was trying to say (just missed out the word 'than') it's probably better to namedrop household names if you're going to namedrop at all. Didn't make it sound any better though.

They might not be rushing into a panic sale of the club right now. At least not while there's still a chance we could stay in the SPL. If we end up in Div3 the assets, both playing and property, are another story entirely. Yes, we might just be able to turn a profit on our 3 year route back from Div3 if we become a feeder club for the EPL, championship and dare I say the SPL.

Have to agree with Zappa that it was pretty cringe worthy. Then again it's probably better name dropping a couple of players we might be genuinely interested in at our current level ....whatever that is.

Fair point, but unless they go into administration or have a witch hunt conducted against them by the media, then the SFA / SPL won't have justification or motivation to investigate these indiscretions.