Monday 13 February 2012

COMMENT: Rangers FC goes into administration

With the ongoing financial worries for many clubs it was, perhaps, thought that the major problems were restricted to the likes of Portsmouth and Darlington. No one, it seems, was prepared for a big club to get into trouble and go into administration, but that's exactly what's happened today.


Rangers has a long and successful history in the Scottish League and many would see them and their fierce rivals Celtic as clubs who were surely safe from financial woes. The past couple of years have, though, been financially problematic for Rangers, despite big crowds and revenue being generated. Today they have announced that they're going into administration. This could save them or it could end with the club going out of business.

Surely, Rangers are too big a club to go bust?

It's time football sorted itself out. The UK can only really sustain 16, maybe 20, fully professional clubs. Players have to play their part and accept that their excessive wage demands are at the heart of many team's worries. And we need a UK league.

A UK league has been discussed many times before and, in all reality, it would be an Anglo-Scottish league, but that could the one saving grace for Rangers.

Alex Salmond won't like this because it shows how fragile many Scottish businesses already are. How many will go to the wall if he manages to win independence?

Personally I'd favour a franchise system for UK football, as in American sports, so that each part of the UK was guaranteed a team. Sure, it bucks with history but a new approach is what is needed. After all, if Rangers go bust, how long til Celtic follow? Liverpool? Manchester United?

Rangers would, in all likelihood, struggle in the English Premier League but the television money might help savd their scalp.

The FA and SFA need to act now to stop the implosion of lots of clubs on dodgy financial footing, or being propped up by one wealthy benefactor who could turn their back on a whim. HMRC would be doing the future of football a lot of favours if they forced some of the clubs with huge tax bills hanging over them out of business. It's time for a professional game fit for the 21st century.

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