What Now For Rangers?

The announcement that HMRC would oppose the CVA proposal for rescuing Rangers FC is just a few hours old, and I thought that a quick post was due. However, I do not have any new information. I just wanted to move this blog-page along.

As it starts to sink in that The Rangers Football Club plc is now destined to end in corporate failure and liquidation, the questions are coming thick and fast as to what happens next.

The simplest answer is that there are too many permutations to provide a certain path forward. HMRC had previously indicated that they would want Duff & Phelps replaced by BDO as liquidators. I expect that they will want ‘clean hands’ from this point on and that there will be fresh faces atop the marble staircase within a few days. However, it is possible that the liquidators will want to proceed with an asset sale to Green. Other bidders may emerge (or reemerge).

Given the tiny amounts that would be raised in a public fire-sale, it does appear that an asset sale to a newco is almost certain. So a new organisation purporting to represent the legacy of The Rangers Football Club plc will emerge.  However, if they are to be playing in any league next season the asset sale will have to be unopposed. If there are legal challenges to a sale, we could see at least one season without any Rangers-type team.

The focus will soon turn to the SFA and the SPL. The ruling bodies of professional football in Scotland have the responsibility to determine whether a newco attempting to transfer Rangers’ league ‘share’ and SFA membership will be allowed to join the top flight of the Scottish game- and if so- when. What must be clear is that any organisation that has bought another club’s share / membership must also face the punishments that awaited the old club. To allow a newco-Rangers to ditch its legacy responsibilities will be to set an expectation that others can do likewise. The battleground is now going to shift and we can expect a massive effort to convince us that an SPL without Rangers would be unbearable.