As the sale of Rangers appears to be coming to a close, it seems timely to discuss what this means for the history of the club.
In summary, the plan is this: Bill Miller creates a NewCo and pays the administrators for Rangers’ assets – the stadium, training facility and players. There is some dispute over whether the players have to transfer to the NewCo but lets leave that aside for now.
This leaves behind Old Rangers, still in administration and owned by Craig Whyte and now with somewhere in the region of £11million extra to wave at creditors in the hope of achieving a CVA.
Now if the CVA goes ahead then all is well and assuming Bill Miller can acquire Craig Whyte’s shareholding then he can marry the NewCo who have the assets and Old Rangers who have the history.
However.
If the creditors do not accept the CVA and Old Rangers is liquidated then their history is gone and so is any chance to play in Europe for the next three years (due to UEFA’s rule that a club must have been playing for three years before entry into European competition). On the SPL front, it looks increasingly like Rangers will be there next year no matter what happens as it seems business interests have already trumped sporting integrity. It hasn’t been formalised and I would be happy to be proven wrong but I think Rangers NewCo will be in the SPL if Old Rangers are liquidated.
Some will argue, that a team who plays in blue, called Rangers, at Ibrox is still the same club and has the same history. Not so. The precedent has already been established in Scottish football and it happened this season. In the Challenge Cup Final.
How you may ask does Falkirk (founded 1876) beating Hamilton Academical (founded 1874) 1-0 to win the Challenge Cup tell us anything about preserving history in Scottish football? Well, it doesn’t or at least not in itself. This statement featured in many places including in this BBC article does though “The Bairns become the first club to win the Challenge Cup for a fourth time.”
So no other club has won the cup four times? Except Airdrie, if we were to recognise Airdrie United (founded 2002) as an unbroken continuation of Airdrieonians (dissolved 2002). But as the statement shows – we don’t. Airdrieonians won the cup three times and Airdrie United once but when it is separate entities you don’t just add them together and so Falkirk are the first team to win it four times.
This means, if a CVA cannot be achieved, the next time Rangers win the league it will be the first time not the 55th. The next time they win the Scottish Cup it will be the first time not the 34th. The next time they win the League Cup it will be the first time not the 28th. This of course may not happen in the first season due to ongoing financial problems.
The NewCo will also not have Old Rangers single European honour and should not dare to play with five stars on their shirt. All of this is clearly why the Blue Knights have made so much of their desire to only proceed with a CVA and why Bill Miller’s silence on the subject speaks volumes.
It’s going to be Rangers next year (probably), but not as we know them.
Always play to the whistle! 