Like Aldershot Town is considered the same as Aldershot FC which went bust in 1992 and still plays at the same ground but the prize money from last season is not 'new' Rangers money as that cash should go to the creditors of the old club that went bust.

Starting again in England in the lowest league would be a dream come true. For me anyway. Scottish football is finished imo. No TV money to attract the top players.

As for the independence thing, just madness. It won't get through in 2014 I wouldn't think. But it will never go away now. They'll keep trying.

That's a reasonable point R. I don't know what is planned for the money that's withheld by the SPL.

I'd like to see Rangers start in League 2 as it would give a boost to the teams there and help them out with their finances. Couldn't do it this coming season but in the future ?

Me too, Rangers apparently looked into buying Burys registration but the Bury board didn't want to kill their team and have it move to Glasgow. Maybe another struggling teams board might do in the future. It's an unlikely option though at the moment.

Sorry Gaz, as much as I hate to see this happen to teams, Pompey too, I don't think Rangers should be allowed to move to the English Leagues, and I think Swansea and Cardiff should be kicked out too fwiw...... (hides from Gonzo)

Is Maine Road still vacant? Rangers would be an improvement there....

it's had houses built on most of it.... but it may suit Rangers, the roads have been painted blue :clapping:

we call them 'slums.':toilet:

you may have slums, that part of town looks ok now to be fair.

I'm just watching the April derby again :thumbsup:

Bill, talk of a move to England has disappeared. I don't think it's an option, at least not just now.

Motherwell are in the Champion League qualifiers representing Scotland. I'd be surprised if, off the top of your head, you could name any Motherwell players. You can see now why I'd like a move to England !

England doesn't need the Old Firm. The Police wouldn't like it either. Whenever there are preseason friendlies with English teams, there always seems to be trouble. Sky TV might like it but they don't have enough power to get it through.

At this moment in time, Rangers are weak and miles off the standard of top flight football in England. They do however have a massive support and I'd think in time if given the chance they could rise in England to be an outside contender. Would you not like to see the Old Firm in England ? In Scotland Rangers can pull in 50,000 and Celtic 60,000 for home games and that's just against the pish up here. If it was Man U, City, Liverpool etc coming up here they could be massive.

If you ever come to English football, and I have shifted position a bit after talking to friends, you should start in the evostick league or whatever it is these days.

I agree that it would be good for you lot to be here in the English Leagues, but with your country trying for independence (which I would grant you immediately by the way) I can't see how it's going to happen.

Again though, I would HATE to see Celtic and that vile ginger cunt Lennon (who happens to be a City fan I will add) prosper. I despise everything that club stands for.

I will add I think it's rancid the way some owners fuck the fans over.

pompey, stockport, rangers, few more will go that way soon too.

The bottom league is all Rangers are good for just now. I don't even know what sort of team will turn out against Brechin tomorrow in this Ramsdens Cup, lol. As a new team the bottom is where you go...

Scottish independence isn't something most people really talk about here or want. I think the referendum will show that. It's crazy. If you have any assets - a house, savings, etc. Why take the risk of starting some new country. If you have none of these things then, wa-hey, freeeedom ! Jeremy Paxman crucified Alex Salmond on Newsnight this year. Scotland would run at a deficit every year and be a Zimbabwe style economic disaster. It's a non starter.

Lets say you hate Celtic, it would still be good to see them playing your team. Playing them is the highlight of our season !

:cheers:

Richard Gough in The Scottish Sun on Sunday..

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scot...-knows-it.html

JUST who is Neil Lennon trying to kid?
The Celtic manager has come out and said that my old club should lose their championships.

But he knows himself that you can NEVER take away the feeling of winning the SPL — or even walking up the steps of Hampden to lift a cup.

People seem to want to take yet another kick at the club and I agree with Ally McCoist that enough is enough.

Everything has been agreed to get Rangers their SFA membership but there is still talk of taking the titles away if an investigation goes against them.

It would be a symbolic move but what’s the point? What does it achieve? NOTHING.

When you win a title or lift a Scottish Cup it’s all about the memories and that’s something that can never be erased.

You can’t turn back the clock and tell people they didn’t win something even though they got their hands on the trophy.

You can get the Tipp-ex out and change the record books but what you can’t do is take away from the supporters the way they celebrated on those occasions.

And the players who won those titles won’t suddenly feel like losers because a bit of paper has been changed to say they haven’t won it after all.

For me those titles were won fair and square.

I saw someone compare it to drugs cheats in the Tour de France but that’s rubbish.

What Rangers are accused of is trying to dodge the taxman, not cheat the opposition on the park. It would be a different story if it was match fixing like we saw in Italy — but this was nothing to do with the team, it was accountants and lawyers.

Having a tax scheme in place didn’t make the players run any faster or shoot any straighter, they still had to go out and beat the opposition.

The titles issue seems to be the thing that held up Rangers’ SFA membership and I would expect Ally to continue fighting the SPL if they persist in wanting to take anything off the club. Ally wasn’t happy on Friday night and he has made his feelings known.

I completely agree with where he’s coming from.

It’s time the SPL stopped taking cheap shots and for everyone’s sake get back to focusing on football again.

Because of financial problems the club has been sent to Division Three, has lost a lot of the top players, has a transfer embargo coming up, has been fined and have been denied their prize money from the SPL last season.

Is that not enough?

The Rangers fans have been suffering and what did they do wrong? Nothing.

The supporters have turned up in big numbers every week, supporting the team at home and away — which also swells the coffers of the other clubs.

They have not been to blame for what’s happened at Ibrox but they are the ones seeing their club given a doing when its down.

And even after all the punishments handed down to Rangers the SPL still want to feed off the TV money they’re going to bring in.

Rangers are a massive club and will always attract huge interest.

The SPL know this and although they said they don’t want the club in their league they still want to live off the back of them. It’s hypocritical.

The level of interest will be shown at Brechin today where news crews from all over Europe will be present to see the club start this new chapter.

It’s going to be strange to see a club the size of Rangers playing at that level but that’s the way it is and that’s what most of the Gers fans wanted.

It’s time to get on with it and start playing football again. I’m sure that’s what Ally and the players are desperate for.

Turning up at Glebe Park today and putting that blue jersey on will be a huge release for everyone at the club and for 90 minutes at least they will be able to forget about everything that’s been going on.

The players will be determined to show the fans — and everyone else — that Rangers are ready to fight their way back.

It doesn’t matter what the company is called — Ally is the manager, the club is playing at Ibrox and the fans are the same. It’s still the same Rangers.

The supporters are wary, and rightly so.

I think the right thing for them to do is to back Ally and the players by going to the games — but pay at the gate.

But until the fans are sure about the direction the club is being taken in then they’re definitely right to hang fire on buying season tickets.

^

As an outsider looking in, his points make a lot of sense.


What has HMRC( the taxman) done for football in Britain?

Overall received a lot of money from it.

Having Rangers join the English leagues is one thing, but I would say no to Celtic. After witnessing the moronic anti English behavior of their fans at a friendly against Leicester, I would think the last thing they would want is to have to follow their team to England once a fortnight.

As for Alex Salmond, did you see Jeff Randle take him apart last week? I really dislike Salmond, but actually felt embarrassed for him. He is fast becoming a figure of fun, and I would think the last person any self respecting Scot would want to be associated with.

Dodge paying their taxes means more money to spunk on wastes of spaces like Flo etc and is cheating so yes if they admit to that then any trophies won should be taken away.

Financial cheating is just as bad as drug cheats as it is not a level playing field and anyone who says it is only the taxman then I just hope that one day you don't have to use the NHS or anything else funded by taxes.

As someone who doesn't live in this country you can condone cunts like that but I can't as my taxes go to pay for my NHS and if people don't pay their share then others pay more.

Hope they take every cup they ever won now and melt the fuckers down as they are worthless

I'm sure that fenian cunt lennon will run into some pissed off Rangers fans 1 night and pay for his opportunism, then we'll have to put up with him playing and being portrayed by the liberal left as the innocent martyr in "the ugly side of Scottish football"

And Lennon is just as bad dodging his taxes but luckily he has been done and look at that cunt Hartson, lets the NHS save his life then dodges paying his taxes.

Truly sickening.

What a complete and utter crock of shit that is Roland.

Methinks you are on a wind up as that is complete and utter bullshit.

Any trophy that was won when they were cheating the tax man to buy and pay for players was by cheating so they should be taken away from them. Might only be a gesture but the same should be done to any team including Portsmouth who won their FA Cup by cheating too.

Man u got caught chesting the ta man again ,but nothing wa done about it. Thay have suddenly found the club shop profits have never been included for years.

Rangers haven't been found guilty of dodging tax. The case of the Employee Benefit Trust's which HMRC was bringing to court has never been heard. When David Murray sold Rangers to Craig Whyte for £1. The case was hanging over the club. But David Murray said that his legal advisors and accountants were 'optimistic' that they would win the case. Craig Whyte has since taken Rangers into administration for not paying tax on players wages. There was the 'Big' tax case and the 'Small' tax case. The 'Big' tax case has never been heard. It was the 'Small' tax case that finished Rangers.

The EBT's were in Rangers accounts which were signed off by the SFA every year when they gave Rangers a licence to play football. So they can't say they weren't aware of them. What they are saying now though is that these are 'dual contracts' which are against their rules. But they let Rangers use them without query for years. They were never a secret in the clubs accounts.

Now the people wanting to strip Rangers of titles and honours are the football organisations themselves.

Look at John Terry for a moment. I was talking to a lawyer about him in the gym before his trial. He thought going to court was better than an FA hearing. In a criminal case in court the burden of proof was not sufficient for a conviction. Had it been an FA inquiry the same burden of proof wouldn't have been required as in a court of law. So he would have been punished.

No way are some kangaroo court of SPL/ SFA chairmen and muppets that work for their organisations like Regan fit people to judge Rangers. No chance, not without all this going to a proper court and the HMRC case being contested.

Someone sent me a link to this, an interesting documentary I thought.

Good documentary Gaz

Where do you draw the line between sport and money?

An Olympic runner up complained that the winner had an unfair advantage as their nation provided a better diet, more beef, I kid you not.

Should the winner be stripped of their title?

Should an entire football club and it`s supporters suffer due to the apparent misdemeanour of one, perhaps in collusion with others?


Can history be wiped out that easily?

I don`t even really follow football, which was behind my " insider looking in "comment rather than my residential status.


Your taxes might just be going to fund wars in which we have no right to get involved in.

Also to provide housing and NHS care for those that have never contributed to this country, one I`m proud to be a citizen of.

Your taxes might also be going towards the £300 million revamp of the Houses of Parliament a couple of years back.

It also provides for those who find it too stressful to work and would rather live on benefits.


Maybe some need to take control of their own lives.

You obviously rate the NHS, I don`t, fair enough, yet have made no effort to stop paying for it whilst being unlikely to benefit from it.

Can I have a refund?

Stop talking sense Roamer, Roland doesn't understand it.

:thankyou:

Rangers have now cleared their debts in Scotland...

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/f...-debts-1257144

The Peterhead game and lucky 2-2 away draw is a wake up call. Even though the team didn't have a proper preseason and some new faces are settling in, this is going to be a long miserable campaign ahead.

:unionflag:

Rangers at war with the SFA and SPL... here we go !

Rangers chairman, Charles Green addresses fans queuing for season tickets.

Charles Green has accused Scottish football's authorities of pursuing an agenda against Rangers.

The chief executive, addressing fans queuing to buy their season tickets on Tuesday, said he intended to continue to defend his club, even if it meant incurring the wrath of the Scottish FA.

Green is already facing a charge for claiming the decision to place Rangers in the Third Division was partly driven by “bigotry” but says he won't stop speaking his mind.

“We're not having, excuse my French, people taking the pee out of us anymore,” said Green. “It's finished.

“I will give you an example. This morning, I had a phone call from the SPL telling us we can't put our old games on the website because we don't own the archive rights.

“'And by the way, Charles, don't get angry. You shouldn't think we are being vindictive, it's just what the agreement says".

“Tell me how I took that? I was walking on the ceiling. I think there is an agenda.

“There's still battles to be won. I shan't let you down. I said to someone earlier that when everyone was against us, we stayed. People are now warming to us and we are staying.

“But if we leave fans to one side for a moment, while ever that lot are against us, I'm not leaving. There's no-one spoke for this club for three or four years. It's not had anyone standing up.

“I am going to get fined every week, I suspect, or I will get banned.”

Rangers were issued a Notice of Complaint by the Scottish FA late last week regarding Green's comments, having been accused of bringing the game into disrepute for his remarks.

He said before his side's Challenge Cup tie with Brechin City: "Some of it has been driven by bigotry, some of its been driven by jealousy and some of its been driven by all the wrong motives."

As fans queued for season tickets, Green said their contribution would directly affect the amount of money available to manager Ally McCoist to bring in new players.

"I made a promise to Ally the other day," he said. "You can't see it but there is a sign up there and I said 'While the queue for tickets is this side of that line, we will keep signing players he wants to sign for the club."

In response to Green's comments about Rangers being unable to use SPL archive footage on their website, a spokesman for the league told STV: "Rangers were indeed informed this morning that, following their exit from the SPL, they do not currently have permission to use SPL-owned media content.

"However, during that same conversation, Rangers were also invited to meet with us to discuss the future use of that content. We look forward to meeting with them."

http://sport.stv.tv/football/149577-...tish-football/

Here's a diagram for you to illustrate what Charles Green is talking about...

Guys if I'm boring you. Tell me to stop ! Anyway here's a little trivia fact for you... Rangers are poised to break a world record tomorrow. A record that has been held by Crystal Palace since 1961.

RANGERS are set to smash the world attendance record for a fourth-tier league match when they host East Stirling tomorrow.

The Ibrox side are confident of pulling in more than 40,000 punters for their first home Third Division fixture – which would shatter the previous highest for a fourth-tier game set by Crystal Palace in 1961.

A crowd of 37,774 watched their English Fourth Division clash with London rivals Millwall but that is expected to be dwarfed by Gers fans heading to Govan for the historic occasion.

A crowd that could be in the mid-to-high 40,000s is already being anticipated by Rangers.

And the final figure could present an embarrassment for the SPL whose combined attendance for last weekend’s five-game fixture card was 40,383.

The Ibrox club are bracing themselves for a bumper crowd and a spokesman said: “We will comfortably get past the 40,000 mark and the attendance could be in the mid-to-high 40,000s.”

Ally McCoist’s side have already smashed the 30,000 season-ticket barrier and are also threatening to better the world record attendance for a third-tier match.

That feat was achieved in 1979 as 49,655 fans turned up to watch a derby game between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United.

Punters have been queueing at the Ibrox ticket office all week and an afternoon of history against the Shire is on the cards both on and off the park.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/f...medium=twitter

It's not REALLY a fourth tier match tho is it mate?

I mean, Palace v Millwall was a genuine league match from teams in their rightful place... if you get what I mean?

btw, good luck for the season, really hope you have 3 great years and piss off them green fuckers.

Well I'd say it is a fourth tier match really. Rangers are in that divison now. Actually Bill all this talk of world records etc doesn't half wind Celtic fans up lol They really don't like it ! It's great. Wonder what Palace v Millwal was like back in the 70's. Bet that was some atmosphere, better than Rangers v East Stirling that's for sure.

Might go to the annan game next month gaz...... Few lads from doom going apparantly

Enjoy the game if you do go. I'd love to go to some games but I work every weekend so it's a no-go for me.

:cheers:

Thanks for the info' soi 2, keep it coming, we are not getting a true account of thinned down here.

Not something I`d usually follow but finding it a really interesting saga.

Keep it going and Good Luck.


:cheers:

Making heavy weather of it again

I heard it was quite funny. Charles Green came to give a quick speech and rev the place up. The atmosphere was supposedly amazing, kick off.. East Stirlingshire go up the park, get a penalty and score.. cue.. silence !

The Celtic anoraks have been busy searching for fourth tier football facts and unfortunately todays attendance isn't a world record.

http://www.soccersanchez.com/apps/bl...brazil-serie-a


It is hard to believe that a fourth tier football match anywhere in the world could attract a mass crowd to any fixture during a season, but when you hear that just under 60,000 people in Brazil took their seats for such a game you probably wont be too surprised. This was the case when in a Serie D promotion play-off between Santa Cruz and Treze.

The first leg finished 3-3 and important away goals for Santa Cruz, they had come back from 3-1 down to draw level and knew they would get huge support from their fans in the return leg. They weren't disappointed.

The official attendance was 59,966, an amazing turnout for two lower league clubs in Brazil and with the second leg finishing 0-0, it was enough for the Pernambuco side, long regarded as one of the best supported in the country.

Despite the fact Santa Cruz play in such a low division they regularly attract big crowds and are now set for the dizzy heights of Serie C. Oeste and Missaoi were also promoted.


Finished 5-1 and 2-1 back at half time so not too bad overall.

Today's victory was an attendance of 49, 118. The SPL had a combined total attendance of 32,487. I'll take that. :smoke: