Scottish football’s D-Day will be Friday the 13th.
After a long, drawn-out saga of what to do with Rangers, the ball has landed at the feet of the Scottish Football League to decide which division the new Ibrox club will be playing their football in next season the First or the Third.
SFL chief executive David Longmuir announced on Thursday that all the lower-league clubs will meet at Hampden a week today to come up with a way forward for the fast-approaching new campaign.
Only after that will Dundee and Dunfermline also know what league they will be in, as Longmuir’s opposite number at the SPL, Neil Doncaster, has insisted they will not confirm the identity of Club 12 until that point.
In the wake of an SFL board meeting, Longmuir said: ”A specially convened meeting of all clubs is planned for next Friday.”
Longmuir called for the 30 clubs to be given time and space to make their decision after some claimed they had been ”bullied” into accepting the newco club in the Irn-Bru First Division.
SFA chief executive Stewart Regan has claimed the game faces a ”slow, lingering death” if the Ibrox club have to restart in the Third the Rangers fans’ preferred option.
Regan claimed SPL clubs, who rejected the new company’s top-flight application on Wednesday, stand to lose £15.7 million if that is the case.
Longmuir stated: ”The time has come for all outside influences and pressures to stop. So I ask all other bodies to leave it to those who have been put in this invidious position to make a decision in the best possible interests of the game.
”I have every faith in the judgment of those clubs and their boards to make a decision, considered and reasoned, which will be in the best interests of the game how it’s structured, how it’s governed and how it’s financed.”
Longmuir added: ”Our colleagues in the SPL as well are keen to ensure we do something that’s going to take the game forward.
”Our job over the next week or so is to consult with colleagues in both SPL and SFA to make sure that what we’re about to do is for the benefit and interests of the game.”
Regan stated the SFA could not allow the new Rangers to enter the Third Division, given the financial consequences, but Longmuir insisted SFL clubs will have a say.
Longmuir said: ”The SFL clubs clearly have choices, but what we plan to do is make the choices very, very clear to them. We will do this by giving them the right information and to work over the next week to pull together the plan that’s going to take the game forward through this mini-crisis and put us on a better place so this time next year we’re looking forward to getting the ball back on the pitch and playing football.
“Technically, the SFA, as governing body, have the power to influence just about every decision taken in the game, but I believe with proper collaboration we can get everybody onside with this.”
Longmuir said the first question put to the 30 clubs will be: ”Are the SFL in a position to accommodate Rangers into the Scottish Football League?”
But he did not clarify the follow-up questions or details of the voting structures they will use.
He said: ”It will be a straightforward majority for the first question. That fundamental question we’re going to ask will be supplemented by further resolutions that we would have to implement to change our rules, which have different voting requirements.
”Some require two-thirds, some require straightforward majorities. That will be made clear to clubs before next week.”Pars chief rejects Regan’s claimsDunfermline Athletic chairman John Yorkston does not buy into Regan’s ”slow and lingering death” analysis.
Yorkston believes Regan’s comments will not change the minds of many SFL chairmen.
”That’s his view and not everybody sees it like that,” he said. ”A lot of folk are very strong on the integrity angle of things. It will mean more money out of the game certainly, but every cloud has a silver lining.
”If we don’t have the money to bring in these foreign players, then we’ll have to develop our own young ones. That might be good for the game in Scotland all these young Scottish players getting regular games.
”I think the tone at the meeting on Tuesday, at the start of the meeting, was for Rangers to go to the Third Division. I think one or two folk, when they realised the financial implications, said they would have to go back to their boards and then take guidance, but I still think the overwhelming majority will vote Rangers into the Third Division.”
The last thing Yorkston wants is for SFL clubs to defer their ruling further.
”I think we’ve got to make a decision next week,” he added.” We need to know what division we’re in. We need to know where we are, what teams we’re playing and we need to get on with it.”
Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Wire