We Don’t Do Walking Away: Where next for Rangers?

Exclusive online columnist Lucy Wiliams questions the implications of Rangers FC and the SPL following their unfortunate move into administration

As a Glasgow Rangers fan I have experienced some particularly low times. Finishing in third place and having to endure Hearts fans mock us at our own ground; through to enduring bitterly freezing temperatures in Inverness to watch us being yet again out-played by a team lower than us in the league under the infamous reign of Paul Le Guen.

Yet, nothing has left me and my fellow Rangers fans out in the cold as much as this past week. From now on, Valentine’s Day will certainly live on in our memories for quite the opposite of reasons that it is supposed to. It was this day of 2012 that witnessed the confirmation of our beloved club’s relegation into the dooms of administration.

With 54 league championship successes, Rangers hold the accolade of having won more league titles than any other football club in the world. It is this fact and the impressive domestic trophy cabinet to boot that does not match-up to the club’s current financial crisis. Where did it all go wrong? The everyday season ticket holder and ordinary man cannot begin to comprehend the financial nature and complexities surrounding the decision for Rangers to go into administration. The shock is still palpable.

Despite, a recent media frenzy and a flurry of ominous headlines on the back pages surrounding the financial position of Rangers, a very small minority anticipated or predicted Tuesday’s events. When Craig Whyte came into power as Rangers chairman in May last year, it was seen as a new dawn for the club. Yet, since the takeover, the truth of the matter is, a nine million pound PAYE and VAT bill has not been paid, there is a twenty-four million pound black hole in the club’s accounts, and there looks to be an overall total debt of a staggering seventy-five million pounds.

Accusations of extravagant and careless spending have been thrown towards Whyte’s predecessor, David Murray, who ruled at Rangers in the ‘glamour’ of the 90s when the likes of Giovanni Van Bronckhorst , Brian Laudrup and Jorg Albertz pulled on the royal blue jersey. Millions were forked out for these stars, however no real success was obtained in Europe, which was required to subsidise the Rangers coffers. Perhaps this discrepancy set in motion the long term damage that was to come. Although, Murray did inject one hundred million pounds of his own money into the club and witnessed Rangers reach the UEFA Cup Final in 2008 with a team comprised of a strong home-grown contingent, thus proving that multi-million pound foreign stars are not a necessity for success.

The truth is though is that not one sole person can be blamed for Rangers’ present financial quagmire. This is not a time for the fans to be pointing the finger of blame or taking part in aggressive protests. Judgment should wait until the administrators, Duff and Phelps, release a full report into the club’s finances. Rangers FC are about to embark on their most important match of its 140 year history: it is one of football’s greatest institutions versus the fearsome tax man who is seeking to drain them of every last penny. Rangers need unity and full scale support more than ever. Obviously, the issue of missing tax payments has to be followed up for legal and moral reasons, but it is in the interest of the continuation of Scottish football, and in the best interests of Scottish society as a whole, that a solution be reached.

In light of last Tuesday’s events, Peter Lawlell, the chief executive of Celtic, foolishly came out and claimed the demise of the blue half of Glasgow would have no real effect on his football club. Quite a deluded and ignorant statement to make in consideration of the fact that Rangers and Celtic comprise one of the fiercest rivalries in the footballing world; it is this Old Firm rivalry that makes each of the teams who they are.

Any substitute rival that Celtic could possibly find in the absence of Rangers would be menial in comparison to a rivalry that has spanned over three centuries. So whilst Celtic fans are rubbing their hands with glee at the current plight of their oldest enemy, they should actually be keeping their fingers crossed that Rangers keep in business, as anything to the contrary would only mean the demise of Celtic FC as a footballing giant too.

In fact, the end of the Old Firm would entail the end of any vigour left in Scottish football at all; a league that is already suffering at the hands of financial inferiority would pass into obscurity, and would inevitably make it even easier for many followers of the English game to flippantly belittle the SPL as a ‘mickey-mouse league’.  As can be seen by the response to the events of the past week, the phrase ‘it’s only a game of football’ certainly does not apply in Scotland, and most particularly, Glasgow, a city in which football has an unrivalled history and is an integral part of everyday life. It would be a footballing travesty if Rangers, its brand and its institution were to dissolve.

The Rangers manager Ally McCoist issued a rallying call to the fans by defiantly saying that ‘we don’t do walking away’, and whilst the sell-out crowd for the home game against Kilmarnock certainly proves that we are ready for the fight, hopefully the rest of the footballing world will not walk away from holding onto the future of Rangers either. It would be in their best interests not to.