RETIRED farmer David Rae has seen enough ploughed fields to know the Rangers saga has soiled Scottish football’s reputation for ever...
reoprts the Daily Record
But the Queen of the South majority shareholder has urged SFL clubs to bite the bullet and ditch “sporting integrity” in favour of financial sense by voting the Ibrox newco into the First Division.
As chairman of the Palmerston club, the highly-respected forward thinker within the game in this country is adamant the cash v conscience argument should be a no-brainer at Hampden today.
He said: “People are quite right to believe Rangers should be put into the Third Division but it does nothing for our game’s financial practicalities.
“Everything has to come back to that. To put Rangers into the Third Division wouldn’t be clever – it would be a bad decision.
“Scottish football as a whole means a great deal to me so I’ll be interested in the decision. As the major shareholder by quite a large margin at Queen of the South it’s something which will have a huge bearing on my club.
“It’s crystal clear Rangers must be punished for the sake of the sport’s integrity. Without question or doubt they should be sent down to the Third.
“But it’s about looking at the practicalities of the whole set-up and system with regard to the financial side. I believe there will be clubs in the SPL who will struggle to survive if Rangers move into the Third.”
The deadline has now arrived for the paupers of the Scottish game to raise their hands and make a judgment that will have historic ramifications for the sport.
But Rae was scathing about the role the SFA have played in this debacle and accused the Hampden hierarchy of shirking their responsibilities.
He said: “This is a great chance for the Scottish League to do something about that.
“The only trouble is there is now so little time to decide. The saga has been allowed to drag on for far too long.
“It’s been an absolute disgrace and my belief is the SFA have just sat in their ivory tower, shut their eyes and done nothing.
“They were hoping something would happen around them and they could then come out with some sort of statement. They should have been far more active, far more demanding in pushing this issue forward.
“We’ve all had enough of the meetings, the delays and the speculation. There needs to be a decision taken on Friday because it can’t be allowed to drag on.
“Our chairman, Billy Hewitson, will go to Hampden and make a decision, make no mistake about that.
“My belief is he will vote for Rangers to be placed into the First Division.
“I spoke to him and he believes Rangers will be allowed into the First because of the practicalities.”
Which way the vote will go remains in the balance and Rae reckons it’s wishful thinking for the Rangers manager and the Ibrox fans to hope to be allowed to start life again in the bottom rung.
He said: “We are still talking things through and it’s at a critical stage but this is a massive decision for each club to take.
“There was talk of a club abstaining from the vote which shows just how worried they are.
“It would appear from the media the vote is too close to call and very much hanging in the balance. People have still to make up their minds and haven’t exactly decided what they want.
“They want more information on which direction they want to go.
“I know Ally McCoist has come out and said he wants Rangers to start right at the bottom and that view is shared by some of the supporters.
“Whether that’s from the majority of supporters I don’t know but it really shouldn’t come into it.
“It should be about what is in the best interests of Scottish football.
“Our game has already had its reputation badly damaged and Rangers have been tainted in a terrible way.
“They already face a three-year ban from Europe and even if they are playing in the First Division it would only give them one season to get their act together and try to get back into the SPL.
“Even if they do get into the SPL then I don’t think it will be for a least three, four or even five years before they are back achieving anything special.
“It’s going to take them a very long time before they get back to where they were. There are good sides in the SPL and it would take years for Rangers to return to being a force again.
“That’s purely in a playing sense never mind the off-field structure getting back on an even keel.”
As the clubs gather at Mount Florida, Rae is just keeping his fingers crossed the SFL get together and do what he believes is the right thing.
He said: “The biggest point here is having to look purely at the practicalities for the whole of Scottish football.
“Our game is in a bad way and there are bigger problems in the SFL than the SPL.
“SFL clubs currently get financial knock-ons from the money which Sky injects into the Premier League. We all get a wee share and we need to get more.
“There’s no question the money needs to be filtered down from the First down to the Second and Third Divisions.
“Last season Queen of the South received around £70,000 from outside the SFL in sweeteners. The season before that we received £90,000.
“SPL clubs may not think that is big money but for our clubs even £50,000 can make a huge difference.
“It’s a lot of money and a big help in paying the wages