Celtic almost went bust but didn't and all debts were paid.
Rangers decided to stop paying taxes and spent £70m of tax money on players. More recently they have bought players and haven't paid for them and decided not to pay £9m PAYE. They have spent in total £134m that is not theirs and they have broken the law.
Celtic did not do the same thing as Rangers and if we did I would tell you we would deserve to be punished. Can you explain to me why Rangers shouldn't be punished for what they done? Obviously me being a Celtic fan is blinding me as I can't see it at all.
How about you calm down, read what Joel and Mike are actually saying and you might understand. They are not out to get you or Celtic, neither of them have any affiliation to Scottish football.
Of course Rangers should be punished but looking at the bigger picture, this punishment will most likely have a negative effect for all of us. If Rangers are not competitive then neither is the league. Who is going to want to watch the SPL when Celtic are 20/30 points clear every year? TV audiences dwindle and Sky/ESPN think "Why are we paying for something nobody is watching?" They don't renew the deal and we lose a major source of income.
And before you hit me with the "Celtic's revenue is only 20% reliant on TV money" or whatever the figure might be, but what about the teams who don't get the commercial revenue that you do?, Or the gate receipts?, Shirt sales? Over half of the teams in our league, if not more?
Games against the old firm give teams like Motherwell who only average around 3-4 thousand a week with a good 2-3 more through the gates. If Rangers are sitting 7th in the league, are you really going to pay £25 to go watch your side play them?
When the rest of the SPL starts making cuts and the quality of player lowers even more than it is now and the smaller teams go under, what then?
* * *
Personally I think the decision is a bit ridiculous. The SFA allowed Gretna to spend money they didn’t have and allowed them to cruise their way into the SPL, only for their only source of income Brookes Mileson to take ill and later die. Where was his fit and proper person test? Or Dundee when those Itialian crooks took over and the likes of Speroni, Cannigia, Ravaneli and Bonetti arrived and they ended up with 20m worth of debt. Christ look at my own team, we barely pay our players, release some then sign another :\ Why is it that the SFA always bottle it when punishing Hearts?
Rangers should be punished accordingly but the SFA are a joke, no consistency what so ever. It’s just one thing after another with them. Our chairmen are no better, every fan in Scotland wants a better league system but the clubs only see the $$ signs in keeping the current format. Crossroads much? Perhaps this saga will be the breaking point we need.
Rant over
