Final day to appeal Lord Glennie decision set to expire

Charles Green, like Whyte and Duff & Phelps before him, is asking for admittance to the SPL on the basis that Rangers FC is a distinct entity from its legal identity.  While this theory has been strongly advocated by SPL chief executive, Neil Doncaster, by necessity, if you claim the football benefits of being ‘Rangers’, specifically player registrations, you also inherit Rangers penalties.

Although Rangers clearly won their challenge to Lord Carloway’s 12-month ban on player registration at the Court of Session last month when Lord Glennie referred the matter back to the SFA Appellate Panel, as the full ramification of the decision became clear to Green, who then had an irrevocable contract to buy Rangers or its assets, he floated the idea that he might appeal.

The SFA, correctly, decided not to instruct the Appellate Panel until the 21 day period when an appeal can be raised, which elapses today, has passed, just in case Green tells Lord Glennie he’s got it all wrong.

All this has been terribly confusing, not to mention expensive, for Scottish football, but with yesterday’s news that Rangers have a prima facie case to answer for subverting Scottish football for over a decade, the obstacles before Green are clearly insurmountable.  There is reason to believe we can quickly reach some clarity.

The SFA must, without delay, convene the Appellate Panel to consider Lord Glennie’s instructions and apply an appropriate penalty on the various legal and ethereal bodies which claim to be ‘Rangers’.  If the Appellate Panel suspend or expel what is left of the football club from the SFA, as must surely be expected, all questions about fan pressure, morals and votes become moot.

In this case, history will record the folly of Green’s appeal to civil law as the act which finally killed off any chance of ‘Rangers’ surviving, conveniently letting the SPL off the hook, while Green would be obliged to dispose of the stadium for a modest return to those capable of forming a genuinely new football club at some point in the future.