Green accepts Rangers fate

Rangers chief executive Charles Green says the club will play ‘wherever the SFL sees fit’ after their expulsion from the Scottish Premier League.

Opposition clubs voted Rangers out of the Scottish top flight on Wednesday, forcing the troubled Glasgow giant to apply for membership of the Scotrish Football League, which is made up of three divisions.

Rangers required an 8-4 majority for SPL survival, but Aberdeen, Hearts, St Johnstone, Hibernian, St Mirren, Motherwell, Dundee United and Inverness had already voiced their opposition.

“We will now proceed as we had planned from late June to apply for membership of the SFL,” Rangers chief executive Charles Green said.

“If our application were to be accepted, Rangers will play in whichever division the SFL sees fit and we will move forward from there.”

The new SPL vacancy is expected to be filled by either relegated Dunfermline or first division runners-up Dundee.

Green, who took over at Ibrox after Rangers were declared bankrupt in February, said the club was given false hope that there was a chance of remaining in the top tier.

“We had asked the SPL whether it would be more appropriate for us to withdraw our application but were advised against this,” Green said.

“We made a presentation to the SPL clubs, detailing our proposals in support of our application and this included what we believed to be penalties and sanctions that would have dealt fairly with the difficulties caused by events at Rangers prior to our acquisition of the club on June 14.

“Sadly this was rejected by the other clubs.”

Rangers faced 21 million pounds of tax debt after entering administration, with Green establishing a new company when the club failed to reach an agreement with tax authorities.

The financial situation, however, sparked an exodus of players, with the likes of Steven Davis, Steven Whittaker and Steven Naismith rejecting the transfer of their contracts to the new company.