Setting the Precedent

While I accept that there are some Rangers fans that dont like but understand the reasoning for the bans and fines, others are pointing to this being an "extraordinary precedence" when in actual fact the punishment levelled at clubs who 'only' entered administration has been quite severe and in many cases driven the clubs to do whatever possible to survive - including the sale of the best assets of the club.

It is of course worthwhile to note that these current punishments to Rangers are not because Rangers are in administration, rather they are guilty of breaking 3 rules and breaching a 4th by the SFA.

Previous clubs have seen....

Livingston - Administration 2009. Debt of £1m
- Players played for free till end of the season to satisfy all fixtures.
- Punishment - Demotion to the 3rd Division

Dundee - Administration for the 1st time in 2003 and for the 2nd time in 2010. Bill to HMRC of £365k
- As punishment for entering administration the Scottish Football League docked Dundee a record breaking 25 points on 1 November 2010.
- Banned from signing any players while in Administration - period of 10 months in total.
- 10 players and entire management team sacked as part of the process

Motherwell - Administration 2002. Debt £2m
- 19 players released with immediate effect and replaced with youth players to fulfil remaining fixtures. Only remained in SPL due to Falkirk stadium not being SPL compliant due to team results being poor for the balance of the season.
They sold the two key assets - Stephen Pearson and James McFadden - to exit the administration process generating £1.6m

It was announced in January 2004 that Scottish Premier League clubs going into administration in the 2004–05 season would be subject to a 10 point deduction and be prevented from signing new players. With Motherwell and Dundeealready in administration at the time, it was decided that if "they are not in the process of coming out of administration by 31 May", the deduction would be applied at the start of the following season, Both Motherwell and Dundee met the required conditions to avoid the deduction of points.

In each case no punishment was consistent, yet actions taken against the clubs was severe, with many loosing their jobs in the process.

Although the Scottish Football League has no automatic deduction of points for clubs going into administration, it reserves the right to "deduct championship points before or during a season and/or to impose a player registration embargo on any club"

While i am sure that the fact of exiting Administration before the new season was far from a given, it seems that many are focussing on the inability to sign players for a season, when the fact remains that as things stand - you would be banned from signing players while in administration anyway and what suggests that you could generate the funds to actually go and sign players at this point when all the players have to currently take massive pay reductions just to survive?

Strange therefore to direct all the anger at the SFA and even more insane to start targeting sponsors as seen in posts below...