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No option for me. I wouldn't go to a Rangers match and allow any of my hard earned money to go into their theiving hands. An option would be to give the money I would have paid for a ticket to ICT so that we don't cut off our noses to spite our faces. We could turn up at the ground and have a dignified protest bearing placards of schools and hospitals not built because of the money Rangers have stolen from the taxpayers of this country. I have drawn attention to punishments meted out to clubs in the English system before. Clubs like Aldershot, Newport, Halifax all had to reform under a slightly different name and start out several tiers below where they were when they went into liquidation. But there is a big, big difference here. These clubs went into liquidation basically because the product the business was producing was not good enough to maintain the club and they simply failed. Rangers have not failed. Over the years that they have been accumulating their financial time bomb they have been a successful club winning several domestic titles and playing regularly (if briefly ) in Europe. Rather than fail financially, they have systematically abused the financial system and witheld money from the taxman in order to try and buy even greater success. They deserve no sympathy and no mercy from anyone. I can understand the view that other clubs don't want to press for harsher penalties because it could be seen as turkies voting for Christmas but I don't really accept that. Firstly, the rules introduced should be be able to distinguish between clubs which fall on hard times because their legitimate business plan simply fails, and a club which goes into liquidation because they are deliberately avoiding paying money they owe to others in order to buy success. Secondly, it is not just the taxpayer Rangers have cheated, it is the fans, players and staff of honest clubs who may have enjoyed success if Rangers had not been so strong on the playing front. Thirdly, whilst accepting that other clubs may be a little financially worse off if Rangers were banished to East Stirling, it would give honest teams the chance of some success and a taste of European football - surely it is worth a little bit of loss of OF income for that opportunity. Finally, why should the threat of severe sanctions be seen as a problem for other teams? As long as they manage their finances in a sound manner they should never get into that position. And knowing what the sanctions are, it will mean that all clubs know that all the other clubs will be forced to be financially prudent and we will have a more level playing field. It really is time for anyone with any moral fibre in Scottish football to put their heads above the parapet and speak up for bringing a bit of integrety into this issue and to call for any club emerging out of the Ibrox fiasco to be evicted from the SPL and to be required to apply to the SFL where they should be allowed to apply for entry if and when a vacancy arose. Of course, it is not going to happen. Money is far more important than morality to those who run the game in this country and we will be back with the old firm domination of the Scottish game if not next season then certainly the season after. Those who are allowing this to happen should be hanging their heads in shame.

Also, it has taken County 82 years to reach the SPL. Caley Thistle did it in 10 years. :fingers:

Bear in mind that the arrival of Ross County at least guarantees two home sellout crowds a season - so, in terms of gate receipts, we wouldn't necessarily take a hit in the same way other clubs would. For what it's worth, I don't just want a liquidated Rangers demoted to division 3, I want them to have to go through the ignominy of reapplying against Spartans, Cove Rangers etc...mostly for the comedy value :lol:

I think I heard on the radio earlier that Paterson's now taking the ICT team. Also, am I only person who's horrified that there's no Djebi-Zadi?! He could play for both teams.......at the same time.

No...they don't. I have seen absolutely no quantifiable evidence whatsoever that shows that statement to be true....it just seems to be the more that someone says it, the more they seem to believe it. You don't keep feeding drugs to an addict just because they think they need it, and if Scottish Football needs a few years of cold turkey to realise just how bad the situation was and how they can have a better life without it, then so be it.

If Rangers newco (Whiter than Whyte FC) apply to join the SPL to take Glasgow Rangers place, there is absolutely no reason why the SPL should have any obligation to accept their application and every reason why they should not. They have an agreement with the SFL that admittance to the SPL is via promotion from Division 1 of the SFL and that is the only route that any club has ever been admitted to the SPL and the only route any club will ever be admitted. If Whiter than Whyte FC apply to join the SPL the SPL should be telling them that they will only accept applications from the Champions of the SFL first division. If there is a vacancy in the SPL as a result of a club failing and not reforming then I understand the arrangement would be that the club which finished bottom would not be relegated rather than the club finishing 2nd in the SFL going up. Whilst I don't agree with that, it does mean that the teams in the SFL 1st division have a better chance of promotion the next season because they are not competing against the club which would otherwise have been relegated. However, that is denied to them if a newly formed club is allowed into the SPL without going through the usual route and as a result, a club is relegated. It is even harder, of course, on the club that is relegated. I hope Dunfermline have got some good lawyers on board. It seems to me therefore that the SFL and the clubs that make up its membership should be strongly objecting to any suggestion of Whiter than Whyte FC being admitted to the SPL. I don't know what all the rules and agreements are but I would be interested to know if there is any clause which allows for admittance to the SPL other than by promotion from the SFL. All a bit hypothetical I know because when do Rangers and the SPL play by the rules in any case? At least I feel better for venting my spleen.

ICT like every other club would learn to live and operate within their means (unlike Rangers). Our game would revert to breeding its own and focussing on the communities they are supposed to represent. No doubt income would drop in the short term but, for me, not as drastically as some would have you believe. There will still be a world wide audience of real Celtic fans and 'plastic paddies' willing to pay good money to watch their team. And, at the same time, I have no doubt that expenditure will go down as wage demands drop and others involved in our game become more realistic in their demands. Is an SPL referee real worth £1000 plus expenses per game? Are they really that much better than Bill Machray or Alistair Kidd? Barry Stone or Terry McDonagh? It's high time our game remembered what it really is. The Norwegian league with two ridiculous giants. It's perhaps a golden opportunity to get it right once and for all. Can't really get worse can it? Not as if we are going to sacrifice our huge European or international success is it?

Kinda torn on this one ....... and its a question of needs / wants Scottish football, or more specifically fans of smaller teams, perhaps don't want Rangers (or Celtic for that matter) but in the current structure we do actually need them in my opinion. We dont need them for the bigotry, we dont need them for the way they monopolise the revenue, and we dont need them for many other reasons ... but in the current structure, we do need them to keep at least some money rolling in. without that money, some teams would be in deep **** and ours could be one of them. I didnt realise it when I posted in another thread what seems like it months ago, but someone more recently pointed out that the TV deal in place can be voided if there are not at least 3 televised OF derbies a season. Like it or not, that TV deal brings in the bulk of the SPL's cash, and despite the OF siphoning off a disproportionate amount of it by toploading the percentages for winners and runners up in the league, it is still worth hundreds of thousands of pounds a year even to the bottom team. What team can honestly say it can withstand the loss of a six figure sum until a new deal is in place without the OF, especially when attendances are dwindling and costs are rising .... I have no doubt that Scottish football could bounce back after the loss of one or both of the OF .... do the "cold turkey" in CaleyD parlance ... and we would likely be leaner, stronger, and perhaps even more youth focused as a result but are we prepared for the consequences of that if ICT were one of the ones who became a casualty of all this ?

And I can't believe you suggested "Barrowman" should be anywhere near a legends match!!!

** does anyone wish to enlighten Laurence in regard to the historical "issues ** Have you been on that strong Lancashire beer again immortal. I am too old to wory about historical issues. All that matters is the present - and the future will look after itself - ( George Harrison. )

I voted for the 'less likely' option but would have definitely opted for an option that said: 'Would stop visiting grounds of clubs that support immediate re entry for a newco' In the event that ICT support immediate re entry, this leaves me with a huge dilemma........

This really is a crisis of our times where a large corporate body is allowed to behave with financial recklessness and when the whole rotten structure crashes, it is bailed out by less powerful people because the consequences of failure are too horrible to contemplate. Think RBS, think Greece, think Northern Rock. In all of these cases, the institutions themselves have emerged only slightly (if at all) altered, and the people who presided over the mess have largely gone unpunished. They think it's clever that what they did was just the right side of fraud and so they celebrate that rather than be shamed by the fact that their actions have brought worry and misery to those who have suffered in their wake. If you think that's melodramatic, remember that Dunfermline couldn't pay their players when Rangers didn't honour their obligations. And yet we are led to believe that a 10 point deduction for a couple of years is enough of a punishment for this? Let's try the same with ICT then - live above our means, mortgage the family silver to the hilt, get liquidated and then see what happens. A 10 point deduction? I don't think so, we'd be thrown to the dogs because we are small enough not to be able to fight back. Unedifying but that's how bullies like Rangers behave and that's why, even now, they bleat about the injustice of a deduction for any newco and of the timing of the debate. It's all so wrong, and the media go along with it to sell their wares on the back of it. Of course they can't go to division 3 because the SPL and SFL are seperate entities - what fine chance. Tell you what Rangers, how's about the humility to say that you have acted apallingly, are sorry and you want to change by making your relationship with the rest of scottish football a more mutually beneficial one? Do that and we might reconcile ourselves to giving you the chance, but the moral compass of the SPL/ OF / Scottish media is so fecked that there is more chance of County winning the SPL next year. They will simply revert to trying to railroad us again, but the time has come to say no and I hope our Chairman will say so. No change, no chance.

nice one mr jobby. i certainly welcome them with open arms. when we both arrived on the SFL scene i went to the footie with my old man. as he was born and bred a gudgie we would be in the jail end when ict were playing away from home. i always remember the cheers from the county support when the ict score was tanoyed at half time and we were losing. should have seen the look i got the day i roared when the score anounced was us winning at some second division ground. when the derbies were played it was the clach club for a dram on home days and the national when in dingwall. always with my ross county mate from work. at dingwall old man would always be in the jail end and i would be getting soaked at the other. home games he sat with me i am sure he is looking down from above today with a big smile on his face. aahh if only we could do it again one more time

cant be @rsed reading the childish bickering ... take it elsewhere please ! perfectly good private messaging system on here so the rest of us dont need to be involved in reading it !

I wonder what would have happened had it not been one the 'two teams capable of winning it' that was involved in the financial scams/tax dodging/cheating. I strongly believe we'd see that side being bannished altogether from the SPL with no change of rules to assist them back in...no question about it.

Racking up tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds of debt with no intention of ever paying it back boils down to cheating and if clubs are able to get away with it by setting up a newco then it defeats the whole purpose of having a league competition in the first place. If the current club who are being linked with a newco are allowed to do so then i sincerely hope that there are severe implications for them. If there arent then i strongly think i would lose any urge to follow my team in a sham league. Given the choice i would rather watch my team in the Highland League than in an SPL that condones cheating The SPL is one of the most uncompetitive leagues in the world given that there were/are only two clubs capable of winning it, if it were to allow clubs to win leagues/cups based on cheating the tax system then it would make us even more of a laughing stock than we currently are at the moment!

The comments, IMO, are clearly a dig at the achievements of ICT and smack of jealousy that we got the the SPL before them. Whilst his comment may be factually correct we have both played and won our way through the divisons and have grown substantially over the last couple of decades, the fact remains that we were first to do it however. Seeing as there is no pyramid system in Scotland connecting junior and amateur leagues then we both effectively started at the bottom so his comments dont really hold any credence. Both ourselves and County have done fantastically well to reach the upper echelons of Scottish football, we did it first in the Highlands, anyone who doesnt like will just have to deal with it!

Technically they are. This can't be questioned as ICT did not play in the HL at any point. Was it a clever thing to say.......no? He knew exactly what he was saying and the implications of saying it.

hmmm nope...thats just setting us up for a massive egg on face moment

Wonder if the bookies will give odds on Proctor going to Crawley Town?

Good try Caley D..................will we have a statement after 12 o' clock?????