Lenny Boyle
LiveSport.co.uk sponsored Raith Rovers seek A more balanced report from Rangers Newco
08/07/2012
Raith Rovers FC go in to the 2012/2013 season with high hopes under new manager Grant Murray. But first on Rovers’ agenda is a scheduled Scottish Football League vote on the future of the Rangers newco. The issue at hand is whether the Ibrox giants will be permitted to join the first division, or must start again at the bottom of the Scottish football leagues, in the third division.
Raith Rovers have joined Falkirk in calls for the newly formed Rangers not to be allowed straight into the first division.
Livesport.co.uk will sponsor the Raith Rovers FC away shirt from the start of the 2012/13 season. We also provided a sponsored car to old Team Manager, John McGlynn last season.
Raith Rovers secured promotion from the Second Division as champions in 2009. Rovers have won one national trophy, the Scottish League Cup in 1994. Their highest top division finish is third in 1922.
SFL clubs are expecting an information pack this week from the newco ahead of the vote. Raith Rovers released the following statement on the status of the newco. They have expressed a hope that the pack will constitute a ''more balanced report'' than they have received up until now.
Here is the statement in full:
“The club has this evening received the notice of resolutions to be voted on next Friday and we are told to expect an information pack at some time next week. We hope that this pack will present a more balanced report to SFL member clubs than they have so far received.
At last Tuesday’s meeting, financial information provided by Neil Doncaster showed an unrealistic worst case scenario. It showed the impact of potential total loss of 3 TV contracts, all of which had been inexplicably agreed on the basis that the broadcaster could walk away if either Rangers or Celtic were not in the SPL.
His information did not, however, set out the potentially positive impact of negotiating replacement contracts with other broadcasters or alternatively the much mentioned possibility of launching SPL TV (which we understand could have been launched within a matter of months).
Mr Doncaster warned SFL members that if these contracts were indeed lost, this would mean the annual payment to the SFL under the Settlement Agreement would either be greatly reduced or not paid at all. Raith Rovers FC believes this not to be the case, and that the SPL would remain both contractually obliged and able to pay the £1.9m – £2m annual sum, even in that worst case scenario.
We call upon the SFL Board to clarify its view on this vital point urgently, before club boards finalise their positions on these important votes.
We are also concerned that there has not as yet been an opportunity for clubs to receive legal advice from the SFL and/or debate the potential consequences on the smooth running of our league in the event that the Courts are asked to annull/strike down any of the corporate transactions that have led to the current position of Sevco Scotland Ltd as owners of certain assets of the Rangers oldco. Indeed, the position as regards the potential sanctions to be applied by the Scottish FA via its Appellate Tribunal has also still to be bottomed out.
In summary, we remain concerned that the SPL clubs have overwhelmingly voted to pass on this potential time bomb, which may yet explode once passed to the SFL’s jurisdiction, and we are being asked to accept this new company into membership, worse still in our top division.
Without all of this information, and the opportunity for clubs to further discuss these issues on a fully informed basis amongst themselves before the formal SGM, in a similar format to last Tuesday’s meeting, we are concerned that the fairness and transparency of the process itself is at risk of being compromised.
Raith Rovers FC will consider its stance with regard to attendance at this meeting once we receive the information from the SFL.”
In leading the calls for the newco to join division three, Raith Rovers are at the forefront of the debate about the future of Scottish football.
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