A football finance expert has backed Rangers to respond with the help of their supporters should they enter administration.

Rangers today lodged their intention to enter administration and would be hit with a 10-point penalty if they proceed to appoint administrators, thus falling 14 points behind Celtic in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League title race, but nine points ahead of third-placed Motherwell.

However, Professor Tom Cannon of Liverpool University of believes a fan ownership model, like those adopted in Germany, could be the way forward to boost the club's long-term health.

Professor Cannon said: "It will be the biggest club in the world to have gone into administration. It is a giant which has been felled. It shouldn't be a surprise, but it is a tragedy because they are a great club with great tradition.
"It won't be the end of Rangers. It's possible that gives the opportunity to create a German-style sports club out of the ashes.

"None of this stops Rangers being, in terms of the fan base, one of the giants of world football."

Despite the supporters being a possible solution to the current predicament, the need to meet their expectations was perhaps also a mitigating factor in the current circumstances, Professor Cannon believes.

"Rangers are one of the giants, not just of Scottish football, but of world football," he added.

"If they're not in the top 10 supported soccer clubs in the world, they're certainly in the top 20.

"To some degree, that's been part of the problem. They have this giant fan base and those fans have expectations.

"The problem is matching those expectations with the revenues a Scottish Premier League team can get. The revenues, particularly from television, can't sustain the expectations of that fan base."

The deal which saw Craig Whyte assume ownership from Sir David Murray last year may also have had an impact.

"Changes of ownership are never cheap, particularly when you're talking about a big club - there's always a big bill," Professor Cannon added.

Rangers will need to address the issue of their outstanding debts to survive and the club could be forced into selling their Ibrox home or Murray Park training facility, he warned.

"Unless they're going to get a 10p or a 20p in the pound deal, they're going to have to dispose of major assets. They haven't got that many valuable assets on the field, so what assets are they going to dispose of?"