'Five SPL clubs may fold within weeks'

Already there has been a rush of anxiety. Inverness Caledonian Thistle were to hold an emergency board meeting this weekend, while Stewart Gilmour, the St Mirren chairman, yesterday described the decision of the Scottish Football League clubs to vote Rangers into the Third Division as "terrible; catastrophic even".

In effect, it may be, since the Sunday Herald believes that three clubs would face the distinct threat of administration if the first quarterly payment of the current Sky broadcast deal is not paid on August 7.

"The St Mirren board will meet in the days after that SPL meeting and decide the best way forward – but we are already looking at major redundancies," Gilmour said. "To be fair to Stewart Regan, the document [containing league reconstruction plans in return for Rangers being voted into the First Division] he released last week was a good document. It set out changes to Scottish football that would bring in a fairer structure, fairer distribution system, fairer everything.

"Unfortunately, the people in the SFL have not bought into that. I just hope they realise the damage they have done to Scottish football. Five clubs in the SPL could be in administration within weeks – and we will have to do everything we can to avoid being one of them."

Gilmour's attempt to blame the SFL clubs is crass and misguided. They voted to accommodate Rangers the way any other club would have been treated. It was the SPL, and Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, who wanted the Ibrox side moved into the First Division, since there was a belief that the broadcast and other commercial agreements would be honoured for a year even if Rangers were not in the top-flight.

Yet there is no appetite at the SFA to support the Ibrox side being re-accommodated in the SPL, or for the SPL2 proposal to be pursued, where 10 clubs, including Rangers, would be invited to break away from the SFL.

There is also no willingness among SFL clubs to consider this. The SPL has already held a vote on the fate of Rangers following the oldco holding company being forced to go into liquidation and the club's business and assets being sold to a newco.

That decision was to deny the club a place in the SPL. If some chairmen made that decision on the assumption that the SFL clubs would fall into line with the compromise plan to move Rangers into the First Division, then they seriously misjudged the mood of Scottish football.

Tomorrow's meeting may also be uncomfortable for Neil Doncaster. The SPL chief executive has always been clear that the loss of Rangers from the top flight would have significant financial consequences, but some clubs now appear to be acting as though they were not expecting the Third-Division option.

If Doncaster – and Regan – have failed to manage this situation to the conclusion they wanted, both will feel vulnerable. The SFA chief executive will stand firm, though, and not be party to any decision that goes against the majority votes of the SFL and, originally, the SPL clubs.

BBC Scotland reported yesterday that a vote of no confidence in Regan was proposed and seconded, but not voted on, during last Friday's SFL meeting. Alex Anderson, the Cowdenbeath secretary, also made a similar complaint.

"We are totally disgusted at the way the whole situation has been handled by the SPL and the SFA. It is a sad day for Scottish football," he said.

"The actions of the SPL and the SFA and the image that has been created could well endanger any future investment in the Scottish game. In view of the way Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan have dealt with this situation they should now be considering their own positions.

"We are deeply disillusioned with the hierarchy of Scottish football. We have been lied to and bullied and, despite the overwhelming vote of SFL clubs that Rangers should re-start in Division 3, we are still not clear what the final outcome will be."

In a document sent to all SFL clubs ahead of their vote, Doncaster estimated that moving Rangers to the Third Division could cost the Scottish game as much as £16 million.

That figure was not explained, so analysis of it is impossible, but clearly all of the top-flight clubs, apart from Celtic, will need to cut their budgets. Season ticket sales are also slow, despite the pressure of fans at all clubs to vote no to the newco.

But if the SPL clubs voted that way out of sporting integrity, it would remove all of their credibility if they were to commit a U-turn.

Issues remain for Rangers, though. Regan will meet Charles Green, the Ibrox chief executive, early next week to discuss the club's application for SFA membership. Among the questions originally asked by the governing body were about the investors, the working capital provision, the business plan and if there is any ongoing involvement with Craig Whyte.

Green has aways refused to reveal the identities of all of his investors – some remain anonymous behind trusts or funds – and who the direct beneficial shareholders of SEVCO 5088Ltd, Sevco Scotland Ltd, and RFC 2012 Ltd are.

There has been speculation that Mike McDonald, the former Sheffield United chairman, and Rafat Rizvi, a British citizen who was once on Interpol's wanted list after being accused of stealing assets from Indonesia's Bank Century two years ago, a charge which he denied, put money into the consortium, although Green and Zeus Capital deny this.

Regan and Green will also discuss the registration embargo that the club successfully challenged in the Court of Session. It is understood Green was prepared to accept the embargo as part of the First Division compromise package, but if he is not now then the SFA is bound by the court to reconvene its Appellate Tribunal, which must choose to fine the club, suspend it from the Scottish Cup, suspend its SFA membership, or expel it for bringing the game into disrepute during Whyte's ownership.

Some individuals will be feeling under pressure now that Rangers have been placed in the Third Division, but it is hard to see how that decision can be overturned.