Former chief executive criticises SFA over signing ban on Rangers

Chief football writer

Saturday 26 May 2012

THE former SFA chief executive Gordon Smith has said the governing body acted too harshly in banning Rangers from signing players for 12 months.

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Michael Grant

Smith, who also spent eight months at Ibrox as director of football under Craig Whyte, said the punishment could be ruinous to his former club and the SFA could have chosen more appropriate sanctions. Rangers are challenging the signing ban at the Court of Session. It was imposed after the club and Whyte were found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute.

Whyte appointed Smith in June last year. He left in February, accepting redundancy after Rangers went into administration, and criticised Whyte for not allowing him to fulfil the remit of his job. Smith said yesterday: "I think the transfer ban will be damaging if it is upheld. I think what the SFA should have done was one of two things."They could have said Rangers were not able to buy any players but they could sign players: that would have been a better way of doing it."And they could also have had a rule that if Rangers paid off their football debts they could then bring in players. There should have been some sort of leeway."Smith predicted that the players who have clauses allowing them to leave for cheaper-than-usual transfer fees are highly likely to do so."If a lot of them think that the club isn't going to be able to compete, if there are sanctions for points or whatever, I would imagine a lot of them will leave. They will think, 'I want to play somewhere where I can earn the same money or better but also compete'. That would give Rangers a problem with [squad] numbers because they wouldn't be able to replace these people."Allan McGregor, Steven Davis, Steven Naismith, Steven Whittaker, Dorin Goian, Kyle Lafferty and Maurice Edu can all leave if specified fees – much lower than their usual market value – are offered to Rangers.'Smith also reacted publicly for the first time to a claim in the SFA's independent inquiry into Whyte that senior figures at the club did not understand what his role was as director of football.The report said Andrew Dickson, Rangers' head of football administration, had been "entirely unclear" about of Smith's role at the club.Smith denied any uncertainty about the job. He said: "There was a defined role. I was setting the role, to a certain extent. Andrew Dickson probably wouldn't be told what my defined role was but I had a defined role."The SFA have my job specification so I didn't quite understand where that came from because my job specification was there when the club applied for its licence."

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Former chief executive criticises SFA over signing ban on Rangers

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