Charles Green last night called for the SPL to "take stock" after the Scottish Football Association's judicial panel found two disrepute charges against Rangers' chief executive to be not proven.
He also confirmed he will meet Campbell Ogilvie, the SFA president, in the near future to develop a more amicable working relationship.
A complaint was lodged after Green questioned the independence of the three-man commission to look into the club's use of Employee Benefit Trusts. Green made sure in a statement last month not to question the integrity of the commission's members, and later further clarified his views. The verdicts of the SFA's judicial panel, against a charge of bringing the game into disrepute and not acting in the best interests of football, essentially corroborates his view.
Green maintains the SPL is misconstrued in its actions, since the league included stripping Rangers of titles as a negotiating ploy during talks about the future of the Ibrox side. Rangers were asked by the SPL to accept the title stripping as part of a five-way agreement with each of the governing bodies. It is understood that David Longmuir, the SFL chief executive, gave evidence to the judicial panel about the contents of the five-way agreement document, which originally included the stripping of League Cups before the SFL objected.
"As a member of the SFA, we want to work constructively within its structure and hope all parties and organisations can take a view that what is of paramount importance is the good of the game," Green said. "What I said, I said in good faith and I was speaking up for the interests of Rangers. To be critical of the SPL's handling of the EBT issue does not mean I am showing disrespect for the game and that view appears to have been shared by the judicial panel.
"The creation of the EBT Commission has been difficult for those of us who are new to Rangers and are trying to rebuild the club. It appears for all the world to be yet another obstacle being placed in our path as we try to rebuild a great Scottish sporting institution.
"I am the first person to accept people who have been associated with Rangers have brought the game into disrepute, particularly the previous regime whose delinquent approach to paying taxes triggered a series of events that brought the club to the brink of destruction. It is my hope we can all move on and start working constructively for the good of the game."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article