McCoist: 'I'd would not be Rangers manager if we were going to allow titles to be taken away'

Chief football writer

Saturday 2 March 2013

ALLY McCoist has admitted he would no longer be the Rangers manager if Charles Green had acquiesced to the Scottish Premier League's proposal to strip the club of titles last summer.

Ally McCoist and Charles Green announce the new sponsorship deal with Blackthorn Cider

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Michael Grant

The removal of titles won while players were paid via Employee Benefit Trusts between 2000 and 2011 was put to Green as a condition of securing SFA membership for his newco regime. Green refused, and that stance was vindicated when an Independent Commission under Lord Nimmo Smith ruled it would not have been an appropriate punishment. Instead, oldco Rangers were fined £250,000 after being found guilty of failing to disclose EBT payments to the SFA and SPL.

That was taken as a victory by Rangers, as the club was cleared of seeking an unfair competitive advantage and of fielding players who were improperly registered. Titles won in 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2011 had been vulnerable but McCoist was delighted that none were removed.Yesterday he criticised those responsible for suggesting that Green sign up to title-stripping in a five-way agreement – among the Scottish Football Association, Scottish Premier League, Scottish Football League and both oldco and newco Rangers – to secure SFA membership. "There was categorically no way that I personally would have been responsible for any admission of guilt over title stripping," McCoist said. "The fact that the question was asked was wrong."The club would never have overruled me on this issue. I would never have been the Rangers manager if we were going to admit to titles being taken away from us. That for me was a total non-starter. I was there at every meeting of the four-way or five-way 'agreements' – that were never, ever agreed anyway – and I could not believe what I was hearing. Why would you agree to something when you are 100% certain in your own mind that you have not committed any wrong-doing? Gaining a sporting advantage, call it what you will, it is cheating and that is the worst thing in the world to accuse any sportsman of."I totally accept that Lord Nimmo Smith has said there were things we were guilty of and that we did wrong and the oldco has been punished for that. I am not trying to belittle anything but what we were accused of, and what we were found guilty of, has been night and day. That is not to disguise or water down anything we did wrong; Lord Nimmo Smith has punished us for, unless I'm reading this wrongly, administrative errors. "The most important thing is that we were accused of trying to gain a sporting advantage unfairly, in other words cheating, and that for me was the biggest thing. We have been clearly vindicated of that. The fact players were registered to play means that consciously or unconsciously there was no illegal playing of players. We would have been punished for that if they had been illegally registered. That tells me that the players' contracts were legitimate and the titles and trophies were earned. That was the thing that we wanted to prove."McCoist speculated that other SPL clubs, most notably Hearts, might question the value of spending a reported £350,000 on the independent commission given Scottish football's financial problems. "Would the money have been better spent elsewhere," he asked. "You will have to ask the member clubs of the SPL."This is the time for Scottish football to move forward as the wider issue is that we are not in a good place. Let's not kid ourselves on. Look at Hearts, Dunfermline and ourselves: this is a communal problem that we are all part of. I hope the decision does not leave a bad taste in anybody's mouth that cannot be diluted, as that is no use to anybody. Rangers have to move on as a club and for the betterment of Scottish football."I won't deny that there has been a black cloud hanging over this club since we went through administration and liquidation but that has just about dispersed and we can see some light at the end of the tunnel now."Rangers, who face East Stirlingshire at Ibrox today, yesterday announced Blackthorn Cider as their new shirt sponsor for the 2013/14 season. The drink's parent company, C&C, also owns Magners, the cider company which recently signed a shirt sponsorship with Celtic.Meanwhile Green insisted he was still opposed to Rangers ever playing in the SPL while he was chief executive despite one of his central objections – the governing body wanting to strip titles – no longer being relevant. "I haven't changed. I've said I wouldn't, as chief executive, play in the SPL while there was title-stripping. That's one obstacle which went away but I still think the SPL is a tarnished brand."Green said he thought it unlikely that the SPL and SFL could agree its proposed 12-12-18 reconstruction plan, under a single league body, in time for the start of next season. "We won't have a decision before May. No-one is going to be able to sell season-tickets if we look at the timetables."The SPL has 12 shares and each member has one. If we are now going to expand that into a 40 or 42 team [body], they need to change the articles of association, they need to raise the issue of share capital, they need to come out with a rulebook as the Scottish Football Leagues rules are different to the SPL rules, just even on how many players you can have, how many work permits you can have. If you think of all these issues, they are huge issues. This is not just about what the structure is."

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McCoist: 'I'd would not be Rangers manager if we were going to allow titles to be taken away'

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