Rangers claim St Mirren and Ross County should not be singled out for criticism over their refusal to back Scottish Premier League plans for league reconstruction.
The two clubs vetoed the proposals at an SPL meeting at Hampden today, with a majority of 11-1 required to send the plans to the Scottish Football League.
The plans would have seen both league bodies merge in a 12-12-18 structure with a pyramid system below.
The top two leagues would then split into three after 22 games in a bid to generate extra revenue, which would have been split more equitably with current First Division clubs.
Rangers, as associate members of the SFL, would not have been entitled to vote on the issue but have made their own stance on reconstruction clear in the past.
Ibrox chief executive Charles Green - who attended St Mirren's home SPL game against Celtic on March 31 - has previously proposed an alternative 14-14-14 structure.
Rangers were opposed to the 12-12-18 format which, if introduced for the coming season, would have seen the Irn-Bru Third Division champions remain in Scottish football's bottom tier.
A club spokesperson said: "We note the outcome of today's SPL vote on League reconstruction.
"Rangers have already openly talked about what we believe were constructive proposals and hope that these will be considered at some point in the future.
"The vast majority of supporters did not want 12-12-18 and the two clubs who voted against this should not be singled out for criticism.
"They stood up for what they and their fans believe."
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