WALTER SMITH yesterday warned that the decision not to allow the newco Rangers into the Scottish Premier League is seriously damaging the status of the game.
The former manager of Rangers and Scotland is convinced the decision not to accommodate the Ibrox outfit in the SPL will have massive consequences for top-flight clubs and believes Scottish football is already heading on a downwards spiral in which it could become no better than the League of Ireland.
"I think we are heading there," said Smith. "It is a slow process but we have to face up to that. If we are heading towards that kind of level then the situation is not going to be helped by the withdrawal of funds. It doesn't matter what anyone says, Rangers and Celtic kept up an interest in the league in terms of Sky TV and other aspects of income and now we don't have that."
Smith can find no positives in the situation and says the most frustrating thing for him is that everyone knew what they were letting themselves in for when they made the decision to place the club in the third division.
"I think it is a nightmare. It is a nightmare for Rangers and it's equally a nightmare scenario for Scottish football.Like everyone else, I hear the other chairman saying they are going to be affected by Rangers going down to the third division so it is the financial implications for each of the clubs that is going to be a huge problem. And we were already seeing an aspect of that before this happened. We are, in terms of finance, having a big-enough struggle without Rangers having to go to the lower leagues for three years.
"The people in the SFA and the boards have already admitted that it's not a good thing for Scottish football and the only question I would ask is if it's not good for Scottish football then why did they do it in the first place? They could have had a situation where they penalised Rangers financially to the benefit of the other teams in the SPL plus whatever other sanctions they wanted to put in, but keep them in the SPL for the simple reason it keeps Scottish football strong.
"But as it is, we may be in for a very, very difficult period and a lot of it, in my opinion, could have been avoided. It's all right to come up with the idea of 'sporting integrity' but the main thing is for Scottish football to gain a level of respectability and we're in danger of losing that."
Gordon Strachan, once Smith's counterpart at Celtic, added to those views, saying that lower league clubs should not have the same voting rights as the Old Firm when it comes to key decisions on the way forward. "Why are we listening to people who can only draw 200 to their games? If they can't be bothered to support their local club, why should we listen to them? It is nonsense," he said.
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