Talks ongoing as Rangers newco await SFA membership

Wednesday 18 July 2012

Talks between the Scottish Football Association and directors of Rangers newco broke up last night without a resolution in the Ibrox side's quest to gain membership of the governing body.

Stewart Regan met representatives of Rangers newco at Hampden

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Richard Wilson and Michael Grant

After six hours, some issues remained unresolved and discussions will resume today.

Chairman Malcolm Murray was joined at Hampden by directors, Imran Ahmed and Brian Stockbridge, where they met Stewart Regan, the SFA chief executive, and other officials. The talks centred on what sanctions would be attached to the membership application made by Sevco, the consortium headed by Charles Green.

The SFA were also seeking further clarity on several aspects of Sevco's application, including who it is that owns the club, something Green has never revealed publicly. The talks could continue all week, even though Rangers' first fixture of the season is a Ramsdens Cup tie away to Brechin City in 10 days.Green was not at Hampden because he flew to Athens, where he claimed to be arranging a friendly with Olympiakos, before flying on to meetings at Uefa about Rangers' £3m European football debts. However, neither Uefa nor Fifa were aware of any talks scheduled with Green. "We have no information about a meeting arranged with Mr Green," said a Uefa spokesman.The club owed the most – Rapid Vienna, who are still due just over £1m from the £4m sale of Nikica Jelavic two years ago – have already reported Rangers to Fifa's Dispute Resolution Chamber, the body which adjudicates on transfer-related disputes with an international dimension between clubs. But Green is under pressure to settle all football debts as a condition of being granted SFA membership.Rapid last night told Herald Sport the club had no choice but to play a waiting game for their money, but they would accept nothing less than the full amount. "We have to get the money by the end of August," said Peter Klinglmuller, Rapid's head of communications. "So it is difficult to do anything right now because they still have six weeks."We want all of the money that is due. Our budget for the year is about 20 million euro so you can see that it is a very important figure for us."Rapid were angered to discover Rangers would still receive the full £5.5m due from Everton for selling Jelavic on in January. When asked if his club felt Green ought to be dealing with them directly rather discussing meetings with Uefa, Klinglmuller said: "I cannot give tips to Mr Green."Rangers also owe France's St Etienne £252,000, Palermo of Italy £205,000, Sweden's Orebro £150,000, Chelsea £238,000 and Arsenal £136,000. Green said that the purpose of his proposed trip to Uefa was to reach an agreement with Uefa on the payment of the monies due to European clubs."These are old co debts that newco has got to face up to," he told Sky Sports News. "This is the frustration, at times we're newco and we have to sit in this box, but when it's convenient we're oldco and we have to suffer the sins of the fathers. But we don't want them to be waived. This is a gesture and we want to work with them to come to some kind of amicable agreement settlement.Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, could also face disciplinary action for his demand that the identities of the members of the SFA's judicial panel should be revealed. McCoist spoke out after the three-man panel imposed a fine and a 12-month registration embargo last April for bringing the game into disrepute under Craig Whyte's ownership.The SFA's Compliance Officer, Vincent Lunny, wrote to McCoist asking the Rangers manager to explain his comments, and he could he issue a notice of complain. Yet no further action will be taken until after the club has come to an agreement with the governing body over its membership application."The Compliance Officer communicated with Rangers FC in mid-June to confirm that the matter has been reported and will be initiated through the normal Judicial Panel Protocol upon conclusion of the other outstanding issues affecting the club," the SFA said in a statement.The governing body confirmed that Rangers have asked for an arbitration panel to be convened to rule on the departure of several players who refused to transfer over to the new company. Green also revealed that Chris Mather, a Nottingham businessman, has invested more than £1m for a 10% stake, which would value the club at around £10m.

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Talks ongoing as Rangers newco await SFA membership

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