RANGERS players were last night desperately holding the line on job losses at the club.

Paul Clark and David Whitehouse, the administrators at the club, are considering a structured wage cut that the Rangers players hope will prevent any redundancies being made.

Talks yesterday among the two Duff & Phelps accountants, the Ibrox squad, Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, and Fraser Wishart, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association Scotland, ended with no resolution.

As these discussions took place at Murray Park, the Scottish Premier League announced, after a meeting at Hampden, that Rangers would be the subject of an investigation into allegations of ''non-disclosure of payments'' dating from July 1, 1998. Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the SPL, would also not out rule out stripping Rangers of titles if the club was found guilty.

"We are monitoring that situation very closely," he said.

The talks at Murray Park centred on cuts that would be applied throughout the playing squad. The five players earning more than £15,000 a week – Allan McGregor, Steven Davis, Steven Whittaker, Lee McCulloch and Steven Naismith – would take a 75% cut, while the middle earners would take a 50% cut and the players on around £1000 a week or less would take a 25% cut. The squad were prepared to accept the cuts for one month in return for no redundancies being made in that time.

"What is on the table is a significant wage cut for one month to try to buy some time," said one source close to the talks.

"There would be a scaling down system and it would be significant enough for one month that would allow the administrators to feel that they've cut sufficient amounts of money.

"They could pursue the money they want from Craig Whyte and things will move on with somebody purchasing the club. It's buying the administrators time. Then, depending on where they are in one month, they could revert back to their original salaries."

The players initially preferred a deferral scheme that would involve cuts made from now until the end of the season and then money paid back in the summer.

The administrators rejected this because they felt it would deter potential buyers. However, one interested bidder, Paul Murray, prefers that option rather than making players redundant, because paying the deferred wages would be cheaper than having to rebuild a vastly depleted squad.

"He wants to keep the fabric of the squad together," said the source. "Because he's considered to be a realistic option to purchase the club, they've had to give that due consideration, even though prior to that they weren't remotely interested in discussing referrals."

The administrators are unable to impose wage cuts on the players because that would represent a breach of contract. The mood among the squad, though, is that if any redundancies are made, then no wage cuts will be accepted.

"That would then force the administrators to make the difficult decision to make a large number of players redundant to meet the £1m outstanding costs per month, leaving the team depleted and perhaps prompting supporters to stay away, which would affect the club's revenue.

"If we're back where we are, then the big hitters will stand their ground if they're going to make people redundant," the source added.

"Some of these guys could easily get a better contract elsewhere, so they're entitled to stand their ground."

In a statement released late on Monday afternoon, Clark, the joint administrator, said: "Everyone involved in the administration process has been attempting to reach a consensual solution in regard to job losses within the playing squad.'

"Every realistic option is being explored. Regrettably, it has not been possible thus far to reach a consensus where players could accept the necessary level of wage cuts to prevent job losses within the squad.

"We do not for a moment criticise the players for this as the wage reductions that would be required are very substantial and would have a significant impact on each individual."

The SPL chief executive also warned of further sanctions down the line for Rangers.

Doncaster said: "Our board will propose a number of changes going forward but we want to get some feedback from clubs as to how they feel about it before rules are changed. For example, the level of sporting sanction when a club has an insolvency event is currently only 10 points. Whether that's enough . . ."

Asked what would happen if Rangers were liquidated, Doncaster said: 'There's no precedent north of the border but there is south of the border where Leeds were effectively reborn as a newco in League One without being relegated."

He added that he was not ''anticipating any change'' to the date of the Old Firm match on March 25 which could be a title decider.