Rangers' demise has not caused the feared financial catastrophe on the top flight in Scotland, insisted Neil Doncaster, the Scottish Premier League chief execu-tive, yesterday.
Doncaster said the fact that SPL finances have held up overall proved that Scottish football is not all about the Old Firm. However, he admitted some SPL clubs were facing a drop in income due to a fall in gates now they no longer had visiting Rangers fans to rely on but that centrally the league had suffered little effect.
Doncaster told the Leaders in Football conference in London: "There was a real fear that the demise of Rangers would lead to a real concern about the financial position across the game in Scotland.
"For many people Scottish football means 'Old Firm' and what the events of the summer show the game in Scotland is a lot more resilient than that.
"Whilst there are challenges at a club level because the Rangers support is now not going around the Premier League clubs, centrally we are relatively robust.
"In fact, finances at league level will not be wildly different from where they were last year. So the game has developed and has proved to be more resilient. Part of that is we have been able to rely on our strong partnerships with the likes of Sky and ESPN and Clydesdale Bank and they continue to back the league."
Falkirk have been fined £11,500 for failing to pay their PAYE bills on time. The first division club had contested the ruling from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs but lost the case at an Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal was told that between May 2010 and Feburary 2011 the club were late with six payments totalling £322,213.97.
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