Rangers will play in the lowest tier of Scottish league football next season following a vote of Scottish Football League (SFL) clubs.
Already expelled from the Scottish Premier League (SPL), following months of financial turmoil that led to the formation of a new company or newco, Rangers were dropped to Third Division, the fourth and lowest tier of the Scottish league system, during a meeting of SFL chairmen.
Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan had said that demoting Rangers to the Third Division would cause financial catastrophe and a "slow, lingering death" of the Scottish game.
Regan argued the 140-year-old Rangers, Scottish football's most successful club, should be dropped just one tier to the First Division.
But it was announced on Friday that 25 out of the 30 SFL clubs had voted for Rangers to be entered into the Third Division instead.
And that meant Rangers, a club with an average home attendance of over 46,000 at Ibrox, would be playing sides such as East Stirling, whose average gate at Ochilview Park, the ground they rent from Stenhousemuir, is just 321 out of a capacity 3,776.
"It has been a very, very important day for Scottish football," SFL chief executive David Longmuir said.
"The only acceptable position will be to place Rangers FC into the Third Division from that start of this season, 2012/13.
"Today's (Friday's) decision has been one of the most difficult for all concerned but it has been taken in the best interest of sporting fairness, which is the fundamental principle of the SFL."
Rangers newco chief executive Charles Green says the club accepts the decision.
"We are grateful to be accepted as members of the SFL and accept their decision to vote us into Division Three," he told Rangers' website.
"From the outset, we made clear we would play where we were told to play and we just want to get back to playing football."
AFP
Tags: soccer, sport, scotland, united-kingdom First posted July 14, 2012 08:56:14
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