BrahimHemdani

I have always thought that buying an English club was a more likely route to playing down south than applying to any given league. The entire English league system is based on a pyramid structure and the chances of getting in above level 7, which is regionalised, are remote in the extreme because it would depend on there being a vacancy which is rare at that level. I think I am right in saying that last season the first league with an odd number of teams was at level 9 i.e. 5 levels below the Football League (below even the Evo Stick Leagues!) and then you are talking about something like the United Counties League which covers Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, as well as parts of Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk and feeds into the Southern Football League Division One Midlands, so that might be extremely problematic! Buying a club (and continuing to play at Ibrox) would require English FA and UEFA approval and whilst that might be very difficult as well, I don't think there are any rules against it and no EU laws to prevent it either.

If the top two in the SPL didn't get 33% of the money, the rest would get about £500k more per season on average; just think what the likes of Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and Inverness with astute managers could do with that kind of money to spend on wages and how much it would increase competition.

The only way to increase competition is to spread the available money more evenly amongst the clubs.

Any real businessman with half an ounce of sense or integrity would have offered them both a deal to walk away if that was what he wanted them to do instead of trying to drag them and the Club through the courts for the sole reason that they both made correct judgements about him and rightly opposed his purchase of the Club.

Which was exactly why Whyte made his job untenable when he came in and led to the court case etc.

Good luck to him but I don't think he'll be missed. A better defender than Whittaker but woeful going forward, which is an essential part of the modern game.

Is the whole stadium available for season tickets this season or just around 40,000 as usual? If the former, what happens if we draw Celtic at home in a cup tie?

Thank god.

Much appreciated, a few Bud Lights to celebrate in sunny Florida tonight I think. Classy first for Templeton and the new RB made a classic goal for McCulloch at the end.

Sacrafices, sacrafices, what can I say but 97F in the shade . Took in the Miami Marlins v the NY Mets on Friday night, they had the cheek to close the roof and turn on the a/c!

Travelling across Florida from Miami to Bonita Springs near Fort Myers on I75 yesterday I passed a sign for Davie Cooper City. Quickly got my camera phone out but as is often the case in America, it was now you see it now you don't and the opportunity to record it was gone. Anyway a quick bit of googling and it turns out that it's actually two small cities "Davie and Cooper City are neighboring municipalities in the central-western region of Broward County, Florida, surrounded by the Florida Everglades to the west and metropolitan Fort Lauderdale to the East. " http://www.davie-coopercity.org/index.php Maybe we should try twinning them with Govan.

You might think that Rangers TV would know that David Longmuir is CEO of the SFL not the President!

There has to be a split of the gate as it's a one off game; I reckon East Fife must be on close to £200k, certainly £150k.

Well yes you can, at this kind of level there is no tax issue, it certainly would be exempt from Capital Gains Tax! Not sure if it would be classed as taxable income in the hands of the Club but even if it was it would be no different than season ticket money in that respect. AND of course it would depend on the Club actually making a profit, which is certainly not a given. There might be an angle if the Fund bought the players rather than the Club although that would probably run foul of UEFA and SFA regs but if the money or the player was then donated to the Club? This needs a company tax expert, which I am not.

I think if it was put to them, Green and Ally would support it.

As you know, PLG, both my business and I personally am registered with the FSA and I am a former Director of the previous regulator FIMBRA and I do not see that this would be an FSA issue as there is no investment element but I can certainly check. Is the RFFF regsitered with the FSA? Not so far as I can see on the FSA Register. Nor would I expect it to be. In fact nothing with the name Rangers in it is currently registered. Also as you know well, so many models have been suggested and so many different people have suggested ways for the fans to buy the club and all have failed. The very well intentioned Gersave never attracted the kind of money that would have been required, my recollection is that Trust members owned 0.08% of oldco through the scheme and you know that on my advice and that of others about the same amount of money was not invested as the Rules dictated. I am aware the you have also been investigating community shares and that is also a possibility but the amounts being discussed here are specific and would be for a specific purpose and I think RST should encourage this type of effort, which clearly has support. It is obvious that for some fans, providing the ownership is legitimate and seen to be conducting the club's affairs in a proper manner, then that is less important than providing the resources for the team to compete.

Craig, BD, CG and I have all suggested a savings fund based on the one third discounts on season ticket prices in the SFL. Based on figures quoted on the Season Ticket Renewal - Prices Confirmed thread that I started on 21/7, typical savings this season are: Was £374 now £249 saving £125 Was £421 now £281 saving £140 Was £554 now £369 saving £185 There will be concessions and some lower and some higher prices but letâ??s say that the average saving is £140 per season. IF and I know itâ??s a big IF, EVERYONE of 36,000 season ticket holders saved that money for 3 years in a secure fund administered by independent lawyers or accountants with no connection to Rangers then the potential total would be £15,000,000. Aside from collecting and accounting for the money which would be paid in by BACS or FPS there wouldnâ??t be a great deal of administration involved because no money would be paid out until we were back in the SPL1 and then it would only be for specified purposes e.g. buying players. That would be a decent fund to kick off with in the SPL. Even if there was to be re-organisation and we were to return to SPL1 in 2 rather than 3 seasons, it could still be £10,000,000. If anyone has accurate information for the number of season tickets in each category it would be simple to work out a better estimate. Of course, I realise that only a proportion of season ticket holders would sign up but the target is plain to see. And no season ticket holder who planned to renew could say they didnâ??t have the money although some might say that they have spent it on other things. As an extension to this, those of us who have been fortunate to follow Rangers regularly in Europe could consider puting some of the money that one might otherwise have spent into this or a similar fund. I was going to christen this the Rangers Season Tickets Savings Fund or Discount Fund but I didnâ??t much like the initials it produced (RSTSF/DF) so open to suggestions on that one!

I'm going to start a new thread because I think we've hit on something here.

As it turns out it is actually a one third reduction as predicted by FS and not 30% as stated by GS and others.

I think this is a good idea in general terms and another thing to do would be to set aside the difference personally and perhaps spend it on merchandise (although I know we don't benefit much from that) or an occasional premium package, buy a brick or a stadium tour, that kind of stuff. Just one point, RFFF are a long way from being independent of the Club.

Rangers v East Stirlingshire in front of 40,000+

MRE Centre £369 vs £554

Don't fancy being their postman on Monday and Tuesday!

I spoke to the ticket office again today and it seems that contrary to their previous advices: the revised season ticket package is being issued in hard copy through the post and should be dropping on our door mats in the next day or two with the (very short) revised deadline of 7 August (at least if you want to retain your existing seat). also contrary to information posted by others the existing smart cards will continue in use (and will be activated for the East Fife game, if you pay to go to it, as unlike previous seasons the first League Cup game is not included in the season ticket). lastly they are now able to accept credit card payments for individual matches e.g. East Fife.

Almost certainly Lawwell will take Ralph Topping's place as the PGB's appointee on the full SFA Board. If it's already happened it's not on the SFA site: The main Board consists of seven members: the Office Bearers (Stewart Regan, Chief Executive; Campbell Ogilvie, President; Alan McRae, First Vice-President, and Rod Petrie, Second Vice-President), plus Ralph Topping (SPL) [resigned in May], Tom Johnston (Junior FA) and Barrie Jackson, the Scottish FA’s first-ever independent non-executive director. Professional Game Board: Chairman: Rod Petrie (Scottish FA) Members: Jim Ballantyne (SFL), Neil Doncaster (SPL), Peter Lawwell (SPL), David Longmuir (SFL), Alan McRae (Scottish FA), Campbell Ogilvie (Scottish FA), Stewart Regan (Scottish FA), Sandy Stables (SHFL) and Ralph Topping (SPL).