Could Rangers Play in England or SFL3 - Information Update

[calscot 0]

That was individual employee rights, whereas this is not. It's about national team competitions and I doubt that the EU would agree to teams being able to switch from country to country.

 

I was under the impression that the FA and FL were in the same country as Glasgow. I can't see the EU sticking their noses in at all and UEFA would find it pretty difficult to apply any of their rules to the UK without a pretty stiff legal challenge. As for the SFA and SFL and SPL - if we're a new company and club, I can't see how we'd be under any of their jurisdictions.

 

I'm no expert but believe if the FA and FL agreed to accept us as a newco then it would be difficult for anyone to block it and the EU would most probably be on our side due to their whole philosophy on freedom of trade.

 

The fact that we're in the UK and there are precedents of Berwick, Gretna, Swansea, Cardiff and Wrexham (although historical) would give us a hell of a strong case.

 

With the artificial restriction of trade that UEFA are creating and the increasing disparity of income between the top five and the rest of Europe, I can see tests cases coming from elsewhere in the future - and that's without having the UK exceptional circumstance.

 

In fact - hasn't one European team already done this?

[calscot 0]

I was fairly sure we had tried and the response from some of the then ELP club chairmen was less than complimentry. I don't think the Championship clubs are that interested in us either and have as much vitriol in private.

 

The harm it does us is we're humiliated once again, and then we have to play within a league that no one likes us.

 

Question is, do we care?

 

Direct entry to the top two leagues is incredibly difficult for obvious reasons. I can't see the vitriol - just self preservation. We have to bring something to the table for them to be interested and it would be hugely advantageous if they were starting to get into financial trouble. The Championship is supposedly running on huge, unsustainable debts, so there could be a way in there in future.

 

Basically if the Championship start to struggle for money and interest starts to wane in TV deals then they could be in trouble. Bringing someone like Rangers in, boosts interest in the league and also adds a pretty big additional audience to the viewing figures.

 

I think the travelling fans impact would be negligible as 5k fans at 30 quid a ticket once a year is only a relatively small 150k drip in a pretty big ocean of say 40M a year.

 

So we'd be slightly more attractive compared to the likes of Huddersfield.

 

However, we're not talking about direct entry - I think we realise that would be too difficult to pull off. But then translate the boost in interest and related income to League 2 and we might make a big enough impact. Do you prefer Rangers or Fleetwood? While it makes promotion more difficult the increase in interest and income may sway them.

 

Move down to the conference and we get even prettier.

 

It depends how many fans we could retain, but as a new beginning and a big adventure, I personally would find it incredibly interesting (even just as a change from the same old dirge of the SPL) - and would definitely buy the TV subscription and make it to away games that are within easy reach of home.

 

With Scotland fast disappearing off the "football of significance" map, the long term gain in this route could be priceless. We'd just need the support to buy into it and also show a bit of loyalty to the long term welfare of the club.

[Bluedell 5,376]

I was under the impression that the FA and FL were in the same country as Glasgow. I can't see the EU sticking their noses in at all and UEFA would find it pretty difficult to apply any of their rules to the UK without a pretty stiff legal challenge. As for the SFA and SFL and SPL - if we're a new company and club, I can't see how we'd be under any of their jurisdictions.

 

I agree to a certain extent. I didn't fully explain the point I was trying to make. I think that UEFA would object as they treat Scotland and England differently, and any legal challenge would likely be dismissed by EU as football tends to be regional and they would allow UEFA to set reasonable rules. The EU would not prevent it per se but they would not allow UEFA rules to be overturned. You may disagree with this and I'm no EU legal expert, but it's just my opinion.

 

I don't buy into the freedom of trade argument as then you could have clubs just creating their own leagues left, right and centre and I think that they would argue that there has to be some restrictions due to it being sport. However you never know and it wouldn't be the first time that the EU legal logic has shocked me.

 

Being UK certainly makes a far more compelling argument than, say, Belgium to Holland, and I would hope that this could be the loophole that could be exploited if we were to go down this route. I don't think the historic precedents are really of much relevance to this though.

 

In fact - hasn't one European team already done this?

 

Which one?

[rbr 1,247]

No matter whether we could or couldnt , one thing that is certain is playinmg in England leads to no European football , as stated this season if Cardiff had won the cup V liverpool they would not have been put forward for europe , so this should end any debate

[Guest Dutchy]

My thoughts on joining the English leagues seem to be based on some sort of Fantasy Island resoning. Have we not learned anything from our present predicament, and the predicament of football as a whole?

 

It sounds to me as if joining the English league is stilll just chasing the money. And make no mistake about it, I'm fully aware clubs need to have money to survive, but what sort of ethos are we instilling into our young footballers if we say 'follow the money'?

 

Surely they'd just go straight to the clubs that have all the money and there in lies the biggest problem football faces over the next few decades. Maybe there will just be football played in the larger cities of this country, as all the rest are unprofitable and will have to sell their grounds to build houses on.

 

And finally, no one seems to want to address the problem of how we get into these leagues. I don't know what the rules are exactly, but I'm sure it's not just whether Chesterfield fancy having Rangers as opposed to Fleetwood and it's that hurdle that will stop us playing down south.

[calscot 0]

No matter whether we could or couldnt , one thing that is certain is playinmg in England leads to no European football , as stated this season if Cardiff had won the cup V liverpool they would not have been put forward for europe , so this should end any debate

 

I heard the FA have changed the rules to allow the Welsh teams to participate in Europe due to the Cardiff anomaly...

[rbr 1,247]

Well they must have done it in the last few weeks then Cal , as it was clearly stated that even if Cardiff won they wouldnt be in Europe , but I may be wrong on this

[Juancornetto 1]

Well they must have done it in the last few weeks then Cal , as it was clearly stated that even if Cardiff won they wouldnt be in Europe , but I may be wrong on this

 

We won't play in Europe for the next couple of seasons even if we do finish high enough to be put forward for a CL or EL qualifier so the European football is moot in my view. The big prize would be a crack at the Premier League, I would swap 20 years of European football to be hosting Man Utd, Arsenal etc every other week.

[der Berliner 3,357]

We won't play in Europe for the next couple of seasons even if we do finish high enough to be put forward for a CL or EL qualifier so the European football is moot in my view. The big prize would be a crack at the Premier League, I would swap 20 years of European football to be hosting Man Utd, Arsenal etc every other week.

 

Why do you make it a couple of seasons? We are barred from next season due to technicalities (March 31st deadline). What prevents us from playing in Europe the season after next?

[Gingerger 0]

What you all seem to miss in your love for playing in England is that both countries have to agree to this. It's quite simple, England does not want us and although some of the smaller clubs in the English lower divisions may want us for our crowds, it's the whole FA membership that would have to agree, and the teams in the Championship certainly don't want another club potentially taking one of their places to the riches of the ELP.

 

Nobody seems to be able to understand that???

 

What basis do we have for believing this unless we've asked?

 

The thing is that we would provide no immediate threat to the teams which could see us as potentially taking their place. The whole process of getting to the EPL could take as much as ten years, maybe more. Potentially we might never actually make it, that would be our gamble. I think the teams in the lower leagues would see us as an attractive boost to their leagues profile whilst the middle to top teams wouldn't really care that much as we would only be a long term minor threat which could potentially boost their incomes in the middle term. Just my opinion of course but as has been said elsewhere 'if we don't ask we'll never know'.