Rangers say they are to appeal their 12 month transfer embargo. We think they have got lucky and should just get on with it.
Ally McCoist says the transfer ban imposed on Rangers would kill the club.
We’re sorry we don’t agree.
A club like Rangers will never be ‘killed off’.
They have fantastic support, a huge ground, and a famous name worldwide.
Is the transfer ban a setback? Yes of course it is, they would be forced to play kids from the youth team if their current stars all leave.
But that might just be a good thing, who knows what talent might emerge? If it leads to relegation from the SPL, they will soon bounce straight back up.
Rangers fans need to get real. Thanks to what some describe as ‘financial doping’ they have been punching above their weight for the best part of the last decade, and now it has caught up with them.
Clubs can survive huge punishments. Look over to Italy.
Juventus and Fiorentina are two clubs which have been dealt harsh punishments over the past 15 years, and have come back fighting, thanks to their infrastructure and dedicated fan base.
Fiorentina hit the wall in 2002. From competing in the Champions League just years earlier, with Gabriel Batistuta scoring a memorable goal against Arsenal at Wembley, they went bankrupt.
At the start of the 2002/02 season they were even refused entrance to Serie B, and had to start again from scratch forming a completely new club in the fourth tier of Italian football.
With their substantial fanbase, and at last sensible management, they were able to rise to the top, and are now back in Serie A.
Juventus even were stripped of their title and demoted to Serie B after a match-fixing scandal in 2006. They too bounced straight back, and are now competing for the Scudetto.
It all indicates that Rangers will never die, no matter how melodramatic McCoist and co. make it sound.
If the very worst happens, and a new club has to be formed a la AFC Wimbledon or Fiorentina, they can do it.
It might just be fun along the way. Rangers have done wrong, they should be grateful that they have not been sent down the divisions like Fiorentina.
A transfer ban for 12 months is a small price to pay. Did they think they were going to get off scot-free?
image: © carca
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