Rangers threaten to quit over restructuring plans

LONDON (AFP) –

Rangers chief executive Charles Green has warned that the club could decide to withdraw from Scottish football if plans to alter the format of the country’s league system are approved.

Rangers chief executive Charles Green has warned that the club could decide to withdraw from Scottish football if plans to alter the format of the country’s league system are approved.

The Scottish Premier League (SPL) and the Scottish Football League (SFL) on Tuesday reached an agreement over proposals to merge the two organisations and introduce a three-tiered league pyramid.

Under the plans, there would be 12 teams in the top two tiers and 18 in the third division.

The new format could be introduced in time for next season, which would mean that Rangers would remain on the bottom rung of the Scottish league ladder even if they secured promption from the Third Division (fourth tier) this season.

“I haven’t read anything other than what is in the press and if that is what we have sat here eagerly awaiting to transform Scottish football, my advice to the board of Rangers is the quicker we can leave Scottish football, the better,” Green told the club’s in-house television channel, RangersTV, on Wednesday.

“I can’t see anything that is going to transform the finances, the status or the excitement.”

Rangers, 54-time Scottish champions, were relegated to the Scottish Third Division after going into administration at the end of the 2011-12 campaign.

They currently enjoy a 17-point lead in the table, albeit having played two games more than second-place Queen’s Park.