Rangers in discussions to join EPL

[Friday's Legacy]

this cannot be allowed to happen! no one club is entitled to walk straight into the premiership. i'm sure this has been discussed many times over but the owner of rangers has gone public saying that discussions are ongoing about rangers joining the english premier league as well as in talks with the dutch.


http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,11788_7208212,00.html

Rangers owner Craig Whyte admits that the club are still hoping to move to the Premier League in England, and insists they are working on that 'behind the scenes'.

But the new Gers owner says they would also consider a link up with Nordic or Dutch clubs to form a new 'Atlantic' league, as has been suggested in the past.

Whyte, who is also battling Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs over a possible £49million bill, believes English football would make the club a lot more viable.

"We are in Scottish football so it is not a viable proposition to go put £100 million into the team," he told the Daily Telegraph.

"If we went forward into another league set-up, say the English Premier League, then it is very viable to put £100 million more in. We are not there at the moment, but we would like to be.

"[Joining the Premier League] is clearly something that we would like to see examined, it is something we are working on behind the scenes. But there are other potential ideas in terms of European leagues, joining some of the Nordic countries, the Netherlands to create a league."
HMRC

Whyte took control of the club from Sir David Murray in May, but there are concerns over a course being brought by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs who are seeking £49 million in back-taxes, interest and penalties.

HMRC claims Rangers wrongly used Employee Benefit Trusts for a decade, effectively to reclassify regular salaries as loans that avoided income tax and National Insurance.

Rangers' own advice at the time they were established was that they were legal, and HMRC made no complaint until last year, when it changed its guidance on EBTs.

Whyte believes Rangers have been singled out as a test case and accuses HMRC of leaking information to the media.

Should Rangers lose the case there is the threat of administration.

"It is one of the possibilities we have looked at, yes. The choice, in terms of an adverse finding, is pretty obvious really," he said.

"I think I can turn this around and sort out the problem. I have put money in and I'm prepared to put money in but I have said it is not a bottomless pit.

"Whatever happens Rangers will be moving forward. I will not allow the club to go bust. I can control the debt process absolutely, and whatever happens Rangers is going to be there playing in the SPL at Ibrox.

"Nothing is out of my hands because I control the club, I am the only secured creditor, or rather Rangers FC Group is. So on any decision, while HMRC might push, the group company controls the debt."


if they are allowed to walk straight into the premiership then celtic will follow, hearts will feel they deserve the financial rewards also, then aberdeen.. where does it end?

i actually would have no problem with celtic or rangers playing in the english leagues but not if they walk into the top division. they need to earn that right!

[zummerset]

So join the bottom leagues and work your way up...I reckon you would do well to top out in League 1..possibly the championship

[Friday's Legacy]

So join the bottom leagues and work your way up...I reckon you would do well to top out in League 1..possibly the championship

but even those clubs have a right to counter any move into the lower leagues of the football league with legal action, don't they? why should one or two clubs pay the price just to accommodate one, two, three, four 'foreign' clubs joining english football? i couldn't see them starting in non-league but that's exactly where they should start and they earn the right to play at a higher level.

[Gordons Cumming]

They let Swansea in.........................

[frimmers3]

why not let the scots club into the f.a cup? .that will serve to prove their worth.

[Friday's Legacy]

why not let the scots club into the f.a cup? .that will serve to prove their worth.

they want and need the financial rewards of the english premiership, not an fa cup.

[zummerset]

why not let the scots club into the f.a cup? .that will serve to prove their worth.

Yes but we can then lol at them going out to notts county or rotherham...worth the risk

[blindedbythelights]

lol

there prolly wont even be a Rangers by the end of this season

CMON HMRC

[roadrunner]

lol

there prolly wont even be a Rangers by the end of this season

CMON HMRC

Have to agree I hope they throw the book at them and they enter administration, 10 points docked etc, but they'll still end up 2nd at worst and as we've seen with the Leeds' and Leicester's, it's BAU before you know it.

I don't want them anywhere near the English leagues, let Holland or Norway have them in this Atlantic League or whatever it is they've mooted.

Dirk, would Championship clubs be able to present a legal challenge if any Scottish club was accepted into the Premier League? Same goes for Premiership club and the rest of the Football League.

[rfcjoe]

Neither of them merit a place in the league, and would just about stay up anway. Sweaty socks.

[Friday's Legacy]

Neither of them merit a place in the league, and would just about stay up anway. Sweaty socks.

both would receive significant investment, or be bought out in no time and then they would challenge the top 6.

[AthleticoSpizz]

so would we go back to a 24 team "premier" League or just "can" a further two English clubs out of it to keep it at its current 22?

what would happen if one or both of them got relegated down the leagues? (despite the investments)...Plymouth and Exeter can barely afford their N Easterly away games as it is.

has their (well publicised) problematical sectarian tendences got any place in the English leagues?

[rfcjoe]

Neither of them merit a place in the league, and would just about stay up anway. Sweaty socks.

both would receive significant investment, or be bought out in no time and then they would challenge the top 6.

But it's called the English Premier League for a reason. Because it's for English teams. And no, I don't agree that Cardiff and Swansea play in our English leagues either.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

But the new Gers owner says they would also consider a link up with Nordic or Dutch clubs to form a new 'Atlantic' league, as has been suggested in the past.

I'm fairly sure fans would have something to say about this absurd idea.

[From Despair To Where?]

Neither of them merit a place in the league, and would just about stay up anway. Sweaty socks.

both would receive significant investment, or be bought out in no time and then they would challenge the top 6.

But it's called the English Premier League for a reason. Because it's for English teams. And no, I don't agree that Cardiff and Swansea play in our English leagues either.

In defence of Swansea and Cardiff, although their situation was similar to the Old Firm in the sense of being two big city teams playing in a league full of glorified provincial pub sides, weren't they invited into the English system due to league expansion and therefore started in the bottom division?

Surely a precedence set there then.

[Friday's Legacy]

i believe so yes, and cardiff entered the league in 1920 was it? not sure about swansea, wrexham, newport.

[Svlad Cjelli]

In discussions? In discussions with whom? The report actually says this guy wants to do it, but doesn't give any evidence of who he's talking to.

The Premier League will never vote for this unless they can see some benefit to it - and currently they see none. (Gartside's 2-tier PL involves them joining, but that's a whole other question.)

[Stuka]

I cant see it happening because they'd have to get special dispensation from UEFA and I think they are already trying to get the FA to reduce the number of teams in the Premier League.

[postwhisperer]

I thought the welsh teams joined because there wasn't a welsh league for them to join and they joined the english league. its a bit different. they can join with the lowest cumbria or northumberland league. if they were brought in at EPL it would be a biggest joke than the milton keynes/wimbledon fiasco

[FiNeRaIn]

This won't happen, all the smaller clubs like Tottenham, Aston Villa, Everton, Sunderland, newcastle,etc will all move to prevent it. Ridiculous cardiff, wrexham and swansea are in there though, complete joke.