The Death of Rangers in 55 Quotes including: “We wish the new Rangers Football Club every good fortune,” Walter Smith

Not a single word from the Celtic support in this article, although the last word belongs to Celtic. Below are 55 quotes from the mainstream media, their own legends, their fans via their ‘Show Liquidation The Red Card’ Day and the parties involved in the liquidation of Rangers in 2012. Please share these as widely as you can. The truth really does hurts….Today they boarded a plane with a 55 sticker fixed to the side. 55? Here’s why it really should have Air Force One….

1.”140 years of history is formally ended” The Herald

2. “As a result of appalling mismanagement, Rangers fans no longer boast an unbroken line to the past…The emotional ties will remain forever but historical strings are severed.” Daily Record

3. “The current worst-case scenario has Rangers being liquidated and a new club rising from the ashes but being made to start anew from the fourth tier of Scottish football.” The Observer

4. “Rangers will exit either through an agreement with their creditors – a Company Voluntary Arrangement – or by liquidation. The latter represents a break with 140 years of history.” Richard Wilson, Evening Times

5. “It’s more than two weeks since owner Craig Whyte plunged Rangers into administration — putting 140 years of history and tradition at risk” Andy Devlin, The Sun

6. “Last night Group 9 Sports released a statement on their website indicating that, if successful, they’d aim to emerge from administration by setting up Rangers as a new company. Kennedy will not stand back and allow the club’s 140 years of history to be wiped out. And he insisted any such move could put Rangers out of existence completely.” Keith Jackson, Daily Record

The clue is in the gates. If the club was different from the Holding Company then why is it the Holding Company and not the club named on the Ibrox gates? Photo: Robert Perry

7. “Administrators Duff and Phelps raised the possibility over the weekend of the current club being liquidated, meaning a new club could be formed to inherit Rangers’ assets” STV News

8. “…the shell that it used to operate from – and I understand the history of it – would be the thing that disappears.” (Paul Clark, Joint Administrator)

9. Ally McCoist will accept the end of 140 years of unbroken existence for Rangers, providing a new version of one of the world’s most famous clubs emerges in strength.” Roddy Forsyth, Daily Telegraph

10. “Liquidation is no good for Rangers. It will end 140 years of history.” Sky Sports

11. “The Blue Knights hope to avoid liquidation, which would leave any new club arising from the current club’s carcass facing a three-year ban from European football and open to further domestic sanctions even if they retain Scottish Premier League status” Sky Sports.

12. “Some Rangers fans believe the club’s history, which would end with liquidation, must be protected but there is a shameful part of that history which they should want to forget and any newco should make it clear a new beginning means exactly that. A new club open to all from the very beginning.” Jim Traynor, Daily Record

13. “A new club would be banned from Europe for three years and the Scottish Premier League clubs are meeting today to discuss points and financial penalties for such a club”. Daily Record

14. “Brian Kennedy and his Blue Knights have gone on the offensive and claimed their crusade to save Rangers is the only one on the table that will guarantee to safeguard 140 years of history AND AVOID LIQUIDATION.” Scott Burns, Daily Express

15. “On an ongoing basis the [old]company that continues to be in administration will be cleansed of all its former problems and will at a later date be reunited, after a CVA, with the new club Mr Miller is going to create.” Paul Clark, Duff and Phelps on STV

16. “Without Rangers the league would be knackered. I know a lot of supporters are saying they should be liquidated and come back as a new club in division three.” Stuart McCall in The Sun

17. “Charles Green attended the SPL meeting and has a £5.5m deal in place to form a new club should the CVA fail.” David Friel, The Sun

18. “The liquidator overseeing the current club’s extinction”…“Whether Rangers, as a new club formed by Green, are accepted into the SPL, and on what terms, is to be determined by the clubs.” David Conn, The Guardian

19. “Rangers in crisis: the final whistle sounds on Rangers’ 140 years of history” Daily Telegraph

20. “The formation of Rangers in March 1872 was a walk in the park – its death in June 2012 a shambolic slide into the abyss…However, as a result of appalling mismanagement they no longer boast an unbroken line to the past. The emotional ties will remain forever but historical strings are severed. In time, they may weave a new history that might start with the Third Division title in 2013.” Gary Ralston, Daily Record

21. “The really sickening thing about all of this is it was avoidable. All it would have taken for that was for someone to be honest. Pay your dues; give the taxman what he is owed. Instead Rangers have died.” Richard Gough in The Sun

22. “They’ll slip into liquidation within the next couple of weeks with a new company emerging but 140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended. No matter how Charles Green attempts to dress it up, a newco equals a new club. When the CVA was thrown out Rangers, as we know them died. They were closed and a newco must start from scratch.” Jim Traynor, Daily Record

23. “…the reality is that in technical terms, the doors are closed on the history of Rangers…There will be plenty of pedants who feel the old Rangers are now gone, and technically they are right.” Kevin Drinkell in Daily Record

24. “Green is poised to push ahead with a £5.5million deal to buy the club’s assets and form a new club, which would need to apply for membership of the Scottish Premier League and be excluded from Europe for three years.” Daily Record

25.. “I wanted to be able to confirm that, yes, their derbies really WERE the greatest game on earth, rather than tell the truth that they were bile-flecked re-enactments of centuries-old religious wars. It’s a cause of genuine sadness that this has never come to pass, so maybe that’s one of the things new owner Charles Green could look at as he rebuilds a new club from the rubble of liquidation” Bill Leckie, The Sun

26. “Air of unreality as 140 years of history is formally ended in less than nine minutes…The Rangers creditors drifted in through Exit 50 at Ibrox Stadium just before 10am and by 10.09am they were on their way out. In those few minutes 140 years of history had been rubbed out”. Teddy Jamieson and Richard Wilson, The Herald

27. “Union reps at PFA Scotland believe the new club has no hold over anyone who doesn’t want their contract to transfer across from the now defunct Rangers.” Robert Grieve, The Sun

Photo: Steve Welsh

28. “We wish the new Rangers Football Club every good fortune” Walter Smith on BBC

29. “And I believe concern over the new club’s finances has prompted Brian Kennedy to make a £5.6million bid for a controlling interest.” Jim Traynor, Daily Record

30. “The uncertainty surrounding the new club, especially in terms of what league they’re going to play in, has been a major factor in my decision (to leave) …I have concerns about who is in charge of the new club…Will I ever come back and support the new club? I haven’t thought about it.” Steven Naismith in Daily Record

31. “With the new club unlikely to gain enough votes to allow them entry into the SPL by fellow clubs at the League’s AGM on July 4 uncertainty over their future is growing amongst players.” Sky Sports

32. “Of course a new club will rise from the ashes of Rangers FC.” Kevin McKenna, The Observer

33. “Rangers will not play in the Scottish Premier League this season. SPL chairmen met at Hampden to vote on the new club’s application to replace the old Rangers in the top flight.” BBC

34. “It was also revealed the new club had been preparing to apply to the SFL for a couple of weeks and stated the newco Rangers would play in the appropriate division.” The Sun

35. “We do not consider that the newco’s allegation of breach of contract will stand up to scrutiny and in the event of the players’ registrations not being issued to a new club, we’ll look to FIFA and/or the Court of Session for a speedy remedy.” PFA Scotland lawyer in Daily Record

36. “Rangers chief executive Charles Green says he will not challenge the vote by the Scottish Football League to place his new club in Division Three.” BBC

37. “Another unknown is how the footballing authorities – SFA and Uefa – would react to any new club while the old club still had outstanding debts to footballing creditors (other teams) totalling more than £3m. Mr Green’s ambitions for a new club may also be thwarted if liquidators from BDO decide to challenge the asset sale.” BBC

38. “Green bought Rangers and their assets yesterday for £5.5million, just hours after Smith revealed he was spearheading a group to buy the new club.” Jim Traynor, Daily Record

40. “Sevco are still waiting to hear if the new club have been granted SFA membership ahead of their entry into the Third Division.” Paul Hughes, The Sun

41. “And IF they are allowed to enter the top division an independent commission will decide if it’s the old club or the new club that has a case to answer over EBTs.” Paul Hughes and Robert McAulay in The Sun

42. “Coca-Cola, which signed a two-year deal with its sport drink Powerade to be the 54 times SPL champions official soft drink in December, says it will continue its relationship with “Rangers FC” but declined to comment on its future with the new club.” Marketing Week

43. “No other completely new club would have been allowed to enter the bottom tier. It is also true that no other new club would have been even considered for membership of the SPL.” Ewing Grahame, Daily Telegraph

44. “Rangers newco should apply to the SFA for admission and apply direct to the SFL in the same way that any other new club would do.” Stewart Milne, The Sun

45. “New club forced to start in Scottish Football League 3” CNN

46. “McCoist and Green are committed to opposing any move to have history books rewritten even though they accepted they had to begin again as a new concern after Rangers, the club with history, slipped into liquidation and closed. That should mean the titles aren’t really any of their business. But on the other hand, the SPL refused to hand over £2m, which should have gone to Rangers for finishing second last season, pointing out that the club no longer exists.” Jim Traynor, Daily Record

47. “Following the failure of the CVA the club is now following the Premier League and Football Association structure, where the assets of the ‘game’, such as player contracts, are transferred to a new club and the old club liquidated. “ Accountancy Age

48.”(Whyte) also added: “What other country in the world would deal with one of their biggest clubs in the way they have and demote them to the Third Division.” Wrong again, Craig. Rangers had to go there because they were a new club starting over. Jim Traynor, Daily Record

49. Asked during his appearance on Off The Ball if Rangers were a new club: Yes, obviously they are.” Craig Whyte

50. “Rangers can make a fresh start.” HMRC

51. “Air of unreality as 140 years of history is formally ended in less than nine minutes.” The Herald

52. “Rangers in crisis: the final whistle sounds on Rangers’ 140 years of history” Daily Telegraph

53. “Rangers FC as we know them are dead. It’s all over. They are about to shut down for ever…They’ll slip into liquidation within the next couple of weeks with a new company emerging but 140 years of history, triumph and tears, will have ended… No matter how Charles Green attempts to dress it up, a newco equals a new club. When the CVA was thrown out Rangers as we know them died.” James Traynor, Daily Record

54. “You cannot pass on that which is undefinable, this is a new Rangers,” Donald Findlay QC

55. “#OneClubSince1888.” Celtic FC 

READ THIS…Timeline to the Death of Rangers and the Emergence of Charles Green’s new club in 2012

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

2 Comments

  1. The Sevconians Heads have been up there arses since 2012.Denying Reality doesn’t make there Reality a Reality.Liquidation = Death.RiP Rangers 1872.All this 55 BS is exactly just That BS