England Says No; Gers in big losses & Gers fined for Bucharest trouble

Despite the international week approaching, it was actually quite a busy day for Rangers today as three important stories were covered over the day from the EPL2 Proposal, the club’s finances & the club’s punishment for the crowd trouble that occured at half-time against Unirea Urziceni. Firstly, the EPL2 proposal that was put across by Phil Gartside didn’t go down as well as planned for the Bolton Chairman as the committee turned down the idea of Rangers and Celtic crossing the border to the English Premier League. Premier League Chairman Richard Scudamore confirmed this afternoon that the Old Firm will “never” join the Premier League.

If I’m being honest, I’m actually quite pleased at the decision –  I never really wanted to see Rangers play in England in a very “financially uncontrolled” league. Lets stick to our own national game and try to improve.

The hierarchy at Ibrox also released the clubs financial figures which weren’t a joy to behold. Rangers lost up to £19m to June 2009 and are now in total debt of £31.3m. Its worrying, but today in the Scottish Herald, a Florida-based supporter wants to invest money in the club along with the possibility of David Gold. On Saturday, the Supporters Trust is organising a conference analysing the business models of Hamburg SV and Barcelona – both supporter owned – so we’ll see if that takes a step in the correct direction.

Finally, UEFA handed out punishment to Rangers & Unirea over the disturbances in their Matchday 4 encounter in Bucharest that ended 1-1. Rangers were handed an £18,000 fine and Unirea were handed a £7,000 fine.