I reckon both will cling on for a while yet, but gradually both will slip down the porcelain into the subterranean world. The loss of the euro as we know it, would not be good for all. The loss of Glasgow Rangers will only be mourned by 1 tribe in the West of Scotland, in spite of the imminent loss of Sky footie money, which could sound the death-knell for Scottish football.
I grin from ear to ear when I think of all the footy fans that ally themselves so strongly with a damn football team that can just go bust one day.
The demise of Glasgow Rangers is almost certainly the tip of HMRC's Iceberg assault on English clubs. I bet Chelsea, Manchester United and quite a few others will watching events at Ibrox very closely. However, it is a never-ending source of amusement up here. Why on earth was everyone watching the European Championship and not the Scottish Pantomime of Glasgow Rangers?
Just so folk from outside of Scotland understand the context a bit... All this wonderfull celebration of the joys of being a Rangers fan and Loyal Orange Lodge Order member will cease to be relevant. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbLPIGoqOm0&feature=related"]Govan Under The Bridge 2011 - YouTube[/ame] Rangers the great supremacists " We are the people" etc, loyal to the UK, but not HMRC
Rangers have already gone bust. It's now just a question of which of the Scottish lower leagues will accept the reconstituted club for next season. No doubt Celtic wil win the league by a mile, but it'll be interesting to see if the absense of their usual rivals has a detrimental affect on their football, and whether any of the larger clubs outside the Old Firm can close the gap at all.
Its not yet clear that the assets (Ibrox and Murray Park) of newco Rangers will remain intact once HMRC demand their pound of flesh (their debts alone might reach £!34 million), but apparently (according to my friend who is an insolvency lawyer), these assets may not be removed. This kind of debt would be very hard to stomach in the Scottish 3rd division, playing to crowds of 200 vs Stenhousemuir, Brechin City, East Fife etc. More worrying is the effect on Scottish football as a whole. Without the Old Firm spectacle and money spinner, the SPL is meaningless, and as such Sky will walk away from Scotland. From the Highlands to the Borders, to Dumfries and Galloway, all Scottish football fans are adamant: Rangers must be severly punished, and there will be no parachute deals. This means that if the clubs' Chairmen elect Rangers into SFL div 1, supporters will not attend matches which means lost revenues. There is even going to be a Westminster enquiry about this ???? - seems like a ludicrous waste of time and money to me. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-18706453 If Scottish football stumbles along without Rangers and Sky. it is possible that Celtic may in time, get another chance of English entry (though this seems to be quite difficult still); which would make Scottish football very competitive. The demise of the euro is a much, much more significant story, but not as funny.
A few Italian clubs were busted down the leagues as punishment for their naughty ways, but they all bounced back again. And their have been examples nearer to home of clubs who slipped down the divisions but maintained a big fan base (e,g, Manchester City in the third tier of English football.) I think that it will be a big payday for lower-tier Scottish clubs when Rangers come to play them (minus a big police bill for keeping the travelling huns from destroying the place.) But it will be hard for Nu-Rangers to pay off the debts, especially if the opposition only bring twelve men and a dog to Ibrox. They'll miss the Celtic hordes in more ways than one.
