Rangers suffered a triple blow today with the release of a depressing set of financial results, the rejection of a proposal to allow the Old Firm to move to England and an £18,000 fine by UEFA for the crowd trouble in Bucharest last week.
The cash-strapped Glasgow club, who are looking for a buyer, posted their financial results this morning which showed their net debt had increased by around £10million to £31.1million.
Despite winning the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, the Homecoming Scottish Cup and reaching the final of the Co-operative Insurance Cup, the club showed a loss for the year of £12.7m, against a £7.2million profit for the previous year.
Turnover, up to 30 June, 2009, decreased by £24.8million to £39.7million, which contributed to the massive negative swing in profits of around £20million.
Rangers chief executive Martin Bain claimed defeat by FBK Kaunas in the qualifying stages of the Champions League, which eliminated Rangers from Europe altogether, was primarily to blame for the club's poor financial performance.
In a statement released to the stock exchange, he said: ‘The early elimination from European competition together with the reduced number of games resulted in turnover decreasing to £39.7million from the record high of £64.5million achieved in 2007/08.
‘In total 49 games were played in all competitions in 2008/09 as against 68 in the prior year.
‘This had a detrimental impact on ticketing and hospitality income, whilst the commercial area of the business suffered due to the lack of income from UEFA for European participation.
‘Ticketing and hospitality income decreased by £11.7million to £24.2million due to the reduced number of home games both in European and domestic cup competitions.
‘Ticket sales bore the brunt of the decrease with only 22 home games played in 2008/09 in all competitions as against 32 in the prior year.’
New Rangers chairman Alastair Johnston reiterated the costly effects of the defeat by Kaunas.
He said: ‘In broad terms, the failure of the club to participate in the Champions League last season and the recession had the most significant impact on the club's financial performance.’
As the Ibrox club revealed their financial woes, albeit via figures which were expected, one potential life-line was almost simultaneously withdrawn when Premier League clubs overwhelmingly rejected a plan to allow Celtic and Rangers to join the English top flight.
A proposed overhaul of the current Premier League set-up, the brainchild of Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, would have saw the Glasgow giants invited in to an English Premier League Two.
However, the idea was quite categorically rejected as neither ‘desirable or viable’.
The Premier League said in a statement: ‘Bolton Wanderers submitted a discussion paper detailing ideas concerning the restructuring of the Premier League into two tiers with the inclusion of Celtic and Rangers.
‘The clubs welcomed the additional input into an ongoing process; however, they were of the opinion that bringing Celtic and Rangers into any form of Premier League set-up was not desirable or viable.’
To compound a day of misery for Rangers, UEFA's control and disciplinary body imposed a fine of £17,988 and ordered the club to pay the cost of damage to the Steaua Stadium as a result of the improper conduct of their fans during the Champions League match against Unirea Urziceni in Romania last week.
Unirea Urziceni were also fined €7,195 for lack of organisation at the same match.
Television pictures from last Wednesday night's 1-1 Group G draw in Bucharest showed a number of visiting supporters clashing with Romanian police in the stands, while one fan was seen to rip out a seat.
Rangers chief Bain claimed the trouble was triggered by poor organisation at the Steaua Stadium and over-zealous policing.
Bain's explanation for the crowd trouble was also backed by Superintendent Mike Dean of Strathclyde Police, who was helping to co-ordinate security at the ground.
Reacting to today's fine, Bain repeated his condemnation of those involved, saying: ‘The moronic conduct of these individuals was wholly unacceptable and flies in the face of what we stand for as a football club. We will not appeal today's decision.
‘It is particularly frustrating in view of the fact that many people at this club work very hard to ensure supporters travelling to support the team abroad are safe and can enjoy the occasion.
‘The club made strong representations to UEFA regarding the wholly unsatisfactory crowd management prior to the match and UEFA has addressed this. As we have made clear, this in no way excuses the violent behaviour of some fans.’
