Rangers legend Terry Butcher: When I joined they were bigger than Man United, now it's a club on its knees

By Terry Butcher

Published 08:00 19/02/12

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If a Scottish Premier League edition of ­Monopoly ever existed, Rangers FC would have to be moved from the luxury of Mayfair to the less glamorous surroundings of the Old Kent Road, without passing GO at any time.

It would appear that those in control at Ibrox manipulated the finances as if they were playing with monopoly money but, by landing on the ­Income Tax space, they incurred a potential £49million unpaid ­Inland Revenue bill.

Owner Craig Whyte must have known what he was walking into, but ­unless he has a viable business plan for the ­future, he will ­forever rue the day that he brought Rangers FC to its knees.

How the mighty have fallen. For a team that went nearly all the way in the first UEFA Champions League in the 1992/93 season, only to lose out to Marseille one game from the final, this past week has seen the collapse and ­disintegration of the ­institution that was once Rangers Football Club.

When I joined back in 1986 Rangers were bigger than Manchester United and able to compete in Europe every season, ­unlike the English clubs banned after the Heysel disaster.

Soon the Graeme ­Souness revolution began to turn the heads of other England internationals and Rangers actually had more representatives in Bobby Robson’s 1990 World Cup squad than any other club. But then, in 1992, Sky TV appeared on the scene and brought enormous amounts of money that clubs north of the border simply could not match.

Rangers still attempted to take on the top teams in Europe by hiring Dick ­Advocaat and giving him the biggest budget of any Rangers manager, but the folly of such prolific spending finally came home to roost this week.

Stretching the finances way beyond the club’s limit was one thing – but to try and cheat the ­Revenue by avoiding the payment of players’ taxes was another.

If Rangers do win the £49m tax case there is a very strong chance that some form of recovery can be engineered, but if the ruling goes against the Ibrox club then I can see no-one being ­interested in taking on such a massive debt.

Rangers would go into liquidation.

There have been others who have entered administration and not only ­survived but emerged stronger and wiser from the process.

Rangers have to hope that that is the case for them, but their current demise will ultimately ­affect the rest of Scottish ­football.

The future of the SPL is presently in the hands of the administrators, Duff and Phelps, and HMRC.

To use the Monopoly analogy, it’s time for Craig Whyte, to play his ‘Get out of Jail’ card, although it might not be free now!

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