The Scottish Football Association (SFA) yesterday banned Rangers owner and director Craig Whyte for life for misconduct on his part arising from unclear dealings since he took over the club last May after buying it from Sir David Murray for £1.
A tough talking Whyte who was hit with a £160,000 fine and 12 month transfer embargo however scoffed at the SFA’s decision saying that it would not affect him one bit.
“Tell me how it is going to affect me?
“I couldn’t care less. It makes no difference to my life whatsoever – and good luck collecting the money. It’s a joke. he told the BBC.
The panel that delivered the verdict on Monday, had met on Friday last week but Mr. Whyte’s failure to turn up resulted in the meeting being postponed to yesterday.
Of all the penalties handed to Mr. Whyte, the transfer embargo will hurt the most. Simply put, Ranger cannot have any dealing in the transfer windows for 12 months. This is very serious considering that the club were the Scottish champions last year.
It is very harsh on Rangers. I am surprised at how harsh the SFA have been on a club which is going through tough times at the moment.
“Stewart Regan (chief executive) and Campbell Ogilvie (president) should resign and get out of Scottish football. The SFA want to kick Rangers when they are down and I hope people remember that. They are playing to the media.” Whyte continued
According to the panel that handed down the verdict, they found that:
Rangers failed to observe statutes and directives for which they were fined £10,000 , had undergone an insolvency event £50,000 fine and had brought the game into disrepute (£100,000 fine and 12-month transfer ban on recruiting players aged 19 or older).
The news was the final straw for Rangers who’s season ended weeks ago after arch rivals opened a substantial points gap that now see’s them 18 points ahead with only 4 games left to play.
Rangers will however, have the chance to save face this weekend when they travel to Celtic park for a crunch Premier League fixture. Rangers won the first encounter 4-2 last September and so Sunday’s fixture should be a very interesting affair.