Top Stories

Administrators look to accelerate Rangers sale after players reject pay cuts

Rangers (Reuters Pictures)

The downward spiral that has enveloped Rangers FC continues to get more overbearing.

After players rejected pay cuts that would have relieved the club's financial burden, team administrators released a statement saying that they are accelerating the sale of the team. The club is currently in "a perilous financial situation" to the point that it might not be able to afford to play the rest of its games this season, according to the statement.

Rangers players were reportedly on the verge of agreeing to absorb hefty pay cuts that would have prevented the team from releasing any more players amidst the club's financial crisis before turning down the proposal. The pay cuts were going to be taken on a sliding scale based on player salaries — highest-paid players would have lost as much as 75 percent of their wages — and they would have saved the club enough money that no other players will need to be let go.

"We understand the players' position as the scale of wage cuts required to achieve these savings without job losses were very substantial indeed," administrators Duff & Phelps wrote. "In view of this, we are faced with a situation of making redundancies within the playing staff on such a scale that would materially erode the value of the playing squad. We are striving to strike a balance where cost-cutting measures can be implemented but do not destroy the fabric of the playing squad to the extent that it will inhibit the prospect of a sale."

Midfielders Gregg Wylde and Mervan Celik left the club on their own accord on Tuesday in hopes of relieving the financial burden currently weighing down the Scottish powerhouse, but that appears to be far from the case.

As a result, all remaining Rangers players, including Americans Carlos Bocanegra, Maurice Edu and Alejandro Bedoya, wait as their club futures dangle in the balance.

"We are expediting the sale process, and over the next few days we will be holding discussions with prospective purchasers who have declared their interest," the administrators wrote. "If however it becomes apparent that the sale process cannot be accelerated, there will be no choice but to implement very severe cost-cutting measures at the club."

—————–

What do you think of this development?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. It’s God’s payback for Ger’s “Protestant only policy.” I hear the Vatican’s Venture Capital wing has cash to splash boys. HA. Serves them right. I’m sure our 3 Yanks will land on their feet. The Future looks bright for Celtic, but not so much for Scottish football. Honestly, the league needs to get it’s ‘gear’ together and get better. Aside from Old Firm matches — I’d almost rather watch paint dry. How were they able to hide these financials and not be facing jail ?

    Reply
  2. What makes you think accuracy and realism are their main objectives?

    There’s just as much noise in this as there is in people’s individual subjective assessments.

    Reply
  3. This really is a truly epic disaster. This will not be the last European institution club to go by the wayside. Salary caps are on the way.

    Reply
  4. I’ve heard that the police departments have started using Grand Theft Auto to help them solve petty crimes.

    Sure, it’s not perfect, but still better than the aletrnative.

    Reply
  5. nope. they just have Boca, River and a few other teams in the “Rest of the World” category. what’s weird is that they added Egypt to FIFA12 but they didn’t add Japan (the national teams). i was really surprised Japan wasn’t on the game.

    Reply
  6. Good argument. The creators of the game spend hundreds of hours creating the most realistic rankings system possible, attending to a variety of important metrics. They are paid to both objectively and accurately rank the teams, the success of their game is largely based on that. In what way do you think it is an inaccurate metric? Perfect? No, but better than most alternatives.

    Reply
  7. The players supposedly having consensus until the agents supposedly dropped in last minute seems a little melodramatic but the issue I could see is if they don’t cut you now or sell you in the present window and you accept a paycut through the summer, do they commit to selling you then at any reasonable price. Which is what the agents supposedly wanted.

    FWIW, if Rangers ask too much the players have liquidation in their hip pocket. The team disappears the contracts are voided and they can play where-ever they like. If what Rangers was offering was drastic wage cuts with no commitments for the next window the agents stepping in was probably wise for the players’ interests.

    Reply
  8. As Rangers puts it, “in the absence of sufficient cost-cutting measures or receipt of substantial unplanned income, the Club will not be able to fulfil its fixtures throughout the remainder of the season.”

    Reply
  9. its not the current squad of players that would have killed rangers, though they may be the group who didnt save it. Tough to blame them though, this is their livelihood and not a long term one at that.

    Reply
  10. The moral counterweight is if they don’t get enough quitters and paycuts the team gets liquidated and on some level people can say “you killed Rangers.” But if Rangers can’t pay its agreed obligations that is primarily its own problem.

    Reply
  11. They won’t make it to the open of the window. They would have to close up shop before then if they are asking some players to take a 75% pay cut.

    Reply
  12. (a) they are in debt and it is causing them cash flow problems right now;
    (b) the non-standard winter window is open that would allow them to sell to places like Scandinavia and MLS;
    (c) they owe taxes and the tax man is not going to accept a haircut;
    (d) there have been escalating issues re traveling fan ticket sales (ie, teams asking Rangers to pay up front for tickets, Rangers returns favor….);
    (e) Rangers didn’t pay Dunfermline a ticket debt on time which affected Dunfermline’s ability to pay its own players fully on time….etc.

    In theory they might get more money from summer sales but then they might not survive that long. So they will take what they can get. If they can’t get it sorted out they will go the way of Gretna.

    Reply
  13. if only MLS could PAY better than SPL, Swiss League, Allsvenskan, etc.. then these players wouldn’t leave as frequently.

    Reply
  14. My only concern would be that important markets might be overinflated, but if that were true, I would expect Australia to be much higher.

    Argentina isn’t in the game, I suppose?

    Reply
  15. MLS has, by far, the best quality-to-cost ratio of any league in the world. US Players go to Scandinavia because they can so easily triple their salary, or more.

    Reply
  16. Obviously having the Red Bulls show the rankings aren’t perfect, they’re based more on potential talent than actual results, but more than any other metric, especially those of the warrantless assertion variety, these seem to trend towards accuracy.

    Reply
  17. At least the cut is just for a few months; if you read the article, the players agreed but the agents didn’t, because they are worried about future transfer fees.

    Reply
  18. Before everybody goes on the ‘Scandanavia/SPL sucks rant’ I thought it might be useful to have some semi-non-arbitrary stuff on the point. Here are the average rankings of the teams in FIFA 12, the EA Sports video game. Laugh, say ‘its just a video game, it’s not real’, but the makers of the game are tasked with making the game as realistic as possible, making the team overall’s as accurate as possible, and, really, is one of the only ranking systems that uses a common denominator for leagues in different continents.

    1. English Premier League 4.10(1)
    2. Italian Serie A 4.00(4)
    3. La Liga 3.98(2)
    4. German Bundesliga 3.92(3)
    5. Ligue 1(France) 3.78(5)
    6. Liga do Brasil 3.60(NR)
    7. Portuguese Liga 3.38(6)
    7. Russian Premier League 3.38(7)
    9.Primera Liga (Mexico) 3.06(NR)
    9. Eredivisie(Netherlands) 3.06(9)
    11. English Championship 3.02(NR)
    12. Belgian Jupiter League 2.88(12)
    13. German 2. Bundesliga 2.75(NR)
    14. Major League Soccer(US) 2.69(NR)
    15. Liga Adelante(Spain) 2.61(NR)
    16. SPL(Scotland) 2.58(18)
    17. Italian Serie B 2.48(NR)
    18. Danish Superliga 2.33(13)
    19. Ligue 2(France) 2.30(NR)
    19. Swiss League 2.30(14)
    21. Norweigan Tippeligaen 2.25(26)
    22. K-League(South Korea) 2.16(NR)
    23. Polish League 2.03(20)
    24. Austrian League 2.00(15)
    25. Swedish Allsvenskan 1.91(24)
    26. A-League(Australia) 1.85(NR)
    27. League One(England) 1.83(NR)
    28. League Two(England) 1.08(NR)
    29. Irish League 0.85(33)

    Notable Exce1ptions-
    Ukrainian League(UEFA Coefficient Ranking-8)
    Greek League(UEFA Coefficient Ranking-10)
    Turkish League(UEFA Coefficient Ranking-11)
    Cypriot League(UEFA Coefficient Ranking-16)
    J-League(Japan)
    Argentinan League
    Egyptian League

    -MLS, in FIFA 12, ranks ahead of popular Yanks Abroad destinations such as Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the English 3rd Division. The following clubs had a
    ranking of 3 stars or higher-New York Red Bulls(3.5), Los Angeles Galaxy, Sporting Kansas City, Seattle Sounders, Real Salt Lake, Colorado Rapids, and FC Dallas.
    The New England Revolution were the only team to garner a rating below 2.5(2), with the remaining teams recieving 2.5 stars.

    -The first number is each league’s composite average, the total number of stars from their respective teams(on a 0-5 scale) divided by the total amount of teams.
    The second number represents, for European teams, their UEFA coefficient ranking. A ‘NR’ indicates the team either does not play in UEFA or is a non-first division
    league.

    Reply
  19. 75%? I would have told them to piss off as well.

    They mismanage their finances and then ask me to take a 75% paycut? Please, put me on the next plane out.

    Reply
  20. No reason the players should shoulder the burden. If they are released, they can move on immediately on a free transfer and even if they signed for a smaller club, noone would be staring at a 75% pay cut.

    Reply
  21. Why don’t the administrators just wait until the transfer window opens? That would allow administrators to get more money for the players.

    Reply

Leave a Comment