Rangers: Next Steps For Crisis-Hit Club

Rangers' historic step into administration almost certainly rules the club out of European competition next season and will concentrate minds simply on taking the club's future game by game.The experience of Portsmouth, the only English Premier League side to end up in similar circumstances, suggests administration can devour between three and four months.Since Rangers would have to emerge from their present predicament by the end of March to have a hope of a renewed European football licence, the prospect seems very unlikely.Paul Clark, the administrator, has said the target is to bring stability to Ibrox.The first step will be to ensure the very short term.Saturday's match at home to Kilmarnock will go ahead as planned, say the administrators, despite reservations expressed by Strathclyde Police.Negotiations between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the club and creditors will begin in earnest on Wednesday.They will attempt to reach a compromise, culminating in a creditors' meeting at some stage in the future to decide if they will accept what is offered.What might be described as the big tax case against Rangers, for £49m, has yet to unravel as a result of a tribunal in January.It revolves around the use of Employee Benefit Trusts to pay players between 2001 and 2010 and is a still large black cloud on the horizon.At present, HMRC are concentrating on the non-payment of £9m PAYE and VAT following the takeover of Rangers by Craig Whyte in May last year.Mr Whyte puts the total figure, including all tax along with penalties, at around £75m.It is a huge sum and the administrators will have to get to grips with it quickly.All of Rangers' assets, including the club's home stadium Ibrox, land attached to it and its training base, Murray Park, will be examined, with a view to satisfying creditors.But any potential sale of Ibrox is stymied by the listed building status of the main stand.Planning regulations make the sale of the Murray Park for housing very unlikely, if not impossible.Players' contracts will be honoured in as far as they can be; some may be asked to take pay drops.There may well be painful job- and cost-cutting among club staff.Fans' support for the efforts of the administrators is key, but it will be difficult since the 10-point deduction has effectively ended the Scottish Premier League (SPL) title race and reduced interest.Millions of pounds of revenue from participation in Europe next season cannot now be counted upon.The taxman forced Rangers to appoint administrators during a dramatic day, but HMRC are given no preferential treatment in recovering their money."We are in line with anyone else, cleaners, caterers, we are in with those guys," said a spokesman.