Fall of Rangers could benefit Scottish players

Sir, – So the Premier League teams are now panicking over losing money because Glasgow Rangers, in whatever guise they will be playing in the future, won’t be there to generate revenue next season and the Third Division clubs are trying to keep the smiles off their faces as they contemplate a couple of huge (by their standards) gates as the Ibrox club visit.

If anything has been learned from the shambles of this summer’s arguments over the Rangers issue, it is that Scottish football is in a worse mess than even the most pessimistic follower thought and the selfishness of, mainly, higher league clubs has been fully exposed.

The simple truth at the end of it all is that almost all clubs – especially those in the top leagues – will have to cut back severely on their finances, including slashing the number of players on their staff and the wages of those remaining. A bad thing? Maybe not, because Scottishborn players will get a better chance to prove themselves and not be sidelined as managers with more optimism than realism recruit foreign “stars” who are anything but.

Maybe teams with the class of Barcelona, Manchester United and City, Real Madrid and similar won’t be produced but over the many, many years of Scottish football they very, very seldom have been, anyway, and as real local rivalry returns, the new scenario won’t be all bad and just may gradually see more and more supporters returning. IanWheeler, Springfield, Fife.