Rangers season is all but over apart from a long-shot Europa League title to shoot for with Barry Ferguson tasked with guiding the club he loves until the end of the season.
On the pitch, things couldn’t be much worse with a Rangers squad that still needs a lot of work in the summer, something that might be helped by events off the pitch.
A proposed takeover by the San Francisco 49ers group has been agreed in principle, however, things are never this straight forward and Rangers fans shouldn’t get excited just yet.
San Francisco 49ers takeover of Rangers faces red-tape hitch
According to finance website City AM, there is a hitch in the plans despite the 49ers giving the go ahead for Rangers to sack Philippe Clement.
The 49ers Enterprises have a well-reported stake in Leeds United which means that a controlling stake in Rangers is also an issue.
It had been thought that the work-around was to be for the 49ers to have a share of under 30% and other consortium members to take that number up to over 50%, but even this might not be a solution.
There is one though – if Leeds get promoted to the Premier League.
Why? Because the Premier League’s rules on multi-club ownership are less stringent than that of the English Football League’s.
The good news is that they currently sit five points clear at the top with another safety net also being reported.
Rangers given second chance of takeover completion
EFL teams meet this week to discuss loosening the rules that saw Bournemouth also benefit from promotion to the top flight, their stake in Hibernian would have been blocked if they didn’t.
The reliance on Leeds getting promoted just became a little less, although this remains the preferred outcome for Rangers.
Multi-club owner ship is becoming more common and it would be a surprise if the EFL doesn’t follow the lead of the Premier League, given that is where they all want to be.
An estimated time frame of April to June has been given so far with all eyes on the Championship between now and the end of the season.
