Scottish FA chief executive says Rangers duo agreed to Division One plan

Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan claims both Charles Green and Ally McCoist agreed to a plan to allow Rangers to play in Division One this season.

The proposal was unveiled in a leaked email between Regan, SPL counterpart Neil Doncaster, SFL representatives David Longmuir, Jim Ballantyne as well as Ralph Topping and Hibernian chief executive Rod Petrie.

Revealed days before the SFL vote which saw the Ibrox side placed in Division Three, the plan included a series of measures including league reforms.

In the lead up to the vote on July 13 both McCoist and Green insisted they were happy to play in the country’s bottom tier.

However in an interview with STV, Regan claims both men were in an agreement with the key points outlined in the leaked correspondence.

He said: “Our job is to look at things from the viewpoint of 42 clubs and from a financial perspective not just from the view of one club. We have to do what is right for the whole game.

“The plan that we presented was a collaborative plan agreed by all of the stakeholders around the table, the SPL, the SFL, the Scottish FA and indeed Charles Green and Ally McCoist on the tenth of July sat around the boardroom at Hampden and agreed the plan by which Rangers would come in to the First Division.

“Everybody knew what that proposal looked like. The clubs decided that it wasn’t in the best interests of the game from their perspective and we’ve respected that decision and moved on.”

Responding to Regan’s claims, Charles Green told STV: “My preference was always to play in the SPL however when that was taken away from us, both the SFA and SPL made it clear they wanted Rangers to play in the First Division.

“It was the decision of the SFL clubs and not Rangers in which division we should play and as we have said many times before, both Ally McCoist and I were happy to start again in the Third Division and this was also the opinion of our fans.”

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