Scottish Third Division club Rangers were Tuesday night told that "they could become the Bosman of football clubs around the world by going to court to smash the restrictions that bar their entry to the English Leagues," according to David McCarthy of the Scotland DAILY RECORD. As Rangers CEO Charles Green took his seat at the European Club Association annual meeting in Qatar Tuesday, a leading Scots advocate was insisting that "the courtroom should be the Yorkshireman’s next battleground in his bid to move the Ibrox club south of the border." Eoghainn Maclean, an expert on competition and commercial law with the Ampersand stable of Advocates in Edinburgh, believes that Rangers -- or Celtic for that matter -- "would almost certainly win their case." In fact, Maclean reckons that the mere threat of hauling the English FA through the courts, might be enough to get the clubs, which have "consistently refused to consider allowing Scottish teams into their set-up, around the negotiating table." Maclean cannot believe that no Scottish club "has challenged the English FA in court and is convinced they would succeed if they went to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to sue in competition law." He said, "Football clubs are sporting entities, but they are also businesses. So they are economic entities as well as sporting entities. Any economic entity is subject to competition law" (DAILY RECORD, 2/6).
