Scottish Football Association President Campbell Ogilvie "has denied that moves to reform the structure of the country's professional leagues are designed to accelerate the return of Rangers to the top flight," according to Martin Hannan of the SCOTSMAN. Ogilvie insisted that the reconstruction had been "on the table" long before Rangers collapsed into liquidation. Ogilvie is a former Rangers director and a beneficiary of one of the Ibrox club's controversial Employment Benefits Trusts, which "are under investigation" by the tax authorities and the Scottish Premier League. Latterly, he was the Hearts FC managing director. Ogilvie said, "The whole debate on reconstruction started a year ago and got railroaded up to a point with all the meetings that took place on the Rangers situation from February. This is a much wider debate, it's not about any one club" (SCOTSMAN, 8/28). In London, Gavin McCafferty reported some Scottish Football League clubs accused the SFA and SPL of "bullying" amid warnings over the financial consequences of Rangers being relaunched in the Irn-Bru Third Division, predictions which have so far proved significantly over-pessimistic (LONDON TIMES, 8/28).
MERGER PROPOSAL: In Glasgow, Graeme Macpherson reported that one of the proposals on the table would involve "the merger of the SPL and SFL into one governing body," but Ogilvie remains unconvinced about the merits of such a plan. Ogilvie said, "There has been talk of that, but I don't know if it's the answer. We had one body in the past, and you still have to work out the governance and voting structures between the top division and the other decisions. At the start of this debate, I thought one body would be appropriate, but it's not the be all and end all" (HERALD SCOTLAND, 8/28). Also in Glasgow, Greig Cameron wrote Rangers supporters accused accounting firm Duff & Phelps that handled Rangers' administration of "providing poor value for creditors after its fees totalled £3.3M ($5.2M)." The firm reported it "had booked more than 8,300 hours of work at an average hourly rate" of £383 ($606) during the process so far (HERALD SCOTLAND, 8/28).
