UEFA, the BBC, Derry City and The Rangers

It has been an interesting week in the Great Sevco Same Club/NewClub debate. Of course it is a metaphysical reality that the club currently playing out of Ibrox is not the club founded in 1872, but that has not prevented Rangers fans from inventing all sorts of imaginative ways to claim they are the same club.

First of all, there was quite a stir amongst Rangers fans online about a decision by the BBC's editorial standards committee, which upheld a complaint that the BBC's referring to "old" and "new" Rangers was inaccurate. The trust was guided in its decision by Lord Nimmo Smith's report, which concluded for the purposes of the SPL dual contracts investigation that Rangers "the club" can be separated from its corporate identity (then Rangers Football Club plc).

This is entirely incompatible with Scots Law as BBC Scotland made clear in its statement on the ESC ruling.

We should bear in mind though that LNS was not ruling on Scots Law, but on the SPL definition of "football club," specifically as to whether The Rangers Football Club Ltd (formerly Sevco Scotland Ltd) had an interest in the case and a right to representation at the hearing.

LNS concluded that for the purposes of the SPL investigation, a "football club" is "an undertaking capable of being bought and sold."

Crucially, but usually overlooked though, LNS stated he was satisfied the "football club" has no legal personality separate from its owner and operator.

Which brings us to UEFA.

As we all know by now, UEFA define "football club" as "a legal entity responsible for the running of a football team," a much clearer definition than that of the SPL, which rather ineptly boils down to "a football club is a football club."

To meet the criteria for a UEFA license, the applicant must be a legal entity which is a member of a national association (12.1a), or has a contractual relationship with a member (12.1b).

In addition, this membership must have lasted for at least three consecutive years (12.2).

If we accept that Rangers is the same club (by the LNS definition), then "Rangers FC" will never qualify for a UEFA license.

It fails on three counts:
i) It is not a legal entity
ii) It is not a member of a national association
iii) Lacking legal personality, it cannot have a contractual relationship with a member.

The legal entity is The Rangers Football Club Ltd (formed May 2012).

The SFA member is The Rangers Football club Ltd.

"Rangers FC" does not have and cannot have a contractual relationship with The Rangers Football Club Ltd.

When The Rangers Football Club Ltd does eventually qualify for UEFA competition, the UEFA license will be issued to the club - The Rangers Football Club Ltd, which is a different legal entity to the previous club playing out of Ibrox.

Last week, UEFA issued co-efficient points to those clubs which will be playing in the qualifying rounds of their competitions this summer.

Derry City, a different legal entity to the old Derry City which went under in 2009, were awarded the FAI base co-efficient points and these were not added to the points gained by the old Derry City.

It is now looking more likely than ever that under Article 12 of UEFA's Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play rules, they can only regard The Rangers FC as a brand new club.