I can quite understand their happiness as the findings of the independent SPL commission have, at long last, got a monkey off their backs.

But I myself am bitterly disappointed the whole sham went through in the first place.

Lord Nimmo Smith stated publicly back in September that the entire process could be a fruitless exercise. Well, his prediction has been proved correct.

Yes, Rangers 'oldco' has been hit with a £250,000 fine for non-disclosure of side letter arrangements with players.

But let's face it, the SPL will not see a penny. So what was the point?

I wonder how much money the top flight's governing body – and its member clubs – has spent on lawyers and other things during this whole farce?

At a time when money is scarce in Scottish football they must have shelled out several hundred thousand pounds on legal fees alone.

All of the clubs agreed to go down this route. But for what? It has all been a complete waste of time, if you ask me.

Lord Nimmo Smith and the two QCs who ruled on this along with him will now have to be paid as well.

There was a huge amount of bitterness among Rangers fans over this contentious issue and I can fully understand why.

I think some of those who gave the investigation the go-ahead, some of the representatives of SPL clubs, genuinely felt it was the correct thing to do.

But I am convinced that two or three others, prominent club chairmen and board members, had definite agendas against Gers that they were pursuing.

There was never, right from the very outset, any chance of Rangers being stripped of any of the five titles they won between 2000 and 2011.

That was just one of a total of 18 possible sanctions available to the commission under SPL rules.

When that emerged, everybody automatically – and, as things have turned out, wrongly – assumed it was what would happen.

People should have realised it was one of a whole range of possible censures, from a fine to a warning, that was available.

Charles Green, the current Rangers chief executive, recalled yesterday how the SPL had asked the Ibrox club to accept the stripping of titles back in the summer when they applied for SFA membership.

The findings of the commission have shown that he was 100 per cent correct to say to them: "Get lost!"

People have to remember that, as the commission's report spelled out, there was no sporting advantage to Rangers.

Celtic won six of the 11 titles available during the period in question.

As the decision document outlined clearly yesterday Rangers "did not gain any unfair competitive advantage".

I think this whole sorry saga has to stop now. Scottish football is in the grubber. We can ill afford to throw money out of the game.

We have far more important things to concern ourselves with in our sport.

I am sure, now that matters have come to a head, that Green and Ally McCoist will be looking forward to the future without any distractions.

I would like to think the people running our game can now turn their attentions to the more important issues affecting the game in this country.

We need them to be focusing on what matters – on youth development, on attracting fans back to matches, on bringing major financial backers into the sport.

This whole affair has driven home to me the difference between the SFL and their member clubs and the SPL and theirs.

The SFL have a sponsor, Irn-Bru, for their three divisions. At the end of this season the SPL will not as the Clydesdale Bank are ending their association.

You have to ask who is going to want to get involved with them after everything that has happened, on and off the field, in the last year or so?

Meantime, I am pleased that the boardroom spat involving chairman Malcolm Murray appears to have been sorted.

It had been revealed that Murray had been asked to stand down and there were insinuations about his conduct.

Hopefully, everyone at Ibrox can now work together for the good of the club.

Who knows what will happen in the summer? There may well be changes at the top. But, for the time being at least, everybody has to pull in the one direction.

As I said last week, what took place in the board meeting should not have been made public.

These things – and I have no doubt there will be many more disagreements and differences of opinion in the future – have to be kept private if Rangers are going to move forward.