ENGLISH Conference teams could next week open the door for Rangers to exit Scottish football at their club summit.

Ibrox chief executive Charles Green says that the Light Blues would seek to quit Scotland if a controversial 12-12-18 system is adopted for next season.

While that remains a very unlikely scenario, Conference chairman Brian Lee has refused to rule out the possibility of the Ibrox club joining the fifth tier south of the border.

"On Monday we have a mid-season meeting of clubs so that is a topic for conversation," he said.

"It's up to the clubs to make rule changes.

"There are one or two problems, of course. It's up to Fifa whether a club can change countries or not, so that's the first issue.

"And the second, and probably the most important, is the problem it would create with promotion and relegation and having an uneven number of teams.

"It would be wrong if the Football League would not take Rangers as part of the promotion and relegation system.

"Otherwise they would be in the Conference keeping out a team who might have the wherewithal to go higher in the pyramid.

"But they are not insurmountable problems.

"You will have to have the co-operation of a lot of different organisations to make it possible, but where there is a will there is a way."

Meanwhile, former Ibrox striker Kris Boyd has backed his old club to re-emerge at the forefront of Scottish football.

The player has been training with the Ibrox side over the last weeks before he returns to Portland Timbers in the MLS.

"Once they come out of this and get back to the level they should be at there will be a lot of smiling faces," he told the Rangers website.

"As a fan looking in it has not been great to see what has happened to the club in the last year or 18 months but hopefully they are on the road to recovery now.

"Rangers are a massive name worldwide so there is interest in what has been happening and the people of Portland were asking questions which is an indication of that.

"Rangers will be back. It might take a couple of years but they will be back and, once they are, everyone connected with the club will have a big smile on their face."