GORDON SMITH today picked over the bones of the fixture row that has engulfed Scottish football - and he believes more should have been done to help Rangers in their bid to win the Uefa Cup.

The SFA chief executive admits the fixtures farce has tarnished our game. The SPL's refusal to let Rangers postpone Saturday's match against Dundee United drew a furious reaction from Ibrox.

Chairman Sir David Murray said Scottish football was now the laughing stock of Europe. Smith said: "I think it is doing damage, there's no doubt about it.

"People are saying there's no support for a team in a European final. And that (message) is going across Europe and the world at the moment.

"There will be a certain amount of damage to the reputation of the game because of that, I have no doubt."

He added: "I don't think we (SFA) can take any blame. We don't sort the fixtures.

"The fact there was a Rangers game cancelled against St Mirren in November, if any blame is to be laid towards the SFA it is towards that, but I think that would be it. We were just trying to help.

"Some people were under the impression that the season has to end with the cup final. We were happy for the season to extend beyond the date of the cup final, so that if it went further teams could play in the following week.

"That turned out not to be an option either. I don't think it has been particularly fair to Rangers. I think we should have taken every step we could have to help one of our clubs."

Smith met SPL chiefs Lex Gold and Iain Blair at Hampden yesterday and offered to move the Scottish Cup Final to help Rangers.

But the league officials refused to alter their plans, which would have meant pushing back the end of the SPL season from its current May 22 finale.

Murray has demanded a summer summit with the SPL after being frustrated with league officials on more than one occasion during the present campaign.

He says he wants "to understand their management and decision-making process this season on certain matters".

He said: "Throughout the world people will laugh at this decision in disbelief, and none more so than in Russia as their own association have done everything they can to assist Zenit St Petersburg. It has been a remarkable season despite being spoiled by bureau-cracy and Scottish footballing legislators.

"Their decision does not surprise me, but disappoints and angers myself and indeed the Rangers supporters.

"As a club I don't think we have been treated fairly and indeed most, if not all, football associations throughout the world would have taken a different position."

Rangers are seven points behind Celtic in the SPL, but with three games in hand.

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell had already criticised last month's decision by the SPL to extend the league season to May 22, in the event of Rangers reaching the UEFA Cup Final.

Celtic face an 11-day gap between their remaining two league fixtures, against Hibs and Dundee United.

SPL executive chairman Gold claimed yesterday's meeting had not produced a "viable" alternative to the fixture list issued on April 22. But he dismissed suggestions the SPL have hindered Rangers' efforts to lift the Uefa Cup.

"Let me remind people that at the same stage in our competition I acceded to a request from Rangers to have a game postponed against Gretna to enable them to take on Lyon in the Champions League.

"I would suggest it is somewhat different when you get to the end of a competition and some clubs have only two games to go.

"It is a matter of concern to me, given where we are in our season, that there's not more I can do."

He added: "We worked very hard to see if we could find a solution that was going to produce a fair and balanced outcome beyond that which we produced on April 22.

"For the sake of our premier competition we needed to arrive at an outcome which was fair and consistent. I indicated to Rangers over the weekend that nothing had changed since the statement on April 22.

"I had a suggestion from the SFA that they would like to see whether there were any options on their front.

"I was prepared to look at all of those, but in the discussion we had it was clear that to maintain the fairness and integrity of our competition, sadly, there was nowhere for us to go other than the route we took on April 22."

Queen of the South chairman David Rae had earlier stressed that, from his club's perspective, it would be "totally unacceptable" to move the Scottish Cup Final.