FOR weeks, Scottish football fans expected today would be judgment day - the day the SPL clubs kicked Charles Green's newco Rangers out of the top flight.

Now, the responsibility of deciding what league the Ibrox club will participate in this season could come down to the 30 Scottish Football League clubs who will cast their vote next week.

The outcome will have massive consequences for the whole of Scottish football. Without the prospect of Ally McCoist's side making a quickfire return to the SPL, there are fears clubs such as Motherwell, Dundee United and Kilmarnock could struggle to survive.

Many worry a call to banish Rangers to the Irn-Bru Third Division would, ultimately, provide the kiss of death for Scottish football. SportTimes canvassed opinion on what is potentially the most important decision ever cast in the history of our game and asked the question: Will relegating Rangers to the Third Division mean the end for Scottish football as we know it?

YES

MARK DINGWALL, RANGERS FANS' TRUST

IT would be disastrous. If the chairmen of other clubs or the leaders of fans' groups at other clubs think otherwise, then they are simply ignoring reality.

Whether it is hate or fear that is blinding them, the facts are some other SPL clubs could actually find themselves going into administration before the end of the calendar year if it is decided to move Rangers to the Third Division.

I know it won't be pleasant for Rangers, but we will deal with that anguish and fight our way back up to the top.

But the other people who are determined to see this happen can't be doing this for the good of Scottish football.

Interestingly enough, most Rangers fans now seem to be coming round to the opinion the club should take a stand and make a decision to go down to the Third Division without sanctions, as opposed to going into the First Division with sanctions.

With a strong support behind the club, we will be in a position to come back from this, but can other clubs survive without Rangers?

Can most SPL clubs afford not to have Rangers in the top flight for three years?

Not having Rangers in the league will have a direct impact on TV income, spon sorship money and gate receipts.

All of these will be vastly reduced and therefore, it is impossible to see the many clubs being as strong as they are currently in the financial sense. I'd imagine it will be the clubs in the SPL who would suffer rather than the teams in the lower leagues.

NO

JOHN ALEXANDER, CLYDE CHAIRMAN

ANY of the proposals that have come our way aren't negative financially, but we are not interested in the money. My opinion has not changed since our statement at the weekend.

We have a bit more information and clarity on some of the numbers that have been banded around. That will have to be disseminated around the organisation.

I have fears for Scottish football around what has happened, it is enormously sad. I have a fear because it could affect a number of clubs and have a knock-on affect across the game. It would be silly to suggest otherwise.

Frankly, I don't see a good outcome. The phrase used yesterday was 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. The situation is such that there will be no winners now.

From our point of view, it is not about the money. It is about fixing the Scottish game because it is desperately damaged.

YES

FRANK MEADE, ALBION ROVERS CHAIRMAN

WE have to find a mechanism where an appropriate sanction is applied, but also we have to be very careful that a short-term decision doesn't destroy the long-term, commercial viability of our game.

There are a number of positives of Rangers in the First Division. Grounds are more capable of accommodating bigger crowds, the television exposure could have an added spin-off to the SFL and the possibility of play-offs being introduced is a big incentive.

If Rangers were in the Third Division, the potential economic benefit is less. It makes sponsorship much more difficult to attract and more difficult for media deals to be retained. I think there is a lot of smoke and mirrors going on.

If Rangers were in the Third Division, there is no reconstruction and the sporting integrity aspect, however that is defined, would be tarnished for the next couple of years.

I think people are being naive if they think that sending Rangers to the Third Division isn't going to affect every club.

YES

RAYMOND SPARKES, FOOTBALL AGENT

WHAT is happening here is that a lot of people who are not normally asked for their opinion are opening their mouth and letting their belly rumble.

If Rangers were dropped into the Third Division then it would set the Scottish game back between 15 and 20 years.

What the people who are now voting on this matter need to think about, and we are talking about the chairmen of football clubs rather than their supporters, is to consider what is the best course of action for the game in general, and not necessarily themselves.

The financial state of the economic world shouldn't be lost on anyone at this moment in time and Scottish football obviously has had to suffer financially in recent years. There isn't as much money around in the game that their once was.

In general terms, the game in this country could have well and truly done without what has gone on at Rangers, and I don't think there is any danger that Rangers won't be punished for what has happened.

But it is important to try and make the best of a bad situation and to place Rangers into the Third Division only promises to make things worse at a time when we can't afford that to be the case.

YES

GUS MacPHERSON, FOOTBALL MANAGER

FITRSTLY, the Scottish Football League clubs are unlikely to be affected greatly by Rangers being put in the Third Division. Most lower-league clubs have cut their budgets over the years and, if required, they would simply make more cuts to keep afloat.

The problem would be for the three or four SPL clubs who maybe aren't on as sound a financial footing as they would perhaps like.

The financial implications of moving Rangers all the way down to the bottom tier would hit those clubs hard.

And, eventually, you would have to say it would have an impact on a lot of clubs. I agree that it would set our game back years.

Rangers, as a football club, would be able to survive having to work their way through the lower leagues.

However, can other clubs afford to live without them for a prolonged period of time and will the TV money on offer, which is the lifeline for SPL clubs, remain as lucrative? I don't believe so.

You only have to look at what happened when the Setanta deal collapsed and the financial problems facing all the top-flight clubs until Sky TV and ESPN stepped in. Therefore, it would have a huge impact on the Scottish game and the overall product.

YES

COLIN JACKSON, RANGERS LEGEND

FINANCIALLY speaking, I think it is suicide for Scottish football if Rangers are reduced to the Third Division.

I could accept a punishment with a one-tier demotion to the First Division but, to send Rangers all the way down to the Third Division, is off the scale for me.

When you consider that the Rangers support provide 28% of all the attendances in the Scottish game this is just madness because that figure will dilute greatly in the Third Division.

What I can't get my head round is the SPL chairmen who are putting their clubs at risk over this. I could see a club going to the wall because of the revenue that will be lost if the TV deals collapse because Rangers are dropped to the Third Division.

To me, all logic has gone out of the window and it is almost as if the other SPL clubs and those in the SFL are just looking to kick Rangers for the sake of it.

I ask myself what have Rangers ever done to these clubs and the answer is that for a very long time they have brought more income into the Scottish game than the rest of the clubs put together – with the exception of Celtic.

I didn't think that turkeys voted for Christmas and I will be praying that is not the case ahead of today's SPL meeting but, if sense is not seen, then a lot of chairmen are going to be left facing dire consequences for their clubs that they could have averted if they had used commonsense.

NO

NICK ROBINSON, MORTON SUPPORTERS' TRUST CHAIRMAN

WE compiled a survey of Morton fans, and 94.5% said that if Rangers were to be granted access to the SFL, then they should have to apply to the Third Division. The message from fans is clear.

The SPL sent out a document stating that £16million would be lost from the game if Rangers went to the Third Division, and I would like to know how that figure was reached.

I don't know whether the TV deals would disappear altogether or not; the value of it may just be reduced.

I am sceptical about the prophecies of doom and gloom.

I do accept it will be hard for clubs and that some will have to trim their costs.

The only club that actually published figures was Motherwell.

Their turnover last year was over £4m, but even if they lost £1m of that, it still leaves them with nearly three times the income of clubs in the First Division.

Teams like Morton, Partick Thistle and Dundee manage to keep running on much less.

I do accept that they will have commitments that they can't get out of immediately and that it will be hard, but clubs should be able to adjust their business model if things happen.

The other thing is, why should the SFL and First Division cave in to the blackmail from the SPL? There are threats that we will be cut off forever.

Well, good luck to them, because I don't see them having many takers.