RANGERS could be poised to have a voice again as one of Scottish football’s powerbrokers – thanks to Celtic supremo Peter Lawwell.

The Parkhead chief executive is not standing for re-election to the SPFL board.

And his Partick Thistle counterpart Ian Maxwell is also not seeking another term.

That has left the door open for Ibrox managing director Stewart Robertson to fill one of the two vacancies at Monday’s AGM. But he is expected to face competition from Hearts owner Ann Budge as well as Dundee managing director John Nelms and Hamilton’s Les Gray.

Rangers have been absent from domestic game’s top table since being exiled into the bottom tier in 2012.

Robertson narrowly missed out on grabbing a seat 12 months ago but is expected to be given the go-ahead for the new term.

The move will leave Celtic without representation on the top division board for the first time in more than a decade, while Rangers are looking to gain a position again having failed to hold a role in the elite boardroom since before the meltdown in Govan in 2012.

Lawwell and Maxwell will move on to the SFA’s Professional Game Board.
Newly-appointed SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan will chair the board with chief executive Neil Doncaster and non-executive director Karyn McCluskey to be joined by members of three top flight clubs, two from the Championship and one from the bottom two divisions.

Meanwhile Rangers finance director Andrew Dickson has been appointed to the SFA congress, along with Doncaster, Eric Drysdale (Raith Rovers), Ken Ferguson (Brechin City), Margaret Lang (Falkirk) and Malcolm Mackay (Queen’s Park).

A spokesman for the SPFL said: “Ian Maxwell and Peter Lawwell decided to not to offer themselves for re-election for the SPFL Board this summer and instead to make themselves available for appointment to the Scottish FA Professional Game Board.”