Rangers chief executive Charles Green is not leaving any stone unturned as he searches for alternatives to playing in a football structure that he is not fond of. He has been critical of the current SPL/SFL/SFA set up and also of the proposals to reconstruct the league structure. Of course Scotland is not the only country where football structures are criticised. Green has travelled to Brussels to speak to Standard Liege chairman Roland Duchatelet who warned in December that without a Dutch-Belgian league the game in those countries "would die". With a growing frustration at a lack of significant movement on the reform of Scottish football, Green is looking into alternative options for his side currently playing in the Third Division and could be playing in the bottom rung of the proposed new set up.
Green said: "The big issue for us at the moment is we don't know what is happening domestically. Scottish football has been in a mess for some time. That's not something which was brought about by Rangers' demise - gates were dwindling before then and interest from fans and sponsors was diminishing. While I was away, Ross County's chairman came out saying their fans didn't support the proposed structure. St Mirren, I understand, have had a similar response. We're not really sure what the SPL clubs are thinking of doing but clearly something has to happen. There has to be a fix but not with a sticky plaster that covers the cracks. A strategic review needs to take place but that will involve other countries and not just Scotland. It would be very wrong of me to sit by idly waiting to see what comes of that. I must explore all avenues and the issue of cross-border leagues is now on everyone's lips. I recently visited the chairman of Standard Liege because he has made a statement about a Benelux league. There is already one in existence in the professional women's game and a precedent is there in that respect. We're seeing that kind of thing being looked at in the former Soviet states and in some of these countries, you have one or two very big clubs. After that, the rest of the clubs are small and that's exactly what you've got in Scotland. Rangers and Celtic are giants and that's it. There are parallels with many countries across Europe, places such as Belgium and Portugal, where there's a difference between the top two or three and the rest."