Rangers and Portsmouth Enter Administration

Rangers F.C. (one of the two biggest teams in the Scottish Premier League along with Celtic F.C.) is a Glaswegian side who are currently said to owe at least £49m to the HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) in supposed taxes that were avoided through payment plans based out of the UK. The attempt to dodge these payments through some sort of employee-benefit trust scheme sends them into administration, a situation in the UK very similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. The one key exception between administration and bankruptcy is that in the UK and "administrator" steps in at the company and runs the finances as opposed to the idea of the "debtor in possession" who still runs the company now under much more stringent financial watch in the US. Also, any team who enters into administration takes a huge blow in the tables as they're deducted points for not being able to support themselves.

The big deal about this is that Rangers are literally half of the SPL. Their games against Celtic, known as "Old Firm Derbies," are widely regarded as some of the greatest games of football in the world outside of the major tournaments. If Rangers are to actually go down into liquidation they will reform but it's not exactly clear how. There is an option that they could attempt to join the English leagues at the lowest level but there would have to be much negotiations in the FA. One of the other biggest things to come out of this is what will happen to Celtic if they are to just be left at the top of Scotland all by themselves. There's also talk of them joining into the English leagues but this would be even more complicated because as it stands they're too good to join at a low level and work their way up through the seasons but at the same time, they can't just jump into the Championship as it would disallow another team who'd earned its spot.

Portsmouth, who are looking at relegation in the Championship, have also just entered administration and are in a bad spot right now but it's nothing in comparison the extreme crisis at Rangers. They owe around £4 or £5m in taxes due to negligent owners. It looks like they'll probably end up getting out of this as they have a huge fan base and could draw the attention of a very good new owner who's up for a challenge.