Miller

Bill Miller promised to end the culture of overspending at Rangers after being confirmed as the preferred bidder by the club's administrators.

Miller is seeking to buy the assets of the club, which could have debts of up to £135 million (A$213 million), and form a new company while bidding to take the current club out of administration.

The Uefa Stance

Uefa have made the following statement pertaining to newcos: “Clubs are not allowed to change their legal form or structure in order to obtain a licence, simply by ‘cleaning up’ their balance sheet while offloading debts – thus harming creditors (including employees and social/tax authorities) as well as threatening the integrity of sporting competition.

Any such alteration of a club’s legal form or structure is deemed to be an interruption to its membership of a UEFA member association and, consequently, three years must pass before a club can apply again for a UEFA licence. In other words, the three-year rule is designed basically to avoid circumvention of the club licensing system."

The Uefa stance is clear and unequivocal on how it treats any newco created to shield a football team from any financial or regulatory ills experienced by the organisation from which it sprang.

“If a club sets up a new company simply to avoid paying its debts or obligations then they would almost certainly fail the three-year rule [for obtaining the required Uefa licence]," a spokesperson for Uefa told The Scotsman.

“This is to ensure clubs do not simply create a ‘newco’ and leave the previous entity in charge of dealing with debts."