Rangers challenge embargo

The club took the controversial step of beginning action in the Court of Session in Edinburgh in a bid to overturn the 12-month ban, which was imposed for a failure to pay £13million in tax last season.

Rangers last week lost an appeal against its punishment, meaning two independent panels convened by the SFA found a transfer ban was competent and justified, and the next traditional step in football disputes was to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

However, the club's administrators began civil action against the governing body, a move explicitly prohibited in FIFA's regulations.

The case will continue on Tuesday and the club is possibly set for another eventful day 24 hours earlier with a spokesman for the administrators saying on Friday that they hope to issue a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) proposal on Monday.

In a statement, joint-administrator Paul Clark said: "The club started proceedings at the Court of Session today in an attempt to challenge the imposition by an SFA judicial panel of a player signing embargo.

"The process will continue at the court on Tuesday and it is the club's position that the judicial panel did not have the powers to impose such a sanction.

"The club and the administrators are grateful for the support of the Rangers Fighting Fund on this matter."

The club's argument centres on the fact that the punishment, specifically a ban on registering players aged over 17, is not explicitly laid out in the SFA rules and so they claim it was not available to the panel.

However, the SFA articles of association include a clause that a judicial panel can implement any sanctions they deem appropriate.

The SFA, which was represented in court on Friday, issued a brief statement regarding the hearing.

"We note Rangers FC's initiation of proceedings at the Court of Session in relation to the sanctions imposed by an independent judicial panel, which were subsequently upheld by an appellate tribunal chaired by Lord Carloway," it read.

"With the hearing continued until Tuesday, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

Article 64 of FIFA's statutes prohibits "recourse to ordinary courts of law" and national associations are told to impose sanctions on any party that fails to respect this obligation.

The SFA's article 99 states that members may not take disputes to a court of law unless with prior approval of their board.

The ban on registering players aged over 17 was handed down for a disrepute charge while Rangers were also fined £160,000 for a total of five offences in relation to their financial affairs and the appointment as chairman of Craig Whyte.

Whyte was deemed unfit for a role in football by an SFA-commissioned independent inquiry over his previous disqualification as a director and subsequently banned from Scottish football for life.

The initial three-man judicial panel was chaired by a QC and the appeal panel chairman was serving judge Lord Carloway.

The appeal verdict stated: "Although the appellate tribunal has listened carefully to the representations from Rangers FC about the practical effects of the additional sanction, it has concluded that this sanction was proportionate to the breach, dissuasive to others and effective in the context of serious misconduct, bringing the game into disrepute."

Charles Green, the former Sheffield United chief executive at the head of the consortium that has agreed to purchase the club, previously backed the administrators in their attempts to challenge the ban.

The club's challenge, led by Richard Keen QC, is being paid for by the Rangers Fans Fighting Fund, which was formed to enable supporters to help the club through administration.

Rangers fear the embargo will leave them without an experienced team next season as several of their leading players negotiated exit clauses when they agreed to temporary wage cuts.

This means they are free to leave for a specific cut-price fee from June 1, when their wages are due to revert to normal.

Green signed a contract putting his group in an exclusive position to buy the club on May 12 but plans to send a CVA proposal to creditors on Monday did not materialise and administrators revised their target to some time this week.

That has not been achieved but they tonight said it should be sent out on Monday.

Creditors would then have two weeks before voting on any offer and, if a CVA is approved, there is a 28-day cooling-off period before the club would be able to come out of administration.