Rangers Fans Cough Up As Hearts Pay Players

The ongoing financial struggles in the Scottish Premier League (SPL) have seen Rangers fans step in to pay £22,000 owed to Dunfermline by the Ibrox club for ticket sales, while Hearts this week paid players their latest round of delayed wages.

The Rangers Fighting Fund has raised £250,000 to help the struggling club, currently the subject of a number of interested parties exploring a takeover.

Dunfermline are owed money from an SPL match in February, and the fans’ fund will pay the £22,000 over on Friday, with former Rangers player Sandy Jardine taking a cheque to the Pars. ‘This is a debt of honour to a club of honour,’ said RFFF chairman Andrew McCormick.

Those words could be taken to have something of a sting for Dundee United, also owed money by Rangers, but who the RFFF will not be paying because of ‘strong views that, in recent times, Dundee United had treated Rangers and their fans with disdain.’

McCormick explained to the BBC: ‘Rangers fans were angry last season when Dundee United levied an extra charge on Rangers ticket holders if they wished to attend an abandoned game at Tannadice.’

Hearts, meanwhile, have confirmed that players have received their latest round of wages. Player salaries have been delayed on several occasions this season, with the club expressing its frustration that more players did not leave in the January transfer window.

Hearts said in a statement earlier this month: ‘It is unfortunate that it was outwith the power of the club to persuade some remaining fringe players to leave early as they elected to stagnate, preferring to take the club’s money while offering very little or nothing in return.

‘This is an issue that the club will resolve to a large extent at the end of the season and at that point we would expect that payment delays should be eradicated.’