I wrote last week that the days ahead would be historic for Scottish football.

So it proved to be.

USA businessman Bill Miller had been granted preferred bidder status by Administrators Duff & Phelps.

Yesterday he withdrew from the process before his period of “due diligence” had hardly begun.

It was a massive setback for those who want the Ibrox club to survive.

The Rangers supporters were stunned by the news.

One of the reasons given by spokesman for the American was the campaign of abuse that he had been subjected to by Rangers fans.

At a match at Ibrox stadium fans displayed a banner telling the American to “go home”.

Given that Mr Miller doesn’t own a passport and has never visited Scotland it was a strange order!

Rangers fans are fond of telling people to go home. In 2008 they started a song with made mocking reference to the Irish famine of 1847.

They aimed this song at Celtic supporters and players like James McCarthy then at Hamilton Academicals who had chosen to play for the Republic of Ireland.

The young man now plays for Wigan Athletic in England and suffers no racist abuse from opposition fans.

Scotland is different.

The song goes “the famine is over why you don’t go home?”

When this “famine song” first appeared the Irish government communicated with the Scottish executive about this racist chant.

The “Famine Song” was discussed in the European Parliament in November 2008 when it was raised by Eoin Ryan MEP.

He was invited by the Scottish government to see the work being done to combat this social evil.

Representatives of the Rangers supporters organisations defended the song saying that it was “humorous”; it is difficult to see what is funny in one million people dying of starvation.

Like Mr Miller in the USA Eoin Ryan MEP was subjected to hundreds of abusive emails from Rangers supporters when he publicly challenged their racism.

This “famine song” was designated racist and illegal in 2009 by the High court in Scotland.

Ironically when the Rangers fans displayed their racist abusive banners about Mr Miller and his nationality the club had three USA nationals on the pitch; Bedoya, Bocanegra and Edu.

Some people in Britain often joke that the Americans don’t get irony.

Maurice Edu had been racially abused by several Rangers supporters after a poor result in 2009.

http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/maurice-edu/

 

With Mr Miller gone from the bidding process there is now very little time left for the club to be saved.

Rangers will simply have no money to continue to operate in two or three weeks’ time.

Quite simply the Administrators have to find someone willing to buy the club and agree a deal with the 276 companies, individuals and organisations owed money by Rangers.

The amount owed vastly exceeds the value of the assets of the company.

If this does not happen then the club will be liquidated and Rangers will die.

This proposition seemed unthinkable to most followers of the Ibrox club only a few weeks ago.

Just like Mr Miller, this journalist has experienced the cyber abuse of an increasingly desperate bunch of football fanatics.

It has even followed me onto Vavel and my thanks go to the editorial staff for dealing swiftly with the problem.

Bill Miller’s spokesman said that the businessman had been on the receiving end of hundreds of “vitriol and expletive filled emails” from Rangers supporters.

The statement also called into the question the extent to which Miller had originally been given all of news surrounding the club’s finances by Duff & Phelps.

With the American gone we are very much in end game for Rangers.

Their club IS about to be liquidated and it is not sure if a new club at Ibrox will be in place for next season.

It is rather poetic that the racism of the Rangers fans played a part in perhaps the final nail going into the club’s coffin.

Scottish football without Rangers is like trying to imagine Spanish football without Real Madrid.

Well I did say that these are truly historic days for Scottish football.