11 years on: A look back at key events as Rangers plunged into administration

It has been 11 years since the financial collapse of Rangers Football Club after months of speculation over the club’s annual reports and accounts.

The Ibrox side were plunged into administration in February 2012 due to a £9million tax bill that was owed to HMRC less than a year after disgraced former owner Craig Whyte bought Sir David Murray’s majority shareholding for just £1.

The club’s debts ran up to £134m, and Whyte, who had arrived in Govan as a ‘high-net-worth individual’, was unable to pay the bills, which led to the Light Blues being docked ten points and effectively ended their Scottish Premiership title challenge in season 2011/12.

Administration was followed by liquidation before the club was subsequently reborn and entered another era under the new ownership of Charles Green, which ensured Rangers had to re-build from the bottom tier of the SPFL set-up at the start of the following season. They would later gain two promotions in three seasons.

Fast forward to the present day, Rangers are back in the top-flight of Scottish football and competing for silverware again, having prevented city rivals Celtic from winning ten-in-a-row under the guidance of Steven Gerrard and sensationally reaching last season’s Europa League Final in Seville.

That fateful day will remain in the memories of many supporters, with first-team players also kept in the dark about the scale of the club’s financial problems. It was documented that Rangers’ top earners took a 75% pay cut for three months to help protect staff’s jobs.

Here, we take a look back at some of the key events from that period: