Apologies in advance if anyone has already pointed this out, but....
If Rangers aren't in the SPL next season, it won't be due to relegation.
Dunfermline have been relegated. They competed in the competition, but weren't quite good enough to stay up. Someone has to finish last. This is an alien concept to Rangers. Rangers don't believe in the meritocracy of a league competition. This is the absolutely fundamental issue here. Rangers have seen themselves as apart from the normal scheme of things. They clearly didn't want to compete - take their chances with everyone else, and accept the final analysis. Rangers' approach has been to manufacture their status, and it isn't simply cheating, it is about a refusal to accept that competing is about winners and losers, not just winners and all the other pieces of shite that they leave in their wake. This is the very antithesis of what I believe football (and sport in general) to be all about.
Rangers supporters talk about justice and unduly harsh sanctions, blah, blah, blah.... This means nothing when you don't play the game. You can't expect justice when you haven't bought into the terms and conditions. If you choose to opt out, you're beyond the scope of that justice. They are fortunate that sanctions are even being considered, because this assumes that they still have any part to play.
When this whole debacle kicked off, I had a wee chuckle to myself, but wasn't unduly concerned as to how it might pan out. As time has passed, and revelation after revelation has been thrown into the mix, I've grown mightily sick of the fact that they have caused me to question my interest in, and commitment to Scottish footballl, and, indeed, my own club.
Nah. Rangers have been playing with a loaded dice for years. If they drop down, they won't have been relegated. They will have been correctly thrown off the table. If you don't play by the rules, don't expect anyone else to invite you back at any level. Tainted indeed.