I only know on genuine Glasgow Celtic fan.

Having made that statement I think I better explain that I am using the word “genuine” as defined by former Cork City FC manager Pat Dolan. It used to irk him when he heard somebody claim to be a fan of Liverpool or Manchester United.

“Are you from Liverpool/Manchester?” he would ask. The answer was invariably no. This would open the door for Pat’s pièce de résistance, “Then why do you support them, and not your local team?” (This meant ‘why don’t you support Cork City FC?’ when he worked around here.)

Now that the word “genuine” has been defined, my genuine Glasgow Celtic fan is named Charlie. He was born in Glasgow in the 1950s. He is a life-long Celtic supporter and like many other genuine Glasgow Celtic fans; he has some Donegal blood in his veins.

Charlie is also a socialist, and a great believer in fairness and equity for all. He loves a good argument on the subjects of distribution of wealth or equality of opportunity in education. He is also a realist, and understands that competition is the spice of life.

I last met Charlie back in June. At that time I jokingly sympathised with him on the demise and demotion of Glasgow Rangers for making illegal payments to players and generally cooking the books.

He asked what did I mean. I replied that with Rangers gone, Celtic will have no serious opposition in the Scottish Premier League.  Celtic would have a bloodless victory in winning the competition. I also added that without strong opponents, Celtic would have no measure of their own ability. This situation usually leads to a drop in standards, so Celtic will show a decline rather than an improvement over the coming. I honestly expected him to agree. He didn’t.

“I see your point” Charley said, “ordinarily I would agree, but in this case I could never agree with ya. If you ever had anything to do with Rangers you wouldn’t agree either.” Our discussion took place before Rangers had been formally demoted to the Third Division by the other Scottish clubs, but Charlie added with great confidence, “And no other team in Scotland will support them either.”

I did not understand the vitriol from Charlie. I could understand that sentiment if it came from the more bigoted element that follow Celtic, but Charlie is a reasonable man.  It is not his form to be so dead set against anyone.

I did some research. From antidotal evidence (i.e. the opinions of a several people I know who have lived in Scotland for a while) it appears that Rangers are more unpopular with the other clubs than Celtic.

More importantly however, there is a general agreement among the Scottish football clubs and fans that Rangers have achieved all their success since 2001 by cheating. This cheating relates to their method of wages payment since 2001. To put it another way, Rangers are to Scottish football what drugs cheats are to athletics. This is why all the attempts to enter a Rangers team, albeit as a new company, in any league other than the Scottish Third Division have failed.

This decision means that Rangers will not play in the Scottish Premier league again until at least 2015/16. This could have huge consequences for Scottish football. According to the Economist news magazine the loss of Rangers from the Scottish Premier League could cost the Scottish football up to £16m per year in each of the years that Rangers are missing. In purely economic terms, that is an awful lot of righteousness. Nevertheless, it is a price that the other clubs in Scottish football are prepared to pay, in the interests of justice.

I have been a fan of statistics for along time and I like to read all the football results from all the English and Scottish leagues each Sunday. I constantly marvel at the fact that the home attendance at the Celtic or Rangers match each weekend generally makes up more than 50% of the total attendance at all games. When you add on the fact that the second biggest attendance is usually the attendance at the Celtic or Rangers away game, you quickly see that 60% of all the supporters of all Scottish football attend either the Celtic or Rangers game each week.

All this is by way of getting around to the shock result of last weekend. Because of the fact that the Olympics were closing, Rory McIlroy won the US PGA Golf tournament and Galway beat Cork in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final, there was too much going on to allow proper coverage of this score line; Peterhead 2, Rangers 2. And what’s more, Rangers only equalised in the final minute of the game. Peterhead, by the way, is the most easterly point of mainland Scotland and the photograph on www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk is uncannily like Birr, Co Offaly with a seafront.

Leaving aside the politics and the cheating aspect of Rangers predicament for a moment, this result raises a more interesting problem for Rangers and their manager Ally McCoist.

Because of their home gates, (each one will be greater than the season aggregate of any other team in the league) Rangers will be able to buy and play players who are technically much better than the other players in the league. The question that has to be asked however is, what type of player do you buy to get your team out of the Scottish Third Division?

In an interview with BBC Radio after last Saturday’s game Ally McCoist hinted that he needed to buy players before the end of the month transfer deadline. He also said that he realises now that every away game Rangers will play this year will be the equivalent of a third-round cup game.

I would think that sending out players of quality and finesse is not the answer to playing league games on artificial turf against the likes of Berwick, Elgin or Annan Athletic. You need warriors for those kind of games; seasoned pros who are past “making it” in the big time, but who can kick shins as well as, if not better, than the next man.

It is a skill to be able to buy players who can play in the Champions League and compete against Celtic, Hearts and Hibs. It is a completely different skill to be able to buy players that will get down and dirty with the teams in division three of Scottish football. In horseracing terms, it is the ability to be able to buy a point-to-point horse that has the potential to become a winner at Cheltenham. We know this can be done, but is Ally McCoist the man to do it for Rangers?

Like my friend Charlie, I have no great love for Rangers. That said, Rangers should be by far the most interesting soccer team to follow, in the academic sense, over the next few years.