Rangers face being stripped of honours as SPL investigates player payments "The SPL Board has instructed an investigation into the alleged non-disclosure to the SPL of payments made by or on behalf of Rangers FC to players since July 1, 1998," said a statement. SPL rules F1, G1.1 and G1.5 give the SPL Board wide powers of investigation into potential breaches of the SPL rules. SPL rules D9.3 and D1.13 impose a prohibition on players receiving payments for playing football or participating in an activity connected with football except where such payments are made in accordance with a form of contract approved by the SPL and require that all such contracts are submitted to the SPL within 14 days of being entered into. Asked whether the club could be stripped of the six titles it won during this period if the SPL discovers that they hadn't provided all of the relevant details in connection with payments to their players, chief executive Neil Doncaster said that was a situation he was "monitoring very closely." He added: "I am not sure that speculation of that type is helpful to anyone." The Scottish Football Association had declared last week that it would conduct its own probe into the allegations made by Adam. Rangers were minutes away from being penalised by the SPL yesterday, administrators Duff and Phelps agreeing to pay Dunfermline part of the £84,000 owed to them for tickets for last month's match at East End Park just before the meeting which would have decided on the appropriate punishment for welshing on that debt. The remainder of the money must be paid by April 13. "We learned, just prior to the meeting starting, that the administrators had agreed with Dunfermline payment for the outstanding money so our action, relating to Rangers, went away," said Doncaster. Doncaster also claimed yesterday that the extension of the SPL's TV deal with Sky and ESPN was not dependent on being able to deliver four Old Firm games per season. Should Rangers lose the tax case and emerge from liquidation as a newco, there is no guarantee that they will be allowed to retain their membership of the SPL and some rivals believe that they should be forced to begin life in the Third Division. All 12 clubs were represented at yesterday's board meeting at Hampden and Dunfermline chairman John Yorkston said afterwards: "As we speak today, if they come out of administration I personally feel it's a clean-slate job. If it's liquidation, it's a completely different kettle of fish. Liquidation is a completely different situation and they may well have to go down to the Third Division. We would have to look at it and see what all the facts are. Doncaster, though, believes that the extended contract with their broadcast partners (which is due to last until 2017) will not be affected if Rangers are not in the top flight. "The current contract, which comes to an end this season, says Rangers and Celtic must play each other four times a season," he said. That's in line with most of our large contracts - our title sponsors are the same. That's no different from any other league with its biggest clubs. What will be in the next contract from the summer to be seen. You do a deal originally in a short-form agreement and then the long-form agreement follows that later on. That's in process at the moment. What will happen in the future? I never predict anything in football. Old Firm "title decider" given green light The third Old Firm encounter of the season, scheduled for Ibrox on March 25, will go ahead even if results between now and then conspire to allow Celtic to secure the championship at the home of their greatest rivals. Ever since Rangers clinched the title at Parkhead in 1999 in a foul-tempered affair which saw referee Hugh Dallas suffer a head wound due to a coin thrown by a Celtic supporter and several home fans invade the field of play, the SPL has taken pains to avoid championship deciders between the clubs. Neil Doncaster, the SPL's chief executive, stressed that there are no plans to rearrange the date of what is bound to be a highly-charged meeting. "I've not spoken to the police about this," he said. The game is in the fixture card and has been in there for quite a while. It's a game scheduled for TV so I'm not anticipating any change to that fixture. Meanwhile, the question of redundancies, of how many people must lose their jobs and how many can be saved by voluntary wage cuts, dragged on until Tuesday. Duff and Phelps had set Monday as a deadline following more than a week of talks aimed at achieving monthly savings of £1 million but talks broke up early on Monday night without a decision.