Rangers want the Scottish FA’s World Cup income used to improve VAR, refereeing standards and the support around both. Jim Gillespie tied the argument to a season that ended with two more flashpoints: Hearts were denied a penalty against Motherwell in the final week of the Scottish Premiership season, then Celtic earned a late spot-kick against Motherwell three days later and became champions. Rangers are not claiming one decision settled the title, but they are clearly using the debate to push for reform.
Why Rangers are pushing the funding argument
Gillespie’s view was blunt. "Ultimately, we are going to the World Cup and the Scottish FA is making some money. How do we get some of that to get things improved?" he said on BBC coverage. He also said: "We all agreed that we need to be more aligned on strategy and improving the standards."
That is the crux of the issue. Rangers are asking for more than another apology after a contentious weekend. They want the money conversation attached to the officiating conversation, and they want the Scottish FA to treat VAR as part of a wider standards problem rather than a single-incident debate. Given the incidents cited in the brief, that is a fairer target than arguing over one isolated call.
Project Regen is moving separately at Ibrox
The VAR lobbying is running alongside a different club project. Rangers' new ownership are advancing Project Regen, and Andrew Cavenagh said: "There's stadium expansion which is the most talked about. We have the actual proposals from architects and engineers". Gillespie added: "We are progressing. We have to turn ambition into feasibility and then into reality. We're at the feasibility part."
That matters because this is not being framed as a vague idea. Project Regen is the club's stadium upgrade initiative, and Ibrox currently has a capacity of 51,500 seats. Rangers are at the feasibility stage, with architects, engineers and project managers working through the early plans and surveys. The expansion is not approved, and there is no timeline in the brief, but the process has clearly moved beyond loose ambition.
For Rangers, the two strands sit in different lanes. One is about Scottish football governance, the other is about the club's own infrastructure. Both, though, show the same thing: the new ownership are trying to make their mark on more than the first team. The officiating argument may get the louder reaction, but the Ibrox project is the more concrete of the two right now.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
