IT was little surprise that Scottish football clubs toiling to placate supporters by putting a winning team on the park at the same time as attempting to break even during an economic downturn had no appetite in a judicial review into the financial collapse of Rangers.

The high heid yins at Celtic, who were beaten to five Premiership titles and four Scottish Cups during the time that their city rivals were using Employee Benefit Trusts to remunerate players, have had no other choice but to repeatedly and vociferously call for further action to be taken.

Failure to pursue an issue the overwhelming majority of their supporters perceive to be a gross injustice would have led to those who hold positions of power at Parkhead, not least chief executive Peter Lawwell, being hounded from office.

But having another lengthy and expensive independent investigation into the events which led to the Ibrox club going out of business five years was never going to be of any interest to the other 41 senior clubs in the country given the more pressing challenges they are faced with on a daily basis.

Striking a more lucrative television deal than the one which is currently in place and safeguarding their futures for many seasons to come is of far greater concern.

Hibernian, whose board “unanimously” backed the SFA over their decision not to participate in a review, summed up the feeling of many who run the game last week when they questioned what it would achieve.

“We either continue to spend significant sums of money and huge reserves of time and energy to challenge already lengthy and detailed legal advice,” the statement read.

“Or we can focus on doing all we can to invest in the future of our club and the wider game to improve our sport, and ensure there can be no repeat of the issues raised.”

That stance incurred the displeasure of a fair few of their fans. Banners which read “13,000 season tickets. Zero opinions heard. Unanimous?” were unfurled at Easter Road at their Ladbrokes Premiership match against Motherwell last weekend.

However, the outcry has been minimal and, other than that one public display of disaffection, confined to the airwaves and cyberspace. There have been no angry chants aimed directors’ boxes. No scarves were thrown on pitches. No protests were held outside stadiums.

Many of those who remain in favour of a judicial review, and there are a fair few of then, would ultimately like to see Rangers stripped of the trophies and titles they won when they were using EBTs between 2001 and 2010. No unfair sporting advantage? What nonsense!

Yet, the wording of Celtic’s missives on this subject in recent weeks have been enlightening. They have talked of the need to obtain the full facts, to learn lessons and to draw a line under the affair. At no stage has going back and altering the record books been mentioned.

The reason for that is simple. The SPFL has ascertained, after taking advice from Gerry Moynihan QC, that it would, due to the rules the SPL had in place at the time of the crisis, be unable to implement that sanction legally.

The Lord Nimmo Smith Commission in 2013 fined the oldco £250,000 for breaching the governing body’s disclosure directives. No further action will be taken.

The SPFL, whose board had called for a judicial review, now has procedures in place to deal with the non-payment of taxes. If a club achieves success in future and are subsequently shown to be guilty of this then they could have silverware taken away from them. Many other changes have been made.

They will not placate some. The possibility of a legal challenge being crowdfunded remains a very real one. It is absolutely supporters’ right to take that course of action.

But senior officials at both the SFA and SPFL remain comfortable with the counsel they received and are confident no flaws in their decision-making will be exposed by any further scrutiny.

Other than embarrassing a few high-ranking blazers over their conduct during this whole sorry saga it is hard to see what they can achieve.