Rangers played a total of 47 competitive matches during the 2012-13 season. Prior to the Rangers first team even kicking a ball in a football match that season, there were a series of off-the-field issues that had to be resolved. In June 2012, a criminal investigation was launched into Craig Whyte's takeover of Rangers Football Club Plc after a preliminary examination of the information passed to police by administrators Duff & Phelps. While the 4th of July saw ten of the other eleven Scottish Premier League clubs vote against newco Rangers being admitted to the league for the 2012-13 season, meaning the club had to apply for a place in the Scottish Football League. Over a week later, on 13 July, twenty-five of the thirty SFL member clubs voted to offer Rangers a place in the Third Division of the Football League for the start of the season. However, as part of the transfer of SFA membership from oldco to newco, both companies along with the SFA, SPL and SFL had to agree to a five-way agreement. The club were received a twelve-month transfer ban which prevented it from registering any players over the age of eighteen, which began on 1 September and concluded at the end of the 2013 summer transfer window.

Further to this the SPL instigated an investigation into Rangers transfer dealings between 2001 and 2011, after allegations of dual contracts between Rangers Football Club PLC (the company that formerly owned Rangers) and its staff. The investigation was conducted by a commission headed by Lord Nimmo Smith and concluded in February 2013. The Commission's findings concluded that Rangers Football Club PLC did not fully disclose to the football authorities all payments that it made to players and staff, however, this non-disclosure did not effect the playing staff's eligibility. Therefore, instead of a potential penalty that included the stripping of titles won by the first team, the punishment was only a fine of £250,000 for Rangers Football Club PLC. Alongside the SPL investigation, HMRC's first tier tax tribunal's came to a conclusion during the season. On 20 November, the First-tier Tax Tribunal ruled that the Rangers Football Club PLC had not contravened tax law with its use of , however HMRC subsequently launched an appeal against the first-tier verdict in March 2013.

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Wikipedia