Rangers' failure to secure a crucial AGM vote allowing them to issue new shares could have a knock-on effect should they qualify for Europe in the near future.

UEFA rules on financial fair play could apply to the club because of the scale of financial losses they have reported.

With directors and other related parties having provided upwards of £13m in loans to keep Rangers afloat, being able to convert their cash into shares would have helped meet the criteria.

Those hopes were dashed in a vote lost by just 0.4%.

As a result, newspaper reports on Wednesday state Rangers will need "special dispensation" from European football's governing body to play in continental competition, should they qualify in the 2017/18 season.

So how serious is this position for Rangers? We've gone through UEFA's financial fair play regulations to establish the facts.

In a nutshell, regulations are in place to deter clubs from running up significant financial losses.

This is done for two reasons. First, to try to protect teams from themselves. Secondly, to ensure competition is not distorted by clubs being able to run up huge debt while continuing to use that debt to fund football success.

Clubs are allowed to post a maximum aggregate loss over every three-year "monitoring period" of €5m (£4.25m at today's rates).

Failure to contain losses to under this amount can result in sanctions, with some exceptions.

For the period relevant to the 2017/18 season, UEFA looks at the financial reporting years of 2017, 2016 and 2015.

Rangers' accounts for the financial year ending June 2017 will not be published until later next year so it is not possible to establish what profit or loss they will post.

We will get some indication from interim results posted in early to mid-2017.

The early signs are Rangers are going to run into difficulty. Their aggregate losses to date are £11.9m, well above the threshold.

If posting a profit to level out losses isn't achievable, there are two simple ways to fall in line.

Having lost the vote on the share issue by such a fine margin, the club could look to call it again. If it passes, it would pave the way for a cash injection into the club which could balance out losses.

This could be done by calling an extraordinary general meeting.

UEFA allows a maximum of £23.6m to be written off over a three-year period in this manner.

Those who have provided loans could also simply turn benefactors and write off their loans as donations - a highly unlikely course of action but one that is allowed under the regulations.

No. Not in season 2017/18.

UEFA begins to monitor under the "break-even requirement" at the point a licence is applied for but no club has ever been banned prior to competition for failing to meet the criteria.

What Rangers will be asked to do is submit future financial information to prove they stand a chance of meeting the break-even calculation in the near future.

Even if they do this, UEFA can look to impose sanctions going forward without banning the club from playing in Europe next season.

The matter would be referred to UEFA's Club Financial Control Body. That group would then study the club's finances and consider the severity of the breach and other factors, such as the overall trend of the club's books.

At that point disciplinary measures may be taken ranging from a warning, censure and fine through to withholding revenue from European competition, or placing restrictions on registering players or the squad size for Europa League and Champions League.

Disqualification from competitions in progress or exclusion from future competitions is a sanction available to UEFA. In historic cases, the governing body also has the right to strip titles.

Settlement agreements can also be reached between UEFA and clubs, marking out what the club has to do to rectify their situation within a certain period of time.

This can happen alongside disciplinary action or have penalties added if the terms aren't met.

Numerous clubs across the length and breadth of Europe have been sanctioned, from household names like Inter Milan to smaller sides from the likes of Kazakhstan, Turkey and Poland.

The most common route for UEFA to take is to apply a mixture of sanctions and targets for compliance in the future, imposing settlement agreements that combine a number of elements.

For example, earlier this year Kazakh side Astana were placed under a three-year settlement agreement. They were instructed to reach a break-even position by 2019, ordered to reduce their deficit in each year until then and limit their playing budget to meet those targets.

In addition, the squad size for European competition was reduced, a limit was put on new signings for two years and the club was fined, with the majority of the fine being conditional on meeting other requirements of the agreement.

CSKA Sofia, Kardemir Karabukspor and FC Rostov were given less stringent sanctions, agreeing to break even within a couple of years, handed minor fines and promising to reduce the ratio of player spend to revenue.

The only significant recent ban on playing was for Galatatasray, who were restricted from playing in European competition for the next two seasons. This was imposed after they failed to keep to the terms of an existing settlement agreement.

The Scottish FA act as the initial licensor and is obligated to ensure any clubs it puts forward as potential European participants meet the financial fair play criteria on an ongoing basis.

When Rangers went into liquidation in 2012, their assets and memberships to play football were transferred to a new company.

This automatically triggered a three-year period where the Rangers newco could not participate in European competition. This applied to the 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons.

There is no barrier to Rangers applying for a UEFA Club Licence under article 12, which states any membership with a national association must have lasted "for at least three consecutive years".