The Scottish Football Association will have to take a case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if it wants to take action against Rangers for allegedly breaking rules over a UEFA licence in 2011/12.

The governing body had charged the Ibrox club relating to their reporting of the 'Wee Tax Case' in paperwork submitted to Hampden.

In September 2017, the Scottish FA instructed its compliance officer to investigate the circumstances surrounding Rangers' UEFA licence application in 2011 and its own decision to grant the club permission to play in Europe.

That resulted in two charges relating to UEFA rules, observing the principles of sportsmanship and "behaving towards the Scottish FA and other members with the utmost good faith".

Rangers challenged the Scottish FA and argued that the case would need to be dealt with by CAS under terms of the 'five-way agreement' that saw the Ibrox club play in the SFL in 2012 following their financial collapse. The agreement says that any dispute between the parties who signed the agreemen has to be heard by CAS and not the domestic authorities.

The Scottish FA-convened Judicial Panel agreed that any further action would have to go through the Swiss-based court.

An SFA statement read: "This preliminary issue raised by Rangers FC challenged the jurisdiction of the Scottish FA's Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal to hear the case, and contended that the notice of complaint must be determined by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"Having received submissions on 26 June the Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal have issued a decision upholding the preliminary issue raised by the club.

"The Judicial Panel Disciplinary Tribunal proposes to continue consideration of the complaint until parties consider next steps and terms of reference for any remit to CAS."

The Scottish FA will now have to consider whether to pursue the matter and whether it will ask CAS to rule on the procedural issue or hear the whole case.

A Rangers statement read: "Rangers has always been clear about the futility of this action and hopes the Scottish FA will now put the matter to bed and agree to move on and concentrate on the development of Scottish football in the interests of all members of the SFA."

The issue centred on when oldco Rangers accepted liability for a £2.8million bill from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs - the so-called 'wee tax case'.

The SFA opened an investigation into the controversy following evidence from former directors during a court case in which former Rangers owner Craig Whyte was cleared of several criminal charges.

In a letter to member clubs in September last year, the SFA wrote: "On the face of it, there seem to be contradictions between those statements and written representations made at the time.

"In 2011, Oldco indicated there was an ongoing dispute with HMRC, but the evidence in the Craig Whyte trial suggests that Oldco knew by early 2011 that it had no defence to HMRC's claim."

It is understood the charges relate to the "monitoring period" after Rangers were granted a UEFA licence on March 31, 2011, and hinge on when the debt became overdue.

Rangers declared in May that they would "fiercely resist" the charges and accused the SFA of being "intent on harming the game".