Rangers will start next season in the Scottish Third Division, the Scottish Football League (SFL) have said in a statement.
The beleaguered team will now start the new season in the Irn-Bru Division following a vote by SFL chairmen at Hampden on Friday.
The 30 SFL teams were voting on whether Charles Green's newco Rangers should enter the league and which division they should be placed in.
The Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football Association (SFA) had been hopeful Rangers would be parachuted into the First Division, with SFA chief executive Stewart Regan claiming that putting the Ibrox club into the Third Division would bring financial catastrophe and a "slow, lingering death" of the game.
