How much Dundee could be fined for Rangers pitch fiasco as 5 figure Motherwell blueprint comes with 2 caveats

Dundee are likely to be fined more than £50,000 if found guilty of breaching SPFL rules over their unplayable pitch.

The Dens Park side postponed their fixture with Rangers for a second time last night leading to a furious Ibrox statement slamming them for 'negligence and unprofessionalism' in failing to get the game played again after it was initially rained off on March 21. It will now be played on Wednesday April 17 but that throws up issues in itself - namely that it is played AFTER the rest of the final round of post-split fixtures, and means Rangers will play just four days before their Scottish Cup semi-final with Hearts.

It's the fourth home game this season Dundee have had to call off due to the sorry state of their surface and after the league revealed disciplinary proceedings are being investigated, Rangers called for firm action after their manager Philippe Clement initially demanded a decision on Tuesday over whether the game could be played. That fell on deaf ears and it wasn't postponed until 3.30pm on Wednesday - at which point he and his players had been in Tayside for almost 24 hours.

There is precedent for top flight teams being fined over the state of their surfaces. Back in 2010, Motherwell were hit with a fine of £50,000 for the infamous Fir Park pitch, though it should be noted that was a largely sympathetic verdict from the SFA at the time who acknowledged they had recently invested heavily on undersoil heating and a new surface in a bid to improve it. £45,000 of that penalty was suspended and Leanne Dempster, Motherwell CEO at the time, praised it as a 'balanced and sensible approach.'

Dundee don't have the same obvious defence case to make and, accounting for inflation in the 14 years since,