League chiefs refused to bow to Ibrox pressure to postpone Saturday's league game against Dundee United, and insisted there is no chance of the SPL season being extended beyond May 22.

Chairman Murray believes almost every other league would have bent over backwards to help out a team in a European final.

Rangers' European final opponents Zenit St Petersburg have been allowed to postpone three games to ensure their preparation is right for the May 14 final in Manchester.

But Rangers must face United this weekend at Ibrox, and have been ordered to fulfil their final seven games of the season in an 18-day spell.

Murray said: "Throughout the world people will laugh at this decision in disbelief, and none more so than in Russia as their own association have done everything they can to assist FC Zenit St Petersburg."

He explained: "We were not asking that all games be called off, simply one match prior to such a prestigious European final.

"The reaction throughout Europe when we have been discussing other matters with clubs has been one of astonishment that we are in this situation.

"It has been a remarkable season despite being spoiled by bureaucracy and Scottish footballing legislators."

Murray had prepared himself for an unfavourable verdict and told Rangers' official website: "Their decision does not surprise me, but disappoints and angers myself and indeed the Rangers supporters."

The Scottish Football Association became involved after the SPL refused Rangers' initial application for a postponement, and moving the Scottish Cup final between Rangers and Queen of the South to a later date was mooted.

That would have allowed the SPL season to over-run, and it could also have extended beyond the cup final.

But a meeting at Hampden this morning failed to bring about any change in the League's position.

Murray said: "As a club I don't think we have been treated fairly and indeed most, if not all, football associations throughout the world would have taken a different position.

"In fact, they would have been only too pleased to assist a member club.

"What has happened here is footballing authorities not being proactive in their assistance, but only at this late stage by being reactive through embarrassment."

Murray wants talks with the SPL once the season is over after being frustrated with league officials on more than one occasion during the present campaign. He says he wants "to understand their management and decision-making process this season on certain matters".

Rangers are seven points behind Celtic in the SPL, but with three games in hand. Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell had already criticised last month's decision by the SPL to extend the league season to May 22, in the event of Rangers reaching the UEFA Cup final.

Celtic face an 11-day gap between their remaining two league fixtures, against Hibernian and Dundee United.

Rangers' fixture backlog has developed because of postponed domestic games. Success in Europe, plus domestic cup replays, have left Rangers with little room in their calendar to squeeze in those games.

Rangers boss Walter Smith was resigned to accepting the SPL's decision today, saying: "I think everyone knows how we feel about it, but we will play (on Saturday)."

Utility player Christian Dailly admitted the Rangers players "expected" the SPL's decision.

"We'll just get on with it," said Dailly.

"In an ideal world you would have a full week to prepare for a game as big as that. But we expected to only have two or three days and that's what it is.

"We will play every day if they want us to play every day.

"If you asked the manager what he would rather do, I think he would rather have a full week to prepare for the game, there is no doubt about it. But he will accept that he is not going to have that.

"Zenit will have their two weeks and maybe that will end up being too long, I don't know. It doesn't mean to say that we can't go there and try to win that cup, because the occasion should look after itself."

SPL executive chairman Lex Gold claimed the meeting with the SFA had taken place "in a constructive atmosphere".

"But no viable alternatives to the fixture list issued on April 22 emerged that did not place the integrity of the SPL competition at risk," said Gold.

He added: "For the sake of our primary competition we need to arrive at an outcome which is fair and consistent.

"I indicated to Rangers when they sent a letter at the weekend, in my reply to them, that nothing had changed materially since the statement of April 22."

SFA chief executive Gordon Smith took part in the morning meeting, and said: "It would have caused us serious problems to move the cup final, there's no doubt about that.

"Whether we could have done would be another question but it didn't come up as an option.

"We didn't feel we had to step in, we just felt we'd go forward and see if there was anything we could do, see if there was any option which might help.

"Some people were under the impression that the season has to end with the cup final.

"We were quite happy for the season to extend beyond the date of the cup final, so that if it went further teams could play in the following week.

"That turned out not to be an option either."

Queen of the South chairman David Rae had earlier stressed that from his club's perspective it would be "totally unacceptable" to move the Scottish Cup final.