Charles Green may give evidence in Ahmad case

Former Rangers director Imran Ahmad. Picture: SNS

Imran Ahmad, whose employment with the Glasgow club was terminated last year, maintains that he is owed a six-figure bonus by the club. His legal action is being contested by Rangers.

Mr Ahmad’s counsel, Kenny McBrearty QC, told a judge today that Charles Green was on his list of witnesses ahead of a hearing in the case.

Mr McBrearty said that while Mr Ahmad’s solicitors have spoken to Mr Green, they would seek a meeting with him to clarify his witness statement.

Green took up the position as Chief Executive Officer at Ibrox after leading a consortium to buy the assets of the stricken Rangers Football Club plc.

But he left the role last year and is now living in France.

‘No less than 500k’ payout

In his action Mr Ahmad maintains that, under the terms of his contract, he was entitled to a bonus of five per cent of commercial contracts negotiated by him, subject to written approval from the CEO or chairman.

He said that a letter from Mr Green - then CEO of the club - had confirmed that his bonus for 2013 would be “no less than 500K”.

Mr Ahmad claims that Mr Green had the express authority of the Rangers board to agree his bonus.

Mr McBrearty told Lord Woolman at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that since a previous hearing in the action, adjustments had been made to the pleadings for Mr Ahmad.

He said that “the letter at the heart of the case” from Charles Green to Mr Ahmad was to be treated as written approval of a bonus of £500,000, in terms of the clause in Ahmad’s contract.

The senior counsel said it was also being asserted that Mr Green had the authority of the board to carry out the action, approval which had been given at a meeting when Mr Ahmad was not present.

‘Board authorised payout’

Mr McBrearty said it had always been Mr Ahmad’s position that there was authority on the part of Green to provide written approval of the bonus, but what had changed was that it was now being said there was express authority from the board on the issue.

Mr McBrearty said that during the case’s adjustment period there had been no activity from the football club’s side at all.

He said Mr Ahmad “might have been forgiven for thinking rigor mortis had set into the defender’s case”.

But Alan Summers QC, for Rangers, said there remained difficulty in reconciling the terms of the letter with the clause in Mr Ahmad’s contract.

Under the contract, the bonus was to be calculated as five percent of the commercial contracts agreed, but Mr Green could not have known the value of said contracts at that point in time, said Mr Summers.

Four days of court time have been allocated to hear evidence and submissions in the case.