Rangers fans' £1,000-a-head Ibrox buy-out is ruled out by sceptical Johnston

Published on Monday 7 December 2009 23:11

THE prospect of Rangers fans taking over the debt-ridden Ibrox club was dismissed yesterday, with chairman Alastair Johnston describing one sketchy business plan as being as flawed as a club shelling out a transfer fee for a player and then having no money left to pay his wages.

Johnston told the Rangers agm at Ibrox that he was "sceptical" about recent reports which have outlined the plans of a Florida-based businessman, Graham Duffy, to ask up to 45,000 fans for a stake of 1,000 each to secure Rangers' financial position.

Majority shareholder Sir David Murray dismissed press speculation over "mysterious Florida millionaires" when he told The Scotsman recently that there have been no expressions of interest for his shareholding, and yesterday the club's chairman warned against a fans' buy-out plan.

He told shareholders he was not opposed to the idea of supporters' involvement in the ownership of the club, but said fans would be unlikely to be able to fork out the money needed every year to keep the club running.

"I had a meeting several weeks ago with the senior officers of the Rangers Assembly," said Johnston. "I told them that I was not in any way alien to the concept of a Rangers' supporters' sanctioned group participating in ownership of the club and that the board would entertain proposals from legitimate and credible parties representing such interests.

"The Rangers board and I, as chairman, are less concerned with the price of the club and much more concerned about the ability of the new owners to continue to finance the ambition of the club on an ongoing basis.

"An ownership change with a commitment by a stable owner to a source of reliable and regular source of unencumbered cash is vital to the club moving from the surviving to a thriving mode.

"Rangers supporters are the lifeblood of the club, they dig deep and finance the club. This commitment is hugely important to the club.

"I am therefore very sceptical about any scenario which relies on these same stalwarts to allocate more of their limited resources by writing a cheque each year to fund our ambitions."

Johnston added: "There has been much talk about the Barcelona members' model but we must keep in mind that in Spain and in Germany there is a significant underpinning of media rights to fund club operations. This is luxury that cannot be exported to Scotland. In summary, it is relatively simple to promote the rights of ownership. However it is far more challenging to activate the obligations of ownership.

"Supporters' groups acquiring the rights without the corresponding ability to underpin the working capital of our club is like paying a transfer fee to another club to bring in an impact player then not having the funds to pay his wages.

"The board does not have the luxury of being idealistic, we have to be realistic. However, we will welcome and engage with any parties, individually or affiliated to our support, that meets our criteria for suitability."

Fans have been concerned about the role of Rangers' bankers Lloyds in the day-to-day running of the club and there are fears that players will be sold to balance the books. Johnston insisted the bank was not running the club and reiterated his declaration that there is no need to sell players in the January, although adding that there will be no new players bought either unless funds could be raised through a sale first.

More than 2,000 shareholders attended the agm, held in the main stand at Ibrox. The only real note of dissent came over the re-election to the board of directors of Donald Muir who is viewed as Lloyds TSB's man on the board – although Sir David Murray has denied this, claiming that he made the approach to Muir, who he knew as a friend of former Ibrox manager Alex McLeish.

Muir's re-election was challenged from the floor and received support among rank-and-file shareholders who were in attendance, but a block vote from Murray will ensure Muir is not removed.

&#149 DaMarcus Beasley has declared his aim to move on from Rangers next month. The US internationalist, who has just made a handful of substitute appearances this season, fears he will miss out on the World Cup finals next summer unless he gets regular first-team football.

"My current situation is not ideal – it's been frustrating," he said. "I'm looking to move away from Rangers because I want to play."