Rangers fans slam board for Stockbridge handout

THE Union of Fans, the umbrella body of Rangers supporters, has launched a stinging attack on the club’s issue of shares worth more than £200,000 to former finance director Brian Stockbridge.

Stockbridge left Ibrox at the start of the year. Picture: Robert Perry

Questioning the role of the Easdale brothers in the agreement with Stockbridge, the Union has repeated its insistence that the current Rangers board cannot be trusted, and again urged fans to support the club game by game, rather than buying season tickets.

Stockbridge, who left Ibrox at the start of the year, has received a block of shares worth £215,000 as a result of a deal made when he became an employee in late 2012. “It is the current board’s position that Brian Stockbridge was contractually entitled to these shares and it was therefore outwith their control,” the Union of Fans said last night. “We reject this entirely.

“Mr Stockbridge could and should have been sacked for any number of employment-related issues.

“Did Mr Stockbridge’s close relationship with the Easdale brothers, who hold undue influence over boardroom matters, smooth his path to this further windfall?”

The Union also alleged that Rangers chairman David Somers misled shareholders at the latest annual general meeting by suggesting Stockbridge would not take up his option. And, in an escalation of its campaign, it will now release contributors to its Ibrox 1872 fund from their binding financial commitment – a sign that it now sees no hope of reaching agreement with the board about the security of Ibrox.

“We urge fans not to give their money to this regime in a lump sum payment via season tickets and to support the team on a game-by-game basis,” it concluded. “The team deserve our loyalty; this regime, with its stranglehold on our club, deserves nothing but our contempt. Quite simply, they cannot be trusted.”