Rangers: John Brown warns of further turmoil

THE turmoil surrounding the ownership of Rangers’ assets could deepen if not fully tackled immediately according to John Brown, the first man publicly to link Craig Whyte and Charles Green in the buy-out that followed the failure of the Ibrox club to exit administration via a Company Voluntary Arrangement last June.

History is now being forced to rewrite Brown’s part in the Rangers saga. The former Ibrox player and coach was derided last June when, following an abortive attempt to save the club, he stood on the steps of Ibrox and demanded to see the title deeds from Green, which he claimed were in the possession of the supposed then-outgoing and disgraced owner Whyte. Recent events have seemed to suggest that the two men were directors in Sevco 5088, the vehicle set up for the asset sale following the failure of the CVA that led to the liquidation of the oldco.

The allegation that Green had been in cahoots with Whyte precipitated the Yorkshireman’s departure as chief executive on Friday and interim Dundee manager Brown, speaking after his team had won 2-1 at St Mirren Park yesterday, presented the loss of confidence in Green, whose actions and business relationship with Whyte are the subject of an internal investigation, as an inevitability.

“It was going to happen anyway,” Brown told reporters. “You are journalists, if you do your job properly you would find that out. It is going to be interesting. I am not surprised because I knew what was going on but I am trying to get a job at Dundee.

“Walter Smith and the other directors there I am sure will be on the case to find out what is going on there, but it was always going to be the case because Charles Green wasn’t the owner. The Rangers thing has to get sorted out sooner rather than later or it will be a deeper hole they will be in.

“I just look at all the teams who have gone into administration, Hearts with [Vladimir] Romanov have staved that off, but you look at the people who come in like Craig Whyte, what they have done to football. Look at the state Dunfermline are in. Some people’s egos need to be taken a hard look at. But I am more angry at Dundee having been in administration twice and the people who ran the club through that period are still supporting the club but took the club down through bad management. If there is bad management, whether it is Rangers, Dunfermline, Dundee, Hearts or Celtic I would say the same. It has to be sorted out.”

Brown made two bids to buy the club from Green last summer after the Yorkshireman reformed the Ibrox outfit following Whyte’s chaotic reign.The former Rangers player held a doorstep rally at the stadium as he questioned the true ownership of the club’s assets – including Ibrox and Murray Park.

Green, in a statement to the London Stock Exchange, announced on Friday that he was stepping down following controversy over alleged racist comments he made in a newspaper interview and speculation that he had closer links to Whyte than he had first admitted to.