Club 1872 ready to invest in Rangers after buying first group of Dave King's shares

Rangers fan group Club 1872 has bought its first tranche of shares from former chairman Dave King and crossed a crucial shareholding threshold.

Club 1872 are buying into the club to give fans more say at Ibrox and 'more protection for the club' in future.

The supporters’ investment vehicle, which aims to give Rangers fans more say and a stake in Ibrox affairs, announced a £13m agreement with Mr King late last year which would see the former chairman sell his shares to the group as it raised funds.

The organisation has now gathered enough to take on the first 1.25m, lifting its holding to 5.12% of the company – an important marker towards the aim of taking on a quarter in future.

A statement explained: “Club 1872 is pleased to announce our first share purchase under the agreement recently announced with Dave King."

It added: "It is likely to be the only major source of shares available after the early part of this calendar year as RIFC moves to the sustainability phase. It was therefore essential that Club 1872 kick this deal off and make a strong start to our three year campaign to attract legacy members.

"We are delighted in the couple of weeks prior to the Christmas break, we were able to sign up nearly 1500 new legacy members.”

The agreement has also been changed in light of events at the Rangers AGM which indicated a share issue could be forthcoming and, if it goes ahead on the terms stated, Mr King will extend his deal with Club 1872 by an additional six months to allow the group to invest directly to the club.

It added: “If RIFC move ahead as announced by John Bennett at the recent RIFC AGM, all share funds contributed by our members in the first half of 2021 can flow directly to Rangers.

“This represents a wonderful opportunity for the Rangers support to make a massive, multi-million pound, one-off contribution to the financial health of Rangers whilst also becoming the main custodian of Rangers Football Club for the first time in its near 150 year history.”

It added: “In the meantime we would urge supporters to join so we can make a huge financial contribution direct to Rangers, grow our membership to 20,000 and continue with our three year plan, with Dave King, to secure a 25% shareholding in Rangers and protect the club for generations to come.”

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