Paul Murray steps up bid to control Rangers

Paul Murray is ready to return to Rangers board and help stabilise the club. Picture: SNS

PAUL Murray has today called for Rangers fans to throw their weight behind him and tycoon Jim McColl as they step up their bid to seize control of the Ibrox club.

Murray, a former director of Rangers, insists he and McColl are the right men to stabilise the club and has called on what remains of the board to swiftly name the date for what is sure to be a pivotal annual general meeting.

Earlier this month Murray succeeded in securing an interim interdict to have the AGM postponed from its original date. He won a landmark legal battle at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on 14 October to have the meeting postponed after the Rangers board had blocked his motion to have an election on the proposed admission to the board of himself, former chairman Malcolm Murray and allies Alex Wilson and Scott Murdoch added to the business of the AGM.

The meeting had been scheduled for today (Thursday, 24 October) but Lord Tyre ruled there was “no valid legal reason” for then-chief executive Craig Mather and the Rangers board not to present the Murrays’ motion to the rest of the club’s shareholders and granted the interim interdict.

Outside the courtroom, Paul Murray accused the Rangers board of engaging in “guerilla warfare” and said Mather’s position had been made untenable. Days later, Mather stood down from his position.

Exasperated

Since then, supporters have grown exasperated as they continue to wait for an announcement on a new date for the AGM. The club are obliged to give shareholders 21 days’ notice of the meeting and Murray has chosen to speak out today after reports that the club may not be able to stage the meeting until near Christmas due to “logistical” reasons.

In the same week that several Rangers supporters organisations united to present a joint statement calling for answers from the board, Murray said: “Earlier this week three fans’ groups called for clarification on key points.

“The fans were quite correct to call for an AGM to be held as soon as reasonably possible because this uncertainty cannot be allowed to continue.

“With that in mind, the latest leak about an eight-week delay is hugely disappointing and does nothing to provide the club with the stability it urgently needs. In my view, this AGM must not be held back any longer. I want to make clear that we have an alternative board in place which is ready to go to work today.”

Waiting in wings

A Rangers Supporters Trust spokesman is quoted today as welcoming the news that Murray and McColl - the chairman of successful engineering company Clyde Blowers - are waiting in the wings and publicly pushing for a quick AGM.

He said: “The RST are pleased to confirm that Paul Murray and Jim McColl have responded to our latest request and have agreed to a meeting with us, and our sister organisations, the Rangers Supporters Assembly and Rangers Supporters Association.

“We will endeavour to ask as many questions as we can and will, of course, publish them and any answers provided on the members’ area of the website.”

The AGM must take place before 31 December.

As the off-the-field turmoil continues, Ally McCoist’s Rangers side will be going for a perfect ten out of ten league wins this season as they face East Fife on Saturday at Bayview Stadium in League 1.