Rangers: Administrators to seize £3.6m from Craig Whyte’s lawyers

THE administrators of Rangers confirmed last night they have secured an emergency court order to seize £3.6 million from solicitors acting for beleaguered owner Craig Whyte – and then announced that they will have to cut £1 million per month from the club’s budget to keep Rangers viable until the end of the season.

Lawyers acting for Duff and Phelps, who have been acting as administrators at Ibrox since 14 February, gained the order at the High Court in London to seize the preliminary sum from Collyer Bristow, which handled the finances during Whyte’s purchase of Sir David Murray’s shares.

It comes as administrators revealed the stricken club needs to make savings of £1 million a month to stay afloat. Discussions continued yesterday with playing staff and PFA Scotland representatives at Murray Park, although no announcement over redundancies is expected to be made until Monday at the earliest.

It is understood that Duff and Phelps are pursuing Whyte for further millions that were contractually promised at the time of his takeover of the reigning SPL champions last May.

The newly-seized tranche of money is now in a bank account belonging to law firm Taylor Wessing, and Duff and Phelps will ask a high court judge to release the funds to them on 8 March.

The consent order against Collyer Bristow will help meet a £4.5 million shortfall in the funding of the club to the end of the season.

Money from the sale of season tickets to Ticketus, thought to be around £24 million, was transferred to Collyer Bristow before Whyte’s takeover. Of that, £18 million was used to pay off debts owed to Lloyds Banking Group. On Thursday, Whyte claimed that the proceeds from the sale of the season tickets, as well as that of striker Nikica Jelavic, remained in the bank accounts of the club. He said: “Every penny is in the club, every penny has been accounted for. All that will be confirmed in due course.”

In a statement last night, Paul Clark, the joint administrator, said that Collyer Bristow will also disclose to Taylor Wessing details of the payments of funds out of their account on behalf of the club since May 2011.

Clark said it had been “an extremely difficult week” for staff and supporters alike, and that the redundancy programme had been impacted by players away on international duty.

He said: “As administrators, we had anticipated completing our review of staffing levels and cost structure of the Rangers business this week but the participation of a number of players in international fixtures did interrupt the process.

“In short, the Rangers business is trading at a substantial loss and we have no alternative but to fill an approximate £4.5 million shortfall by the end of the season. It is therefore imperative that we find savings of approximately £1 million per month to ensure the ongoing viability of the business.

He added: “As has been widely publicised, there have been a number of discussions this week in an effort to achieve the necessary cost reductions. We are determined that all realistic options should be explored and discussions have been ongoing with Ally McCoist who, in turn, has been speaking to his players and the PFA Scotland.

“We would prefer to reach a consensual position but as the day has gone on and tomorrow’s very important match against Hearts looms larger, it has been agreed that any final decisions have been postponed until early next week.”