Rangers: Dave King claims ‘first option’ on Craig Whyte’s Ibrox shares

RANGERS director Dave King has made a public claim on Craig Whyte’s shareholding in the club, contending that he had struck a verbal agreement “over lunch” with the Ibrox club’s owner prior to Charles Green’s involvement.

Green, who has reached an agreement with Rangers’ administrators to purchase the club, has also confirmed that he has given Whyte £1 to buy his 85.3 per cent shareholding, the sum Whyte paid Sir David Murray, the previous owner, in May last year.

King, who also threatened to sue Murray for £20 million in February on the basis of “non-disclosure” of the club’s true financial position, disputes the validity of this deal between Whyte and Green. He claims to have made his own agreement with the Rangers owner in Glasgow on 29 September last year, ensuring he has “first option” on Whyte’s shares.

“It suited him at the time and I will hold him to it,” said the South African-based King, to BBC Scotland yesterday. Whyte has described King’s version of events as “highly misleading”.

King, under investigation in South Africa for unpaid tax dating back to the early 1990s, is adamant that his verbal agreement with Whyte is a legally binding one.

“It was verbally agreed over lunch but is legally valid,” he said. “I have first option on [his] shares and would not forego this unless I was absolutely certain that any proposed transaction, that excluded me, was in the best interests of the club,” he added. “I have yet to see such a proposal.”

King was one of the club directors identified in the Scottish Football Association’s recent Note of Reasons for Rangers’ transfer embargo.