Rangers liquidation: Walter Smith-led consortium appeal to owners

Jim McColl, one of a number of prominent Scottish businessmen involved with the bid, believes a quick change in ownership would be in the best interests of the Ibrox side and Scottish football as a whole.

Newly-appointed finance director Imran Ahmad told a press conference that Green’s consortium had spent £10 million in order to complete the deal and that their investors would want to see “a substantial return” on their investment.

However, McColl warned the new owners they do not have the backing of the Rangers support and urged them to consider a quick sale.

He said in a statement: “I would like to issue a public appeal to Charles Green to strongly consider selling the club to the Walter Smith consortium. This would be in the best interests of Rangers FC, the Rangers fans and all of Scottish football. Mr Green does not have the backing of the Rangers support and the longer he delays, the harder the situation will become.”

McColl’s views were backed by a statement from the Rangers Supporters Trust, which read: “The Board of the RST welcome today’s bid headed by Walter Smith.” We firmly support the view that Rangers men should be in charge at this critical time in our history.”

Profiles of Walter Smith’s consortium

• Jim McColl

One of Scotland’s richest men, with a billion pound fortune based on his stake in the businesses he has acquired over 20 years in unfashionable segments of the engineering and minerals industries.

His wealth has brought the lifestyle to match, including homes in Monaco and Glasgow and a range of expensive cars. He now has friends in high places in business and politics, having earned influence at the top tables while fulfilling an exhausting itinerary that involves travelling the world to visit factories, customers and suppliers.

His career is a classic rags-to-riches tale. Born the son of a butcher in Carmunnock, Glasgow, he was raised in a small village outside East Kilbride and educated at Rutherglen Academy. At 16, he was apprenticed to Weir Pumps but he was driven to get on in business and spent years studying, graduating in technology and business studies from Strathclyde University, picking up an MBA, and later a Masters degree in international accounting and finance. He was headhunted by Coopers & Lybrand to work with companies in financial difficulties, and left to become a self-employed “company doctor”. The deal that sparked his rise was struck in 1992 when he bought Clyde Blowers, a small loss-making family business that cleaned soot from steam locomotives. It was hardly glamorous but he used the company’s stock market listing as the vehicle for an acquisition spree around the world, extending into other sectors such as materials handling, mining and gear systems.

With his personal stock rising, including the award of an OBE, he was to become a local hero five years ago when he returned to Weir to buy the pumps business for £48million, instantly finding himself canonised by the workforce for securing its future and saving 600 jobs. The deal even drew praise from celebrities including Rangers legend Ally McCoist whose father worked at Weir for more than 30 years. Last year McColl sold the business to an American company for £750m.

Now 61, he has also put a lot back into his home country, sitting on various governmental committees, and helping to tackle unemployment in the schemes, including a spell as chairman of a welfare-to-work programme. He sits on the Council of Economic Advisers created by First Minister Alex Salmond.

• Douglas Park

A Former Hearts director, 61-year-old Douglas Park founded the Park’s of Hamilton coach business when he was just 21. It has since developed into Park’s Motor Group, a £350 million turnover business employing more than 1,000 staff.

Its coach arm has more than 120 vehicles operating on business and leisure routes throughout the UK and Europe. The car dealership division operates sites throughout Scotland including Glasgow, Hillington, Ayr, Irvine, Hamilton, Coatbridge, Motherwell, East Kilbride and Dunfermline.

As sole shareholder of the business, which made just under £11m in pre-tax profits last year, Park is now estimated to be worth some £78m.

The Hamilton-based businessman’s involvement in Hearts in the 1980s saw him purchase a 15 per cent stake in the club from Wallace Mercer before selling it back to the then owner of the Tynecastle club six years later. At the time, Park said: “I am now out of football and while nothing is forever, I would hope that if another offer comes along I will be able to resist the temptation.”

Park was previously part of a proposed consortium, also including Paul Murray and Dave King, which looked at a takeover of Rangers from Sir David Murray in 2009.

In March this year Park confirmed he had joined the Blue Knights consortium trying to rescue Rangers and at the time was quoted as saying: “There have always been people willing to invest in Rangers if the conditions are correct and the people involved are the right people.”