Rangers takeover: Brian Kennedy denies new offer involves ‘newco’ club

BRIAN KENNEDY and the Blue Knights consortium have attempted to clarify the nature of their revised bid for Rangers, insisting that Ally McCoist was mistaken in the belief it would entail the Ibrox club being reformed as a “newco”.

Rangers manager McCoist, speaking at a pre-match media conference at Murray Park on Tuesday lunchtime, said he had been informed that both the Blue Knights/Brian Kennedy bid and the rival offer from American businessman Bill Miller involved elements which would see a newly-constituted club emerge from the current administration process.

Miller has already publicly stated his intention to place part of Rangers in an “incubator” company while a Company Voluntary Arrangement is used to deal with the money owed to creditors.

McCoist has been involved in discussions with both Miller and Sale Sharks owner Kennedy and expressed his optimism that administrators Duff & Phelps will finally name a preferred bidder before the end of this week.

But, just a couple of hours after McCoist had told journalists that both bids would see Rangers go down the “newco” route, a spokesman for Kennedy released a statement claiming the club would remain in its present corporate entity and therefore require no approval for a transfer of its place in the Scottish Premier League.

“Following inaccurate reports, the Blue Knights/Brian Kennedy consortium wishes to clarify its position,” said Kennedy’s spokesman.

“Firstly, on Saturday evening 28 April 2012, we submitted a materially increased offer which will be confirmed by the administrators, Duff & Phelps.

“Secondly, and for the avoidance of doubt, our offer is conditional on a CVA and the delivery of Craig Whyte’s shares. If successful, this will retain the SPL membership share in RFC 1899.”

It was in May 1899 that Rangers, founded as a private members’ club 27 years earlier, became a limited liability company. Should Miller’s £11.2million bid for Rangers succeed, it has been suggested a “newco” would no longer have an unbroken link with the past 140 years which have seen them become Scottish football’s most successful club. But McCoist has no doubt that, irrespective of how Rangers recover from their current financial crisis, they will retain a link with what has gone before. “I’m told both potential purchasers have ‘newco’ as part of their plan but it is not liquidation,” said McCoist.

“Now it has been explained to me on a couple of occasions and I have just about got it, it’s distinguishing between the toxic part of the company and all that.

“It’s a very important point because I think the vast majority of the fans do not want liquidation. I would imagination there’s some of them won’t be happy with a ‘newco’. I think if the ‘newco’ is the best option without liquidation then, hopefully, the fans would come round to it.

“If it happened we’d still have the history of the club, absolutely. I can imagine people would try to wind up the support about it, that’s part and parcel of the game. But make no mistake about it, we wouldn’t lose our history at all. Of course we wouldn’t. We wouldn’t allow that to happen. At the end of the day if there is a team playing at Ibrox in blue shirts, it’s Rangers. We only became a plc in 1899 but nobody really recognises that change. But there have been changes all the way down the years.

“Rangers are Rangers in my opinion and that would be the opinion of the vast majority of people. But I can understand one or two wind-ups being thrown about. I’m not averse to that myself.”

The mixed messages coming from McCoist and Brian Kennedy’s spokesman on Tuesday served to underline the extraordinary position the Rangers manager has been placed in since the club entered administration almost three months ago.

McCoist has been forced to deal with issues far beyond his remit and level of expertise, testing even his customary resources of optimism to the limit.

“Everyone just wants a resolution to this, we all do,” he said. “I’m deadlined-out, to be perfectly honest with you. But we can’t give up hope. You’ve got to keep believing and have hope and faith that something is going to happen.

“Time is just not an ally. It’s ticking and ticking and getting to the stage now where there won’t be any time left at all. But having spoken to the administrators and two of the potential purchasers recently I’m hopeful an agreement can be reached.

“Hopefully things will happen soon but even naming a preferred bidder is only a step in the right direction. It’s certainly by no means the end result we’re all looking for. There is still a lot of work to be done.

“Although a preferred bidder will be appointed, I’d imagine the potential new owner might only be able to tell me what I might be able to do as manager, but I’ll still need to wait for decisions which will tell me if I can actually do it.”

McCoist took encouragement from SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster’s hint on Monday that a re-constituted Rangers could yet retain their place in the Scottish football’s top flight without any sanctions being imposed. “It’s very heartening,” said McCoist. “But I can understand opposition to those views as well. I think in many ways, the SPL boys and obviously the SFA, they are in a no-win situation because there will be people saying they’ve not been heavy enough on us and there will be others saying they’ve been too heavy on us.

“I totally understand that in many ways they are in a no-win situation. But, from our football club’s point of view, I have to look at what’s best for Rangers. Is it best for Rangers staying in the SPL fielding a very non-competitive team that could be relegated? Or is it better going to SFL 3 and saying ‘look, this is it, this where we are, let’s try and build again’. I don’t know the answer to it but you have to prepare yourself for all possibilities.”