Rangers takeover: Green accuses King of ‘sniping from the sidelines’

CHARLES Green, the man at the head of a consortium which hopes to buy Rangers, hit back last night at a statement from club director Dave King urging creditors and supporters to oppose his attempted takeover.

King urged creditors to vote against the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) which will be proposed to them next Thursday, and suggested that fans should not buy season tickets at present.

But Green responded by calling King’s actions “destructive”, and was supported by Paul Clark of administrators Duff & Phelps, who said the director’s remarks were “misleading”.

“Mr King’s statement is breathtaking in its arrogance and is destructive to the interests of the club,” Green said. “My consortium tabled an offer, which was accepted by the administrators as the best offer for the club and its creditors, and substantial sums of money have already been paid to the administrators.

“Provision has been made for working capital that does not rely on season-ticket sales any more than would be part of normal operations at the club. To suggest otherwise is scurrilous and scaremongering. If the CVA is rejected then the club will be acquired on a ‘newco’ basis which will not benefit creditors, nor will it benefit the club in terms of participation in Europe.

“In one week’s time, we hope the CVA proposal will be approved by creditors and that will be an important milestone for the rebuilding of the club.

“People such as Mr King who, as I understand, was not in a position to make a bid for the club, need to accept the realities of the situation and move on rather than continue to snipe from the sidelines.”

Clark added: “I find Mr King’s remarks disappointing and misleading. Mr King should know, that, immediately after the conclusion of next week’s creditors meeting, a shareholders meeting will be convened. Mr Green, as the new legal owner of Mr [Craig] Whyte’s shares, will vote in favour of the approval of the CVA should that be the outcome of the creditors meeting.”

In a statement from his base in Johannesburg, King again disputed that Green had a right to buy Rangers owner Whyte’s 85 per cent shareholding. “It is clear from the CVA proposal that Mr Green intends to repeat Mr Whyte’s strategy of using season-ticket sales to fund the club,” King said. “This would put fans back in the position of funding the club without owning it. I made it clear to Duff & Phelps that I regard the Whyte acquisition of the shares from the Murray Group as being fraudulent and that myself and every other minority shareholder (all fan shareholders) have been prejudiced by this. The CVA gives no recognition to this difficulty and to what reparation will be made to those shareholders who have been abused by the terms of the sale to Mr Whyte.

“I am opposing the CVA and urge all loyal fans to do the same. I also believe that all true Rangers fans should not buy any season tickets until full and frank disclosure has been provided by Duff & Phelps, Mr Green and Mr Whyte, as to what is truly going on behind the scenes.”

Meanwhile, Whyte has threatened to sue the Scottish Football Association for defamation in response to the governing body’s readiness to pursue him for an unpaid fine of £200,000 imposed after an inquiry into his running of Rangers.