Rangers: Who are foreign backers, asks Paul Murray

FORMER Ibrox director Paul Murray has called on Rangers to provide details of the club’s foreign backers.

Former Rangers director Paul Murray has called for clarity. Picture: SNS

Murray, who is leading a shareholder uprising against the Rangers hierarchy along with Glasgow entrepreneur Jim McColl, has asked the club to reveal the identities of the people behind investor groups Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita Holdings.

It follows a request from Murray’s legal team, asking him to hand over information about those supporting his bid, and the announcement last week that Blue Pitch and Margarita would be joining forces to back the current Ibrox board at the agm next month.

Murray is of the opinion that Blue Pitch and Margarita - who hold around 15 per cent of the club’s shares between them - could garner enough votes to keep chief executive Craig Mather and financial director Brian Stockbridge in post.

Blue Pitch also funded Charles Green’s £5.5 million takeover of the club.

The former director has called on the club to ensure that Rangers fans are not left in the dark over the identities of the two groups, saying: “We spent all of last week identifying who we all are under the section 793 process [a legal mechanism to find out who owns shares].

“Has the club done the same with Blue Pitch Holdings and Margarita Holdings? Are they happy with the answers they got? And will they now make public the name of those involved in order that the Rangers supporters are afforded transparency?

“These people could be about to have a huge say in determining the very future of the club but no-one knows who they are. The fans deserve to be told the truth.”

The club’s agm is due to be held next month, with directors facing a shareholder vote to determine re-election.

Murray and McColl claim to have the support of just short of 30 per cent of the shareholders following influence from a group of investors demanding change at the club.

A Rangers Supporters Trust spokesman said: “One of the many promises Charles Green made was honesty and transparency of the ownership of our club.

“Most Rangers fans would agree we don’t have that as long as we have shareholders hiding behind these nominee venture capitalist accounts.”

A spokesperson for Rangers told the Daily Record last night: “What was asked of the requisitioners was in line with protocol.”