The future of Rangers is looking brighter after respected former director Paul Murray confirmed that his ‘Blue Knights’ consortium is finalising an offer to buy the club. Mjurray left the club’s board shortly after Craig Whyte took control.
The future of Rangers is looking brighter after respected former director Paul Murray confirmed that his ‘Blue Knights’ consortium is finalising an offer to buy the club. Mjurray left the club’s board shortly after Craig Whyte took control.
Murray’s consortium held detailed talks with the administrators yesterday and these will resume on Monday. The consortium includes Murray, three supporters’ organisations and Ticketus. The presence of Ticketus is significant as they effectively own the revenue from the first 25,000 of Rangers season ticket sales for three years to come. As they stated, ‘We believe working alongside the Blue Knights and fans’ reprsentatives offers the best chance of the club surviving and becoming a viable business.’
What remains unclear is the level of funds at the disposal of the consortium. There is also still the risk of an adverse tax tribunal finding on employee benefit schemes leading to a bill of as much as £75m.
The short-term future of the club has been secured by an agreement being reached on wage cuts of 25 per cent to 75 per cent for players, although some minor details have to be settled. Coaching staff have also taken a pay cut. The deal will ensure that there are no compulsory redundancies at the club, although the recently opened London office has been closed.
A High Court hearing has been set for 30 March over £3.6m Ticketus forwarded as part of Craig Whyte’s takeover. The money is currently frozen in the account of the lawyer working for the administrators, but they believe that it belongs to the club. However, apart from Ticketus, claims on it are being made by Revenue and Customs, Merchants Turnaround and the pension fund Gerome.