FORMER Sheffield United chief executive Charles Green is in the running to buy Rangers after it emerged that he was fronting an English-based consortium bidding for the stricken football club.
The 58-year-old venture capitalist entered the race after US truck tycoon Bill Miller, who was named as a preferred bidder with an £11.2 million bid last week, pulled out on Tuesday.
Little is known about the rest of Mr Green's consortium, but it is understood there are links to Singapore, though there is no association with rival Singoporean bidder Bill Ng.
Mr Green's business dealings are also obscure. He became director of London-registered Sevco 5088 Ltd on May 4, just prior to Mr Miller being named preferred bidder for Rangers. However, it is unclear to date what Sevco's operations are.
The company was formed on March 29 with its address is listed at the London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, but a search for information on business directories notes that "this company has not yet filed a description of their activities".
Mr Green is also a non-executive chairman at Nova Resources Limited, an investment company incorporated in Bermuda which operates mainly in Singapore and Mongolia. He was appointed to the post in January
He had also been chairman of London-based construction services firm, the Formation Group plc, but resigned the post in February, and has previously held a number of directorial positions including chief executive officer of medical research firm, Source BioScience Plc. He was also business development director at Texas Group Plc where he orchestrated the purchase by Texas of a controlling stake in British diesel engines manufacturer, L Gardner, which was floated on the official list in November 1995.
News that Mr Green, who lives in the South Yorkshire mining village of Goldthorpe, had tabled a bid for the beleaguered Ibrox side has sparked ominous warnings from former business associates and Sheffield United fans.
One former colleague, speaking to The Herald's sister paper, the Evening Times, on condition of anonymity, said simply: "Don't let that man anywhere near Rangers or football."
Records held by Companies House reveal that nine of the companies Mr Green has been involved with in the past have been dissolved, while he has a track record of moving very quickly between posts, having resigned a total of 31 different appointments during his career.
Among Sheffield United fans, he is remembered as a "hatchet man" who sold off some of the club's most valuable players before resigning as chief executive in 1998 amid outrage from supporters.
His stint at Bramall Lane saw United listed on the stock exchange in 1997 to raise funds, but just months later top strikers Brian Deane and Jan Aage Fjortoft were sold off, closely followed by Scottish midfielder Don Hutchison.
The loss of key players eventually culminated in the resignation of manager Nigel Spackman, with fans blaming Mr Green for the side's failure to achieve promotion into the English Premiership.
United messageboards buzzed with dire warnings for Rangers fans should Mr Green take the helm at Ibrox, with one fan writing: "As if things couldn't get any worse, up pops Charles Green", while another noted simply that his short tenure left their club "in a mess".
His last association with football was as chairman of the Chesire-based football agency Proactive Sports, which boasted a number of leading stars on its books, including Andy Cole, Stan Collymore and Wayne Rooney. Mr Green left Proactive in 2003.
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