RANGERS' administrators will go to trial over a disputed £3.6 million which had been held by owner Craig Whyte's solicitors.

A High Court judge in London yesterday ordered the case to decide the legal owners of the sum as Duff & Phelps revealed that the club's playing squad will today face "significant" redundancies if no agreement is reached on wage cuts.

Joint administrator David Whitehouse claimed that the money, which was being held by lawyers Collyer Bristow, belongs to Rangers and should be released to help ease the club's financial difficulties.

However, several parties are claiming ownership, including HM Revenue and Customs, and Merchants Turnaround and pension fund Jerome, which have links to Whyte.

A hearing will be held on March 30 – the day before the deadline for the club to secure a licence to play European football – to decide the fate of the money, which is currently being held by Duff & Phelps's solicitors.

Mr Whitehouse welcomed the judge's decision, saying: "Today has been a very positive step forward. The trial reflects the judge's understanding of the urgency of the case, so it's a very good step forward."

The £3.6m stems from the sale of future season ticket revenue to Ticketus in exchange for advance funds.

During the hearing, lawyers for the administrators said they had expected to find £9.5m in the account.

Mark Phillips QC also told the court that Rangers may not be able to fulfil their fixtures for the rest of the season unless they see a cash boost.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Whitehouse added that negotiations are ongoing with players and parties interested in buying the club to try to secure that outcome.

He said: "The players know what needs to be done. We can deliver that funding gap purely by wage reductions.

"Over the last two days we have also been speaking to interested parties to gauge the extent to which we can bring those discussions forward to deliver an earlier sale of the business in a timetable that would minimise redundancies. We will have a discussion with the players tomorrow when we know what timetable we could work with and, against the backdrop of that, we would be able to determine what level of redundancies would then need to be made."

Mr Whitehouse added: "But at the same time we are still hopeful the players will deliver.

"We need to know if we have an ongoing funding structure, otherwise we will make significant redundancies within the playing staff."

HMRC claims £2.8m of the money is theirs – the same sum that they were owed by Rangers for player compensation schemes when Whyte took over.

Merchant Turnaround is seeking £1m and Jerome is claiming £2.9m.

It is believed that Ticketus may also make a claim.

In a subsequent statement, Mr Whitehouse said: "If we are successful in retrieving these funds, that will help the recovery process of the club and will be an important step towards the club emerging from administration."

He continued: "No-one should be in any doubt, however, about the overall financial situation of the club, and every effort is being made to ensure its survival. We are continuing to meet prospective purchasers over the next few days.

"This does not mean that the club has to be sold within the next 24 hours – we are establishing how quickly we can get to that point."

The administrators have so far failed to reach an agreement with players on wage cuts, despite all of them accepting reductions of up to 75%.

Earlier this week, it was claimed that player advisers had caused a breakdown in talks by demanding "personal conditions". However, it is believed that the main condition some players were looking for was a guarantee that no workers would lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, a group of fans gathered outside Ibrox last night to pledge their allegiance to the club. The supporters unveiled a banner saying "We'll support you ever more".

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