MIKE Ashley's days as the powerbroker of Rangers are numbered, according to former club director and would-be Ibrox kingpin Dave King.
The biggest single shareholder in the club's controlling company Rangers International Football Club plc is confident his consortium will get the necessary 50% of the vote
in any forthcoming general meeting of shareholders to create the latest revolution at Ibrox.
If successful, the South Africa-based tycoon, the former Blue Knight Paul Murray and John Gilligan, the one-time managing director of Glasgow brewer Tennent's would take up controlling positions on the RIFC board. That would be at the expense of the incumbents, chairman David Somers, chief executive Derek Llambias, finance director Barry Leach, and director James Easdale, all allies of Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.
Mr Ashley, who pulls the strings of the club's retail operation, has rights through a £10 million emergency club loan to two nominated directors on the RIFC board.
Mr King said: "We have enough support. I am absolutely certain we have more than 50 per cent even if every single shareholder votes, which is unlikely. We will win."
An issue Dave King has to overcome is how he can totally remove Ashley's influence on the board, without buying out Mr Ashley's emergency loan.
"I certainly don't see Ashley being a complication in this process," said Mr King.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article