Green under pressure to name Rangers backers

Senior News Reporter

Tuesday 15 May 2012

RANGERS fans have called for transparency over the 20 unnamed investors in line to take control of Ibrox.

JOHN MacMILLAN: Called for transparency over new deal. consortium CALL: Fans are concerned about Charles Green's refusal to name those who are likely to take the big decisions at the club. Picture: SNS TAKING CHARGE: How we reported the story yesterday.

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Martin Williams

The backers form a consortium fronted by Charles Green, the former Sheffield United chief executive, which has begun work on trying to get the club out of insolvency through a Company Voluntary Arrangment (CVA).

But as Mr Green began meeting the fans over his plans for the club, many have said he should name those who are involved.

Mr Green yesterday said he could not identify any of the investors because "some - would like to wait until a CVA proposal is advanced or agreed".But fans who are hurting from the club's plunge into insolvency under Craig Whyte are uncomfortable with Mr Green's inability so far to name those who are likely to be making the big decisions about the club's future.John MacMillan, general secretary of the Rangers Supporters' Association, said transparency has become a big issue for Rangers fans following revelations about Whyte's dealings, including a failure to reveal he had been previously disqualified as a director.Mr MacMillan said: "I know he has been asked the names of those involved in the consortium but he is not willing to release that until we have gone through the CVA process. I don't think that should be and I would want to hear who they are."He also said fans were keen to know whether those investors met any fit and proper persons' test to be involved in the running of a Scottish football club.The Scottish Football Association said Whyte was not considered to be a fit and proper person to hold a position on March 9, 10 months after he took over at Ibrox and nearly a month after Rangers went into administration. Nearly seven weeks later Whyte was banned for life from any involvement in Scottish football.Mr MacMillan added: "We have given a cautious welcome to developments. That's not necessarily because of Mr Green's background, it is just that people thought Craig Whyte was the saviour, and look what happened there."Fans are hoping Mr Green is the right guy. He seems a fairly straight talking guy and has promised to meet representatives from the fans group which I hope will happen over the next couple of weeks. But there are still questions to be asked and answered."Administrators Duff & Phelps have confirmed the deal to takeover Rangers will not be done until the club exits administration either through a CVA or through winding down the old Rangers holding company and setting up a new one (newco).They say that while the Green consortium can pull out, it would cost them financially, through the terms of what they described as a "binding contract".As Rangers face debts possibly reaching £134 million, the creditors pot proposed by Mr Green consists of £8.5m put up by the consortium, £3.5m from transfer income expected plus any money gained from the £25m damages claim being brought against Collyer Bristow, the legal firm which brokered Mr Whyte's doomed takeover of the club.The administrators say the 58-year-old venture capitalist's consortium has agreed to foot the running costs of the club, estimated to be £3m a month, until it exits insolvency and the takeover deal is finally complete.Sheffield United supporters have warned about Mr Green, who admits he was the "most hated" chief executive at the Brammall Lane club.Peter Whitney, who has been chairman of the supporters' club for 28 years, confirmed Mr Green needed a police escort when he left the club in 1998, as fans became angry about the sale of key players as the side geared up for a Premier League promotion push."They couldn't be replaced," he said. "It was done for financial reasons and then it went pear-shaped. Instead of automatic promotion, we went to the play-offs and lost a two-leg tie to Sunderland. Charles Green took the bad press and fans reaction from that. "It got very heated indeed."

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Green under pressure to name Rangers backers

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