He may be thousands of miles away across the Atlantic -- but he feels the pain of the club’s plight as much as the rest of the Ibrox faithful.

The 42-year-old Glaswegian, who has made millions from property deals and various business interests, knows that one cheque, one signature, would be enough to wipe out Rangers’ whopping £31 million debt and get the Ibrox club back on a level footing.

That is a move Mr Duffy -- who follows every Rangers match home and away via the club’s internet access TV season ticket -- could take on.

Given his personal wealth, he could buy Rangers from Sir David Murray and take the threat of the bank’s control over the club out of the equation.

He is aware of the problems that brings, but in Mr Duffy’s opinion a sole owner is no longer the way ahead for the club.

He has spent a five-figure sum over the past few weeks formulating a business proposal -- with a members’ club ownership scheme at the very centre of the plan.

Mr Duffy has held talks with several wealthy businessmen, who are digesting the details of the plan. They would combine to form a consortium to lead the club forward, essentially underwriting the club’s indebtedness in order to gain control and then implement the fan membership scheme.

Supporters groups have expressed already a desire to be part of this type of structure.

In layman’s terms, Mr Duffy has targeted 15,000 members every year, for three years. The business model is based on a members club of 45,000.

Supporters would pay £1000 as a one-off joining fee raising £45m -- with finance arrangements put in place for fans to pay this up if they didn’t have the funds readily available.

Every year, they would then pay a nominal membership fee on top of their season tickets, but would be offered various discounts and incentives in return.

They would become owners of a new club. They would vote a chairman in, or out, and would have a major say in the running of Rangers.

If wealthier fans wanted to invest more, they could, bringing down the numbers of rank and file required to hit the projected targets.

This is a model that already works very successfully on the continent where clubs such as Barcelona (177,000 members), Benfica (160,000), Porto (110,000) and Hamburg (68,000) are all in fan ownership.

Mr Duffy is convinced it will work, having had professionals research various models around Europe.

He said: “I don’t believe it’s in the interests of Rangers to be dependent on one person any more.

“Times have changed, and should the club be run properly, and given the time for this plan to be implemented with the fans uniting behind it, then Rangers would be a stable, successful club, not just domestically but internationally, with sufficient funding to go forward and be innovative.”

Mr Duffy’s next step will be to finalise the consortium prior to implementation of the business plan which, if implemented, would resolve the current situation at the club and allow Rangers to become financially stable.

South Africa-based millionaire Dave King -- who has not held talks with Mr Duffy -- has been identified as the frontrunner to buy out Sir David Murray since the perilous state of Rangers’ finances was confirmed last month.

 

Mooted saviour of Ibrox has previous links with Parkhead

FOR a man dubbed the potential “saviour” of Rangers football club, it is ironic that one of the most high-profile developments linked to Graham Duffy’s property firm, Grantly Developments, was the construction of the Parkhead-based Commonwealth Games village.

The Florida-based entrepreneur, whose estimated personal fortune of £119 million earned him a ranking of 691 in the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List, was said to be “holding Glasgow to ransom” over his firm’s refusal to sell land for the project.

The company had claimed the land on Millerfield Road was worth between £6.2m and £7.8m, while Glasgow City Council had initially offered £2m, following an evaluation by council-commissioned private valuers.

In the end, the parties settled on £5.5m.

Glasgow-born Mr Duffy, 40, runs Grantly Developments and also has interests in America and the Bahamas. The Rich List cites his fortune as comprising £116m of assets and £3m of personal assets.

His finances haven’t always been so buoyant, however. In 2001, he and business partner Richard Crocket both lost their homes after an ill-fated development in Mount Vernon forced them into bankruptcy.

The pair were developing a second batch of buy-to-let flats amid a booming market in 1998, and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

They anticipated making a £500,000 profit on the project and eight out of nine institutions they had approached for funding agreed to back them. In the end, they opted to borrow £700,000 from the Clydesdale Bank on the back of a report by surveyors DM Hall, which had valued Grantly’s assets at £1m.

However, following a visit by the bank’s surveyor, who mistakenly estimated their assets could be worth as little as £500,000 and cast doubt on the business plan and the loan, the developers launched a £3m action against the Clydesdale Bank for negligence.

Within weeks, the bank had forced its clients and their company into bankruptcy, and both men lost their houses.

Mr Duffy was evicted, along with his wife and their three children, from their £300,000 home in Mount Vernon, in Glasgow’s east end, and saw their furniture taken away and destroyed.