RANGERS have blocked four mystery shareholders from voting, collecting dividends or trading their shares in a bid to find out who actually owns them.

The club has made a formal request for the information from all shareholders and four have so far failed to respond.

Until the information is provided, the four companies - Blue Pitch Holdings, Putney Holdings Limited, ATP Investments Limited and Norne Anstalt - will be frozen out of the club and their shares will be effectively worthless.

In a statement to shareholders on its website, Rangers states that its articles of association set out that it can impose such sanctions "where its board of directors is satisfied that any person appearing to be interested in shares has been duly served with a notice under s793 of the Companies Act 2006, and is in default of providing [Rangers] with the information required".

The shares held by the four groups represent 10.4% of the company.

Blue Pitch Holdings own 4,000,000 shares, Putney Holding s Ltd has 700,000, ATP Investments Ltd holds 2,600,000 and Norne Anstalt has 1,200,000.

Supporters have regularly sought more information on the owners of the Blue Pitch shares, as well as those of Margarita Holdings, who were among the original shareholders when Charles Green's consortium bought the business and assets of Rangers Football Club plc as it entered liquidation.

Margarita Holdings is no longer in the company's shareholder register.

The four who have failed to provide the information to club directors have been informed of their default and the restrictions will remain in place until the necessary ownership information is provided.

A Rangers spokesman said: "It was always the intention of the board to discover who really owns these shares. These four parties have not responded to initial requests for information or to the latest direction notices."