COMMITTEE members of the Rangers Fans' Fighting Fund are refusing to hand over more than £500,000 to the club after months of having key questions evaded by the chief executive, Graham Wallace.
The fundraising initiative was launched by former manager Walter Smith and the late Sandy Jardine back in March 2012 while Rangers were in administration and was initially used to cover various running costs, pay off debts to creditors including Dunfermline Athletic, and finance attempts to shore up the crumbling scouting network at Ibrox.
However, since the takeover staged by the Charles Green-led Sevco consortium and the refinancing of the club, donations remaining in a secure account have gone unused with RFFF members having considered several ideas such as contributing to an official museum or investing in youth development.
A delegation met with Wallace on May 5 to seek assurances over the running of the club before making funds available, but did not receive the answers it desired.
The RFFF chairman, Andrew McCormick, then wrote to Wallace on August 28 with 12 questions on a number of subjects such as action being taken on "onerous" contracts referred to in his Business Review, conditions attached to the recent share issue, moves to gain influence in the SFA and SPFL, upkeep of the stadium, the appointment of a director of football and the possibility of criminal investigations within Ibrox.
Wallace replied on September 2 stating that he preferred to postpone any meeting until the share offering, which raised £3.13m to keep the club afloat, had been completed. He also stated that some of McCormick's enquiries were "no longer relevant given the nature of the offer" and that "others may be difficult to answer to the level desired due to confidentiality".
Concerned by a lack of transparency and an apparent unwillingness to engage, the RFFF released a statement last night which made it clear that they will not release any money raised by supporters until they are convinced that Rangers is being run on an economically sound basis by a board generally perceived to have lost the trust of the wider fanbase.
The Union of Fans have also demanded the removal of director Sandy Easdale after he was pictured with convicted fraudster, Rafat Rizvi.
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