Murray warning over wages deal as takeover talks stall

Chief football writer

Wednesday 18 April 2012

PAUL Murray and the Blue Knights will attempt to repay other Scottish clubs in full if they end up taking control of Rangers.

Paul Murray harbours growing concerns over the delay in naming a preferred bidder

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Michael Grant

Celtic, Hearts, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are all owed money by the Ibrox club and, as things stand, the best they can hope for is a pence-in-the-pound repayment if Rangers emerge from administration via a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) or liquidation. Hearts are owed £800,000 from selling Lee Wallace while all the other SPL clubs are owed outstanding ticket monies, including £40,000 to Celtic.

Murray's view is that with Rangers facing punishments from the SFA, SPL and Uefa the club should be seen to be doing everything it can to settle its football debts. Money is also owned to Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal among others, while £1.1m is still owed to Rapid Vienna for Nikica Jelavic.The Blue Knights have said they would "step back" from the takeover process after Bill Ng's Singapore consortium appeared to be closer to agreeing a deal with Ticketus, which could in turn be more attractive to administrators Duff & Phelps. But Murray will continue to plan for the possibility of eventually being in control at Ibrox, and that will involve moves to restore Rangers' reputation at home, in England and in Europe."We want a comprehensive agreement from the football governing bodies on what Rangers' penalties are going to be, both football penalties and financial penalties," said Murray. "That's from SFA, SPL and Uefa. As part of that we have to recognise that we owe certain clubs money and I would imagine that as part of that negotiation we would have to show good faith towards football creditors."It's a complex area because there is a football creditor rule in England [in which 'football debts' must be paid first by any club emerging from administration] but not one in Scotland, and I don't think HMRC would be particularly focused on certain creditors being advantaged over themselves. I can understand that."But I look at the bigger picture and we have to reach agreement with the football governing bodies to, if you like, wipe the slate clean in terms of the penalties we are going to face. As part of that we have to settle with our football creditors. Not all those liabilities are due now, but they are due in time."Murray said he hoped that clubs would be pragmatic about dealing with Rangers over outstanding debts, even if they were angered about being left out of pocket in the first place. "We would have to negotiate. Clubs have to be practical as well. These sums of money are due, but there are sums to others too who will be offered a pence in the pound offer, so clubs have to look to the bigger picture. I see it being part of the overall negotiation with the football governing bodies."Both Murray and manager Ally McCoist made appeals yesterday for a decision from Duff & Phelps on the preferred bidder. Murray stressed that the position of the first-team squad would soon become hugely significant. The players will go back to their full wage on June 1 having accepted cuts of up to 75%, and several of the senior men – including Allan McGregor, Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker – have clauses enabling them to leave for reduced transfer fees if they are uncomfortable about the club's new owners. Without clarity on who that will be, it is more likely all of Rangers' leading players will leave in the close season."They still have these clauses and that's why I've been saying for the past week that we have to get a decision now," said Murray. "Let's look at the facts: I think I'm right in saying that three weeks on Sunday the league season ends. Practically-speaking the players then go on holiday for a number of weeks and logistically it could be hard just to get a hold of people. We have to sit down and go through all of this now. And, as you can imagine, it's not going to be a straightforward exercise, it's essentially going to be a person-by-person negotiation."McCoist admitted he was now "worried" about how the takeover saga had dragged on with still no preferred bidder named. "There obviously have been developments and it looks like the preferred bidder status has moved away from the Blue Knights and perhaps headed to either the American bid or the Singaporean bid," said McCoist on Blues News on Rangers TV."Obviously, like all Rangers fans, I think the sooner the preferred bidder status is announced would be a big, big step in the right direction. The uncertainty and the lack of clarity about the future is obviously really concerning and worrying for everyone, be that players, staff or fans."I can totally understand everybody's concern and that's why I'm hopeful that it will be sooner rather than later. I won't lie to you. I'm really concerned and really worried because we have a lot of planning to do. We have pre-season games and hopefully we'll try to arrange pre-season tours. All these things and players coming and going makes it concerning."

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Murray warning over wages deal as takeover talks stall

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