SIR David Murray has criticised former Rangers director Dave King over his bid to claw back all of the £20 million he invested in the club 14 years ago.

Mr King stands to gain at least £3m as one of the main unsecured creditors of the club's liquidated operating company.

The South Africa-based businessman says he intends to continue a legal challenge against the former Rangers owner over the investment. When Mr King ploughed the money into the club, a new share issue had been made to improve the playing squad and develop a strong youth policy through a new academy.

The claim comes amid allegations Mr King has made on the basis of non-disclosure by Sir David of Rangers' true financial position in 2000.

Sir David said: "I don't understand where he is coming from. There's no foundation at all to it whatsoever, there's been no financial information withheld from him. In all the times he was a director and I was chairman, he had every opportunity to participate in regular board meetings and when he wasn't there he could have phoned in.

"He had the chance to approve annual audited accounts. He received the board papers always in South Africa, and he had all the detailed financial commercial information.

"He had every opportunity to either attend the board meetings or phone in with any questions. On not one occasion did he ever question anything. In the period of time I was chairman, there would have been 32 or 33 board meetings, all minuted, all detailed - and not one note of a complaint."

Mr King's claim places him third on the list of the biggest unsecured creditors of the liquidated RFC 2012 plc.

He could end up having an even greater slicer of the creditors' cake if HMRC fail to convince courts that the oldco was liable for £46.2m plus charges over the use of Employment Benefit Trust (EBT) loans to pay players and managers.

Liquidator BDO has confirmed that £72m of the £94.4m owed to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) relies on the outcome of the long-running dispute over the so-called big tax case. Its failure to win that would cut the debts owed from around £160m to £96.8m.

The first payouts to creditors are expected in the first quarter of 2015 after BDO confirmed that they have banked £24m after settling a claim against Collyer Bristow, the solicitors involved in the calamitous takeover of the club by Craig Whyte.

Mr King's share of the creditors' payout could rise to about £5.7m if HMRC fail to overturn the previous big tax case rulings that the EBTs were legal.

The 14-year-old rights issue involved Murray Sports, which was controlled by Mr Murray, taking up rights through its RFC Investment Holdings subsidiary to the tune of £32.3m.

Of that, £20m was described as new money from Mr King, invested through his Ben Nevis Holdings. As part of the changes Mr King became a non-executive director at Ibrox. Some of the new cash 14 years ago went towards lowering the club's then £40m debt.

Meanwhile, Mr King came under further fire yesterday from Sandy Easdale, chairman of Rangers International Football Club plc's subsidiary football board, over his failed £16m takeover offer. Mr Easdale said it had been "designed as a vehicle for self-promotion of some kind".

Mr King had urged fans to boycott matches and stop buying official merchandise in a row with Rangers chairman David Somers over the bid's rejection. Mr Easdale said the bid was never properly received as Mr King did not satisfy Mr Somers' "reasonable and corporately responsible questions regarding proof of funds".