CHARLES GREEN has warned Rangers supporters there could be another "year of pain" ahead should his consortium succeed in their bid for the Ibrox club.
Green, who is leading a multinational group of investors seeking control of Rangers, met with supporters' groups on Thursday evening to discuss his proposed £8.5m takeover of the club and his plans for the future.
The minutes from the meeting laid out the timeline in which Green hopes to either push through a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) with the club's creditors or form a newco, which would then face sanctions to be decided by a future meeting of the SPL member clubs.
The minutes read: "Mr Green's preferred route is a CVA. Funds are in place to pay the creditors. On or around next Friday, Duff & Phelps will write to the creditors with the offer. The creditors then have 14 days to decide if they will accept [followed by] a 28-day cooling off period. If all say yes, Duff & Phelps stand aside and Mr Green pays the creditors, although he will not yet be the new owner. Once the debt is settled, Rangers are out of administration.
"Crucially, the SFA looks upon things differently, and once the creditors accept – not when they get paid – Rangers are, in the SFA's eyes, out of administration. If we go down the newco route, it is along similar lines to Bill Miller's [the previous preferred bidder] offer except Mr Green will pay the creditors now."
Green added he believed a newco would retain Rangers' history and claimed he had held several meetings with "major names in Scottish business" each of whom had expressed a desire to invest in a consortium that has so far called in financial backing from "five or six" of their 20 original pledgers, with £20m said to have been raised.
The minutes explained: "His idea is to have investors owning from 1% to 15% of the club. All 26,000 current shareholders will be invited to invest and given two or three years to fund their investment. The company will be listed and everyone will be able to see all who invest. At the moment, they have asked for privacy."
On the possibility of demotion from the SPL, Green appeared bullish. "Asked if we [Rangers] should plump for Division Three, Mr Green replied that without Rangers there is no SPL and the other club chairmen know it. While other clubs fans may want us demoted, their chairmen are businessmen."
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