KING: It will take five years to emerge from legal mess
DAVE KING suspects that up to five years will pass before Rangers can finally become disentangled from the financial quagmire and subsequent legal ramifications created by the club passing into the wrong hands.
Like all Rangers supporters, the Ibrox chairman is intrigued by the prospect of details and clarity emerging during the proceedings ahead, hopeful of justice being served and closure realised on a harrowing period in the club’s history.
However, he has warned that clearing up the mess is likely to drag on way beyond what he anticipates being a first season back in the top flight next term for Mark Warburton’s progressive football side.
King announced his determination last week to eventually bring the Rangers ‘oldco’ out of liquidation, then compensating outstanding creditors and restoring the club’s assets. The pathway to that desired outcome, however, is fraught with complex legal issues highlighted by current court proceedings against former hierarchy figures including Craig Whyte and Charles Green — and the ties with Mike Ashley and Sports Direct merchandise deals.
King said: ‘If one looks at the legal experience — and obviously I have some experience of lengthy complex litigation, I think these things can run for quite a few years yet.
‘Particularly when you have the intervention of Police Scotland, the criminal case, the number of people involved, it starts to get complicated.
‘I’d imagine a lot of the parties will be looking at potential civil litigation, claims against this and that. I really see the thing being tied up for another few years before we get any resolution there.
‘I don’t think it could possibly happen in two years. I think there’s no chance of that. I’d say it would be closer to five years than two.’
Only then might it be practically feasible to advance King’s desire to ‘put the old Rangers back into the old company’.
Neither that process, should it come to pass, nor the matters well beyond King’s control soon set to play out in a courtroom will be intrusive or interfering to the progress being made within the club now that stability has been achieved at boardroom level.
King stressed his board’s blueprint and the funding to furnish Warburton’s squad will remain unaffected by the litigation events or curveballs such as a firm linked to former chairman Whyte making a £25million claim on the assets.
‘It doesn’t affect us in terms of going ahead with what we are doing here at Rangers Football Club in the next five years,’ said King. ‘What we’re going ahead with is none of that litigation being resolved.
‘I am not worried about what might come out. It is not ideal for the club to continue to have the history rolled out in the newspapers.
‘On the other side, we do believe if anything is found to be untoward, then people should be held accountable. The whole history with Rangers over the last couple of years is clearly something the club and supporters have not been able to put behind them.
‘It is more likely that once the criminal cases are aired, we will get some clarity as to what was really going on.
‘I think that will perhaps be awkward for the way Rangers were dealt with by the authorities in terms of the initial relegation.
‘That could possibly come up as an issue again. There are just so many permutations and possibilities as to how it could pan out and it will be very interesting.
‘Am I surprised Whyte has come and had a go at the thing? No. It’s within the bounds of what I expected.
‘Does it change anything? It changes for the liquidators in the sense it changes the dividends — until they resolve the issue.
‘Right now, we’re in a position to say we have a more recognisable football team and a more recognisable football club. We will have greater time and opportunity to deal with the litigations behind the scenes in a more serene manner if the football team continues to do well.’
Meanwhile, King has revealed he has no appetite to cut a deal with Ally McCoist’s former assistant Kenny McDowall.
The former interim boss has been on gardening leave since Stuart McCall was brought in as caretaker in March, being paid in line with the terms of his contract.
King and McCoist finally thrashed out a settlement last week, leaving the Ibrox legend free to return to TV punditry. In the case of McDowall, that was deemed unnecessary.
‘I feel the circumstances with Kenny are different, I don’t feel he has the alternative opportunities that Ally perhaps has in the market place,’ explained King. ‘I wouldn’t even approach Kenny and ask him to compromise his agreement.
‘He’s earned his gardening leave, the circumstances were out of his control and it would be improper for us to even suggest we wouldn’t honour his contract in full.
‘But we never want to have a situation like this again.
‘Last season, we were paying Ally to be manager, Kenny to be manager, Stuart to be manager. This season, we’re paying Mark to be manager, had been paying Ally to be manager, Kenny to be manager.
‘Thankfully we’ve addressed a bit of that, to be paying for three managers is one of the things that will be part of the past.’