THE WAR OF WORDS
ON SATURDAY, MARCH 15, IT SEEMED PEACE HAD BROKEN OUT AT IBROX...
RANGERS’ STATEMENT
THE directors of Rangers Football Club met with Dave King on Friday afternoon in Glasgow. It was a helpful, open and honest discussion, covering the important issues facing Rangers, the concerns of the fans and the club’s competitive aspirations. Mr King was helpful in outlining the concerns of supporters in relation to communications from the club and was reassured by plans to announce the results of the business review and trading update in the next few weeks, ahead of the season-ticket renewal deadline, as part of the club’s commitment to improved supporter communication. The board and Mr King agreed that the meeting was productive and that both parties share a common vision for the future of the club.
BUT THAT PEACE WAS SHATTERED YESTERDAY....
DAVE KING’S STATEMENT
The board recommitted to issue the business review within the original 120-day deadline and, importantly, committed that the fans will have access to this review prior to advancing funds by way of season-ticket renewals. Despite strong reservations from fan groups, I asked the fans to give the board time to honour this commitment. Part of my motivation was that any public company board is bound to act in good faith and that breach of such a share pricesensitive commitment would be an ethical, moral, and probably criminal breach. I followed up on this commitment with the board after the recent announcement on season-ticket renewals. The chairman has advised me that the board will now only issue the review at the end of the season-ticket renewal period and it will consequently not be timeously made available to fans. Disturbingly, the chairman has advised me that the true intention of the board had always been to delay issuing the review until funds had been largely collected.
RANGERS’ RESPONSE
The board of Rangers Football Club notes with astonishment the statement issued this afternoon by Dave King. In his statement, Mr King makes a number of untrue allegations against the chairman and the board of Rangers Football Club, alleging bad faith and false representation. The chairman and the board refute all such allegations in the strongest terms and have referred Mr King’s statement to the club’s legal advisors. Mr King clearly has elected to ignore the board’s previous public statement following the board’s meeting with him. In this statement, which was reviewed with him prior to issue, the board stated that it will issue the results of the business review prior to the season-ticket renewal window ending. This position remains unchanged and Mr King is well aware of this, having sought personal confirmation on this matter from the chairman as recently as yesterday. The business review period has not yet even ended, as Mr King is well aware. However, he has elected to make yet another public statement to serve his own purposes. When the board met Mr King a few weeks ago, he made it clear that he did not want to put another penny into the club and would prefer to see the club using other investors’ money. The board was therefore surprised, but gave him the benefit of the doubt when, a few days later, Mr King made media comments about a willingness to invest his money into the club. This is an easy statement to make to the media but is contrary to what he told the whole board. It is extremely disappointing that Mr King should consider it appropriate to issue this latest statement, clearly designed to unsettle and mislead Rangers fans, on the eve of an important Scottish Cup semi-final match. For someone who claims to have the interests of Rangers at heart and as an ex-director, King’s untrue comments are nothing short of disgraceful.