Magath gifts his shares to Ibrox fans

RANGERS supporters’ groups received a boost last night with the news that Felix Magath has proxied them his shares in the club ahead of next Friday’s crucial EGM.

The German coach — three times a Bundesliga winner with Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg — made a surprise purchase of 810,000 Rangers shares early last month.

But with a week to go until the decisive Ibrox shareholder meeting, he has now handed control of his stake to the Rangers Supporters Trust.

The RST, which owns 1.8million shares, now controls a 5.53-per-cent stake through its own stake and proxies donated by other shareholders. Fellow fan-ownership group Rangers First has a vote representing two million shares to cast at the meeting. Meanwhile, Rangers went public yesterday with an admission that two recent circulars to shareholders had been misleading.

The club were forced into an embarrassing U- turn when they had to reveal that James Easdale had taken a salary from the club at one stage — contrary to the s t atement t hat accompanied his departure f rom the club’s board on Wednesday. They also acknowledged that previous claims about chief executive Derek Llambias’ performance at Newcastle had been misleading.

Both those clarifications were made in a statement to the Stock Market and it is the sixth time since August the board have felt obliged to publicly set the record straight.

While Easdale repaid the remuneration he received from the club, there was no mention of him ever having received a salary when news of his exit was confirmed.

Rangers admitted Easdale had drawn from his annual salary of £50,000 in the early days of his directorship, from August 2013, but paid back the money he received early in 2014. The statement said: ‘The Company wishes to clarify that James Easdale was paid director’s fees between August 2013 and December 2013.’

Discrepancies between t he reported and actual f i nancial performance of Newcastle under the watch of Llambias (left) also required a correction.

Rangers sent a circular to shareholders this month claiming he joined the club in 2007, increased turnover from £85million to £123m and turned them into one of the top 20 most-profitable clubs in Europe.

But yesterday’s statement read: ‘Derek Llambias resigned from his post as managing director of NUFC in June 2013. The figure of £123m referred to in the circular was the projected turnover, as at the time of Derek Llambias’ departure, in the financial year to 30 June 2014.’