Ticket firm drops backing for Rangers bid
Reuters - Friday 27 April 2012, 10:34
A ticketing company withdrew
its support on Friday for the Blue Knights' bid to buy Rangers,
the latest in a series of setbacks to efforts to save the
stricken Glasgow football club.
Rangers, Scottish champions a record 54 times, went into
administration in February over unpaid tax bills and efforts to
find a buyer have suffered delays because of uncertainty about
the club's status on and off the pitch.
Ticketus paid Rangers owner Craig Whyte more than 20 million
pounds for the rights to sell season tickets for
coming years and is seeking to safeguard that investment.
It had been working with former Rangers director Paul
Murray, who is leading the Blue Knights consortium bidding to
take over the club.
"Ticketus today confirms that it has withdrawn from the Blue
Knights Consortium after it was unable to finalise satisfactory
terms of agreement for its investors with the Blue Knights
around restructuring its ticket purchase agreement," the company
said in a statement.
"Consequently Ticketus is no longer able to play a role in
the Consortium's bid for The Rangers Football Club PLC at this
stage."
U.S. businessman Bill Miller has made a conditional bid for
Rangers and Brian Kennedy, owner of Sale Sharks rugby club in
northern England, is also interested in the club.
Rangers are an institution in Scotland and their rivalry
with fellow Glasgow club Celtic is the focal point of Scottish
soccer.
However, a rescue of Rangers is hugely complicated.
The club faces a tax liability of as much as 75 million
pounds relating to how they paid players over the past decade.
The Scottish Football Association has also given them a
12-month transfer embargo, meaning they may have to field a weak
team if top players opt to leave this summer.
Finally, the Scottish Premier League meets on Monday to
decide whether to impose additional points penalties on clubs
that get into financial problems.