Murray and Kennedy join forces in Rangers bid
Reuters - Friday 27 April 2012, 18:02
Paul Murray's Blue Knights consortium
and Sale Sharks rugby club owner Brian Kennedy have submitted a
joint bid to take control of troubled Scottish club Rangers, the
two groups said on Friday.
Kennedy, who had been interested in taking sole control of
the club, announced he was joining forces with former Rangers
director Murray after Ticketus, who were part of the Blue
Knights's original bid, withdrew its support earlier on Friday.
Rangers, 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.
"This offer we consider to be substantial," Kennedy and
Murray said in a statement.
"[The offer] is conditional on a CVA [Company Voluntary
Agreement] being approved by the creditors and [owner] Mr [Craig] Whyte's shares being acquired."
Asked if teaming up with Kennedy gave the bid extra
motivation, Murray said on Sky Sports News: "I think it does.
I've been speaking to Brian for several months... and we are
speaking from the same page.
"It adds real muscle to the whole thing.
"This is the best and final bid. Time has now run out. It is
time to choose someone."
Ticketus paid Rangers owner Whyte more than 20 million
pounds for the rights to sell season tickets for
forthcoming years and were part of the Blue Knights group in an
effort to safeguard that investment.
"Ticketus today confirms it has withdrawn from the Blue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.
"Consequently Ticketus is no longer able to play a role in
the consortium's bid for Rangers Football Club PLC at this
stage."
MILLER BID
The Blue Knights and Kennedy are joined in the bidding
process by U.S. businessman Bill Miller who has made a
conditional bid for Rangers.
Murray believes the joint bid is the only offer that
guarantees the club's future.
"It's important to do a comparison between the two bids," he
said.
"I'm not interested in anything that sees the club die, my
understanding of Bill Miller's bid is the club would not
survive."
Rangers are a Scottish institution and their rivalry with
Glasgow rivals Celtic is the focal point of domestic football.
The rescue of Rangers is hugely complicated.
The club face 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 at the end of the season.
The Scottish Premier League will meet on Monday to decide
whether to impose additional penalties on clubs that get into
financial trouble.