Rangers have no plans to buy Bury
Reuters - Thursday 21 June 2012, 13:28
Former Scottish champions
Rangers denied a report on Thursday that they planned to buy
their way into English league football through a takeover of third
tier Bury.
"Rangers have not approached Bury and our focus is on
securing our status in the Scottish League structure," a
spokesman for the Glasgow club said in response to a report in
The Sun newspaper.
Rangers have new owners but it remains uncertain where they
will play next season with Scottish Premier League clubs voting
in July on whether to readmit the 54-times champions to their
ranks after the side's parent company went into administration.
A separate report in the Daily Telegraph said Rangers could
be excluded from the SPL but relegated just one tier to the
first division as a compromise, rather than having to start from
the bottom rung in the third division.
There has long been speculation that Rangers and Glasgow
rivals Celtic might seek a route into the lucrative English
Premier League.
Bury, based on the outskirts of Manchester, also dismissed
the report in The Sun which had said they could be bought out
and their home shifted 320 kms north to Glasgow.
"Whilst investment into Bury Football Club is always
welcome, any offer of investment will only be viewed at taking
the club forward in its only one guise possible - based in the
town of Bury, and as Bury Football Club," the club said in a
statement on its website.
Rangers have applied for readmission to the 12-team SPL but
need the backing of seven other clubs to maintain their status.
The Telegraph report said an agreement was in the offing,
with Rangers formally voted back in but then immediately demoted
one level for past financial mismanagement.
Rangers were too strong on the pitch and had too many fans
to be safely accommodated in the lowly third division, the
report added. Rangers declined further comment.