Police investigate Whyte's Rangers takeover
Reuters - Monday 25 June 2012, 16:23
Police have begun an
investigation into the takeover of Rangers by businessman Craig
Whyte who was in charge when the Glasgow club went into
administration earlier this year.
Whyte, who bought an 85 percent stake in the debt-laden club
for a nominal one pound from David Murray last year, had
to call in the administrators in February over unpaid taxes.
"The Crown Office has today instructed Strathclyde Police to
conduct a criminal investigation into the acquisition of Rangers
Football Club in May 2011 and the subsequent financial
management of the club," Scottish prosecutors said in a
statement on Monday.
"The investigation into alleged criminality follows a
preliminary police examination of information passed to them in
February this year by club administrators."
Rangers, one of the best supported clubs in British football,
are now under new ownership but do not know which division they
will be playing in next season.
The 54-times champions need the blessing of seven other
clubs to be readmitted to the Scottish Premier League (SPL)
after their parent company went into liquidation.
The 12-team SPL will make its decision on July 4. The BBC
said four clubs had already come out against the readmission of
Rangers - Hearts, Hibernian, Dundee United and Inverness
Caledonian Thistle - meaning that another "No" would see them
excluded.
It is not clear if Rangers would have to start life in the
lowly third division or be relegated one notch to Scotland's
first division.