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29 March 2024

Bidders 'express interest' in crisis-hit Rangers

Published
By AFP

Rangers' administrators said on Thursday they had received "several expressions of interest from parties not connected to the club" since taking over the running of the cash-strapped Scottish champions.

Administrators Duff and Phelps took charge of Rangers on Tuesday after Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the British tax authority, went to court to seek their administration over an unpaid bill of £9 million ($14m) built up since Craig Whyte took control at Ibrox in May.

Administration is the process whereby a troubled company calls upon independent expert financial help in a bid to remain operational.

Rangers' title hopes were all but ended after the Scottish Premier League docked them 10 points for entering administration, leaving them 14 points behind leaders and arch Glasgow rivals Celtic, but still in second place.

They are also awaiting the verdict of a tax tribunal that could leave the 140-year-old club with a bill of up to £75m, according to Whyte.

"As administrators, we have to look at all other expressions of interest in the club and to date we have received several expressions of interest from parties not connected to the club," joint administrator Paul Clark told a news conference at Rangers' Ibrox ground.

"These will be subject to ongoing discussions and examined in the forthcoming days," he added

Clark stressed Rangers would continue as a football club, saying: "We are wholly confident that Rangers will continue as a football club and will not face liquidation."

He added: "The reason it (tax) hasn't been paid is that it hasn't been sent. They were deductions that were made at source that were fundamentally used to fund the club. It's something we need to look into."

However, he stressed players would be paid their February wages as normal and that the weekend's match against Kilmarnock would go ahead as scheduled.

"The immediate task was to get the weekend's game to happen. This morning I spoke to (Rangers manager) Ally McCoist. We will be making the February payroll obligations in the normal manner and in full.

"There will be a full account of the club's financial affairs and we will publish that report."

Earlier on Thursday, Rangers won cross-party support from leading politicians, including British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Both Cameron and Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond -- currently at loggerheads over the latter's plan for a referendum on Scottish independence -- said it was vital the club survived.

"I want that club to survive and to thrive," Conservative Party leader Cameron told the BBC on a visit to Scotland.

"It has an extraordinary history, it has a very special place in many people's hearts in Scotland and no-one wants to see that club disappear."

Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), urged HMRC to realise the importance of the club to the country as a whole.

"They've got to have cognisance of the fact that we're talking about a huge institution, part of the fabric of the Scottish nation, as well as Scottish football, and everybody realises that," he told Al Jazeera English.

This week, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell said his club, and even Scottish football as a whole, could live without Rangers.

But Salmond insisted: "The most die-hard Celtic supporter understands that Celtic can't prosper unless Rangers are there. The rest of the clubs understand that as well."

However, a statement on Celtic's official Twitter site on Thursday said: "We are very disappointed with the First Minister's claims that Celtic 'need' Rangers and that Celtic 'can't prosper unless Rangers are there'. This is simply not true.

"The predicament of Rangers is clearly a serious and complex matter with a whole range of possible outcomes.

"However, we are extremely well qualified to make our own position clear and have no wish to see that being misrepresented for political reasons."