• Bid believed to include foreign investment
• Blue Knights criticises the administrators
Rangers' administrators hope to name a new preferred bidder for the club on Saturday, with a group led by the former Sheffield United chief executive, Charles Green, the firm favourites to be handed that status.
Green's little‑known consortium, which is believed to include foreign investment, would become the second preferred bidder for the club after the American businessman Bill Miller withdrew his deal. Green's time at Bramall Lane was notable for United's flotation on the Stock Exchange; upon his departure, he spent a period as the chairman of the high-profile football agency Proactive Sports Management.
The former Rangers director Paul Murray and the Sale Sharks owner, Brian Kennedy, held a press conference in Glasgow on Friday afternoon which criticised the administrators Duff & Phelps for continually refusing to accept a bid from their Blue Knights consortium.
Murray and Kennedy had worked in partnership to front that offer, which has now been withdrawn on the basis they believe the administrators no longer have sufficient time to form a company voluntary arrangement. "This is the end of the road," said Murray of the Blue Knights plan.
The alternative, which the Blue Knights sought to avoid, would see a "newco" formed and therefore require dispensation to re-enter the Scottish Premier League. A three-year ban from European football would also negatively impact on Rangers' income streams.
Kennedy claimed any group now looking to pull Rangers from administration via a CVA is "behind the eight ball."
Murray added: "I find it perplexing that Duff & Phelps actually go about to try to question why we are doing things and misrepresent us. I find that bizarre. This process has gone on far, far too long.
"Time has now run out for a CVA. I have told the administrators that I hope they make the right choice [with a preferred bidder] because they have made others in the past that haven't turned out to be the right ones for the club. If this one doesn't work, the future is pretty bleak.
"This is a crisis. A very real crisis."
The Blue Knights also claim they had agreement in principle to install the former Rangers managers Walter Smith and Graeme Souness on a football club board.
"The administrators better have somebody good, some good credible consortium who is fully funded," Kennedy said. "This is not about us owning Rangers Football Club. It's about Rangers Football Club surviving. I'd be delighted if Duff & Phelps are able to pull one out of the hat and come up with a fantastic bidder. I fear they may not be able to do that." Read More
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