THE board of Rangers FC effectively declared war on one of the club’s biggest shareholders yesterday when it was revealed that an attempt will be made to stop Mike Ashley having any say in the running of the Ibrox club.
The Sports Direct tycoon who also owns Newcastle United has been in conflict with Rangers chairman Dave King and his fellow directors since they took over the club earlier this year.
Ashley owns nine per cent of Rangers and Sports Direct has a stranglehold on Rangers’ retailing operations as a result of Ashley’s previous deals with the club that included a £5 million loan to Rangers. At the weekend, some 2,000 fans demonstrated against Ashley outside Ibrox and there is a campaign not to buy any branded material from Sports Direct – Ashley famously buys up brands, and the Rangers branding is owned by him through Mike Ashley Holdings.
The club has already been fined £5,500 by the SFA for letting
Ashley have an influence on Rangers, and sources close to Ibrox say the latest move is to stop any further punitive action .
At the club’s annual general meeting in the Clyde Auditorium on November 27, the board of Rangers International FC, current owners of Rangers, will propose an amendment to the club’s articles of association that will to all intents and purposes stop Ashley exercising his rights as the third-largest shareholder in the club.
They are using the fact that Ashley owns Newcastle United as the reason to stop him having any say at Ibrox. Sources close to Ashley say he will see it as another battle in the war with the Rangers board.
The proposed new article says: “No member shall be entitled to vote at any general meeting or at any separate meeting of the holders of any class of any shares in the company, either in person or by proxy, in respect of any shares held by him (whether absolutely or as a trustee, either alone or in conjunction with one or more associates or solely through an associate or associates (even where such person has no formal interest)) if he is involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management or administration of a club, or has any power whatsoever to influence the management or administration of a club and the directors of the company shall be entitled at their sole discretion and without issuing reasons therefore to determine whether or not a member does have such involvement in or power to influence a club.”
Intriguingly, the Rangers board appear to have borrowed some of the wording of the new article from the articles of association of various governing bodies.
Where Dave King and his fellow directors go much further is in saying that the decision on who can vote will be “at their sole discretion and without issuing reasons.”
This raises the prospect of Ashley or his representatives turning up at the AGM with their rights as shareholders cancelled.
On December 9 in London, Ashley is reportedly ready to try and have King jailed for breaching a gagging order forbidding the current board from publicising details of their arrangements with Sports Direct.
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