Duped seems to be the word of the day as one of Scotland’s greatest ever entrepreneurs, David Murray, explains why he sold Rangers to Craig Whyte for £1.
A number of newspapers were invited to meet Murray yesterday with the case of the former Rangers owner presented sympathetically this morning.
Despite his extensive contacts and six months of due diligence by both parties Murray appears shocked to discover that not only is Craig Whyte not a billionaire but the turnaround specialist from Motherwell has had a very chequered business career that included a seven year ban from serving as a director.
In June 2010 Murray called off takeover talks with Andrew Ellis after three months of negotiations. Ellis had promised a directorship to Walter Smith and presidential role for Murray as part of his plans but the then Rangers owner suddenly ended talks with the former Northampton director.
Within a year however Murray had been ‘duped’ by Whyte into a sale despite warnings from the Takeover Committee that he had formed to ensure the safekeeping of the club through any sale.
Paul Murray and Alastair Johnston have both gone public in their opposition to Whyte but despite their warnings Murray pushed ahead with the sale.
On the day of the takeover the Takeover Committee, consisting of former chairman John McClelland, John Greig, Martin Bain and Paul Murray, made their fears known.
Their warning on the Rangers website read: “The decision on the sale and purchase of the majority shareholding in the club firmly and ultimately rests between Murray MHL Limited and Lloyds Banking Group.
“Although the IBC has no power to block the transaction, following its enquiries, the IBC and Wavetower have differing views on the future revenue generation and cash requirements of the club and the IBC is concerned about a lack of clarity on how future cash requirements would be met, particularly any liability arising from the outstanding HMRC case.
“In agreeing that no offer should be made to all shareholders, the IBC has insisted that the acquirer issues a document to all shareholders setting out the full terms of the transaction, comprehensive details on the acquirer and the sources of its funding and giving firm commitments to agreed future investment in the club.”
Rather than take on board the concerns of his own Takeover Panel Murray walked away from Rangers with just £1 from the transaction.
Part of the agreement between Murray and Whyte was that neither party would comment in public about the each other.
With Murray slating Whyte it’s only a matter of time before the current Rangers owner reveals his side of the story- leaving Murray open to further criticism as Rangers slide towards liquidation with all of the dirty linen being aired in public.
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Absolutely, not that it matter one jot to me, but Murray must go down in history as the destroyer of Rangers so if their fans want to be like the lap-dog press and swallow everything he says, that is upto them, for him to come out and say there were no dual contracts, with the evidence that’s on offer is laughable…..and lets not forget either, all this was done to chase the impossible feat (for them anyway)of emulating Celtic and winning the champions league…so in the end chasing the dream has killed them and its all Murrays fault nothing to do with Whyte who is the patsy in this affair.
Whyte has become an easy target. Sure, the guy is a joke. But how can anyone in their right mind give him the credit for ten or more years of major corruption, long before the fans at ibrox knew how to spell “Whyte”? (okay, some still can’t, but I digress).
Murray and each and every one of the board at ibrox, including the managers who are always part of negotiations with player contracts, are culpable. Thisisn’t rocket-science. They are all guilty and in typical fashion think they can lay blame at the feet of Whyte who while he lied, inherited a disaster zone with a group who have withheld taxes for almost ten years, at the very least!!! Don’t blame Whyte. It isn’t his doing. Or is the anger because he exposed it and stopped it happening?
just like the good ol days for all the hacks hanging on murrays word and takeing every thing he says as godspel.isnt it great to see they are still the same arse lickers they have always been.lets just sit here and listen to murray feed us a lot of cock and bull story of how it isnt fault,cant bring himself to take any blame for the situation that surrounds his once pride and joy.and what do the hacks do with the chance to stick the boot right in a and gain a bit of revenge for putting there club in such danger,they do nothing,to me now they will be called the lap dog loyal.hang ur heads in shame jornos
Where are UEFA???, someone at the very top level, Michel Platini or someone of that ilk has to act now!!!…Rankers should be awarded a 0-3 scoreline for every fixture in which improperly registered players where fielded….at this point I’d like to ask where the FC Sion president is???…afterall his team have be done with the same crime….does he not care that his team gets punished whilst other teams within the remit of UEFA seem to be getting away scott free…if I was Christian Constantin (Sion president) i’d be rite on the phone to UEFA to see whats being done about it….this is madness, if they have fielded players with this type of contract this year then they should be bottom of the table with all the 0-3 scorelines, instead we are approaching the split with Rankers still holding a top 6 place and not even being investigated properly because SFA are corrupt…UEFA/FIFA MUST ACT NOW!
Did whyte buy rangers for a £1 , that’s shocking how bad they have become , a box of crisps in the kiosk must be worth more , was it a green pound note