Green slams SPL witch hunt
The Ibrox chief claimed that there was a witch-hunt against his club and that he ought to have been swamped with apologies following the split verdict in favour of oldco Rangers at the First Tier Tax Tribunal.
In the friendly atmosphere of the studios of Scotland Tonight the Sevco chief slipped easily away from questions about the new clubs existing shareholders and £9m of stadium expenditure.
Rallying to favoured topics like the treatment of the club during the summer and an SPL investigation into undeclared payments Green claimed that ‘e ‘ad bought the ‘istory and trophies in the £5.5m deal that included Ibrox and Murray Park.
Asked about the wisdom of asking supporters to find money in the fortnight before Christmas Green said: “The reason that it’s now, if you analyse the reports and interviews that I made in May I said to the Rangers fans that I would list it this year. I will give fans the chance to buy the shares this year.
“If I was doing it for my own self interest then I’d do it in another years time when Rangers was more valuable which would make it more expensive for fans.
“It’s not about Charles Green, it’s about Rangers, it’s about the club it’s about the fans and that’s why we’re doing it now cause I always keep my promises.”
He added: “We’ve already taken £17m from institutional investors, we’ve put an allocation across for fans and if the fans didn’t take them we’ll give them back to the institutions. We were oversubscribed. People applied for shares and we only gave them an allocation.
“From our part we know that there is strong interest out there, I’ve said before and I’ll say it today if no-one else buys them I’ll buy them all myself. But the reality is that we want Rangers not to ‘eld by one single individual. What we will get is again another fulfilment of a Charles Green promise that no-one will own more than 10% of Rangers.”
Turning to the £9m stadium investment mentioned in the prospectus the former Sheffield United chief said: “Well there’s many things that need to be done around Ibrox, fans will know that it’s a fantastic stadium but in the last couple of years there ‘asn’t been free cash to invest in essential maintenance and repairs.
“What I want to do is spend a few million doing the repairs that come through neglect. There are lots of things I want to do, we’re going to build some more bars, more facilities, better catering to make the fan experience much better.”
Going on to his hostility towards the SPL he got fully into his stride Green said: “I’ve said consistently that I will not put my ‘and up to take Rangers back into the SPL while they continue with this witch ‘unt to withdraw titles.
“We saw last week the tax tribunal come out in our favour and yet my office should be awash with apologies- I ‘aven’t received one, I’m just assuming that the Christmas mail has been the delay.
“The reality is ‘y would we go back to a league where we are not welcome and ‘o want to consistently penalise us and strip titles.
“Titles won’t leave while I’m there because I bought them, I own them, their part of the ‘istory and they will stay there.”
The SFA have still to make any comment on Green’s refusal to take tickets for the Scottish Cup tie with Dundee United.
In a club statement Green said: “Everyone at this club is dismayed at the actions of certain SPL clubs, which were actively engaged in trying to harm Rangers when we were in a perilous situation and we are acutely aware of their attitude to us. “
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