King refuses to match fans offer of £500,000 soft loan

DAVE KING has refused to match an offer by fans group Rangers First to lend the troubled club £500,000.

The dramatic news emerged tonight in a club statement after it was reported that Mr King would lend the club some of his children’s inheritance with the club moving quickly to knock that story down.

Around lunchtime it was confirmed that Rangers First had emailed members to hold a vote on whether they should loan the club £500,000 on generous terms.

Adding something to the story it was claimed that the loan would be matched by club chairman Mr King. Despite various promises beforehand the South African based criminal hasn’t invested a penny in the club with his shareholding coming from a private purchase in December 2014.

Putting the brakes on the story Sevco tonight issued a statement that concluded: “It should also be understood that Rangers First was not approached by the Club for funding and, despite what has been incorrectly reported, had no discussion whatsoever with the chairman, Dave King, that their funding, if accepted, would be matched by Mr King.”

Despite coming to power 10 months ago Mr King has refused to invest in the club which had a £2.5m going concern in their audited accounts which were published in November 2015.

At the recent AGM a invite outside investors to take part in a share issue was rejected by shareholders fearful that their stake in the football company would be further devalued.

With a number of expensive court cases to be paid for and no word from Sports Direct about the repayment of a £5m loan the finances of the club are believed to be critical.

In their email to members regarding providing the club with a £500,000 soft loan Rangers First stated: “Your Board has had much discussion and debate regarding this and believes that this may be one of the best ways for Rangers First to help the Club continue to rebuild, develop and expand.

“This is a key issue on which RF asks its members to decide, we are therefore asking members to approve your CIC making a loan of half a million pounds to Rangers International Football Club PLC.”

With the football company going public to deny a matching loan from Mr King the alarm bells really should be ringing out among the members of Rangers First.

Having come to power on a ticket of transparency and accountability it seems that the current regime at Ibrox are edging close to the abyss with their chairman refusing to loan to a club with a £2.5m going concern against their name.

The next step in the on-going drama is likely to come from Sports Direct regarding the failure to honour the terms of the £5m loan.