At the very end of today’s Daily Record story admitting that Stuart Gibson isn’t going to plough millions into Ibrox there is a chilling warning about the financial condition of the troubled club at Ibrox.
It’s understood no set timescale has been agreed between the parties but, with Rangers in need of an urgent fresh finances at a time of global crisis, the Ibrox club will be hoping Gibson’s cash boost will arrive before the end of this month.
The structure of the sentence above may be challenging but there is clearly a message in there- the club are short of money to meet pay-roll, or possibly the Record has got things badly wrong.
Back in November a Going Concern warning was issued with the annual report. Dependent on transfer activity in January a shortfall for the season of £10m was anticipated.
Two home matches in the Europa League will have made some sort of dent in that figure but after VAT, Police and Stewarding costs and other expenses are knocked off the club may be around £2-2.5m better off than anticipated.
Last week’s home match against Bayer Leverkusen could be the club’s last pay day for some time, at the very best estimate football could resume in May but it could just as likely be September or October.
In contrast Celtic have money in the bank, their sound business relationships with sponsors and the five year deal with Adidas would allow them to call in an advance or two if things got critical.
At Ibrox they have no such kindly benefactor. Every month new legal cases arrive, at the last count Sports Direct, Hummel/Elite, Memorial Walls and a WiFI supplier were chasing up compensation for broken contracts.
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Gibson is apparently concentrating his attention on Asian business interests. Fresh investment during a global economic crisis is unlikely leaving the ball in Dave King’s court as he attempts to come up with a magic trick to keep the company solvent.