Dave King has been forced to step up his charm offensive to convince Ibrox fans to give him a £13m farewell gift.
The South African based businessman took control of the club in March 2015 then walked away five years later after a number of share issues that diluted the value and influence of the shares held by gullible bears.
One of King’s best stunts was to get Club 1872 to fork out for half of the shares held by Sports Direct in 2017 at a price of 27p while Sports Direct maintained their stranglehold on the club through a new retail deal that the club paid £3m to set up.
Last week King announced his plan to sell his 24% shareholding to Club 1872 who set up a scheme to recruit 20,000 fans to fund the scheme. At any stage the current board can convert loans into shares to dilute all other shareholdings with that move taken twice in the last three months.
Kings plan to drain £13m from gullible fans closes one funding source for the current board who are in need of at least £10m to get through the season, honouring the bloated wage bill.
In Monday’s Daily Record Keith Jackson highlighted the fact that the King plan hadn’t been endorsed by Douglas Park and the Board of Directors.
Responding to that the former club chairman turned to the Four Lads podcast in a bid to ensure his pay off:
Not only is there not a problem, but I would be very surprised if the Rangers board weren’t delighted at this development. I guess they would have some concern over what was going to happen with my shareholding sometime in the future if I wasn’t around.
I think what this has done is take away a lot of uncertainty and at least the board can now look forward and say ‘well, we now know where Dave’s shares are going to end up’. They are going to end up with the supporters.
This board certainly is very alert to the fact that supporters have been key in getting the club back to where it is at the moment and very alert to the need to retain a close relationship with supporters and avoid the disconnect we saw from the Ashley/Easdale era. So I would be very surprised if any of the board members were not happy and didn’t welcome this initiative from me.
Although King has stepped down as Chairman his legacy lives on with Sports Direct awaiting a pay-out of many millions of pounds after their matching agreement was breached in the summer of 2018 by the Hummel deal. After multiple issues Hummel cancelled their three year contract a year early.
Well done for pulling this together @4ladshadadream & for the most, Laura spoke really well. However im disappointed in both of them as i feel they’re pulling the wool over fans eyes. If 1872 had £13m today, then following the AGM, they can have 65m shares at 20p and 21% holding https://t.co/TYI1P8tl0b
— Jas Boyd (@Jas72Boyd) December 8, 2020
We need more investment. We need more working capital. Thats either through Debt and interest or loans for equity with no interest. Its nonsense to suggest the Board have no intention of further investment and to say it wont be at 20p is just blatant guesswork.
— Jas Boyd (@Jas72Boyd) December 8, 2020