New Rangers chairman believes reaction to newco club has got 'out of hand'

The new chairman of Rangers believes the response to the newco club has got "a bit out of hand".

Malcolm Murray was appointed to the board of Sevco 5088 Limited, the new corporate entity for Rangers FC on Thursday.

The company is due to change its name to The Rangers Football Club in the coming days according to chief executive Charles Green, after it acquired all of the Ibrox club’s assets in a £5.5m deal.

As the sale to Mr Green’s consortium was being completed there was dramatic news that a group fronted by former manager Walter Smith wanted to buy the club’s assets for £6m and assign them to a different new company after the company voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposal failed, resulting in The Rangers FC plc, incorporated in 1899, being liquidated in the near future.

On Friday, Mr Murray told STV News that the response to a newco Rangers had all got "a bit emotional and out of hand".

He said: "The backers are all genuine long-term investors that believe the club in this sad situation can be rebuilt on a very prudent basis as a debt-free football club."

Mr Murray also stated that he believed Mr Green was the only interested party in crisis-hit Rangers to have come up with a "credible bid" while other bids were "not of any quantum".

He stated that the Sevco takeover consortium would now like to have a "constructive dialogue" with the group led by former Scotland manager Mr Smith, which has the backing of businessman Jim McColl and Douglas Park, about them becoming stakeholders in the club.

Whether the newco Rangers can successfully transfer the old company’s Scottish FA (SFA) membership and buy over their Scottish Premier League (SPL) share has yet to be resolved. Mr Green previously claimed that he was "confident" Rangers would play in the SPL next year, but since admitted that he was unsure whether that would be the case as the matter is in the hands of the footballing authorities.

Mr Murray said that "none of the guilty parties" are involved in the newco after years of financial mismanagement under Sir David Murray and most recently Craig Whyte brought the club to their knees. He added: "There will be no dodgy accounting, no dodgy dealing and a balanced boardroom where we spend what we can afford and get back on our feet properly."

The 57-year-old described himself as a life-long Rangers fan and claims to have held an Ibrox season ticket for a "number of years".

He was involved in the 1991 stock market flotation of Manchester United PLC and started his career at stockbrokers Phillips and Drew in 1980, which was bought over by the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS). During his time with the firm he was a trustee of the UBS Pension Scheme, before eventually moving to financial firms SG Asset Management, which was bought over by GLG Partners where he worked until 2008.

More recently he took up a directorship at MWB Business Exchange Plc last year, which is a supplier of office space in London. It is a subsidiary of MWB Holdings, which owns the luxury Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotel brands.

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