The chairman of newco Rangers has "apologised unreservedly" for the financial meltdown at the club.

Malcolm Murray admitted that his Sevco group, which bought over the club’s assets last month, has "nothing to apologise for" but issued a statement saying sorry on the Rangers website on Tuesday.

Previous owners of the club, Sir David Murray and most recently Craig Whyte, employed financial strategies that have brought the 140-year-old institution to its knees, resulting in the liquidation of Rangers FC plc, a process that is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Mr Murray said that he was apologising on behalf of the club for the "crisis in Scottish football" triggered by the previous owners of Rangers.

He added: "Ally McCoist, the staff and players have nothing to apologise for but the club needs to make an apology. It is only right that someone at Rangers expresses our sorrow and regret.

"On behalf of the new board of directors, I apologise unreservedly to all for the distress, disruption and difficulty inflicted on the football community, caused entirely by the actions of people who failed miserably to act responsibly during their stewardship of Rangers.

"All of Scottish football is now having to live with the consequences of that behaviour and every true Rangers fan will consider it a matter of deep regret that events at our club in the past have been the root cause of an extremely difficult time for Scottish football. The people who are now running Rangers Football Club want the club to move forward but we cannot do so until we have recognised how damaging to football has been the crisis at our club.”

Rangers FC plc went into administration on February 14 having failed to pay £14m in PAYE and VAT following Mr Whyte’s takeover of the club in May 2011.

Since then administrators Duff and Phelps failed to save the club in its current form through a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) and accepted a £5.5m asset sale offer from the Sevco consortium led by chief executive Charles Green that will cover their £3m bill, as well as the estimated £1m outlay to soon-to-be-appointed neutral insolvency firm BDO, which will oversee the liquidation.

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