Joint Statement - Supporter Groups

[chilledbear 16]

JOINT STATEMENT BY THE RANGERS SUPPORTERS ASSEMBLY, THE RANGERS SUPPORTERS ASSOCIATION, AND THE RANGERS SUPPORTERS TRUST.

 

There are significant concerns among our worldwide fan base over the conduct of former CEO, Charles Green. Mr.Green has been very outspoken in the media, and has clearly undermined the manager and the team. He is also purported to be giving support to a financial claim to be made against the club which we feel represents a conflict of interest for him and the club.

 

We strongly urge the Board to terminate Mr Green’s consultancy role and make a clear decision to either accept the requisition to make changes to the Board, or confirm the date of the EGM.

 

In the event that an EGM is necessary, we will canvass supporters’ opinion on the matter, and The Trust will use its vote in accordance with the instructions of the members. At this stage, however, we believe it in order to recommend that all fans who are shareholders to vote, or proxy their votes to support the proposed motion to replace three current board members. We will provide further guidance on how this can be done if and when the EGM is confirmed

 

We were greatly concerned at the fans’ meeting on August 8th to learn that there is only £10m in the club’s account. This is especially worrying considering the club has benefited from two seasons worth of season ticket sales (over 70,000) as well as the £22m raised in last year’s IPO.

 

From the wording of the EGM requisition, and the media comments of Jim McColl, we understand the requisition does not mean a potential takeover of the club but is an attempt by a large group of shareholders to have their views represented on the Board and to bring much-needed stability to the club. We are confident that fans will support Mr McColl and his colleagues and we can also work with them towards a fan ownership/representation model. Mr McColl has confirmed to us that he remains supportive of fan ownership/representation and will look to explore this further when the club has been stabilised.

 

All Rangers fans expect the Board to act decisively when they meet on Tuesday, and we confirm we shall continue to keep all members of the Rangers family as informed as we can at this very testing time.

 

http://www.therst.co.uk/joint-statement-ahead-of-board-meeting/

[Frankie 8,153]

Seems fair enough but I'll be interested to see how they intend canvassing fans on their opinions.

 

Would it be worthwhile organising some sort of rally?

[bossy 0]

I am uncomfortable with the declaration of support for McColl before anyone has sat down with him and understood where he wants to go beyond replacing the Board members.

 

I also think that, for the RST, it is a tactical error to be, essentially, offering up their votes for free.

[chilledbear 16]

Sounds more of a Statement from the Trust than anybody else.

[Frankie 8,153]

I am uncomfortable with the declaration of support for McColl before anyone has sat down with him and understood where he wants to go beyond replacing the Board members.

 

I also think that, for the RST, it is a tactical error to be, essentially, offering up their votes for free.

 

The canvassing does seem to be somewhat of a fait accompli given this statement.

[Frankie 8,153]

Sounds more of a Statement from the Trust than anybody else.

 

I think it's fair to say the RST are the driving force nowadays.

[bossy 0]

I am generally a supporter of the RST.

 

But I find this tendency that the support has - including the RST - to throw their unconditional backing behind whoever the latest 'saviour' is to be rather disconcerting.

 

Call me old fashioned but should we not be sitting around a table and getting a good understanding of what they propose as well as an appreciation of the people involved before we give them our backing? And might it not be an idea to extract a couple of concessions in return for our support? For example, a supporter observer at Board level or even a supporter director. After all, we do own 12% of the shares.

[Taipan 0]

I am uncomfortable with the declaration of support for McColl before anyone has sat down with him and understood where he wants to go beyond replacing the Board members.

 

I also think that, for the RST, it is a tactical error to be, essentially, offering up their votes for free.

 

There is a firm commitment from JM & Co to embrace fan ownership / representation and I think this is a significant win for the Trust which has fan ownership as its primary objective. The membership will be consulted and their democratic majority view will dictate how the block vote is utilised however.

[bossy 0]

There is a firm commitment from JM & Co to embrace fan ownership / representation and I think this is a significant win for the Trust which has fan ownership as its primary objective. The membership will be consulted and their democratic majority view will dictate how the block vote is utilised however.

 

Do you have that in writing? Is there a timetable to this 'firm commitment'? Have you sat down with him in the last month to discuss his proposals? Have you asked for any concessions to the support for throwing your weight behind his bid?

[Taipan 0]

There is a firm commitment which has been discussed and the RST board is happy to take that at face value on behalf of the membership but there can be no timetable at this stage, not least because there is an imminent EGM, interim accounts to be published and a fluctuating shareholding.

 

In terms of concessions we have negotiated a significant concession for the membership - a commitment to fan ownership / representation. That's a step in the right direction for the membership albeit I do recognise that the fan ownership model is not everyone's favoured one.