Rangers fans begin shares campaign

Nov 8 2012

A scheme to raise money for The Rangers Football Club has been launched by supporters.

The Buy Rangers campaign was announced at Ibrox Stadium by the Rangers Supporters Trust with the backing of Supporters Direct Scotland, an organisation funded by the Scottish Government.

The aim of the initiative is for the trust to buy a shareholding of the club. By operating as one entity for fans who are shareholders rather than individuals, the trust intends to win more influence in the way the club is run.

The Glasgow club has been marred by financial difficulties and was in administration between February and June. The Rangers oldco was officially placed in liquidation by the courts earlier this week, with the Rangers newco now playing in the Scottish Third Division.

An outline of the Buy Rangers campaign was presented by Andy Sheppard, a board member of Rangers Supporters Trust. Supporters were taken for granted in the past and had "no voice and no input", he said, and that the new scheme intends to reunite the club with its supporters.

"The idea has always been to have a democratic membership scheme where the support have one member, one vote to stop somebody like Craig White or David Murray before him, who could be accused of using the club for his own means, certainly not taking into account the feelings and the concerns of the supporters," Mr Sheppard said.

"It would be an absolute travesty if we did not learn from last year. The opportunity was there for somebody like Craig to come in and do what he did. We want to make sure that that opportunity is never there again. We don't want to make money from this, this is an emotional investment."

Ultimately the trust, which is a community benefit society authorised by the Financial Services Authority, aims to secure a majority share in the club. Shares are available for a fixed price of £125 with a maximum £20,000 investment per person. Regardless of how many shares an individual holds, each member only receives one vote.

Paul Goodwin, head of Supporters Direct Scotland, explained that this is to ensure the operation of the trust is democratic while placing a degree of control into the hands of the fans.

""It's about getting the fans to a position where they have the confidence and the understanding and the capacity to basically run a business but run it sustainably. A lot of the benefactor models in the past show a rich man or a group of rich people who ran it for their own desires and own whims, certainly not for the fans, so this is a big change."