Rangers vice-chairman John Bennett has played down speculation that the club could be sold as he laid bare the vision to "never again" let the club have one single owner.
American investor Kyle Fox has made a written pledge to pump £75million of cash into the vaults over a five-year period if she is successful in acquiring a 25 per cent stake in the Scottish Premiership club, but talks have not got off the ground between the businesswoman and the Rangers higher-ups. Miss Fox had originally hoped to buy a 75 per cent holding at 25p per share, Fox decided to up her offer to 40p for a 25 per cent stake, which would make the 49-year-old the club’s major shareholder.
Bennet has now spoken on the offer for the first time, but alluded to avoiding a repeat of Craig Whyte's 2011 takeover when he took on Sir David Murray's majority shareholding in Rangers for £1 while agreeing to take on millions in debt. Under Whyte's stewardship, the Rangers business went into administration and then liquidation in 2012.
When asked about speculation over a potential takeover during an in-house interview, Bennett offered a lengthy response. He said: "It's not unusual for this football club, and perhaps other football clubs, to be approached by potential investors.
"Some of those come to fruition, some of those have come to fruition. Stuart Gibson came to us and that worked, John Halstead came to us and that worked for both parties. They were both perfectly supportive investors in the club and with that in the board room, and outside the board room. I've talked in the past about George Letham, George Taylor was outside the board room and is now in the board room. But others, we have terrifically supportive investors.
"Don't take my word for it, just look at the facts. They went to the well time and time again to invest major investment on the pitch and off the pitch. There has been speculation about the American group in particular recently. They are one of a number of groups or individuals who have come and spoke to us, and I believe that will continue to happen.
"The bit that surprised me, when I was in Amsterdam the noise seemed to go up about potential sellers from within the board room. I think I know Douglas Park as well as anyone can know Douglas Park. I consider him a friend as well as the chairman of this football club. Douglas isn't a seller, I'm not a seller. In fact, I have recently increased my position above five per cent. And when this said American group did approach us, I actually took that as an opportunity to sound out our big investors and ask 'where are you, what do you think of this?'
"They rightly said there is no harm in listening, and we do listen to a lot of proposals and that will happen again, I'm quite sure. There is no harm in listening, especially from a fiduciary point of view. We gave quite a lot of time to that situation. But what was very interesting was from John Halstead, to Julian Wolhardt, to people outside the boardroom and in the boardroom there was no interest in selling.
"Now, I'm also struck by the phrase never again in this context. The phrase never again was used at the time of regime change in 2015, and never again can mean perhaps different things to different people. What I'm trying to get across is this is a board that really believes in never again, in terms of one individual or one party calling the shots and owning the club. This is my view, and I know it's a view shared by our current board.
"The ownership of Rangers Football Club should rest on a number of shoulders. You know what can happen when one entity walks away. People can get board, people's lifestyles can change, people's life can change. If it's resting on one set of shoulders things can change. When you have a number of sets of shoulders carrying the load you are not beholden to one individual walking away, or something could befall that individual. That is what never again means to me and my colleagues."
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