‘It became necessary to destroy the town to save it’ – Craig Mather’s Departure From Rangers

Rangers International Football Club PLC is, as the name tells us, a public limited company. Its shares are traded on the Stock Exchange. There are certain standards of corporate governance which require to be met in the interests of shareholders and potential shareholders. These include having a suitably qualified Board of Directors, comprising executives and non-executives and including a chairman to represent the interests of the investors and to oversee the executives.

RIFC presently has a board which consists of:-

Brian Stockbridge – Finance Director

James Easdale – Non-Executive Director

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“Black Monday” For Rangers’ CEO Craig Mather

Fans of Billy Joel might be familiar with his song “Summer, Highland Falls”. It includes the lines:-

“For we are always what our situations hand us

It’s either sadness or euphoria”.

For some reason those words came to mind last night when I was thinking about Craig Mather, the Rangers International Football Club PLC CEO.

Why Might Mr Mather Have Been Euphoric?

A week ago he was in South Africa along with Brian Stockbridge to see Dave King.

One Rangers Director Resigns … And Then There Were Four

This morning’s news from Ibrox, announced to the Stock Exchange, is that Ian Hart has resigned as a Director of Rangers International Football Club PLC.

The press release reads:-

The Company today announces that Ian Hart, Non-Executive Director, has resigned from the board in order to pursue the charitable work in which he is involved more actively.

Craig Mather, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “it is with sadness that we see Ian depart from the board and we would like to thank him for his valuable contribution over the past year. Ian remains a huge fan of the Club and we wish him the best of success in future.”

I won’t bother about the semantics of why the announcement refers to “the Company” and not “the Club”. After all this statement is actually legally correct.

It does however leave the Board rather light on personnel.

Imran Ahmad v Rangers – It’s Terrible When Friends Fall Out!

Mr Ahmad was one of the key members of Mr Green’s consortium which bought Rangers* last year.

(By Rangers* I mean the assets and business which make up Rangers Football Club and which were bought by the company which is now 100% owned by the PLC – clear enough?)

In fact, if one accepts the version of events put forward by some of the Rangers-supporting bloggers, Mr Ahmad in fact pulls the strings of Mr Green and is the eminence grise behind the recent boardroom strife at Ibrox.

Mr Ahmad is now, according to many press reports and to some detailed posts on the blog of my good friend (though we have never met) Bill McMurdo, proceeding with a claim against Rangers for £3.4 million of damages for his departure in April.

Have Rangers* Spent Over £32 Million Since June 2012?

There was a meeting of “influential” Rangers fans on Thursday with the senior officials of Rangers*.

(*More precisely of the company which owns the company which owns the assets and business which make up Rangers Football Club).

I want to mention two points arising from it – the first being one which has been subject of much heated debate ever since the Green takeover, and the second, which will be in the follow up post, a strong candidate for “Joke of the Year” if it had been delivered at the Edinburgh Festival. (Right up there with Tim Vine’s one-liner from a couple of years ago – “Crime in multi-storey car parks? That is wrong on so many levels!”)

Ever since the share issue in December there has been speculation about the amount of money remaining in the coffers of Rangers International Football Club PLC. Talk of imminent insolvency has continued despite the PLC’s efforts to disparage them. Until the PLC accounts appear there will not be a definitive answer and even then that will only reveal an historic snapshot.

Why is this important?