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Dave King challenges Rangers board to high stakes EGM vote and makes £50m investment revelation

Dave King stated his interest in returning as Rangers chairman
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Dave King has challenged the Rangers board to an EGM face-off as he looks to return to the club as chairman.

The South African threw his name into the ring to replace John Bennett who recently stepped down due to health reasons. King, who has been there and done it before, promised to lead the club for two years and find investment as he looks to stabilise the Ibrox outfit after "mismanagement" left them with problems off the field.

It has been reported since last week that the boardroom within the club is not totally convinced King is the right man for the job but now, according to the Rangers Review, King has issued a challenge to leave the decision up to the supporters with an emergency meet.

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“We need to find the right CEO and construct an executive team that will take the Club forward,” King said in a statement to the Rangers Review. “Using a recruitment agency will be counter-productive and expensive. This decision again reinforces the disconnection of this board from reality and its inability to get recruitment right.

“I completely understand why some influential board members don’t want me back. They know from past experience that I would not tolerate board members who are only in it for the ‘jacket and tie’ and don’t actually want to do any real work. If the board can, for once, set aside self-interest and put the supporters first, then I offer a challenge.

“Urgently call an Extraordinary General Meeting (as I did to get Ashley out) and put yourselves up for re-election. I will in turn put up my nominations, including myself. None of the existing board members (who presently protect each other) can vote and neither will I. John Bennett and George Letham would also be excluded from voting for obvious reasons. In that way we can leave it to supporters (for once) to decide who they want to run their Club.”

King added: “Yet, those same faceless people want the chance to do it all again. When John Bennett took over he tried to turns things around - but had no human or financial resources to support him.

“It is amazing that the same people who got us into this trouble want to continue control by placing, as a professional Chairman, their own puppet - who will have no knowledge of the Club or financial interest in its future. We are sleepwalking Celtic towards title 55, 56 and 57 instead of trying to stop them. This board will go down as an infamy in the Club’s history.

“I estimate that the Club needs a minimum of £50million to achieve our short to medium term objectives but that could never be raised under the present board structure. The funds we need must come from a far wider and wealthier base and from parties that will be willing to invest more (over time) to take the Club forward and to become a modern age football club.”