Three Bears Criticise Ibrox Board

pic: Jeff Holmes

The Three Bears claim they made a better offer before Rangers accepted Mike Ashley's £10million loan. Wealthy supporters Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor say they offered the Ibrox club a £6.5million loan, but then saw Ashley's offer of two £5million tranches accepted instead on Tuesday morning. Rangers chairman David Somers told Sky Sports News the Sports Direct chief's loan was a "great deal" for Rangers - but the Three Bears disagree. In return for his loan the cash-strapped Gers have given Ashley another 26 per cent of Rangers Retail Ltd - putting him in control of three quarters of their retail business. From the summer of 2017, cash generated from shirt sponsorship deals will go to RRL - rather than the club - until the loan is repaid. Ashley - who already placed chief executive Derek Llambias and finance director Barry Leach onto the board - will also be allowed to nominate two more directors. The Newcastle United owner, who owns 8.92 per cent of the Light Blues, has also managed to grab a floating charge on the club as well as taking Murray Park, Edmiston House, Albion Car Park and the club's registered trademarks - including the Rangers crest - as collateral. But he has no claim to Ibrox after fan protests forced him to drop his demand for security on the club's historic home. The Bears, on the other hand, offered up £6.5million - secured against the training ground, Edmiston House and the car park - and were prepared to let £4.5million of it be converted into shares at a later date. The rest of the loan would be charged at an interest rate of two per cent while they also asked for two board seats. But Press Association Sport understands Llambias walked away from a deal with the Bears after they knocked back his plea to protect director James Easdale from being axed at the forthcoming general meeting, called by former oldco director Dave King. In a statement handed to Press Association Sport, a spokesman for the consortium said: "At one stage during the negotiations we indicated that we could increase our funding package to £10m to match the SD facility and indeed provided proof of funds in excess of this amount. However after the EGM was called we felt that agreeing an excessive long-term loan package with a Board who may be removed in six weeks was not appropriate. "We were subsequently advised by Derek Llambias that our funding offer would be difficult for the Board to accept if we did not provide irrevocable undertakings to vote against EGM resolutions to remove certain existing board members. We felt this was completely inappropriate and advised that our current funding offer was not affected by the EGM process."