Somers Heckled At Rangers AGM

Photo by Jeff Holmes Rangers chairman David Somers could barely be heard amid boos and heckles as he told shareholders at the club's annual general meeting of an "anti-Rangers feeling" pervading through Scottish football. Somers and his fellow board members were roundly booed as they took to the stage on the Ibrox pitch little over 12 hours after announcing Ally McCoist had been removed from his position as manager and placed on garden leave. Somers, Derek Llambias and brothers James and Sandy Easdale were greeted with chants of "out, out, out", "sack the board" and "scumbags". Rangers have major self-inflicted financial problems and need to recoup most of their £8.3million annual losses before the end of the season just to keep the club afloat. Somers attempted to deflect the blame elsewhere but his speech was roundly booed. He said: "In these past 12 months, I have been surprised at a number of things. Firstly, the highly negative aspect of most of the media reporting regarding Rangers. "Secondly, because it is clear to me that a stronger Rangers is good for Scottish football, I have been very disappointed to realise that outside of Ibrox, there sadly still exists a great deal of anti-Rangers feeling, perhaps (although I hope not) even in the football establishment." Somers also claimed that a season ticket boycott launched by former oldco director Dave King and backed by fans has put the club in fresh peril. The club had 36,000 season ticket holders last term but home attendances this campaign have dropped as low as 19,000. Somers said: "Rangers' return to the top flight of our game, I am sure you will agree, will be more easily achieved if everyone who cares about the club works together for the betterment of Rangers. "This turbulent year has seen people calling for a season ticket boycott, seen the disruptive creation of a season ticket trust for a while and other negative ideas. "Such negativity is expensive for Rangers as it reduces season ticket and overall ticket sales, increasing the likelihood that I will have to borrow money to cover the shortfalls created. Our path to restoring Rangers to where we all want the club to be can only be achieved with the continued support of all supporters, shareholders and business partners." Somers, who has placed assistant manager Kenny McDowall in charge of first-team affairs, also said there had been a "chasm between the talented young players being developed at Murray Park and our first team". He added: "We need to focus on ways of developing our own young players for the first team rather than continually buying in players."

Amid the jeering there was laughter as Somers admitted "we have got more work to do'' and even louder laughter when he said: "We need to rebuild the board with suitable people.''

New chief executive Llambias, who was appointed on the back of Newcastle owner Mike Ashley's £3million loan to the club, was introduced to booing but he did prompt some applause following his address.

The former Newcastle managing director claimed he had helped the St James' Park club "stand on its own two feet'' and would roll up his sleeves to get Rangers back on its feet.

He added: "Not everything I do will be popular but everything I do will be in the club's long-term interests.''

Somers asked fans to "refrain from any disruptive behaviour'' and added: "If anyone gets too rowdy I will have to ask you to leave.''

He then sparked more jeers when he announced he would take two questions at a time, further enraging supporters by saying: "When you get to be chairman of Rangers you get to do it your way.''

Somers said one of the main weapons in bridging the funding gap was a planned share issue - they need three-quarters of votes to go their way in the related resolution at the AGM.

Former Rangers player John Brown stood up to huge applause to ask what involvement Ticketus had in the ownership of Murray Park and Ibrox and what role former directors Charles Green and Imran Ahmad had in the club.

He also called the Easdale brothers "stooges'' and criticised Somers for failing to have the decency to say a good word about McCoist, "who gave this club everything''.

Somers was adamant there was no involvement from Ticketus, who put in more than £30million to the club during Craig Whyte's brief and disastrous tenure.

And he added: "I was fascinated when I first became chairman because some people seemed to think I was some sort of love child of Imran Ahmad or Charles Green. I have never met either of them and I can say the people beside me have no involvement with them.

"I respect Ally's decision. I will never say a bad word about him. He will always be a Rangers legend.''

Somers defended the board's decision to accept Ashley's £3million interest-free loan over a £16million offer from Dave King and another deal from Brian Kennedy.

Somers said: "I get frustrated with Dave King. I know a lot of you think he is the messiah. The simple reality is that I asked some simple questions because in the past Rangers have done some terrible deals. They were not difficult - the same as I asked to Brian Kennedy and Mike Ashley: show me the money and names of the eight people in your consortium. He didn't do that.

"But the reality is he has cost the club millions of pounds with the season ticket trust and him advising people to boycott season tickets.''

The board revealed they had a meeting with the Scottish Football Association on Tuesday to see what is expected of them in relation to disciplinary charges over Ashley's interests in two clubs.

Somers claimed Llambias was one of nine candidates for the chief executive's role, "many'' of whom were interviewed and who had similar experience with English Premier League and Championship clubs.

The chairman added that he and his colleagues had found a "lot of dodgy contracts'' when they came in just over a year ago, revealing some "watertight'' ones would be honoured, some had been renegotiated and "in a lot of cases we have said: 'We will see you in court'''.

James Easdale said he was "first and foremost a Rangers fan'' despite Morton being his home club, after he was quizzed on his allegiances.

Club chairman Sandy Easdale, who is not on the plc board, started off answering a question on his relationship with Blue Pitch and Margarita holdings by telling fans to "settle doon'' but ended up with some applause.

Sandy Easdale, who holds proxy voting rights for both groups, said: "Blue Pitch and Margarita have always been shareholders. They have nothing to do with Charles Green, Imran Ahmad or any other former directors. They are wealthy foreign entities. They have never been a problem or caused a problem.

"They gave me their proxies to represent them as they are based abroad.''

He insisted he had no problems with Paul Murray, King or Kennedy and said "they may be part of this club's future yet''.

He closed the meeting by saying: "I'm doing my best even though many of you don't think it. I'm doing it for free.

"Please believe me, neither me or my brother, we are not on a gravy train. I've never taken a penny out of it. I do not want to harm this club.''