Scottish Soccer Champion Rangers Consider Rival Plan to Whyte Takeover - Bloomberg

Rangers Football Club Plc (RFC) will review a rival approach for the record 53-time Scottish soccer champion after directors said businessman Craig Whyte's takeover proposal doesn't include enough funding to rebuild the team.

The alternative plan would include the raising of 25 million pounds ($41 million) in new capital, the Glasgow club said in a statement.

Whyte, 39, has been in talks to buy the Scottish Premier League champion for several months. He agreed to clear a 20 million-pound debt with Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY) and was close to an agreement to buy majority owner David Murray's stake of about 85 percent.

Rangers, once one of the biggest-spending teams in the U.K., have been forced to sell players in an effort to cut losses after Lloyds refused to continue extending credit to the club and Murray said he wanted to sell.

"The board has had an approach from one of its directors who wishes the board to consider an alternative funding option," Rangers Chairman Alastair Johnston said in the statement. "This would involve a fresh issue of new capital to raise 25 million pounds to be invested directly into the club."

Though Whyte has been in talks with the club's bankers and Murray since November, he's only recently met with its board to outline his proposals, Rangers said.

"It is only in the last few days that we have started to receive the draft agreements outlining the transaction, although we are still awaiting a detailed working capital statement demonstrating that there is sufficient funding in place to meet the pressing needs of the club," Johnston said.

'Disappointed'

The Rangers chairman said the board was "disappointed" the documents didn't reflect the level of investment they had been told Whyte would be committed to.

After repaying Lloyds there would only be a "relatively modest" amount of money available meet "an urgent requirement to replenish and upgrade the playing squad."

"The board believes that it has a responsibility to examine this proposal whilst continuing its review of the Craig Whyte transaction," Johnston said.

Rangers and cross-town rival Celtic dominate Scottish soccer. No other team has won the league since Aberdeen in 1985. Rangers leads Celtic by a point but has played a game more. It has six matches remaining.

Murray acquired Rangers for 6 million pounds in 1988 and it was under his ownership that the team won nine titles in a row between 1989 and 1997 to match a record set by Celtic in 1974.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tariq Panja in London at Tpanja@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at celser@bloomberg.net