Birmingham City & Rangers: A Bad Week To Be A Bluenose
Birmingham City & Rangers: A Bad Week To Be A Bluenose
By Mark on Mar 5, 2025 in Finance, Latest | 1 comment
Both sides of what could soon be a proper international border, it is tough being a "Bluenose" just now. The odds against Rangers seeking the financial sanctuary of administration, or the sale and leaseback of major assets, as solutions to their latest book-balancing difficulties get shorter each day. Meanwhile, the semi-mythical "Owners and Directors Test" in England's Football League looks like being failed at last, although Birmingham City President and major shareholder Carson Yeung has had to spend years laundering money in Hong Kong to do so.
These are the bare facts of the Rangers' situation. They have averaged 40,000-plus crowds since entering Scottish Football's fourth tier in August 2025. Last season, their gate income dwarfed the rest of their division combined, as it has this season in the third tier. They received £22m from an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in in March 2025. But that money and all other income…has gone. So Rangers have had to borrow £1.5m from hedge fund managers Laxey Partners and club director Sandy Easdale for "general working capital purposes," or they would be insolvent.
If income is as closely-linked to on-field success as the experts in such areas suggest, Rangers should have guaranteed annual promotion while making profits significant enough to allow them to challenge bitter rivals Celtic as soon as they reach the top-flight. The explanation for their failure to do so is straightforward. The consortium led by "outspoken" Yorkshireman Charles Green acquired Rangers as a short-term personal money-spinner. They created "penny shares" in parent company Rangers International (RIFC) for themselves. "Penny shares" are actually "small shares at a very low price…definitely not valued at a penny." But these were. And although such shares are generally high-risk, these were not.
They then offered "ordinary" shares to the "public" – fans and "institutional" investors – (the IPO) at 70p, a price more in-keeping with Rangers "true value." The consortium were "locked-in" to their shareholdings until March 2025, a year after the IPO. But the offer price was set to turn any initial investment above £14,300 into £1m +. And the continued on-field success guaranteed by Rangers' huge income seemed guaranteed in turn to maintain or increase that price up. So the financial rewards available were worth the wait. Green put in an amount of work ahead of the IPO to gain the trust, and finance, of sceptical fans, playing to Rangers galleries worldwide with, as everyone soon discovered but few seemed prepared to note at the time, no expense spared.
But, like the Scrabble cheat in the Harry Hill joke (who secretly made his own
