HOSTILITIES have intensified between Rangers and Mike Ashley with the Ibrox board seeking to remove the controversial Newcastle owner’s right to a say in how the Glasgow club is run.

The directors of Rangers International Football Club plc are putting forward a resolution that demands the removal of the voting rights of any shareholder involved in running another club at the annual general meeting later this month. 

The move comes seven months after Rangers were fined by the Scottish Football Association for breaching so-called dual ownership rules relating Mr Ashley, the Sports Direct owner.

Scottish football’s governing body ordered the club to pay £5500, following a similar £7500 fine for Mr Ashley for the same offence. The fine for Mr Ashley was later cut to £1000.

A Scottish FA disciplinary tribunal deemed Mr Ashley, whose Mash Holdings is the third largest shareholder with 8.92 per cent of the Rangers plc, had influence in the Ibrox boardroom.

If the resolution is approved, it would remove all of Mr Ashley’s voting rights, given to shareholders to decide who should be on the board and on corporate policy, investment and substantial changes to operations.

The move emerged as Mr Ashley took an even tighter grip on Rangers’ retail division. He shares a place on the board with club chairman Dave King, despite attempts to renegotiate the joint venture. 

Mr Ashley, a billionaire, is already the ultimate controlling party of Rangers Retail, which runs the club’s entire retail and merchandise operation. His representatives outnumber Mr King’s by a margin of three to two.

In a move the directors say is to eradicate any future dual ownership issues, they want to adopt a Scottish FA disciplinary rule forbidding any person with influence at the club to be involved in any capacity with another club without their consent. 

The board indicated that anyone breaching the rule would lose their shareholding voting rights. 
The board says that a further breach “could result in the SFA seeking more onerous sanctions against the club” including expulsion from the Scottish Cup. 

The directors believe adding a new clause to the company’s Articles of Association will prevent a further breach occurring. 

The bulk of Rangers’ April fine was imposed for failing to act towards the SFA with the utmost good faith.
The club were also fined £500 as Mr Ashley was deemed to have influenced the management or administration through the appointment of business associates Derek Llambias and Barry Leach to the club’s board.

Ashley has made cash loans to the cash-strapped Scottish Championship club, holds commercial contracts and had Mr Llambias and Mr Leach operating as chief executive and finance director, respectively, on the Ibrox board until they were removed at an extraordinary general meeting called by Dave King.

The proposed new article says: “No member shall be entitled to vote at any general meeting or at any separate meeting of the holders of any class of any shares in the company, either in person or by proxy, in respect of any shares held by him (whether absolutely or as a trustee, either alone or in conjunction with one or more associates or solely through an associate or associates (even where such person has no formal interest)) if he is involved in any capacity whatsoever in the management or administration of a club, or has any power whatsoever to influence the management or administration of a club and the directors of the company shall be entitled at their sole discretion and without issuing reasons therefore to determine whether or not a member does have such involvement in or power to influence a club.

“For the purposes of this Article ‘club’ shall mean any football club in membership of a national association which is in membership with FIFA other than Rangers Football Club.”
The AGM is to take place at The Clyde Auditorium on November 27.