Dave King has offered to personally plug the £3m shortfall in Rangers accounts if the club rips up the deal to play an Old Firm Friendly Down Under.
Record Sport understands the former Ibrox chairman made his pledge to the board over the weekend as fan protests against the controversial Sydney Super Cup proposal spilled onto the pitch at Dens Park, repeatedly interrupting a vital top flight clash with Dundee.
Sources at the club insist King has offered to cover any losses incurred should Rangers withdraw from the four team tournament - including the costs of a potential massive legal bill for breaching a contract signed with the tournament’s Australian organisers.
It’s unclear at this point if King has asked for a seat on the board in return for his cash offer - having already had one request for a boardroom return booted out earlier this year.
King’s relationships with the current hierarchy - and chairman Douglas Park - are believed to have broken down since the South Africa based businessman stepped down from the top table two years ago, having been behind the coup to take control of the club in 2015.
And, as we recently revealed, King was not given a seat in the directors’ box when he returned to Glasgow for a 2-2 draw with Motherwell in February - a match which he watched from a hospitality suit in the opposite stand instead.
But with tensions escalating between the boardroom and supporters, the one time chairman has waded into the row to provide his estranged former colleagues with a potential financial solution.
Yesterday, fans group Club 1872 - who still have close links with King - released a stinging statement, blasting Managing Director Stewart Robertson, communications chief David Graham and commercial boss James Bisgrove, while branding the executives incompetents, liars and bullies.
The club responded by releasing a statement of its own in which it threatened to hit back at a ‘rump’ of rebel supporters at the end of the season saying: “The collective desire of our Board, Management and players, is to have unity of purpose over the coming months. Rest assured, we will address the disruptors and their propaganda war at the end of this season.”
