DAVE KING’S plan of returning to Rangers as chairman looks certain to fail — with the businessman facing significant boardroom resistance to the move.
The Ibrox club require someone to fill the post on a permanent basis following news on Saturday that John Bennett has stepped down for health reasons.
Former director John Gilligan has been named as interim chairman — but King is now keen to return to a position he held between 2015 and 2020.
The 69-year-old has stated that he would not invest any more money personally, but believes he could secure funds from Saudi Arabia or the United States to improve the club and team.
Shareholder Dave King has offered to return to the Ibrox board as chairman
John Bennett has stood down as Rangers chairman for health reasons
Mail Sport understands, however, that his chances of returning to his previous role are extremely slim due to concerns regarding his stewardship of the club first time around.
While King did appoint Steven Gerrard as manager in 2018, with the former Liverpool captain delivering the title in 2021, the club consistently posted eight-figure losses under his watch.
Rangers have also had to foot the bill for two expensive legal actions taken by Sports Direct and Elite Sports Group which were signed off on King’s watch.
The South Africa-based businessman, who is the largest shareholder in RIFC plc with a 14-per-cent stake, recently broke cover and pointed the finger at Douglas Park — the man who succeeded him as chairman — for failing to back Gerrard after that title win.
It was the latest barb in a long-running feud with the men he joined forces with in 2015 to wrestle control of the club back from Mike Ashley.
King appointed Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard as manager during his reign as chairman
Three years ago, King unsuccessfully tried to oust Graeme Park — Douglas’s son — from the board at the AGM.
In 2022, he made it clear that he wouldn’t support the motion for Park senior to be voted back in as chairman.
While Douglas Park stood down in April of last year, Graeme Park remains a non-executive director on the six-person PLC board.
King, though, is determined to return as chairman for a two-year period — claiming the ‘crisis’ Rangers now finds itself in can only be addressed by someone with intimate knowledge of the situation.
‘I just hope John is well because I know how tough it is being chairman at Rangers at any time,’ he said of Bennett’s announcement. ‘But having seen John stepping down, under normal circumstances, I would expect someone from the board to step up.
‘And when I heard that the board have decided to go outside and get a headhunter and try and get a chairman, a CEO — the job at Rangers is very, very different from chairing a public company.
‘Right now, the club is in crisis. The extent of it, I don’t know. Only those inside do know. But certainly, the operational issues within Rangers are a challenge. A lot of the policy, procedures and processes in place at the time that I stepped down have been hollowed out during Douglas’ reign.
‘And I thought if no one is going to step up and we’re going to have to go to some external city-type appointment — I’m absolutely certain will not take the club forwards — but as the leading shareholder, perhaps I can step up for a period of time.
‘I’m available to do that. I think something has to happen fairly quickly. The club lacks leadership in all aspects of the club.’
Dave King has criticised the Ibrox board over their delayed rebuild work on the Copland Stand
With chief executive James Bisgrove abruptly departing for a job in Saudi back in May, Bennett had to deal with the fall-out of Ibrox being unavailable at the start of this season due to a delay in building materials for the Copland Road stand arriving from Asia.
After leasing Hampden, the team are due to play at their home for the first time this season on Saturday in their Premier Sports Cup tie against Dundee.
King feels that situation is reflective of the club’s dysfunctional state.
‘Clearly, we don’t all know what is going wrong, but a lot is going wrong. It is recruitment, on the field issues, off the field issues,’ he added.
‘Something as simple as a stadium. You don’t have to be smart to know that, if you’ve got a project like that, it must start 10 minutes after the team finishes the last game in May if you’re going to be open at Ibrox for absolutely vital European, Champions League, qualifiers, where Ibrox is a huge advantage for Rangers. We’ve seen it against bigger and better teams.
‘And to have started that project with some of the steel still in China just indicates a lack of basic project management, basic management skills.
‘I’m afraid that’s what’s happening throughout the club at the moment.
‘I think it needs someone to step in quite quickly. So just throwing my name in, it’s now up to the board, I guess, to decide what they want to do with it.’