Rangers takeover: £40m reveal as US businessman confirms approach

Rangers would require a £40million sum to become a major shareholder at Ibrox, according to American businessman Scott Galloway.

Galloway, who has Scottish family, withdrew a previous approach to purchase shares in Rangers as he was advised he would be seen as an “American idiot” and “the most hated in the UK”.

Speaking to the Daily Record (28 January), the now-part-owner of Colombian club La Equidad has opened up on why becoming a significant shareholder at Ibrox would be “out of [his] weight class”.

“I’d enquired about investing in Rangers in Glasgow. But quite frankly, I’m just not in that weight class,” Galloway conceded.

“Rangers, you would need to come up with an eight-figure sum of money. You need to come up with £8million to £40million to be a really legitimate part of their owner group.

“I got together the wealthiest, most famous Scottish people in the US, about 14 of us, and said ‘let’s go buy Rangers FC’ – because it’s a publicly traded company. I had it all figured out, a £10million convertible note. Then a friend of mine who is a famous Scottish historian said ‘you’d be the most hated person in the UK’. He goes ‘you know nothing about football, you’d be some American idiot over there’ and I was like ‘yeah you’re right’.”

Rangers board remains a very lucrative table

Rangers’ hierarchy is a lucrative table at which to sit – but also takes one heck of an investment, one which Galloway humbly realised was too much of a financial gamble and one which could sour with the Gers support very quickly.

As pointed out in the Daily Record’s report, Rangers’ shareholding is very spread-out with former chairmen Dave King and Douglas Park owning 14 per cent and 12 per cent of the club respectively.