Inside Rangers' Saudi takeover bid as former chief Dave King reveals why 49ers Enterprises won the race
DAVE KING has opened up on the reasons why Rangers opted against striking a deal with potential Saudi owners.
The former Rangers chief has lifted the lid on the attempted bid from the Middle East just days after the Ibrox club were officially taken over by a US consortium headed up by health tycoon Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises
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Former Rangers chairman Dave King
Credit: PA
We told you back in February how the consortium were hoping to take control of the Light Blues, but the deal was finally rubberstamped last week.
King sold his shares as part of the takeover and was a key figure in trying to find new investors at Ibrox.
And now he has revealed he was still in discussions with potential buyers when the 49ers deal came in.
He told Sky Sports: "I was in discussions with a Saudi group at a fairly early stage.
"I'd satisfied myself they had the funds but the question was 'would they be the right owners for Rangers Football Club? Would they be acceptable to supporters, in my view, and did they have the knowledge and expertise to take the club forward?'
"Because they had a lot of money, liked the idea of getting involved with football because of some of their peer group were involved in football already, particularly in the Premier League.
"It would be their first venture, so they had the money but what they didn't have was a track record of investing in football clubs.
"So I was still engaging with them at the earlier stages of what the terms of a financial deal might look like and how it might work."
King received a call from Paul Murray and was convinced to speak to Cavenagh and the rest, as they say, is history.
He continued: "I got a phone call from Paul Murray who said 'Dave, I know you're talking to people at the moment but I've got someone who I think you should be talking to'.
Rangers fans react as 49ers takeover completed
"After a chat or two with Paul I was introduced to Andrew Cavenagh and where that worked particularly well was I ended up with the blend of both things that I thought were outstanding.
"If you look at an successful football club there's really three key pillars - one is your supporters and the one thing about Rangers Football Club is you'll always have the support at good times or bad.
"The second one was your commercial football plan. How you're actually going to run the club because bums on seats and selling replica kits is not enough, you need a total football plan.
"And then of course you need a financial plan. You can't do all that without the funding.
"What I liked about the initial chat with Andrew, and then when Paraag and the 49ers became more involved as part of the consortium, I had that blended option where I felt they understood sport, the commercial aspect, all the other things like the gaming side of it.
"So I felt I had this perfect combination where they had the financial muscle that we need and they had the footballing and general sports commercial knowledge.
"So my main focus then was working with the 49ers but keeping the Saudis in the background just in case the 49ers deal for whatever reason didn't come to fruition."
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