Bin Ahmad colleague ‘intends to buy Rangers’

RANGERS have declined to comment on fresh reports of potential Malaysian investment in the club, along with a new twist in their alleged links with Interpol target Rafat Rizvi.

By STEPHEN HALLIDAY AND MARK WALKER Tuesday, 16th September 2014, 1:35 am

Rangers stayed silent on fresh investment claims, but Ally McCoist confirmed that he subscribed to the clubs share offer. Picture: SNS

Faizoull Bin Ahmad, the businessman who led a three-man Malaysian delegation to Glasgow last week for meetings with Rangers director and major shareholder Sandy Easdale, has spoken for the first time about his visit.

The 54-year-old confirmed Rangers’ insistence that his discussions were purely concerned with a potential youth development partnership with his Malaysian Super League club Felda United.

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But Bin Ahmad has also stated that one of his unnamed colleagues in the delegation is interested in purchasing Rangers. He also countered Rangers’ account of Rizvi’s involvement in last week’s meetings.

Rangers had claimed Rizvi, a UK citizen who is wanted in Indonesia for defrauding a major bank and who was photographed with Easdale last week, was an advisor to Bin Ahmad and had arrived with the Malaysian delegation without their prior knowledge.

But Bin Ahmad said: “I have no idea who Rafat Rizvi is. He somehow wound up together with me and the media picked it up claiming that I know him.

“The men in the photo are Malaysians and my friends. Neither of them is Rizvi. The report claiming I know Rizvi is false.

“I went there because I like the way the club is supported by its community. I didn’t know it was in trouble.

“I went with Felda United FC’s good intentions at heart and was thinking about how we could benefit from the community involvement the Scottish club possesses.

“I want to incorporate that into Felda Utd. So, when my friend invited me over to take a look at Glasgow Rangers, I went thinking that it was a great opportunity for Felda. Nothing else.

“The photograph that was published of the three of us…the man on the right has the intention of buying Glasgow Rangers and the one on the left is my financial adviser. I was happy that a Malaysian wanted to buy a club.”

Rangers refused to comment on Bin Ahmad’s claims when contacted by The Scotsman last night.

The Ibrox club’s financial position remains fragile, despite managing to raise just over £3 million from an open offer of new ordinary shares which closed last Friday.

Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, confirmed yesterday that he took up his subscription to the offer. He was understood to have around one million shares in the club from the original stock market launch in December 2012.

“I did invest,” said McCoist. “Without going into too much detail, I just thought it was the right thing to do.”

Asked if he had ploughed a “substantial” sum into the rights issue, he replied: “It depends how you would look on it as substantial. A few quid, yes.

“Anything that brings funds into the club when they are required has to be a good thing. As a squad, we have tried to distance ourselves from it because we have to focus on things we can alter and that is performances and results.

“We are all aware of the things that go on within the club at higher levels but I must admit that I’m thrilled with the way the boys have shut it all off and concentrated on winning games.

“I have spoken to [chief executive] Graham Wallace on Friday and he was obviously pleased. I spoke to him again on Saturday and I’m very, very comfortable with the fact that if Graham needs to tell me anything, I will be reliably informed.” Rangers face Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the second round of the League Cup at Ibrox tonight with McCoist insisting the potential financial benefits of lengthy runs in the domestic cups this season are a secondary objective from his team’s perspective.

“We’re not conscious of that,” he said. “I don’t say that in a flippant manner because any money that comes in is gratefully received and required.

“But I think we’ve got enough to worry about in terms of winning games and cup ties than how many people are going to come in and boost the coffers – although that is extremely important.

“We’ve got enough on our plate organising for Inverness and how we can possibly beat them, than worrying about financially how the game will affect us.

“Of course it would be brilliant to go on a good cup run. But I’ve said all along and I won’t change, although I sound like a broken record, that getting back to the top flight is 100 per cent our priority.

“We got a good run in the Scottish Cup last year and got to the semi-final. We were really devastated at not making the final.

“It gives everybody a great day out. A cup final is something, prior to administration and liquidation, that if our fans didn’t expect it, they certainly would have had great hopes of us appearing in a cup final at some stage, no matter what season it was.

“It would be great to get back to that. Having hopes and higher expectations from the fans and indeed the players, but also the ability to have a freshness from the league and look forward to a cup tie is very important.

“I do sense it would give the fans a lift.

“Within our support, you sense morale with their football club is quite low at this moment with a lot of them.

“So we know we’ve got an added importance in the job we do it to at least give them something to smile about and be happy about on the park.