For those hoping for a Dave King takeover at Rangers, the ex-chairman pretty much faces the same obstacles as any attempt by American business John Halsted would.
King has called for an EGM to let ‘democracy’ decide who should be chairman/owner/CEO etc, and accused the current board of sleepwalking and letting Celtic run riot.
There’s an element of truth in that for sure, the board, especially the remnants of the Park era not to mention Julian Wolhardt and Alastair Johnston have effectively done absolutely nothing in their privileged positions, and half of them aren’t even based anywhere near the club.
And King wants an EGM, and we presume, a vote, to oust the current lot and install King and mates again.
There’s a niggling little problem with this – last time King and the Three Bears won their EGM vote in 2015, there were swathes of support among the shareholders.
He doesn’t have anything like that this time.
He has 14.12% himself, while Douglas Park retains 11.74, and those are the two biggest shareholders. He will not have Park’s support.
Would he have Taylor, Borita, Perron, Stuart Gibson?
Honestly, we don’t know – but we do know the chances of King getting close to half of the voting share is very low. So while he can potentially call an EGM as a major shareholder, his chances of actually winning a vote are far from conclusive.
Remember also, King refused to buy out other shareholders himself in 2017, something that would have given him controlling power in the club, and indeed he even appealed that decision by a court to make an £11M offer to his peers.
We still do think this is a bit of a financial play, King still wants his cash back and we could suggest he’s trying this method to secure it, which is ironic as he accuses the other board members and shareholders of being in it for the money.
But either way his chances of success are low. In the same way John Halsted would find hoovering up everyone’s shares close to impossible, King isn’t going to get all their votes either.
It will remain a stalemate we suspect.