A third director "has quit the board" of Scottish Championship side Rangers, less than two weeks ahead of a crucial annual meeting when the cash-squeezed Scottish football club "will seek to raise more funds," according to Blitz & Burgess of the FINANCIAL TIMES.
A terse, 15-word statement from the club said Norman Crighton "had left the board with immediate effect."
He follows out of the door former financial consultant Philip Nash and ex-CEO Graham Wallace, who left in October.
Their departures "strengthened the position of Sports Direct entrepreneur and Rangers shareholder Mike Ashley, who had called for their removal." The club holds its annual meeting on Dec. 22, when it will "seek shareholder approval to raise money through the issue of new shares." It will also go into its AGM with a new nominated adviser after Daniel Stewart lost its license to act as a "nomad." The club has until Friday to find a new nomad. If Rangers cannot find a nomad within a month, it "will be expelled from the junior market." However, the club is expected "to inform the London Stock Exchange that WH Ireland will be replacing Daniel Stewart" (FT, 12/10).
COURT DATE: The BBC reported 10 Rangers fans "have appeared in court charged in connection with an alleged sectarian incident at a football ground in West Lothian." The men -- aged from 16 to 49 and all from the West of Scotland -- "pleaded not guilty." They "were charged with shouting swearing, uttering sectarian remarks, singing offensive and sectarian songs and songs in support of proscribed terrorist groups" (BBC, 12/9).
