Paul Murray has claimed he knocked back Craig Mather’s offer of a seat on the Rangers board as he refused to “ditch” allies such as Jim McColl.
The former oldco Rangers director won an interim interdict at the Court of Session on Monday, which blocks Ibrox chief executive Mather from staging the club’s annual general meeting on October 24.
Murray, however, does want a seat on the board but now hopes a shareholder vote will secure it.
He claims he has already turned down an offer from Mather that would have seen him join a new-look board alongside Dave King but only if he had dropped his legal action and walked away from a partnership with billionaire businessman and Rangers shareholder McColl.
Clyde Blowers chairman McColl was behind a previous bid to oust Mather from the board.
Asked if he was confident he can now win over shareholders at a rescheduled AGM, Murray said: “That is for the shareholders to decide. I will present my credentials in the days to come. I have always told the shareholders, ‘If you don’t want me on the board, don’t vote for me’.
“I think I can add value to the board. As you probably know, I was offered a seat on the board last week.
“But the condition of that was that I gave up today’s hearing and that I effectively ditched my colleagues like Jim McColl and the shareholders who supported us and I just won’t do that.
“People think I want a seat on the board at all costs but I have got certain principles and I will stand by those principles. All I ever wanted for the club and I have never taken a penny out of it is what is in the best interests of the club.”
Murray, who led the unsuccessful Blue Knights bid to buy Rangers before they went into liquidaton, was forced to act after Mather and his fellow directors refused to add a motion calling for four new directors to be appointed at the AGM, including himself.
Murray hoped to be joined on the board by former chairman Malcolm Murray, and backers Scott Murdoch and Alex Wilson, but their resolution was denied when the board claimed it was not “validly executed”.
However, Lord Tyre yesterday ruled that there was “no valid legal reason” for the Rangers directors not to present Murray’s motion to the rest of the club’s shareholders.
Rangers must now stage an AGM by December 30 and give shareholders at least 21 days’ notice.