Dave King hits back at Rangers ban for Chris Sutton this season
By Beck Pascal.
Former Rangers chairman, Dave King, has condemned the decision to ban Chris Sutton at Ibrox over health and safety concerns.
The controversial pundit has been denied entry into the Ibrox twice whilst trying to cover the game for BT Sport – resulting in BT having to move their entire production to a more welcome but rather empty Celtic Park.
66-year-old King has been outspoken in recent days, expressing his views on the board having voted against one of the members being reappointed at the teams AGM.
The South African businessman has also expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision to change the media plan for the club.
Speaking to the Scottish Daily Mail, he said: “The idea that the club can silence challenging supporters, reporters and regulatory authorities is not only wrong, it is completely unbecoming of Rangers.
“Rangers should be a leader in standing up for individual rights and opinions, even if they don’t agree with them.
“I have not been the beneficiary of kind comment from Chris Sutton, but I would never even remotely consider the possibility of banishing him from our stadium and using health and safety arguments as justification. We should be bigger than that.”
Problem?
King isn’t the only person who has shared their views on the matter. After Rangers’ decision to keep Sutton out in the cold against Sparta Prague resulted in a hard-hitting being issued on-air by the broadcasters.
They were adamant they will not be dictated to as they moved their whole broadcast team to old firm rivals, Celtic Park.
Luckily for Sutton, Rangers face Lyon away in their last Europa League group tie where they look to cement a place in the knockout stages.
Could an agreement can be made between Rangers and BT to allow business as usual as the Europa League and its coverage ramps up in the latter stages of the competition? With Celtic in the Conference League now, it appears unlikely.
In other Rangers news, an official club partner has fired back at Tom English after his latest bitter jibe at the Bears