John Bennett shares £5million Rangers news as Ibrox chief makes ‘outstanding’ claim
Rangers deputy chairman John Bennett has revealed the club has paid back £5million of his outstanding loan over the past year.
The loan was around £13million last year, but Bennett has since revealed the latest figure is around the £8million mark.
The Rangers chief provided a brief update on the finances at Ibrox during the club’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday morning (6 December).
“My outstanding commitment on the seven-year, six years to run is down to £8m,” (quoted by Rangers Review, 6 December).
“This time last year I think we were at £13-and-a-bit million total, so that is now £8m but Kenny referenced the fallow period that the club will run into like any business we have seasonality in cash flow.”
Getting there
It does feel, despite the issues on the pitch, that Rangers are being run in a financially prudent way. A lot of money has come into the club over the past year, through the sales of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo, and there was a feeling among fans that it would be reinvested on the pitch.
However, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the board are prioritising the club’s books, as opposed to on-the-field concerns at the moment. It’s good to see the Gers reduce one of the loans they owe by £5million over the course of the year.
The Herald’s Chris Jack wrote (9 December) that over £100million has been invested into the club over the past seven years, with only £22million being paid back to date. It’s clear there’s a lot of work which still needs to go on behind the scenes to balance the books.
A little more patience still may need to be required when it comes to proceedings on the pitch at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, a harshly-treated member of the first team back in Glasgow had sympathy expressed for him live at the World Cup by a BBC commentator.