By George Overhill

27th Apr, 2023 | 6:10pm

Finance Expert predicts Rangers to reach out-of-court settlement over multi-million dispute

Rangers are likely to be facing an out-of-court settlement in their latest legal dispute with the administrators of Elite Sports Group, according to Kieran Maguire.

The former distributor for previous Gers kit manufacturers Hummel went bust with their compensation demands of £9.5million still up in the air after the club moved onto a deal with current partners Castore, but it emerged last week (20 April) that the challenge will go ahead.

Maguire, a football finance expert at the University of Liverpool, expects to see an agreement reached out of court – as happened with the separate but related Mike Ashley dispute – unless the club are supremely confident in their position.

Maguire said on The Price of Football podcast on Thursday (27 April, 31m 40s): “The chances are this will be settled out of court. Either an amount will be agreed or some form of joint pronouncement will be made, but unless Rangers have got a watertight case this could mean more money being paid out for non-footballing issues at a time when the club is playing catch up still with Celtic.

“And Scotland is a country, as we know, where being second is being nowhere.”

Wearing

As Maguire noted on the podcast, it certainly doesn’t help the club’s attempts to build themselves back up to challenge Celtic for the title when they are regularly setting aside millions to settle these issues.

Obviously the nature of out-of-court settlements means that nobody accepts fault for anything and everyone moves on without comment.

But Rangers won’t have wanted to pay those millions otherwise a legal dispute wouldn’t have arisen, so it is in no way a boost.

If Michael Beale manages to get the players in this summer that he thinks he needs to mount a title challenge it will be against the odds.

Champions League football, a run to the Europa League final, and big-money sales of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo would have had Rangers in a strong position in the transfer market were it not for all the loans that need paying back.

And on top of the £8.25million paid to Ashley that was detailed in the November annual report, a potential settlement here will be more money that doesn’t go into the squad.

Fans will be hoping that the boardroom changes lead to a time where there aren’t endless off-pitch disputes distracting from the team, but it clearly hasn’t arrived yet.

In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton has revealed he likes an under-fire Ibrox man despite his struggles.