The Three Bears consortium looking to help save Rangers have told the club to sack finance director Barry Leach. Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor have responded to what they claim were "disreputable" and "dishonest" comments made by the former Sports Direct executive to the club's now-defunct Fan Board. The three investors collectively own 19.5 per cent of the club's available shares, and made a £10m loan offer last month that was rebuffed when chairman David Somers and his fellow directors chose to take up another loan put forward by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley. Minutes released by the club's own in-house supporter representatives following a meeting with managing director Derek Llambias and Leach are disparaging about the Three Bears offer, which has forced the group into defensive action.
The Three Bears group released the following statement: "We read with astonishment the recently published minutes of the meeting between Derek Llambias, Barry Leach and the Rangers Fan Board. The insulting and uncomplimentary language used by Barry Leach towards our group, consisting of three major shareholders, defies belief on so many levels. Barry Leach is in no position whatsoever to make any comment on our behaviour since he has not at any time had any contact with Douglas Park or George Taylor and has only had brief contact with George Letham on one occasion. During the negotiations to provide a funding package, we hoped the board would view our proposal on its merits when compared to the alternatives and indeed improved our offer on three separate occasions to try to convince them to accept our proposal. We were extremely disappointed when our offer was rejected as we believe it would have been much better for the company than the Sports Direct loans in particular, relating to the loss of commercial revenues to the club which were an integral part of the SD package. The minutes of the fan board meeting show the comments of both Llambias and Leach to be littered with untruths and or inaccuracies in relation to the funding offers as well as several other matters. Although we have yet to speak to one person who believes the nonsense offered by Leach we find his comments to the Rangers Fans Board fall well below the standard we would expect from a senior employee. Barry Leach has engaged in grossly unprofessional conduct by falsely and maliciously attempting to undermine the reputation of our shareholder group. His comments were clearly aimed at damaging the character and stature of that group. This disreputable behaviour was compounded by an unsuccessful attempt to have his remarks struck from the minutes of the meeting. The fact that he attempted to have these remarks concealed clearly evidences that he knew his comments were dishonest. It is our view that he has brought the club into disrepute as a consequence of his damaging and unprofessional behaviour and as such should become subject to his employers' disciplinary processes and ultimately dismissed for gross misconduct."