James Easdale resigns from his post as a Rangers director

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/25/james-easdale-resigns-rangers-board

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The Rangers director James Easdale has resigned in the buildup to a meeting next week that could have led to him being voted off the board.

The club announced to the Stock Exchange that Easdale had left both the plc and football club boards.

A statement read: “Rangers announces that James Easdale has resigned from the boards of the company and Rangers Football Club Limited with immediate effect.

“He leaves Rangers having never received any remuneration, bonus or compromise payment during his time at the club.

“He would like to thank all the fans and shareholders who supported him and wishes the club a speedy return to the top flight of Scottish football and beyond.”

The announcement came hours after the Rangers Supporters Trust revealed that it had bought a chunk of shares previously controlled by Sandy Easdale, the brother of James.

The fan-ownership campaign group announced on Tuesday that it had purchased an 450,000 shares from Beaufort Nominees, which had previously granted a proxy vote for its shares to Sandy Easdale, who is chairman of the club board but is not on the PLC board.

That took the RST’s block of proxies and owned shares to 3.8% and increased the pressure on the Rangers board before a general meeting on 6 March. Another fan group, Rangers First, has a 2.5% block and both are voting against the board.

The major shareholder Dave King is seeking to remove the board, which now consists of Barry Leach, Derek Llambias and David Somers, and install himself, Paul Murray and John Gilligan.

Sandy Easdale has 6.45% of shares but also controlled a proxy block of more than 19%, which includes the stakes of Blue Pitch and Margarita holdings. Newcastle United’s owner, Mike Ashley, whose close associates Llambias and Leach face removal, has an 8.9% stake.

King has a 14.6% stake and the Three Bears, who will also vote against the board, have a combined holding of nearly 20%.