Given all the angst and vitriol triggered by rich Americans taking over major British soccer teams, it would be ironic if the last man standing in the campaign to save Glasgow Rangers turns out tobe a U.S. businessman.
Bill Miller, who runs a tow-truck company in Tennessee, set out plans on Friday to rescue Rangers after a Singapore consortium pulled out of thebidding. Miller plans an 11.2 million pound ($18 million) bid for Rangers that would create what he described as an “incubator” company while the administrators negotiate with the club’s creditors.
Rangers, Scottish champions a record 54 times, went into administration (bankruptcy) in February over unpaid tax bills. The club suffered a 10-point penalty and has recently lost the leaguetitle to Glasgow rivals Celtic. Miller portrayed his proposal of a way of preserving the 140-year-old club rather than it having it liquidated and perhaps restart life at the bottom of the Scottishgame.
The club owes around 9 million pounds ($14.5 million) in unpaid taxes and faces a much larger potential liability in another tax dispute dating back over a decade. Miller said hewould suspend his offer until Monday to allow other bidders to “put up or shut up.” Singapore businessman Bill Ng withdrew from the race Friday. In a statement carried on the StraitsTimes website, Ng said his five-man consortium had become “increasingly frustrated with the process of dealing with the club administrators.”