Rangers plan £16m share issue to raise squad funds

Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh says fresh investment will go towards players for the men's first team
In a letter to Rangers supporters, Cavenagh pointed out that the total now invested since his consortium took over the club in the summer of 2025 stands at £36m.

He also announced that the club will not appoint a replacement for Kevin Thelwell, the former sporting director, who was removed from office in November along with Patrick Stewart, the ex-chief executive.

"We do not plan to hire a sporting director.

The executive team is committed to being smaller, nimbler, and more entrepreneurial," Cavenagh said.

"We want an executive team willing to get its fingernails dirty.

If there is a hole to be dug, we want people fighting over shovels.

We want fewer consulting firms and less bureaucracy."
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"Increasing the revenue and capital is only part of the path to allocating more resources to the men's first team," Cavenagh added.

"If we are going to ask supporters to pay more for tickets, we have an obligation to spend those funds wisely.

"The costs to run the club - player wages, agents' fees, security, food and beverage - are all rising faster than the overall rate of inflation.

"We either need the club's revenues to keep pace, or we need to decrease the money spent on the squad.

We don't believe this is the time to decrease the player and football budget; in fact, we think the opposite."
In his letter, Cavenagh re-iterated what was previously said by the club about the chaotic scenes at the most recent Old Firm game at Ibrox , when fans entered the pitch after a penalty shootout.

"The club has already issued a statement regarding the recent Old Firm match, and I don't want to repeat that statement here, but I also didn't want to ignore such an important subject," he said.

"We continue to denounce the disorder, property damage, and especially those who denigrated the 66 souls lost in the Ibrox disaster.

"We fully support the independent review and will work with all relevant stakeholders, while continuing to represent the club and our supporters."
Meanwhile, Rangers are attempting to schedule a meeting of Premiership clubs to discusss the use of video assistant referees (VAR), a discussion which may happen in the next fortnight.

Many clubs have publicly expressed concerns about VAR and the general state of refereeing in Scotland.

It's believed that Rangers have not ruled out withdrawing their financial support of VAR but broadly they believe the system is here to stay.

They might even be prepared to invest more in the technology - for example extra cameras - if they had sufficient confidence that increased investment would lead to better quality decision-making.

When the meeting of clubs takes place there will be an emphasis on coming up with ways to improve the product and get better value for money.

Last month, Paraag Marathe, then the club's vice-chairman as well as chairman of Leeds United, stood down after discussions with Uefa about multi-club ownership.

Another Rangers director at the time Gene Schneur, also left his role at Ibrox at that time.

Neither will be replaced.

Cavenagh also offered his support for manager, Danny Rohl, ahead of the title run-in.

"We are three points off the lead, with seven matches to play," he said.

"We have complete confidence in Danny, his staff, and our squad.

We will approach each match as it comes, and fingers crossed, we will be at the top of the table after 38 matches."
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