OFF PITCH
Ex-Rangers owner Craig Whyte’s match-fixing bombshell and Masonic influence at Ibrox claims
EXCLUSIVE
By Chris Taylor
7th December 2019, 10:29 pm
Updated: 7th December 2019, 11:03 pm
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FORMER Ibrox tycoon Craig Whyte vowed to lift the lid on top-flight match fixing in a pitch for his forthcoming book.
The controversial
Gers footie figure, 48, promised his life story would shed light on the “antics of players, directors and the behaviour of other clubs”.
PA
RESS ASSOCIATION
Whyte made the claims in a pitch for his autobiography
The Scottish Sun on Sunday has seen an early proposal for what would become his soon-to-be-published memoir – given the working title ‘Into The Bear Pit’ – claiming a leading politician promised a peerage in exchange for a party donation.
Mr Whyte made further eye-brow raising claims in the 2017 pitch – including arresting officers being star struck by his links to the famous title contenders – who go for cup glory in today’s cup final against Celtic.
And bizarre claims the hallowed halls of Ibrox are heavily under Masonic influence.
Mr Whyte wrote: “The irony is that while there are many who have the blood of Rangers on their hands following the club’s liquidation in 2012, I am not one of them.
PA
RESS ASSOCIATION
Whyte during time as Rangers owner at Ibrox
“I am the only person not to take a penny out of the club during this sorry saga.
“Yet I’m the bad guy, apparently.”
The former Ibrox supremo’s autobiography has been picked up by publishing house Birlinn.
It is due for release on Valentine’s Day – the eighth anniversary of Rangers slide into administration.
Early proposals for the book claimed it would run to 75,000 words and take shots at money men Duff & Phelps, as well as Rangers staff and teams across the country.
Among the allegations were Rangers is “still very much under Masonic influence”.
Whyte will release his autobiography, ‘Into the Bear Pit’ next year
The former boss says he was greeted with “funny handshakes” by “freeloaders” during hospitality sessions at the exclusive Blue Room at Ibrox.
He added: “Almost everybody seemed to be part of a secret society apart from me.”
Mr Whyte also claimed one star’s “performances dipped after he picked up a sexually transmitted disease”.
The businessman says the ace was “playing away in more ways than one”.
He also insisted he would reveal the identity of a top politician who promised to make him Lord Whyte in exchange for a £250,000 donation to their party.
And stated a high-ranking pal in government offered to help him win tax cases against the club.
Among the most startling revelations from the early outline are that “a rival team owner” had “ offered to throw a match for cash” against Rangers in order to help them win the league.
Mr Whyte says the offer made his “toes curl”.
KEITH CAMPBELL - THE SUN GLASGOW
Whyte claimed Ibrox was heavily under Masonic influence
Birlinn bosses are believed to have cut many salacious allegations from the final draft due to fears over potential legal action.
They say it will instead focus on his early business successes and failures after taking over at the Glasgow side.
Promo blurb for the book hails the ex-club chief as Rangers’ “great Whyte hope” and says he was “hunt out to dry”.
It promises “startling revelations” of the “greed, corruption and scandal” at the heart of the team.
Hugh Andrew, manager director of Birlinn, says considerable changes have been made from the early proposal.
He said: “A pitch document is very different from a finished book and, while the main outlines of the story are well known, the book itself has changed very considerably from this early and discarded draft.”
A WHYTE KICKING Whyte and Rangers administrators blasted ‘head case’ Lafferty and a Gers star with STD in secret recording
Mr Whyte bought Rangers for £1 from former owner David Murray in 2011.
The club were crippled with financial trouble and went bust less than a year later over a £9million unpaid tax bill.
He was accused of fraud in relation to his takeover and the SFA ruled he was not a fit and proper person to run a football club.
Mr Whyte was cleared acquitted by a jury following a seven-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow in 2017.
We told how a
secret recording revealed Whyte and the Rangers administrators slammed the club’s senior players during a crisis meeting.
The summit took place on June 2012 after the Gers had plunged into financial crisis and were on the verge of going bust.
Mr Whyte met with David Whitehouse and David Grier from administrators Duff and Phelps.
Mr Whitehouse previously held one-on-one chats with the club’s high earners about leaving or taking voluntary pay-cuts to stave off liquidation.
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Afterwards he slammed then captain Steven Davis, 34, and former ace Steven Naismith, 33, who is now at Hearts.
Finance man Whitehouse said: “Naismith, I couldn’t stand, I’d let him go tomorrow.
“Davis is the captain, Davis should be behind all the players.”
Mr Whyte added: “You don’t get any loyalty in football players at all.”
During the taped chat Whyte also had a pop at fans favourite Kyle Lafferty, 32, – who later revealed he’d been battling a long standing gambling addiction.
He said: “Oh he’s a head case. He’s got all these gambling debts. Yeah, yeah. Nuter, nutter.”
Mr Whyte declined to comment.