Tuesday 3 March 2015 23:27, UK
Billionaire Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has been fined £7,500 after he was found in breach of the Scottish Football Association’s dual ownership rules.
In a hearing by the SFA over the past two days, Ashley was charged with two counts of allegedly breaking the body’s rules through his links with Newcastle and Scottish Championship club Rangers.
A tribunal found Ashley had breached Rule 19 of the SFA regulations, which related to undue influence of more than one football club.
Ashley was also charged of breaching Rule 77, which concerns acting in the best interests of the game, but he has not been punished for that.
Rangers will now face their own separate charges on this matter, and those will be heard at Hampden Park in two weeks' time, on March 16.
Ashley, who owns Premier League club Newcastle United, has an 9.82 per cent shareholding in the Ibrox club.
His lawyers held a five-hour meeting with SFA QCs on Monday night but the governing body waited until Tuesday afternoon to announce its verdict.
Magpies chief, Ashley - the world's 306th richest man, worth an estimated £3.3billion - was among the original investors who ploughed around £22m into former chief executive Charles Green's Initial Public Offering back in December 2012.
But it was late last year that he took a keener interest in the fallen Ibrox outfit.
He handed the club a £3m loan in October before nominating right-hand man Derek Llambias to the board as chief executive. Another of his Sports Direct associates Barry Leach was then named finance director before Ashley signed off on another £10m loan last month.
That agreement gave him a floating charge on the club as well as security on a number of assets, including Murray Park and the club's registered trademarks.
Llambias and Leach now remain the club's only boardroom representatives after chairman David Somers and director James Easdale quit before they were axed by Dave King, who has claimed he has won a "landslide victory" to take control at Rangers, ahead of Friday's emergency general meeting.
