Tennent’s confirms it made an official complaint against Rangers chief Charles Green over his racist comments
Rangers’ sponsors Tennent’s confirmed it made an official complaint against Charles Green over his recent racist remarks, as the Rangers board pulled Green in for an emergency meeting yesterday.
The comments led to Tennent’s, owned by the Dublin based C&C Group, contacting the Ibrox marketing department to make an official complaint, as well as the SFA noting that it would be investigating the matter.
Paul Condron, the marketing director of Tennent Caledonian Breweries, said in a statement: “As you would expect Tennent’s completely disassociates itself from any racist comments.
“We have reiterated this in our conversations with the club.”
As such, the club’s board held an emergency meeting yesterday over Green’s use of racist language as well as recent claims he acted as a frontman to former owner Craig Whyte when he took over at the club. The meeting resulted in the board announcing it would be conducting an independent enquiry into the allegations.
Rangers said in a statement: “The board is to commission an independent examination and report in view of recent allegations in the media concerning the chief executive, Charles Green, the commercial director, Imran Ahmad, and their management of the club.
“The independent report will be commissioned and completed as speedily as possible and presented directly to the non-executive directors of the company. The chief executive will not be involved in the conduct of the examination.
“Also at today’s meeting, the chief executive of the club apologised unreservedly to board members and the wider Rangers support for any offence caused by remarks he made in an interview last week regarding Imran Ahmad.
“Mr Green told the board that in trying to make a point in the interview that, as Chief Executive, he would not countenance any form of prejudice towards employees or players at the Club, he had exercised poor judgement in the words he chose. He apologised.
“The board accepted the explanation that there had been no intention to cause offence and accepted the chief executive’s apology.
“The board is satisfied that the chief executive did not act in a racist manner but reminded him of the importance of all office bearers at Rangers upholding the standards expected by the club.”
Tennent's sponsorship of Rangers ends after this season, however, The Drum contacted Ranger's new sponsor for next season, Blackthorn Cider, also owned by C&C, for a comment and is awaiting a response.