Albion Rovers hostile takeover bid in the works as consortium brand board 'disingenuous' over name change

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A consortium hoping to assume control of Albion Rovers has branded the club’s board “disingenuous” after claiming there would be no chance of a name change - and insist they are now pursuing a hostile takeover.London-based businessman Paul Reilly, who heads a consortium of UK, Irish and US investors that want to take over the Cliftonhill club and rebrand it as Shamrock Rovers Coatbridge, claims the board were open to the idea when they met last summer.And he says the ‘Project Phoenix’ consortium are now dealing directly with shareholders.Mr Reilly has hit back after the Rovers board issued a statement last week saying they “would not entertain the idea of ‘Shamrock Rovers Coatbridge’ or indeed any other proposal in the future that steers us away from our identity."It went on to suggest the proposals were attempting to capitalise on the club’s relegation from League Two to the Lowland League.But Mr Reilly says the board have destroyed the Albion Rovers brand, shareholder capital and equity value.The club has 54,000 shares, 50 per cent of which are inactive.Anton Fagan is the club’s largest single shareholder with around 6,500 shares, followed by Andrew Beattie who holds just over 2,000.

In a statement issued to Lanarkshire Live Sport , Mr Reilly said: “Whoever on the Albion Rovers board gave the statement ‘Let us be clear: We did not, and will not entertain the idea of ‘Shamrock Rovers Coatbridge’ or indeed any other proposal’ is being disingenuous with the Albion Rovers fans. “We only agreed to attend the Albion Rovers board meeting last summer on the condition that the full board had been briefed on our proposal and that the name change and rebranding to an Irish-affiliated name reflecting the demographics of