Scottish Footie 'In Wilderness' If Rangers Fold

The former owner of Rangers Sir David Murray has ruled himself out of buying back the club, which recently fell into administration - but warned that Scottish football would be "stranded in the wilderness" without the Glasgow team.

On the day of the deadline for potential bidders to register their interest to buy the Scottish club, he said he was not interested in regaining control at Ibrox.

In an exclusive interview, Sir David told Sky's Jeff Randall that he is satisfied there are plenty of other potential bidders for the club, which was placed into administration last month .

He said: "I think there are enough people hopefully there who are going to be in good shape to take the club back to where it was."

A consortium calling itself the Blue Knights is among the parties now interested in taking over the club.

Rangers went into administration on February 14 after HMRC took action over an unpaid PAYE and VAT bill amounting to £9m and a further, much larger tax case is still hanging over the crisis-hit Glasgow side.

Since the club went into administration, players have taken pay cuts of up to 75% in order to save the jobs of non-playing staff.

Sir David warned it will take time for Rangers to stage a comeback from its recent troubles.

If the club were to be shaken free of its debts, he believes any new owner would need to inject an additional £25m into the running of the Ibrox side.

Sir David admitted he needed to take responsibility for some of the mistakes made during his two decade tenure at Rangers, but he's sure his former team will survive this crisis to be "reborn in some form or another".

However, he is worried about a domino effect within the Scottish Premier League if it were to become a "one horse race", dominated by rivals Celtic.

"Any such outcome would mean that the interest of fans and the media in Scottish football would inevitably wane.

"Anyone who says anything else is kidding themselves," he added.

Sir David bought the majority shareholding in the club in 1988, but left last May after selling his stake to Craig Whyte for £1.

Mr Whyte has since been deemed unfit by the Scottish Football Association to run a football club and Sir David now believes the deal was a mistake.

He told Sky News: "I always said I would only sell the club to someone with the best interests of the club [at heart].

"The information I had at the time I think I did so.

"Information that has come out since shows it was a mistake that I made. I accept my responsibility, I got it wrong."

The former owner of the club also denied the accusation that the use of employee benefit trusts to pay players during his time in charge of the club amounted to a tax evasion scheme.

He also strongly rejected any suggestion he had used "dual contracts" to pay players.

While owner of the club, Sir David estimates that he and his family invested a sum just short of £100m in it and its players, amounting to £84,000 for every week of the year.

As Mr Randall told Sky News: "That surely must be the most expensive season ticket in football."

Rangers were docked 10 points for entering administration and now face an uncertain future, plus the prospect of losing their Scottish Premier League title to city rivals Celtic in the next few weeks.

:: Watch Jeff Randall Live tonight from 7pm for the indepth and exclusive interview with the former owner of Rangers.

Sir David Murray responds to criticism of his sale of the club to Craig Whyte and allegations of tax evasion.