Brian Kennedy weighs up new Rangers bid ahead of administrators' deadline day But Club 9 Sports, who were expected to make an offer, revealed they had looked into buying Rangers as part of a consortium but had decided not to proceed. A statement read: "Club 9 Sports will not be bidding for control of Rangers Football Club, plc." Duff and Phelps expect to reveal the preferred bidder next week with that party then granted exclusivity in negotiating a sale. Whitehouse added: "We expect to get bids in by tomorrow 5pm. We will compile those and get back for clarifications should we wish to do so during the course of Thursday with a view to concluding a strategy during the course of the following week. Immediately after Easter we would hope to be in a position to make some proper announcements in terms of exit strategies etc. Also during the course of this week we will publish our proposals - a statutory document which provides the framework for the administration procedure. That is not a document which enables creditors to vote in relation to the deal, it is to agree the structure of the deal. "What that will lead to almost certainly is a creditors" committee which will act as the custodians of the general interests of creditors. Rather than 30,000 creditors each trying to have their say, a committee is formed to supervise the matter. Craig Whyte, who still holds the majority of shares, will not be on the creditors" committee. The administrators believe that Whyte will not prove a barrier to the process and that they would have the final say over a preferred bidder, but uncertainty remains over his entitlements. Indeed, STV reported that Whyte - who has been taking "extra precautions" after being warned by police over fears for his safety - recently filed legal documents protecting his hold over the club. The debenture document registered with Companies House gives Whyte's company Liberty Corporate Ltd a new fixed and floating charge over Rangers FC Group - the parent company that owns the football club. The document signed by Whyte covers Rangers FC Group's main asset - its 85 per cent shareholdings in playing club, Rangers FC plc. Whyte's status as fixed and floating charge holder would put him at the head of the queue to benefit from the proceeds of any sale of these shares. Unsecured creditors and any other shareholders would only receive payment after Whyte's company. Whyte's position is not guaranteed if Rangers FC Group went into liquidation in the next two years, though. Whitehouse insisted that while the Rangers owner might not be "an irrelevance" - as the other joint administrator, Paul Clark, recently described him - and could be shut out of the process by legal means, the preferable course of action would be to include him on a co-operative basis. "What we want to ensure is that a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) can be delivered - the easiest way of that happening is for CW to co-operate with the process of transferring shares," said Whitehouse. The point Paul Clark made is that if he didn't provide that co-operation there are other ways we can go about it. Now, I have to say over last two weeks we have had a difficult relationship with CW, because there is a lot of litigation going on, but he has always maintained that he does not wish to stand in the way of a restructuring of the business. He has not at any point said to us that he is not prepared to stand in the way of a transaction. Where it does get difficult is when certain potential purchasers are openly hostile to him in the media and then want his co-operation to transfer his shares. That makes for a tricky negotiation. As far as I know in relation to the bids expected tomorrow, we are not being told by any of the potential purchasers that he is a barrier to that process. Whitehouse stressed again that the administrators" intention is to emerge with a CVA which would preserve Rangers in the form which has existed for 140 years but added: "It also has to be acceptable for the creditors - so therefore it is in the gift of the bidders to deliver a CVA. If they bid at levels which are below other bids and below a value which is commercially acceptable then you have to accept that there are a number of creditors who will vote on economic grounds. The bottom line is a key factor but not necessarily the only factor.