RANGERS pledged yesterday to pay their employees the living wage, becoming the third Scottish club to implement it.

Glasgow rivals Celtic have been pressed by fans to introduce the living wage at the Premiership club but Rangers have beaten them to it, leaving the Hoops red-faced.

The Glasgow team have followed in the footsteps of Hearts and Raith Rovers, who pay their staff £8.25, after last week’s AGM saw supporters call for the scheme to introduced.

Chairman Dave King told RangersTV: “The one issue that was raised at the meeting yesterday and that I was not aware of when I came in during the course of this week was the whole living wage issue.

“I sent Stewart Robertson an email about one o’clock on Thursday morning and said I heard about the living wage issue, is this something that affects Rangers?

“He gave me a report and I took it to the board yesterday and the board has now approved that Rangers will in fact provide the living wage.

“It is a great thing and I think all the board members expect that it is the right way forward, we all agreed it is absolutely right and it should be what Rangers are doing and it is what we will do.

“I wasn’t aware there was a living wage issue, it came up in a discussion and I asked what it was and it’s something I expect in South Africa because we have that concept but I didn’t think it existed in Scotland.”

King went on to say that the club are financially one of the strongest clubs in the world and that they will pay back Mike Ashley the £5 million they owe him.

“If you look at the financial strength of the club, once the Sports Direct loan is paid off, other than shareholder loans which I’m saying should be treated as an equity substitute, Rangers Football Club has no debt,” he said.

“You’ll go far to find a single football club in the world that’s got a balance sheet as strong as Rangers’. We’ve got no debt at all, a strong supporter base and own all our assets.

“We’re one of the strongest clubs financially in the world. Once Sports Direct is paid off we’ve no external debt whatsoever. Barcelona can’t say that, neither can Man United or Arsenal.”

By repaying Ashley’s money, it means King and his backers have now ploughed in around £12m since forcing out the previous Ashley-backed regime in charge of the club last March.