Fresh bid for Queen of the South chairman's shares

Rae has 26% of the shares in Queen of the South

Media Pro Sports has made a second attempt to buy into Queen of the South Football Club.

The Preston-based consortium had an offer to purchase Davie Rae's 26% shareholding rejected by the Queens chairman earlier this month.

But the consortium has made an identical offer even though the Dumfries club have now been relegated.

Spokesman Jonathan Hope said: "We've put the same offer on the table as we did when they were in Division One."

Queens' drop to Division Two was confirmed after a 3-1 defeat by relegation rivals Raith Rovers in Kirkcaldy and the consortium had previously warned that their offer would drop should the club be playing in a lower tier.

"As a consortium, we were absolutely gutted, but we've decided among ourselves that we'd put in an official bid again to buy Mr Rae's shares," he told BBC Scotland.

"The offer still stands. It is a second official offer, which Mr Rae's going to take the weekend to think about."

On rejecting the initial offer, Rae had said he wanted to keep the shares within his family.

Hope believes Rae's primary concern was the interests of the club and insists that his consortium offers a lifeline to retain a full-time squad.

"Our aim is to keep them full-time with the money we can plough in and get them bouncing straight back up to the First Division," he said.

"If that's not in the interests of the club then I don't know what is.

"If Mr Rae says yes to the deal then our consortium will sit round the table with the board members and only they can tell us where the investment would be best served.

"They know the club better than we do. We've no desire to change anything. The only thing we are going to do is inject money."

The consortium had previously courted controversy by refusing to reveal its members and suggesting that Gus MacPherson would be replaced as manager.

"David Rae will get to know the names involved and will decide whether it's in the interests of the club," said Hope.

"If David decides again it is not in the interests of the club then fine, we'll back off and that'll be it, but we feel our offer is fair, especially now they are in the Second Division.

"David said no out of family and sentimental values then said he would be interested if a local businessman came forward.

"To my knowledge, no local businessman has come forward.

"If a local businessman comes forward to match our investment, we'll stand back."

Rae confirmed that the consortium had been back in touch but declined to make any further comment at present.