GLASGOW Rangers have received a massive boost with the biggest single investment in British football.
Bahamas-based Joe Lewis, who has a GBP1 billion fortune, has sunk GBP40 million in the Scottish club to take a 25 per cent stake at Ibrox.
Britain's eighth-richest man wants to help launch the Glasgow club towards the new millennium and a place in the European Super League that everyone agrees is just around the corner.
Rangers' chairman, David Murray, retains a controlling interest, but has diluted his holding from 82 to 61 per cent, with the GBP40m to go towards strengthening the team, including new signings from abroad like Sebastian Rozental.
The building of a hotel and leisure complex at Ibrox and a training ground is also earmarked for some of the investment.
The 59-year-old Lewis, an enthusiastic gambler who shuns publicity, bases himself in a GBP15m mansion in the Bahamas, but also moves between homes in Florida, Buenos Aires and London.
Apart from what is said to be a fondness for betting on American football, he is not known to be a sports fan.