MORTON chairman Crawford Rae has spoken for the first time about a proposed fan ownership scheme - as it emerged that 'major potential investors' are waiting in the wings.

Mr Rae has formally backed the new supporter-led Morton Club Together (MCT) initiative, launched by local man Graham McLennan, which is aimed at providing £400,000 of capital investment over the next two years.

In return, Mr Rae has agreed to part with 15 per cent of his family's shareholding and hand it over to the fans' group.

The Ton chair, who took over the reins from his late father Douglas a year ago, also vowed that every penny of any supporter investment will be invested in the playing squad.

Mr Rae says the money will not be used to maintain Cappielow and not a drop will go to his family-owned firm Golden Casket - Morton's parent company.

The Greenock businessman also cleared up confusion over the proposed 15 per cent stake supporters would get through MCT - and insists it can be the catalyst for greater fan ownership.

It had initially been suggested that the Ton faithful would receive a quarter of the club's shares but the Ton chairman says that was never the case.

Speaking exclusively to the Tele, Mr Rae said: "It was a misunderstanding.

"The 25 per cent is clear, it's that the Golden Casket shareholding would be reduced to 75 per cent which meant that others owned 25 per cent - but that we were giving up 15 per cent.

"By giving up 15, that would drop us down to 75.

"That was the misunderstanding.

"There wasn't a change

"But that's only a starting point, if there's buy-in."

Mr Rae has now formally endorsed the MCT idea and is encouraging more fans to get behind it.

Within just a few days of its launch last Friday, supporters pledged in excess of £60k towards the £400k target with interest coming from across Europe and in North America, Asia and Africa.

MCT announced yesterday that 'major potential investors are now emerging'.

Mr Rae said: "As we've said before, if there are people wanting to come in and play a bigger part in the football club we're not going to stop them because if it's for the better of Greenock Morton Football Club, we're going to listen.

"We're only in the position we're in because of the love of the football club and if genuine supporters or investors want to come along and be part of that they we're going to welcome them all with open arms.

"If anyone was prepared to come along and invest then who better than the supporters? "The supporters, at the end of the day, they are the lifeblood of the club and if you don't have support you don't have a team.

"If there is a genuine desire for greater fan ownership and if that target is met, we'll give up the 15 but then it can go on from that.

"Everything that's raised by Morton Club Together will go straight into the footballing budget, it won't go to pay for anything else.

"It won't go to pay for the stadium, it won't go into Golden Casket, it will go to the football team and that's the important point, that's the important thing for supporter buy-in. "This is a great opportunity for the supporters to see a better team on the park."

For more information about MCT visit www.mortonclubtogether.com