BARRY FERGUSON today revealed his reasons for backing John Brown's Rangers For Change campaign.

The former Ibrox skipper is the latest club legend to pledge his support to Brown's bid to wrestle control of the club away from chief executive Charles Green and place the club back in the hands of the supporters.

Arthur Numan, Michael Mols, Jorg Albertz, Lorenzo Amoruso, Andy Goram and Brian Laudrup are all backing the consortium being fronted by Brown in an attempt to boost their bid to gain control of the crisis club.

And Ferguson has admitted his hour-long conversation with the man who helped bring him through the youth ranks at Rangers was more than enough to convince him to throw his weight behind the bid.

The Blackpool midfielder said: "I've known John Brown for 20 years since he brought me through the youth ranks at Rangers and he has been a major influence on my career.

"He is a man I trust 100% and I've had a long conversation with him regarding the situation at the club and I have to say some of the things I have been told are very concerning.

"I can't stress enough I have no hesitation in standing behind John Brown in everything he wants to do in the coming days. I know several other former players feel exactly the same as me.

"As far as I am concerned, given the current predicament the club finds itself in, Rangers must be owned by its own supporters. The club has been put through far too much over the past year now to the stage where it is now in the Third Division.

"John Brown is a Rangers man through and through and his only aim is to put the club back in the control of the Rangers fans.

"I told him I was right behind him all the way on this – I think it is the least guys like myself can do."

Brown, who coached Ferguson in the midfielder's early days at Ibrox, has been talking to the Blackpool star in recent days about his plans to buy out Sevco Scotland.

Brown, a key member of Rangers' nine-in-a-row team in the 1990s, confirmed his talks with Ferguson. He said: "I have spoken to Barry and he has promised me that he is 100% behind me. He is out of the country just now on a pre-season training trip, but there is no doubting his commitment and his enthusiasm for my deal.

"Because of his pre-season training and playing commitments it will be a couple of weeks or so before we will be able to sit down together and hammer out the details.

"But I can assure everyone how excited Barry is to be given this opportunity to do something for the club he loves."

Brown, who gave up his job as an Ibrox scout to lead takeover attempts after Green's company bought Rangers' assets for £5.5million, is putting in £40,000 of his own money to kick off the fans' fund.

He said: "It is only right that as I have been out in the front of this, I should put my own money in too. I'm not a wealthy guy and £40,000 represents a huge commitment for me.

"But if it helps Rangers supporters to see how serious this fans' buy out plan that I have is, then it will be money well spent.

"Getting Barry on board at this early stage is a huge boost for our plans and I believe that he is just the first of many other well known names from Rangers' past who will be happy to back this commitment to the club's future.

"I will be speaking to other famous names from Rangers' past in the next day or two and asking for their commitment and I'm confident that now they know Barry Ferguson is on board, they will all want to join the Rangers For Change movement."

Brown's next move will be to set up a bank account which supporters can put their cash into to help the takeover plans.

He added: "I have meetings with bankers and lawyers arranged for the next two days and believe that by the end of the week I will be able to release further details of how Rangers For Change will work."