Brown, a key member of Rangers’ nine-in-a-row team in the 1990s, 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.”

A Blackpool spokesman last night confirmed Ferguson, who is training with his club in Portugal, was fully behind his former Ibrox youth team coach’s plans.

Brown, who gave up his job as an Ibrox scout to lead takeover attempts after Charles Green’s Sevco bought Rangers’ assets for £5.5m (€7m), is putting in a significant chunk 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 (€51,000) 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.

“One of the reasons why Barry was so keen to give me his 100% commitment is that he came right through the ranks at Ibrox to go on to become captain and he is upset at seeing the same dreams he had and which so many of the youngsters at Ibrox have also had, being destroyed by what has happened to the club.”