STEWART ROBERTSON, the Rangers Managing Director, insists the club should have a key voice amongst Scottish football’s power brokers as he targets positions at the top tables of the SPFL and SFA. Robertson, who was appointed at Ibrox in June, is a former member of the SPL board from his time at Motherwell but missed out on a place amongst the SPFL decision makers earlier this year after failing to win the required backing from Championship clubs.
The league hierarchy currently consists of chief executive Neil Doncaster, chairman Ralph Topping and representatives of six clubs from across the four divisions, including Eric Riley of Celtic and Dundee United’s Stephen Thompson, while the ten-man SFA Professional Game Board is headed up by chairman Rod Petrie of Hibernian.
The lines of communication between Ibrox and Hampden are already open through Robertson and Director of Finance and Administration Andrew Dickson but Rangers remain unrepresented in the corridors of power.
“The club has been on the outside for too long in these last three or four years,” Robertson said. “A club of Rangers stature should be at the top table – we should be in there and have a voice and should have an influence with what’s going on in the Scottish game.
“It’s absolutely key that we do that – myself and Andrew Dickson have been having regular meetings with [SFA chief executive] Stewart Regan, Neil Doncaster and Ralph Topping, and some of the PLC board members have been doing that regularly too.
“It’s about building relationships – it helps that we know them from days gone past, so that’s made it a bit easier to do that. They have got the confidence in us now that the board and the team here are looking to do the best for Rangers, but also for Scottish football.
“Andrew is already on a couple of key committees. The next stage will be to get onto the SPFL board and in due course the SFA board, so these are steps we definitely want to take.”
If Rangers can gain representation at Hampden once again, it would be another step in the right direction for the club after years of turmoil off the park. Accounts for Rangers International Football Club plc that were released last week showed a £7.5million loss and the requirement for a further £2.5million of funding before the end of the season.
That investment is likely to come from chairman Dave King and the Three Bears consortium of Douglas Park, George Letham and George Taylor and funds will be made available to manager Mark Warburton to strengthen his squad during the January transfer window.
The performance of Warburton’s side on the park has shifted the attentions of supporters as Rangers look to clinch a return to the Premiership this season and Robertson is pleased with the progress that is being made on all fronts following the regime change in March.
“The focus has been all about the football over the last five or six months, and that has allowed us to quietly get on in the background and get on to repair a lot of the damage which needed repaired,” Robertson told RangersTV. “I think when you see next year’s accounts, hopefully on the financial side too, there should be a significant difference.
“It goes beyond the finance though, and there has been a massive difference in the overall atmosphere at the club. Visitors to the club – opposition directors, guests in the Blue Room and fans you speak to outside the ground – are all saying that they can feel a difference, and that’s great and it’s what we want to continue with.”
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