Stewart Robertson, the Rangers managing director, spoke to the media for the first time since the William Hill Scottish Cup final at the launch of unified fans group, Club 1872 yesterday.
Chief football writer Matthew Lindsay listened to Robertson as he answered questions about the riot that erupted after the match with Hibs at Hampden and other issues which concern the Glasgow club.
How disappointed were Rangers by the comments of Hibernian chairman Rod Petrie at the weekend?
“From what I saw, it was very clear what happened. Whether he [Petrie] was aware of that or not I don’t know. But I was surprised at the comments that were made on Saturday evening. It seemed very clear to us what had happened. In our dressing room we saw how shaken up the boys were by the trauma that had been caused by the events. There was no doubt in our mind what had happened.”
Mark Warburton, the Rangers manager, hasn’t made any public statement since the final. Why not?
“Everybody was shaken up. We took the decision just to get out of the stadium, not because we couldn’t guarantee the players’ safety, but because nobody could guarantee the players’ safety. We got handed the medals. It was a pretty shaken up group of guys who were in that dressing room on Saturday.
I hadn’t seen anything like that
in my life and Mark certainly hadn’t seen anything like it.”
What did you think of the policing of the crowd at Hampden at full-time?
“To be honest, I wasn’t really concentrating on what was going on behind the goal.
I was hoping for a last-minute equaliser. It’s hard for me to say.
I don’t know the weight of numbers who came over, but it just shouldn’t happen.”
Will the Rangers players be interviewed by the police as part of their investigations?
“I’m sure they will.
If they’re going to bring criminal charges they need to get the evidence for that. I’m not a lawyer, but I assume they’ll
have to take statements.”
Must Hibernian and Rangers now act diplomatically to defuse the tension between the clubs and avoid further trouble in future?
A “There’s a responsibility on the authorities. There’s a responsibility on football clubs. There’s a responsibility on everybody who goes to a football match to behave in an appropriate way.
“Hopefully, the investigation will identify what went wrong. We need to get the investigation out of the way. We asked the
SFA and Police Scotland for investigations and they have been set up very quickly. We need to wait and see what comes out of that, what has gone wrong and then we can progress discussions.”
Many Rangers fans feel they have been unfairly treated in the last five years. Do you agree?
“I can see why Rangers fans feel they have been given a hard time over the last four or five years. Part of the rationale behind Club 1872 is to give the Rangers fans a voice and stand up for the Rangers fans. Some Rangers fans have felt vilified over the last four or five years.”
Do you think the unrest has any negative impact on Scottish football going forward?
“It’ll send out a negative message about Scottish football at a time when the SFA and SPFL are trying to attract sponsors and grow the business again. We’ve just got ourselves out of a time where Scottish football was in turmoil. It’s beginning to go the right way, but there’s still a long, long way to go. It can’t help.”
What about Rangers?
“In terms of the club, I don’t think it will have an impact. We have a very clear plan on where we want to take the club and how to grow the club and we’re on the right path. Winning the cup would have been ahead of schedule for us. Getting into Europe would have been ahead of schedule for us. The key objective was to get into the Premiership and we did that.”
Do the football authorities engage with Rangers enough?
“We would like to have more influence. The SPFL elections are in July and I will stand for those. We have got a very strong board at Rangers and have a lot to add to Scottish football. We need to keep working away at having our voice heard.”
Read more: Rangers' Joey Barton - The title pressure is all on Celtic
What are your expectations for next season?
“We are dealing with Rangers here, and we are in the Premiership, so we have to go and compete hard. The objective is to win the league. We have made some good signings so far. Joey Barton is a fantastic signing for us, and Jordan Rossiter, Matt Crooks and Josh Windass as well. We have high hopes for them as well.
“There are more to come in, there are several more players to come in. I am really excited about next year and I know Mark and the guys are. It is a good challenge but we will put our best foot forward and try and win the league.”
How important is the formation of the Club 1872 unified supporters group?
“The unification of the various groups is a massive step forward for them and for the club as a whole. It is the first time the fans have had one voice and credit to the various groups for pulling it together, because it’s not easy when people are set in their ways.
“One of their key principles is to get to 25 per cent plus one in terms of shareholding. You need 75 per cent to get a special resolution passed. So that would give them an element of control and blocking rights. I think the current stake is around 5.6 per cent.”
Will Club 1872 ultimately have a representative on the Rangers board?
“As a group, because they are independent, they have said they don’t want a director on the club board.
That may change, but their very clear intention right now is not to have a representative on the board.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel