Rangers Q&A: Club 1872 on £1million share issue fundraising drive, Ashley share purchase, board representation and fan ownership

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE FUND-RAISING INITIATIVE?

Euan Macfarlane: What we are looking to do is raise £1million as part of the share issue and we have a number of various ways that we feel we can do that so that we maintain our ten per cent and allow us to continue to protect Rangers.

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We have several campaign opportunities that we see the fans buying into. We have current members, they can increase their subscriptions up to £18.72 per month from our current average, which is about £5. That could generate several hundred thousand pounds over the next couple of months.

We have a donation form that can be filled out in a couple of minutes and we are looking for members to contribute what they can and what they can afford. If we have 7,000 members donating £100, that is £700,000 raised automatically.

The other opportunity we are looking at is for RSCs to band together. The way we see it is that if there are 400 RSCs that donate £500 then we are making a significant sum. It sounds like a lot, but 25 RSC members donating £20 is an effective way of helping us.

We are also encouraging our members to mobilise a bit and encourage friends and family to join. If we have 7,000 members that can get another 7,000 on board then that is a considerable amount of money for this share issue and also thinking forward to potential future issues over the next two or three years. We don’t want to come out of this one thinking we have done a great job and put £1million into Rangers and don’t have money in the pot for the next one.

Bruce Taylor: That is quite important because there will be future share issues and this is not just about raising capital on one occasion. It is about, as Rangers improve and the value of Rangers increases, there will be a need to subscribe more and invest more.

We, as Club 1872, need to be a strong position to support each one of those share campaigns. We want to protect our members’ investments and donations and show our members that we can do that. That is an important part of Club 1872.

Laura Fawkes: I think one of the key messages of this campaign is that this is a way to get money directly into Rangers. Last year we spent £1million and it was an amazing achievement, it took us beyond anything that any fans group had achieved at Rangers before. But, significantly, it proved what a group of Rangers supporters can do when they are united.

This time, we have an opportunity to spend £1million again but the difference being is that it goes directly into the club. We are looking to take Club 1872 from being a fans group to major investors so that when the call comes, and they will do through various share issues, we will be there and be ready to invest and step up in the same way as any of the current investors.

DO YOU THINK CLUB 1872 HAVE A PERCEPTION PROBLEM AND PEOPLE SEE YOU AS A FANS GROUP RATHER THAN THE SECOND LARGEST SHAREHOLDERS AT RANGERS?

LF: Traditionally speaking in the Rangers support, fans have operated from the outside looking in, whether that was the Rangers Supporters Trust dealing with David Murray or RangersFirst trying to buy out the previous board.

But what we are talking about now is becoming a serious investor, a serious long-term investor, in Rangers and looking at fan investment and fan representation going hand in hand.

That is why we recently polled members on whether we should have a board place at Rangers. What we are talking about at Club 1872 is becoming part of the decision making process at the club.

BT: I think it needs to be clear that Rangers fans investing through Club 1872 are not like any other investor. They are committed in a way that they can’t actually withdraw, so they can only go forward and commit more money, they can’t take the money they have put in back out again.

We are a different type of investor and that is why we need a strong Club 1872 to protect their interest and represent their interest properly and form a real relationship with the club.

LF: The emotional commitment and investment of the fans is beyond question. What we are saying is that you don’t need to be a millionaire to invest millions of pounds in Rangers, you just need to be one of many Club 1872 members that act together, act collectively, to create substantial additional revenue streams for the club that compliments the investment that is already coming from the board.

WAS THE DECISION TO SPEND £1MILLION ON MIKE ASHLEY’S SHARES A DIFFICULT ONE? THAT WAS MONEY THAT WENT TO HIM RATHER THAN INTO THE CLUB.

LF: That was a consideration but it brought an end to the well documented difficulties that the club had been having with Mike Ashley. We factored that in and that was ultimately what made us take that decision.

BT: I think that has proven to be the right decision, hasn’t it? In terms of the reaction to it.

LF: We had between 700-1000 new members in the week or two after the Mike Ashley share purchase and I think because it removed his influence from the club, you can’t underestimate or underplay the significance of the purchase, not just for Club 1872 because it saw us become the second largest shareholder, but for Rangers as well.

I remember the negotiations and discussions over a number of weeks. It was myself and Joanne Percival that were dealing with it. But we didn’t know until a certain point who was selling the shares.

We were asked to be in the office a few times and this one time they said they would reveal to us who the seller was. We got a call to say they were still talking to the lawyers and they didn’t know if it was going to be tonight so we ordered a pizza and waited.

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It got to about 9.30pm and we said it looked like it wasn’t going to happen so I was driving Joanne home and her mobile rang and it was the call. We pulled over and the person on the phone asked if we could confirm that we were alone in the car and that nobody else was there. They revealed it was MASH that we were purchasing the shares from and Joanne and I literally high-fived each other. We knew the significance of that.

It has not been easy at Club 1872 and because it is run by people who are passionate about it and believe in the project, that is why you can take it to heart. But that was such a significant moment for us and what it is all about. We want to be working towards that again and something that is so important for the club.

The money did go directly to Mike Ashley. But we believe it was an investment in the club in terms of removing his influence. It was a really good moment.

DID YOU EXPECT TO HAVE MORE MONEY IN THE BANK OR MORE MEMBERS SIGNED UP AT THIS STAGE? DID YOU BELIEVE MORE PROGRESS WOULD HAVE BEEN MADE OR ARE YOU WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE?

EM: In terms of the 10 per cent shareholding, we are actually ahead of where we thought we would be this time last year. That has been significant.

In terms of the number of members, we are never going to be satisfied. If we had 50,000 members, as many fans as we have in the stadium, that is still not enough. We know how many fans we have out there. We took 250,000 to Manchester. It is the same with RSCs. If we have 20 on board or 200 on board, we still haven’t scratched the surface in terms of the potential members we have out there.

I am happy with where we are and happy in terms of where we are going with the share issue. We expect to be very successful in the share issue.

Going forward, we have got an outlined plan for the next ten years as custodians of Club 1872 now and our job is to lay good foundations for any future boards coming in. For those ten years, our ultimate goal has to be to get to at least those 50,000 members. If we are at 50,000 and £10 per month on average, we are looking at £6million of investment every year and that is huge for Rangers.

BT: We need to mature and provide a really strong lead for people to follow. But then we need to challenge Rangers fans and say ‘we think joining Club 1872 is as relevant as buying a season ticket’. It is part of being a Rangers supporter and if you really believe that, as Rangers supporters, we can help the club to improve and grow and recover its position at the top of Scottish football, then this is a vehicle that is there.

LF: It is affordable for every fan. It is £5 per month and, as Bruce said, it can become part of something that every Rangers fan does. You buy your season ticket, you buy a jersey and you put your £5 into Club 1872. That is two pints per month or a pie and a Bovril and you can help rebuild the club. You can leave a lasting legacy so that future generations can see that we fought for Rangers so they don’t have to experience the kind of things that we have been through in the last few years.

In terms of the numbers, our biggest strength as a club is the size and loyalty of our support. We know Rangers is a massive club, but the landscape of football is changing and we have to play to our strengths if we want to rebuild and develop and that key strength is the size and loyalty of the support.

BT: I think, as Euan said, we are in a tremendous position as the second largest shareholder, so why can’t be continue to be the second largest shareholder with a larger shareholding in the future? If we have managed to get to here, why can’t we build on that and continue to be at least the second largest shareholder, and be very influential?

LF: We believe we will. This is a challenge to the Rangers support but we believe it is one they are going to embrace. Our fans have been called on to support the club in the past and have stepped up and played and we are asking again. It is that ‘get the battle fever on’. We are asking every Rangers fan to ask themselves ‘what are you willing to do for the club you love? What kind of club do you want to leave behind for your children?’ This is a club that was built on grit and determination and resilience and perseverance, so we know we have it in us. This is the support that took back its club, so imagine what we could do with the 10 per cent we have got and the determination to work together.

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME WELL DOCUMENTED BOARD ISSUES OVER THE LAST YEAR OR SO. IS THERE A DANGER THAT THE POLITICS OF FAN OWNERSHIP PUTS PEOPLE OFF?

LF: I think there are some important lessons to be learned from the challenges of the first year. It was an organisation in its infancy but it has always had people on board who believe passionately in it.

In 2016, we had a new board that didn’t know each other very well but were keen to move to the stage that we are now. When we found we weren’t able to do that, there were tensions and frustrations within the board and that led to board changes and we made mistakes. But we learned some important lessons from those challenges.

There were times where it looked like we weren’t making much progress but, behind the scenes, there was a lot of work to do and we put a model in place and an infrastructure that we can build on in the future. We had a huge admin task to update and verify the data that had been passed to us by previous supporters groups and worked on the constitution to enshrine the members’ rights.

We have now in place a board that has been working well together for some time, not just as board members but through the working groups. It is a board that is determined to build on the achievements of the previous board, as well as learning the lessons from the previous board.

BT: I think this board has a huge respect for the work that was achieved by the previous board and you learn by being involved and being at close quarters what actually was being done and achieved. It is not just the headlines, when you are doing this work you are doing a lot of it behind the scenes. It is all being done by people that want to do it and the potential for Club 1872 and Rangers is tremendous.

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LF: I don’t think we have been in a stronger position in terms of the unity within the board and we have six working groups that are in place and functioning well that look at the various aspects of the organisation. I think we are in a good place.

EM: I think we are in a good place but I think there is more we need to be doing. We will outline to members some of the things we want to get involved in.

Bruce mentioned the work that is behind the scenes and do try and socialise stuff. But we really want to start making sure that our members know who the board are and that we are communicating effectively.

In December, the club had challenges in terms of the results and the managerial situation but that impacted us as well and what we were then being asked to do was issue reactionary statements, challenge this, challenge that. Some of that was right, some was not.

We want to move away from that. We want to say ‘here is our plan for the next year’, but also tell members about some of the working group charity work or projects or campaigns so that there is content out there more often.

HAVE YOU HAD ANY FEEDBACK FROM RANGERS WITH REGARDS TO HAVING A REPRESENTATIVE ON THE BOARD? HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT WILL HAPPEN?

LF: We haven’t. It has been less than a week since we wrote to the Rangers board and it is a decision we anticipate they wouldn’t take lightly and would want to discuss before they got back to us.

We have set members’ expectations in that regard and said it is a process we expect to take some time. We don’t have any legal right to a place on the board so it is something we want to have ongoing discussion about.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE RELATIONSHIP WITH RANGERS?

EM: Stewart Robertson has been very welcoming and receptive. Whenever we have met, it has been good for us and there is always an open door as well. I think it is more the structure about how we engage in general.

In the past, a lot of it has been Q&A and members give us a lot of questions and we get those answered, either in writing or through those meetings. We have sat and spoken to Stewart about how we get more of an intake process as a major shareholder and get things motioned to the board, either the football board or the RIFC board. And how do we poll members on what those issues are?

We are still working that through and we have generally got some good feedback from Stewart on that process. Even if we have a board member, we would still need something like that.

BT: I think I would also say that the word to describe the relationship is healthy. I do think that this board, and this is my perception having joined it recently, is quite experienced and it can stand on its own.

It is then about building a relationship with the club so that they can take a look at the people here and realise that these are fans, but they are fans that bring a lot of experience from life to the role that they are carrying out.

They can take good decisions, they can provide strong leadership. A concern the club could have is that 50,000 voices makes an awful lot of noise and how do you reduce that to one? There has to be a focus of leadership there and to have that you need to have the kind of person that has experience that can appeal to fans.

It is someone you can trust and have confidence in and, looking around, I think there are fantastic people here. The club can come to trust us too, but we will be independent in our thought and how we represent members. We want Rangers to succeed in the highest sense of that word and it is not about the individuals, it is about the club.

DO YOU EVER SEE A SITUATION WHERE CLUB 1872 COULD BE THE LARGEST SHAREHOLDERS IN RANGERS? IS IT MORE ABOUT SUPPORTER INFLUENCE THAN FAN OWNERSHIP?

LF: The long-term goal has always been 25 per cent, plus one share. I think that supporters understand that fan representation and fan investment go hand in hand so those are our two key goals.

We see people saying ‘if only there was a way for fans to contribute a little bit extra to the club’. Fans have obviously contributed a lot via season tickets and they can now buy merchandise with more confidence but loads, particularly on social media, say it would be great if there was a vehicle for us to contribute more money and help accelerate the rebuilding process.

It is quite frustrating, as Club 1872, to see people say that because this is that vehicle. Particularly over the next couple of years, there is very likely to be another share issue further down the line and when that happens the organisation has to be ready to put the money in. But the fans have to want to do it as well.

If you want to contribute a little bit more, if you want to see the club get back to the top quicker, then the vehicle is there to do it, you just have to take part in it. If they want to, they can contribute more if they take that step.