Can Dave King ensure Rangers rule again?

[Frankie 8,652]

Regular readers of Gersnet will know that I won’t be surprised by yesterday’s SFA ruling that majority Rangers shareholder Dave King has been passed as ‘fit and proper’ by the football authority. The fact the hugely successful South African is considered so domestically, across the business world and, most recently, by the Court of Session in Edinburgh meant the SFA decision was always going to be a formality.

 

Now, that’s fine but I can also understand why some people want to doubt the SFA's findings as King's historic tax issues should be discussed as part of his suitability to own and chair Rangers. In fact, it worries me that some people are prepared to dismiss his previous actions so easily. After all, if Rangers fans are (rightly) prepared to challenge the likes of Mike Ashley and (rightly) remain so unhappy about what happened under Craig Whyte and Charles Green then we should not be offering up blind faith in King.

 

For example, as much as we may wish to underplay his problems with the South African authorities, the facts tell us there were clear issues over his actions. Enough issues to cause him to settle for almost £50million. Similarly, while our unconscious bias may excuse him from the SDM and Whyte debacles (despite King sitting on both the boards right through until administration in 2012), King’s record therein has to be questioned. Yes, if we distill his contribution right down to funds invested, the £20million he put in 15 years ago speaks the kind of language Rangers fans want to hear now but that effective blank cheque ran out of credit a long time ago. And King’s actions since – both at Ibrox and away from it - mean ignoring his indiscretions just because some of his strongest critics may not share our general pro-Rangers outlook puts us on dangerous ground.

 

However, let's be abundantly clear. King would not have been cleared by this footballing kangaroo court - led by the most powerful man in Scottish football, Peter Lawwell - if he hadn't been able to justify his past position and future intentions. That's why people like Spence, English and Spiers are so annoyed: not because they’re worried about the club’s well-being but because they know King's plans must be impressive enough to convince others Rangers will soon be improving the profile (and coefficient) of Scottish football. In the long run, despite all the myopic rhetoric of fans of other clubs (some journalists, some not) Scottish football needs a strong Rangers and it's in all our interests that King succeeds.

 

Bearing that in mind, the next few weeks are going to be massive for us all – in particular Rangers supporters. Firstly, by the end of this month (perhaps even the end of this week), we will know which division of the SPFL we’ll be playing in. Some suggest that doesn’t matter but anyone associated with the club will deep down know not being promoted is a failure and will set us back further. Of course King may invest x millions regardless of what league we’re in but we’ve seen in recent years how difficult it is to attract truly competent players to the club while we struggle in the lower divisions. Not to mention another year in the Championship will negatively affect sponsorship and other commercial opportunities. Moreover, delaying our chances of European football diminishes our efforts further of interesting the players we need to return Rangers to dominance. Not to mention the managers, coaches, scouts and directors we desperately and so obviously need.

 

Indeed, it’s the latter club foundations that represent the biggest challenge for Dave King as he becomes Rangers chairman. Paul Murray, Douglas Park and John Gilligan all deserve credit for their efforts in holding the Green/Ashley axis to account in recent years but is their love for Rangers enough to make it successful on and, just as crucially, off the park? I’m sure even they’d concede we’re short of enviable quality in the boardroom and that has to change at the earliest opportunity. Some may say operating without a CEO, Finance Director and the accountability a NOMAD or share-listing brings isn’t the end of the world but what these roles and platforms bring is prudence, governance and, most of all, delivers trust to shareholders and investors. As we most likely will enter a further period of share issues and/or open offers, that kind of legislative certitude should not be minimised.

 

In point of fact, it’s that level of trust and transparency that must be the bywords that the King era is built upon. It was no accident that King himself used similar phrases when ‘winning’ the EGM in March and it’s only by being open with fans – and by building new relationships with others – that the club will regain the kind of traction needed to become successful. Yes some bears may prefer keeping our distance from sections of the media, certain footballing authorities, other clubs and even one or two political parties but if we’re to truly influence others again then we must be prepared to work together and lead. Our recent dealings with the SFA and SPFL will have shown how much ground we need to make up in that sense. We ignore this at our peril.

 

Taking all the above into consideration, the sheer scale of the task should not be lost on any Rangers fan. Premiership or not, stock exchange listing or not, £30million investment or not; the board of the club have a huge job on their hands. Fortunately, more and more fans appreciate this and our increasing involvement with fan ownership vehicles in conjunction with communication with the club means we’ve never been in a better position to influence matters ourselves. This doesn’t mean we should demand a, b and c on a weekly basis but consolidate our position and show just how capable we are as a boardroom voice. Patience will be a virtue as we move forward.

 

Consequently, the true judge of Dave King’s tenure at Rangers will not be some irrelevant hypocrite in the media. Nor will it be a journeyman footballing executive. In fact, it will be you and I – the common, garden Rangers fan and shareholder. As much as some commentators have criticised the Rangers support for failing to halt Craig Whyte’s fraudulent intentions, we’ve shown in the last year we will not stand by and let others risk the club’s future. We do hold the power and must use it wisely.

 

In closing we don’t need conflicted media contributors to warn us about the suitability of people like Dave King. He must and will be challenged to deliver on his promises and we can only hope he's true to his word in bringing back the success we crave. In that sense, the jury is out when it comes to him. And we should be continually deliberating…

[Scott7 6,158]

As I said elsewhere:

 

"The Resurrection took three days. DK doesn't have that much power at his disposal. He's going to need time. I'll take a long term strategy over a quick fix."

[Frankie 8,652]

As I said elsewhere:

 

"The Resurrection took three days. DK doesn't have that much power at his disposal. He's going to need time. I'll take a long term strategy over a quick fix."

 

That's perfectly correct but King will have deliver something substantial in the short-term - more so if we fail to get promoted.

[jhunter 0]

Some may say operating without a CEO, Finance Director and the accountability a NOMAD or share-listing brings isn’t the end of the world but what these roles and platforms bring is prudence, governance and, most of all, delivers trust to shareholders and investors.

 

we had all this under the last few regimes and it didn't alter a thing - the club was systematically raped.

[calscot 0]

Does this mean he'll be moving to the UK or will he be chairing the board via video conferencing from SA with the odd trip back for important meetings? I hope for the former while expecting the latter.

 

He does need a bit of time now to put things into action - but not too much. As a layman, I expect a lot to be done and dusted by the start of next season. As a priority I think we need a new CEO, FD and investment committee, and charge them with appointing a nomad, registering us on a stock exchange and organising the first of at least two rights issues. The first would be only open to current shareholders due to the resolution failure at the AGM and the second open to all after a resolution pass at the next AGM.

 

Then there's the football side of things with a fair few appointments needed, and then the rebuilding of the squad - which could massively depend on which division we're in. I think the timing of all those contracts running out is advantageous for us if we are promoted as we just don't get value for money in the lower divisions - we have to pay way over the odds for mediocre talent who are basically just in it for the money and don't give the passion we need.

 

But it's in the football side that we have to do something different to distinguish ourselves from the run of the mill. Something less than obvious, and not just spending more than the rest - the best that will get us is around the top of a very poor standard of league and nowhere in Europe. If it manages to make us win half the honours in Scotland, or slightly more, then I'm sure we'll keep a substantial following for a while, but it is sure to steadily decline over a generation while people drift to watching a higher standard of football on the telly from England and elsewhere.

 

We need to win game after game to even keep those we have, but we also need to add some style and a sense of adventure - giving the some kind of feeling that we're going somewhere rather than just doing the dreary annual rounds of a footballing nation in decline.

 

The answer as to how to do that is not an easy one, as if it was, everyone would be doing it. As the world zigs, it's time to zag.

[Frankie 8,652]

we had all this under the last few regimes and it didn't alter a thing - the club was systematically raped.

 

That's a fair point but I think they're still desirable things for investors to have - especially alongside a more favourable board with fan representation on it.

[Frankie 8,652]

Does this mean he'll be moving to the UK or will he be chairing the board via video conferencing from SA with the odd trip back for important meetings? I hope for the former while expecting the latter.

 

He does need a bit of time now to put things into action - but not too much. As a layman, I expect a lot to be done and dusted by the start of next season. As a priority I think we need a new CEO, FD and investment committee, and charge them with appointing a nomad, registering us on a stock exchange and organising the first of at least two rights issues. The first would be only open to current shareholders due to the resolution failure at the AGM and the second open to all after a resolution pass at the next AGM.

 

Then there's the football side of things with a fair few appointments needed, and then the rebuilding of the squad - which could massively depend on which division we're in. I think the timing of all those contracts running out is advantageous for us if we are promoted as we just don't get value for money in the lower divisions - we have to pay way over the odds for mediocre talent who are basically just in it for the money and don't give the passion we need.

 

But it's in the football side that we have to do something different to distinguish ourselves from the run of the mill. Something less than obvious, and not just spending more than the rest - the best that will get us is around the top of a very poor standard of league and nowhere in Europe. If it manages to make us win half the honours in Scotland, or slightly more, then I'm sure we'll keep a substantial following for a while, but it is sure to steadily decline over a generation while people drift to watching a higher standard of football on the telly from England and elsewhere.

 

We need to win game after game to even keep those we have, but we also need to add some style and a sense of adventure - giving the some kind of feeling that we're going somewhere rather than just doing the dreary annual rounds of a footballing nation in decline.

 

The answer as to how to do that is not an easy one, as if it was, everyone would be doing it. As the world zigs, it's time to zag.

 

I wouldn't expect King to be involved day-to-day but I would fancy him to employ someone senior as CEO to oversee his interests.

 

As for the rest of your post, like I say, the task is a huge one but the quicker we get about it and the quicker we see actions put in place, the easier we'll feel.

 

That's vital ahead of season book sales.

[calscot 0]

I think one point of perspective that people keep forgetting is that no matter how bad the stuff DK did in SA, he did not do it to intentionally harm his own company, quite the opposite. He also didn't walk away or capitulate, but fought long and hard to protect his investment, and eventually pretty much won, and his company prospered.

 

I can't see how that can be bad for Rangers. In fact if he was the owner instead of DM then I doubt he would have sold to Whyte. Instead he'd he'd have fought HMRC hard - and won. We would NOT have had an insolvency event. He is the one guy in the world we know we can be reasonably confident about saying that.

 

His form in SA would have been a massive asset to Rangers in the past - so what is the problem with the future? Maybe as a tax payer you should be worried but not as a Rangers fan.

[Siam69 0]

Good post, Frankie, pragmatic and realistic.

[Hildy 0]

This isn't a revolution. It's more like the beginning of a recovery. The disease that infected the club has been beaten - for now - and we're hopefully on the path to return to good health.

 

The illness that knocked us for six was so bad though that no-one can be sure that we will recover to become what we used to be.

 

Think of that tackle on Ian Durrant. Was he the same player afterwards that he was before? This is what the club has been through, a damaging trauma, and full fitness may be beyond us.

 

Rangers has been damaged as a football club and as an institution. The extent of the damage may only be known in a few years when hindsight provides a clearer view.