Selling Rangers: Ibrox corporate governance exposed | OneFootball

With Everton’s sale now in process, some Rangers fans are wondering why our club can’t just do the same, why we can’t just sell to some rich American or high-value hedge fund with tonnes of capital to invest.

The frustration of Rangers supporters seeing the club stuck with ‘this board’ (John Gilligan is now a bad guy) is understandable – most fans can’t stand the suits, just as they couldn’t in the past when results on the pitch weren’t good enough.

Not a peep from fans about Douglas Park, John Bennett et al 3 years ago when we won the league, not much about them either as our club soared to Sevilla – it’s when results don’t hit home on the pitch that the board is up for scrutiny.

And that’s fine, but it’s not just about the board – because Rangers’ corporate structure and governance really is an absolute mess and it’s why a takeover is more or less impossible.

First of all, as confirmed by acting Chairman Gilligan, the board isn’t open to Dave King or anyone else coming in and taking over or joining as chairman – they are happy with their ‘plan’.

Now what that plan is, is open to interpretation – but it was enough to persuade Philippe Clement to stick around, and to support the board completely, after a few misgivings. We’re sure his new wage and contract helped there…

But the bottom line is Clement is a board man – he’s their pick, and he backs them, so for the fans who slaughter the board, well, their being behind Clement is not consistent.

But getting back to the point, how do Rangers fans get the governance or ownership they want?

The problem is massive:

Rangers are owned by disparate groups of hedgefunds, fans, investors and board members past and present:

New Oasis Asset Limited, 63,172,893, 14.12%, Douglas Park, 52,550,000, 11.74%George Alexander Taylor, 44,074,998, 9.85%, Stuart Gibson, 44,000,000, 9.84%, Borita Investments Limited, 27,611,955, 6.17%, John Bennett, 24,647,059, 5.51%, Perron Investments LLC, 24,250,000, 5.42%, George Letham, 22,274,516, 4.98%, Club 1872, 22.202,838, 4.96%, Tifosy Investment Nominees Limited, 17,610,000, 3.94%.

And that’s not all. Alastair Johnston has a tonne as well, and of course there’s thousands of individual fans who aren’t major shareholders in there too.

So buying those shares outright is impossible. There is no way to buy out all of those groups or individuals collectively. A buyer would have to speak to each group and persuade them to sell. It’s not like buying Everton, who were owned by one man, this is completely different and utterly impossible.

But then you have the board itself, and that is even more complex – unlike a properly ‘owned’ club, in which one person/group dictates their CEO, chairperson etc, Rangers’ messy ownership means a dozen different agendas are on the same board.

Graeme Park represents the Park family, Julian Wolhardt represents Borita, and of course New Oasis, who aren’t even on the board, is Dave King’s holding company.

In other words, a bunch of suits who all have their own accountability to their hedge funds or groups behind them, and now we have a new one in John Gilligan who is in himself representing the board as a whole.

So for Rangers fans just demanding the board be ‘sacked’, or that someone buys the club, the shambolic corporate structure in both boardroom and ownership means it’s more or less impossible.

The EGM Dave King is shouting for can’t happen because he doesn’t have any allies on the board or shareholders who can force it, so that’s a route that isn’t happening.

End result?

Rangers fans, as unlikely as it is, have to stop protesting the structure and board because it isn’t going to help otherwise.

We know we know, we’re hypocritical on Ibrox Noise given we’ve been giving Clement himself both barrels for months, right? Yes, but a change in manager is possible, just a bit pricy, while a change in board or shareholders is 99% impossible.

Fans are pretty much powerless to exact change, so complaining about it is about as much as can be done.