JOHN Gilligan, appointed interim chairman at Rangers nine days ago after John Bennett was forced to stand down for health reasons, spoke to the media for the first time since taking up his post at Ibrox this afternoon.
There were plenty of issues for Gilligan to address.
The Glasgow giants have had to relocate to Hampden temporarily this season due to delays to work on the Copland Stand at Ibrox, failed to reach the Champions League league phase, lost heavily to Celtic at Parkhead at the start of the month to fall five points behind their city rivals in the Premiership and are currently without a chief executive.
On top of all that, in recent days major shareholder Dave King has savaged the current custodians of the Govan club in a series of strongly-worded statements, claimed that a £50m cash injection is required and revealed he wants to return as chairman.
Gilligan did not duck any question as he spoke to reporters. Here is the full Q&A from his press conference.
You have been described as the "interim" Rangers chairman. Do you have a timescale for completing the task you have been set?
John Gilligan: “I will stay on as long as required. The main priority is to get a chief executive. We are working on that right away. I can stay on indefinitely, I am expecting a few months and a chairman to come in too.”
On a personal level, how do you feel about being Rangers chairman?
JG: “Really pleased, honoured. Mrs Gilligan is not too happy, but I am honoured, it’s a privilege. I am delighted to come in after John had to step away, because he is a personal friend. It’s an honour to help, very much so.
“I wear two hats because I am a supporter and the chairman, but now I am chairman I need to take the supporter hat off and focus on doing the job.”
How do you feel about doing that?
JG: “It’s difficult, but it’s essential. At three o’clock on a Saturday I can be a supporter for an hour and a half. But the responsibility of the chairman is to run the club properly.”
What is plan moving forward?
JG: “There is a plan and I am here to bring stability to the enforcement of that plan. We have been distracted terribly by having to play at Hampden for a few months.
Read more:
-
Date and time for Motherwell vs Rangers Premier Sports Cup semi-final
-
Rangers striker Cyriel Dessers welcomes Hamza Igamane competition
“A lot of people forget that the original objective here was to create a great facility for our disabled supporters. It wasn’t a renovation, it wasn’t a reconstruction. Unfortunately the timing was wrong, we got that part of it wrong, and we had to go to Hampden.
“But everything is in place, the manager is in place and we are ready to keep going. We see some fruits for our labour now with some of the young players coming through and I am here to bring stability and help find a CEO.”
Is there recognition there have been a lot of bad decisions from board?
JG: “Decisions are made, good and bad and things evolve from the decisions that are made. But it’s only fair to say that we are where we are and a lot of great things have happened too.”
Dave King has stated that he wants to return to Rangers as chairman. What is your view on that possibility?
JG: “Dave is a major shareholder and he can say whatever he wishes to say. My view is it’s a bit unrealistic. Dave is a real businessman, he knows how shareholdings work. He is a 15 per cent shareholder, the other directors are 10, 12, 13 per cent shareholders. It is unrealistic.”
He has called on you to hold an EGM to let the fans decide who should run Rangers? Will that happen?JG: “Again, it is a bit unrealistic because EGMs are invariably called by people who wish to change something. But the current board don’t wish to change. So why would we call an EGM?”
He also stated that fresh investment, that £50m, is needed at Rangers. Will there be an injection of cash?
JG: “There is fresh investment coming in to the club. But, in fairness, Dave is talking about fresh investment, but he doesn’t want to invest. I am not quite sure where he means the investment is going to come from. There will be investment.
“The current investors have invested considerably over the years and are willing to do so again. We are open to anyone who approaches us on investment. We get approaches from all over the world from various sources. But it has to be the right people and the right conditions and for the right amount of shares. We don’t want one person owning the club.
“I don’t think you can put a number on it. The gap at the moment is considerable, but you just have to win your games, get back challenging for the top spot. Then if we get into the level of Europe we hope to get to then the gap can change quite quickly.”
He has portrayed Rangers as a club in crisis? Is he wrong?
JG: “I think he has got it wrong. I think it is unfair. What exactly is he saying is not good? What exactly is he saying is going wrong? Give us a plan and tell me. If Dave had some terrific plan to tell me where we are all going wrong then we would read that plan and we would consider it.”
Has he spoken to you or any other board member?
JG: “No, I haven’t spoken to Dave. Dave gave me one of the happiest days of my life when he asked me to join him 10 years ago and I will never forget it, never forget it. Since then I have met him, played golf and socialised when he has been over. But I haven’t heard from him, no.”
JG: “It is almost ridiculous to compare it. It would make my cry rather than laugh. You cannot describe how low we were in 2015 and what we inherited in terms of all sorts of aspects of the club. It is unrecognisable since that day.
“Listen, every day at Rangers Football Club is a challenge, the level of expectancy is enormous. As a fan I am part of that problem. But it is just ridiculous to compare it, to even begin to compare it.”
How destabilising are King’s comments?
JG: “It’s only destabilising if the people who are the main shareholders and who are operating the business don’t have a plan and don’t have people in place to execute it. We have had difficulties recently with the stadium and things. But destabilising? No, not particularly. Dave is entitled to say what he wants. It’s a free world. But I don’t feel it’s destabilised us at all no.”
Why would King not be welcome back?
JG: "That's another great question. Again it's not really for me to say, I'm just the interim chairman. But if you look at what's been said and what the guys have been saying, there's a shareholder structure to the business, there's a projection plan.
“Dave was chairman, Dave's still a major investor and can attend the AGM and ask questions. But there's just no appetite for it at the moment because Dave was here before and he stepped away. Then other people stepped up. Douglas [Park] stepped up, then stepped down and John [Bennett] stepped down. There's just no appetite.”
Do you wish he would just shut up?
JG: “Has any other director or any person said anything about Dave? No. Have they responded publicly? No. Will I ever say anything bad about Dave? No. So in answer to your question, do I wish he would stop? Yes.
“I just say to Dave, 'Please take it below the radar, behave like a proper shareholder, don't do what you are doing'. It's just a shame because he is a great character and he had a massive influence on the club at the time. I'll always respect that.”
Do you accept there is a huge gap with Celtic on and off the park?
JG: “History tells you that happens. Sometimes we are ahead, sometimes Celtic are ahead. At the moment we are chasing. There is no argument there, I am not stupid enough to say otherwise. But we will keep chasing.”
Can you bridge the financial gap with Celtic? If so, how?
JG: “Player trading is the biggest success and qualification for the Champions League. It is a kind of Catch 22 – player trading gets you income, Champions League gets you income.
“When you fail to get it it is difficult because Scottish football’s level of support, TV, sponsorship etc, you just can’t compare it to England’s. So it is always a challenge, of course it is. It is all about the squad and bringing in players and winning your matches and moving forward.”
You have met manager Philippe Clement. How did those talks go?
JG: “I was very impressed with the manager. We had a long talk, myself and George Letham. He was very impressive.
Read more:
-
Dundee midfielder Lyall Cameron vows to emulate new Celtic signing
-
Hearts sack Steven Naismith as he pays price for dismal form
“The long and short of it is I don’t talk about football myself, the manager is in charge. We’re here to operate the business and the manager is supported to operate the training academy and football side of things. We will never interfere in that.
“The one thing I will say is the manager had been put forward as a spokesperson for the club which put him under undue pressure at times because it’s an area of the business that’s not his. Hopefully I or someone else will pick that up. The manager was very impressive.”
Does the manager have the full backing of the board?
JG: “Absolutely, yes. Famous last words of endearment!”
JG: "Yes. Personally, he inspired a bit of confidence. He's a very intelligent man and knows what he is trying to do, what he's trying to do for the club.”
Does the new CEO need to be a barnstorming communicator?
JG: “Recruitment in any walk of life is of the moment. The person needs to be multi-faceted and good at everything. He needs to be an assertive character and we are looking much more to provide for the CEO via the chairman. And also for the CEO to have a lot of power day to day and the chairman to be slightly behind that.”
Could you look outwith football for the new CEO?
JG: “It would need to be someone exceptional. When you are recruiting you are looking at four or five must haves. That’s not really a must have. But it’s pretty close. If someone exceptional appeared . . .
“If he didn’t have an interest or understanding of football then it would be a bit like asking me to be chief exec of a technology company. It’s difficult. Without the knowledge of the product and business it would be difficult.”
What it the timescale for appointing a new CEO?
JG: “We are well on. We have quite a number of people around it who we can pick up with again. We are moving quickly on it.”
Could somebody who is independent of the existing board members come in as chairman?
JG: “I don’t see that being an issue for the board. A non-executive chairman going forward, once we get a proper CEO in place, that’s possible.”
What are the five requirements for the CEO?
JG: “They need to have a strong business acumen, experience. They need to have run businesses where there’s pressure and need to deliver. It can’t be a comfortable business because the stress and pressure of being CEO of a football club is pretty big.
“They need to be a good communicator and good at getting through to people. And they need a tremendous work ethic because it goes without saying it’s unbelievably difficult. They need to be a good person. I like decent people.”
The SRU and R&A to get in a new CEO. Is it difficult to get one in?
JG: "This is Rangers Football Club and with respect to the other sports [rugby and golf], football is the dominant sport in the country and much more attractive. As a golfer - certainly not a rugby player! - I accept that. We would expect to attract a top-level candidate.”
Do you have plans to bring in more football board members, like a sporting director? Or is the focus fully on the new CEO?
JG: "It will be full focus on the chief executive because in turn, if we bring in people, we'd really like to think we would be part of that. We've also got a very competent executive team here, heading up commercial and marketing, finance, stadium.
“We've got a very competent team of guys and girls here. We'll be fine. They're not connected, sometimes people get headhunted and move on. We're in a strong place.”
Where are you with the Copland Stand and how much will Rangers playing at Ibrox again help to bring the feelgood factor back?
JG: "It (opening the entire stand) is imminent, we are really hopeful. But we've got to be respectful of local authority approval etc, fire and insurances - it's all the little things now. Structurally, we are pretty much there.
"I think it will be huge. Winning on the pitch always does everything but it's been a real tough time. I have to thank Mike Mulraney [SFA president] and Neil Doncaster [SPFL chief executive] for helping us and allowing us to play at Hampden, because that was a big thing for us. There was nowhere else big enough for us. But this is home, and we're back. It's a phenomenal difference.”
