AS he outlined about why he wanted ordinary Celtic fans to have far more of a say in the day-to-day running of the Parkhead club in these pages a couple of years ago, David Low touched upon how much football had changed in the modern era.
“It is now about money,” said Low, the Glasgow businessman who was the brains behind the Fergus McCann takeover of his boyhood heroes back in 1994. “Everything is much more serious, much more professional, much bigger and even much more corrupt.
“Before money came in, it was the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker who owned clubs. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was local millionaires. Now, a further generation on, it is billionaires.”
There is still some way to go before the billionaires, the San Francisco 49ers, take over from the local millionaires, Dave King, John Bennett, Stuart Gibson, George Letham, Douglas Park, George Taylor et al, as the major powerbrokers at Rangers and the Glasgow giants go the way so many venerable sporting institutions have during the 21st century.
Yet, the move very much has a feeling of inevitability about it. The reaction from supporters who have grown weary of their heroes being outspent and outperformed by their city rivals Celtic every season has been almost universally positive.
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The long-standing business model – wealthy benefactors offsetting substantial annual losses with soft loans – has run its course and there is an acceptance that a new strategy is required to reinvigorate the ailing Govan outfit and move it forward on and off the park.
There has been none of the “never again” chat which abounded when John Gilligan, King and Paul Murray seized control of Rangers at an EGM 10 years ago, no talk about how bona fide supporters with the best interests of the club at heart need to hold sway to prevent the financial meltdowns caused by unscrupulous owners in the past.
When he was appointed interim chairman in September after Bennett had been forced to step down, Gilligan appeared to rule out one individual or entity running things again.
“We are open to anyone who approaches us on investment,” he said. “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.” Another season of struggle, unrest and, domestically at least, failure has clearly changed their outlook.
King spoke of “investor fatigue” last year when he called for a fresh injection of cash and impetus from outside sources. Well, there is fan fatigue there too. Bears can no longer bear seeing their side stoil and fail. If they have to cede control to external parties with no affinity to or affection for their club in order to get back on top then so be it. For them, it is simply the harsh reality of football at the highest level in 2025.
They have a point. Just look at who owns Premier League clubs now. You will not find many butchers, bakers or candlestick makers among the Abu Dhabi United Group, Clearlake Capital Group, The Friedkin Group, the Public Investment Fund, The Srivaddhanaprabha Family and V Sports.
There is comfort for Rangers too in an internationally renowned and revered organisation like the San Francisco 49ers coming on board. They are quietly confident that their future association with the NFL Franchise will only have positive repercussions. Even if they become one of a number of clubs in an expanded global football division.
The chances are that if the deal with a consortium that is headed by 49ers Enterprises chairman Paraag Marathe and comprises another as yet unnamed high net worth individual is finalised in the coming weeks then the feelgood factor will go through the roof and matters on the pitch will improve considerably even with the spending parameters they will have to work within. Let’s face it, things could hardly get much worse.
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But how will Rangers fans feel about their new union in the long-term? Could they come to rue real Rangers men not calling the shots in time? The jury is still out on them at Leeds United after over a season as majority shareholders. One fan this week described them as “Marmite”. He also warned they are not a “golden ticket” and stressed they would ultimately look to recoup their investment.
As Low stated: “I have worked for American owners. Clubs are like trophies, assets, for them. They are not really interested in success, they are interested in breaking even. They know there are more billionaires than sports franchises in the world and if they break even they will get more for it than they did when they bought it.”
There would have been no need to bring in a new sugar daddy if Rangers had spent their money wisely in the transfer market and lived within their means. Celtic have been doing so successfully for years. They are on course for another domestic treble this season and were only knocked out of the Champions League knockout rounds by Bayern Munich in Germany in midweek by an injury-time goal.
