Fan ownership of Rangers

[Super Cooper 0]

look at dortmund.

 

given the crap we have had as owners of late its a must.

 

Did you just compare us with Borussia Dortmund? I wasn't aware Germany was awash with Dortmund hating scum bags hell bent on killing the club off either.

 

You say it's a must, i ask why is it a must?

[the gunslinger 3,366]

look at dortmund.

 

look at us. owned by scum

[Super Cooper 0]

look at dortmund.

 

look at us. owned by scum

 

Temporarily.

 

Dortmund are light years ahead of us in every way. Not possible to compare.

[Guest govansw1]

Temporarily.

 

Dortmund are light years ahead of us in every way. Not possible to compare.

 

So do we just give up the idea then? A lot of work to be done re Fan Ownership. Some folk think FO means running the Club.

[Super Cooper 0]

So do we just give up the idea then? A lot of work to be done re Fan Ownership. Some folk think FO means running the Club.

 

Absolutely. It will finish us off for good if it happens. Imo.

[aweebluesoandso 290]

I'm in favor of fan ownership, could we do any worse than what's happened in the last few years?

[Darthter 542]

Don't agree with Fan Ownership, but all for more structured fan involvement.

[54andcounting 0]

I'd go for a sugar daddy who wants to win the CL at any expense someone like Roman Abramovich who'll sack managers left right and centre until he achieves his goal - then start it all over again when he does.

[amms 0]

I'm always baffled at the reaction to this topic when it gets debated by 'Gers fans. Up until this season, since 1872 we've always had 'fan ownership' if you accept that Craig Whyte and SDM were fans in their own way. What we're really debating is whether it is better for us to be owned by a large number of supporters, no one of who has more say than any other, or owned by a large number of people, most if not all supporters but where a small number, possibly only one, have a much greater say because they 'own' much more of us.

We've tried the latter for the last 20 or so years. Whilst it brought success it ultimately brought disaster. There were no checks and balances in place, one man could make decisions without fear of reprimand or censor, whilst the going was good few questioned it, by the time it got bad it was too late to do anything about it. Do we really want to return to that? The success it brought wasn't so significantly better than we'd enjoyed at other points in our history to make it worth the pain it eventually brought.

 

People speak about our support being fractured like this is somehow unusual. Do you think all the Dortmund/Hamburg/Barcelona supporters agree on everything. Really? Don't you think they have factions in their support? Do you think having liberals and hardliners, traditionalists and modernisers, progressives and regressives is peculiar to us? C'mon, even Clyde who are fan owned in the sense most on here are meaning it can't agree on everything.

But it isn't about agreeing on everything, it's about making sure the club, our club, is run with us in mind. It isn't about 'us' running it, it's about 'us' owning it and holding those responsible for running it to account.

 

Ultimately the 'owners' would need to devolve the day-to-day running of the club to people qualified to do it. Frankly writing a blog about football doesn't make you qualified to do anything except write a blog, this fear some have that perhaps some of the more prominent members of the online Rangers supporting community would suddenly find themselves running the club is ludicrous.

 

The last thing Rangers need is another 'sugar-daddy' type owner. The club is big enough to stand on its own two feet and win it's battles without the largesse of some industrialist. To suggest this could "finish us off" is perplexing, not taking a say in how our club is run will finish us off far quicker. We very nearly died last year because far too many of us became apathetic over the last couple of decades, me included. We expected someone else to to fix our problems, we looked to an owner to fund players we couldn't afford, we just wanted to turn up at the weekend for 90 minutes and be entertained. Did we learn nothing in the last 18 months?

 

Like most things football evolves, things change. Rangers place in European football will continue to diminish for the foreseeable future. Even when we are able to qualify the gap between the English, Spanish, German and Italian leagues and ours is so chasmic it is unbridgeable now. This looks like it won't change anytime soon. It's vital we get involved with our club, if we want a voice at the table we need to be prepared to do a bit more than simply turn up every second week. There is no money to be made in Scottish football, none, it's practically impossible currently. Anyone looking to make money from a Scottish football club does not have that club's interest at heart because the only way to make money from us is to take money out of the club that we, the fans, are putting in. We don't have many other sources of income, sponsorship isn't great, prize money non existant and TV money a joke.

 

Rangers should have a purpose, a stated aim and it should be a simple one. It should be to bring glory through our football and to make our support proud. Nothing else matters, it's all any of us want, I don't need a poll to know that everyone wants that from our club. That's the starting point, every decision we then make should be designed to achieve those two aims.

[Guest govansw1]

I'm always baffled at the reaction to this topic when it gets debated by 'Gers fans. Up until this season, since 1872 we've always had 'fan ownership' if you accept that Craig Whyte and SDM were fans in their own way. What we're really debating is whether it is better for us to be owned by a large number of supporters, no one of who has more say than any other, or owned by a large number of people, most if not all supporters but where a small number, possibly only one, have a much greater say because they 'own' much more of us.

We've tried the latter for the last 20 or so years. Whilst it brought success it ultimately brought disaster. There were no checks and balances in place, one man could make decisions without fear of reprimand or censor, whilst the going was good few questioned it, by the time it got bad it was too late to do anything about it. Do we really want to return to that? The success it brought wasn't so significantly better than we'd enjoyed at other points in our history to make it worth the pain it eventually brought.

 

People speak about our support being fractured like this is somehow unusual. Do you think all the Dortmund/Hamburg/Barcelona supporters agree on everything. Really? Don't you think they have factions in their support? Do you think having liberals and hardliners, traditionalists and modernisers, progressives and regressives is peculiar to us? C'mon, even Clyde who are fan owned in the sense most on here are meaning it can't agree on everything.

But it isn't about agreeing on everything, it's about making sure the club, our club, is run with us in mind. It isn't about 'us' running it, it's about 'us' owning it and holding those responsible for running it to account.

 

Ultimately the 'owners' would need to devolve the day-to-day running of the club to people qualified to do it. Frankly writing a blog about football doesn't make you qualified to do anything except write a blog, this fear some have that perhaps some of the more prominent members of the online Rangers supporting community would suddenly find themselves running the club is ludicrous.

 

The last thing Rangers need is another 'sugar-daddy' type owner. The club is big enough to stand on its own two feet and win it's battles without the largesse of some industrialist. To suggest this could "finish us off" is perplexing, not taking a say in how our club is run will finish us off far quicker. We very nearly died last year because far too many of us became apathetic over the last couple of decades, me included. We expected someone else to to fix our problems, we looked to an owner to fund players we couldn't afford, we just wanted to turn up at the weekend for 90 minutes and be entertained. Did we learn nothing in the last 18 months?

 

Like most things football evolves, things change. Rangers place in European football will continue to diminish for the foreseeable future. Even when we are able to qualify the gap between the English, Spanish, German and Italian leagues and ours is so chasmic it is unbridgeable now. This looks like it won't change anytime soon. It's vital we get involved with our club, if we want a voice at the table we need to be prepared to do a bit more than simply turn up every second week. There is no money to be made in Scottish football, none, it's practically impossible currently. Anyone looking to make money from a Scottish football club does not have that club's interest at heart because the only way to make money from us is to take money out of the club that we, the fans, are putting in. We don't have many other sources of income, sponsorship isn't great, prize money non existant and TV money a joke.

 

Rangers should have a purpose, a stated aim and it should be a simple one. It should be to bring glory through our football and to make our support proud. Nothing else matters, it's all any of us want, I don't need a poll to know that everyone wants that from our club. That's the starting point, every decision we then make should be designed to achieve those two aims.

 

Swayed yet Super Cooper?