Ross County chief: chaos at Ibrox has caused sponsor delays...

[ian1964 10,409]

...and led to threat of part-time football.

 

Roy MacGregor last night blamed the chaos and poor behaviour of Rangers as the reason for the lack of a major Scottish Professional Football League sponsor.

 

As the Ross County chairman raised the spectre of part-time clubs playing in the Premiership within three years if our game keeps haemorrhaging cash, he pointed the finger of blame for many of the current ills directly at the gates of Ibrox.

 

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/ross-county-chief-macgregor-blames-rangers-for-sponsor-delays.118201729

 

The full article is hidden behind a pay wall,I don't subscribe to it.

[JTP 0]

Yes because WE voted ourselves out ................

 

They wanted us out. They wanted us dead. But they want our soul for sponsor money aswell.

[Tumshie RFC 0]

Instead of moaning about it the chiefs at the SPFL should be going on and actively looking for a sponsor instead of waiting for one to fall into their lap. The brought guys like Barry Hearn yto speak to them on what can be done to market the game better and we've barely heard anything out of them since.

[ian1964 10,409]

Ross County chief: chaos at Ibrox has caused sponsor delays and led to threat of part-time football

Alasdair Fraser

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Roy MacGregor last night blamed the chaos and poor behaviour of Rangers as the reason for the lack of a major Scottish Professional Football League sponsor.

 

 

 

 

As the Ross County chairman raised the spectre of part-time clubs playing in the Premiership within three years if our game keeps haemorrhaging cash, he pointed the finger of blame for many of the current ills directly at the gates of Ibrox.

 

The Staggies' millionaire financier laid bare his growing concern for the health of our game, amid falling attendances, declining quality on the park and dwindling income.

 

He is adamant that the near-daily dramas surrounding Rangers are at the heart of an image problem that is exacerbating the decline.

 

"The [increased] financial discipline of clubs has affected the brand and you can see that in the way we can't even get a sponsor," said MacGregor yesterday.

 

"My own belief is it will still be difficult to get a sponsor as long as Rangers behave the way they have been. We're not projecting ourselves as businesses that can self-manage ourselves."

 

Along with St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour, MacGregor played a significant role in creating the current SPFL format by blocking much-derided moves towards a split of the top two leagues into three leagues of eight. But the head of the world-renowned Global group of companies is increasingly worried for the future of Scottish football. The SPFL hasn't captured a headline sponsor since it's creation in summer 2013. MacGregor warned that we are fast approaching the day when teachers, plumbers and electricians were kicking a ball about in Scotland's top flight in their spare time.

 

"The number of full-time players in Scotland is diminishing the whole time,' he said. "You're going to see part-time football in the Premier League within two or three years. That's coming. It's straightforward economics. The fan-bases are just not there any more. And if you don't entertain, eventually the quality will get less and the finances worsen.

 

"Increasingly, the players of talent will either play for the biggest clubs in Scotland or, primarily, go to England. I think that scenario of part-time teams in the Premiership is where it's heading if, as a football nation, we don't get attendances through the gates and get our act together.

 

MacGregor, though, believes the game still has the potential to re-generate, with green shoots apparent even in these dark times.

 

"There are great shoots, too, when you look in certain quarters. Hearts, for me, are one club that have gone and identified where they got it wrong and then rebuilt," he said. "All the benefits of rebuilding last year have really given them momentum, especially with the younger players this year. "So out of all the bad, sometimes comes good. I think we're developing more players in Scotland than we've ever done because clubs have simply had to do it.

 

"But I think the number of players involved in football is reducing and will keep reducing amid the players' need for financial security. With a wife and family, are you going to take a year's contract and earn £1,000-a-week or are you going to take a job and earn £1,000 a week and then £500 in part-time football wages? Part-time players are now training four nights a week and are athletes, so I think the football model is changing."

 

Perhaps strangely, then, MacGregor swiftly rules out the prospect of part-time football at Ross County.

 

"I don't think it works here - this needs to be a full-time club. Our link to the academy system is right and it is giving youngsters in the Highlands the chance to be a full-time footballer. But I think we have probably neglected some of that in our ambitions to get to where we got to. We had to re-address that."

 

MacGregor, meanwhile, revealed Ross County plans to invest a significant sum in a new scouting network stretching across the UK and into Europe. The Highland club previously relied almost solely on the contacts of director of football George Adams and manager Derek in attracting fresh talent to the first team and youth academy. While Jim McIntyre, as manager, will have full control of decision-making, MacGregor plans to transform the tools at his disposal.

 

"We'll end up with a sizeable scouting system because today's football world is about recruiting right in the summe," he said. "If you don't plan ahead for the next summer, the manager hasn't got time to do it. We will need to, and have been, developing a scouting system of the kind that we wouldn't have thought of doing in the past. To a degree in George Adams' era, he knew the Scottish scene and he knew where to go to pick up players. That's gone. There's not enough players. You see teams with 22, 23-man pools now.

 

"We will be looking in Scotland, England, the rest of the UK and Europe. There's nothing wrong with foreign players so long as they're good enough. "It will be very expensive. But if you don't get the right players you won't have the right team on the park. If you just take married guys and stick them in a flat in Inverness, with family ties elsewhere, that eventually that will run out. We need people like Richie Brittain and Scott Boyd, who have put their roots down here in the Highlands. The long-term vision is to have our own supply of locally-based and locally-reared talents coming into the first team, wherever they may originally hail from."

[Bluedell 5,329]

Yes because WE voted ourselves out ................

 

They wanted us out. They wanted us dead. But they want our soul for sponsor money aswell.

 

Agreed. The SPL clubs had the option of keeping us in the SPL but decided to vote for us to be put down to the third division. They have only got themselves to blame.

 

What other business would try and cripple the part of it that's responsible for at least 40% of its income?

 

Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas.

[Laudbertz 0]

HAHA. Our heart bleeds for you.

 

Maybe, just maybe, if clubs didnt hold a personal vendetta of hate towards Ibrox, maybe if we didnt 'acquire' some of the worst owners in the history of footbal, maybe if we werent given a second thought, things would have been different.

 

It is not over the top self congratulatory that made Rangers fans think that the rest of Scottish Football would suffer if we were demoted to Division 3, its evident for all to see. At present we are rudderless, something opposition fans relish...whilst humiliating themselves in europe, making our co-effitiency go further in the wrong direction.

 

Its your fault.

[Darthter 542]

"The number of full-time players in Scotland is diminishing the whole time,' he said. "You're going to see part-time football in the Premier League within two or three years. That's coming. It's straightforward economics. The fan-bases are just not there any more. And if you don't entertain, eventually the quality will get less and the finances worsen.

 

"Increasingly, the players of talent will either play for the biggest clubs in Scotland or, primarily, go to England. I think that scenario of part-time teams in the Premiership is where it's heading if, as a football nation, we don't get attendances through the gates and get our act together.

 

 

And how exactly is that the fault of Rangers???

 

If Ross County are not producing the goods to entice fans into the stadium, that's their fault.....or are they too reliant on home games against Rangers & Ceptic to boost their coffers etc.

[buster. 4,808]

Scottish football is of poor quality from the pitch to the media to the governing bodies.

 

We are a complete Omnishambles and have contributed to the general malaise but then on the day the obscene EPL TV was announced so has the economics of a business that has forgotten the sport.

 

The Smaller provincial teams (bottom six) are struggling whilst the city teams are opening a gap on several levels and threaten to make the top tier into two different leagues within a league. Then you can add the one horse race at the top (in a transitional year for Celtic) and it takes on the look of a dysfunctional set-up.

 

It's an inevitable downward spiral pushed by economics and new generations are increasingly going to look elsewhere for their hobby or football team.

 

That isn't to say that a community run football club can't actually be of more benfit to their Town, rather than chasing footballing dreams, eg. Ross County.

Edited February 11, 2015 by buster.

[andy steel 0]

Mountain - molehill scenario. The SPFL will struggle to get a sponsor as long as we're a shambles, football does project an image of rank incompetence and for the rest of it he blames the low standard of football.

 

The headline wallah has done a fine job of pot stirring but I don't have much of an issue with it. What I object to is when loons come on the radio and insist everything is rosy and Rangers are a total irrelevance. At least McGregor is aware that having a sanely run club with a great big support on hand will turn on the taps a little bit. Not many other chairman have the balls to say that to their fans.

Edited February 19, 2017 by andy steel

[der Berliner 3,231]

As long as we get our club back and start with a decent manager and team, I wouldn't start weeping in earnest should we stay in the Championship for another season - as much as it would hurt. In the meantime, they shall reap what they sowed.

 

Sidenote, the SPL/SPFL have no sponsorship deal for these past two seasons. Maybe Mr. Ross County questions this too? Either you and yours take on responsibility for the game or you do not. You can't have it both ways.