Jim Templeton resigns from the RSA (the Assembly)

[Bluedell 5,329]

JT has resigned as President of the Rangers Supporters Assembly. Here is the email that he has sent out:

 

 

Hello all.

 

Recent incidents have encouraged me to evaluate the ââ?¬Å?relationshipââ?¬Â of the Assembly and Rangers F.C., to say this has given me cause for concern is a considerable understatement.

 

There have been a number of events in recent weeks that I have taken into account and would now like to share my concerns with all of you.

 

01. Reduced allocation of away tickets to Supporters Clubs.

 

During a brief conversation with the club, I agreed that Season Ticket Holders should be given an increased proportion of away match tickets. Sometime later I was asked if I was happy with the contents of a letter the Ticket Office intended sending out to Supporters Clubs. I rejected the first letter but agreed to the contents of the second attempt.

 

The letter that was in fact sent out differed considerably from the one agreed to. The full details of the very considerable cut in club allocations had not been included in the letter I approved and when I spoke to Jim Hannah, I learned that he too had been unaware of the content of the final letter sent to clubs. Had I been aware of the level of cut back I would never had agreed to the proposal hence my reason for asking the club to reconsider.

 

I have no doubt that the Assembly was mentioned in an effort to deflect blame and criticism and you also have to speculate on the convenience of not providing me with sight of the full letter before sending it out.

 

02. Rangers demands for a 5% handling fee on away match tickets.

 

Whilst I agree in principal that Rangers are entitled to be compensated for handling away match tickets, I most certainly do not agree with how they tried to force it on other SPL clubs nor their timing in doing so. I also have to say that I find it unbelievable that the club did not see fit to discuss this with the Assembly prior to ââ?¬Å?forcingââ?¬Â the other clubs to agree. Ticket distribution is arguably the most important issue to supporters other than the success of the team and yet they chose not to discuss this with us it therefore begs the question would do they see fit to discuss with us.

 

I have looked at each club who has responded to Rangers demands in turn and would comment as follows:

 

Falkirk . In general appeared to work okay.

 

Aberdeen . They agreed to pay Rangers a handling fee, however for the first time in years, Aberdeen decided to implement a price increase. Conveniently they went up by �£1 which amounted to a 5% increase. I wonder why? To make it clear to all why they did this, they offered a �£1 discount to their own supporters for a future fixture. So who paid the handling fee and which club is looking after their supporters interests?

 

Hibs. They have decided to sell tickets direct as Falkirk did. Yet again we are faced with a price increase which will no doubt mean Hibs have covered their additional costs and again at our expense. To make matters worse, in spite of Rangers stating they would only handle ticket sales if they received a handling fee they have purchased 300 tickets which will no doubt be distributed to those and such as those. The phrase ââ?¬Å?them and usââ?¬Â springs readily to mind.

 

St. Mirren. They have agreed to Rangers request to pay a handling charge and will allow Rangers to distribute as normal. They have however been very clever. The only stand we have sole use of is the West Stand behind the goals and they have increased the price by �£2. Prices for he North Stand, which we share, has remained unchanged at �£20, in other words only Rangers fans will pay increased prices which Iâ��m sure will go a long way to paying Rangers demands.

 

Kilmarnock . Although I have not heard officially, I am reliably informed that Kilmarnock will agree to Rangers demands and to offset the cost, will be increasing prices by �£1.

 

To sum up the situation. Rangers have achieved their goal. Clubs who agree to the demands will pay Rangers and those who don�t will cost Rangers nothing but guess who will be paying for all of it? The very fans Rangers claimed they were trying to protect.

 

A job well done I don�t think.

 

03. Worldwide Alliance Expenses.

 

Those of you who attended the Alliance A.G.M. will no doubt recall the Treasurer, Sam Morton, reporting on his balance sheet and highlighting the fact funds were very low and required an injection of money from Rangers F.C. The fact was that Rangers had not provided the Alliance with funds to cover expenses for three years. Jim Hannah informed us that as far as he knew there was no budget for this and that I would have to take this up with the Club.

 

Not long after the A.G.M. I emailed Donald McIntyre requesting clarification. On return from my holiday, I received an email from Jim Hannah, on behalf of Donald McIntyre, informing me that the Assembly would now be responsible for Alliance expenses and that it should come from the Assembly grant. I have responded to Jim stating that in my opinion this is not feasible as it would then legitimately allow the other organisations involved in the Assembly to claim expenses to cover the cost of their own meetings. I have asked that he raise this with Donald McIntyre and await the response.

 

04. Assembly Grant.

 

During the conversation with regards to Alliance expenses, I learned that Rangers had reduced the Assembly grant from �£30k to �£20k as from 1st. July 2008.

 

Some months ago, I met with Irene Munro who informed me of Rangers desire to reduce the level of support. I refused point blank to accept this and in fact stated that even if I agreed with the request this would not be a decision I could make as it would need to go before a full Committee at our A.G.M.

 

No further discussions have taken place so it would appear as though Rangers are basically saying take it or leave it. They have attempted to soften the blow by saying we can keep the �£10k we did not use last year. Big of them when it is us who have saved the money from being used and in my opinion a totally irrelevant gesture.

 

 

Each of the above items on an individual basis is in my opinion sufficient to illustrate the lack of respect the club has for the Assembly. When you consider them as a package then I think it is a fair assumption that they only value our input when they need us to show a united front or when trouble is brewing. The Assembly was formed in an attempt to bring the club and its supporters closer together. The above, I would suggest, shows that this is not happening. You could in fact argue the opposite is happening and that indeed the club are driving an ever widening wedge between us with their actions. To be perfectly honest, I do not believe the people involved in making the decisions highlighted above have the best interest of the Supporters at heart.

 

Taking all of the above into account, I wish to inform you of my decision to resign, with immediate effect, as President of the Rangers Supporters Assembly, Chairman of Rangers Worldwide Alliance and Chairman of the Scottish Delegates. I would like to thank you all for the time and effort you put in on a regular basis, I appreciate it even if the club so obviously doesn�t, and also for the support you have given me throughout my time in office.

 

Over the next few days, I will clear the Assembly Office of my belongings and also ensure the finances are in order. Obviously as Vice President, Andy Kerr will take over my duties and I would like to offer him my best wishes.

 

Jim

[bmck 117]

wow. i was quite quick to see the RSA as essentially on-the-payroll-doers-of-murrays-bidding a while ago - but standing down at a time where the football's looking more optimistic after there being a perfect time, if you were looking for an easy out, over hte last few years, is a brave/bold step.

 

wonder what the club will say.

[Bluedell 5,329]

An interesting resignation.

 

I lost a lot of respect for JT when he joined the RST board but then immediately resigned, allegedly due to the fact that he was not going to be the RST nomination for supporters' rep on the Rangers board, and then used a lot of the RST ideas himself.

 

He was also apparently going to be the RSA rep on the Rangers Board, but I guess that this may have fallen through, following Malcolm McNiven's resignation from the RST board.

 

Points 1 and 2 seem valid points. Point 3 seems a very minor point.

 

Point 4 is a joke. He has obviously proved that the RSA can operate on �£20K a year, and the club are quite right to reduce their costs. Why should the club continue to fund a gravy train? Surely he should be glad that the club are saving money? Should the Assembly not be looking at refunding the �£10K? Where do his priorities lie?

 

What now for the Assembly?

 

What now for Murray's promise of supporter representation by the forthcoming AGM?

[Guest damien]

He could have resigned over more serious things imo.

[Wija 0]

Another massive own goal.... it is very clear that trust/assembly groups are of absolutely no value to the fans.

 

Too many ego's!

[Frank Hovis 0]

Maybe he should've made his resignation worthwhile and did it over issues more worthy, such as the club's continual capitulations to the enternally offended, never more apparent tonight.