HOSTILE MONKEY

The Herald’s Hugh Macdonald quoting the Rangers supporters’ group ‘Union of Fans’:

“Will the board get an unequivocal assurance that the SFA will not use this issue as a stick to beat the club with further down the line? The SFA have a track record of attempting to impose draconian sanctions on Rangers using tenuous methods.”

Two obvious things spring to mind when reading this article, which have not occurred to Macdonald, or he has chosen to ignore:

One is his role as a journalist in questioning the above statement – as opposed to simply re-printing it verbatim and skipping to the main course – ie. the barefaced accusation from the Union of Fans that the SFA somehow has a history of treating Rangers unfairly or disproportionately for misdemeanours and will do so again.

Macdonald offers no opposition or analysis to this assertion.

At the very least, the idea that the SFA would offer the club (at the behest of a fans’ group) any kind of assurance that it would not take issue with a potential investor who later proves to be undesirable or problematic from a regulatory perspective is risible.

Rangers – and its fans – have a proud history of embracing investors of questionable wealth and dubious character; it would be perfectly normal for the sporting authorities to reserve future judgement on any potential investor or owner, although it’s worth pointing out that they have been somewhat lax at doing so in the past.

Secondly, the entire article reads like a personal plea by Macdonald on behalf of Rangers fans to the club’s board not to seek the help of Newcastle owner Mike Ashley as a solution to their financial problems, or, to permit the renaming of Ibrox as part of an investment package.

Hugh Macdonald (a journalist that the Monkey has a lot of respect for), purports to analyse the financial machinations at Ibrox with a feeble chess metaphor to describe the potential re-emergence of Grandmaster Dave King as a knight in shining armour to save a company facing checkmate.

King has been working the City since at least March. His initial strategy was to canvass support for his plan to take the proxy vote for significant shareholdings and force change. This, increasingly, has been seen to be impractical, perhaps even unworkable, as long as the major players remain united within the Ibrox boardroom.

The pressure must be applied to the Beaufort Group that holds the majority of shares. This has been applied effectively by the strategy of some fans to withhold season ticket money. There has been much argument over whether this constitutes a boycott but it would be much more instructive to investigate the action’s consequences.

It has brought King back into play, despite the reluctance of some on the Ibrox board to deal with the South African businessman. King’s patience was criticised over the summer but he may just have played his cards astutely.

Rangers are searching for money and King claims he has it. This seemingly straightforward case of demand and supply, however, founders on the rocks of implacable politics at Rangers.

In some circles, King is viewed as a criminal and a tax-dodger – rightly so, since being convicted by the South Africa Prosecuting Authority after pleading guilty to 41 contraventions of section 75 of the South Africa Income Tax Act 58 of 1962 and being sentenced according to his plea agreement.

However, make no mistake – King has money; lots of it. And he is no pawn.

Expect a Zwischenzug sometime soon.