ORSA Secretary Andy McKnight and Gary Bellingham from Perth RSC were the ORSA delegates at yesterday’s Rangers Supporters Assembly meeting which was attended by delegates from NARSA, Rangers Supporters Trust, Rangers Supporters Association, Blind Party, Disabled Supporters Club as well as the Ulster, Scottish and UK RSC’s.

The event was a little special in that this was the first time the RSA delegates had met in an official capacity with the new regime at Ibrox.  All the heavy-hitters were present including the Chairman and Owner Craig Whyte, Director of Football Gordon ‘Smudger’ Smith, Chief Operations Officer Ali Russell, Head of Business Development Jacqueline Gourlay, Supporters Liaison Manager Jim Hannah and Ramsay Smith who is Director at Media House (Rangers PR).  

Sadly Rangers Manager, legend and all time top scorer Mr Alistair McCoist MBE had a family commitment and was unable to attend.  Having now twice missed the opportunity to meet my hero (once in Sydney, and yesterday) it’ll need to be third time lucky for this bear.

Andy Kerr, RSA President welcomed our esteemed guests whilst Jim Hannah kept the meeting ticking over to the previously circulated agenda.  This meeting, which is normally held quarterly, gives the Assemble delegates the opportunity to directly engage with the board and it was pleasing to see the new regime make the time in their busy schedules to sit down and listen to the views, opinions, feedback and some of the usual moans and groans from around the table. 

A wide ranging agenda discussed some of the following key issues:

·         Craig Whyte’s ‘privilege’ to be our new owner and chairman

·         The reality of the tough times we’re facing to increase revenue, reduce costs and keep a winning team on the park

·         How the ‘bumps along the way’ (e.g. HMRC) will require some serious decisions to be made but that our new owner has plans in place to deal with it

·         How Ali Russell is encouraged by what the future holds and spoke of the demands of loyalty made by our great support to and by the club as the basis in which we can work collaboratively

·         Smudger and Ramsay Smith were equally frustrated by the media reporting of our summer transfer business and spoke of how they’ve adopted new strategies to handle the press

·         How Murray Park will re-focus on ‘best practice’ to deliver the best young Scottish talent for Rangers

·         That the board are looking at new markets and local partnerships for ‘sister academies’ and how they’ll seek assistance from the Rangers Family in making these connections locally

·         Why the club is very unhappy with the persistent leaks around confidential matters surrounding the HMRC issues

·         Why Ibrox Stadium needs to be activated more than just every match day and how Ibrox may be rocking to a few different tunes in future

·         How the board are focusing time and energy to leverage political support and investment stimulus for the G51 proposal/Ibrox Village and Commonwealth Games events

·         Ali Russell spoke of the work going on behind the scenes to arrange 1 or 2 glamour friendlies given our lighter than usual footballing calendar

·         The success of Rangers Official Facebook page (now over 200,000 likes) and the way forward proposed by the newly created Social Media Officer to harness this worldwide interest

·         The ‘robust and frank’ conversations with JJB around the current merchandise offer and marketing and the legacy of a financially rewarding yet inflexible contract agreement

·         How a Rangers museum is still bubbling away as part of the larger strategic and commercial opportunities that the new board are investigating

Overall, the tone of the joint meeting was positive and the chairman, board and management team all seem to be on the same page going forward.  It does appear that no stone is being left unturned in their appraisal of the club and that a collaborative dialogue with the support will be actively encouraged as they look to bring success and stability on and off the park.  As always actions, speak louder than words and with so much change they’ll no doubt be some highs and lows along the way.

The RSA then held its AGM where Andy Kerr, RSA President kick-started a long discussion on how best to align the existing and organisational structures and bodies that make up the Assembly with the new directions the club is investigating. It was acknowledged that with the new regime getting prepared to make some changes to the club then this was a time to reflect and take stock if the RSA has the correct governance arrangement and structure to move forward. Whilst no consensus was agreed the organisations represented recognised the need to develop a greater stake in the stewardship of issues surrounding match day experience, assisting the club with identifying new income streams and developing better political and media relations to be an authoritative and respected voice for all Rangers fans.  A short round up of news from the delegates respective territories followed before the meeting closed with thanks to all for their inputs. Minutes of Meeting will be circulated shortly.